Life is busy. And let’s face it — who doesn’t struggle with fitting work, play, working out, eating right, volunteering, detox-time and the gazillion other things we want to do in any given 24-hour day? But the evidence shows that if you’re one of the one in three Americans who steals time from the seven to nine hours of sleep adults should be clocking, you’re not doing yourself or your health any favors.
Studies have shown that cutting your sleep short for even just one night directly affects the levels of the hormones that control appetite (causing you to feel hungrier), makes you more likely to have an accident driving and on the job, leaves you less focused, makes you less able to control your emotions (and more likely to overreact emotionally in a situation), makes you more likely to catch a cold and may actually damage brain tissue.
And over time, being chronically sleep deprived (or having a disrupted sleep schedule) has been linked to a higher risk of stroke, some cancers, diabetes, heart disease, being obese and dying younger from any cause.
Not getting enough sleep or getting poor quality sleep is associated with a lot of negative outcomes, Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, Chief of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told NBC News BETTER. The bottom line, she says: “If you want to enjoy healthy aging get sufficient sleep and at the right time.”
For most people getting enough sleep means turning in earlier at night. From a physiological standpoint, sleep quality is better in a darker environment and the morning daylight helps our body clocks run on time (and thus enhances sleep quality), Zee says. Plus — most people have fairly inflexible times we need to get up for work or school, she says. “So, it’s not much of a choice other than [being] chronically sleep-deprived.'
So, this week, challenge yourself to get to bed a full hour earlier than usual. Here are some tips for beating whatever it is that’s getting in the way of your shuteye.
..You try turning in a full hour earlier than usual, hit the lights, quickly set the alarm on your phone (eight full hours from now!) and decide to quickly check if anyone else has commented on that great photo of your puppy you posted before dinner… And two hours later you find yourself scrolling through all 650-plus photos of your high school crush’s tacky wedding.
Studies have shown that cutting your sleep short for even just one night directly affects your health. Try going to bed an hour earlier.
“Staying ‘plugged in’ keeps the brain in daytime/work mode,” says Janet Kennedy, PhD, a clinical psychologist, founder of NYC Sleep Doctor and author of The Good Sleeper: The Essential Guide to Sleep for Your Baby (and You). The brain needs a period of time between daytime activity and sleep as a buffer zone, she says. “Otherwise the brain has to calm down once you’re in bed — and that leads to racing thoughts and poor sleep quality.”
RELATED: Are You Hooked on Screens? Here's Why You Can't Look Away
Plus, screen time before bedtime (or more specifically the blue light that screens give off) actually suppresses the body’s production of melatonin, the hormone that helps your body drift to dreamland, and has been linked to worse sleep quality.
Zee suggests leaving time after dinner for any email- or Facebook-checking you plan to do for the night — before you brush your teeth, she says. And prioritize, she says — don’t reply to anything that isn’t urgent. (Dimming your screen’s light or filtering out the blue light can help, too, she added.)
Italians know how to do food and wine — but their late dining schedule is not going to help with a healthy sleep schedule. Foods that are heavy, fatty, fried or spicy are tougher for the body to digest and can make it harder to sleep shortly after consuming. Late dining is also linked to changes in metabolism that can lead to weight gain, Zee says (that’s not the case though in some instances, such as people who are getting a lot of physical activity and for people who consume healthy pre-bed snacks).
“Staying ‘plugged in’ keeps the brain in daytime/work mode. Otherwise the brain has to calm down once you’re in bed — and that leads to racing thoughts and poor sleep quality.
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Aim to stop eating at least three hours before you hit your pillow, Zee recommends. And if you do get hungry after dinner, pick a light snack with tryptophan (an amino acid known to potentially make you drowsy), such as a banana or warm milk, Zee says. Or pick a healthy snack that combines protein and carbs to satisfy your hunger and keep you full throughout the night.
Regular exercise is linked to a myriad of mental and general health benefits — and has been linked to improved sleep quality, too (in terms of how long it takes you to fall asleep, how much deep sleep you get and how long you sleep in total). But too much activity too close to bedtime may stimulate the body and increase body temperature, making it tougher to fall asleep, Zee says.
If you’re working out in the evening, try non-strenuous anaerobic exercise — think yoga, walking or light weight lifting
— which can help you relax in the evening.
For some groups of people, those activities have been shown to make it easier to fall sleep, Zee says. And keep in mind that people’s body physiology varies, so if you’re a post-dinner jogger and you sleep like a baby, no reason to ditch your trainers.
