source:- vox.com<\/p>\n
Turn your bedroom into a \u201csleep sanctuary,\u201d consider buying a white noise machine, and stop checking your phone before bed.<\/p>\n
On a recent FaceTime call, my friend Jon told me that he hadn\u2019t had a satisfyingly restful night of sleep since March, before the stay-at-home orders and the wave of\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0cases hit the US. He\u2019s taken sleeping aids, exercised before bed, and listened to\u00a0ASMR videos\u00a0but to no avail; he couldn\u2019t manage to turn his brain off until 2 or 3 am on most nights.<\/p>\n
Jon isn\u2019t alone in his sleeplessness. While many people have anecdotally reported having\u00a0startlingly vivid dreams\u00a0in quarantine, some are struggling with what feels like incurable insomnia, whether that manifests as difficulty falling asleep, trouble staying asleep through the night, or waking up too early.<\/p>\n
A survey of nearly 1,000 people by\u00a0SleepHelp.org\u00a0found that 22 percent of responders have had poorer quality sleep due to the pandemic, and a third said their sleep troubles stemmed from the news coverage they consumed. In China, health care workers were reportedly\u00a0prone to sleeplessness\u00a0and experienced feelings of depression, anxiousness, and stress-based trauma. The coronavirus, it seems, has conjured up\u00a0\u201ca perfect storm of sleep problems,\u201d\u00a0according to one Stanford sleep researcher.<\/p>\n
In pre-pandemic times, about\u00a030 to 35 percent of adults\u00a0suffer from insomnia, and most are short-term conditions that can be resolved without professional help. (Medical professionals and sleep experts generally recommend about\u00a0seven to nine hours\u00a0of sleep each night.) The inability to fall asleep can be frustrating, especially in the midst of a pandemic with no end in sight. If you\u2019re an insomniac, you\u2019ve probably spent at least one night Googling something along the lines of \u201cHow to fall asleep\u201d instead of actually falling asleep.<\/p>\n
I spoke to Bill Fish, a certified sleep specialist and managing editor at SleepFoundation.org, about those struggling with sleep and lifestyle changes. Here is his best advice to achieve more restful nights.<\/p>\n
How has staying inside affected our sleep patterns?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting to see a progression of the pandemic from a mental health and sleep perspective. Within the first three weeks, starting in early to mid-March, there wasn\u2019t a lot of talk about sleep, but as we got into the stay-at-home orders for two to three weeks, people have really started to notice they weren\u2019t sleeping as well and have had trouble sleeping. There are all kinds of factors at play that cause insomnia in people. For those of us who are fortunate to be working from home, we\u2019ve lost the structure of our daily lives. We don\u2019t have an external reality, so to speak.<\/p>\n What a lot of people have started doing, instead of going to bed at 10:30 and getting up at 6:30, there\u2019s no longer a big motivator to get up at 6:30. While that can be good to some extent, at the end of the day, all adults should be getting between seven to nine hours of sleep on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re getting any more than that, you could wake up feeling lethargic and not really yourself. Our bodies have become trained to know and prepare for the sleep process. With more people staying up at night and sleeping later in the morning, their bodies after about two to three weeks have redialed, and that doesn\u2019t even take into consideration the health and the financial stress the pandemic has caused.<\/p>\n What tips do you have for people struggling with insomnia?<\/strong><\/p>\n My biggest thing is schedule \u2014 encouraging someone to get back to a sense of normalcy. I have two sons who just want to stay up all night and play video games because they can\u2019t see their friends. I have to explain to them that it\u2019s not healthy for them to stay up. If your body is used to you waking up early, consider adopting that habit again. All of us, and our bodies, are trying to figure out what this \u201cnew normal\u201d is, and what I push for is to try and do everything you can to get back to your old bedtime. If you\u2019ve messed up your sleep pattern, I\u2019d recommend trying to change it in increments of 10 or 15 minutes a night until you get back to where you were before.<\/p>\n At one point, kids are going to go back to school and people are going to go back to work, so we can train our bodies by the repetition of going to sleep at the same time and waking up at the same time. It might not cure all insomnia, but it\u2019ll give you a better chance of success.