In the final part of our exclusive serialisation of a new book on how to trick yourself to sleep, KIM JONES gives you some of the best scientifically-tested tips for what to do while you're lying wide-awake in bed.
A recent Japanese study found warming the eyes to around 40c not only helps people fall asleep, but can also make them get more deep sleep
Hug your other half...
Cuddling can reduce your blood pressure and heart rate. And sleeping close to someone reduces the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which makes you more likely to fall asleep.
If hugging leads to sex, that's great for sleep. Production of oxytocin, known as the 'love hormone', surges during the act, while cortisol takes a dive — thus relaxing you and banishing all worry. Even better, an orgasm releases the hormone prolactin, which also makes you sleepy.
Pull on the bed socks
Having warm feet can help you fall asleep faster. A study by Swiss academics found that warming the feet widened blood vessels and helped release heat from the body's core. A South Korean study found people who wore bed socks fell asleep sooner and enjoyed 32 minutes' more sleep, with fewer awakenings, than those who slept sockless.
Sleep on a tennis ball
Poor sleepers spend most of their time on their backs, according to one study. One reason is that this position can trigger snoring or breathing problems such as sleep apnoea (pauses in breathing during sleep).
Sew a pocket into the back of your pyjamas and pop a tennis ball into it every night.
If your pyjamas have a front pocket, wear them so the pocket is at the back. If you roll on to your back, the tennis ball will give you a not-so-gentle reminder to roll back onto your side.
Cuddling can reduce your blood pressure and heart rate. And sleeping close to someone reduces the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which makes you more likely to fall asleep
Warm your eyes
A recent Japanese study found warming the eyes to around 40c not only helps people fall asleep, but can also make them get more deep sleep. Try using a 'warming' eye mask and a microwavable neck pillow.
Duvet dilemma
Are you always on the losing side in the duvet tug-of-war? Try sleeping like the Scandinavians do — with two; one single duvet each.
Talk to yourself
If your mind is still in a whirlwind of worry when you lie down, try speaking out loud. This engages parts of the brain that are separate from those responsible for negative ruminations. Talking out loud also helps slow your brain, as thoughts can race much faster than the spoken word.
So, if you're anxious about a large bill, for example, say out loud: 'I just need to look over my bank statement tomorrow and start working out a budget.' This tactic works just as well if you whisper, by the way.
Having warm feet can help you fall asleep faster. A study by Swiss academics found that warming the feet widened blood vessels and helped release heat from the body's core
No chocolate in bed!
Chocolate contains a small amount of caffeine (the darker the chocolate, the more there is). So don't opt for a midnight snack.
Take a 2pm nap
If you've had a really poor night, a nap can help you make up the deficit the next day — without affecting night-time sleep. But timing is vital.
Between 1pm and 3pm, there is a small dip in core body temperature, which is a signal to the brain to release the sleep hormone melatonin.
To work with this natural dip, the ideal nap time may be around 2pm.
Ideally, your nap should last for just 10 to 20 minutes — and no longer than 30. After that, you enter a deeper sleep that can leave you feeling groggy and more tired than before.
Chocolate contains a small amount of caffeine (the darker the chocolate, the more there is). So don't opt for a midnight snack
Play mind games
Give your brain a mental exercise to do. A Southern Illinois University study found giving insomniacs moderately difficult mental-arithmetic problems at bedtime made them fall asleep faster.
It doesn't have to be a fiendish maths puzzle. Try counting backwards from 100, or even 1,000, in groups of five. Or think of cities beginning with 'a', animals beginning with 'b' and so on.
Try a bedtime story
If you were read bedtime stories as a child, you'll know how easily they can send you off to the Land of Nod. Well, the same applies for adults.
Choose your listening matter carefully. Nothing too exciting or gripping, but the plot has to be interesting enough to distract you from any worries, though not so complicated you have to concentrate hard.
If you've had a really poor night, a nap can help you make up the deficit the next day — without affecting night-time sleep. But timing is vital
Put some weight on
Insomniacs who were given weighted blankets found it easier to settle down to sleep, enjoyed calmer, better slumber and woke feeling more refreshed, according to a Swedish study.
Weighted blankets (available online) are usually filled with plastic pellets. Go for one that's about 10 per cent of your body weight.
It's thought the 'deep-touch pressure', or evenly distributed weight, mimics the feeling of being hugged or massaged. This helps raise output of serotonin (which contributes to production of melatonin) and calms the nervous system.
Relax with a book
Reading is one of the best and fastest methods to de-stress at bedtime. In one study, people were given stressful tasks, then told to do one 'relaxing' activity: reading, listening to music, having a hot drink or playing a video game.
When the stress hormone cortisol in each person's blood was measured, researchers found the readers' stress levels had dropped the most — by 68 per cent.
And it was a quick fix: six minutes immersed in a book lowered heart rates and eased muscle tension.
Reading is one of the best and fastest methods to de-stress at bedtime. In one study, people were given stressful tasks, then told to do one 'relaxing' activity: reading, listening to music, having a hot drink or playing a video game. When the stress hormone cortisol in each person's blood was measured, researchers found the readers' stress levels had dropped the most — by 68 per cent.
Let sleeping dogs lie
Should pets be banned from the bedroom? Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. kitted out adults and their dogs with activity trackers to monitor sleeping habits.
