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HEALTHY LIVING, LIFE HACKS
HOW TO FALL BACK ASLEEP
Staring at the ceiling when you should be snoozing? Dr. Michael Breus, who is also known as 'The Sleep Doctor,' explains what's happening in your body to make this occur as you sleep. He also has some tips that may have you back in dream land in no time!
TV NEWS/DIGITAL VIDEO SCRIPTS (Tracked/Untracked Pkg & shorter VO/SOT version is available. Or use the full Zoom interview to write your own story below)
{**ON CAM**}
A SLEEP SPECIALIST SAYS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON COMPLAINTS HE HEARS FROM PEOPLE IS THAT THEY WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND CAN'T GET BACK TO SLEEP.
BUT AS KRISTINA GUERRERO (Gur-Rare-Oh) EXPLAINS... HE HAS A SIMPLE PROCESS THAT MAY HELP YOU CATCH MORE Z'S.
{**TAKE PKG**}
{**VO**}
TIRED OF WAKING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?... TOSSING AND TURNING?
{**SOT**}
"A lot of people turn to me and they say, you know what? I have a tendency to wake up somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning."
[TRT=06]
{**VO**}
DOCTOR MICHAEL BREUS (Bruce)... WHO'S KNOWN AS 'THE SLEEP DOCTOR'... SAYS IF THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU... IT'S BASED ON YOUR BIOLOGY.
[CG: Dr. Michael Breus, The Sleep Doctor]
{**SOT**}
"So when you're falling asleep, your core body temperature rises, rises, rises till about 10:30 at night. It hits a peak and then it begins to drop. That drop is a signal to your brain to release melatonin." [TRT=10]
{**VO**}
MELATONIN HELPS YOU FALL ASLEEP BUT THEN HE SAYS YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE RISES AGAIN.
{**SOT**}
"When it starts to go back up, you move into a lighter stage of sleep. Guess what time of night that usually is?... Somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning." [TRT=08]
{**VO**}
AND IF YOU DO WAKE UP... FORCE YOURSELF TO KEEP YOUR HEAD ON THAT PILLOW.
{**SOT**}
"First thing you shouldn't do is you shouldn't look at the clock." [TRT= 03]
{**VO**}
AND HE SAYS TRY NOT TO GET OUT OF BED.
THIS WILL JUST RAISE YOUR HEART RATE MAKING IT HARDER TO GO BACK TO SLEEP.
INSTEAD, DO SOMETHING CALLED 'NON-SLEEP-DEEP-REST.'
{**SOT**}
"This is where you're lying in a position, it's dark, it's quiet, you're not moving. Turns out this is a bit rejuvenative. It's not exactly like sleep. About an hour of that is worth about 20 minutes of sleep." [TRT=13]
{**VO**}
AND IF THAT DOESN'T WORK... ADJUST YOUR BREATHING.
{**SOT**}
"My favorite technique is called 4-7-8 breathing."
"You breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight." [TRT=07]
{**VO**}
DO IT FIVE TO SEVEN TIMES.
{**SOT**}
"What this does is it dumps out excess carbon dioxide from your lungs, allows fresh air to come in, which means your heart doesn't have to work as hard, which means it lowers your heart rate." [TRT= 12]
{**VO**}
SO TO SUMMARIZE...
DON'T LOOK AT THE CLOCK.
TRY NON-SLEEP-DEEP-REST...
AND THEN FOUR-SEVEN-EIGHT BREATHING.
HOPEFULLY THESE METHODS WILL HELP YOU TO HAVE MORE SWEET DREAMS!
{**END PKG**}
{**ON CAM**}
YOU CAN SEE MORE OF DOCTOR BREUS'S (Bruce's) SLEEP TIPS BY LOGGING ONTO 'THE-SLEEP-DOCTOR-DOT-COM' AND YOU CAN ALSO SEARCH FOR 'THE-SLEEP-DOCTOR' ON YOU-TUBE.
_________________________
STORY FORMAT: SOTVO/SOTVO
{**ON CAM**}
A SLEEP EXPERT SAYS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS HE HEARS IS THAT PEOPLE WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND CAN'T GET BACK TO SLEEP.
