Don’t Hit Snooze! And Other Practical Tips for Optimal Sleep

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By Sharon Brock, MEd, MS

Millions of Americans share a similar experience every morning. The alarm goes off, but they’ve already been awake for hours in bed. They hit the snooze button to squeeze in a few more minutes of precious rest, not realizing they were making their sleep problems worse.

“Hitting the snooze button is one of the worst things you can do because it prolongs morning grogginess and associates the bed with being awake,” says Fiona Barwick, PhD, DBSM, Stanford Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences – Sleep Medicine. “Rather than hitting snooze, it’s important to get out of bed within 15 minutes of the alarm going off and get some natural light to stop melatonin production.”

You may not think that something you do first thing in the morning will affect your sleep that night; however, Dr. Barwick says that the behaviors we engage with throughout the day can impact the quality of our sleep at night.

“Getting a good night’s sleep is a 24-hour endeavor,” says Dr. Barwick.

How Does Sleep Work?

According to Dr. Barwick, we fall asleep when these three biological systems are in working order:

  • Circadian Rhythm (CR)
  • Sleep Drive (SD)
  • Stress Management (SM)

 

Here is a list of behaviors that can negatively affect the three systems (CR, SD, SM), as well as alternative behaviors that have a more positive impact:

Since it may be difficult to change all the behaviors in this table, Dr. Barwick shares the top two behaviors that are most important for each system:

  • Circadian Rhythm
  1. Sleeping in the right window for your body clock (e.g., 10pm – 6am, 11pm – 7am, or 12am – 8am, etc.) and staying consistent with those sleep and wake times.
  2. Appropriate exposure to light and darkness to sync the release of melatonin with wake and sleep times (e.g., getting morning sunlight, not looking at screens one hour before bed, and making sure the bedroom is dark).
  • Sleep Drive
  1. Increase sleep drive by tiring the body with regular physical exercise and outdoor light exposure.
  2. Getting out of bed promptly (no hitting the snooze button) and making sure you spend the appropriate amount of time in bed (anywhere from 6-10 hours depending on your individual genetics and age).
  • Stress Management
  1. Physical relaxation—Deep breathing throughout the day to relax the body.
  2. Mental/Emotional relaxation—mindfulness meditation or journaling to process emotions before going to bed.

Practice of the Month:

Avoid hitting snooze (i.e., get out of bed when the alarm goes off) and create morning, midday, and evening routines to optimize the three key systems for sleep.

From the table above, write two behaviors you can do in the morning, midday, and at night. Make sure that you’re addressing all three systems (CR, SD, and SM).

What to do in the morning for good sleep:

1)

2)

What to do during the day for good sleep:

1)

2)

What to do at night for good sleep:

1)

2)

Here is a sample:

What to do in the morning for good sleep:

1)  Put phone out of arm’s reach and get out of bed right after alarm goes off (CR, SD).

2)  Go for a walk around the block, then eat breakfast (CR, SD).

What to do during the day for good sleep:

1)  Stress reduction: do a 10-minute mindfulness meditation at lunch (SM).

2) Physical exercise: do a 45-minute workout right after work (SD, SM).

What to do at night for good sleep:

1) Turn off all screens one hour before bed and write in my journal while listening to relaxing music (CR, SM).

2) Take a luxurious candle-lit bubble bath while taking deep breaths and counting my blessings (CR, SM).

“These are behaviors we can do to increase the likelihood of getting better sleep, but there may be times when we do everything right and still not sleep well,” says Dr. Barwick. “The most important thing to remember is that we will be fine the next day. We are evolutionarily adapted to deal with insufficient sleep, and we can still do what we need to get done, even without the full amount of sleep that we normally get.”

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Screen Time and Sleep—It’s Different for Adults

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By Mary Grace Descourouez, MS, NBC-HWC and Sharon Brock, MEd, MS

Many of us have heard that looking at our phones or iPads at night can keep us awake due to light exposure, however, research shows this may be true for children, but there is not sufficient evidence to support this claim for adults.

“Young children have a greater sensitivity to light because more light gets to the retina of a child than an adult,” says Jamie Zeitzer, PhD, Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences. “Since adults have more opacities in their eyes and smaller pupils than children, less light passes through adult eyes, so there’s less of an effect on melatonin production.”

Melatonin is a hormone that makes us feel sleepy and is released when the eyes perceive darkness. Conversely, when we see natural light in the morning, we feel more awake because light hitting our eyes stops the production of melatonin.

Given this logic, it would seem reasonable that looking at our screens (smart phones, computers, iPads, etc.) at night could delay melatonin production and inhibit our ability to fall asleep, but Dr. Zeitzer says this is not the case.

While darkness enables melatonin production, suppressing melatonin production works by the brain comparing the amount of light we receive during at night with how much we received during the day. It’s the shift from light to dark that cues the release of melatonin, which is why we start to feel sleepy after the sun goes down.

Since natural sunlight emits 10,000-100,000 lux of light and phone screens emit 25-50 lux under usual conditions at night, Dr. Zeitzer says the light from our screens doesn’t have much of an impact on the melatonin cueing process.

“There just isn’t that much light coming from your phone,” says Dr. Zeitzer. “As long as you go outside during the day and get exposed to the intensity of natural light then the amount of light from a screen in the evening most likely won’t halt the production of melatonin.”

If it’s Not Light, What Keeps us Up at Night?

Rather than light exposure, Dr. Zeitzer believes that what is keeping us awake is what we are watching on our screens. Millions of Americans stay awake at night scrolling on social media looking at page after page of emotionally activating content and writing posts that lead to likes, comments, and followers. Others stay up to play games on their phones or computers, all of which stimulate the dopamine reward system in the brain, which is the basis of addictive behaviors.

“In the past, when a television show ended, you turned off the TV and went to sleep because there was nothing else to do,” says Dr. Zeitzer. “But now you could watch Netflix, look at apps or play computer games all night because this entertainment has been commodified to engaged with it for as long as possible; it’s optimized to never stop playing and this is causing sleep deprivation.”

When watching screens before bed, Dr. Zeitzer recommends that we not only avoid content that could be distressing, but also content that could stir excitement within us.

