How should you create a sleep routine? Elizabeth Tracey reports
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One way to avoid the reported epidemic of insomnia is to create a routine you follow before you go to bed, resetting your brain to prepare for sleep. That’s according to sleep expert Charlene Gamaldo at Johns Hopkins.
Gamaldo: There's this idea of well this is just an adolescent and Gen Z problem and it's not. It's at every single age group, we're all victims of it. There really should be a routine and a process to go to sleep.It's not like your body like a light switch. Your body actually goes through a unwind physiologically an unwind. So you need to lean into that and that takes ideally an hour but realistically give it at least 30 minutes. :30
Some components of a sleep routine should include powering down electronic devices and screen time for an hour before bed, Gamaldo says. Avoid caffeine, heavy meals, alcohol, and very stimulating activities during that pre-sleep hour also. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.