16 Hacks for Better Sleep (Part 2 of 2)
To be completely transparent, I’ve struggled with sleep for as long as I can remember. It usually takes me forever to fall asleep. I could never nap as a kid and I still can’t. My sleep schedule is certainly not consistent. A part of me feels like I shouldn’t be giving sleep advice since my sleep isn’t perfect. However, it is precisely because I have experienced poor sleep that motivates me to find solutions for better sleep for all of us.
First of all, why should you care about getting high quality and a sufficient quantity of sleep?
After all, if you’re chronically sleep deprived it’s easy to underestimate how much lack of sleep affects you. Ignorance is bliss right? Right? Well…maybe not.
The short answer: Sleep impacts quite literally every system and cell of the body. Lack of sleep is associated with increasing your risk of:
A heart attack and/or stroke
Blood sugar dysregulation and type 2 diabetes
Decreased markers of fertility
Lowered immune system activity
Gene dysregulation
Decreased attention span
Increased emotional reactivity
And poor mental health just to name a few
Even the Guinness Book of World Records will no longer recognize records for sleep deprivation because it is considered that dangerous!
The Long Answer: Click Here for More Details
So without further ado, here are 16 hacks you can use to improve your sleep and the whole sleep-wake cycle. It’s probably not realistic for most of us to implement all of these new habits at once but try adding one or two to your routine and experiment with how it impacts your sleep! A key aspect to note is that that many of these may not be quick fixes, one-and-done your sleep is fixed. It may take making these habits before you truly feel a difference.
Morning and Afternoon Habits
1. View Direct Sunlight in the Morning Within 30-60 mins of Waking Up
The yellow/blue light of morning sunlight increases wakefulness by resetting our circadian rhythm.
Special neurons in the eye are very sensitive to sunlight and they signal to your suprachiasmatic nucleus in the brain to reset the circadian rhythm to a 24 hour cycle. This prevents a drift to a later bedtime since the human circadian rhythm is naturally slightly longer than 24 hours.
Sunlight helps trigger a cortisol peak early in the day which promotes wakefulness. A cortisol peak later in the day can also make it more difficult to fall asleep at night.
Sunlight helps clear out any lingering adenosine, diminishes melatonin, and sets a sleep timer for you to fall asleep about 16 hours later.
Get direct sunlight by looking towards the sun NOT directly at it. This practice should not hurt your eyes. Avoid wearing sunglasses or a hat but do wear your prescription glasses. Looking at light through a window is not sufficient as it filters too much light.
Artificial light is not the same as outdoor lighting. The average home indoor lighting is usually around 150 lux whereas outdoors on a sunny day often reaches 10,000 lux or more.
If you can’t access morning light or wake up before the sun, using a very bright artificial light, such as a ring light or light therapy lamp, are beneficial and are better than no morning light at all!
According to neuroscientist Andrew Huberman PhD, only 5 mins of sun is needed on a sunny day, 10 mins on a cloudy day, and 20-30 mins on a very cloudy day. Of course some sunlight is better than no sunlight if you don’t have time.
2. Time your Caffeine Intake to Optimize Sleep
Normally, the neurotransmitter adenosine slowly accumulates in your brain throughout the day, increasing your desire for sleep as the day goes on.
Caffeine works by blocking the receptor sites for adenosine in your brain, thus, your brain does not receive the “sleep signals” it normally would from adenosine.
Although caffeine levels reach their height about 30 mins after you consume caffeine, it’s half-life is approximately 5-7 hours. Therefore, if you drink a cup of coffee at 4pm, you’ll still have half the caffeine left in your body at 9-11pm which is blocking the sleep signals from adenosine.
Caffeine is metabolized and cleared from the body by a liver enzyme. Some people have a fast-acting enzyme while others have a less efficient version. This explains why you might be wide awake at midnight after ingesting caffeine at 3pm while your friend can call asleep at midnight after ingesting caffeine at 8pm.
Once the liver enzyme rids your body of caffeine, you may experience a caffeine crash as your brain receives an onslaught of sleep signals from adenosine which can now dock to their receptors that are no longer blocked by caffeine.
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman PhD recommends avoiding caffeine 8-10 hours before you plan to fall asleep, while sleep scientist Matthew Walker PhD recommends avoiding caffeine 12-14 hours before bedtime. Play around with the timing that feels best for you.
Some sleep experts also recommend waiting to ingest caffeine 90-120 mins after waking up because this is thought to help avoid the afternoon crash.
