How to optimise your sleep?
Sleep is one of the fundamental things for the proper functioning of the human body. It should be the first thing to be optimised to have a profound impact on the overall health of the body.
1) Sunlight
Expose yourself to sunlight by going outside within 30-60 minutes of waking up (an early morning walk is ideal). Repeat in the late afternoon, before sunset. If you wake up before sunrise and want to be awake, turn on the artificial lights and go outside once the sun rises.
On clear, cloudless days: Expose yourself to morning and afternoon sunlight for 10 min; cloudy days: 20 min; very cloudy days 30-60 min. If you live in a place where light is very minimal, consider an artificial daylight simulator source.
Do not wear sunglasses for this practice, (if it is not dangerous). Contact lenses and prescription glasses are suitable.
Under no circumstances should you look directly at sunlight or other bright lights that could be harmful to your retina! That said, we do not recommend wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses or staying in the shade if you want to optimise your circadian clock.
2) Wake up
Wake up at the same time every day and go to bed as soon as you start to feel sleepy. Pushing through the late night drowsiness and falling asleep too late (for you) is one of the reasons why people wake up at 3am and can't get back to sleep.
3) Caffeine
Avoid caffeine in the 8-10 hours before bedtime. Beware of drinks with hidden caffeine (Soda, Tea, Mate)
4) Sleep hypnosis
If you have sleep problems, insomnia or anxiety about sleep, try sleep self-hypnosis. There are many apps or videos on Youtube that can help/teach you this practice. It only takes 10-15 minutes and will help you rewire your nervous system so you can relax faster.
5) Evening light
Avoid looking at bright, white lights, especially bright ceiling lights in the evening. Beware of TV, computer and telephone screens. Also, do not engage in any activity
6) Naps
If you do take naps, limit naps to less than 90 minutes or don't nap at all.
7) Middle of the night
If you wake up at night to go to the toilet, for example, use only as much artificial light as you need to move safely at night. (Which, by the way, is normal to wake up about once a night) but if you can't get back to sleep, consider doing a "Yoga Nidra" protocol.
8) Ambient temperature
Keep the room in which you sleep cool and dark and layer blankets that you can remove.
Your body needs a temperature drop of 1 to 3 degrees to fall asleep and stay asleep effectively. The rise in body temperature is one of the reasons you wake up. So, keep your room cool and remove the covers if necessary. If it is too hot, you will need to use a cooling device and this is more difficult than just throwing on blankets if you get too hot.
9) Alcohol
Drinking alcohol has multiple bad effects on your sleep. We will do a full article on this topic. But in the meantime, we advise you to ban alcohol if you want to get quality sleep.
