Sleep and why it is important

When we talk about things that you need to survive, food, water and shelter are at the top of the list. But another equally important commodity is sleep, which is a scarcity among college students. I mentioned the importance of sleep for studying and memory consolidation in my last column, but now it’s time to take a step back and talk about how the complexity of sleep and the lack of it impacts overall health and functioning.

Let me first explain brain waves. These emissions come from specialized brain cells called neurons when they fire at the same time. There are six kinds of brain waves, ranging from slow waves that occur during deep sleep to fast waves when we’re awake and solving complex problems.

There are several sleep stages characterized by brain activity. The exact number of these stages is disputed between sources, but they can essentially be broken into two categories: REM and non-REM sleep.

REM, or rapid eye movement, is the stage where the most vivid dreams occur and is defined by mixed, moderate–frequency brain waves that mimic wakefulness. While the purpose of REM sleep is largely unclear, some researchers consider it to be important for processing emotions.

The remaining stages occur in non-REM sleep; those include light sleep, deep sleep and the transitional stages between the two. Deep sleep is characterized by very slow waves and is considered the most restorative stage. Wave frequency increases as you move up through the stages.

Throughout the night, we progress through each stage — light sleep, transitional, deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep — in one cycle and experience several cycles throughout the night depending on how long we’re asleep.

But how does your body know when to sleep? Your circadian rhythm is a fancy word for your 24-hour biological clock, and it is regulated by body temperature, hormones and environmental cues. For instance, the reduced exposure to sunlight in the evening signals the brain to release more of the hormone melatonin, causing sleepiness.

Many people ignore these nudges toward rest, and whether its due to work constraints or the release of your favorite show, it can still lead to sleep deprivation. Occasional sleep loss may only have small effects such as fatigue, irritability and forgetfulness. However, long–term deprivation can lead to chronic body pains, a weakened immune system and altered hormone levels. People in a deprived state go to sleep quicker but may skip REM and spend more time in deep sleep.

But all hope is not lost! If you have trouble sleeping, you may find some sleep-hygiene practices helpful. Reducing the consumption of caffeine, nicotine and heartburn-inducing foods in the evening helps you fall asleep faster. It’s also useful to avoid activities, other than sleeping, in your bed, especially stressful ones such as studying, watching TV or using your phone. However, I understand that college dorms aren’t designed with sleep hygiene in mind. Therefore, even small bedtime routines can help prepare your body and mind for rest.

5 practical tips for sleeping better

A good night's sleep is just as important as a healthy diet or keeping fit.

Studies show that poor quality sleep has instant negative effects on your brain function and performance during the day.

However, good sleep can help you eat less, exercise more effectively and be healthier overall. In recent years, both sleep quality and quantity have significantly declined, with many people regularly getting poor sleep.

Here are five tips for sleeping better at night:

1. Determine how much sleep you need

According to research by the National Sleep Foundation, the appropriate duration of sleep each night for most adults is seven to nine hours. However, this is not the case for everyone as there are different factors such as age and pregnancy that affect the amount of sleep each person needs.

If you are unsure if you are getting the right amount of sleep at night, there are three questions you need to ask yourself:

Can you wake up without an alarm?

If you're usually awake before your alarm goes off or if you wake up multiple times during the night, and it is not due to drinking liquids or a sleep disorder, it could be your brain telling you that it has had enough sleep. However, if you struggle to wake up in the morning when your alarm goes off, you might need more sleep or you need to adjust your sleep schedule.

How have you been feeling?

Keeping a sleep diary or downloading a sleep app will help you notice patterns and decide which type of sleep routine is most beneficial for your health and happiness. During your day, do not brush off feelings of anxiety or fatigue as this could be your body's way of alerting you to the fact that you need more sleep.

How long does it take for you to doze off?

In a perfect world, we would all be able to get into bed, put our heads on our pillows and immediacy drift off. Unfortunately this is not the case, and for the average person it takes about 20 minutes to fall asleep after getting into bed. There could be a number of reasons for struggling to fall asleep, which brings us to our next point: Your lifestyle.

2. Limit your alcohol and caffeine intake before bed

While alcohol might help you fall into a deep sleep more quickly, studies show that it can affect the quality of your sleep. Alcohol reduces rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Caffeine may make it difficult to fall asleep and may also cause you to sleep more lightly, as well as disrupting the REM stage of your sleep cycle. A study found that drinking coffee six hours before going to bed reduced total sleep time by one hour.

REM sleep occurs approximately 90 minutes after we fall asleep. Disruptions in the REM stage of sleep not only deprives you of much needed sleep but can also cause you to be lethargic and unable to concentrate during the day.

If you are ingesting alcohol or caffeine, try to avoid these substances close to your bedtime so that your body has time to process them.

3. Charge your phone away from your bed

It is not uncommon for people to lie in bed and scroll through social media on their phone just before going to sleep. This is made even easier when your phone is charging next to your bed.

The problem is that the light from our devices is "short-wavelength-enriched", meaning it has a higher concentration of blue light than natural light. Blue light not only lowers the levels of the hormone melatonin, which is sleep-inducing, but it also disrupts the body's circadian rhythms.

Blue light essentially tricks your body into thinking it is daytime, resulting in difficulty falling asleep.

4. Reduce long daytime naps

Power naps (60 to 90 minutes long) are aptly named as they have been proven to be beneficial; however, long naps during the day can negatively impact your sleep at night. Studies also show irregular naps during the day result in sleepiness during the day.

Sleeping during the daytime can also mess with your internal body clock, which could result in difficulty falling asleep at night.

5. Replace your pillow and mattress

Studies show that your mattress and pillow both have a big impact on the quality of your sleep.

There has also been research on the benefits of a new mattress. A study found that a better mattress reduced back pain by 57%, back stiffness by 59%, shoulder pain by 60% and improved sleep quality by 60%.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, pillows should be replaced every year, while your mattress should be replaced every five to 10 years. Replacing both your pillow and mattress could be a quick solution to your sleeping problems. 

5 ways lack of sleep could alter the course of your life

A lack of sleep can have unforeseen consequences.

Sleep-deprived people feel lonelier and less inclined to engage with others, according to a new study by researchers at researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, which was published in the Aug. 14 edition of the journal Nature Communications. “Sleep deprivation can turn us into social lepers,” said Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience.