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I suggest not watching television or scrolling on your phone in your bed. It\u2019s about creating that separation in your waking and sleeping environments between sleep, leisure, and work that\u2019s now occurring in the same building. It\u2019s hard, though. Even my wife does it; she sits with her headphones on and watches a show in bed.<\/p>\n Can you explain how a lack of sleep affects a person\u2019s immunity?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sleep is considered the third pillar of wellness along with diet and exercise. Those are the three most important factors to keep us healthy. When we get ready to sleep, our body produces melatonin, which causes us to tire. When we aren\u2019t getting that full night of sleep, our immune system isn\u2019t producing as much of\u00a0an effective response\u00a0to fight against other infections or viruses. We really want people to get those seven to nine hours of sleep to stay as healthy as they can.<\/p>\n What tips do you have to improve a person\u2019s quality of sleep, not just the duration of sleep?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m a believer that people should turn their bedrooms into a sleep sanctuary. Create a separation of your bedroom from the rest of your life. Set up your bedroom so that it\u2019s intended for sleep. Clean up around your sleeping area, since your mind might race if there\u2019s clutter in the room. Consider charging your phone in another room, and don\u2019t watch television before bed.<\/p>\n Give yourself at least 45 minutes away from screens before you go to bed, so maybe read a book or keep a journal \u2014 just something to allow your mind to calm down before bed. Make sure that your room is cool and that it\u2019s as dark as possible. I\u2019m a fan of a white noise machine; you can buy it online for $20 and plug it in beside your bed to create a steady stream of white noise, which can mask any external sound that might jolt you out of sleep. The machine can help you stay in sleep and help you feel more refreshed when you wake up in the morning.<\/p>\n Since more people are staying home and, as a result, are more sedentary, how does that affect our sleep?<\/strong><\/p>\n The key is to get 30 minutes of some form of cardio movement or even just walking. The human body is not meant to sit at a desk all day. Think about it like how a dog needs to be walked every day. We have to get this energy out of our bodies so we are physically tired by the time we get to bed each night.<\/p>\n I do get the question a lot of when you should be exercising, and there are a bunch of studies, but none of them are really conclusive as to what point of the day you should be exercising. You should have your body temperature back to normal, and not be out of breath at least 45 minutes before bed. It doesn\u2019t make sense to run a few miles right before your bedtime.<\/p>\n Are there certain foods or substances like caffeine that might affect a person\u2019s sleep?<\/strong><\/p>\n You shouldn\u2019t have any caffeine at least three to four hours before bed so it\u2019s out of your system, and really, you shouldn\u2019t be eating anything within an hour of going to bed because your body needs to digest your food and makes it more difficult for you to fall asleep. Eating spicy foods that could possibly cause indigestion doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. I would stay away from caffeine, and I\u2019ve read a lot of stories that\u00a0people are drinking more\u00a0during the pandemic. That\u2019s really not good for your sleep. While alcohol might help you get to sleep a little quicker, the quality of sleep you want, as the alcohol leaves your system, a lot of people tend to wake up in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n As the pandemic becomes the \u201cnew normal,\u201d how do you think it will affect our sleeping habits?<\/strong><\/p>\n It gives us the opportunity to get the recommended amount of sleep. The vast majority of people have a commute, and they used to spend a lot of time in the car, in the subway, or on a train. Now that\u2019s gone. While we will go back to work eventually, we don\u2019t know how quickly that\u2019ll be and whether it\u2019ll be five days a week or less. It takes away the excuse of saying, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t have the ability to get eight hours of sleep a night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3448,3455,3440,3466,3451],"class_list":["post-5371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-experts-dr-sleep-charts-advise","tag-insomnia-definition","tag-insomnia-treatment-guidelines","tag-quarantine-insomnia","tag-sleep-problems"],"yoast_head":"\n