(Health.com) -- Sleepless nights aren't a modern invention. But experts say modern life is making them increasingly common.
"More and more, we are
seeing women who have trouble falling -- and staying -- asleep," says
Rebecca Scott, a behavioral sleep medicine expert at the New York Sleep
Institute.
Last year, in fact, women received 5.8 million more prescriptions for sleeping pills than they did just five years earlier.
Psychologists and sleep
clinicians believe this sleep crisis is due to increasing stressors like
juggling work and family, caring for aging parents, and the crummy
economy.
"We now know that many
health issues, including sleep disturbance, are related to anxiety,"
notes Robin Haight, a clinical psychologist in Tyson's Corner, Virginia.
Technology is another
modern stimulant: Ever stayed up watching "Mad Men" or playing a game
(or 10) of Bejeweled on your smartphone when you knew you should be
getting shut-eye?
The toll could be
considerable. Aside from leaving you sluggish and cranky, not getting
enough sleep can lead to depression, high blood pressure, heart disease,
weight gain and diabetes.
With our sleep problems
worsening, experts say it's time we made serious changes to get better
rest. Here are real solutions to today's top sleep obstacles.
Sleep problem #1: You can't fall asleep
Instead of winding down
and relaxing before bed, we're doing chores, checking e-mail, and
getting riled up by the TV news until we hit the sack. To create a more
snooze-inducing routine:
During the day
Squeeze in exercise
whenever you can. Chris Kline, who studies the effect of exercise on
sleep at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, says that
doing even half of the recommended weekly 150 minutes of moderate
activity and two muscle-training sessions has been shown to
significantly reduce sleep problems in women, in part by regulating body
temperature and reducing anxiety and depression.
Surprisingly, being
active in the early evening may help you fall asleep more easily, Kline
says, but see what timing works best for you.
Two hours before bedtime
Lower the lights.
Turning off lights and lamps signals to the body that sleep time is
near-- the way twilight did before we had electric lighting.
The type of lightbulbs
you use also matters. "The hue of light can be described as warm versus
cold, or soft versus harsh," says Michael Terman, an expert on light and
biological rhythms at Columbia University Medical Center and author of
the upcoming book "Chronotherapy."
"Cold, harsh white
light" -- like that found in fluorescent bulbs -- "contains a
significant blue component, which is most likely to interfere with sleep
onset," Terman says.
Blue light, more so than
other colors in the light spectrum, suppresses the body's release of
melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy. The cooler the prominent
colors in a type of lighting (blue and green, say, as opposed to yellow
and red), the higher its color temperature, measured in kelvins (K).
Check lightbulb
packaging for the words "soft" or "warm" and for a color temperature of
3000 K or less, which is less likely to trigger insomnia, Terman says.
An hour before bedtime
Dim your screens.
Watching TV or tooling around online may help you decompress, but most
screens emit more blue light than lamps do, and that -- plus any
exciting or disturbing stuff you see -- will keep your brain going.
So if you can't give up
your late-night screen time, at least turn down the brightness on your
TV, tablet, or computer. You can also install a free program called f.lux on your laptop to automatically reduce the blue light it emits at night.
Half an hour before bedtime
Power down. Now's the
time to turn off the tube -- experts recommend reading by low lamplight.
Pick an article or book that's not so suspenseful it keeps you up
(think "Bossypants," not "Hunger Games"), and nothing work- or
school-related -- too stressful!
Sleep problem #2: You can't stay asleep
It's natural to drift in
and out of sleep, especially during the second half of the night. Since
slumber grows lighter as we get older, the over-40 set is especially
prone to late-night interruptions. What to do when they happen:
Step 1:
Don't check the alarm clock to see what time it is, since knowing it's 3
a.m. will only stress you out. Keep the clock under your bed so you
can't look.
Step 2: Have
a strategy to keep middle-of-the-night anxiety at bay. When your mind
starts going a mile a minute during nighttime wakeups, it's even more
impossible to relax back into sleep.
If unfinished tasks keep
you from sleeping soundly, jot down a to-do list for the next day
before turning in. This can help keep you from coming to full
consciousness when you wake up.
"It tells the brain that
it no longer needs to stay on high alert and can focus on promoting
sleep," Scott explains. If the thoughts start flooding in anyway, take a
deep breath and remind yourself that you've written down everything you
need to tackle in the morning, so it's safe to fall back asleep.
Step 3:
Mind still racing? "Think of a positive experience you had that day or
one thing that you're grateful for," Scott advises. Or visualize
yourself in a comfortable place (think the beach, the woods, or a
hammock) to create a relaxation response and ease into slumber, Haight
says.
Step 4: Fight
hot flashes. Lowered estrogen levels can cause this common menopause
symptom. When they happen at night, the rise in your body temperature
will likely wake you up.
If you're facing a
regular case of the night sweats, keep your bedroom cool with an open
window, fan, or air conditioner, and switch to lightweight cotton PJs
and bedding. And talk to your doctor, who may suggest hormone therapy or
other medications, such as antidepressants.
Sleep problem #3: Your sleep is interrupted
Enter a snoring husband, bed-hopping pets and kids, or blinking, pinging e-mail alerts on your BlackBerry. To defuse them:
Step 1: Ask your snoring spouse to talk to a doctor. He could have a treatable condition, like sleep apnea.
Step 2: Keep kids and pets out of your room if you aren't getting restful sleep. Easier said than done, yes. But be strong!
Step 3:
Lights and noises disrupt your sleep more than you might realize.
Silence your phone at night and keep it charging where you can't see it.
A pitch-black bedroom is
ideal for good sleep, so skip the nightlights and use amber-colored
ones in the hallway and in the bathroom -- they won't mess with your
melatonin levels when you get up to go in the middle of the night.
Consider installing blackout shades or curtains on your windows, too.
Then simply close your eyes, enjoy the silence and prepare for a
hard-earned night's rest.
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