Since we touched on sleep in our previous recovery tips, I figured it was only logical to follow up with an article on how to actually do it. Now that might seem a bit odd, someone telling you how to sleep. You know how, and at night you get tired an whenever you do it’s time for bed, right? You get up the following morning that’s that. Despite the obvious, there actually are ways to help you sleep better. Think of it as similar to breathing in athletics. No one taught you how to breathe while doing cardio or weights, but if you know how to properly breathe during exercise your training changes immensely. That seems a plausible reality, so why shouldn’t sleep optimization?
Historically I am a very poor sleeper. While I almost invariably sleep through the night, I always woke up tired and or just slept right through the clock. The reason for this was poor sleep habits, and once corrected my sleep improved ten fold. So below are the various ways I improved my sleep after copious reading, trial and error. Don’t expect to implement everything, just stick to the fundamentals and watch how different your mornings are. I’ll start with the basics that everyone should incorporate, and then go onto specifics in the second half.
Keeping a Decent Schedule
Every evening after work you do your thing and after a while you get tired. Sometimes you go to bed, sometimes you stay up later anyhow to get things done, but your bed time isn’t static. You go to sleep when you’re tired. One the weekends you maximize your free time by staying up late, maybe going out at night, and sleeping in. Does this sound familiar? It’s a fairly common scene across the globe. The most important thing for consistently great sleep is a decent schedule. You should go to bed around the same time every night, including the weekends. Get up at the same time every day irregardless and try to get at least 8 hours in between falling asleep and waking. If you insist on staying up on your days off, you should only stay up an extra hour, not four. On days where you insist you cannot go to bed early, like Friday night out with the friends, make yourself get up within an hour of your normal waking time and go to bed early the next night. The morning isn’t so horrible if you’ve slept well the night before, and getting up on a Saturday at the same time you rise on a work day isn’t blasphemy when you realize that you aren’t losing any free time at all.
No Stimulants Past Lunch
Many people are great consumers of coffee, tea, chocolate, supplements and other stimulatory products. We use them to wake up, stay alert throughout the day, and even to stay up later. This throws your body completely off and is very, very unhealthy especially in regards to sleep. It becomes a vicious cycle of poor rest and thus poor activity. If you can, quit caffeinated beverages altogether. After a few weeks you’ll be amazed at how much more awake you feel without them. If you’re like me and still enjoy a morning cup, try to keep it decaf. Whatever you do, do not consume these beverages after lunch. Even if, like me, you can go to sleep after a double espresso you are still cheating yourself of a good night’s sleep. You may not feel it, but copious studies show that it causes difficulty falling sleep, restlessness, increased body movements, increased likelihood of being wakened by external stimuli, etc. Heavy users may not perceive these effects, as they have a high tolerance and are used to the interrupted sleep patterns.
Exercise
We’ve all experienced the joy of a good night’s sleep after a very hard day in the gym or out in the yard. Keeping active is a great way to expend excess energy and thus sleep well. Overly sedentary people suffer from sleep difficulties more often than not, and something as simple as an evening walk would solve so many problems. You don’t have to work yourself into exhaustion, simply stay active on a daily basis! Most of you are fitness enthusiasts and so this may seem obvious, but it’s usually the obvious we overlook isn’t it?
Now we’ll go onto the meat of the article: Optimizing your environment for sleep.
Comfort
Here’s another seemingly obvious tip - comfort. In order to sleep well you have to be comfortable. Most of us already have the beds which we like, and unless your bed is a piece of lumpy garbage it is likely that you have adapted to sleeping on it and that it will do just fine. Firmness, softness, depth - it really doesn’t matter so long as you like it. More important than what you’re sleeping on though, is what you’re sleeping in.
Always sleep in loose clothing that doesn’t bind or cause you to be constantly adjusting them as you fall asleep. It’s preferable to use less clothing and more blankets, or better yet less of everything and more climate control. People sleep more soundly when they are cool, so read on.
Temperature
As I said above, our bodies fall into a deeper, more uninterrupted sleep when they are cool. I don’t mean cold though. Too cool and you’ll have difficulty falling asleep. I prefer to sleep with very light, summer-like clothing and take advantage of layering via blankets to regulate my body temperate. Sure, excess warmth is comfy but it’s not conducive to our goals. If you can set the thermostat at a cool temperature year round and sleep with minimal covering then that’s great. If not, then read on as here is what I do in my drafty, 300-year-old New England house. During the winter I simply add 2 or 3 lighter blankets which can be added to or subtracted from depending on the temperature. The summer is where things get difficult. If you, like myself, do not have air conditioning try sleeping with the window open using no covering at all. I have difficulty sleeping this way, and so use a very thin sheet. Staying barefoot will really help, and using a fan has multiple benefits aside from the breeze which I will touch on below. Try not to have the fan aimed directly at your body, but to keep the room well circulated and cool. The key with temperature is consistency.
Noise control
Noises that interrupt sleep for most are not the common ones you are used to, but rather the intrusive ones which happen with no regularity such as a car door slamming. Ambient noise such as a fan or sound machine will help drown out the intrusive noises.
Light
Ideally you want to have the room as dark as you can get it. Methods for obtaining darkness include thick curtains and removing or covering light sources such as the alarm clock or door jambs. As much as we want darkness though, having light when you awake is also very important. Our bodies are naturally designed to sleep when darkness arrives, and wake with the light. In the evening, as you are getting ready for bed, try to keep the lights down low to help ease your body into sleepiness. Avoid bright sources of light the hour before you go to bed, such as the television or computer. Do something else, such as reading or simply lounging about with your thoughts which will make you quite tired rapidly if for no other reason than perceived boredom. I am fortunate to live in a wooded area which is incredibly dark at night, and so I can sleep with the curtains open and unless there is a full moon still achieve near total darkness. That way, when the sun comes up in the morning a few hours before my alarm, my body has already begun it’s natural waking cycle. This helps to combat that morning grogginess substantially. For those of you who live in more urban environments, or who have to sleep during daylight hours, using a light on a timer works quite well. They even sell alarm clocks which will slowly turn on a bright light, simulating the rising sun. These are a great investment and actually work not only for sleep, but for combating depression. For the more obsessed, I remember reading about one fellow who installed lighting over each window which repliced a bright sunny day even though he had to wake up at 3 AM.
Bad Habits
It is important when you go to sleep that you are relaxed and at ease. If you are having trouble setting a bed time or falling asleep, temporary use of sleep supplements such as melatonin or l-tryptophan may help but are not to be relied upon. Do not think about what needs to get done tomorrow as you’re lying in bed, and try to accomplish your daily tasks well before bed time so as to have the later evening free for relaxing. Use your bed for sleep and nothing more. Do not watch television, do paperwork, eat, etc in bed. This helps by psychologically reinforcing the bed as a sleep space. If the bed is only for sleep, you will be less likely to be restless or mentally overactive while lying there. Finally, look into various relaxation techniques you can perform as you are falling asleep. I like muscle relaxation, where you tense up and then relax each muscle in your body in a certain sequence. Some others may enjoy meditation, or breathing techniques.
Conclusion
Sleeping well not only ensures proper recovery and thus improved performance, but will also help regulate your mood and energy levels throughout the day. I think so many are irritable or simply depressed and don’t realize the role that getting enough sleep actually plays. Most of the folks I know run on around 6 hours of sleep because of work and other obligations. While this may or not be a societal flaw, we can always work on treating the symptoms. Once you realize how important making time for yourself is, you might just be inspired to treat the problem.