I love a good cup of coffee as much as the next person so I know altering our coffee consumption can be really difficult. However, if you’re looking to improve your sleep, consider experimenting with the timing and amount you consume and pay attention to how it affects your sleep. This is something I’m still figuring out for my own body.
3. Take a Cold Shower in the Morning
A cold shower increases your core body temperature as a compensatory mechanism.
Having an increased core temperature in the morning wakes you up, promotes the release of a cortisol, the time of day you actually want cortisol to increase. You don’t want cortisol to be chronically high but you do want cortisol to peak in the morning.
It also causes you to release adrenaline and dopamine both of which help you wake up.
4. Movement in the Morning can Increase Core Body Temperature
Movement increases core body temperature which in turn increases wakefulness.
This could look like a morning workout but it also could be a walk around the block (also getting your morning sunlight!) or another form of gentle movement.
Intense exercise late in the day can delay when your body wants to fall asleep. While I’m not saying you have to exercise in the morning, I do encourage you to avoid exercising right before you want to fall asleep by about 2-3 hours. It may take some trial and error to figure out exactly how close to bedtime is too close to exercise without disrupting your sleep.
Evening Habits
5. View Sunlight in the Late Afternoon/Evening
Watching the sunset or viewing low solar angle sunlight reminds your brain where in the circadian rhythm you are at and communicates to your brain that sleep is coming soon.
Light at the end of the day contains more yellow, red, and orange light than the morning which does not have the same wakefulness promoting effect that morning sunlight has.
It protects you from some of the harmful effects of artificial light after dark. If you know you’re going to watch a movie at night for example, watch the sunset before.
6. Avoid Bright Artificial Light
Unlike in the morning where you need a lot of light to wake you up, at night only a little bit of light can disrupt your ability to fall asleep.
Use dim light, low to the ground, lamps, avoid overhead lights.
Darkness promotes melatonin release.
Use the least amount of light to be able to do what you need to do safely.
10pm-4am is the most important time to avoid bright artificial light.
7. Avoid Blue Light Before Bed
Try reading or other screen free activities before bed instead of scrolling.
Use blue light glasses and screen filters if you’re going to look at screens at night, especially a couple hours before you’re planning to go to bed.
If you want to take it a step further you can install lightbulbs that automatically change to a low red hue at a set time or use red lightbulbs in your room.
Lighting candles, which are only 3-10 lux, instead of artificial light can be a fun way to get cozy and elevate the atmosphere, though be careful with the flame of course!
Personally, I’ve noticed I always get sleepy earlier in the night when I’m camping compared to when at home and I’m willing to bet being exposed to the campfire light instead of artificial light is a contributing factor!
You could wear sunglasses if you’re going into a store at night with bright fluorescent lights.
8. Cool Down your Core Body Temperature
A hot bath or warm shower for less than 20-30 mins will cause a compensatory mechanism of cooling down your core body temperature.
A cooler core body temperature promotes sleep.
9. Keep your Bedroom Cool
Use layered blankets you can easily remove if needed.
Try decreasing the bedroom temperature by about 3 degrees if possible.
Ideal sleeping temperature is considered to be 60-68°F
Place the blankets in ways that your hands or feet can poke out as needed. The palms of the hand and soles of the feet have special blood connections that allow us to reduce heat more easily from them than from other parts of our bodies.
10. Sleep in a Dark Bedroom
Our eyes and brain are very sensitive to light at night which can easily distract us from sleep.
Growing up I never used curtains and I never felt like it impacted my sleep. However, after using blackout curtains when I worked nightshift, I noticed that keeping a room darker is definitely less distracting for sleep. I find myself easily distracted by street lights outside my room and it’s easier for me to fall asleep in places with less light pollution.
11. Develop a Consistent Sleep Schedule
I know, I know, this can be sooo hard! To be fully transparent I don’t think I’ve ever had a completely consistent sleep schedule including the weekends.
However, keeping consistent (within about 1 hour) sleep and wake times can improve your quality and quantity of sleep because it helps maintain our circadian rhythm.
Inconsistent sleep times is linked to cardiovascular risks including higher rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
12. Create an Evening Ritual that Promotes Relaxation
A relaxing bedtime ritual can help calm down your brain and body, making it easier to fall asleep.
This will look different for everyone and it doesn’t have to take up a ton of time.
Some example activities include: reading, listening to calming music, yoga or gentle stretching, turning down the lights, lighting a candle, sipping a mug of warm tea, meditating, journaling, taking a hot bath or shower, listening to yoga nidra or a non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) guided meditation, etc.
