Clear your mind for a better night’s sleep
It’s the end of a long day. You pull on your pajamas and crawl into bed, ready to get some much-needed sleep, when suddenly, instead of resting, you immediately find your mind racing. The thoughts come tumbling, one after another: Am I ready for that meeting in the morning? Is that the dog barking? When can I stop by the grocery store to get snacks for my daughter’s class? Before you know it, you’ve been tossing and turning for an hour with no sign of sleep.
You’re not alone
If you have a hard time pushing aside your thoughts before bed, you aren’t alone, says Dr. Philip Gehrman, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and insomnia specialist at the Penn Sleep Center in Philadelphia. An American Psychological Association survey found that 43% of adults say stress keeps them lying awake at night.
“One of the most common things I hear from people is, ‘I could sleep fine if I could just shut off my mind,’” Gehrman says. “It’s not the only factor that leads to insomnia, but it’s a big one.”
The problem, experts say, is that we don’t spend enough time preparing for one of the most crucial parts of our day—bedtime. With so much on our minds, and more demands and devices to distract us, it can be tough to go from 60 to zero and expect sleep to come easily.
“It’s important to recognize that planning for the end of the day makes for a restful bedtime,” says Dr. Robin Haight, a Tysons Corner, Va.-based clinical psychologist.
“Giving yourself plenty of time to wind down, making sure you’re doing things in the evening, that’s going to lead to better sleep at the end of the evening.”
Unplug yourself
First on the list of things to do to wind down before bed is turn off that TV and power down your phone and tablet.
Haight suggests unplugging at least an hour before you want to fall asleep. In addition to distracting your thoughts, your electronic devices can also mess with your body chemistry and keep you up. Light emitted by screens keeps your body from producing a chemical called melatonin, which aids in restful sleep.
“If you’re suppressing this natural secretion of melatonin, you’re going to keep yourself alert and awake and jazzed up,” she says.
There are some devices that filter out the melatonin-blocking blue light, but Haight says you’re better off taking the old-fashioned route to nighttime relaxation: reading a book.
Tick off tasks
Taking care of a few routine tasks before bed can also help banish stressful thoughts about tomorrow’s agenda.
Haight says it’s important to set a time you think would make for a good transition from the tasks of the day to a period of rest.
“That can be laying out your clothes, making lunches for the next day, reading, taking a shower,” she says. “For some people, having sex is even a good transition. Whatever the routine is, it becomes a trigger over time. Your body literally learns to relax by going through that nightly process.”
Write down your worries
If routines and relaxation don’t do the trick, Gehrman says it can be useful to set aside a specific time to let your thoughts race and do something with them. He calls it a “worry time,” and all it takes is sitting down with a pen and a piece of paper.
“For a lot of people, getting it down on paper is a critical ingredient,” he says.
“There’s a concern for people that they have to keep thinking about it or they’re going to forget to do it tomorrow. But when it’s down on paper, they have a plan.”