This article is a chapter from my book The Life Actionbook: Tools and Actions for Personal Development. The entire book will eventually be available on this website for free in web format, but if you prefer to read it in ebook or physical formats, you can find The Life Actionbook on Amazon.com (affiliate link).
Disclaimer: I wish I could tell you that I’m a doctor, but I can’t. I’m just an inquisitive author with a background in science and a love for practical research. The content of this article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. If you want medical advice, ask a real doctor.
Sleep Quiz
Question 1: How long were you laying in bed with your eyes closed last night?
Your answer:
○ Fewer than 6 hours: 0 points.
○ 6-7.5 hours: 1 point.
○ 8+ hours: 2 points.
You probably noticed the awkward way I phrased the question. That’s because sleep is hard to quantify. While the length of rest is significant, quality of sleep can make a difference. Someone who tossed and turned for eight hours may feel worse than someone who had a deep sleep for six hours. But I’ve found that even if I can’t sleep, keeping my eyes closed and trying to think of nothing (i.e., meditation) is almost as effective as sleep itself.
Most people need somewhere between seven and eight hours of sleep each night. It can vary by many factors including genetics and quality of sleep.
Question 2: How do you feel when you wake up?
Your answer:
○ It’s hard to get out of bed: 0 points.
○ Groggy: 1 point.
○ Ready to seize the day: 2 points.
How you feel when you wake up is an indication of sleep quality. If you have poor sleep quality, changing your bedtime routines may help.
Question 3: How often do you feel sleepy during the day?
Your answer:
○ I’m always sleepy: 0 points.
○ I get sleepy once or twice during the day: 1 point.
○ I’m energetic and awake from sunrise until sunset: 2 points.
If you feel sleepy during the day, you probably did not get enough quality sleep the night before. Sometimes your daytime habits may also make you feel drowsy. Not getting enough sunlight, overeating, or exhausting yourself may make you tired before bedtime.
Add up all your points and see how you fared:
0-2 points: read this chapter now.
3-4 points: come back to this section later.
5-6 points: skip this chapter, you’re good.
The Importance of Sleep
On its face, sleep is a massive waste of time. We spend several hours a day doing nothing. It’s a third of our lives lying prone with our eyes closed. It’s no wonder why many people try to reduce the amount of time they sleep.
But when we get too little sleep, bad things happen. We look older, become irritable, and make more mistakes. Our health declines and we get sick more often. We become less productive.
The benefits of sleep are many. Your skin looks more youthful, your hormones balance, and you lose weight faster. Your brain cleanses the toxins. Your body purges inflammation and recharges your immune system. You focus better, feel better, and have more energy.
It is tempting to sacrifice sleep for working another couple hours or getting a few more things done around the house. It’s not worth it. When you sacrifice sleep, you’re not gaining hours of productive time. You’re taking it away from your future. Sleep debt is real. You may gain a couple of hours of productive time by sleeping later tonight, but you will be tired tomorrow. In fact, your productivity tomorrow will drop and reverse any gains you made the night before. You can’t cheat time.
Sleep is a critical natural process. Getting too little will erase any productivity gained from sacrificing it in the past. A lack of sleep affects not only your productivity, but it also impairs your memory, creativity, and judgment. People become irritable and cranky. People who get irregular sleep have an increased risk of several mental illnesses including schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. The effects are also physical because sleep deprivation lowers your immune system and increases your chances of obesity.
Sleep Action #1: Starting today, keep a sleep log. Record what time you go to bed and what time you get up. Rate your quality of sleep. Take note of any naps you take throughout the day. Track your sleep habits for at least a week.
Time
If you want to improve your sleep, the first thing you need to do is take it seriously. It is one of the most important things you do each day. A good night’s sleep lays the foundation for everything you do after you wake up. It makes sense to make it a priority.
Schedule your sleep time beforehand. Start by deciding for yourself how many hours of sleep you need. It can vary between different people depending on many factors including genetics. Most people need somewhere between 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
Next, determine when you need to wake up. Count back the number of hours you need to sleep. For example, if you need eight hours of sleep and must wake up by 7 AM, you will count back eight hours from 7 AM to 11 PM. 11 PM is the time you need to be in bed. It is typically easier to set a regular waking time than it is to establish a consistent bedtime.
When deciding your sleep times, it helps to look at when sunrise and sunset occur. It varies depending on location and time of year. Get to bed within a few hours of sunset and try not to sleep past sunrise. The natural cycles of sunlight and darkness affect your hormone levels and can make sleeping difficult if you sleep at unnatural times.