HE EXPLAINS WHY THAT HAPPENS.
[CG: Dr. Michael Breus, The Sleep Doctor]
{**TAKE SOT/VO**}
"So when you're falling asleep, your core body temperature rises, rises, rises till about 10:30 at night. It hits a peak and then it begins to drop. That drop is a signal to your brain to release melatonin."
[TRT=10]
[OUTCUE: TO RELEASE MELATONIN.]
{***VO***}
DOCTOR MICHAEL BREUS (BRUCE) WHO'S KNOWN AS 'THE SLEEP DOCTOR'... SAYS THAT MELATONIN HELPS YOU FALL ASLEEP BUT THEN YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE RISES AGAIN AND THAT'S WHEN YOU MOVE INTO A LIGHTER STAGE OF SLEEP AND CAN WAKE UP.
HE SAYS DON'T GET OUT OF BED BECAUSE THAT INCREASES YOUR HEART RATE MAKING IT HARDER TO GET BACK TO SLEEP.
TRY TO JUST LIE THERE.
THAT'S CALLED 'NON-SLEEP-DEEP-REST' AND HE SAYS AN HOUR OF THAT HAS THE SAME EFFECT AS TWENTY MINUTES OF SLEEP.
ALSO...ADJUST YOUR BREATHING.
[CG: Dr. Michael Breus, The Sleep Doctor]
{**TAKE SOT/VO**}
"My favorite technique is called 4-7-8 breathing. You breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight. What this does is it dumps out excess carbon dioxide from your lungs, allows fresh air to come in, which means your heart doesn't have to work as hard, which means it lowers your heart rate."
[OUTCUE: IT LOWERS YOUR HEART RATE.]
[TRT=21 ]
{***VO***}
[CG: TheSleepDoctor.com]
HOPEFULLY... THOSE TIPS WILL HELP YOU CATCH MORE ZEE'S!
YOU CAN SEE MORE OF DOCTOR BREUS'S SLEEP TIPS AT 'THE-SLEEP-DOCTOR-DOT-COM.'
_________________________
TEASES
TIRED OF STARING AT THE CEILING WHEN YOU SHOULD BE CATCHING SOME SHUT-EYE?
THE SOLUTION TO YOUR SLEEPLESS STRUGGLE IS JUST A FEW BREATHS AWAY!
###
DO YOU WAKE-UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND HAVE TROUBLE GETTING BACK TO SLEEP?
COMING UP... AN EXPERT-APPROVED HACK THAT MAY HELP YOU CATCH MORE Z'S.
###
ARE YOU TIRED OF BEING TIRED? A 'SLEEP DOCTOR' HAS A SOLUTION! COMING UP... HEAR SOME OF HIS TRICKS TO HELP YOU GET BACK TO YOUR BEAUTY REST.
RADIO/PODCAST AUDIO SCRIPT
SUGGESTED LEAD:
A SLEEP SPECIALIST SAYS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON COMPLAINTS HE HEARS FROM PEOPLE IS THAT THEY WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND CAN'T GET BACK TO SLEEP.
BUT AS KRISTINA GUERRERO (Gur-Rare-Oh) EXPLAINS... HE HAS A SIMPLE PROCESS THAT MAY HELP YOU CATCH MORE Z'S.
(MP3 WRAP AUDIO)
OQ: TO HAVE MORE SWEET DREAMS!
OPTIONAL TAG:
YOU CAN SEE MORE OF DOCTOR BREUS'S (Bruce's) SLEEP TIPS BY LOGGING ONTO 'THE-SLEEP-DOCTOR-DOT-COM' AND YOU CAN ALSO SEARCH FOR 'THE-SLEEP-DOCTOR' ON YOU-TUBE.
________________________
(MP3 WRAP AUDIO)
(MUSIC)
TIRED OF WAKING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?... TOSSING AND TURNING?
(CUT)
"A lot of people turn to me and they say, you know what? I have a tendency to wake up somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning."
