How To Fall Asleep Quickly & Sleep The Entire Night

I've rounded up the most common sleep questions that I've gotten from my patients and I'm breaking them down one by one for you huge thanks to eight sleep for sponsoring this video how long should it take you to fall asleep 10 to 20 minutes on average I know that was a quick answer but the amount of time it takes to fall asleep is called Sleep latency actually if you just close your eyes and pass out immediately that might be a sign of sleep deprivation on the other hand if you often lie awake for 45 minutes

or longer before falling asleep it could point to a sleep disorder worth discussing with your doctor usually called insomnia I said usually because it's completely normal to fall asleep quickly sometimes or to occasionally have trouble falling asleep so don't get too worried unless a pattern emerges is a full tummy good for Sleep nope eating a big meal close to bedtime is more likely to hurt sleep then help it and I know like in cartoons they're always like oh I need a big glass of milk and some bread to fall asleep no indulge Ing and then

lying down is a recipe for getting heartburn all the acid that's secreted can actually come up and then end up burning your esophagus causing that terrible terrible heartburn pain right in the center of your chest the best thing to do is have a normal-sized dinner at least 2 to 3 hours before bed and consider that your last meal of the day you're starving later on which sometimes happens to me need a nighttime snack keep it small and sleep friendly remember you want to avoid caffeine spicy foods and alcohol is exercise is helpful or hurtful for

sleep it's absolutely helpful in fact research has linked sweating it out to snoozing well over and over and over if you're having trouble with sleep and you're not working out regularly starting an exercise regimen might be one of the most effective things you can do for improving your sleep getting more sleep overall getting more deep sleep feeling more refreshed when you wake up all these things are huge I would try and stay away from late night high-intensity exercise if you can but in general late night exercise is probably still better than no exercise at all

what's the best sleep position I'm a sid sleeper at heart but there's no one position that's going to be best across the board it really depends on your individual preferences and health concerns now if you don't have any relevant health issues experts will say that they recommend back sleeping because it helps keep your head neck spine hips aligned and therefore reduces pressure on your back and while this isn't a health thing exactly back sleeping puts the least wear and tear on your face people don't think about that but facial skin is delicate so the less

you push your face into your pillow the better it is for wrinkles and such oh oh and if you have sleep apnea or you snore back sleeping is the worst because what happens is gravity actually makes it easier for your tongue to fall back into your mouth or for your Airway to fully relax and therefore get obstruct it as for the worst position probably lying face down is like the worst ranking one cuz it puts the motion strain on your back on your neck on your face but some experts say that it's not terrible as

long as you're comfortable and you're sleeping the full number of hours something that I never knew and I actually found out while I was doing some sleep research is that how you sleep can actually influence your dreams how often you dream whether or not you remember your dreams and what you actually dream about one study found that people who sleep face down report more frequent erotic dreams pressure I don't know is sleep sleeping naked healthy sure in most cases it's probably fine if you prefer sleeping naked cuz you feel cooler or for some other reason

you just enjoy go for it and if you don't find sleeping in the nude comfortable there are other ways to stay cool wearing light breathable clothing like bamboo pajamas might be just as effective as wearing nothing when it comes to temperature regulation direct skinto sheet contact could potentially expose you to things like bacteria dust smites or anything else in your bedding so if you have sensitive skin or severe allergies that might be something that think about and maybe go for the pajamas does temperature really matter yeah at least to some degree personal preference factors in

here obviously and I'm very biased some people might be able to fall asleep easily whether it's hot cold or somewhere in between While others might need the temperature to be just right and not everyone will agree on what just right means in fact if you've ever had a a partner sleep with you you've probably argued about the thermostat once or twice before look studies aren't perfectly consistent on the matter but experts often sight between 60 to 68° as the right range for most people generally speaking too hot is a bigger problem than too cold your

core body temperature is supposed to drop while you're asleep and if your bedroom is really hot that can interfere with the natural cooling down process a hot sleep environment has actually been linked to poor sleep so many times in various ways and it's not just that it's harder to fall asleep in the steam your bedroom it's harder to stay asleep as well in one study people with insomnia went to bed wearing these cooling caps to help lower their brain temperature and then were able to fall asleep even faster than people without diagnosed sleep problems back

to the questions in just a second but first I want to talk to you about eight sleep whose pod technology can be added to your existing mattress to cool you down or warm up each side of your bed when it comes to sleep there are so many factors that are out of your control life stressors fussy pets a partner who snores like guess sometimes that's me that's why I like the eight sleep pod which gives me the ability to fine-tune my sleep setup you can actually add the pad to a beded mattress you're already own

