Goodnight Mind Read Online Free PDF

chapter will teach you how to create a set sleep schedule that matches your body clock.
    What Is the Body Clock, and Why Is It Important for Sleep?
    As we discussed in chapter 1, you have an internal clock that determines the best timing for sleep. Throughout the morning and early part of the day, the body clock sends stronger and stronger alerting, or wakeful, signals; as the day goes on, these signals gradually fade, paving the way for sleepy signals to become dominant. If you go to bed much earlier or much later than your clock expects, you will either have difficulty sleeping or experience poor sleep quality. Because your body clock is so important in determining the quality of your sleep, the time you select for being in bed to sleep must (a) match your body clock type and (b) be regular. Let’s start with an exploration of your body clock type and then discuss why regularity leads to better sleep.
    Step 1: Pick a Sleep Window That Matches Your Body Clock Type
    The first step in finding and setting a sleep schedule is deceptively simple: choose a period for sleeping that matches your body clock type. People have a range of body clock types. At one extreme, there are definite morning types, and at the other end are extreme evening types; everyone else falls somewhere in between. Where are you on this spectrum? If you are unsure of your body clock type, read the descriptions below.
    If you have the following tendencies, you are an extreme evening type, also called a night owl:
     
You have difficulty waking up in the morning (or others have difficulty waking you up).
You dislike and avoid eating early in the morning.
You feel mentally cloudy for a while after waking up in the morning.
You feel at your best in the evening.
You become sleepy much later than most others do (for example, later than midnight).
    If on the other hand the following are descriptive of you, you are an extreme morning type, also called an early bird, or lark:
     
You become sleepy much earlier than most others do (usually earlier than 10:00 p.m.).
You have difficulty staying awake in the evening.
You wake up in the morning much earlier than most others do, without an alarm.
You feel most mentally alert in the morning; this alertness declines throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
    Although going to bed early and waking up early—or going to bed late and waking up late—may be in line with your body clock, it may be at odds with your partner’s. Your spouse, significant other, friend, family member, or roommate may have trouble understanding that your body clocks are different, so your ideal sleep patterns are different, and efforts to change this may in fact be counterproductive. If you are an extreme night person and your partner is an extreme morning person, it does not mean that your preferred sleep habits are wrong and your partner’s are right (or vice versa). Different people simply have different body clocks.
    If your new sleep window has the potential to create relationship problems, do your best to communicate with your partner and compromise. Below are some solutions you might explore.
     
Explain that your “unusual” sleep window may be biologically based and therefore not easy to change. Because body clocks have a significant genetic component, you may be able to identify at least one person in your family who can sympathize.
If you are a night person: explain that, for you, waking up at 7:00 a.m. feels just as “off” as waking up at 3:00 a.m. does for most people. Just as most people would find it unappealing to eat breakfast at 3:00 a.m., you do not find it appealing to eat at 7:00 a.m.
If you are a morning person: explain that, for you, staying in bed trying to sleep later in the morning is just as unpleasant and irritating as it would be for your friend or partner to try to go to sleep at 8:00 p.m.; no doubt your friend or partner would find it difficult to fall asleep so early. Just as most people would feel