Modern society has gifted us with many miraculous advancements. We can instantly send messages across the world, access an unprecedented amount of information (and misinformation), and darkness is no longer a large part of our natural selection.
However, this modernity has robbed us of a vital part of our health…
Sleep.
After years of facing and caring for patients and even more years immersed in the strength grind, I have come to the conclusion that sleep is the foundational factor that all health, fitness, and performance is based on. If you neglect this one thing, literally everything else suffers. For the sake of me not going on yet another tirade on the importance of sleep, check out this article.
Here are 5 ways to take back the quality of our sleep that modern life has destroyed.
1. Get sunlight first thing in the morning or brighten your environment.
Getting better sleep at night starts in the morning. Getting bright light (preferably sunlight) into our eyes early in the morning is a good way to set our circadian rhythm and let our brains know that it’s the morning (of course, don’t stare straight into the sun, silly goose). There are plenty of circuits and pathways that are activated when this happens, some of which helps to naturally balance hormones.
There has been a recent trend in trying to obliterate all blue light from entering our eyes. This is actually only beneficial in the evening and night time. In fact, we want blue light during the early hours of the day to properly set our circadian rhythm.
2. Exercise during the day
There have been numerous studies that have established that vigorous physical activity during the day can improve the quality of sleep. Disappointingly, we aren’t exactly sure of the mechanism of why.
Some of these trials studied those who suffer from depression and subsequent insomnia from their depression. When placed on a regular exercise program, scores measuring their level of depression and subjective sleep quality both improved significantly. This is exciting news for those who are looking for non-pharmacological ways to help with their depression and insomnia.
One big thing to note here is that vigorous exercise should be completed about 2-3 hours before bed time to allow the body to cool off and properly wind down.
3. Limit caffeine after 1PM
There is a misconception of what caffeine does to our brain and body. Caffeine does not “wake us up”, it simply blocks sleep. Our drive to sleep is primarily driven by a neurotransmitter called adenosine. Adenosine is naturally created by the body during the production of energy. As adenosine accumulates in our brain throughout the day, they attach to adenosine receptors which prompts the pressure to sleep.
Caffeine molecules look suspiciously similar to adenosine, and thus will bind and block adenosine receptors in the brain. This will block sleep pressure from building while caffeine is in our system, which increases wakefulness. Obviously, this is not great news for those trying to get to sleep.
The general recommendation is for people to start avoiding caffeine in the afternoon. The half-life of caffeine is 6 hours. Note that half-life is not the time for a substance to exit our system. Rather, it is the time required for the amount of the circulating substance to reduce by half. If you consume caffeine at 4pm, you will still have half of the caffeine will circulating in your body by 10pm. However, if you stop consuming caffeine at 10am, your body will have gone through 2 half-lives by 10pm and will likely only minimally impact the quality of your sleep.
If you stop consuming at about 1pm, you will have gone through 1.5 half-lives of caffeine, which most people will be able to handle.
4. Avoid screens for 3 hours before bed
I mentioned earlier that we need blue light during the early part of the day to properly establish our circadian rhythm. The opposite is true during the latter parts of the day.
In our constantly connected world, screens invade our lives from every angle. I get it. I love streaming some Bob’s Burger in the evening. However, staring at a screen 2-3 hours before bed will wire our brains and negatively impact sleep. While studies directly studying the mechanics of evening screen time and sleep quality is sparse, there is a well-established relationship.
It doesn’t take much to make an intuitive leap between evening/nightly screen time and sleep quality. Our body naturally produces a hormone called melatonin in response to darkness. Melatonin is important in establishing a normal circadian rhythm and sleep pattern. Light (and more specifically blue light) blocks the production of melatonin. Therefore, staring at a bright screen, even with night-mode turned on, will negatively impact melatonin production and thus, sleep.
The general recommendation is for people to start shutting off screens about 3 hours before bedtime. Replace these activities with others such as listening to music, reading, meditation, light physical activity, etc.
5. Turn down and warm up the lights
There is a palpable effect of turning down the lights. Darkening our homes in the evening will have a noticeable effect on sleepiness and sleep drive. This makes sense as one of the common recommendations for improving your sleep is to make your room as dark as possible.
As a bonus tip, if you are able to make your lights less blue or white and rather turn them into a warmer color such as orange or amber, there will be an even greater effect.
When I am preparing to go to bed, I always notice a difference in my sleepiness if I need to enter a bright room or encounter a bright light. Something I have found to help is to use one of those cheap, fake candles instead of the flashlight on my phone if I need to wander around my home at night.
Wrapping Up
Sleep is one of the most important things we do for our health, fitness, and performance. Try out some of these strategies to get some better sleep. I plan on expanding this list at some point, so stay tuned for more!
References
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