When your head meets the pillow, do you go swift and sweet into dreamland — or do you lie awake, plagued with existential dread and struggle to snooze?
The answer to how you spend your nights may reveal startling insights into your general health.
The amount of time it takes your body to achieve a restful state is known as “sleep latency,” and while that figure is somewhat flexible, there are some parameters for optimal shutdown for shuteye. Sleep experts agree that either extreme — falling asleep too fast or too slow — can cause concern.
“The ideal amount of time for the body to fall asleep truly varies from person to person. The National Sleep Foundation suggests that it should take about 15 to 20 minutes for a healthy person,” Kristen Casey, a licensed clinical psychologist and insomnia specialist, told HuffPost. “However, people are complex, so we may have more issues that stop us from falling asleep soundly that are likely out of our control.”
Proper sleep hygiene can help mitigate those factors beyond our control, according to experts.
“Decades of sleep science research shows that having excellent sleep hygiene is your best bet to regularly fall asleep, stay asleep, and feel and function your best while awake,” sleep guru Jeff Kahn, the Chicago-based CEO and co-founder of Rise Science, maker of the sleep and energy tracker app RISEKahn, told Fox News Digital.
Common best practices include keeping a regular sleep schedule, cutting off caffeine 12 hours before bedtime, avoiding late meals and alcohol, getting sunlight every morning — and keeping your bedroom as cool, dark and quiet as possible.
Research suggests some measure of pre-slumber physical activity can also help improve sleep quality, The Post previously reported.
Falling fast
Experts note that going lights out within a few minutes is not explicitly cause for alarm but could indicate some lifestyle factors that need amending.
A few probable causes for falling fast:
Exhaustion
“Falling asleep too quickly can be a sign of exhaustion, a sign that we are overworking ourselves, a sign of burnout, and generally a sign that we’re not spending enough time recovering and resting,” Dr. Dave Rabin, a neuroscientist, board-certified psychiatrist and co-founder and chief innovation officer at Apollo Neuroscience, told HuffPost.
Experts recommend seven to nine hours of sleep a night to lower the risk of developing obesity, heart disease, and depression, among other chronic conditions, but many Americans struggle to meet that important goal.
Junk sleep
If you’re drifting off within mere minutes, you might sleep long enough, but the quality does not match the quantity. Experts call this “junk sleep” and suggest it is not the kind of shuteye that supports true rejuvenation.
For those who doze fast, Casey recommends seeking a medical opinion.
“We choose a treatment that will be clinically indicated based on the origin of sleep latency issues. For example, if someone is falling asleep too quickly because they are exercising too much and working 12-hour days, it’s likely they have a very high sleep drive. Sleep drive is the body’s biological need for sleep.”
Treatment can look like adjusting exertion, doing lab tests and simply making more time for sleep.
Mental health
The adverse effects of chronic sleep deprivation are well-documented, but a shortage of shut-eye for just a single evening is also detrimental. Research from the American Psychological Association determined that even an hour or two of poor sleep increases the risk of depression and anxiety.
In a catch-22, Casey explained that both depression and side effects from antidepressants can cause exhaustion.
Sleep apnea
Roughly 39 million Americans, including President Biden, currently suffer from sleep apnea.
The most common form of the disorder is obstructive sleep apnea or OSA. In OSA patients, the upper airway partly or completely closes during sleep, blocking airflow to the lungs and causing breathing to start and stop repeatedly.
In addition to risks like death, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and possibly cognitive decline and dementia, OSA contributes to a serious decline in sleep quality.
Common symptoms of sleep apnea include excessive daytime sleepiness, mood changes and brain fog. If you suspect you are suffering from sleep apnea, it is critical that you seek medical attention.
Falling slow
On the other side of the pillow lie folks who struggle to fall asleep. Paradoxically, the same issues that cause exhaustion also cause sleep resistance.
“Difficulty with falling asleep may be a symptom of insomnia, chronic pain or a psychological or medical condition,” Casey explained. “Most of the time, people who struggle to fall asleep are anxious, experiencing pain or struggle to have a high sleep drive at night.”
A few additional factors that can contribute to slow sleep latency include:
Subpar sleep routine
“Having an inconsistent bedtime, poor sleep habits, working non-traditional shifts (such as evening/night shifts or rotating schedules), undiagnosed or unmanaged health conditions such as stress, depression, anxiety, COPD, GERD and having an uncomfortable sleeping surface could all contribute to taking too long to fall asleep,” Catherine “Katie” Yu, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with Thriveworks in Portland, Maine, who specializes in depression, anxiety and sleep/insomnia, told HuffPost.
As The Post previously reported, drinking coffee in the afternoon can contribute to sleeplessness, while drinking alcohol at any point during the day can disrupt sleep patterns and sleep quality.
In addition to getting morning sunlight to regulate circadian rhythms, experts note that it’s important to shut off blue light-emitting screens 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime.
Research suggests going to bed by 1 a.m. can lower your risk of developing mental and behavioral conditions such as depression and anxiety.
For those struggling to find the perfect bedtime and wake time, try going to sleep and waking up 15 minutes earlier each day until you find your ideal time.
Stress
Rabin maintains that sleep is the bedrock of mental health.
“Pretty much every mental illness often starts with difficulty falling asleep. This doesn’t mean if you have difficulty falling asleep, you have a mental illness, but it does mean that the body is struggling with something that is making it feel unsafe or unable to settle down enough to be able to be vulnerable to enter sleep states — deep sleep states in particular.”
In an unfortunate cycle, insomnia can lend itself to depression, and symptoms of depression can amplify insomnia.
Medical providers may offer solutions to sleeplessness in the form of psychotherapy to address the source of anxiety and depression.
Dr. Wendy Troxel, a Utah-based sleep expert and senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation, told Fox News Digital that incorporating a wind-down routine before bed can reduce stress levels and improve sleep quality.
Those routines can involve relaxing activities such as deep breathing exercises, cuddling with a partner, journaling, doing gentle yoga, or listening to music.
“It’s just about finding something that you can ritualize and do on a nightly basis to set the stage … to put aside all the demands and stress of the day and prepare for winding down and [going] to sleep.”
