Better sleep is at the top of the list of things that you don’t truly appreciate until it’s taken away from you. Parents and business owners – two clubs that I’ve joined since I wrote the article, 8 Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep – know better than anybody that many people take sleep for granted.
I look at the timestamp of that post (way back in 2014) and wish I could go back in time and scream at my younger self, “Get some sleep NOW!” I feel like Billy Madison telling his classmates to savor the simple joys of elementary school.
Coincidentally, I’ve had a recent spike of clients experiencing sleep issues. Sleep is THE most important thing to enhance recovery, and if you’re not getting it, your physical and mental performance in the gym (and all aspects of life) are going to suffer.
As I must always disclaim, I’m not a doctor, so don’t take my advice in lieu of your doctor’s if you’ve got a diagnosed sleep disorder. But if you’re guilty of self-imposed poor sleep habits, making some simple lifestyle changes can help you get better sleep, leading to better results from your training.
1. WAKE UP EARLIER
You might be thinking, “Wait a sec, you want me to wake up earlier to help me get better sleep?” It sounds counterintuitive, but waking up earlier can set you up for a slew of positive habits that can improve your sleep quality.
Quite simply, waking up early (i.e., before the sun comes up, between 5-6 am for most people) will make you more tired later in the day, making it easier to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. And I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on circadian rhythm, but our sleep-wake cycle is closely linked to the earth’s light-dark cycle. It is reasonable to assume that if you’re spending a good portion of your awake time in the dark (staying up all night) and trying to catch up on sleep when the sun is up, your sleep quality will suffer.
Bryan Krahn, fitness writer and expert on getting jacked into your 40s, once tweeted something to the affect of sleeping from 10 pm to 6 am is like being on a low dose of steroids. It ain’t scientific, but the whole early to bed, early to rise approach seems to work better than an equal amount of sleep at different times.
2. GET STUFF DONE IN THE MORNING
Following up on the last point, sometimes the ass crack of dawn is the only time to get any meaningful stuff done. If you’re a parent, run your own business, work a strenuous job, etc., you may have great intentions of doing creative, meaningful work at the end of the day once the kids have gone to bed and dinner is done. But that doesn’t happen in the real world. It’s much easier to melt into the couch, phone in hand, scrolling aimlessly through whatever pineal-gland-frying social media tickles your fancy.
I experienced this firsthand during quarantine. Three years of running The Strength House and a year of parenting meant early mornings, late nights and running on fumes. When we were suddenly forced to stay home, grabbing an extra hour of sleep in the morning was extremely tempting. However, I found that by waking up even earlier (5:30 am was the sweet spot for me), I could get 60-90 minutes of uninterrupted work done first thing in the morning. This massively reduced my stress levels by starting the day off with a win, and made me feel more accomplished by the time the day was done.
So if stress keeps you up at night, do yourself a favor and knock out an important task first thing in the morning. You’ll go to bed with less on your mind and get better sleep knowing there’s less on your to-do list.
3. WEAR BLUE LIGHT GLASSES
Blue light glasses were all the rage during quarantine. Many people spend tons of time in front of a computer at work anyway, but working from home took it to a new level. And personally, going from spending most of my day on the floor coaching to sitting in front of a laptop screen had its negative effects. I found myself going to bed and waking up with a headache most days.
I thought blue light glasses were all hype, but the rest of The Strength House staff had tried them and liked them, so I bought a pair. After a few days of using them, I was sleeping better and my headaches went away despite the significant increase in screen time.
There’s limited research on blue light glasses, but one randomized trial found that wearing amber-colored blue light glasses helped patients with delayed sleep phase disorder fall asleep sooner, although the results weren’t statistically significant. The science makes sense: our digital screens emit blue light that can decrease our body’s melatonin production and delay that sleepy feeling before bed. Best case scenario would be to limit screen time before bed, but if you can’t (or won’t) do that, blue light glasses are an inexpensive way (mine were $18) to mitigate the issue, even if it’s just a placebo.
