Everyone has their own tricks to combat insomnia, such as guided meditation, relaxation yoga or lavender oil sprays. However, a recent study found that writing a list before bed is the best way to get to sleep quickly.
Baylor University research has shown that this assertion is true.It took only five minutes to create a list of tasks that would be required. This greatly affected the speed at which study participants fell asleep..
Lead author Dr. Michael K. Scullin explained that we live in a 24-hour culture where our to-do list seems to grow constantly, making it difficult to sleep at night because of unfinished tasks. Many people simply cycle through their to-do list in their heads. We wanted to see if writing them down might help with sleeping problems at night.
Scullin and his group examined the nighttime habits for 57 Baylor University students during a week at the school’s sleeping lab. The undergraduates were split into two groups before going to bed. One group was to list everything they had done the previous day, while the other was to record everything.
Participants were monitored with polysomnography (a multi-parametric sleep study that monitors brain-wave activity, blood oxygen levels and eye movement) as they tried to get some shuteye after finishing their writing assignments.
Scullin stated that there are two ways to approach this issue. Scullin stated that worrying about the future could lead to more worry and sleep deprivation. However, journaling about past activities shouldn’t cause worry. Another hypothesis is that writing down a list of tasks will help you to get rid of those worries and decrease your worry.
Researchers found that participants who made a list of things to do for the next day fell asleep on average nine minutes quicker than those who wrote lists about things already done.. The researchers also discovered that people who added more detail to their to do lists fell asleep 15 minutes quicker than the other groups.
Experts have shown that even though it may seem like a small amount, every little bit can make a difference in the fight against insomnia. Researchers at Oakland University recently discovered that even a few minutes of fun after work can help people fight insomnia.
