Tackling the Challenge of Getting A Good Nights Sleep
Some Ideas for improving quality of rest and mental recovery through changing lighting, ambiance, activity, mindset, and daily rituals
I’ve been a habitual night-owl my entire life. Paradoxically, waking up early is incredibly satisfying whenever there’s good reason for it, like a sunrise hike or early flight. Lots of you probably roll your eyes at that, but there is undeniable magic abound in the early hours before the rest of the world awake from dreams. That same delightful calm persists after midnight as well, when peace and quiet returns after a frantic day.
You can see the clear problem here. Appreciating both of these times doesn’t really sound compatible with consistent quality sleep. Trust me, I’ve grappled with that conflicted struggle for years. Lately, I’m seeking a more consistent rhythm. It’s an ongoing process of feeling out what’s most natural for this body rather than being ruled by outside social influences. Below are some of what’s been working for me lately, as well as some areas for further investigation.
Here’s the Short and Sweet Version:
Waking Up…
Regulate Light Exposure | Natural, Sunrise alarm, programmed lights
Meditation | Silent, reflection, Movement (exercise)
Manifesting | Setting positive intentions and perception for the day
Going to Sleep…
Light Exposure | Minimize artificial light exposure with glasses or ambient light
Tea Before Bed | Basically any warm liquid to relax the body from the inside
Ambiance | Combination of warm lighting, ambient sound or music, and scents
Introspect | Set intentions for sleep, note for later anything weighing on the mind
Current Efforts In Pursuit of Optimal Rest and Sleep
Meditation in Morning, Afternoon, or Evening (Basically any time). I’ve never gotten up from a session, however brief, feeling worse than I started. Usually, it’s an amazing way to clear my head starting the day.
When struggling with beginning to sleep or meditate, part of the problem is often thinking too hard about calming down. Instead, I tend to focus on something else like breathing. As an alternative, yoga Nidra also seems like a promising method for those who struggle with meditation.
Creating consistent light exposure. I’ve been using a combination of a Sunrise alarm clock and later added programmable lights to the rest of my space. The colors of light now become warmer and dimmer heading into the evening and night, and in the morning they fade on consistently around 6 am. It doesn’t wake me up immediately, so by the time I do wake up, it’s very smooth and without an audible alarm. I just transition from dreams naturally
Adding lights toward the last hour or two of my sleep cycle seems to contribute to consistent conscious dreaming before waking up. I basically experience extensive and vivid dreams every morning. This period of active REM tended to recede almost entirely before when I relied on a jarring audible alarm to wake from darkness and deep sleep. Using natural light instead, I tend to wake from dreams, my mind already active without the need for caffeine to clear any mental fog.
I’ve been wearing blue and green light filtering glasses most days after 9 pm…essentially once the sun goes down. It’s unrealistic for most of us to entirely eliminate any electronic light exposure in the evenings leading toward bedtime, but glasses help dull the effects.
A cup of hot herbal tea has been incredibly reliable for relaxing myself for sleep sooner. When I’m consistent with it, I pass out before finishing the cup almost without fail.
Binaural music without discernable rhythm or natural nighttime ambiance has been extremely effective in helping to bring me down for bed. Once it’s become a ritual, just the sound of rain or ocean waves in the evening from a youtube video or the calm app begin to ease my mind out.
Sometimes, I’m just too anxious or stuck on something that isn’t done yet. I’ve found documenting it somehow and laying out a quick plan of action for tackling it the next day allows me to set it aside mentally for later. Then I know there is a clear set of actions that I’ll switch focus to refreshed the next day.
Areas for Improvement
Temperature regulation. A lot of the research I’ve been seeing points to our natural sleep rhythms being influenced heavily by temperature shifts throughout the day and night. Between opening windows and a programmable heater, there is definitely some room for improvement in this regard.
NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) This is a topic I’ve come across more recently while following the Huberman Labs podcast. I’ll need to do more research to see how this can be incorporated into my own rhythms.
More intense light filtering glasses could be helpful. The ones I currently use are True Dark’s 40 percent lenses, which do seem to help with screen fatigue but do not filter enough to make me tired at night.
More Consistent exercise throughout the week. In possession of a hyperactive body, it’s been a huge area of neglect over the past few years for me. The main shift I’m starting to make here is in viewing the mind and body as a unified system to improve.
I’m sure I’ll have more to report on all of this over the coming weeks and months. Hopefully, some of it gives you news ideas to try as well!