Weird Tips to Improve Sleep | Try when nothing else works

Hey guys a quick video today for you on sleep. It's me David here and I Was inspired I got the idea to make this video about sleep because it seems a lot of people out there have problems getting to sleep at night and You know we there is a lot of advice out there in terms of how to sleep better But as you can see from the picture there, you know, this is sleep tips when nothing else works Maybe you know, you've got some thoughts going on in your head This is not really about the behavioral things. You know, the the tips you see that are kind of Things we all kind of know about okay, I'm gonna kind of talk about three Ways to approach maybe getting a better night's sleep that it are less well-known Okay, less well-known approaches because you know, not everyone needs most of us most people that can just change these obvious things and these obvious things will be Okay, here's captain obvious to spell them out for us turn off screens at night Reduce your coffee intake exercise a bit more and maybe change your diet a little bit. Okay, so not wrong in any of that advice It's all very true and it's something I would tell people to do as well But for some of us even if we try those things Doesn't always work. Okay, there is still sometimes a reluctance to Sleep or a difficulty in getting a good night's sleep Sometimes you might only get five six hours sleep and that might be a regular thing and then it can become kind of a problem Okay, so let's Look first at why this is important what happens to us very briefly What happens to us when we don't get enough sleep? Okay. So why is sleep important? Well, first of all, it's very closely related to your feelings your emotions. So if you're emotionally kind of you have kind of ups and downs When we have Reduced sleep or we're sleep deprived our emotions are very much More unstable or they're more erratic. We've less control over how we feel more erratic decision-making We're less focused. We have this thing tangential thinking we're thinking one thing and then we're off distracted by something else. Okay Sometimes we might be more defensive or we might get hurt more easily or we might feel angry More easily than we normally would if we had enough sleep. Okay, so this these are reasons why sleep is important okay, and obviously, you know a Reduced immune system if we don't get enough sleep, we might start to get sick or get more of colds and flus and things like that So another thing another way to look at it is when we don't sleep So what would happen and the reason this is why we know sleep is important is because as with a lot of things researchers look at the most extreme case of it and This was Randy Gardner and he is extreme because he is the world record holder for the longest person Or the longest time ever without sleep 11 days 27 minutes. How could you do personally? Maybe not that long? But what happened to him he became very very paranoid he had a lot of short-term Memory loss he had hallucinations things like that were happening to him. So Clearly, you know, that's an extreme case, but it does kind of show sleep is important for our feelings and our psychological health, right? Also, the last thing there is just to mention that in terms of extremes is that sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture So therefore we know how important it is. Okay, so We don't want to torture ourselves. So let's see if we can start getting to the bottom of this first of all Yeah, just final one other thing is it is important for your emotions You know this because deep relaxation is required when you sleep and your body becomes fully paralyzed Okay, so in certain deep sleep cycles your body literally is paralyzed or you can't move it at all So what's going on here is your past experiences and new experiences That you've had in the day are kind of been integrated your your mind is busy putting all this together and your emotional pain has been sort of processed and addressed and figured out and You know, you'll see this in in dreams dreams are often very Emotive a lot of emotions and dreams. Sometimes it can be very scary. Sometimes it can be very uplifting So that's kind of what's going on. So Let's look at maybe so let's say for instance if you've you have an issue with sleep and you've tried all the Things that you know how to try now. We need to look a little bit deeper. Okay, if there is something maybe going on, right and These are all sort of you don't believe these you could just I'm gonna outline what these problems are and give solutions to them You don't have to think do you believe these are true? You can just sort of see it as an experiment and try it if you want First one is why we resist sleep and this is in relation to the rebellious inner child that we all have, right? So when we're growing up as kids, okay We're told you have to go to bed or you have to get up go to school You have to have to have to have to so we're kind of we've no choice about that, right? so we repress this this is kind of frustrates us when we're younger and The it gets kind of buried in the back of our mind, okay and It comes out when we grow up. Okay, it comes out when we grow up The weird thing about this is um, you know, we resist sleep because you know You stay up late on our screens and we we don't go to bed when we know we should go to bed Okay, but the strange thing about this is really that Before any of this you have to go to bed stuff blah blah We were all sort of naturally very good sleepers. We do go to bed When it gets dark and we get up very very early Okay, so we're naturally good sleepers. It's just It's just one of those things. Okay that happens. So that's the first issue that could be that reluctant inner child that has you a Rebellious inner child that has you you know fight and sleep. Okay, because it's a past feeling that you had and you still have it So I know that sounds a bit out there But well, we'll come on to what you can do with that information if that is the case, maybe it is the case Okay, the second thing is why we resist sleep is worry. Okay, so worry is a big big one Overthinking sometimes people call it. The interesting thing is when you're worrying you're not actually thinking. Okay people make that mistake sometimes But it's more like something called rumination Where you just got thoughts going around and around in your mind all the time and you're not actually going anywhere with them Okay, it's just same images popping up same