Seven
Daytime Tricks
If you spend your days on high alert, feeling stressed or anxious for a lot of the time, it’s not going to be easy to get your nervous system into a calm enough state to fall asleep when your head hits the pillow. This chapter will look at healthy practices you can incorporate into your day — things to do that will help reduce your stress and teach you how to slow down and feel calmer, so that it becomes second nature to switch off when it’s time for bed.
So, have a nice day . . . and expect a good night’s sleep, too. Win, win!
161 ✦ Rise and shine
Good morning!
Getting a good night’s sleep could start from the moment you wake. Open your curtains wide and expose yourself to daylight as soon as you get up. Morning light helps suppress melatonin and releases our wake-up hormone cortisol. A ten-minute dose of daylight soon after you’re up will help kick-start your body’s countdown to sleep, set your internal body-clock, and keep your twenty-four-hour circadian rhythm — your natural sleep–wake cycle — in check.
It works like this. If you wake and see daylight at about 7:00 am, sleep should come naturally about sixteen hours later, at 11:00 pm. Staying cooped up in the dark (curtains closed until midday, anyone?) could delay your sleepy time until 4:00 am, which would mean a restless night. So eat your breakfast by a window — or, even better, outside.
162 ✦ Ditch the sunglasses
To get the full benefit of the high-intensity blue wavelengths of morning light that help regulate your body’s circadian rhythm, you might want to go without sunglasses for those first ten minutes of exposure when you’re outside. Without shades it’s easier for this light to reach the eye’s photoreceptor cells, which contain a protein that transmits the signals to the brain responsible for controlling your body clock.
163 ✦ Give your brain power-breaks throughout the day
Thanks to the Internet always available at our fingertips, cell phones, and twenty-four-hour TV, we’re bombarded with more information than ever. The trouble is, our brains aren’t designed to pay attention for hours at a time. They can only retain full focus for about ninety minutes and then, ideally, they need to go offline for a short while to rest, renew, and recover. So give your brain little power breaks throughout the day.
Every ninety minutes or so, stop what you’re concentrating on and make a cup of tea, roll your shoulders, take a short walk, or sit and simply daydream for a few minutes, or longer if you can.
By giving your brain breaks like these, you’re allowing it time to process recent events and all the information it’s received. Without giving it this sort of downtime, by the time you get to bed your mind will be thoroughly wired, overloaded with far too much to process to allow you to slip peacefully into slumber.
164 ✦ Turn a cup of tea into ten minutes of meditation
One way to remember to give your brain those power breaks? Switch off every time you make a cup of tea or coffee. Japanese tea ceremonies are a form of meditation, a way of finding calm and happiness in the moment. And you can perform the same sort of ritual with your own cup!
Instead of gulping it on the go, immerse yourself in the whole process. Leave your phone and tablet behind. Focus completely on the sounds of the water boiling, the steam rising, the smell of the leaves brewing. When you sit with your tea, sip it slowly and savor the taste — is it sweet or tangy, floral or fruity? How does the warm cup feel in your hand?
Completely absorbing yourself in this simple everyday act will become like a form of meditation, helping to fight frazzle, quiet your mind, and relax you. It’s another instance in the day you can use to teach yourself to slow down, a skill you can exercise later in the evening when you’re preparing for bed.
165 ✦ And eat mindfully, too
Training your brain to focus on the moment can really help when it comes to bedtime and you need to clear your mind. Practicing mindfulness like this often, throughout the day, helps you perfect the technique so it becomes second nature at lights-out. A good time to try out mindfulness is while you’re eating a meal. It will feel tricky at first because, like many of us, you may be used to eating on the go, in a rush during a snatched lunch hour, or while watching television in the evening. But bear with it, and you may find you not only relax but learn to enjoy your food more, too.
First, put your phone away, turn off the TV, and sit in silence. Look at your plate and appreciate the variety of colors on it, smell the food, and feel your mouth water and your tastebuds tingle as you anticipate the flavors of what you’ll be eating.
As you start your meal, close your eyes and chew slowly, really savoring the different tastes and textures — sharp or sweet, salty or nutty, and so on. Put down your fork between mouthfuls and take your time, continuing to chew thoroughly and distinguishing the different foods mingling in your mouth. This type of focus keeps you firmly in the moment.
