This is how to sleep better 5 secrets from neuroscience

This is how to sleep better 5 secrets from neuroscienceThis is how to sleep better 5 secrets from neuroscienceIll bet youre leid getting enough sleep. Honestly, Im kind of cheating - its a pretty safe bet.From Why We SleepTwo-thirds of adults throughout all developed nations fail to obtain the recommended eight hours of nightly sleep.And thats bad. Really bad Yes, this is the part where I lecture you on how horrific bad sleep habits are. I promise to make it as quick and terrifying as possible, okay?From Why We SleepRoutinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune ordnungsprinzip, mora than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or leid you will develop Alzheimers disease. Inadequate sleep- even moderate reductions for just one week- disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blo cked and brittle, platzsituation you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure. Fitting Charlotte Bronts prophetic wisdom that a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow, sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.So if youre fond of saying, Ill sleep when Im dead, well, that may be happening a lot faster than you anticipated.But I know youre fine. You dont feel tired. Or youve taught yourself to get by on less sleep. Or you have mutant powers. Nope. Truth is youre too tired to realize how tired you are. Youre like a drunk shouting, GIMME THE KEYS I CAN DRIVE IM FINEFrom Why We SleepWhen participants were asked about their subjective sense of how impaired they were, they consistently underestimated their degree of performance disability.Which is probably why vehicular accidents caused by drowsy driving exceed those caused by alcohol and drugs combined.You need eight hours. The National Sleep Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both recommend 7 to 9 hours - but after 10 days of 7 hours your brain is mush whether you realize it or elend. So get 8.From Why We SleepAfter being awake for nineteen hours, people who were sleep-deprived were as cognitively impaired as those who were legally drunk After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need mora than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours.Lets notlage forget sleep deprivation is routinely used as a torture method. And we do this to ourselves. Voluntarily. (Ive moved on to waterboarding myself. I like a challenge.)But, seriously, if two-thirds of people have this problem then we need some real answers from a real expert Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berk eley, the director of its Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, and a former professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. Hes been a sleep consultant for the NBA, the NFL, Pixar and a bunch of other places your mom would be really impressed by.His New York Times bestselling book is Why We Sleep Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.Were gonna explode some myths, review the science and get some great tips on how to sleep better - along with the best way to implement them.Lets get to it So why do we need sleep anyway?On the surface, from an evolutionary perspective, sleep makes absolutely zero sense. You cant gather food, find a mate, socialize or do anything useful while youre out cold. And youre vulnerable to predators.Yet every animal that has a lifespan of more than a few days sleeps or performs a sleep-like activity. So obviously something pretty darn important is going on. Actually, a lot of important stuff Sleep is essential for memory and skill development. Cheat yourself on zzzs a nd learning drops as much as 40%. Yeah, thats the difference between an A+ and an F.From Why We SleepWhen we compared the effectiveness of learning between the two groups, the result was clear there was a 40 percent deficit in the ability of the sleep-deprived group to cram new facts into the brain (i.e., to make new memories), relative to the group that obtained a full night of sleep.Sleep is also a built-in therapist, emotionally working out the issues youre dealing with while youre out cold.From Why We SleepREM-sleep dreaming offers a form of overnight therapy. That is, REM-sleep dreaming takes the painful sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional episodes you have experienced during the day, offering emotional resolution when you awake the next morning Thats not too shocking - weve all been moody after a night of little rest. But what you probably dont know is that sleep also helps you deal with the emotions of others. Less slumber means less emotional intelligence.From Why We SleepBy removing REM sleep, we had, quite literally, removed participants levelheaded ability to read the social world around them.Nobody has ever told you to stay awake on a problem. And theres a good reason that sleep on it is a phrase that exists not only in English, but in numerous languages. Next time your Swahili-speaking friend needs to come up with a creative solution to a tricky challenge, tell them to kulala juu ya tatizo.From Why We SleepThings were very different for those participants who had obtained a full night of sleep- one dressed with late-morning, REM-rich slumber. Alfruchtwein 60 percent returned and had the ah-ha moment of spotting the hidden cheat- which is a threefold difference in creative solution insight afforded by sleepAnd from a health perspective, sleep is the after hours cleaning crew. You make quite a mess in your grey matter with all that thinkin you do all day. Without the janitor to sweep up those amyloid dust bunnies you have a much highe r gunst der stunde of developing Alzheimers.From Why We SleepWithout sufficient sleep, amyloid plaques build up in the brain, especially in deep-sleep-generating regions, attacking and degrading them getting too little sleep across the adult life span will significantly raise your risk of developing Alzheimers disease.And downtime makes you sexy. Yeah, research shows beauty sleep is real.