Insomnia is a huge problem, one that begs to be resolved during the winter months.
Mother Nature offers you shorter days, longer nights, cooler temperatures… all in an effort to get you hibernating each winter and prepared for the year ahead.
If a little winter hibernation is eluding you, today’s medical study can help.
It’s long been known that cooler temperatures help deepen sleep. Typical advice is to make the bedroom a little cooler at nighttime (68 – 70 degrees is ideal) and never sleep with socks on (one study cites that sleeping with socks on increases the incidence of nightmares!)
Today’s study shows this on a different level. Turns out, cooling your forehead for 5 minutes or more while going to sleep actually allows the body to release more melatonin and help brings sleep on faster.
The Study:
- Researchers followed 24 patients (12 with insomnia and 12 with normal sleep patterns, gender and aged matched controls) in a sleep study lab, to determine the effects of cooling the head to induce sleep.
- All patients participated in sleep studies under several conditions: no cooling cap, a cooling cap on but no cooling setting activated, a cooling cap on at a moderate cooling setting, and a cooling cap on at a maximum setting.
- The cooling cap (a soft plastic cap with cold water circulating through tubes in it) induced cerebral hypothermia… basically, the frontal cerebral cortex of the brain.
The Results:
- When the patients with insomnia wore the cooling cap at the maximum setting, they shifted their sleep patterns to match the parameters of the normal patients without insomnia!
- The insomnia patients fell asleep just as quickly as non-insomnia patients when their foreheads were cooled (and actually feel asleep a little more quickly… 13 minutes to reach sleep stage 1 compared to 16 minutes by non-insomnia control patients)
- The insomnia patients with cooled foreheads also were able to stay asleep the exact same length of time (89 % of the night in both groups) as the patients without insomnia.
As a result, big pharma has now created a new (read: expensive!) prescription sleep device that helps reduce the time it takes to get into stage 1 and stage 2 sleep by keeping the forehead cooler longer… called the Cereve Sleep System.
Larger studies (funded by Cereve of course) looking at over 230 patients over almost 4,000 research nights of sleep confirm that patients with insomnia have a highly active frontal cortex, preventing patients from relaxing into deeper, more restorative sleep. These patients statistically reduced amount of time to drop into stage 1 sleep when using the Cereve device to help cool the forehead, and they continued to improve their quality of sleep over 30 consecutive days of use.
Another study confirms the opposite is true as well, that taking melatonin supplements (in the range of 1 mg to 5 mg) drops core body temperature and allows for deeper sleep.
But want a natural, holistic way to fall asleep more easily, tonight?
One that you probably have already, right in your own home?
All it takes is grabbing a washcloth, wetting it and cooling it down in your freezer.
- Simply place a cold damp washcloth over your forehead as you lay in bed going to sleep.
- The washcloth will cool your forehead and allow you to fall asleep more easily, and you can place it gently over your eyes (as well as your forehead) to help block out any light in your bedroom.
- You can boost this cooling effect by taking 1 mg – 5 mg of melatonin.
The cooling action will allow you to fall asleep faster, and the grounding action will synergistically allow your sleep to be deeper and more restorative, staying in deeper phases of sleep longer.
Another important way to normalize sleep is to sleep grounded.
Sleeping grounded helps the brain to relax and for sleep to be deeper and more restorative. Looking at EEG brain studies and sleep studies, researchers have found that sleeping grounded helps lower cortisol in the evening and boost it in the morning, which means you fall asleep faster and wake up more energized. It also helps the brain relax into deeper phases of sleep and stay in those restorative sleep phases longer.
Want some more ideas on getting a good night’s sleep?
Watch my sleep video right here:
xoxoxoxo, Laura
P.S. — Wish I had a super convenient kit pulled together for you that included my grounded mattress panel, my favorite melatonin supplement, delicious organic sleepy-time tea, and a soothing cold pack to place over your forehead at night to help you fall asleep quickly…
… all at incredible savings?
Oh wait! I just created that for you right here!
Hop on over here today and order your Insomnia Relief Right Now kit and capture better sleep right now, in the middle of winter, when your body craves it the most!
I’d love to send a kit your way!