Eight Ways to Good Sleep

    1.Establish a regular bedtime and rising time, and stick to them. A regular bedtime and rising time can help you stabilize your internal clocks. Select a bedtime that’s good and natural for you. A clue that you’re getting to bed at a good hour is a lack of daytime sleepiness. Don’t change your bedtime and rising time on weekends. Reprogramming your sleep rhythms for two days doesn’t do much to help you erase sleep debt, and it throws off your sleep wake cycles just in time for a bad case of Sunday-night insomnia.

    2. Avoid physical and mental stimulation just before sleep. Physical exertion too close to bedtime energizes your body’s systems by stimulation the release of adrenaline. Mental stimulation includes any activity that taxes your mind or gets your thoughts racing, such as watching an action-packed TV show. Similarly, planning tomorrow’s schedule, or reading a chapter from a convoluted murder mystery moments before turning out the light does not give you adequate time to disengage from mental activity before trying to sleep.

    3.Keep the bedroom for sleeping only. If you use your bedroom as a place to eat, watch TV, read, talk on the phone, or discuss weighty matters with your partner, break that habit to get better sleep. Sleep therapists insist that if our minds associate any functions other than sleep with the bedroom, we‘re asking for sleep problems.

    4. Develop sleep rituals. Sleep rituals run the gamut, from taking the garbage out to watching a certain news program, or reading a book(but not a murder mystery）.

    5. Determine how many hours you should be sleeping. To determine your ideal length of sleep, factor in these considerations:(1)how many hours you slept on average as a child, (2)how many hours you slept each night on average before your insomnia began, (3)how many hours’ sleep you require to awake naturally(when you have not been overtired)without an alarm set, and(4)how many hours you must sleep so as not to experience daytime sleepiness.

    6. Don’t go to bed too early. Since your body normally lets you sleep only the number of hours it needs, if you’re going to bed too early, you will likely awake too early as well.

    7. Avoid naps, unless. . . Four out of five people with insomnia sleep better at night without naps. If you’re a committed napper, you can skip all naps for a week. If you feel better and sleep better, then drop them.

    8.Take a warm bath within two hours of bedtime. A twenty-minute warm, soaking bath at a temperature of about 100~102F not only is a great relaxer at day’s end, but also raises your core body temperature by several degrees. The ensuing drop in body temperature will naturally initiate drowsiness and sleep.

    定一個規律的作息時間, 持之以恒。有規律的作息時間能幫助你平衡內部生物鐘。選擇一個適合于你的良好的睡眠時間。如果你白天不覺困倦就說明你睡覺的鐘點比較合適。不要在周末改變你的作息時間。在這兩天重新安排睡眠節奏對彌補缺覺無大好處, 而且它會使你的作息不規律, 造成周日晚上的失眠。

    睡前避免身心刺激。臨睡前的劇烈活動會刺激腎上腺素的釋放, 從而使身體充滿活力。大腦刺激包括任何耗費腦力或令你思緒萬千的活動, 如看驚險電視片等。同樣在熄燈前計劃第二天的日程, 或閱讀撲朔迷離的謀殺案小說的一章, 都不可能使你有足夠的時間在入睡前擺脫大腦的活動。

    臥室只用來睡覺。如果你把臥室作為進餐、看電視、讀書、打電話或同愛人商討重大事情的場所, 那就一定要打破這個習慣以使自己得到好的睡眠。睡眠治療專家堅持認為如果我們的大腦把臥室與睡覺以外的功能聯系起來, 那就是給自己的睡眠找麻煩。

    培養一些睡覺前的習慣。睡覺前的習慣多種多樣, 可以把垃圾扔掉, 可以看某個新聞節目, 或看書（但不是謀殺疑案小說）。

     計算自己需睡多少小時。計算自己理想的睡眠時間, 應考慮到以下幾個因素：（１）小時候平均睡多少小時, （２）患失眠癥前平均每夜睡多少小時, （３）（在不過度疲倦的情況下）不用鬧鐘睡多少小時能自然醒來, （４）你需要睡多少小時白天才不會有困意。

    不要過早上床睡覺。因為你的身體通常只讓你睡夠它所需要的時間, 如果你太早上床, 就會很早醒來。

    盡量避免的午休, 除非……患失眠的５人中有４人都感到不午休晚上睡得更香。如果你是一個愛午休的人, 你可以試著一星期不午睡。如果你感覺不錯而且晚上睡得更好, 就把午休的習慣改掉。

    睡覺前兩小時內洗個溫水澡。在華氏100到102度的溫水中泡20分鐘不僅會消除一天的疲勞, 而且也會使體內溫度上升幾度。隨之而來的是體內溫度下降, 自然會導致困倦和睡眠。