Why do I fall asleep at 7 in the afternoon but when I get into bed I am not able to fall asleep?

 Our relationship with sleep moves between love and hate : we love to sleep and we need it to function but rarely do we sleep all we need and sometimes even if we try, we get enough sleep because our brain seems to have other plans that are, Specifically, torpedo our sleep as much as possible.

There is a particularly irritating situation that has happened to all of us at some time, which is the one that occurs when after finishing our work day and taking a break, sleep seems to get stronger behind our eyelids and we are falling asleep around the corners , but then when we get into bed a few hours later, sleep dribbles, dodges us and leaves us in bed tossing and turning for hours with eyes wide and missing that intense drowsiness we felt hours before.

Why, oh, brain? Why? What are these games of hide and seek with sleep and rest? ¿ What have we done to you and us laugh ? Well we have not done anything, but it is not a strange situation if we consider how the brain works and our circadian cycles.

What are circadian cycles?

The cycles or circadian rhythms are periodic variations that occur in our bodies that fit the period of approximately 24 hours. They affect sleep, brain activity, metabolism, etc. It is the way in which our body registers that the day and the night are happening.
Among the factors that help our body to adjust its activity, the main one is light: when there is light it is day and when there is no light it is night . This affects our body's propensity to sleep.
In other words, when the sun goes down and it begins to get dark, our brain begins to shut down and prepare our body for sleep. The problem is that this happens very early for much of the year, and it is what leaves us to drag for a while long before we plan to go to sleep.

Other things that affect circadian rhythms

Not only does light help our body to understand when it is time to go to sleep and rest until another day. Another factor that influences it is the level of activity : in diurnal animals, such as humans, activity takes place during the day and sleep and rest correspond to the night.
So if we spend the day at work or in class, go to the gym, shopping, the park with the children or in any other activity, the body and brain understand that it is daytime and there is nothing more to talk about. But if we finish our daily tasks, we stop for a while and sit on the sofa to read or watch TV ... Here things change. The brain interprets that we have finished for today, that we have entered into rest and therefore that we have changed the cycle. It is no longer the time for daytime activity, but we enter the phase of rest and sleep at night.

But then why don't I go to sleep at night?

This is the second part of the question, because if at least at 7 o'clock you fell asleep and at 11 o'clock you slept like a dormouse, you would think of your body as a coherent organism, but it is not like that and sometimes it is unsettling: why else? I am 7 am that I fall at 11 I do not sleep?

There are several reasons. The first takes us back to circadian rhythms: When these cycles push us to sleep at 7 p.m., we usually don't succumb to them, but rather we get over the drowsiness and never fall asleep. This causes the body to receive the signal that no, it is not time to go to sleep yet, and therefore it wakes up , gets out of night mode and needs to convince itself again that it is time to sleep to get back into it.
What happens is that putting him in that mode again is not easy, and in fact we are making it increasingly difficult due to technology: electric light has made light levels no longer a reliable indicator for our body whether it is night or day. And the same effect has mobile phones, tablets and computers. The white and blue light they give off entangles our circadian cycles, and that is why it is better to refrain from using them an hour before going to sleep.

What can you do to sleep better at night?

The drowsiness of 7 in the afternoon is something annoying that we can avoid or cope with doing some activity that keeps us awake, and sleep better at night we can also achieve it by taking some simple measures .

• Try to keep the place where you sleep dark, calm and cool . Especially avoid strong artificial light and use screens an hour before going to sleep.

• Exercising during the day helps you sleep better at night, but try not to do it right before you go to sleep.

• Avoid large dinners before going to sleep, as heavy digestion can ruin your sleep.

• Create a bedtime routine that signals your body that it's time to close out for today. Include activities that relax you, such as a warm shower, quiet music, or gentle stretching.

• If you continue to have problems sleeping, we suggest the following ideas: consult and start this decalogue to have a restful sleep every night ; take a look at the tricks that this coach told us about the dream of many elite athletes; And if none of this works, go to a doctor who can analyze your sleep problems and give you the best solution.