scenario pops up That's not really thinking Okay, so what happens then is you know, you're worried and then you're saying to yourself. Well, I have to sleep I have to sleep if I fall asleep now, I'll have six hours. Okay, so I better fall asleep now that kind of thinking goes on Okay, so that's the second one and we'll talk about how to address that as well And the last one we're going to talk about something I call the cycle of guilt. Okay This is for anyone out there who is into self-development and is trying to get up earlier and earlier They don't have a lot of time to play with they want to be super productive so how this works is I Have to get up early tomorrow. I have to I have to get up early tomorrow. This is what we tell ourselves and What happens is we sleep it, okay There might be a more a morning debate in her own head about should I get up? Should I start my day? Maybe I'll hit the snooze button, but there's this sort of debate going on right and it's psychologically draining debate So you stay in bed you feel guilty and Then what happens is you make more plans in order to Fix the problem. Okay, make more difficult demands of yourself. Okay, really what you're doing is you're making more promises that you might break Okay, some people might know what I'm talking about there with that. So if you if you recognize that cycle of guilt You know making plans to get up earlier not following through feeling more guilty Then we'll talk about the way to just a quite practical way to address that one. So let's delve into some of these so First thing you could do when it relates that rebellious inner child. The first thing we want to do is acknowledge the rebellious inner child You think you have to go to bed to this very day If you ask someone, you know, do you have to go to bed early? Do you have to get up early to say yes, I have to so it's still this this language Okay, that's outdated because you know, we're all in charge of our own lives. We're not children anymore So we do have complete control over that, right? I choose to I want to I like to I feel like going to bed at this time Okay, these are all far more empowering thoughts. So it's really just a change of language that can stop that old mentality. Okay? There may be consequences, you know, you can tell yourself. Am I really free to go to bed whenever I want? Sure, you are there are consequences to some of those choices, but it always it's always true that you are in charge Second one we talked about was this idea of worrying So don't force sleep. Okay, that's the solution there. Don't force sleep. So only fall asleep once That's a very practical piece of advice. I heard a while ago and it's basically Sometimes people come home. They they want to get to sleep early. They might put their head down When they're on the couch and they fall asleep for half an hour and then really have to wake up and Later on they go to bed and when they're in bed, they realize they can't sleep So what's actually happening there is it takes it taxes your body every time your body puts you to sleep It has to release melatonin to knock you out Right, so you only want to your body to have to do that once because it have if it if it has to do it more than once Your body's getting a signal. Okay, we tried before but this guy Doesn't really want to go to sleep right now. Okay, so Only fall asleep once that means you look at your things like your sleep sleep hygiene You come home and you start to relax immediately Make yourself comfortable and as soon as you start getting that sleepy feeling you want to be near your bed and ready to go to Sleep whenever it hits you. Okay, so only fall asleep once and What we want to do is to avoid We want to allow sleep to chase you and not the other way around if you like So if you're not tired Right, you have alternatives to worry First thing you could do is you know, you don't want to sit there just worrying ruminating about tomorrow, right? So you can either relax do something that you enjoy or you can actually and here's something a lot of people do But it is an option. It's to do something productive until Feeling sleepy, of course, you can also do things like mindfulness. You can meditate and all those things and I Would probably start there to be honest rather than jumping into product productive work But if you have done that and you still can't sleep and you feel okay emotionally maybe use your time Okay to do something. Maybe not too energetic. Okay? The last one then guys I'm gonna talk about is remember cycle of guilt that issue Don't make big promises in terms of changing your behavior That's the approach. Okay. Now, here's something else something very practical you can do with that is When we're trying to beat the alarm clock all the time, we're saying okay. I have to set the alarm clock early tomorrow So we're always talking about how early we can set the alarm clock and then fail at the follow-through with it, right? So what you do instead is you reverse it completely and you set your alarm for the latest possible time not the earliest Okay, what you're gonna do with that is it takes out all the second-guessing out of rising. Okay so you set it at the very latest time that you know, you can be on time for your your work or college or wherever it is and At that point you wake up and you either go or you're late or there's no debate about it anymore It's this debate in your head that takes out the mental energy away from you Okay So it gives you also this approach gives you more time to sleep and if you wake up any earlier than that and the late Time when your alarm will go off. That's a bonus. You've got some more time there. Okay, so it's a win-win situation You want to avoid feeling guilty for sleeping too much? Okay, so if you set goals with this in terms of when you when you wake up Set very easy goals achievable goals. Okay, don't go from someone who wakes up if you're Say you're you're working late. Okay You might wake up at 11 in the morning. Okay, don't become someone who's gonna wake up at 7 in the morning Okay overnight just gradually you would wind that back So I think that's it guys they are three sort of Approaches that are more based around your psychology or your mindset less. So the behavioral ones But bear the mind try the behavioral ones first, you know the screen time the caffeine all that stuff and then maybe try a few of these approaches as well and Hopefully that will help With any sleep issues you might have Guys thanks a million and I will talk to you again soon