Sleep Lesson: Optimize Your Sleep
Sometimes getting to sleep can be just as hard as planning to get enough sleep. Today's module will teach you tips for avoiding sleepless nights where you just can't seem to relax.
Ease the transition from wake to sleep time with a period of relaxing activities an hour or so before bed. Take a bath (the rise, then fall in body temperature promotes drowsiness), read a book, watch television, or practice relaxation exercises. Avoid stressful, stimulating activities—doing work, discussing emotional issues. Physically and psychologically stressful activities can cause the body to secrete the stress hormone cortisol, which is associated with increasing alertness. If you tend to take your problems to bed, try writing them down—and then putting them aside.
Studies suggest that mindfulness meditation — a mind-calming practice that focuses on breathing and awareness of the present moment, helps create new neural pathways that strengthen our ability to calm our minds which can help us fall asleep easier at night. (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/mindfulness-meditation-helps-fight-insomnia-improves-sleep-201502187726)
The recent study of a randomized clinical trial included 49 middle-aged and older adults who had trouble sleeping. Half completed a mindfulness awareness program that taught them meditation and other exercises designed to help them focus on, “moment-by-moment experiences, thoughts, and emotions.” The other half completed a sleep education class that taught them ways to improve their sleep habits.
Both groups met six times, once a week for two hours. Compared with the people in the sleep education group, those in the mindfulness group had less insomnia, fatigue, and depression at the end of the six sessions.
The findings come as no surprise to Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. “Mindfulness meditation is just one of a smorgasbord of techniques that evoke the relaxation response,” says Dr. Benson.
The relaxation response, a term he coined in the 1970s, is a deep physiological shift in the body that’s the opposite of the stress response. The relaxation response can help ease many stress-related ailments, including depression, pain, and high blood pressure. For many people, sleep disorders are closely tied to stress, says Dr. Benson.
Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on your breathing and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present without drifting into concerns about the past or future. It helps you break the train of your everyday thoughts to evoke the relaxation response, using whatever technique feels right to you.
Dr. Benson recommends practicing mindfulness during the day, ideally for 20 minutes, the same amount suggested in the new study. “The idea is to create a reflex to more easily bring forth a sense of relaxation,” he says. That way, it’s easier to evoke the relaxation response at night when you can’t sleep. In fact, the relaxation response is so relaxing, your daytime practice should be done sitting up or moving (as in yoga or tai chi) so as to avoid nodding off.
To elicit the relaxation response, try these two simple steps:
Step 1: Choose a calming focus. Good examples are your breath, a positive word (such as “relax” or “peace”), or a phrase (“breathing in calm, breathing out tension”; “I am relaxed”). If you choose a sound, repeat it aloud or silently as you inhale or exhale.
Step 2: Let go and relax. Don’t worry about how you’re doing. When you notice your mind has wandered, simply take a deep breath or say to yourself, “thinking, thinking” and gently return your attention to your chosen focus.
Try working both mind and body sleep conducive pre-bedtime activities into your nightly routine.
Mind: meditation, reading a non-school book, journaling
Body: warm bath or shower, stretching, light snack, warm milk or herbal tea
To help ease you into sleep, check out our short 10-minute bedtime meditation. Simply press play to help clear your mind for a good night's sleep! Body Scan for Bedtime (audio guided meditation)
There are also many online resources that can help you get started with an at-home meditation practice. Check out some of the guided meditations (including ones specifically for sleep) on meditation apps such as: Headspace (has a student discount!), 10% Happier, Calm, and Insight Timer.
Turn Your Bedroom into a Sleep-Inducing Environment
A quiet, dark, and cool environment can help promote sound slumber. Why do you think bats congregate in caves for their daytime sleep?
Optimize your sleep room temperature. The National Sleep Foundation suggests, in general, bedroom temperatures should be between 60-67 °F for optimal sleep. When lying in bed trying to snooze, your body temperature decreases to initiate sleep. Thermostat settings far lower or higher than what’s recommended could lead to restlessness and can also affect the quality of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. During this stage, you'll have higher brain metabolism and often dream.
If you don’t have a thermostat, a fan or space heater can also be a good way to lower and raise the temperature close to this range. In addition you can adjust your bedding so you have thicker, warmer bedding during cold nights, and lighter bedding for warm nights.
Reduce noise in your sleep room. Have a talk with your roommates to set parameters on when to have guests and what time to start reducing noise levels in the house. If they like to listen to music or watch TV, ask them how they feel about using headphones after a certain hour. You can also try using earplugs.
Reduce the light in your sleep room. Leaving the lights on tricks your body into thinking it is still daylight and that you should be awake. It does this by inhibiting melatonin, our bodies’ natural hormone that promotes sleep. When you start becoming tired, try turning the lights down or off completely, to promote sleep. You can get black-out curtains to reduce light coming from your window or utilize a sleep mask which are especially useful for daytime naps.
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