Spoiler Alert: There’s No “One Weird Thing” for Sleep
Sleep ‘Hacks’ are everywhere, promising a Magic Bullet solution to getting the requisite 8 hours a night of quality Light, Deep and REM sleep by just doing “this one weird thing”.
Please.
We all figure out eventually that it’s going to take more than “one weird thing” — it’s more complicated. BUT we still don’t need to turn life upside down to train our brains to want to sleep at the right time and get enough deep sleep.
We just need to make a few tiny, doable tweaks to our daily (and nightly) routines.
So based on my own self-experimentation, working with hundreds of clients, and studying the science, I want to show you how, within 6 nights, you can be sleeping longer and more deeply, thereby recovering enough mentally and physically to attack the next day with gusto, and thrive rather than just about surviving each day.
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What Stops Us Getting Enough Sleep Now?
Sleep is booooring, right? We accept it grudgingly, like being told by our parents it’s time to leave the fairground:
“Ugh, do I HAVE to?!”
Off we stomp to bed, having squeezed every last drop of fun out of our nights.
Wired and over-stimulated by:
- TV
- Phone screens
- Caffeine
- Sugary snacks and
- a lack of physical activity during the day,
we fall into bed and command ourselves to fall asleep.
Like a car that was travelling at 70mph, we try to screech to a sudden halt.
And… well… it doesn’t really happen most nights, does it?
We lie there solving the world’s problems, reading stuff on our phones like that will help, and eventually we fall asleep but the quality and quantity isn’t great.
Is this a big deal though?
Well, yes. Sleep itself is the ‘Hack’ for life. It regulates our
- energy
- mood
- hormones
- appetite
- metabolism,
and as such if we don’t get enough we suffer the consequences in all those areas — exhausted every day, grumpy, low Testosterone (for men), insulin resistant, snacking on empty calories.
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How to Sleep Better in 6 Nights Without Giving Up All Your Fun
I know you have no desire to change who you are, becoming some meditating, teetotal, technology-shunning Zen Master just to get some more sleep.
And you don’t have to.
But over next 6 days you CAN make a few small changes to what you do each day and night, so youcan train the brain (and body) to WANT to sleep at the right time, and fall into a nice deep, restorative sleep.
We can ‘stack’ habits, doing 1 on one day and 1 & 2 the next day, etc.
Let’s jump in…
Night 1: Sleep Schedule
Babies thrive on a sleep schedule and so do adults. Random bedtimes lead to random sleep quality and quantity. So tonight, just get to bed 8.5 hours before you need to get up tomorrow.
Even if you don’t feel like it, and it feels ‘too early’ — your body will get the message within a few days.
Night 2: Sleep Environment
As well as repeating the new bedtime, tonight you also need to cut down on bedtime distractions. Make sure the bedroom is quiet and dark, and put your phone away 30 minutes before bedtime, so your body’s Melatonin production can kick in properly.
The half hour before bed should be a time to wind down, let yourself be bored and un-stimulated.
Night 3: Evening Food & Drink
It’s easy to shoot yourself in the foot in the evenings by having spicy/salty/sugary snacks before bed which cause indigestion at bedtime, or having alcohol. Alcohol may well make you feel sleepy but it stops you falling into a deep sleep, so you won’t wake up rested.
So tonight, ditch any calories after dinner (plus stick to the new bedtime and ditching screens pre-bed — we’re stacking these habits remember!).
Night 4: Evening Mindful Walk
A couple of reasons for tossing and turning in bed rather than falling asleep are:
- a lack of activity during the day so the body isn’t tired
- your mind is racing from all the day’s worries and events
A 30 minute walk this evening will help address both these concerns. By giving yourself a chance to tire your limbs slightly while working through any anxiety before bedtime, decreasing Cortisol levels in the process, you should be able to fall asleep faster.
Night 5: Manage Your Caffeine
It won’t be news to you that caffeine can affect your sleep — anyone who’s had a post-dinner Espresso at a restaurant can testify to the ‘joys’ of lying awake at 2am considering their life choices 🙂
But you don’t have to give up caffeine completely just to sleep better. Just be mindful that plenty of studies have shown that enough caffeine is still in your system even 6 HOURS after consuming it, to disrupt your sleep.
Work backwards, and time your final coffee today to be at least 8 hours before your planned bedtime (that you’re still sticking to every night, right?!).
Night 6: Consider Magnesium Glycinate
Taking medication for your sleep is not a good long term solution clearly. The previous 5 nights’ steps are the best way forward for fixing your lifestyle and daily activities/choices to give you the best chance of falling asleep and staying asleep.
That’s not to say that there are no cheap, simple supplements that can help. Magnesium Glycinate can help ensure our natural Melatonin (what makes us feel sleepy) production is adequate.
Mega doses are unnecessary, so tonight try 200–300mg before bedtime and consider taking this on a daily basis to see if you benefit from it.
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Not All These Habits Will Stick, But…
I know, I know, articles like these always assume we’re superhuman:
“Just build all these new habits, problem solved!”
I’m sure if you try to nail all 6 of those micro-habits this coming week you’ll struggle with a few, and that’s OK.
But at the end of the 6 days of trying to follow those steps, it’s worth recapping on what worked and what didn’t, to identify WHY:
- Sleep Schedule failed? Was your partner not on board?
- Couldn’t avoid PM Junk/Booze? It can be a hard habit to kick after years
- Couldn’t stop phone use at bedtime? Felt bored? Good! We need to learn to be bored to make sleep the best option!
Work towards those 6 micro-habits being the norm eventually, and you’ll feel benefit of these changes within weeks:
- More Energy
- Better Focus & Concentration at work
- Better Mood
- Regulated Metabolism, easier to lose weight
- Hormonal Balance — higher Testosterone for men, Estrogen for women
Sleep pulls everything together, so your body is humming like a well-oiled machine. So it’s worth putting at least a little work in, eh?
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
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Photo credit: iStockphoto.com