How To Sleep Better: 25 Science-Backed Tips
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You’re trying everything to sleep better, but nothing seems to be working. It’s the middle of the night, your mind is racing, your eyes are closed, you’ve got a busy day tomorrow, and you’re feeling far from rested.
You know you need to sleep, but your body and mind are saying no. Frustrating. It’s not good for your mental health either.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll need more than relaxing music before bed to help you get to sleep.
I’m going to show you 25 ways you can get a good nights sleep.
Take 90-minutes to wind down before bed
Nick Littlehales, sleep expert, and author of the book ‘Sleep’ suggests 90 minutes of wind down time before you want to go to sleep.
This helps you come off the day, relax, naturally drift off, and get rid of sleep disorders.
2. Looking at your sleep differently - cycles not hours
Have you ever got into bed, and put an unnecessary amount of pressure on yourself to close your eyes and fall asleep in 5 minutes?
If this is you, a great tip here is to plan your sleep in cycles not hours. Sleep cycles allow you to go through the 4 stages of sleep.
When you sleep in cycles, you’ll feel more rested and productive the next day.
1 sleep cycle is 90 minutes long. 35 sleep cycles are what you should aim for each week (52.5 hours), that’s 5 sleep cycles a night (7.5 hours).
Work out when you wake up and when you need to go to bed to get this number of sleep cycles each night.
Thinking about your sleep like this gives you more freedom too. Track your sleep cycles throughout the week and catch up on sleep cycles you've missed.
3. Nap
You might find yourself drifting off to sleep in the middle of the day. That’s normal, especially if you’re having sleep problems right now. Take advantage of the nap.
The best time for a nap is between the hours of 1-3 pm and 5-7 pm. Napping at these times aligns with your circadian rhythms. This helps you stay in sync with your body’s natural 24-hour clock. (1)
If you don’t have time for a full 90-minute sleep cycle, then try to squeeze in 30-45 minutes.
4. Drain your body battery
Do you notice the difference when you’ve had a busy day compared a quiet day?
It’s the difference between falling asleep stood up, and being laid in bed with tonnes of energy, your mind racing, and feeling like an insomniac.
Keeping your body and your mind stimulated throughout the day is important - especially on your days off.
This will help to burn off energy, so you can get into bed, feel tired, and naturally sleep better.
Think of it like a battery. If you use the energy up you need to recharge it. If you don’t, you’ll be up all night with tonnes of energy having trouble sleeping.
Get more active even on your days off and see how much easier it is to fall asleep.
5. Meditate before bed
Once you’ve finished your busy day, finish it off with meditation. Meditation reduces stress. I find this to be the perfect relaxation technnique.
I use the Headspace app, I do 10 minutes every single night, and then I read.
If you’re having trouble sleeping right now, I recommend doing a longer practice.
In the Headspace app, you can select the length of time you want to meditate for.
This is a great way to relax, stop tossing and turning in bed, bring yourself off a busy day, and empty your mind before you sleep. This is time to focus on your breathing and relax.
6. Take your mind away from the day with fiction
Reading fiction at night helps to take you away from your work, responsibilities, and reduces stress. Reading fiction disengages the problem-solving part of your brain.
I’ve been reading fiction most nights now for the past two years and I love it. I find I sleep better, I go into deeper sleep, and have more vivid dreams.
If you’re looking for a place to start, the Jack Reacher books are awesome.
7. Bedroom too hot? Cool it down!
Another reason you may be having trouble sleeping right now could be that your bedroom is too hot. Research shows that increases in temperature at night disrupt sleep. (2)
The best temperature for sleeping at night is 18.3 degrees Celsius or 65 degrees Fahrenheit. (3)
So make sure you turn the thermostat down in your bedroom at least 90 minutes before you go to bed.
8. Get a nice mattress
If you spent 7 hours a night on your mattress that’s 2555 hours a year. That’s more time than you spend in your car!
People are willing to pay 40k, 50k, 60k, or more for a car that doesn’t give them anywhere near the benefits sleep will! Crazy right?