People often don’t take sleep deprivation seriously enough, he said. “There’s no biological or social safety net for sleep deprivation,” Walker said. “That’s why our physical and mental health implode so quickly even after the loss of just one or two hours of sleep.” He added, “On a positive note, just one night of good sleep makes you feel more outgoing and socially confident.”

To avoid experiencing a host of adverse effects due to sleep deprivation, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that on average adults should get about seven to eight hours of sleep each night in order to feel well-rested. One in three adults does not get enough sleep, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To get a good night’s sleep, experts from the Mayo Clinic recommend setting a consistent wake-up time, limiting use of electronic devices right before bedtime, limiting consumption of caffeine, alcohol and other substances that impair sleep quality, and increasing daily physical activity. After all, a lack of sleep can have some surprising effects:

Eating too much junk food late at night

A new study conducted by the University of Arizona found that of the 60% of individuals who indulged in regular nighttime snacking, nearly two-thirds said that lack of sleep led them to crave more junk food. In turn, craving more junk food is linked to increased likelihood of obesity, diabetes and other health-related issues.

According to The State of Obesity public health project, health care costs of obesity in the U.S. range from $147 billion to nearly $210 billion per year. Additionally, the researchers noted that “obesity is associated with job absenteeism, costing approximately $4.3 billion annually and with lower productivity while at work, costing employers $506 per obese worker per year.”

Having a heart that seems older than your body

A separate study conducted by the CDC and Emory University researchers presented at the 2018 SLEEP meeting this week showed that “excess heart age” appeared to be lowest amongst adults who slept approximately seven hours a night.

Heart age is defined as the estimated age of a person’s cardiovascular system based on factors that contribute to heart-health, including whether or not someone has high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol. Excess heart age is the difference between a person’s heart age and their chronological age.

“Compared to people who sleep for seven hours, those who sleep for six hours each night have a 15% higher risk of having an excess heart age of 10 years or more” said Julia Durmer, the lead investigator and co-author of the study. “Additionally, for those who sleep fewer than six hours each night, their risk of having an excess heart age of 10 years or more increases to 25%.”

“Telling a 30-year-old that they could have a heart of a 40-year-old, I hope will get people to think more about how improving sleep quality can help improve your health,” Durmer said.

In the U.S., sleep apnea is the most prevalent underdiagnosed sleep disorder and the annual economic burden of undiagnosed sleep apnea among U.S. adults is approximately $149.6 billion, according to AASM. It accounts for $86.9 billion in lost productivity, $26.2 billion in motor vehicle accidents and $6.5 billion in workplace accidents.

Increasing your risk of dying earlier

People who sleep less than six hours per night have a 13% higher mortality risk than individuals who sleep between seven and nine hours, according to a study published in RAND Health Quarterly, an online journal. Common causes of death associated with sleep deprivation include: fatal car crashes, strokes, cancer or related cardiovascular diseases.

Difficulty being productive at school or work

Here’s a more obvious effect: The less sleep you get at night the less productive you may be during the day, but all that lack of sleep adds up. It’s not just one drowsy worker. There’s a small army of groggy workers driving vehicles, sitting at desks and, in some cases, operating machinery on too little sleep.

Those who sleep less than six hours a night lose the equivalent of approximately six working days a year, according to the RAND study. And for children, sleep deprivation impairs their rate of skill development.

The loss of productivity due to lack of sleep costs the U.S. economy approximately $411 billion and 1.2 million working days per year, according to a study produced by RAND. If all U.S. workers got at least seven hours of sleep per night, RAND estimates the economy could experience a potential 2.3% increase in gross domestic product.

Difficulty making life or death decisions

For doctors, first responders and military personnel, making the right decision can often mean the difference between life or death. A Washington State University report released in May reveals that a lack of sleep may make the brain unable to effectively assess certain situations in order to make the right choices.

7 things not to do before you go to sleep

Getting a good night’s rest is about more than just going to bed at an appropriate time.

It’s also about arranging your evening so that it’s not stressful or stimulating in a way that can make it hard to fall and stay asleep.

We know: It’s easier said than done.

To help you out, we’ve rounded up seven common behaviors that can ruin your rest – plus what you can do instead.

 1. Don’t use any kind of digital technology.

A growing body of research suggests that staring at the blue and white light emitted from digital screens prevents your brain from releasing the hormone melatonin, which lets your body know when it’s time to hit the hay. So it becomes harder to fall and stay asleep.

Take a tip from Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor of The Huffington Post, who’s banned electronics from the bedroom and reads a hard copy book before going to sleep.

2. Don’t take sleeping pills (unless you’ve been diagnosed with insomnia).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that, during a single month in 2013, 4% of Americans over age 20 used a prescription sleep aid.

But as Harvard sleep scientist Patrick Fuller told Tech Insider’s Julia Calderone, “I think most people that are taking hypnotic medications actually don’t need them and should work to get off of them.”

According to Fuller, even if you have trouble sleeping, you probably don’t have insomnia, and taking sleeping pills probably won’t do you much good.

The medications typically come with a host of side effects, from muscle aches to memory loss. Plus, Fuller said, they can be highly addictive, and your sleeping problems may become worse after you take the pills.

3. Don’t drink alcohol.

As anyone who’s nodded off after a few glasses of wine is well aware, alcohol often helps you fall asleep.

But research suggests that it can make it harder to stay asleep. As your body starts to metabolize the alcohol during the second half of the night, you may start to get restless.

As Tech Insider reported, studies have found that drinking before bed suppresses your rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in particular, which is important for memory and concentration.

4. Don’t work in bed (or anywhere in the bedroom).

Experts advise reserving the bedroom for sleep and sex exclusively. Otherwise, you won’t associate the bedroom with rest – and might have a harder time falling asleep.

5. Don’t consume caffeine after 5 p.m.

One study found that consuming 400 milligrams of caffeine (that’s about how much is in a Starbucks Venti coffee) even six hours before bedtime disrupted sleep. Specifically, those who consumed a caffeine pill six hours before bed slept about an hour less than they slept when they didn’t consume caffeine.

The researchers suggest that people limit their caffeine consumption to before 5 p.m., at the latest.

6. Don’t eat fatty foods.

Research suggests that eating within the hour before bedtime can hurt both sleep quality and quantity, especially for women.

