How to improve the regularity and quality of sleep.
Actionable steps
A clear and concise summary of what to do to improve sleep
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Keep regular sleep schedule
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Sleep enough (personal. but7-9 hours for adults) hours every night
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Don’t read/watch in bed
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Create sleeping ritual
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Getting light in your eyes in the morning, and avoid it at night
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Not sneezing alarm
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Cold shower/exercise/both in the morning
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Hot shower and cold room in the evening
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Not eating nor exercising in the evening
Notes about Sleep
- Recommended amount of sleep is 7-9 hours a day
- You can’t get back the sleep lost during the week by oversleeping on the weekends
- Alarm clocks are very stressful to your nervous system
- Because of that putting off the alarm and having more than one go of each day is detrimental to our health
- The natural clock telling our organisms when to go to sleep and when to wake up is called circadian clock or circadian rhythm
- By creating the predictability in the factors connected to sleep we set up autonomic timing in our organisms that will make us more naturally sleep and wake up at appropriate times
- Alcohol and Marijuana make people fall asleep faster, but they simultaneously ruin the sleep architecture - you get less sleep out of your sleep
Tools to Improve Sleep
There are several important tools that we can leverage to regulate our circadian rhythms and optimize both our sleep and wakefulness
Light and Darkness
During the day light (especially sunlight) sends signals regulating our circadian rhythm through our eyes, and bright overhead light makes us more awake.
Sunlight works best because it’s much brighter than usual artificial lights.
At night however any light, even not very bright can significantly wake us up and disrupt our sleep.
Temperature
To fall asleep our body temperature needs to fall by 1 to 3 degrees, and correspondingly it needs to rise back by 1 to 3 degrees for us to wake up.
Food
When we eat at regular times it is another signal on which our systems can base the natural clock, and increased metabolism brings up our body temperature.
Exercise
It heightens our core temperature and releases adrenaline and dopamine into our systems which all makes us more awake and alert.
Caffeine
Prevents Adenosine(organic compound responsible for making us sleepy) from working by occupying certain receptors in our organisms.
Makes us more awake, but also can cause a drop in energy after it’s effects are over. It takes 8 - 10 hours to get it out of your system
Supplements
Additional supplementation can be helpful if we use all the behavioural tools, and still have trouble falling or staying asleep.
It should be taken after consulting a physician
Supplements for improving sleep:
- Manesium threonate
- Apigeninge
- Theanine
Digital Tools
Tools like guided meditation and sleep hypnosis can help us fall asleep or calm down and get ready for sleeping.
Three Critical Periods
There are three critical periods in a day that during which we should use different tools to get the most of our sleep. The periods are:
Critical Period One
3-4 hours after waking up
Light
It’s beneficial to reach cortisol peak right after waking up, and we can stimulate that by getting bright light into our eyes in the 30 to 60 minutes after waking up.
The light should be brighter than standard artificial lights, and ideally sunlight. It will set off processes in our bodies, which will wake us up, help us reach the cortisol peak, and regulate the natural clock, making us naturally want to fall asleep about 16 hours later.
During the sunny days 5 minutes should be enough, when there’s cloud cover it should be increased to 10, and if it’s very dark and rainy even 20 to 30 minutes.
If there’s no sun at the time we wake up, we should still get as much light into our eyes as possible by using artificial lights. It works better if we have special lights which are brighter than standard. There are even lamps simulating sunlight.
If we miss the light viewing one day, we can make up for it by getting twice as much the next day (different to how sleep works!)
Temperature
Our body temperature rises by itself in the morning, but we can help it and make it rise quicker.
Method 1: Cold water
Taking a cold bath or a cold shower for 1 to 3 minutes will send signals to our system that it need to produce more heat. it also releases adrenaline and dopamine, making us more awake and motivated for the day.
Method 2: Exercise
Doing some exercise in the morning also increases our body temperature
Caffeine
Ingesting caffeine should be delayed to at least 1.5 to 2 hours after waking up, to first wake up naturally before getting the caffeine boost. It helps to prevent the afternoon crash when the caffeine effects wear off.
Food
Eating early in the day establishes another signal for the circadian clock that helps regulate the timing of our day-night cycle. Moreover it increases metabolism and thus brings up our body temperature;
It is not necessary and fasting in the morning is also alright.
Critical Period Two
Afternoon and into the evening
in this period you can take a nap, but not so ling/late that it would disrupt your night sleep
Light
Getting sunlight into our eyes when the sun is descending or during sunset will send additional signals to our brain that day is ending and sleep is coming.
It’s different than day light because it’s at a low angle and not overhead, and it’s different than morning light because of different colour.
Exercise
Intensive exercise increases our body temperature and delays our natural clock, so it should optimally not be done in the late afternoon and evening
Critical Period Three
Late evening (for example from ~7pm), and night
Light
In the evening and night it takes very little light to wake up the body and disrupt sleep.
Because of that bright artificial lights should be avoided during the evening and night.
If used light should be low placed and not overhead, candle light would be better than artificial light, and using just moonlight is ideal.
Especially between 10pm and 4am only as much light as necessary should be used.
Artificial light viewing reduces the impact of artificial light at night
Temperature
In the evening we should do the opposite of what we should do in the morning, and lower our body temperature to prepare our bodies for sleep.
Hot bath or shower (less than 20 minutes), and cooling after will lower our core temperature
Our sleeping environment should be at least three degrees cooler, and form there we can put on layers of blankets. This allows us to regulate our temperature by getting hands/feet out of the blankets.
Other Tips
- Elevating your feet can be good for sleep
- Nose breathing during the night is very beneficial
- if you need to be awake in the middle of your sleep cycle - use red light, as it doesn’t disrupt the level of cortisol
Regularity
Being consistent with the sleep schedule is more beneficial than sleeping in after you go to sleep late, or sleeping in on the weekends.
You shouldn’t sleep more than 1 hour longer than the normal wake up time. If you didn’t get enough sleep it’s better to take a nap in the afternoon.
Temperature Minimum
Temperature minimum is a time in the daily cycle at which our body temperature is the lowest. It happens around 2 hours before one’s typical wake up time.
We can leverage the temperature minimum to shift our natural clocks by getting light/coffee/exercise in the +-2 to 4 hours around the temperature minimum.
Getting it before the temperature minimum will delay the natural clock, while
getting it after the temperature minimum will advance the natural clock.
Sleeping as a Habit
To build a habit of sleeping it’s good to create a dedicated space and/or set of signals for sleeping.
If possible it’s good to limit or ideally eliminate any other activities such as reading or using phone from the space in which you sleep, so that your brain will get a clear signal that it’s time to sleep when you go to bed.
Also regularity, same as with the circadian rhythm will help you adapt to the habit.
Effects of lack of Sleep
Sleep is one of the most fundamental things for human health and well-being, sleep deprivation results in many serious dangers:
- loss of focus
- lower reaction speed
- less effective learning
- increased likelihood of diseases including:
- heart disease
- kidney disease
- high blood pressure
- diabetes
- obesity
- stroke
- depression
- Higher likelihood of injury
Sources
- Perfect your sleep - Huberman Lab video
- How to improve sleep - Matthew Walker