What a nightmare!
I've had a warm cup of milk, I've read a book, I've counted sheep, but the Sandman won't come. Many Americans need half an hour to fall asleep, although it shouldn't take long for them to drift off.
A five-minute trick that might save you valuable time – and sheep. Before starting work, try writing a list of the tasks you need to accomplish the next day.
“When I started making nightly to-do lists, I had no idea they would help me sleep — I just wanted a way to better track my priorities and productivity from day to day,” CNET managing editor Adam Benjamin wrote last week.
“So, every night before bed, I would write down three things I wanted to do the next day,” Benjamin continued. “I also like to point out something good that happened during the day, no matter how small.”
There is science that supports the sleep suggestion. A 2017 study found that participants who wrote a to-do list before bed instead of journaling about their accomplishments fell asleep “significantly faster.”
Nine minutes, to be exact, which Baylor University researchers confirmed with a diagnostic test.
“The more specifically participants wrote down their to-do list, the faster they fell asleep, while the opposite trend was observed when participants wrote about completed activities,” the study authors wrote in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
They speculated that writing down tasks allows you to get rid of your worries, so you don't need to think about them while you're trying to sleep.
This concept is called “cognitive offloading.” It reduces the mental effort required to complete a task, which may ultimately lead to better performance.
Examples include writing a grocery list, setting a reminder on your phone about an upcoming appointment and leaving an item in a specific place to remember later.
The importance of “cognitive offloading” was demonstrated in a 2014 study of German IT workers. Employees who did not complete their tasks by the end of the week had worse sleep over the weekend because they spent too much time worrying about unfinished work.
Sleep experts who spoke to CNN recommended scheduling “worry time” outside of the bedroom to explore concerns that might be keeping you up at night and emailing your to-do list.
“It gives you the satisfaction and awareness that night has come and there's nothing you can do with your list, but you can come to it tomorrow,” Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky, a sleep medicine physician, told the outlet.