In particular, eating meals high in fat before bed seems to decrease the time people spend in REM sleep.

If you’re hungry late at night, experts recommend eating whole grains paired with protein, like natural peanut butter on whole-wheat bread.

7. Don’t exercise.

When you’ve got a packed schedule, it might seem like the only time available to work out is when the rest of the world is sleeping.

But experts recommend avoiding strenuous workouts in the evening. That’s partly because your body temperature rises during cardio workouts, which could make it harder to go to sleep.

Instead, they suggest doing some yoga or simple stretching, which can help you re

New study links bad sleep to hardened arteries

Bad sleep can have more consequences than just leaving you too tired to function at work the next day. A study has linked short, fragmented sleep to a higher risk of hardened arteries.

The risk is highest for those who get less than six hours of sleep each night or who wake up frequently.

“Bad sleeping habits are very common in Western societies and previous studies have suggested that both short and long sleep are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Fernando Dominguez of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research said in a press release.

Noting that there was a lack of large studies on the effects of bad sleep on atherosclerosis, the researchers signed up 3,974 middle-aged, healthy adults. Each of the study participants wore a waistband monitor for a full week to measure their sleep habits. They were split into five groups.

Then, their level of atherosclerosis was measured using ultrasound of neck and leg arteries. After the researchers adjusted for risk factors like body mass index, smoking and drinking, stress levels, cholesterol, diet and others, they found that bad sleep can significantly raise the risk of hardened arteries compared to those who got seven to eight hours of sleep a night.

Those with more fragmented sleep were more likely to have multiple sections of hardened arteries than those who slept soundly.

And that wasn’t the only negative effect bad sleep could have on health.

“People who had short or disrupted sleep were also more likely to have metabolic syndrome, which refers to the combination of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity, and depicts an unhealthy lifestyle,” Dominguez said.

Bad sleep should be considered a risk factor in atherosclerosis moving forward, the researchers said.

The study will be presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

3 Ways to Have Better Dreams

Although no one knows the exact purpose of dreaming, the phase of sleep during which you dream seems vital to your functioning during the day. During dreams, you experience Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when your eyes move behind your closed lids. REM sleep is also known as paradoxical sleep, because your brain stays “awake,” while your body stays “asleep.” After REM sleep, you may wake up completely for a brief period of time as your brain ramps up its activity, and then you return to deeper sleep stages. It’s possible that during that brief waking moment, you remember your dream or dream fragments, but you might forget it altogether. In a lucid dream, however, you know you’re dreaming. You not only remember your dream, but you actively participate in the activities taking place within it. You might even determine its content. 

The topic of lucid dreaming tends to exist somewhat on the fringes of sleep psychology, but advocates believe that by becoming more engaged in your dreams, you will sleep better and be more creative in your waking life. University of Adelaide (Australia) psychologist Denholm Aspy and colleagues (2017) note that anecdotal reports of the phenomenon date back 2,000 years. It wasn't until 1975, when people in a sleep lab were first observed to move their eyes purposefully from right to left while in REM sleep in response to a pre-arranged instruction. In the decades following this discovery, lucid dreaming was used as a technique to reduce nightmares, improve physical abilities through rehearsal while dreaming, solve problems creatively, and to understand further the changes in consciousness that occur during the sleep cycle. This research was limited by the lack of effective lucid dreaming-induction techniques. The Australian team believe that they found a reliable way to do so, and reported on the success of their method. By learning what they did, it’s possible for you to incorporate this technique into your own life.

Using their example of a lucid dream from the study can help elucidate what it’s like to have one:

“‘I was in England talking to my grandfather when I remembered that (in real life) he had died several years ago and that I had never been to England. I concluded that I was dreaming and decided to fly to get a bird’s-eye view of the countryside.’”

This example shows how in lucid dreaming, you are aware, while dreaming, that the events you’re experiencing are in fact a dream.

Aspy and his collaborators believe that rather than teach people to go directly into the dream state from the wake state, it is preferable to provide instruction in going to the lucid dream state from the state in which the individual is already dreaming, in what is known as Dream-Induced Lucid Dreams (DILD). People can be sent into DILD via external stimulation, such as lights, sounds, or even a mild electric shock, which then become incorporated into their dream. When these stimuli are woven into the dream, the dreamer becomes aware that he or she is dreaming. From that point on, the lucid dream state can take place. The more practical approach is to use cognitive techniques, which don’t require any specialized equipment and can be more readily taught.

The Australian research team developed a cognitively based lucid dream instruction protocol as a way to provide data on how best to measure dream recall. By teaching their participants to go into the lucid dreaming state, they could better guarantee that participants would generate dreams they could then remember when awake. The sample of 169 participants was divided into 3 groups receiving different lucid dream instructions. For Week 1 of the study, participants kept logs of their dreams, and in Week 2, they received the set of instructions corresponding to their experimental group assignment. Prior to the experiment, participants answered a series of questions about their dreaming in general and their prior experience of having lucid dreams. They were also asked to indicate whether they’d ever tried to induce a lucid dream state in themselves on their own. The outcome variables in the study included recall of dreams in general, recall of lucid dreams, how much time they’d spent sleeping, their sleep quality, how tired they felt after awakening, and how sleep deprived they were on the previous day.

Before getting to the lucid dream techniques evaluated in the study, let’s see whether the participants who in fact engaged in lucid dreams showed any benefits compared to those who did not. Although they didn’t differ in the time spent asleep, the lucid dreamers felt they slept better, were less tired on awakening, and were less sleep-deprived from the previous day. Perhaps the largest difference was on the measure of the length of time it took to return to sleep after having a lucid dream. On the nights that participants reported having a lucid dream, it took an average of 10.6 minutes to fall asleep, but when they awoke after a non-lucid dream, it took them an average of nearly 27 minutes to return to their somnolent state. Given that these measures were self-report, the findings do suggest some advantages to learning how to be a lucid dreamer. It does seem, then, that there might be benefits to learning how to induce lucid dreams, especially if you’re a light sleeper, or someone who awakes feeling tired after spending what should be enough hours in bed.

Not all lucid dream induction methods were equally effective, and it seemed that the best way to ensure entry into the lucid dream state involved a combination of approaches. Furthermore, the one-week duration of the study may have been insufficient to allow participants to become fully accomplished in lucid dream induction. The most encouraging news is that lucid dreaming can be taught with written instructions, rather than through extensive laboratory training. People who wish to experiment with this technique can at least give this a try without committing to an expensive or time-consuming intervention.

