The single most important tip for better sleep is regularity; maintain a consistent sleep schedule, including on weekends, as this foundational practice allows many other aspects of sleep to naturally improve.
Align your sleep timing with your natural chronotype (whether you’re a morning lark or night owl) and maintain regularity on weekdays and weekends to significantly improve sleep quality.
To manage rumination and negative thoughts before sleep, engage in activities that get your mind off itself, such as meditation, breathing techniques, listening to sleep stories, body scans, or taking a detailed mental walk.
If you wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to fall back asleep, stop trying too hard; instead, embrace the concept of rest by simply lying in bed and enjoying the quiet, which can often lead to sleep returning naturally.
Understand that you cannot truly pay back sleep debt retroactively; if you miss sleep, you lose the chance for certain benefits like memory consolidation, and chronic short sleep accumulates like compounding interest on your health.
If you anticipate periods of sleep loss (e.g., night shifts), try to sleep longer in the days prior to build up “sleep credit,” which can lessen the negative impact of the subsequent sleep debt.
Download the SnoreLab app to record and assess your breathing during sleep; if it confirms snoring, especially moderate to epic, consult your doctor as it may indicate undiagnosed sleep apnea.
Avoid sleeping on your back, especially if you snore, as it significantly increases the likelihood of snoring, airway collapse, and hypoxic events; side or front sleeping is generally preferred.
Be aware that alcohol intake can significantly increase snoring, so reducing or avoiding alcohol, especially before bed, may help mitigate snoring.
If you consistently wake up at the same time, remove all clock faces from your sight in the bedroom to prevent reinforcing the habit and teaching your brain to wake at that specific time.
To gain creative insights and solutions, ensure you are not only sleeping and dreaming, but specifically dreaming about the problems or challenges you are trying to solve in your waking life.
To achieve emotional resolution and mental wellness, allow yourself to dream about specific difficult or problematic emotional experiences, as this process can act as a form of overnight therapy.
Engage in journaling, deliberation, or cogitation of your dreams, as they offer a window into essential waking life concerns and can provide personal insight, though a therapist can also guide this.
To treat recurring nightmares, work with a therapist to describe your nightmare, write down its narrative, and then collaboratively create and rehearse a more neutral or positive alternate ending.
To significantly improve Image Rehearsal Therapy for nightmares, pair the rehearsal of the alternate ending with a specific sound (e.g., a pleasant piano chord) and then replay that sound at a sub-awakening threshold during REM sleep.
To extinguish fear memories, initiate a deconditioning protocol during wakefulness and then continue it during sleep, as sleep can be as or more effective than wakefulness for this process.
To remember your dreams, remain still with your eyes closed upon waking and mentally rehearse the dream repeatedly before moving or opening your eyes, to help solidify the memory.
If you wake up from a nightmare feeling anxious or disturbed, get up and move your body, and consider turning on some lights, to help shake off the negative affect and fall back asleep.
If you’re an older adult consistently waking up too early and unable to fall back asleep, try delaying your bedtime by an hour or more to build up sleep pressure, which can help you sleep longer into the morning.
Older adults struggling with sleep should consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) with a board-certified sleep medicine clinician, as it is an effective treatment to help stay asleep.
Older adults experiencing sleep issues can discuss medications like low-dose Doxepin (3-6mg) or DORAs (dual orexin receptor antagonists) with their physician, as these have shown promise for maintaining sleep.
For menopausal women experiencing hot flashes (vasomotor symptoms) that disrupt sleep, consider using a cooling mattress to help regulate body temperature and improve sleep quality.
Women experiencing sleep disruption due to menopause may consider discussing bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) with their doctor, as it can help control symptoms and normalize reproductive hormones that promote sleep.
To induce lucid dreaming, consistently rehearse before bed the intention to remember your dreams and instigate control within them.
To induce lucid dreaming, regularly perform reality checks during the day (e.g., flipping a light switch, pushing hand into a solid object) so that you eventually do it in a dream, recognizing the illogical outcome as a cue for lucidity.
Before taking any supplements for sleep, always consult your doctor and ensure you are first diligently practicing all recommended behavioral sleep hygiene protocols, as these are far more impactful.
After optimizing sleep behaviors and consulting a doctor, consider supplements like magnesium threonate/bisglycinate, apigenin, theanine (with caution for vivid dreams), inositol (900mg), glycine (1.5-2g), or phosphatidylserine to support sleep.
Consider doing regular therapy with a quality therapist, as it is one of the best things for mental health and can be as beneficial as regular physical exercise.
If you eat clean, exercise, and drink a lot of water, consider dissolving an Element electrolyte packet in 16-32 ounces of water upon waking, during exercise, or if you’re sweating heavily, to ensure proper cellular function.
To find an optimal mattress, take the brief two-minute sleep quiz at helixsleep.com/Huberman, which matches you to a customized mattress based on your sleep position and temperature preferences.
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