Sleeping isn’t always easy and it’s especially stressful for many. There are many factors that can affect our sleep Internssuch as hormonal imbalances, to the external, like heat Or you went too far with caffeine. Sometimes it’s just that thoughts don’t want to leave our heads. for these cases, The technique that can be beneficial is called 5 for 1.
The name comes from the fact that the technology requires us to spend five minutes on a simple task: writing down our thoughts. The idea behind this practice is to write down all those things that go through our heads to prevent them from grabbing our attention and keeping us awake.
It is about writing down thoughts that allow us to continue thinking the next day, No development needed. Ideas like answering a co-worker’s email, making a call, or even reminding us to put away the washing machine. General ideas that, if any, we can develop the next day.
For proponents of this technique, writing down the idea is really helpful, it’s a way to get it out of your metaphorical head. “It is almost as if through the physical act of writing It will help the thought find its way out of the corner of your mind where it is stuck. Jason Aton explainsAn advocate of this technique. In addition, the technology allows Aten
Another potential advantage of this technique is having a list to review for the next day, getting rid of those useless thoughts that sometimes make us lose sleep more and being able to focus on those that we can consider pending tasks.
There appears to be a variant of this technique suggested by Chris Bailey in his book Excessive focus. This alternative recommends that we keep a notebook on hand while we work with our attention focused on a task, a notebook or a pad where we can jot down any thought that can take us out of our focus. The idea, again, is to be able to get the idea out of our heads and come back to it later.
Does science support it? The main question. The truth is, it is not easy to find studies confirming the effectiveness of this technique. This does not mean that there are no doctors who support it, thereSimply, the evidence we have is not enough. The science of sleep is advancing by leaps and bounds, but not all techniques have been studied in the same way.
So, can this method help us sleep? probably. Can you be sure it’s the perfect tool? no. This technology can help some people, when it’s anxiety, intrusive thoughts, fear of forgetting something important, a hanging conversation…what keeps us awake…
But this is not the only thing that can prevent us from sleeping at night. Insomnia can appear due to an infinite number of circumstances and sometimes requires other types of solutions. This is why there are many specialists who have the power to identify the problem that is causing our insomnia and recommend specific treatment.
Tool diversity
This is not the only technology designed to let people fall asleep. A large part of the scams like this that we can find depends Give us the tools for Relax before bed.
For example, another popular exercise is That’s the “military way.”which recommends that we first relax the muscles of the body, from head to toe, and then imagine ourselves in a comfortable, relaxing place for a few seconds.
Another popular technique is The call is 4-7-8. This technique involves breathing in for four seconds, holding the breath for seven, and then exhaling for eight seconds, leaving a small space between our lips and allowing the air to “hiss” slightly as it leaves our mouth.
Beyond specific techniques for falling asleep, we know that There are some guidelines More general can help us sleep better. This category It includes exercising (although we should allow time between exercise and going to bed), controlling caffeine and other substances that can affect our nervous system (including alcohol, as counterintuitive as it may sound), or maintaining regular sleep schedules. and vigilance.
And of course, avoid screens in the last hours. Light is a key factor when it comes to our bodies knowing when to turn it off. That is why if we are going to jot down our thoughts, it is better that we do it in a notepad or notebook and not in our app. Controlling other aspects of our environment in addition to light, such as temperature, can help us go to sleep earlier and do better.
We slept little and badly (He spits its a problem). Evidence for this is that Spain is one of the countries that consumes the most medicines to combat the effects of insomnia. Although sleep science has advanced to give us better sleep guidelines, pharmacology is also striving to create medicines With fewer side effects.
However, for the time being, these types of strategies can serve as a first shield against insomnia. Science doesn’t guarantee they’ll work, but they can help us find the key to what keeps us up at night.
Image | Polina Kovaleva