Now let’s look at the interventions themselves with examples of how each might be used:

1. Reality Testing.

In this method of instruction, you actually work on your lucid dreaming while awake. This “daytime lucid dreaming” technique involves asking yourself, at least 10 times a day, whether you're dreaming or whether what's happening to you is real. The question is intended to be asked in a serious manner, and involves checking your surroundings for anything out of place or odd. As the authors note, “Reality testing is important because of the strong tendency for the dreaming mind to explain away the most obvious indicators that one is dreaming” (p. 208). Being able to know when you’re not dreaming will help you, they reason, know when you are, and therefore be in the lucid state.

2. Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD).

In this method, you take advantage of prospective memory, when you tell yourself to do something in the future. In the MILD lucid dream method, you tell yourself that the next time you’re dreaming, you’ll remember that you’re dreaming. At the same time, you imagine yourself being lucid in a dream.

3. Wake Back to Bed (WBTB).

This method of learning how to have lucid dreams may seem a bit masochistic, but the Australian authors claim it is highly effective and can boost other lucid dream-induction techniques as well. For this method to work, you commit to waking yourself with an alarm after only 5-to-6 hours of sleep. You then force yourself to stay awake while you practice the MILD method. By engaging in this method, you should be more mentally alert, but also more likely to be able to follow your own instructions to be aware of your dreams while you're having them.

The combination of all three methods proved most effective in promoting lucid dream states in participants. That this could occur at all is remarkable, since nearly half of all adults report never having experienced a lucid dream in their entire lives. (There are dangers to lucid dreaming, and some people would be best advised to steer clear of the procedure.)

However you achieve it, being able to make your dreaming more accessible to your conscious mind could be what you need to improve your sleep quality, develop your uninhibited thoughts, and just enjoy the experience of being aware of the many fantastic images and stories that your unconscious mind can create.

Good sleep is a reachable dream

Massey University health researchers are backing the message that a good night’s sleep is vital for health and wellbeing, in support of World Sleep Day this Friday.

This year’s theme is “Good sleep is a reachable dream”. Yet sleep problems are common among New Zealanders and include not getting enough sleep, and suffering from sleep disorders such as insomnia and obstructive sleep apnoea.

A quarter of New Zealanders report suffering from a sleep problem that has lasted at least six months. A recent survey of 5,000 New Zealanders showed approximately one quarter of us do not get the recommended amount of sleep of seven to nine hours per night.

Dr Karyn O’Keeffe, from Massey’s Sleep/Wake Research Centre, says short sleep is more pronounced on weekdays and we tend to try to catch up on sleep at the weekends. However, studies show that it may take more than two full nights of sleep to recover from substantial sleep loss.

“Sleep problems are not restricted to short sleep. A survey of 4,000 New Zealanders showed that approximately half of us never, or rarely, wake feeling refreshed in the morning and have difficulty getting back to sleep when we wake in the middle of the night. A third of us have difficulty falling asleep at night,” she says.

Dr O’Keeffe says some people suffer from a sleep disorder called obstructive sleep apnoea. “This occurs when the upper airway is partially or fully blocked during sleep, leading to episodes of reduced airflow. These episodes occur many times overnight and lead to frequent awakenings from sleep, resulting in problems with daytime alertness and functioning, and health problems. It is estimated 13 per cent of New Zealand men and three per cent of New Zealand women suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea.”

She says although this paints a bleak picture, it is important to remember the majority do get enough sleep. “There is evidence that New Zealanders who report getting enough sleep have better quality of life and overall wellbeing.”

Dr O’Keeffe says there are a number of things you can do to get enough good quality sleep:

• Make sleep a priority. In the short term, missing out on sleep can lead to being less productive, less creative and less flexible in your thinking. You can have slower reaction times, make poorer decisions, have trouble getting on with others, and have poorer concentration and motivation. In the long-term, poor sleep may lead to health problems like high blood pressure, increased weight, stroke, heart disease and diabetes.
• Create an ideal sleep environment. You get the best sleep in a dark, quiet, cool room. Try to remove any distractions from the bedroom, including TVs, computers and mobile phones.
• Keep a regular sleep routine. One way to promote a healthy routine is to keep a regular wake up time. Try to get up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
• Get regular exercise. Exercising in the late afternoon/early evening can help promote a regular sleep routine. Exercise at any time of the day can lead to improvements in the quality of your sleep.
• Avoid bright lights in the evening as this can affect your internal body clock and make it difficult to fall asleep and get up in the morning. Try dimming computer, TV and cellphone screens in the evening, and if possible avoid using devices with bright screens two hours before bedtime.
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. They change the structure of your sleep so you miss out on vital sleep stages. Avoid caffeine in the five to eight hours and alcohol in the two to three hours before bed.
• If you suffer from sleep problems on a regular basis, talk to your doctor. Many sleep difficulties and disorders can be treated. An overnight sleep study or consultation with a sleep professional could be recommended.

7 Tips for Sleeping in a Tent

Camping lets you spend the night in remote places and take a break from these luxurious comforts of home. And, as great as it feels to be outdoors, it's much harder to enjoy yourself without a good night's sleep. Next time you're sleeping in a tent, take these tips with you.

1. Get the Right Bedding

There are a number of bedding options available for tent camping. Whatever product you choose make sure it packs small and inflates comfortably. This keeps you off the hard ground and gives you freedom to adjust the firmness. If you're car camping, it's always nice to bring an extra egg crate mattress pad to throw over your camping pad for extra comfort.

If you can fit a small backpacking pillow in with all your gear, do it. Pillows can make all the difference when it comes to staying snug in your tent. You can also stuff extra clothes inside a T-shirt for a makeshift pillow, but it may require frequent fluffing.

2. Manage Noise

Some campers love to let the sounds of nature lull them to sleep, while others can't stand the chirping and screeching of bugs throughout the night. The solution: block the noise or drown it out with something more pleasant.

Ear plugs are a must for light sleepers. They're extremely small, cheap and disposable. Pack them whenever you plan on sleeping somewhere new.

Besides sleeping in a tent next to the ocean, there are other ways to create white noise. Some devices, including smart phone apps, play sounds that make you feel like you're sleeping next to a peacefully trickling stream.

