That I was reading a book that wasn't exactly a page-turner was key, Castriotta said. Reading can put your brain in a passive mode, so you can fall asleep before these thoughts fire up. Once these hormones kick in, your body may lapse into a fight-or-flight mode, making sleep hard to come by. Castriotta noted that this type of thinking can produce adrenaline and cortisol (the latter has been nicknamed “the stress hormone”). “The brain can become passive, which is ideal for falling asleep.”Ī common problem among people who experience insomnia, myself included, is the sensation of racing or anxious thoughts. “What happens is this: When you are reading (so long as you’re not reading something that gets you riled up), your mind focuses on the content, rather than on other thoughts that could be arousing or aggravating,” explained Castriotta. I wondered: Was reading actually helping me sleep? Or was it merely the elimination of screens? Was it both? When the alarm went off in the morning, I wasn’t particularly thrilled, but the task of getting up didn’t seem quite so impossible. I was falling asleep faster than normal and without much of the typical tossing and turning. Within a few days, the difference was clear. That way I could still grab it when the alarm went off, but it wouldn’t be within reach of my reflex-happy arm. I realized that in order for this to work, I had to relocate my phone from the nightstand to the floor. I kept setting the book down almost inadvertently and reaching for the phone. So I decided to give it a shot: I’d forego the screens and opt for the once beloved and until recently, totally forgotten pastime of reading a physical book at bedtime. I started reading the book (the same big lug, an autobiography that let’s just say was on the drier side), and bam! Out like a not-so-blue light. My sleep life had been sucky for years, and though I’d caught glimpses of news articles claiming that blue light (the type of light emitted from most electronic devices) can cast evil spells on your brain, I figured that since I’d been having insomnia long before I owned a smartphone (I was 33, a smartphone owner for 6 years, and an insomnia suffer for at least 15) - the smartphone wasn’t a factor.īut then it happened another night about a week later. I called it a fluke and carried on with my nighttime iPhone and iPad usage. I was … what was this feeling … I was rested?
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