Before bed Stop treating your brain like a laptop. Prather said, in order to prod the core temperature of our bodies to drop, which happens naturally as we sleep. ![]() You want your room to be dark and cool, Dr. And consider turning down the heat - or turning up the air conditioning - so that your sleeping area is between 60 and 68 degrees at night. To further set yourself up for sleep, get blackout curtains to block out light, or invest in a comfortable sleep mask. ![]() You want your sleeping area to calm you down, not remind you of everything you need to get done. If that’s not possible, at least move them so you can’t see them from your bed, Dr. Your computer, a heap of laundry, the pile of sticky notes reminding you of all of your unfinished tasks - clear those all out of the room where you sleep. Prather said, like jumper cables on a car battery to wake you up - no coffee run needed. That brief shock of cold activates your arousal system, Dr. Or, for a more extreme option, stick your head in the freezer. Prather said, jolting us out of our routine. Focusing on a non-work task can energize our brains, Dr. You can go for a brisk walk in the afternoon, or spend five to 10 minutes taking a break from work and engaging your brain in a simple task - pull weeds in the garden, reorganize a bookshelf, turn on some music and really focus on a song. Instead, he recommends getting an energy boost elsewhere. If you regularly reach for coffee to get you through an afternoon slump, you’ll still have caffeine in your system by bedtime, said Dr. Instead of reaching for caffeine, plunge your head in the freezer. If you do that consistently, he said, your worries won’t seep into the night - and if they do, you can remind yourself that you have a dedicated time to address them the next day. Block out 10 to 20 minutes to write down what you’re anxious about, or just think about it, without searching for a solution. Prather recommended in an interview devoting part of your day to worry. To beat back nightime rumination and anxiety, Dr. Throughout the day, we might be too busy to linger on our thoughts, but at night, when we try to let our brains pause without distractions, “our thoughts can get very, very loud,” Dr. “No one ever says, ‘I was awake in the middle of the night, and I was only thinking of good things,’” Dr. During the day Carve out time for “scheduled worry.” ![]() Here are some of his science-backed tips for sounder sleep. ![]() Prather said there are simple steps we can take throughout the day and night to get better rest, which he outlines in the book, out Nov. A 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found that one in eight adults with trouble sleeping reported using sleep aids. Some people might reach for a supplement or sleep aid. Prather says we too often view sleep as an afterthought - until we find ourselves frozen in the middle of the night, our thoughts racing, fumbling for rest or relief. A good night’s sleep can make us more empathetic, more creative, better parents and better partners, according to Aric Prather, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco who treats insomnia and is the author of the new book “The Sleep Prescription.” Sleep can help us manage stress it can make us competent and capable and better able to take on the day.
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