Proven: Looking at the time when you can’t sleep worsens insomnia

2023-05-20 12:39:15

The insomnia affects between 4 and 22% of adults and is associated with long-term health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression. The current pace of life, personal and work concerns, and even the use of screens until a moment before going to bed are behind most of our problems falling asleep.

Whatever it is that prevents us from sleeping, many of us, in a gesture of despair, we look at the clock or count the hours we have left ahead until the alarm goes off, thus increasing our nervousness.

Now, research by a professor at Indiana University, in the United States, shows that looking at the clock while trying to fall asleep aggravates insomnia and causes an increase in the consumption of sleeping pills.

The research, led by Spencer Dawson, an adjunct clinical professor and associate director of clinical training in the Department of Brain and Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, focuses on a sample of almost 5,000 patients who go to a sleep clinic.

Participants filled out questionnaires about the severity of their insomnia, use of sleep medication, and the time they spent monitoring their own behavior while trying to fall asleep. They were also asked to report any psychiatric diagnoses. The researchers performed mediation analyzes to determine how the factors influenced each other.

“We found that the time spent monitoring behavior primarily influences the use of sleeping medication because exacerbates symptoms of insomniaDawson said.

“People worry that they’re not getting enough sleep, so they start calculating how long it will take them to go back to sleep and when they have to get up. That’s not the kind of activity that’s helpful in facilitating the ability to fall asleep: the more stressed you are, the harder it will be to fall asleep“, he stressed.

As increases frustration with insomnior, people are more likely to turn to sleeping pills in an attempt to control their sleep.

Small gesture that can help you

Dawson says the research, published in ‘The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders’, indicates that a Simple behavioral intervention could help those with insomnia. Give the same advice to all new patients the first time they meet.

“One thing that people could do would be to flip or cover their watch, get rid of the smartwatch, move the phone away so they’re just not looking at the time“Dawson has suggested, to settle that” there is no place where looking at the clock is especially useful.

With 15 years of research and clinical experience in the sleep field, Dawson is interested in compare sleep experiences of people with what happens simultaneously in their brains.