What Are Your Sleep Rules?

Flynt via Bigstockphoto Do you have a very careful pre-sleep routine? One of the first things people do when they're not sleeping well is to introduce rules around sleep. Carefully adjusting their sleeping environment in an attempt to control all noise and light. Not eating too late, avoiding caffeine, not exercising in the evening, wearing earplugs, buying a new pillow, getting a new mattress, fitting blackout curtains. Whilst these things can help with sleep to some extent, often people try too hard and these rules become part of the problem. Sound familiar? Sleep problems or insomnia can start in the setting of physical or mental illness, or when people aren't respectful of sleep. Working right up until the time for bed and not winding down, drinking too much coffee, not managing stress, drinking too much, poor physical or mental health. If this is the case, initially introducing some rules around sleep can help. These rules usually consist of instructions that make up sleep hygiene. Some of the other instructions that make up sleep hygiene are not exercising too late, ensuring the bedroom environment is dark, quiet and an appropriate temperature and maintaining regular bed times. Sleep hygiene, or sleep rules, are a part of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Our research, published in Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this year, showed that cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective treatment for insomnia. On average, after cognitive behavioral therapy p...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news