Why sleep experts’ fake news makes me mad

You have probably noticed that since Covid-19 and lockdown, there has been a huge emphasis in the media around sleep. However, unfortunately many of the articles I’ve read during this time have been completely misleading. 

For example, the other week I came across an article titled, ‘How to sleep well every night, by a Sleep Expert’. Firstly, this is a ridiculous claim, as no one sleeps well every single night, fact! We all have nights which aren’t as good as others and this is totally normal, and we are designed to cope with this.

Secondly, the thing that made me really rage was that the entire article was dedicated to completely useless advice. It included advice such as giving up caffeine totally, not watching any TV before bed and making sure your mattress is comfortable. These are all things I’m sure you have heard a million times before and although not terrible advice, these tips are not going to improve your sleep.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth…

Sleep hygiene does not work for insomnia or sleep problems!

Sleep hygiene may help to improve sleep in already good sleepers, or help those with unhealthy habits to make a few quick tweaks, but it simply won’t help those who already have established sleep problems. 

When sleep experts and magazines keep on churning out this advice, it makes people feel even more despondent as they have already tried all of this and still can’t sleep. In fact, if you pay too much attention to sleep hygiene, you can actually make your sleep worse. This is because it places too much emphasis and attention on an area which gets worse the more you focus on it.

Rant over!

So, if you can’t sleep and feel that you have tried everything, please don’t despair. Most likely you have just tried sleep hygiene advice which has pretty much zero evidence to support that it would help you, so feel free to ignore this advice from now on!

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