Most people sleep in cycles of 90 minutes. Every 90 minutes, you wake, shift position in your bed, get up to use the bathroom, or otherwise awaken from deep slumber. It makes sense to plan your sleep in multiples of 90 minutes: 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 6:00, 7:30, 9:00. Add the approximate amount of time it takes you to fall asleep. For example, if it takes you ten minutes to fall asleep, it would be better for you to be lying in bed for 6 hours and 10 minutes than for 7 hours. Getting interrupted in the middle of a deep sleep cycle will make you feel groggy.
Sleep Action #2: Block off your sleep times on your calendar once you’ve determined your bedtimes and waking times. Schedule your sleep like you would any other important activity. And remember: don’t be late for your appointments.
Your Mind
Often what keeps people awake at night is their own racing minds. To fall asleep, you must first turn off your conscious mind so your subconscious can take over. That involves calming your mind. There are several techniques you can try as you lay in bed struggling to fall asleep: meditation, gratitude, and breathing.
Meditation is the act of calming your mind. It often gets dismissed as woo-woo New Age stuff. But the fact is, it has been a useful tool for thousands of years. There’s no harm in giving it a try, and you might be surprised by how helpful it can be.
Sleep Action #3: When you’re trying to fall asleep, lay in bed and close your eyes. Try to think about nothing. Or, if that’s too difficult, concentrate on your breathing. Whenever a thought enters your head, let go of it in your mind and watch it drift away.
Gratitude is like meditation, but instead of clearing your head, you fill it with good thoughts. By thinking about the positive, you push the negative worries out of mind.
Sleep Action #4: As you lay in bed, reflect on all the good things that happened during the day. Which people are you lucky to have in your life? Who helped you? What things do you have in life that others don’t?
When you fall asleep, your breathing slows to long, deep breaths. Your body does it unconsciously. You can speed up the process of falling asleep by intentionally slowing your breaths to get your body ready to sleep.
Sleep Action #5: While laying in bed, take long, slow breaths. Count your breaths in your mind. Breathe in faster than you breathe out.
If meditation, gratitude, and breathing aren’t enough to clear your mind, you probably have too much going on in there. Keep a pen and paper by your bed in case more ideas pop into your head while you’re sleeping. Writing everything down releases your mind from the burden of trying to remember everything.
Sleep Action #6: Grab a pen and paper. At least ten minutes before you go to bed, write down everything that’s on your mind. Don’t edit. You don’t have to make sense. Just write whatever pops into your head. What are you worried about? What do you need to do tomorrow? What do you need to remember? Do a complete brain dump until your mind is empty.
Your Environment
The most obvious, yet often overlooked, factor in sleep quality is your environment. Someone sleeping in a hot, noisy factory will not sleep as well as someone in a quiet, cozy room. You don’t need someone to tell you that. Most likely your bedroom is not as extreme as a loud factory, so it won’t be as obvious how you can improve it. What exactly are the ideal sleeping conditions?
Of course, it will vary from person to person, but for most people, a good sleeping environment is cool, dark, and free from distractions.
Sleep Action #7: At least at the beginning of the night when you are trying to fall asleep, keep the temperature at near 68°F if possible. You can raise the temperature later if you feel cold in the night.
Sleep Action #8: Make your room as dark as possible—pitch black being ideal—because there are studies that show even your skin can sense the presence of light.
Sleep Action #9: Remove all distractions including phones, television, and noise. Keep work out of the bedroom. Working in your bedroom creates a psychological connection between your bedroom and work stress.
Air quality is also an essential factor. If the air is too humid or too dry, it may affect your sleep. The ideal humidity for sleep is between 30% and 50%.
Sleep Action #10: Get a (de-)humidifier. Use a humidifier overnight if the humidity falls below 30%. Install a dehumidifier if it regularly goes over 50%. A hygrometer is an instrument that measures moisture in the air. They are inexpensive and work like a thermometer.
Sleep Action #11: Using sleep-inducing scents such as lavender, geranium, chamomile, or ylang-ylang can also help.
At night, avoid exposure to blue light. Blue light inhibits natural melatonin production. Managing your exposure to light will regulate your body’s natural hormone production so you can fall asleep and wake easier.
Sleep Action #12: Avoid computer screens and fluorescent lighting at night because they give off blue light.
Many people, especially in urban environments, cannot control the noises coming from outside. If noise coming in from outside is bothersome, you can control the sounds in your bedroom.
Sleep Action #13: Play soothing music, nature sounds, or white noise while you sleep.