3. Control the Temperature

Even in the summer, night time can get cold in the wilderness, especially at higher elevations. Scout out your destination's weather report ahead of time and make sure your sleeping bag is made for the right temperature. If you're unsure, sleeping bag liners can add up to 25 degrees of warmth.

One way to keep cozy on cold nights sleeping in a tent is the hot water bottle trick—boil some water and carefully pour it into a plastic, sealable water bottle, close the lid tightly and stick it in your sleeping bag before hitting the hay. This will get the bag nice and toasty for when you're ready to crawl in. Or, you can keep it in there while you sleep.

If you're worried about being too hot at night, lay on top of your sleeping bag or even ditch the tent for a simple mosquito net (warning: not rain proof).

4. Wear Yourself Out

Sleeping in a tent is a lot better after a full day of hiking, fishing, paddling or pedaling than if you just sit around the campfire eating hot dogs all day. Plan on crashing early, since there's less to do outdoors when the sun goes down, and go to bed exhausted.

5. Improve Tent Placement

You won't be very comfortable when all the occupants and gear slide into one corner of the tent throughout the night. Nor will it feel good in your blood-rushed skull if you sleep with your feet elevated above your head. Pitch your tent on a level surface and arrange your stuff to keep you from sliding around all night.

6. Stay Clean

Even while roughing it, keep yourself as fresh as possible. Nobody likes sleeping a tent with someone who smells like the trails they hiked that day. Use a sock or bandanna to sponge bathe in a creek or water jug, or bring along some baby wipes. Not to mentiaon you sleep much better when you're not sticking to yourself.

7. Keep it Dry
Sleeping in a tent is the worst when you're half in a puddle of water. Don't risk it and bring a waterproof tarp when camping. Tarps can be made into a canopy, used as a footprint under your tent to keep water from seeping through the seams, and can even be thrown over top of the tent for added rain protection. Camping is never fun when you're perpetually wet, so stay dry at all costs.

Dream ticket: how sleep became a billion-dollar business

Rockwell Shah speaks with almost evangelical zeal about sleep. He is the CEO of Pzizz, an app that “designs dynamic audio” to get you to “sleep at the push of a button”; for him, bedtime is a “sleep experience”. Does he use his own app? “Oh my God! All the time.” As a sleep entrepreneur, what is his bedtime routine like – does he swear by camomile tea or special pyjamas? “I have a Purple mattress. I love the darn thing; it’s not like anything you’ve ever experienced with a mattress before, you basically float on top of it.” He does not, he clarifies, have any affiliation to the company. He is just truly that excited about shuteye.

Who can blame him? A good night’s sleep helps our memory, learning and mood. So it is no wonder that an industry of bright-eyed sleep entrepreneurs has awoken around our quest for better, deeper, longer sleep. They are offering everything from sleep trackers to white noise machines and hi-tech pyjamas that claim to create “an advanced sleep system for better rest and recovery”, made from bioceramic material that “absorbs the body’s natural heat and reflects that energy back into the skin”. Then there is a new robot, versed in “thousands of years of Buddhist breathing techniques”, that promises to soothe you to sleep, if only you spoon it. Yours to order for €539 (£466).

In the world of sleep, business is booming: according to a 2017 McKinsey report, the sleep-health industry – anything from bedding and sound control to sleep consultants and prescription sleep aids – “is collectively estimated to be worth between $30bn and $40bn and has historically grown by more than 8% a year, with few signs of slowing down”.

At a time when our innate ability to sleep is being kiboshed by work, life and disruptive partners – one recent study found that 30% of Americans wanted a “sleep divorce” – capitalism is, for better or worse, finding a way to sell it back to us.

Just look at the mattress market. In recent years, mattresses have become a highly desirable commodity, sold by companies that increasingly behave like tech startups, putting growth at their core and accessing venture capital markets more usually associated with Silicon Valley. The New York-based online mattress retailer Casper reached $100m in sales in 2015, the year after it launched; British company Simba expects sales of £100m by next year, having launched in 2016.

The Pzizz app launched in October 2016 and now has more than half a million downloads across 160 countries. The Duke of York declared himself a fan, and JK Rowling said it was the “best I’ve used by a mile”.

Shah spent 10 years working in a medical software company before starting the app, fuelled by his own past struggles to nod off as well as a “recognition that sleep has been declared a public health crisis”. He describes in more detail how Pzizz works: “dreamscapes engineered to lull your body into sleep” are paired with voiceovers “based on clinical sleep interventions, things like progressive muscle relaxation, clinical sleep hypnosis, breathing exercises and autogenic training”, a technique that teaches your body to respond to verbal commands. The scripts are modular, meaning “literally billions of variations”, and the voice actors are chosen for possessing “that special quality” – they know how to “speak in a certain way that just … gets you …” – he slows his voice right down – “to … relax”.

It certainly sounds relaxing. But what does the meteoric rise of this industry say about our lives – are we in a sleep crisis? “The simple answer is ‘yes’,” says Dr Guy Meadows, the co-founder and clinical director of the Sleep School, which runs insomnia clinics in central London, “we are in a sleeplessness epidemic.” A perfect storm has settled over our bedrooms, and it is stopping us from drifting off. “Tiredness,” he says, “is the new norm.”

The internet is awash with concern about sleep, its quality, length and regularity. Recent articles warn us that “One bad night’s sleep may increase levels of Alzheimer’s protein”; that “Late risers [are] at increased risk of early death” and explain “Why going to bed in the wrong pyjamas could be affecting your sleep”.
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Children around the world are sleeping less – in the UK, for instance, hospital attendances for children under 14 with sleep disorders have tripled over the past 10 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that a third of US adults say they usually get less than the recommended amount of sleep. The World Health Organization recommends between seven and nine hours a night, but a 2013 study by the National Sleep Foundation showed the average adult in the UK is getting just 6hr 49min each weeknight. People are falling asleep on New York’s subway so frequently that Mayor Bill de Blasio backed a scheme to start waking them up.

From academics to entrepreneurs, everyone agrees that a large portion of blame lies with digital technology. Watching The Good Place on Netflix with one eye on Instagram and another on the news is not, it turns out, a recipe for good sleep. And it is not just about the blue light of screens that we have all come to dread, the wavelength of which affects levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. “We are more connected, and more stimulated – in a cognitive sense,” says Meadows. “Our brain is not switching off, which is affecting its ability to gradually downshift its gears into sleep.”

