We’ve established in our earlier article that sleep is the foremost pillar to your health. Now, how do we sleep better?
1 – Set a consistent sleep and wake schedule every day
There should not be a separate timing for the weekends. Holidays abroad are exceptions. The best way to do this is to get 2 battery-operated alarm clocks (old school, no screens!), one for you to get to sleep, and the other for waking up. Few people thinks 0f setting an alarm clock for time to sleep! But this works well and will train your circadian rhythm so that the process will get more automatic in time to come.
Why use two clocks instead of one? So you don’t have to keep adjusting alarm time on the same clock.
2 – No caffeine after 1PM
Caffeine has a half-life of about 7 hours, and this means that half the coffee you drank at 1PM remains in your body at 8PM. Is it any wonder why you can’t sleep?
Every waking moment, a sleepiness chemical called adenosine builds up in you. Caffeine effectively blocks adenosine from the receptors in your body, and that keeps you from feeling sleepy. So there you lie, tired yet unable to sleep.
3 – A cool, dark bedroom
Before the lightbulb was invented, we all slept when it’s dark out and cool. Today we can try our best to do that by setting your aircon to 2-3 degrees colder than usual, 2 hours before bedtime. Some of us are more sensitive to lights, and can’t sleep well when it’s too bright out. You can purchase and install light-blocking black stickers on your windows – not only will it make it darker, it will block off some heat from the sun in the day time.
4 – No naps after 3pm
This one is pretty obvious. The more you nap , the more energetic you are before bedtime. If you do need to nap, keep it to 20mins or less.
5 – No screens 30 mins before bedtime
Choose to find another way to unwind without needing screens. All our beloved screens emit bluelight which makes sleeping even harder. Read a book. Write something about your day. Stretch a little but nothing so intense that it raises your heart-rate significantly. Use a dim light when you are unwinding because it should be cool and dark.
6 – Turn the clock face away
Clock-watching while you are already anxious about not getting sleep will make you more anxious. The result = you sleep even later. If your phone is also your alarm – it’s not ideal but I get it – do not reach for it.
7 – Expose yourself to sunlight during the day
For the sake of your sleep, it is far better to go out and have lunch than to order in and eat in the airconditioned office. Sunlight exposure is a good way to tell your body that you had periods of daytime activity, instead of just one long day in a light-controlled, temperature-controlled environment.
8 – A quick way to drop body temperature
Take a warm towel and briefly apply it to your face and arms. The resulting drop in body temperature and heart-rate helps prepare the body to sleep better.
9 – Don’t flip around in bed like a blanket tornado
If you can’t fall asleep after what feels like 30mins or so, get up from bed and do something relaxing. Put on a dim light and read, write, or stretch. Do anything that relaxes you. If there is something on your mind, write it down (paper and pen of course, we’re avoiding screens) before you sleep. This is mental hygiene, and it helps you take some of the noise out of your mind before sleeping.
Get back to bed when you start yawning or feel sleepy.
Too many tips here to follow? Just start with the first one here – it is by far the best advice.
