Tag: Asleep

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How to Fall Asleep Faster, According to Powerful Women


Three letters—CBD. Lord Jones Royal Oil has completely helped my sleep routine. If I’m having trouble sleeping after a long day, traveling, or simply need to unwind, it is my go-to.
—Jen Gotch, founder and CCO of ban.do and author of The Upside of Being Down

Know that your sleep issues have a greater context

Courtesy of Tessa Blanken

“From my research, it appears that in understanding sleep problems we might have to look beyond the mere problems themselves (i.e., difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early) and expand our focus to other characteristics that may be important in the development and maintenance of insomnia—personality traits, life-history, worrying and ruminating, and even the experience of happiness. We found that people’s sleep problems are the same—it is actually the context in which their sleep problems are developed and maintained that differs. So, when we consider insomnia, we need to think of it in the broader contexts of our lives.”
—Tessa Blanken, neuroscience, sleep & cognition researcher

Follow three easy rules

Doctor Jamie Coleman
Chris Bergin

“As a trauma surgeon who can work up to 100 hours in a week, creating good sleep hygiene is a must. Three of the quickest and easiest ways to get a better night’s sleep: Putting down the phone, putting down the wine glass, and picking up an eye mask. Screen time does worsen your quality of sleep by decreasing melatonin production. Secondly, alcohol. I know, I know, it might make you feel like you sleep better, but intake of alcohol within two hours of going to sleep drastically worsens your quality of sleep—it significantly reduces or blocks REM sleep, which isn’t just about dreaming, it is actually about mental restoration. Thirdly, although it might seem dark in your bedroom, there is often enough light from a variety of sources to decrease melatonin production. Blackout shades are great, but aren’t exactly portable. Eye masks come in a variety of shapes, materials, and styles that won’t crush your eyelashes but will allow your body to produce more melatonin, and a great night’s sleep.”
—Dr. Jamie Coleman, trauma surgeon (she’s doing a study sleep-tracking surgeons right now!)

Seriously, avoid blue light

Valdya Chapman
Courtesy of Valdya Chapman





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Jessica Biel Fell Asleep on Her Date Night With Justin Timberlake, and I So Relate


Justin Timberlake‘s birthday is today (January 31), and to celebrate he and Jessica Biel went out last night in New York City. Things got off to quite the hilarious start, though. In perhaps the most relatable move ever, Biel fell asleep in the car before their date even began.

The “Mirrors” singer filmed the entire situation and posted it to Instagram. “Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me,” he sings to himself quietly before panning to Biel, who couldn’t be bothered with anything besides her REM cycle. Wow. Same. Me.

Timberlake starts singing a little bit louder, and that’s what eventually wakes Biel up. “I’m just preparing for our big night out,” she says, laughing. “I’m just preparing!” Timberlake then chuckles to himself and gives some side eye. But the real shade should go to him for rustling Biel from her shut-eye. She looked so comfy!

Watch this all go down for yourself, below.

Listen, she’s onto something: I mean, why spend time and money going out for your birthday when you could sleep? I live in New York City. It’s cold right now. Really cold. Too cold to go outside. Napping sounds like way more fun than dealing with this frigid tundra.

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel tied the knot in October 2012 after about five years of dating. They met at a party in Hollywood. “When I met Jess, it was undeniable how beautiful she is,” Timberlake wrote in his book Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me, released last fall. “I made some sort of sarcastic comment, really dry. Nobody got it except her. She laughed, and I noticed, all of a sudden, and in the way where you wonder if a person’s like you, if they have a very dry, dark sense of humor, too.”



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This Deep Sleep Pillow Spray Actually Helps Me Fall Asleep


In my dream world I’d be a morning person who wakes up at 5:00 A.M. with a matcha latte in one hand and a lemon water in the other, about to check a gym or yoga session off my list. The real me feels like I’ve been hit by a truck when my alarm goes off, and I have to fight an inner battle to get up out of bed.

It seems silly for someone to say they’re terrible at sleep, but every night I face the uncertainty of not knowing how long it will take me to fall into a slumber or if I’ll even doze off at all. I’ve tried everything short of a prescription at the recommendation of doctors, friends, and—of course—Instagram: no electronics before bed, no napping, yoga, reading, meditation, tea, melatonin, magnesium, essential oils, ear plugs, a sleep app that tracks your sleep and wakes you up at the best time, an eye mask, and even a new mattress.

It’s not that they’re all entirely worthless. Most of the time any combination of these methods do help me fall asleep faster and stay asleep, but some nights I’m so lazy I don’t feel like getting up to take my magnesium supplement or plug in my diffuser. The one thing I can always muster up the energy to do, however, is pick up my bottle of This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray and spritz a few drops on my pillow and all over my bed.