“In order to fall asleep, we need to reduce stimuli exposure and calm our mind and body,” says Dr. Zeitzer. “Even if you’re watching something positive, if it stirs excitement, the brain will release dopamine, and over time we can develop a dopamine addiction, making staying awake playing games or on social media much more fun that going to sleep.”

Lastly, Dr. Zeitzer says that he can’t make a general statement that nighttime screen use negatively affects everyone’s sleep. For some, their addiction to games or apps could make falling asleep a challenge, while others may watch soothing nature videos on their phones to help them relax and fall asleep. Therefore, Dr. Zeitzer suggests that you take note of how screens are impacting your sleep health by asking yourself these questions:

  • Is the content of your screen time making you feel distressed or excited? If yes, then you should not look at screens for about an hour before bedtime to calm the mind and body and prepare for sleep.
  • Also, do you engage with screens throughout the night when you could be sleeping? If so, you may have a dopamine addiction that is making screen time activities more enjoyable than sleep.
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insomnia

How to Cure Insomnia

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By Sharon Brock, MEd, MS

Not getting enough restorative sleep is a rampant health concern across the US. It’s estimated that 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, and 1 in 3 adults do not get the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep regularly.

Many of us have tried sleep hygiene techniques, such as keeping our bedroom dark, cool, and quiet and having a one-hour-before-bed evening routine, but still have trouble sleeping soundly on a consistent basis.

Stanford sleep specialist Fiona Barwick, PhD, DBSM shares that sleep hygiene is only one piece of the puzzle.  “If you have good sleep and maintain good sleep hygiene, then you’ll continue to get good sleep,” says Dr. Barwick, Stanford Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences – Sleep Medicine. “But if you have poor sleep, all the sleep hygiene in the world will not help because it’s not targeting what we typically see in patients with insomnia, which is anxious thinking and not building enough sleep drive.”

What Causes Insomnia?

Insomnia is defined as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early (greater than 30 minutes before the alarm) three times per week for at least three months. Many factors can cause insomnia, such as stressors related to one’s job, finances, health, family and friends, new onset health conditions, or feeling unsafe in one’s environment.

Dr. Barwick says her patients with insomnia often spend hours lying awake, ruminating about relationships and events in their lives, or simply worrying about how their inability to sleep will impact their performance the next day (especially true for perfectionists). To address these factors, Dr. Barwick teaches classes on cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) at Stanford University.

“It’s a vicious cycle. The anxiety we feel about not sleeping can prevent us from falling and staying asleep,” says Dr. Barwick. “With CBT-I, we address not only the physical requirements of sleep but also how we think and feel about sleep. CBT-I helps to shift our mindset about sleep.”

 

This table shows the difference between sleep hygiene and CBT-I:

How to Cure Insomnia with CBT-I Training

CBT-I employs a classical conditioning technique of having patients get out of bed when not sleeping so that they associate their bed with sleep and nothing else. Just as Pavlovian dogs salivated when they heard a bell, Dr. Barwick says we can teach our brains to see our bed as a cue to feeling sleepy and falling asleep rather than a place where we lie awake feeling anxious.

Along with bed re-association, another technique for improving sleep is sleep consolidation, or shortening the time spent in bed. At the outset of treatment, students of the CBT-I course are instructed to reduce the amount of time they spend in bed (their “sleep opportunity”) and get out of bed promptly when the alarm goes off (no hitting snooze!), regardless of how they slept. As wakefulness at night decreases and sleep quality improves, time in bed, or sleep opportunity, is gradually extended.

This disciplined approach of spending a shorter amount of time in bed for two to three weeks increases sleep drive and thus sleepiness, or the desire to sleep. By the end of treatment, patients are falling asleep more easily, waking up less at night, and returning to sleep more easily. They have also ensured that their bed is re-associated with sleep, rather than lying awake worrying, thus breaking the pattern of insomnia.

Along with bed re-association, CBT-I also offers cognitive strategies to calm anxious thoughts about sleep, relaxation techniques to reduce tension in the body, as well as emotional relaxation practices like mindfulness.

How Do I Fix My Sleep Problems?

Ironically, anxiety about sleep is often the cause of our sleep problems, making stress management an important part of restorative sleep. Dr. Barwick says that “our mindset about sleep is critical. We are worrying about a system that is not broken.” Instead of anxiety about sleep, Dr. Barwick encourages us to learn about the biological systems involved in sleep and optimize them with our behaviors.

The three biological systems that need to be in working order for sleep to occur are:

  • Circadian rhythm
  • Sleep drive
  • Stress management

“The way sleep works is, when your sleep drive is high, you understand your own circadian sleep-wake timing, and you allow yourself to relax, you should fall asleep and return to sleep easily,” says Dr. Barwick. “These biological systems of sleep are not broken; they are intact, but our worry about sleep can override their ability to function properly.”

For practical tips on how to optimize these three systems, read our blog, “Don’t Hit Snooze! And Other Practical Tips for Optimal Sleep.” 

What to Do When Lying Awake in the Night

If you’re lying awake in bed during the night, the first step is not to check the time. This can lead to anxious thoughts about how your lack of sleep will affect you the next day. It’s best not to look at the clock and trust that you’ll wake up and get out of bed with your alarm.

Secondly, take deep breaths and engage in mindfulness practices, such as feeling the softness of your pillow and appreciating the comfort of your mattress. Listening to gentle music or a guided meditation can also help relax the mind and body.

If these relaxation practices do not lull you back to sleep and you’ve been wide awake for over 30 minutes, Dr. Barwick suggests getting out of bed and doing a relaxing activity in another room until you feel sleepy again.

“It’s best to keep your bed for sleep, so if you can’t fall back asleep, be awake outside your bed in an enjoyable and relaxing way, such as reading a book in the living room,” says Dr. Barwick. “While reading, you build sleep drive and calm anxiety, so you’re more likely to fall asleep when you go back to bed.”

Another thing to remember is that your middle-of-the-night thinking comes from your emotional brain. During sleep, the rational part of your brain is offline, leaving your emotions to run unchecked. This can lead to bizarre dreams and even nightmares that could wake you up, especially if you’re going through stressful circumstances.

To address this, Dr. Barwick recommends reducing stress throughout the day, not just right before bed.