Your eyes are drooping, your body is heavy, but when your head makes contact with your pillow, your mind starts running like it’s in the Olympic trials. Get out of bed and do something else to distract yourself and make you sleepy, Kennedy, says. “You want to maintain your bed as a happy and restful place.”
RELATED: How to Fall Asleep
Try reading fiction to get your mind off whatever’s monopolizing your thoughts, she says. Other fixes: the National Sleep Foundation recommends sipping chamomile tea, meditating, taking a hot shower or designating a specific time of the day (that’s not right before bed) to worry about the things that are stressing you out to help you relax, so you can easily nod off when it’s time to sleep.
A drink (or a few) in the evening may make it easier to nod off initially, but it can wreak havoc on the quality of your sleep you’re getting. Research that monitored brain activity in individuals who drank alcohol within an hour of sleep shows that it sends the brain quickly into deep sleep — but there’s a rebound effect in the second half of the night where the brain’s not getting adequate deep, restorative sleep it needs.
No need to skip the nightcap all together — but do enjoy it in moderation. Data suggests that a blood alcohol concentration of 0.03 may be low enough to not disturb your sleep. (That’s between one and two drinks, depending on your gender, weight and how fast you’re drinking.) And avoid using alcohol as a sleep aid, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Yep, this morning habit is a sneaky and notorious sleep sabateur. Those “precious” extra minutes of sleep you’re getting are light and poor quality, Kennedy explained.
The bottom line: they’ll actually leave you feeling groggier when you do get up. And the later you do finally get out of bed, the harder it’ll be to fall asleep when it comes time to turn in that evening, she says.
Sleep experts suspect that most people have a combination of “night owl” and “early bird” tendencies — which can be dictated in a big way by our environment, age and surroundings. But there’s also a small percentage of people whose brains have a specific architecture that causes them to be extremely late sleepers and risers or extreme early risers and sleepers. (The prevalence for people with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder is thought to affect 0.1 to three percent of the general population and is more common in adolescents and young adults.)
If your body clock feels slightly off when you want to get up in the morning or call it quits at night, give your body the physiological cues it needs to sleep, Zee says. Avoid light in the evening and eating late — and get out into the sunlight (or other bright light) in the morning and keep your sleep-wake schedule consistent, she says.
And if that still doesn’t help, a sleep specialist can prescribe various regimens of timed light therapy, physical activity and melatonin to help better align an individual’s body clock with their work and social schedule, Zee added.
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Most nights, you have every good intention of getting to bed on time. You want to get a good night’s sleep, and you know that having a regular bedtime is important, especially if you’re planning on waking up early. But once that bedtime rolls around, one thing leads to another, and you don’t actually end up going to bed.
We call this bedtime procrastination. Now, sometimes you have to delay going to bed for good reason -- your child is sick, or you have a report due the next morning (a situation created by earlier procrastination).
But sometimes you put off going to bed for seemingly no good reason.
What exactly is the problem here? Why is it so hard to get to bed on time? You know when the alarm’s going to go off in the morning, and you can do the math to figure out what time you have to go to bed. So why is it so difficult to get yourself to stick to it?
Much of the research around sleep-deficit related health problems is focused around insomnia, sleep apnea, and other medical conditions that might be solved with a pill. But a lot of the time, it’s actually a behavioral issue that’s responsible for us getting less sleep.
When we think about procrastination, we typically generalize to this notion of something we don’t want to do. But when you think about bedtime procrastination, the context is very different. What is it we’re avoiding by not going to bed?
Here are a few hurdles keeping you from getting to bed on time:
Some days, at the end of the evening, you recognize that your hopes for what you would have accomplished that day were not realized. You might choose to cope with your expectations not having been met by saying, "I'll just tackle a few more items on my to-do list right now," instead of reprioritizing them for the following day.
It seems that most people have some sense of entitlement to having a certain amount of time to do things (get more work done, watch TV, unwind) before bed. If you feel that you deserve this time at the end of the day to do other things, maybe you do! But it may be leading you to prioritize poorly simply because this feeling of deserving more time is telling you not to go to bed until you’ve done something else.
Joel Anderson draws a great analogy in his podcast on bedtime procrastination:
“It's like when we go to the mall and we feel we deserve a new pair of shoes, but we don't have the money for it.
