Nine Natural Approaches To Sleep Better And Have More Energy

Person waking rested after a great night's sleep.

A person waking rested after a great night’s sleep.

If you live to be 80 years old and sleep an average of 8 hours a night, you’ll spend approximately 233,600 hours, or 9,733 days, or almost 27 years sleeping. Seems like a lot of time spent just lying there, but the fact is, your body is incredibly busy while you’re sleeping. Regular good quality sleep helps to slow the aging process, allow you to feel energized, heal from illness faster, stay focused and alert, enjoy a more stable and positive mood, and perform at your peak. Good stuff, right? 

I recently listened to a fantastic podcast on sleep from Dr. Andrew Huberman. I loved so many of his ideas and his approach to wakefulness and sleep that I wanted to share some of Dr Huberman’s and my thoughts on how to feel energized during the day and support your sleep at night. 

In the following article, I’ll share nine approaches you can use to feel more wakeful during the day and experience restorative sleep at night. For those of you that just want the quick tips on what to do in order to improve your sleep, I’ve summarized some ideas for each approach.

Using morning sunlight to improve sleep.

 1) Harness The Power Of Light To Improve Your Sleep

Exposing your eyes to early morning light is THE most powerful thing you can do to increase your wakefulness during the day and your ability to fall asleep at night. Light has a powerful influence on what’s called your circadian rhythm. This is your body’s 24(ish)-hour clock that’s controlled by a part of the brain called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN). When sunlight hits your eyes, the SCN responds by sending signals to other parts of the brain and starts a timer for you to feel sleepy in the evening. This triggers the release of certain hormones, changes in body temperature, and other functions that play a role in making you feel awake or sleepy. For example, in the mornings, with exposure to light, the SCN sends signals to raise hormones like cortisol. Cortisol gets a bad rap as a nasty stress hormone, but it’s essential for helping you wake up and get going in the morning. Ideally, it should be highest in the morning and then slowly decline throughout the day. Sunlight in the morning helps to raise your morning cortisol level so you feel awake. Bottom line, when you view morning sunlight, it helps you feel awake during the day and starts a timer for you to start feeling sleepy in the evening. 

Viewing sunlight in the early evening around sunset is another way to improve your sleep. You don’t need to watch the sun go down. It just needs to be around sunset. After sunset, your eyes become very sensitive to light, and  especially blue light, lowers melatonin, a hormone that makes you feel sleepy. The angle of the sun at this time of day helps to desensitize your eyes to light at night.

 Do: 

  • Go outside and view morning sunlight, preferably east facing,  for 5-15+ minutes within 60 minutes of waking and within 2 hours of sunrise. Avoid wearing sunglasses, but don’t look directly at the sun. If you miss a day, just enjoy twice the amount of morning sunlight the following day.

  • Go outside for 5-15+ minutes of sunlight around sunset, preferably west facing. Avoid wearing sunglasses. 

  • For bonus points, keep any lights or screen time to a minimum after sunset.


2) How Evening Light Ruins Your Sleep

In the evening, after sunset, your eyes are incredibly sensitive to light, especially artificial light and bluelight. Exposure to evening light disrupts your sleep by reducing melatonin production. You can reduce this sensitivity by viewing sunlight in the early evening around sunset. In addition, dim your lights after sunset and use only reading lamps (ideally you want to avoid overhead lights at night). If you must watch TV, look at a computer, or your phone, dim the screen light as low as you can. There’s debate over whether amber glasses help to prevent melatonin loss but clearly help some people. 

Do:

  • Keep your lights as low as possible after sunset.

  • Use reading lights at night and turn off overhead lights.

  • Turn the screen brightness on your phone, computer, and TV as low as possible after sunset. I like Felix Gray glasses when I have to look at my computer in the evening.

  • Aim for having all screens off at least one hour before sleep (both for reducing blue light and mental stimulation).

  • Wearing amber glasses may or may not be beneficial after sunset, so give it a try to see if it helps you. 

Person taking a cold shower to increase energy during the day and sleep better at night.

3) Alter Your Body Temperature To Sleep Better

Your body temperature rises shortly before you wake up and continues to rise throughout the day and then lowers again in the evening. In fact, your body temperature needs to drop 1-3 degrees to fall asleep and get into the deeper, more restorative stages of sleep. On the flip side, if your body temperature rises during the night (think hot flashes or a hot bedroom), you’ll awaken. Keeping your room between 60-67 degrees at night can improve your sleep quality. If you’re a hot sleeper, cooling devices are available to lower the temperature of your bed. Taking a warm shower before bed signals your body to cool down, which can help you fall asleep faster. During the day, a rise in body temperature signals your body to be awake. Taking a cold shower in the morning signals your body to warm up, making you feel more awake and alert. 

Do:

  • Take a cold shower in the morning for 1-3 minutes.

