Here are my top 5 tips for how to start falling asleep faster, deeper and longer in reverse order:
5. Turn Your Bedroom into a Real Sleep Sanctuary: First, make sure that youâre curtains are actually totally blocking out light so you can sleep in complete darkness. If you donât have really effective thick curtains, experiment with hanging a thick blanket or comforter over your bedroom window(s).
You can also try a light-blocking sleep mask and earplugs especially if you have a partner who snores loudly. A white noise machine or fan may also help you fall asleep.
Second, make sure that your room temperature is set at a comfortably cool temperature. The best bedroom temperature for sleep is around 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit. Have the temperature in your room much higher or lower than that can cause restlessness and can actually interfere with deep sleep and REM.
When it comes to your bedroom, good air quality is also very important to. If thereâs cool fresh air outside and not too much noise, try sleeping with your window(s) open.
Adding these extremely healthy plants to your sleep sanctuary may also increase both your air and sleep quality.
4. Gradually Reduce Your Light Exposure (especially blue light from electronics) at least 1 hour before bed. Why? Because both natural and artificial light can seriously interfere with the circadian rhythm of your biological clock. And this may be a major contributing factor to developing serious diseases like cancer,
diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Get into the habit of turning off all electronics, including your TV, computer and smartphone.
3. Replace Pre-Bedtime TV Watching and Internet Surfing With Reading. But make sure to read books that are relaxing.
Donât read thrillers or action novels right before bed. A great place to start would be to read books about how to build an amazing sleep habit like:
Why We Sleep
Feel Fantastic Every Day
The Promise of Sleep and
Say Good Night to Insomnia as recommend by Sleep.org
2. Institute a Complete Caffeine Ban after 2 PM: Caffeine increases your adrenaline levels and blocks the brain's natural sleep chemicals. For some people, it can have noticeable stimulant effects for several hours (up to 12+ in those with slower metabolisms) after consumption.
If youâre among the caffeine highly-sensitive, you may even want to stop drinking coffee, etc. as early as noon.
Important Caffeine Update:
You might want to stop drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages starting as early as 9 AM.
Why?
For starters, caffeine reportedly stays in your system for 24 to 36 hours.
In fact, I was recently shocked to learn about the mere quarter-life of caffeine as explained by Dr. Matthew Walker - arguably the world's leading sleep researcher.
Here how he put it:
âPeople are stunned when I tell them the quarter-life of caffeine,â he says. âItâs 12 hours. So if you drink a coffee at noon, at midnight a quarter of that caffeine is still in your brain.â â
And whatâs the zero life?â I wonder. âWhen does it leave your system?â
âSomewhere between 24 and 36 hours.â
Source to learn more: Financial Times
1. Master the 60 Second Relaxation Response: One of the biggest reasons so many people have problems getting and staying asleep is because they have high-stress levels.
Poorly managed, chronic stress can leave your body flooded with toxic stress chemicals likeâ adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol.
One of the most effective ways to manage your stress is to practice and master what I call the 60-second relaxation response, which combines the incredible stress-busting power of fast relaxation breathing with the extraordinary rapid distressing effect of progressive muscle relaxation or PMR.
Hereâs a great training video for deep relaxation breathing: Learning how to turn on your relaxation response in just seconds will not only help you sleep better, but it can also improve your most important relationships and make you a better leader. too.