How to Improve Your Sleep and Fight Insomnia
by Vin Miller
Sleep is one of the easiest ways to improve your health and well being, but getting a good night of rest is more involved than you may realize.
Cortisol: A Bad Nightmare
Cortisol is a hormone that’s released in response to stress and prepares your body to deal with it. Among other things, it keeps you awake and alert which obviously inhibits sleep. Light and stimulation are the two primary triggers for cortisol and it doesn’t take much of either to promote it’s release. Even the illumination from the numbers on a digital alarm clock or the slightest bit of frustration or excitement is enough. And because cortisol can remain active in your body for up to two hours, it can keep you lying awake in bed for quite a while.
Melatonin: Your Bedtime Buddy
Melatonin is a hormone that acts like an antagonist to cortisol. Although they don’t directly influence each other, they are typically released at opposite times and have opposite effects. Just as cortisol release is triggered by light, melatonin release is triggered by darkness. The primary functions of melatonin are to help you sleep and assist your immune system. Promoting the release of melatonin prior to bed will help you fall asleep easier.
How to Sleep Well
As you may guess, good sleep habits are primarily focused on stimulating melatonin release and suppressing cortisol release. The following are some practical tips for doing so.
Unwind Before Bed
Take some time, preferably a half hour or more, to relax and release all of the days tension from your body and mind. Be sure to avoid anything that is stimulating. This time should be dedicated to getting yourself into a relaxed state that will prepare you to fall asleep. Some good choices for accomplishing this are meditation, listening to soothing music, reading under a dim light, or doing mild forms of exercise such as stretching, Tai Chi, or Qigong.
Develop A Routine
The human body thrives on patterns. By establishing a routine that you repeat each night before bed, you body will begin to associate the routine with sleep. The time you use to relax before bed can be part of your routine as long as you’re consistent with what you do. The resulting association will trigger your body to prepare for rest and will increase the effectiveness of your relaxation in helping you fall asleep quickly.
Be in Bed by 10 PM
Your body’s circadian rhythm is closely tied to the cycle of each day. Because this relationship impacts the effectiveness of your sleep, getting to bed abnormally late or waking up abnormally early can prevent you from getting quality rest even if you sleep for a duration that would normally be sufficient. Furthermore, since most people work standard business hours and get up early on weekdays, getting to bed past 10 PM usually results in an insufficient amount of sleep.
Avoid Bright Lights Before Bed
As I already mentioned, light stimulates the release of cortisol, and as a result, can make it difficult to fall asleep. Within an hour or more of going to bed, dim your lights to the lowest level that is adequate to see and avoid television and computer use. Although many people like to watch television or use the computer before bed, they are both intense sources of light that shine directly on your eyes.
Avoid Stimulating Activity Before Bed
Any type of activity that requires you to be alert is counterproductive to falling asleep and should be avoided during your unwinding time. Even if it’s an enjoyable activity. Intense physical activity such as playing a sport, working out, or manual labor should be avoided for at least a few hours prior to bed. If you have healthy adrenal glands, engaging in intense physical activity too close to bedtime will keep you wide awake for a long time. Even if it doesn’t, it may reduce the quality of your sleep.
It’s important to avoid mental stimulation before bed as well, and this is an additional reason to avoid television and computer use. Much of the programming on television and many of the things you do on the computer are stimulating and will trigger a cortisol release. This is a bad by itself, but it also magnifies the negative effects caused by the bright light.
Sleep in Complete Darkness
Research shows that the faintest bit of light can stimulate a cortisol release. If you have any light coming from digital displays or leaking through your windows from street lights, chances are your sleep is going to be of poor quality. As a result, you may not feel refreshed in the morning and you may even wake up in the middle of the night. To avoid this, cover or block your digital displays, use black out curtains on your windows, and avoid using a night light. Although this may sound like a lot of effort for little return, I have heard many counts of it making an amazing difference.
Maintain a Consistent Sleep Schedule
As I already mentioned, your body prefers to operate in a rhythm. When you go to bed and wake up the same time every day, your body begins to physiologically reinforce your habits. This is why it’s difficult to stay up late when you normally go to bed early, or likewise, why it’s tough to get up early when you typically sleep late. By allowing your body to fall into a rhythm, it will support your sleep schedule and you’ll have an easier time falling asleep and waking up. Conversely, if you don’t follow a consistent schedule, you’ll be continually forcing your body to readjust, and as a result, both falling asleep and getting out of bed are likely to be difficult.
