Currently, one in three French people are a poor sleeper. They even say that in 50 years, we have lost 1h30 of sleep, according to the Public Health France barometer. As for insomniacs, there have never been so many of them.
Whose fault is it ? The screens ? Food? The alcohol ? The stress ? In fact, it’s a mix of everything! OUR modern pace of life is not conducive to good sleep.
“The problem is that the French don’t take the time to take care of their sleep. They think it’s secondary. Then, when they experience sleep problems, they are overwhelmed. They try anything and everything, and follow advice they see on TV or on social media. However, each sleep disorder is unique, each person is unique, therefore each treatment must be unique.“, estimated Caroline Joutotte, psychotherapist and specialist in sleep disordersauthor of The hidden causes of sleep disorders and insomnia (ed. Veronne).
Top Health share them with you advice from the expert to find restful sleep and the signals to pay attention to when waking up.
What are the rules for good sleep?
“First, I want to recall what sleep is for: sleeping is used to sort through your hard drive to be as efficient as possible and start a new day. And on the contrary, if the day does not go well, we cannot sleep well at night, the psychotherapist shares with us. Many patients I see come into my office think it’s their fault if they sleep poorly. But it’s never anyone’s fault. We are living beings and we cannot manage everything (our employer, our children, our spouse)...”.
Indeed, many factors influence sleep. THE stress that our modern lifestyle implies is not unrelated to sleep disorders.
Furthermore, we often have bad habits without knowing it, adds Caroline Jouttote.
Sleep is governed by rules and there are many of us who have not learned them. “The objective is to avoid making certain mistakes, which will ultimately allow you to find more restorative sleep.“, adds the specialist.
The first rule of good sleep according to Caroline Joutotte: be rested so that you can fall asleep. This may seem contradictory, but it is essential.
“This is why listening to yourself is important. When you’re feeling down, you have to know how to stop and rest, follow your body’s needs.“.
Your snack will secrete melatonin at bedtime
Although we have often heard that you need to eat light dinner and avoid sugar to get sleep, few people are aware of the importance of to taste.
The secretion of melatonin (sleep hormone) takes time. And if you eat a heavy dinner, you prevent this from happening because you will find yourself in a digestion process when you go to sleep. It generates heat production, which will interfere with sleep. Melatonin cannot be secreted if digestion is slow. “It begins when the body temperature decreases“, explains Caroline Joutotte.
For this reason the snack will be interesting. “It will hydrate the cells and release melatonin. Certain foods will secrete it several hours later, to kickstart that bedtime hormone. They will then be conducive to falling asleep more quickly. Eating a snack will also allow you to be less hungry in the evening and therefore eat less at dinner, which will also be favorable for sleep.“.
The therapist adds, however, that the snack is effective if it includes fruit. She recommends apple, grapes or even banana.
“The apple contains a good amount of quercetin, which will have a favorable effect on your falling asleep. But it also has another significant advantage, it eliminates toxic molecules from your body thanks to its pectin.explains the specialist. As for the banana, it promotes sleep and allows you to be a excellent appetite suppressant for your dinner. Finally, grapes contain melatonin“.
Avoid sweet cakes and biscuits as snacks. We know that the sugar is harmful to falling asleep. If it is not recommended for dinner, it is not recommended for snacks either. It will only increase your blood sugar and your appetite in the evening.
How do I know if my sleep is restorative?
There are signs such as lack of concentration, yawning, weakness… which indicate poor sleep.
“We may also feel like we’ve had a sleepless night, even though we’ve slept a lot. This means that your sleep was fragmented. The proof: you heard the train and the cars passing“, describes the therapist again.
There are also clues that will let you know that you slept well. “If we slept well, we should be able to wake up before the alarm rings. It should just be a help“Your urine can also be indicative of good sleep.”If it is dark and foul-smelling, it means that the sleep was restorative. Your brain and body will clean themselves during sleep through sweat, stools and urine. These allow the evacuation of toxins. The darker they are, the more effective the sleep was.“, explains Caroline Joutotte.
