By understanding how and why these processes do their magic, you'll be more compelled to implement them and get more restorative sleep.
This video is all about *how* to get better sleep. Some of the things in here sound basic and like common sense, but most people don’t implement such practices.
HOW to get more quality sleep | (Science of Sleep Pt 2)
by What I’ve Learned
Key Takeaways
Several studies compare sleep impairment to drunkenness and one, in particular, found that just 17-19 hours of going without sleep was equivalent or worst to a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .05%. After 4 days on 5 hours of sleep, you’re almost the equivalent of too drunk to drive and then in 14 days on 6 hours of sleep you are as bad as if you stayed up and entire night.
Establish A Proper Circadian Rhythm
Circadian Rhythms We have a daily dose of cortisol in the morning to wake us up and a rise in melatonin at night to put us to sleep.
Ultradian Rhythms shorter than 24 hours where we experience oscillations in alertness, concentration, and physical performance throughout the day. Nowadays, we are either moving too fast or medicating these rhythms with caffeine to the point where we are no longer aware of them.
Sleep Window As you are awake throughout the day, adenosine builds up in the brain and you develop a sleep pressure. Then during the night, physiological processes such as melatonin secretion work to set up a “sleep window”. If the build-up of sleep pressure and the sleep window are in alignment then you drift off to sleep without a hitch.
- If you can act in sync with these rhythms, falling asleep and getting up in the morning can be smooth and seamless.
- What we should strive for, and what our bodies would like for us to do, is to fall asleep just a few hours after the sun goes down. For most people, it’s around 10PM.
- However, if the sleep window is out of sync with the sleep pressure due to using caffeine too much, wonky sleep schedule, or because you are stimulating yourself with your phone before bed, then you’ll miss your chance.
- After the sleep window closes, usually around 11 PM, your body is programmed to give you a second wind of energy in the form of cortisol, which can keep you awake until as late as 2 AM.
10:00 Pm-2:00 Am The anticarcinogen and antioxidant melatonin, as well as human growth hormone, are secreted in their strongest doses between 10PM-2AM. As neurologist Kulreet Chaudhary says “If your body is chronically deprived of the regenerative sleep between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM, then you may still feel fatigued when you wake up in the morning.”
Get Some Sunlight An easy way to set yourself up to fall asleep at this time is by resetting your biological clock by getting some sun in the morning between 6 AM & 8 AM. The circadian rhythm is activated and synchronized by sunlight.
- Research from the journal “Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience” found that exposure to sunlight in the morning significantly decreased cortisol levels later in the day.
- By getting some sunlight when you wake up, you set your cortisol and melatonin to be at optimal levels for getting a good night’s sleep and falling asleep at the right time.
- Sunlight will also increase vitamin D and serotonin which is linked to happiness and well-being.
Set Positive Anchors the body is very good at latching on to whatever rhythm it can, so if for whatever reason your schedule does not allow for you to go to bed by 10 PM, try and at least keep the same bedtime each night. Your body will anchor whatever physiological processes it can to certain times of the day, to your environment and even to objects.
- This is why it’s imperative not to keep the phone & laptop out of the bed. You don’t want your brain associating the bed with watching tv or playing a video game.
- If you can train your mind that 10 Pm is the time for sleep and your bed is the place for sleep and only sleep, it will do the work for you.
Pre-Sleep Routine establish a routine that always happens in the same sequence—take a warm bath, drink tea, read a book etc. that will create even more anchors associated with sleep and it will be even easier to pass out quickly after your head hits the pillow.
- Your brain is very good at making processes like this. Taking advantage of this automatic processing and establishing simple positive associations like “bed” only with “sleep” is called Cognitive Behavior Therapy and is used as a method for treating insomnia.
Find Your Perfect Bedtime Try and go to bed around the same time every night, and wake up at the same time every morning, even on weekends.
- Find out how many hours of sleep you need and what time is best for you to fall asleep and create a sleep schedule around that.
Wake up Naturally If possible, get into the habit of waking up naturally without your alarm clock going off.
- Set your alarm clock at the latest possible time and get out of bed when you wake up, don’t keep hitting snooze.
