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How To Sleep Well

by Amber| 8 minute read

DISCLAIMER| No Medical Advice. Independent research and personal experience only. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before implementing any protocols. Please account for individual variability as no one path is best for all. The objective is to elevate awareness and provide as many solutions as possible, offering you the knowledge and adaptability to experiment with various approaches until you discover what works best for you.

EDUCATOR CREDIBILITY| Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology, the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkley, and the author of the book Why We Sleep. Andrew Huberman is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Standford School of Medicine and the creator and host of the Huberman Lab Podcast.

PURPOSE| To simplify helpful and high-quality health information from the top experts in the field into straightforward facts and actionable tips, enabling you to establish healthy habits, and become your healthiest, happiest, and highest self.

13 Simple Scientific Solutions For Sleeping Well To Establish The Optimal Foundation For Whole Body Health

Want to learn how to sleep well?

Sleep quality is a primary determinant of overall well-being. Sleep impacts every facet of our health including immune function, emotional stability, and work productivity. Quality sleep allows our waking pursuits and wellness habits to deliver optimal results. For example, exercise outcomes are stifled in a sleep-deprived body, which burns muscle instead of its energy-rich fat. As you read on, you will learn about sleep’s crucial role in optimizing all aspects of our health, wellness habits, and daily lives. 

From my deep dive into sleep science, I have unearthed and compacted the most essential information including 21 impactful health benefits, 13 scientifically supported solutions, and 10 inhibitors for getting quality sleep. Together, we’ll delve into the significant effect of variables such as light exposure, body temperature, and various compounds on the sleep experience.

By healing from severe sleep apnea and prioritizing these healthy sleep habits, I’ve significantly improved my sleep quality, reducing my RDI from 31 to 7. This positive development has allowed me heightened energy, pain reduction, and enhanced focus. My goal is for you to experience the life-changing health benefits of good sleep too. With the integration of this information you can optimize your sleep timing, duration, and quality to get the best sleep possible and improve your well-being across the board. 

 This post is all about how to sleep well to live well.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEPING WELL

IMPROVES MICROBIOME PROFILE & GUT HEALTH|  By activating your parasympathetic nervous system, good sleep helps to prevent high cortisol, deterring gut dysbiosis and improving your gut microbiome’s bacterial composition. (Walker, 1, L12 S4)(Walker, 2, p.177)

BOOSTS TESTOSTERONE LEVELS| Poor sleep accelerates aging in men by 10 to 15 years concerning testosterone levels, decreases sperm count, and increases sperm deformities. (Walker, 1, L11 S3)(Walker, 2, p.179)

IMPROVES PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE| Poor sleep hastens lactic acid build-up, impairs body cooling ability, lowers strength and endurance, increases injury risk, and impedes cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory function during physical activity. (Walker, 1, L13 S1)(Walker, 2, p.129)

FINE-TUNES MOTOR SKILLS| Good sleep transfers learned motor skills to your more embedded subconscious brain circuits, making post-sleep execution more effortless. (Walker 1, L13 S4)(Walker 2, p.127)

ENHANCES MEMORY ABILITY| Good sleep transfers learned information from short-term storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the neocortex, solidifying them to memory and clearing space to intake new information. (Walker 1, L7S1)(Walker 2, p.115)

SUPPORTS MENSTRUAL CYCLE| Poor sleep can decrease follicular stimulating hormone by up to  20%, creating hormonal imbalance and a dysregulated cycle. (Walker 1, L11S3)(Walker 2, p.180)(Huberman 6, S21)

EMPOWERS IMMUNE RESILIENCE| Poor sleep can reduce your immune system’s killer T cell activity by 70% increasing illness susceptibility and abnormal cell growth. (Walker 1, L11S1)

AUGMENTS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE| Good sleep establishes a strong connection between the amygdala (emotional brain center) and the pre-frontal cortex (logical brain center), helping to regulate emotional reactions. Poor sleep has been shown to amplify emotional reactivity by 60%. (Walker 1, L9S1)

