译者：这几年，看了好几本关于健康的书。感觉睡眠第一重要。

睡个好觉会让一切变得更容易。 那，为什么睡个好觉这么难呢？

对于我们大多数人来说，经过忙碌的一天，我们需要“努力一番”才能让心情平静下来。 从借助于药物到褪黑激素，再到穿毛茸茸的袜子，我们都希望这些“习惯”能帮助我们入睡。 这样做是有充分的原因的。

加州大学伯克利分校的睡眠研究员马修·沃克 (Matthew Walker) 表示：“你必须逐渐让大脑和身体安静下来，从（白天头脑）清醒的高度进入夜间睡眠需要的坚石、安全的着陆垫。” 他是《我们为什么睡觉》一书的作者。

每个人如何成功地降低大脑和身体的强度都会有所不同。下面介绍一些最佳做法。

不要数羊

尽管它经常被吹捧为一种成功的睡眠策略，但专家对此表示怀疑。 数羊不仅不会帮助你更快入睡，而且加州大学伯克利分校的艾莉森·哈维亚特的一项研究发现，数羊实际上“让你更难入睡，而且你需要更长的时间才能入睡”。

使用平静的心理意象

哈维发现其他类型的心理意象有利于睡眠。 沃克建议想象一下你以前的一次愉快的散步，“比如在树林里徒步旅行，或者在度假时在海滩上散步。” 他说，在精神上引导这种行走“往往会加快入睡的速度”。

尝试使用放松和冥想应用程序（作为“训练轮”）

“我非常喜欢这些东西，”弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔的神经学家和睡眠研究员克里斯·温特 (Chris Winter) 说。

这些应用程序可以训练你冥想——消除对过去的遗憾和对未来的担忧；这样你就可以学会活在当下。

“安定心神和启动睡眠的能力是一种技能，”温特说。 “你练习得越多，你就会做得越好，你就会变得越自信。”

要知道褪黑激素的效果好坏参半

“褪黑激素可能很有效，”沃克说。 有数据表明“它可以帮助你调整睡眠时间，尤其是在倒时差的情况下。”

“但是当你生活在你的典型时区时，褪黑激素对你的睡眠时间和睡眠质量的影响一直存在争议，”他说。

沃克说，虽然褪黑激素似乎不会让人上瘾，但许多人服用的剂量过高。 如果你服用过多，有证据表明这会影响你的身体自然产生的褪黑激素的量。 另外，请记住，大多数褪黑激素都是作为保健品销售的，因此它不像处方药那样受到监管。

镇静和睡眠不是一回事

睡眠是一种活跃的心理状态。 “我们在前半夜进行深度睡眠，这是我们产生生长激素的时间。在后半夜，我们进行梦睡眠或快速眼动睡眠，”温特说。 “很多药物都会阻止这些睡眠。”

非处方安眠药可能会让你昏沉沉的，但不会带来有效的睡眠。 有些处方药会干扰睡眠，因此请咨询你的医生。

保持良好的睡眠卫生

对于许多父母来说，让孩子入睡是自己入睡的障碍。 事实证明，孩子的睡眠习惯与你自己的习惯有很大关系。 有一个关于良好睡眠卫生的完整清单——从每晚同一时间上床睡觉到创造一个安静的环境，再到将手机和设备放在卧室之外。 你越早教你的孩子这些越好。

如果年幼的孩子确实会在凌晨叫醒你，不要以增加他们压力的方式做出反应，但一定要找到让起床变得无趣的策略。 例如，温特说，他会以平静而友善的方式让儿子帮他打扫车库。

如果可以的话，让你的卧室保持凉爽

你的核心体温需要下降约 2 至 3 华氏度才能开始良好的睡眠，然后保持深度睡眠。 沃克建议将卧室温度保持在 65 华氏度左右，并穿袜子（睡觉），这样可以排出身体核心的热量。

【译者：穿袜子（睡觉）？不习惯。】

做对你的睡眠有效果的事

沃克说，如果你有一种对你有效的睡眠习惯——无论是薰衣草油还是听音乐——就继续这样做。

“我并不认为它一定是科学的。但我认为安慰剂效应，现在有一项奇妙的科学，实际上告诉我们一些深刻的东西，”沃克说。 “你的大脑实际上可以通过心理思考的行为引发真正的生物变化。”

