3 subtle ways to improve your quality of sleep
We know the basics of a good night’s sleep: get seven to nine hours (whatever feels best to you), skip screen-time before bed, have a calming nighttime routine, wake up consistently at the same time if you regularly struggle to nod off.
But there are also subtleties of a good night’s sleep that can be helpful to know. Little details about positioning, bedroom conditions, and our nightly routines that can improve the quality of our nights and in turn, our days.
Enter Narwan Amini, who writes about sleep and bedding for Eachnight.com. She has some really useful and interesting tips in this department. Here they are in three broad categories:
Mind your position
Amini says the ideal sleeping position is (drumroll please…) on our sides.
Side-lying provides the best alignment and support for our spines, she says. That’s more significant than it might sound. It not only minimizes pain (especially in the neck and back), but it also helps our various internal systems function optimally.
For example, Amini says side-sleeping helps “clear out intestinal waste faster than other positions.” It’s an anecdotal claim, but it certainly sounds good and it does seem plausible that proper alignment might help things run more smoothly, if you know what I mean.
For ideal side-sleeping alignment, she recommends hugging a pillow and placing one between the knees. A body pillow can come in handy.
“We also suggest keeping your shoulders off your (head) pillow to minimize the distance between your neck and the mattress. This lowers the chances of morning neck pain,” she adds.
As for bedding, she recommends a medium to soft mattresses that doesn’t put too much pressure on our hips and shoulders.
For those who are not side-sleepers, it’s possible to make your position-of-choice more supportive and aligned.
Amini says back sleepers can put a pillow under their knees. Stomach sleepers can try a pillow under their hips.
I used to sleep on my stomach until my neck informed me those days were done. Unfortunately, Amini does say that lying on our bellies is the worst position. It can lead to strained muscles, stiffness, and pain. That was the case for me.
Set the environment just right
In a nutshell: keep your room dark, quiet, orderly, minimal and cool.
Some people say having one uncovered foot (sticking out of the covers) can promote sounder sleep. It has to do with the feet being part of the body’s temperature regulation system. But Amini admits it’s a hack and it won’t work for everyone.
She says, “if a person can’t relax with a foot sticking out from their covers, they may want to try a small fan or other cooling measures for better sleep.”
The ideal bedroom temperature is generally thought to be in the sixties. In all the articles I’ve read about this, roughly 67 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take a few degrees, seems to be roughly the best temperature.
A room that promotes silence and stillness is also important.
That means that the room is dark (regulating our internal clocks), quiet (which may be facilitated by gentle white noise if that helps) and intentionally arranged (it’s picked up, the furniture and décor are minimal, and the colors are calm and soothing). This also means that televisions may not be the best fit for bedrooms. The main idea is to minimize distractions and noise — in all its forms.
Architect a routine
A good night-time routine will look slightly different for everyone. Again, Amini says the most important thing is to avoid TV and electronic stimulation for at least an hour or so before bed.
“Instead, it’s good to relax with a simple activity like a familiar book, simple stretches, or a warm shower or bath,” she says.
If you tend to have a hard time falling or staying asleep, adopting a simple routine of these restful activities can nudge your body into sleep mode. That regimen might even include basic nightly hygiene. For example, you might brush teeth, comb your hair, etc., then get into bed and take a few settling deep breaths, read from a (not overly stimulating) book, whatever relaxes you.
I’m a fan of including warm water somewhere in my ritual. If it’s not a shower or bath, I briefly submerge my feet in warm water. It’s surprisingly soothing.
A bedtime routine is useful because it can also be repeated when we wake up and can’t get back to sleep.
Other good tools for those moments: getting under a weighted blanket, doing relaxing breath work, and not panicking about our impending exhaustion to come the next day. That’s easier said than done, but any level of freaking out just pushes sleep further down the line. We’ve all been there. Chilling out is the most important part of the routine.