Gina Johnson
Sleep is a necessity for a healthy life, but it can be frustratingly hard to come by. Sleep performance anxiety is a common issue, with the pressure to fall asleep sometimes keeping you awake. One way to combat this is to establish a positive relationship between your bed and sleep, so that your brain associates your bed with rest and sleep. This can be achieved by maintaining a regular sleep schedule, as well as engaging in activities that promote relaxation before bed.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Avoid screens | Blue light from screens such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and TVs can mess with your sleep by reducing melatonin production. |
| Regular sleep schedule | Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. This helps set your sleep rhythms and is linked to improved health outcomes. |
| Relaxing environment | Create a relaxing environment by turning off screens and listening to soft, calming music. |
| Relaxation techniques | Try relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, or deep breathing exercises to calm your mind and body. |
| Write down worries | Spend time writing down your worries a few hours before bed to clear your mind and reduce anxiety. |
| Visualization | Visualize a calming scene or engage in imagery distraction to help your brain relax and prepare for sleep. |
| Avoid exercise before bed | While regular exercise improves sleep, exercising right before bed may not help as it tires the body but not necessarily the mind. |
| Avoid caffeine | Caffeine can interfere with your sleep, so limit your intake, especially close to bedtime. |
| Limit naps | Napping during the day can disrupt your nighttime sleep, so try to limit long or frequent naps. |
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What You'll Learn
Avoid screens and blue light before bed
Screens and blue light can have a detrimental impact on your sleep. The blue light emitted by smartphones, laptops, tablets, televisions, computers, and gaming devices signals your body to stop producing melatonin, the hormone that regulates when you feel sleepy and when you wake up. In doing so, blue light tells your brain to stay alert, disrupting your natural sleep rhythms.
In addition to the light they emit, the apps, websites, and news articles on these devices are designed to capture your attention and keep your brain engaged, making it harder to fall asleep. Engaging with social media or reading the news before bed can also heighten anxiety and worry, especially if you are reading stressful content. This can lead to rumination, or obsessive, repetitive thinking about negative content, which can contribute to sleep problems, including insomnia.
To improve your sleep, it is recommended that you avoid screens and blue light at least one hour before bed. Keep computers, TVs, and phones out of your bedroom, and instead of checking your devices, try activities that will help you relax, such as taking a warm bath or listening to soft, calming music.
By reducing your exposure to blue light and engaging in relaxing activities before bed, you can help retrain your brain to sleep better by restoring your natural sleep rhythms and reducing anxiety and worry.
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Establish a sleep schedule
Establishing a sleep schedule is one of the most effective ways to train your brain to sleep better. Sleep is highly programmable and adaptable to your situation. By creating a consistent sleep schedule, you teach your brain to associate certain behaviours and routines with sleep. This helps to regulate your body's melatonin production, which is crucial for maintaining healthy sleep patterns.
Maintain a standard wake-up time: It is important to set a fixed time to wake up every day, even on weekends, vacations, or after a night of poor sleep. Waking up at the same time daily activates a timer in your brain that sets your rhythms for sleep. This predictability helps your brain establish a strong association between your sleep schedule and sleep itself.
Create a bedtime routine: Develop a calming and consistent bedtime routine that signals to your brain that bedtime is approaching. This can include activities such as reading, listening to soothing music, practising meditation or deep breathing exercises, or enjoying a warm bath. Engaging in relaxing activities before bed helps to reduce anxiety and prepares your mind and body for sleep.
Avoid screens before bed: The blue light emitted by electronic devices like smartphones, laptops, and televisions interferes with melatonin production. It signals your body to stop producing melatonin, keeping your brain alert and active. To maintain a healthy sleep schedule, avoid screens at least one hour before bedtime, and keep these devices out of your bedroom.
Manage your worries: Worries and racing thoughts can keep you awake and contribute to insomnia. Instead of suppressing them, set aside time a few hours before bed to address your concerns. Journaling about your worries or creating a to-do list for the next day can help get them out of your head and onto paper, reducing their impact on your sleep.
Get out of bed if you can't sleep: If you find yourself lying awake in bed for more than 20 to 30 minutes, get up and reset. Staying in bed while struggling to sleep can form a negative association in your brain, making your bed a source of anxiety instead of relaxation. By getting up and trying again later, you reinforce the idea that your bed is a place of peaceful sleep.
Remember, the key to establishing a successful sleep schedule is consistency. By maintaining regular sleep and wake times and following a soothing bedtime routine, you'll be well on your way to training your brain for better sleep.
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Try relaxation techniques, like yoga
Yoga is a practice that involves both the body and mind, and it can be an excellent way to prepare your body and mind for sleep. It is a powerful combination of breathing and movement, which makes it a great exercise to relax the body and calm the mind.
Gentle, relaxing yoga can be incredibly beneficial as a pre-sleep routine. Studies have shown that a gentle yoga practice can significantly improve sleep quality, reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, and minimize wakefulness during the night. The type of yoga best suited for bedtime emphasizes relaxation, stress relief, and mindfulness. Try yin yoga, restorative yoga, or gentle hatha yoga – they’re styles that focus on slow, controlled movements, deep breathing, and stretches so you can achieve deeper relaxation. While yoga is generally beneficial for sleep, some positions are too stimulating for a pre-bedtime routine. Poses with many backbends, inversions, or rigorous flows can boost your energy levels, making it harder to fall asleep. For example, it is best to avoid poses like urdhva dhanurasana (upward bow or wheel pose) or adho mukha vrksasana (handstand) right before bed.
