Latest news with #DrShaliniParuthi
CNN
12-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Falling asleep to your favorite show doesn't have to ruin your sleep, experts say
You've heard the rule: No TV before bed. But many people find that it helps them fall asleep if they listen to something –– audiobooks, music, podcasts or TV shows. A 2018 study found that more than half of people with sleep disturbances use music as a sleep aid. It is poor sleep hygiene to look at screens to scroll or watch a show before bedtime, but what if you aren't looking, just listening? 'It's like Goldilocks,' said sleep medicine specialist Dr. Rachel Salas, professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. 'It's a matter of what works for you … It's not only the practices of your bedtime routine, but your environment, all the things.' Everyone is different, and some people might get great sleep if they fall asleep listening to something, Salas said. However, there are some practices to keep in mind to make sure you are maximizing the benefits and avoiding potential pitfalls. The key to listening to audiobooks, podcasts, music or TV to fall asleep is making sure it is helping you wind down instead of waking you up, said Dr. Shalini Paruthi, sleep medicine attending physician at John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis and adjunct professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine. 'If listening to something actually keeps a person more engaged or awake and therefore replaces sleep time, this can be detrimental to health,' she said in an email. 'It is recommended that adults obtain at least 7 hours of sleep regularly for optimal performance.' On the other hand, a predictable kind of noise can help tell your body it's time to wind down, Salas added. 'If you find that that's part of your bedtime routine, and it's kind of comforting and relaxing … that's great,' she said. Try choosing content to listen to that will allow you to transition into sleep, added Dr. Lindsay Browning, a psychologist and sleep expert in Berkshire in the United Kingdom. 'Choose something not too engaging so that your brain isn't motivated to stay awake and fight sleep to pay attention to it,' she said in an email. A sleep story may be a better choice than audio of a book you want to read. Shows you have heard before and know how they end might be better than falling asleep to a nailbiter. A soundtrack for sleep might help you get to sleep, but it doesn't always keep you asleep if it keeps going all night, Browning said. 'It's important to set an auto timer to mute the sounds as soon after falling asleep as possible,' she said. If the show, podcast, or music you are playing has unexpected noises, frequencies or volumes, it might alert your brain to pay attention, Salas said. The startling noise doesn't always wake you up fully, but it can cause many little awakenings you aren't aware of. That will disturb your sleep nonetheless, she added. One steady sound, like white noise or ASMR, can help your sleep quality, especially if you live in a noisy area, Salas added. '(If) bars close at a certain time and people are outside, walking home and talking or yelling, that's going to disrupt your sleep,' she said. A consistent and non-alarming noise can stifle those kinds of ambient noise, she said. Sometimes listening to something to fall asleep isn't just a nice part of a bedtime routine –– it's a way to quiet racing thoughts at night. Some proactive steps during the day may help, Browning said. 'If you find that your brain is too active as you try to fall asleep, which keeps you awake, you could try to address those busy thoughts and worries earlier in the day,' she said. Methods include having a dedicated time earlier in the day to think about those worries or utilizing cognitive shuffling, a technique that involves thinking up random and non-emotionally charged words to take your mind off of your racing thoughts, Browning said. 'It's a much better idea to try to learn ways of quieting a busy mind at night that don't require you to mask those unwanted thoughts with an external sound,' Browning said. If you are using listening to something to help with insomnia and it doesn't seem to help after a two-to-four-week period, it might be time to see a board-certified sleep physician and get to the root of the problem, Paruthi said. 'There are several proven therapies that work well for insomnia treatment such as cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, or when appropriate, medications can be considered,' she said.
CNN
12-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Falling asleep to your favorite show doesn't have to ruin your sleep, experts say
You've heard the rule: No TV before bed. But many people find that it helps them fall asleep if they listen to something –– audiobooks, music, podcasts or TV shows. A 2018 study found that more than half of people with sleep disturbances use music as a sleep aid. It is poor sleep hygiene to look at screens to scroll or watch a show before bedtime, but what if you aren't looking, just listening? 'It's like Goldilocks,' said sleep medicine specialist Dr. Rachel Salas, professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. 'It's a matter of what works for you … It's not only the practices of your bedtime routine, but your environment, all the things.' Everyone is different, and some people might get great sleep if they fall asleep listening to something, Salas said. However, there are some practices to keep in mind to make sure you are maximizing the benefits and avoiding potential pitfalls. The key to listening to audiobooks, podcasts, music or TV to fall asleep is making sure it is helping you wind down instead of waking you up, said Dr. Shalini Paruthi, sleep medicine attending physician at John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis and adjunct professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine. 'If listening to something actually keeps a person more engaged or awake and therefore replaces sleep time, this can be detrimental to health,' she said in an email. 'It is recommended that adults obtain at least 7 hours of sleep regularly for optimal performance.' On the other hand, a predictable kind of noise can help tell your body it's time to wind down, Salas added. 'If you find that that's part of your bedtime routine, and it's kind of comforting and relaxing … that's great,' she said. Try choosing content to listen to that will allow you to transition into sleep, added Dr. Lindsay Browning, a psychologist and sleep expert in Berkshire in the United Kingdom. 'Choose something not too engaging so that your brain isn't motivated to stay awake and fight sleep to pay attention to it,' she said in an email. A sleep story may be a better choice than audio of a book you want to read. Shows you have heard before and know how they end might be better than falling asleep to a nailbiter. A soundtrack for sleep might help you get to sleep, but it doesn't always keep you asleep if it keeps going all night, Browning said. 'It's important to set an auto timer to mute the sounds as soon after falling asleep as possible,' she said. If the show, podcast, or music you are playing has unexpected noises, frequencies or volumes, it might alert your brain to pay attention, Salas said. The startling noise doesn't always wake you up fully, but it can cause many little awakenings you aren't aware of. That will disturb your sleep nonetheless, she added. One steady sound, like white noise or ASMR, can help your sleep quality, especially if you live in a noisy area, Salas added. '(If) bars close at a certain time and people are outside, walking home and talking or yelling, that's going to disrupt your sleep,' she said. A consistent and non-alarming noise can stifle those kinds of ambient noise, she said. Sometimes listening to something to fall asleep isn't just a nice part of a bedtime routine –– it's a way to quiet racing thoughts at night. Some proactive steps during the day may help, Browning said. 'If you find that your brain is too active as you try to fall asleep, which keeps you awake, you could try to address those busy thoughts and worries earlier in the day,' she said. Methods include having a dedicated time earlier in the day to think about those worries or utilizing cognitive shuffling, a technique that involves thinking up random and non-emotionally charged words to take your mind off of your racing thoughts, Browning said. 'It's a much better idea to try to learn ways of quieting a busy mind at night that don't require you to mask those unwanted thoughts with an external sound,' Browning said. If you are using listening to something to help with insomnia and it doesn't seem to help after a two-to-four-week period, it might be time to see a board-certified sleep physician and get to the root of the problem, Paruthi said. 'There are several proven therapies that work well for insomnia treatment such as cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, or when appropriate, medications can be considered,' she said.
