How To Have A Perfect Night Of Sleep

Or at least how to get close to it consistently

Sleep is one of those things that we all do and often don’t put much effort into improving, which is interesting considering all that our bodies do while we sleep and how important it is for us. There’s loads of science that I couldn’t accurately quote, yet it does a lot for us.

It can be a hard thing to consistently have excellent nights of sleep one night after another, but I do think it is possible to get close. There are a few little hacks I have found that work well for me, and are at least worth trying out for yourself.

1. Go to bed earlier

This is probably the hardest thing to do, but it works miracles for me. Plus how often do you really do something super important after 9:30–10 anyway? It might seem like you are getting a lot done, but chances are your body and mind will thank you 10 fold if you give it more time to sleep. I’ve heard that the hours asleep before midnight count for more than the hours after.

Although this is difficult, it doesn’t have to be the worst thing in the world. You can start winding down from a crazy active state around 9–9:30ish and work on getting things in order. If you have more things to work on, try writing them down clearly to handle in the morning. If it seems super early, it is, but you can remember that going to bed early is going to help you get up early and you can accomplish way more with a fresh mind.

I like to start thinking about going to bed about 9:30 and get things in order for the next day, brush me teeth and do all of that stuff. Typically clear my notifications as well.

2. Take a few supplements

This is probably one of the most helpful things I’ve been trying and this is by no means anywhere near a comprehensive guide to what works best. I’ve been using 3 main things that help a ton.

First, Calm, it’s a magnesium supplement and super delicious, tastes like lemonade, promotes relaxation and helps sleep.

Second, melatonin, pretty sure most know about this but it is something your body produces anyway when you sleep so an extra boost of it helps a ton. I’ve been told to be weary of taking it too often that you won’t be able to sleep without it, but I haven’t had any problems with this, I don’t even take it every night, but when I do I take about 200 mg.

Third, some kind of healthy fat, I like Dave Asprey’s Brain Octane softgels, but essentially it helps fuel your brain for recovery during the night. Your brain is doing a ton of work that you don’t realize is occurring, like storing memories and recovering and healing other parts of your body, so it’s pretty active while you are sleeping and the right fuel goes a long way. I just take one usually, sometimes too

Fourth, some type of vitamin, like vitamin c, zinc, and often times airborne. I just feel better when I have them and it reduces the chance of getting sick.

3. Use f.lux and Night Shift

There are all sorts of studies out there about the blue light from screens messing up melatonin production and screwing with your zircadim cycles, so lucky for us, there is an extension you can get for your computer called f.lux that takes care of that automatically and adjusts your computer screen brightness and color according to the sun and apple now has Night Shift for phones and iPads.

So even if you are a late night gamer or social media scroller, you can do so with a little more satisfaction knowing you aren’t completely screwing your brain up… It’s a little weird at first, but you get used to it quickly and other screens seem way too bright.

4. Read instead of watching a show

I’ve been experimenting with this one, trying to read actual hard copies of books (which there are tons that aren’t on audible that I can’t listen to yet). For whatever reason, it calms me down a ton and gets me thinking about something else other than what I’m doing the next day or what has happened all during the day. More often than not, I fall asleep while reading which is a great way to pass out. But I just read for 15–20 minutes and by then I’m nice and sleepy. Close the book, hit the lights and I’m gone.

5. Get up early and exercise

I realize this isn’t something you do at night, but if you are going to bed by 10:30 or so you are going to wake up earlier for sure, and if you get up early and do your thing, and exercise at some point in the day, by the time 9pm rolls around you’ll be exhausted and ready to go to sleep again. This is actually the easiest way to make point #1 above work best for you.

I know there are more things you can do and I’ve tried, like acupuncture mats and what not but these 5 things have helped me a lot to get good results. The one other thing I’d add, is if you want to see if you are getting better or worse sleep, you should probably track it, there’s a bunch of apps out there, I use a beddit becuase it’s really easy and I don’t have to do anything for it to work. None of them are perfect but beddit has been good.

Sleep tight.