Screens are out of the question in the bed of the bad sleeper
Do you sleep badly? You’re not the only one; 20 to 30 percent of the Dutch suffer from insomnia. Fortunately, there is a lot that can be done about it. Taking a robot to bed, for example.
Non-alcoholic beer
Hops have been used by bad sleepers since the Middle Ages. There is tea, but if you want to get a lot of hops, it’s best to drink beer. The disadvantage is that alcohol is not a good sleeping aid. You fall asleep reasonably well with a few beers, but a good night’s sleep is often not an option. Does non-alcoholic beer help? Spanish researchers got students and nurses to drink an alcohol-free beer with their evening meal. That helped: the subjects fell asleep earlier and had a calmer night.
Keep a diary
It can be smart to keep track of when you fall asleep and what time you wake up in a notebook or app. But if you really want to gain insight into your sleeping habits, it is useful to also record your activities during the day. Write down how much you exercise, what you eat and drink and how much you worry. After a week or two, patterns become visible. For example, that sleeping becomes more difficult after a late evening meal or after a work meeting in the evenings.
Sleeping robot as teddy
A pillow that responds to your breathing movements, accompanied by soft music. That is in short what the Somnox sleep robot does. It is shaped like a pillow and you hold it in bed like a teddy bear against you. It was developed by TU Delft and bed manufacturer Auping. According to the developers, research shows that 90 percent of the test subjects fall asleep faster with the robot. It is not cheap: the sleep robot costs €549.
To the hemp
The CBD oil from the hemp plant is available everywhere these days. You can find these bottles in all health food stores and drugstores. Unfortunately, the quality varies quite a bit, and science has not yet shown whether CBD oil works for insomnia. Still, some (formerly) bad sleepers swear by it. If you want to try CBD oil, take a few drops under the tongue around 7 p.m., and again half an hour before bed, advises cannabis scientist Arno Hazenkamp.
Breath in breath out
An important cause of poor sleep is restlessness, or worrying. Breathing too fast maintains the feeling of stress. By taking a calmer breath, your body will shift into a lower gear. You can do that with one of the many free apps, such as the Prana Adem app. It contains various breathing exercises. The exercises last about seven minutes. Then turn off your phone, because smartphones are not good for your sleep quality.
A nice reading book
Monitors are actually out of the question in the bad sleeper’s bed. The blue light suppresses the release of the hormone melatonin, making it more difficult to fall asleep. In addition, social media and work tasks (another work email that arrives) cause stress, which also does not help to relax. So opt for an old school book and you will fall away in no time. Not too exciting and not a page turner, otherwise you might still be awake.
Brain dump
An awkward meeting at work, a sister who blames you, a renovation that is imminent and is very expensive – these kinds of events can keep you awake. One tip is to do a braindump before going to sleep. Write down all the worrying thoughts that are running through your head, without censorship. You don’t solve the problems by worrying endlessly about them at night. Entrust them to the paper. This way you can park them until the next day, when you can ask for help, for example.
sleep words app
Counting sheep often doesn’t work, because unfortunately these animals are not interesting enough for most of us to drown out the worrying thoughts. Of the mySleepButton app According to therapists, this should work. This app calls random words in English without an emotional charge. Like ‘tree’ or ‘cat on chair’ or ‘a canoe’. You try to envision those words. This is how your brain enters a dream state and you (hopefully) slip into a deep sleep. The app costs €0.88.
Book before bed
All the tips in this article come from the book This book will make you sleep better (and make you look prettier) by writer and journalist Catelijne Elzes & writer and illustrator Deborah Freriks. They are both bad sleepers and went exploring. Kosmos Publishers €15.
Sources):
- Plus Healthy
