hours, you may experience anxiety over not having slept “enough.”
Within reason, sleep quality is far more important than sleep quantity. You have probably already experienced this truth: think back to a time in which you produced eight hours or more of sleep but did not have optimal mood, energy, or concentration. Or, think back to an occasion on which you had little sleep and were surprised at how well you felt during the day. Read chapter 3 to determine how much time in bed will help you produce the best quality of sleep, and retire the “eight hours of sleep” myth.
I used to have no sleep problems. I should be able to sleep like that again. As we discussed in the previous paragraph, sleep need is not a constant. Moreover, your ability to sleep changes as you age, and it is important that you adjust your expectations accordingly. If you have a middle-aged body, you will be perpetually disappointed if you hold on to the belief that you should have the sleep and energy of a young adult. As you age, the amount of deep sleep you produce decreases and how easily you tire during the day increases. These are normal processes. The consequence of holding on to the unrealistic expectation that you should be able to sleep just the same as when you were younger is that you may become worried that you are not getting enough sleep. You may become anxious at bedtime, which, as we discussed many times in this book, interferes with your ability to sleep. Driven by your worries about sleep, you may try to “fix” your sleep problems in counterproductive ways. In chapters 2 and 3 we discussed a constructive approach to increasing the quality of your sleep, and in chapter 9 we discuss how to increase your energy during the day.
I should fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, and I should stay asleep until morning. Spending up to thirty minutes trying to fall asleep or thirty minutes awake in the middle of the night is considered normal. It is also normal for the brain to briefly wake up many times throughout the night. Most people are unaware of these awakenings or fall quickly back asleep. If your friend tells you that she never wakes up in the middle of the night, she would be more accurate if she said that she is not aware of waking up. People who can sleep at any time, are asleep within minutes, or spend no time awake in bed likely either are very sleep deprived or have an undiagnosed sleep problem such as sleep apnea.
The consequences of having this expectation are similar to those of holding on to other beliefs and expectations we discussed in this section. As minutes pass and you are not asleep yet, you worry that this will be “an insomnia night,” and the worry digs you deeper into the hole of having insomnia. Moreover, failure to realize that you have experienced many “normal” nights (i.e., nights in which it takes you thirty minutes or less to fall asleep) convinces you that you are a poor sleeper. Believing that you are and always will be a poor sleeper can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Avoid Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
“I feel tense, so I know I am never going to be able to sleep.” Sound familiar? Hopefully not, because negative predictions are likely to come true. While good sleepers do not think much at all about their sleep, poor sleepers predict that they won’t sleep well and then monitor for evidence that their belief was true; that is, they look for proof that they are not sleeping well. They predict that they won’t function well during the day and then monitor for evidence of fatigue or difficulty concentrating; often they find such evidence, but simply because they are looking for it. Sleep researchers have never consistently found that a night of poor sleep necessarily means a day of poor functioning, so assuming that it does is neither accurate nor helpful.
Avoid Mental Calculations in the Middle of the Night
If I fall asleep right now , I will be able to get five hours of
Within reason, sleep quality is far more important than sleep quantity. You have probably already experienced this truth: think back to a time in which you produced eight hours or more of sleep but did not have optimal mood, energy, or concentration. Or, think back to an occasion on which you had little sleep and were surprised at how well you felt during the day. Read chapter 3 to determine how much time in bed will help you produce the best quality of sleep, and retire the “eight hours of sleep” myth.
I used to have no sleep problems. I should be able to sleep like that again. As we discussed in the previous paragraph, sleep need is not a constant. Moreover, your ability to sleep changes as you age, and it is important that you adjust your expectations accordingly. If you have a middle-aged body, you will be perpetually disappointed if you hold on to the belief that you should have the sleep and energy of a young adult. As you age, the amount of deep sleep you produce decreases and how easily you tire during the day increases. These are normal processes. The consequence of holding on to the unrealistic expectation that you should be able to sleep just the same as when you were younger is that you may become worried that you are not getting enough sleep. You may become anxious at bedtime, which, as we discussed many times in this book, interferes with your ability to sleep. Driven by your worries about sleep, you may try to “fix” your sleep problems in counterproductive ways. In chapters 2 and 3 we discussed a constructive approach to increasing the quality of your sleep, and in chapter 9 we discuss how to increase your energy during the day.
I should fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, and I should stay asleep until morning. Spending up to thirty minutes trying to fall asleep or thirty minutes awake in the middle of the night is considered normal. It is also normal for the brain to briefly wake up many times throughout the night. Most people are unaware of these awakenings or fall quickly back asleep. If your friend tells you that she never wakes up in the middle of the night, she would be more accurate if she said that she is not aware of waking up. People who can sleep at any time, are asleep within minutes, or spend no time awake in bed likely either are very sleep deprived or have an undiagnosed sleep problem such as sleep apnea.
The consequences of having this expectation are similar to those of holding on to other beliefs and expectations we discussed in this section. As minutes pass and you are not asleep yet, you worry that this will be “an insomnia night,” and the worry digs you deeper into the hole of having insomnia. Moreover, failure to realize that you have experienced many “normal” nights (i.e., nights in which it takes you thirty minutes or less to fall asleep) convinces you that you are a poor sleeper. Believing that you are and always will be a poor sleeper can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Avoid Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
“I feel tense, so I know I am never going to be able to sleep.” Sound familiar? Hopefully not, because negative predictions are likely to come true. While good sleepers do not think much at all about their sleep, poor sleepers predict that they won’t sleep well and then monitor for evidence that their belief was true; that is, they look for proof that they are not sleeping well. They predict that they won’t function well during the day and then monitor for evidence of fatigue or difficulty concentrating; often they find such evidence, but simply because they are looking for it. Sleep researchers have never consistently found that a night of poor sleep necessarily means a day of poor functioning, so assuming that it does is neither accurate nor helpful.
Avoid Mental Calculations in the Middle of the Night
If I fall asleep right now , I will be able to get five hours of
Similar Books
