Good sleep is always important, but especially in stressful times like these, it can be hard to get a full night in. The alarm clock says it’s 2am but your mind is still going full throttle. It’s torture when you can’t fall asleep.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, more people than usual are suffering from insomnia, studies and surveys show. Our worries about our health and that of our loved ones, financial difficulties and restricted social contacts are causing stress and uncertainty.
“Tension is the enemy of a good night’s sleep,” says Dr Hans-Guenter Weess, executive board member of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (DGSM) and head of the interdisciplinary Sleep Centre at the Pfalzklinikum for Psychiatry and Neurology.
“The fact that our days are now less structured aggravates the situation,” adds Dr Dora Triche, director of the Sleep Laboratory at Nuremberg Hospital and also a DGSM board member.
For people forced to telecommute, for instance, there’s no spatial separation between their place of work and place of rest, she notes. They also get less exercise and exposure to sunlight.
“When you spend that much time indoors, your body doesn’t discern the daily change of light and darkness as well,” Triche says. “So you might not automatically become drowsy in the evening.”
Working at home does, however, allow some people to sleep better, namely those who were always somewhat groggy in the morning from having to get up early to go to work. Now they can sleep longer and feel more rested as a result.
Whether your insomnia is pandemic-related or not, the sleep specialists have some tips on getting a good night’s rest.
“To fall asleep easily, you’ve got to feel safe, secure and relaxed – it’s the same for everyone,” points out Weess, but notes that the way to do this varies from person to person. “It’s best to simply try out a few things.”
For many people it helps, for example, to keep things that interfere with sleep out of the bedroom – both spatially and temporally, Weess says.
So if you’ve turned it into your at-home office, you should sleep in another room. If that’s not possible, you should at least screen off your desk with a room divider when you’re finished working for the day.
Triche advises spending as little time as possible in bed doing things other than sleeping, such as watching television. “Your mind should know that your bed is for sleeping,” she says.
It’s also advisable to give yourself time to mentally distance yourself from the day’s problems before going to bed. Keep your bedtime and wake time consistent from day to day. And don’t watch newscasts or talk shows on the pandemic shortly before bedtime, since they can really stir up your mind.
But sometimes your thoughts keep swirling no matter what you do. “If you simply can’t stop brooding in the evening, you can allow yourself a fixed amount of time to mull over your worries before you go to bed,” suggests Weess.If you toss and turn in bed nonetheless, he recommends that you get up. “Difficult though it may be, you should stay calm,” he says, explaining that lying awake and counting the hours until the alarm clock goes off is stressful, and stress leads to sleeplessness.
After you get out of bed, Triche advises that you do something relaxing, such as listening to soft music. “At some point, drowsiness will come on its own.”
To prevent such situations from occurring in the first place, it’s a good idea not to go to bed just because it’s bedtime, but only when you’re truly sleepy.
Sound sleep also depends in no small measure on whether you got a good amount of physical activity and fresh air during the day, and on whether you got up early enough to feel tired at bedtime.
An unsuitable sleep environment can present problems as well. It should be dark and quiet enough to promote sleep. And you should avoid electronic devices, as the blue light emitted by their screens suppresses the body’s release of melatonin, a hormone that makes us feel drowsy.
“This is why I advise poor sleepers to read a book or flip through a magazine in the evening instead,” remarks Triche.
If all else fails and you sleep poorly at least three nights a week over an extended period, and have trouble functioning the next day, she says it’s best to see a doctor: “Sound sleep is regenerative and important for health.” – dpa
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