(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my bestselling book here.)Alrighty sleep-deprived bad. Lots-of-sleep good. So if youre only going to do one thing to improve your nightly slumber, what should it be?Have a consistent sleep scheduleGo to bed at the saatkorn time every night. Wake up at the same time every day. Its crucial.From Why We Sleep if you can only adhere to one of these each and every day, make it going to bed and waking up at the same time of day no matter what.Dont just set an alarm to wake up - set an alarm for bedtime. Build yourself a good pre-sleep routi ne where you wind down at the same time every night. And if you can get someone to read you a bedtime story, all the better.(To learn the seven-step morning ritual that will make you happy all day, click here.)Youre consistent and ritualized. Great. So lets talk about that thing you hear mentioned constantly blue light. How your smartphone and iPad screens are teaming up to turn you into an insomniac. Thing is, thats only half the story Blue light isnt the only problemAll light is bad. Blue is just worse.From Why We SleepEven a hint of dim light- 8 to 10 lux- has been shown to delay the release of nighttime melatonin in humans. The feeblest of bedside lamps pumps out twice as much anywhere from 20 to 80 lux. A subtly lit living room, where most people reside in the hours before bed, will hum at around 200 lux. Despite being just 1 to 2 percent of the strength of daylight, this ambient level of incandescent home lighting can have 50 percent of the melatonin-suppressing influence with in the brain.That sleep hormone melatonin doesnt just immediately flood your system when you flip the light switch off. It takes time. So dim the lights long before youre ready to hit the sack.And make sure your bedroom is darker than an H.P. Lovecraft story when its finally time to sleep.(To learn the science of how to take naps that will make you smarter and happier, click here.)Now everybody knows dark is important when it comes to sleep. But theres a second melatonin trigger that most people dont pay enough attention to Be coolEver try to sleep when its too hot? Its not just icky uncomfortable, but its also telling your brain that its not bedtime.From Why We SleepYour nocturnal melatonin levels are therefore controlled not only by the loss of daylight at dusk, but also the drop in temperature that coincides with the setting sun A bedroom temperature of around 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3C) is ideal for the sleep of most people, assuming standard bedding and clothing.Your body wa nts its core temperature low when you sleep. So its gotta dump all that heat youre producing. And this is why you often see peoples feet or arms sticking out from under the covers unconscious heat regulation.From Why We SleepThe need to dump heat from our extremities is also the reason that you may occasionally stick your hands and feet out from underneath the bedcovers at night due to your core becoming too hot, usually without your knowing.For super sleep, take a hot bath before bed. It doesnt just relax you it dilates blood vessels, allowing your body to ditch all that extra core warmth. This can boost NREM sleep by up to 15%.From Why We SleepWhen you get out of the bath, those dilated blood vessels on the surface quickly help radiate out intern heat, and your core body temperature plummets. Consequently, you sache asleep more quickly because your core is colder. Hot baths prior to bed can also induce 10 to 15 percent more deep NREM sleep in healthy adults.Exercise definitely imp roves sleep but you dont want to do it within 3 hours of bedtime because - guess what? It raises your core temperature.