Another bonus? Eating with such attention, without distractions, you’re more likely to recognize the physical signs that you’re getting full and so will be less prone to overeat.
166 ✦ Stay well hydrated
One of the main causes of waking up during the night? Mild dehydration. A dry throat can wake you, or your body could even be stirring to seek water, though you probably don’t realize that’s why you’ve woken up.
According to the Natural Hydration Council, women need about 2 liters and men about 2.5 liters of fluid a day — from water or other healthy fluids and water-rich foods like cucumber, watermelon, iceberg lettuce, celery, radish, tomatoes, green peppers, yogurts, and soups.
If you find it a struggle glugging 2 liters of water a day, try infusing it with mint, lemon, or berries for a tastier drink. Buy a large water bottle and mark it at every eight ounces, labeling each line with the hour of the day so you can be sure that you’re regularly hydrating your body.
167 ✦ Schedule a problem-solving worry time
You may already have heard the advice to dump down any worries you have in a notebook before bed so you can give your mind permission to stop fretting over them and sleep peacefully. But adding potential solutions to your problems in that notepad is probably a better tactic. Psychological studies have shown that practicing “constructive worry” can help you sleep better, as it frees your mind from having to deal with things that are bothering you when you hit the sheets.1 In essence, you’re putting your worries to bed early so they don’t bother you when it’s your own bedtime. A study published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine found that volunteers asked to write down both their worries and how they might tackle them showed less “pre-sleep cognitive arousal” (in other words, repetitive worrying thoughts) than those who just jotted down their worries.2
Try setting aside a fifteen-minute “worry time” every evening, not too close to bedtime (say about 6:00 pm), when you concentrate on things that are troubling you.
To practice constructive worry, jot down a problem or problems that are unsettling you. Then write down a solution, or any steps you can take to resolve it. Perhaps along the lines of “I’ll call Jane about that at ten am tomorrow” or “I’ll set aside time on Tuesday afternoon when I have an hour off to consider how best to tackle that difficulty.” You may not have completely solved anything, but you’ve taken steps to — so you have things in hand.
The procedure also means your mind gets used to the concept of having a dedicated time to outpour and solve problems. So, if a worry sneaks into your mind at bedtime, threatening to sabotage your sleep, you can acknowledge it but tell yourself that you’ll deal with it during worry time tomorrow.
Having your worry time somewhere other than your bed can also help break down any association you’ve built up between your bed and fretting. In the long run, worry time helps control how often and when you worry, meaning you will probably waste a lot less time on it.
168 ✦ Sit by a window
Being exposed to plenty of natural light during the day can help you sleep better at night. The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine published an article showing that office workers who sat next to a window slept on average forty-six minutes more at night during the working week than those who worked in offices with no windows.3 So grab a window seat if you can. And if you can’t, make sure you take your lunch outside.
Getting as much natural daylight as possible throughout the day helps your body clock stay in tune with the natural rhythms of light and dark. What’s more, a daily dose of sunlight boosts our mood; lack of sunlight can make us feel depressed or anxious, which of course can also lead to sleeplessness.
169 ✦ Don’t just sit there
Commuting to work, sitting at a desk, lounging around on the sofa: statistics show that some of us are sitting, on average, a startling seven to ten hours a day. We are reliably informed that sitting for lengthy periods is linked with a whole host of health problems, including obesity and cardiovascular disease, as well as an increased risk of cancer and lower back and joint pain. What’s more, staying still all day will not be conducive to sleep. You simply won’t be physically tired — so move when you can.
While health experts haven’t come up with an agreed limit on how long we can safely sit each day, a report commissioned by the UK Department of Health recommends that we break up our sitting time with short bouts of activity every thirty minutes.
Try setting a timer at your desk to remind you to get up and take a short walk every half hour. Make a habit of getting off the sofa during the TV ads, stand or walk around every time you take a phone call, or invest in a wearable fitness-tracker that buzzes and prompts you to move when you’ve been inactive for a set period.
170 ✦ Take a mindful walk
Take a break during the day to walk your way to a better night’s sleep. The simple act of putting one foot in front of the other has been shown to alleviate depression, anxiety, and stress. But by making your walk “mindful” you can boost the benefits even further, according to a study published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise.4 Participants in the study reported lower levels of stress while walking as opposed to sitting, but found that if they walked mindfully they received even more well-being benefits.