INCREASES SOCIAL AWARENESS| Good REM sleep recalibrates the brain regions that decipher emotional signals from others with accuracy, such as facial expressions and empathy. (Walker 1, L9S2)(Walker 2, pp.215-216)

STRENGTHENS MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL STABILITY| Good REM sleep processes emotional memories in the absence of a stress-related chemical called noradrenaline, separating the emotional charge and the experience thus allowing for mental clarity. Dr. Allison Harvey a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, has successfully exhibited how improving the quality and quantity of sleep can have a substantial healing effect on mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety in her psychiatric patients. (Walker 2, p.208)(Walker 2, p.151)

OPTIMIZES BLOOD SUGAR REGULATION| Poor sleep decreases both the levels of insulin released in the body and the cell’s receptivity to insulin cues to function decreasing glucose absorption by up to 40%. (Walker 1, L12S3)(Walker 2, p.171)

 

ADVANCES CREATIVITY, COMPREHENSION, AND PROBLEM-SOLVING| Good sleep integrates new information with your existing knowledge, cross-referencing and finding associations between the two to find creative solutions to problems your brain could not solve prior to sleep. (Walker 1, L7S3)(Walker 2, p.226)

INCREASES WORK PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY| Studies show that poor sleep predicts decreased motivation and work productivity, lessens the ability to solve work-related challenges, and increases the time it takes for basic task completion and accomplishing work goals. (Walker 2, pp.299-301)

PROMOTES ETHICAL BEHAVIOR| Studies in the workplace show that poor sleep increases both deceitful behavior in employees and the likelihood of supervisors treating employees in an abusive nature. (Walker 2, pp.301-303)

AIDS WEIGHT LOSS & ENABLES HEALTHY EATING HABITS| Poor sleep increases levels of the hunger signaling hormone (ghrelin), decreases the full signaling hormone (leptin), and elevates levels of endocannabinoids which further stimulate appetite. Poor sleep also dysregulates communication between your primal brain which drives desire, and your logical brain, making it more difficult to resist cravings for unhealthy foods. (Walker 1, L12S1)(Walker 2, p.173)

STRENGTHENS CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH| Good sleep activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode), lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and sustaining heart health. Poor sleep causes increased blood pressure, distress on blood vessels, calcification of arteries, and severely increases the risk of heart attack (by 200% in adults 45 and up). (Walker 2, p.165)

OPTIMIZES BODY COMPOSITION| When underslept, the body becomes resistant to giving up energy-dense fat causing weight loss to come from lean muscle mass (70% in studies). (Walker 1, L12S1)(Walker 2, p.178)

CLEANSES BRAIN TOXINS| Good NREM sleep allows the glymphatic system to kick into high gear and wash out toxic byproducts in the brain with cerebrospinal fluid protecting it from cognitive dysfunction and diseases like Alzheimer’s. (Walker 2, pp.158-160)

OPTIMIZES GENETIC EXPRESSION| In a one-week study, poor sleep distorted the activity of up to 711 genes in participants, increasing the activity of genes related to chronic inflammation and decreasing the activity of genes associated with immune health. (Walker 2, p.187)(Walker 1, L11S5)

LESSENS STRESS & INFLAMMATION| Poor sleep will result in an overactive sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode)  and excess cortisol in the body creating inflammation and inducing prolonged states of stress. (Walker 2, p.167)(Walker 2, p.185)

ENABLES EMPATHY IN RELATIONSHIPS| Poor sleep predicts a decrease in empathy shown to increase conflict and decrease conflict resolution in relationships. (Huberman & Walker 6, S21)

