Ultimate Guide to Improve Sleep Quality

I listened to hours of sleep education content so YOU don't have to.

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I am obsessed with sleep. And with good reason. Sleep enables your body to repair itself and enacts the regulation of hormones. Failing to get the appropriate amount of quality sleep can lead to dysregulation of brain function which can mean impacts on mood and cognitive ability. Furthermore, you need sleep to optimize your immune system and your muscles, two key functions that are extremely important to me. More recent studies have even shown links between crummy sleep and the development of Alzheimer’s (source: nhlbi.nih.gov). So suffice it to say, how to improve sleep quality is an obsession worth having.

And it seems like I’m not alone in my obsession, because podcast hosts, media and influencers are all also talking about how to sleep better or giving out tips for better sleep. I love it. I see a headline about “How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep Naturally” or “How to Sleep Deeper and Longer” and I devour the content immediately, taking mental notes all along the way. I have also been tracking my sleep in one form or another ever since I worked with BodyMedia, one of the first fitness trackers on the market to compete with Fitbit. That was 15 years ago, and I still track my sleep today via my Garmin Venu 2 (Buy on Amazon for $279) and my Eight Sleep (more on this further down in the post, but it’s one of the best sleep hacks for better rest).

After years of consuming sleep-focused tips and putting them to use in my own life (then tracking to really put them to the test), I’m here to share my proven tips to improve sleep quality - what has worked best for me - in the hopes that it helps you.

I know many people struggle with sleep. Approximately 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders. (source: nhlbi.nih.gov) But even those without full blown sleep disorders may have challenges falling asleep or waking up frequently throughout the night. I know these are things I’ve faced over the years, and despite my best efforts, still do sometimes! But when I have all my sleep optimization cylinders firing, here are the things I do that help A LOT. (BTW, I am aware that some of these are super obvious, but still need to be re-stated because of their importance.)

1. Keep Up with Regularity

This was something that REALLY helped my sleep, but I had a hard time putting into practice because I just didn’t “wanna.” It turns out that going to bed and waking up at the same time every day (yes, even on weekends!) is a really crucial, foundational component of getting optimal sleep. I used to stay up later on the weekends and then sleep in, but generally, that led to a pretty rough night of sleep on Sunday night as I tried to get back in the groove. These days, I only allow myself a 30 minute grace period on either end of the equation. That is, I go to bed at 9:30pm on weekdays with a wake up time of 6:30am, so on the weekends, I allow a slight shift, going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 7am.

It was tough at first because I viewed my weekend sleep schedule as a little bit of a treat for myself. But it turns out that being well rested for weekend activities is even more fun. Just getting into bed at the same time every night is one of the best bedtime routines for adults.

2. Be Aware of Light Exposure (or lack thereof)

If you have been anywhere near the Andrew Huberman podcast circuit (his show, a multitude of guests or any show he’s guested on), you’ve likely listened to him extol the virtues of getting natural sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning. If you haven’t already heard about this, the basic gist is that it helps set your circadian rhythms appropriately and tell your body when/how to produce an optimal amount of melatonin. If you don’t know what melatonin is … let’s pause here because it’s a pretty crucial part of the sleep story, particularly in this section about light.

Melatonin is a hormone that your brain produces in response to darkness. It helps with the timing of your circadian rhythms (24-hour internal clock) and with sleep. (source: nhlbi.nih.gov)

So you want to try to get out on your porch or deck or maybe take a walk as CLOSE to when you wake up as possible. Unfortunately, you can’t do this through a window (or a windshield), but if the sun is not obscured by clouds, you only need a few minutes. If there are clouds or an overcast sky, unfortunately, you need a bit more time outside for the impacts to take effect.

In this vein, you want the right kinds and amounts of lights creeping into your peepers at the end of the day as well. Viewing the sunset with its specific color spectrum is also an important part of winding your circadian clock correctly. I mean, really, you should spend as much time outside as possible, in my opinion, but these are crucial moments to be outside for sleep health.