4. EXERCISE MORE
On these “how to get better sleep” lists, you’ll often find exercise as something you shouldn’t do too close to bedtime, and I agree. Heavy strength training at night can be overstimulating, especially if you’re using caffeine beforehand and getting hyped up to hit big lifts. However, anecdotally, many people I know sleep worse when they exercise less.
It’s pretty simple: exercise expends energy, causing fatigue and making us feel tired. As long as you exercise in the first half of the day, that wired feeling should go away by bedtime. But here’s the problem: most of us who strength train don’t do it every day. Most intelligently-designed programs call for 3-5 days a week of lifting. What do you do on those other days?
If you’re doing nothing at all on non-lifting days, adding a bit of light exercise in the form of a brisk walk can be just enough calorie expenditure to increase sleepiness at the end of the day without interfering with your recovery from lifting. Most of us powerlifters limit our cardio to walking to the fridge and back, so the extra aerobic work will likely help enhance our recovery anyway.
Start with a simple 10-minute walk outdoors and add a few minutes each day until you’re up to 40-60 minutes. At the risk of sounding like a hippy, there’s some magic about a long walk outdoors for mental clarity and peace of mind.
5. MEAL TIMING
When you eat your last meal of the day can affect the quality of your sleep. This is largely personal preference, so you’ll have to experiment to see what gets you the best results.
For some, eating too close to bedtime leads to an upset stomach that makes it hard to fall asleep. For others, eating the last meal of the day too far from bedtime leads to waking up starving in the middle of the night.
Personally, due to my work schedule, I typically eat dinner at 9 pm and go to bed less than an hour later. I feel nice and sleepy after a carb-rich final meal of the day. I happen to enjoy that kind of post-Thanksgiving haze that lulls me to sleep. We’ve all heard of the amino acid tryptophan, made famous by the tranquilizing effect of too much turkey and stuffing. Turns out tryptophan increases serotonin production in the brain, helping us feel all warm and fuzzy as we drift off to sleep.
So if indigestion or a growling stomach keeps you up at night, try changing the timing of your final meal of the day to help you fall asleep (and stay asleep).
6. CUT OFF WATER INTAKE
Does anything suck more than waking up because you have to pee, and weighing the pros and cons of staying in bed versus potentially peeing the bed? We’ve all been there, but if you’re waking up multiple times a night to use the bathroom, you’re missing out on quality sleep.
Hydration is hugely important. Every biological function in our body works better when we drink enough water. But front loading your fluid intake earlier in the day can help you reduce drinking at night, leading to fewer wake-ups for bathroom breaks.
A personal strategy I use: I try to drink 25 percent of my daily water in the morning and 50 percent during your workout, so I’ve only got another 25 percent to go in the afternoon. Another tip: add sea salt to your final meal of the day to help with water retention and reduce the urge to pee at night.
7. LIMIT CAFFEINE AND ALCOHOL
Perhaps the most overused joke of quarantine was, “I know what time of day it is based on whether I’m drinking coffee or wine.” Yeah Karen, we get it, you’re a stimulant-fueled manager harasser by day and a Pinot-guzzling lunatic by night.
Unfortunately, both our favorite beverages can mess with our sleep. There’s nothing wrong with waking up with a cup of coffee or winding down with a nightcap, but timing is important. For better sleep, cut off caffeine by midday and have your last alcoholic drink 2 hours before bedtime.
The half-life of caffeine is about 5 hours, so if you drank coffee or an energy drink at 12 pm and go to bed at 10 pm, there’s probably still a bit of caffeine hanging around in your blood. So that 3 pm pumpkin spiced latte, as basic and delicious as it is, might be keeping you up at night.
Alcohol, despite being a depressant that can make you feel relaxed, negativity affects REM sleep and can prevent you from reaching deeper stages of sleep. I love a double IPA as much as anyone (maybe MORE than anyone), but crushing a six-pack after dinner isn’t ideal if you want to sleep better.
OFF TO NEVER NEVER LAND
If you’re struggling to get better sleep, these simple lifestyle adjustments can help. Don’t try to tackle them all at once – pick one or two to start and try to nail them for a week straight. As they become a habit, add another one. And if you really love sleep, try to put off having kids or starting a business as long as possible. Just kidding… maybe.