I WANNA KICK IT WITH YOU ALL NIGHT TV

One of the things that perpetuates insomnia is a fear of being awake. Doing something you enjoy is the best way to overrule this anxiety and will help you look forward to bedtime rather than dread it. It isn’t the blue light from the screen that is keeping you awake, it is anxiety about whether you will sleep or not.

I WANNA KICK IT WITH YOU ALL NIGHT TV

Instead, reclaim your evenings and spend the time doing relaxing things you actually like doing, such as watching TV in bed or scrolling through Instagram reels. However, if you don’t enjoy having a bath but feel anxious that you won’t sleep if you don’t have one, then stop. For example, if you look forward to having a bath at the end of the day, then have a lovely hot bath. Ask yourself which elements of your routine you enjoy and which elements you put yourself through purely because you think they will help you sleep. If you have an elaborate wind-down routine that takes up your whole evening but doesn’t often lead to a good night’s sleep, maybe it’s time to try something different.

And don’t take naps in the day – they take the edge off your appetite for sleep, like having a snack just before sitting down to a three-course meal. But don’t obsess about the exact times or the hours of sleep you are getting – the details don’t matter. If you have been having trouble falling asleep, get up at roughly the same time every day, including at weekends, and make your earliest bedtime roughly 16 hours later.

However sensible it seems, having an early night can mean you won’t be sleepy enough to fall asleep quickly and easily, which can lead to frustration and anxiety about sleeping. Adults need to be awake for at least 16 hours to generate enough sleep-drive to sleep for eight hours at night. The only thing that generates sleep-drive is being awake, in the same way that the only thing that generates hunger is not eating. Introducing a breathing exercise every morning, for example, will not only help you to feel calmer during the day, it will also reduce the amount of hyperarousal you have to deal with at night. In fact, tackling hyperarousal should be thought of as a 24-hour project rather than something you do only in the run-up to bedtime. Don’t do it just before bed, however, because relaxation techniques can be the opposite of relaxing when you desperately want them to send you to sleep. Do this sitting comfortably, focusing on each breath, though it works just as well if you do it during regular activities like watching TV, hanging out the washing or working at your desk. To boost your chances of better sleep, consciously slow your breathing down for at least 10 minutes a day (breathe in for roughly five seconds and out for around seven seconds). Slowing your breathing down from our regular 12–20 breaths per minute to four or five breaths per minute engages the parasympathetic nervous system which counteracts this arousal. Breathe lessĪccording to James Nestor, author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, modern humans tend to over-breathe, which can raise blood pressure and keep us in a state of constant nervous arousal. It takes time to optimise your sleep drive and reduce hyperarousal, and there are no quick fixes, so instead of worrying about the night ahead, make sleeping well a long-term goal and expect to see progress in a few weeks rather than tomorrow. There is, however, plenty you can start doing to improve your chances of sleeping well next month. Give up trying to sleep tonightĪs brutal as it sounds, there is nothing you can do between now and bedtime to guarantee that you will sleep tonight. Here are seven ways to improve your sleep that might just work, as long as you don’t try too hard. Sometimes you have to do things differently to get a different outcome. The only way out of the trap is to go against your instincts and push. Insomnia is like a Chinese finger trap which grips tighter the more you pull your finger away. The more scientifically sound advice addresses these factors too, but it also unintentionally gives the false impression that you are able to make yourself sleep by doing certain things and so creates a frustrating cycle that is difficult to break. Tackling these two factors (which happily respond very well to a bit of effort) can then create the right conditions to allow sleep to happen all on its own. Instead, I get my clients to shift their attention towards the main causes of sleeplessness: lack of sleep drive and hyperarousal. But not trying to sleep is extremely hard, especially when you are exhausted and desperate.

If we can stop trying, sleep will naturally follow. It cannot be controlled and nothing we can do can force it to happen. This is because sleep is a passive process, like breathing or digesting.

I wanna kick it with you all night