Your Sleep Sucks, Here’s a Comprehensive Guide in Fixing Your Insomnia

Sleep is fascinating. We love it, yet so many of us are sleep deprived zombies. In fact, it’s become some sort of badge of honor brag about how little sleep you get.

If you tell your coworker you only got 5 hours of sleep last night, he’ll brag about how he only got 3 hours last night.

Like it’s becomes an ego flexing contest to see who can get the fewest hours of slumber.

As humans we need to stop normalizing this. We should start commending people for actually resting.

Good sleep will enhance every part of your life. Contrastingly, sleep deprivation will quite literally ruin your life.

It’s Worse Than You Think

Sleep is more than merely closing your eyes. It’s formally defined as a reversible neuro-behavioral state of relative perceptual disengagement from and unresponsiveness to the environment (30).

You probably already know you’re sleep deprived, but few realize how bad it is. After all, many alcoholics don’t think they have a problem either.

A study by Dongen et al will give you some much needed perspective.

These researchers looked at 2 weeks of various sleep doses, from 4, 6, or 8 hours per night (1). They compared cognitive function of the sleep doses to the brains of 72-hour sleep deprivation, so the type of deprivation if you’d be chased by zombies for days.

They found that sleeping 6 hours or less per night for 2 weeks had the same functional impairments as a complete 72-hour sleep deprivation. This was also only a 2-week study done in healthy adults. In reality, if you’re an unhealthy person sleeping less than 8 hours for longer, your impairments are much worse. It’s no exaggeration when I say, less sleep literally makes you dumber.

In addition, humans tend to overestimate their sleep duration by 30 minutes per day (2).

The reason it doesn’t seem that bad is because you can still function with short term sleep deprivation (3). You adapt to the feeling of being a sleep deprived zombie. The feeling becomes your new norm which is why many people don’t think their sleep deprivation is that bad. But physiologically speaking, you can’t adapt to sleeping less (1).

The physical drawbacks are counterintuitive to your feelings. They deteriorate every part of your health and performance when you get less than 7-8 hours per night (4,101,139). In fact, you don’t realize you were feeling so crappy until you reverse sleep deprivation.

Sleep Deprivation Ruins Your Life And Murders Your Dreams

Sleep serves many purposes. By design, your brain uses sleep to consolidate memories, essentially managing and locking memories (141). It’s also your brain’s fast pass to clear toxins that can be harmful long term to aging and health (142,143). Not getting enough ages your brain and ruins every other realm of your life.

When dieting, minor sleep deprivation between 40 minutes to 2.5 hours kills your nutrient partitioning and reverses the ideal tissue lost (5,6). You end up losing far less fat and far more muscle even if you catch up on sleep over the weekend (6). Note that these studies aren’t done with strength training, so it’s nowhere near as bad when paired with lifting or exercise.

Nonetheless, a single night of poor sleep increases insulin resistance, both acutely and chronically even in healthy individuals (7).

Sleep deprivation also increases your appetite, hunger, and high caloric cravings (8-12,145). Not to mention sleep deprivation tanks your self-control, so pizza and pastries will be harder to resist (15).

Lack of sleep also makes your metabolism burn 2-8% fewer calories with no compensation from the extra time you spend awake (8,13,14).

Sleep disturbances also inches you closer to high blood pressure and high cholesterol (16). In addition, your immune system weakens (17).

Hormonally, a single night of sleep deprivation skyrockets your stress hormone cortisol by 40% and chronic sleep deprivation drops your testosterone and growth hormone (18-21). In men, it also weakens erections and sexual health considerably (26).

This is why multiple nights of sleep deprivation makes life suck and leaves you feeling cranky and functionless (22,23). You become easily stressed and little things are more likely to set you off (24,25).

So as you can see a lack of quality sleep will shatter your life. We haven’t even got into how it impacts your gains yet.

Sleep’s relationship with Exercise

Short term sleep deprivation doesn’t impact strength performance or recovery (27,28,29). This is especially true with motivating interventions in advanced athletes, so if you can tap into your inner beast mode, your workout should be fine after 1-2 sleep deprived nights (27,28).

However, long term sleep deprivation will hinder every performance, coordination, hormonal, and recovery marker you can think of (31,32,33). This generally translates to more body fat and less muscle (34). Recovering your performance from sleep deprivation is also worse in men, so take your sleep seriously fellas (140).

In fact, people who improved their sleep over the course of a year can gain muscle, lose fat, and improve hormones without diet and exercise (35).

