Name: 6 Minute English - Emotional Wellbeing Mega Class - One Hour of New Vocabulary!
Uploaded: 2021-02-20T20:50:15.000Z
Duration: 1 h 48 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Neil.

Well, I didn't sleep well last night.  I was tossing and turning all night,  

Well, that's a coincidence, as our topic today  is insomnia - the condition some people suffer  

from when they find it difficult to  get to sleep when they go to bed.

Thankfully I don't really have insomnia,  

but every now and again, I find  it difficult to get to sleep.

Well, keep listening and we might  have some advice to help with that,  

but first, a question: What is the record for the  longest a human has gone without sleep? Is it:

All of those seem impossible! So I've got  to go with the shortest - about seven days.

Well, if you can stay awake long enough, I'll  let you know at the end of the programme. Dr  

Michael Grandner is an expert in all things to  do with sleep. He was interviewed recently on  

the BBC radio programme Business Daily.  He was asked what his best tip was to  

help you get to sleep if you are finding  it difficult. What was his suggestion?

but trust me I've got decades of data behind this  statement: If you cannot sleep, get out of bed.

So Rob, how does he suggest you  help yourself to get to sleep?

Well actually, he says that the best  thing to do is to get out of bed!

That sounds exactly the opposite  of what you should do, doesn't it?

Well, he does say that his  advice is counter-intuitive,  

which means exactly that. That it is  the opposite of what you might expect.

And he says that this advice is  backed up by decades of research.  

A decade is a period of 10  years and when we say decades,  

it's a general term for many years, at least 20.  Let's hear that advice again from Dr Grandner.

And it sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me  I've got decades of data behind this statement:  

So why is getting out of bed good advice?  Here's the explanation from Dr Grandner.

When you're in bed and you're not asleep and  you do that over, and over, and over again for  

extended periods of time, the ability of the bed  to put you to sleep starts getting diluted. Not  

only that, it starts getting replaced by thinking,  and tossing and turning, and worrying, and doing  

all these things. When you're not asleep, get  out of bed. This is probably one of the most  

effective ways to prevent chronic insomnia.  It's also one of the really effective ways to  

treat it. It won't work 100% of the time, but it  will actually work more than most people think.

We normally sleep in beds. Beds are  designed to make it easy to sleep,  

but if we can't sleep, that makes the bed's impact  

weaker. As Dr Grandner says, 'it dilutes  the power of the bed to help us sleep'.

When you dilute something, you  make it weaker. For example,  

you can dilute the strength of a strong  fruit juice by adding water to it.

So if we stay in bed, tossing and turning,  which is the expression we use to describe  

moving around in the bed trying to get to sleep,  we begin to think of the bed as place where we  

don't sleep rather than as a place where we do  sleep. So, get out of bed to break the connection.

This he says is a positive way to approach  chronic insomnia. Chronic is an adjective  

that is used to describe conditions that are  long-lasting. So we're not talking here about  

occasionally not being able to get to sleep,  but a condition where it happens every night.

Time to review today's vocabulary, but first,  let's have the answer to the quiz question.  

What is the record for the longest a  human has gone without sleep? Is it:

Well, I'm afraid you're not right. The answer,  rather amazingly, is actually just over 11 days.  

Extra bonus points for anyone who knew that that  was done in 1964 by someone called Randy Gardner.

That's extraordinary. It's difficult to imagine  even going a couple of days without sleep,  

but 11! I wonder how long he slept for after that!

Well when I can't sleep, I get up and read trivia!  

And now it's time for the vocabulary.  Today our topic has been insomnia.

This is the word for the condition  of not being able to sleep.  

And something that people do when they are  trying to sleep is toss and turn in bed.

The opposite of what seems logical  or obvious is counter-intuitive.  

It goes against what you might expect.  So if you can't sleep, get out of bed.

This is from the verb to dilute which  means 'to make something less strong'.

And finally, there was the adjective chronic. This  is an expression for a medical condition that is  

long-lasting. So someone who has chronic insomnia  regularly has difficulty getting enough sleep.  

It's not just something  that happens now and again.

Well, we hope that 6 Minute  English isn't a cure for insomnia,  

but I do find listening to podcasts  and spoken radio helps me get to sleep.

Well, before we all drop off to sleep from  the comforting tone of your voice, Rob,  

it's time for us to say goodbye.  That's it for this programme. For more,  

find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and  our Youtube pages, and of course our website:  

bbclearningenglish.com, where you can find  all kinds of other programmes and videos  

and activities to help you improve your  English. Thank you for joining us, and goodbye.

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm  Neil. This is the programme where in just  

six minutes we discuss an interesting  topic and teach some related English  

vocabulary. And joining me to do this is Rob.

Hello… err sorry Neil, how long  did you say this programme is?

Six minutes – it's 6 Minute English, Rob.

Right. OK. Sorry, what's your name again?

Neil! My name is Neil. Rob, what  has happened to your memory?!

Sorry, Neil – too many things on my mind,  it's affecting my short-term memory,  

but what I can remember is that in this programme  we're talking about improving our memory.

We are and I think you might find it  quite useful! Storing information is  

an important function of our brains  and scientists are always looking  

Subtitles ListPlay Video

6 Minute English - Emotional Wellbeing Mega Class - One Hour of New Vocabulary!

anxiety

chronic

mental

resilience