Does the following sound familiar?
You do strength and resistance training 2-3 times per week.
You get in a session of interval training, 30 minutes of steady-state aerobic exercise, and fill in the gaps with plenty of movement such as walking.
You also eat a whole foods diet consisting primarily of high-quality protein, fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats, while limiting processed foods and sugar.
Yet despite this, you’re having trouble losing weight, or you’re not achieving the body composition you desire.
If this sounds like you, then there’s a high possibility that the lack of high-quality sleep is the logjam in the way of your success.
I’ve seen this A LOT throughout the years. So much so, that I’ve come to realize as sleep goes, so goes everything else.
When I’m talking with a client regarding the events leading up to them getting into bed, it’s not uncommon to uncover numerous stimulatory events, situations, actions, and behaviors – some of which are happening concurrently.
In other words, they are still going 100 miles per hour an hour or two before bedtime, instead of slowly working their way down to 0. And if this is the case, it’s going to be pretty hard to achieve the peaceful and restorative sleep that they seek.
As a society, we tend to be better at going from zero to a hundred than we are at going from a hundred to zero, and this leads me right to the importance of good sleep hygiene and having a solid pre-bedtime routine.
A fair warning before I begin – I’ll probably mention some things here that you’re currently doing or not doing, and perhaps have been a habit for a very long time. If you get great sleep and wake up feeling refreshed every morning, then don’t worry about it.
However, if good sleep seems to evade you, you’re tired most days, or not achieving the health and fitness results you seek, I hope you take what I mention to heart. And, consider that some of your behaviors might not be helping you but rather hurting you when it comes to your sleep.
I’m going to break this up into two parts; things you want to be doing, and things you don’t. I’ll put what I feel is the most important toward the top of the list and work my way down. You might not want to start at the top and that’s okay. Just start somewhere.
You also don’t need to do everything I have listed. Pick some of the low-hanging items to start. They add up and can make a big difference and are easier to implement. You can always tackle the more challenging tasks later as you build momentum.
The objective is to begin identifying good and bad sleep hygiene practices, and then constructing a pre-bedtime routine that works for you.
Sleep hygiene best practices:
- Go to bed and wake up on a regular schedule. When it comes to sleep, our bodies love regularity. With a regular schedule, your body knows when to release calming hormones before bed, and stimulating hormones to wake up. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day is ideal. At the very least, aim to be within a 15-30 minute window. Yes, the same goes for the weekend. I know, stuff happens. In this case, shoot to be within 45-60 minutes of your normal time.
- Get sunlight first thing in the morning. I’ve already gone over this in detail here. The quick and dirty of it is, that sunlight hitting your eyes first thing in the morning is instrumental in the regulation of your sleep-wake cycle. The earlier the better after waking up, and as little as 5 minutes will help.
- Set the stage for 7-9 hours of sleep. If you need 8 hours of sleep and you have to be up by 6 AM you need to be in bed by 10 PM. Work backward and add buffer time: If it takes 30 minutes to do the things you need to do before bed (your pre-bedtime routine) set an alarm if necessary to remind you to start moving at 9:30.
- Dim the lights as bedtime approaches. Or even turn them off entirely if possible. I’ve written about this in past articles too. Start gradually reducing the lighting in your home a couple of hours before your planned bedtime and use red light bulbs in reading lamps to prepare the mind and body for sleep.
- Turn off electronics. Not only do digital devices stimulate our brains, but the screens also release a blue light that prevents our brains from preparing for sleep. Blue light stops the production of melatonin and interferes with its release when you need it the most. I recommend unplugging at least 30 minutes before bed and increasing to 60 or even 90 minutes if necessary. This includes television, computers, smartphones, tablets, and other reading devices. *NOTE if you must, continue watching your favorite shows but do so on an actual television and sit at least 10 feet away from the screen. And, in an otherwise dark room if within 30-60 minutes of your bedtime.
- Use and enable blue light-blocking settings. I know I just covered how your devices might be keeping you up at night, but sometimes, you might not have a choice. Make sure to at least turn on the night mode settings that come pre-installed on most devices. For more robust protection, you can install software such as f.flux or Iris, and/or also use blue light-blocking glasses.
- Make your room dark. Having light sources of any type in your bedroom can suppress melatonin production and disrupt sleep patterns. Use black-out blinds or curtains to eliminate any outside light. Dim, cover or remove any LED displays or light sources – you’ll be amazed at how much light they emit once they’re gone. If that’s too much trouble, use a sleep mask.
