Switch Off Your Brain Before Bed

Don’t let your whirring mind stop you from having a good night’s sleep.

- Faye Smith

It's way past your bedtime, but your brain is doing somersaults. You know you will have trouble tomorrow if you don’t get off to sleep soon – but stressing is just making matters worse. ‘A good night’s sleep is essential for the restoration and repair of your vital organs,’ says sleep guru Sammy Margo, author of The Good Sleep Guide (Penguin Random House). It may also help to prevent heart disease and even Alzheimer’s disease. Try these tricks to declutter your brain and drift off…

PLAN AHEAD

‘If you’re just switching off the TV and flopping into bed you’re asking for trouble,’ says Sammy. ‘Ideally, allow 40 minutes to switch off with whatever relaxing routine you find most helpful, such as having a bath, reading, or listening to an audiobook.’ Programmes and phone pings will overstimulate your brain, and the blue light that devices emit can also disrupt your production of the sleep hormone melatonin. So that means no social media either!

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