Mindfulness is all about focusing on the present, on moment-by-moment experiences — and doing this has a calming effect. So, here’s how to take a mindful walk.
As you step out, first focus on the act of walking itself, turning your attention to the physical process — your feet connecting with the ground, how your ankles, calves, and knees move.
Then expand your awareness to your surroundings — perhaps the rustle of leaves, the sound of traffic, the wind against your face, the scent of the earth. Concentrate on what you see, hear, and smell, one sense at a time. Look at everything as if you’re seeing it for the first time.
In fact, walking like this is itself a form of mindfulness meditation, helping your mind find a quiet place and evoking the relaxation response. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that twenty minutes of mindfulness meditation a day improved the sleep of adults who had trouble sleeping.5
This kind of contemplation break taken regularly throughout the day helps clear your head and reduces stress — and should banish those racing, sleep-unfriendly thoughts and leave you calmer, come nighttime.
171 ✦ Record a beauty spot
Next time you’re taking that mindful walk somewhere picturesque, choose a pretty spot — somewhere you feel comfortable — and really focus on the scene. Use all your senses to capture the pleasant picture around you — the color of the trees and flowers, the smell of grass, the birdsong. Notice how the tranquil atmosphere makes you feel. Happy? Grateful? Calm? Content?
Next time you’re lying in bed feeling stressed and unable to sleep, you can transport yourself back to this beauty spot and recall the calm and happiness you felt there, which could help you relax enough to shake off your troubles and drop off.
172 ✦ Let go of stored-up stress
Throughout the day, take regular breaks to close your eyes and check your body for where you’re storing the stress. Your shoulders? Neck? Stomach? Jaw? Forehead?
Regularly loosening up areas of tension like this during the day will help to ensure your body’s not a coiled spring of tightness by the time you get to bed.
173 ✦ If you need a nap . . . take it at about 2:00 pm
Short naps can help refresh you and improve your concentration and alertness. In the past, many experts advised against nodding off in the daytime in case it compromised an individual’s ability to fall asleep at night. But some now agree that if you’ve had a really bad night, a nap can help you make up the deficit the next day without impacting on your sleep that night.
But timing is everything. Between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 pm we experience a small dip in core body temperature which, as we’ve discovered, is a signal to the brain to release melatonin, the sleep hormone. To work with this natural dip in your circadian rhythm, the ideal nap time might be around 2:00 pm.
Keep the shut-eye short, though. Ideally, your nap should last for just ten to twenty minutes and no longer than thirty. After this, you enter a deeper stage that’s difficult to wake from and can leave you feeling groggy, confused, and even more tired than before. You could end up with “sleep drunkenness,” which can last for up to half an hour. Napping for too long will probably interfere with your nighttime sleep, too.
Another bonus of napping? It could help retrain your brain to realize that falling asleep needn’t be difficult. With no huge pressure to do so when you lie down for a nap during the daytime, the chances are you’ll be relaxed and fall asleep easily.
174 ✦ Don’t get caught napping on your commute
A final word on napping. Beware nap traps — when the urge to snooze can catch you unawares and impact on your nighttime slumber.
For instance, the rocking motion and white noise from a train, subway, or bus engine on your way home from work can be very conducive to falling asleep. But try not to nod off then. An early evening nap can decrease your “homeostatic sleep drive” — the body’s natural urge to sleep that builds up in us steadily through the day. Think of it as having a sleep snack too late, which will spoil your appetite for sleep later that night.
If you’re prone to post-work snoozing, try standing up on the commute home to keep yourself awake, or use the time to talk to a friend on the phone (if you’re not in the quiet car!). Alternatively, if at all practical you could walk all or part of the way home to get some light exercise and clear your mind of work stresses, both of which can help you sleep better.
175 ✦ For better sleep, lightly exercise both your body and your brain
A study focusing on older people who had trouble sleeping found that a combination of light exercise for both the body and the brain worked better than more vigorous body and brain training.6 Three times a week for an hour at a time, the participants were given either aerobic exercise or a gentler stretching routine to perform, along with either watching a DVD of lectures on art, history, and science or taking part in more cognitively demanding brain training sessions.
The people who reported the best improvements in their sleep were those who did the stretching exercises and watched educational DVDs.
So why not try some stretching sessions while you watch an interesting nature documentary, or call up a TED Talk on your laptop while leaning into a stretch or two, to see if it helps you get a better night’s shut-eye.