THE SOLUTIONS FOR SLEEPING WELL

  1. View sunrise & sunset| Light information into the eye receptors and relayed to your internal clock allows your brain and body to determine the time of day via the specific color qualities of sunrise and sunset. Therefore, light from sunrise and sunset are potent signals to help establish biological reference points and feel energized during the day and sleepy at night.
  1. Reduce bright & blue light after dark| Darkness activates your endogenous melatonin and enables healthy sleep onset. As night approaches, eye sensitivity to light increases thus even small amounts of light can wake up the brain and body and suppress melatonin. Lights on the blue spectrum such as LEDS, bright lights, and overhead lights, are the most detrimental to sleep as light receptors in your eye view the upper visual field.
  1. Utilize fire & dim red lights at night| Light from fire, such as candlelight, and red lights that are very dim do not disrupt melatonin and thus sleep. You can change your device screens to red and turn brightness to a minimum if you need to utilize them after dark. Use candlelight, red bulbs, and dim lights low in the visual field as light sources at night to minimize negative effects on sleep.
  1. Leverage your 24-hour temperature rhythm| Once your internal clock determines the time of day by lights signal, body temperature aligns accordingly and generates a temperature rhythm that generally starts to increase as you wake, peaks in the afternoon, falls as night approaches and reaches its minimum in the early morning (about 2 hours before your average wake up time). When body temperature is rising we tend to feel awake and as body temperature falls we tend to feel sleepy. Therefore, by influencing core temperature to rise more rapidly we can increase wakefulness and by influencing core temperature to drop more rapidly we can increase sleepiness. Since our body temperature is regulated similarly to a thermostat, exposing your body to hot or cold conditions can influence fluctuations in core temperature. 
  1. Use cold exposure, eating, and exercise to increase core temperature| When exposed to cold externally the body will compensate by increasing core temperature. You can utilize this temperature mechanism to accelerate your rise in temperature upon waking. Take a cold shower, dip your face in ice water, or do a cold plunge for a few minutes in the morning to increase energy and feel more awake. Promoting an early rise in temperature sets up an ideal temperature rhythm that supports healthy sleep later on. Please note that prolonged cold exposure will eventually lead to a decrease in core temperature thus having the opposite effect. You can also influence an increase in core temperature slightly by eating or significantly with heart-rate-elevating exercise.
  1. Use heat to promote sleepiness| Your body’s thermostat mechanism also works with external heat. Take a hot bath or shower, use a heating pad, or get in the sauna in the evening to accelerate the evening drop in core temperature and promote sleepiness. Please note that prolonged heat exposure will eventually lead to increased core temperature thus having the opposite effect.
  1. Keep a cold sleep environment| A cool body temperature is required to induce and maintain a healthy state of sleep. Keep your room temperature cold (studies show around 67 degrees Fahrenheit is generally ideal), use breathable sleepwear and bedding, and layer covers for easy removal throughout the night. You can also try cooling devices such as a fan or cooling mattress pad to help maintain sleep throughout the night. (Walker 1, L14S4)
  1. Be sure that you are breathing properly during sleep| If you are meeting your sleep need in hours and still feel tired it may be because you are unconsciously experiencing respiratory disturbances throughout the night and thus not getting quality sleep. You can do an at-home sleep study or work with a practitioner to check your respiratory disturbance index. I found the Vivos device very helpful in reducing my respiratory disturbances, if you discover you have sleep apnea you can visit the Vivos website to find a practitioner in your area that offers this treatment. In addition, you can utilize an air purifier, HEPA bed vacuum, mouth tape, or microbiome-friendly nasal sprays to aid healthy nasal breathing and improve sleep quality.
  1. Consume caffeine early in the day| Caffeine makes us feel awake by blocking adenosine (a compound that signals our need for sleep) from binding to its receptor. By consuming caffeine early in the day we give our brain and body enough time to clear out caffeine and unblock the receptor so that adenosine can attach and activate our biological demand for sleep.
  1. Experiment with healthy alternatives to sleep-disrupting compounds| Studies show that compounds such as alcohol, sleeping pills, THC, and high amounts of caffeine can greatly impact our sleep quality and have detrimental effects on health. However, there are plenty of healthy swaps such as mood-boosting mocktails, safe sleep supplements, relaxing herbs, and low or no-caffeine options that can boost energy and focus. Click here for a detailed list of all the healthy swaps I know and love!
  1. Find a cathartic evening routine that helps your brain and body decompress| Write down all of your thoughts to clear your mind, practice deep slow breathing techniques, do a relaxing meditation, or listen to sleep-inducing audio tracks such as yoga nidra, hypnosis, or nature sounds to allow for an effortless transition into sleep.
  1. Discover your chronotype & sleep data| You can take an online quiz that will give you a good idea of your chronotype (genetics and age that determine if you are a morning or evening type) and use sleep trackers to evaluate your sleep data. With this information, you can discover your optimal sleep window, required sleep duration, and any variables affecting your sleep quality. If flexibility is available you can optimize your schedule to work with your chronotype and improve both your sleep and the efficiency of your daily activities. (Walker 1, L4S2)
  1. Consider cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia| CBT-I is the most effective behavioral therapy that implements lifestyle habits such as the ones mentioned above with the help of a therapist to improve sleep quality for those suffering from poor sleep. Some of the popular techniques used in this method are limiting or cutting out caffeine, training the mind and body to wind down and reduce sleep anxiety, and purging the sleep environment of screens. This method is shown by numerous clinical studies around the world to be repeatedly successful and even more effective than sleeping pills. To learn more about this therapy you can visit sleepfoundation.org. (Walker 2, pp.291-292)

