🔼: [[⭐️ Sleep]], [[💡 Insomnia]] # How to Improve Sleep If we have access, we can talk to our doctor about getting a medical evaluation and/or sleep study. If there's [[💡 Sleep Apnea|Sleep Apnea]] or another medical issue, the other stuff might not help much. Many of us don't have that option and there can be lengthy wait times for those of us who do. In the meantime there are several things we can try to improve our [[⭐️ Sleep]]. https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-sleep-when-youre-a-perfectionist-and-high-achiever Book: Sink into Sleep (a client told me it helped them enormously) ### General Sleep Hygiene #### Daytime - Get out of bed at the same time every day. - [[💡 Sunlight and Light Exposure]] - [[🕯️ Cold Shower]] - Eat a big breakfast early in the day or eat lunch early. - [[🕯️ Movement Practices 👟]] - [[🛠 Heart Rate Variability Training]] - [[☀️ Connection]], with either other people or pets. - Exposure to warm temperatures in the day and cooler temperatures at night. - Limit naps to 90 minutes tops. - [[Caffeine]] cutoff @12:00pm - We can expect to be hungry by 6-7pm. Eat whatever we want to induce a "food coma." - 3-4 hours before bed: [[💡 Alcohol|Alcohol]], exercise, and food cutoff, making sure to avoid oily or sugary foods and that we are neither hungry nor stuffed ##### [[⭐️ Nutrition]] for Better Sleep ###### Foods to Embrace: - [[Omega-3 Fatty Acids]] - [[💡 Melatonin#Melatonin-Rich Foods|Melatonin-Rich Foods]] - [[💡 Tryptophan|Tryptophan]] - [[💡 L-ornithine#L-ornithine-Rich Foods|L-ornithine-Rich Foods]] ###### Foods containing helpful micronutrients: - Lettuce - Tart cherry juice - Barley Grass Powder - Maca - [[🌿 Ginseng, Asian]] - Lingzhi - Asparagus Powder ###### Spices: - [[Black Cumin]] - [[🌿 Turmeric]] #### Evening ##### 2 hours before bed / Nightly Routine It's common to experience a spike in wakefulness around this time. It will pass. - Avoid stimulation. No screens, and no screens in bed. - Save grocery shopping, chores, and cleaning for this time. - [[🕯️ Journaling]] - [[🕯️ Movement Practices 👟]] / [[👟 Asana Practice]] / [[👟 Stretching]] / [[🕯️ Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (TRE)]]/ [[🕯️ Meditation 🧘]] / [[🧘 Yoga Nidra]] / [[Bath]] / [[💨 Nadi Shuddhi]] - Podcasts / Audiobooks / Physical books / Relaxing [[🛠 Music]] - [[🛠 Containment]] ##### Bedroom / Bed ###### Temperature Control (65F-70F) - Fan - A window-mounted A/C unit is far cheaper and more energy-efficient than using central A/C in warmer months. - Bed temperature control ###### Light Pollution - Tape, stickers, or nail polish over LEDs - Alarm clock facing the wall - Phone on the floor Light can interrupt our sleep even if we don't see it because our skin is light-sensitive, though we're usually covered by blankets and light is mostly taken in through our eyes. Ideally we would leave the blinds open so the sun can wake us up (that's what it's for!), but if outdoor light is keeping us awake, the window is best covered with blackout curtains. There are also alarm clocks which wake us up with light, so we can have something similar to waking up with the sun even if the window has to be covered. If we can't reduce light pollution to an ideal level, eye masks help, but be uncomfortable for some and can make waking more difficult. ###### Noise Pollution Sometimes we wake in the night because of sudden sounds, even if we don't remember hearing them when we wake. A White Noise Machine will buffer those sounds. Alternatively we can use a Bluetooth Speaker + White Noise apps. For some a fan is plenty loud. Earplugs work, though for some it can be difficult to sleep in them. ###### Bed - [[🌿 Lavender]] - [[🛠 Weighted Blanket]] - [[💨 Elongated Exhalation]] - The last thing we think about before falling asleep is often the first thing we think about when we wake. - If we can't fall asleep after 10-20 minutes, get out of bed and do something relaxing until we're tired. - Do not check the time. - Waking up once in the night is normal, but if we can't fall asleep again, [[🧘 Yoga Nidra]], [[🕯️ Meditation 🧘]], and the [[📱 Calm]] app's Sleep Stories can help. - It's easier to wake up when we're tired than to go to sleep when we're not. It takes about 3 days of waking up on time and feeling like a zombie to reset our sleep schedule. Sleep will feel like a relief. - If we wake up a little earlier than we'd like, that's okay. Morning sleep is almost always light and lower quality anyway. - Despite requiring a screen, the [Loóna](https://www.loona.app/) app has helped me fall asleep multiple times. - Wear comfy socks. Keeping our feet warm helps us fall asleep. - Keep pets out of the bed. Other Tips: 1. If I’m stressing about not sleeping, which makes sleeping harder, I tell myself that it’s okay if I don’t get much sleep tonight. I might be groggy tomorrow, but it’s ultimately not the end of the world. Sometimes I give myself comfort self-huggies. You can’t TRY to sleep. The efforting makes it harder. So, comfy good. 2. If I have some [[🛡️ ruminating]] or just a lot of thinking going on, I get my ereader out, which focuses my mind on a single line of thought, and that’ll often help me fall asleep. Sometimes I might put on a [[🧘 Yoga Nidra]] practice. Sometimes I put on some sleepy music and focus on that. All of those have helped me fall back to sleep. 3. Sometimes I let go of the idea of sleeping at all and just think about how nice it is that I have a bed that I find comfy and don’t really get to enjoy during the day. So when I can’t sleep I just luxuriate in my bed, which is a pretty good second to actually sleeping. It’s like I try to soak up all the good comfies my bed can offer and rest my attention on all the comfy sensations and be like mmmmyis. And then I often, eventually, fall asleep. ##### [[🛠 Supplements]] Use supplements as a last resort; the best supplement we can take is nothing, and starting with them can exacerbate the problem by starting a vicious cycle: Can't Sleep -> Take Supplement -> Midday Crash -> Caffeine -> Can't Sleep 30-60 minutes before bed: - [[💡 Melatonin]] - [[💡 Apigenin]] - 50mg - [[🌿 Ashwagandha]] - [[🌿 California Poppy]] - [[🌿 Chamomile]] - [[🌿 Hops]] - [[🌿 Lavender]] - [[🌿 Oats]] - [[🌿 Passionflower]] - [[🌿 Rhodiola]] - [[🌿 Skullcap]] - [[🌿 St. John's Wort]] - [[🌿 Valerian]] - [[🌿 Jujube]] - [[🌿 CBD]] - [[💡 GABA]] - 100mg 3-4 nights per week - [[💡 Glycine]] - 2g 3-4 nights per week - [[💡 L-ornithine ]] - [[💡 L-Theanine]] - 100-400mg - [[Magnesium Glycinate]] 200mg OR [[Magnesium Threonate]] 145mg - [[Omega-3 Fatty Acids]] - [[💡 Tryptophan]] [^1]: Toolkit for Sleep (Huberman Lab)