176 ✦ Boost your serotonin score
The neurotransmitter serotonin is converted into melatonin in the brain, which is why inadequate amounts of serotonin in the body have been linked to difficulty sleeping. You can try to boost your output of this chemical naturally by getting out and about in as much daylight as possible; by doing enjoyable exercise; and by eating foods said to be rich in tryptophans — which also help to produce serotonin — such as cheese, turkey, salmon, eggs, and soy products.
177 ✦ Just watch the birdies
Here’s something simple we can all do to slow down during the day.
Take five minutes’ time-out in your yard, go to the park for lunch, or just sit by a window at work and do some good old-fashioned bird-watching.
A study published in BioScience found that whether you live in a rural or an urban area, being surrounded by trees, plants, and birds can boost your mental health and bring a sense of calm.7 The study discovered that the depth of anxiety people experienced depended on the number of birds they saw. The more birds, the less stress. And the type of feathered friends didn’t matter — friendly robins, pretty blue jays, or plain old crows all boosted well-being.
You can attract birds to your garden by putting up feeders, nest boxes, and bird baths.
178 ✦ Take two-minute breathing breaks
Take little breathing breaks throughout the day to create pockets of calm that de-stress and declutter your mind so it’s not overloaded at lights-out.
An easy way to do this:
Stick a Post-it Note on your computer, phone, or fridge to remind yourself to do the exercise every now and then during the day. Give yourself a breather!
179 ✦ Be more friluftsliv . . . and get some doses of outdoors
Natural light — outdoors — as mentioned earlier, regulates our circadian clock, our body’s inbuilt way of knowing when it’s time to sleep and wake. It makes us feel tired in the evening and awake in the morning.
Electric lights, TVs, and iPads, plus being indoors for large parts of the day, expose us to unnatural light patterns that confuse our body clock and can lead to trouble sleeping. So take a leaf from the Norwegians’ love of heading outdoors and embracing nature, whatever the weather. Friluftsliv literally translates as “free air live.”
Lots of studies have shown how being outdoors can help alleviate depression. A brisk walk or bike ride is great, but it doesn’t always have to be something energetic. For instance, take an art pad into the garden and sketch some flowers, read a book on a bench in the park, or take some photos of birds and bees on a nature walk. Just spend as much time as you can outdoors so your internal body clock is clued in to what time of day it is!
180 ✦ Hold a door open, or give up your seat
Performing little acts of kindness, or perhaps volunteering at a local charity store or a community litter pick-up, not only makes you feel good but does you good, too. It’s clear that helping others has an upbeat effect on the giver, making them feel happier and more positive. A study published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine showed that people who sustain a positive outlook on life, and are generally happy, sleep better.8
Giving to others and being involved with people less fortunate than ourselves may also make us more grateful for what we’ve got. It seems that having a grateful attitude to life is linked with lower stress and a more natural ability to distract ourselves from dwelling on and catastrophizing our own problems — which, unsurprisingly, can affect how well we sleep.
If you don’t have time to commit to long-term volunteering projects, do one small helpful act a day — such as letting a car in on a journey or offering to help someone with heavy bags.
181 ✦ Don’t be vit-D-deficient
Vitamin D is vital for healthy bones, but it’s estimated that around two in five of us is deficient. As well as vitamin D having bone-boosting benefits, research links a deficiency with poor sleep. One study of older men found that those with low levels had difficulty dropping off, and their sleep was disrupted and restless.9 Research published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience found that when twenty- to fifty-year-olds with sleep problems were given a vitamin D supplement, their sleep improved, compared with individuals given a placebo.10
The main source of vitamin D is sunlight and its action on our skin. Never let your skin burn in the sun. But experts say we should try to get a dose of sunlight from the end of March to the end of September, once or twice a day for ten minutes at a time and without sunscreen, to boost our vitamin D levels. According to the National Institutes of Health, some people—including older adults, breastfed infants, and those with limited sun exposure, dark skin, or certain conditions that cause fat malabsorption—may require dietary supplements to meet the daily need for vitamin D.11
Good sources of vitamin D are oily fish such as salmon and sardines, eggs and cereals, juices, dairy products such as yogurt and milk, and grains fortified with the vitamin.
