TRAIN YOUR BRAIN FOR
BETTER SLEEP WITH 3 EXPERT TIPS
By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
Try this bedtime routine for a good night's sleep 07:23
In today's chronic sleep-deprived world, the
benefits of a good night's sleep can seem impossible to find. We are no longer
like our ancestors, learning to sleep when the sun goes down and wake up when
the sun wakes up. We've replaced our natural rhythms with artificial rhythms,
created by blue light from too many TV screens, computers, smartphones, game
consoles, and more.
To get these sleep rhythms in sync, we need to train our brains to
sleep, says clinical psychologist and sleep expert Michael Grandner. He directs
the Health and Sleep Research Program at the University of Arizona and the
Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at
BannerUniversity Medical Center in Tucson. “Sleep is highly programmable
and adaptive to circumstances,” says Grander. "So create a situation where
you want him to adapt, do it often, and before long your brain will say, 'Look,
this helps me sleep.' "
Here are his top three ways to train your
brain to fall asleep.
1.
Change
your attitude to sleep
Many people consider sleep to be the last
thing they need to do in a busy day, so they should delay time to catch up with
housework, schoolwork, work. office or
the latest hot drama. This way of thinking needs to be changed, says Grander.
"Don't think of your sleep as the rest of
the day," he advises. "Consider your sleep the
time you need to prepare for a
productive future."
It may seem like a small change in mentality,
but it is very important, Grander added. According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, most adults need
seven to eight hours of sleep to get adequate rest. So, if a person
wakes up at 7 a.m. every day, the 8 o'clock back period would require 11 p.m. to go to bed.
"Now you know when to stop and get ready for bed, whether you're
done or not," Grander says. "The problem is we don't stop and disconnect. And that's bad for us and it
makes the next day more stressful."
2.
Set a
schedule and stick to it
Melatonin is a hormone produced by the body to
regulate when you're sleepy and when you wake up. As night approaches,
melatonin levels rise, becoming an
important signal to the body that it's time to sleep. Melatonin production is
turned off by light, so levels naturally drop as daylight approaches, preparing
you to greet the day. To function properly, the release of this hormone must happen at
regular intervals, says Grandner. So if your sleep and wake times vary from day
to day or over the weekend, your sleep patterns are unpredictable and your body
doesn't know how to react. “You want to build a believable rhythm, like a drummer counts the beat for a band,”
says Grandner. "By controlling when you wake up and when you go to sleep,
you set the pace."
One way to achieve this is to have a standard
wake-up time, even on weekends, holidays, or after a bad night's sleep. "We can't always control when we're
sleepy, but we can control when we wake up, which triggers a small timer in the
brain to set," Grandner said. set our sleep rhythms,” says Grandner. He
added: “The brain likes regularity and predictability. "Waking up at the
same time every day, then adding light
and movement as soon as you wake up, will set the other rhythms of the day and
give you more energy and mood."
3.
Don`t
lay in bed awake
It's a golden rule in sleep medicine, backed
by "decades of data," Grandner said. In fact, he said this tip is so
powerful that when used in his sleep clinic it "can even beat prescription
sleep medications."
"The best sleep tip you can ever give
somebody is get up don't lay in bed awake but not sleeping," Grandner
said. "Whether it's the beginning of the night or the middle of the night,
if you've been awake for 20 or 30 minutes, get up and reset. Maybe you just
need five minutes to get sleepy, or maybe an hour, but don't spend that time
awake in bed."
Why is that so important? Because lying in bed
awake can form an association in your brain that can lead to chronic insomnia,
Grandner explained. Instead of being a relaxing place where you fall asleep peacefully, your bed becomes an
anxious place where you roll over and become tired when you wake up.
"It's counterintuitive, but spending time
in bed waking up turns the bed into a dentist's chair," he says. "You
want the bed to be like your favorite restaurant, where you walk in and start feeling hungry even after you've
finished eating. You want the bed to do it to sleep."
Grandner adds that establishing this positive
relationship between bed and sleep can
be beneficial on nights when your schedule is irregular due to work or travel.
"Let's say you have to go to bed
early," he said. "The bed now has the power to help overcome
your racing mind and allow you to fall asleep."