Getting Good Sleep 😴

Six easy upgrades to rest and recover for optimal performance.

1. Keep moving

Daily exercise is essential for good sleep. Just try to avoid it close to bedtime.

grandpa and grandson running

2. Stay in rhythm

Go to sleep and wake up around the same time to keep your body clock dialed in. Try to get your eyes on some sunlight before 9 am.

girl on dads shoulder in sun

3. Keep the technology out of your bedroom

Keep your room between 60-68 degrees when you sleep and try to make it as dark as possible.

asian man and woman in bed

4. Get your breathing right

Listen to the way you breathe while you sleep with Snorelab, a free app for your phone. If you are a mouth breather, an easy upgrade is to start mouth taping. Might sound crazy, but your brain wants nasal-filtered air, not mouth air. 3M micropore tape or Somnfix strips work well.

man sleeping with mouth open

5. Stay Hydrated

Drink at least half of your body weight in oz. per day. For every diuretic like coffee and tea, drink two glasses of water.

6. Track your sleep

Whoop and Oura are both great options for sleep tracking to start understanding what is impacting your sleep the most. 

sleep tracking app

❓ What has helped you the most ❓

While I do implement some of these, and aspire to implement others (drinking half my body weight in oz per day!), my sleep health still needs to be improved. I always go to sleep fine, but inevitably wake in the middle of the night. Sometimes I'm awake for minutes, other times hours. It has led to sleep deprivation that severely impacts my energy during the day. I've never heard of strategy #4 - I am absolutely going to try this tonight. Thank you for this advice!

Nice article. This was very interesting to me. My sleep patterns are horrible, and I think I do the opposite of everything in this article. I never go to sleep at the same time, I can't fall asleep without my TV, I exercise at night, and I don't drink anywhere near enough water at any time of day.

It looks like I really need to re-evaluate my days. Thank you for the info. Cheers to better sleep patterns.

I’m LOL-ING at number 4’s get your breathing right.😂 I’m sure some people with partners who snore wouldn’t mind taping their mouths shut at bedtime. Just the visual alone “Honey, it’s for your health” in bed with scotch tape in hand.  

Yes to daily exercise, but for me I can totally workout late in the evening, and it actually makes me sleep better because I’m exhausted afterwards.  I know for some the adrenaline of exercise would keep them up, but I’m out like a baby. 

Oh gosh, I've considered sleep tracking, and accidentally done it with my Fitbit, but not consistently. I am much, much better about fairly consistent sleep and wake times and I think it makes a huge difference in my sleep quality and energy levels.

I loled at the "tape your mouth shut" suggestion, but hey not a bad idea!

I used to have a problem sleeping through the night. I would randomly wake up and stay away for an hour or two. It was driving me crazy.

It may be counter intuitive, but taking ice cold showers in the middle of the night fixed that.

I did it for 5-6 months. Every night when I would wake up I would go and take a quick ice cold shower. It made me feel like I've accomplished something really hard. I would fall asleep right after.

I can now sleep through the night without any issues.

This is fascinating! I too wake up randomly in the middle of the night. It's so frustrating! I'll have to try this!