However, diet and exercise will always enhance and expedite these effects. I’ll go into specific dietary options later, but all exercise is great for improving sleep (37). In particular, walking or increasing your step count has been shown to improve sleep with greater effects in females (36). No wonder girls nowadays are obsessed with hiking.

Stretching (or yoga) has been shown to improve sleep as well, likely due to relaxing mechanisms (38-43). In fact, stretching has been shown to reduce nocturnal leg cramping and restless leg syndrome, giving you more peaceful sleep (44,45).

Strength training also improves your slumber even if you train at night (43,46,47). Although, some people take a bit longer to fall asleep if they trained an hour before bed (47). Nothing a warm soothing shower or relaxing stretch can’t fix though (48).

Dietary Choices for Bed

Food will impact your circadian rhythm which undoubtedly impacts your sleep. For starters, it’s most important to have consistent meal times so you don’t disrupt your internal clock (49).

And while it’s not crucial, a pre-bed meal within 2-4 hours of bed is suggested for better sleep onset (50,51). You will likely struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep if you’re hungry.

So consistent meal times and not going to bed hungry are solid rules to follow.

In addition, pre-bed macros seem to matter as well. Protein and carbs seem to enhance sleep when eaten before bed (52-56). They’re generally more filling than fat and have mechanistic precursors for melatonin (sleep hormone) production.

Higher glycemic carbs that are more digestion friendly like rice seem to induce sleep better than lower glycemic carbs like pasta or bread (57).

This could be confounded by processing as well. Minimally processed foods like fish, eggs, milk, nuts, fruits, and veggies tend to have more melatonin (53,58,59). They also contain more vitamin D which correlates with sleep (62)

Tart cherry juice and kiwis seem to be particularly sleep enhancing, improving both sleep onset, total sleep time, and sleep quality like rem sleep (60,61).

Alcohol also knocks you out pretty well, but severely reduces sleep quality especially at moderate to higher doses, so drinking is generally not suggested (114).

Lastly, if you’re a notorious midnight pee-er, it may be best to limit total fluid intake before bed (104).

Understanding Your Circadian Rhythm

I alluded to your circadian rhythm earlier which is your internal clock. While diet and exercise are important for sleep, they’re merely factors that impact your overall biorhythmic clock.

So each aspect is essentially a signal to your rhythmic clock. Sync up a regular lifestyle and you get better sleep. Live life on a whim and your internal clock is constantly confused. Indeed, research finds people with consistent lifestyles have better sleep than those who don’t (63).

This doesn’t mean you have to live like a robot and brush your teeth at the same second each day. Your circadian rhythm is only sensitive to general things like work, exercise, meals, light exposure, and sleep time (64). These should be done at relatively the same times on most days. You don’t need to be neurotic.

Sleep is one of the more sensitive signal to your internal clock (65). So sleeping within a 1 hour window is most ideal. The sleep surrounding your clock’s preferred time is also higher quality (66).

Hence research finds people who respect a set circadian rhythm and sleep a consistent duration daily have less body fat and a reduced chance of disease than those who don’t, even when studies match for total sleep time (67,68).

So the college lifestyle of staying up randomly, partying on the weekends, and napping through class is highly suboptimal. Speaking of naps, if they cause an extension of sleep, they will improve metrics of physical performance (69,70,83). Naps under 10 minutes can also increase brain function, alertness, and emotional well being (71,72).

However, frequent naps are associated with poorer health (72). Accordingly, non-nappers fall asleep easier, have higher quality night sleep, and can stay asleep longer (73).

And not too surprisingly, when you train non-nappers or nappers to do the opposite long term, adapting is fine (74). So it might be hard to adjust initially, but nappers should adapt to non-napping to optimize sleep.

Napping essentially screws up your circadian rhythm because each time you wake up, cortisol (stress hormone) spikes making you more alert but also stressed. This signals to your internal clock the start of a day (75).

Thus, napping is best done on an as needed basis for short durations earlier in the day (72).

But the most important signal to our biorhythmic clock is light. Your circadian rhythm operates according to the transcription of light exposure (76).

Getting early bright light exposure starts your cycle which enhances your mood and improves your sleep quality at night (77,78,79). This also explains the winter blues phenomenon where natural sunlight reductions downregulates your mood.