NOW - once the sun has set and it’s almost your regular bedtime, you have to be aware of the lights INside your house. Most people know about blue light and blocking it with specialized glasses, but other kinds of lights can be problematic as well. Experts suggest that you dim lights closer to bedtime and try to make sure it comes from at or below eye level, not above (think soft lamps v. harsh overheard lighting). I personally turn off lamps in my close vicinity before bed and use a small book light to read instead.

And, it might go without saying, but the room in which you sleep should be DARK. Light pollution can absolutely wake you throughout the night or creep in without you being fully aware. To go a step further, wear a sleep mask that truly blocks out any chance of light sneaking in.

3. Manage Your Temperature

Most people have heard that you want your sleeping environment to be cool - around 65 degrees. But what has fascinated me to learn over the past few years is how much more nuanced you can get to optimize different phases of sleep (REM and deep).

I’ve learned a lot of this through the best purchase I’ve ever made in my whole life (this is not an exaggeration, and you know I’ve made PLENTY of purchases I’m proud of). If you love sleep like I do and you want more of it (or better quality), BUY AN EIGHT SLEEP.

Buy on the brand’s site for $2,295

Yes, they are over $2k. Yes, it is 100% worth it. What is this magic? It’s a cover for your mattress that uses AI to heat and cool you as you sleep to optimize your sleep cycles. It uses your heart rate and movements to learn more about you over time AND takes the temperature of the room into consideration to heat or cool the bed to precisely the temperature you need throughout the night to stay asleep and get the best quality sleep. It also provides sleep tracking reports, as I mentioned above. I may have to do a full review on this puppy at some point, but suffice it to say, I will recommend this forever and ever. It’s scientifically backed by some of my favorite experts (Andrew Huberman, Matthew Walker, Peter Attia) and after using it for almost two full years now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Aside from purchasing the Eight Sleep magic, there are a couple of other ways to manipulate body temperature to help optimize sleep:

-take a hot bath or shower before bedtime: this can help by lowering your core temperature (counterintuitive I know, since the water is hot) which signals your body and circadian rhythms that it’s sleep time (source: nhlbi.nih.gov.) Here are a couple things I’ve learned from doing this myself. First, don’t make the water scalding - warm is just fine and won’t stress your body out so much. Two, don’t stay in the tub too long. I’ve found that 20-30 minutes is ideal for me. Lastly, experiment with the timeframe. For me, earlier is better, because if I do this too close to bedtime, my heart rate stays elevated and the first part of my sleep is trashier. My sweet spot is to take a 5:30 or 6pm bath for a 9:30pm bedtime. But you do you!

-socks: some people swear by wearing socks to bed to warm your feet and help drop your core body temperature. This is not something I have found consistently useful, so I don’t do it, but it might be good for some!

4. Remember that Timing is Everything

In addition to the timing mentioned in the regularity section above, there are a few other key timing issues to finetune.

-WHEN you go to bed matters. I know there are different chronotypes (take this online quiz to find out which one you are!). Staying true to your chronotype and adhering to regularity within those confines will lead to your best results. Obviously, if you have kids and you’re not a morning person, you have to suck it up a little bit and wake up to help get them off to school. But - just something to be aware of.

-Bedtime may take a little longer than you think. Most people know not to scroll on their phones right before bedtime and influencers have definitely advanced the concept of a full fledged “night time routine,” but you need to pay attention to your personal experience. How long does it take YOU to unwind before bed? For me, I need to make sure the TV is off about an hour before I try to go to sleep. I can read for a bit (on the couch, with a book light!), but I try to take another chunk of time (around 15 minutes) RIGHT before bed to listen to some relaxing music, meditate, breathe deeply, and just go one step closer to sleep. My schedule and life demands mean that I can’t just continue life as is right up until I want to put my head on the pillow.