so no new mattress or bed frame needed once it's in place you can cool down each side of the bed to 20° below room temperature nothing ruins my night's sleep more than being hot sweating into the sheets with the Pod 4 that's no longer a concern for me the Pod 4 ultra also comes with an adjustable base that gives me flexibility with how I want to sleep whether that's completely flat or maybe I want my head or feet raised a bit to take some pressure off an overworked part of my body and while I can

control all this with the app on my phone I can also control the bed by simply tapping it and on top of that the Pod 4 has an alarm feature that can wake you up by vibrating your side of the bed Noise free to stop the alarm all I have to do is tap the side of the bed so I can make my bed space completely phone free I've said time and time again how a cell phone near the bed is poison to Quality rest studies on the tech within the Pod 4 have shown it

increases Total Sleep Time the time you're enjoying deep sleep and reduces the time you wake up in the middle of the night click the link in the description and use code Dr Mike remember drct is spelled out to get $350 off pod 4 ultra all right let's get back to those questions should I let my dog sleep in bed with me there's probably a good chance you're already doing this I mean I've done this humans have been sleeping alongside their pets for centuries and up to half of Americans kids and adults regularly co-sleep with their

fur babies you could find experts on both sides of this debate and the evidence is pretty mixed so far one study from a few years ago found that dogs slept just wonderfully in their owner's beds the owner slept okay too but slightly better when their dogs were in their bedrooms rather than curled up right next to them in another study people who let their dogs into bed tended to report poor sleep but cats didn't have that same negative impact my general guidance on This falls into three areas area one dogs are hotter than humans it's

going to make it hard to sleep dogs move around a lot when they sleep they even uh have those like little shakes while they're dreaming three dogs are dirty dogs go outside they run around if you don't wipe their paws they can bring that into your bed and that's going to be on your skin might end up on your face problems probably not a great thing to have in bed but if you do I don't blame you is a sleep divorce a valid strategy a sleep divorce just means sleeping in separate beds usually rooms as

well in one 2023 survey about onethird of people actually said they were occasionally or regularly sleeping divorc from their Partners if you sleep better alone or splitting up at night helps with other aspects of your personal well-being or your relationship there's no shame in trying it or doing it all the time even if you feel weird about sleep divorcing for any reason talking to a therapist might be a good idea or if you want to try it out but are worried about the potential impact on your relationship a couple's therapist could be a good neutral

party to help you navigate the decision Studies have specifically found that how couples sleep can influence their relationship satisfaction one or more Partners not getting enough shut eye has been linked to more arguing and trouble reading each other's emotions does different fabric give better sleep look the main job of your bedding is to help your body maintain a good temperature for Sleep remember the goal is to help you sleep cool and while there's not a ton of published research on this topic the emphasis tend to be on which material helps you stay cool rather than

hot blankets and sheets made from natural fibers like cotton linen and bamboo are typically more breathable so they'll help keep you cooler than synthetic materials will synthetic materials really like stick on and block good circulation of air and as a result you get more sweating in one study actually 100% cotton sheets prove to stay cooler and derrier than sheets made from cotton synthetic Blends another study found that people slept better in the heat when they use linen sheets so I think non-synthetic is the way to go when it comes to cotton sheets in particular people

talk about thread count a lot I didn't even know what that meant this has more to do with luxury marketing more than it has to do with sleep health because High thread count sheets cost more cuz they feel silkier but doesn't mean better sleep in fact there's some debate over whether lower thread count cotton sheets might sleep a bit cooler which would be better better what's the deal with sleep medications I tend to not like using sleep medications long term unless it's specifically necessary prescription sleep drugs which are also known as Z drugs they're like

hypnotic sedatives ambian you may have heard of them before those drugs work well to knock you out cuz they're sedative but they don't do a great job at helping you stay asleep and usually people are struggling to fall asleep for a reason that we can address and therefore we might not even need that medication ation which can build up a tolerance a dependence all that stuff then on top of it people use over-the-counter things vadil zil those medicines can also cause some problems cuz they cause residual drowsiness the next day they could also put you

in a position where you feel like you need them to fall asleep and longterm there's been some preliminary linkages to brain issues like especially in the older population so I tend to not use them unless it's just like really shortterm a lot of people ask me about melatonin melatonin is really an overthe counter that's not a sedative but it's to reset your circadian cycle so when my patients are traveling and they have jet lag you could use melatonin to reset your sleep schedule but you just got to be careful cuz some of the dosages in

these over-the-counter treatments are just absolutely absurd like way too high and too many kids are taking melatonin cuz they think it's natural remember natural doesn't always mean safe what's the longest someone has gone without sleep the on the books record is 18 days in 21 hours which was set by Robert Mcdonald in 1986 in fact the guest book of world records stopped recognizing longest time awake in 1997 because there's just so many dangers associated with sleep deprivation there's actually all sorts of dangerous Guinness World Records that are on the books click here to see me

reacting to them and as always stay happy and healthy