8 Reasons Your Sleep Sucks

Fixing your sleep will have the biggest positive impact on your mental health.

When you don't get enough sleep, the brain doesn't work right. Impact includes everything from executive functioning, emotional regulation, and social functioning.

To avoid that downward spiral of negative effects from poor sleep, I'm going to give you some ways to improve sleep quality and show you how to sleep when you can't.

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[sylvester]

Thank god, a perfect video at 3.37 AM

[susanhills]

My problem is the opposite! I keep sleeping to escape feelings of depression and emotions connected to a traumatic event.Its like my brain connects my reality and being awake to my traumatic experience....

[CarolRitchie-dtwb]

I've had to switch off utube lol. The problem is there are so many topics I am interested in, but staying awake until 2.00 am and surviving on 5 hours sleep is madness. Hoping this will help with low mood and low energy levels

[RussellStovetop]

I am forcing myself to get up with an alarm...sucks finally falling asleep at 5am to wake up at 7am.
Depression and anxiety are life wreckers.

[placebo]

Major reasons my sleep sucks: I live in the UK where building standards are non-existent, they call dry wall and wooden floor as a house = It's not enough that I can hear my flatmates, I can even feel the tremors when my flatmate next to me is walking in his room. Sometimes I can hear the neighbours talking in their own "house".
I can't afford to live in a normal flat, here the windows are not double glazed = noise af
My mattress is bad. I only had a good mattress in one flat only.
The places where I lived were either very hot or very cold and it wasn't down to me to control the temperature.
In many places I couldn't leave the window open because of the noisy neighbours, in the countryside, because of the giant spiders
I am an early riser, but it seems like I am the only one wherever I go, that means most people would go to bed at 12 or 2 am, which means I either stay up or they wake me up because nobody seems to know what the door knob's purpuse is.
I think I need to invest in a floatation tank to sleep well.

[wordsofnonwisdom]

I think another thing that helps; Productivity. When I have really off days it perpetuates a bad sleep cycle

[incaffeine]

One of my positive self care acts is focusing on being in bed, under the covers by 9PM. Even if I'm in the middle of something, I shoot to make it in bed at 9PM. Knowing what I'm doing for myself, helps me fall asleep and get a good night's sleep.

[MarianneMcVeigh-xzyv]

Thank you for your video Dr Scott. Last night I woke up at 1am to go to the loo then was wide awake until 6am then slept from 6-8am. All the things I planned to do today while I was awake thinking of them in the night didn't get done because I was so tired!!! I have become an insomniac since I had Covid. I will try meditation again each night. I'm so

[annwe]

I've been diagnosed with CPTSD and have suffered from insomnia for over 30 years. I've used/depended on various prescribed and OTC sleep aids in that time. I'm currently in a good space. Below are the tips mentioned in the video in conjunction with my own. 9-12 are my personal recommendations. Hope this helps.

1. Set a Sleep Schedule: My 8 hour sleep window is 10PM to 6AM. If I go over the window I miss a sleep cycle which makes more difficult to fall asleep.

2. Wind Down Time: My wind down time begins at 9PM. I get ready for bed (brush teeth, etc.) and then I read and/or meditate. No screen or phone time after 9Pm except for my favorite meditation app (Insight Timer).

3. De-Stress: Try worry journaling, deep breathing, relaxation practices, aromatherapy calming sounds, spiritual practices. Worry journaling: sometimes worries prevent sleep or wake us up. Keep a notepad by the bed to jot down worries so your brain can let them go.

4. Keep a Quiet Environment: Use earplugs or white noise from a fan or white noise app.

5. Keep a Dark Sleep Environment: Use eye mask or blackout curtains.

6. Limit Caffeine. Use caffeine only in the first 4 hours of your day or abstain altogether.

7. Limit or Abstain From Alcohol. You may sleep okay with alcohol in your system but it disturbs sleep quality and can prevent deep sleep. It can also negatively impact mental health in general.

