BryantheRyan.com Challenging conventional wisdom about nutrition, fitness and overall health

Why We Can’t Sleep and What We Can Do About It

Last post I wrote about the awesomeness of sleeping. But what can we do if we spend our nights staring at the ceiling in hopes of drifting off to sleep?

Top 3 reasons why we can't sleep

1) Stress and worry. Worrying about all of life's trials and tribulations is the number one sleep inhibitor known to man. Whether it be finishing homework, paying bills or worrying about what your going to eat tomorrow, stress can turn a good nights sleep into an all out war between the sheets (not the good kind ).

2) Ignoring when we are tired. We often push past our tired minds in order to finish things that we deem important.  When we do this, we often push ourselves beyond fatigue into an area of consciousness that I like to call Slwake. It is like being asleep and awake at the same time. We are no longer tired, yet we aren't really awake either. This phenomenon is evident when we are surprisingly wide awake at 2 AM when we normally go to bed at 10 PM. I know that this has happened to me on countless occasions both with or without the aid of alcohol.

3) Sleeping with the TV or Music. I know many people who do this and find the idea truly idiotic. Sure we can fall asleep with the TV on and even sleep through the night. Even though our eyes are closed, they can still pick up the changing in light of the TV. Prohibiting our eyes and bodies from going into REM sleep.

The noise from either the TV or radio does not fall on deaf ears. Our ear drums are still picking up sounds and our brains still process that information even if we are not consciously aware. Give your brains a break and turn the noise off.

My (often crazy) tips for sleep

-Go to sleep when you are tired. Make sure that you get things done that you have to get done before it is dark outside. Our bodies often associate sleep with our natural world. Associating darkness with relaxation will allow you to embrace fatigue and glide into sleep.

-Read a fiction book before bed. I do this every night. Fiction stories take us out of our reality and put us in a made up fantasy land. I recommend this practice to everybody who asks me for sleeping advice.

A fiction story takes our brain out of our reality and into a world that is free of worry and stress. This again allows us to embrace our fatigue and drift into sleep.

- The perfect sleeping environment is one that is dark and silent. Put dark sheets over your windows if street lights bother you and wear earplugs if noise is a problem.

When I lived in the college dorm halls I did this. At first I was afraid that I would not hear my alarm in the morning, but I never not woke up. I always heard it (faintly) and just knew that it was my alarm telling me to get up.

And to be honest, the ear plugs often fell out of my ears during the night, so I had no problems hearing my alarm.

- Turn off distractions. TV, radio, music, whatever it is just turn it off. The use of fans and white noise are perfectly fine as they are one steady and consistent sound. Many people actually use white noise to fall asleep. If you are interested in using white noise I recommend www.simplynoise.com. I'm actually listening to white noise right now as I write this. It is awesome for sharpening focus.

- Warm up your feet. A study was done that tried to find the number one cause for not sleeping and cold feet was number one. Personally, I have to agree. Every time that I have trouble falling asleep my feet are always cold. I put on a pair of socks and I am sawing logs in no time.

- I have a crazy remedy that I have yet to try (because I fall asleep rather easily), but plan on doing in the near future just for shits and giggles.

You will need a towel, 1 pair of cotton socks and 1 pair of wool socks. Soak the cotton socks in cold water. Squeeze out most of the water and put them on. Put the wool socks on over the top of the cotton ones and hop into bed. Wrap the towel around your feet and cover up. Your feet should be toasty warm and your brain should fall into a dream filled bliss in no time.

-If 30 minutes passes and you have yet to fall asleep, then a change of scenery is in order. Either go lay on the couch, sit in a low lit room and read or simply day dream.

-Don't drink large amounts of water before bed. This will only cause you to piddle in the middle of a probably awesome dream.

- I have read a lot of info about caffeine affecting sleep. Personally I have never had any problems falling asleep no mater what time of day that I drink a caffeine infused beverage. However caffeine affects all people differently, so if you drink caffeine throughout the day, experiment with the timing and amounts.

Lastly, getting sunshine during the day may actually help us sleep better at night. I recently read an article at lifehack.org written by a guy who was a night owl and could not seem to fall asleep before 3 AM. He started spending more time outside in the sun and eventually was able to sleep earlier.

The rationale behind this phenomenon is that we are biologically programmed to receive lots of sun light during the day and sleep in perfect darkness at night (like cavemen!). By getting more sun, we can actually reset our biological clocks. Sounds crazy, but if you are desperate I would give it a shot. I know that when I spend lots of time outside, I hit the hay by 8 or 9 at night.

Final Thought

No matter how little sleep you get or how many times you wake up during the day, do NOT take sleeping pills. Sleeping pills do not solve the problem of why you cannot sleep, they just cover up the fact that you can't sleep. Which will almost inevitably lead to an addiction to them. Also, these pills have very, very scary side affects. I have a good friend who used to take sleeping pills every night. He became depressed. He realized that the pills were what were causing him to feel that way and quit using them.

Till next time,

Ryan