The more knowledge about sleep can improve your sleep: ‘No coffee after 1 pm and no naps’
Writer Jelmer Jepsen (45) had sleeping problems for two decades. He wrote the book about this with his somnologist Never sleep again.
Did you sleep badly?
,,Until a few years ago I found the right somnologist, Alexander van Daele, and the right treatment: very bad. For years, since I was in my early twenties. I went to bed at 11pm, didn’t fall asleep until 4am, or woke up 12 to 15 times a night. Or I would go to sleep at 11 p.m., then wake up at 2 a.m. and not sleep again.”
Are you cured now?
“I have chronic insomnia, so it sometimes comes back, but thanks to Alexander, my hatred for the night has disappeared, I am no longer afraid or depressed when I think about the night.”
What helped?
,,Two things: knowledge about sleep, and other rules of life. No coffee after 1 p.m., no afternoon naps, healthy food, exercise in the morning.”
I also have sleeping problems, I wake up at 3am every night and think the world is going to end. Can you help me with that?
We also write about that in the book. It has to do with processes in your body that are different at night than during the day. Then your brain goes into worrying and disorganized thoughts faster, while the next morning you think over coffee: what was that about? Don’t worry, it’s purely biochemical.”
Is little sleep actually unhealthy?
,,It is not immediately a disaster, nothing will go wrong if you sleep little for a few nights, but I have often thought: I would give my house away to be able to sleep normally. So it is a problem.”
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