Being exhausted, going to bed and… all of a sudden, not being tired at all and spinning for hours before falling asleep, is that a situation that speaks to you? And yet, it's not for lack of yawning all afternoon and failing to fall asleep watching an episode of a series on Netflix... The doctor specializing in sleep Philip Gehrman (who teaches psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania) has looked into the phenomenon and explains to Time the problem is that the brain associates being in bed with waking up. This explains it…
In question, our “bad” habits of using our smartphone in bed, but also of continuing to work before going to bed or even reading. Going to bed stressed also plays a huge role, since you can spend several tens of minutes tossing and turning in bed before relaxing and falling asleep. All of these factors cause the brain to associate bed with waking up, so we need to change that way of thinking. Dr. Ronald Chervin, director of the Center for Sleep Disorders at the University of Michigan, explains that an important part of treating insomnia “is teaching people that the bed is for sleeping.” No sex in bed, then? But siiii! Ronald Chervin explains that of course, we can continue cuddling in bed, but for the rest, we do that elsewhere.
Sleep experts recommend not sleeping in a room that is too hot, avoiding coffee and alcohol too late, and turning down the light before bed. If you struggle to fall asleep and toss and turn for more than 20 minutes in bed, you have to get out and do something else, until you feel tired again. Finally, you also have to accept that not everyone has the same rhythm, so going to bed at 10 p.m. when you're a "night owl" is counterproductive since you risk not getting to sleep... On the other hand , experts recommend getting up at the same time every day (or almost, 7 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, that doesn't make us dream either), so as not to shift. And above all, we give ourselves a little time… Sleeping well requires patience!
With that, good night tonight!
