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How
Being Mentally Active Can Lead To Better Sleep
Just as we need to be physically active to sleep well, we also
need to be mentally active.
Mental
exercise, like physical exercise,
has been shown to result in better sleep. To put it differently,
boredom or a lack of mental activity can reduce the need to
sleep and contribute to insomnia, just as a lack of physical
activity can.
Strong mental activity encourages improved sleep because it
is a positive stressor on the mind, and the brain will recuperate
from this activity and process it by sleeping more deeply.
My own experience and history with insomnia supports this.
For years, I've kept detailed sleep logs in which I record
what I did on a particular day and how I slept that night.
On days when I actively use my mind, such as when I learn
a new and difficult task, I tend to sleep better on those
nights. For example, see my puzzle story here. On days when
I'm a couch potato mentally and have my mind in neutral (TV
watching, Internet surfing), I tend to not sleep as well on
those nights. (As a result, I have eliminated "mentally
neutral" days as much as possible.)
When To Be Mentally Active
for Maximum Sleep Benefits
Just as with physical exercise, you should not be highly mentally
active right before bedtime. Unlike physical exercise, however,
you usually don't need several hours to calm down from mental
exercise. Probably about an hour is enough transition time
from mental exercise to going to bed.
While you should not be highly mentally active before bedtime,
this does not mean that you should be bored before bedtime.
Boredom creates anxiety and stress, and this can interfere
with falling asleep easily and staying asleep. Just before
bedtime, TV watching, reading, talking are acceptable as long
as they don't cause boredom or, on the flip side, excitement.
How To Stimulate Your
Brain
Anything that you do differently in your day will stimulate
your brain by causing it to work more to process the new information.
This will let you sleep better at night because your brain
will require more deep sleep to properly recuperate.
Here are some very simple ideas to get you started. With a
little effort you will surely be able to come up with many
of your own brain-stimulating ideas.
- Take
a different way to work than you normally do
- Talk
to new people
- Use
the opposite hand that you usually do for tasks such as
brushing your teeth, doing dishes, talking on telephone,
using the mouse and even writing.
- Go
somewhere new, such as a new store or restaurant -- and
the more different than what you are used to the better
- If
you have a certain routine that you follow every day, do
the routine in a different or reverse order.
- Do
an activity, big or small, that you've never done before
By doing
things differently than you normally do, you knock the dust
off much of your brain and force it to work hard, instead
of just going through the motions with ease. And a brain that
gets worked hard is a brain that sleeps well.
Not to mention that doing things differently will add some
spice & variety to your life.
Go ahead and do something differently today, no matter how
small just to get you started. And then do more different
things with each day. You don't really have anything to lose
except for sleepless nights.
Takes Mind Off Insomnia
Anxiety
People with insomnia often are preoccupied with it and worry
about it during the day. I personally used to just sit around
thinking and worrying about my sleep problems. This is the
temptation that must be resisted at all costs because obsessing
over insomnia will only feed it and make it worse.
By focusing on other things, such as doing things differently
or on the activities below, you at least partially move your
thoughts elsewhere in addition to increasing pressure on your
mind to sleep well. In other words, by focusing on healthy
mental (or physical) activities, you starve the thoughts and
worries that likely contribute to your poor sleep.
Activities To Exercise
Your Mind and Result in Better Sleep
In addition to doing things differently, here are some of
the most mentally demanding activities that a person can do.
They activities can, of course, also be fun and rewarding.
- Travel
-- find out why travel is possibly the best mental exercise
- Puzzles
-- find out how they helped me with insomnia
- Musical
instrument -- learning to play an instrument is
a highly rewarding way to strongly exercise many areas of
your brain
- Language
-- learning a new language will leave you mentally exhausted
(in a good way) and provide you with a potentially valuable
skill.
External
resources
Fi.edu
article
Washington
Post article
National
Institutes of Health article
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