The Ultimate Guide to Sleeping Well
Everything you need to sleep better in 10-minutes read
Let us be straight and clear about this right from the start. I am not going to tell you what is right or wrong. I am not going to lecture you about the way you should live your life, I am not going to teach you how and when you should get up and go to sleep.
I’ll leave all this bullshit to self-help manuals and ‘motivational’ writers.
Here I have collected everything you should know about the art of sleeping well, all backed up by science. Also here you will find steps you should do to have the best rest you can.
This article is for those people who already know that to live a good life, they should sleep well.
Here you are: practical advice to help you do it, packed into one 10-minutes read. Save it, bookmark it and reread it. It can literally save your life.
Why sleep is so important
“In the head of the interrogated prisoner a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep … Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it.”
~ Menachem Begin, about the experience of being deprived of sleep in a KGB prison
- Sleep affects your learning abilities
Whether you’re learning math, learning how to play the piano, how to perfect your golf swing, or how to drive a car, sleep helps enhance your learning and problem-solving skills. Sleep also helps you pay attention, make decisions, and be creative.
First of all, without enough sleep your ability to focus attention weakens so you can’t learn efficiently.
Also, when you don’t have enough sleep, your memory weakens. Overworked neurons of your brain can no longer function properly, and you start to lose your ability to access previously learned information.
2. Sleep affects your problem solving and decision making skills
It is not a joke: researches prove that if you don’t get enough sleep, your abilities to estimate risks and make thoughtful decisions are severely damaged.
3. Your emotion stability depends on the quality of your sleep
Those who don’t get enough sleep suffer from emotional instability: much higher level of stress, negative mindset, disturbed mood. Imagine how it spoils your everyday life experience.
4. Sleep deficiency increases risk of obesity
In other words: if you sleep less than you need to, you will be a subject to weight gain. It is confirmed both by scientific researches and statistics. If you need numbers, people who don’t get enough sleep are about 55% more likely to become obese.
Among the reasons why sleep has such an effect on weight gain are hormones (read more about it below) and motivation. If motivation level is not easy to track, it is not a rocket science with hormones: sleep helps maintain a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin). When you don’t get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin goes up and your level of leptin goes down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you’re well-rested.
To put it all together, if you want to stay in shape, you’d better sleep well.
5. Insufficient sleep increases your risk for diabetes
Poor sleep affects how your body reacts to insulin, the hormone that controls your blood glucose (sugar) level. Sleep deficiency results in a higher than normal blood sugar level, problems with insulin elaboration which may lead to type 2 diabetes.
6. Your immune system relies on sleep to stay strong
During sleep your immune system releases certain type of proteins that help your body to fight infections and recover from illnesses. So, your body needs at least 7–8 hours of sleep to fight infectious diseases. And of course with enough sleep you’d be much more protected from catching a common cold.
7. Poor sleepers have greater risk of heart disease and stroke
If you sleep less than 7 hours a day, you are at far greater risk of heart disease or stroke. Yes, it’s that straightforward.
8. Sleep quality influences your level of happiness
Sleeping poorly ruins your day. Famous Daniel Kahneman with the help of other scientists conducted a study that followed almost a thousand working women. They confirmed that a poor night’s rest affected their level of happiness more than dealing with tight deadlines and it had an even bigger impact on mood than significant income differences in the group.
9. Better sleep = better sex
Sleep is beautiful and restorative: while you are sleeping, you are not just restoring your level of energy. Sleep also increases testosterone levels, which is beneficial for both men and women. On the contrary, not getting enough sleep lowers libido and may cause sexual problems. Choose pleasure, choose sleep.
10. Good sleep results in healthier skin
Poor sleep and chronic skin problems go together. Those who sleep well recover better after ultraviolet light exposure. They also show fewer signs of aging.
11. Inadequate sleep can spoil our relationships with others
You’ve read it right: inadequate sleep impair our ability to appreciate our partners and loved ones, which then lead to stress and tension in the relationship. Less sleep means fewer feelings of gratitude and higher levels of selfishness, both of which can make a partner feel unacknowledged and underappreciated.
12. Healthy sleep builds muscles
As we sleep, energy consumption is lowered, allowing us to use the high-quality food we eat during the day to more efficiently build muscle. Growth hormone is naturally released, improving muscular recovery and regeneration.
~Michael Schletter, C.P.T.
To be honest, there is a lot of other reasons why sleep is so important. But I would like to believe that these 12 are enough for you to make the right decision.
Myths about sleep you should not believe
1. To function properly you need eight hours of sleep
Everyone has different sleep needs. Also, the quality of sleep should be taken into account as well.
2. More sleep is always better
Oversleeping has a lot of side effects you don’t want to cross paths with.
3. For some people 4 hours of sleep is enough
Bullshit, unless you are a mutant. ‘Some people’ just don’t feel that they are not as effective as they could be with more hours of sleep.