(To learn 5 secrets from neuroscience that will increase your attention span, click here.)Im guessing you know that drinking a latte and a Red Bull before bed is not a great idea. And you probably heard booze isnt a genius move here either. But theres more to it than that No coffee, no booze and no sleeping pillsIf you want the best sleep possible, you should only use caffeine in the morning or early afternoon.From Why We SleepCaffeine has an average half-life of five to seven hours. Lets say that you have a cup of coffee after your evening dinner, around 730 p.m. This means that by 130 a.m., 50 percent of that caffeine may still be active and circulating throughout your brain tissue.And decaf isnt really decaf. It actually contains 15-30% of the caffeine of a regular cup of coffee. So if you drink three or four cups of decaf after dinner, well, dont be surprised if youre staring at the ceiling at 2 AM. (To learn more about the science of coffee, click here.)And, no, alcohol doesnt help you sleep. What it does is actually more akin to anesthesia, which is not real sleep. And because its not the real deal, your brain cant do its memory consolidation work properly.From Why We Sleep those who had their sleep laced with alcohol on the first night after learning suffered what can conservatively be described as partial amnesia seven days later, forgetting more than 50 percent of all that original knowledge.And sleeping pills affect the same receptors in your brain as alcohol. So you get the same results - except their effects on memory are even worse.From Why We SleepNo past or current sleeping medications on the legal (or illegal) market induce natural sleep.Oh, and theres one other teensy-weensy little problem with sleeping pills they dont actually work.From Why We SleepA recent team of leading medical doctors and researchers examined all publ ished studies to date on newer forms of sedative sleeping pills that most people take. They considered sixty-five separate drug-placebo studies, encompassing almost 4,500 individuals. Overall, participants subjectively felt they fell asleep faster and slept more soundly with fewer awakenings, relative to the placebo. But thats not what the actual sleep recordings showed. There was no difference in how soundly the individuals slept. Both the placebo and the sleeping pills reduced the time it took people to fall asleep (between ten and thirty minutes), but the change was not statistically different between the two. In other words, there was no objective benefit of these sleeping pills beyond that which a placebo offered.Im sure this is going to get me hate mail from Ambien lovers. Emails they wont remember sending, that is.(To learn how to best use caffeine - from a neuroscientist - click here.)So what if all of the above isnt cutting it? What if you have stone cold chronic insomnia ? Whats the cutting edge front-line treatment for the most serious of sleep issues?To sleep more sleep lessIf youre only able to sleep 6 hours a night, then restrict yourself to 5. Youll feel like poop the next day and crash hard But then only let yourself sleep 5 hours and 15 minutes. Now you feel like double poop and will be out before your head hits the pillow. So go to 5 hours and 30 minutes And as long as you meet your designated quota, incrementally increase the amount of sleep you allow yourself. No naps.Youll be a zombie for a while but this is actually a core part of what is now quickly becoming the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia CBT-I. The application of cognitive behavioral therapy to sleep issues.From Why We SleepOne of the more paradoxical CBT-I methods used to help insomniacs sleep is to restrict their time spent in bed, perhaps even to just six hours of sleep or less to begin with. By keeping patients awake for longer, we build up a strong sleep pressure- a greater abundance of adenosine. Under this heavier weight of sleep pressure, patients fall asleep faster, and achieve a more stable, solid form of sleep across the night. In this way, a patient can regain their psychological confidence in being able to self-generate and sustain healthy, rapid, and sound sleep, night after night something that has eluded them for months if not years. Upon reestablishing a patients confidence in this regard, time in bed is gradually increased.(To learn 3 secrets from neuroscience that will help you quit bad habits without willpower, click here.)Okay, hopefully that wasnt too exhausting. (Or maybe its good that it was?) Lets round everything up and learn the most important question to ask your doctorSum upHeres how to sleep betterHave a consistent sleep schedule Yes, that includes weekends. Yes, I understand that you hate me now.Blue light isnt the only problem Dim the lights in the evening. Set the mood. (Barry White music optional.)Be Cool People stick their feet out from under the covers because its good science.No coffee, no booze and no sleeping pills And while Im ruining everything and being a total buzzkill let me add there is no Santa Claus.To sleep more sleep less Dont think of it as CBT look at it as getting revenge on your brain for not letting you sleep.Whats the question you definitely want to ask your doctor before your next procedure?How much sleep did you get last night?The amount of zzzs you get certainly affects your life. But dont forget that how much sleep other people get can affect your life too. Or end it. After a 30 hour shift, residents make 460 percent more errors.From Why We SleepAdditionally, after a thirty-hour shift without sleep, residents make a whopping 460 percent more diagnostic mistakes in the intensive care unit than when well rested after enough sleep. Throughout the course of their residency, one in five medical residents will make a sleepless-related medical error that causes significa nt, liable harm to a patient. One in twenty residents will kill a patient due to a lack of sleep.But hopefully you wont be seeing a doctor anytime soon because youll be in