This simple trick could help you beat insomnia and sleep better

Are worries about pending tasks not letting you sleep?

By: Sandhya Raghavan | | Published: January 17, 2018 1:22 pm

It’s enviable how some people drift into a peaceful sleep in the first few minutes of hitting the bed. And there’s us who never had a healthy relationship with sleep at all. Sleep disturbances are common in people who have underlying anxiety issues. These issues often rear the heads when you try to catch some decent shut eye after a tiring day at work. It’s not uncommon for them to mull over how the day was wasted and how so many tasks weren’t completed before bedtime. They are could even be troubled by thoughts of an expensive purchase, a fight with a friend or how they squandered an entire weekend away without doing anything productive, basically anything that their conscience doesn’t approve of. Apart from making one feel awful at 3 am, the thoughts make it practically impossible to go back to sleep. So what do you do? Also Read - Depression, stress may reduce efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, scientists say

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You could begin with a footbath for sound sleep. A warm core accompanied by warm distal temperature helps you ease into deep sleep within moments of hitting the bed. After that, you could drink this milk-poppy-nutmeg concoction that functions as a sleep aid, thanks to the sleep-inducing quality of all the three ingredients. But if those things don’t seem to do it for you, then here’s what would work, according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Also Read - Covid-19 healthcare workers at risk of developing depression, anxiety

The study says that bedtime worry — especially about incomplete tasks — is one of the causes of insomnia. The scientists based their study on previous research which showed that writing about one’s worries helped people with anxiety-ridden insomnia fall asleep. To test whether it worked, fifty-seven healthy young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 were asked to complete a writing assignment for five minutes in a controlled sleep lab.

Some were asked particularly to write about tasks that they had to complete in the coming future, much like a to-do list and others were asked to write about tasks they completed in the day. The participants in the to-do list fell asleep significantly faster than those who in the completed list. The study then concluded by saying that writing a to-do list before bedtime would work better than journaling about one’s completed tasks, although journaling does have some benefits.

If thoughts of uncompleted tasks are robbing your sleep, the solution looks very simple. All you got to do is to write about them!

Reference:

Scullin, M. K., Krueger, M. L., Ballard, H. K., Pruett, N., & Bliwise, D. L. (2017). The Effects of Bedtime Writing on Difficulty Falling Asleep: A Polysomnographic Study Comparing To-Do Lists and Completed Activity Lists.

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Published : January 17, 2018 1:22 pm

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