Dr. Matt Walker

And I bring this up because it again trains your brain for expectation of that.

Anticipatory anxiety has a consequence on your sleep.

And everyone knows this.

Let's say that you've booked an early morning flight and you've got to wake up at 5 a.m.

when normally you wake up at 7 a.m.

two things will usually happen.

First, you know that you're just not going to sleep as deeply that night because you're on edge.

And this is for an interview or it's for a critical, like this is a non-negotiable trip that has to happen.

You've got to wake up.

The second thing is that when you are

expecting that wave of sort of a need to wake up.

And maybe it's just, I'm expecting the phone again.

You will wake up just a few minutes before your alarm.

It's stunning how many people will say, I had this big flight the next day.

And you almost know I'm going to wake up two minutes before my alarm goes off.

Why?

Because your brain has stayed in this shallow state of anticipatory anxiety and you don't get as much deep sleep.

And we've now demonstrated that.

We know this.

When you have that low level of anxiety, the depth of your deep sleep is not as deep.