If you’ve been sleeping on the same mattress for the last 10 years, it’s time for a change. You should be changing your mattress at least once every 8 years. (4)
If you can, change your mattress more often than this.
9. If only you knew the power of the dark side
As Darth Vader once said -
“If only you knew the power of the dark side”
I’m not suggesting you start playing lightsabers with your kid while saying this quote…
Instead, black your room out before you go to bed.
If your bedroom has a streetlight right outside that shines in, this could be a reason why you’re having trouble sleeping.
Light does not help you sleep.
If you don’t have blackout blinds or an eye mask, it’s time to invest in one or the other.
When it’s dark we naturally produce Melatonin. (5) Melatonin helps to keep your sleep patterns regular and can help with insomnia and jet lag. (6)
Remove any light from your bedroom, install a blackout blind, and get an eye mask. This will help you to sleep better.
Spend 90 minutes in complete darkness to wind down in line with your planned sleep time.
10. Is your phone or laptop keeping you awake at night?
Phone and computer screens emit a lot of blue light. Blue light boosts alertness, which is less than ideal when you’re trying to wind down and get a good night’s sleep. (7)
90 minutes before you go to bed remove all blue light.
That means completely coming off your phone and not watching TV.
Put the night settings on your phone in case you have to pick it up and break your 90-minute rule. This will limit your blue light exposure.
11. What side do you sleep on at night? Our ancestors had it right
Which side do you sleep on right now?
When you curl up on your non-dominant side you take the stress off your lower back, joints, muscles, and tendons that are less used.
If you’re left-handed, sleep on your right side and vice versa.
Sleeping on your non-dominant side is a survival mechanism. Our ancestors didn’t have the luxuries of doors, brick walls, and house alarms.
If there was an unwanted visitor, they had their stronger arm at the ready to defend themselves.
12. Find yourself going to the bathroom 3 or 4 times a night?
To sleep better you need to feel relaxed. That won’t happen if you’re thinking about needing to go to the toilet every 5 minutes.
You could be drinking too much too close to bed. I used to be the same, and I was a terrible sleeper because of it.
What I now do is drink more early on in the day and taper off liquids 2-3 hours before bed.
This will help you to flush the liquid out of your system. Research shows older adults tend to pee more too. (8)
Electrolytes could be a good solution for you. Electrolytes contain salt and can help you to restrict passing water at night.
13. A tip for the light sleeper
If you’re a light sleeper, or you find even the tiniest bit of noise keeps you awake, it’s time to get some ear plugs.
I go to bed with these every single night. You can’t feel them in your ears, they’re comfy, and they cancel out noise that could wake you up.
14. Don’t eat big meals too close to your bedtime
Your body temperature naturally drops at night as you fall to sleep and when you eat your body temperature rises.
Eating big meals late can stop you falling to sleep.
Have a cut-off 3 hours before you sleep. This will give you plenty of time to start digesting your food and decrease your body temperature.
This will make sure you’re comfortable and relaxed when you get into bed.
15. If you want better sleep, start exercising regularly
Regular exercise can increase the amount of time you deep sleep for.
Deep sleep is where your mind and body have a chance to recover.
If you’re not already exercising regularly, now is the perfect time to start if you want to sleep better.
Our Unstoppabl clients tell us how much better they sleep now they’re doing regular exercise.
They tell us they’re less stressed, and how much better they’re dealing with the stress they do have.
16. Don’t give in to deprivation
When you have had a bad night’s sleep, don’t make the mistake of trying to do too much napping the following day.
You don’t want to get into bed the following night, be wide awake, and then not be able sleep again.
It’s sometimes better to push through (not push snooze!)
When you’re feeling sleep-deprived, and you get through the day, you can guarantee you’re going to sleep well that night!
17. Sun isn’t only good for the soul
We’re spending more time inside than ever, and we’re not getting enough sunlight.
Research shows daily sun exposure helps people sleep more than those who aren’t exposed to the sun. (9)
Sunlight exposure helps regulate your circadian rhythms. It tells your body when to increase and decrease your Melatonin levels.
