Expert tips to help you fall asleep and stay asleep

New guidelines released by the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology suggest adults aged 18 to 64 need seven to nine hours of sleep on a regular basis (with consistent bed and wake-up times) to achieve optimal health.

Unfortunately, most Canadians struggle to reach this target. Maybe you’re among them.

Do you toss and turn at night, unable to fall asleep or stay asleep? Counting sheep doesn’t work. A bath before bedtime doesn’t cut it. Even your favourite pajamas and slippers don’t help.

A Halifax sleep expert has created a website to help people improve their bedtime and sleeping habits.

David Gardner is a pharmacist, mental health expert, researcher and professor in psychiatry and pharmacy at Dalhousie University. He created MySleepwell as an online resource for people who experience insomnia, especially chronic insomnia that lasts months or years.

The advice is timely, since many people are feeling anxious over COVID-19 and the holiday season. The related stress is making it hard to get a restful night’s sleep.

Screen time

Mr. Gardner breaks out two of the worst habits that negatively affect sleep, based on age groups. He says smartphone use is the biggest sleep inhibitor for youth.

“Don’t do screen time right before bed. When a text or snap comes in, people respond as if they have to; it can be very addictive. Smartphones train the brain to be hyper-responsive. If you’re using them with their bright lights close to bedtime, your brain is aroused by the activity with your peers, as well as the lights, so it can interfere with sleep.”

His advice: put the phone down at least an hour before bedtime, no matter your age.

Napping no-no  

Napping is the biggest issue for mature Nova Scotians who struggle with insomnia. “For many people, it’s actually one of the leading causes of having a poor sleep because your sleep drive is disrupted when you nap during the day,” Mr. Gardner says.

Sleep drive is a natural phenomenon of the brain, which builds over the course of the day. “Think of it as a line that goes up,” says Mr. Gardner. “When you wake in the morning, your sleep drive is at a minimum, you don’t need sleep. Once you get to noon, your sleep drive starts to increase. At 5 p.m., it’s higher. By 8 or 9 p.m., it’s starting to peak, and you may not be able to overcome it.”

The researcher says napping isn’t a problem if a person sleeps well enough to feel fully functional during the day. It becomes a bad habit when it interferes with sleep, so you feel dragged out and have a harder time carrying out daily tasks.

Early bedtime

After a poor night’s sleep, people often turn to a habit that can make the situation worse.

“You go to bed earlier with the hope of catching up on sleep,” says Mr. Gardner. “But that increases your stress and worry because you’re not actually tired enough to fall asleep. You start to associate your bed with frustration and that arouses the brain. So now you have a conditioned response of feeling frustrated when your head hits the pillow. That makes it difficult to get to sleep.”

To break the conditioned response, don’t go to bed until you feel sleepy.

Evening meals and snacking   

Overeating before bed or going to bed hungry can both cause sleep problems.

“Try to time dinner so that you’re neither full nor hungry before bed,” says Mr. Gardner. “A small carbohydrate snack is reasonable. Once you start thinking about how hungry you are, those thoughts arouse our brains and then we aren’t able to fall asleep.”

Alcohol consumption

Drinking alcohol before bed can also disrupt your sleep. “Often it brings on sleep, but not a recuperative one,” Mr. Gardner says. “Alcohol tends to cause sleep to break up, resulting in an unsatisfactory sleep. It can create two kinds of hangovers: poor sleep and an indulgence hangover.”

Caffeine concerns

Caffeine is another issue. Mr. Gardner says it’s best to stop consuming caffeinated products at noon or by early afternoon. “The vast majority of people are sensitive to caffeine or we wouldn’t be drinking so much of it in the morning. Late afternoon onward, caffeine intake interferes with sleep. Coffee after a nice meal seems like such an indulgence, but boy oh boy, do I pay for it.”

Stay tuned

These six tips are a solid start to building a repertoire of healthy sleep habits, and ultimately feeling better in the morning and throughout the day. And what do we love best about them? Small bedtime snacks are okay! Just don’t overindulge or you’ll be staring at the ceiling.

Editor’s Note: Sleep is such an important part of our overall health and wellness that we’ll continue this topic with Mr. Gardner. In part two, he discusses insomnia, how inactivity affects sleep and what to do if you repeatedly wake up during the night. Look for that post in the new year.