#01: Basic Principles of Improving your Sleep

Hello and welcome to TrueHealth Newsletter’s first post!

Article #01: Basic Principles of Improving your Sleep

Post Preview: I’ve opted to discuss how to vastly improve one’s sleep quality in my first article as I believe this is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to reduce fatigue, improve mood and appetite, fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer to feel optimally refreshed in the morning so you can tackle the day!

It can feel effortlessly challenging in today’s modern world to achieve a good night’s sleep. So many obstacles for us to overcome — TV, video games, cell phones & social media, work and school stresses, and the list goes on. Despite such a seemingly chaotic world, there are time tested and research proven principles that all the best sleepers adhere to and I’m here to share them with you today. It should be of note that poor sleep quality has been linked to a variety of health issues, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular ailments, and impaired cognitive function — all the more reason to improve it!

Principle 1. Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule

One of the most effective ways to improve sleep quality is to establish a consistent sleep schedule. Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same times everyday, even on weekends. This helps regulate your body’s internal clock — known as your “circadian rhythm,” and makes it easier to fall asleep and wake up naturally. Humans are highly adaptable, but certainly perform best on a routine sleep schedule.

Principle 2. Design a Comfortable Sleep Environment

Your sleep environment plays a significant role in sleep quality. Keep your bedroom dark, quiet, and at a comfortable temperature. Sounds like common sense, right? Well, there are a few easy additions some may not consider:

• You may want to try using blackout curtains to block out excessive light and make sure lights from electronics are turned off or put away (as silly as it sounds, I use black electrical tape to cover even small light sources in my own room and when I travel that may not be able to be turned off — you’ll see why in Principle 3).

• If it’s impossible to actually keep your room consistently quiet and you struggle to sleep because of it, such as many insomniacs in New York City or Los Angeles do, it may be worth investing in a white noise machine (generally about $15-20). This study concluded how white noise using these devices significantly improved sleep quality for those struggling in the Big Apple. Small sample size, but nonetheless, there was a measured effect that may be worth exploring.

• Keeping your room cool with A/C, fans, opening the bedroom door or windows (if it’s not too bright) has been demonstrated to best assist sleep quality when creating an environment around 68° degrees F.

Reference: Ebben MR, Yan P, Krieger AC. The effects of white noise on sleep and duration in individuals living in a high noise environment in New York City. Sleep Med. 2021.

Principle 3. Limit Exposure to Artificial Light (and get early morning sunshine!)

Exposure to natural morning sunlight during the day (especially within the first several minutes of waking!) helps regulate the circadian rhythm we discussed in Principle 1 while increasing alertness. Conversely, excessive exposure to artificial light, especially blue light from screens, in the evenings can disrupt your body’s natural sleep cues and inhibit melatonin production. Melatonin is a vital hormone for our sleep-wake cycle that also functions as a master antioxidant globally across our bodies. Even just a few seconds of bright blue light is enough to drop melatonin production and make it much more challenging to fall asleep.

You may consider using blue-light blocking glasses to reduce the amount of blue light you are witnessing in the evenings and reduce your eye strain overall when using your devices late.

Most research suggests abstaining from your devices for at least 1 hour prior to preparing for sleep as well as dimming lights and creating a soothing environment to help with relaxation — which is the perfect segue into my next principle!

Principle 4. Create a Relaxing Bedtime Routine

Engage in calming activities that help trigger your parasympathetic nervous system which you may have heard of as your “rest & digest” system. This reduces heart rate, blood pressure, relaxes muscles, quells anxiety and prepares your body for sleep. Taking a warm bath, reading a book, practicing gentle yoga and getting ready for bed by candlelight all are methods others use to not only calm their nerves but are all screen-free methods that don’t interfere with melatonin production.

Meditation is another option, and it can be completed in bed to either relax you or lull you into sleep! Meditation can be as simple as performing slow, deep, and consistent breaths. One such method is called Box Breathing, in which you:

• Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale for 4, hold for 4, and repeat. Each 4 second increment is one side of a square! Give it a few honest tries right now and assess how you feel after.

There are of course other methods of meditation which will be explored later, but Box Breathing is undoubtedly one of the most simple and effective.

Principle 5. Stay Active, but Time Your Exercise

Both anaerobic or resistance exercise as well as forms of aerobic exercise like steady-state cardio have demonstrated the ability to encourage sleep due to our muscles needing to recover & repair after an intense workout. The effects of exercise such as nervous system down regulation (“rest & digest”) following activity and the release of endogenous opioids (AKA endorphins) that boost mood and relieve stress & pain are also hypothesized to improve sleep.

Simply put, most guidelines recommended 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity like brisk walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming and 2x per week of muscle strengthening activities utilizing all muscle groups like push-ups, pull-ups, overhead presses, rows, dips, squats, lunges, and heel raises, just to name a few.

Now you’re exercising, great! But we wanna limit it to a few hours before you hit the hay so as to not be too overstimulated near bedtime. Something else to also limit a few hours before is…

Principle 6. Don’t Eat Too Close to Bedtime

…food! That’s right, eating a large meal before bed or late-night snacking can disrupt your sleep cycles as your blood sugar may be spiking before bed, driving up heart rate and blood pressure, which can make it difficult to stay in a relaxed, restorative state. Just like with activity, try to stop eating up to 3 hours or more before bed.

Principle 7. Be Mindful of Caffeine & Alcohol

When it comes to caffeine & alcohol, it’s also best to limit these several hours before bed as they can easily linger in your system and wreak havoc on your sleep. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors in the brain that are necessary for promoting sleep drive and has a ½ life between 4-6 hours, so it’s best to allow adequate time to mitigate caffeine’s effects. As discussed in this review, alcohol is no better as it interferes with neurotransmitters involved in REM sleep (thought to be important for mood, memories, & learning), effectively reducing its quality and duration.

Reference: Colrain IM, Nicholas CL, Baker FC. Alcohol and the sleeping brain. Handb Clin Neurol. 2014.

The 10-3-2-1-0 Rule

As a wrap up for a final principle, here’s an easy to remember rule for helping with sleep quality:

10 Hours before bed - stop drinking caffeine like coffee, tea, or energy drinks.

3 Hours before bed - stop eating.

2 Hours before bed - stop working and performing stimulating activities. Try gentle stretching, yoga, meditation, reading, and taking warm showers!

1 Hour before bed - absolutely NO screen time. Set all your alarms and prepare for the next day at least 1 hour before getting into bed and don’t watch TV or scroll through social media. You’ll be rewarded with a wonderful night of sleep.

Bonus: 0 Snoozes! - upon rising in the morning, don’t snooze! Instead, get out of bed, grab a tall glass of water and gaze in the sunshine for a few minutes and you won’t feel the need to crawl back into bed.

Conclusion

If you adhere to the principles laid out in the article, I have no doubt that you will greatly improve your overall sleep quality! Each of the principles are backed by a robust body of evidence and are nothing new. However, they form a cohesive basis for establishing healthy sleep hygiene and function as a large step for improving one’s overall health.

As an ending note, an appreciable chunk of content I’m delivering in this article will continue to be discussed in greater depth in future posts, so if you want to learn more, stick around!

Thanks for reading! Take care,

Jared Hathaway