“People with anxiety are more reactive to stress and need to address sleep as a 24-hour endeavor,” says Dr. Barwick. “They need to put more effort into managing their stress response with exercise, deep breaths, and mindfulness throughout the day–not just before bed.”

Dr. Barwick explains that when we first go to sleep, our sleep drive is high enough to counter our stress level. But if we wake up 3-4 hours later, when sleep drive has diminished, it is harder to fall back asleep, especially if our emotional brain begins to ruminate from stress built up throughout the day. And since the rational part of the brain is offline, these negative thoughts can take over our consciousness.

Therefore, Dr. Barwick recommends journaling before bed to reframe life challenges and process difficult emotions. This way, if you wake up at night, you’ll be able to fall back asleep easily.

Along with journaling before bed, Dr. Barwick has a second recommendation for those experiencing anger that often leads to the rehearsal of mental arguments during the night.

“If you have resentment, I recommend you do loving-kindness meditation before bed. You can offer loving-kindness toward those whom your ego believes has ‘wronged’ you,” says Dr. Barwick. “This meditation can shift your emotional mindset from anger to ease, which will help you fall asleep.”

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Jumping into the Ice Bath Trend! Mental Health Benefits of Cold Water Immersion

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By Maya Shetty, BS

Key Takeaways

  • Research shows that cold water immersion (CWI) may improve mental health by increasing endorphin and norepinephrine levels. 
  • CWI may also improve resilience to stress by decreasing cortisol levels.
  • CWI can be adapted to meet different wellness goals, whether for immediate relief or long-term mental health benefits.
    • For individuals seeking a quick boost in mood, daily cold water face immersions and occasional full-body plunges might be beneficial.
    • For those aiming for long-lasting benefits such as lowered cortisol levels, enhanced mood regulation, and increased resilience to stress, research shows that consistent full-body CWI may be beneficial.

Have you ever considered how taking a cold plunge might affect your mental state? Beyond the initial shock, CWI is proving to have profound effects on brain health and mental well-being. Initially popular as a recovery technique among athletes, it has now evolved into a bold wellness practice for those seeking to enhance their overall health. This practice, which involves plunging into cold water (roughly 10-15°C, 50-60°F), has ignited significant research interest, and emerging studies now suggest that CWI can improve mood, decrease stress, and potentially slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.

“I personally do cold water immersion and find it to be an immensely rejuvenating activity,” says Stanford Psychiatrist, Vanika Chawla, MD, member of the Lifestyle Medicine Cognitive Enhancement pillar.

CWI can take many forms, each involving its own protocol and equipment. The most common forms include:

  • Ice Baths: Traditionally utilized by athletes for recovery after intense physical activity, ice baths require submerging the body up to the neck in ice-cold water. Also known as cold plunging, this practice generally lasts only a few minutes and involves limited movement.
  • Cold Showers: A more accessible form of CWI, taking cold showers can offer many of the same benefits as ice baths but are easier to incorporate into daily routines.
  • Open Water Swimming: This active form of CWI involves swimming in cold rivers, lakes, or oceans, allowing for longer exposure times to the cold.
  • Cryotherapy Chambers: Though they do not involve water, cryotherapy chambers expose the body to extremely cold air temperatures for brief periods, stimulating a physiological response similar to that achieved through water immersion.

Choosing the type, temperature, and duration of CWI depends on your cold tolerance and the resources available to you. It is generally recommended to aim for a temperature that feels uncomfortable but still safe (no colder than 10°C, 50°F). If you have any form of access to cold water, whether it be a lake, a river, or your home shower and bathtub, you can participate in CWI and begin to explore its benefits.

Can Cold Water Plunges Improve Mental Health?

While the idea of diving into extremely  cold water seems unappealing to most, recent studies have shown that CWI offers emotional benefits. In 2021, researchers recruited undergraduate students to take a 20-minute dip in chilly sea water (13.6°C, 56.5°F) and report their emotions before and after using a Profile of Mood States questionnaire. Compared to controls, the students who engaged in CWI experienced a shift in mood, noting a significant decrease in negative emotions like tension, anger, depression, fatigue, and confusion. Moreover, they experienced boosts in positive emotions such as vigor and self-esteem. Further research involving thirty-three adults new to cold-water swimming highlighted similar benefits. After immersing in a cold bath (20°C, 68°F) for just five minutes, participants reported feeling more active, alert, attentive, proud, and inspired.

These studies, which utilize self-reported questionnaires, indicate that cold-water immersion may significantly enhance mood and overall psychological well-being. It appears to activate traits associated with increased motivation and vitality, while simultaneously diminishing feelings of distress and nervousness. 

How to Lower Cortisol Levels Naturally

CWI presents a unique stimulus for the body, prompting significant shifts in its hormonal stress response, particularly involving cortisol, a key regulator of stress. Unlike other stress hormones such as noradrenaline, cortisol levels remain relatively unchanged during the initial shock of cold water. Research highlights an intriguing aspect of cortisol dynamics: while levels do not significantly change during CWI, they significantly decrease afterward.

For example, a study concluded that a one-hour CWI session, whether in thermoneutral (32°C, 90°F), cooler (20°C, 68°F), or cold (14°C, 57°F) water, did not lead to an increase in blood cortisol concentrations. Instead, cortisol levels tended to decrease across all temperatures tested and remained below initial levels an hour after immersion. These findings suggest that cortisol production is not significantly activated by CWI, contrary to what might be expected under typical stress conditions. In fact, CWI may have potent stress-modulating effects. Further research indicates that cortisol levels remain considerably lower for up to three hours after just 15 minutes of CWI (10°C, 50°F). This pattern of response reveals a sophisticated regulatory mechanism, suggesting that CWI can effectively diminish feelings of stress following a session.

CWI may have the potential to modify our body’s stress response to stressors in everyday life. In a study where participants engaged in winter swimming (water 0-2°C, 32-36°F) for twenty seconds or cryotherapy (-110°C, -166°F) for two minutes, three times a week for twelve weeks, the body adapted remarkably. After just four weeks, participants showed significantly lower cortisol levels post-exposure, with levels continuing to drop in the following weeks. This adaptation contrasted with the noradrenaline response, which remained consistent even as the body became accustomed to the cold stress. This reduced cortisol response not only diminished the stress perceived from cold but also potentially enhanced the body’s capacity to manage other stressors more effectively. 