- Ideally, you want to wake up in stage 1 at best or 2 of the sleep cycle, not in the later more deep REM stage of sleep.
- Waking up in the wrong sleep cycle leads to sleep inertia (that groggy feeling when your brain doesn’t quite feel like it’s functioning yet), which can last up to 4 hours.
Electronics & Blue Light The light and dark cycle perceived by the eye is the most important regulator of your biological clock. You have something called Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion cells in your eyes that are highly sensitive to blue light in particular.
Originally, the light from the sun was the only blue light that made it to our eyes, so having specialized cells in the eye to look for blue light was very effective for regulating our biological clocks. The human eye is still relying on these blue light sensors to determine whether it is day or night and whether we should be alert or resting.
- When it comes to sleep, looking at a bright blue light is as alarming to your eyes as a loud barking dog is to your ears.
- As Shawn Stevenson explains in his book, “Sleep Smarter,” the artificial blue light emitted by electronic screens triggers your body to produce more daytime hormones (like cortisol) and suppress the secretion of the key sleep hormone melatonin.
- Researchers at Bringham and Women’s Hospital in Boston compared two groups, one reading on an iPad and another reading a printed book. Nighttime iPad readers secreted less melatonin, ended up taking longer to fall asleep, felt less sleep at night, and had shorter REM sleep compared to those using printed books. They were also more tired than the book readers the next day, even if they both got a full 8 hours of sleep.
- Try to stop looking at screens at least 1 hour before going to bed so that your cortisol and melatonin levels can normalize. You can also use F.lux, which automatically adjusts the color and brightness of your screen. When it is dark outside, the program effectively blocks all blue light from your computer. You can also turn on the nightshift feature on your iPhone/iPad or get a blue light blocking app.
Get your bedroom as dark as possible. There’s a light-sensitive chemical found in the retina called rhodopsin, which is also produced by the skin. If something is emitted light in your bedroom, it can interfere with your sleep even if your eyes don’t pick it up.
Enhancing Sleep Onset
Establishing a proper circadian rhythm is one of the best things you can do for your sleep as it will have you falling asleep faster and balances your hormones to give you higher quality sleep.
Sleep & the Mind you have to have the right expectations and try not to psych yourself out.
- Psychology Professor Allison Harvey of Berkley University says, “you have to keep it in mind that sleep is not a light switch but more like a dimmer switch.”
- It takes most people on average 20 minutes to fall asleep.
- Once you have the lights off and you’re in bed, there’s really not anything left for you to do so there’s no point in stressing out about how long it takes you to fall asleep.
Clock Watching hold back that urge to look at the clock. Clock watching is a well-known exacerbate for insomnia.
- There’s even a phenomenon called placebo sleep where simply thinking you got more sleep the night before leads to better cognitive functioning.
- Checking the time is an easy way to make yourself anxious, secrete a little bit of cortisol and keep yourself up later.
Be Mindful The best thing you can do is not think about things related to everyday life, don’t review embarrassing moments, don’t think about your to-do list, while in bed try and practice some form of meditation.
Thermoregulation For enhancing sleep onset specifically, you can take advantage of the thermoregulation step of the sleep process. When it’s time to turn in for the night, there is a drop in your body’s core temperature to help initiate sleep. If your room is too hot, falling asleep can be a physiological challenge.
- Studies have found that the optimal room temperature for sleep is around 60-68 degrees. You can take advantage of this phenomenon by lowering the thermostat, or you can take a cold shower or warm bath.
- Warm & Cold Bath The relaxing nature of a warm bath is helpful and it doesn’t interfere with the thermoregulation step because your body starts to rapidly cool after stepping out of the bath leaving you at a cooler temperature than you started with.
- Just make sure to get out of the bath at least a half hour before getting in the bed so you have time to cool off. A cold bath isn’t as pleasant but it is effective.
Improve the efficiency of the sleep process Sleeping is when your brain is shifting in to waste cleanup mode. A specialized system called the Glymphatic System floods the brain with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and flushes out toxic waste products that have accumulated during the day. The CSF is produced by ependymal cells in the brain and in the central canal of the spinal cord.
As well as CSF, the flow of the blood to the brain increases during sleep. 1/5th of your circulatory blood goes to the brain to facilitate the sleep process. You want to make the process of routing your blood and CSF to the brain as smooth as possible. For this, the integrity of your spine is key.