THE INHIBITORS OF SLEEPING WELL

CONSUMING TOO MUCH CAFFEINE| Because of caffeine’s lengthy half-life, half the caffeine you consume will still be circulating in your brain and body up to 6 hours after consumption diminishing sleep quality and commonly impacting the ability to fall asleep. Studies show that sleep on caffeine is deprived of deep NREM sleep which inhibits a fully active glymphatic system increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s. Additionally, lack of deep NREM sleep can lead to detrimental impacts on immune, cardiovascular, and brain health, especially functions required for learning and memory. (Walker 1, L5S1)

SLEEPING ON ALCOHOL OR THC| Sleeping on alcohol is signified as sedation marked by higher sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) activity, increased sleep fragmentation, and disruption of healthy sleep cycles including lack of REM sleep which is associated with a shorter life span. In one experiment, sleep infused with alcohol on both the first and third night after learning showed a 30-50% decrease in information retention compared to participants with no alcohol-dosed sleep. Similar to alcohol THC can decrease the amount of time to fall asleep but inhibits REM sleep and does not induce healthy naturalistic sleep.(Huberman & Walker 6, S14)(Walker 1, L5S3)

WARM SLEEP ENVIRONMENT| To fall asleep our body temperature needs to drop by 1-3 degrees Fahrenheit with the inverse also being true, if our body temperature rises by 1-3 degrees then we will wake up. (Huberman 7, S4)

BRIGHT LIGHT EXPOSURE AFTER DARK| Any bright light exposure at night will eliminate any endogenous melatonin needed for healthy sleep onset. (Huberman 7, S15)

SLEEPING LESS THAN 8 HOURS| Sleep science evidence shows no circumstance in which a person receiving 6 hours of sleep or less per night is not in some way physically, mentally, or emotionally impaired. Studies show that even after one night of short sleep, there is an increase of toxic proteins in the brain and a 70% decrease in immune cell activity. During daylight savings time from loss of just one hour of sleep the next day, we see a 24% increase in heart attacks as well as an increase in road traffic accidents, suicide rates, and even harsher sentencing by federal judges. (Walker 1, L2S4)(Walker 1, L11S1)

SLEEPING AT THE WRONG TIME| While all humans are diurnal, varying chronotypes require different windows of time for optimal sleep quality. Due to the forward-shifted circadian rhythm in teenagers and extreme evening chronotypes waking up in the early morning is equivalent to an adult with a median chronotype waking in the middle of the night, both brain activity and mood will be impaired. A major mismatch in our natural sleep patterns deteriorates health, increasing the probability of becoming immunocompromised, and is even classified by the World Health Organization as a probable carcinogen in an extreme example, shift work. (Walker 1, L2S2-3)

 

NOT SLEEPING LONG ENOUGH| We all have individual sleep length needs based off of factors such as age, health status, stress levels, activity levels, sleep quality, etc. It is important to consider individual variability as surveys show that less than 15% of teenagers are having their sleep needs met during this critical developmental life stage. Teenagers are a great example of a population typically mislabeled as lazy when their urge to sleep longer and later is due to biological demand. In addition, poor quality of sleep in people with conditions such as sleep apnea leads to the biological demand to sleep longer due to lack of sleep quality from respiratory disturbances throughout the night. (Walker 1, L4S3)

