How boredom robs you of normal sleep
It is believed that frequent boredom makes us unhappy and contributes to increased irritability. But it turned out that she has at least one more side effect – she interferes with proper rest at night.
Hormonal disorders, lack of physical activity, taking certain medications and, of course, stress – there are a lot of reasons for insomnia, and therefore it sometimes takes a long time to get rid of it. Against the background of the pandemic, at least 30% of those who had not previously suffered from sleep disorders faced it. At first, doctors attributed this to a fear of uncertainty. But recently it turned out that banal boredom can also be the cause of insomnia. In general, this is another consequence of self-isolation, which no one had guessed before.
How boredom affects your sleep
Recently, the medical journal Personality and Individual Differences published the results of a new study on the causes of sleep problems. It turned out that the pandemic not only forced us to be within four walls 24/7. The lack of communication with friends, new experiences and being in the fresh air has left many of us bored. However, some managed to “escape" boredom with the help of hobbies: from home gardening on the windowsill to online self-improvement courses.
This is a paradoxical situation: boredom, in theory, should cause drowsiness. In reality, if you are bored, you begin to feel restless and want to do something. Trying to kill time, you come up with different tasks for yourself, but you still perform them inattentively. Either you scroll through negative situations from the past in your thoughts, watch TV or scroll through the social media feed. You unconsciously put off the moment of falling asleep – and now psychologists call this "procrastination before bed."
If it becomes persistent, then problems with health and cognitive skills begin. Memory and working capacity suffer, the quality of life worsens. It is hard to imagine that someone will like such a development of the event.
Can you beat procrastination before bed?
You can, if you make boredom work for the benefit of your body. When you’re bored, it’s easier to get distracted by social media, watching YouTube videos, or thinking about situations in which you should have done differently. Boredom is the "best friend" of rumination (compulsive "thinking gum"). But it can be turned into a full-fledged meditative ritual before going to bed.
If you went to bed, but you can’t fall asleep, then don’t rush to reach for your gadgets. Concentrate on the pleasant events that happened to you over the past day. By the way, a gratitude diary will help with this: if you keep it, then you know what you should thank the Universe for today. And if you need a smartphone, it is only to turn on relaxing music for meditation. Gal Gadot does this every night before bed.