Euro 2020: How the football is ruining your sleep, plus tips on how to tackle the effects

From metro.co.uk

As fun as the Euros may be, they’re not the best for our poor old sleeping routines.

As we approach the final (is it coming home? We reckon so), we’ll only continue to feel the negative effects football has had on our health these past few weeks.

It’s not just about the pints – although those do play a part.

All the tension, the pre-match anxiety, the late nights, and the big screens can have a seriously detrimental impact on our wellbeing.

Alex Dimitriu, a sleep expert and MD of Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine who’s working with Otty, breaks down all the effects of the Euro final ahead, along with some tips on how on earth we’re supposed to cope.

Up all night worrying whether Grealish will get benched? (Picture: Getty)

Alcohol’s effect on sleep

Shocker: downing pints really isn’t good for your health.

And even a few beers can spell disaster for your sleep.

Alex says: ‘Sleep on alcohol is both fragmented with numerous awakenings (when the alcohol wears off), and overall lacking in deep sleep and REM sleep, both essential to the brain feeling recharged the next day.’

The best way to prevent feeling rubbish after the Euro 2020 final is, of course, to just not drink too much. That way you’ll be more able to get high quality sleep and feel loads better on Monday.

But if that doesn’t sound particularly appealing, at least follow Alex’s advice to drink plenty of water alongside your other beverages.

Follow every pint with a glass water, or glug some down before bed to help flush out alcohol.

The power of match anxiety

You’re probably pretty emotionally invested in the outcome of the Euro final.

This can lead to anxiety, especially the night before an important game.

‘Match anxiety is like most other forms of anticipatory anxiety – like before a big test, interview, or presentation at work,’ Alex explained. ‘Insomnia can certainly be a part of this, but the next day is often much more enjoyable if you can get some sleep.

‘Exercising the day prior to a game can help, as well as shutting off all forms of work and media about three or four hours before bedtime to cool off.

‘Also, reading books when you cannot sleep, rather than reading from your mobile phone, has been hugely helpful to many people.

‘Try drinking some chamomile tea or spraying lavender in your room before heading to bed. This will help soothe anxious thoughts and help you drift off.’

Screens and sleep

It doesn’t matter if you watch it on a big screen at the pub, on your laptop, or on your phone. All those bright lights and excess screentime isn’t good news for your sleep.

Alex said: ‘TV, smartphones, and blue screens of any sort, in general, produce a bluish light that confuses the body’s circadian system into thinking this is the blue of the sky on a sunny day.

‘The body interprets blue light by lowering melatonin production, which is intended to help us fall asleep at night.

‘So, blue light from any screen equals less melatonin, contributing to insomnia and worse quality sleep all night long.

‘Another issue with any interactive device – such as an iPad – is that the interaction process is quite mentally stimulating and gets the brain going when it should be winding down. This can cause insomnia as well as diminished sleep quality for the entire night.’

Alex’s tip to tackle this is taking regular breaks in between football matches, to give yourself a break from the screen.

It’s also worth doing a wind-down routine between the end of a match and trying to go to sleep – without a pause in between, all the excitement will make it nigh on impossible to drift off.

Ramped up celebrations

All that cheering, jumping around, singing – that’s all very stimulating, and not conducive to sticking to a bedtime. If you can, make sure you have some downtime after the match, rather than continuing the celebrations all the way home.

‘The key is to give your mind and eyes the necessary break needed before going to sleep,’ say the SleepSeeker experts. ‘The drama and excitement could disrupt your sleep, so it is important to have a little bit of time to relax and unwind before going to bed.’

‘You could try reading a book or some breathing exercises to help you unwind.

‘It doesn’t have to be long, 20/30 minutes should be enough to help you sleep.’

https://metro.co.uk/2021/07/10/euro-2020-how-the-football-is-ruining-your-sleep-plus-tips-to-fix-it-14902214/

Why millions listen to intentionally boring stories

From smh.com.au

By Peter Wells

Drew Ackerman started the Sleep With Me podcast back in 2013, and since then it has grown into one of the most successful independent podcasts and a lifeline for those who struggle with insomnia.

Ackerman says the show is a little hard to describe to new listeners, but the simplest explanation is it’s designed to help adults fall asleep through silly bedtime stories.

Drew Ackerman hopes to tell stories that people don’t want to stay awake for

Unlike most podcasts designed to put adults to sleep, Ackerman doesn’t whisper mindfulness slogans over new age music. Instead he tells the most boring stories imaginable, in a “creaky, dulcet” monotone. While telling these incredibly dull tales, he’ll often get sidetracked down pointless, meandering asides.

“[The goal is to create a show] where the listener feels it is okay not to listen to me, but they could listen to me at any moment, if they feel the need to,” Ackerman says.

“It is a delicate balance to just maintain enough interest that you feel like you’re not going to think about whatever’s keeping you awake, but not be so interesting that you want to stay awake for it either.”

Sleep With Me strikes the balance well. Whenever I need it, the podcast has sent me to sleep in around 20 minutes.

“I’m naturally boring, so I think that helps,” Ackerman says.

“When I was a child, I couldn’t sleep because I was so anxious about school and I’d stay up all night worrying and worrying and worrying, and I started listening to comedy radio, just as a distraction. I would listen in and it would make me laugh and it would make me feel less alone.”

Over the years the podcast has gained a loyal audience; it has a permanent place in the Apple Podcast charts, and the show averages around 3 million listeners a month. Six thousand people support the show on Patreon, and Ackerman constantly gets feedback from those the show has helped over sleepless nights, from ex-soldiers dealing with PTSD, to people grieving over the loss of a loved one.

After years balancing the show with his day job as a librarian, Ackerman now works on the podcast full-time. Amazingly, he’s even recorded a few episodes live.

“I started doing these local shows in a really small space, and people will show up with blankets and pillows and yoga mats. And I’ll just tell a story from the podcast and we’ll turn the lights down low,” he says.

“The funniest part is that most people don’t come alone, so about 40 per cent of the audience are on a date, and they have never heard the podcast before. So their date is sound asleep and they’re just sitting staring at me like, what is wrong with this guy? I cannot believe I’m here listening to this.”

Peter Wells writes about technology and podcasts. He interviews Australia’s best podcasters every week on his podcast, Meta.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/why-millions-listen-to-intentionally-boring-stories-20210330-p57f4y.html

'Friends' Is Iconic But It Originally Had a Very Different Name

From cheatsheet.com/entertainment

Would you watch a show called Insomnia Cafe? Whether or not you would, the fact was millions of people did — for ten years, no less. By the time the show made it to air, it got the more prosaic name of Friends.

By now, even the world “friends” may conjure up images of Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer,  Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry,  Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc, even if people are not referring to the NBC sitcom. As it turns out, Friends was the sloppy second name that ended up sticking.

(L-R) Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt Le Blanc as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay | NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

Insomnia Cafe sounds like the name of a coffee shop in a college town, with students slamming back cup after cup as they cram for exams. Instead, it was the original name of Friends, or one of them, at least, according to Mental Floss.

Specifically, Insomnia Cafe was the name of the seven-page pitch that creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman wrote. At this stage of the game, Ross and Rachel weren’t the key relationships; Joey and Monica were. 

According to Vanity Fair’s oral history of the show, after NBC bought the pilot, the title got closer to what it became:  Friends Like Us. Another suggested title was Across the Hall.

When cameras rolled, it had a name almost as odd as Insomnia Cafe: Six of One. By the time the show premiered on September 22, 1994, NBC shortened one of the suggested titles to Friends. Simple and to the point.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/friends-is-iconic-but-it-originally-had-a-very-different-name.html/