The common example of this is going to bed much later on weekends than on weekdays. Although it’s not always practical to stay on your weekday schedule during the weekend, it’s best to at least keep it as close as possible and avoid staying up late without good reason.
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Thanks so much for the help, I’ve been having a heck of time figuring out how to sleep better and your wonderful site has helped me so much. God Bless
This article is ‘probably’ right on… I say probably because it does point out why I haven’t been sleeping well and often have insomnia. Now I just need to make some adjustments and see if I can change that! Thanks Vin
Good luck, Jon! Let us know how it goes. If you have trouble making adjustments, you can try the one new habit per month strategy.
Good information there. …Unless you are working the night shift. Any ideas about that, generally speaking?
Hi Steve,
Working a night shift is definitely a challenge. Aside from getting to bed by 10 PM, I think everything else in the article still applies, especially sleeping in complete darkness and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule.
Since you may be sleeping a lot during the day, it’s important to block the daylight from entering your room. Likewise, to help you stay awake during the night, using full spectrum light bulbs might be beneficial.
While it may not be practical to maintain your workday schedule on a day off, the more frequently your routine varies, the more difficult it will probably be to sleep in general. The more consistent you can keep your schedule, the better.
This is probably advice you’ve already heard, but unfortunately, I don’t have any better ideas to offer. It’s very likely that the body can detect the difference between day and night, possibly through changes in the earth’s natural electromagnetic field as well as the obvious variations in sunlight. Going against the body’s natural preference to sleep during the night is not an easy disruption to overcome. If possible, perhaps it would be better to find a way to return to a normal schedule.
Thanx Vin. I appreciate the time you spent on your reply. To all the other 911 dispatchers out there – God bless!
No problem. Thanks for your dedication to keeping us all safe!
With 50+ hr workweeks and 2+ hrs per day commuting, our days are quickly over scheduled. Bed at 10? How can this be when I’m not even walking in the door before 10? If it’s not coming home from the gym, it’s coming home from work (:-P).
Overheard at the office:
“NO, you can’t have more time for this task. I see your people taking lunches and leaving by 6.”
Hi Alicia, thanks for your comment!
Your absolutely right and this is a significant problem for many people, especially in America. Although everyone’s situation is different, it comes down to a matter of priorities. Perhaps working long hours and enduring a long commute are required to maintain a higher paying job, or maybe even one that’s more fulfilling, but there are always alternatives. Such a hectic lifestyle will inevitably detract from health in some way, and we each have to decide if the benefits of this type of job and lifestyle are worth the sacrifice. Unfortunately, some people push themselves so far that it’s no longer a choice and health problems end up forcing them to slow down. Although it can sometimes be difficult, it’s certainly possible to find a good job that allows for a comfortable pace of living.
You know, I can’t get the cortisol to stop. I have tried the suggestions above, melatonin, lemon balm, skullcap, valerian root, zinc is supposed to suppress cortisol, PS. I still wake up about every 1.2-2 hours. I am trying to stay all natural with my products, but this not sleeping is really taking a toll on me. I have not been able to work, this has been going on so long.
DO you have any suggestions that I could try? I would be indebted to you if you could tell me something that would work.
I do use meditation, and deep breathing and these type activities to help calm the adrenaline rush. But it does not help with the insomnia.
Hi Peggy,
Cortisol may not be your problem, but you can have your levels tested to see if it is. A test like the BioHealth 201 will measure your cortisol levels at four different points in the day, one of which is right before bed. If your night time cortisol is elevated, then it may very well be related to your trouble sleeping. The next step would be to figure out what is causing the elevated cortisol. Some of the more common causes include chronic stress, food sensitivities, and chronic infections.
Other than that, I unfortunately don’t have any additional recommendations besides the sleep habits recommended in the article.
I hope you find a way to resolve your problem and start getting better sleep. Good luck!
Thank you Vin!! I learned something new.
I like the article. Some people take sleep for granted. I have obstructive sleep apnea and and know the difference between poor quality sleep and good sleep. I use a cpap machine every night but without it, the darkened room, winding down before bed and such your not going to get that quality sleep you need. Some people might not even be aware they have sleep apnea. If your still too tired after following the advice from this article definitely go to a sleep specialist.
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your experience! I completely agree that anyone who can’t sleep well after trying the basic improvements recommended in the article should see a sleep specialist. I’ve heard many first hand stories of the major difference that addressing sleep apnea can make.