3375: 6 Steps to Better Sleep by Michael Breus with Live Happy on Improving Sleep Quality

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily. Six Steps to Better Sleep by Michael Bruce with livehappy.com. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik. Happy Sunday and welcome back to the show where I act as your very own personal narrator and read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online. But for now, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:27] Six Steps to Better Sleep by Michael Bruce with livehappy.com. Wasted. Wasted. Wiped out. Zonked. Knackered. If you have insomnia, then you know what it feels like to be very, very tired during the day. That's because you simply are not getting enough good quality sleep at night. Research shows that sleep deprivation affects every organ system and can bring on severe psychological distress. In fact, in many countries, it's used as a form of torture.

[00:01:55] Many factors can cause acute or chronic insomnia, including anxiety, stress, depression, and physical ailments such as asthma, cancer, and heart failure. In addition, noise, light, or extreme temperatures can interfere with one's sleep, as can a change in sleep schedule and many other factors. What are the symptoms of insomnia?

[00:02:17] If you have insomnia, you might have difficulty falling asleep, you may wake too early, or like Live Happy editor-at-Large Shelley Levitt, you may wake up many times during the night. During the day, you might feel tired, irritable, and have a lack of motivation, or problems with concentration and memory. You might find yourself making mistakes at work or school and having unexplained headaches or stomach pains. Not surprisingly, one symptom is worrying about sleep. How is insomnia treated?

[00:02:46] The main treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy, a highly effective form of talk therapy in which you counter irrational thinking with more logical thought patterns. Before we start cognitive behavioral therapy, I ask my patients to make a few lifestyle changes and sleep schedules. Here are some ways we do that. 1. Make lifestyle changes to improve sleep. Give yourself a chance to relax before bedtime by bathing or listening to relaxing music.

[00:03:15] Try not to eat a heavy meal late in the day. Make your bedroom comfortable for sleep. Keep it dark, quiet, and not too warm and not too cold. Use a sleep mask to block light or earplugs or a fan to block noise. I know it's a struggle, but try not to worry about sleep when you go to bed. You can distract yourself with reading, prayer, or meditation. Turn your clock around so you won't be tempted to constantly check the time. You may even want to move your clock across the room to resist the temptation.

[00:03:44] 2. Be aware of triggers that set off your insomnia. Many people have a predisposition to stress and anxiety, which may then make them more likely to fall into insomnia. 3. Something occurs called a precipitating event, which can be the loss of a loved one, a divorce, or a new job. Anything that causes a large amount of stress. This event, in turn, can bring on negative habits, such as not getting to bed regularly, or using alcohol to help with sleep and deal with the stress.

[00:04:13] Things start to snowball and can develop into a case of insomnia. If you know you are about to encounter a stressful situation or time, try to seek ways to alleviate the stress, such as exercise and meditation, so that you do not end up falling into a negative sleep or caffeine-slash-alcohol pattern. 3. Keep a sleep diary. I ask patients to keep a sleep diary or a sleep journal in which they write down the information I'm about to mention. We then review it, looking for patterns.

[00:04:42] So, I had them write down the following. The time they went to bed. Approximate time they fell asleep. The time they woke up. The number of times they woke up during the night. The amount of time they stayed awake during the night. If they used any medication. If they experienced any grogginess upon waking in the morning or during the day. And any naps, and how long those naps were. 4. Sleep restriction.

[00:05:07] This technique is highly effective if done correctly under the supervision of a sleep specialist or healthcare professional. It is completely counterintuitive, but it really works. I ask my patients to go to bed later, not earlier. So, for example, if you've been going to sleep at 10pm, but not falling asleep until 12am, and then getting up at 6.30am, I would ask you to go to bed instead at 12.30am. This allows for only 6 hours in bed.

[00:05:34] After 7-10 days, I usually see that the number of awakenings at night reduced, and the amount of sleep consolidated. The brain is starting to know when to go to sleep and stay asleep. It's difficult though, and the schedule must be maintained on the weekends as well. 5. Cognitive restructuring. It turns out the way you think about sleep affects the way you sleep. For example, if you think, if I don't get 8 hours of sleep, it's going to cause me major health consequences.

[00:06:02] You then create a level of anxiety every time you don't get that 8 hours. I use a special life questionnaire to identify cognitive misperceptions like this one. Next, we spend time investigating these perceptions to see if they are true. In most cases, they are exaggerated. And what the patient can do to reframe his or her thoughts about sleep. Then, doctor and patient work through these misperceptions together. This step is an example of cognitive behavioral therapy. And 6. Meditation and relaxation training.

[00:06:32] If the sleep restriction is working, but you're still having difficulty falling asleep when your bedtime is moved earlier, I go to specialized relaxation techniques designed to specifically help with falling asleep or waking up in the middle of the night. You just listened to the post titled, Six Steps to Better Sleep by Michael Bruce with livehappy.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break.

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[00:08:28] and then that stress is going to then make you get poorer quality sleep tonight? So I really appreciate that today's author addressed that concern. Now on this show, I've talked many times about how important it is to write things down. Not just your goals, but say you're trying to maintain your weight or you're trying to exercise more. One of the best tools you can use is writing down your activity, what you ate, and when. And sure enough, it should be no surprise that if you're trying to get better sleep,

[00:08:57] a sleep journal or a sleep diary is also helpful. Why do we so insist on having people write this stuff down? I know it's a pain. It's not fun to do it. It makes you realize how badly you're doing. But it's so helpful because it gives you what's called a baseline. It tells you where you are right now. You don't know where you're going unless you know where you are right now. It's kind of like this metaphor. I want to drive to Disneyland,

[00:09:25] but I have no idea where I am at this moment. But somehow, if I just keep driving, I'll get there, right? No, it doesn't quite work that way. You have to first know where you are. How far away from Disneyland are you? Then you can map out how you're going to get there. And so the same applies when you're trying to change a behavior. You have to first know where you are. Once you know where you are, you can then map out a way to get to your ultimate goal. That's why this is so effective.

[00:09:53] Otherwise, you're just going to end up wasting time and metaphorically driving around aimlessly trying to find your path. And not only is that leading to wasted time, but probably a lot of wasted energy, possibly some wasted money on solutions that really you didn't need, and a heck of a lot of frustration. All right, that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing this show with someone that's one of the best ways to keep this show going and show us your support. Thank you for listening every day.

[00:10:23] All right, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend, and I'll be back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. Let's look at this show. Let's look at these. Thank you.