Sleep hacking - How to get great sleep

Sleep is such an important part of our general health, yet most people ignore this important factor in their lives and sell themselves short, causing compounding issues. For me, there was always something more to do, as I am a night owl and I never wanted the day to end. The problem with this was that I was not doing anything particularly productive at the end of the day, and I was ruining my chances to have high energy, highly focused mornings where the bulk of our best work is done. Something had to change.

How to get a great night's sleep

In this post, I will share with you the methods that I employ to get a proper night's sleep. Many of them may be familiar to you, but I will share how I make them work for me. You will of course need to decide how they can work for you and put your own methods in place.

Sleeping environment

We can't expect to get a good night's sleep if our sleeping environment is not conducive to resting. This means it should be free of noise, free of light, limit electronic exposure, and have a comfortable sleeping temperature. It may also mean investing in a good mattress.

I used to go to bed every night listening to a podcast. As you know with streaming services, the podcast often keeps going from one to the other. Although this can be avoided, even one podcast engages the brain and does not allow for a clear and restful mind. A completely quiet environment is what I find helps me to sleep best as it limits any possible distractions.

I am sure that you have heard about the effects of electronics before bed. This can be another distraction which not only allows you to lose your focus, but can also engage your mind and harm your natural sleep cycle. If possible, keep the phone away from arms reach, and possibly in another room.

Lastly, having a proper sleeping temperature is extremely important to a good night's sleep. This may mean experimenting a bit to find what works best for you.

Shut down before bed - A proper routine

Part of getting a good night's sleep is not racing up to the finish line and expecting to collapse and follow asleep. Our body needs time to shut down and this means having a proper routine for going to bed. A key item for me was moving dinner time to 6PM or earlier. In the past, I often ate dinner late, sitting on the couch watching TV at 8PM. It was almost impossible to go to sleep directly and not lay in bed awake for hours. Changing dinner to 6PM allowed me to take a short walk after eating and allowed my food to digest, the blood sugar spikes to subside, and the natural melatonin cycle to happen.

Another important thing to NOT do before bed is to perform heavy exercise routines. This means avoiding strenuous late night training sessions, as they also affect your body's ability to relax and prepare for a good night's rest.

Lastly, I like to gradually introduce the dark by turning off lights, moving to a dark bedroom, and reading for a bit in somewhat dim light. My phone is turned off and any possible sources of light are removed from the room (including charging LED's.

Breathing

Simple breathing exercises can help to calm and relax you, even tiring you a bit more, and allow a . I follow a routine of 3-5 minutes of breathing every night using a pattern of 3,7,8. 3 seconds of a deep inhale, 7 seconds holding my breath, and 8 seconds exhaling. I find that doing this every night relaxes and clears out my mind and allows me to quickly fall asleep. Somehow I find this tires me, and as soon as I go back to normal breathing, I fall directly asleep. There are several different breathing techniques that you can find online, and you can experiment to find one that works best for you.

Consistency is key

Lastly, the most important tip for getting a good night's sleep is consistency. This means establishing a routine, both when you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning. Having a consistent routine, allows your body to follow a natural cycle and instead of forcing yourself to go to bed and lying awake for hours, you will find that you will fall asleep easily and wake up refreshed. I have implemented this through a bit of will, forcing myself to get to bed, and gamification, setting this as one of my daily checklist items that I score. The more consistently yu follow this routine, the

Scoring and gamification

Gamification may not work for everyone, but I find it works very well for me. Besides my daily checklist that I shared in a previous post, I am also motivated by gamification on my Garmin watch which tracks my sleep score over time. The sleep score on my watch measures several different parameters of my nightly sleep, and achieving a high number is important for me. I track this number every day, and measure my improvement over time. Oddly, this is one of the key motivators in me getting to bed each night as well as forcing me not to open my phone in the middle of the night or early morning (both of which are factors in my sleep score results as it affects awake time and sleep duration).

Alcohol

Many of you will not want to hear this but alcohol plays a big role in your quality of sleep. And by this, I don't mean drinking helps you sleep, in fact, it is quite the opposite. In 8 plus months of closely tracking my sleep, I can clearly see the difference a few drinks can have on my sleep score, as well as my resting heart rate. Alcohol is poison to the body, and it clearly shows in the data. I am not going to stop having a glass of wine or a beer now and then, but now I am much more aware of the impact that it has on my body.

Summary

We all know the reward of a good night's sleep, but what many of us have not experienced is the energy and health benefits of consistently sleeping well.

All together, these items comprise a nightly routine of best practices that help me build for a successful night's sleep and a productive upcoming day. I hope that you find a way to make these tips work for you and that you get on your way to an improved sleeping pattern.