I remember when I was a little kid, I always felt insecure so I had a difficult time falling asleep. Every night I would need my parents to read me a bedtime story, which surprisingly I can fall asleep within ten minutes. 

Fall asleep in a healthy way!

It was a warming experience, but all I remember is after childhood I was able fall asleep immediately when I lay on my bed and it became my habit of listening to bedtime stories. When I started college, sleep became a difficult thing to do because of stress from school and environment. By listening to bedtime stories while sleeping, it didn’t only help me to fall asleep but also relieved me from stress.

Bedtime Story to Help You Sleep Easier

Fortunately, I keep this habit along the way to help me to avoid insomnia. Instead of taking sleep medication, listening to sleep stories is a healthier habit. Dr. Yishan Xu and Vee Lockard, the co-founder and one of the narrators of the “Snoozecast” podcast, discussed the reasons why listening to sleep stories is better than taking sleep medication. 

Vee and her husband noticed when they started listening to sleep stories they were able to sleep quicker. Bedtime stories are better than taking sleep medications because it may cause us to feel groggy during the daytime. The benefit of bedtime stories for children is that it helps with their language development which is the left brain since our brain does not fully fall asleep when we sleep. The language logic part is still engaging. For adults, the same part of the brain will soothe. And start to become less engaged, calm down, relax all the logic.

Tips to Fall Asleep

Listening to classic stories and fairy tales will help us fall asleep quicker, instead of horror stories or criminal stories since it will trigger our brain. Vee suggested that getting more sleep is equal to winning the lottery because it will increase our happiness level to a certain level. 

Vee’s tips for improving sleep is to sleep earlier, your brain needs time to transition to sleep. So you want pleasant, nighttime rituals to help you fall asleep such as blackout sleep mask and blackout curtains.

Feel free to visit our visit to learn more about healthier ways to fall asleep, you can listen to Dr. Xu’s interview with Vee Lockard: An Excellent Way to Fall Asleep (Episode 105, Deep into Sleep Podcast).

Keynotes

• Changes Vee and her husband noticed when they started listening to sleep stories

  • Sleep quicker

• 06:15 Why listening to bedtime stories is better than taking sleep medications 

  • Over-the-counter medication can make us feel groggy

• 07:32 What are the benefits of listening to bedtime stories before bedtime for kids and adults

  • When listening to things like bedtime stories, it helps with their language development, which is the left brain. The language logic part is still kind of like engaging. For adults, it soothes the brain. The same part of the brain is less engaged, calm down, relaxes all the logic, and is busy brain during the daytime.

• 09:08 What type of sleep stories you should choose to help you fall asleep

  • Fairytale

  • classic bedtime stories

• 10:12 The changes Vee and her husband did to make their podcast "snoozecast" better for their listeners 

  • Changing some plot but keeping the main important line

• 14:20 What are the two types of listeners

  • Bedtime anxiety: having an active mind, the mind will be wired up and voice in individuals’ heads.

  • Severe insomnia: need more than one or two episodes to fall asleep

• 16:43 Does listening to bedtime stories work the same as doing meditation

  • Guided imagery with severe insomnia patient

• 20:18 What are the feedbacks Vee received from the people who are listening to their podcast 

  • Basically changed people's lives to be able to sleep better, that they struggle with not just insomnia, but sometimes with chronic pain or trauma.

• 21:58 Why getting more sleep is equal to winning the lottery 

  • Many studies that Vee read demonstrated that when the more sleep we get, the quantity of sleep that you get, not even talking about the quality of the sleep, but just getting an increase in the quantity of sleep that you get is equal to like winning the lottery in terms of increasing your happiness level up to a certain point. 

• 26:12 Vee's advice to all the listeners who want to have a restful sleep 

  • Go to sleep earlier, your brain needs time to transition, to sleep. So you want pleasant, nighttime rituals to help you fall asleep

  • Blackout sleep mask, blackout curtains

  • Especially as a woman with hormone changes that happen all the time, sometimes it doesn't, it isn't serving me as well and it's affecting our sleep.

If you or your friends, family could not sleep well, check out Dr. Yishan Xu’s sleep courses in Chinese and English

Written by Kailin Cui based on the Deep into Sleep podcast.

This article is brought to you by Mind & Body Garden Psychology —- Psychological services available in multiple languages (English, Mandarin, Cantonese): 650-434-2563 (Voicemail only); admin@mindbodygarden.com. We are out-of-network providers, HSA/FSA accepted. Send us a text message on the phone, or call us and leave a voicemail.

• Dr. Yishan Xu’s CBT-I insomnia courses in Chinese and English.

• Psychological Evaluation Services (Diagnoses of IQ, ADHD, ASD, etc.)

• Dr. Yishan’s Sleep Newsletters, Podcast and YouTube

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