LULL YOURSELF TO SLEEP BY COUNTING BACKWARDS FROM 300 IN THREES _ Mental exercises are a great way to get your mind off of the day’s worries and board the train to snooze town. But counting sheep the old fashioned way isn’t as effective as it could be. Here’s what you should do instead. Dr. Michael Breus (rhymes with Bruce), sleep doctor and a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, shares this tip for falling asleep faster. Instead of counting up one at a time, he suggests you count backwards from 300 in threes — 300, 297, 294, etc. The process is complicated enough for your brain that you can’t think of anything else, and it’s boring.
DON’T MAKE YOUR BED _ Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe. Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies. A (Kingston University) study discovered the bugs cannot survive in the warm, dry conditions found in an unmade bed. The average bed could be home to up to 1.5 million house dust mites. The bugs, which are less than a millimeter long, feed on scales of human skin and produce allergens which are easily inhaled during sleep. The warm, damp conditions created in an occupied bed are ideal for the creatures, but they are less likely to thrive when moisture is in shorter supply.
WHAT IS THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY TO BE WOKEN UP? _ This question was asked on reddit: What’s the worst way to be woken up?
• I was sleeping on an air mattress and my friend dove onto the other side of the mattress, bouncing me up into the air. I woke up not touching the ground, weightless, falling. It sure got the adrenaline going.
• For those who have dogs or cats: The sound of “GUH GUH GUH GUH” as your dog is about to throw up all over your bed or your floor.
• Waking up and thinking you have hours left to sleep and then hearing the alarm go off right as you’re about to drift back into sleep.
• My friend’s dad woke him up once by pouring a gas can on him. When my friend realized what was going on, his dad was lighting a match and threw it at him. The gas can was filled with water. My friend never overslept for school again.