  • Take a warm shower before bed for 3-5 minutes. 

  • If possible, keep your bedroom between 60-67 degrees.

  • Consider a Chilliblanket or Chilisleep which help to keep your bed at a cooler temperature throughout the night.

4) How Food Affects Your Sleep

What and when you eat impacts your wakefulness and sleep. First, let’s talk about when you eat. Ingesting food naturally causes a rise in body temperature, which is referred to as the “thermic effect of food”. Eating in the morning can help raise your body temperature and metabolism, which will increase wakefulness. However, overeating, and large meals will make you feel sleepy. Eating too late at night can elevate your body temperature making it more difficult to fall asleep. This is especially true of large, heavy meals. You may feel sleepier at first, but your quality of sleep will suffer. 


Second, what you eat will also impact your sleep and wakefulness.  Going into specifics on diet is beyond the scope of this article, but there are a few basics I’d like to cover. The first is on refined carbohydrates such as breakfast cereals, bagels, and pastas. Eating a breakfast that is high in refined carbohydrate and/or added sugars will cause a dramatic spike in your blood sugars and then a crash. The result is a rollercoaster ride of high and low energy throughout the day that triggers ongoing sugar cravings and intake to preserve energy. In contrast, starting your morning with adequate protein and healthy fats (and possibly complex carbohydrates depending on your health and activity level) will set you up for a smooth energy ride throughout the day. You’ll also want to avoid those sugary snacks in the evening because they will drive up your blood sugar, which will then crash in the middle of the night most likely waking you up. Eating at regular, predictable intervals each day will also help you strengthen your circadian rhythm for wakefulness during the day and quality sleep at night.


Third, what and when you drink will also impact your sleep. Limit or avoid alcohol, especially before bedtime. Yes, alcohol might help you fall asleep, but it disrupts the quality of your sleep and greatly reduces your REM sleep. Also, reduce or halt your fluid intake about 3 hours before bed so that you don’t have to get up repeatedly to use the bathroom during your sleep time.


Do:

  • Eat a meal rich in protein and healthy fats in the early part of the day.

  • Eat at reasonably regular, predictable intervals each day.

  • Limit your fluid intake 3 hours before bed.

  • Limit alcohol intake, especially in the late evening.


5) When To Exercise For Great Sleep

Exercise in the morning to increase alertness. Exercise increases your core body temperature. And as a bonus, because your body naturally produces more cortisol in the morning, you’ll feel more energized and alert during your workout. On the flip side, you’ll want to avoid strenuous exercise in the evening, or more specifically within 3 hours of bed, as this can increase cortisol, other stress hormone levels, and body temperature making it more difficult to fall asleep and get into more restorative phases of sleep.


Note that if you are trying to build muscle, have at least some protein and possibly carbohydrate (depending on the type and intensity of exercise) before your workout.


Do:

  • Workout in the mornings. If this is not possible with your schedule or you don’t like working out in the mornings, no problem. The best time to work out is the time you’ll do it.

  • Limit strenuous exercise within 3 hours of sleep. Better options to support sleep would be gentle, low intensity exercise such as yin yoga or light stretching. 


6) How Caffeine Affects Sleep


Caffeine gives most of us a feeling of being more alert by blocking a chemical in our bodies called adenosine. More specifically, adenosine is a chemical that your brain produces during waking hours, which lowers again during sleep. When it binds to receptors in the brain, it makes you feel sleepy. Each hour you’re awake, the stronger the drive to sleep becomes. Think about the last time you missed a night of sleep and could barely keep your eyes open the following day. That was the buildup of adenosine working its magic. One of the ways caffeine works to keep your eyes open when you’re exhausted is by blocking adenosine receptor sites. 


The half-life of caffeine is most often 4-6 hours, which is largely dependent on your genetics. This means that after 4 hours, half the caffeine you consumed is still active and increasing your wakefulness. This is something to consider when timing your intake. 


If you feel you have an afternoon energy crash, it might be a first morning coffee, so try delaying your morning cup for about one to two hours. You should also get a sense of how long it takes you to metabolize caffeine and avoid consuming caffeine at least 7-8 hours before your typical bedtime. But some people find that they do best avoiding caffeine for a full 12 hours before sleep.

Do:

  • Try delaying your morning  caffeine for one to two hours after waking to avoid an afternoon caffeine crash.

  • Avoid caffeine for at least 8 hours before bedtime, or longer if you need.

Meditation, better sleep, relaxed mind

7) Calm Your Mind For Better Sleep


Balancing your autonomic nervous system is one of the most powerful ways to improve your wakefulness and sleep (not to mention your overall well-being). Training your nervous system to be able to relax improves sleep, which will in turn increase wakefulness. This can be done in several ways, but below are some of my favorite tools and programs. 

  • Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)

  • Yoga Nidra

    • Yoga Nidra is conscious sleep. During the practice, you don’t lose consciousness, yet your entire body, mind and nervous system obtain complete rest through deep relaxation. 

    • There's also an app, Savasana, that offers Yoga Nidra practices. If you want to try these, keep your phone on the lowest light using the “Night Shift” setting and have your phone on Airplane mode or Do Not Disturb.

  • Self-Hypnosis  

    • Hypnosis helps you increase your control over your mind and body. One of Dr. Huberman’s favorite self-hypnosis apps is Reveri.

  • Meditation

  • Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Mitigation

    • EMFs include a range of energy produced from Wifi, Bluetooth, cell towers and cell phones, Smart TVs and other smart appliances, and powerlines. 

    • There is a growing body of evidence finding associations (though no certain causation) between long-term exposure to EMFs and certain medical conditions.

    • Some people appear to be more sensitive to EMFs than others, and symptoms are nonspecific, often including heart palpitations, anxiety, insomnia, headaches or other pain, and brain fog.

    • To find out if EMFs affect you, try unplugging wifi and removing (or unplugging) all electronics from your bedroom for two weeks; pay attention to symptoms or track your HRV.

    • Personally, I use a Somavedic device (specifically Medic Green), which is designed to reduce the cellular effects of EMF exposure. If you want to try a Somavedic device yourself, use code DRAMY for 10% off.

 8) Cure Insomnia With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

For those of us who have struggled with sleep more chronically, we can often find ourselves convinced that we are just “bad sleepers” or otherwise we may learn to dread bedtime, anticipating difficulties we believe we will have either falling or staying asleep.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is an evidence based approach that focuses on exploring the connection between the way we think, the things we do, and how we sleep. More specifically, CBT-I can help us catch thoughts or beliefs that may actually be getting in the way of our sleep, and provides specific behaviors for getting sleep back on track.

You can learn more about CBT-I here.

Ways to dive into CBT-I:

  • Try an online course.

  • Get some ideas from Martin Reed’s Insomnia Coach podcast.

  • Work with a local therapist trained in CBT-I.

Safe sleep supplements

9) Safe Sleep Supplements That Actually Work


There are a handful of well-studied, safe supplements for sleep that don’t appear to affect your sleep architecture (the normal structure of sleep). Sleeping pills like Ambien or Tylenol PM, benzodiazepines, alcohol, THC in marijuana, and certain supplements appear to negatively impact your sleep architecture, which reduce your restorative sleep. 


One important point to remember is that supplements are not the first line for improving your sleep. The approaches described above can have a much more profound, and often lasting, impact on your sleep. Supplements are used to enhance your body’s natural sleep function by increasing sleepiness or sleep quality, and I generally only recommend supplements for sleep be used when needed for relatively short durations.

Talk to your physician (or me) before starting any new supplements.

Well-studied, safe supplements:

  • Supplements to help you fall asleep

    • L-theanine

      • GABA precursor, supports healthy relaxation without drowsiness.

      • Typical dosage 100-400 mg 30-60 minutes before bed.

      • Potential side effect is vivid dreams.

    • Magnesium L-threonate (I like NeuroMag)

      • Form of magnesium that crosses the blood-brain barrier supporting relaxation, cognitive function, and memory.

      • Typical dosage 145 mg 30-60 minutes before bed.

      • Potential side effects include GI distress and some people also report more vivid dreams when taking NeuroMag.

    • Apigenin

      • Bioflavonoid compound, which may induce muscle relaxation and sedation, also with antioxidant and neuroprotective properties.

      • Typical dosage 50 mg 30-60 minutes before bed.

  • Supplements to help you fall asleep and get back to sleep

    • Myo-inositol

      • Component of the B-complex family, supports central nervous system function and mood.

      • Typical dose 900 mg 30-60 minutes before bed.


Less studied, potentially safe supplements:

  • CBD

    • May help lower anxiety associated with insomnia, there are not enough studies on whether CBD affects your sleep architecture, but at this time it appears safe.

    • Dose varies. 

    • Brands to try: Charlotte’s Web and Santa Cruz Medicinals.

  • Reishi mushroom (I like Real Mushrooms brand)

    • Mushroom used in many traditional medical systems, supports immune health and may also improve sleep by reducing stress and anxiety.

    • Typical dosage: 2 capsules (1 gram) about one hour before bed.


Feeling Overwhelmed? Start Here.

I recommend experimenting with 1-2 things. For example, you may want to start with 10-15 minutes of morning sunlight and eat your last meal at least 3 hours before bed. You don’t need to do all these things, especially right from the start. Pick a few that interest you and won’t add additional stress to your day. Whatever you decide to start with, you’re now armed and ready to improve your sleep and feel more energized during the day. 

Amy Nett