How to Get Better Sleep — Social Leverage

Sometimes life can be a bit frantic as a founder. The long hours, hard work, and tenacity required to see it through can often wreak havoc on your sleep. But when it comes to getting better sleep Diane Macedo, author of The Sleep Fix, says there are two things you can start doing immediately to improve your sleep that don’t require technology, or drugs: lower your arousal, and boost your sleep drive.

Lowering your arousal is the more difficult of the two, however, Diane uses a technique recommended by clinicians called “constructive worry”. She’s nicknamed it the “brain dump”.

The process involves taking out a notebook a few hours before bed and dividing a page down the center. On the left side, write down anything on your mind. On the right side write down the next step in resolving the issue. It’s not important to know what the final resolution will be, just focus on the next step. If you’re stuck with what the next step should be, write down the name of someone you could call for advice, or a resource you think might be able to help. Be as specific as possible. You don’t need the solution for this exercise to work. In fact, if it’s something you have no control over or doesn’t have a solution, you can write, “accept and move on”. And that’s it. You’re done. Constructive worry time is over.

Most who try it the exercise are surprised at how effective the technique is. It works for three reasons. First, it gives your brain the opportunity to process the thoughts and feelings and worries you experienced throughout the day. If you do the exercise, there’s less need for your brain to start mulling everything over once your head hits the pillow.

Second, it fights conditioned arousal. You’re reprogramming your brain to think through your worries at the time of the exercise, not when it’s bedtime. Part of the reason we get these repetitive thoughts and worries is because our brain is trying to remind us we need to deal with these issues. However, once you’ve written them down using the constructive worry exercise, your brain no longer needs to deal with the memory, it will do it subconsciously.

Finally, the act of writing down your worries and the next step towards a solution reprograms your brain into a solutions-seeking mode. You stop thinking about your problems and start thinking about the possible solutions.

Diane says after about two to three weeks of doing the exercise every day your brain gets the message. You’ll find you don’t need to do the exercise any more.

The second part to getting better sleep is boosting your sleep drive. You can do this by following a simple set of rules called stimulus control. Think of it as a reverse curfew. You’ll want to make sure you don’t go to sleep until you’re sleepy. Really sleepy, like fighting to stay awake sleepy. Then make sure you wake up at the same time every morning, weekends too. If you find yourself lying in bed long enough to feel frustrated at not falling asleep, get up. Go somewhere else and stay there until you find yourself getting sleepy again, then go back to bed. This will do two things. One, it will take away the association of your bed with your brain as a place to stay awake and worry, and it reprograms the conditioned arousal forcing you into an insomnia loop. Second, it will boost your sleep drive, because even if you had a really bad night, you’re still going to wake up at the same time every day.

With these two tips alone, you should be well on your way to better sleep. You’ll fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and sleep more deeply. You can listen to the entire interview with Diane on the Infinite Loops podcast.

Originally published at https://www.socialleverage.com on February 23, 2022.