In the same way that we can spend money we don't have, we can also spend time we don't have (because we feel we deserve that time) by not going to bed.”
Now that we have DVRs and Netflix, and we can watch TV whenever we want, we no longer have that signal when an episode ends that it’s exactly 9:30pm. You might say, “I’ll just watch this one episode,” or, “I’ll just check my email for a minute,” but you know that if you have more than a few emails waiting for you, it'll likely end up being longer than a minute. Without a good measure of how long we’re spending on these activities, it’s easy to get caught up in them and let the time slip away.
We use each of these reasons as a license to delay. So, what can we do to get past these obstacles, and get ourselves to actually go to bed on time?
What if there were a precise scientific way to get yourself to go to bed on time, that was also practical enough to implement? Good news! There is.
Follow these steps (seriously, all of them) and you’ll be getting to bed earlier before you know it.
Your retinas serve two purposes -- receiving input necessary for vision, and housing sensors that detect the rise and fall of daylight. Your body uses light to set your internal clock to a 24-hour cycle, regulated largely by the hormone melatonin. Your body produces melatonin at night, which tells your body that it’s time to go to bed. But when your retinas take in light, especially blue light (emitted by energy-efficient light bulbs and most electronic devices) this light suppresses production of melatonin, messing up your circadian rhythm.
→ Do right now: Install f.lux on all your devices. F.lux is a software utility that adjusts the amount of blue light that your device emits, based on the time of day (meaning you’ll take in less blue light at night). Even better, opt for a good book or a conversation with your spouse instead of defaulting to watching TV or browsing reddit.
If you’re currently going to bed at 11pm, don’t decide that tonight you’re going to get to bed by 9pm. First of all, your internal clock resets at a rate of about one hour per day, and some body systems may take even longer. But more generally, when you’re making behavioral changes, instead of trying to jump all the way to the finish line right away and then missing, you should aim to take smaller steps to build up to your bigger goal.
It’s also important to give your body time to adjust as you start bumping up your bedtime. If you’re not tired enough to fall asleep after 10-15 minutes of tossing and turning, get up and do something else. One core tenet of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is stimulus control, which aims to associate the bed with sleeping, and not with stimulating behavior (like watching TV). Stimulus control principles advise that you only go to bed when you are tired, limit activities in bed to sleep and sex, and move to another room if you don’t fall asleep within 10 minutes of being in bed.
→ Do right now: Decide to go to bed 15 minutes earlier tonight than you usually do. Write it down, or say it out loud. Understand that you may not fall asleep right away, and give yourself permission to fail, so long as you attempt to get to bed at that time.
One of the biggest reasons we don’t do the things we intend to do is that we don’t plan for them appropriately. First, walk through exactly what your evening will look like in your head. Something like, “I’ll have dinner at 7pm, then I’ll do a little more work, I’ll watch an episode of this show, brush my teeth, and go to bed by 10pm.”
Great! You’ve got a plan. But… by the time the end of the day rolls around, your attention and ego resources are already depleted, and your willpower may not be strong enough to stick to your plan.
So what you’ll need to do before the time comes to put your plan into action is to think through your specific plan, and identify and rehearse potential objections.
The idea is to plan around these -- to design your environment to make it less likely that you’ll get distracted and ditch your plan.
Think of Ulysses binding himself to the mast in order to resist the temptation of the Sirens’ song. What can you do to resist watching TV tonight? Perhaps hide the remote, or move the TV to another room. Or even set a timer to shut off the TV at a certain time.
→ Do right now: Envision your routine for this evening. Be as specific as possible, using times to set markers. Now think through any possible obstacles that may distract you from following your plan, and decide on specific ways that you will avoid those obstacles.
Once you’ve mapped out a plan for your evening, you can make it even more actionable by setting reminders for yourself. (Remember the point above about losing track of time?)
The idea here is that reminders not only alert you in the moment, but they also help you build tiny habits by creating triggers for certain behaviors.
For example, you can decide, “as soon as my alarm goes off, I will cozy up on my couch and press play on Netflix. As soon as the show ends, I will brush my teeth and get into bed.” Creating triggers for each part of your sequence of events will help you succeed with each next intended behavior.
→ Do right now: Decide what time you’re going to begin the process of getting ready for bed. Add it to your calendar, or send yourself a scheduled text at that time. Then create a very deliberate plan for exactly what you’re going to do once that reminder goes off or you get that text. Build in explicit triggers throughout the process.
