One of my favorite ways to create and share content with all of you is to take a question from one of my clients and turn it into an article. I figure if they have a certain question, you might have that question, too.
That’s what I’m doing here, and the topic is sleep and how to improve it.
Before we get into my five tips, let’s talk a little bit about why we need sleep and how getting more of it is necessary.
What do we already know about the importance of sleep? Well, we know that the more sleep you get, the better you’re going to perform the next day. We know that increased sleep (7-9 hours a night, even climbing to 10, with better results on the higher end of that range) can improve your recovery from day to day and over time.
We also know that a lack of sleep (6 or fewer hours a night on a regular basis), can lead to the following issues:
- Obesity
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Vulnerability to insufficient sleep in the future
- Hormonal changes (leading to increased hunger)
- Behavioral changes (changes in food selection)
The issues are even greater than that. Check out my article on sleep debt to learn more.
Before publishing this article, I polled Twitter to see how prevalent sleep issues might be. Turns out, it’s effected a ton of you.
If you struggle to get adequate sleep, you’ll eventually run into problems over time. A lot of it starts with discipline and holding yourself accountable. If you can’t commit to a set bedtime, you are destined to struggle with sleep. That has to be the first step.
If you’ve done that and still struggle, here are my five tips to improve your sleep. Try implementing these one at a time and see how your sleep improves. If you can incorporate multiple, or all of these tips, you’re likely to see significant improvements in your overall sleep duration and quality.
I’ve implemented all of these tips into my lifestyle. Sleep has been something I’ve struggled with in the past — at times pretty significantly — and using these strategies and adhering to them with a disciplined approach has been a major game changer for my sleep health.
No. 1: Avoid Sleep Medications
Sleep medications are available over the counter in many forms. Unfortunately, most of them come with potential consequences.
A large amount of these sleep aids contain the ingredient diphenhydramine, which is habit-forming. While they may help you fall asleep quicker and stay asleep longer, they’re not the answer. Like any drug, you can develop a reliance to it and experience even greater struggles to fall asleep in the future without the use of medication.
A life of popping pills before bed is a very unhealthy habit to develop. Stop it before it starts and ditch the pills. This is for the sake of your long-term sleep health.
Using medication to fall asleep isn’t sleep. It’s sedation.
No. 2: Create a Bedtime Routine
Your body wants to be in a routine. This starts with sleep, but it goes even further. Eating at regular times, regularly eating quality foods, using the bathroom at regular times, exercising at regular times, hydrating on a consistent basis… the list goes on and on.
The more you can standardize things, the better you’ll feel. If you’ve read anything else I’ve written, you know I’m a strong believer in consistency.
It’s the key to so much of the success we can achieve!
Sleep is no different. If you create a consistent routine, you’re likely to find that sleep quality will improve. It won’t be an instant improvement, but if you can commit to going to bed at the same time each night (yes, even on the weekends) and waking up at the same time each morning (YES, EVEN ON THE WEEKENDS!) you’re likely to find a daily rhythm with your sleep.
Your body doesn’t know much about time. It doesn’t know what a year is. It doesn’t know what a week or month is. But it DOES know what a day is. That’s really the only routine your body can be in. Standardizing your sleep will put your body in a regular rhythm.
So pick a bedtime that works. Pick a wakeup time that works. Ideally, create those so that they carve out at least seven hours a night dedicated to sleep. The more the better.
No. 3: Create To-Do Lists
This tip builds on tip No. 2 in that it will help create a routine.
Life is stressful. Between work, school, kids, family, the car, the dog, your doctor appointment, running errands, balancing the books… there’s more than enough things to worry about. You’re likely to find all of this and more on your mind when you lay down in bed at night.
Lying in bed can sometimes be the first quiet, empty moment we get throughout the course of the day. With that being the case, your mind will likely try to fill that void and anticipate what’s to come during the next day, and in following days to come. That can spin out of control easily and turn into anxiety or fear.
Get out in front of those thoughts and create a to-do list for tomorrow. Do it TODAY.
Create a to-do list each evening. Get all of the worries out of the way and on paper so that you can go to bed with a clear mind. Try to evaluate each item as you write it down so that you have clear expectations as to what’s required of you.
This will set you up for success tomorrow, and it will set you up for a peaceful night of sleep.
