Sleep Habits for Better Sleep
In last week’s blog, I outlined 6 easy steps that you can take to support your body’s natural sleep/wake cycles. This week I’m going to explain some of the reasons why, despite you following the steps outlined last week, you may still be finding that when you go to bed you just can’t fall asleep, or when you wake in the night you struggle to fall back asleep*.
It is normal for everyone to experience some nights when they struggle to sleep, for example, when you have an important presentation to deliver the following day. Sometimes, when going through a particularly stressful time, such as a divorce, or an illness, you may experience a short period of disturbed sleep. Usually, however, good sleep will return once the disrupting factor has passed.
However, sometimes, due to unhelpful habits we develop, difficulty sleeping will become prolonged.
Triggering your sleep response
You may be familiar with the story of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who developed the theory of classical conditioning. Pavlov discovered that with repeated pairing of a ringing bell with feeding a dog, the dog could be conditioned to salivate automatically at the ringing of the bell. Classical conditioning works very effectively in human’s too – think of how you feel when you walk past a bakery and smell the fresh bread baking – you probably start to salivate too.
You may be familiar with the story of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who developed the theory of classical conditioning. Pavlov discovered that with repeated pairing of a ringing bell with feeding a dog, the dog could be conditioned to salivate automatically at the ringing of the bell. Classical conditioning works very effectively in human’s too – think of how you feel when you walk past a bakery and smell the fresh bread baking – you probably start to salivate too.
If you struggle to sleep in bed, assess whether you are frequently engaging in non-sleep activities in bed and, if you are, eliminate all other activities from the bedroom (sex being the only exception to this). This will help to re-build the association of your bed being the place where you sleep.
Building your sleep ability
Often when people struggle with sleep, they will go to bed earlier and/or get up later than normal. As discussed in last week’s blog, keeping a regular sleep schedule supports the effective functioning of your natural, biological sleep cycles. So, whilst having a lie in may feel like it benefits you after a poor night’s sleep, it is likely to impact on your ability to fall asleep at your usual bedtime on the subsequent night, and that can lead to a longer-lasting impact.
Additionally, if you are giving yourself much longer in bed than you can sleep, you will simply lie in bed awake. Consequently, you start to associate being in bed with being awake. This can also lead you to feel frustrated and anxious about your ability to sleep, making it even harder to fall asleep.
On average, people need between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night. However, many factors influence how much sleep you need including your age and how active you are. If, for example, you go to bed at 10pm each night and get up at 7:30am but find that you only get about 6 hours of sleep each night, it may be that you are giving yourself too much sleep opportunity (i.e., the time that you are in bed) and you need to work on aligning your sleep opportunity with your sleep ability. This can be a tricky process and you may want to seek guidance of a professional trained in sleep issues to guide you through this.
What to do when you can’t sleep
It is common for people to lie in bed tossing and turning, getting increasingly frustrated, when they can’t sleep. The frustration causes you to feel anxious, making you less likely to fall asleep, and the bed can become associated with these anxious, awake feelings rather than with feelings of relaxation and sleepiness.
If after 20-25 minutes lying in bed awake, it is advisable to get up and go to another room and engage in a relaxing, low stimulating activity until you feel sleepy once again. You should avoid using any screens and keep lighting to a minimum. Activities such as reading, crafting, journaling, yoga, or even some light cleaning, are ideal. This stops you focusing on trying to get to sleep, and once you start to feel sleepy again, you can go back to bed.
Good sleep habits for the long-term
Developing these good sleep habits and behaviours requires discipline. However, they can be very effective in helping to develop or regain the ability to sleep well night after night, allowing you to feel better and have more energy, focus, and calm in your life.
If you’d like to know more about how I can help overcome insomnia and sleep problems, click here.
*There are many factors that can impact on our sleep, including stress, age, medical conditions, travel, exercise, diet, and sleep disorders (such as sleep apnea). If you are concerned about your sleep, and especially if you suspect that it may be related to a medical condition or sleep disorder, you should seek advice from your GP in the first instance.
