We’re all looking for the magic bullets to lose weight, avoid illness, and improve mental health, but ever expanding research shows there’s one simple thing we can do to have it all. The answer? You’re going to have to sleep on it—literally.
The Secret Is Out
Quality shuteye can profoundly improve your physical and psychological well-being. In fact, sleep is one of the hottest topics in health today. “It has become a major focus in recent years, likely because there has been increasing awareness of its critical role in overall health, daily performance, and quality of life,” says Dr. Yi Cai, sleep medicine physician at New York-Presbyterian Westchester, in Bronxville, and director of sleep surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City.
Sleep loss makes us less able to regulate our emotions, which makes us more vulnerable to depression.
If the grind of your day-to-day makes a solid 7 to 9 hours a night seem like a pipe dream, don’t snooze on these science-backed solutions for making every waking hour better than the next.
Time to Go to Bed
People who skimp on their shuteye are doing themselves more harm than they realize, since getting enough sleep is a major health booster. During the first several hours of sleep, which are the deepest, the body repairs tissues that are damaged and creates new, needed tissue, a critical step in restoring the body. In addition, studies suggest that it’s a time when the brain flushes out toxins and gets rid of unimportant experiences you had during the day, which can’t really teach you anything.
After deep sleep comes cycles of Rapid Eye Movement sleep, or REM sleep, and non-REM sleep. The REM intervals regulate our learning, memory, and mood. Finally, in the last stages of sleep, our more physical and mental repair work is done. By contrast, an inadequate amount of sleep can wreak havoc in wide-ranging ways. For one thing, it can make you pack on pounds and be unable to lose them, according to a study published in the journal Obesity. One possible reason, the researchers say, is because people snack more (including on high-carb foods) between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. if their sleep is restricted. In addition, insufficient sleep reduces the body’s level of the hunger-decreasing hormone leptin, while causing the level of the hunger-inducing hormone, ghrelin, to rise.
Insufficient sleep reduces the body’s level of the hunger decreasing hormone leptin.
And that’s just where the problems begin. According to Depression and Sleep, an article from Johns Hopkins Medicine, people with insomnia have 10 times the normal risk of developing depression. While more research is needed to understand the link, it may be because, at least in part, sleep loss makes us less able to regulate our emotions, which makes us more vulnerable to depression. Another reason may be that sleep keeps our cognitive skills sharp, including learning, attention, and memory—all vital to our ability to cope with things that stress us out and to perceive the world accurately. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, says sleep deprivation is linked to a variety of other major health problems, including heart and kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke. Perhaps least surprisingly, it raises the chances of people having an accident as well.
Is Your Bedding the Best?
If you toss and turn all night, it might be due to what’s going on with your bed, not what’s going through your head (like that report for your boss that’s due in two days). Consider your sheets and bed covering—do they keep you comfy, or leave you sweating or shivering? “Any bedding that optimizes body temperature regulation can promote sleep. Breathable, natural fibers may help with achieving this,” says Dr. Cai. You can change up your sheets and bedcovers as needed, depending on the season and whether you’ve been feeling a little too cold or warm. And don’t forget your room temperature: According to the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation, it’s ideal to keep it between 65-and 68-degrees Fahrenheit, which increases the body’s production of the hormone melatonin, which helps regulate our sleep/wake cycle.
“Bedding is really a personal choice, as every person has their own preferences and sleeping styles,” says Dr. Barbara Chatr-Aryamontri, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie. “If you’re looking for bedding that keeps you cool, linen and cotton percale are good options. Some people might prefer something softer, like bamboo, or something warmer, like flannel. The key is to think about what is most comfortable for you and find the combination of bedding that promotes comfort and quality sleep.”
Food for Thought
Here’s an unexpected fact to digest: The state of your stomach can have a direct correlation to the quality of your sleep. A good rule of thumb, according to the experts, is to refrain from eating at least two hours before sleep. “If you eat too close to bedtime, lying down flat can cause the contents of your stomach to press against the lower esophageal sphincter, resulting in irritation and flare-ups of heartburn, acid reflux, and nausea,” Dr. Chatr-Aryamontri explains.
There’s another problem that arises if you eat a big meal just before hitting the sack. “Digesting food can increase metabolic activity and body temperature,” Dr. Cai says. “Meanwhile, sleep is a time for the body to wind down, and decreases in body temperature are better for sleep.”
Stop Working and Doom Scrolling in the Sack
It’s also wise to reserve your bedroom for sleep and intimacy. “Your brain starts associating the space with rest,” says Dr. Chatr-Aryamontri. “This means that your body naturally begins to cue relaxation and sleep when you enter your bedroom, and your brain learns to quickly transition into a sleep state when you lie down in bed. If you do things like work or watch TV in bed, your brain associates your bed with those activities, making it harder to fall asleep when you’re ready to rest.”
