From eu.usatoday.com
Getting enough sleep is integral to both physical and mental well-being. And yet, too many of us struggle to both fall asleep and stay asleep.
If insomnia poses a challenge in your life, it might be time to look at your night-time routine to make sure it is fully optimized for success.
To find out how best to do that, we spoke to the experts. Here are 5 tips they shared on how to fall asleep faster, plus what might be the cause of your insomnia.
1. Cool the body
"Cooling the body helps with sleep onset," Dr. Hal Alpert, a board-certified sleep medicine specialist explains. "Taking a warm bath or shower and then sleeping in a cool environment will help."
2. Write a to-do list
This one might seem a bit counterintuitive. Thinking about the burden of the day to come in order to fall asleep more quickly?
Dr. Alpert explains that this practice can subconsciously relieve you of the worry you feel in the present that you won't remember all the things you need to do tomorrow.
3. Make sure the amount of time is right
"We see a good number of people, especially as they get older, that might not quite need as much sleep as they needed 30 years before, but they're still trying to stay in bed for nine hours," Dr. Ronald Chervin, the Division Chief of Sleep Disorders Centres at the University of Michigan explains.
Decide what amount of time is right for you, he advises, and then set those regular bedtime and wake-up hours to encompass that exact amount. If you find you are waking up for a number of hours in the night, reduce the total amount of time between your bedtime and your alarm and see if your body adjusts.
For example, Dr. Chervin says, if you go to bed usually at 11 pm and wake up at 8 am but you find you are awake for two hours each night, instead switch your times to 12 am and 7 am and see if your level of restfulness improves.
4. Ditch alcohol as a sleep aid
"We recommend two to three hours before bedtime to stop alcohol. So that would mean like have wine with dinner instead of late, late in the evening," Dr. Alicia Roth, a clinical health psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic's Sleep Disorders Center explains.
Sometimes people turn to alcohol to suppress the anxiety around not being able to fall asleep, and while this may help initially getting to bed, a true restful night is unlikely as alcohol can cause you to wake a number of times throughout the night.
5. Don't dwell on your insomnia
"A lot of people see it as like a recipe," Dr. Roth explains, "and if they're not sleeping, they might put a lot of effort into getting better sleep. And that's a mindset that's detrimental. It's one of those things that the more effort you put into it, the worse it's going to be."
If most people assume sleep is like baking (a science rather than an art), what it's actually more like is a crockpot, Dr. Roth says.
You can set up your Calm app and design a fool-proof wind-down routine, but sleep may still not come. The best thing to do in that situation is to avoid drumming up more stress. Don't stare at the clock or chastise yourself for anything you did throughout the day that might be causing insomnia now. Instead, try to relax into acceptance.
The more you dwell on your insomnia, the more sleep will evade you.
What to think about to fall asleep
Positive thoughts before bedtime are helpful, Dr. Alpert says.
It is best to avoid negative thoughts, he explains, dwelling on your problems and worries can make it harder to drift off. This includes worrying about not being able to fall asleep.
Instead of working yourself up, try to find some source of relaxation, and make a to-do list in your head that can help relieve some of your worries in the now.
What causes insomnia?
There is no one answer to this. "I tell my patients, the sky is the limit, about what can trigger insomnia," Dr. Roth explains. It could be a stress, a new baby, a change at work -- we all have sleepless nights sometimes. The important thing is how we react.
"The way that insomnia becomes a long-term problem, like months and years, has to do with the way that we react to insomnia in the short term," Dr. Roth says.
What are some common causes?
Insomnia can be traced to different origins depending on the individual, but Dr. Alpert lists some common causes as:
- Stimulant, other medications
- Anxiety, stress, depression
- Alcohol
- Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome
- Sleep apnea
"Insomniacs have an over-aroused brain," Dr. Alpert says. "Stimulant medications and a variety of other medications can cause insomnia, and it may be helpful to review your meds with your physician."
Sleep apnea can also create insomnia. Dr. Chervin describes "obstructive sleep apnea" as a medical condition in which the throat closes as you're trying to sleep causing you to wake briefly to open your throat and breathe again. Then you go back to sleep. This can happen dozens or hundreds of times throughout the night. Certain medications used for insomnia can worsen sleep apnea, Dr. Alpert advises, so be sure to have that conversation with a medical professional.
Alcohol can also be a contributing factor as, even though it is a sedative there is a "rebound effect" that can cause you to wake in the night. For this reason, all three experts suggested staying away from alcohol before bed if you suffer from insomnia.
Dr. Chervin also lists psychophysiological insomnia as a factor that might be preventing some patients from sleeping easily. Unlike a baseline anxiety about life events, this is a specific kind of anxiety is centered around sleep itself and is very common. It might manifest in a person seeing how late it is and thinking about how they're lying in bed unable to sleep, causing them to be anxious and to further prevent sleep.
Alternatively, some people with insomnia might be suffering from Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, Dr. Alpert says. This is a condition in which the body's clock is delayed, making it harder to fall asleep at a "normal" hour. There is available treatment. In fact, Dr. Chervin advises that while he rarely recommends the use of melatonin for regular insomnia, it is often prescribed for Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.
How to fall asleep when you're not tired
If late evening rolls around and you're still not tired it might be because you have "poor sleep hygiene." Dr. Alpert advises that this refers to certain practices that make it harder to fall asleep quickly.
If you suffer from insomnia, staying in bed for anything other than sleep or sex is not wise. "Good sleep hygiene trains the mind that the bedroom is the place for sleeping, not being awake," Dr. Alpert says.
If you're having trouble sleeping, turn that clock around, he advises, checking the time can increase anxiety, making it harder to drift off. If, after 20 or so minutes of trying, you are unable to sleep, leave the bedroom and engage with the relaxation techniques used during "the wind-down period."
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