【译者：我以前不信安慰剂效应。现在信！

如果你看完了译文，我再分享一下我现在用的“催眠术”：轻呼吸（吐气6、吸气3）。用鼻子、用横膈肌。（我写过几篇关于轻呼吸的博客。）】

Sleep better with these bedtime rituals

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/705224709/dont-count-sheep-better-bedtime-rituals

Getting a good night's sleep makes everything easier. Why then, is it so hard to get?

For most of us, it takes work to settle our minds from a busy day. From medication to melatonin to putting on fuzzy socks, we all have routines we hope will help us drift off into sleep. And for good reason.

"You've just got to gradually bring the brain and the body down, sort of from that altitude of wakefulness onto the hard, safe landing pad of sleep at night," says Matthew Walker, a sleep researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of Why We Sleep.

How each individual successfully brings their brain and body down will differ, but here are a few best practices.

Though it's often touted as a winning sleep strategy, experts say skip this one. Not only will counting sheep nothelp you fall asleep faster, but a study by Allison Harveyat UC Berkeley found that it actually "made it harder to fall asleep, and it took you longer to fall asleep." 

Harvey found that other types of mental imagery, however, are conducive to sleep. Walker suggests imagining a pleasant walk you've taken before, "like a hike in the woods or if it's a walk down on a beach that you do on vacation." Mentally navigating that walk, he says, "tended to hasten the speed of the onset of sleep."

"I'm a big fan of those things," says Chris Winter, a neurologist and sleep researcher in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

These apps can train you to meditate — to clear away regrets about the past and worries about the future so you can learn to be in the moment.

"The ability to settle your mind and initiate sleep is a skill," Winter says. "The more you practice it, the better you'll get at it and the more confident you become." 

"Melatonin can be efficacious," says Walker. There are data that suggest "it can help you with the timing of your sleep, especially under conditions of jet lag." 

"But when you're stable in your typical time zone, the impact of melatonin on the quantity of your sleep and the quality of your sleep has been debatable," he says. 

While melatonin doesn't appear to be habit-forming, Walker says many people take too high of a dose. And if you take too much, there's some evidence that this can impact how much melatonin your body produces naturally. Also, keep in mind that most melatonin is marketed as a supplement, so it's not regulated like prescription drugs are.

Sleep is an active psychological state. "We have deep sleep during the first half of the night, which is when we make our growth hormone. We have dream sleep, or REM sleep, during the second half of the night," says Winter. "A lot of medications prevent sleep from doing those things."

Over-the-counter sleep medicines may knock you out, but they won't result in effective sleep. Some prescription medications interfere with sleep, so check with your doctor on those.

For many parents, getting your kids to sleep is an obstacle to your own shut-eye. It turns out that your kids' sleep habits have a lot to do with your own habits. There's a whole checklist of good sleep hygiene — everything from going to bed at the same time each night to creating a calm environment to keeping phones and devices out of the bedroom. The earlier you teach these to your kids, the better.

If young kids do wake you in the wee hours, don't react in a way that increases their stress — but do find strategies that make it no fun to be up. For example, Winter says he would, in a calm and kind manner, enlist his son to help him clean the garage for a few minutes.

Your core body temperature needs to drop by about 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit to initiate good sleep and then maintain deep sleep. Walker suggests keeping your bedroom around 65 degrees Fahrenheit and wearing socks, which can draw the heat out of your body's core. 

If you have a sleep ritual that's working for you — whether it's lavender oil or listening to music — Walker says keep doing it. 

"I'm not going to suggest it's scientific, necessarily. But I think the placebo effect, for which now there is a wonderful science, actually tells us something profound," says Walker. "That your brain can actually instigate real biological change just through the act of psychological thought."

This story was originally published on March 25, 2019. 

The audio portion of this story was produced by Alissa Escarce and Sylvie Douglis. 

The text was adapted for digital by Becky Harlan.