How to get a Good Night's Sleep

Having trouble sleeping? Here are some things you can try:

1. Go to bed at the same time every night, or as close to the same time as possible.

2. Get up within an hour of the same time every morning, no exceptions except emergencies.

3. When the alarm goes off, get up. No Snooze, no rolling back over, get up now.

4. Stop drinking caffeine at least 6 (8 is even better) before you want to go to sleep.  Same for sugary food and energy drinks.

5. Minimum if 10 minutes not staring at a screen (TV, computer, phone, tablet) before going to bed. The longer the better. Light tricks your eyes into thinking your body should still be awake.

6. Environment is important. Keep it as dark as possible. A small amount of white noise might also help.

7. Try a natural alarm clock. This is an alarm that uses light to wake you up. If you sleep in darkness your body will naturally wake up when it gets light. Condition yourself that dark means sleep and light means awake.

8. If you live in the city and there's a lot of noise, consider ear plugs or acoustical sound dampening foam. Use a fan or a rain or water sound to create some white noise.

9. Counting sheep isn’t about the sheep, it’s about occupying your mind with something routine and repetetive.

10. Stop watching TV in bed, reading in bed, doing work in bed, etc. Your bed is for sleeping, not for working or relaxing. Again, it’s all about a routine. Don’t let your bed become another place for your mind to be occupied.

11. Try meditation. If you’re still having trouble sleeping after all the above, your mind it trying to process something. Let it do so before bed and you’ll drift off to sleepy time when you finally do hit the sheets.

12. Your body has a natural rhythm (called circadian rhythm) that governs many things, sleep being one of them. The most simplistic way of looking at it is you need to get in touch with that rhythm and find the 90 minute cycle that you’re on. Five 90 minute cycles = 7.5 hours. Use these "cycles" to determine sleeping time. So for example I get up at 6:00 every day. Counting backwards that’s either 10:30 or 12:00 that I want to be asleep, so at either 10:00 or 11:30 I start getting ready for bed.

13. If you live with someone and your sleep routine doesn't work together, you're gonna have a bad time. If said partner snores, tosses or turns, etc.,   talk about it and figure out what works.

14. Temperature matters. Typically, a bit cooler works better for sleep. Find what works for you.

15. Experiments with pillows of a different thickness and firmness. Flat or no pillow for stomach sleepers, medium thickness for back sleepers, and thicker for side sleepers.