Ep 016: 6 Tips for a Good Night of Sleep

 
 

In this episode, I summarized 6 tips from the top sleep specialists I have interviewed in 2019, help you get a good night of sleep.

Listen to it and find out more!


Resources

Dr. Guy Leschziner’s interview, Ep 005 & 006

Dr. Chris Winter’s interview, Ep 013

Dr. Fiona Barwick’s interview, Ep 009 & 010


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Transcript:

Hi, welcome to deep into sleep. This is Asian. Today is the last day of 2019. And the new year is just several hours away from right now. I really want to use this chance to summarize all the wonderful shiny points of the top sleep specialists I have interviewed over the past several months about how to improve your sleep. If you're struggling with some symptoms of insomnia, or you just want to improve your sleep quality, I have summarized six top tips for you to help you achieve a better night of sleep. The number one tip would be Take off your sleep trackers Will you sleep at night many of us may have new year resolutions about being healthier. Many of May received, or have bought gifts such as sleep trackers to help ourselves or our family members to stay healthy. There's nothing wrong about using a tracker to help us stay on track with our health plan to monitor our progress, including physical activities and our sleep qualities. However, for the sleep part, it only works well for us if we don't experience any symptoms of insomnia. If we do have insomnia, or some symptoms of insomnia, using a tracker to track to monitor our sleep so closely, may actually harm us more than helping us in my clinic. I have seen so many patients coming to me have misperceptions of how to read data from sleep trackers, and they misunderstood the percentage the lens of each sleep stage and think it means something horrible means their sleep is so poor, so bad, that they are not sleeping well at all. But from my point of view, I can look at the data and tell them actually your sleep is fine. Sleep trackers tend to turn sleep into a performance. And that will make our sleep even worse, because we cannot control sleep. But when we want to perform well in sleep, that kind of pressure, it's actually going to get in the way of us perform well in sleep. So if you really want to improve your sleep, try taking off your sleep trackers for some days. And see how your sleep gets, or at least consider going to a sleep specialist. And to really get help to understand those data better dealing with your misperceptions about your sleep can help your sleep dramatically. The second tip, do not look at your clock at night, especially in the middle of the night. Think about it. If you are not able to fall asleep. Why do you need to know how long have you been awake? Turning around on bad suffering cannot fall asleep. Why are you counting the minutes how that help you to fall asleep? If you wake up in the middle of night? Why do you need to know how many minutes or hours have you slept already? And why do you know how many more minutes you have left before your alarm clock? Gonna be all. So when you do all this when you try to find out these answers, your brain is so actively doing the math, calculating and trying to figure out why, how, what's happening? What's wrong with me? How can I control my sleep? How can I fall asleep or fall back asleep? To the sound familiar to you? those sounds like stress to me is that stress to keep many of us awake at night. So no clock is needed in your bedroom at night, especially if you are experiencing symptoms of insomnia. Take away your phone, turn away or clock. Just try to sleep without knowing the time for several nights. Give it a try. Now, the third tip, cut the time you have a bet you know it or not? Not our sleep actually changes. As we experience stress from our side, as we ages as life changes, we want to change our perceptions about sleep accordingly. So the key point is to match our sleep opportunity to our sleep ability. If we are only able to sleep for five hours within a certain time period, then don't try to spend 10 hours on bed just to hope that we can get a little bit more sleep. That won't happen. Because no matter how many sleep opportunities we created for ourselves, if our sleep ability within that time period is not enough, that just gonna make us more anxious, more frustrated, and sleep worse. Instead, if you can only sleep for five hours, then try to spend less than six hours on bed totally. So cut down the time you are bad can really help you improve your sleep efficiency and to help you have higher quality of sleep. Tip number four, change your self talk. I remember that one of my patients used to ask me, Doctor, I cannot stop forcing myself to try to sleep. But I just cannot fall asleep no matter how hard I try. What should I do? Then I asked her how about you just allow yourself to rest to really enjoy and relax your body, relax your mind. Just rest. Don't even think about sleep or forcing sleep. Not just rest, guess what? It worked for her. When she changed her self talk from, oh, I have to sleep too well, I can just rest. If eventually I feel sleepy, I can sleep. If I'm not, I just stay awake. This kind of self talk really took away all the pressure of trying to sleep on her, and she slept so well. So if you are really anxious about your sleep, try this. Try not for sleep, but encourage rest in your own mind. Now, tip number five. Repeat this sentence with me. Sleep is a skill, not a trade. I really like this quote from Dr winter. If you identify yourself as a poor sleeper, then you may want to repeat the sentence Several times, insomnia or poor quality of sleep is not a treat. Meaning is not something you're born with, or something that you will never be better at. It's a skill means you can get better at eight. You may just need a good coach like a good sleep psychologist, a good sleep doctor, someone who can coach you who know sleep knowledge very well can guide you through all the misperceptions worries symptoms can help you change your behaviors change the way you think about sleep and eventually help you sleep better. If you have listened to my previous episodes, you may notice that all the sleep specialists I have interviewed all recommend the method CBT for insomnia The first line treatment for insomnia carries exactly the same philosophy that sleep can be learned, changed can be improved. And a sleep psychologist will guide you through the process by empowering you to reconnect with your body to find your own biological ability to sleep better through this method. So please remember, sleep is a skill that can be learned, not a treat. Okay, finally, tip number six. consider getting a sleep study if you suspect some symptoms of sleep apnea, for example, no matter how many hours of sleep you got the night before you often find yourself really sleepy during the daytime even though Sleep easily, sometimes even fall asleep behind the wheels. you snore at night, or you wake up with dry mouth. With headache, you grind your teeth a lot a night. A lot of the symptoms may be related or may be a signal of some kind of sleep related breathing disorders such as sleep apnea. If they really bother you and impact your daily functioning, you should consider to consult with a sleep doctor and to check it out. See whether you need to be reformed for a full sleep study. Remember, for a lot of people, even if you don't snore at night, you may still have sleep apnea. snoring at night, it's not a necessary Definitely not the only symptom that qualify you for sleep related breathing disorders. You can also find a sleep center near you to consult or consider a sleep study. Through this website, sleep education.org sleep centers listed on this website are certified by a s m. American Academy of sleep medicine. So they are qualified to provide good services, good sleep studies to you don't ignore the symptoms. You do want to get diagnosed, and treatment as soon as possible. If you really qualify for diagnosis of sleep apnea, we have had several guests talking about their own experience about struggling for years without knowing what's going on and their life. has been changed after they got a proper diagnosis and treatment. So these are the six tips I really want to share with you at the end of this year and hopefully this can help you with your sleep somewhat when you translate into the new year, if you want to review or listen for the first time of all the wonderful interviews with this top sleep specialists around the world, you can go to my website deep into sleep.co and find all the previous episodes. For example, my interview with Dr. guyliner from London is episode five and six. my interview with Dr. Fiona Barwick from Stanford Sleep Medicine Center is episode nine and 10. my interview with Dr. Chris winter from Virginia is Episode 13 If you want to ask me any questions about sleep, please feel free to either email me, leave me a message. Or you can record your questions on my website. And I may find a guest to answer your questions or I may I answer your questions myself in one of my episode. So 2020 is right at the corner. I'm actually very excited about all the speakers I have invited for the new year and hopefully you will enjoy it continuously. I want to wish you a Happy New Year here, and I really look forward to having you joining me for a new journey in a new year.


Dr. Yishan Xuimprove sleep, sleep quality, insomnia, poor sleeper, sleep apneaComment