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In today’s episode of the Infographics Show we are slipping off into the land of dreams.
It seems most people have their own ways to nod off and these vary from taking a hot bath
to sniffing lavender.
Today we look at some of the more popular sleep-inducing tricks.
For today’s show though we are not promoting pharmaceuticals that have a clinically proven
track record of sending us to sleep in seconds.
Instead we are taking a look at some natural solutions for insomnia and seeing if they
really do work..
So what natural methods work best for sleeping?
What’s the fastest way to fall asleep?
Let’s take a look at – How to Fall asleep Quicker
One of the most common causes of sleeplessness is anxiety.
If you are worried about something then you will have a difficult time regulating emotions
and your body will not be in a condition predisposed to sleep.
What’s happening in the mind is key to allowing that sleep hormone, melatonin, to work its
beautiful magic.
Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland and naturally regulates sleep and it is this
hormone that allows us to have a good night’s rest.
First up let’s look at the things you shouldn’t be doing if you are trying to fall asleep.
While it may seem tempting to have an alcoholic nightcap, and a drink or two might send us
off to sleep quicker, the sleep is of a lesser quality.
Alcohol affects heart rhythm and disrupts all sleep stages.
Plus drinking makes us need to pee and getting up in the night to use the bathroom puts us
right back out of the sleep cycle.
Also, try to avoid sleeping tablets as they can become addictive and often lead the user
to suffer from the very problems (anxiety, stress) that they are prescribed to cure.
You should go to bed at a regular hour and rise at the same time each day.
True, you won’t feel tired every time you go to bed, but our bodies crave structure.
To only go to bed when absolutely exhausted confuses our sleep patterns and promotes insomnia.
Melatonin supplements should be avoided because over the course of time our bodies will stop
producing any hormone that is artificially introduced and sleeplessness will probably
become a larger concern.
Counting sheep doesn’t seem to work either- ome small studies (including one by Oxford
University) on sheep counting and similar techniques have been conducted with test groups
of only 10-20 but with numbers this little it is impossible to draw a solid conclusion.
One theory is that sheep counting only increases anxiety as the mind becomes aware of the concept
of time, and being aware of time is one of the biggest enemies to the act of nodding
off.
In battling insomnia sometimes reverse psychology might work.
By forcing yourself to stay awake you may alleviate sleep anxiety.
Research conducted at the University of Glasgow found that insomniacs who were instructed
to stay awake with their eyes wide open eventually fell asleep faster than the other participants
in this experiment who were not instructed with this paradoxical intention.
Further research needs to be undertaken in the reverse psychology field of sleep suggestion
though.
Richard Wiseman, professor for Public Understanding at the University of Hertfordshire and author
of the book Night School, suggests that people suffering from sleeplessness should get up
and do an activity that requires basic motor skills such as a jigsaw or crossword puzzle.
They should avoid watching television and digital screens in bed, as the blue lights
have been proven to suppress the sleep inducing hormone melatonin.
Also screens in the bed cause the brain to associate the bed to being an awake environment
rather than one for sleep.
“The key is to avoid associating your bed with a place to be awake.”
Clocks should be hidden as watching, or perhaps worse, listening to the minutes tick tock
towards morning induces your sleep-related anxiety.
Your bedroom should be cool and dark and quiet.
You might consider taking a warm shower or bath before bed and then stepping into the
cooler bedroom.
Studies have shown that the rapid decrease in body temperature slows your metabolism
faster and prepares the body for sleep.
A Swiss study has shown that wearing socks may help in falling asleep faster.
Shifting blood flow from the core of your body to your extremities cools down the body
and help along that sleep hormone melatonin.
It has also been proven that splashing or immersing your face in cold water may help
relax your nervous system and triggers the Dive Reflex that lowers heart rate and blood
pressure.
Aromatherapy may also prove helpful but evidence is mixed with some scientific bodies officially
labeling the practice as a pseudoscience.
However, lavender has long been associated with sleep.
In 2005 researchers at Wesleyan University discovered that subjects who were exposed
to lavender for 2 minutes before sleeping experienced deeper sleep and felt more vigorous
in the morning.
As mentioned it is not just the space around your physical body that is important.
Picturing an ideal environment in your mind may be the key to helping sleep.
An Oxford University study named Behavior Research and Therapy with a tiny test pool
of 17 subjects, found that insomniacs who imagined a beach or a waterfall fell asleep
20 minutes faster than those who simply counted sheep.
This study is too small for our Infographics researchers to deem significant, but we thought
we’d mention it anyway.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends something called progressive relaxation.
This technique requires you to tense and then relax each muscle beginning with your toes
and working your way up to your neck and head.
Visualize your skeleton and muscles and picture in your mind each part of your body relaxing.
So take a hot bath or shower, make sure your room is cool, dark and quiet and find your
preferred sleeping position and visualize your ideal environment as you tense and relax
your body- and who knows once sleep arrives you may find yourself visiting that ideal
environment in your dream state.
Now that you are ready to fall asleep in under a minute it is time to try the 4-7-8.
This popular natural method involves three simple steps that take 4, 7, and 8 seconds.
This 60 second technique supposedly works like this: simply find yourself a comfortable
position and breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds
and then exhale very slowly for eight or more seconds.
Repeat this exercise until sleep takes you by the hand.
Harvard-educated MD Andrew Weil swears by this method.
He took the method from a hundreds of years old yogi meditation practice and says “it’s
the single best method that I’ve found for dealing with getting back to sleep if you
wake up in the middle of the night.”Slowing down the breathing rate forces the rhythm
of your heart to slow down and in turn puts the body in a relaxed state.
But before getting too excited keep in mind that there isn’t one research paper or any
clinical studies to show that this method works.
Even if none of these tips stick with you, we hope that we can at least have this one
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the link in the description.
So if you are struggling with sleep try this simple method and let us know what you think
in the comments section.
Do you have any other suggestions for falling asleep quickly?
Let us know in the comments.
Also, be sure to watch our other video called This Will Happen In The Next 60 Seconds?
Thanks for watching, and as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time!