The main take away from this study is that by reducing cortisol production in response to repeated cold exposure, participants might also release less cortisol in response to other stressors in everyday life, thus fostering a more resilient physiological state over time.

“Resilience is the ability to adapt to life’s stressors and adversities,” says Dr. Chawla. “The body and mind are interconnected, therefore greater physiological resilience may lead to greater psychological resilience as well.”

How Cold Water Immersion Impacts the Brain

CWI has been scientifically observed to influence brain function, affecting mood, stress response, and potentially brain health through several mechanisms. The immediate physiological response triggered by CWI is largely due to the dramatic change in temperature. A dense concentration of cold receptors in the skin detects this change, leading to a surge of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain. This intense stimulation activates various neural pathways, initiating a cascade of chemical responses designed to help the body manage and adapt to the stressor.

During the initial shock of CWI, the body experiences stress and discomfort due to the sudden drop in temperature. To counteract this, endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers, are released. These endorphins not only reduce pain but also enhance feelings of well-being, akin to the “runner’s high” that often occurs in other physically demanding or stressful situations. 

CWI also activates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which controls our “fight-or-flight” responses. This activation leads to a significant increase in noradrenaline (also known as norepinephrine), an excitatory neurotransmitter that not only helps manage stress but also boosts energy and focus. The surge in noradrenaline increases blood flow to the brain, potentially causing feelings of euphoria.

These two neurotransmitters play complementary roles. While norepinephrine prepares the body to handle acute stress by enhancing alertness and readiness, endorphins work to soothe pain and promote a positive mood. This dual response helps individuals cope with the immediate impacts of cold exposure more comfortably and can make the experience of cold water immersion more tolerable–and potentially even rewarding.

Regarding whether CWI has long-term positive effects on the brain, research indicates inconsistent results with respect to the increase of endorphin levels. It is possible that not everyone experiences this endorphin response to CWI, and among those who do, the effect may diminish over time, as the body becomes accustomed to the cold exposure. On the contrary, the increase in noradrenaline continues with each session of CWI, even after the body has adapted after months of regular practice. 

These findings underscore the potential of CWI to be used as a reliable tool for improving energy, focus, and mood. These findings also point to the potential of CWI to be used in the treatment of neurological conditions that involve low noradrenaline, including anxiety and depression. However, more research is needed to understand if CWI has long-term effects on emotional well-being outside the water.

Also, CWI may improve brain function through the release of cold-shock proteins, which are produced by the body in response to cold conditions. Animal studies reveal that proteins like RNA binding protein (RBM3) play a crucial role in repairing and regenerating nerve cell connections after they’ve been exposed to cold. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that over-expressing RBM3 can help prevent neuronal connection loss in mice with neurodegenerative diseases. Although there is limited evidence in humans, these findings in mice suggest that regular CWI could potentially boost the expression of such beneficial proteins in humans, offering protection against or slowing the progression of neurodegenerative diseases by preserving and reinforcing neural connections. 

Reaction to Cold Water: Full-Body vs. Facial Immersion

Physiological responses to CWI differ significantly based on whether the exposure is to the full body or just the face. Full-body immersion exposes a significant surface area to cold, inducing thermal stress that can substantially lower skin and core body temperatures. This extensive exposure activates the sympathetic nervous system, which in turn triggers a release of neurotransmitters and hormones that drive the stress response. Consequently, this leads to vasoconstriction, an increased heart rate, and a heightened metabolic rate, all of which help preserve body heat and maintain core temperature.

In contrast, immersing just the face in cold water activates parasympathetic activity, which is responsible for “rest and digest” functions in the body. This effect is likely due to the mammalian diving reflex—an evolutionary adaptation that optimizes respiration and conserves oxygen by preferentially directing oxygen to vital organs. The diving reflex is mediated by the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic system and releases a sense of calm. The trigeminal nerve in the face also plays a crucial role when stimulated by cold, sending signals that further enhance parasympathetic output, decreasing heart rate, and boosting digestive activity. 

These differences highlight how CWI can be strategically used to target specific physiological responses and therapeutic outcomes, depending on whether the exposure is localized to the face or involves the entire body.

“I sometimes recommend facial cold water immersion to my patients as part of the T in TIPP skills to help people with emotion regulation. TIPP stands for temperature, intense exercise, progressive muscle relaxation, and paced breathing,” says Dr. Chawla. “These skills involve changing your body chemistry to shift emotions. Some people find brief facial immersion in cold water or taking a cold shower to be helpful in shifting their body chemistry and thereby shifting their emotional state.” 

Safety Considerations

CWI can offer several health benefits, but it’s essential to approach this practice with caution due to potential risks. One of the most obvious risks is hypothermia, as immersing in cold water significantly drops body temperature. To prevent hypothermia, limit immersion time to no more than 10 minutes. 

Furthermore, it is important to understand the cold shock response. Entering cold water suddenly can trigger an involuntary gasp reflex followed by hyperventilation. Hyperventilation increases the risk of drowning (especially in open water plunging) and can also lead to arrhythmias or even a heart attack, particularly in those with underlying heart issues. To better manage the cold shock response, it’s advised to enter the water slowly, allowing your body to adjust to the temperature gradually. 

It is also important to never swim alone regardless of your swimming strength or experience. Having a partner ensures that help is readily available in case of an emergency, such as cramps, sudden illness, or difficulty in the water.

Finally, remember to allow your body to gradually acclimatize to whatever CWI technique you choose. If you are a beginner, begin with shorter durations (2 minutes) in warmer water (roughly 20°C, 68°F), progressively moving to colder temperatures with longer durations as your body adapts.

“This intervention is not for everyone. It’s important for people to consider what works best for their individual needs,” says Chawla. “If you are going to try CWI, be mindful of how it impacts your mind and body and incorporate the activity into your routine accordingly.”

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How to Utilize Stress to Our Advantage

By Sharon Brock, MEd, MS

This blog is part of the Stress Management newsletter. If you like this content, sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter!

