How to Improve Your Quality of Sleep

Why getting a good night’s sleep is so important

In the last post (https://journeytopeak.com/how-getting-better-sleep-increases-both-physical-and-mental-performance/) we learned different ways sleep affects our bodies and minds. Most importantly it is the way we evolved to store important information in our brain for future use – memory. Without getting a proper night’s sleep, our brain can’t properly store this new information. When you don’t get good sleep you inhibit your ability to learn. This includes both mental skills (retaining information from a book you read/study, for example), as well as physical skills (like learning a new dance or implementing soccer drills that you have trained for hours).

Quick rundown of sleep stages

Through sleep studies scientists are able to directly measure the brain’s electrical activity while a person sleeps. These studies have shown that there are four different stages of sleep which occur in multiple cycles throughout the night.

The first stage can be thought of as dozing off and only lasts a few minutes. In this stage you can be easily woken up if you’re disturbed, but if not you quickly pass into stage 2.

Half of your night’s sleep is spent in the second stage; shorter lengths earlier in the night, getting longer each time you return to it in the cycle. In this stage your muscles relax, your body temperature drops, and your breathing slows.

In the third stage your body temperature, breathing, and heart rate decrease even further and it becomes more difficult to wake someone up in this stage. It is also known as deep sleep or slow wave sleep due to the delta wave pattern your brain activity takes. This stage is very important because it is here your body really begins to grow, restore and repair itself (for example, muscle repair from a hard workout that day). You get more deep sleep the first time you enter this stage each night, less and less every time you cycle back to it.

Finally we get to the last stage in the cycle: REM(rapid eye-movement) sleep. In this stage your whole body experiences muscle paralysis save two areas – muscles that help you breathe, and your eyes which move quickly back and forth. Unlike deep sleep, this stage gets longer each time as the night progresses, with most of occurring in the second half of your sleep. This is arguably the most important stage as it is here your brain undergoes important cognitive related functions that enable you to learn and form memories.

What you can do to improve your sleep

Improving sleep essentially boils down to two things: increasing the quantity and quality of sleep. This means we want to wake up less while we sleep, as well as efficiently moving from one stage to the next. Lets assume we are setting aside at least 7-8 hours minimum each night for our sleep, if you can get more then great! Any less and you will begin experience negative consequences.

The MOST important and an easy way to improve your sleep is to set your schedule in such a way that you fall asleep and wake up at the same times each day, including weekends (unfortunately humans didn’t evolve with weekends in mind!). Your brain and body follow a 24 hour master clock known as a circadian rhythm. They function the best in conditions of regularity, so if we can go to bed and wake up at the same times every day, we make it easy and more efficient for our bodies to follow along with this rhythm. When we go to earlier than normal, it is difficult to fall asleep because our bodies simply aren’t ready yet. If we wake up earlier than usual we can interrupt important REM sleep.

Now lets discuss our sleeping environment. In order to fall asleep and stay asleep our brain and bodies need to drop their core temperature a few degrees. To help this we can set our thermostat to around 65 F or 18 C. The next tip is probably one most people know, but don’t follow very strictly: darkness. Darkness signals our bodies to produce melatonin, an important hormone that promotes sleep. The more light you can reduce in the evening the better sleep you will get. All sources of blue light – phone screens, computer screens, tv screens – should be reduced as much as possible. This is especially important in the last hour before bed. Try to turn of all over head lights as well, using soft lights or lamps instead. Black out shades or eye masks can help if outside sources of light are coming into your bedroom from outside.

The next tip has to do with our bed and how our brains associate it with sleep. We want our brain to ONLY associate our bed with sleep. We can’t do this if we work, eat, or are being entertained by tv or youtube in bed. If you find yourself unable to fall asleep for around 25 minutes the best thing you can do is to get out of bed and do anything else until you feel sleepy again. The same is true if you wake up and can’t fall back asleep. Wait around 25 minutes and if you still haven’t fallen back into sleep, get out of bed and come back later. This way your brain will relearn the association that the bed is only for sleep.

Another easy way to be sure we aren’t stopping ourselves from getting the best night’s sleep is to limit caffeine and alcohol intake in the evenings. This is especially true for caffeine which is literally designed to keep you awake. However most people don’t realize how long caffeine stays active in your body. Caffeine can continue to affect you for around 7-10 hours after consumption, so make sure not to consume any in that period before bed. Alcohol might help people fall asleep but it will definitely prevent you from getting the proper deep sleep that you need. A little is ok but a lot will ruin your sleep.

The last tip is also another important one. For some people falling asleep can be very easy, and for others it can feel really frustrating and difficult. Why do some people seem to be able to instantly fall asleep, while others lie awake at night sometimes for 30 minutes to an hour, waiting to finally sleep? The key is to develop your own personal sleep routine. Your brain needs cues that signal to it “ok we are getting ready to sleep”. In the last 30 minutes to an hour before bed, try to do something relaxing with very low light. Ideally you preform the same actions each night so that your brain quickly associates that activity with preparing for sleep.

Here are some examples of a sleep routine

• Reading a book (preferably fiction or light reading; remember we want to be relaxed!)
• Taking a warm bath
• Doing some light stretches
• Journaling about your day
• Sorting out anything you need for the next day
• Nightly hygiene routine

Find what works for you and stick with it! Getting your sleep perfected is all about consistency.