Most normal persons spend around 1/3 of their lives sleeping. Hence, it is important to make this part of our lives as functional as possible. This post presents some material to improve the sleeping experience of open-minded persons (those that consider any opportunity to enhance their lives).
The material presented was mainly collected from the references listed at the end of the post, which the reader is encouraged to read. These references are well-known books in the field of sleep. Although the books differ from the content presented, their messages overlap considerably and the rules suggested to improve the sleep are more or less equivalent.
According to reference [1], the golden rules of sleep are as follows:
1. Get up regularly half an hour earlier than your usual desired getting up time.
2. Go to bed only when you are sleepy.
3. Don't take any naps during the day.
4. At least three times a week, take at least twenty minutes exercise.
5. Finish eating at least three hours before you go to bed.
6. Don't have any caffeine after 2 pm.
7. Cut out alcohol.
8. Switch off the TV one hour before you go to bed.
9. Do only three things in bed: sleep, make love and use the book or CD (the CD comes together with the book of reference [1]).
10. If your are awake in bed for more than twenty minutes, do one of the exercises (included in the book of reference [1]) or get up and do something boring.
11. Keep your bedroom dark at night.
12. Have a warm, comfortable bed in a room that is not too hot.
13. Don't watch the clock.
14. Use the CD (that comes with the book of reference [1]).
From all the above fourteen rules, the top three are the most crucial. The 'half an hour' mentioned in Rule #1 is simply to ease your falling asleep process. The idea is that, if you get up half an hour earlier, you will probably fall asleep a bit earlier too (and this is useful for persons with difficulties to fall asleep). So, for instance, if you believe 8 am is a good time to get up, set your alarm clock at 7:30 am (half an hour earlier) and get out of the bed exactly when the alarm clock rings (should be difficult during the first days, but within a week or two this becomes a habit). From Rule #1 it is important to highlight 'regularly'; this is to mean you must get up at the same time all days including weekend days.
If you follow Rule #1 honestly and go to bed only when you are sleepy, i.e., follow Rule #2 as well, within a week or two your sleep pattern will be regularized. If you have, or had in the past, some sleep trouble, the chances are that what caused the trouble was a poor sleep pattern. Therefore, following Rules #1 & #2 properly will recover your natural and healthy sleep pattern. In following these rules note that you have full control over your get up time but not over your somnolence state. Hence, forcing a regular and fixed get up time and monitoring your somnolence state (if you are sleepy or not) to judge the right time to go to bed seems a reasonable advice to recover a sleep pattern within a couple of days (obviously take some time to recover your pattern, but if you follow the rules honestly after a week or two it will be much better; within a month it will be very robust). It is also worthy to note that your sleep pattern may be 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8 or even another value hours long. The sleep duration will be the one that best fits your needs.
The outcome of Rule #3 is pretty obvious: if you take naps during the day your chances of falling asleep around a well-defined time (which is a requirement of a robust sleep pattern) decrease considerably. Hence, avoiding naps leads to a faster sleep pattern recovery and also prevents your pattern from deterioration once you have fully recovered it.
Rules #4 to #14 may be classified as complementary rules, since they can be practiced to improve the sleep experience of a person incrementally. The book and the accompanying CD of reference [1] contain a list of relaxing exercises (mentioned in Rule #10) and recorded hypnotic sounds (mentioned in Rules #9 & #14) targeted at sleep. Although it is not needed to buy the book and the accompanying CD to improve your sleep substantially (it is enough to follow the rules shown above), it is recommended for those persons that want to known a bit more on the subject.
To make clear that the rules presented in the references are more or less equivalent, below are outlined the rules suggested in reference [2], so the reader can compare them with those of reference [1] presented above:
1. Spend less time in bed.
2. No naps.
3. Get up and do something when you can't sleep.
4. Get up at the same time every day, including weekend days.
5. Do nothing in bed but sleep or make love.
6. Reduce or eliminate the pills.
7. Stop clock-watching.
8. Replace negative sleep talk with positive statements.
9. Let go of the search for an instant miracle cure.
10. Discover a relaxation technique that works for you.
11. Decide on your own safety thought.
12. Put your life before your insomnia.
And, according to the author, "for most (persons), sticking to the first six (rules) will be all that is needed to begin sleeping well again".