Our entire lives, we have received the message that stress is bad for us. From the media and medical professionals to our family and friends, we constantly hear that stress is debilitating and should be avoided at all costs. But Stanford University Associate Professor of Psychology Alia Crum, PhD, claims that stress can potentially serve us in our lives as long as we have the right mindset. 

“Things happen in our lives that we don’t have any control over, so rather than try to avoid stress, which is inevitable, how about we change how we perceive stress for a healthier outcome?” asks Dr. Crum. “By shifting our mindset from ‘stress is debilitating’ to ‘stress is enhancing,’ we can utilize the stress in our lives to achieve valued ends.” 

What are Mindsets and Why Do They Matter?

A mindset is a core belief or assumption about a category, such as our intelligence, bodies, or a particular skill, that orients us toward certain expectations, attributions, and goals. 

“Mindsets about stress are the core beliefs we have about the nature of stress—it’s not about the belief about the stressor, such as the exam, the divorce, or the illness,” says Dr. Crum. “Having a ‘stress is debilitating’ mindset can add stress to the stress. People might think, ‘Oh no, this stress will make me sick,’ which only adds more stress to the situation.”  

Dr. Crum explains that the mindsets we hold can have self-fulfilling effects. For example, if we have a mindset that we “aren’t good at taking tests,” we might expect to fail an upcoming exam, and often, this belief becomes the outcome. 

Dr. Crum says that it’s not “magic” that our beliefs come to fruition. She says that mindsets have self-fulfilling effects in that they determine, very concretely, the following four mechanisms:

  1. What we pay attention to.
  2. How we feel and expect to feel.
  3. What we are motivated to do.
  4. Our physiological responses to the stress.

Our stress mindset determines how we approach stress, how we make sense of the hardships in our lives, and what we pay attention to. With a stress is debilitating (SID) mindset, one might focus only on the harmful effects, such as the potential to cause insomnia or illness. However, with a stress is enhancing (SIE) mindset, one’s attention may also go to the positives, such as, “What is the lesson here? What skills am I learning? Is there something I can work on within myself? Have I created stronger relationships due to this stressful situation?” 

Our stress mindset also determines how we feel. Someone with a SID mindset may feel fearful, threatened, angry, or resentful for the stressor in their lives. Someone with an SIE mindset could still be angry but also have positive emotions by having such thoughts as, “I acknowledge that this is a hard situation, but I will get through this and become stronger for it. This situation is showing me how resilient I am, and I’m proud of myself for how well I’m handling it.”

What we are motivated to do is also determined by our stress mindset. Those with an SID mindset often shut down or lose emotional control. However, those with an SIE mindset are motivated to endure stress to the extent that it may help them stay focused and push them further to achieve their goals.  

At the physiological level, research shows that those with an SID mindset have higher levels of cortisol and lower levels of DHEA growth-promoting hormone in their blood. However, those with an SIE mindset have moderate levels of cortisol and higher levels of DHEA growth-promoting hormone. Therefore, our mindset can create changes in our bodies that are measurable in the lab. 

“Mindsets are important in that they create our realities,” says Dr. Crum. “I’m not trying to convince people that stress is enhancing and not debilitating—it can be both. But I believe that whichever mindset we choose will influence what happens in our lives through these four mechanisms.” 

Research Backing the “Stress is Enhancing” Mindset

Many researchers promote the message that stress is debilitating, however, Dr. Crum and other researchers have shown that stress can improve these three aspects: health and vitality, performance and productivity, and learning and psychological growth.

The health and vitality aspect may come as a surprise since many of us continually receive the message that stress can make us sick. Dr. Crum acknowledges that many people in various situations have experienced adverse health effects due to stress. However, her research shows that there are cases in which the experience of stress makes people physiologically tougher and more resilient. 

For example, there are many everyday instances of how stress makes our body stronger. When we lift weights at the gym, the stress on the muscles breaks them down in order to rebuild them stronger. Vaccines work because they stress the immune system, which has to figure out the pathogen and how to deal with it. In both cases, the body becomes stronger and healthier in response to the stressor.  

Dr. Crum also says that an SIE mindset may reduce negative symptoms of stress, such as headaches, backaches, rumination, and insomnia.

“I’m not trying to say that stress doesn’t have debilitating effects on our health, but it doesn’t have to, and there’s another side of the story for some people under some conditions,” says Dr. Crum. “The body’s stress response was not designed to kill us; it was designed to boost our body and mind into enhanced functioning, strengthen our immunity, and promote growth at the physiological level.”

Regarding enhanced performance, any athlete or stage actress can attest that the stress of succeeding can improve the quality of their performance. And any procrastinator will say that the pressure of a deadline can make them more productive. This “good” stress is called “eustress” since the effect of the stress is beneficial. 

“There is an implication that eustress is a moderate amount of stress, and when the stress becomes ‘too much,’ we go into distress. But I know many people who endure incredible amounts of stress in their lives, and they become stronger for it,” says Dr. Crum. “So rather than putting our energies into figuring out ways to reduce or manage our stress, I believe it is more useful to transform the way we approach stress by changing our mindset.” 

Stress also has an immense impact on our learning and psychological growth. “When you go through stressful experiences, there’s a shattering of typical assumptions about life, and in the midst of that, as painful as it can be, are opportunities for learning, change, and discovery,” says Dr. Crum. “So, you can utilize the stressful experience to open your awareness to growth, insight, and wisdom that would not have been there if it weren’t for the stress in the first place.” 

How to Change from a “Stress is Debilitating” to a “Stress is Enhancing” Mindset?

In the free, online course, “ReThinking Stress”, Dr. Crum explains three steps to shift one’s mindset from SID to SIE. 

1. Acknowledge

When you start to feel stress in the body and mind, acknowledge it by saying, “I’m feeling stress.”

2. Welcome

Rather than resist the stress, we can welcome it because it reveals what is important to us. For example, when tension arises, we can ask ourselves, “Why am I stressed?” For instance, if you feel stress when your child isn’t doing well in school, this reveals that you care about your child’s success.  We can use the stressor to help us identify what we value and what brings meaning in our lives—this alone has a beneficial effect on the immune system, according to Dr. Crum.

