Don’t Do These Things Before Bed!

Some nights I have the hardest time falling asleep. I can toss and turn for hours. I have used counting sheep and do like to listen to the ocean or rainfall on the “calming” app on my phone. The Better Sleep Council surveyed sleep doctors about what they wouldn’t do prior to falling asleep and their answers could mean the difference between lying awake or getting restful sleep. How many of these things are you doing before falling asleep? 1) Don’t watch the news before falling asleep – The news stories can cause anxiety or worry making it harder to fall asleep. 2) Don’t work in bed, you want to maintain the association that bed is only for sex and sleep. 3) Working Out – Working out in the morning or throughout the day can do wonders for insomnia, however, working out before bed can release energy that keeps them from falling asleep. 4) Having tense conversations before bed could be keeping you up with negative emotions swirling in your head making it hard for you to wind down. 5) Drinking caffeine can obviously keep you up at night making sleep harder to achieve. 6) Drink alcohol – although it can help you fall asleep, it does disrupt sleep patterns later during the night. 7) Using electronic devices without a blue light filter, blue light signals to the brain to stay awake. It suppresses melatonin that is needed to help you fall asleep. 8) Bright lights in the room where you’re sleeping also suppresses melatonin production. 9) Spending too much awake time in bed could make you disassociate the bed with sleep. Bottom line: make your bed a sacred, sleeping, and sex only space.  OK, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve done seven of the nine items mentioned – intermittently. Not all at once, but hit and miss. What’s your score?