The Sleep Prescription: Cure Your Insomnia with Dr. Aric Prather
When was the last time you had a good night’s sleep? While sleep is one of the most essential things to our survival, for some of us, it’s something that can be so hard to achieve. But how can something so innate be so hard to do? Fortunately, there are surprising yet simple ways to get back to your rhythm. It won’t happen overnight, but once you get in touch with what works for you, you can begin to sleep well without worrying once more.
In today's episode of Wisdom Wednesday, Tessa speaks with sleep scientist Dr. Aric Prather about The Sleep Prescription. He explains the two primary processes that regulate our sleep. He also shares the solutions that can help people, especially people with insomnia, achieve restorative and consolidated sleep. Dr. Aric lays down surprising yet simple techniques and habits that will help you consistently sleep well.
If you want to know how to get a lifelong good night’s sleep, this episode is for you!
Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:
Understand why sleep is universal yet very personal.
Learn about the seven-day sleep experiment and the power of keeping a sleep diary.
Find out why you should focus on setting a stable wake time versus a stable sleep time.
Resources
The Sleep Prescription by Dr. Aric Prather
Pre-order Rosie’s book, You are Radically Loved
Download this episode’s exclusive action guide on curing your insomnia by filling in your contact info below:
Episode Highlights
[03:35] Anxiety on Sleep
People with insomnia have a level of anxiety around needing everything in the right place to sleep. Otherwise, they will have a terrible night’s sleep until it spirals.
Sleep is fundamental to our survival. We can survive longer without food and water than without sleep.
Different parts of our biology regulate sleep, but anxiety can override it.
Unlike our ancestors, there are so many things that word us now that impact our sleep.
[4:29] Dr. Aric: “Sleep is so fundamental to our survival. Like, we can survive longer without food and water than we can survive without sleep.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[08:14] Differences Between People’s Sleep System
Our sleep system is robust. It differs by person.
It’s about trying to set up your sleep in a predictable way.
Sleep is universal, but it’s also personal. There are things specific to you that you need to take into account.
[9:11] Dr. Aric: “Sleep is really universal, but it's also personal” - Click Here To Tweet This
[10:08] Seven-Day Sleep Experiment
Writing a sleep diary helps you get a better understanding of how consolidated your sleep is.
The Sleep Prescription distills the principles they developed in the clinic down to seven days.
Doing it by hand helps you engage in the process as your own sleep scientist.
People should not read too much into wearable devices' sleep reports. The absolute numbers provided by these tools are not up to the standard of sleep laboratories.
Orthosomnia is insomnia that develops from using wearable devices.
[13:25] The Two Primary Processes that Regulate Our Sleep
The circadian rhythm is your internal clock. It plays a role in your alerting signals throughout the day.
Sunlight plays a huge role in training the circadian rhythm. The melatonin secretion that happens when it’s dark out cues the body that it’s getting close to bedtime.
The homeostatic sleep drive builds up like a balloon. It’s flat in the morning and builds up throughout the day with sleepiness.
Sleepiness happens from a neurochemical in the brain called adenosine.
Changes such as traveling across time zones or daylight savings can shift your circadian rhythm from your homeostatic sleep drive causing sleeping difficulties.
[16:06] Early Birds vs. Night Owls
Early birds have a more advanced sleep phase, while night owls have a more delayed sleep phase. Most people fit in the middle.
Circadian rhythm is often genetically-driven.
People with extremely delayed sleep phase syndrome can find it challenging to manage their life work-wise and can end up getting different jobs.
[17:05] Dr. Aric: "When your circadian rhythm is kind of like in an extreme mode, oftentimes, just the world isn't set up for you." - Click Here To Tweet This
[17:38] Building Sleep Pressure Throughout the Day
Keeping a sleep diary allows you to have an understanding of the amount of time that you have the opportunity for sleep.
How much is actual sleep from the time you go to bed to the time you wake up? Some people can go to bed early but don’t fall asleep until three hours later.