Going back to a much earlier tech revolution, the sheer fact of electricity means we can choose to stay up until all hours. “We’ve invaded the night,” says Dr Russell Foster, the director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, “and we’ve fitted more and more into the working day. Sleep has been the first victim.”

Work was once unlikely to be allowed into the bedroom, but can now commonly be found there, and not just in the form of midnight email sessions propped up on pillows. Shah points to the insecurity of the gig economy: “It has ramifications. Everybody is worried all the time about where the next paycheck is coming from,” he says.

Therein lies what a lot of the chatter around sleep seems to miss – that many people can’t afford to get enough; a good night’s sleep has become a luxury. Those in richer countries tend to get more. And the richer people in those countries tend to get more than the poor. According to a University of Chicago study from 2006, US adults are more likely to get more sleep, and sleep better, if they are white, wealthy and – perhaps surprisingly – women.

Our obsession with sleep has coincided with, and in some ways been consolidated into, the wellness industry. Sleep has been given that most modern of makeovers – it has been Goop-ified, given the clean-sleeping treatment, with Gwyneth Paltrow evangelising about making sleep a priority and her 10-hour-a-night ideal. People are being encouraged to douse vetiver-scented wellness oil between their toes or do a five-minute foam-rolling session right before heading to bed.

But that doesn’t negate the fact that all of us, even those with expensive pillows and oily toes, could probably use more sleep. Even if the numbers on sleeplessness make for grim reading, it is still good news that our attitudes are shifting. Foster says: “We’re right to take sleep seriously. It is 36% of our biology, and it has been largely marginalised and ignored.”

When Trump declared, at a campaign event in Illinois in 2015, “I have a great temperament for success. You know, I’m not a big sleeper, I like three hours, four hours, I toss, I turn, I beep-de-beep,” his sleep bravado sounded retrograde, a vestige of 1980s Wall Street, where money never slept because sleeping was for wimps.

The cult of “manly wakefulness” (as opposed to female “beauty sleep”), as Prof Alan Derickson coined it in his 2013 book Dangerously Sleepy, has been superseded – now we see a bit more shuteye and a bit less beep-de-beep as no bad thing. It perhaps helps that Bill Clinton, who was said to get only four to six hours while in office, has since admitted: “Most of the mistakes I made, I made when I was too tired.” Anyone can sleep for a meagre few hours a night, but only a “minute percentage” can do that and function, according to Meadows.

The corporate workshop side of Meadows’ sleep school has expanded massively since its launch in 2008. Now one of the largest parts of the business is going into banks, law firms, management consultancies and ad agencies to provide a programme of sleep education for employees. Where once businesses were paying their staff not to sleep, now they are paying to teach them how to get better sleep. Little wonder when 200,000 working days a year are lost to absenteeism caused by lack of sleep in the UK, and sleep-deprived workers cost the UK economy £40bn a year.

It has been just over a decade since Arianna Huffington collapsed from sleep deprivation and arose to stage her call to arms – and to the bedroom – putting paid to the idea that CEOs or indeed anyone can function on what many of us would count as a long nap each night. And many people have tried to heed her message, if they can afford to (it is worth noting that Huffington has “nine or so” assistants).

In recent years, Amazon’s bestseller list has been topped by a children’s book called The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep. It is written by a Swedish psychologist and its focus and structure are designed to lull children into slumber. And adults are queueing up in pyjama’d throngs to be put to sleep by classical music – from Berlin to Sydney, Max Richter’s Sleep, an eight-hour “personal lullaby for a frenetic world”, has turned a sleepover into a good night out.

So what led to this change in mindset? One answer lies in the lab. “What has fundamentally changed,” says Foster, is that “serious neuroscientists have started to take sleep seriously – it was a bit of a graveyard of the neuroscience world.” But not any more – and the “data emerging are quite spectacular”.

He rattles some off in a torrent so convincing it will make you want to head straight to bed: the “beautiful experiment” published by Jan Born in 2004 that showed the massive impact sleep can have on problem-solving. The “nice data” from Eve Van Cauter’s University of Chicago lab that found that sleep loss in healthy young adults increased their risk of type 2 diabetes. And the experiment that showed you are less likely to remember words with a positive value (think: love or joy) if you are sleep-deprived – “Our level of sleep will very much reflect the way we remember positive and negative experiences.” Anecdotally, it stacks up – who isn’t moody when they are functioning on too little sleep?

“If you’re not fully rested,” Foster continues, “then you tend to be overly impulsive – jumping that red light; unreflective of things that you do; you lack in empathy, so your ability to pick up the social signals of others is not good. Tired people not only fail to come up with innovative solutions to complex problems – to use this extraordinary brain – but their ability to function generally, sense of humour, social interactions fall apart really quickly.” And that, he says, is just relatively short-term sleep loss.

“For a long time,” says Meadows, “insomnia has been thought of as a symptom of poor mental health. Now we know that actually it is also a trigger – sleep is considered an early warning sign, a canary down the coalmine for anxiety, depression, bipolar.” With the science of sleep proving Virginia Woolf was playing with fire when she dismissed shuteye as a “deplorable curtailment of the joy of life”, it is no wonder we’re anxious to get enough.

Many of us turn to sleep trackers for help. Trackers claiming to measure how long we are sleeping, and what kind of sleep we are getting – light, deep or REM – are now common bed companions. Foster is wary: “They have been half validated and they sort of work for people who have very stable sleep/wake patterns, but if you have any irregularity or are falling outside of the normal range, and frankly that’s most of us, they fall apart very quickly.”

While “they are great for empowering you to say: ‘Yeah, there’s a bunch of stuff I can do to improve my sleep,’” he says, “I don’t think we’re there yet with these devices … [But] everybody’s jumped on the bandwagon … there are a lot of people who take these things very seriously.”

Cut to sleep’s very modern, meta disorder: orthosomnia. Dr Sabra Abbott, a professor in neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern Memorial hospital, co-coined the term with her colleague Dr Kelly Baron in a 2017 paper, Are Some Patients Taking the Quantified Self Too Far?. She tells me how they started seeing patients who “didn’t necessarily initially have sleep complaints – their primary concern was that their tracker was telling them they weren’t getting the right amount or right type of sleep. It seemed,” she says, “that the device was creating a sleep problem that may not have otherwise been there.”

