You need 20-25% of your sleep to be deep if you want real restoration. Here’s a checklist to help you go deeper.
For the past year, even on my absolute worst nights, I’ve gotten at least 1.5 hrs of deep sleep. I know this because of my Oura Ring. Here’s a set of things I employ, try to employ, or plan to try as I further amp up my time in the wellness-enhancing slow wave sleep state.
TL;DR
- No caffeine late
- Daily moderate aerobic activity
- Hot shower, cold sleep
- Optimize your pillow, mattress, and linens
- Pink noise
- Reduce toxins
- No screens before bed
- Consistent bedtime routine
- Don’t eat late
My Personally Vetted Deep Sleep Checklist
You need 20-25% of your sleep to be deep if you want real restoration. Here are my top tips. I do all this stuff.
Caffeinate early or not at all
I’ve been on and off caffeine a lot lately in an effort to optimize not only my sleep, but my health in general. I’m one of those people who could drink an espresso and still conk out immediately. But, as I look at optimizing both quantity and quality of sleep, I’ve stricken drinking caffeine late (or drinking any alcohol at all*) from my routine. Not worth it in my opinion.
*The weird thing is alcohol seems to improve slow wave (or deep) sleep “at any dosage” but it destroys REM sleep, which is a major net negative effect.
Work out, or at least squeeze in some physical activity
According to my experience, working out helps me sleep better. Specifically, working out helps me achieve deep sleep.
“People who engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise may see a difference in sleep quality that same night.”
HopkinsMedicine.org
There’s debate about optimizing workout timing for sleep and specific activities, but the thrust is increasing your heart rate can increase your deep sleep.
Sleep cold, shower hot
I sleep at 65 degrees. The other night, I’d accidentally overridden our Nest and woke up repeatedly in misery. It was 67 instead of 65. While 67 degrees is within the generally accepted sleep temperature range of 60-67, it’s too hot for me. WebMD thinks the range is 60-65, maybe they’re right.
A hot shower or bath at night also helps you by forcing your body to start actively cooling down. That process sparks your natural production of melatonin.
Optimize your pillow
You don’t just bop into deep sleep when you close your eyes. Your body has to pass through multiple stages to reach the deep sleep phase. It stands to reason that anything that interrupts that process, internally or externally has the potential to disrupt your slow wave sleep. That’s where the pillow comes in. If your body can’t make it into the relaxed state it needs to achieve to hit and maintain deep sleep, you’re in trouble.
The right pillow can make all the difference in the world. This is my pillow of choice as a primarily side sleeper, but it works great when I sleep on my back too. The first night I used it I slept like a child, waking up in the morning and not even noticing my sleep. It just happened.
Optimize your linens
I’ve written at length about the joys of actual linen for sleep. That’s it for me. Breathable, moisture-wicking fabrics help regulate temperature, which is key to deep sleep.
Optimizing linens isn’t just about your sheets, it also includes what you’re wearing to bed. Me? ABSOLUTELY NO SOCKS! Your hands and feet are some of the best vehicles for decreasing temperature, which is critical to melatonin production. I also have linen pajamas and light turkish cotton pajamas.
Optimize your mattress
My daily driver is a hybrid Purple Mattress. It was a huge enormous massive upgrade from my Amazon memory foam. It has become clear to me—especially as a side sleeper—I need a supportive mattress that isn’t so firm that it prevents my massive shoulders from sinking in deep enough to allow for a relatively aligned spine. Additionally, mattresses can have a huge impact on your temperature regulation.
I don’t know if I’m going to stick with my Purple Mattress forever. See my “Next Layer of Experimentation” for more on that.
Pink noise all night
Lucky for me, my husband created a Pink Noise Generator, but whether or not you’ve got someone in your life actively optimizing for you, pink noise is easy to come by. Why pink noise? It helps synchronize brain waves and leads to more stable, deeper sleep. I’m glad other weirdos are out there doing this research…
Detox everything
I’ve been on a kick to detox my life for a couple of years. Turns out, toxins can absolutely negatively affect your sleep. There’s a bit of a reciprocal relationship between detoxification and deep sleep. Supposedly, deep sleep can help flush your brain of toxins, but environmental toxins can prevent you from deep sleep. Go figure.
