A good night’s sleep can make us more
empathetic, more creative, better parents and better partners, according to
Aric Prather, a psychologist at the
University of California, San Francisco,
who treats insomnia and is the author of the new book “The Sleep Prescription”.
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Sleep can help us
manage stress; it can make us competent and capable and better able to take on
the day. But Prather says we too often view sleep as an afterthought — until we
find ourselves frozen in the middle of the night, our thoughts racing, fumbling
for rest or relief.
Some people might
reach for a supplement or sleep aid. A 2013 US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention survey found that one in eight adults with trouble sleeping reported
using sleep aids. But Prather said there are simple steps we can take
throughout the day and night to get better rest, which he outlines in the book,
recently published by Penguin Life.
“It’s not something
you do,” he added. “It’s something that comes to you.”
Here are some of
his science-backed tips for sounder sleep.
Carve out time for
‘scheduled worry’
“No one ever says, ‘I was awake in the middle of the night, and I was only
thinking of good things,’” Prather said. Throughout the day, we might be too
busy to linger on our thoughts, but at night, when we try to let our brains
pause without distractions, “our thoughts can get very, very loud,” Prather
wrote.
To beat back
nighttime rumination and anxiety, Prather recommended in an interview devoting
part of your day to worry. Block out 10 to 20 minutes to write down what you
are anxious about, or just think about it, without searching for a solution. If
you do that consistently, he said, your worries will not seep into the night —
and if they do, you can remind yourself that you have a dedicated time to
address them the next day.
Instead of reaching
for caffeine, plunge your head in the freezer
If you regularly reach for coffee to get you through an afternoon slump,
you will still have caffeine in your system by bedtime, said Prather.
Instead, he
recommends getting an energy boost elsewhere. You can go for a brisk walk in
the afternoon, or spend five to 10 minutes taking a break from work and
engaging your brain in a simple task — pull weeds in the garden, reorganize a
bookshelf, turn on some music and really focus on a song. Focusing on a
non-work task can energize our brains, Prather said, jolting us out of our
routine. Or, for a more extreme option, stick your head in the freezer. That
brief shock of cold activates your arousal system, Prather said, like jumper
cables on a car battery to wake you up — no coffee run needed.
Stop treating your
brain like a laptop
You cannot expect your brain to instantly power down the way a laptop does
when you close the lid, Prather said. Instead, you should plan a transition
period that lets your brain wind down. Sometimes that is not possible, he
acknowledged; work deadlines and parenting responsibilities might mean you are
engaged right up until you turn off the lights. But ideally, you would give
yourself a two-hour period to “turn down the volume on your sympathetic nervous
system”, he said, cuing to your body and brain that you are gearing up to rest.
You should spend
that time doing something pleasant and soothing, like listening to a favorite
podcast, chatting on the couch with your partner, or watching TV. Prather
offers his patients what he calls a menu of options for that power-down period
— they can take a luxurious bath, write in a gratitude journal, or even sit
outside, weather permitting, and look at the stars. The goal is to find “low
arousal” activities that you enjoy, he said.
If you cannot sleep, move
As people age, especially in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, sleep can become
more fragmented, Prather said. People may need to urinate in the night more
frequently, or pain might keep them awake. But it is essential that older
adults get sufficient rest — a recent study found that adults older than 50 who
slept for five hours or less each night had a greater risk of developing
chronic diseases than those who slept for at least seven hours.
In general, if you
are struggling to fall or stay asleep you should get out of bed, Prather said.
Give yourself 20 minutes or so to try to sleep, but if you are still wired,
head to the couch or living room and do something quiet, Prather advised, like
knitting or meditating. You only want to associate the position you sleep in
with actually falling asleep; if your body gets used to staying awake, and
struggling to sleep, in that position, you will have a harder time conditioning
yourself to sleep through the night.
If you do not want
to move, or are unable to, even sitting up in the bed can help rewire your
brain or flipping over and placing your head where your feet typically lay.
While in that new position, you can read, listen to soft, gentle music or put
on a soothing podcast — any activity that winds you down, until you feel sleepy
again and are ready to get back into your sleeping position.
Do not beat yourself
up about a night of bad sleep
When people are in the throes of a sleepless night, they often stress
about how the lack of sleep will clobber them the next day, Prather said. But
one or even a few nights of little rest will not ruin the way you sleep
long-term, Prather said.
“Any parent of
small kids can tell you that you can survive on less sleep,” he said. “You can
have these off nights. Your body is resilient.”
If you consistently
find yourself unable to sleep, you might want to seek out a therapist or
clinician trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, which Prather uses to treat
insomnia. Even in chronic cases, he said, poor sleep is curable. A sleep
specialist may also prescribe medication in extreme cases or treat underlying conditions
that can lead to poor sleep, like sleep apnea.
“When people have insomnia, because it’s so distressing,
they’re trying to figure out all the things they can do to allow sleep to work
again, like, ‘What can I fix?’ And that kind of effort is actually incompatible
with sleeping,” he said. “Sleeping’s about letting go.”
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