Foster likens this newfound interest in sleep trackers to “when domestic electrification first came in. A whole bunch of people started to wire up houses and a number of them burned down, because they didn’t know how to use the equipment.”

Orthosomnia seems to be one symptom of an industry that grew rapidly and has left consumers with more data than we know what to do with (albeit not always accurate). It is tempting to draw a parallel with the world of social media – we are using a ton of it and we are not yet sure what impact it is having. “Every step change encounters the same thing,” reflects Foster. “It is a massive interest – things have pushed forward so fast that there is a great vacuum behind it.”

But the sleep industry is not all gadgetry. At the pleasingly lo-tech end you will find the weighted Gravity Blanket, available in three gradations of heaviness: seven, nine or 11kg. According to the company’s CEO Mike Grillo, it “mimics the feeling of being hugged or embraced”. This “releases serotonin”, he says, “stimulates melatonin, helps decrease cortisol levels, which is linked to stress and anxiety, and that is what induces the calming and grounded effect”. Not bad for a heavy blanket.

When it comes to the evidence behind it, “there is still a lot of science to be done”, Grillo concedes – according to the New Yorker, Gravity early on deleted a section from its Kickstarter page claiming it “can be used to treat a variety of ailments”, including insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, obessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

But it obviously struck a chord: it has raised just shy of $5m on Kickstarter to date. Its original fundraising goal had been $21,500. It is tempting to slot it into the tumultuous present – what had been “used in more niche patient populations for some time”, says Grillo, began to have wider appeal after the 2016 election of Donald Trump “and the Brexit vote in your part of the world”.

In a recent article about Gravity in the New Yorker, the writer Jia Tolentino describes how it “enacts a fantasy of immobilisation that is especially seductive in a world of ever-expanding obligations – to work, to monetise, to take action, to perform”.

An industry for an anxious age, then, where screens and work have invaded our bedrooms and world leaders sit up into the small hours beep-de-beep-ing. Now, where’s that breathing robot? I might need to spoon it.

How to Sleep Better: Top Ten Tips

This is a list of what I believe are the ten most important things anyone can do to improve their sleep. Whether it`s the occasional couple of nights of restless sleep or if it`s full blown insomnia, these tips helped me and other people I know tremendously.

In order of importance, with 1) being the most important, I urge you to follow these tips and your sleep WILL improve.

Here they are:

1) Do not take naps in the day.

The number one most important thing you can do to improve sleep in my experience is NEVER nap or sleep in the day, no matter how tired you are. If you`re very tired it may be a real struggle at first but it WILL pay off and it will get easier.

The reason you shouldn`t nap is that if you`re struggling for sleep we need to quickly reset your Circadian rhythm, and the best way to do this I've found is to avoid daily napping. If you keep napping, it will just delay this resetting from happening and prolong your sleep problems. This is the first part in resetting your Circadian rhythm. Follow this step before moving onto step 2.

2) Wake up earlier than usual.

The second part in resetting your Circadian rhythm is setting your alarm to wake you up earlier than usual. Even waking up as little as half an hour earlier than you are used to will make a big difference to readjusting your sleep pattern. Half an hour is the minimum. Try for an hour if you can. This is also a very important step in starting to get a healthy, refreshing nights sleep every night.

The reason this works well is because if the body is used to catching up on sleep later in the morning it doesn't prepare properly for sleep at night. It`s hard to control when you go to sleep, but you can control when you wake up. When you change the time you wake, you can more easily change the whole of your sleep cycle. Set your alarm half hour to one hour earlier.

3) Do not do anything else in bed apart from sleep and have sex.

Doing activities such as reading, watching TV, playing games, talking on the phone and eating should all be banned from bed. Only sleep and sex from now on should take place in bed. If you want to read, then find a comfortable chair, if you want to watch TV, sit in the living room (I've banished my TV from my bedroom).

This technique utilises a simple school of psychology known as Behaviourism. You need to build associations between bed and sleep, not bed and excitement or tension from other activities. Whatever you do in bed, your sub conscious will associate that with being in bed.

For example, if you watch horror films in bed, each time you get into bed your sub conscious will be thinking about horror films, and the excitement and fear that comes with it. Therefore your heart rate will increase and your mind will find it hard to relax. That`s not a good way to prepare for sleep. Admittedly that is a slightly over the top example but it shows the power of Behaviourism.

4) Hide the clock.

It`s simple really, when you know you can`t sleep, and keep reminding yourself you can`t sleep, it becomes stressful, especially if you have an early start. So do yourself a favour and get rid of the glow in the dark alarm clock, move your phone to somewhere else in the room if you use it for an alarm, and get rid of the cuckoo clock, they're old-fashioned and annoying anyway!

5) Exercise regularly.

Regular exercise will improve many of the bodies functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, building bone and muscle, combating stress, relieving muscle tension etc. The type of exercise and time of day you do it is important. Afternoon exercise appears to be the most beneficial and it certainly ties in with my own experience. I like to get to sleep around midnight, so I find exercising between 2:00PM - 4:00PM is most beneficial.

Exercising late in the evening is not a good idea. I find it hard to wind down after an intense workout. If you must exercise in the evening because of certain commitments I would advise that you exercise at least three hours before your bed time. This should give you enough time to wind down.

Some researchers believe cardiovascular exercise is best for sleep, which they may be right. I personally like to lift weights, so usually finish off my lifting routine with 15 minutes of moderate cardio and on non lifting days, I`ll do straight cardio at a higher intensity. This seems to have the most sleep benefits for me as well as the other all round health benefits.

6) If you can`t sleep, get up and do something really boring.

This is one tip that I hate, because whenever I can`t do something, like most people I want to try harder, but when it comes to sleep, consciously trying harder to sleep is counter productive as we all know - most of us from our own experiences.

So, the best thing to do, is get up, turn the light on, and do something boring for 15 minutes. This doesn't include watching TV, checking email, exercise, etc. It MUST be boring, an example would be reorganising your sock draw (that`s unless you enjoy reorganising your sock draw!) or counting your penny jar, basically whatever you find really boring.

