Ser agradecido te ayuda a dormir mejor

I started keeping a gratitude journal several years ago, and, though I go through phases where I write more often or skip a few nights, I've found that I tend to drift to sleep more easily and happily after I've gotten myself into the 'warm and fuzzy' place that comes from counting my blessings. That's why I wasn't completely surprised when I ran across this research study about gratitude journaling: researchers have found that differences in gratitude levels actually affect sleep quality!

Researchers assessed 186 men and 215 women (40% of which had clinically impaired sleep), and measured their level of gratitude, their quality of sleep, and five main personality traits (to see if differences in sleep quality could be tied to personality differences). (The five personality traits, which have been generally accepted as definitive to personality, are: openness to new experience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism.)

Researchers found that gratitude predicted better self-reported sleep quality, as well as duration of sleep, and less 'sleep latency' (the amount of time it takes to fall asleep after the lights have gone out) and daytime dysfunction. The relationship between gratitude and each of these variables was mediated by the thoughts people had before falling asleep: more positive before-sleep thoughts and less negative ones. All of these results were found to be unrelated to personality traits, including neuroticism, (which one might expect to affect sleep quality and ability to fall asleep).

This research is pretty big news for those who need better quality sleep, and those who need more of it (which, according to a sleep poll on this site, includes the vast majority of us)! We can use this information to help ourselves and our children in many areas of our lives, since sleep deprivation affects not only our stress levels, but our daytime functioning. (See this article on the importance of sleep.) Here are some things to try:

Gratitude Journaling
I recommend keeping a gratitude journal for general stress relief and overall happiness, but now that we know this practice can lead to better sleep, I consider it a must. See this article for tips on maintaining a gratitude journal, where you'll have a record of all that you have to appreciate in your life--great for reading when you're feeling blue.

Gratitude With Kids
If you have children, and if you're not doing this already, it's a great idea to get in the habit of reviewing three things that you have to be grateful for before you tuck them in and turn out the light. This can be done in the form of a sharing conversation, a prayer, or a family gratitude journal that you keep together. You may find bedtime reluctance diminishing and daytime moods and productivity improved.

Tweet Your Gratitude
Join me on Twitter, where I've started a daily gratitude practice--you can maintain a daily gratitude announcement there, where you 'tweet' three things for which you're grateful at the end of each day, and can see what others are grateful for. (You can also share your list on this blog or in the Stress Management Forum if you're still working up to making it a nightly habit.)