Fortunately, light therapy has been shown to combat this (80,81). If early sunlight exposure is not possible, utilizing an artificial therapy light bright enough to mimic the sun is ideal with studies showing it to be effective as prescription drugs (82). Even sitting closer to a bright window has shown to be effective (100).

On the other end of the spectrum, to finish off your circadian rhythm before slumber, light should be minimized especially blue light from screens and energy efficient light bulbs (85,86). Light signals for productivity which suppresses your much needed melatonin production when it’s time for bed. This makes it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, and maintain good sleep quality (84,85).

So here’s 3 crucial tips for getting great sleep:

  • Dim your lights as nighttime approaches (86,87).
  • Stay off of screens and electronics 1-2 hours before bed (88). Screens are arguably the strongest culprits of disrupting your circadian rhythms (89).
  • If you do use screens, use the app f.lux to switch over to more red light which isn’t as disruptive (90,91).

Personally, I like to set a reverse alarm each night. A reverse alarm is an alarm scheduled at night to notify me to shut off all electronics and start winding down.

Understanding Caffeine Usage

Caffeine is a stimulant that can increase cortisol, dopamine, and blood pressure to signify for alertness. This is why it’s a common culprit behind insomnia. Humans habitually abuse caffeine intake, frequency, and timing.

In some cases, caffeine can hinder sleep quality even when consumed 16 hours prior (92). If you’re prone to anxiety, it only takes 150mg to trigger it (93). Thus, the most important way to use caffeine is learning to limit it.

Staying as far under 300 mg per day along with early consumption is advised. If you consume it on an empty stomach prior to breakfast, it will be absorbed faster as well which will help it leave your system earlier.

If insomnia haunts you like an annoying ex-girlfriend, no caffeine for a while is a better solution.

That being said, caffeine can reverse the circadian rhythm losses of performance (94). This means you can leverage it for these purposes to favorably move your circadian rhythm and enhance sleep long term.

  • To acclimate to early morning workouts
  • To combat jetlag
  • To adjust to waking up earlier

To truly reap these effects, caffeine tolerance should be minimal, so with chronic intakes, you have to reset your caffeine tolerance before using it to your advantage.

Understanding Melatonin Usage

Melatonin supplementation is not only opposite to caffeine in it’s effects, but also it’s nature. Caffeine is inherently sleep intrusive and only in specific situations will support your circadian rhythm.

However, Melatonin is inherently sleep enhancing with drawbacks only when clearly misused.

Melatonin is the number 1 sleep supplement. It allows you to fall asleep sooner, sleep longer, and improve deep rem sleep (95). It’s safe and recommended dosage is 3 mg, although optimal dosage could be as high as 5 mg and as low as 0.3 mg depending on a person’s natural level of melatonin production (96).

Most people will be fine taking 3 mg shortly before bed, but if you end up sleeping past your alarm or don’t knockout as early as desired, you’ll have to adjust the timing or the dose.

For example, I know I like to take melatonin 1-2 hours before bed as opposed to the recommended 30-60 minutes. This is the sweet spot for me, so my sleep duration syncs up with my intended wake time (97,98).

Melatonin supplementation is especially useful if your schedule requires you to fall asleep at differing times throughout the week. A stable supplement for irregular workers or travelers.

How to Tinker Your Circadian Rhythm in Your Favor

So if you couldn’t already tell, caffeine and melatonin are the yin and yang potions for your circadian rhythm.

They don’t need to be used daily and in caffeine’s case, definitely shouldn’t, but when done correctly, they can sync up your rhythmic clock.

And it might sound a bit complicated depending on your situation, but fortunately, most people simply need to set their internal clocks back.

Our screen filled world and obsession with late night lattes have pushed our internal clocks forward (for most people). As a result, people can’t fall asleep early enough for 8 hours of slumber before your work alarm forces awake.

So your first step is to cut caffeine intake 10-12+ hours before bed. Then 1-2 hours before bed, cut screens and dim your lights. Next, prior to your intended bedtime take melatonin. Within an hour of waking, get as much light as you can. A morning walk in the sun or light therapy is fine.

From there, introduce caffeine intake in the morning if you still feel tired or are in specific jetlagged scenarios.

Repeat until your sleep improves and energy levels stabilize.

If this still sounds complicated, here’s a cute infographic to explain everything.

And by the way, anyone can do this even all you self-proclaimed night owls who puke at the thought of becoming a morning person. Research finds lining up your rhythmic clock with your lifestyle by optimizing all these factors improves your mental health and performance even when total sleep duration remains the same (99,144).

