What Are The Worst Things I Could Do If I Had Insomnia?

0:00What are the worst things I could do if I had insomnia as a double board certified psychiatrist?

0:09I'm Dr. Rodriguez from Healing Sky.

0:11I'm also the medical director of the Dari Center for Healing and I'm going to tell you

0:15what the worst things that I could do or you could do if you or I had insomnia.

0:23Single first worst thing that anybody could do is consuming caffeine.

0:29If you have insomnia, caffeine or anything related to caffeine such as green tea will

0:35make it worse.

0:36It sounds so basic but people do this all the time.

0:39They make this mistake all the time.

0:42So the first thing is to cut out caffeine.

0:44If you can get it to zero that would be better.

0:48At the very least do not consume it after breakfast.

0:52Even caffeine at lunch time can disrupt sleep especially if you have an insomnia problem.

0:59The best result will be to have no caffeine though.

1:01That really would be the best thing.

1:03The next thing is going to be having erratic sleep times.

1:07If you have trouble falling asleep having an irregular sleep time will make it harder.

1:12So try to have a set sleep and wake time each day, each night that will help get you into

1:19a cycle and that will make it easier to fall asleep without the use of medications or with

1:26less use of medications hopefully.

1:30Other things that can be big disruptors to sleep are going to be having loud noises or

1:35too much noise in the room or around the room that can be a big disruptor.

1:41This can be mitigated by using earplugs or and by using white noise machines.

1:48I'm personally a big fan of white noise machines.

1:51I use them every night.

1:52I've used them since medical school.

1:54These are easy to find.

1:55You can buy them on Amazon.

1:56They cost like $30.

1:57A light little white noise, fuzz sound in the background can really help drown out small

2:06bits of ambient noise.

2:08Now if things are really really loud, okay that's a problem, you're going to find some

2:13other place to sleep somehow, some way.

2:16But smaller sounds, if your ears are sensitive to sound, white noise machines, they absolutely

2:22help.

2:23They're non-medical.

2:24It's just a device, creates a background noise and helps drown out many small sounds.

2:30I recommend it highly for better quality sleep.

2:33If you are traveling and you don't have the machine with you, there are many white noise

2:37apps that you can get on your phone that will work almost as well but pretty close but definitely

2:43enough that you can get by.

2:45Now having too much light in your room can also be a problem.

2:48Too much light can be stimulating.

2:51So doing your best to have a dark place to sleep, you can get blackout curtains or blackout

2:57blinds.

2:58That helps a lot.

2:59Sometimes people can do the eye mask and that can help or they can cover their eyes, you

3:04know, with a shirt or the sleeve of a shirt, that can help as well.

3:07It makes a difference to be in the dark because any amount of light can actually stimulate

3:12you and make it hard to fall asleep.

3:15Along those lines, having a crappy bed, you do not want to sleep in a crappy bed because

3:21the discomfort can really affect your ability to fall asleep.

3:25Now you're saying, Dr. Rodriguez, are you going to buy me a bed?

3:28Okay, no, I cannot buy you a bed.

3:30However, if you have a bad bed and you cannot afford to replace your bed currently, some

3:35things you can do to help mitigate that are you can put a mattress topper that costs a

3:41lot less than a mattress and that can help make the bed significantly more comfortable.

3:46So doing something like that so that the bed is more comfortable will help you fall asleep.

3:53Also people have the option of buying used mattresses.

3:56A used good mattress is often better than a brand new crappy mattress.

4:02So a better quality mattress, getting it used, somebody has to move or they're moving states

4:09or they just don't need it anymore.

4:11You can get them actually pretty cheap because they just got to move it, get it out there.

4:15That could be a good opportunity.

4:17Just put some fresh sheets on it, cover it up and it will be very usable.

4:23People do this all the time and it can save you a lot of money and improve your sleep

4:27at least until such time that you can buy a new one yourself.

4:31Also one of the worst things you can do is having the wrong temperature set.

4:35If it is too warm or if it is too cold, either way it will disrupt your sleep, it'll be uncomfortable.

4:42You'll wake up, try to reposition, try to cover yourself more, try to uncover yourself

4:46more and it leads to poor quality sleep.

4:49So temperature, it can be easily fixed.

4:52Set the thermostat properly, try to put it on an automatic setting so it is consistent

4:58every night.

4:59That will help a lot, an easy solution, an easy fix that should not be overlooked.

5:06Also screen time, looking at your phone and if you're looking at your phone right now

5:11and trying to go to sleep, you should get out of bed, do it at your table, at a desk

5:15when you're done watching this video, then go to bed because the blue light from your

5:20screen will stimulate your brain and will keep you up.