In the Welcome step, we may also recognize that our typical emotional response may not serve us in getting what we value. For example, if your usual reaction is frustration toward your child when they bring home a poor grade on a test, this may not be the most effective way to motivate your child to improve their performance.

3. Utilize

Instead of our typical emotional response, Dr. Crum invites us to ask ourselves, “How can we utilize the energy from the stressful situation to help us reach our goals?”

With an SIE mindset, we are more likely to channel the physiological stress response, which includes an increase in energy, narrowed focus, and heightened attention in a useful way. For example, rather than reacting with frustration, we can redirect this increased energy and focus to finding solutions to the problems your child is having at school.

Whenever a stressful situation arises, Dr. Crum recommends implementing the Acknowledge, Welcome, and Utilize steps. She also recommends taking the “Rethinking Stress training”, which aims to utilize the power of our mindset to convert the stress we already have into something beneficial. Dr. Crum recommends that we take the course multiple times until the SIE mindset is established and becomes our default perspective on stress in our lives.

 

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The Unexpected Health Benefits of Forest Bathing

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By Vedika Patani and Carly Smith, BS, MPH(c)

This blog is part of the Stress Management newsletter. If you like this content, sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter!

Many people know that hiking in nature can help reduce stress and anxiety. But not everyone knows that forest bathing is a way to take the therapeutic effects of a scenic walk to the next level. While hiking is a great way to get outdoors and exercise, forest bathing is a practice of being calm and quiet among trees and being present with our natural surroundings.

“Both hiking and forest bathing harness the power of nature to offer a wide range of benefits for our physical and mental wellbeing,” says Rusly Harsono, MD, head of Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Social Engagement and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Stanford School of Medicine. “Hiking provides an outdoor activity that activates our nervous system for greater physical health, whereas forest bathing calms our nervous system and improves our emotional wellbeing, which is equally important to physical health.”

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What is Forest Bathing?

Forest bathing, or Shinrin Yoku, originated in Japan in the 1980s and involves taking deep breaths and experiencing the forest with full presence. Contrary to hiking, where the mind can still ruminate about work or challenging relationships, forest bathing is a mindfulness practice in that it brings the mind into the present moment by taking in the forest with all five senses. For example, a forest bather would visually observe the colors of the leaves and stop to notice the sun’s rays through the trees. They might close their eyes and take in a deep breath through the nose to capture the scent of pine. As they take a step, they may hear the crackling of a fallen leaf from under their shoe, and then pause to notice the sensation of the wind on their cheeks.

During the pandemic, forest bathing grew in popularity in the US as people searched for ways to calm their nervous system and connect outdoors while social distancing. But forest bathing is proving to be more than a lifestyle trend. Research is attributing this practice to numerous health benefits. 

Forest Bathing and Mental Health

While hiking focuses on the improvement of physical fitness, forest bathing fosters improved mental and emotional health. Some people who experience anxiety find that forest bathing calms their nervous system because their attention shifts from their worries to noticing the natural elements all around them—and these results are scientifically measurable.

Studies show that forest bathing can decrease the stress hormone cortisol. In one meta-analysis, researchers reviewed 971 articles and found that forest bathing effectively reduced serum and salivary cortisol levels, indicating its potential to reduce stress. 

Another meta-analysis reviewed studies where forest bathing was introduced to people living in urban environments, who generally have a higher risk of hypertension and psychological stress. Not only did the practice reduce their stress, but it also significantly lowered their blood pressure. 

“Forest bathing can be beneficial for everyone, but it is particularly advantageous for individuals living in urban environments,” says Dr. Harsono. “Urban dwellers typically experience higher stress levels, noise pollution, and reduced access to natural settings. Forest bathing provides them a valuable opportunity to escape these stressors and experience improved wellbeing through connection with nature.”

A Natural Immune Supporter

Forest bathing is not just important for improving wellbeing, but it may also improve one’s physical health. Studies have found that forest bathing could increase immune cell activity and aid in the expression of anti-cancer proteins. In one study, a group of 12 men aged 37-55 spent three days practicing forest bathing in three different forests. Afterward, the men showed a 50 percent increase in natural killer cells (which can kill tumor cells) and an increase in the anti-cancer proteins perforin, granzymes, and granulysin. 

Another research study showed that forest bathing improved immune function. When we inhale the oils released from trees (phytoncides), our cortisol levels decrease, and natural killer cell activity increases. These findings suggest forest bathing may have a preventive effect on cancer due to its ability to stimulate immune responses; however, more research needs to be conducted to better understand this phenomenon.

Forest Bathing Everywhere

One would think that forest bathing is only possible if you live in the country, however, this study showed that urban forest bathing (i.e. being mindful at a nearby park) still brought feelings of peacefulness to adolescents that live in metropolitan areas. This study observed the changes in the mental wellbeing of 44 adolescents before and after urban forest bathing. The results reported reduced anxiety, rumination, and skepticism, as well as increased feelings of social connectedness.

Lastly, landscape designers have taken note of the research supporting the healing effects of nature. At Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, patients and their families have access to gardens and outdoor spaces to stroll and mindfully take in the natural beauty.

“Lucile Salter Packard’s vision for the hospital was to nurture the body and soul of every child by creating a restorative environment by integrating nature and art,” says Dr. Harsono, Pediatrician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. “We frequently bring children to the hospital garden during their recovery to help them manage their treatment and discomfort. Research supports this idea of incorporating forest bathing experiences into the care of sick children to improve their health outcomes and overall quality of life.”

 

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How to Be Mindful When You’re Stressed Out

By Carly Smith, BS, MPH(c)

This blog is part of the Stress Management newsletter. If you like this content, sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter!

I first began practicing mindfulness during my third year at Stanford University. I remember feeling overwhelmed by every aspect of my life – school, work, life, etc. Even the idea of being stressed would further stress me out. With the help of various mentors dedicated to student mental health and well-being though, I learned how I could best practice mindfulness and feel more in control of my mind.  

Mindfulness is an internal practice in which one shifts their focus to what and how they are feeling without much interpretation or judgment. If you’re reading this, perhaps you have already crossed off the first step in the process: name your feeling. 

What Am I Even Feeling?