182 ✦ Challenge unhelpful thoughts throughout the day
I’ve already recommended the cognitive behavioral therapy approach to challenging unhelpful and unrealistic thoughts about sleep at bedtime (see “Stop catastrophizing your sleeplessness”). But to get really good at it and so that it becomes second nature to you, it’s something you need to do regularly and make part of your life. The more you practice, the easier it will be to apply at bedtime, when you need to quiet your thoughts.
So during the day, if you find uncomfortable notions are filling your head and you feel yourself becoming uptight, stop for a moment. Listen to your thoughts again. And challenge them.
It may play out like this.
First, a medley of thoughts makes you anxious: “I haven’t finished that task at work; today has been awful, a complete waste of time, I’m hopeless!”
Now ask yourself if those thoughts are really true.
Might you think more realistic thoughts?
Is there a positive spin?
Rethink those thoughts.
Perhaps like this: “Yes, I probably could have managed the time better but I did complete two other tasks today, so I achieved quite a lot and I can catch up if I take a shorter lunch break tomorrow. It’s not a big deal.”
The key is to start to notice and appraise the thoughts that are making you anxious and unsettled.
So to recap, whenever you feel stressed, ask yourself: What am I thinking? What have I just thought? Is it a negative or unhelpful thought? Is it true? Can I look at things a different way?
Doing this practice can be a really powerful tool to stop negativity, exaggeration, or untruth from running away with you, which can increase your stress and keep you wound up like a spring all day, leaving a lot of unwinding to do when you hit the sack.
So keep practicing!
183 ✦ Try new things
Giving your brain novel experiences to make it work harder could help you sleep better. If every day is pretty much Groundhog Day and you spend it in the same environment, you’re engaging only small parts of your brain. But if you give it more new opportunities, such as a trip to the seaside or a visit to a park you don’t normally go to, engaging with all the new sights and sounds will help tire your grey matter — so you should sleep better at night.
In one study carried out by experts at Loughborough University people’s sleep was monitored over four days — three in the lab and one experimental day when they were taken on a sightseeing tour where they experienced various new and stimulating environments.12
On the experimental night they felt sleepier, dropped off much faster, and enjoyed lots more deep (slow-wave) sleep, which is particularly beneficial to health. And it wasn’t the physical exercise that was key to tiring them out. The same study sent a different group to a large, empty, uninspiring hall where they just walked around but expended exactly the same amount of energy as the sightseeing group. But this group didn’t enjoy any sleep benefits.
So try to give your brain new experiences every day, interacting with and absorbing new surroundings. You don’t have to go far out of your way. Stroll around your town like a tourist would — visit an art gallery you usually pass by, a museum or stores you never go into. Use your lunch hour to explore a park or streets you don’t usually walk through. On weekends, head off to places you’ve never been to before.
184 ✦ Leave work stress at the office
Do you breeze out of your office at the end of the day and leave all thoughts of work behind you? Then congratulations! Studies have found that being able to psychologically distance yourself from work stress when you get home means you’re more likely to have a better night’s sleep, and less likely to toss and turn.13 But to rest easy you’ll also need to brush off any bad feelings you’ve encountered during the day.
The Journal of Occupational Health Psychology published one study that found that people who ruminated over things that had happened at work during the day, such as coping with a rude customer, a coworker snipe, or a stern word from the boss, were more likely to sleep badly and wake several times during the night.14
Leaving work and its stresses behind isn’t easy, of course. But there are a few steps you can take to help you relax. (Sorry, we’re not talking downing vodka shots here!) The important thing is to give your mind downtime to help it recuperate from the demands of work and the strains on your mental resources. Research suggests that the following recovery experiences can help:15
Detach yourself from work psychologically . . .
This means you need to make distinct physical and mental boundaries between your work and nonwork life.
Imagine clocking out of work as you leave, and clocking in to your home/leisure life.
Get changed when you arrive home, for example. This can help signal to your brain that it’s now “home time.”
You’ll also need to stop the now all too common habit of finishing off a project in the evening or answering work emails when you get home. Sometimes, we work at home out of a sense of worry or guilt. Try to stop — plenty of tasks can wait.
Relax . . .
Our bodies’ nervous systems, the sympathetic and parasympathetic, work in tandem: after the stress response has switched on at work, the relaxation response should switch on when you get home. To help it on its way, take half an hour after work to do something calming: walk home for a change, instead of getting the bus; go for a leisurely swim, browse around the mall, listen to music or read a book on your commute. Schedule some relaxing things to do at home, too, if you can, even if it’s just puttering in the garden.
