There’s very little that’s more important to wellbeing than getting good quality sleep. This is best demonstrated the day after a bad night's sleep; you feel irritable, sluggish and it becomes difficult to focus on your work. Sleep is how our body repairs and recharges for the next day.
Sleeping badly is like starting the day with a half charged battery, it’ll be hard to get through the day fully functional, and you certainly won’t be able to get the most out of your life living it on 30% charge!
On a more serious note, poor sleep has been linked to a whole range of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, poor immunity, and even mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
So, a good night's sleep is about more than just feeling rested - it’s one of the best ways to safeguard your physical and mental health. In this article we’ll talk about how you can improve the quality of your sleep by making simple but consistent lifestyle changes and paying attention to a few other key things.
Daytime habits for better sleep
So, let’s get started designing a better, more rejuvenating sleep. It may surprise you that it actually starts right after you wake up.
Make your bed: It takes 30 seconds to do and helps in a couple of ways. Firstly, don’t tuck everything in tightly; instead, pull back those sheets and blankets and let the mattress cool and breathe. This airs out your bed and helps to reduce dust mites.
For those with allergies, minimizing dust mites means less irritation to your airways, making it easier to breathe while you sleep. Having a tidy and inviting looking bed will also help us out later in the day when we start our bedtime routine.
Get active: In order to get the best sleep we need to have used our bodies during the day. Regular gentle exercise, such as taking a short walk or 10 minutes of stretching, helps reduce stress and maintain muscle tone, both of which contribute to a comfortable night's sleep. However, you shouldn’t do anything too vigorous just before bed as this can raise adrenaline levels (which keeps you awake) and suppress melatonin production (which helps you sleep).
Take breaks: It’s also important to make sure you give yourself time during the day to recuperate. Your brain and body aren’t meant to go full steam all day and only rest when you sleep.
Taking regular breaks during the day help your mind to declutter a few times so it’s not all sitting there waiting for you when you close your eyes at night. Our Luma³ range can help you to do this with their helpful hourglass mode - which nudges you to take a 5 minute break once an hour, then guides a restful breathwork exercise.
Manage your caffeine: Everybody loves a tea or a coffee during the day. We’re Yorkshire based so it’s Yorkshire Tea all the way (milk and sugar, if you’re making one). There’s nothing wrong with having caffeine during the day, it can help with focus and give a little energy uplift when you feel you need it.
But, did you know it takes around 6 hours for the effects to wear off? That means if you’re going to bed at 10:30pm you shouldn’t have a drink containing caffeine after 3:30pm. Having it later in the day can interfere with your sleep cycle and quality of sleep. So even if you’re still managing to get to sleep, it will reduce the quality.
Support your circadian rhythm: Our mind and body run on a daily cycle called the circadian rhythm. This internal pattern contributes to how alert or ready for sleep we feel and it’s largely governed by light. This means two things, getting outside into natural daylight as early as you can to help “set the clock” and then limiting bright lights in the evening, mimicking the natural day night cycle with the lighting in your home.
Creating a Better Environment for Sleep
You’re going to be spending the next 7-9 hours in one spot - so it’s easy to see why time and money spent getting the immediate environment right is a good investment. There’s lots to be said on this but we’ll focus on what we consider the most important.
The Bed: By this we mean the mattress, pillow and bedding. Getting these right will mean a better sleep and less aches and pains the next day. The first step is to establish your sleep position. Are you a back sleeper or a side sleeper?
If you answered that you sleep on your front, then this is probably the first thing you want to change! Knowing the position you sleep in determines the correct mattress and pillow. For example, side sleepers generally need a softer mattress with a taller firmer pillow. Whereas, back sleepers will want a firmer mattress with a lower pillow.
If this sounds expensive - it can be, so let's run the numbers quickly. A good quality mattress could cost between £1000 and £1500 and a decent pillow £40-60 the recommended life for the mattress is 8 years and the pillow likely 2 years. That means for around 65p a day you’ll be setting yourself up for the best day possible. In comparison that’s about the same as your Netflix subscription - and more than half what your smart phone is likely costing you.