Not only that, the blue light given off by TVs, smartphones, and other screen devices can disrupt when our bodies ability to make melatonin, a hormone produced by the brain in response to darkness. It has a key role in regulating our body’s 24-hour clock (also called our circadian rhythm) as well as sleep.
Reserve your bedroom for sleep and intimacy so your brain associates the space with rest.
According to a study of young men published in the journal Sleep Medicine, exposure to blue light before bed reduced the amount of deep sleep the participants had. During deep sleep intervals, your brain performs some crucial tasks. Among them, it organizes the information you took in and the memories you made during your waking hours, and also repairs physical injuries and strengthens your immune system. Without enough of the deepest kind of sleep, you don’t wake up feeling rested, no matter how long you actually slept.
To optimize that deep sleep, the most important step is to establish a consistent bedtime and waking time (and, of course, to keep your room dark, quiet, and comfortable). There are other things to try as well, advises Dr. Chatr-Aryamontri. Stop imbibing caffeinated drinks at least six hours before bedtime and alcohol at least three hours before you turn in. And don’t lie in bed tossing and turning if you can’t sleep. “It’s better to get up and do a light activity, like reading, until you get tired,” she says. (If you want to stay in bed and read—a physical book, not on a device— that’s alright too: A 2021 study found it can actually improve sleep.) Dr. Cai also recommends engaging in physical activity during the day but avoiding intense exercise close to bed and incorporating relaxation techniques like meditation or deep breathing into your pre-sleep routine.
Should You Take Supplements?
If you’ve walked through the drug store lately, you’ve probably seen shelves crammed with supplements, including some that claim they’ll help you sleep better. There are a couple that do, but Dr. Cai stresses the importance of consulting with a healthcare provider before taking any of them, since there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The most common supplement is melatonin, the sleep/wake cycle regulator. (Although our bodies produce it, we make less of it as we age. Various diseases, such as certain types of dementia, cancer, and mood disorders, can also cause melatonin secretion to drop.) While melatonin can be a short term solution for sleep issues, it’s not a permanent one. Researchers at the National Sleep Foundation warn it can become less effective over time, as well as interfere with your body’s melatonin production.
Another supplement that can help with sleep is magnesium glycinate, which influences sleep quality and quantity, says Dr. Chatr-Aryamontri. “Most people get enough magnesium in their diet from whole grains, avocado, bananas, nuts, seeds, beans, and milk, but some may choose to take supplements to fortify their levels of this mineral,” she says. Other calming supplements that promote sleep, she adds, include L-theanine, glycine, and valerian.
Does Tech Really Help?
Given all the apps, watches, rings, and other devices that have been developed with the aim of promoting sleep, some of them must work… right? These consumer sleep technologies, or CSTs, can be wearable devices (such as rings and headbands) or “nearables,” meaning devices that are placed close by you when you sleep—for instance, on the mattress. Many claim to monitor things such as when you fall asleep, your oxygen saturation while sleeping, and when you are in various stages of sleep.
Dr. Cai, who co-authored an article on CSTs for the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, says the devices’ accuracy can vary. Many are good at measuring your total sleep time, but less so about keeping tabs on your sleep stages and how many waking minutes you may experience in between sleeping. Their oxygen-saturation meters aren’t identical to those in medical-grade pulse oximeters, and they aren’t able to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea (a sleep disorder that causes breathing to stop and start repeatedly), or how severe it is. “CSTs may provide interesting information about sleep, but I also caution my patients to take the data with a grain of salt,” Dr. Cai summarizes.
While spending money on a CST isn’t necessary, there are ways to make sleep trackers work for you. “They’re great to give you insights into the quality and consistency of your sleep and can help motivate you to make positive changes to your sleep health,” Dr. Chatr-Aryamontri says. “They can also help you determine if certain habits work for you. For instance, a device or app may help you notice if you sleep better on days you exercise or when your bedroom is cooler.”
Dr. Chatr-Aryamontri adds, “You don’t need to break the bank to buy a fancy white noise machine or specific bedding to help you sleep. There are ways to create a comfortable sleep environment that don’t involve expensive equipment,” she stresses. By following the expert-approved advice here, you’ll truly max out your chances of satisfying shuteye.
Signs You Need More Sleep
There’s a range of what constitutes an optimal amount of snoozing. How can you tell if you’re really getting enough? Overall sleepiness is one symptom, of course, but there are others. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, you might have a sleep deficiency if you feel you could nod off by:
- Riding in a car for an hour without breaks
- Sitting in traffic for several minutes
- Sitting and talking to someone
- Sitting still somewhere public, such as a classroom, theater, or work meeting
- Sitting quietly after lunch (as opposed to resuming work)
- Reading a book or watching TV while seated
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