And challenge yourself
Take part in challenging experiences and learning activities — things that help build your skills — such as playing a sport, going to an evening class, cooking a new recipe, volunteering, or even doing crossword puzzles. These sorts of activities can totally engage your mind in something other than work.
185 ✦ Say “no” more often
Stress and sleep are interconnected — that much we know. If you’re highly stressed, you’ll find it difficult to sleep. And if you have poor sleep, your stress can spiral. All of which means? It’s pretty darned vital to try to reduce stress in your everyday life if you want great sleep.
A huge factor contributing to anxiety today is the fact that so many of us are overloaded with work and responsibilities. Most of us are simply doing too much. Our plates are piled high, and we’re spinning them, too. If your deadlines and all your other obligations are weighing heavily on your mind during the day, they’ll still be nagging at you at night. Expecting too much of yourself, you’re always on high alert, even at bedtime.
So it’s time to take action and set some boundaries.
Take a look at what you dread about your week and what you wish you didn’t have to do that could free up time. Are there areas of your life you can cut back on? Are there ways you can simplify things? Are there requests from work, school, local organizations, and friends that you can say no to so that you’re not overcommitting your time? The answer is usually yes. You don’t have to say yes to every invitation you get. You don’t have to take on extra work at the office that you simply don’t have time for. You don’t have to agree to help out with every community project that’s happening.
Write out a not-to-do list instead of your usual to-do list, and take some pressure off yourself.
As far as possible, choose to do things that make you happy and focus on them rather than on those you do out of a sense of obligation or guilt.
Freeing up your time and your mind for some downtime of your own will help ease your stress and hopefully lead to better sleep — meaning you’re well rested and so better equipped to cope with whatever new stresses life brings.
186 ✦ But do make time for your friends
Don’t be a stranger! Pick up the phone and make a date to meet your friends. Numerous studies have shown the positive effects that having a supportive social circle can have on your health, including longer life expectancy. In fact, in one review of studies, which looked at the impact social connections can have on well-being, it was suggested that having a strong circle of friends can boost health as much as quitting smoking, and even more than exercising and losing weight!16 And there’s yet more good news. Socializing not only makes you healthier and smile more but sleep better, too.
One study found that young people who spent more time than usual face-to-face with friends, as opposed to being on the computer or texting, fell asleep more easily.17 Other studies, by researchers from the University of Chicago, have found not only that people who feel lonely sleep badly, but that the very fact of having sleep problems contributes to loneliness.18
If your schedule’s looking a little sorry for itself, make an effort to mingle and book regular dates with friends, or join groups to meet like-minded people.
187 ✦ Take up a slow hobby
Knitting’s not just for grandmothers and coloring’s not just for kids. Relaxing hobbies like these force you to slow down and achieve what psychologists call “flow”: a positive emotional state of effortless concentration, complete focus and enjoyment — and with no stress attached.
Findings published in the British Journal of Occupational Therapy show that knitting can really boost your well-being.19 Survey participants reported that the more frequently they knitted, the calmer and happier they felt. The repetitive actions of knitting can move your body and mind into an almost meditative state.
Coloring can have the same effect, helping you focus in a similar way to when you’re engaged in mindfulness meditation, where your full attention is absorbed in the enjoyable task.20 In particular, coloring reasonably complex geometric designs has been found to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms. There are plenty of coloring books with these kinds of patterns available, and apps, too.
Other leisurely hobbies that could benefit you — and help calm an overactive mind — include doing jigsaws, gardening, and creating a mini zen garden (you can buy kits consisting of rocks and sand with which you design your own patterns). Or why not take your camera out and photograph flowers or birds?
All of these activities can help slow down your mind so it’s not so wired at bedtime.
188 ✦ Stop putting things off!
Have you filed your tax return? Booked that doctor’s appointment? How about calling for those insurance quotes? And what about paying your credit card bill?
If you’re the sort of person who always puts things off until later, then you’re up to three times more likely to suffer from sleep problems than people who keep on top of their to-do lists, according to a study by the Academic College of Tel Aviv and the University of Michigan.21 And the more the study participants procrastinated, the worse their sleep problems. It was thought that those who put things off ruminate at bedtime about the things they haven’t done, making their brains so wired and agitated that sleep seems an impossibility. This sets off a vicious cycle where procrastinators end up being too tired to complete tasks the following day — and so follows another sleepless night.
