Top 10 Tips to Sleep Like a Boss

Photo by Isaac Davis on Unsplash

During sleep, you body stores long-term memories, repairs damaged tissues, flushes out toxins, and even repairs your DNA.

Just one night of sleep deprivation can impair motor function, decrease response time as if you’ve been drinking and cause a healthy person to respond to sugar like a type-2 diabetic – increased blood sugar level and decreased sensitivity to insulin.

It’s something we neglect in favor of finishing projects, going to baseball games, or to binge watch the latest season of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix.  Been there, done that.

Sleep deprivation is even directly related to the inability to loose weight!  Made worse, of course, by the fact that you’re staying up late watching a baking show.

People who are well rested have quicker reaction times, improved memory, faster healing, increased immunity, and lower body fat.  They also enjoy lower rates of everything from car accidents to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

So, what qualifies as well rested?

We’ve all heard that the recommended standard sleep time for adult humans is 7-9 hours per night; 8-10 for adolescents and teenagers.  The truth is that sleep times vary by person, activity level, age, and a variety of other factors.  

The real best test is this one simple question.  Do you wake up most mornings feeling rested and ready to go?

If you answered “yes”, then congratulations!  You can stop reading here.

If you answered “no”, then don’t sweat it.  Keep calm, and read on.

During the Day

1. Move

One of the most common things I see in people who are having trouble sleeping is stagnation.  They have a desk job where they sit all day, sit in their car for their commute, sit at their kids’ baseball games, and sit down for a quick dinner.  Then they go to bed feeling mentally exhausted, but physically wide awake because they’ve done no physical movement all day to make their body crave sleep.

Do some kind of movement for at least 30 minutes every day.  The type and intensity are up to you.  Just get your breathing and heart rate up a little.  Even walking the dog for 15 minutes twice a day counts.

2. Get Sunlight 

This is by far the easiest one.  Just get outside in bright, natural light as often as possible.  You can even double up with tip #1 and do your movement outside. Two birds, one stone – like a boss.  

We’re also lucky enough that all of our artificial lights and computer screens give off tons of blue-toned light, which mimics the part of sunlight that causes our body to produce the alertness hormone, cortisol.  

3. Set a Caffeine Curfew 

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, so I’ll keep this one brief.

Caffeine has a 5 to 6-hour half-life in the healthy human body.  That means that it takes 5 to 6 hours for your body to clear ½ of it out of your system.  If you want to be asleep by 9:00pm, it’s best to drink your last cup no later than 2:00pm to keep it from interfering with the quality of your sleep. 

In the Transitions

4. If You’re Awake, Get Out of Bed

We’ve all been there – It’s the middle of the night. Your mind racing on some impending deadline, wishing you hadn’t had to get up to pee again, seething in anger over having stepped on yet another Lego brick –a.k.a. tiny, stabby, foot murdering block of death – on your way back to bed.  Exhausted, but unable to get to sleep.  Every minute getting more and more frustrated about not being able to sleep – which, of course, is very helpful in the getting-to-sleep process.

Here’s the solution.

If you’re awake for longer than 15 minutes, get out of bed.  Either start your day - if it’s within two hours of your normal wake time - or get up and do any of the screen-free activities listed below, in step #7, until you wind down, then go back to bed. 

Teaching your body to ignore this normal arousal response can lead to dysfunction in that rest vs. arousal system.  The alertness hormone, cortisol, is designed to wake you up and help you be alert to deal with challenges.  It’s a good thing if you roll with it.

5. No Snoozing

I’m sure you’ve heard that sleep happens in cycles. Then you cycle through levels of light, deep, and REM sleep for 90-120 minutes per cycle.  

When you hit the snooze button and fall back to sleep, you begin this 90-120 minute cycle again.  Have you ever noticed that when you fall back to sleep on a weekend when you don’t set your alarm, you tend to sleep for another hour and a half to two hours?  This is why.

It’s also why, when you hit the snooze button and fall to sleep for only 10 more minutes, you feel like crap afterwards.  This groggy, disoriented feeling is called sleep inertia.  It’s common to experience sleep inertia for a few minutes after waking, while you wait for your morning cortisol boost, but recent research has shown that it can last for up to 4 hours if you’re woken during a deep or deepening phase of sleep.

6. Get Up at the Same Time Every Day

Yes, even on your days off.  Your body likes rhythms and habits.  If you can teach yourself to wake up at the same time every day, you will regularly wake up feeling much more energized and that dreaded alarm clock can become a thing of the past.

No matter when you go to bed, aim to wake up at your normal wake up time.  If you’d like, you can go back to sleep after.

Once you’re used to it, this practice will you to wake up naturally, without a noisy alarm clock.  A recent study from Japan showed that people who are woken suddenly have significantly higher blood pressure and heart rate than those who wake up naturally.

