Lauri Leadley, the Founder & President of the Valley Sleep Center in Mesa, AZ and a Clinical Sleep Educator and Sleep Coach, joins Amy & JJ to discuss sleeping during a pandemic.
Stress & Sleep
If you are having strange and vivid dreams during the pandemic, you are not along. Leadley says our bodies are hard-wired to be awake in stressful situations. Everyone is feeling stress during this time and it’s our body’s natural process to want to be awake.
While the brain’s primary function is to restore our body, it will bring what we are seeing and thinking all day into our dreams. To process those memories, we dream.
Sleeping more?
And, if you are feel like you are dreaming more, it might just be you are sleeping more. And when you sleep more, there is a good chance you are getting more REM sleep. Since your REM sleep increases throughout the night, the longest REM sleep usually occurs in the morning. At this point, your brain is the most active, making your dreams more intense and since it is a time right before you wake up, you could remember more of the dream.
What wakes you up, shouldn’t keep you up
They are just dreams. And you can leave it at that. There is no reason to overanalyze what your dream was about, what it means or let it keep you up at night.
Power Hour
Leadly says institute a “power hour” before you go to bed. Make the hour before you go to sleep calm and relaxing. Read, do some stretching, dim the lights and put down the phone. All of this can help.
And, try to get between 7-9 hours of shut eye. Amid this pandemic (and always), it’s important to keep our bodies healthy.
Sleeping positions
Oh, and just for fun — CLICK HERE to read more about what your sleeping position says about you!
— Additional content —
Where did COVID-19 come from: The connection to bats
The best social distancing ad we’ve seen
Cleanup Week Rescheduled to Mid-September
(Amy Iler & JJ Gordon are talk-show hosts at 790 AM KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. “It Takes 2 with Amy & JJ” can be heard weekdays 11am-2pm. Check out the show page on FACEBOOK. Follow Amy on Twitter @AmyKFGO . Follow JJ on Twitter @JJGodon701)
Comments