Maintain a consistent bedtime, plus or minus 30 minutes, to ensure adequate growth hormone release during the first hours of sleep, which is critical for immediate and long-term health, vitality, and longevity. Going to sleep significantly later than your typical bedtime means you miss this crucial window for growth hormone.
Ensure you get the first third of your night’s sleep, as this period of deep slow-wave sleep is essential for the ‘bilge pump’ mechanism that cleans out misfolded proteins and debris from the brain. Going to sleep later than your typical bedtime means you miss this critical brain detoxification process.
Refrain from consuming alcohol, especially within four to six hours before sleep, as it suppresses REM sleep and interferes with sleep spindles. These sleep phases are vital for memory consolidation, schema changes, and efficient transfer of information from the hippocampus to the cortex.
Actively calm your sympathetic nervous system before sleep by avoiding exciting or stress-inducing activities like video games. Instead, engage in relaxing practices such as deep breathing, meditation, a warm bath, or reading a comforting book to ensure adaptive sleep and prevent maladaptive patterns.
For individuals recovering from opiate use, prioritize and implement comprehensive sleep hygiene practices, including morning sunlight, limiting bright light at night, and lowering ambient temperature. Engaging in calming activities before sleep can buffer healthy sleep architecture, potentially accelerating recovery and shortening the withdrawal period.
Allow teenagers and babies to sleep for extended durations, as their bodies and brains are undergoing significant development. Extra sleep is crucial for organizing their brains and hitting developmental windows, and deprivation can lead to cognitive deficits.
If feasible, avoid using an alarm clock and wake up naturally, ideally at the end of a 90-minute sleep cycle, especially a REM sleep period. This practice helps prevent sleep inertia and grogginess, leading to a more refreshed waking experience.
Do not worry if you wake up once in the middle of the night, even if it takes an hour to fall back asleep, as this is a normal part of sleep architecture. Sleep is homeostatically regulated, and as long as you can return to sleep or adjust your schedule, it’s not detrimental.
Break the anxiety-insomnia feedback loop by reassuring yourself that your body will get the sleep it needs, and then practice relaxation techniques without worrying about sleep duration. This mindset shift and deliberate relaxation can help overcome the stress that exacerbates insomnia.
To overcome recurring nightmares, practice recognizing you are in a dream state and deliberately change an element within the dream, such as confronting a threat differently. Rehearse these changes during wakefulness to increase the likelihood of altering the nightmare and potentially aiding trauma recovery.
Engage in body scan relaxation techniques, such as progressively tensing and relaxing muscles from toes to head, to calm the nervous system and facilitate sleep. This practice helps reduce locus coeruleus activation and promotes overall relaxation.
To fall asleep or return to sleep, deliberately relax your facial muscles by ‘draping’ them and emphasize long exhales in your breathing. This technique, used in military special operations, can increase the probability of transitioning back into sleep.
Engage in prayer as a method to calm yourself down and relax, as it can help release worries and promote a sense of peace. This process, similar to other relaxation techniques, can aid in achieving a more relaxed state before sleep.
For individuals with trauma and PTSD, certain antidepressants (noradrenergic or serotonergic reuptake inhibitors) may be counter-indicated as they can inhibit adaptive REM sleep. This interference can hinder the brain’s ability to resolve emotional components of traumatic memories.
Women who have experienced trauma might discuss estrogen supplementation with a medical professional, as preliminary research suggests estrogen can be protective against PTSD by helping the locus coeruleus calm down during REM sleep. Testosterone also converts to estrogen in the brain, offering similar potential protective effects.
Immediately talking about a traumatic event might be counterproductive, as it can reactivate emotions without emphasizing safety or providing strategies to calm the sympathetic nervous system before sleep. Focus on calming the nervous system to allow adaptive sleep processes to resolve emotional components of the memory.
Do not take sleep talking seriously, as it does not necessarily reflect truth. This means it should not be used as a basis for important decisions or judgments about others.
Use sleep trackers with caution and take their data ‘with a grain of salt,’ as even the best ones are only about 70% effective at staging sleep. Prioritize trusting your own subjective feelings of rest and combine them with objective data for a more accurate assessment.
If you consistently sleep nine hours or more and still feel unrested (excluding teenagers and babies), consult a doctor, as this could indicate an underlying health issue like sleep apnea or inefficient sleep. This is important for identifying and addressing potential medical conditions.