A great way to hack this habit, is to use a Light Alarm. These small, silent devices will turn on gradually over a period of 30 minutes or more, mimicking the natural increase in light from the sun.  If you’re in a deeper sleep, the light won’t be enough to wake you, which helps you avoid that pesky sleep inertia problem.  

7. Have an Evening Routine.

As I’ve said before, you body loves habits and routines.  It’s very easy to hack this love of habits.  If you do the same series of things – maybe brush your teeth, pick out your clothes for the next day, and read a novel – before going to sleep, your body will automatically associate those 3 things in that order with the process of going to sleep.

This process is called if-then planning, and it’s been shown to be one of the most effective tools for changing or establishing new habits.  More on that in future posts.

Avoid alcohol during your evening routine.  Whilst a good tipple is great for making you drowsy, it’s incredibly disruptive for sleep quality.  It also gives your liver an extra toxin to clear out while you sleep.   

If you want to replace the evening beverage with something helpful, I suggest caffeine free tea.  One with chamomile or lavender in it can help you get to sleep a little faster and sleep a little deeper.

At Night

8. Reserve the Bed for Sleeping and Intimacy – Nothing Else

Notice I said intimacy, not necessarily sex. I’ll be writing about this in detail later, but non-sexual touch is just as important to mental, physical, and relational health as sexual touch.  Feel free to use time in bed for massages, light caresses, and cuddle time.  If it should happen to lead to sex – bonus!  If not, this physical contact will still produce huge amounts of oxytocin (the connection hormone), which will produce a feeling of relaxed contentment, perfect for falling into a deep sleep, especially in men.

If you train your brain to focus only on relaxing while you’re in bed, it’s far less likely to spiral off into anxious thoughts that keep you awake at night. 

Side bar: The benefits of canoodling before sleep have been shown in several studies.  In fact the hormones and neurotransmitters produced in the act work as strong sedatives that also increase the quality of the sleep that follows.  Remember, you’re doing it for your health.

9. Embrace the Dark Side – Avoid Light at Night

Getting away from light at night can be a bit tricky. 

Blackout curtains or sleep masks can help, but the single most important thingyou can do is keep away from devices with screens for at least an hour before trying to sleep.  In fact, if you do nothing else I suggest here, do this one thing. 

That blue-toned light, which is so helpful in driving up cortisol,also keeps our body from making the sleep preparation hormone, melatonin.  We can only naturally produce melatonin in the dark.  Without it, the quality of our sleep decreases dramatically.

I do want to note; melatonin has become a popular supplement lately.  It can be a good short-term solution if something is disrupting your normal sleep routine, but it should NOT be taken long-term.  

Melatonin is a hormone that your body naturally produces.  Taking it as a supplement long-term will tell your body that it doesn’t need to produce it any more, so it will stop.  Hormones are a lot of work to produce, and the human body is super efficient with its resources.

Following the tips in this guide; especially numbers 2, 9, and 10; will help you get that system back on track and keep it working well.

10. Keep ALL Devices With Screens Out of the Bedroom

Some people panic when I suggest keeping their TV’s and cell phones out of their bedroom.  If this sounds like you, know that you are not alone.  

Up to 30% of Americans now wake up in the middle of the night to check texts and email, and then check them first thing after waking up in the morning.  This is a major sleep killer, and it’s got to stop. 

While you’re sleeping, leave your cell phone face down in any room but your bedroom.

The first time you do this, it may feel like you’re abandoning your best friend to sleep on your coffee table.  Trust me, after two weeks the benefit to your sleep quality and mental health will more than make up for it.

I get many objections here, so I’m going to take a minute to talk about a couple of them.

Q: What if someone needs to get a hold of me?

A: Make sure that anyone who may need to get a hold of you knows to call, not text, in case of emergency.  Then, about an hour before bed just turn all alerts off, but leave the ringer on.  Here’s a how-to for iPhoneand Android.

Q: But, what if I use my phone as my alarm?

A: Your phone can also still be your alarm clock. Having to get up to turn it off doubles as a great way to help you kick that snoozing habit.  You’re welcome.

Q: But I watch TV to unwind at the end of the day. What can I do before bed to unwind and still get good sleep? 

A: I’m so glad you asked.  You can: 

• Read a book 

• Prepare for the next day (set out clothes, pack lunches)

• Clean something – let’s face it, there’s always something

• Play a board game

• Do a puzzle 

• Brush your teeth 

• Take a shower

• Have “alone time” with your partner – remember orgasms are great for sleep

The possibilities are endless!

To further prove my point, studies have shown that having a TV in the bedroom significantly lowers sleep satisfaction and libido. 

Long story short – sleep is important.

These are just a few of the steps you can take to improve the quality of your sleep.  Some of these things are easy and some will require rewriting habits that you’ve had for decades.  You’re going to have good days and not-so-good days as you build better sleep habits.  As with any habit change process, remember to be kind to yourself.