I first heard about it a year ago during a work event and was immediately drawn to it because of how simple it sounded. It wasn’t a concoction I had to pre-make, a pill I had to swallow, or anything I had to assemble or put thought into. I literally just had to pick it up. So I took home a bottle and made note to try out the next time I was tossing and turning in bed. Spoiler: They didn’t overhype this spray. After my first time using it, I fell asleep quickly and woke up the next morning pleasantly surprised at how refreshed I felt.

The spray contains a blend of lavender, vetiver, and camomile and smells like a warm, soothing, calming hug. Lest that sounds like B.S., there are actually studies that show both lavender and camomile are scientifically proven to aid with insomnia. The fact that it takes almost no effort to use before bedtime makes it a no-brainer in my routine. The bottle never leaves my bedside, and the use of scent to aid in sleep is one of the most effective methods I’ve personally tried. Even though it’s not always a guarantee, I find that I’m able to knock out faster and stay asleep longer than when I don’t use it, and my sleep quality is noticeably better.

Also, because it’s relatively affordable (only $29) and under 3 fluid ounces, I can take it with me whenever I travel—which is especially key when it’s for work and there’s a time difference. Case in point: When I traveled to Paris for Fashion Week last September, it helped me wind down after 15-hour days of shows, showroom appointments, and meetings.

I might never be that girl up and ready to go at dawn, but at least I feel functional by the time I roll into the office. And that seems like a win enough.

This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray, $29, dermstore.com

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–I Can Sleep in This $8 Lipstick, and It Looks Exactly the Same in the Morning



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The Best Sleep Water to Help You Fall Asleep Naturally


I have a distinct memory from five years ago, when I was fresh out of college and happy to work until 2 a.m. on a deadline, of humble-bragging to my boss that I could get by on merely four hours of sleep. (“I just drink a Red Bull and I’m fine!”) She groaned an ominous warning: “Just wait.”

Now, at 29, I realize my youthful naïveté. Along with a newfound inability to handle the hangover I’ll get after two rosés, I’m now unable to function with any less than seven hours of sleep. As I’ve gotten older and more curmudgeonly about going to bed early, this hasn’t been too much of an issue. But a few months ago, on top of an already chaotic news cycle that’s wreaked havoc on normally sound sleepers, I found myself suffering from insomnia.

Not one to really ever prioritize my health (see: taking pride in sleep deprivation), I didn’t do much to seek out treatment. I caffeinated, I upped my under-eye concealer, and slogged through the day like a yawning zombie. That didn’t quite cut it. (Weird, right?)

But I had tried sleeping pills in the past and felt foggy in the morning, so I didn’t want to go down that road again. I’d heard about melatonin tablets and adaptogens—options normally lauded as solid natural sleep-aids—but already over-tired, the thought of having to road-test these and titrate the right amounts before landing on something that would work for me just exacerbated my agita. So my ill-advised solution was to pop an Ativan (which I’m prescribed, as-needed, for anxiety attacks), hoping it would knock me out. As you can imagine, this went horribly, as going off-label or against doctor’s instructions often does. Not only was this misuse of anxiety meds making me groggy, it was screwing with my mood.

I’d recently attended Goop Fest, Gwyneth Paltrow’s bougie wellness summit, to share an outsider’s view on the convention. For my participation, I walked away with a literal suitcase full of health swag including everything from mushroom matcha mix to collagen protein bars to paleo supplements. I ended up giving away most of it with one intriguing exception: four bottles of Som Sleep’s “Sleep Formula.” A drink that promises to help you doze off, which I promptly placed in my fridge and forgot about for the foreseeable future.

I never heard of a sleep water before, but it wasn’t that hard to figure out. You put it in the fridge, and then drink it 30 minutes before you want to go to bed. From there, magnesium and melatonin (among other ingredients said to promote relaxation) go to work to naturally tell your body that it’s time to turn in. It’s essentially the anti-Red Bull. So, one night when I was having a particularly difficult time winding down, I remembered I had a case of this stuff stashed in my fridge and cracked one open. Fifteen minutes into the show I was watching, I started to yawn. By the time the credits were rolling, I was ready for bed.

I awoke the next the morning surprisingly refreshed. Getting up to my alarm felt a little easier, and come 4 p.m. that day, I wasn’t dragging and in need of another coffee. Since Som claims its formula is non-habit forming, I chugged one again the next night to the same delightful result.

An occupational hazard of working as a beauty editor is that I get access to, and then sample, all kinds of supplements. And something I’ve noticed among them, whether it’s “beauty water” or collagen drinks, is that many have a funky taste. This berry-flavored formula is a little more polite on the palate. There’s a slight aftertaste, but overall it’s actually quite refreshing (the original slightly moreso than the sugar-free version). And like most things that are Goop-approved, it comes with a lot of no‘s: no gluten, no dairy, no preservatives, and no artificial flavors.