The bad news — letting a furry animal sleep on the bed or under the covers disrupted humans' sleep quality. The good news? A pet sleeping at the foot of the bed or on the floor nearby didn't have an adverse effect on its owner's sleep.
Blowing bubbles
This type of deep, slow breathing slows your heart rate and helps engage your calming parasympathetic nervous system. Imagine you have a child's bubble wand. Then take a deep breath through the nose for about four seconds. Hold for two seconds; then exhale slowly (about seven seconds) through pursed lips as if blowing a big bubble.
Find a happy place
Oxford University researchers asked one group of insomniacs to count sheep. A second group was told to visualise a 'happy place' or a relaxing scene. The 'happy place' insomniacs drifted off 20 minutes sooner than the sheep-counters.
The reason? Counting woolly animals was too tedious to distract insomniacs from their worries, while using imagery to transport themselves to a happy place was engrossing enough to distract them.
Tuning into a talk show or the BBC's World Service can help to distract you from outside noise and relax your mind
When you try it, use all your five senses. What do you see, hear, taste, touch and smell? Immersing yourself in the experience will boost your chance of keeping unwanted thoughts at bay.
Sing to yourself
You may feel daft, but singing yourself a childhood lullaby that holds positive associations with sleep can trigger a relaxed and 'safe' state of mind.
Focusing on the act of singing will also help filter out other thoughts. In addition, the movement of your lips will encourage the jaw to loosen — good for those of us who hold tension there when we're stressed.
Try to stay awake
Sounds bonkers, but it really can work. Researchers from the University of Glasgow asked a group of insomniacs to try to fall asleep as they normally would.
A second group were told to keep their eyes open and try to stay awake for as long as possible. The second group fell asleep faster and reported less anxiety. Trying to fall asleep, researchers concluded, can inhibit the process.
Keep still . . .
If you wake, try to stay fairly motionless. Your body interprets major movements, which can trigger adrenaline production, as a sign it's time to get up.
. . . or get out of bed
But if you've spent 15-20 minutes tossing and turning, many experts believe it's best to get up. It sounds counter-intuitive, but getting up will help you stop associating your bed with being awake and frustrated.
Go downstairs or sit in a bedroom chair. And do something mundane, such as listening to soothing music or reading a (non-thrilling) book in low light. As soon as you start to feel sleepy again, slowly get up and climb back into bed.
If you're a side-sleeper, bring the hand closest to the bed under your neck, feeling for any upward or downward tilt. An upward tilt means the pillow is too high; a downward tilt means it's too low
Don't fixate on 8
Don't lie there fretting that you need your eight hours. Most sleep scientists now agree that, just as we all need to eat differing amounts of calories to maintain a steady weight, so we all have different sleep needs.
So while some of us thrive on eight hours, others get by on six and a half. The key is whether you ever feel excessively sleepy in the daytime. If you don't, then you're probably getting enough sleep.
Be pillow-perfect
If you're a side-sleeper, bring the hand closest to the bed under your neck, feeling for any upward or downward tilt. An upward tilt means the pillow is too high; a downward tilt means it's too low.
It should be just the right size to fill the gap between the top of your shoulder and your head.
If you're a back-sleeper, place your hand on the back of your neck to feel for any forward or backward tilt. Your forehead and chin should be level.
If you sleep on your front, most experts agree that you should get rid of your pillow.
Enjoy noisy nature
Listening to natural sounds, such as rainfall or the wind in the trees, can help switch your mind and body from fight-or-flight mode to rest-and-digest mode.
Researchers from Brighton and Sussex Medical School played natural sounds to people in a stressed state. When the scientists measured their brain and nervous system activity, they found that the volunteers' bodies had relaxed and their thoughts had become less inwardly focused.
Turn on the radio
Tuning into a talk show or the BBC's World Service can help to distract you from outside noise and relax your mind. As long as you don't find the content too riveting, it should also help you nod off.
Waking is normal
And finally, if you do wake in the night, don't get anxious about it. It's perfectly normal and happens to everyone.
We sleep in cycles averaging about 90 minutes each. As we reach the end of one cycle, we may wake for a short period before slipping quite seamlessly into the next one.
These mini-awakenings are thought possibly to date back to when we were cavemen and woke periodically to scan for predators. Waking also gives us a chance to shift position and so prevent soreness or numbness.
Good sleepers may not even notice they've woken, or simply turn over and immediately fall back to sleep. Problems begin when you realise you've woken, then get anxious about being unable to nod off again.
So try to accept these mini-awakenings as a normal part of your sleep cycle.
- Adapted by Corinna Honan from 222 Ways To Trick Yourself to Sleep, by Kim Jones (£12.99, Piatkus); © Kim Jones 2019. To order a copy for £10.39 (20 per cent off) call 0844 571 0640. Offer valid until March 23, 2019. P&P is free on books and get free premium delivery.
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Main photo article In the final part of our exclusive serialisation of a new book on how to trick yourself to sleep, KIM JONES gives you some of the best scientifically-tested tips for what to do while you’re lying wide-awake in bed.
A recent Japanese study found warming the eyes to around 40c not only...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/17/21/11112796-0-image-a-109_1552857945986.jpg
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