00:06
Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Neil.
00:08
Rob: And I'm Rob.
00:09
Neil: You look tired, Rob.
00:10
Rob: Well,
00:11
I didn’t sleep well last night.
00:13
I was tossing and turning all night,
00:15
but I couldn’t get to sleep.
00:17
Neil: Well, that’s a coincidence, as our topic
00:18
today is insomnia
00:20
- the condition some people suffer from when they find
00:23
it difficult to get to sleep when they go to bed.
00:25
Rob: Thankfully I don’t really have insomnia,
00:27
but every now and again, I find it difficult to get to sleep.
00:31
Neil: Well, keep listening and we might have some
00:33
advice to help with that, but first, a question:
00:36
What is the record for the longest a human
00:38
has gone without sleep? Is it:
00:40
A) about seven days?
00:41
B) about nine days? Or
00:44
C) about 11 days?
00:46
What do you think, Rob?
00:47
Rob: All of those seem impossible!
00:49
So I’ve got to go with the shortest - about seven days.
00:52
Neil: Well, if you can stay awake long enough,
00:54
I’ll let you know at the end of the programme.
00:56
Dr Michael Grandner is an expert in all things
00:59
to do with sleep.
01:00
He was interviewed recently on the BBC radio
01:02
programme Business Daily.
01:04
He was asked what his best tip was to help
01:06
you get to sleep if you are finding it difficult.
01:10
What was his suggestion?
01:13
Dr Michael Grandner: And it sounds counter-intuitive,
01:14
but trust me I’ve got decades of data behind
01:16
this statement:
01:17
If you cannot sleep, get out of bed.
01:21
Neil: So Rob, how does he suggest you help yourself
01:23
to get to sleep?
01:24
Rob: Well actually, he says that the best thing
01:27
to do is to get out of bed!
01:30
Neil: That sounds exactly the opposite of what you
01:32
should do, doesn’t it?
01:34
Rob: Well, he does say that his advice is
01:36
counter-intuitive, which means exactly that.
01:39
That it is the opposite of what you might expect.
01:41
Neil: And he says that this advice is backed up
01:44
by decades of research.
01:46
A decade is a period of 10 years
01:47
and when we say 'decades',
01:49
it’s a general term for many years, at least 20.
01:53
Let’s hear that advice again from Dr Grandner.
01:56
Dr Michael Grandner: And it sounds counter-intuitive,
01:58
but trust me I’ve got decades of data
02:00
behind this statement:
02:01
If you cannot sleep, get out of bed.
02:04
Neil: So why is getting out of bed good advice?
02:07
Here’s the explanation from Dr Grandner.
02:11
Dr Michael Grandner: When you’re in bed
02:12
and you’re not asleep
02:14
and you do that over, and over, and over again
02:16
for extended periods of time,
02:17
the ability of the bed to put you to sleep
02:20
starts getting diluted.
02:22
Not only that, it starts getting replaced
02:25
by thinking, and tossing and turning, and worrying,
02:27
and doing all these things. When you’re not asleep,
02:29
get out of bed. This is probably one of the most
02:31
effective ways to prevent chronic insomnia.
02:33
It’s also one of the really effective ways to treat it.
02:36
It won’t work 100% of the time,
02:38
but it will actually work more than most people think.
02:42
Neil: We normally sleep in beds.
02:44
Beds are designed to make it easy to sleep,
02:47
but if we can’t sleep,
02:48
that makes the bed’s impact weaker.
02:50
As Dr Grandner says, 'it dilutes the power of the bed
02:53
to help us sleep'.
02:55
Rob: When you dilute something, you make it weaker.
02:58
For example, you can dilute the strength of a strong fruit
03:01
juice by adding water to it.
03:03
Neil: So if we stay in bed, tossing and turning,
03:05
which is the expression we use to describe
03:07
moving around in the bed trying to get to sleep,
03:10
we begin to think of the bed as place where we don’t
03:13
sleep rather than as a place where we do sleep.
03:16
So, get out of bed to break the connection.
03:19
Rob: This he says is a positive way to approach
03:21
chronic insomnia.
03:23
'Chronic' is an adjective that is used to describe
03:26
conditions that are long-lasting.
03:28
So we’re not talking here about
03:29
occasionally not being able to get to sleep,
03:31
but a condition where it happens every night.
03:34
Neil: Let’s hear Dr Grandner again.
03:36
Dr Michael Grandner: When you’re in bed
03:38
and you’re not asleep
03:39
and you do that over, and over, and over again
03:41
for extended periods of time,
03:43
the ability of the bed to put you to sleep
03:45
starts getting diluted.
03:47
Not only that, it starts getting replaced
03:50
by thinking, and tossing and turning, and worrying,
03:52
and doing all these things. When you’re not asleep,
03:54
get out of bed. This is probably one of the most
03:56
effective ways to prevent chronic insomnia.
03:59
It’s also one of the really effective ways to treat it.
04:02
It won’t work 100% of the time,
04:04
but it will actually work more than most people think.
04:06
Neil: Time to review today’s vocabulary, but first,
04:09
let’s have the answer to the quiz question.
04:11
What is the record for the longest a human
04:14
has gone without sleep? Is it:
04:16
A) about seven days?
04:18
B) about nine days?
04:20
C) about 11 days?
04:21
What did you think, Rob?
04:23
Rob: I thought it must be about seven days.
04:26
Neil: Well, I’m afraid you’re not right.
04:28
The answer, rather amazingly, is actually
04:31
just over 11 days.
04:32
Extra bonus points for anyone who knew that that
04:35
was done in 1964 by someone called Randy Gardner.
04:39
Rob: That’s extraordinary.
04:40
It’s difficult to imagine even going a couple of
04:42
days without sleep, but 11!
04:44
I wonder how long he slept for after that!
04:46
Neil: 14 hours and 40 minutes.
04:48
Rob: You’ve got all the answers, haven’t you?
04:49
Neil: Well when I can’t sleep, I get up and read trivia!
04:52
And now it’s time for the vocabulary.
04:55
Today our topic has been 'insomnia'.
04:57
Rob: This is the word for the condition of not
04:59
being able to sleep.
05:00
And something that people do
05:01
when they are trying to sleep is 'toss and turn' in bed.
05:04
Neil: The opposite of what seems logical or obvious
05:07
is counter-intuitive.
05:09
It goes against what you might expect.
05:11
So if you can’t sleep, get out of bed.
05:13
Rob: Our next word is 'diluted'.
05:15
This is from the verb 'to dilute'
05:17
which means 'to make something less strong'.
05:19
Neil: And finally there was the adjective 'chronic'.
05:22
This is an expression for a medical condition
05:24
that is long-lasting.
05:25
So someone who has chronic insomnia
05:27
regularly has difficulty getting enough sleep.
05:31
It’s not just something that happens now and again.
05:33
Rob: Well, we hope that 6 Minute English isn’t
05:35
a cure for insomnia,
05:36
but I do find listening to podcasts and spoken radio
05:39
helps me get to sleep.
05:40
Neil: Well, before we all drop off to sleep from
05:43
the comforting tone of your voice, Rob,
05:45
it’s time for us to say goodbye.
05:46
That's it for this programme.
05:48
For more, find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
05:51
and our Youtube pages, and of course our website:
05:53
bbclearningenglish.com,
05:55
where you can find all kinds of other programmes
05:58
and videos and activities to help you
06:00
improve your English.
06:02
Thank you for joining us, and goodbye.
06:03
Rob: Bye!