As so often lately, your mind races at bedtime, curbing your desire to doze off with your fists closed.
Neither CBD herbal tea nor lavender pillow mist nor white noise manages to silence the flood of thoughts and parasitic ruminations of the day.
Bad news, endless counting sheep won't help either.
“It's a myth.
On the contrary, it increases the time it takes to fall asleep,” informs professor of neuroscience and psychology Matthew Walker.
Guest on the British popular science podcast
Zoe Science & Nutrition
, Thursday 8 December 2022, the author of bestseller
Why We Sleep
(The Discovery) suggests another technique of mental visualization, much more effective according to him.
In video, waking up at night: four tips for getting back to sleep
Let's wander in the forest...
The mental walk, that's what the method is called.
“Think of a walk you know very well;
a walk in the woods, a hike in the mountains or on the beach, and then try to really visualize it,” says Professor Matthew Walker.
Read alsoSeven tips from a psychiatrist to quickly calm your anxiety
For this strategy to bear fruit, the specialist insists on the attention paid to detail during this screening.
"Concentrate until you visualize yourself walking through your front door, down the steps, and onto the boardwalk."
If you follow this rule well, the specialist assures him, in the minutes following this visualization, “the next thing you will remember will be your alarm going off the next morning because you fell asleep”.
How to explain such efficiency?
According to psychotherapist Tania Taylor, an anxiety specialist interviewed by
Stylist
magazine , mental walking gives us the same benefits as a walk in nature.
“The intellectual part of the brain knows you're safe, but the area that controls hormones and neurotransmitters has no idea.
By using our imagination, we can thus provoke the release of calming, soothing and relaxing hormones”, summarizes the expert.
Prepare well in advance
And if no woody or iodized memories come to mind?
The two specialists invite those lacking imagination to go and draw ideas, during the day, from vacation albums, or even to concoct a very real walk during which we will note all the details to stage them in the evening.
The psychotherapist, also a hypnotherapist, also favors additional tools to make the experience more immersive.
She recommends those who are angry with the pillow to accompany their visualization with a special audio hypnosis session for sleep, to look before bedtime at photos of soothing landscapes or to listen to sounds of nature, such as that of the waves or rain.
Prevent performance anxiety
Be careful, if you are worried about not being able to sleep, you may actually not be able to do so for more than one night.
"The fear of not sleeping adds what is called 'performance anxiety', or stress, to hyper arousal.
This is how most chronic insomnia begins, ”explained to us in a previous article Olivier Coste, somnologist at the Bordeaux University Hospital.
If you continue to ruminate in bed, Professor Matthew Walker recommends getting up but staying away from screens.
In general, the neuroscientist insists on the importance of implementing rigorous sleep hygiene, namely getting up and going to bed at the same time, every day, including weekends.
Alcohol and caffeine, responsible for micro-awakenings and fragmented sleep, should be avoided at least three hours before bedtime, as should light sources.
An hour before you go to sleep, reduce your light exposure by at least 50%, or totally, suggests Matthew Walker.
"You'll be surprised how the darkness makes you sleepy."