Your Health
Your health can have a significant effect on your sleep. Diet and exercise play a huge role in how well you sleep. First, we’ll discuss your diet.
It’s best not to eat anything within a couple of hours of going to bed. Your body’s digestion of the food may keep you up at night. Regulating your meal times can also control your hormone levels and sleep cycles. Ideally, you should eat a diet high in sleep nutrients such as selenium, vitamin C, tryptophan, potassium, calcium, vitamin D, omega-3s, melatonin, vitamin B6, probiotics and prebiotics, and magnesium. The right foods to eat for high-quality sleep include green leafy vegetables, seeds like pumpkin and sesame, spirulina, brazil nuts, and organic, unprocessed foods. If you need to eat before bed, go for a high-fat, low-carb meal. Morning is the ideal time to have a big, nutritious meal.
Sleep Action #14: Avoid eating two hours before bedtime. If you’re hungry before you sleep, eat a high-fat, low-carb snack.
People tend to underestimate how caffeine affects their sleep. The half-life of caffeine in most healthy adults is about 5-6 hours. That means if you consume 100mg of caffeine (the amount in a typical cup of coffee) at 4 PM, you might still have 50mg in your system at 10 PM. 25mg of caffeine would remain in your body at 4 AM. The fact is, taking caffeine at any time of the day can cause sleep problems. But if you’re not ready to give up your coffee or tea habit, you can at least cut its impact by drinking it only before 2 PM. That would allow time for most of the caffeine to clear your system before you sleep.
Sleep Action #15: Don’t take caffeine after 2 PM.
If you have good sleep habits, you should be most energetic in the morning. Take advantage of the energy by doing exercise first thing when you wake up. If you have trouble motivating yourself, get an accountability partner to exercise with you every morning. Many people enjoy going out for a jog as soon as they get up. It has the added benefit of allowing you to get some morning sunlight as well. You should also incorporate some strength training into your regimen at least twice a week. Doing resistance exercises before bed can also help you fall asleep faster.
Sleep Action #16: Get some exercise soon after you wake up. Do some strength exercises before you go to bed.
Sleep Hacks
In this section, you will find some unconventional things you can try for improving your sleep. These actions are either unintuitive or not suitable for long-term use.
Sleep Action #17: Try the Half Military Crawl. The most straightforward sleep hack you can do is to adjust your position. You’ve been sleeping your whole life, so you know which position helps you sleep best. When you go to bed, arrange yourself into your best sleep position from the beginning. When in doubt, self-experimenter Timothy Ferriss recommends the Half Military Crawl position in his book The 4-Hour Body. In this position, you sleep on your stomach with one arm pointing towards your feet and the leg straight on that side. Bend your other arm and leg. This sleeping position works because it prevents you from moving in your sleep.
Sleep Action #18: Take a hot bath. Hot baths at bedtime may increase the release of melatonin to help you sleep. Take the bath an hour or two before going to bed.
Sleep Action #19: Take caffeine naps. People tend to get sleepy after lunch. The early afternoon is the ideal time for a caffeine nap. Drink a cup of strong coffee, then set an alarm for 20 minutes and close your eyes. You should be able to fall asleep for a few minutes and wake up to your alarm feeling invigorated. Be careful not to nap for more than 20 minutes. If you fall into deep sleep and are interrupted, you could feel worse upon waking.
Sleep Action #20: Smash your gut. CrossFit performance coach Kelly Starrett recommends rolling on your stomach with a medicine ball every day. In his book Tools of Titans, Timothy Ferriss remarks that doing this exercise also works as a sleep aid.
Sleep Action #21: Try polyphasic sleep. Breaking your sleep time into two or more chunks lets you spend less overall time sleeping. It helps you take advantage of the critical REM portions of sleep. In its most extreme form, polyphasic sleep involves taking six 20-minute naps spaced evenly throughout a 24-hour day—a total of two hours of sleep. A milder form of polyphasic sleep is taking 20-minute naps during the day as needed whenever you didn’t get enough sleep at night. Find out more about polyphasic sleep online by searching your favorite search engine for “polyphasic sleep.”
Sleep Action #22: Try the power of cold. Taking an ice bath before bed can help you fall into a deep slumber quickly. Dump 2-3 bags of ice into a tub half-full with water. Immerse your lower body for five minutes, then your upper torso for another five minutes. If ice baths are too extreme for you, taking a cold shower or walking outside in the cold before bed may have similar effects.
Supplements
Anything you eat can be considered a supplement, especially if taken outside of your regular meals. Bedtime snacks are no different. What you put in your body before you hit the sack can make a big difference in how well you sleep.
