Why you should never look at your alarm clock at night
Give me a pillow and I sleep. Well, I can even sleep on the back of a scooter. But there are periods when I can't. Sleep tea, yoga music, a spray with melatonin—nothing helps. Sleep problems can happen to the best of us. Even sleep expert Merijn van de Laar struggled with it. It led him to a new study where he takes the sleep pattern of the primitive man as an example. In Sleeping Like a Primitive Man, he explains how simple sleeping actually is.
“Sleep is cheap. And priceless.”
Just a few things you shouldn't do:
1. Don't look at your alarm clock when you wake up at night
2. On average, it then takes 25 minutes longer to fall asleep.
3. Don't focus so much on wanting to sleep eight hours straight
The primitive man also sometimes lay awake, and that's not a problem at all. It's about not lying awake stressed, but just lying awake relaxed.
4. Especially don't set your sleep tracker
Then sleeping becomes a performance thing again: something that is measured and in which you have to be ‘good’. Moreover, as Merijn van de Laar says, you may let your mood be determined by the score on your sleep app. If that sleep tracker says you had a bad night, you start the day with a bad feeling anyway.
5. Don't mind if you're stressed and therefore sleep poorly
In periods of stress you often want to sleep well to arm yourself against all the worries that come at you during the day. But you have to let go of that hope. It's normal to sleep less well in times of stress. You're in an alert state, so you have to let go of that hope for a good night's sleep.
What you can do:
1. Lie in bed for a long time, but be okay with not sleeping the whole timeBook:
The Hadza tribe in Tanzania, who are removed from technology and have a lifestyle similar to that of the primitive man, share beautiful stories around the campfire. They stay away from gossip and worries. Then they go to bed early in a horizontal position, but don't sleep immediately.
2. Let go of your wish for eight hours of sleep
Some sleep more, others less. That can just be part of you.
3. Sex has a positive effect on the sleep rhythm of men and women
After an orgasm you fall asleep more easily.
Well, if that's not good news.
Source: De Telegraaf