Dealing with all your tedious tasks will give you peace of mind — and peaceful sleep. So, if you’re a bit of a dilly-dallier, try some of the following tips to get you motivated:
Your brain will come to associate completing a task with getting something good, which may become a factor in helping you fight your procrastination for good.
189 ✦ Summon up your sisu
We can learn a lot from our friends in Finland, who count themselves in the World Happiness Report’s top five countries. According to Katja Pantzar, author of The Finnish Way, they’re known for having a special kind of resilience — sisu — that helps them cope well with difficulties. Rather than taking a pill to solve a problem such as insomnia, for example, they’re more likely to summon up their sisu, accessing their inner power to help themselves. This might mean using “movement as medicine,” building as much exercise, especially incidental exercise, into their day as possible: walking, biking in all weather to and from work, and even ice-water swimming, known to boost endorphins and the feel-good hormones serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin while reducing stress at the same time.
Sisu is also about having the determination not to give up or take the easy route — so if you can, even if it’s raining outside, try bundling up and embracing all weather to get a dose of healthy outdoor exercise every day. One study found that men who exercised outdoors, walking or running, for thirty minutes fell asleep faster and had better quality sleep than those who exercised for the same amount of time indoors.22
So get some gym clothes that will weatherproof your workouts to see you through the seasons — and get out there come rain, snow, or wind. You’ll feel — and sleep — better for it. And if ice-water swimming is asking too much, finish off your post-exercise shower with a blast of cold water instead.
190 ✦ Don’t press pause on life—be sociable and active
Many people who have trouble sleeping almost put their lives on hold, canceling arrangements to meet friends and cutting back on exercise so they can try to recover lost sleep by napping during the day, sleeping in on weekends, or going to bed early at night.
But putting the brakes on your social life can actually be counterproductive to a good night’s sleep. One interesting study, published in Science, looked at the sleeping habits of fruit flies (which, remarkably, share much of their genetic material with humans).23 The researchers discovered that the flies they kept in isolation slept significantly less than flies that were allowed to socialize. In the social group, the amount of sleep the flies needed rose in proportion to how many other flies they met.
The researchers surmised that as socializing is a richer and more diverse experience than being on your own, the brain needs more sleep to process it.
And while it’s understandable that running low on sleep might make you less motivated to lace up your sneakers for a 10K run, it’s still important to keep active and moving.
A study found that sedentary adults suffering from insomnia who were prescribed aerobic activity improved their sleep significantly compared to other poor sleepers who didn’t exercise.24 They also reported having more energy and feeling less depressed.
Remember, a healthy life is all about balance. So as well as finding time to relax and rest, do keep active, and don’t cancel that dinner date with your friends. The key is to fill your life with pleasant experiences so that sleep and insomnia don’t become the main focus of it. In the long run, having a rich and fulfilling life should do the trick.
191 ✦ Schedule some pamper time
As we’ve seen, being stressed has been widely and authoritatively linked with insomnia, and being unable to sleep with exacerbating stress. Whichever came first, the stress or the sleeplessness, one thing’s certain: getting back some serenity in your life can only help you sleep better at night.
You may have heard the term “self-care” being tossed around a lot lately. It’s nothing new — just a new way of saying “Take better care of yourself.” At its simplest, self-care is about making sure you eat healthily and get enough exercise, but to boost self-care’s stress-busting benefits it’s important to give yourself the time and space to relax, especially if you’re the sort of person who usually (always?) puts other people’s needs first. When you’re continually caught up in caring for others, seeing to and anticipating their needs and wants, you’re often on high alert or at the very least depriving both your mind and your body of the chance of some much-needed downtime. And if you’re on high alert when you hit the hay? Needless to say, you’ll struggle to nod off.
In short? It’s important to pamper yourself from time to time.
For you, that might mean a scented bubble bath, listening to music, or relaxing with a good book. Or it might mean meeting friends for coffee, cooking a favorite meal, taking to two wheels on a bike path, visiting an art gallery, or doing some yoga.
Schedule in time for when you’ll do some of your pampering. This is important, or chances are it just won’t get done.