[TRT=06]
OQ: THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.
DOCTOR MICHAEL BREUS (Bruce)... WHO'S KNOWN AS 'THE SLEEP DOCTOR'... SAYS IF THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU... IT'S BASED ON YOUR BIOLOGY.
(CUT)
"So when you're falling asleep, your core body temperature rises, rises, rises till about 10:30 at night. It hits a peak and then it begins to drop. That drop is a signal to your brain to release melatonin."
[TRT=10]
OQ: BRAIN TO RELEASE MELATONIN.
MELATONIN HELPS YOU FALL ASLEEP BUT THEN HE SAYS YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE RISES AGAIN.
(CUT)
"When it starts to go back up, you move into a lighter stage of sleep. Guess what time of night that usually is?... Somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning."
[TRT=08]
OQ: TEMPERATURE RISES AGAIN.
AND IF YOU DO WAKE UP... FORCE YOURSELF TO KEEP YOUR HEAD ON THAT PILLOW.
(CUT)
"First thing you shouldn't do is you shouldn't look at the clock."
[TRT= 03]
OQ: LOOK AT THE CLOCK.
AND HE SAYS TRY NOT TO GET OUT OF BED.
THIS WILL JUST RAISE YOUR HEART RATE MAKING IT HARDER TO GO BACK TO SLEEP.
INSTEAD, DO SOMETHING CALLED 'NON-SLEEP-DEEP-REST.'
(CUT)
"This is where you're lying in a position, it's dark, it's quiet, you're not moving. Turns out this is a bit rejuvenative. It's not exactly like sleep. About an hour of that is worth about 20 minutes of sleep." [TRT=13]
OQ: TWENTY MINUTES OF SLEEP.
AND IF THAT DOESN'T WORK... ADJUST YOUR BREATHING.
(CUT)
"My favorite technique is called 4-7-8 breathing."
"You breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight." [TRT=07]
OQ: FOR A COUNT OF EIGHT.
DO IT FIVE TO SEVEN TIMES.
(CUT)
"What this does is it dumps out excess carbon dioxide from your lungs, allows fresh air to come in, which means your heart doesn't have to work as hard, which means it lowers your heart rate."
[TRT= 12]
OQ: LOWERS YOUR HEART RATE.
SO TO SUMMARIZE...
DON'T LOOK AT THE CLOCK.
TRY NON-SLEEP-DEEP-REST...
AND THEN FOUR-SEVEN-EIGHT BREATHING.
HOPEFULLY THESE METHODS WILL HELP YOU TO HAVE MORE SWEET DREAMS!
###
_________________________
STORY SLUG:
STORY FORMAT: SHORTER WRAP VERSION
(LEAD)
A SLEEP EXPERT SAYS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS HE HEARS IS THAT PEOPLE WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND CAN'T GET BACK TO SLEEP.
DOCTOR MICHAEL BREUS (BRUCE) WHO'S KNOWN AS 'THE SLEEP DOCTOR'... SAYS THAT WHEN YOU'RE FALLING ASLEEP... YOUR CORE BODY TEMPERATURE RISES AND THEN PEAKS.
THAT'S WHEN YOUR BRAIN RELEASES MELATONIN TO HELP YOU FALL ASLEEP...
BUT THEN YOUR BODY TEMPERATURE RISES AGAIN AND THAT'S WHEN YOU MOVE INTO A LIGHTER STAGE OF SLEEP AND CAN WAKE UP.
HE SAYS DON'T GET OUT OF BED BECAUSE THAT INCREASES YOUR HEART RATE MAKING IT HARDER TO GET BACK TO SLEEP.
TRY TO JUST LIE THERE.
THAT'S CALLED 'NON-SLEEP-DEEP-REST' AND HE SAYS AN HOUR OF THAT HAS THE SAME EFFECT AS TWENTY MINUTES OF SLEEP.
ALSO...ADJUST YOUR BREATHING.
(WRAP)
"My favorite technique is called 4-7-8 breathing. You breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight. What this does is it dumps out excess carbon dioxide from your lungs, allows fresh air to come in, which means your heart doesn't have to work as hard, which means it lowers your heart rate."
