Expert Warns ‘Sleep Hygiene’ Solutions Including Sleepy Tea Are Making Things Worse For Poor Sleepers

Pillow sprays, “sleepy tea,” and mindfulness are being marketed as the answers to sleeping better at night.

But poor sleepers should beware, because these “sleep hygiene” solutions are likely to make their problem worse, an expert warned.

People who fixate too much on their bedroom routine, with tricks like chamomile tea, a pillow spray, a bath before bed, blackout curtains and yoga, can become too “vigilant” when it comes to sleep, according to insomnia expert Kathryn Pinkham, a former psychologist with the Public Health Service. .

It might be better to try a technique to “retrain” the biological clock by spending less time awake in bed and going to bed later, to increase the body’s “hunger” for sleep.

Speaking at the Postcards from Midlife Live event in London, Ms Pinkham said: ‘Most of the people who come to me have tried everything – that’s what they’ll say – they’ve bought everything, they’ve changed everything, they’ve read everything, and they’re still asleep still not good.

“When you think about the formula where sleep problems come from, the more you do to make it better, the worse it gets, because you’re just trying too hard.

‘Sleep hygiene is things like quitting caffeine, blackout blinds, quitting alcohol.

“None of that is bad advice, but it’s not a cure for poor sleep.”

She added, “You have a long winding down routine where I have to take a bath, I have to do my hour of yoga, I have to have a sleepy tea and I’m going to listen to my attention.”

“Actually, you’re just there creating a really long routine (up) of not sleeping.”

The sleep expert, founder of The Insomnia Clinic, advises people against using digital sleep trackers if they’re concerned about being a poor sleeper, as this is just another example of “micromanaging” sleep.

Describing how people usually react to just a few nights of poor sleep, she said, “We google it. The first thing we’d probably do is go to bed earlier, maybe buy a sleep tea, maybe a spray for our pillow.’

On the effect of this approach to sleep, she added: ‘We go from having a sleep pattern that works, a biological clock that understands what to do, to just suddenly being very vigilant about something that we really can’t really interfere with. much or the worse it gets.’

People need to change their relationship with their bed so that they don’t lie for hours when they can’t sleep, the expert said.

The sleep expert advises people who don’t want to worry about their fears at night to make time to think about them and maybe write them down.

Most people wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. and it’s unclear why these times are so common, but the advice for people who have woken up frustrated and anxious is to leave the bedroom, perhaps to read a book or watch television before returning when they feel tired again.

Ms Pinkham said: ‘Instead of laying in bed desperately trying to calm down and feeling so worked up and stressed, just forget about it.

“Give up the fight, get out of bed, go do something else.”

Rather than getting poor sleepers to go to bed earlier, the Insomnia Clinic advises them to increase their “sleep drive” — the desire to sleep that gets stronger during the day — by using a short-term sleep deprivation that slows down their biological clock. should reset.

Ms Pinkham said: ‘An example of sleep scheduling would be if someone goes to bed at 10, they get up at 6 for school and work, but they only get six hours of sleep within that period. – maybe even broken, maybe not all at once – what I would say is that you can only get six hours of sleep at this point.

“So the two hours you’re in bed is the problem — that’s the insomnia.

“So what I’m going to suggest is you can only get six hours right now, so instead we’re going to shorten your sleep window to six hours.”

“So, for example, you don’t go to bed at midnight, and you’re going to set your alarm for six.

“So now if you get out of bed at six, you have an extra two hours to create a much higher sleep drive.”

The theory is that people can train their biological clock like we do with young children who don’t have a sleep pattern until it’s learned.

And instead of lying in bed sleepless, people can use the extra time before going to bed at night to get ahead on their to-do list or devote more time to a hobby.

The sleep expert also advises people who don’t want to worry about their fears at night to make time to think about them during the day and perhaps write them down.

She says people need to be realistic about the prospect that they won’t sleep perfectly every night.

And they shouldn’t overcomplicate things with sleep hygiene techniques, with Ms Pinkham concluding: ‘If you don’t really enjoy yoga before bed, but you do it for the sake of sleep, let’s stop doing that.

“If you don’t like chamomile tea, we’re going to get rid of it.

“A lot is about actually wiping the slate clean.”