If you want to kick a$$ in life, you need to get enough high quality sleep. There’s too much science exposing the connection between sleep and performance (let alone sleep and health) to continue with the “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mentality. But just because you know sleep is important doesn’t make it easy to achieve that top notch sleep that we need. Below are the tips that led me to go from an insomniac to a Sleeping Queen.
View sunlight without sunglasses within 30-60 minutes of waking and again in the late afternoon, prior to or at sunset. Practice sun safety, of course, and don’t stare at the sun. On bright, cloudless days, view morning and afternoon sun for at least 10 minutes. On cloudy days, aim to get at least 20 minutes of sunlight in. On super duper cloudy days, aim for 30-60 minutes of sunlight. And for those of us who sometimes need a little extra sun support (any self-diagnosed or formally diagnosed people with Seasonal Affective Disorder?), consider purchasing the Verilux HappyLight Lamp. We have three.
View bright lights (sunlight and artificial) throughout the day, and don’t wear blue blocking glasses during the day. Blue light is essential for waking up, staying awake, and setting the circadian rhythm.
Avoid viewing bright lights in the evening. We start turning off and dimming overhead lights and turning on lamps around 7pm, and use amber lightbulbs and nightlights and salt lamps around our house for evening light. We stop using screens around this time as well, and will wear blue blocking glasses if we need to look at screens in the evening.
Wake up at the same time each day. Your brain gets used to it, which helps to reset your bedtime and get you on a better sleep schedule!
Go to sleep when you first feel sleepy. Pushing through nighttime sleepiness and going to sleep too late as a result can lead to middle-of-the-night waking.
Avoid caffeine within 8-10 hours of bedtime. Truth be told, this tip helps my husband more than it helps me. I have a gene mutation that allows me to metabolize caffeine very quickly, and I’ve never noticed much of an effect on me. My husband, on the other hand, is incredibly sensitive to caffeine and even having a couple sips of caffeine - even a little chocolate - after 12pm can impact his sleep.
Stop eating at least 3 hours before bed. The digestion process interrupts sleep, so having my last bites of food a few hours before bedtime allows me to get my best sleep.
Train yourself to be a nose breather, instead of a mouth breather. Mouth breathing is linked to all sorts of health challenges, and can significantly decrease quality of sleep. I trained myself to be a nose breather by wearing paper medical tape on my lips at night. Sounds weird, I know! But it’s easy to get used to, and becoming a nose breather has drastically improved the quality of my sleep! I wouldn’t recommend sleeping with tape on your mouth if it weren’t really worth it! I also do lots of breathwork training, which has also supported my transition to nasal breathing and, as a result, healthier sleep.
Develop a calming evening routine. I need to incorporate intentional, calming practices into my evening to help me get ready for sleep. Hypnosis (I worked one-on-one with a PhD medical hypnotist, but I’ve heard great things about the self-hypnosis app called Reveri), yoga nidra, meditation, breathwork, baths, classical music, playing piano, and reading are in my evening wind-down toolbox. Insight Timer, FitMind, and Spotify are excellent resources for guided yoga nidra, meditation, and breathwork recordings.
Keep the room cool. Your body needs to drop in temperature by 1-3 degrees to fall and stay asleep. Body temperature increases are one reason you might wake up in the middle of the night.
Design your bedroom with intention. Our brains learn to associate certain spaces with the activities we do in those spaces. Making our bedroom a relaxing work-free and technology-free space has helped our brains know what to do when we enter the room. Oh, and don’t forget the Bearaby weighted blanket for extra calming comfort. 😊