We live during a pandemic of fatigue, tiredness, and burnout. In most of the western world, melatonin and sleep aid pills are at an all-time high in sales, while medical doctors have patients asking for help with their insomnia or tiredness. All the while, people’s habits, and lifestyles are at complete odds with what we now know enables good and deep sleep.
Perhaps it would be an idea for people to consider what they’re doing wrong before believing that there is something wrong about them that requires an artificial solution? While there are many contributing factors to good sleep, this article will summarize all of the essential steps to consider first.
There are many things we can do to improve our sleep, Unfortunately, our 21-century lifestyles make this difficult. This step-by-step guide will solve that..
A step by step guide to better sleep
Below is a complete list of the most impactful actions one can take to ensure better and deeper sleep. What may surprise some is that setting ourselves up for good sleep starts already in the morning. Thus, the items on this list are sorted from what can be done earliest in the day, all the way up until we are asleep.
How many can you honestly say that you’re doing routinely now?
- Wake up at the same time in the morning every day. It takes a surprising 5 weeks for the body to adjust to a new sleep schedule. So, if you’ve never stuck with the same pattern for 5 weeks straight, then you can’t even know if you’re a morning person or not.
- Get exposure to daylight as early as possible. Ideally for around 30 minutes. By doing so, you will inform your brain that it is daytime, helping set the daytime rhythm and produce adenosine, a chemical that will eventually make you sleepy in the evening. I wrote a longer article on why this is important that you can read here.
- Avoid caffeine any later than 2 hours after waking up. The 4–5-hour withdrawal time you may have read about in a magazine is not the time it takes for caffeine to leave the body, it is the halving time of it. Thus, it takes 12-15 hours to get 3/4 of it out. People who feel sluggish in the morning before their coffee don’t do so because they are naturally tired and then need the coffee to get them awake, they are sluggish because the caffeine withdrawal symptoms first start to kick in in the morning.
- Do at least some forms of physical activity throughout the day. Every day. You need to exhaust the energy from the foods, drinks or snacks that you consume, or you won’t get naturally sleepy. Walking is enough, but there should be at least 2 strength sessions and 2 cardio sessions in a week no matter what your goals are. But avoid too intensive workouts less than 3 hours before bedtime.
- Avoid alcohol. Even a glass of wine during a late dinner is enough to lessen the positive effects of deep sleep. Of course, we also need to live life, so a social drink with friends in a weekend is ok. But a habit of having a glass in the evening, even if it’s just one glass, is a terrible habit with regard to sleep.
- Avoid all food intakes the last 2 hours before going to bed. You don’t want your stomach and system to be working on digestion when you’re trying to fall asleep or while you’re asleep. Ideally, also avoid beverages to minimize the likelihood and/or frequencies at which you’ll wake up to go to the bathroom.
- Turn off and get away from all screens the last hour prior to bed, as well as work-related tasks that may cause stress. This is both to avoid the artificial lights from the screens, and just as much to calm your mind and get in the mood for sleep.
- Let your bedroom be a place to sleep. Do not lie in bed awake reading, looking at your phone, etc during the day. You want your subconsciousness to associate the room with sleep. Also, make sure that conditions are ideal. This not only includes making it dark but also allowing good control of temperature. For most of our evolutionary history, housing with indoor heating was not a thing. While it is obvious that our brain associates light and dark with day and night, warm and cold play the same effect. Ideally, allow the temperature in the room to slowly decline as you go to bed to mimic it becoming night and thus colder.
There you have it!
I can almost guarantee that while these are all things our ancestors did by default and out of necessity for most of human and animal history, very few manage to abide by all these steps today. Whether it is our mobile phones or TVs taking our attention right up until we go to bed (or worse, while we are in bed), or it is the never-ending consumption of coffee into the afternoon, or the desire to eat some chips or other snacks while watching TV in the evening.
Cutting those things out may not be easy, but additional motivation can be found in understanding that avoiding food during the last few hours of the day also has a positive impact on longevity, while reduced stress from screens and work is also great for our health and well-being.
Tips and tricks
I recommend trying to find alternative things to do instead as an evening routine. Myself, I do some light cleaning of the apartment, write down a few things I want to get done tomorrow without thinking too much about them, and then read a book.
But most importantly, if you have any issues with sleep and think that you need sleeping aids or other medicines, consider trying to follow this list which is intentionally written from the beginning to the completion of the day for 5 weeks straight. I guarantee that you will not only sleep more easily and better but also deeper and thus wake feeling more awake.
Let me know in the comments which part of the list you find most difficult to incorporate in your daily life, or what changes you've made that have benefited your sleep the most!