Source: Fingerprint for Success
Now that you see how sleep and mental health are connected, what can you do to improve your sleep?
1. Retrain your circadian rhythm
If your work schedule is misaligned with your natural sleeping schedule, the good news is you can shift your bedtime earlier if you do it in small increments.
On PsychCentral, sleep specialist Stephanie Silberman, Ph.D., recommends shifting your bedtime by 15-minute increments every three to four nights until you reach your desired bedtime.
So, for example, if you typically fall asleep at midnight and want to fall asleep at 10 p.m., it’ll take about a month to gradually shift to that earlier bedtime.
Another study by Dr. Elise Facer-Childs found a way for night owls to successfully shift their sleep/wake times up to two hours earlier without harming sleep duration. On top of that, they reported feeling less stressed and depressed.
So how’d they do it? Here’s the exact regimen they followed for three weeks:
- “Wake up 2-3 hours before your regular wake-up time and maximize outdoor light during the mornings.
- Go to bed 2-3 hours before habitual bedtime and limit light exposure in the evening.
- Keep sleep/wake times fixed on both workdays and free days.
- Have breakfast as soon as possible after waking up, eat lunch at the same time each day, and refrain from eating dinner after 7 pm.”
2. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
As with many things, with sleep, consistency is key. You can train your body to fall asleep at a specific time, but then you have to stick with it or risk undoing all that training. Many sleep experts recommend that you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends and your days off.
A 2018 Duke University study published in Scientific Reports found that, among 1,978 older adults, those with irregular sleep patterns were more likely to experience depression and stress than regular sleepers. It’s important to note, however, that the study authors say while there is an association, it doesn’t mean there’s a causal relationship.
"From our study, we can't conclude that sleep irregularity results in health risks, or whether health conditions affect sleep," the study’s lead author Jessica Lunsford-Avery, Ph.D., told Duke Health. "Perhaps all of these things are impacting each other."
3. Minimize light exposure near bedtime.
Avoiding blue light before bedtime is a crucial part of practicing good sleep hygiene. A 2019 meta-analysis published in Chronobiology International reviewed 15 studies and found that being exposed to blue light for two hours in the evening suppresses melatonin, a hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm and helps you fall asleep. And while your smartphone and TV are often blamed for giving you the blue-light blues, the sun contains blue light too. So if it’s sleepy time, it’s best to block out as much light as possible.
Some ideas:
- Turn on “Night mode” on your smartphone. Both iPhone and Android phones have a blue light filter you can turn on to make the phone emit less blue light at specific times.
- Use an app like Flux for your computer. Flux is a free app that adjusts your computer display’s color throughout the day to minimize your blue light exposure around bedtime.
- Blue light glasses: You can buy glasses with lenses that block out blue light, helping you avoid the harmful effects on your sleep. Recent research from Indiana University found that they are effective at improving sleep quality and quantity.
- Blackout curtains: These thicker curtains are able to block sunlight better, which is a must if you’re trying to send signals to your body that it’s time to sleep.
- Tape to cover appliances that emit light: Many appliances, such as TVs and air purifiers, have tiny lights that, when the room is dark, seem bright and can disturb your sleep. Consider using black electrical tape to cover these lights and get better rest.
- Sleep masks: For all the other light that will inevitably seep into your room, a sleep mask that covers your eyes will take care of it. Sleep masks can be uncomfortable if they lie flat on your eyes or don’t seal well around your face (thereby letting light in). I’ve found the best way to handle this is to buy a sleep mask with concavity around the eyeballs (so they don’t press on them) and with flaps that provide a better seal.
4. Participate in wellbeing coaching.
Sleep is one part of well-being, and to improve it, it helps to look at well-being holistically. One way to do that while staying accountable to your goals is through coaching. And no, you don’t need any money to get a coach. Thanks to AI technology, F4S is bringing free well-being coaching to anyone, anywhere.
Vital Wellbeing is an eight-week program with our AI-powered app, Coach Marlee. Marlee will guide you through this self-paced online program, beginning with asking you what your well-being goal is, how you'll define success, and how you'll reward yourself for achieving your goal. Then, Marlee will help you build motivation, boost self-esteem, set personal boundaries, and more.
By focusing on your well-being as a whole, you’ll likely find that your sleep improves. For instance, a study published in Stress & Health looked at 1,471 adults living in a community and found that resilience was linked to a low likelihood of sleep disturbance. Vital Wellbeing specifically helps you boost your emotional resilience, which could have a positive effect on your sleep habits as well.
5. Do high-intensity exercise more than two hours before bed.
Two studies point to the benefits of high-intensity exercise for sleep problems. The first was published in 2021 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. After looking at data from more than 380,000 middle-aged adults in the UK, researchers concluded that participating in more than 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity a week may counter the negative effects of poor sleep.
The second study by Concordia University found that performing high-intensity exercise in the early evening (ending more than two hours before bedtime) helped people fall asleep and sleep longer. The study was published in December 2021 in Sleep Medicine Reviews.
6. Bathe in hot water 90 minutes before bedtime to get better sleep.
Here’s your excuse to treat yourself to a nice bubble bath: Research shows it may help with sleep difficulty. Biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin reviewed more than 5,000 relevant studies and found that bathing one to two hours before bedtime with a water temperature between 104 and 109 degrees Fahrenheit improved sleep quality and helped people fall asleep 10 minutes faster, on average.
So it doesn’t matter if it’s a bath or a shower; what matters is the temperature and the timing.
7. Talk to your boss about switching to a flexible work schedule to improve your sleep and performance.
As we saw in the research above, night owls forced to work a 9-to-5 schedule, or early birds compelled to work night shifts, experience sleep disturbance because they’re constantly fighting their circadian rhythm. That’s why flexible work is so desirable-you can adapt it to optimize your sleep habits and maximize peak productivity times.
Schedule a one-on-one with your manager to talk about how your current schedule is hindering your performance. You can introduce a trial period of, say, one month on your proposed schedule. During that trial period, you can prove to your manager that a flexible schedule is not only beneficial to your mental health, it’s also beneficial to your company.
Now, admittedly, conversations with the boss can be nerve-wracking. If you’re struggling to find the right words or the right approach, did you know you can work with a career coach? They’re trained to tackle very specific challenges, such as how to have a tough conversation. They can help you plan what to say and practice it through role-playing.
8. Write a detailed to-do list to stop nighttime worrying.
When your head hits the pillow, do you immediately start thinking about all the things you need to get done tomorrow? Having tasks running through your mind at bedtime can cause significant mental distress, leading to inadequate sleep.
Instead of letting those thoughts race, doing this can help you get better sleep:
In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, participants who wrote a detailed to-do list for five minutes before bedtime fell asleep faster than those who merely wrote about tasks they'd completed in the previous days. So it may help you to write down those tasks you need to complete so you can get them out of your head and onto paper (or your phone) and get better sleep.
Get your sleep and mental health on track to promote your overall well-being.
Science has shown time and again that sleep and mental health are intertwined. You can’t excel in one area without taking care of the other. And yet, when was the last time you invested in your well-being?
You don’t have to spend a dime to start feeling better today. With AI technology like our Coach Marlee app, taking steps toward your well-being is easier than ever.
Achieve your sleep and mental health goals with self-paced online coaching. Sign up for Vital Wellbeing for free now.
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