Sleep Action #23: Drink non-alcoholic beer. Hops used to make beer are thought to improve sleep. But, although alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, it can reduce the quality of your sleep. That means drinking non-alcoholic beer before bed may help you sleep better.
Sleep Action #24: Try the honey and apple cider vinegar tonic. Taking one or two tablespoons of honey at bedtime can improve your sleep. Your brain prioritizes the sugars from honey for use while you sleep. It results in a deeper, more restorative slumber. Apple cider vinegar helps digestion and breakdown of foods to release tryptophan. The combination of honey and apple cider vinegar is a favorite tonic for combating insomnia.
Sleep Action #25: Drink chamomile tea. Chamomile tea is often used to soothe the stomach and relax the muscles. Drink it before bed to fall asleep easier.
Sleep Action #26: Take probiotics. It can be hard to sleep when your stomach is hard at work digesting the food you ate before going to bed. It can be even harder to fall asleep when your stomach is having trouble digesting the food you ate. Probiotics are microorganisms that help your gut break down and digest the food you’ve eaten. Taking them can improve your health and reduce stomach and intestinal problems. Vary the brands that you use, so you gain exposure to many different types of microorganisms.
Sleep Action #27: Try pumpkin seed powder. Pumpkin seed powder is rich in the amino acid tryptophan, which helps your body produce melatonin and regulate your sleep.
Sleep Action #28: Take valerian root. Extracts of valerian root have sedative effects and can reduce anxiety.
Sleep Action #29: Take melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that your body produces to regulate sleep cycles. Taking 1.5-3.0 milligrams of melatonin an hour before sleep may help. While taking melatonin is not addictive, taking it too often can inhibit your body’s natural production of it.
Tools of the sleep masters
Sleep Action #30: Get Flux. Blue light from your device screens can suppress your body’s sleep hormones and prevent you from falling asleep at night. Flux is free software that automatically removes the blue light from your computer screen after the sun goes down, resulting in an orange tint.
Sleep Action #31: Wear a sleep mask. It’s not always practical to remove all light from your room. In situations where you can’t control the lighting, you can wear a sleep mask. You may also want to pair the sleep mask with earplugs, especially while traveling.
Sleep Action #32: Track your sleep. Tracking is vital to the development of any habit. The sleep habit is no different. For a more accurate measure of your sleep, try using a sleep tracker. Wristband tracking devices like FitBit can be used to track sleep. Search “sleep tracker” on Amazon to find more such devices. If you have a smartphone, you can download apps that track your sleep by detecting movement from your bed mattress (Try Sleep Cycle). Track your sleep nightly, so you can see if you are improving.
Sleep Action #33: Get a noise machine. If you can’t sleep in silence, you might as well choose the type of noise you sleep with. Get a noise machine to play white noise or soothing background sounds.
Sleep Action #34: Get blackout curtains. Most curtains are made from fabric that allows light to pass through. Blackout curtains are thicker and shut out all light from entering the room. They are essential if you need to sleep during the daytime unless you wear a sleep mask.
Sleep Action #35: Use artificial light cues. Many people have responsibilities that don’t allow them to wake with the rising sun. If you have to wake up earlier than the sun, you can use artificial light to help you wake. Various companies make lights that create artificial sunlight. Search “phototherapy” on your favorite search engine or electronics retailer for more information.
Sleep Action #36: Get a ChiliPad. The ChiliPad is a mattress pad with a temperature control system that can warm or cool your bed with a thermostat.
Sleep Action #37: Try an Acupressure Mat. Acupressure mats lay on top of your mattress and have little soft spikes on them. You lay on top of them when you sleep, and the small spikes cause a slight discomfort that helps you to relax and fall asleep.
Resources
Sleep Action #38: Learn more about sleep on the Web. The following are nonprofit websites dedicated to sleep research and education.
- The National Sleep Foundation
- The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School
- Sleep Education
Sleep Action #39: Read more about sleep. Here are a few books that I recommend for learning more about sleep.
- Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success, by Shawn Stevenson
- The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time, by Arianna Huffington
- At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, by A. Roger Ekirch
- 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, by Jonathan Crary
- 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman, by Timothy Ferriss
- Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers, by Timothy Ferriss
Sleep Action #40: Watch TED talks on sleep. If you’re more of a visual learner, watching videos can be more helpful than reading books. Talks to Inspire You to Go to Bed and Get a Good Night’s Sleep is a curated playlist of TED talks that teach the importance of sleep.
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