Sleep: the basic guide on why and how to sleep better

After you understand the importance of sleep, you’ll wonder how could someone live their life without prioritizing it; the purpose of this article is to make you wonder exactly that.

I’ll explain to you, in the most uncomplicated way I can, why sleep is so important to your mental and physical health (which, at the end of the day, are not two distinct things), how it works, and how to improve its quality.

So, why do we sleep?

Unfortunately, we still don’t have a clear answer to that, but we know one thing: it is non-negotiable. As far as we know, every living being with neurons sleeps, and if they don’t do that properly, they’ll face the consequences.

Sleep makes you live longer, improves focus, memory, creativity, hypertrophy, and weight loss, reduces the risk of cancer, dementia, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes, and helps you tremendously with your emotional regulation. There’s not a single aspect of your life that good sleep doesn’t benefit; as you can imagine, lack of sleep will have the opposite effect.

And how does it work?

There are two main things I’d like you to know about: the different stages of sleep and the circadian rhythm.

There are two main stages of sleep, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. In a nutshell, NREM is when you reach deep sleep and can slow down, and REM is when your brain gets really active and you dream; the first mainly makes your body recover, and the second is highly associated with the consolidation of new information and the development of memories.

Another thing to pay attention to is that you follow a circadian rhythm, which means your body follows a 24-hour cycle, and it bases its activity on that. You are designed to be active during the day and to sleep at night.

You’re not the only one with this biological clock, every animal is like that, “but what about nocturnal animals?” they sleep at different times, but still follow a 24-hour cycle. This even happens with plants, have you ever noticed how most flowers usually open up by the time the sun’s out?

Now, this is crucial for you to understand: there’s a structure in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). When your eyes catch the sunlight, that information is used by the SCN to adjust your biological clock. When your body knows the day is starting it produces cortisol, which will keep you awake, and after a couple of hours, it starts releasing melatonin, which will get you sleepy.

So, it’s not how many hours you’ve been awake that will determine when you’re supposed to sleep, but your body’s perception of the day/night cycle. Even if you spend a whole night without sleeping a single minute, when your body figures it’s already morning, it will generate a cortisol peak, and you’ll start to feel awake again. That’s why sleeping during the day will never be as good as sleeping at night. Your body knows when you should be sleeping.

And even if you don’t see daylight, your body will still function based on your circadian rhythm, but it will be unadjusted. That’s why the timing by which you see sunlight is important to your sleep.

So, to have better sleep and enjoy all its benefits, you need to have a well-adjusted circadian rhythm.

Here’s what you can do to achieve that:

See your sleep as a priority: take it with the same seriousness you would take any appointment, set a time and be punctual. The vast majority of people (and I mean the VAST majority) need around 7 to 8 hours of sleep. That means if you want to get up at 7 AM, you should be going to bed at around 11 PM if you want 8 hours of sleep.

After you define your bedtime, stick to it: if you’ve been adjusting your circadian rhythm the whole week, but you decide to go to sleep 3 hours late on the weekend, guess what? You’ll wake up late the next day, and you’ll have to readjust your sleep all over again. So, always go to sleep and wake up at the same time. If you want to mess up your sleep someday, it’s up to you, just be aware of the negative impact it will have on you.

Use sunlight in your favor: let your eyes catch some sunlight first thing in the morning. That will reassure your brain that the day has officially started, and will set the “clock” for your body to produce melatonin later on. Do that every day to make sure your circadian rhythm is adjusted. And be aware: don’t stare straight into the sun. That can cause damage to your eyes and is completely unnecessary when it comes to adjusting your biological clock.

Create your personal cave: bright light at night confuses your brain. To make it clear to your body that it’s time to sleep, eliminate bright lights in the night and only use dim lights as you’re approaching your bedtime.

Be careful with the caffeine: the half-life of caffeine is around 5 hours. That means it takes around 5 hours for half of what is ingested to be out of your system. Therefore, it’s ideal to drink your last cup of coffee (or energy drink, or whatever has caffeine in it) in the early afternoon and not drink excessively in the morning.

Don’t eat too much before bed: eating a big meal might cause indigestion, which will disturb your sleep.

Don’t take a nap at any time: if you want, you can take a nap in the early afternoon, but if you take it too late, it might disturb your sleep at night. Also, keep it short, around 25 to 30 minutes, you don’t want to reach deep sleep and then have to wake up all tired.

Slow down 3 hours before bedtime: ideally, that would mean no working or studying in that period. But let’s be realistic, not everyone has the privilege to make that choice, some people need to work until a bit later. If that’s your case, try to slow down at least an hour before bedtime, so you can prepare your body to sleep.

Try to cool down your bedroom: people tend to sleep better in a slightly lower temperature.

Your bed should represent “sleep time” to you: We tend to associate objects or situations with certain mental states, if you associate your bed with playing video games, or any agitated activity, chances are you won’t feel so sleepy when you go to bed. So, associate your bed with relaxation.

Exercise: having a daily exercise routine can improve the quality of your sleep, especially if you’re working out in the morning or early afternoon. But, come on guys, even if exercise didn’t directly contribute to our sleep, we would all still benefit from it.

If you’re intimidated by this list, the main takeaway on how to sleep better is this: sleep and wake up at the same time every day, get sunlight right after waking up and avoid bright light a couple of hours before bedtime. Start with this, and you can adjust the other aspects as you go.

But simply doing these main adjustments can create great results. If you didn’t have good sleep before, you can do this and see how it works for you. You can implement what you’ve read and feel free to come back to this article every time you need to recall this information. I hope I managed to help you!

If you want to learn more about sleep, I recommend Matthew Walker’s book “Why We Sleep”, which, alongside other articles on the subject, guided me through the writing process of this article. I’ve only covered some of the basics here, but this subject is incredibly interesting, and I encourage you to dive into it.

Disclaimer: these recommendations are generalized and the use of the information displayed here is at the user’s own risk; the content of this article does not intend to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you’re under medical supervision, always prioritize what your doctor says.

References:

Walker, M., (2018), Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams. Penguin Books Ltd.

Bedrosian, T. A., Nelson, R. J., (2017) Timing of light exposure affects mood and brain circuits. Translational Psychiatry.

Stawski, R.S., Almeida, D.M., Lachman, M.E., Tun, P.A., Rosnick, C.B., & Seeman, T. (2011). Associations between cognitive function and naturally occurring daily cortisol during middle adulthood: timing is everything. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.