Can't Sleep? Do These 3 Things (How to Fall Asleep Better)

Did you know that in the USA the National Sleep Foundation reported that a whopping 60% of people have trouble sleeping and that number's only increasing? Are you one of those people? If so, don't worry about it because at the end of this video you're going to know exactly what to do. There are probably things that you do now that you might not even be aware of that affect how many hours of sleep and also equally as important that affect the quality of that sleep. My name is Sarah Jeffries, I'm a registered nurse here in Los Angeles, California with a Master's in Nursing and experience in ER education and sleep therapy. If you're here because you can't sleep, like I said, don't worry, you're not alone. The sleep deprivation era is here and there are a few huge reasons that you seem to be sleeping less. Now one of these reasons is technology. The National Sleep Foundation reported that 95% of people use an electronic gadget of some kind right before bed and we're not just talking about phones, this is TV, laptops, iPads, computer games are also included. Experts said that artificial light exposure between dusk and the time you go to bed at night suppresses the release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. Now this enhances your alertness and shifts the circadian rhythms to a later hour, making it more difficult to fall asleep. Now I'm not saying don't use gadgets, but if you want to get eight hours sleep, and you should want that, and you want to drift off to sleep quickly, you might want to think about not looking at a screen for the two hours before you intend to go to sleep. Around 60% of people in one study said they use their laptop or phone right before they go to bed and that number's probably a lot higher I'm guessing. Experts have also said that over the last 50 years we've seen how television viewing has grown to be a near constant before bed, which is obvious, just look at Netflix gross annual profits. Now you might think it doesn't affect you at all, but it actually does and there's data to back that up. A study published by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine reported that binge-watching leads to sleep deprivation and Netflix knows this. They know that they are up against sleep, they even tweeted, sleep is my biggest enemy. So don't let the big companies win, take back your sleep, take the control back, not the remote control, your self-control, and don't binge watch. Try and stay away from all technology at least two hours before you plan to go to sleep. Technology addiction is a major issue and it's affecting not only sleep but the mental health of so many people. A recent study from the American Journal of Addiction said that the risk of mental health and tech addiction has increased even more during the pandemic. One of the problems specifically related to technology and lack of sleep is the amount of people that leave their phone alerts on during the night. One in 10 people interviewed said that their phone woke them up during the night at times. One of the problems these days is that many people have online friends and they keep in touch with family all over the world. I can relate to this, I have brothers that live in Australia, so sometimes chats go on late at night and then you forget to switch your phone off and then bing goes a message, you look at it, there you go, bright light in your face. Another study said that younger ages were terrible at this and that's 72% of American kids aged 6 to 17 go to bed with their phone. What? What happened to going to bed with a teddy bear or a book? So turn off those alerts or even better, leave your phone in another room. My advice is simple, don't look at any electronic screens at least two hours before bedtime. I'm saying it again just to get it into your head. And if you're a kid, wise up, turn that stuff off and then parents also support and encourage this. Your teenagers need to learn about why it's bad to have technology in bed. Now let's just say you don't use electronic gadgets but you still can't sleep, you're not depressed or stressed, you just don't know what the problem is. Well it could be caffeine. Being aware of when you last drink with caffeine will definitely help. Once you've had your hit of you'll peak around 30 to 60 minutes later and then that buzz will drop off but the caffeine has a half-life of five to six hours meaning that the time it takes for your body to get rid of half the drug, not all of it, just half of it, so you'll still have some caffeine in your system for hours after that. One study said that the average daily consumption of caffeine by adults in the US is about 300 milligrams per person. This is about three times higher than the world average but it's still only half of the caffeine consumption from heavy tea drinkers in countries such as England and Sweden. I can agree to that. The main point is that you really shouldn't be consuming caffeine in the evening. You shouldn't be doing that at all and pay close attention to how much caffeine is in your last beverage of the day. For example, a regular cup of Tetley's has about 50 milligrams in it while a Starbucks blonde roast has a huge 450 milligrams in it. So work it out. The later in the day you have it and the more caffeine it contains, in five to six hours your body will still contain half of it inside you, circling around keeping those eyes wide open. If you are healthy and not suffering from some physical or mental disease, this might be the reason why you're not sleeping. It's really just simple advice to follow. Turning off your gadgets two hours before bed, not consuming caffeine at least six hours before bed and before I tell you the last thing, I'd love to know your experience with sleep and let me know in the comments down below. Disclaimer, this video is for educational purposes only and not a replacement for medical advice or treatment. The next thing that's probably keeping you awake is your diet. Studies tell us that late eaters might gain weight because you're hardly active when you're sleeping and another study said eating late at night gives people a higher chance of getting type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol levels. In fact, there isn't any positive information that encourages late night eating but it still doesn't stop a lot of us and it's impacting your sleep levels so much. So I'll give you a visual and tell me if it makes sense. Imagine somebody munching on a bag of Cheetos while drinking a can of coke and scrolling through Facebook and the bright phone is right next to your face before you're trying to go to sleep. It's exactly the same as trying to go to a nightclub to meditate. It sounds stupid but it's exactly the same and people do it, not the nightclub meditating thing. They're scrolling on Facebook and eating chemicals at night. It's bad for you. At night time, your digestive system will be so happy for the break. You'll get a blissful night's sleep and more importantly, a deep sleep and get some REM sleep. That's rabid eye movement. These sleep cycles should be happening often at night, roughly five times per every eight hours of sleep and studies have proven that late night eating actually prevents those sleep cycles from happening because your body's too busy trying to get rid of all of those processed junk foods that you've given it. So please try not to eat before you sleep and follow those simple tips that I've given you. If you want to know how to wake up feeling fresh, click here where I tell you what to do step by step.