OQ: IT LOWERS YOUR HEART RATE.
TRT=21
(TAG)
HOPEFULLY... THOSE TIPS WILL HELP YOU CATCH MORE ZEE'S!
YOU CAN SEE MORE OF DOCTOR BREUS'S SLEEP TIPS AT 'THE-SLEEP-DOCTOR-DOT-COM.'
###
_________________________________________________________________________________
STORY FORMAT: TEASES
TIRED OF STARING AT THE CEILING WHEN YOU SHOULD BE CATCHING SOME SHUT-EYE?
THE SOLUTION TO YOUR SLEEPLESS STRUGGLE IS JUST A FEW BREATHS AWAY!
###
DO YOU WAKE-UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND HAVE TROUBLE GETTING BACK TO SLEEP?
COMING UP... AN EXPERT-APPROVED HACK THAT MAY HELP YOU CATCH MORE Z'S.
###
ARE YOU TIRED OF BEING TIRED? A 'SLEEP DOCTOR' HAS A SOLUTION! COMING UP... HEAR SOME OF HIS TRICKS TO HELP YOU GET BACK TO YOUR BEAUTY REST.
PRINT VERSION
RESTFUL NIGHTS: THE SLEEP DOCTOR'S SECRETS TO GETTING BACK TO SLEEP
Ever find yourself wide awake in the middle of the night, tossing and turning, wondering how on Earth, you'll get back to 'Dream Land?' We've all been there!
Dr. Michael Breus is a double board-certified Clinical Psychologist and a Clinical Sleep Specialist who has been featured on many different television shows and in news articles. He gives people advice on ways they can achieve better sleep.
UNDERSTANDING THE BIOLOGY OF OVERNIGHT WAKEUPS
Dr. Breus says getting back to sleep is the biggest complaint he hears from people, and it tends to happen to most of us between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Why? He says it has to do with your biological clock.
"Your core body temperature rises, rises, rises until about 10:30 at night," he explains. "It hits a peak and then it begins to drop. That drop is a signal to your brain to release melatonin."
That melatonin helps you fall asleep but then your body temperature will start increasing again. "When it starts to go back up, you move into a lighter stage of sleep," he explains. "Guess what time of night that usually is? Somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning."
AVOID THE CLOCK-WATCHING TRAP, TRY 'NONSLEEP, DEEP REST' INSTEAD
He says when you wake up in the middle of the night, the first thing you should do is make sure you don't look at the clock. That will just make you more anxious.
Instead, he says try a technique called 'Nonsleep, Deep Rest.'
"This is where you're lying in a position, it's dark, it's quiet, you're not moving," says Dr. Breus. "Turns out this is a bit rejuvenative. It's not exactly like sleep. About an hour of that is worth about 20 minutes of sleep. So don't worry if you're lying there and you're still not falling asleep, it's okay. You're getting some form of rejuvenation."
NEXT, TRY 4-7-8 BREATHING
If that doesn't work, he recommends a breathing technique called '4-7-8 Breathing.'
He explains how it works: "You breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight." He says to do this very slowly.
"What this does is it dumps out excess carbon dioxide from your lungs, allows fresh air to come in. It means your heart doesn't have to work as hard, which means it lowers your heart rate," explains Dr. Breus. Keeping your heart rate below 60 beats per minute is key for entering a state of unconsciousness and falling back asleep.
OTHER HELPFUL TIPS
Another tip? Try not to get up and go to the bathroom unless you really must.
"If you gotta go to the bathroom, please go to the bathroom... When you go from a lying position to a seated position to a standing position, and you walk across your bedroom, guess what? Your heart rate is up," he cautions, highlighting the importance of maintaining a heart rate below 60 beats per minute for optimal sleep.
With these tips, hopefully you can turn those midnight wakeups into a quicker return to more sweet dreams.
You can find more sleep tips from Dr. Breus at TheSleepDoctor.com and search for 'The Sleep Doctor' on YouTube to see his videos as well.
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