For decades, people decided the need for sleep as something only lazy people focused on. The “hard” workers survived on minimal sleep, showing up to work early and leaving later than everyone else. Sleep was for the week, and no one who slept eight hours a night was getting anywhere.
Thankfully, those days are gone. After studies and a return to sanity, we now know that sleep is one of the most valuable things that we can do to stay sharp and perform at the highest levels. Starving ourselves from sleep only makes us unhealthy and impacts cognitive performance. The changes didn’t come easily. It took a lot of high-profile business leaders to come out and advocate for an increased focus on sleep. Overall, the United States and other countries around the world experienced a massive shift in corporate cultures that now place more emphasis on sleep and work-life balance.
Unfortunately, there are still millions of people in the world who struggle with sleep. They toss and turn for hours, and even when they lay in their beds early enough to get proper amounts of sleep, their rest is fitful and doesn’t do the trick. If you or someone you know is struggling to get good sleep, or you simply want to improve the quality of your sleep, there are things you can do starting now to get better sleep immediately.
You can try a range of things, and not all of them are complex. Here are some tips on improving your sleep you can try today.
Avoiding Stimulants
One of the biggest things that you can do to improve your sleep is to help your body get ready for bed. It sounds simple, but most people have difficulty easing their bodies to sleep in the evenings. It’s unrealistic to think that you can immediately shift from a stimulated state into complete rest in a matter of minutes, but that’s precisely what most people do! We go from playing computer games or watching a violent, exciting moving right into bed after drinking caffeine and eating sugar all day.
If you want to fall asleep faster and get better sleep, you need to do a better job of avoiding stimulants in the evening. Even better, stop doing things like drinking caffeinated sodas or eating a ton of sugar in the afternoon, so they have a chance to move entirely through your system by the time you’re ready for bed.
Also, do what you can to stop using your phone or computer an hour or so before you want to go to sleep. This is hard, we get it, but if you struggle with not checking social media in bed or watching some YouTube videos, then at least turn on the evening settings on most devices that dim the lights and change color shading to ease the strain on your eyes.
Invest in Sleep Equipment
You may be wondering what exactly sleep equipment is, and that’s OK! There is, however, a lot of stuff you can buy that will make a significant impact on the quality of your sleep. For example, research shows that keeping temperatures and your body cooler helps you sleep faster and longer. So, if you’re accustomed to sleeping in warm temperatures, you can buy a fan, turn on the air conditioner, or invest in one of several devices that goes under your sheets and send cold water up and down channels to keep your bed cold.
If you haven’t yet, you should also think about investing in a high-quality mattress, pillows, and sheets. They make a big difference, and you’ll be glad you did. We spend so many hours on our beds; it doesn’t make sense to cheap out quality. Buy as excellent a mattress and other bedding as you can afford, and you’ll love getting into bed every night.
Exercise
Some people lay in bed restless for hours before they can finally fall asleep. That’s because they have all of this pent-up energy from sitting at a desk all day. Modern workers move much less than counterparts in generations past. Now, we have to schedule exercises to signal to our bodies that it’s time to go to sleep. You don’t have to do anything particularly rigorous. You can start by taking evening walks or making more of a concerted effort to get out and do things to wear yourself out during the day.
Eat Earlier
It’s hard for your body to sleep when it is still working to digest food from a late-night snack or a late dinner. One thing that you can do to improve your sleep is to move your dinner time up and stop eating after dinner, so your body isn’t still digesting food when your head hits the pillow. This can be a hard adjustment for some people, but with time you’ll come to prefer it. You’ll fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly when you stop snacking late into the evening.
Try Natural Sleep Aids
You don’t necessarily need to visit the doctor to get a prescription for a sleep aid. Indeed, you should try some natural sleep aids first to see if they work. Taking melatonin, CBD, and other milder things can make the transition easier. You can also try having some caffeine-free tea after dinner to calm your nerves and help you relax. Taking a warm shower is also a good tip for people who want to calm down before bed.
Peptides and Sleep Quality
Sermorelin is a peptide that shows promising results when it comes to sleep quality. In tests done with animal models, subjects given Sermorelin saw improved sleep cycle regulation. It does this by promoting orexin secretion in the body. Orexin helps regulate sleep patterns and also has significant effects on lipid metabolism, mood, ability to concentrate, and so on.
Sermorelin improved sleep efficiency in test subjects and, in dozens of studies, increased the length and quality of sleep.
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