Want Better Night's Sleep? Try 'savoring'

We've all been there: Wide awake, tossing and turning, at 2 a.m. — stuck in an endless spiral of stress, worry and rumination. Counting sheep is simply no match for this situation.

But a unique technique called 'savoring' might help even the most anxiety-riddled brain drift off to sleep.

FIU psychology professor Dana McMakin studies how improving sleep health can also improve mental health outcomes in anxious kids and teens. As part of her work, she investigates how recalling a happy memory at bedtime can better help the brain do its important nightly task of processing memories and emotions.

Now, she's sharing how this strategy can benefit both young and old in search of a good night's rest.

First, what happens in the brain during sleep that's so important to our overall health, especially our emotional and mental health?

During the day, you absorb lots of information. It's temporarily stored in your short term memory, and during sleep, some of those memories and emotional experiences get moved to other parts of the brain for long-term storage.

If you're stressed out at bedtime, this process can get disrupted. That can have cascading effects, especially with emotional regulation. Today, we know poor sleep predicts depression. And that anxiety also precedes depression. About 90% of kids who have anxiety have problems with sleep, which in turn puts them at higher risk of developing depression.

What is savoring?

Savoring is well-studied technique where you relive or replay in great detail a good moment from your day or week.

Many people do some version of this because they realized on their own it worked for them. It can vary and look different for different people. For example, some people rely more on imagining themselves in fictional scenarios or experiences. The point is you're giving the brain something specific to focus on and activating positive feelings.

How does it work?

Instead of simply thinking about a particular moment, the focus should be on really feeling it. Try to call it back up in your mind. Get back in that time where you were happy. For example, I have little kids and the best way for me to fall asleep ever is to imagine and feel a moment where I was giving them a hug — and snap! I am out. Right away. It's amazing.

Everyone can find those moments. It doesn't have to be the big, momentous stuff, like going to Disney World or something. It's the brief moments we all have every day if we choose to pay attention to them. It takes some practice.

Is there anything you need to do before bed to prepare for savoring?

Writing out a list can work for some, but there is some evidence that imagery elicits stronger feelings.

We sometimes suggest kids take a photo or draw a picture of a happy moment or something that makes them happy, then place it on their nightstand as a reminder. For kids with a lot of anxiety, we incorporate such activities into a wind-down routine that happens prior to bedtime, so they transition to bed with the positive feelings and memories primed.

The key is if you wait until getting into bed to call up that savoring episode, it's going to be hard to combat the worry/rumination train. It's best to have something prepped during the day and then start to ease your mind in that direction with a soothing bedtime routine and cues.

All of this could be used by adults, as well.

So, savoring goes beyond relaxing?

Yes, because positive emotion is not the same as relaxing. There's a functional aspect to positive emotion — it can adjust physiology and undo the effects of negative emotion. For instance, past studies have found if someone is stressed out and you can see the cardiovascular effects, like a faster heart rate, the person recovers faster if they focus on positive thoughts rather than something neutral or relaxing.

Savoring preps the brain to get its important work done?

Yes, the theory is that it allows sleep physiology to function the way it's supposed to. Also, if you fall asleep thinking about negative things, it prioritizes those things to be processed first.

If you're only processing negative things all the time — and you're literally running out of time to get to the other positive things — your outlook on the world is only going to get more and more negative. Where, our working theory is, if you fall asleep thinking about good memories, you prioritize those.

It's not that we shouldn't process negative memories. The goal here is to make sure we're successfully processing both the good and bad.

What do you do if your thoughts start to drift back in a negative direction?

In my current studies, we teach kids how to switch from worrying to savoring. During the day, we have them practice — going back in their mind to something they are worried about and then say, "okay, now switch to a savoring memory or episode."

We like to tell them they have a YouTube channel in their brain, and it has all their best moments. Then, when they are trying to fall asleep and find their brain going to that negative space, the idea is they gently nudge themselves back to that "good" or "savoring" channel.

How is your research looking at savoring?

FIU neuroscientist Aaron Mattfeld and I are PIs on an NIH-funded grant following 200 kids with anxiety and using MRI scans and technology that measures brain waves, eye movements and breathing to get a detailed picture into how stress alters sleep physiology. Next, we're going to see if savoring at bedtime, or other interventions, can modify the process.

What's most exciting to you about this research?

My hope is the data can help us deliver more precise, targeted and science-backed interventions during adolescence. This is when kids are figuring out who they are and developing identity.

These memories – the ones that showcase them being proud of themselves, feeling connecting to someone or being in love – are what forms their identify. So, if we can replace moments of worry and rumination and thinking about negative things with these other positive moments, then those become prioritized during sleep to be held onto and shape identity during such an important time, and well, that would be pretty great.

So, it's never too late to work on our sleep?

No. Sleep shouldn't have to become a problem or a disorder for us to work on it. Sleep is equivalent to diet and physical activity in terms of the need to build good habits to optimize health across the life course.