Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends, to avoid ‘social jet lag’ and help your body maintain a regular sleep rhythm.
Keep your bedroom cool, ideally around 18 degrees Celsius, as this thermal environment helps your body achieve good sleep.
Ensure darkness at night to promote melatonin release, which aids sleep onset. Avoid blue light-emitting devices (screens, phones) in the last hour before bed, and dim or turn off half of your overhead lights.
If you’ve been awake in bed for 20-25 minutes (either trying to fall asleep or get back to sleep), leave the bed. Go to another room, read a book or listen to a podcast in dim light, and only return to bed when you feel very sleepy to re-associate your bedroom with sleep.
Be mindful of caffeine intake in the afternoon, as a significant amount can remain in your system until midnight, disrupting sleep quality. Consider reducing or cutting out caffeine to improve sleep.
Understand that improving sleep may require changing multiple factors simultaneously. Experiment by removing potential disruptors like caffeine and alcohol for a period to observe the impact on your sleep quality and empower your own decisions.
When trying to lose weight, ensure you get sufficient sleep, as sleep deprivation causes your body to lose lean muscle mass instead of fat, making dieting less effective.
Prioritize sufficient sleep to regulate appetite hormones (leptin and ghrelin), as sleep deprivation increases hunger and leads to higher calorie intake (200-300 extra calories daily).
Ensure sufficient sleep to maintain motivation for physical activity and improve workout intensity and efficiency, as sleep deprivation reduces the likelihood and effectiveness of exercise.
Engage in physical activity, as it is an effective method to enhance both the quality and quantity of your deep sleep.
Aim for eight hours or more of sleep per night, as sleeping less (e.g., five hours) significantly increases your susceptibility to catching a cold (four times more likely).
Avoid even a single night of severely restricted sleep (e.g., four hours), as it can lead to a significant 70% drop in critical anti-cancer fighting immune cells (natural killer cells).
When you are sick and feel the urge to sleep, listen to your body and rest, as sleep is your body’s way of combating illness and fighting infection.