Include habits you might already do to care for yourself such as brushing your teeth, flossing, washing your face, applying lotion, etc.
Unplug from any electric devices when possible.
13. Go to bed when you first feel sleepy and don't stay in bed awake
You might feel extra alert about 1 hour before you go to bed, that is normal.
Once you feel sleepy though, listen to your body.
If you lay in bed for more than about 20 mins and aren’t feeling sleepy or are feeling anxiety about being able to fall asleep it can be helpful to get up and do something relaxing (not looking at a screen) until you do feel sleepy.
14. Avoid alcohol before bed
Alcohol disrupts sleep despite popular opinion that it helps you sleep.
It lowers your quality of sleep because it prevents REM sleep. Therefore you only stay in the light stages of sleep.
People often wake up in the middle of the night when the sedation effect of alcohol wears off.
15. Hold still
This tip has no peer-reviewed study backing it up, only my own anecdotal experience so take this as you will. I also cannot take credit for this tip, that goes to my partner Garrett who suggested this.
However, when I am having trouble falling asleep I often find myself very restless in bed, constantly shifting positions. Garrett suggested I stay completely still for one full minute so see if that would help me calm down. And as much I resisted laying completely still, it actually worked!
Even though I often resist holding still, I usually feel much calmer and sleepier when I consciously resist any motor movement (including scratching any bug bites!) for approximately 1 minute. No need to time it exactly, I just count in my head to around 1 minute and then often stay still for longer than that because I have no desire to move. Or turn it into a game to see how long you can hold still!
16. Magnesium
Magnesium is thought to stimulate your own natural release of melatonin which promotes sleep. It may also play a role in alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Foods high in magnesium include dark leafy greens, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
However, due to conventional agricultural methods our soil is depleted in magnesium, causing many of our foods to contain less magnesium than they did historically. It is unknown exactly how many Americans are magnesium deficient but the general consensus is that probably over half of us are.
Please speak with your doctor/healthcare provider before starting magnesium supplementation.
According to one small study of older adults, magnesium supplementation was associated with a statistically significant increase in how long participants slept and blood levels of melatonin and a decrease in subjective insomnia scores and blood levels of cortisol (Abbasi et al., 2012).
Early research suggests that magnesium threonate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium taurate are the most beneficial forms of magnesium for sleep though more research is needed. It may take some experimentation to figure out which form of magnesium works best for you. Anecdotally, I notice subjective improvements in my sleep when I take magnesium threonate and I only take half the recommended dose. I also tend to have more vivid dreams when taking it.
In our fast-paced society with ever increasing demands on our time, it’s easy to prioritize everything but sleep. However, the research is clear that sleep is a key pillar of all our health. Our cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and nervous systems as well as our mental and emotional wellbeing is improved with adequate sleep. One of the most concerning aspects about lack of sleep is how easily our bodies adapt and normalize lack of sleep. Thus we underestimate our sleep deprivation and how much that impacts our functioning.
My challenge to both you and myself is to prioritize our sleep and hopefully in the process discover how much better we feel.
What helps or hinders your sleep? What do you do to prioritize sleep? What differences in yourself do you notice when you are well rested?
Sources
Abbasi, B., Kimiagar, M., Sadeghniiat, K., Shirazi, M. M., Hedayati, M., & Rashidkhani, B. (2012). The effect of magnesium supplementation on primary insomnia in elderly: A double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Journal of research in medical sciences: the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 17(12), 1161–1169.
Blum, D. (2023, February 27). How a consistent sleep schedule might protect your heart. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/15/well/mind/sleep-schedule-heart-health.html
Curtis, L. (2023, June 27). Which types of magnesium are good for sleep? Verywell Health. https://www.verywellhealth.com/magnesium-for-sleep-7501514
Huberman, A. (2021). Toolkit for sleep. Huberman Lab. https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/toolkit-for-sleep
Huberman, A. (Host). (2022, August 8). Sleep toolkit: Tools for optimizing sleep & sleep-wake timing. (No. 84). [Audio podcast episode]. In Huberman Lab. Scicomm Media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2aWYjSA1Jc
te Kulve, M., Schlangen, L.J.M., & van Marken Lichtenbelt, W.D. (2019). Early evening light mitigates sleep compromising physiological and alerting responses to subsequent late evening light. Scientific Reports 9, 16064 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52352-w
Walker, M. (2017). Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. Simon & Schuster, Inc.