tip-top shape due to all that glorious shut-eye youre getting.And this is the one post where if you fell asleep while reading it, well, Im not offended.Thisarticleoriginally appeared atBarking Up the Wrong Tree.This is how to sleep better 5 secrets from neuroscienceIll bet youre not getting enough sleep. Honestly, Im kind of cheating - its a pretty safe bet.From Why We SleepTwo-thirds of adults throughout all developed nations fail to obtain the recommended eight hours of nightly sleep.And thats bad. Really bad Yes, this is the part where I lecture you on how horrific bad sleep habits are. I promise to make it as quick and terrifying as possible, okay?From Why We SleepRoutinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimers disease. Inadequate sleep- even moderate reductions for just one week- disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure. Fitting Charlotte Bronts prophetic wisdom that a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow, sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.So if youre fond of saying, Ill sleep when Im dead, well, that may be happening a lot faster than you anticipated.But I know youre fine. You dont feel tired. Or youve taught yourself to get by on less sleep. Or you have mutant powers. Nope. Truth is youre too tired to realize how tired you are. Youre like a drunk shouting, GIMME THE KEYS I CAN DRIVE IM FINEFro m Why We SleepWhen participants were asked about their subjective sense of how impaired they were, they consistently underestimated their degree of performance disability.Which is probably why vehicular accidents caused by drowsy driving exceed those caused by alcohol and drugs combined.You need eight hours. The National Sleep Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both recommend 7 to 9 hours - but after 10 days of 7 hours your brain is mush whether you realize it or not. So get 8.From Why We SleepAfter being awake for nineteen hours, people who were sleep-deprived were as cognitively impaired as those who were legally drunk After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours.Lets not forget sleep deprivation is routinely u sed as a torture method. And we do this to ourselves. Voluntarily. (Ive moved on to waterboarding myself. I like a challenge.)But, seriously, if two-thirds of people have this problem then we need some real answers from a real expert Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley, the director of its Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, and a former professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. Hes been a sleep consultant for the NBA, the NFL, Pixar and a bunch of other places your mom would be really impressed by.His New York Times bestselling book is Why We Sleep Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.Were gonna explode some myths, review the science and get some great tips on how to sleep better - along with the best way to implement them.Lets get to it So why do we need sleep anyway?On the surface, from an evolutionary perspective, sleep makes absolutely zero sense. You cant gather food, find a mate, socialize or do anything useful while youre out cold. An d youre vulnerable to predators.Yet every animal that has a lifespan of more than a few days sleeps or performs a sleep-like activity. So obviously something pretty darn important is going on. Actually, a lot of important stuff Sleep is essential for memory and skill development. Cheat yourself on zzzs and learning drops as much as 40%. Yeah, thats the difference between an A+ and an F.From Why We SleepWhen we compared the effectiveness of learning between the two groups, the result was clear there was a 40 percent deficit in the ability of the sleep-deprived group to cram new facts into the brain (i.e., to make new memories), relative to the group that obtained a full night of sleep.Sleep is also a built-in therapist, emotionally working out the issues youre dealing with while youre out cold.From Why We SleepREM-sleep dreaming offers a form of overnight therapy. That is, REM-sleep dreaming takes the painful sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional episodes you have experie nced during the day, offering emotional resolution when you awake the next morning Thats not too shocking - weve all been moody after a night of little rest. But what you probably dont know is that sleep also helps you deal with the emotions of others. Less slumber means less emotional intelligence.From Why We SleepBy removing REM sleep, we had, quite literally, removed participants levelheaded ability to read the social world around them.Nobody has ever told you to stay awake on a problem. And theres a good reason that sleep on it is a phrase that exists not only in English, but in numerous languages. Next time your Swahili-speaking friend needs to come up with a creative solution to a tricky challenge, tell them to kulala juu ya tatizo.From Why We SleepThings were very different for those participants who had obtained a full night of sleep- one dressed with late-morning, REM-rich slumber. Almost 60 percent returned and had the ah-ha moment of spotting the hidden cheat- which is a threefold difference in creative solution insight afforded by sleepAnd from a health perspective, sleep is the after hours cleaning crew. You make quite a mess in your grey matter with all that thinkin you do all day. Without the janitor to sweep up those amyloid dust bunnies you have a much higher chance of developing Alzheimers.From Why We SleepWithout sufficient sleep, amyloid plaques build up in the brain, especially in deep-sleep-generating regions, attacking and degrading them getting too little sleep across the adult life span will significantly raise your risk of developing Alzheimers disease.And downtime makes you sexy. Yeah, research shows beauty sleep is real.