No. 4: Eliminate Distractions
Once again, we’re building on previous items. This builds on No. 2 and No. 3, as it adds to a bedtime routine and clears your mind.
There are certain things we regularly engage in at night that promote poor sleep. A few seem popular enough that they’re worth mentioning. Tell me if you indulge in any of the following in the 1-2 hours before bed:
- Technology use
- Alcohol use
- Sugar consumption
Technology — the use of phones, tablets, computers, etc. — subjects us to blue light. Exposure to blue light in the evening negatively impacts our natural melatonin production, which in turn negatively impacts our body’s ability to wind down and prepare for sleep.
Remember what we talked about in tip No. 2 about creating a bedtime routine? The more you stick to that routine, to more your body will naturally produce melatonin and prepare for sleep at the appropriate time. Using technology will only disrupt the pattern you’re trying to establish.
What’s more, we’re often on these devices to scroll through social media. Social media causes a negative feedback response, which elicits our body’s production of stress hormones. If we’re trying to eliminate stress before bed, picking up your phone and scrolling through Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram is backwards.
Get off your phone 1-2 hours before bed. It’s that simple.
Take the bedtime you identified in No. 2, subtract 1-2 hours, and put all of your devices away.
While you’re at it, eliminate alcohol before bed, too.
You may notice that drinking helps you fall asleep. That’s true, but it doesn’t help your sleep quality. In fact, in impairs it.
A 2013 review concluded that, “at all dosages, alcohol causes a reduction in sleep onset latency, a more consolidated first half sleep and an increase in sleep disruption in the second half of sleep.”
The hungover feeling you have the next day — feeling sluggish, slow, tired — is in part thanks to lacking the deep sleep you needed last night. Our bodies want to move through deep sleep and REM sleep at night. That helps us physically recover from our workouts and mentally recover from the prior day’s events. Ditch the alcohol, and your sleep will improve.
Using alcohol to sleep is the same as using those medications we talked about in tip No. 1. It’s sedation, not sleep.
And finally, sugar has been shown to have a negative impact on sleep. The dessert after dinner, soda before bed, etc. is working against your sleep quality. A 2016 study showed that, between two groups, the group with higher sugar intake had less deep sleep and more disturbances in sleep at night.
If all of this isn’t enough to convince you to eliminate distractions — these things that are messing with your sleep — you just don’t care enough to make a change. These are easy eliminations that can result in a significant improvement.
No. 5: Invest in Blackout Curtains and a Sound Machine
I have this listed last because it’s not necessarily a change you make about yourself or your habits. It’s the one tip where I’m suggesting you can add something to supplement your sleep, and it’s to purchase blackout curtains and a sound machine.
You can purchase both items for relatively cheap, and you can find them anywhere (I purchased mine on Amazon). First are the blackout curtains, which are easy to install and make a tremendous improvement to the environment in which you sleep.
Your bedroom should be a blackout. If you have light slipping through the windows, you’re missing out on a better atmosphere. Buy some blackout curtains and truly create the right environment for sleep.
And while you’re at it, invest in a sound machine. You can find these anywhere (I use a Dhome, but you can even get an app on your phone), and the general idea is you turn it on and eliminate any of the distractions that may occur once you lay down. It’s yet another improvement to your sleep environment.
All of those creaks, moans, and groans the house may randomly make. Someone else flushing a toilet or walking up the stairs. The dog walking across the hardwood floor. It eliminates all of those with a white noise, and it can break up the noise in your head, too.
When sleep is a problem, we often look to buy things to fix the problem. In most cases, that’s the wrong approach, but these are a couple of purchases I’ve made that continue to be a positive asset.
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I hope this article helps you if you struggle with sleep. I really believe that if you can apply some, or all, of these tips to your sleep routine, you’ll end up improving your sleep over time.
It won’t change overnight, but if you can stick to it you should see improvements as you become more and more consistent.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any additional suggestions or tips that have worked for you. I’d love to hear them!
And if you’re interested in coaching to help improve your daily routines, or implement a new fitness and/or nutrition plan, please contact me and let’s talk about what options might work for you! Visit my coaching page for more information on the services I offer, and fill out the coaching application form if you’d like to schedule a call.
Thanks for reading!
CGF