Melatonin is a naturally produced hormone that helps to keep your sleep patterns regular. (10)
If you’re spending a lot of time inside, try and get out on your lunch break. This will help you to get a better night’s sleep.
If there is no way you can get out in the sun, or you live in a country that has very little Sun, get the Valkees Human charger headphone.
The Valkees Human Charger headphone delivers light through your ears. This helps you sleep better, increases your energy levels, mental alertness, and improves your mood. (11)
18. Be honest, when did you last change your sheets?
How often do your bedsheets get changed? We sweat, we shed skin, and we do ‘other things in the sheets.
Your bed sheets will be collecting dirt, sweat, oil, skin, and ‘other things’. This can irritate you and stop you from drifting off to sleep.
You spend nearly the same amount of time on your bedsheets as you do your work clothes.
Have your bedsheets changed at least once a week.
19. The war of art
When you’re trying to get a good nights sleep, artwork on your walls can stimulate your mind and keep you awake before bed.
Paint your walls white, remove artwork from the walls and hang them somewhere else.
20. Put this outside your bedroom
You guessed it, your phone. Our phones are full of blue light, emails, and messages you don’t want to see late at night.
Being on your phone late at night will not help you to fall asleep. Here’s what I suggest if you want to sleep better.
Leave your phone outside your bedroom.
If you can’t leave your phone out of your room, then do what I do. Put your phone on do not disturb 90 minutes before you go to bed.
That way you won’t get messages through on your phone that can wait until tomorrow.
You can add your family to your favourites too. If there's an emergency then your family can still ring you when your phone is on do not disturb.
21. The early caffeine crack down
Caffeine does not help you sleep if you drink it too late in the day. (12)
Caffeine can have a half-life up to 12 hours. That means half the amount of caffeine you drank takes 12 hours get out of your system. (13)
Example: If you’ve had 20 milligrams (mg) of coffee, after 12 hours you’ll still have 10 mg in your system. The average cup of coffee from Starbucks is 180mg, and some cups are even stronger.
When you think about caffeine in this way, it doesn’t make sense to drink it too late in the day.
Plus, caffeine is a diuretic. That means it will increase the number of times you need to wee.
I have a cut off around 10 am. That gives me somewhere between 10-12 hours before I go to sleep. As a result, I sleep a lot better. I’m not up all night tossing and turning feeling full of energy.
22. You are what you eat
This is one of the most overlooked factors when it comes to getting more sleep. The quality of your diet will affect how well you sleep. (14)
Eat crap, look crap, sleep crap. It’s that simple.
Having plenty of fruits, vegetables, protein, and water will help to keep you feeling energised throughout the day. Which will help you to sleep better.
23. Your new sleep outfit
What you wear to bed affects how quickly you can drift off to sleep. Bioceramic sleepwear reflects far-infrared rays. Far-infrared rays help to decrease muscle soreness and help you sleep better. (15)
24. Let there be light
Managed to drift off to sleep ok, but find that you’re still tired when you wake up? Apart from the obvious being you didn’t get enough sleep…
It could be because you didn’t wake up to light.
A dawn wake simulator lets you naturally wake up by light. You set the time you want to wake up in line with your sleep cycles and this does the rest.
Research shows dawn wake simulators can improve sleep quality. (16)
25. Develop good sleep habits
I love James Clears definition of habits.
“Habits are the same decisions you make and actions you perform every day”
Your success in life is the sum of your habits. So, how well you sleep is the sum of your sleep habits.
Habit stacking is where you stack habits on top of each other.
My advice would be to start with one of these sleep tips at a time. Do it for 14 days, and then add the next one.
Not all of the tips will work for you but implementing one sleep tip at a time, shows you what does and doesn’t work for you.
A swift recap
Now that you’ve read this blog, it’s time to put what you’ve learned into practice.
I hope you find these sleep tips useful, and I hope they help you know how to sleep better now.
Share this article with someone you know that needs help sleeping better.
