Stop competing with yourself.
real.
Especially when it comes to sleeping, the more you harbor the idea of "getting a good night's sleep", the more difficult it becomes to fall asleep. This is simply a cycle with no possible solution, and it's really frustrating.
Last night I fell into a state of being unable to sleep again. I stared straight at the ceiling and started counting sheep until I had doubts about life. It was like a movie was playing in my mind, filled with all the wrong words I said during the day and the things I messed up. Then I became anxious. I accidentally looked at my phone and it showed three in the morning. It was over now, and I thought I would lose it again tomorrow.
We seem to have turned sleep into a KPI assessment.
Who said you must sleep for 8 hours?
The saying “you must sleep for 8 hours” is very harmful.
Are there some people who are born as so-called "short sleepers" who can be full of energy after only 6 hours of sleep, just like the legendary Iron Lady Mrs. Thatcher? There are also people who feel like they need 9 hours of sleep before they feel enough, such as Einstein. Do you have to use other people's standards to measure your own life situation?
Sleep experts say that judging the quality of sleep is not based solely on the duration. The key point is that during the day, do you feel sleepy like a dog? Do you get irritable and get hung up on the slightest stimulation? Such a state is the real signal that you need to be vigilant.
Just imagine, maybe you only need 7.5 hours, and these 7.5 hours are actually equivalent to five complete 90-minute sleep cycles. In this case, if you have to make up for that specific number, and then the time you need to lie in bed is two full hours longer than the actual sleep time, wouldn't you be asking for trouble for yourself by doing this?
Can't sleep? Then don't sleep!
These words sounded like angry words. It's actually the truth.
There is a method called "stimulus control method" in the medical field. If you can't fall asleep within 20 to 30 minutes after lying down, or even feel a little irritable, then please get up immediately!
Don't lie there and push yourself to sleep, otherwise your brain will associate "bed" with "awakeness" and "anxiety", thus forming that annoying conditioned reflex.
, what do you want to do when you get up? It's to head to the living room. Read a book that is so boring that it makes you want to die, or listen to some white noise without melody. Never swipe your phone! Wait until you feel really sleepy and your eyelids start to fight, then go back to sleep.
At that moment, I suddenly understood that the greatest respect for sleep is to allow yourself to be unable to sleep.
Your “sleep aid” is actually a sleep assassin
A drink before bed? Don't lie to yourself.
The typical "sleep assassin" is alcohol. It can make you fall into a state of drowsiness quickly in the early stage, but in the second half of the night, it will wreak havoc on your deep sleep and the REM period in the dreaming stage. In the end, even if you sleep all night, you will still feel exhausted when you wake up, and you will easily wake up in the middle of the night.
Drinking alcohol to help you sleep is essentially exchanging short-term coma for long-term sleep debt .
Even if you catch up on sleep during the day, even if you sleep for 12 hours on the weekend, it is useless. It won't do anything good except cause you to fall asleep again on Sunday night and feel worse than dead on Monday morning. This situation is like jet lag. Your body has just adapted to a rhythm, but it is completely disrupted by you.
Admit it, you just can't bear to end the day
Many times, staying up late is not because you are not sleepy. It is unwilling to give in.
During the day, time is given to work, to bosses, to customers, and to social activities where you have to show a smile. Only late at night, when the world becomes quiet and no one comes to see you on the other end of the phone, can this little time truly belong to you.
Even if you just watch that short video without any purpose and watch some funny clips with no real value, you are stealing back your own time, which is a kind of psychological compensation behavior.
However, the price is that the next day, the brain will be like a blur, the memory will be reduced, and the mood will be irritable. Studies have found that long-term sleep deprivation will cause the brain to age more rapidly.
So, untie yourself
Throw away the baggage of having to sleep well.
If I wake up at night, look at the light emitted by the street lights outside the window, and tell myself that it's okay, many people are also awake at this time, and I am not alone.
Don't pick up your phone before going to bed. Try to do the so-called "4-7-8 breathing method", which means inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 7 seconds, exhaling for 8 seconds, and then repeat several times. Otherwise, get a book and flip through a few pages to slow down your brain.
If you still have trouble falling asleep after 30 minutes, get up. Say to yourself: "If you can't sleep, then you can't sleep. Lying down is also resting." Thinking like this makes me relax.
Letting yourself go is the best sleeping pill.
Tonight, I hope you won't have to fight sleep again. I wish you could let go of all the “shoulds” and “musts.” I hope you can finally say this to yourself in the darkness:
"Thank you for your hard work. You have done a good job today."
Go to sleep.
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