{"id":172609,"date":"2022-09-15T12:53:01","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T17:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=172609"},"modified":"2024-06-09T11:23:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T16:23:59","slug":"just-go-to-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/health-fitness\/health\/just-go-to-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Go to Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Have you ever noticed that you tend to feel more down at night?<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re more apt to think about embarrassing moments and regrets, and to feel that certain areas (or all areas) of your life aren\u2019t going well. A sense of general hopelessness sometimes creeps in.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are biological reasons for this. Your circadian rhythm regulates your wakefulness\/sleepiness, ramping up your cognitive activity and alertness during the day, and winding your brain down in preparation for sleep at night. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in this cognitive powering-down mode, your brain\u2019s tuckered-out from the hubbub of the day and its executive function \u2014 its ability to regulate your mood and control impulses \u2014 is diminished; as one <\/span>researcher<\/span><\/a> put it, at night, \u201creason sleeps.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Studies<\/span><\/a> show that people tend to give in to more maladaptive behaviors after dark: During the evening hours, cravings for alcohol and unhealthy foods (heavy on the carbs, fat, and processing) rise; substance abuse increases; attention to negative stimuli is heightened and its salience \u2014 how large it looms in your mind \u2014 is amplified; and the rate of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts goes up. <\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, when you\u2019re still awake when your brain wants to sleep, all your little psychic demons come out to play, and you\u2019re a lot more vulnerable to them. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why doing what your brain would like and simply going to bed is one of the most effective and underrated solutions to life\u2019s (seeming) problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling depressed?<\/span><\/p>\n

Just go to sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Battling an itch to ditch your diet or end your sober streak?<\/span><\/p>\n

Just go to sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting caught up in a fruitless argument with your spouse?<\/span><\/p>\n

Forget the adage about never going to bed angry; just go to sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t stay up thinking that if you simply ruminate on your problems a little longer, you\u2019ll figure them out. Things will look a heck of a lot better when you wake up the next day, and you\u2019ll have far more energy and wherewithal to tackle them. <\/span><\/p>\n

As the wise psalmist wrote thousands of years ago: \u201cJoy cometh in the morning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Or as the modern sage Dr. Steve Brule put it: \u201cGo to bed early, you doofus, because when you\u2019re sleeping, there\u2019s no lonely times, just dreams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n