The power of naming one’s feelings has been studied thoroughly in neuroscience. It is estimated that most people will spend nearly half their lives letting their mind wander. This mind wandering sensation is actually the heightening of our brain’s default mode network (DMN), an evolutionary adaptation that keeps us alert and is often overactive in individuals that suffer from anxiety. Consciously shifting one’s focus to perform a task – like labeling your feeling – centers brain activity to the prefrontal cortex, effectively inactivating the DMN. Another study conducted at UCLA found that the simple act of naming one’s emotion shifts brain activity from the amygdala (a structure that registers danger and fear) to the prefrontal cortex (the center of reason and logical thinking). Neurological studies show that when we are in the present moment, the prefrontal cortex is active and the amygdala and DMN are inactive.

“Mindfulness has been my go-to practice to reduce stress for many years now,” says Sharon Brock, Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Program Manager and UCLA-certified Mindfulness Facilitator. “Oftentimes, just labeling my emotions is enough to bring me back into balance.”

Whenever I practice mindfulness, sometimes all I need to do is call out my emotions. For me, this is often equivalent to calling out to a friend walking down the street or when Hogwarts students figure out what their patronus is. It is relieving to focus on what is right in front of me. The aforementioned switch from our brain’s DMN into the present moment keeps me grounded and helps repair my mental floodgates before becoming overwhelmed.

Listen to the Label Practice by mindfulness teacher and author, Sharon Brock.

Feel It to Heal It

Strong emotions like stress, anger, love, etc. all tend to really let us know they are with us by also manifesting themselves physically. Like many people, stress feels like a stiff neck and a tight chest for me. Once I have taken a moment to label my stress, I can turn my attention to how it is affecting me. Recognizing these emotions can give a quick explanation to why I feel off kilter, and allow me to become more aware of my physical self. My emotions become something more tangible for me to understand and experience.  

“If you can experience your emotions as a sensation in the body, it creates some space between you and the emotion,” says Brock. “By observing the sensations, you realize what emotions actually are: energies in motion. We don’t have to take our emotions so personally, they are just energies constantly coming and going in our experience.”

This act of feeling your feelings is a mindfulness tool offered as an alternative to other responses we can take when emotions are high. Observing before responding also helps to center one’s attention and direct brain activity to a calmer region, just like naming the feelings. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program as a non-pharmacological treatment for anxiety. This program heavily incorporates the mindfulness technique to observe our physical feelings with guided breathwork, body scans, and mindful movements. Body scanning, in particular, increases one’s bodily awareness by paying attention to how different body parts feel in the moment. 

Listen to the Observe Practice by mindfulness teacher and author, Sharon Brock.

Tips for Self Compassion

The most impactful thing I learned from my mindfulness course is that practicing mindfulness for stress reduction also requires practicing self compassion. Self compassion is the offering of love and kindness to ourselves and our emotions. Doing the opposite, criticizing oneself for feeling certain emotions, reactivates the amygdala and reintroduces stress to the body and mind. Recent research conducted at the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience & Endocrinology demonstrated that guided self-compassion exercises helped to significantly lower cortisol (the primary stress hormone) levels and increase heart rate variability. Participants with greater tendencies of self-criticism benefited greatly from learning to offer themselves gentleness when experiencing strong emotions. These findings indicate that practicing mindful self compassion has a physiological soothing effect on the body. 

“Many of us have a harsh inner critic, so it might feel strange at first to be nice to yourself, but the research shows that offering ourselves kindness reduces our stress,” says Brock, UC San Diego-certified Mindful Self-Compassion instructor. 

I used to believe that being my harshest critic was what guided my academic success. Not only was this method unsustainable, but it was often doing more harm than good. When we accept that emotions are transient and natural experiences, we do not need to judge ourselves for having them. In fact, we can offer ourselves compassion. For me, learning to offer myself self compassion was the mindfulness lesson that required the most practice. However, it has become a necessary aspect of my everyday life and has given me a reliable stress-management technique to keep in my mental toolbox forever.

Listen to the Self-Compassion Practice by mindfulness teacher and author, Sharon Brock.

 

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How Yoga Affects the Brain and Body to Reduce Stress

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By Vanika Chawla, MD, Stanford Psychiatrist

This blog is part of the Stress Management newsletter. If you like this content, sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter!

As a clinician at the Stanford Lifestyle Psychiatry clinic, I consider the impact of lifestyle factors such as sleep, nutrition, exercise, and mind-body practices such as yoga on my patients’ mental health and integrate these modalities into my treatment plans. I especially have a clinical and research interest in the therapeutic use of yoga as a lifestyle intervention. Yoga has been instrumental in my own wellbeing, therefore I am passionate about sharing the practice as a holistic intervention that promotes wellbeing in the body, mind, and spirit.

I was first immersed in yoga when I completed my 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2010, prior to medical school. I discovered that yoga was much more than physical postures – yoga is an integrative and holistic system of practices that aims to alleviate suffering. 

There are many different lineages and traditions of yoga, each emphasizing various components of the practice, including postures, breathwork, meditation, lifestyle, ethics and values, and recognizing our interconnectedness. There is a famous aphorism that captures the essence of yoga: yogas chitta vritti nirodhah. This Sanskrit phrase translates to, “Yoga is the calming of mental fluctuations or storms of the mind.” Thus, it was no surprise that on my journey to become a psychiatrist, I noticed parallels between yoga and psychiatry, including yoga’s therapeutic potential in addressing unmet needs in our current mental health care treatment models. 

On a personal note, my yoga practice provided me with a set of tools to manage the stresses and rigors of medical training, whether it was cultivating new perspectives when faced with challenges or practicing breathwork before a big exam to help with stress. 

How Yoga Improves Mental Health

While yoga is an ancient practice originating in India, it has only recently been applied for therapeutic purposes, and thus, the clinical evidence is in its early stages. There are many possible mechanisms for how yoga may improve mental health and counteract stress. One well-accepted mechanism is that yoga helps regulate the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA), both of which are stress response systems. While stress is an inevitable and necessary part of life, prolonged and chronic stress can lead to dysfunction in these systems, potential negative physiological and physical consequences, and can even contribute to the development of mental health disorders. 

