Cultivating a Healthy Sleep Cycle

Difficulty sleeping is so common we all tend to think of it as a normal part of life. No matter how poorly you sleep, you wake up, have some coffee, and get on with your day–because you have to. Eventually we pile up ways to cope and how bad we feel becomes normalized to the point we don’t even notice anymore. I’ve been an insomniac since I was 12 and by college I’d written it off as just something I’d always have to deal with. Of course, you can only go so long without good sleep, as my husband with both sleep apnea and narcolepsy will tell you. Both of us needed medical help to help us get our sleep under control, because there are a lot of factors at play with sleep disorders and not all of them can be addressed with lifestyle adjustments. That said, the following things have gone a long way toward keeping us healthy sleepers, and they’re a great place to start for anyone struggling to feel rested.

1. Keep your room dark

Our bodies are wired to start winding down once the sun goes down and the world gets dark, but ever since the lightbulb was invented, we’ve been pushing ourselves past those limits and now have things like overnight shifts and daylight-spectrum lights that really confuse our body as to what time of day it is. Around the house, try to avoid exposure to any bright lights in the two or three hours before bedtime, even from computer and mobile screens. Most devices have a “night light” feature to give the screen an orange tint instead, and many apps have a “dark mode” that reverses white and black so the screen will be less bright. In the bedroom, cover any LED lights on your alarm, air filter, or other devices with tape or at least turn them away from where you’ll be sleeping. If you have windows in your room and there are lights outside your window after dark, blackout curtains will turn your bedroom into a cozy little sleep cave.

2. Keep your room cool

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to fall asleep when it’s hot and humid? You toss and turn, covered in a light sweat, sticking to your sheets and pajamas. It’s miserable. Keeping your room comfortably cool at night, whether that means lowering the AC or turning on a ceiling fan, can make all the difference. Use breathable cotton pajamas and sheets. There’s nothing cozier than bundling up under the comforter! You can always add layers, but you can only take so many off.

3. Wake with the sun

Okay, I know what you’re thinking… “But I have to be up way before the sun rises!” As we’ve discussed, going to bed when the sun goes down and waking up as it rises would be ideal for our biology. But thanks to modern technology, we can cheat the system a little bit. Just like you can simulate the light of the setting sun if you’re up after dark, you can also simulate the light of the rising sun in your room. Light alarm clocks are a more natural wake-up call than a shrieking buzzer, so they’re not going to startle you awake and get your cortisol pumping the second they go off. And once the sun is out, spend a few minutes soaking up some rays (even if you’re just looking out the window) to let your body know “hey, it’s morning”.

4. Be most active early in the day

Got exercise to do? A high-octane report to give or a stressful call to relatives? Episodes of the latest high-drama TV show to catch up on? Anything that gets your blood pumping is going to ramp up your cortisol, which is best done early in the day when your body is naturally prepared to be active. Leaving those things until the evening when your body is trying to wind down for sleep is going to keep you up at night. Reserve the evening hours for relaxing activities like a cooperative family game night, gentle yoga, a warm bath, puzzles, painting–whatever you do that takes your mind off of things and leaves you feeling content.

After I made these changes, I couldn’t believe how much my sleep improved. Getting back onto a normal sleep cycle after giving up my post-college night-shift job was the single most beneficial lifestyle change I’ve ever made. When I don’t sleep, I get depressed and irritable, I crave sweets, have brain fog and arthritis flares, indigestion…. I didn’t realize how bad it was until it went away. Keeping all of this stuff in check is hard work and occasionally involves some compromises or situations you just can’t help. The idea is to do the best you can with what you’ve got and strive for some kind of consistency. Your body wants to be healthy and it wants to get a good night’s sleep. Sometimes it just lacks the right tools to do so, and if nothing else is working, it’s probably time to see a doctor about a possible sleep disorder.