Quickfire tip #24 — Ensuring a good night’s sleep
Some quick thoughts on how I now ensure I sleep as well as possible after years of going to bed too late (work, movies, friends etc) and getting up too early (work, badly prioritised exercise).
I’ll write a longer piece on this sometimes as since focusing on this topic I’ve made a real difference to my mood and my wellbeing and I’d like to share more specifics. For the moment just some quick pointers
Regularity
I know that the time I go to bed has lots of variables. So I try and control the other end. As such my target is always 6:30am — seven days a week with only a few unsurprising exceptions. These exceptions include being woken in the middle of the night by a false alarm from the security system, having had to go to bed very late due to work pressures, and if travelling through time zones for short periods. Also, if I am staying with the family in a hotel room and there is nothing to do — e.g., no 24 hour gym or too cold outside to run — then I will probably not set my alarm for that time.
Though once you are in a routine and not overly tired your body tends to wake you.
I have noticed when you discuss this topic, that people with good sleep (a combination of good discipline and some luck) are surprised at the whole concept of even needing daily alarm clocks, while those who don’t sleep enough find it so odd that people can trust themselves to wake up regularly on time.
Temperate
The bedroom is as cold as I can get away with. This means heating is off by 10pm and comes on only around 5am (and is off during the middle of the day). My wife would have it warmer. A constantly battle.
Darkness
Proper curtains over all the windows, drawn properly. I then sleep with a soft eye mask on. Yes! This is the only way in the summer to avoid the sunlight that sneaks through the curtains however well drawn they are, and means that should light come from anywhere else I’m less likely to be disturbed.
Blue light
I’m not perfect at this yet and use my phone far too close to bed time, but I do have plastic orange over-glasses that look ridiculous but are designed to block the light from the phone. Putting these on ahead of sleep may or may not help but I let myself believe the science on this.
No tele in the bedroom!
Not drinking alcohol before bed time
I have not researched the data that says you sleep less deeply after alcohol. What I do know is that after a drink or two I’m in less of a hurry to go to sleep and more likely to watch a movie at the cost of my sleep time. It needs self-control at times to stop what’s going on and go to bed. Less booze = stronger will!
A special app
This was a game changer for me. For several years now I have used Sleep Cycle app on an iPhone. Put next to your bed it tracks your sleep. While there is a whole gamification element around the data which will work for some people (it does for me) what is most valuable is that it monitors your ~90 minute cycles of sleep and opts to rouse you ahead of your target wake time if you are in lighter sleep during that period. That removes the shock of an alarm when you are in deeper sleep.
Before I improved by target hours-per-night I was waking tired most mornings but I was not waking in a state of shock, thanks to the tracking of the app.
(Note, I picked one of my best nights. Rarely do I get to bed this early!)
No detailed science in this Quickfire Tip. Just my experiences as I moved from regarding sleep as a frustrating necessity getting in the way of work or exercise, to appreciating its importance. Good sleep makes you more pleasant with others, more strong-willed with yourself and supports everything your body is trying to do to keep you strong and healthy.
I’m still far from perfect but I do treat sleep as one of my priorities.
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