Things like limiting alcohol, drinking less water or not eating too much right before bed? What helps you get a good 7-8hrs of sleep? So you don’t feel like shit the next day?

31 comments

  2. Sleep in a cool, dark and quiet room

    White noise machine

    Go to bed around the same time every night, even on weekends

    No caffeine after 12 pm

    No electronics in bed

    Wash your sheets and blankets every weekend

  3. enough air and pressing the insides of your wrists for a sec or two, if you cannot sleep (tsubo/pressure point)

  4. My best nights of sleep have always been after having good sex and falling asleep together with a highly compatible partner.

  8. Finally taking care of my mental health. I think most people would benefit from getting to the root cause of their stress in order to improve the quality of their 7-8 hours of sleep.

  9. Get a sleep test to test for sleep apnea.

    I’m in shape, early 40s, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, good diet, regular exercise, and I hadn’t been able to sleep well for years. My wife convinced me to get a sleep test, and I had severe sleep apnea. As in, I stopped breathing 40+ times an hour in my sleep. (Apparently, I have the “largest tonsils I’ve ever seen” according to my doctor.)

    With the CPAP I can actually get a reasonable nigth’s sleep. I’m also scheduled to talk to a surgeon about having my tonsils removed, as that might allow me to stop using the machine, though it is a painful recovery.

  10. A good pillow. A weighted blanket.

    Slow release Melatonin tablets.
    My wife takes them occasionally, and I use them every now and then when I can’t switch off. They actually work well and aren’t addictive.
    I found that proper sleeping tablets gave me a good night’s sleep but they made me feel like shit in the morning.

  11. Drop caffeine. Just ditch coffee, energy drinks, or even sodas for a week. It’ll reset your body. Caffeine is a drug and can mess you up just like other drugs can.

  12. Putting my phone and smart watch to charge in another room. And reading a book and drinking camomile tea with honey and milk for an hour in bed. Sometimes I ad L-theanine to the tea. Ironically, tracking my sleep with the watch worsened my sleep.

  14. Working out is magical for the level of sleep you get to experience after a good workout that day

  15. Daily exercise of some sort. I usually have a hard time falling asleep if I don’t do some kind of physical activity once a day.

  16. I use to have to drink half a bottle of whiskey to get to sleep.

    But now weed is legal. A single gummy 30 min before bed time and I’m all set.

    I’ve been doing this since it became legal here. I sleep better, wake up on time or early, I feel rested. I’m no longer killing my liver, I’ve lost 20 pounds and I’m off my blood pressure medication now.

    Plus edibles can be fun. 🤣👍

  20. 1) Quitting caffeine cold turkey made a **huge** difference for me.

    2) Staying very well hydrated. I drink a gallon of water every day and finish before 6pm to avoid having to wake up to pee. I sleep like crap when I’m not well hydrated.

    3) Keep the bedroom slightly cooler than you prefer during the daytime. I sleep with the bedroom temperature at 68 F.

    4) Magnesium supplements. Take right before bed.

    5) Be active. You don’t have to go to the gym every day, but there’s a huge difference between getting your steps in and never leaving the house and being sedentary all day.

    6) Follow all the usual sleep hygiene advice. Make sure you wash/replace your sheets at least once a week. Also make sure your body is clean when you go to bed.

    7) Try to keep a regular routine of going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.

    8) Don’t eat anything for a few hours before bed. The digestive activity can be disruptive to your sleep quality.

  21. Michael Sealey sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube. There are videos for everything from quitting drinking to calming anxiety to detachment from overthinking. I’ve been listening to the guy for years now and it never fails to put me to sleep. Something about the timbre and cadence of his voice. No homo.

  22. I agree with most of the answers here, but one major change for me that was an absolute life changer:

    At the beginning of the year, I transferred to a new job. Previous one was extremely demanding and stressful. My current position pays better, gives me little to no stress, is not even half of the workload, and is just all around more enjoyable. I never realised how much anxiety my previous job was giving me and how badly it affected my sleep. I feel like a completely new person.

  23. Getting screened for sleep apnea and getting a CPAP machine. The difference in my sleep was mind blowing. You may be one of those “I’m just a snorer” type of guy, but you could also have apnea which will greatly shorten your lifespan based on the damage it does to the rest of your body from shitty sleep and high blood pressure. Get the sleep study done. One night trying to sleep dressed as a cyborg is worth hundreds of nights of great sleep.

  25. Going to sleep earlier helps a ton. I wake up the same time everyday regardless of when I go to sleep bc my circadian rhythm is locked, so the later I go to sleep, the less overall sleep I get

  27. Having a stress free or close to stress free job. Also being single. I’m not even joking about that one. I always struggled to sleep for years while I was married. 6 months or so after I separated (once all the shit stuff was over) I was sleeping better than I had in a very very long time.

  29. Tea has been great for me, mainly rooibos since it’s lack of caffeine. Reading a book or meditation also works as natural tranquilizer!

  30. I think it totally depends on the cause of your lack of sleep. It’s easy to suggest some generic replies but lack of sleep tends to be because of something very specific to the individual.

    I have suffered with insomnia on and off for the last 12 years and at points it really taken it’s toll on my mental health. Mine developed in my late teens, seemingly out of nowhere, it then began giving me anxiety, specifically about not being able to sleep which in turn made the problem vastly worse.
    For me, seeing a therapist and a CBT practitioner helped me by far the most. It helped me understand, not feel ashamed, and helped me contextualise the issue, along with given me tools to help deal with anxiety in general.
    If your problem is falling to sleep, it’s definitely worth trying to do things that make you feel as relaxed as possible as part of your pre bed routine. I tried the No blue light, no alcohol, not much water, not much food strategy but I found that these techniques subconsciously made me think more about the issue in hand, and almost hyper focused me on the issue of my sleep. Speaking to a therapist I found that the relaxation for me is key, almost even dissociation from the problem. For me, relaxation is watching YouTube videos on my laptop in bed, having a small carbohydrate meal before bed (which is now shown to increase sleep onset) and a small hygiene routine before bed. I also organise my life so that anything that needs to be done has been addressed earlier on in the day, and plans put in place before bed so that they no longer have a requirement to be in my mind prior to sleep.

    If you have issues with staying asleep, I think this can be a little easier to solve and a lot of the solutions highlighted in this thread will help.

    Small carbohydrate meal pre bed, keeping the room cool, but not cold, not drinking too much so that needing the toilet is less likely, foods like kiwis are a good option in the evening due to the high tryptophan content. Keeping a small glass of water next to your bed so you can avoid getting up. All of these have a good place in your armoury of staying asleep

    I don’t know your current level of health either but this will play a massive role in your ability to sleep well. If you are overweight, there’s a strong chance you have sleep apnea. The options here are to lose weight to help reduce stress on the trachea, or if you are very overweight, a CPAP would be a godsend if you can tolerate it.
    Get your bloodwork done, you may be lacking in some vitamin and nutrient deficiency that could be making you feel tired or contributing to poor sleep. This would also reveal things like high haematocrit which would lead to lethargy, or poor thyroid function, over low testosterone. All of these could add to poor feeling of fatigue and blood work would show you this and allow you to change it.
    Get your standard physical done too, high blood pressure, high heart rate (specifically resting in the morning) will be a measure of poor fitness or potential illness which could contribute to this.

    In short, get yourself a full health check, depending on which camp you fall into. If it doesn’t highlight anything the worst you’ll have done is check and alleviate any worry that physical problems are around. Therefore you can just make relevant lifestyle changes that suit YOU the best.

    Good luck! If you have any specific questions just pm me!

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