As for a different no: By no means am I saying a sleepy-time supplement is a cure for anxiety or insomnia. It’s not. Eventually, I did make the call to loop in my doctor, who helped me land on a better anxiety-med dosage. That, I’m pretty sure, is what has ultimately helped me get better sleep. But at least once or twice a week when I still have trouble unwinding—these days, likely from a too-intense episode of The Handmaid’s Tale—I reach for one of these cans and feel the blissful effects of the sleep water at work. Whether it’s the placebo affect or the real deal, me and my full eight hours are not complaining.

Plus, it’s nice to be able to brag about my sleeping habits again.

Som Sleep The Original Som Sleep Formula, $30 for 12, amazon.com

Related Stories:
–Even If You Aren’t Expecting, You Should Try Sleeping With This Pregnancy Pillow
–16 Sleep Masks That’ll Help You Clock Those 8 Hours
–9 Ways to Bounce Back the Day After a Crappy Night’s Sleep



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Here's Why You Need TV Shows to Fall Asleep


The first thing I thought when news broke that 30 Rock is leaving Netflix next month was, “How am I going to fall asleep?”

That’s not an insult to 30 Rock, which remains one of the funniest shows to ever hit network TV. In fact, the show—which was created by and stars Tina Fey and ran on NBC from 2007 to 2012—is responsible for most of what I find funny even years later. I don’t have original thoughts so much as I have 30 Rock bits from 2009 through which my brain filters all experiences. It’s how I know never to follow a hippie to a second location and to listen to my H.E.A.R.T. And though it got just-OK ratings for most of its run, it’s since become quite the sleeper hit—pun intended.

Which is why for the last several years, whenever my mind decides that 1 A.M. would be a good time to go over every dumb thing I’ve ever done, I’ve switched on 30 Rock and dozed off to the dulcet tones of Tracy Morgan shrieking, “Doctor Spaceman! Doctor Spaceman!” Whether it’s because I’m so familiar with its particular brand of absurdist office humor or because I find main character Liz Lemon’s privileged white lady obstacles refreshingly manageable in these troubled times, it’s become a very easy thing to fall asleep in front of.

So when Netflix made this announcement, I panicked. Seeking solidarity, I went on Facebook to post that I was sad to see the show leave streaming because I’ve really come to rely on it—and within an hour, dozens of comments appeared from people who also use this particular show as their sleep aid of choice. “Wait, what??? They can’t take it away from me!” wrote one devastated friend. “What the heck! 30 Rock is one of my standby soporifics!” wrote another. One particularly sad comment just read, “Wow. I may never sleep again.”

Others suggested their own favorite sleeping shows as replacements. “Kimmy Schmidt, Archer, and Bojack Horseman are my go-to for turning down,” suggested one person. Two different friends remarked that Bob Ross’s The Joy of Painting is now available online. One buddy said she spent years putting on the Bewitched reboot, the one starring Nicole Kidman, to help her doze off. (I’ve also occasionally turned to movies as comedy calmatives or dramedy dramamine. Why waste a perfectly good ZzzQuil when there are any number of Duplass Brothers films I could play for five minutes?)

Sensing a trend, I wondered how this came to be—especially given the conventional wisdom that staring at a TV screen around bedtime will make you stay up. Turns out, most people don’t encounter that issue. “If you work on a submarine or live in a basement, yes, be worried that the light itself will keep you awake,” Jamie Zeitzer, Ph.D, an associate professor at Stanford University in the Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, told me in an email. “For the rest of us, who go outside or work in normally-lit offices, there is no reason to worry about the amount of light that is being emitted from these screens—it’s insufficient to directly wake us up.”

I asked Zeitzer what it is about certain shows, like 30 Rock, that seem more appealing for bedtime. He says what most must-sleep TV has in common is its ability to distract us. “A key feature of insomnia (or general inability to fall asleep) is that people are inwardly focused and often have cyclic thoughts,” says Zeitzer. “Watching something on TV can, basically, allow people to get out of their own way and allow for sleep to occur.” That way, you don’t ruin bedtime with your thinking!

And since nothing really loud or violent happens unexpectedly in programs like 30 Rock or Parks and Recreation, you have some quality distraction without the possibility of being jolted awake midway through the next autoplayed episode. Beyond turning off our thoughts, though, watching a certain show can also become so much a part of our routine that we associate it with sleep—similar to the way putting on pajamas can mentally prepare us for going to bed. But this, says Zeitzer, can be a double-edged sword because it has the potential to become habit-forming: “If the power is out, or you are somewhere there is no TV, it might be anxiety-provoking or just cause difficulties in initiating sleep.”

So what will happen to the legion of 30 Rock devotees when Netflix finally decides to pull the show off the air? Well, allegedly DVDs are making a comeback or you could buy it on iTunes. Better yet, take Zeitzer’s advice and avoid forming a habit by mixing up the shows you pick. (Here are 20 great options.)

As for myself, no matter what I end up doing, I’ll sure miss my Netflix/30 Rock routine. Goodbye, my friend.



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