PHOTOGRAPHY: TRUNK ARCHIVE/SNAPPER MEDIA; STOCKSY; GETTY IMAGES; PHILIP LE MASURIERsleep
“Try ‘thought
blocking’: with
your eyes closed,
slowly repeat
a word with
no emotional
connotations
(such as ‘one’) in
your head. You
can’t think of two
things at once so
it will silence the
worry and let you
switch off.”
Dr Jessamy Hibberd,
co-author of This Book
Will Make You Sleep“Remember
your perceptions
of sleep are
unreliable. When
you think you’ve
slept badly,
chances are you
still had a few
decent hours. So
don’t turn sleep
into another job,
something you’re
‘succeeding’ or
‘failing’ at.”
Dr Graham Law,
sleep expert“Get enough
bright light
and fresh air
in the morning
and sufficient
exercise during
the day, but don’t
do anything
strenuous in
the two hours
before bed.
Expose yourself
to darkness in
the evening: that
means a decent
screen break.”
Dr Michael Feld,
Lanserhof Tegernsee
sleep specialistThe key to a good night’s kip?
Quit worrying about it. Here’s how:explanation: my Netflix-before-
bed habit, which I’ve relied on to
relax, is not relaxing me after all.Netflix and
no chill
“It’s doing the opposite; it’s
increasing your stress levels quite
a lot,” says Bader. Even though
I stare at my screen through
a pink-hued f.lux filter, I squeak?
“You might think you’re relaxed
because you’re distracted from
stressful thoughts, but you are still
very focused, and your pulse is
going up when it should be slowing
down.” It also means that I’m forcing
myself to stay awake until the end
of the next episode of Narcos,
rather than naturally letting myself
fall asleep when I’m sufficiently
fatigued. This is a bad move,
explains Bader, because forcing
myself to stay awake sends
a message to my body that it’s
not OK to relax, to switch off.
And sleep, explains Feld, is
more like surfing waves than
jumping aboard an all-night cruise
liner. Before the 1950s, scientists
believed that as we drifted off, we
entered ‘shutdown’ mode. “Now
we understand sleep as a cycle,
with two distinct parts,” says Feld.
During non-REM or ‘quiet’ sleep,
which makes up 75 per cent of
our total, we progress through
four stages of increasingly deep
sleep. The deepest stage produces
physiological changes that help us
regenerate biologically, boosting
immune system function. Meanwhile
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep
takes up 25 per cent of the night
and is the period in which we dream.
Heart rate and breathing increase to
waking levels. “REM sleep is more
associated with mental wellbeing,”
explains Feld. Studies also report
that REM sleep enhances learning
and memory, plus contributes to
emotional resilience. Nice.
The sleep lab shows I’m a twitchy,
sporadic sleeper – but it’s becoming
clear that my problem isn’t that
I wake up throughout the night;
it’s how I deal with it. “Many of usStop stressing
108 womenshealth.com.au SEPTEMBER 2017