The dishes are done, the whodunit is over, the teeth are brushed – it’s slowly time to go to bed. But for many people, that doesn’t mean they can snuggle up comfortably in bed and fall asleep right away. About 20 percent of Germans have trouble falling asleep, and almost as many can’t sleep through the night. Whether due to stress, worries, pain or psychological problems – anyone who tosses and turns in bed wide awake night after night and drags themselves to work the next morning as if they were exhausted urgently needs to change something. Sometimes a new mattress can help, but in many cases body and mind need to learn to rest. The head of the Cologne Institute for Stress Reduction, Dr. med. Ralf Maria Hölker (46), has developed simple relaxation exercises for this purpose.
About 18 million people in Germany suffer from sleep disorders. What are the most common reasons for this?
Hölker: Often, tense situations from the day are taken into the night. These can be current conflicts or long-term stresses such as debts or a divorce. This leads to persistent brooding, but also to purely physical tension in the skeletal and respiratory muscles. Even at night, this tension cannot be released and thus prevents the body from falling asleep.
At what point does one speak specifically of a sleep disorder? When you lie awake for more than half an hour at night three times a week?
Hölker: No, you can’t say that exactly. One speaks of a sleep disorder as soon as it becomes a burden for the affected person himself.
What can you do to avoid jeopardizing your nightly rest?
Hölker: One should avoid doing sports shortly before going to bed. A warm bath or a visit to the sauna, on the other hand, is optimal. Exciting books or movies can produce negative images that also affect sleep. Romantic books or comedies are better. Hearty food is hard on many people’s stomachs, as is an argument with a partner. Conflicts should never be settled in bed. A good prerequisite for relaxed sleep is a peaceful, harmonious situation in the family or partnership.
And what does the optimal bedroom look like?
Hölker: The light should be rather dim before bedtime, because too bright light upsets the biological clock. In the bedroom, it should be as quiet as possible, the windows darkened and the temperature rather low. 18 to 19 degrees is optimal.
Many people with sleep disorders take another tablet before going to bed. What do you think about medications to promote sleep?
Hölker: There are certainly helpful medicines, for example preparations with valerian or hops. However, these should not be taken regularly. Anyone who uses tranquilizers should be aware of the side effects beforehand. These drugs often still make you feel sleepy the next morning. Alcohol, by the way, also worsens the quality of sleep. It makes you tired, but it causes restless sleep with waking phases. It seems to me that the most sensible sleep aids are those that have no side effects. After several years of scientific study on the subject, I assume that relaxation is the royal road to sleep.
To calm down in the evening, experts often recommend yoga, progressive muscle relaxation or autogenic training. You rely on muscle relaxation and visualization in your method. What’s better about your approach than the others?
Hölker: Autogenic training requires some practice. It’s an autosuggestive method, so you try to control your own body through the power of your thoughts. Especially when you’re excited and tense, that often doesn’t work. Together with psychologists, I have tried out exercises in seminars over several years and evaluated the feedback from the test subjects. This then resulted in a combination of exercises for breath relaxation, muscle relaxation and visualization.
What exactly is meant by visualization?
Hölker: Visualization is found, for example, in dream journeys. The speaker takes the listener to beautiful places, such as a Caribbean beach or a pine forest. This creates soothing images in the mind that allow the listener to drift off to sleep easily. The principle basically works the same way fairy tales do for children. The positive content, the beautiful images and a soothing voice make for pleasant dreams.
The result of your research was an audio CD (“Wege in die Entspannung + Gesunder Schlaf”, 14,95 Euro, in bookstores). How is this structured?
Hölker: After a brief introduction, the speaker first gives instructions in a calm voice on how to relax the respiratory muscles. Then follow further exercises for muscle relaxation and finally several dream journeys. Between the individual parts are short pieces of music with soft Japanese flute music.
Tell us a little relaxation exercise to do at home?
Hölker: A very simple exercise is “resting breathing.” To do this, you just have to think the word “rest” every time you exhale. You repeat this about 20 times in a row and your body relaxes. This is a simple but good method to get down before going to sleep or even in everyday life.
And this works?
Hölker: Yes, the exercises are all kept very simple. However, some subjects found the exercises even more relaxing after several repetitions because they now knew the content.