5:24That is a common thing.

5:26There are some things you can do, some settings in your phone, at least the iPhone has some

5:31nighttime settings which will reduce the blue light to make it less stimulating and less

5:36disruptive for sleep.

5:37However, avoiding screen time, even watching this video or any other video would help a

5:44lot because watching videos before you go to bed, while it's relaxing, although you

5:49like it, I like it too, I get it and it can stimulate your brain and make it harder to

5:54fall asleep and disrupt your sleep.

5:57It is a common bad practice, you want to avoid that.

6:01Other things, eating right before bed.

6:04If your stomach is really full, if you're uncomfortable, you can get reflux.

6:08Aside from that, it is not healthy to do because eating before bed can lead to weight gain,

6:13eating before bed can lead to more reflux, which can be uncomfortable.

6:17It is something that will also disrupt your sleep.

6:21So try not to eat so close to before bed.

6:24Ideally, you want to have your last meal three hours before bed, not any sooner because

6:29otherwise you can start having issues of digestion, issues of weight gain, issues of reflux, all

6:35things that are not good, as well as disrupted sleep.

6:40The next worst thing is smoking and smoking is a huge problem in and of itself.

6:47Quitting smoking is very hard, I get it, but do your best to not smoke right before you

6:53sleep because it can disrupt your sleep and make it worse.

6:56So try not to do that as much as you can.

7:00Alcohol, although alcohol will initially help you fall asleep, it is going to be a poor

7:07quality sleep and you risk developing dependence of your sleep state on alcohol if you do this

7:16regularly.

7:18Alcohol is not a good way to fall asleep, it is not intended to be a sleep medication.

7:25That is probably the last thing you want to use as a sleep medication because one, you

7:29can develop an alcohol problem, two, you can make your insomnia worse, and three, when

7:35you do sleep, it's going to be such poor quality sleep.

7:38So definitely, definitely do not use alcohol to fall asleep.

7:42If somebody is not drinking at night, I know that their blood alcohol will not be zero

7:46before they fall asleep, but that should be few and far between, it should not be every

7:50night.

7:51If it's every night, you might have an alcohol problem, you probably have an alcohol problem,

7:55but if it's once in a while, you can get away with it.

7:58But if you have sleep issues, and you're trying to use alcohol to fall asleep, that is definitely

8:03one of the worst things to do.

8:05So please do not use alcohol to fall asleep.

8:08Along those lines, drugs, taking drugs to fall asleep, also a problem.

8:13One, because it is dangerous, two, it is dependence forming.

8:19You will get not just addicted to the drug, for using the drug, your sleep state will

8:25become dependent on the drug.

8:27So this is like a double whammy, it's like a double addiction.

8:31Your body is addicted to the drug, and then your sleep state, the ability to fall asleep

8:37and stay asleep is also addicted to the drug.

8:40That is a bad scenario, because fixing that kind of insomnia is very difficult.

8:46This is something along the lines of what happened to Michael Jackson, and we know how

8:50that turned out.

8:51So don't use drugs to fall asleep, not to mention, if you're using street drugs, you

8:57run the risk of overdosing and dying in your sleep.

8:59Okay, that's anxiety provoking, but it's also true.

9:02So don't use sleep drugs, you know, you get from the streets to fall asleep.

9:07That is not a good idea.

9:08Please don't do that.

9:09Now, a couple other bonus extras here that are more sensitive topics are, what do you

9:16do if you have a snoring partner, a partner that snores loud?

9:22This can be very disruptive.

9:25This can be hard to sleep through or fall asleep or fall back asleep.

9:28If you get up, this can be a challenge.

9:31One way to fix this is sleep in a different room.

9:35That's one way.

9:36If you don't have that option, one way to mitigate a snoring person is you can sleep

9:43upside down, meaning, you know, position your head by their feet and your feet by their

9:48head.

9:49So your head is away from their head, which is the source of the sound of snoring, which

9:55is disruptive.

9:56And then close to your head, you can put the white noise machine closer to your head.

10:01That is one way to mitigate this.

10:03It will not eliminate it entirely, but it will make it easier to fall asleep, both using

10:08the white noise and creating some distance between your head and their head.

10:12Having your head right next to their head and they're snoring, that is hard to sleep

10:17through, you know, even with medication, that's hard to sleep through.

10:21So I would recommend that if you're caught in that scenario.

10:24I hope you find this helpful.

10:27If you'd like to receive some help with your insomnia, if you would like for me to help

10:31you with that, as a psychiatrist, you can find me at DelrayCentral.com or here on Healing Sky.

10:37Also look for my podcast, The Smiling Brain, here on Healing Sky.

10:40Thank you.