The reason for this is also basic Behaviourism. You must not reward bad behaviour. You must punish it, just like you must reward good behaviour. In this case you will be punishing your sub conscious for not sleeping by giving it something boring. This will train your mind that staying awake equals boredom. So your mind will want to sleep when in bed. The boring activity will also help you `switch off`.

7) Do not drink caffeine or alcohol after 3pm.

Try to avoid alcohol altogether, and don`t use it as a sleep aid. Caffeine will obviously keep you awake. If you drink lots of caffeine, try to cut down to five cups a day or less and don`t drink any after 3:00PM. I don`t recommend cutting out caffeine altogether as tea in particular has various health benefits, including aiding cardiovascular functions which will improve general health and will therefore likely improve sleep. Just don't go overboard with caffeine.

Most people think alcohol helps us sleep better, but although alcohol makes us drowsy and sleepy, it makes it harder for most people to get a refreshing, deep sleep, which is the most important part of a good nights sleep.

Ever notice how after a boozy night, you can sleep longer than usual but feel more tired? I certainly do, so I try to limit the amount of alcohol I drink. If you`re a big drinker of alcohol and struggle with sleep, I suggest you cut down as much as possible. You will notice the benefits.

8) Wear socks in bed... really.

Recently researchers from The Netherlands have discovered that wearing socks in bed will help you get a much more restful sleep. They found that wearing socks increases the temperature of your feet which signal neurons in the brain to fall asleep. This is probably due to having warmer feet makes us feel more comfortable and secure. It certainly does work for me anyway.

You do want to make sure you are not too hot in bed, so although wearing socks is a good idea, try not to wear other items of clothing. I never sleep in a shirt, as I get too hot and restless and therefore wake up frequently. If you`re brave enough, I suggest wearing nothing but socks to go to sleep in. Just remember to put some clothes on when you get up in the morning if you have company. We don`t want you looking like a streaker!

9) Laugh yourself to sleep.

Stress is a major cause of depression, and depression is well-known by many to cause major sleep problems in some sufferers. In fact I saw a GP on BBC news the other morning saying whenever a patient comes to him with sleep problems depression is often his first thought as to the cause.

This shows the importance of having a healthy mind. So, whenever you are stressed take a step back, ask yourself what you are stressed about, try to solve the problem before you get into bed, and laugh about it if possible.

Laughter is well-known as one of the most powerful antidotes to stress. Yes, admittedly, when you`re stressed it`s often hard to see the funny side, but you must try. Put on your favourite comedy, tell a joke, or just laugh for the sake of it. Even laughter that is false, is shown to lower blood pressure in some studies. Just the act of laughing is very powerful.

10) Only go to bed when you are actually sleepy.

Do not try to force sleep if you`re not actually sleepy. You`ll only increase your frustration and stress at not being able to sleep. What does stress cause - depression which causes a lack of sleep. A vicious circle. You may already be getting little sleep so don`t try and force it, believe me it doesn't work. Wait till you are sleepy, then hit the hay.

All of these tips are derived from psychology, physiology, scientific research and my own experiences. This is just a simple guide of the best tips I've read and discovered and, most importantly tried and tested my self.

Try to incorporate one of these tips daily, and you will start to sleep better. I hope this article is useful to you all and you start getting a better nights sleep... tonight.

5 common sleep training techniques

When pediatrician Aaron Carroll's wife's water broke, he thought one thing: “I’m never going to be well-rested again.”

In his piece for The New York Times, Putting Your Baby to Sleep: Some Advice and Good News", Carroll points out it's normal for babies to wake up through the night, "to be fed, changed and comforted". But there is an age when your baby should start to sleep through. And what happens when they don't?

"As a pediatrician, the first thing I do with parents who are experiencing problems is calm them down," writes Carroll. "Sometimes it feels as if it will never go away, but I try to remind them that few teenagers have this issue…This almost always, eventually, gets better."

There are five different schools of thought on how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Parents get heated over which type they think works. But before you get overwhelmed, Carroll shares some very comforting news.

They all work.

"All of the interventions worked to improve sleep," he writes, and "[m]ore important, none caused any concerning levels of stress."

So, take your pick.

1. The "extinction" method

Let your baby cry it out. Put them in the crib at a certain time, after following a certain bedtime routine, and don't interfere until the next morning, no matter how much they yell. Followers of this method believe if a child learns that a tantrum will result in the appearance of a loved one, the behavior will continue into the future.

"The downside, of course, is that it’s unbelievably stressful for parents," writes Carroll. "Many can’t do it. And not holding fast to the plan can make everything worse. Responding to an infant’s crying after an extended period of time makes the behavior harder to extinguish. To a baby, it’s like a slot machine that hits just as you’re ready to walk away; it makes you want to play more."

2. The "graduated extinction" method

If option 1 is too intense, this might be the right move for you. In this method, parents gradually increase the amount of time they let their baby cry each night.

"On the first night, for instance, parents might commit to not entering the baby’s room for five minutes," Carroll explains. "The next night, 10 minutes. Then 15, and so on. Or, they could increase the increments on progressive checks each night. When they do go in the room, it’s only to check and make sure the baby is okay—no picking up or comforting. This isn’t meant to be a reward for crying, but to allow parents to be assured that nothing is wrong."

3. The "fading bedtime" method

The aim of the "fading bedtime" is to teach your child to fall asleep on their own at bedtime, so if they wake up in the middle of the night they know how to fall back asleep on their own.

"With fading, you temporarily set bedtime later than usual and preface it with a good bedtime routine," writes Carroll. "Your babies learn that bedtime is fun, and have little trouble falling asleep because they’re more tired than usual. Then you move their bedtime earlier and earlier, so that infants learn how to put themselves to sleep when they are less and less tired."

4. The "scheduled awakenings" method

Stave off middle of the night wakings by waking the child up 15 to 30 minutes before they usually wake up, then help them fall back asleep. Then, slowly phase these scheduled awakenings out.

5. The "parental education" method

This one is more preventative than the others, and focuses on working with your pediatrician on various approaches before sleep problems develop.

"The strongest evidence supported the extinction method and parent education (i.e. prevention)," Carroll explains. "Still, there was evidence that also supported graduated extinction, fading and scheduled awakenings methods."

So, no matter which methodology you employ, you're doing it right. And a good night’s sleep—when you eventually get one—will make it all better, no matter how long it takes.