-Note how long you need to be in bed. This matters for a few reasons: First, if you are spending TOO much time in bed (like 10 hours, but only sleeping eight), that’s not good. Your brain realizes it doesn’t need to be efficient in sleeping so it gets lazy. Also, spending time in bed where you’re awake trains your body to be awake in your bed and the body keeps score. Trust. Being in bed for too short of a period of time is also not a good idea. Some people think they need to be in bed for eight hours because that’s how long they want to sleep. But that doesn’t account for how long it takes you to fall asleep. It’s a good time to give yourself a 30-45 minute cushion, depending on how long it takes you (btw, the Eight Sleep tracks your sleep latency FOR YOU - how long it takes you to fall asleep after getting in bed).

-Caffeine timing: I’ve heard enough about the half life of caffeine and how long it stays in your system to be convinced. I have recently made my caffeine cutoff 10am (approximately 12 hours before I want to be asleep). It’s tough, because I used to love to stretch it out and keep sipping until around noon, but there’s just no reason to take the chance that the caffeine might linger in your system at a crucial part of the sleep cycle. You might not even be AWARE that it’s impacting you, but it could cause your sleep to be lighter or more restless. Everyone metabolizes caffeine differently, but for me, it’s not worth it anymore.

5. Make your bedroom a sleep sanctuary

We obviously already covered not letting light into your bedroom at night, but another VERY important key in designing your bedroom for sleep? Do not use it for things other than sleeping. People have varying levels of tolerance for this, but here are things I do not do in my bedroom (AND DEFINITELY NOT IN MY BED): reading, looking at my phone, watching television (we don’t even have one of these in that room anymore), using my laptop. This was so important to me, I actually moved my desk for work OUT of our bedroom and into another section of the house because as I was walking past my workstation on my way to bed, my mind would start racing about my to-do list for the next day. Not exactly one of the best ways to fall asleep.

6. Optimize sleep all day

Like I mentioned above, you cannot zoom about your day at an eleven, then expect to just hit the pillow and zonk out (well, maybe if you’re in your 20’s - I’m pretty sure I did that back then and was just fine). You have to monitor throughout the day and take necessary measures to down regulate at various intervals. For me, this looks like meditating, breathing exercises or listening to soothing music for 5-10 minutes at key moments like: right after a tough workout, before or after a taxing Zoom meeting, just before I pick the kids up from school, after the rush of getting dinner on the table and cleaning it all up. This is a highly personalized topic and the only way I’ve honed my own structure is through close tracking of my stress levels on my Garmin Venu 2, making tweaks as needed. Even full awareness isn’t foolproof. There are plenty of days where I look around, realize it’s 6pm and I haven’t done a lick of down regulation all day. We’re all just doing the best we can!

7. Exercise (at the right time)

Of course, it stands to reason that exercising would help you sleep better. It wears down your body battery so that you’re nice and sleepy when your head hits the pillow. But you do have to be aware of WHEN you workout and what KIND of workout you do impacting your sleep. This is something that is personal to everyone, but at my ripe old age of 40, if I work out too late in the day, I know it will impact my sleep, especially if it includes any HIIT or high intensity efforts where my heart rate was significantly elevated. I usually work out in the morning - around 8am - but on weekends where it might shift a little later, I try not to get any later than noon. This gives me plenty of time to recover, down regulate (breathing exercises after a tough spin class can be a life saver!), drink my water and get my body back into rest mode before bed. I notice consistently that my sleep is NOT as good on days that I workout, so I have to work harder on these days to bring stress levels down, meditate, drink water, breathe deeply and more. On days where my workout is to walk (currently on a daily 10k step streak of 45 days, baby!), my sleep is the absolute best. Just one more thing walking is good for - better sleep.

8. Drink bedtime drinks

My recent understanding of melatonin supplements are that it’s a terrible idea (for multiple reasons, including longterm dependence, meaning your body to produce less of it on its own and you have to rely on supplements forever), but there are a few other tools I’ve researched and found helpful for my sleep health.

