Oral tape, Melatonin“Diaries of concerns”: this is what could really help you sleep.
Sujay Kansagra spends enough time on social networks to have opinions even about the tips to reconcile the most doubtful dream. Many times, said Kangsagra, who is a dream doctor in Duke Health, are not backed by solid scientific evidence.
This is especially true in the case of trends or techniques that promise instantaneous results, he said. If you see a video that states that listening to relaxing sounds or pressing trigger points on the wrist, for example, can help you fall asleep in seconds, it is probably not true. Even so, there are some sleep strategies that are based on legitimate science, Kansagra said.
We ask him and four other sleep experts if some of the sleep tricks we have seen on social networks can really help you reconcile and keep the sleep. Here what they said you should try and what not.
1. Avoid the oral tape
Some people on social networks affirm that the oral adhesive tape, which consists of sealing the lips with a piece of adhesive that does not irritate the skin, can avoid snoring and improve sleep by forceing you to breathe through your nose.
Although it is true that breathing through the nose can help reduce snoring, there is no solid evidence that sealing the mouth improves sleep quality, said Akinbolaji Akingbola, a specialist in sleep medicine specialist at the University of Minnesota.
Regular snacks can be a symptom of Obstructive sleep apneaa disorder characterized by potentially dangerous pauses in breathing during sleep. If you use oral tape to drown the snoring instead of going to the doctor, you could miss the opportunity to diagnose a real medical condition and receive the proper treatment, Kansagra said.
2. Limit exposure to blue light
The blue light, a type of light emitted by electronic devices such as televisions, cell phones, computers and many bright spotlights, can deceive your brain making him believe that it is day, keeping you alert, said Andrew W. Mchill, a scientist of sleep and circadian rhythm of the University of Health and Science of Oregon.
Any trend that encourages you to avoid blue light before bedtime (OA replacing your home bulbs that emit blue light for others that emit amber or red light, as some recommend in social networks) will probably help you sleep, experts said.
Starting from one to three hours before bedtime, Akingbola recommended mitigating the bright lights and using less electronic devices. Even limiting the exposure for only 30 minutes before bedtime can help, Kansagra said.
But do not consider that certain products or its functions, such as glasses that block blue light or blue light filter modes of electronic devices (such as the “Night Shift” function of Apple products), will really reduce your exposure enough to improve your dream. There is no reliable evidence to block the blue light enough to achieve this effect, said Angela Holliday-Bell, a medical Specialist in Chicago’s dream.
3. Do not use supplements as sleeping
Bryan Johnson, technological and influenting entrepreneur of longevity, says he takes a low dose of melatonin every night – as part of his elaborate daily supplements regime – to help him sleep perfectly. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist and popular Pódcast presenter, affirms that certain Types of magnesium supplements They can shorten the “sleep transition time” and favor a deeper dream.
Although these supplements can be useful in certain situations – melatonin, for example, it can help you adapt to a new time zone, and there are some (although very limited) tests that magnesium supplements can help certain people reconcile the dream more quickly -, the experts with whom we speak did not support the use of these supplements as usual help to sleep or as a treatment of chronic insomnia.
They are not probable to be toxic if they are taken as recommended, Kansagra said. But taking them every night could be harmful for other reasons. They can be expensive and are not well studied, so you could be spending a lot of money on something that has not been shown to help. And they can become a crutch for a potentially more serious sleep problem that may require adequate diagnosis and treatment.
4. Try certain mental exercises
Social networks are full of mental tricks to sleep – like the classic “count sheep” – that only require your imagination.
An exercise, called cognitive alternation, is to think about a word (“whale”, for example) and then think of so many other words that begin with the same first letter (“b”) as you can. Then, go to words that begin with the second letter (“a”), then for the third, and so on until you fall asleep.
Another mental exercise is to imagine a known house (not yours) and mentally travel all rooms. Imagine the house with the greatest possible detail, focusing on its doors, furniture and works of art. Some people on Tiktok say it works so well that they never get the stairs before falling asleep.
These methods have not been rigorously studied, but it makes sense – at least in theory – that can help some people reconcile the dream, said Allison Harvey, a professor and clinical psychologist at the University of California in Berkeley. These mental exercises can distract you from any stressful concern or thought that can keep you awake, he said.
However, they will not work for everyone, he added: they must only be one of the many inducing sleep strategies you use.
5. Hears a newspaper of concerns
Whether you use a specific newspaper and a blank paper, write before bedtime that causes you anxiety – such as some proclaim on social networks – can help you fall asleep, Harvey said.
When you dedicate “time to concerns”, as she calls it, to write down the fears, cumbersome tasks or the problems you have tried to solve, your brain has the opportunity to process them before you try to fall asleep.
If you do not give yourself this space, which is ideally two hours between exercising and going to sleep, Harvey added, you run the risk of staying in bed with an accelerated mind.
Akingbola agrees that writing about your concerns in a newspaper can help you fall asleep. But try to do it in bed, he said, not to create a negative association between her and stressful thoughts.