Why Prioritising Sleep Will Change Your Life and How To Do It
I don’t need to convince you that sleep is important. Not only does every research paper tell us that sleeping well improves your life, but our anecdotal experiences also dictate so.
Here are some practical tips to hack your sleep. I’m saving the most interesting for last so make sure you read this entire post!
Sleep In Complete Darkness
Before the technological revolution bringing in artificial lights and introducing our modern, glowing bedrooms, there were only two types of natural light. The sun during the day, and the moon and stars during night.
Of course there were other cases such as campfires, but the dichotomous difference between light and dark as obvious and our circadian rhythms adjusted accordingly.
When it came to night time, the hormone melatonin — responsible for lowering blood pressure, glucose levels and body temperature assisted us in going to sleep.
However, blue light we experience from our computers, phones and tablets suppress melatonin. In fact, light exposure before bedtime shortens the duration of melatonin by 90 minutes in comparison to dim light exposure and keeping lights on in the room while sleeping can suppress melatonin levels by more than 50%.
The best thing to do for your health would be to avoid electronics hours before bedtime. But lets face it, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to stay up browsing social media or whatnot so we might as well do damage control right?
Sleeping in complete darkness causes you to sleep faster as it increases your melatonin levels — thereby reducing blood pressure and glucose levels as well as adjusting your body temperature helping you go to sleep.
There are two easy ways to simulate darkness:
- Closing off all sources of light i.e. blinds
- Sleep mask
Both of these are easily implementable today.
f.lux
Remember when I said that blue light messed with melatonin? Well, f.lux is free software that adapts your computer’s display colour to the time of day. You can additionally use night mode on a Mac.
This means that during night time, you’ll have an orange tint (simulating the sun setting) over your screen instead of the standard blue light.
This is a quick lighting hack that I’ve used for years and it has substantially benefited me. There’s not much else to say here.
Honey + Apple Cider Vinegar Drink
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- cup of hot water
Mix it and drink it 30 minutes before bedtime.
This is a cocktail from the late Seth Roberts, PhD. To be honest, I’m not quite sure why it works. I’ve tried to do research but the most I could find were separate articles on honey and others on apple cider vinegar and their health benefits.
I can only provide my and my friends’ anecdotal experience on this one. It has significantly improved my sleep. I feel less tired during the day and wake up more refreshed. One of my friends who I’ve recommended this to has reported a reduction in micro-sleeping.
An interesting phenomena that has occurred ever since starting on this drink has been my increase in dreaming. Not sure if that’s positive or negative but something I’ve mentally noted.
ChiliPad
This is a more expensive option but will definitely change your life. ChiliPAD is a thin sheet you place underneath your normal sheets which circulates water through a bedside contraption thereby regulating your body temperature at a very precise temperature of your choosing.
There are versions with two zones so two people sleeping side by side can choose different numbers. This is specially catered for couples who have different body temperatures when they sleep (ever notice that a woman is especially boiling when sleeping?).
For people like me who constantly wakes up to being too hot or cold, this is a perfect solution. And you’re making an investment into your health right?
I hope these tips have been useful and executable. Each of these (apart of the ChiliPAD) is a low investment way to improve your sleep. If you find that you hate the sleep mask or the drink then you’ve barely lost anything by trying it out.
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