It’s magical what you’re capable of when well rested. For some reason, sleeping is very important for our bodies and brains. We should do everything we can to do it right.
So how do you get a good nights sleep?
In order of importance:
- Environment
- Behaviour
- Supplements
Environment
Blackout Curtains
You detect light when your eyes are closed. If a room is pitch black, your brain will relax more.
Pitch black means pitch black. That means no light coming through the cracks of your door. Hang blackout curtain over your door to cover the bits of light coming through the cracks. You want your room so dark you can’t see your hand in front of you in the day-time.
Day-Wake Alarm Clock
Now that your room is blacked out, you can wake up to light. It’s more natural than the brutal sound of Apple’s alarm on your phone. Buy a day-wake alarm clock and set it to the same time everyday.
Mattress
Different people need different mattresses. Hard, medium or soft. Go to a mattress store and actually lie on them to see which you like. Same for pillows. This is my mattress.
An 8Sleep mattress is good because it can cool itself.
Temperature
The body likes to be cool when you sleep. That means 15 - 18 Celcius (59 - 65 Fahrenheit).
White Noise
If you live in the city, a white noise machine can help drown our sounds of ambulances driving by. Your brain adapt to the sound of the white noise machine the same way it adapts to the loud atmosphere in a bar by ignoring the chatter of other people after spending 5 minutes there.
Earplugs
Silence is important to keep you calm. If there is noise outside, buy earplugs.
Behaviour
Wakeup
Get up at the same time everyday. No matter when you go to bed. If you’re a morning person, this is between 5-7am. If you’re a night person, this is between 8-10am.
Caffeine
It lives for 6 hours in your system. Avoid drinking it after 4pm.
No Screens
Stay away from your phone 1 hour before bed. The blue light from your phone/laptop/tv messes with your brain waves and will make your brain over excited making it hard to relax and fall asleep. You can also set your iPhone screen to red to get rid of the blue light. During this time, do the dishes, clean your home. These things calm your brain. Doom scrolling is the worst thing you can do before bed.
Sleep By Yourself
Being in bed with a partner next to you who moves can wake you up. Unless you’re sleeping on a giant California King bed, sleep alone.
Warm Shower
Take a shower or sauna before bed. The heat spreads blood flow through your body, calming you down.
Naps
Taking naps during the day is okay. Even lying in a dark room with your eyes closed is good for the body to recover. Aim to nap for 90 minutes, the body counts that as one sleep cycle.
Supplements
300mcg Melatonin
Melatonin supplements are usually 10mg (10,000 mcg). This is way too high. The body doesn’t need over 1mg of melatonin to get the job done. Any more builds a dependency and makes melatonin useless.
300mg Phosphatidylserine
Taking phosphatidylserine with melatonin seems to give you a deeper sleep. It made me dream more.