How to sleep better – 6 simple tricks

Darken your bedroom

This is a very simple and to be honest quite a natural step that many people seem to miss in modern days. Our environment is bombarded with artificial light like street lights, light ads, TVs, smartphones and even those little LEDs on damn near all home electronics. Humans sleep best in a dark environment, this is both common sense and backed up by science (1, 2).

Truly dark environment can be hard to achieve if you don’t prep you bedroom specifically this in mind. And to make things worse in many places around the world the sun doesn’t stay down for most part of the night. Since I live in Finland where the sun doesn’t really go down for three months during the spring and summer I’m no stranger to this effect.

So here’s what you do: Invest in a blinding curtain. Make sure it’s quality and doesn’t allow any light true. Do this even if you have blinds in your bedroom window, the difference is like night and day (pun intended :), and close you blinds also because the curtain will almost always let some light through the corners. This single trick basically cured my summertime insomnia.

Next remove every electric gadget with LEDs or other light sources from your bedroom. I personally do have my smart phone next to my bed on charger but that’s it. It’s in a don’t disturb mode and I really don’t get that much calls or messages during the night so there are no blinking light except for a very dim charge indicator that’s covered by a flip case.

Now I can’t recommend charging your phone next to your bed since it has been shown to be a risk factor of catastrophic house fires but I like to live on the edge. Just so you know. TVs, laptops, routers (this are usually like a light show) all have to go or find a way to blind the LEDs (I’d imagine a some electrical tape would do the trick) if you want truly want to improve your sleep. And I’d imagine you do since your reading this.

Cool your bedroom

So your bedroom is now pitch black during the night? Good. Next thing is to drop the temperature.

In most homes this is super easy, just turn down the thermostat of your bedroom radiator and your done.

Of course in warmer climates you have to crank up the AC to achieve the same effect. What you want to aim for is around 17 to 20 degrees Celsius (that’s about  60 – 67 F to you metrically challenged). This has been shown to shorten the time to fall asleep and improve sleep quality significantly compared to warmer temperatures (3).

If you feel this is too cold just stay under the covers and give your body a couple weeks to adjust. If you still fell like freezing your nuts off, fine, you can increase the temperature since we are all individuals.

Now since most homes in Finland don’t have AC due to the fact that on average we have maybe two weeks a year that are hot enough during the night to warrant any need for cooling, it can get uncomfortably hot to sleep in these rare heat spells.

If you live in a hot environment and don’t have AC get a noiseless fan. This is what I do. I actually have DIY fan made out of an old computer cooler and some random power source but there are some great commercial options available. While not optimal the fan will keep you cool enough to keep you from sweating your ass off and sound asleep.

Ventilate your bedroom

This one is really important and something many people who lack the basic knowledge about building and construction are unaware of. You need to make sure your bedroom is well ventilated. When we humans breathe we produce CO2 (carbon dioxide, a gas, if you did not know this you probably weren’t very observant in school…). Outside this is usually not a problem since the amounts are minuscule and plant life is constantly using it up so the CO2 levels can’t really rise enough to cause any health concerns.

Although global warming is a real threat (if you claim otherwise, I’m quite convinced you are a retard) and caused mainly due to increasing CO2 levels the levels in your bedroom can get even exponentially higher. Let’s say you have a relatively small bedroom with two adults sleeping in it for 8 hours. If the ventilation is poor (closed door and windows, no air intake valve and no powered ventilation) the CO2 levels can reach 2500 ppm (parts per million) easily.

Normal outside CO2 levels are around 400-500 ppm, acceptable home indoor quality is around 600 ppm. General drowsiness can be expected around 1000 – 2000 ppm and adverse health effects around 2500 ppm. (4,5,)

Now this means mainly slight health effects like headache and increase in blood pressure but if this occurs every night for years the effects can be detrimental. Studies have shown that CO2 levels as low as 750 ppm during the night can interfere with your central nervous systems breathing center preventing you from getting to deep sleep which will cause decreased cognitive ability the following day. (6, 7)

So what can you do? My suggestion is to get a qualified and competent expert to asses and measure your homes ventilation. If you can’t afford to do that make sure you have some form of air intake in your bedroom (a ceiling or wall valve or one in the window frame), crack the window open for 15 minutes before bed and leave the bedroom door wide open even if it brings light in – while not optimal, fresh air is more important than darkness.  Even if you have less than optimal ventilation the open bedroom door will increase the air volume to which the CO2 can dilute to.You can also sleep with the window open if the outside temperature and noise allows it.

