8 Tips to Sleep Better
How does it feel when you get a poor night’s sleep or you don’t get to sleep very much? Not too great, right? Clearly, inadequate sleep can have some serious implications on our well-being. For the remainder of this article, we’ll discuss how important sleep is for you and simple steps you can take to improve the quality of your sleep.
First off, what does good sleep look like?
The purpose of this article is to outline why good sleep is important, how inadequate sleep can hold you back, and how we can improve our sleep. However, it’s difficult to do that if we don’t have a clear picture of what good sleep looks like. To illustrate this, I’ll outline a few habits that are characteristic of a healthy sleep pattern:
1) Getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night
2) Going to bed & waking up at the same time every day [3]
3) Sleeping consistently throughout the night (not waking up to use the bathroom, etc.)
How bad is inadequate sleep?
The quality of our sleep can bleed into everything else we do in a day. As we said before, this likely isn’t too much of a surprise. When you don’t sleep good one night, all you can think about is getting to sleep the next night. So, here are some of the things you can expect when you are consistently sleeping poorly:
1) Decreased strength [1,2]
2) Decreased endurance [2]
3) Decreased cognitive function [5]
4) Increased symptoms of anxiety [4]
5) Increased stress [6]
The truth is, I can go on-and-on with this list. It would honestly be more difficult to find some aspect of our well-being that inadequate sleep doesn’t negatively affect. What I hope this drives home is that consistent inadequate sleep can be one of the most detrimental things to our fitness and well-being. Similarly, fixing the issue of inadequate sleep can be one of the highest return-on-investment actions we take.
Another point I want to make is that these symptoms are largely a result of consistently sleeping poorly. Even if you nail every aspect of a good sleep routine, there will be nights where you don’t sleep so well, and that is okay. In fact, it is inevitable. I am even writing this with a stiff neck from sleeping in a weird position last night. So, if you are trying to get your sleep habits in order and experience a night of inadequate sleep, don’t beat yourself up. It probably won’t be the last time it happens.
So, how can we improve our sleep?
There are multiple things that can be done to improve the quality of our sleep. If you want to improve the quality of your sleep routine, I suggest picking one of the following tips at a time and implementing it rather than trying to use all tips at once. Doing one at a time can be an easier strategy to stick to, and trying all of these won’t do you much good if you aren’t consistent. So, here’s what I suggest:
1) Work to get 7-9 hours per night, and shoot for at least 8 hours of sleep opportunity
I know, this is probably the one you want to hear the least. However, it’s the most important to get down. Based on the research, it seems best to first focus on quantity and then focus on quality when it comes to sleep.
You also might notice I advised you to shoot for 8 hours of sleep opportunity each night. This means there’s at least 8 hours between when your eyes close for the night and when your first alarm goes off the next morning. Although it’d be nice, chances are you don’t fall asleep as soon as you close your eyes. Sometimes you might knock out quickly, while other nights it might take a while to finally fall asleep. Most of the time, it will be well less than an hour to do so. So, if you give yourself 8 hours of sleep opportunity, then odds are you will at least sleep 7 hours; which was the lower end of our target range.
2) Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day
Again, this is a concept that tends to be not-so-popular. However, it makes a big difference. Your body’s sleep/wake cycle is called your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm likes routine. If you practice this long enough, then your body will know what time of day to get sleepy, and falling asleep will be easier. Similarly, it will know what time to wake up, and getting out of bed will be easier. In fact, one of the tenants of inadequate sleep is an irregular schedule [3], and this poses a more difficult challenge for individuals who work irregular shifts (such as night shifts).
3) Make the room as dark as possible
As you may know, melatonin is one of the hormones regulates your sleep schedule and promotes drowsiness. The more melatonin production from your pineal gland, the sleepier you get. Well, the absence of light hitting your eyes signals your body to ramp up melatonin production. It’s one of the hallmarks of being diurnal animals (the opposite of nocturnal).