Learn to Relax and Get Comfortable

If you can’t go to bed relaxed, you won’t sleep well.

The key is to do something relaxing before bed almost like a ritual.

We talked about stretching earlier. Foam rolling, massage, and breathing exercises will likely have similar effects.

Reading or journaling are also screenless yet soothing activites to do before bed. They can even act as cognitive overwriters meaning they essentially help distract or manage your sleep crippling thoughts (102).

Aromatherapy, particularly lavender before bed has some scientific support for improving sleep as well (103).

Regardless, make sure you are comfortably warm as body warmth regulates sleep (105). This is why warmer pre-bed showers are better than cooler ones (106). And layers including socks are beneficial for climates that are excessively cold (107).

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Your Sleep Environment

Time to optimize your actual sleep environment. That whole cliché about your environment shaping who you are is annoyingly true and sleep is no exception.

For starters, your room should be sound proof and light proof. If possible, I’m talking not a single noise and darkness so encompassing, a little girl would beg for a night light. Your room should feel like a cave. Indeed, research finds even minimal light and sound can hurt your sleep hygiene (108-112).

To optimize this, you may need black curtains, black electrical tape, an eye mask, ear plugs, or a white noise machine if truly necessary.

And along the same cave theme, while your body should feel comfortably warm, your room should be cool. 67 degrees seems to be the optimal bedroom temperature, but you’ll have to adjust based on preference and layers of clothing (113).

Then comes your bedding. Invest in a good mattress and pillows. Your preferred level of firmness is most important (115,116). If you don’t know where to start, medium or firmer mattresses/pillows generally perform better in research (117-121).

For example, soft foam mattresses can cause back pain due to a lack of support (122). I personally prefer my bedding on the firmer side especially when making recommendations to clients who have a lot of muscle to support.

And in case anyone was wondering, fancy neck contouring pillows have little to no scientific evidence for their benefits (123,124). They don’t improve sleep posture because there is no optimal sleep posture (125).

People change their sleep posture nearly every hour and humans are generally well versed at adapting their sleep positions to breathe better and minimize joint pain (126).

Your Sleep Partner

Slumber parties were fun when we were younger, but a lifetime sleeping partner aka your spouse can impact your sleep.

Research is quite unclear on this as there are so many confounding variables like limb touching, blanket stealing, snoring, and sensitivity to interruption.

Some older research finds that despite reporting better sleep, objective sleep quality was better when couples slept alone (127). The literature can be quite confusing though. One study found women with a snoring husband had hindered sleep quality, but when they switched to sleeping alone, sleep wasn’t improved (128).

Other research finds sleep interruption can hinder sleep quality, but when couples are used to sleeping together, it’s fine (129).

However, as research continues to grow, we find that this is more of relationship problem and not so much a sleep problem. Think about it, which would keep you up more at night? Your partner’s leg rubbing against you a bit too much or your partner flirting with other people a bit too much?

When couples have relationship issues, their sleep suffers (130). And when couples get less than 7 hours of sleep, both partners get a heightened stress response and are more likely to get nasty with one another (131).

A vicious cycle that can utterly destroy your sleep environment, not to mention your marriage.

However, as cheesy as it sounds, love can conquer all. When couples are intimate and have a deeper connection, they experience increasingly better sleep and a synchronized sleep rhythm (129,132).

So sleeping with a partner won’t ruin your sleep, but marrying someone you don’t get along with surely will.

How to Gauge Sleep

I hate sleep devices. Besides being inaccurate, they’re intrusive and expensive (133-136). While humans aren’t great at estimating sleep duration, this should come better with improved sleep prioritizing (2). We are pretty good at assessing sleep quality, so how you feel is good indicator of sleep quality (137).

Sleep devices can also be counterproductive because your brain is overdramatic about poor sleep.

One study took subjects and monitored their sleep quality using sleep watches (138). When participants were lied to and told their sleep quality was worse, they consequently functioned even worse. Placebo is powerful, so never fully trust what any device tells you about your sleep. And always stay positive because thinking you have less energy will literally zap your energy.

Thus, to assess sleep, if you get 7-8+ hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep and wake up refreshed, ideally without an alarm, you’ve optimized your sleep. You don’t need any fancy device to reach this point.

Most people are far from optimal though, so sack your adult balls up and start practicing better sleep hygiene. The world doesn’t need more brain-dead zombies overdosing on caffeine. We need happier and better functioning adults.

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