Your Brain Changes Based on What You Did Two Weeks Ago | A workout or restless night from two weeks ago could still be affecting you—positively or negatively—today.

[u/chrisdh79]

https://www.newsweek.com/brain-changes-neuroscience-exercise-sleep-health-two-weeks-1965107

[u/Admirable-Job-7191]

This really seems to vary from person to person. I know someone for whom this works whereas it does absolutely nothing for me apart from probably getting my blood pressure even more non-functional. 

[u/Reallyhotshowers → u/Admirable-Job-7191]

The point of this is its supposed to take the pressure off of you to sleep, as a lot of insomnia is anxiety driven and a cycle of worrying about not sleeping that keeps you awake. Telling yourself that laying down in a dark room is basically the same is a way of mitigating the anxiety of not sleeping.

It didn't work for me either. Had a therapist tell me to just get up and start doing stuff when I couldn't fall back asleep instead of laying around in bed. I'd get up but reserve generally unpleasant tasks for this time, like studying for a test (as a professional adult it would probably be writing documentation or learning a new technology). This wore me out faster and wound up being a bit helpful in my initial falling asleep, and occasionally I'd get in a nap before actual day to day activities began. Basically a combination of giving up control of your sleep schedule + pairing when you should be sleeping with extremely mentally exhausting activities.

Just some food for thought.

[u/NoamLigotti → u/Reallyhotshowers]

So, just lying in a dark room with one's eyes closed isn't actually nearly as good as sleep, it's just meant to help people fall asleep?

That's a big difference.

Anyone know what the science would suggest is true?