Getting a good night’s sleep is important for your physical and mental health alike. But in order to get a good night’s sleep, you have a task ahead of you that’s a challenge in and of itself — actually getting to sleep. As someone who’s had more than a few nights of inexplicable insomnia, I am highly sympathetic to the difficulties of making oneself fall asleep – all of which makes the world of sleep hacks especially intriguing.
Some people swear by the 10-3-2-1-0 method, which focuses on the timing of when you eat and drink alcohol and caffeine before you go to bed. Others prefer the 4-7-8 method, which is all about breathing in a controlled and regulated manner until you drift off. It’s not hard to see why these two sleep hacks are appealing, but if you’re inclined to try something else — or if these haven’t worked for you — there’s always the approach that Grace Linden described in The New York Times Magazine.
Linden makes the case for the BBC Shipping Forecast as the ultimate sleep aid. Linden describes the program as “a program featuring weather reports that narrate the gales and tides around the British Isles.” And as it turns out, you can find numerous hours-long compilations of it on YouTube.
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BMX legend Terry Adams started his career in 1999. How could he possibly be competing this weekend in Japan?According to Linden, “when heard in hourlong compilations, the Shipping Forecast is poetic and hypnotic, a free-form ode to the seas.” And it’s not hard to see how the rhythms of these forecasts and the imagery that they evoke could help a listener peacefully drift off to sleep. As sleep hacks go, this one seems especially charming — with the added bonus of some education thrown into the mix.
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