For years I’ve gone through periods of pulling all-nighters, to sleeping before 8 PM to try to wake up early, to falling asleep at 8 AM, and everything in between. I felt that with bad sleep, everything else I did in my life suffered, so in the month of November, I put all my energy into achieving as close to perfect sleep as I could. Here’s an easy checklist of things I found that can improve your sleep and you can do the same! If you can’t or just don’t want to make any specific change, you don’t have to. Implementing any number of them will help.
- Install f.lux @ https://justgetflux.com/ & toggle night light on your phone
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Installing f.lux is the single most important change I’ve made to impact my sleep. Computer and phone screens emit tons of blue light which mimics the sun and suppresses your body’s ability to produce melatonin – a hormone that regulates your sleep cycle. I came across f.lux because a big piece of advice to get better sleep is to avoid screens an hour before bedtime. Listen, as much as I want to sleep well, the reality is most days I simply won’t avoid my phone before bed. Installing f.lux on your computer and turning on night light naturally reduces the blue light on your screens and keeps that melatonin producing! Bright light is just as bad as blue light, so dimming the brightness is good as well.
- Lay off the caffeine
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Although the active feelings caffeine gives you can wear off over the course of the day, it can still affect your body by the time you try to sleep as it takes some time to completely not affect you. For me, this means I virtually can’t have any caffeine at all as it easily affects me for more than 12 hours, but for others, this could mean not having caffeine for anything from 4 to 12 hours before bed.
- Darken the room
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Make the environment as dark as you can. I got blackout curtains and put small towers over light sources in my room and instantly increased the quality of my sleep.
- Make it quiet – use earplugs if necessary
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Living with or near other people can be absolute hell for falling asleep. If there’s any noise that typically goes on when you’re trying to sleep, earplugs are effective and worth it.
- Try to cool the room before bed
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Various studies and doctors in the field cite “ideal temperatures” for a sleeping room ranging anywhere from 61-69 degrees Fahrenheit. If this seems cold, that’s because it is. It seems that losing body temperature overnight is a hallmark of good sleep, and having a cool bedroom when going to bed is important for this. Personally, in the winter, I just open my window for a few minutes before bed to cool the room down and it definitely helps.
- Doing something during the day to relax the body by night
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Having a meditation, stretching, or exercise routine is important to expend energy during the day; mental work helps as well.
- Try to go to bed and wake up at a consistent time and find your circadian rhythm
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This is by far the hardest change I’ve tried to implement. Eating differently, exercising more/less, social activities, etc. all interfere with sleeping the same amount and waking up at the same time. Simply doing your best with this one is often more realistic and still helps.
Through a combination of many of these methods, I feel really good about my sleep going into December. Hopefully, this can help someone else sleep a bit better!