Sleep experts explain how to get better sleep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl0C3Hv0Hxk


I've taken some notes on what was particularly interesting to me:

Sleep stages
+ Stage 1: Transitionary state, just getting to sleep which is around 3-4% of the night
+ Stage 2: 45% of the night
+ Stage 3 and 4: Beginning of the night, physical restoration
+ REM sleep: Happens at the end of the night and is brain restoration

### Sleep is individual
**Sleep schedule consistency is the most important thing and you _certainly_ don't need 8 hours, you need the right amount of time for your chronotype.**

To figure out your ideal times to go to sleep: Count back 7.5 hours from your wake-up time (when your whole house wakes up) and see when you wake up naturally without an alarm. Adjust the sleep time based on your natural wake-up time.

Your chronotype can change over time but usually stabilises for the time between 22 and 50 years of age.

## Sleep Hygiene

+ Taking sleeping tablets to 'sedate the brain' is the worst thing you can do to calm a racing mind because you're ignoring the problem and you get terrible sleep
+ Benadryl based sleeping tablets almost obliterate stage 3 and 4 sleep where it cleans out your brain and body and are very linked to Alzheimers

## Fix Your Sleep Naturally
+ Cut off caffeine around 14h00 (although I've heard 12h00 from others)
+ Try to 'switch off' after dinner
+ Stop alcohol 3 hours before bed
+ Exercise with your chronotype, preferably not just before bed
+ Very consistent bedtime
+ When you wake up in the morning, get 15 minutes of sunlight and drink a bottle of water
+ Sunlight, particularly blue light which is part of the spectrum of the sunlight, hits the melanopsin cells in your eye and that turns off the melatonin in your brain; so if you're feeling terrible in the morning get sunlight in your eyes

The biggest problem for sleep is people not being able to deal with the stress and not knowing how to slow down their brains

Cognitive behavioural therapy is therefore a great way to try treating this Psycho-physiological insomnia:
+ Part 1 is a sleep schedule which restricts people's sleep, dictating the hours they go to bed and get up
+ Go to bed at the time you would normally fall asleep and not earlier
+ Build up the natural sleep deprivation
+ Part 2 is the cognitive portion

www.thesleepdoctor.com