HIGH SUGAR DIET| Because sugar increases the body’s metabolic rate and therefore raises body temperature, diets high in sugar increase the chances of you waking up throughout the night and lessen the depth of sleep. (Walker 1, L12S5)

RELYING ON SLEEPING PILLS| Like Alcohol, sleeping pills do not generate healthy natural sleep and instead act like a sedative by shutting down the brain and inhibiting the electrical brain activity needed to generate all sleep stages and produce healthy quality sleep. Therefore the use of sleeping pills can increase your risk of mortality and cancer and can also lead to rebound insomnia (insomnia is worse after coming off pills). Studies show that the use of the popular sleeping pill Ambien caused a 50% decrease in brain cell connections inhibiting learning and memory. (Walker 2, p.283&286)(Walker 1, S6L14)(Huberman & Walker 6, S17)

MISUSE OF MELATONIN| Sleep science meta-analysis shows that melatonin only minutely impacts sleep duration by an average of 3.9 minutes and its efficiency by 2.2%, indicating that most benefits may just be a placebo effect. Issues with supplementing melatonin include the possible blunting effecting on our endogenous melatonin production after doses exceeding 3mg, the mislabeling of dose quantity (as much as 80% less or 460% more) in supplements with no regulations (like in the US), and the possible hormonal disruptions as melatonin is a hormone and has other functions such as suppressing the onset of puberty. Melatonin supplementation can be helpful in older generations as endogenous melatonin production decreases with age. (Huberman 3, S7)(Walker 1, L3S2)(Huberman & Walker 6, S15)

Now, you have 13 science-based solutions for sleeping well.

We now understand why quality sleep is the foundation of our physical, mental, and emotional health. We also see how good sleep enables the optimization of healthy habits we engage in during the day. With the integration of this information, I trust you can improve your health and life.

Please remember, life is always changing and so are you, thus I encourage experimentation with as many healthy habits as possible. Being aware of multiple solutions that work for you and trying new things when called minimizes limitations to staying consistent and reaching your desired outcomes. My sleeping routine varies from night to night and so will yours.

I hope we can collectively recognize the importance of viewing sleep as highly productive and release any negativity around prioritizing the rest we vitally need. By understanding the many benefits of entering this healing state I’ve come to trust when my body signals fatigue, it’s for a crucial reason. This knowledge eases my resistance to allow time for rest and I hope it will for you too. When we emerge refreshed we are better equipped to tackle our responsibilities with increased ease, concentration, efficiency, and grace leading to improved outcomes in work, health, and relationships. As a society, I hope that we can embrace the understanding that prioritizing health and rest is key to enhancing life efficiency, improving life quality, and promoting global wellness overall. 

Thank you for taking the time and actions to heal yourself and the world, you got this! Well Wishes, XO Amber

RESOURCES|

1. Masterclass: The Science of Better Sleep by Matthew Walker

2. Why We Sleep: Unlocking The Power Of Sleep And Dreams by Matthew Walker

3. Huberman Lab Podcast Episode 2: Master Your Sleep & Be More Alert When Awake

4. Huberman Lab Podcast Episode 3: Using Science To Optimize Sleep, Learning, & Metabolism

5. Huberman Lab Podcast Episode 4: How To Defeat Jetlag, Shiftwork, & Sleepiness

6. Huberman Lab Podcast Episode 31: Dr. Matthew Walker: The Science & Practice of Perfecting Your Sleep

7. Huberman Lab Podcast Episode 84: Sleep Toolkit: Tools For Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing

PRODUCTS| heating pad, breathable sleepwear, breathable bedding, cooling fan, cooling mattress pad, air purifier, HEPA bed vacuum, mouth tape, microbiome-friendly nasal spray, mood-boosting mocktails, safe sleep supplements, relaxing herbs, low & no caffeine coffee alternatives.