Does sleep hygiene really work? Deavin Burke, best-selling author of The Sleep Advantage, founder of Sleep Science Academy, and your coaching guide to a peaceful night’s sleep answers this question.
What Is Sleep Hygiene?
Your habits, rituals, and routines regarding sleep form your Sleep Hygiene. You probably are already practicing sleep hygiene, or have read a lot about it.
Sleep Hygiene comes in many forms, like a sleep bedtime ritual, or optimizing your bed and bedroom with things like blackout shades. It might be sleep supplements, or a slew of other things in attempting to manipulate your environment or your behavior in order to sleep.
Does It Work?
Counter to what you might think, if you suffer chronic insomnia, practicing sleep hygiene may be the thing keeping you from experiencing sleep; let me explain.
If you ask someone without insomnia what they do in order to sleep, they say nothing. Even though they may watch TV and have poor sleep hygiene.
But ask a person with chronic insomnia the same question and they will recite a long list:
“I’m in bed by this certain time.”
“I must take this supplement”.
“I need to take a hot shower.”
Individuals with chronic insomnia have a whole list of things they need to do in order to sleep.
The result of this lengthy list of requirements for gaining sleep is that the more essentials you establish the more these ideas don’t work, fostering a false belief you need something in order to sleep.
Let me rephrase that statement – The More things you try that don’t work, the more it reinforces your belief that you need to do something to facilitate what your body is designed to do, which is sleep.
On the other hand, for persons without chronic insomnia, who may not be prioritizing sleep and are only seeking better health, Sleep Hygiene can be amazing.
The Reality
Practicing good Sleep Hygiene can help to increase the quality of sleep, but it does not solve insomnia. There are times and situations for practicing good sleep hygiene successfully.
These practices can increase your levels of deep sleep, REM sleep, helping you to awaken feeling more refreshed. But for those enduring chronic insomnia that opportunity is after they address the root cause of the stress and anxiety creating the insomnia and re-sync their body’s natural pattern.
These individuals must reestablish that the bedroom and the bed equate to sleep and really understand the psychology creating the pressure or stress response not allowing them to sleep.
Final Thoughts
Creating an effective Sleep Hygiene routine can help you achieve more and better quality sleep, but only after addressing the root causes of insomnia. The exact methods are for you to identify and establish your Sleep Hygiene best practices.
One of the best methods for making these determinations is the unique Sleep Science Academy multi-discipline sleep coaching program that empowers you to identify and resolve the issues causing insomnia or other sleep problems.
Would you like to learn more about good Sleep Hygiene practices and how you can achieve more restorative sleep? Check out this article to learn more about Dynamic Sleep Recalibration (DSR) and how our process can help you attain your sleep goals.
Next, contact us to schedule your free evaluation and take the first step to better sleep in a better life.