CNN
26-01-2025
- Health
- CNN
What's one small thing to help your sleep? A real alarm clock
Phones have replaced many things: computers, calculators, cameras and maps. But returning to an old-fashioned alarm clock instead of your phone might help you get up and go in the morning. 'Keeping the phone in another room will likely decrease the opportunity for distraction from sleep, and also decrease opportunity for sleep procrastination,' said Dr. Shalini Paruthi, sleep medicine attending physician at John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis and adjunct professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine. A phone by your bed could mean easy access to scroll at night and an easy snooze button in the morning. If you're planning to sleep better or wake up earlier to implement new routines in the new year, a small and helpful step may be trading your phone for an alarm clock. Stop the morning snoozing The best-case scenario is that you wouldn't need to hit snooze. 'Ideally, a person has gotten enough sleep that by the time the alarm rings, they are well rested and actually ready to get up,' Paruthi said. Hitting the snooze button once might help you psychologically by allowing you to ease into waking up, she added. But more than once isn't recommended because you aren't getting good sleep with the extra minutes. At the end of a night of sleep, people usually go in and out of a cycle called REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, said Dr. Brandon Peters-Mathews, a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle, in an earlier CNN article. This stage is important for memory processing and creative sleeping, and fragmenting that sleep could affect brain function. Instead of setting an alarm for earlier than you need and hitting snooze, he recommends allowing deep, uninterrupted sleep until you absolutely must wake up. 'When you didn't get enough sleep or didn't get good quality sleep, the likelihood that an extra 5 to 10 minutes of sleep could make a meaningful impact is pretty low,' Dr. Joseph Dzierzewski, senior vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation, said via email. 'When we wake in the morning and aren't feeling refreshed, it is best to get up, start the day, and be intentional about taking steps that can set us up for success in the coming night.' With a phone alarm on your bedside table, it is easy to reach over and hit the snooze button. But dedicated alarm clocks have many ways to get you up and out of bed. 'Alarms come with a variety of features such as vibration, lights, noises, puzzles,' Paruthi said. Your phone disrupts your sleep Another benefit of not using your phone as an alarm is that you have an easier time removing it from your bedroom, which is helpful for sleep, Paruthi said. 'Ideally, a bedtime routine includes winding down, relaxing, and helping the brain transition from a 'go-go-go' state to a more calm, ready to fall asleep state,' she said. 'Having a phone at the bedside makes it really easy to roll over and start scrolling.' The bright light and content on your phone might make you more alert instead of drowsy, and screens can also lead to procrastinating about sleep and getting less than you originally intended, Paruthi said. And having your phone close by makes it more likely that you will use it, Dzierzewski said. 'Having a phone in close proximity could increase feelings of curiosity. … What might be happening that you aren't seeing?' he said. 'These feelings could be enough to entice you to roll over and check your phone, thus interfering with going to sleep, staying asleep or sleeping soundly.' If you aim to sleep for eight hours but then reach for your phone to scroll, two hours can fly by quickly, leaving you without the necessary amount of sleep. 'If my phone is in another room, I am less likely to get out from under my warm covers, and thus sleep those 2 hours between 10 and midnight, i.e., getting the 8 hours my brain and body thrive on,' Paruthi said in an email. How to wake up earlier and happier The only way to wake up earlier or more easily is to get good quality sleep, Dzierzewski said. Most adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. But population research from the foundation has shown that 60% of adults are not meeting that recommendation. 'Getting too little sleep or too much sleep can both be problematic and impact how well we function throughout the day,' Dzierzewski said. For better sleep, the National Sleep Foundation recommends some more small steps. You should get bright light in the daytime; exercise for at least 30 minutes five days a week; eat meals at consistent times; avoid heavy meals, nicotine, caffeine and alcohol before bed; use a consistent wind-down routine; sleep in a quiet, cool and dark place; and put electronics away an hour before bed. If you are getting enough sleep at night consistently but are still not sleeping well or waking up feeling rested, it may be time to get evaluated by a board-certified sleep physician for possible sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome or insomnia, Paruthi said. Ready to do more? Sign up for our LBB Sleep newsletter to get better sleep in 2025. If you need help setting and sustaining your sleep goals, try these tips for building habits.
