Want a better night’s sleep? Stop looking at the clock, study suggests – CTV
May 19, 2023
Are you often finding yourself lying awake at night, trying to figure out how many hours you’ll get if you can just fall asleep at that exact second?
If this is a familiar scenario, it might be helpful to know this strategy may actually be making it harder to fall asleep, according to a new study.
Researchers from Indiana University discovered in a recent sleep study of nearly 5,000 people that watching the clock while trying to fall asleep made participants more likely to have more trouble falling asleep and more likely to turn to sleep aids.
“We found time monitoring behaviour mainly has an effect on sleep medication use because it exacerbates insomnia symptoms,” Spencer Dawson, clinical assistant professor and associate director of clinical training in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, said in a press release.
