Dr. Matt Walker

So I think it's an intriguing idea and interesting.

I think another tip that I now think of, which also comes from the work of Dr. Alison Harvey, when individuals come up to me after sort of public events or they see me at the airport, they'll say, look, every night for some strange reason at 2.45 a.m.

I wake up and it happens three or four nights a week.

My first question to them is, how do you know it's 2.45?

and they say well i look at the clock or i look at my phone best piece of advice next remove all clock faces from the bedroom no matter how bad your sleep is going to be that night knowing what time it is is only going to make matters worse it is not going to make matters any better

And that can create an anxiety trigger that you think it's 2.45 and then you're tossing and turning.

You look back at the clock and now it's 3.14 AM.

And you think I've got to be awake at six.

I've got that big meeting and now it's 5.25.

Don't do that to yourself.

And I, even though I don't typically struggle with sleep, I have no clock faces in my bedroom.

The phone that I use to help do the guided meditation is an old phone, and it has only Wi-Fi connectivity and nothing else on it.

And I will only hit play, and then I will never turn it around.

I will not look at the clock face.

It just doesn't help me.

Well, I think it's a very important point.

And we've done some work in this area, too.

What that phone does is create a low level of anxiety.

It's what we call anticipatory anxiety.

One of the mechanisms separate from that, well, it's related to that.