TT14 - 3 Ways To Get Better Sleep

Have you ever had a full night of sleep and still woken up exhausted? If you answered yes to that question, odds are there are ways that you can improve your sleep quality. When it comes to the current state of our sleep, most people in our society are getting very low quality sleep due to certain daytime or nighttime habits or environmental conditions in their room. Even if they are asleep for seven, eight, or even nine hours, they are still waking up exhausted because they're not going into that deep stage of sleep that's necessary to feel refreshed when they wake up.

Before diving into how to get better sleep, it's very important that you understand how sleep actually works. Throughout the night, we go through (approximately) 90 minute sleep cycles. During each of these cycles, we enter 4 different stages of sleep (1):

Stage 1 NREM: In this stage, your body is just beginning to slow down. Not much else is happening.

Stage 2 NREM: Same for this stage. Nothing is really happening that is benefitting your body or mind.

Stage 3 NREM: At this point, your body goes into full-on repair mode. Your available energy is directed towards restoring and repairing any damaged cells, ridding your body of any toxins, and going through multiple other processes that will help you feel fully refreshed in the morning.

Stage 4 REM: This is the stage where we dream as well as convert our short-term memories into our long-term ones. If you've ever drank too much alcohol the night before and completely forgotten what happened, odds are you didn't enter this stage of sleep at night.

The more melatonin that your body is producing, the quicker you will enter stages 3 and 4 sleep, which is the goal to really wake up feeling refreshed. Now that you understand this, here are 3 ways to get better sleep.

3 Ways To Get Better Sleep:

1. Get Rid Of Your Screens (2)- When we spend our last few hours of each day staring at a screen, our sleep quality is drastically affected. These screens emit something called blue-light, which is a spectrum of light that forces your body and mind to think that it's still daytime outside. This suppresses your melatonin for up to three hours after, preventing you from entering those necessary deep stages of sleep for recovery. In order to fall asleep faster and enter that deeper sleep, it's crucial to stop looking at screens 60 - 90 minutes before bed.

But here's the thing. I know you're probably addicted to your cellphone. My guess is that it's the last thing you look at before you go to bed, and the first thing that you look at when you wake up. If you really don't want to get rid of your phone (and a huge emphasis on really), there are a few workarounds.

     a) If you're using your cellphone, turn on your phone's nighttime mode. For the iPhone, press and hold the brightness button in the control center and activate 'night shift'. This mode will filter out the blue-light from your screen.

     b) If you're using your laptop, download an application called f.lux. This application will filter out the blue-light on your screen depending on your timezone. 

     c) If all else fails and you can't filter out the blue-light from your device, consider purchasing Swanwick Sleep Blue-light Blockers. These glasses are awesome, and do a great job at completely blocking the blue-light from your devices.

2. Manipulate Your Room Environment - When it comes to your environment, there are three things you need to pay very close attention to:

     a) The Temperature (3)- The ideal temperature for you to fall asleep fast and enter a deep sleep is between 60 - 68 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can, make sure you're adjusting your room temperature to be in that ballpark.

     b) The Light Level (4) - Besides moonlight, any sort of light can affect your sleep quality. Even if you can't see it, any light that your skin is exposed to can prevent you from going into those deeper stages of sleep at a normal rate. Get some blackout curtains and really work on preventing any light from entering your room.

     c) Your Air Quality (5) - Air quality can actually affect the depth of your sleep. If you want to make sure you have cleaner air, open a window, buy an air-purifying plant, or purchase a Himalayan Salt Lamp.

3. Create a Nighttime Routine (6) - Your body craves routine. If you begin to perform a nighttime routine as your pre-bed ritual, your body begins to pair that routine with falling asleep. Over time, this will allow your body to fall asleep faster, and enter a deeper sleep more quickly.

Sources:

(1) https://blog.health.nokia.com/blog/2015/03/17/the-4-different-stages-of-sleep/
(2) https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2017/11/06/latest-blue-light-sleep/
(3) https://sleep.org/articles/temperature-for-sleep/
(4) http://sleep.mysplus.com/library/category2/article1.html
(5) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ina.12254
(6) https://sleep.org/articles/design-perfect-bedtime-routine/

Connect With Me On Social:

Quotes To Share: