Here are some tips from Sleep specialist Dr. Mathew Walker, PhD in his book: Why We Sleep: Unlock the power of Sleep and Dreams.
- Maintain regularity
- Wake up the same time and go to bed the same time, even on weekends.
- Create darkness around our room
- We are a darkness deprived society. We need light and dark cycles to create healthy doses of melatonin – A hormone that helps us initiate sleep.
- Dim the lights before bed, stay away from LED screens that emit blue light and fool your brain into thinking it’s daytime still. Use nightshift on your phone, or blue light blocking glasses. Thick curtains.
- Keep it cool!
- We often sleep in a room too warm. Keep a room temperature of 68 degrees fahrenheit, our brain and body need our core body temp to drop down to initiate sleep.
- Avoid alcohol and caffeine
- Alcohol is a class of drug that’s called a sedative, it knocks our brain out and does not bring us into a natural sleep. It also is potent chemical for blocking dream sleep or REM sleep.
- Caffeine is a stimulant as a class of drug, you might be able to fall asleep easily when you drink it, but the depth of your sleep is not as deep as if you didn’t drink it, so in the morning, you find your self not refreshed and you wake up needing more coffee.
- Do not stay in bed if you are awake
- If you can’t call asleep after 20 minutes or wake up for more than 20 min during the middle of the night, then you might associate your bedroom with the behavior of not sleeping, instead, get up and move to another room, read a book.
- An alternative is meditation, which has shown to calm down flight or fight response, and that can also help you fall asleep more easily.
