How To Improve Your Sleep Without Sleeping More Hours

7 Tips For Better Sleep

Many people wear sleep deprivation as a badge of honor. But it's nothing to be proud of. Sacrificing sleep will kill you over a long enough time horizon.

The problem is that "hustle culture" has taught us to sacrifice sleep for productivity. And if you're like me, you're a victim of the hustle culture in one way or another and it has impacted your quality of sleep.

If you're looking to improve your sleep without sacrificing your productivity let me save you some time with these 7 sleep tips.

1. Create a consistent sleep schedule.

Your body wants to align itself with sunrise and sunset. So the ideal sleep schedule is to go to bed when the sun goes down and wake up when the sun comes up. But, there’s an issue with that.

For most people, this is unrealistic. We have commitments before the sun goes up and after the sun goes down, which make it difficult for us to get on this “ideal schedule.” But that's alright. We can do the next best thing!

Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day. For example, I get up at 5 AM every morning and go to bed by 9 PM every evening. Sticking with a consistent sleep schedule stabilizes your body’s natural rhythm, hence improving your sleep.

2. Get 10-30 minutes of early-morning sun exposure.

Sunlight triggers the timed release of cortisol, which naturally wakes up your body. If you want to improve your sleep, sun exposure can certainly help.

I used to be a 4+ coffee-a-day kind of guy, but ever since I built a habit of morning sun exposure, all I need is 2 cups max.

Instead of instantly reaching for caffeine in the morning, go outside and get yourself some sunshine in the morning.

3. Delay caffeine until 90 minutes after waking.

Your body produces a bunch of cortisol in the morning to wake you up, but if you drink caffeine in the morning your body says "Oh, I'll just use this caffeine for energy instead!" and then produces less cortisol which could make you more tired.

I used to wake up and instantly start an IV drip of caffeine upon rolling out of bed. When I learned it could be messing with my sleep, I decided to delay my caffeine intake.

So about 2 months ago, I gave myself 90 minutes to wake up before drinking any caffeine, and guess what happened? 90 minutes passed and I had so much energy that I didn’t even feel like I needed any caffeine.

If it takes you a while to wake up in the morning, even after drinking coffee, consider delaying your caffeine intake to give yourself some time to wake up naturally.

4. No caffeine after 12 PM.

Caffeine stays in your body longer than you think. Whether you believe it or not, it has adverse effects on your sleep.

I’m talking to you guy who says coffee "doesn’t affect their sleep."

For every cup of coffee you drink, it takes several hours for your body to flush it out of your system. Caffeine has a half life. If you drink a cup at 9AM, half of it will be out of your system by 10AM, then another half of it by 11AM, and so on and so forth.

If you want to prevent caffeine affecting your sleep, avoid consuming it after 12 PM. I wish I had known this in college…

During college, I'd slam coffee at 10 PM and think nothing of it. Then I'd be a zombie the next day; falling asleep in class, drinking more coffee to compensate for my tiredness, and then wondering why I was so sleepy!

There's nothing better than that late afternoon/evening coffee, but it often throws you into a vicious cycle of drinking more coffee, sleeping less, and being more tired, so just be mindful of your afternoon caffeine consumption.

5. No alcohol 4 hours before bedtime.

Alcohol might help you fall asleep, but it’s terrible at keeping you asleep. It’s initially sedating, but as it’s metabolized, it’s very activating and can totally mess up your sleep.

If you’re going to have a few drinks, and you know you’re going to have a few drinks, try to have them earlier in the day. That way, it won’t affect your sleep.

6. No food 3 hours before bedtime.

When your body is working to digest food, it’s not able to get into a restful state for sleep. In other words, if you eat at night and go right to bed, you might have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep because your body is working to digest your food!

If you want to sleep better, it might help you to avoid eating a few hours before bedtime in order to give your body a chance to digest.

I've been journaling every day for two years. The other day I looked back on a few old entries. One of the number one things I wrote was "Don't eat before bed."

7. Track your sleep

All these sleep tips are great, but unless you have a way to test their effectiveness, it can be difficult to figure out which habits help you the most. In order to test how eating before bed and drinking alcohol before bed affects your sleep, I recommend you pick up a sleep tracking device.

I’ve tried Apple Watch, Whoop, and Oura. All work great, but my go-to sleep device is Oura. My recommendation is to do your own research and use a sleep tracker to test how certain habits affect your sleep.

By doing these 7 things, you can improve your sleep without sleeping more.

People underestimate how sleep can impact other aspects of your life: mood, work performance, physical performance, and so on. Dialing in my sleep has been one of the most impactful things I’ve done this past year. If you’re looking to level up your life and work performance, I recommend using these tips to level up your sleep game.