One is a recent addition - some of the relaxing drinks I reviewed during my Dry January posts are a great way to help unwind after a stressful day. A Recess or Lailo as my last nighttime beverage really brings the intensity down and helps me unwind.

Similarly, I have a few bedtime teas in my rotation that serve a similar purpose, all from my favorite tea company (and longtime client!), Numi Organic Tea. If you haven’t ever tried their teas, PLEASE do so ASAP. No artificial anything ever and they are steeped in all the wonderful sustainability and social impact you can handle. The specific products I like best for bedtime are:

• De-Stress (Buy it on Amazon, $26 for a 3-box pack): Effective ingredients in this blend are Kanna leaf, passionflower, lemon balm, spearmint, lemon verbena, hibiscus and licorice root.

• Sweet Slumber (Buy it on Amazon, $10 per box): This blend ALSO features potent valerian root and chamomile flowers to relieve stress and enable rest.

• Chamomile Lemon (Buy it on Amazon, $17 for a 3-box pack): Chamomile is an old standby and you can’t beat the taste of this one. Very citrusy and refreshing.

One other tool in my belt is an L-Theanine + Magnesium supplement. I take this one from Source Naturals (Buy on Amazon) because I’ve heard/read a LOT about how L-Theanine can help with stress management and overall relaxation. I have no scientific proof to show you how effective this one is, so it’s sort of a matter of how strongly you believe in supplementation. You can also get L-Theanine from things like matcha!

9. Listen to bedtime sounds

You may have already read in Sarah’s meditation roundup post that I love to fall asleep to the sound of Ross Rayburn’s voice (former Peloton instructor). He has 20 and 30 minute meditations on the platform that I rotate through. I’ve also recently incorporated this Reiki Healing playlist from Spotify for a few minutes of just transitioning from being up and about to being vertical and in the dark. Occasionally, I also throw in a Yoga Nidra for really dire circumstances. Those meditations are guaranteed to help me pass out ASAP. I have found that these tactics are how to sleep deeper and longer too, as they bring overall stress levels down for the entirety of the night, increasing sleep quality.

I listen to these wonderfully soothing sounds on my soft, wireless Bluetooth headphones. I bought these on Amazon THREE YEARS AGO for a VERY reasonable price and use it every dang day since then (which brings us down to a cost per use of about 1.4 cents!). Great for travel too!

Getting better sleep is a bit of a full time job, but then again, it’s really the most important one. If you don’t get good sleep, you can’t do ANY of your other jobs well, so it has to be the solid foundation upon which everything else stems. When you’re tired, you can’t be creative, fit, energetic or enthusiastic. If you love this kind of content, I’ve listed all the resources below that have informed my knowledge and opinions about sleep for further investigation.

SLEEP EDUCATION RESOURCES:

1. Improve Your Sleep Newsletter from Huberman Lab
   A comprehensive guide from Dr. Andrew Huberman's newsletter, offering science-backed tips on how to improve your sleep.

2. Sleep Toolkit Video by Huberman Lab
   Dr. Andrew Huberman's detailed video on practical tools and techniques to improve sleep quality, backed by neuroscience research.

3. Andrew Huberman: Understanding & Optimizing Sleep
   A comprehensive discussion by Dr. Huberman on the science of sleep and strategies for improvement.

4. Dr. Matthew Walker: The Science of Sleep (TED Talk)
   Dr. Matthew Walker breaks down essential insights about sleep in this enlightening TED Talk.

5. Mastering Sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker (Podcast)
   A podcast episode that dives into actionable advice and science-based sleep practices.

6. The Importance of Deep Sleep and How to Achieve It
   A video detailing why deep sleep is crucial and practical tips to achieve it.

7. Science-Backed Ways to Get a Better Night's Sleep
   Useful tips and insights from experts on how to improve sleep quality.