Sleepy course đ´ Day 21
Today I would like to start with a story about a writer. His name is Allen Carr.
He wrote popular books such as The Easy Way to Stop Smoking or The Easy Way to Stop Drinking. The methods described there were so effective that scientists wanted to study them.
The bookâs effectiveness was compared not only to solo attempts at quitting smoking, but with other programs as well, and even with personal coach + pharmacological support approach
And what do you think? Allen Carr beat all of them. In one study, 22% of subjects who read the book werenât smoking at a 12-month follow-up compared with 11% for an alternative method.
What is Allen Carrâs secret and why scary images on cigarette packs donât work?
The truth is, Allen Carr doesnât try to scare people. He uses positive emotions and asks to quit smoking not because âsmoking is badâ, but because ânot smoking is wonderful!â
In the brain, we have a structure called nucleus accumbens. Itâs like a friend who likes partying. It doesnât care about risks and it leaves for immediate pleasure. I should say, that the nucleus accumbens is second to none when it comes to fun and amusement, and live without it would be boring. But itâs also responsible for all addictions.
It dismisses out of hand all attempts at improving life - eating healthy, getting to bed on time, staying active.
And the most depressing thing, nucleus accumbens is a good manipulator and it almost always gets what it wants. It will yield, temporarily, if you try to will it to behave. However, as soon as you loosen the control, itâll make you return to the old ways.
An effective way to win against it is to use the same methods. Be more cunning! Treat adopting a new good habit or abandoning a bad one as something pleasant. Nucleus accumbens will then also treat it as fun and wonât interfere.
The good news is nucleus accumbens is talented and learns quickly! If you show it that you can enjoy self-improving habits, itâll start having fun with them.
But donât underestimate nucleus accumbens. To make it believe you, you have to truly love your new way of life!
Sleep and smoking đŹ
There are not one, not two, and not even three, but a lot of studies that show positive effects of quitting smoking on sleep quality. Non-smokers fall asleep faster, have less interrupted sleep, enjoy more SWS, snore less, feel better in the mornings, and even have fewer nightmares!
In other words, itâs the full package, And thatâs just sleep! There are a lot of positives to quitting smoking overall.
If you smoke, you have an excellent opportunity to quickly and effectively improve your life in several areas at once, including sleep.
Sleep and alcohol đĽ
Alcohol, on the other hand, is a sly fellow. At first, it may seem alcohol helps with sleep. Some studies even show that during the first half of the night alcohol increases the amount of SWS, and reduces falling asleep time.
But things are not that simple. Research shows that long term, alcohol negatively affects the quality of sleep. Moreover, it disrupts circadian rhythms and reduces melatonin production.
Let me guess, you are now asking, âSleepy, and what if drink in moderation?â đ Unfortunately, studies showed that even one shot, drunk in the evening, reduces melatonin production by 19% for several hours.
Therefore, you shouldnât use alcohol as a sleeping draught. đ
Lifestyle đş
Do you remember, that we started the course with very simple and easy-to-implement methods, such as sleep in socks, take shower, turn off the lights?
Now we moved to much more difficult ones - reduce consumption of simple carbohydrates and alcohol, quit smoking. Knowing those things affect sleep is easy, changing your lifestyle is not. But this is whatâs most important.
But I have no doubt youâll succeed! You now know how to negotiate with fun-loving nucleus accumbens. Iâm sure itâll learn quickly to enjoy your new healthy lifestyle which is capable of bringing you long-term happiness instead of just momentary pleasures.
We still havenât talked about caffeine. Tomorrow, Iâll bring a couple of good news for tea and coffee lovers. đ
Task:
- Together with the nucleus accumbens imagine the joy of your wonderful new life without alcohol and tobacco.
- Enjoy your evening ritual. â¤ď¸
The studies:
- Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - A randomised clinical trial.
- The effectiveness of the Allen Carr smoking cessation training in companies tested in a quasi-experimental design
- A 12 month smoking cessation outcome-Allen Carrâs Easyway to Stop Smoking-a randomised clinical trial
- Comparison of Allen Carr's Easyway programme with a specialist behavioural and pharmacological smoking cessation support service: a randomized controlled trial
- Does Cigarette Smoking Increase Sleep Problems?
- Sleep disturbances associated with cigarette smoking
- Effect of night smoking, sleep disturbance, and their co-occurrence on smoking outcomes.
- How smoking affects sleep: A polysomnographical analysis
- Alcohol and Sleep I: Effects on Normal Sleep
- The within-person association between alcohol use and sleep duration and quality in situ: An experience sampling study
- Circadian rhythms, alcohol and gut interactions
- Evening alcohol suppresses salivary melatonin in young adults.