Use These 6 Tips to Get Better Sleep and Recharge the Battery

Start the day with a full bar

If our bodies had lithium batteries, we would take ourselves off the charger with the indicator bar reading 100%.

Jumping on the charging stand at the end of the day, our screen would dim and we would enter lock mode. We could enable “do not disturb” and be totally at rest. When the alarm went off, we would hit the ground running and have plenty of juice. Unfortunately, until we cyborg up, this isn’t the way it works.

I run into people every day who are at 60% battery if they’re lucky, and some who crawl out of bed around 40% charged. By 2:00 PM, these poor juiceless individuals are close to low power mode. The alerts are popping up telling them to reduce energy consumption. Energy drinks and coffee are required just to squeeze the last little bit of this lemon of a day. Their face screen dims and they can’t do any complicated calculations, because the motherboard is running in safe mode. Alarms start going off to warn that a crash is imminent.

Homeless people might be at 18% or lower. All the time.

Respect for sleep is low

Without a good rest, we all know we are operating at less than our best. And yet, we don’t give sleep the respect it deserves. We just refuse to accept the fact that it is really, really, really important. If we did, we would try just a little harder.

Sleep is like the foundation of a building. It’s holding the whole works up. Without a good foundation of rest, the body doesn’t heal. Digestion suffers and hormones get out of whack. We don’t perform at our best levels at work, in our relationships or as a parent.

We just plain feel bad when we are tired. So why don’t we do something new, and get better results?

The evidence is in

It isn’t rocket surgery and we all know sleep is necessary. Scientists and researchers have studied the heck out of it. They confirm what we instinctively knew. You can quickly find a ton of information about how we need to get better sleep — or else. Here’s just the tip of the sleep research iceberg.

Sleep disruption is a bad thing. Check out this scientific article: Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption, by Goran Medic, Micheline Wille, and Michiel EH Hemels. Who knew? Sleep schedule interruptions are bad for you!

Your brain doesn’t like a lack of sleep. At All. Here is a look at Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance by Paula Alhola and Päivi Polo-Kantola. It seems pretty conclusive to me that mental activity is impaired when we don’t get enough rest.

This is just a little bit of the available proof that we need to focus on getting better rest. So what can we do? The good news is that we can definitely make small changes which will help us get more sleep. Here are six tips that can get us on the right track.

1. Cuppa coffee after 2:00 PM? Maybe not

“Coffee doesn’t affect me. I’m like Superman. I can drink an espresso 3 minutes before bed and fall asleep like a cute little baby. I feel sorry for all of you regular, non super powered humans who aren’t immune to caffeine. Boy am I special.” This is the kind of comments I hear when I mention that I don’t drink coffee after 2:00 PM anymore, because I want to get better rest. Well, what if these people are wrong?

Caffeine affects your sleep. Period. Even if you think it doesn’t. That’s because you have a human body, and therefore you fall under the laws of nature like the rest of us.

Even if caffeine doesn’t stop you from going to sleep, that doesn’t mean you’re getting as good a rest as if caffeine weren’t messing with you. How would you know — you’re sleeping, right? Your nightly recuperation might be totally sub par because caffeine is changing what your body does. That 6:00 PM cup of coffee could be sabotaging your body and stopping it from doing important repair work.

Don’t just take my word for any of this. According to coffeeandhealth.org, “there is an association between a daily intake of caffeine, reduced sleep quality, and increased daytime sleepiness.” They also report that “caffeine consumed up to 6 hours beforehand may reduce total nightly sleep and reduce sleep quality.”

This is why my personal rule is no caffeine after 2:00 PM. That means I still get to enjoy my coffee, and it has a full 8 hours to get out of the system. If you’re a coffee junkie like me, consider scaling back your consumption in the early afternoon, and see if that helps your sleep quality. Smart researcher type people are telling us that it will.

Don’t forget about other caffeine sources. It’s found in black and green tea, “energy” drinks, and chocolate too.

2. Don’t eat that whole pizza

“I’m really into fitness. Fit-in-is whole pizza into my mouth!”

I find that the more tired I get, the hungrier I get. It’s a vicious circle for me. But the worst thing I could do is cram myself full with a big, bulky meal and then go to bed.

Having a stomach packed tight with food when you lay down means a lot of your resources go to digestion and elimination. Healing and recovery get put on the back burner until all those groceries get processed. If this is a nightly occurrence, then important repair work never gets tackled. You’re too busy pushing garbage down the chute to clean your pipes and rest.