The Temperature: Some of this one is determined by getting the above right, as they will help your body to manage its own temperature. But it’s also about getting the ambient temperature in the room just right. Generally, cooler temperatures are better. This links back to our earlier discussion on the body’s natural rhythms, it’s evolved to understand cooler temperatures as night time and the time to sleep. So having a room that’s too warm can disturb this. Cracking a window can help with this and will also make sure you have a good supply of clean fresh air into the room (depending on where you live of course!)
The Light and Noise: When we sleep, we might not be aware of it, but our senses are still doing their job - albeit in a reduced way. You’ll know this from being woken in the night by a crying baby or a barking dog. Or when the landing light comes on as somebody visits the bathroom. The thing is, you don’t need to be fully woken for these things to disturb your sleep. Even small amounts of new light and sound will disturb your sleep, even if it doesn’t fully wake you. So keeping your sleep environment dark and quiet is a must wherever possible. For some this can be a challenge and so wearing earplugs designed for sleep or an eye mask can help. In the summer, blackout curtains or blinds are a must to make sure you get your full nights sleep.
Your Sleep Ritual - Preparing for Sleep
As your day draws to a close, the things you do are important to how well you will sleep. Our brains work in habitual ways and over time, we begin to associate certain activities with certain feelings and actions. So let's look at the timeline running up to a good quality sleep.
2-3 hours before bed: No big meals or heavy exercise. We talked briefly about the exercise already but it’s important to also make sure you don’t leave your evening meal too late and close to bedtime. The digestion process generates heat which disturbs sleep and having a full stomach while sleeping can also cause gastrointestinal problems.
1 hour before bed: You want to help your mind and body understand it’s the end of the day and to get ready for sleep. Avoid mentally or physically demanding tasks and turn down the lights. Think “cozy and relaxing” and you’re on the right track. TV or a book on the sofa is a good shout - low stakes relaxing activities that allow you to wind down and begin to feel sleepy.
Before you get into bed: A strong routine is helpful here, done the same way each night to really enforce the pattern in your brain. Lights off, door locked, teeth brushed, curtains drawn, lights dimmed - in the same order every time. This habit stacking will lead your brain down a pattern that ends in sleep and prime you to fall asleep faster. Perhaps add in some light stretching to help relax your muscles before you lie down.
In bed: The key here is to not restimulate and engage your brain. One key activity that’s to be avoided is social media. These apps are specifically and carefully engineered to keep you scrolling and engaged and are absolutely the wrong thing to do before sleep. Instead, doing some mindful activities to help calm and regulate your nervous system further will be beneficial. Our Luma³ Premium and Luma³ Essential both have a Sleep Ritual mode which guides you through an extended four, seven eight pattern of breathwork, which is shown to relax the mind and body. Reading is helpful for some, as is listening to calming music or writing in a journal.
Once you close your eyes: This sometimes is the part where things go wrong. Our mind can sometimes begin to race - but actually this can be a natural part of falling asleep. What’s important is not to fight it or become frustrated. Remember that any time spent lying down with your eyes closed is restful. If it’s becoming difficult a technique known as “Cognitive shuffling” can be helpful. There’s lots of ways to do this; one way is to think of a random word, let’s say “Parrot”. Picture the parrot in your mind, then think of something else that begins with the second letter of that word - for example “apple”. Then keep doing this until you drift off.
Everybody’s solution is different
It sounds obvious, or like a cop-out at the end of an article giving advice on sleep but it’s true. Everyone is different, and will find different ways to help themselves. The key is just that - looking for and finding a way. You’ve taken the first step even reading this blog! Knowledge is power and becoming informed on what your body needs biologically for good sleep is a powerful first step.
This is exactly the approach the experts take. James Wilson, also known as The Sleep Geek, is a sleep expert who specialises in helping individuals understand their sleep and what they can do to improve it. When we spoke to James he said:
“In simple terms, good sleep comes from being physically and emotionally secure, going to bed in line with our natural rhythm and having a good wind down routine that drops our heart rate and drops our core temperature.”
So, bearing in mind everything you've read - what can you identify in your day that could be an easy first step to a better sleep?
