We read one piece of insomnia advice on an almost daily basis, yet we just noticed that we've never shared it on this blog! It's time to change that now.
Apparently, lying in bed for an excessive amount of time waiting for sleep to reach you is a bad idea. The experts suggest that once in bed, if you aren't asleep after 30 minutes you should get up and do something else (don't switch on the computer, though).
The reasoning is that if you stay in bed and do battle with your insomnia, your brain will associate your bed with frustration rather than sleep - making sleep even more difficult.
Sounds pretty straightforward to us - however, wouldn't paying attention to how long you're lying in bed for actually keep you awake? Similar to how thinking about sleep prevents you from sleeping?
As is often the case, the advice seems to be sound - but it can be a little more difficult to follow in real life.
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Last updated: April 30, 2010
You mean count down from 3594 in 7s?
How could you forget the precise number?!?! 🙂
Maybe counting minutes is similar to counting backwards from 3267485, or whatever random number that was.