- Loosen up your spine Going to bed with a stiff back or sleeping in the wrong position can be compromising your sleep quality.
- Since the spine is connected directly to every major organ in the body, your spine integrity can affect many other things like hormone production, muscular function, tissue repair, blood pressure, as well as metabolism and digestion.
- (Stretching, mobility, pilates, foam roller, yoga etc.)
Sleeping Position make sure you are in a decent sleeping position. As long as you’re not putting a kink in your back while you sleep, it seems that being on your back, stomach or side are generally fine. Sleeping on the side is known to lessen sleep apnea by reducing snoring and there is some compelling evidence that suggests sleeping on your side may be the best choice.
Mattress, Sheets & Pillows The most common problem is that people use too many pillows which hyperextends their neck, or they are sleeping on a worn out mattress which doesn’t support the natural curvature of the spine.
- The average person spends 24 years sleeping in their bed.
- Invest in a comfortable mattress, sheets, and pillows.
Caffeine, Nicotine & Alcohol As noted from a LifeHacker, a study done on sleeping habits shows that all three affect sleep differently.
Alcohol can be relaxing and help you get to sleep, but it’s damaging to the sleep cycle once you sleeping, waking up more frequently throughout the night and having a low quality, restless sleep.
Nicotine increases your heart rate and also effects falling asleep.
Caffeine works by bonding to the same receptors as adenosine, tricking the body into thinking it’s not tired. Will lengthen the 2nd phase of the sleep cycle and shortens the more important phases 3 and 4. The brain starts to reorganize and process the day in phase 2 and phase 3 consists of the deep REM sleep and dreaming. This is good for a nap, but not to get high-quality deep sleep.
- While caffeine will wake you up, it will interfere with your sleep cycle if taken too late in the day.
- A study shows that taken caffeine even 6 hours before bed can lead to a measurable objective loss of 1 hour of sleep.
- This means you’re not properly dipping into the sleep cycles of REM and deep sleep, leading to an actual sleep total of 6 hours.
- For this reason, it’s recommended to finish your caffeine intake at least 8 or more hours before bedtime.
Naps According to Circadian Rhythm/Biological Clock your body is designed to take a nap around 2:00 pm. A nice trick is if you drink caffeine before you take a nap, it takes about 20 minutes to kick in, so when you wake up you’ll be ready to go.
Exercise, workout, be active The benefits of exercising regularly carry over to the bedroom in more ways than just helping sleep quality. Studies show that training in the morning or afternoon helps you fall asleep faster, which improves sleep quality. Exercising or working out right before bed actually has the opposite effect, possibly making it harder to fall asleep so plan accordingly.
Declutter your bedroom when your bedroom is filled with clutter it will “weigh” on you consciously or unconsciously, according to Christa O’Leary, author of “Home in Harmony.” This can prevent you from fully recharging overnight. “If you wake up and are immediately depleted by your surroundings, it will impact your well-being as you move through the rest of your day.”
Eat Healthy take care of your body. Diet & nutrition helps create a positive loop of the sleep/wake cycle. Healthy habits will help with sleep quality, while quality sleep will make it easier being healthy.
Stress Management relax and unwind! Whatever it is that works best for you. Being stressed out affects sleep quality, while poor sleep will increase your stress levels. Learn ways to manage stress.
Create the Environment making sure that your bedroom or wherever you do sleep, is favorable for quality, deep sleep.
Bedroom Colors can affect people’s moods and play a role in sleep quality. Study up on color psychology and choose a bedroom color that fits you.
Cut Out Distractions get rid of all the possible distractions that may disturb your sleep that you can. You can’t turn off kids or pets, but electronics, night light or whatever else you may have on in the bedroom. Even a tiny beam of light from an electronic device can affect sleep.
Temperature A tool that can help is the ChiliPAD
. This is a mattress pad with a cooling and heating temperature control system. It regulates the surface temperature of your mattress so that you sleep comfortably all night long.
Sleep supplements like melatonin may be able to help out but should be used sparingly and try not to get into the habit. Always talk with your Doctor before taking any supplements.