The sleep efficiency score takes into account how much was sleep from the opportunity. Scoring an 85% is great.
Setting someone’s circadian clock requires having a stable wake time. Then, the balloon will start blowing up.
Getting sleep consolidation higher requires shrinking the opportunity or moving the bedtime to later. Tune in to the episode to hear more about how this works!
[20:00] Moving Your Bedtime
Feeling tired all the time and feeling sleepy are two different things. Getting your sleep timing right allows you to get reacquainted with sleepiness.
Consolidated sleep feels better and more restorative than longer sleep.
When people are able to sleep, everything else becomes better in their life.
Our natural bedtime is usually later in the night. People with insomnia get so nervous about not getting sleep, that they account for time and go to bed earlier.
[20:55] Dr. Aric: “The ability to give someone back their sleep is like the best gift I've ever experienced because when people are able to sleep, everything else kind of opens up to their life—everything's a little bit brighter.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[23:05] What to Do in the Transition Period
Sleep requires a lot of environmental and ritual things.
Your brain is like a predicting machine. It’s constantly taking in information from the environment and trying to figure out what it should be doing to keep you alive.
The more predictable the information can be, the better the brain’s predictions are.
It's important to build in the transition period to allow you to wind down and consistently do things.
The idea is to produce low arousal, slightly positive feeling. Thus, it's critical to avoid content that generates the brain's reward system that keeps us coming back.
[27:21] The Importance of Keeping a Consistent Wake Time
The need to sleep in on the weekend is usually a symptom of not getting enough time during the week.
The social jetlag people put themselves in may be a risk factor for diseases.
If you have insomnia, you want to try to get things as predictable as possible.
Unlike your bedtime, your wake time is something you can control. Keeping a stable wake time sets your circadian rhythm and sleep balloon in line.
[28:18] Dr. Aric: "We can control what time we wake up in the morning. And again, it kind of sets in line our circadian rhythm, it helps us train it, it helps set in line when your sleep balloon is going to build up, which is different than the stable bedtime because if you have insomnia, that's distressing." - Click Here To Tweet This
[30:31] On Napping
Napping has been shown to increase alertness and help with memory and learning.
The siesta culture falls along the circadian dip that we experience as humans. It takes time into account so dinner and bedtime are usually later.
Napping can be challenging for someone with insomnia. It’s like stealing sleepiness out of your sleep balloon.
Naps can be helpful, but they can also be a symptom of an underlying sleeping issue.
[33:22] Worrying and Sleep
One of the challenges for people with insomnia is having their brains active in the middle of the night about not-so-good things.
Tackling your worries while trying to sleep gets in the way of your ability to sleep.
One effective strategy is to schedule time for intentional worrying. Take 20 minutes in your day not too close to bedtime to worry about things.
Setting a schedule allows you not to go down the rabbit hole of worries during bedtime.
Stress is a key contributor to sleep problems. Scheduling microbreaks enables you to do something kind for yourself and fight off stressors throughout the day.
[36:47] Stick Your Head in the Freezer
The idea is to find things that aren’t caffeine. You don’t want to consume caffeine late because it stays in the system for a long time.
We’re built to experience different alerting stimuli like cold exposure.
A Polar Plunge is invigorating for some people because it regulates the sympathetic nervous system and helps you stay alert.
One novel intervention related to cold exposure that also has a physiologic impact is sticking your head in the freezer.
Brisk walking is another intervention that can get your blood pumping.
[39:47] How Dr. Aric Feels Radically Loved
Dr. Aric feels fortunate to all the people throughout his career that have gone out of their way to help him.
He’s filled with gratitude to be able to share the message and be able to help people go on the sleep journey.
About Dr. Aric
Dr. Aric Prather is a psychologist and world-renowned sleep scientist. As a clinician, his focus is on treating insomnia with individual cognitive behavioral therapy. Dr. Aric is an associate professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and is the director of the UCSF Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program. He is also the author of the book The Sleep Prescription.
If you want to connect with Dr. Aric, visit his website.
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