Sleep expert explains why COVID-19 is keeping us awake
If the COVID-19 outbreak has sent your sleep into a tailspin, you’re not alone. If you’re finding yourself or your kids struggling through sleepless nights, this is why.
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Awake at 3am night after night, thinking a million thoughts and fretting over why you can’t get back to sleep? You’re not alone.
Prof Dorothy Bruck, chair of the Sleep Health Foundation, said you only have to look at social media to see how many of us are having trouble sleeping in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Usually it’s that breakthrough wakefulness in the early hours of the morning, which is associated with being hyper-aroused and hypervigilant and that’s usually related to stress,” Prof Bruck said.
So how do you get a good night’s sleep during the current crisis?
IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
COVID-19 shutdowns have up-ended our lives. We’re home more, maybe sleeping in, spending too much time in bed or napping during the day. All of which reduces sleep pressure.
“The ideal thing to create more sleep pressure is to only spend the amount of time in bed that you need to sleep,” Prof Bruck said.
“So if you’re an eight hour sleeper then you should only be in bed for eight hours, and preferably in your routine, 11-7, whatever suits your normal schedule.”
If you’re not very active in the day, and not getting much outdoor light, your circadian rhythm is not nearly as robust either.
“It doesn’t go up as much in the daytime without as much activity and light, and it doesn’t go down to what we want for deeper sleep and good sleep,” she said.
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Adding to the conundrum is a 24-hour news cycle keeping us worried and anxious.
“People are getting all this bad news, worrying about family and friends and their own health, and also, confronting a whole lot of new tasks like home schooling for kids that can be very stressful,” she said.
“So their overall 24-hour stress levels are much higher — it's a bit like they're in 24-hour fight or flight mode, they're always getting ready to deal with some crisis.”
When we’re hyperaroused like that, it’s very difficult to sleep, especially in the second half of the night when our sleep is much lighter. We have that breakthrough wakefulness.
If breakthrough wakefulness is happening to you, try to pinpoint the problem: exercise, daylight and stress are a start, as is caffeine, nicotine and especially alcohol, known to cause fragmented sleep in the second half of the night.
Other factors may be going to bed too early, or working at home in bed is big no-no.
“If your working on your laptop on your bed, then putting it aside and turning the light off that’s ridiculous too, because you’re all stimulated from what you’ve been doing on the laptop,” she said.
Prof Bruck suggested downloading f.lux to turn down the blue light on screens if your device does not have a nightshift mode.
BODY CLOCKS AND KIDS
Kids need to take their cue from parents, Prof Bruck said. If they don’t need to get up for a 9am check-in with their teachers, for example, they can easily end up in a ‘free-run’.
“That’s where they keep going to bed later and waking up later, a bit like what we see with teens on weekends, and they move their body clock to be later and become night owls.
“Teenagers — and teenage monkeys too — have a delayed secretion of melatonin.
“So they have this in-built desire to go to sleep later and later anyway.
“If they’re not getting daylight in the day, especially in the morning, they’re at risk of that happening.”
Prof Bruck said with home schooling, it’s important children and teen stick to a morning get-up time fairly consistent with going to school, with a good hit of sunlight before 9am, and another midmorning.
TIPS FOR A KIP
● Prioritise the three pillars of good health: good diet, good exercise, good sleep.`
● If anxiety around COVID-19 is keeping you awake, limit media exposure and make time to unwind before bed. Read, watch or listen to something that isn’t about the outbreak.
● What you do during the day impacts how you fare at night: Exercise, avoid too much caffeine and alcohol, and get enough daylight early on. Talk to a friend or write down your worries well before bedtime.
● Keep a regular sleep-wake routine. Going to bed and getting up at the same time is important for getting a good night of sleep and if it doesn’t pan out, it’s not the end of the world
● You cannot force yourself to go to sleep, so do not try.
● Simply allow yourself to be relaxed and quiet, and sleep will come to you.
● For more expert tips, visit The Sleep Health Foundation’s ‘Getting sleep during the coronavirus” page.