- Keep it cool. Preferences vary depending on whether you tend to sleep more hot or cold, but anywhere from 60-68 F appears to be the sweet spot.
- Use white noise. If you tend to wake easily from every little bump in the night, running a sound machine, fan, humidifier or HEPA filter that runs constantly throughout the night tends to be helpful.
- Optimize your sleep nutrition. Everyone has an ideal ratio of carbohydrates, fat, and protein that helps them sleep best. Do yourself a favor and start with a breakfast containing 25-50 grams of protein and then experiment with what works best for you for lunch and dinner. For most, it will be hard to go wrong with a low-glycemic dinner eaten no later than 3 hours before bed.
- Exercise regularly. Physical movement (especially outdoors) can promote restful sleep at night. What doesn’t it do? Word of caution – watch the intense exercise in the evening. Vigorous exercise too close to bedtime will have the opposite effect for some individuals.
- Do something relaxing. This could take the form of reading, light stretching, meditation, or anything else that helps you relax.
- Take a warm bath or shower. The warm water raises your body temperature, thus allowing a gap for your body to cool itself which can help facilitate sound sleep. If you’re into baths, adding Epsom salts and lavender takes it to another level.
- Do a brain dump. Whatever is on your mind, take a few minutes before bed and get it out onto paper. Trying to remember what you need to do tomorrow doesn’t help you fall asleep or stay asleep. Keep this by the bed should you forget something once you lie down. Also, put everything in its correct place and take care of little things that don’t require much time and energy. It sounds simple, but it’s effective.
- Have a stress and clutter-free bedroom. Using the bedroom for purposes of sleep only tells your brain “This is where I go to sleep.” It’s not for entertainment, stress, and worry so don’t make it that. And yes, it’s okay for that purpose too.
- Do it every day. Whether you need 15 minutes or 90 minutes for your ideal pre-bedtime routine, once you find what works for you, make it a routine and do it every day.
Practices you might want to minimize or avoid:
- Caffeine after noon. Caffeine has a half-life of roughly 6 hours. This means, that if you had 100-200 mg of caffeine (the average cup) at noon, you’d still have about 50-100 mg of caffeine in your system at 6 PM. That’s in addition to whatever you may have had earlier in the morning. This is largely a genetic issue where fast caffeine metabolizers have enhanced CYP1A2 gene activity and slow metabolizers don’t. Therefore, if you happen to be a slow metabolizer of caffeine, it’s best to limit your coffee consumption to the AM hours.
- Using alcohol for sleep. While it might help you fall asleep (or pass out), it won’t help you stay asleep and will affect your sleep quality. There are many reasons this is true but initially, it messes with your sleep cycle. Generally, you’ll get less REM sleep than usual and more stage 1 light sleep. This leads to frequent wakings and fragmented, low-quality sleep leaving you feeling tired the next day. You can confirm this using any sleep-tracking device on the market today. Consider hitting pause on the alcohol at least 3 hours before bed.
- Eating large meals close to bedtime. If you go to bed with a large amount of food in your stomach, energy is required to digest it. Instead of assisting with the recovery and repair of all your body’s systems, this energy is temporarily diverted until your meal is digested. This is then often followed by blood sugar fluctuations further disrupting sleep. You’ll often see this reflected in a higher-than-usual overnight heart rate. A good practice is to stop eating 3 hours before you plan to be in bed.
- Taking late afternoon/early evening naps. If this applies to you, set a 3 PM cutoff for naps and limit it to 30 minutes. There’s nothing wrong with taking naps and they often can be quite beneficial. They just can become problematic when used too late in the day. And yes, falling asleep on the couch before bed counts too!
- Sleeping next to your smartphone. Remember what I said about blue light entering your eyes and telling your brain it’s time to wake up? Do you really want that to happen at 2 AM? The buzzing and the dinging probably don’t help either. Turn off or silence your phone. At the very least, keep it far enough away that you’re not tempted to check it or allow it to disturb you while you’re trying to sleep.
- Watching the news and scrolling social media. I’m not saying it’s all bad but there is a lot of negativity present out there today. If what you’re watching or reading is making you feel stressed, angry, upset, or nervous, it probably isn’t helping you sleep at night.
- Ruminating (thinking, planning, or worrying) when in bed. Most of the time, doing a brain dump along with some of the other sleep hygiene best practices will prevent this from happening in the first place. But, at times you might find yourself staring at the ceiling unable to sleep. In this case, it’s best to do something else. I like to read, or do some light cleaning around the house – just something to take my mind off the fact that I can’t sleep. Then, after about 30-60 minutes, I try again and can always fall back asleep.