When possible, try to let an hour or two pass after a meal before you go to bed. If it can’t be helped, don’t eat the whole pizza just because you’re tired and it’s late. Cold pizza makes good breakfast anyway.

3. Let there be activity and light

We are not nocturnal. We need periods of light every day, so our bodies can tell when it’s time to be active and time for rest. We evolved to be mobile during light hours and to lie still when it’s cold, dark and scary out. That’s why it helps to get plenty of light and exercise during the day, then have dimmer light and less movement before bed.

This may not be true for everyone. You might be a night owl. If you do great when you stay up late and get up at noon, then that’s just the way your body works. You vampires are on your own with this one, but you can still get into the outdoors and get exercise while biting necks and whatnot.

For the majority of people, going outside and seeing the light of day helps to sleep at night. And exercise can make a big difference too, just not right before bed. The last hour or two before sleep should be winding down and getting quiet.

Going for a walk during the day would be a great way to get some light and exercise at the same time.

4. Optimize your bedroom

Is your sleeping location comfortable, dark, clean and cozy? Is the bedding soft and smelling fresh? Then you are on the right track. The most important thing about the bedroom is that it makes you feel safe and relaxed.

Is it dark enough? I’m really picky about this one. Sleeping with lights on always makes me wake up several times during the night, and sleep quality is severely reduced for most people. Televisions, chargers, smoke detectors etc. have those darn LED lights that shine day and night. I can’t stand these and I need to cover them up so I can’t look directly at them, or they wake me up.

Some people like to sleep with the television on, and they think this doesn’t hurt them. It seems likely that all of that light and noise keeps you from really going into a deep sleep. Guess what scientists think?

Researchers looked into light in the bedroom. How about this article at the National Institute of Health: Artificial light during sleep linked to obesity. There’s also some interesting findings in Impact of Light Exposure during Sleep on Cardiometabolic Function, by I Mason, D Grimaldi, R G Malkani, K J Reid, P C Zee.

You might not be able to keep it quiet, but less noise is also better. Eliminate any loud, sudden noise sources if possible.

5. Avoid long naps and get up earlier

Here’s some uncommon sense. If you get up a little earlier and don’t take a long nap as soon as you hit the couch in the evening, you’re gonna be more tired at bedtime. This will help you get to sleep and stay sleeping.

We shouldn’t need researchers to point out that sleeping during the day means you need less sleep at night. So, long naps will screw up the routine and make it harder to get to bed on time.

Sleeping in every day will make it hard to get to bed at a planned time too. If you just aren’t tired, you could end up falling asleep even later, potentially needing to sleep in longer. What a mess last night was, now you really need a nap! Nip this circle of disrupted sleep in the bud and set yourself a schedule.

This only works if you’re consistent. Just trying it for one day might not do anything for you but make you grumpy. Commit to 4 days or a week and see what happens.

6. Less alcohol before bed

Booze affects sleep quality. The more you drink, the less actual sleep you get. At some point it isn’t falling asleep, it’s passing out. Not only that, but different parts of the sleep cycle will be disturbed. In general, you get less REM sleep after consuming alcohol.

How about sleep apnea? When you suffer from this problem, you have interrupted breathing. As it stops and starts, you get less oxygen to important things like the brain. Alcohol makes breathing problems during sleep more likely.

The sleepfoundation.org has this to say about alcohol and sleep apnea: “The relationship between sleep apnea and alcohol has been researched somewhat extensively. The general consensus based on various studies is that consuming alcohol increases the risk of sleep apnea by 25%.”

Alcohol does other harmful stuff to your sleep. You should look into it if you are in the habit of a drink right before bed. Everything in moderation, right? Try to put an hour or two between alcohol and bedtime, at least on most nights.

Give it a rest

Our society tries to convince us that sleep isn’t as important as productivity and partying. We need to find balance to stay healthy. Sleep is important. If you aren’t getting good rests at night, everything will be affected. your mood, intelligence and health all hinge on how good you sleep.

If you’re one of those people that refuses to consider how drinking caffeine and alcohol before bed is harmful, or loves to sleep with bright lights and screens and TV shows playing, what if you’re ruining a good thing: your health?

Good sleep is a gift of self care. Be generous with yourself!

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