I actually have a Withings Smart Body Analyzer since it was the cheapest CO2 meter with logging that I could find on the market in 2016. Just slip one under you bed and check the results on the morning. I live in an old house with no power ventilation and if I close the bedroom door for the night the CO2 levels can rise up to 1200 ppm and I will wake up feeling tired and cranky.

So if you have any doubts about your bedroom ventilation it’s better to be safe than sorry and crack a window and maybe get a CO2 meter for peace of mind.

Silence your bedroom

Noise is one of the most common environmental stressors we are faced on daily basis. Noise is especially harmful to your health during sleep. We all know that noise can make it impossible to fall asleep but also noises during the night can wake you from your slumber. Both obviously have detrimental effects on your sleep quality.

What many people don’t seem to realize is that even noise that doesn’t wake you up can wreak havoc on your sleep quality. This can be anything from traffic noise to noisy neighbors or a snoring partner.

Several studies (8, 9, 10)  have shown that noise during the night will degrade your sleep, especially if you are sensitive, so it’s extremely important you do what ever you can to soundproof your bedroom. How you do that depends so much on your situation that I won’t even try to offer any exact solutions since there are too many possible problems. Drop a comment and let’s see if I can help your situation.

One tip I can offer – and that I use myself – is ear plugs. I use the soft foamy type disposable ones (for a few nights in a row to minimize the cost). Sure they’re bit of a hassle but once you get used to them you won’t believe you ever slept without them.

If you live in a noisy neighborhood and the plugs won’t cut it, or you can’t wear them, I wouldn’t rule out moving out to a more peaceful home. I realize this this might not be a viable option for many, but if you suffer from restless sleep and chronic stress, you need to do everything in your grasp to fix your sleep to get started on your recovery to a healthy and happy life.

Eat before bed

I don’t care what the mainstream health advice says about not eating after 6 pm and how the breakfast is the most important meal of the day yada yada yada. Science does not back this up as has been shown by many intermittent fasting pioneers and countless studies that I don’t even have time to reference right now, I’ll be writing a whole category on this later.

My sleep doc actually confirmed to me what I had realized by myself – sleeping with a full stomach gives you a better rest. Also being in hypoglycemic state during sleep can cause your cortisol to spike prematurely and cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep.

So eat a substantial balanced meal with plenty of  fat, protein and slow digesting carbs before bed to keep yourself satiated during the night. Yogurt and berry based protein smoothie is what I prefer. It would be optimal for the meal to have some time to digest before bed so 2 to 3 hours before sleep is fine. Oh, and don’t go overboard and stuff your face and stomach because that will very likely lower your sleep quality – or so my own Christmas Eve empirical studies have suggested.

And if your worried about fat gain, don’t be. Meal timing has next to nothing to do with fat gain, only things that truly matter are total calories and macro nutrient partitioning. So just eat less in the morning or skip breakfast all together – it really doesn’t matter one way or a another. But not being hungry definitely helps with your sleep.

Stretch and relax

This is what I try to do every evening during the hour before going to bed. Stretching has been shown to relax the muscles and lower cortisol levels which both help prepare your body to sleep. (12)

If you do this every night your body will begin to associate the routine with sleep and becomes conditioned to prepare to sleep when ever you do it. What your routine includes is totally up to you. Just don’t do anything that increases your heart rate or requires significant strength. Static stretches, calm foam rolling and breathing and relaxation exercises are what I use personally.

Well there you have it! 6 ways to improve your sleep that you can try yourself today. Try to implement all of these tricks and I promise you will see vast improvements on your sleep and stress levels. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to drop a comment and I will do my best to help you out!