Making a public commitment to getting something done is a great way to create accountability for yourself. Because you don’t want others see that you have failed to follow through on your commitment, you’ll make it much more likely that you will, in fact, follow through. Studies show that the once we make a public commitment, we are more likely to honor it.
→ Do right now: Decide what time you’re going to go to bed tonight, and make a public commitment to it. Text a friend to tell them what time you’re going to bed, and commit to texting them again to let them know if you missed your bedtime. Or better yet, post to Facebook, or tweet that you’re going to bed at a certain time. Your friends will see if you’re online past your bedtime!
Do you spend more time trying to fall asleep than sleeping? You are not alone. Effort only causes an anxiety state that does not allow the brain to relax. And if the brain is not going to sleep, then it is difficult for the body to resist it. But there are science-proven tricks that will help you safely “turn off” the body in a matter of seconds.
Let's talk about some of them.
Military method, or How to fall asleep in 10 seconds
Note: the technique described below takes 120 seconds, but, according to observations, it is the last 10 seconds that are decisive.
Lloyd Winter's book Relax and Win: Championship Performance talks about a US Navy pre-flight school program that helps pilots fall asleep in two minutes or less. It took six weeks of practice to master the skill, but then it worked even after a cup of coffee or gunshots heard nearby. They say that the method helps even those who have to sleep sitting up. nine0005
Instruction
1. Relax your entire face, including your mouth muscles.
2. Lower your shoulders to relieve tension. Leave your arms hanging down at your sides.
3. Exhale and relax your chest.
4. Relax your legs, thighs and calves.
5. Imagine something soothing and don't think about anything else for the next 10 seconds.
6. If the previous point does not work, say the words "do not think" over and over again for 10 seconds.
7. Here you should already be sleeping.
Didn't work the first time? Then you have to practice for some time to breathe properly and relax your muscles. In addition, the effectiveness of the method can be affected by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and increased anxiety. Don't despair, we have a few more tips.
Breathing and muscle relaxation, or how to fall asleep in 60 seconds
The next two techniques focus on the breath and muscles, allowing you to take your mind off the thoughts and get back to sleep. For beginners, they may take a little longer, with practice the efficiency increases.
Breathing method 4-7-8
Note: If you have a respiratory condition such as asthma or COPD, check with your doctor to avoid making your symptoms worse.
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Instruction
1. Prepare: Raise the tip of your tongue to a spot on the roof of your mouth behind your two front teeth. Keep it there throughout the exercises.
2. Part your lips slightly and exhale through your mouth, making a whistling sound.
3. Close your lips and inhale quietly through your nose while counting to four.
4. Hold your breath for seven seconds.
5. Exhale with a whoosh, counting to eight. nine0005
6. Repeat four times. Do not get hung up on the accuracy of execution, try to do it thoughtlessly. Let the body fall asleep if you feel that relaxation has come earlier than expected.
great gift
new
great present
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)
The point is to tense and then relax the muscles. Exercise helps to achieve calmness in the whole body. Before starting, use the 4-7-8 method, imagining how tension leaves the body when you exhale.
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Instruction
1. Raise your eyebrows as high as possible for 5 seconds.
2. Then lower and feel the tension go away. Wait 10 seconds.
3. Smile broadly to feel the tension in your cheeks. Hold this facial expression for 5 seconds and relax.
4. Pause 10 seconds.
5. Squint with closed eyes. Hold for 5 seconds and relax. nine0005
6. Pause 10 seconds.
7. Slightly tilt your head back so that you can comfortably look at the ceiling. Hold for 5 seconds, and then relax and lower your neck onto the pillow.
8. Pause 10 seconds.
9. Continue to tense and relax the muscles in the same pattern, moving down - from the triceps to the chest, from the hips to the feet.
10. Allow yourself to fall asleep, even if you don't make it to the end. nine0005
While doing the exercise, focus on how relaxed and heavy your body feels when you feel good and comfortable.
Heavy artillery, or How to fall asleep in 120 seconds
If the previous methods didn't work, try these.
Forbid yourself to fall asleep
Surprisingly, such a paradoxical intention can be a good way. For those who suffer from insomnia, trying to sleep increases their anxiety levels. As soon as you stop forcing yourself, you relax and fall asleep. nine0005
Imagine a peaceful place
If counting is too active in your brain, try using your imagination. In a 2002 study, Oxford University researchers found that people who did this fell asleep faster than those who simply tried to relax and received no guidance.
