5 Simple Habits That Will Radically Improve The Way You Sleep
How to be healthy, happy, and stay in bed longer in order to be come the greatest version of yourself
Sleep is my constant enemy. Somehow, every day, I wake up, mad that I haven’t gotten to sleep longer, and then every night I find myself angry that I now have to go to sleep again.
It’s a constant cycle of dissatisfaction, tiredness, and unrest.
“I already want to take a nap tomorrow.” — Anonymous
If you’re reading this, you probably understand this struggle well, and I sympathize with your condition brought on by a slew of reasons you’ve most likely read in many a self-development book.
We’re suffering from light pollution, connection overload, anxiety, and long hours at work.
Some of these things are unable to be fixed or avoided in our day-to-day life, so we’re left with nothing but after-the-fact remedies to our constant sleep deprivation.
While I’m no expert on sleep or the best sleeper myself, I’ve gathered a list of tips and tricks that have helped me and others combat the enemy of sleep, making it our friend and something we can get along with quite well.
#1: Slow down as early as you can
Because of the rapid speed at which our world moves and the constant connection we have access to via our phones, laptops, and tablets, it’s easy to move at the speed of light, in a constant hurry, getting nowhere.
Because of this, we often feel like a runaway freight train when we try to get to bed.
“I’m so good at sleeping that I can do it with my eyes closed.” — Anonymous
The solution for this? Find some way to slow down.
For me, this looks like stretching, working out my muscles, deep breathing, doing some sort of yoga, watching a chill movie with my family, or something similar.
Then, I’m able to sit down and journal, think about my day, and slowly turn off lights before I’m finally ready to go to sleep.
This looks different for everyone and will vary depending on your schedule, but I think that it’s an easy practice to implement once you know how it fits into your life.
#2: Don’t wake up your brain before bed
I think that this is the hardest principle to follow in my own life.
It’s so easy to run around all day doing things, especially in my often late-night college life, going from Cookout or Sonic to studying with friends under the fluorescent lights of the library corridors, to collapsing into my bed at the end of the night, catching up on Instagram and TikTok.
“When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.” — Tom Hodgkinson, British Writer
All of these things are not inherently bad, but all put together without a break before trying to sleep puts me in an incredibly overstimulated state that’s not bound to be very restful.
I try and combat this by turning off technology as soon as I can, or at least engaging with it mindfully, by watching a good movie or reading a story on my phone with the night mode on so as not to give my brain too much blue light.
#3: Avoid caffeine and sugar
One thing that taking stimulant medication for ADHD has made me realize is that coffee is, also, completely and wholely, a stimulant.
“The joke was that President Bush only declared war when Starbucks was hit. You can mess with the U.N. all you want, but when you start interfering with the right to get caffeinated, someone has to pay.” ― Chris Kyle, American Sniper
As much as I wish I could consume coffee and sugar into all my waking hours, it would unnecessarily extend those waking hours and make it incredibly difficult to fall asleep.
Once you get into the afternoon hours, be mindful of things that you’re consuming that will keep you awake.
#4: Get into a sleep routine
This doesn’t have to be the strictest schedule in the world, but finding a rhythm of a general time you go to bed and wake up can be incredibly helpful.
I recently finished a summer internship, and the day I woke up without somewhere to be — it totally wrecked my body. I had grown so accustomed to going to bed and waking up for work without even realizing it.
I wish that I had noticed that earlier on so that I could have used that routine to my advantage.
”The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.” — E. Joseph Cossman
One thing I’ve been learning from Greg McKeown’s Effortless is the difference between a habit and a ritual. A habit refers more to when you do something, a ritual refers to how — and a good ritual is an enjoyable experience in and of itself.
Making sleep attainable and attractive to your mind and body involves creating a ritual around it that you want to engage in.
Whether that involves taking a hot bath to wind down, reading to your kids, or working on your novel, the ritual should be enjoyable in and of itself, outside of any benefits it might give you later or another event it’s leading you to.
”Sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow.” — Tom Roth
Being in a routine makes it a little more seamless if you harness its power, and having a sleep routine will make sleep much easier to get to, and something you maybe even look forward to because of the routine you’ve built around it.
#5: Get tired
While sleep certainly has its leisurely qualities, it’s also something that we do because of its utility to us, and the need our bodies have for it.
One thing I discovered and relearned while working with children is that we sleep better when we’re tired.
My young cousins would run around all afternoon in the sprinklers during the summer or swim around the pool, and practically pass out on the ride home because they were just that tired.
“Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.” - — Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
That’s something that I have thought about a lot in my adult life. In order to expect good and easy sleep, you have to be tired — and in order to be tired, you have to get tired.
This obviously looks different for everyone, but for me, it usually involves making sure that I’ve expended social and mental energy that day, and that I’ve put out a lot of physical work either through an activity or working out.
Sleep comes much better when you’re ready for it — tired and in need of it.
We need sleep — that’s the bottom line. The question is, how do we get good at it? How do we make sleep something easier to accomplish each day?
I don’t have all the answers, and I certainly toss and turn every once in a while, but I think these are some tried and true tips to get you into better rest and a better life as a result.
Good luck! And sweet dreams.