References:
[1] Paul McKenna, I Can Make You Sleep (neat and fast-reading book plus a bonus CD)
The material presented was mainly collected from the references listed at the end of the post, which the reader is encouraged to read. These references are well-known books in the field of sleep. Although the books differ from the content presented, their messages overlap considerably and the rules suggested to improve the sleep are more or less equivalent.
According to reference [1], the golden rules of sleep are as follows:
1. Get up regularly half an hour earlier than your usual desired getting up time.
2. Go to bed only when you are sleepy.
3. Don't take any naps during the day.
4. At least three times a week, take at least twenty minutes exercise.
5. Finish eating at least three hours before you go to bed.
6. Don't have any caffeine after 2 pm.
7. Cut out alcohol.
8. Switch off the TV one hour before you go to bed.
9. Do only three things in bed: sleep, make love and use the book or CD (the CD comes together with the book of reference [1]).
10. If your are awake in bed for more than twenty minutes, do one of the exercises (included in the book of reference [1]) or get up and do something boring.
11. Keep your bedroom dark at night.
12. Have a warm, comfortable bed in a room that is not too hot.
13. Don't watch the clock.
14. Use the CD (that comes with the book of reference [1]).
From all the above fourteen rules, the top three are the most crucial. The 'half an hour' mentioned in Rule #1 is simply to ease your falling asleep process. The idea is that, if you get up half an hour earlier, you will probably fall asleep a bit earlier too (and this is useful for persons with difficulties to fall asleep). So, for instance, if you believe 8 am is a good time to get up, set your alarm clock at 7:30 am (half an hour earlier) and get out of the bed exactly when the alarm clock rings (should be difficult during the first days, but within a week or two this becomes a habit). From Rule #1 it is important to highlight 'regularly'; this is to mean you must get up at the same time all days including weekend days.
If you follow Rule #1 honestly and go to bed only when you are sleepy, i.e., follow Rule #2 as well, within a week or two your sleep pattern will be regularized. If you have, or had in the past, some sleep trouble, the chances are that what caused the trouble was a poor sleep pattern. Therefore, following Rules #1 & #2 properly will recover your natural and healthy sleep pattern. In following these rules note that you have full control over your get up time but not over your somnolence state. Hence, forcing a regular and fixed get up time and monitoring your somnolence state (if you are sleepy or not) to judge the right time to go to bed seems a reasonable advice to recover a sleep pattern within a couple of days (obviously take some time to recover your pattern, but if you follow the rules honestly after a week or two it will be much better; within a month it will be very robust). It is also worthy to note that your sleep pattern may be 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8 or even another value hours long. The sleep duration will be the one that best fits your needs.
The outcome of Rule #3 is pretty obvious: if you take naps during the day your chances of falling asleep around a well-defined time (which is a requirement of a robust sleep pattern) decrease considerably. Hence, avoiding naps leads to a faster sleep pattern recovery and also prevents your pattern from deterioration once you have fully recovered it.
Rules #4 to #14 may be classified as complementary rules, since they can be practiced to improve the sleep experience of a person incrementally. The book and the accompanying CD of reference [1] contain a list of relaxing exercises (mentioned in Rule #10) and recorded hypnotic sounds (mentioned in Rules #9 & #14) targeted at sleep. Although it is not needed to buy the book and the accompanying CD to improve your sleep substantially (it is enough to follow the rules shown above), it is recommended for those persons that want to known a bit more on the subject.
To make clear that the rules presented in the references are more or less equivalent, below are outlined the rules suggested in reference [2], so the reader can compare them with those of reference [1] presented above:
1. Spend less time in bed.
2. No naps.
3. Get up and do something when you can't sleep.
4. Get up at the same time every day, including weekend days.
5. Do nothing in bed but sleep or make love.
6. Reduce or eliminate the pills.
7. Stop clock-watching.
8. Replace negative sleep talk with positive statements.
9. Let go of the search for an instant miracle cure.
10. Discover a relaxation technique that works for you.
11. Decide on your own safety thought.
12. Put your life before your insomnia.
References:
[1] Paul McKenna, I Can Make You Sleep (neat and fast-reading book plus a bonus CD)
[2] Sasha Stephens, The Effortless Sleep Method: The Incredible New Cure for Insomnia and Chronic Sleep Problems (book written from a recovered chronic insomnia sufferer perspective)
[3] Gregg D. Jacobs, Say Goodnight to Insomnia: A Drug-Free Programme Developed at Harvard Medical School (for those readers interested in a more rigorous scientific work)
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