How to Quiet Your Mind (and Body) for Better Sleep

“I just don’t need that much sleep,” declare many of my patients. “I really do fine on five or six hours a night.”

Biology, however, tells a different story. A large body of research has demonstrated that most people really do need at least seven hours of sleep to function well.

Consider this: Someone who has been awake for 17 to 19 hours has the same level of cognitive performance as a person who has consumed three alcoholic drinks, according to research. This means that if you wake at 7 a.m. and your cognitive function is measured after midnight when you’re stone-cold sober, it will be roughly the same as the function of someone with a blood alcohol level of .05%. That’s above the legal limit to drive in Utah and a hair’s breadth away from the limit in all other states.

These exhaustion-induced cognitive deficits may be subtle — small things you chalk up to distractions, like decreased speed on tasks, mispronouncing a word, or sending an email to the wrong person. When you’re well-rested, though, these mistakes tend to decrease.

The harms of poor sleep extend far beyond the brain. People who get less than seven hours of sleep nightly have higher rates of weight gain, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and poorer immune function than do their well-rested peers.

Decreased sleep tells your body that it needs to conserve energy, so it slows your metabolic rate. Too little sleep increases ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and spikes your appetite for energy-dense foods that are higher in fat, sugar, and calories. Lack of sleep stimulates the release of our primary stress hormone, cortisol, and increases inflammation, which can also make it harder to sleep.

Sleep is a critical support beam in the architecture of health, but there are many wrecking balls that, if untethered, threaten to knock it down. There is enormous societal pressure to pack as much productivity as possible into each day, and these obligations often impinge on sleep. Even when you turn in at the appointed time, you may find various barriers pop up and stand in the way of falling and staying asleep.

Anyone who’s passed a restless night in bed knows that the more you chase sleep, the harder it is to find. Sometimes, solving your sleep problems entails doing less, not more. It involves letting go of what ties you to wakefulness. 

After a long day of activity, our revved-up bodies and minds tend to become really noisy, whether from physical pain and discomfort, mental and emotional strain, or a combination of both. When we lie down to sleep, we are often bombarded with a symphony of needs. By identifying these needs, you can take steps to address them and quiet the mind and body before bedtime.

What Contributes to “Body Noise?”

• Caffeine. The classic enemy of sleep, caffeine is found not just in coffee, tea, energy drinks, and some soft drinks, it’s also found in certain medications (like Excedrin Migraine) and foods like chocolate.
• Nicotine. Like caffeine, nicotine is a stimulant that often impairs sleep, regardless of its source from cigarettes, vape pens, gum, or patches.
• Alcohol. As a sedative, alcohol may initially make you sleepy, but it interrupts sleep in a variety of ways. It causes sleep fragmentation, increases your stress hormones later in the night, suppresses REM sleep, and exacerbates nighttime airway issues and nighttime urination. 
• Medications. Many medications have the potential to impact your sleep. These include over-the-counter medications, such as decongestants and antihistamines, as well as common prescription medications such as corticosteroids (like prednisone), stimulants for ADHD, asthma medications, thyroid hormones, and dozens more.
• Sleep apnea. This is a sleep disorder in which your breathing stops and starts again many times during the night — often without you noticing. A common symptom of sleep apnea is loud, chronic snoring, but not all people with sleep apnea snore.
• Illness or pain. Common sources of nighttime pain and discomfort include acid reflux, stomach pain (from eating late or from spicy foods), restless legs syndrome, perimenopausal hot flashes, and musculoskeletal pain.

If body noise is disrupting your sleep, it’s important to talk with your doctor about your medications, pain, substance use, potential sleep apnea, and illnesses, particularly if you notice excessive daytime sleepiness without other explanations.

What Contributes to “Mind Noise?”

• Habits
  • Late bedtime. If your circadian rhythms are not aligned with your work or family schedule, late bedtimes followed by early awakenings may mean short sleep duration. 
  • Inconsistent bedtime. The number of hours you sleep each night is important, but so is the consistency of your sleep patterns. Research has found that keeping an irregular sleep schedule (even when it includes some nights with adequate sleep) disrupts your body’s natural rhythm and has harmful health effects.
  • Sleep space distractions. Is your room dark, quiet, and cool? Will it remain that way throughout the night, or are there things in your environment that may cause you to wake, including frequent street noise, a partner’s snores, or your phone notifications? If yes, try white noise or earplugs.
  • Bedtime technology use. The lights on our devices can impact our circadian rhythms, and our activities on them can stimulate our mind when we are trying to wind down.

Addressing these unhelpful habits can drastically improve your sleep hygiene — the practice of developing patterns that promote and support good sleep. Your health care team and online resources and apps can help you build new habits that promote sleep.

• Thoughts
  • “What if” thoughts that worry you
  • Rumination about past events
  • Problem-solving or planning future action
  • Anxiety about being unable to sleep

If you are kept awake by intrusive or otherwise sticky thoughts such as those above, therapy may also be appropriate and productive. 

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi) is an evidence-based approach that effectively addresses many of these challenges and provides techniques for improving your sleep hygiene. Meditation, both before bed and during the day, can also be enormously helpful. Many people are able to readjust late circadian rhythms by a gradual process of moving bedtime earlier and ensuring enough light exposure and activity level during the day. 

There are many steps you can take to turn down the dial on the noise that’s keeping you awake. 

The first one is to give yourself permission to rest. Know that it's OK to protect your sleep. It's OK to sometimes say “no” to events or commitments because they’ll interfere with sleep. It’s healthy to have boundaries that protect your sleep. There are only 24 hours in the day, after all, and at least seven of those hours are spoken for. Doctor’s orders.