Name: I like sleep, why do I FIGHT going to bed? A sleep doctor answers your questions!
Uploaded: 2025-06-04T11:48:07.000Z
Duration: 5 min 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...

Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Michael Bruce, The Sleep Doctor, and I'm here today to answer some of your questions about sleep.

The imperative

Please remember this is not medical advice.

To-infinitive

I just don't have enough information on your personal case to be effective.

You should always contact your physician with these questions as well.

If you have a question that you'd like to see me answer, do me a favor, leave me a comment below or send me an email at AskSleepDoctor.com.

And if you like these videos, I have a ton more on my YouTube channel, so be sure to hit that subscribe button.

First up is Pat G, and they want to know, does eating a half a banana about one and a half hours before bed help me get to sleep faster and sleep better?

This is an interesting question, so you may have heard that I created a recipe called Banana Tea.

Remember, bananas are actually nature's sleeping pill.

They're loaded with magnesium, and they can actually help you fall asleep.

However, the big thing to remember is bananas also have a very high glycemic index.

So if you're diabetic or somebody that reacts to sugar, you probably want to move that banana out three hours before bed, not one and a half hours before bed.

Question number two, Crystal wants to know, I tend to get anxiety and my thoughts race when I lie down in bed.

I've not been sleeping well the last few nights due to this.

Can you please suggest ways I might calm my anxious brain down before bed?

My favorite overall technique is called 4-7-8 breathing.

I've done a few videos on them, but I'm going to teach it to you right now.

Breathing in slowly for a count of four, hold for a count of seven, and then push out for a count of eight.

This is done slowly and thoughtfully, and you want to be counting in your head.

The reason I want you counting in your head is when you're counting, you can't be thinking about things that worry you, and this technique in particular helps lower your heart rate, and we need a heart rate of 60 or below to get into a state of unconsciousness.

Question number three, Kenneth asks, I'm a dolphin chronotype.

Your recommended bedtime for me would be 11.50 p.m. and waking up at 6.30 a.m.

However, I find myself done with all my daily activities by 6 to 7 at night.

How do I fill in six more hours before bedtime, besides TV or reading?

Any suggestions on what to do with my time?

Gotta be honest with you, this doesn't feel like a massive problem on my end of the spectrum.

I would love to have more time in my day, but I get it.

Maybe you've gone through your activities, maybe you used to go to bed early because you didn't have other things to do.

I think this is the time to either pick up a new hobby, consider journaling to learning more about yourself, or maybe pick up the telephone and call some relatives or some friends that you haven't talked to in a while.

Doing something positive before bed not only helps you fall asleep more quickly, but gives you better dreams.

Question number four, Ben would like to know, why do I fight just going to bed?

I like sleep, I fall asleep easily, I just fight going to bed.

So we've seen something that we call sleep procrastination, where people just push and push and push and they wait until their head is bobbing until they fall asleep.

To be honest with you, this feels more like a fear of missing out on something than anything else.

Do yourself a favor, set an alarm for when to go to bed and follow it.

I promise you, if you just go to bed when the alarm goes off, you'll probably be in much better shape.

Question number five, Angela would like to know, often as I'm falling asleep but not fully asleep yet, almost in a meditative state, I will hear a loud noise which will only be in my head.

It's kind of like the sound of a motorcycle zooming by or a loud cymbal banging.

It scares me half to death and I wake up in a panic.

Remember, I can't diagnose anything over the internet, but this does sound like something that could be neurologic in its origin.

I would definitely want to talk with your neurologist.

If you don't have a neurologist, ask your general practitioner, if you can, about seeing a neurologist who's also board certified in sleep because it sounds like it could be something that's similar to a sleep disorder.

Next, Katie would like to know, I lucid dream quite often, one to two a week, and I have most of my life.

It's very strange, but I thought everyone did it, but I guess not.

So, good news, I'm a lucid dreamer as well.

There is no harm that will come to you from lucid dreaming on a regular basis.

In fact, some people might be a little jealous that you have that skill set.

Question number seven, Nora would like to know, this may sound odd, but I've been noticing that eating garlic from the afternoon onward impacts my sleep negatively in that I have a harder time going to sleep.

Well, we do know that too much garlic can actually exacerbate something called gastroesophageal reflux disease or reflux, and that could easily be something that makes it difficult to fall asleep.

So, what I would do is eat all your garlic in the morning and you should be okay.

Finally, a question from Martin, in your honest opinion, are we ever actually going to get rid of daylight saving time?

So, the answer is, boy, I sure hope so, but which time slot are we going to choose seems to be the big question.

Most of the politicians out there have got it wrong.

All of the sleep doctors, and by the way, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has put out a position paper on this.

Standard time was created based on your biology.

Daylight saving time was based on the economy.

We really don't need daylight saving time anymore.

We actually would much better function if our bodies were all on standard time.

Thanks so much to all of you for your questions.

I have plenty more answers to your burning sleep questions, so check out another episode of Ask the Sleep Doctor right here.

And remember, if you've got a question you'd like to see me answer, send me an email at AskSleepDoctor.com or drop a comment below.

This is Dr. Michael Bruce, the sleep doctor, wishing you sweet dreams.