Dr. Matt Walker

I would always say that I'm not trained to be a medical doctor.

Any advice that I give is simply scientifically descriptive advice.

It's not medically prescriptive nor lifestyle prescriptive advice.

So I think many people may have heard of some of the conventional, but what about the unconventional?

I would probably offer five or six.

the first one i would say is that if you are struggling with sleep and you have had a bad night of sleep the first recommendation is do nothing and what i mean by that is if you've had a bad night of sleep you're awake for three hours do not sleep in any later into the morning do not go to bed any earlier

Do not increase your caffeine intake to try to offset it and do not nap during the day.

Why am I telling you those things?

If you wake up later that following morning, your adenosine clock that we spoke about, this building up of sleepiness that happens when we wake up,

is going to start later in the day.

So when it comes time for you to fall asleep at what would then be the next night at your normal time, you're not going to feel as sleepy.

Why?

Because you woke up that much later and you're setting yourself up for failure again.

Equally, don't go to bed any earlier.

If you have become accustomed and your brain has and your circadian clock has become accustomed to going to bed at a certain time and hopefully you're doing it regularly,

Then getting into bed two or three hours early has the danger.

It's not a certainty, but a danger of you then getting into bed and thinking, well, I know I had a bad night of sleep last night, but I still can't fall asleep straight away.

So now you're spending another 90 minutes in bed at the beginning because you've gone to bed 90 minutes earlier thinking it's a good idea to compensate.

Don't do that either.

Hold out even if you do feel tired.