Better sleep on it Lying awake, hour after hour, craving sleep is a recipe for frustration and misery – and can impact on your health, too. However, there are some simple solutions you can try – and some of them might surprise you…
There’s nothing as frustrating as lying awake in the early hours, when the rest of the world seems to be fast asleep.
Health studies suggest that more than a third of us experience insomnia at one time or another, which can cause low energy levels and affect concentration in sufferers. Not to mention, the sheer misery of it all.
There are many so-called cures for sleeplessness – from taking pills and potions that will knock the insomniac out to strict “sleep hygiene” regimes that promote a good night’s sleep. You’re told to avoid stimulants, turn off the TV or computer and stay out of the bedroom until the moment you are ready to drop.
But, according to Professor James Horne, who runs the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, these methods do little to promote natural sleepiness and can be distracting.
“Sleep scientists have found various enjoyable waking activities which are effective in bringing a sounder sleep,” he explains. He points out that something as simple as a relaxing hot bath before bed, can make you instantly sleepy and encourage deeper sleep.
“Besides, it’s a relaxing pastime and the accompanying peace of mind also gives a more restful sleep,” he explains. “Adding plenty of bath foam also helps: the insulating bubbles keep the heat in the bath for longer.”
Professor Horne says that feeling sleepy is all to do with warming up the body, and then cooling it down again.
“The body needs to cool down before a night’s sleep, which seems at odds with having that bath,” he says. “But drying off afterwards accelerates this cooling; meaning that your body overcompensates, radiating out more heat than was gained in the bath and further speeding up sleep.”
Spending more time outdoors will also help, because daylight has a powerful effect on our internal “body clock” and the timing of sleep. It’s why sunrise is so effective in waking us up.
“It also has a subtle alerting effect in suppressing daytime sleepiness, which then increases sleepiness at bedtime,” adds Professor Horne, who says daytime napping might help tiredness in the short term, but will add to sleep problems at night.
Exercising your brain might sound counter-intuitive when it comes to promoting sleepiness, but it can be effective – as long as it’s done properly.
“Brain exercise”, leading to deeper sleep, comes not so much from doing crosswords or Sudoku puzzles, but from spending a few hours walking in a changing and interesting environment.
Says Professor Horne: “Window shopping, sightseeing: anything new and different enough to hold your attention will do the trick. Having conversations and meeting new people adds the important ingredient of novelty, putting further agreeable demands on one’s mind and brain.
“All this new stimulation makes the brain work harder than staying indoors surrounded by familiarity. Reading or watching TV only engages relatively small parts of the brain, unlike getting out and about.
“Similarly, seeing an exciting film is still too passive; one has to be purposely moving, interacting with your surroundings.”
So, the feeling of weariness after a day out at the seaside is not so much due to the fresh, salty air but the novelty factor – as is that feeling of being dog-tired after an afternoon walking around a museum.
Once you get into bed, your brain will want to take a good long rest and will switch off, giving you that much-sought after decent night’s sleep.
So, see more, do more and take a hot bath before bed – and you might just put sleeplessness behind you. ( telegraph )
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