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Struggling to fall asleep right now? 2 minutes after trying to fall asleep? Your best bet is simple relaxation techniques. Engage in gentle breathing exercises and a mental body scan where you slowly go over each body part starting with your toes and moving up the body trying to relax them one by one. This can activate your parasympathetic nervous system and decrease stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol all while slowing down your heart rate. Now, you want to avoid checking the time, but after what feels like 5 to 10 minutes of struggling to fall asleep, studies show the best way to rest your brain is to distract it, but in a very specific way. You need to do something neurologically easy enough that it won't keep you awake, but hard
enough that it will stop you from ruminating. This is known as thought blocking. And while counting sheep can help, it's often too simple for people. Some researchers suggest counting down from a thousand by increments of seven or going through the alphabet in order and trying to name a fruit or vegetable that starts with each letter of the alphabet. 20 to 30 minutes in and still struggling, it may be time to get up and walk around. Some studies show that getting out of bed can lower rumination and stress. And the longer you lay awake in bed, the more your brain and body start to associate your bed with being
awake and anxious, which isn't great long term. When you get up, it's key that you don't turn any lights on. Typical home lighting of 100 to 250 lux is a lot for the eye. Studies show that even a hallway bulb can raise overnight heart rate enough to impair sleep. So consider lowintensity amber lights at night or none at all if you can do it. Now that you're out of bed, try and find a non electronic and nonstimulating activity under very low amber light. This could be reading a book, not on your iPad, listening to relaxing music, or meditating. Meditation and mindfulness has been shown to not only improve sleep quality in the moment by helping to regulate stress, but it can also play a long-term role in stress
management and help with chronic insomnia as well. After the 30 to 60 minute mark of a low stimulation activity, you can try to go back to bed if you're genuinely tired and repeat the first couple steps. But if you're simply feeling bored or frustrated, it's better not to force yourself back to bed just yet. 1 to two hours in and you're still struggling, you might need to consider your hunger. Studies show that if you are too hungry, it can impair your ability to fall asleep. But it is all about balance. You want to stick to a small snack that is easy to digest, such as a spoonful of yogurt or a handful of walnuts, which are additionally shown to boost melatonin levels. The snacks need
to be small because eating large meals late at night can raise blood flow to the gut, which then causes core body temperature to rise, which can counter the natural nighttime cooling that promotes good sleep. Also, elevating glucose levels too high at night can neurologically uncouple the connection between your brain and liver and kidney, which makes you go to the bathroom more often at night. But what if you fell asleep fine, got up to go to the bathroom, and now you can't fall back asleep? Start again at the beginning of this process. Passing the 2-hour mark and your mind is still running. Time for a worry dump. On a non- electronic device and not in your bed with low
amber light, write down what is on your mind. This act externalizes and processes your concerns, allowing your worries to not interfere with your sleep. 3 hours in, maybe you're feeling physically uncomfortable. Focus on your temperature regulation. In general, it's best to sleep in a cool room because the body naturally drops its core temperature when it's trying to sleep. If you can't change the temperature, try wearing socks. Researchers found that warming your extremities can actually dilate the blood vessels and as a result, it redistributes heat from your core to your skin. It's the same reason a bath before bed can also be helpful.
Your warm skin radiates heat away from you, helping to cool down your core quickly and trigger sleepiness. Now, if you've made it to the 4hour mark, then it's likely time to consider some daytime problems that may be impacting your sleep. So, here are the top three most important factors according to science that will not only help you fall asleep faster, but have better quality sleep. Number three, or the third most important, back to the topic of food, how you eat plays a key role and how you're going to fall asleep, but not for the reasons you might think. Of course, some studies do find that things like a greater daytime intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with having an
easier time falling asleep, but it is more complicated than that. It's important to remember that calorie intake is intrinsically linked to circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm is the timekeeping machinery of your body. Human physiology changes throughout the day. Like, your liver at 10:00 a.m. is different than your liver at 10:00 p.m. Your physiological system is primed to do the right things at the right time. For example, your body knows when it's time to digest food and when it's time to sleep. And these two biological systems are deeply linked. Hunger hormones, digestive enzymes, and glucose regulating insulin have rhythms throughout the day and night. So, how you eat controls how you sleep. Late
morning and early afternoons are when your body is most primed to take in calories. Eating late at night disrupts circadian rhythm and leaves key parts of the digestion process incomplete. Eating late at night can also disrupt your microbiome and lead to insomnia. If you are really concerned about sleep, it is simple and easy to remember the age-old adage. Eat like a king in the morning, a prince in the afternoon, and a peasant at dinner with two studies showing that your last meal should always occur at least 3 hours before bedtime. Number two, or the second most important, ensure that you're getting enough blue or natural light hitting your skin in the middle of the day. Since humans evolved outside and under the sky,
midday light provides one of the most powerful signals to your circadian rhythm. The midday sun is so rich in blue light and there are actually light sensitive cells in your eyes that are specific to synchronizing the body clock as opposed to being for vision. These cells detect the intensity and wavelength of midday sun. And with input from your rods and cones, relay the data to the circadian pacemaker in your brain, which supports a nightly surge of melatonin, the hormone signal that tells your body it's time to sleep. Some people think that lights from indoor sources is enough. But it's actually not. Even on an overcast day, the blue rich light from the sun can reach like
10,000 lux. Whereas your indoor lighting actually leans more into green wavelengths which serve your vision but not your circadian rhythm. So spending more time outside in the middle of the day with natural light is super helpful. And if you can't do that, being near a window, working inside but close to the natural light is the next best thing. Of course, at night you'll want to limit the amount of light hitting your eyes. So it's best to lower bright lamps and minimize using screens. If you do need to use screens, it's best to use the apps that turn them onto a warmer spectrum as opposed to blue light. And number one, the most important factor for sleep is time consistency. You need
to be doing your best to fall asleep and wake up at the same time every day. Your body relies on rhythms, and it builds systems for the rhythms of your body to best adapt to your life. It's why if you wake up at 7:00 a.m. for work during the weekdays, even if you stay up late on the weekends, a lot of people will still wake up around 7:00 a.m. on the weekend. Your body has a system that starts waking you up around 7 a.m. every day, but if you don't have a consistent sleep schedule, your body can't adapt. Adenosine builds up in your body while you're awake and then is broken down while you're asleep. Going to bed at the same time helps regulate these adenosine levels. The optimal sleep time will
change based on if you're an early bird or a night owl. We have other videos about that, but it's important that you try and find a consistent time that works for you. In fact, new research has found that an unstable day-to-day sleep schedule alone predicted all cause mortality better than did total sleep hours. So, take that in. Your sleep consistency or inconsistency is a better predictor of all cause death than the actual hours and amount of sleep you are getting night after night. Another study shows that people with heart failure who had irregular sleep patterns had twice the risk of another medical event such as hospitalization or death compared with regular sleepers. Of course, the
amount of sleep you're getting matters, too, but this research really shows the importance of the rhythm and time consistency of your sleep. Combining all these tricks is your best bet to getting a great night's sleep. Of course, we all live complicated lives, so the occasional late dinner or late night out with friends or, you know, not being able to be outside on some days. It's not the end of the world, but it's just good to know that these practices can help your sleep. Not only should these steps help you fall asleep faster, but they also might help you not die as early. That's a good thing, too. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you're able to get a good night's sleep now and
we'll see you ASAP for some more science.
