5 EASY tips for better sleep

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Sleep is the key to unlocking a better life, whether you are looking to perform better at work, competing in the Olympics, or just trying to have a little more happiness each day.

I have tracked my sleep with the Oura ring for years, and after countless experiments, here are my 5 easy tips for getting a night of better sleep. If you are looking for a more in-depth article, give this a read. And, if you are looking for the best book on Sleep, here is my summary of Mathew Walker’s great book, Why we sleep.

PS: if you prefer to watch here is the video for this article.

Get 8 hours of sleep

While this one may sound very obvious, it is also often overlooked. I know many people, myself included, who will try everything they can to optimize their sleep but still avoid simply going to bed earlier.

While all of these tips will improve your sleep, it is critical to get a solid 8 hours of sleep as often as possible. If you are very active, your body may need even more to repair the muscle damage.

No Caffeine after 1 pm

Every person is different when it comes to how caffeine affects them. Some people can metabolize coffee very quickly, and for others, it can take nearly all day. Caffeine works by suppressing and blocking adenosine receptors in your brain. This effectively stops the build-up of sleep pressure and makes you feel less tired.

For the average adult, the half-life of caffeine is ~6 hours, and the quarter-life is ~12 hours. So if you have your last coffee at 1 pm, you will still have between 25-50% of the caffeine circulating through your body while you are trying to fall asleep. Therefore, having caffeine in your system not only makes it more difficult to fall asleep but also lowers your sleep quality leaving you less rested when you wake up.

No eating or drinking 2 hours before bed

When you go to bed, you want your body to be winding down and not have to work on digesting a bunch of food. If you eat close to bedtime, your body will continue to send blood and energy to your digestive system to break down the food. This keeps your body temperature high, which reduces how restorative of sleep you get.

If you are drinking alcohol, your body will need to metabolize it before getting into a deep sleep. I have found this drastically reduces my quality of sleep. Any more than one drink, and I have significantly less REM sleep and a less restful sleep overall.

Even drinking water should be avoided close to bedtime. Waking up to go pee reduces the total time you are asleep and resets your sleep cycle. Try to avoid drinking and having to get up for the 3 am bathroom break.

Nothing Productive 1 hour before bed

Falling asleep is obviously a critical step in getting a good night’s rest; however, as humans, we love to self-sabotage, and we try to cram in as many things as possible before bed. This doesn’t work. Being productive before bed extends the time we need to fall asleep, which shortens the overall time we are resting and recovering.

To get the best possible sleep, you want your brain to be as empty as possible and not be thinking over everything that happened earlier in the day or trying to solve tomorrow’s problems.

I accomplish this by having a hard cutoff time 1 hour before bed. In that hour, I do the following to help prime myself to be ready for sleep:

• Gratitude Journal (I use the 5-minute journal)

• Relaxing Shower

• Stretch (I currently use GOWOD)

• Floss and Brush Teeth

• I read in bed for 15-25 minutes before I fall asleep (the key is to pick a book that isn’t too interesting, choose one that you enjoy reading but are okay to put down. The best book genre I found to “put” me to sleep is cookbooks)

Cold and pitch-black room

Having a cooler core body temperature helps trigger us to get to sleep and to sleep more soundly. Try to keep your room at 68°F / 18°C and avoid pilling on the blankets. If you wake up sweaty, you are too warm. In my own testing, I have found getting the room to 17°C and using just a sheet and a thin blanket is perfect; as the room warms up through the night, I stay cool and relaxed.

There are companies like ChiliPad and Eight Sleep that make cooling pads that go on your bed. These can be set for an exact temperature, and I have heard a lot of rave reviews from people that use them.

A pitch-black room creates an environment that allows your body and mind to turn off. If there are flickering lights or any other interruption, your mind will continuously process these and assess them as a threat. This will reduce the quality of your sleep.

PS: Earplugs and a sleep mask are your friends.

Bonus: 10,000 steps

A top 5 list would not be complete without a bonus number 6.

Getting 10,000 steps outside of your exercise is a great way to ensure you are getting the baseline amount of movement your body craves. By moving your body, especially outdoors, everything will feel better, from your eyes to your joints to your soul. The other benefit of getting enough movement is that it helps accumulate fatigue and sleep pressure.