(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my bestselling book here.)Alrighty sleep-deprived bad. Lots-of-sleep good. So if youre only going to do one thing to improve your nightly slumber, what should it be?Have a consistent sleep scheduleGo to bed at the same time every night. Wake up at the same time every day. Its crucial.From Why We Sleep if you can only adhere to one of these each and every day, make it going to bed and waking up at the same time of day no matter what.Dont just set an alarm to wake up - set an alarm for bedtime. Build yourself a good pre-sleep routine where you wind down at the same time every night. And if you can get someone to read you a bedtime story, all the better.(To learn the seven-step morning ritual that will make you happy all day, click here.)Youre consistent and ritualized. Great. So lets talk about that thing you hear mentioned constantly blue light. How your smartphone and iPad screens are teaming up to turn you into an insomniac. Thing is, thats only half the story Blue light isnt the only problemAll light is bad. Blue is just worse.From Why We SleepEven a hint of dim light- 8 to 10 lux- has been shown to delay the release of nighttime melatonin in humans. The feeblest of bedside lamps pumps out twice as much anywhere from 20 to 80 lux. A subtly lit living room, where most people reside in the hours before bed, will hum at around 200 lux. Despite being just 1 to 2 percent of the strength of daylight, this ambient level of incandescent home lighting can have 50 percent of the melatonin-suppressing influence within the brain.That sleep hormone melatonin doesnt just immediately flood your system when you flip the light switch off. It takes time. So dim the lights long before youre ready to hit the sack.And make sure your bedroom is darker than an H.P. Lovecraft story when its finally time to sleep.(To learn the science of how to take naps that will make you smarter and happier, click here.)Now everybody knows dark is important when it comes to sleep. But theres a second melatonin trigger that most people dont pay enough attention to Be coolEver try to sleep when its too hot? Its not just icky uncomfortable, but its also telling your brain that its not bedtime.From Why We SleepYour nocturnal melatonin levels are therefore controlled not only by the loss of daylight at dusk, but also the drop in temperature that coincides with the setting sun A bedroom temperature of around 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3C) is ideal for the sleep of most people, assuming standard bedding and clothing.Your body wants its core temperature low when you sleep. So its gotta dump all that heat youre producing. And this is why you often see peoples feet or arms sticking out from under the covers unconscious heat regulation.From Why We SleepThe need to dump heat from our extremities is also the reason that you may occasionally stick your hands and feet out from underneath the bedcovers at night due to your core becoming too hot, usually without your knowing.For super sleep, take a hot bath before bed. It doesnt just relax you it dilates blood vessels, allowing your body to ditch all that extra core warmth. This can boost NREM sleep by up to 15%.From Why We SleepWhen you get out of the bath, those dilated blood vessels on the surface quickly help radiate out inner heat, and your core body temperature plummets. Consequently, you fall asleep more quickly because your core is colder. Hot baths prior to bed can also induce 10 to 15 percent more deep NREM sleep in healthy adults.Exercise definitely improves sleep but you dont want to do it within 3 hours of bedtime because - guess what? It raises your core temperature.(To learn 5 secrets from neuroscience that will increase your attention span, click here.)Im guessing you know that drinking a latte and a Red Bull before bed is not a great idea. And you probably heard booze isnt a genius move here either. But theres more to it than that No coffee, no booze and no sleeping pillsIf you want the best sleep possible, you should only use caffeine in the morning or early afternoon.From Why We SleepCaffeine has an average half-life of five to seven hours. Lets say that you have a cup of coffee after your evening dinner, around 730 p.m. This means that by 130 a.m., 50 percent of that caffeine may still be active and circulating throughout your brain tissue.And decaf isnt really decaf. It actually contains 15-30% of the caffeine of a regular cup of coffee. So if you drink three or four cups of decaf after dinner, well, dont be surprised if youre staring at the ceiling at 2 AM. (To learn more about the science of coffee, click