6 Scientifically Proven Habits to Improve Your Sleep—and Your Life
One of the most counter-intuitive lessons I’ve learned is that by sleeping more, we can be happier, healthier, calmer, more productive, and show up as better versions of ourselves. In other words, be a little lazier and you’ll enjoy life more! Many of us associate sleeping with being unproductive or undisciplined. We wear lack of sleep like a badge of honor, and according to Gallup, 40 percent of us don’t get enough sleep. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” we say.
“40 percent of us don’t get enough sleep. ”
And yet, the science behind the negative impact of sleep deprivation is staggering. Lack of sleep is associated with poor academic performance, obesity, higher rates of mortality, depression, risk-taking behaviors, athletic injuries, increased motor vehicle accident risk, lower mood, increased inflammation and risk of infection, reduced insulin sensitivity and altered glucose metabolism, increased weight gain and lower metabolic rate, increased blood pressure, and the list goes on.
Our bodies need sleep.
Even with all the health benefits, I believe the greatest benefit of sleep is not measured in our physical health—it’s in our mindset. When we’re tired, things seem difficult, problems feel stressful, and people annoy us. We’re less spontaneous, less creative, and less decisive. On a sleep-deprived day it’s easy to feel down, angry, or annoyed. And we don’t show up as the best versions of ourselves. We make decisions from a defensive perspective.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all. ”
Why would you want to go through a day—let alone a lifetime—as a suboptimal version of yourself?
My top goal —the goal I write in my journal every day—is to show up each day as the best version of myself, to bring my full self to every situation, and to be fully present. After a while, I realized that the single most important action I could take to achieve this goal was to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep really is that foundational.
So why do most of us fail to get enough sleep or enough high-quality sleep? I believe there are two reasons. First, we don’t prioritize sleep. Hopefully this article will serve as a good pep talk for you to start prioritizing your sleep. And it does take prioritization. Can you turn off Netflix a little earlier, skip that last drink, or just go to bed when you feel tired instead of fooling around on social media?
Second, many of us don’t realize all the things we’re doing that are counter-productive to sleep or the things we could do to sleep better.
I dug into the science to better understand sleep. I uncovered six scientifically proven ways we can sleep more, sleep deeper, fall asleep, and/or stay asleep. Consider which of these healthy habits may be easy to implement and which unhealthy habits you can deprioritize in pursuit of your best night's sleep.
Don’t drink alcohol within four hours of going to bed. Alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, but the quality of your sleep will be lower. Alcohol has been shown to reduce sleep duration, reduce REM sleep, and increase sleep disruption, which in addition to making for a less restful sleep can cause drowsiness and impair concentration. Simply put, most of us don’t sleep well after drinking.
Exercise 150 minutes per week. In case you needed yet another reason to exercise, exercise improves the quality of our sleep. In a study by the Journal of Mental Health and Physical Activity, 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each week provided a 65 percent improvement in the quality of the participants’ sleep.
Stop drinking caffeine six hours before you go to bed. Or avoid caffeine altogether. Caffeine’s impact on wakefulness and sleep disruption is well established. But a recent study showed that caffeine can delay your body’s circadian clock, pushing it back by as much as forty minutes. That means you feel tired later than you would without caffeine and can explain why you have trouble waking up when that alarm clock rings. Another study showed that consuming caffeine within six hours of going to bed reduced sleep by more than an hour!
Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day—even on weekends. Our body follows a circadian rhythm—an internal clock based on the cycle of day and night. According to our natural circadian rhythm, we sleep better between midnight and dawn, and we enter deep, REM sleep three to five times each night. By going to bed and waking up at the same time, we can keep our bodies in this rhythm and improve our ability to increase deep sleep. We can train our bodies to sleep soundly. Altering the times we sleep or wake up risks interrupting that natural rhythm and decreases the amount of deep sleep we get. Harvard Health expands on this concept in their article, “The Science of Sleep: Stages and Cycles.”
Turn off your screens and dim the lights an hour before bed. Your exposure to light impacts your body’s secretion of melatonin, a chemical that makes you drowsy and helps you sleep. Researchers at Harvard University found that increased exposure to blue light (the light emitted by computer and phone screens) can delay your body’s production of melatonin by as much as three hours. Limiting light and particularly blue light in the hour before you go to bed will help your body naturally produce melatonin and will help you sleep better.
Create an environment conducive to sleep. Keep your room cool, dark, and free of noise. According to researchers, the ideal temperature for sleeping is between 64 and 70 degrees. Keeping your room dark and quiet is probably obvious. If this is difficult, try using ear plugs, a noise machine, or eye shades. Here is an eye mask I have found to work really well.
Like any habit, getting a good night’s sleep takes intention and prioritization and may require a few changes to your routine. But the rewards are incredible. Getting more sleep has changed my life. Since prioritizing sleep, I have more consistent energy, am in a better mood, and can focus better during the day. The greatest reward is the ability to show up daily as the best version of myself and enjoy each day to the fullest. What could be more important?
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