[1 minute self-development]
It's been a busy week. I've been in California, Cyprus and er, Croydon. You might almost call it jetset, except my in-flight meals have been more M&Ms on Easyjet than caviar in British Airways Upper Class. (I prefer M&Ms anyway).
With all the travel and different time zones (GMT -7, GMT plus 1, GMT plus 3), this week has been the perfect time to road-test a sleep 'device'. Author Tim Ferriss is a big fan of using a humidifier while you sleep. He recommends the Air-O-Swiss (around £40 on Amazon), and says:
"it improves both time to sleep and depth of sleep, not to mention skin and sinus health."
Wow. Big claims. I'm always interested in trying something new in the quest for even better shut-eye. By far the most popular chapter of my book Relax in a minute has been the one on sleep. I must have had ten queries on that chapter for every one that I receive for anything else. My techniques are mostly 'in the head', but I was super-excited to try this.
So I plugged it in on my first night in L.A., full of hope that I would sleep deeper than ever before.
The first thing to say, is it really is quite a nifty little device - like your own personal mini dry ice machine. Unfortunately it has a bright blue light, which is very pretty but isn't very sleep-inducing. But it's nothing a propped-up book couldn't shield. It also does hum a bit, like someone's left a fan on in other room. I quite like that - but you might not.
But does it work? Let's test the claims.
- Improves time to sleep? Not convinced. I have been dropping off quickly, but then I normally do.
- Improves depth of sleep? Yes - very possibly. I haven't suffered any jetlag this week, despite the crazy time-zone hopping. Was it the strange blue stream of mist whirring through the night? Possibly.
- Improves skin health? Not sure. Ferriss says it "dramatically reduces facial wrinkles", however I've just looked in the mirror, and things look pretty much the same.
- Improves sinus health? Yes I think so. I felt very blocked up after 10 hours of air conditioning on the LHR-LAX flight. But the next morning was breathing freely and felt absolutely great again.
Verdict: If you have a spare 40 quid and fancy trying something new in your quest for better sleep, definitely give it a go. If you genuinely find sleep a struggle, you may want to take proper action to sleep longer and deeper once and for all.
What do you think? Would you use it? Let me know here.
And I think next time I fly, I'll have a humidifier in my hand luggage alongside the family sized pack of M&Ms.
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