4. Waking up at night means your sleep quality is bad
Waking up at night might be a part of your natural cycle, even if you are engaged in some sort of activity for 1–2 hours and then go back to sleep.
5. You can catch up on sleep on weekends
No, you can’t. Chronic sleep insufficiency cannot be cured during one or two days.
6. Sleeping pills are harmless
‘Hypnotics’ increase risks of death and cancer. Even if your doctor says it is ok to try for just this time.
7. Daytime sleepiness always means you don’t get enough sleep
It is possible that you feel sleepy during daytime even if you get enough sleep. In most cases it means you have underlying medical condition or serious sleep disorder.
8. Pulling an all-nighter won’t harm you
We’re really starting to realize that when we skip sleep, we may be doing irreparable damage to the brain, prematurely aging it or setting it up for heightened vulnerability to other insults.
~Sigrid C. Veasey, M.D.
9. Naps are only for kids
Naps during the daytime can help your brain to recharge a bit and improve your learning abilities. Even sitting or laying down quietly without sleeping can benefit your memory just as well.
10. Never wake up a sleepwalker
On the contrary, waking up a sleepwalker could save their life.
11. Energy drinks gives you energy
The effect energy drinks produce is largely down to two ingredients: caffeine and sugar. So you can gain the same effect by drinking coffee. As for taurine, it may even produce a mild sedative effect.
12. Counting sheep helps you fall asleep
You will be surprised, but scientists from Oxford University‘s Department of Experimental Psychology decided to check if this claim was right or wrong. Well, you can stop counting sheep.
This is just a cat. Everybody loves cats:
Ok, back to our topic:
What is good sleep?
We are constantly talking about healthy sleep, the amount of time, quality, but how it feels like? Here is your easy-to-read (screw that scientific bullshit about REM and NREM) cheat sheet.
→ You fall asleep within 15–20 minutes of lying down to sleep
→ You wake up feeling refreshed
→ You have no troubles getting out of the bed in the morning
→ You feel alert, fully conscious and productive during the waking hours
→ Your partner or family members do not notice any disturbing or out of the ordinary behavior from you while you sleep, such as snoring , pauses in breathing, restlessness, or other kinds of nighttime behaviors.
Rules to follow to sleep better
During the day:
- Have a sleep schedule and stick to it
Get up and go to sleep at the same time every day, weekends included. Consistency reinforce your body’s sleep-wake cycle and helps promote better sleep at night. - Manage your stress level
Easier said than done, I know. Stress is really a pain in the ass, and it prevents you from sleeping healthy. Basic things will definitely help though: get organized, try to improve your prioritizing abilities, delegate things. Allow yourself to take a break when you need it and take some time for yourself. - Regular physical activity is crucial
Physical activity, whether it is fitness, rowing, playing squash or just even walking for at least 5 km a day promotes better sleep, helping you to fall asleep faster and to enjoy deeper sleep. - Limit daytime naps.
15 or 30 minutes for a nap is enough. Also, make it during the midafternoon.
4-6 hours before sleep:
- Do not drink coffee less than 6 hours before sleep
You may still fall asleep pretty quick, but quality of your sleep will definitely suck. - Stay away from alcohol late at night
It also will not help you to sleep better. - Be careful with what you eat
Avoid spicy, heavy and artificially sweetened food as well as soft drinks.
30–60 minutes before sleep:
- Avoid intense working out
Everyone reacts differently to intense physical activity, but general rule is to take shower after working out at least 60 minutes before going to sleep. - Do something relaxing
If it is not sex, go for something that will let your body and mind to relax: walking and breathing fresh air, reading a book, listening to relaxing music. - Don’t use your smartphones, tablet or laptop
This is bad because of so-called ‘blue light’ that is the most melatonin-supressive. And melatonin is a hormone that helps your body to fall asleep. At least you can use special software that eliminated a significant amount of blue light from your screen — for example, f.lux.
Your room, your bed and your body:
- Your room should be dark and quiet during the night
All types of light disrupt your sleep. Close windows, close doors, use window covers, wear a mask. And generally it is a bad idea to sleep whith your music playing in the background. But you can listen to it before. - Keep the temperature in your room a bit colder than usual
Around 65–68 Fahrenheit (18.5–20 Celsius) is considered the best for a good night’s sleep. - Keep your bed for bed activities
Don’t let your mind associate your bed with anything except sleep and sex. Read, work and eat popcorn somewhere else. Just kidding, don’t eat popcorn, it is full of carbs. - If you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, don’t stay in bed
Remember? Your bed is for bed activities.
This is pretty much everything you need to know about sleep to sleep well and feel rested in the morning. Remember: this is all about biology. Don’t try to cheat. In case you screw with one of the core principles of healthy sleep, you will be screwed soon after that. No compromise is available here.
Sleep well, my friends!
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