The real reason you have trouble sleeping on the first night of a holiday
If you have ever had trouble sleeping on the first night of a cruise or any holiday, you are not alone.
In fact, this experience is so common that it has been dubbed as “the first-night effect”.
According to a new study from Brown University, the reason people have trouble sleeping the first night while away on holidays is because half of your brain is keeping tabs on your safety.
The findings published in Current Biology were discovered by using advanced neuroimaging to observe subjects’ brains while sleeping. The researchers found that instead of both sides of the brain resting, the left side was more active, responding to the sounds around it.
So, how do you beat having a disturbed sleep on your first night of holidays?
Lead study author, Yuka Sasaki suggests travelling more to overcome “the first-night effect”.
“Human's brains are very flexible,” Sasaki said in a statement. “Thus, people who often are in new places may not necessarily have poor sleep on a regular basis.”
Sasaki also suggested that people might be able to beat the effect by bringing their own pillow while they travel and staying in places with similar accommodations (e.g. the same chain).
Do you have trouble sleeping on the first night of a holiday? Let us know in the comments below.