I’ve had a number of people tell me that they can’t train themselves to wake up early because they have so much trouble falling asleep, and 58% of adults report experiencing a form of insomnia at least once a week. In diagnoses however, that number drops to about 6%, due to a number of symptoms of insomnia that self-diagnosers do not actually experience, such as daytime impairment. Many of these people actually experienced delayed sleep state disorder, where they just have a delayed circadian rhythm, or even sleep state misperception, where they incorrectly remember whether or not they were asleep. Many people who enroll themselves in sleep studies to try to help their insomnia are actually shown to have sleep state misperception, and are sleeping perfectly fine. Another interesting note: you may be giving yourself what could be best described as fake insomnia. There was a british study done where students who claimed to sleep poorly or experience some degree of insomnia were brought in to have their sleep monitored. They thought they were contributing to a study on insomnia, but the doctors were actually faking the students sleep reports. Some of the students were told they were actually sleeping excellently, and others were told they were sleeping poorly. The ones who were told they were sleeping poorly had low energy and fatigue throughout the day, but the students who were told they slept well went through their days as if they were well rested, even when they had slept poorly. If you wake up and tell yourself “wow, I slept really poorly, today is going to suck” then guess what? It is. Nonetheless, falling asleep quickly and reliably is still desirable, and there are a number of habits you can develop to facilitate it. Having a Sleep Conducive Environment Darkness The importance of darkness in falling asleep shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it may be interesting to know why it’s important and how dark you should be going for. Our exposure to light and darkness regulates our internal temperature, energy production, and melatonin production, all of which can be easily disrupted by artificial lightness or darkness. One of the benefits of being in a totally dark room is that it signals to your brain to start producing melatonin and lowering your internal body temperature, but there’s a catch–keep the room too dark, such as with blackout shades, and you never get the signal to wake up. Your brain only sleeps locally, and it never fully shuts off. Even when your eyes are closed, they’re still detecting external light to try to determine when your brain should start waking you up mostly by releasing cortisol and raising your body temperature. If there’s no light to wake up to, this process never begins, and that alarm clock going off feels terrible. Personally I use a minimal shade so people can’t see in my windows but the light still comes through, letting me wake up much easier. If you want to get really fancy you could program the lights in your room to raise at a certain time. Dedicated Bed It’s very easy to develop habits related to specific things in your environment. When you go into the bathroom in the morning, you probably habitually grab the toothbrush. When you get in your car, you probably have a quick routine that you go through of checking the mirrors, interior, etc. We naturally create these little habits based on things in our lives, and our beds are not exempt. The problem with doing a bunch of different things in your bed (such as reading, working, playing games, watching television, talking on the phone, etc.) is that when you get in it to actually go to sleep your body has no idea that’s what it should be doing. Compare this to doing nothing but sleeping in your bed. The minute you get into it, your brain goes (okay, sleep time, let’s pass out) and you can sleep much more easily. If you get into bed and your brain goes “time to turn on the TV!” you’re not going to sleep particularly well. Sound This one I would say is not very cut and dry–some people sleep better in silence and some sleep better with some background noise. For many people having something in the background would be distracting and keep them awake, but for others it can be nice to have something in the background to focus on instead of letting their thoughts wander. I know I’m in this second camp–if I sleep without something to listen to (usually stand-up comedy) my mind wanders and I have a bunch of ideas that I start thinking about and suddenly need to get back up and write down. Obviously this doesn’t lead to good sleep. I will say though that if you choose to listen to music or a book or comedy to pass out, keep it consistent. You can actually train yourself to fall asleep whenever something in a similar camp comes on, and it can be useful for helping you pass out when you’re not tired. I always get tired when listening to comedy now, which is good and bad. Another option is called Binaural Beats which are sound patterns that claim to mimic the frequency of certain brainwaves and in the process cause your mind to “sync up” with them in certain ways. There are binaural patterns for focusing, meditating, relieving pain, and I think they’re a bit overhyped but when you turn them on you definitely feel something, and it’s pretty relaxing for the sleep one, so maybe they work in some way. I’d say they’re worth a try, and I use them pretty frequently. Evening Routine In my post on Waking Up Early I discuss the importance of having a morning routine to launch into as a way of solidifying waking up immediately when your alarm clock goes off. A similar line of thought can be applied to falling asleep, in that if you have a set routine you go through before lying down to sleep you’ll start signalling to your brain that its time to pass out and it will start going through the sleep routine. These are some things you’d probably want in your evening routine: Removal of screens, at least for a bit Water to make sure you’re hydrated Hygiene and such Possibly a small snack high in low glucose carbohydrates to increase melatonin production Turning on background sound if you choose to use any Having a set routine to go through will make it much easier to pass out, and if you try moving your sleep time earlier in order to wake up earlier the adaptation will go much quicker. But Are You Really Tired? The last thing you really ought to keep in mind is the question: are you really tired? I’d say that it’s better to go to sleep when you’re only going to get 7 hours but pass out immediately than if you’re going to get 8 hours after tossing and turning for 30 minutes. I never get into bed unless I can confidently say “I’m so tired, that I know I’ll pass out in less than 5 minutes” and I always do. Sometimes insomnia is just us trying to force ourselves to pass out when we’re not really tired, and we need to develop a better sense of whether we’re actually going to fall asleep if we go to bed right now. Source