Avoid heavy metals, environmental toxins (like the ones you can get out of crappy mattresses and pillows!!!), toxins from personal products and cleaning supplies, etc. if you’re getting super serious about optimizing your sleep and your health.
My Known Deep Sleep Struggles
Each of these things has significantly improved my sleep when I employ them. But I don’t always do an amazing job sticking with them.
No screens before bed
Zero doubt in my mind this has a positive effect on my sleep. But I’m also riding a 1430 day streak on Duolingo. And if it’s 9PM and I haven’t done my lesson, you can bet I’m pulling up the phone. But I have done some stuff to limit this. Including setting my iPhone to turn into a brick at 9PM, setting specific app time limits, setting every screen in my life to shift to night mode with the sun, etc.
Others on our Saint Pillow team have been working on this as well:
Serious bedtime routine
I weave in and out of doing a great job with this. I’m an entrepreneur and an optimizer by trade. This is a double edged sword. I want to optimize my bedtime routine, but sometimes the demands of optimizing other people’s brands and businesses keeps me engaged and interested beyond what’s best for bedtime. Ongoing struggle, but one that I intend to figure out.
A key for me here is to not let things get out of hand forever. Yes, I’d like to stick to something every single day. But blowing it for one night, or one month, doesn’t mean blowing it forever. And by working on optimizing the routine, some stuff will stick whether you’re perfect or not.
Don’t eat late
When everything’s going right, I don’t eat after 7PM. But things aren’t always going right. When I’m able to quit eating by 7, my heart rate lowers early in my sleep. So worth it, but sometimes so incredibly hard. It’s also a challenge because if you haven’t done a great job eating all day, sleeping hungry can also disrupt your quality of sleep!
Bottom line, eat a balanced diet that ends a couple hours before you go to bed. Don’t “fry your ZZZ’s.”
Extinguish chronic stress
I straight up suck at this. See above re: entrepreneur. But one thing I know has an impact on this is making sure you’re operating within your zone of genius. As much as you can, eliminate doing things you’re not good at. This doesn’t mean don’t learn stuff, but it does mean if you’re running a creative business and you’re not an accountant, you probably shouldn’t be handling the bookkeeping.
Next Layer of Experimentation
Here’s what’s next in my deep sleep optimization journey.
Sleeping dark
One thing I love about sleeping at hotels is the black out curtains. Right now, my sleep is getting cut off about an hour before I want it to because I don’t have black out curtains at my house. I’ve got Ikea and Home Depot options in tabs on my phone. I just need to measure and pull the trigger. I think this’ll be a game changer. One thing I am loath to lose, however, is the benefit of rising with the sun. I’m trying to see if I can figure out a way to automate the curtains to allow sunlight to filter in at an appropriately early moment.
Non-toxic mattresses
I currently use a Purple Mattress at my primary residence and an organic latex mattress in my secondary residence. I think the organic latex mattress wins, but I’m not sure. I’ve tried to get to the bottom of Purple’s state of toxicity and it’s all a little overwhelming. Considering making a move to ensure I’m not loading toxins into my life all night long. Purple has some encouraging content on their site, but I want to dig deeper into this idea and make sure I have a good set of my own criteria to measure against. As more stuff comes out, especially around the whole flame retardant chemicals situation, I just have an itchy feeling that I need to confirm.
Other Stuff Worth Mentioning
I realized this article is basically an answer to “The Insomniac’s Handbook” on how not to sleep. Check that out if you’d like to throw a monkey wrench into your already optimized sleep habits.
I also realize that optimizing your sleep with a partner can be even more of a challenge. Here’s how I’ve handled optimizing my sleep environment with a picky sleep partner.
