How (And Why) To Sleep Better

By Lev Novak

Heads up: I am not a doctor or a scientist. Don’t take any medical advice from this.

Sleep can be a complicated thing. If you feel tired all the time, you might need to sleep more, but that’s obvious. What might not be so obvious is that you can sleep better.

There are a few tricks of the trade that are pretty easy to implement, and a few tricky ones.

1. Take Sleep Seriously

If you want to feel better rested and to sleep better, act like it.

It can be as easy as taking sleep seriously to sleep better. Don’t just shrug off your exhaustion and misery in class as a given. Do something about and explore your options. Maybe some of these tips will help you, and maybe they won’t. But trying them might help you discover what works for you.

Similarly, you gotta respect sleep. Don’t just stay up late online for no reason, and don’t save all your work for late at night. That’s because you’re naturally willing to procrastinate especially without a hard deadline, and the threat of losing sleep doesn’t scare you much. That’s a dangerous thing- an hour of work will turn into three hours of internet surfing in no time. Plan for sleep like it’s a meeting or a class, and don’t let things interrupt it. Chances are you don’t have a bed-time these days, but hold to the idea anyway. Sleep is a thing you need, you know?

2. Consistency

Your body is dumber than you think.

That’s just what being human is- the compromise between the flesh and the spiritual, or, to put it plainly, the difference between the physical and mental. And that means your body is always going to go with the physical. That’s what evolution built it for. Your body doesn’t care if you have a math test. It needs sleep.

So, how do we co-operate? Set a consistent sleep schedule for yourself- one that you stick to on weekdays and weekends. That last part is important- without it you don’t get into a real groove when you have five days on it and two days off. So, if you can manage it, try to stick to the plan. Really. Wake up on time on the weekends, and go to bed early…okay, earlier. Soon, your body will get the hint, and you’ll be tired when it’s time to be tired, sleep when it’s time to sleep, and otherwise be on your clockwork for success.

3. How Do You Treat Your Body?

Do you have caffeine? That’s obviously going to affect your energy levels. But if you have too much, it might backfire and interrupt your sleep. Do you eat breakfast? Probably not: but that will help keep your blood-sugar consistent, and give you calories to burn throughout the day, keeping you off of that pre-lunch crash. Do you eat too much processed food? That’s going to be bad for your energy levels and sleep. Keep in mind that sleeping is a bodily function so remember to keep your body in the process. If you exercise a lot, the endorphins in your body will let you sleep better and deeper, for example, as well as giving you consistent energy throughout the day. It may seem like the polar opposite of a nap, but sometimes, it’ll do the job better.

Likewise, artificial light (like the kind streaming from your laptop and iPhone) can interrupt and affect the production of melatonin, the chemical which helps your sleep. I’m not a science guy so I just linked the article here.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/really-using-a-computer-before-bed-can-disrupt-sleep/

Moral of the story? Sleep is a bodily function.

4. Enjoy It

Life can be busy, and it can be hard to get interested in healthy rest. Just because something is good for you doesn’t make it fun (looking at you, vegetables) so let me change your perspective.

Remember how they said “reading is an adventure!” in school? Well, sleeping is that adventure they promised you. You hallucinate vividly in real-time, for hours. Dreaming is crazy, and even if you don’t remember it, you dream. That’s a fact- on average, people have R.E.M. for hours, meaning hours of dreams. That’s right- hours. You only remember a very small fraction, and what do they involve? Anything! Sex! Adventure! Fear! Flying! It’s a magical, insane world and you can’t remember it literally because it would blow your mind. Dreams are straight-up Narnia, and while you’re in them, it’s crazy real: just because you can’t remember your adventure doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, and if you think hard- real hard when you first wake up- you can put together drips and drabs of what happened.

Last night, for example, I dreamt my ex-girlfriend was dating my clone. Stuff happened before that and after, but that was the only detail I could remember in the morning, and I wrote it down to make sure I wouldn’t forget it.

I have a knack for remembering dreams (always write down details, you forget stuff in seconds) and I can assure you: this happened. It wasn’t even a good dream- it was vaguely unfun. But it was also awesome– I had a clone, guys. Doesn’t living in some impossible, first-person, Matrix-style adventure with no consequences sound like a bargain to you?

I thought so. So go to sleep tonight. Adventure awaits. And you’ll be better rested. Talk about a win/win.

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