Sleep Series – 7 Tips for a Better Sleep

The 4 video in the series. 7 Tips to help you get to sleep sooner, stay asleep, and get 8 to 10 hours:

1. Avoid Alcohol Before Bed: Alcohol works as a sedative. It doesn’t help get you to sleep. Sedation and a proper sleep cycle are 2 very different things. Alcohol fragments the sleep cycle and it is an inhibitor of REM sleep. The body needs 3 to 4 full sleep cycles during the course of the night. Not getting a full cycle robs you of the many benefits of a proper sleep.
2. Use the bed for sleeping and sex only.
3. Mark your room as dark as possible. Swap out the LED lights for incandescent bulbs.
4. Make sure your room is cool. The body needs to drop 1 degree in order to fall asleep.
   1. Keep your head uncovered (massive heat sink)
   2. Have a hot bath before going to bed
   3. Try not to exercise 2 hours before hitting the hay
5. Go to bed at the same time every night! Set an alarm to go to bed! This creates a habit that your body will adjust to and make it easier to quickly get to sleep.
6. Lying in bed trying to fall asleep? Don’t get stressed out. Just makes matters worse. Gently get out of bed and find something to do that doesn’t require a lot of cognitive ability until you feel that pressure to sleep return.
7. Obviously avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening (remember the 6 hours necessary to clear the caffeine from the system)