Diane Macedo has long described herself as an innately “bad sleeper.” For years, the ABC News anchor says she struggled to drift off and had trouble staying asleep. Every sleep hack and trick she tried didn’t work — if anything, they made matters worse, Macedo tells Shape. “There was a lot of advice that just seemed unrealistic and impractical,” she adds.
Use a Bright Light Therapy Lamp In the Morning
“Humans are essentially solar-powered…and often, you will hear that people should get 30 minutes of bright sunlight first thing in the morning, but that’s not realistic for a lot of us,” says Macedo. To score that beneficial a.m. light — which research suggests may improve sleep quality and reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep — without leaving home, Macedo powers on a bright light therapy lamp. “It’s one of my favorite ‘sleep hacks’ because it doesn’t involve a whole lot of effort, time, or expense,” she explains. “…It sits in my bathroom while I’m brushing my teeth, washing my face, and doing my hair and makeup.”
Bright light therapy lamps are also an effective treatment for folks with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, as the lamps help gradually shift their sleep schedule to what’s generally considered “normal,” according to information published by Stanford Health Care. “All it’s doing is it’s sending bright light that mimics sunlight into your eyes, and that communicates to your brain that it’s morning, it’s time to wake up now,” says Macedo. “…[This] not only helps you start getting wake signals at the right time, but then it also starts helping you get sleep signals at the right time because it shifts your whole body clock.”
Create a 'Brain Dump List' Before Bed
When Macedo first began taking steps to improve her sleep schedule, she'd create a "brain dump" or "worry" list, a technique involved in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, an hour or two before bed each night. On one side of a piece of paper, she'd write down every single thing she had on her mind, and on the other, she'd write the next step she'd take to resolve the issue, whether it be calling a friend, googling the topic, or simply accepting the problem at hand and moving on, she says. "This is really helpful for anyone who, when they go to bed, suddenly their mind just starts racing a mile a minute," says Macedo. "You just start…worrying about that conversation you had today or five years ago that didn't go so well and you wish you had said something different. It's really great to lower the volume."
The tool also encourages you to focus on solutions, rather than ruminating on the problems, and it ultimately prevents your mind from spiraling the second your head hits the pillow, says Macedo. And it’s so effective, that Macedo says she no longer broods in bed and stopped writing these worry lists altogether after just two weeks. “It was like my brain was doing this automatically,” she says. Though creating a brain dump list isn’t a daily habit anymore, Macedo still keeps a notebook on her nightstand to use when she’s feeling particularly stressed. “I’ll go outside into the living room,” she says, “I’ll jot down my list of worries and my list of next steps, and most of the time after doing that, I feel much calmer and I can go back to bed and drift back off to sleep.”