here.)And, no, alcohol doesnt help you sleep. What it does is actually more akin to anesthesia, which is not real sleep. And because its not the real deal, your brain cant do its memory consolidation work properly.From Why We Sleep those who had their sleep laced with alcohol on the first night after learning suffered what can conservatively be described as partial amnesia seven days later, forgetting more than 50 percent of all that original knowledge.And sleeping pills affect the same receptors in your brain as alcohol. So you get the same results - except their effects on memory are even worse.From Why We SleepN o past or current sleeping medications on the legal (or illegal) market induce natural sleep.Oh, and theres one other teensy-weensy little problem with sleeping pills they dont actually work.From Why We SleepA recent team of leading medical doctors and researchers examined all published studies to date on newer forms of sedative sleeping pills that most people take. They considered sixty-five separate drug-placebo studies, encompassing almost 4,500 individuals. Overall, participants subjectively felt they fell asleep faster and slept more soundly with fewer awakenings, relative to the placebo. But thats not what the actual sleep recordings showed. There was no difference in how soundly the individuals slept. Both the placebo and the sleeping pills reduced the time it took people to fall asleep (between ten and thirty minutes), but the change was not statistically different between the two. In other words, there was no objective benefit of these sleeping pills beyond that which a pl acebo offered.Im sure this is going to get me hate mail from Ambien lovers. Emails they wont remember sending, that is.(To learn how to best use caffeine - from a neuroscientist - click here.)So what if all of the above isnt cutting it? What if you have stone cold chronic insomnia? Whats the cutting edge front-line treatment for the most serious of sleep issues?To sleep more sleep lessIf youre only able to sleep 6 hours a night, then restrict yourself to 5. Youll feel like poop the next day and crash hard But then only let yourself sleep 5 hours and 15 minutes. Now you feel like double poop and will be out before your head hits the pillow. So go to 5 hours and 30 minutes And as long as you meet your designated quota, incrementally increase the amount of sleep you allow yourself. No naps.Youll be a zombie for a while but this is actually a core part of what is now quickly becoming the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia CBT-I. The application of cognitive behavioral therapy to sleep issues.From Why We SleepOne of the more paradoxical CBT-I methods used to help insomniacs sleep is to restrict their time spent in bed, perhaps even to just six hours of sleep or less to begin with. By keeping patients awake for longer, we build up a strong sleep pressure- a greater abundance of adenosine. Under this heavier weight of sleep pressure, patients fall asleep faster, and achieve a more stable, solid form of sleep across the night. In this way, a patient can regain their psychological confidence in being able to self-generate and sustain healthy, rapid, and sound sleep, night after night something that has eluded them for months if not years. Upon reestablishing a patients confidence in this regard, time in bed is gradually increased.(To learn 3 secrets from neuroscience that will help you quit bad habits without willpower, click here.)Okay, hopefully that wasnt too exhausting. (Or maybe its good that it was?) Lets round everything up and learn the most importan t question to ask your doctorSum upHeres how to sleep betterHave a consistent sleep schedule Yes, that includes weekends. Yes, I understand that you hate me now.Blue light isnt the only problem Dim the lights in the evening. Set the mood. (Barry White music optional.)Be Cool People stick their feet out from under the covers because its good science.No coffee, no booze and no sleeping pills And while Im ruining everything and being a total buzzkill let me add there is no Santa Claus.To sleep more sleep less Dont think of it as CBT look at it as getting revenge on your brain for not letting you sleep.Whats the question you definitely want to ask your doctor before your next procedure?How much sleep did you get last night?The amount of zzzs you get certainly affects your life. But dont forget that how much sleep other people get can affect your life too. Or end it. After a 30 hour shift, residents make 460 percent more errors.From Why We SleepAdditionally, after a thirty-hour shift w ithout sleep, residents make a whopping 460 percent more diagnostic mistakes in the intensive care unit than when well rested after enough sleep. Throughout the course of their residency, one in five medical residents will make a sleepless-related medical error that causes significant, liable harm to a patient. One in twenty residents will kill a patient due to a lack of sleep.But hopefully you wont be seeing a doctor anytime soon because youll be in tip-top shape due to all that glorious shut-eye youre getting.And this is the one post where if you fell asleep while reading it, well, Im not offended.Thisarticleoriginally appeared atBarking Up the Wrong Tree.