Yoga is proposed to exert its benefits through top-down and bottom-up processes facilitating bi-directional communication between the brain and body. Top-down mechanisms are conscious and intentional inputs from the brain to the body, such as setting an intention to relax. Bottom-up processes are inputs from the body to the brain, where signals travel from the muscles, heart, lungs, and other systems to different parts of the brain. Practices like yoga postures and breathing can change the signals that are carried to our brain, such as assessments of our sense of safety and wellbeing. Through top-down and bottom-up pathways, yoga can counteract the “fight, flight, or freeze” responses that may persistently arise in the face of stress. Accordingly, yoga has been shown to confer several changes in physiological markers implicated in stress, including cortisol, inflammatory cytokines, heart rate variability, as well as the release of neurotransmitters, such as GABA. 

The Neuroscience of Yoga

In addition, there is evidence of changes in both brain structure and function related to the practice of yoga. These include changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, hippocampus, and default mode network (DMN). The PFC manages our highest-order cognitive abilities, such as decision-making and goal-setting. Stress and other strong emotions can negatively impact the abilities of the PFC. 

Research shows that regular yoga practice leads to increased activation of the PFC and thus may counteract deleterious effects of stress on the brain. Further, yoga impacts the activity of the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotions. Yoga may also increase the volume of the hippocampus, which is involved with memory and learning and is known to decrease in size with age. Finally, the DMN is involved in rumination and mind wandering, which may interfere with cognitive function and lead to decreased wellbeing. The DMN is implicated in many psychiatric disorders, such as depression and ADHD, and yoga has been shown to modulate the activity of the DMN. 

While yoga cannot change our external stressors, it can allow us to respond rather than react to stress. Yoga can counteract the harmful physical effects of stress and lead to changes in the body, brain, and mind that increase resilience and adaptability. 

Tips for People New to Yoga

From Kundalini to Vinyasa flow, there are many different types of yoga, so I recommend those new to yoga try different styles and see which practice aligns with their needs and feels safe and supportive. I suggest taking classes from credentialed teachers (with a minimum of RYT-200 hr training) who offer modifications and adaptations. There are resources like Yoga-X online classes, which provide holistic yoga practices at no cost. If you are seeking yoga for a specific health or therapeutic purpose, then community classes may have limitations. You may instead look for therapeutic yoga classes or yoga therapy in conjunction with support and consultation from your healthcare provider.

 

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Dr. Vanika Chawla’s Journey to Enhancing Mental Health with Yoga

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By Maya Shetty, BS

This blog is part of the Stress Management newsletter. If you like this content, sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter!

Vanika Chawla, MD, FRCPC, a psychiatrist, registered yoga teacher, and member of the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Cognitive Enhancement pillar, has dedicated her career to improving mental health treatment through innovative and holistic approaches. Her distinctive background, combining both yoga and Psychiatry, offers a unique perspective on the potential of accessible stress management interventions.

“I view yoga as a novel lens for approaching mental health – one that can concurrently complement our existing treatment models and empower providers and patients to expand their therapeutic toolbox,” says Dr. Chawla.

Dr. Chawla works alongside Douglas Noordsy, MD, Assistant Director of Stanford Lifestyle Medicine, at Stanford Medicine’s Lifestyle Psychiatry Clinic. Leveraging her unique blend of medical and yoga expertise, she focuses on innovative approaches to psychiatric care that incorporate lifestyle changes and holistic interventions into her patients’ treatment plans. In addition to her clinical work, she is actively engaged in a 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training program offered through Stanford Yoga-X, which focuses on integrating yoga into health care in an evidence-based yet holistic manner.

“I am so happy to be at Stanford because they are thinking outside the box in terms of how we can support people and enhance their mental health,” says Dr. Chawla. “It’s really cool that I found a place to work that allows me to integrate my lifelong interests in yoga and healthcare.”

Dr. Chawla’s research interests are also centered around yoga as an intervention in mental health. “Yoga is definitely a big research area that has made a lot of progress in recent years, however, significant gaps remain in the current literature,” she says. “Future research is needed to deepen our comprehension of the intricate mechanisms of how yoga affects the brain and body.”

In residency, she was involved in research projects focused on using yoga to address anxiety in children. In 2022, she was one of two recipients of the inaugural Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Seed Grants, securing a $10,000 grant to further her research in the field of Lifestyle Medicine. The project, titled ACTIVATE, seeks to create a digital tool that helps individuals with mental health disorders and make positive lifestyle changes to enhance their psychological and physical well-being.

Originally from Peterborough, Canada, Dr. Chawla completed her undergraduate studies in health sciences at McMaster University in Ontario. Here, she began exploring her interests in the mental health field. Her journey took a pivotal turn during a volunteer trip to India that exposed her to yoga as a cultural practice. This encounter sparked her fascination with the practice, leading Dr. Chawla to complete her 200-hour registered yoga teacher training the following year.

“There is so much more to yoga practice than most people realize. There is such a big psychological and social component,” says Dr. Chawla. “It’s not just the postures. There’s breathing, meditation, ethics, values, connection, and community. It’s such a broad, diverse practice and I was really blown away by that.”

She pursued her medical degree at the University of Calgary and her psychiatry residency at the University of Toronto. During her residency training, she observed parallels between psychiatry, psychology, and yoga. “I began to see how yoga could address many unmet needs in our current mental health care models, bridging gaps where medications and psychotherapy may fall short,” says Dr. Chawla. 

These interests led her to Stanford University, where she found many opportunities in the realm of lifestyle medicine and mental health. 

Looking ahead, Dr. Chawla plans to continue exploring innovative ways to improve mental health interventions through research and medical practice, including best practices for incorporating yoga into clinical care. Her vision includes working with marginalized populations, delivering culturally-informed and trauma-informed care, and ensuring that these interventions are accessible to all. To reach these goals, she plans to continue the development of digital applications like ACTIVATE to reach a broader audience.

“Yoga is a comprehensive system that includes a lot of different practices: movement, breathwork, meditation, community, and more,” says Dr. Chawla. “Because of this, it can be tailored and adapted to what people need, to help people of all backgrounds manage their stress through avenues that work best for them.”

 

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