Instruction
Instead of counting sheep, try imagining a peaceful environment and the sensations associated with it, such as a waterfall, rushing water, an echo, the smell of wet moss. It is important that this image is imprinted in your brain and replaces the kaleidoscope of thoughts and worries.
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Acupressure
While there is not enough research to say that acupressure works 100%. However, it is a very promising technique.
One method is to apply pressure to areas where there is particular tension (upper bridge of the nose, temples). There is also a set of exercises for insomnia. Some of them can be done in the supine position.
"Spiritual Gate"
1. Find a small hole on the inside of the wrist from the side of the little finger.
2. Gently press it in a circular motion for 2-3 minutes.
3. Press lightly on the left side of this point (facing the palm) for a few seconds, and then hold the right side (turning the palm away from you).
4. Repeat the manipulations with the other hand. nine0005
"Inner border gate"
1. Turn your palm over to your face and place three fingers down from the crease of your wrist.
2. With your thumb, apply even pressure to this point midway between the two tendons.
3. Massage in circular motions until you feel muscle relaxation.
Pool Wind
1. Put your palms together and open them to form a kind of bowl.
2. Then put your hands in this position to the base of the skull from behind so that the thumbs touch the junction of the neck and head.
3. Apply deep and steady pressure to the area, massaging it in a circular or upward motion.
4. Breathe deeply and notice how your body relaxes as you exhale. nine0005
Maximum training
If you have tried these methods and still cannot fall asleep within two minutes, check the following points:
- hide the clock
- Take a warm shower before bed
- open a window to ventilate the room,
- put on socks
- practice soft yoga for 15 minutes, nine0005
- put the phone away from the bed,
– arrange an aromatherapy session with lavender, chamomile or sage oils,
Eat dinner early to avoid stomach stimulation before bed.
Also, check the noise level in the bedroom: hang blackout curtains, turn on white noise, put in earplugs. A lot depends on the mattress, pillow and blanket. Blue Sleep products are designed in such a way as to provide the most natural anatomical position of the spine and remove excess heat. Independent springs will protect against pushing and bouncing if your partner rolls over or gets up. nine0005
Once you've done all of these things and are as comfortable as possible, go back to the military method or the 4-7-8 breathing pattern and you'll see it works.
Yesterday Life
Proven methods to quickly relax and turn off thoughts before sleep.
Strictly speaking, this method takes more time, but it is the last 10 seconds of exercise that should put you to sleep. Initially, it was developed for the military, who need to fall asleep in conditions that are not the most suitable for this.
They say that it took them six weeks to train, but then they could sleep as they liked: sitting, with the sounds of shelling, and even after drinking coffee. nine0005
Here's what to do after you're comfortable in bed:
You should fall asleep in the next 10 seconds after doing these steps.
The breathing technique called "4-7-8" will help with this. At first, you may need more than 60 seconds, but gradually you will train to fall asleep during this period.
First, place the tip of the tongue so that it rests on the palate behind the two front teeth.
He must be in this position at all times.
Do four breaths in this way. If you feel ready to fall asleep after the second or third, don't force yourself to continue.
If you have any respiratory condition, it is best to consult your doctor before trying this technique. Or choose other options. nine0005
In this exercise, you first tense and then relax your muscles. This will help you feel the tension leaving your body. After you have relaxed one muscle group, concentrate on the pleasant sensations for a few seconds, and only then move on to the next part of the body.
In the process, you will feel sleepy. If you did not have time to work out all the muscles and fell asleep, it's okay. In the event that after this exercise you still can not sleep, do one of the following. nine0005
Paradoxically, this helps you fall asleep faster. This method is recommended for people suffering from insomnia, and, according to research, it really works. Try it if you usually get nervous about not being able to sleep.
If your brain is too active due to the need to count in the previous exercises, try turning on your imagination instead of counting. According to scientists, people who use images to relax fall asleep faster than those who simply try to distract themselves from thinking. nine0005
Try to visualize in detail the peaceful place and the emotions you have when you are in it. For example, imagine a waterfall in a forest. Imagine the sound of running water, the singing of birds, the smell of wet grass. The place can be real or fictional. The main thing is that this image occupies all your thoughts, not letting thoughts about business or worries about tomorrow seep into your head.
These methods will help you fall asleep faster, but there are additional ways to make falling asleep easier. They are worth including in your evening ritual, no matter what exercise you choose. nine0005