- Child's pose: Kneel on the floor with your big toes together. Separate your knees hip-width apart and sink your chest to your thighs. Let your forehead touch the ground and hold the pose for 3-5 minutes. If you have hip or knee issues, try a different pose.
- Corpse pose: Lie on your back with your legs apart and arms relaxed at your sides. Exhale and feel yourself sink into the ground. Hold this pose for 3-5 minutes.
- Simple resting pose: Kneel down with your toes together and knees hip-width apart. Exhale and lower your torso between your knees. Extend your arms in front of you, palms facing down. Alternatively, let your arms relax alongside your legs with your palms facing upwards. Hold this pose for 1-3 minutes, breathing deeply.
In addition to yoga, there are other relaxation techniques that can help you sleep better. One technique is to calm your mind by meditating. If you’re new to meditation, it helps to find a point of focus. It could be the sound of your breath or a simple phrase that you repeat in your head, like “I am at peace.” Over time, you’ll be able to meditate longer. Another technique is to practice controlled breathing. In the 4-7-8 method, you control your breath by counting to slow your breathing and your heart, preparing your body for sleep. First, breathe in through your nose while counting to four. Next, hold your breath while counting to seven. Then, release your breath slowly through your mouth while counting to eight. Your counting should be slow, with each number lasting about a second.
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Write down your worries before bed
It's common to stay up late at night with worries. Anxiety is a condition often characterised by nervousness, fear, and worry. Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life, and it can get in the way of a good night's sleep.
One way to manage this is to write down your worries before bed. Here are some tips on how to do this:
Write down your worries and concerns
Take 15 minutes earlier in the day to jot down your concerns in a journal. This will help you get them out of your head and onto paper, leaving them there until tomorrow. This can reduce the amount of worry that happens at bedtime. It is a way of accepting and acknowledging your worries, rather than trying to ignore them.
Write down next steps
After writing down your worries, you can also write out the next steps for each cause of stress. This can quieten the worry before you go to sleep, as you have a plan in place and a clear mind.
Write down positive thoughts
After dumping your worries, replace negative thoughts with positive ones by writing down three to five things you are grateful for. This can be in the form of a gratitude journal, which has been shown to positively impact perceived stress and help you sleep better.
Write down alternative thoughts
When you feel worried or distressed, identify any unhelpful assumptions fuelling those feelings. Then, write down alternative, balanced thoughts in a notebook that you can revisit.
Write a to-do list
Thinking about all the tasks you have to complete can be stressful. Writing a to-do list can help get these tasks out of your head, so you don't feel overwhelmed.
By writing down your worries and following these tips, you can train your brain to sleep better by reducing anxiety and creating a calm, restful mindset.
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Avoid social media and stressful news
Sleep is essential for our health and well-being, but many people struggle to get a good night's rest due to the negative impact of social media and stressful news. Here are some detailed tips to help you train your brain to sleep better by avoiding these distractions:
Revamp Your Bedtime Routine
Instead of scrolling through social media as part of your bedtime routine, create a calming wind-down ritual. This might include listening to soothing music, bedtime stories, or trying aromatherapy with scented oils like lavender or chamomile. These activities can help signal to your brain that it's time to relax and prepare for sleep.
Avoid Social Media Before Bed
Try to keep the last hour before bed social media-free. Social media content is often stimulating, emotional, and fast-paced, which can leave your brain feeling energized when it should be winding down. By avoiding social media before bed, you give your mind a break from the constant stimulation and allow yourself to transition into a calm and relaxed state more conducive to sleep.
Manage Your Exposure to Stressful News
Reading stressful news before bed can heighten anxiety and worry. Schedule a ""worry time" during the day to address your concerns and explore possible solutions. This practice can help reduce anxiety at bedtime and improve your sleep quality. Additionally, be mindful of the blue light emitted by electronic screens, as it interferes with your body's natural sleep-wake cycle by suppressing melatonin production, leaving you feeling alert when you should be sleeping.
Practice Mental and Muscle Relaxation Techniques
Engage in mental exercises such as visualization or meditation to calm racing thoughts and prepare your mind for sleep. You can also try muscle relaxation techniques like progressive muscle relaxation or nidra yoga, which involve tensing and then releasing muscle groups to induce a state of relaxation.
Create a Consistent Sleep Routine
Consistency is key when it comes to sleep. Go to bed at the same time each night, and establish a relaxing bedtime routine. By sticking to a consistent schedule, you train your body and mind to associate specific activities and times with sleep, making it easier to fall asleep when you need to.
By following these tips and avoiding the stimulating and stressful influences of social media and certain types of news, you can train your brain to wind down more effectively and improve your overall sleep quality.
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Frequently asked questions
If you wake up in the middle of the night with thoughts racing through your mind, get up and reset. Spending too much time in bed awake can form an association in your brain that can lead to chronic insomnia. Instead, do something to relax until you feel tired, such as taking a warm bath or listening to soft, calming music.
Spend 15 minutes writing down your concerns in a journal a few hours before bed. This can help to decrease the amount of worry that happens at bedtime.
Try not to try to sleep. Trying too hard to sleep never works, and the anxiety about falling asleep is what keeps many people up at night. By doing the opposite and forcing yourself to stay awake—a phenomenon called paradoxical intention—you’ll unintentionally doze off.
Treat your bedroom as a place for rest. Keep computers, TVs, and phones out of your bedroom as the blue light from their screens signals your body to stop making melatonin, the hormone that controls when you feel sleepy. Instead, try meditation. Find a point of focus, such as the sound of your breath or a simple phrase that you repeat in your head, like “I am at peace”.
