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Sleep Solutions
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Tossing and turning too much? Get your rest!
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By Catherine Winters
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MediZine's Healthy Living First Quarter 2006
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Believe it or not, there are people who fall asleep the second their head hits the pillow. Most of us aren’t so lucky.
But many expert get-to-sleep strategies are amazingly simple. The key is to intervene at the first sign of a problem. “The longer you wait, the worse insomnia may become and the harder it is to treat,” says Clete Kushida, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research, in California. Here, five tactics to help:
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day—even on weekends. “It gets your body on a set schedule,” says Dr. Kushida. Even if you initially have trouble dozing off at, say, 10 p.m., get up at the same time every day. Eventually, your body will adjust.
Look for light. Feel groggy in the a.m.? Turn up the lights or take a 30-minute walk outdoors. “Bright light helps synchronize your internal body clock,” says Dr. Kushida.
Don’t be a clock watcher. If you can’t doze off within 20 minutes, get up, go to another room and do something else—read, knit or thumb through magazines—until you feel drowsy. Then go back to bed and try again.
Keep a worry book. Two or three hours before you go to bed, write down everything that’s on your mind and list priorities for the next day.
Skip the nightcap. Liquor will help you fall asleep, but sleep may be shallower and you’ll awaken repeatedly.
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