Dr. Matt Walker

You can have a hot water bottle at the end of the bed.

That's great too, but the ambient must be cold.

the fourth piece of advice is walk it out and here what i mean is do not stay in bed for long periods of time awake and i think we mentioned this perhaps in the first episode too when you are awake in your bed for long stretches of time because your brain is an incredibly associative device

it will quickly learn that this thing called my bed is the place where I'm awake and not asleep.

And what you need to do is break that association.

If you've learned that time and time again because you've stayed in bed and the rule of thumb, and it's just a rule,

a rule of thumb about 20 25 minutes if you can't fall back asleep or you can't fall asleep it's okay just say tonight is not my night it's not a problem it's tomorrow is not completely shot it's fine

i'm just going to get up get out of bed if you can if you're lucky enough try to go to a different room and in dim light read a book listen to a podcast whatever it is that relaxes you just do that don't check email don't eat because if you start eating that again trains your brain to start waking up and feeding at that time

And only return to bed when you are sleepy.

And there is no time limit for that.

I don't want you to come back after half an hour when you are still awake and not feeling sleepy enough.

Why?

Because you're going to get back into bed and be in the same problem again.

And gradually, if you do this, and it's hard to do it, you will relearn the association that you had, I'm sure, as a child, which is that your bed is this place of sleepiness.

Because often people will be saying, I feel so tired in the evening.

And then they get into bed and they say, but now I can't fall asleep at all.

And I don't understand it.

In part, it's because of that learned association.

So that would be the fourth tip.

The fifth tip makes me even more unpopular as a personality and character, which is try to be mindful of your alcohol and caffeine.