8. Exercise. Exercise can help with restlessness at night. A neighborhood walk counts. Strenuous exercise best not done right before bed.

9. CBT-I: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. One of the most successful programs to treat insomnia. It’s tough but it works. Check out the free Insomnia Coach app by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

10. Sleep is a State of Mind. Over the years (and it did take years) I’ve been able to train my mind to switch off simply by switching from verbal thoughts to image thoughts. When I find my mind racing, I try to visualize myself doing physical things – yoga, walking in the woods, fantasizing about travel, romance, etc. It doesn’t work if my mind is over wired, but I’ve gradually been able to improve my ability to change my thinking patterns away from ruminating and mental drivel to gentle images that ease me into sleep.

11. Meditation app: Insight Timer has a slew of free meditations. I have a playlist of simple ones that I use for my 2/3AM wake ups. Sometimes I’ll listen to a couple.

12. Sleep Aids: Valerian and melatonin. I’m currently down to half a 1mg melatonin lozenge to fall asleep and the second half when I inevitably wake up at 2/3AM. Valerian works on GABA receptors.

13. Supplements: Magnesium Threonate.

[dontpanicchild]

This is such a great video and a reminder. I've stopped drinking coffee after 2pm and haven't noticed difference in my sleep. I'm thinking I really need to cut it way back. And the schedule and routine is so hard but I really wanna improve this. Don't remember the last time I woke up and felt like I slept well.

[secretsquirrelaimee]

Im a 2 hour sleep/waker. Its so annoying. Im exhausted by noon when im up at 4 or 6. Not getting what I need and dont know how to fix it.

[gmaneis]

Wow. This could be life-changing! I'm doing so many of those things all wrong. I don't drink alcohol, but everything else you talked about fits me perfectly, and I suspect that's true of a majority of human beings. Thank you so much!

[mtnshelby]

Excellent video thank you. For years I was afraid of night sleep because of insomnia. I have been following the wind down to sleep schedule for a few weeks now and for the past two nights as wind down time approached I actually looked forward to going to sleep. That was a huge step forward.

[CynLeeAm]

My sleep sucks due to fibromyalgia and I have zero clue how to fix it. Fibromyalgia is one condition that causes shallow sleep kind of like sleep apnea does. I am so fatigued from it constantly that I even fall asleep sitting up, during the day(which I despise), while chugging coffee even lol then the pain and stiffness can ironically cause insomnia at night. It doesn't help that I also have RA which causes fatigue as well and it's so hard to treat all of that. No amount of sleep fixes it, but sleeping a good 10 hours instead of 8 helps a little. I'm actually looking forward to winter just because I'll have more darkness in order to sleep longer. 😂😴

[KM-wvog]

Suggestion for a video... you have beautifully articulated the benefits of phisical exercise for mental health .... but, with regard to this video, I wonder if you could do a little bit of research about practises like Qigong and Yin yoga? I would love you to do a video on this because I think it would encourage all of us to practice physical exercises that specifically take energy (Rumination, anxiety and overthinking) away from the head and route it down into the lower chakras. These practises also have a huge calming and stabilising effect on the nervous system. ❤❤❤

[Mark-yzv]

My anxiety has me in a weird place. When I get a good night's sleep (like last night), I'm EXHAUSTED the next day (like today). When I only get a few hours, I'm energetic the next day because I'm full of panic! I think if I string together enough good nights, my energy levels will normalize, but that's easier said than done. Ugh. Fun times.

[arachnophoebe]

Man, everything you talk about resonates SO MUCH with me. Thank you; you're awesome! 🇨🇦🖖

[TheUnknownUsername]

I have been waiting on this video from you. Lmao almost like you answered my prayers. Thank you again. You’re a hero.

[EB-gtpq]

I took a Lunesta, magnesium, and a melatonin, and I still slept zero hours

[BrendaNeedle]

My Dr. put me on Remeron. It's not a narcotic, it's for for depression, but the off label benefit is: I fall asleep within a half hr. And I sleep all night 🌙