7 pm
“Our system works best when things are consistent,” says Prather. Keeping your dinner time consistent each night further cements your circadian pattern and puts your body on autopilot to fall asleep quickly. and suggest avoiding anything that can cause indigestion or wake you up.
“As you enter middle age, you want to pay as much attention to your sleep as possible, but the opposite is often true,” explains Meadows, noting that dinner is usually the most important part of the day. It’s the unhealthiest diet in the world, so it often leads to a poor night’s sleep. They also tend to drink a lot. “Unfortunately, alcohol has a negative effect on sleep,” says Meadows, who recommends abstinence at least two days a week.
Weight gain is a common byproduct of middle age, with the body burning fewer calories due to loss of muscle mass.
Meadows suggests keeping dinner “light and healthy.” A Mediterranean-style diet, including olive oil, healthy fats such as oily fish and nuts, and vegetables, “seems to yield the best sleep results,” according to a 2020 study from Columbia University in the United States.
8 pm
Meadows says it’s important to reduce the use of light as night falls. You shouldn’t use screens for work-related things before bed, but Wilson believes screens can provide a variety of tools to help you nod. There are great features that can help you, like sleep playlists on Spotify, sleep stories on YouTube, etc. There are a lot of good ones,” he says. “So please use your phone more carefully.”
10 pm
No matter what your bedtime is, the golden rule, you guessed it, is to be consistent. “Going to bed at different times each night can make it easier to wake up, and it can really ruin your relationship with your bed,” says Praser. People with anxiety and anxiety feel more and more at the thought of not being able to sleep again, it’s just that “your body is confused as to what he should do.”
If you’ve been up for more than 20 or 30 minutes, Prather recommends getting out of bed. Do something quiet, like watch TV or meditate. “When you start feeling sleepy again, try to get back in bed,” he says. “Over time, the bed will trigger a really strong sleep.”
Meadows advocates a school of CBT called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. “The important thing is that it’s okay to be awake,” he says. “Because the stronger the desire to wake up, the fewer obstacles that interfere with sleep.”
Guy Meadows will be at the Telegraph Event: How To Sleep Better in 2023 on January 4th. For more information, please visit extra.telegraph.co.uk.