There are a couple ways to back your room darker than just plain turning the lights off. The cheap version is to get an eye cover for when you sleep. A more expensive version is to get black out blinds for the windows in your room.
I do want to note that this can be a double-edged sword. If your room is very dark, then waking up in the morning will likely also become more difficult. For this reason, I would personally recommend an eye cover over black out blinds. I say this because it is easier to take off an eye cover and then be exposed to a brighter environment than it is to open all the blinds in your room.
4) Limit screen time on your phone before bed time
It’s no secret that screen time on our phones has significantly increased over the years. This increase in screen time can have some detrimental effects on our sleep. As we just discussed, melatonin production is decreased when we are exposed to light and increased when our eyes are exposed to less light. This cycle of melatonin production is one of the things that regulates our circadian rhythm. Well, the screens on our phones can mimic the signal to decrease production of melatonin, and therefore basically confuse our body’s sleep/wake cycle.
5) Get outside and see the sunlight in the morning and throughout the day
Something you might notice is that our goal here is to optimize the whole cycle, not just the sleeping part. Remember, when our eyes are exposed to light (especially daylight), melatonin production is decreased. If our melatonin production is intentionally decreased during the day, then it will be naturally increased come night time.
6) Stop drinking caffeine 6-10 hours before you plan to fall asleep
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t do well without coffee or caffeine, and I surely like my afternoon coffee to keep me going. I’m sure many of you reading this can relate. However, can a point come where it is too late to consume caffeine?
Well, the half-life of caffeine is 5-6 hours in most people [8] and therefore the major effects of caffeine will also last 5-6 hours. So, it’s best to stop drinking coffee or caffeine a minimum of 6 hours before you plan to be asleep.
However, there exists genetic differences in how people metabolize caffeine. In some, the half-life might be less than 6 hours. In others, it can be up to 10 hours.
So, the best plan of action for you is to experiment with different stopping times. Spend a week stopping at various durations before bed, and take note of how you feel with each one.
7) Stop drinking water 30-45 minutes before going to bed
For a complete and sufficient night’s rest, you need to be able to sleep through the night. If you drink a bunch of water before you fall asleep, it’s likely you’ll wake up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom (although, I would prefer this than wetting the bed). So, I suggest you stop drinking water 30-45 minutes before you lay in bed.
*Bonus tip: keep a glass of water next to your bed for when you wake up. You are more dehydrated than normal when you wake up, which is expected since you just went 7-9 hours without drinking anything. Starting your day with water before you have your first coffee can have a big impact on how you feel.
8) Consider taking a supplement for extra help
I put this point last because I think it’s more worthwhile focusing on the first 7 tips before introducing supplements. However, sometimes a supplement can be truly helpful. For example, say you travelled through a few time zones and are now 3 hours later in the day. Chances are you’re going to have a difficult time falling asleep, and a good supplement can help you get back on track. Or, perhaps you just want that little extra boost of sleep quality.
If you fit this bill, I recommend OutWork Nutrition’s SLEEP formula. It comes with a low dose of melatonin (2 mg) to induce drowsiness but not enough to interfere with your body’s natural production. Also, it has L-theanine and saffron extract to induce relaxation and improve mood upon waking.
References
Inadequate sleep and muscle strength: Implications for resistance training
PubMed ID: 29422383
Sleep duration and physical performance during a 6-week military training course
PubMed ID: 34031933
Metabolic consequences of sleep and circadian disorders
PubMed ID: 24816752
Effects of acute sleep deprivation on state anxiety levels: a systematic review and meta-analysis
PubMed ID: 27810176
Effects of sleep deprivation on cognition
PubMed ID: 21075236
Sleep Deprivation and Circadian Disruption: Stress, Allostasis, and Allostatic Load
PubMed ID: 26055668
Ocular and systemic melatonin and the influence of light exposure
PubMed ID: 30074278
Cardiovascular effects of coffee and caffeine
PubMed ID: 6702647
GABA and l-theanine mixture decreases sleep latency and improves NREM sleep
PubMed ID: 30707852
