What protocols are recommended for improving sleep?

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To improve sleep, the recommends several protocols:

  1. Sleep Hypnosis: The Reverie app offers a sleep hypnosis tool that helps with falling asleep quickly, staying asleep, and falling back asleep if awakened during the night. This technology is backed by strong data and can even be effective for curing insomnia or general sleep issues 1.

  2. Autonomic Calm: Maintaining autonomic nervous system calm during sleep is crucial. Avoiding going into heightened states of alertness when ideally sleeping can lead to better sleep quality. Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) protocols can aid in achieving autonomic regulation 2.

  3. NSDR Protocols: Behavioral practices under NSDR, such as hypnosis, yoga nidra, and meditation, teach the nervous system to turn off thoughts and enable sleep or deep rest, particularly when struggling with anxiety 3.

    Sleep Tools

    Andrew and Andy discuss various tools to improve sleep, including the Reverie app and behavioral techniques such as getting up to complete a task that's keeping you awake. They emphasize the importance of finding what works for you and your budget.

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  4. Sunlight Exposure: Morning and evening sunlight is important for regulating circadian rhythms, especially when sleep schedules are unpredictable or chaotic. Consistency with light exposure acts as an anchor for the body's internal clock 4.

  5. Avoiding Extremes of Temperature: Strive for an environment with a comfortable temperature that supports continuous sleep cycles. This helps in achieving deeper and more restorative sleep without waking up during the night 2.

  6. Physical Activity: Exercise has been shown to impact sleep and recovery. Timing and intensity of exercise should be managed to avoid disruptions in sleep patterns 5.

  7. Injury Management: When recovering from an injury, prioritizing sleep or immobility for at least 8 hours a night can significantly aid rehabilitation and tissue recovery. Additionally, if possible, at least a ten-minute walk per day can support healing 6.

For a guided implementation of NSDR, a free 10-minute script read by is available on YouTube. Simply search for "Huberman NSDR" to find it. NSDR helps with relaxation, recovering lost sleep, and restoring dopamine levels in the brain 7. All these protocols can help create better sleep habits and improve sleep quality.

RELATED QUESTIONS

Tell me more tips for enhancing sleep quality.

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Here are more tips for enhancing sleep quality discussed on the :

  • Temperature Control: Managing your sleeping environment's temperature can have a major impact on improving sleep quality. Using products like Eight Sleep's mattress cover, which offers cooling, heating, and sleep tracking capabilities, can help maintain the ideal sleeping temperature 1.

  • Wind Down Routine: Establishing a pre-sleep wind-down routine can dramatically aid in improving sleep. Activities such as light stretching, meditation, or reading can ease the transition into sleep 2.

  • Bed Association: Limit activities in bed strictly to sleep and sex. This association can improve the ability to fall asleep faster and reduce nocturnal awakenings 3.

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  • Using Natural Light: Expose yourself to morning and evening sunlight to help regulate your circadian rhythms and anchor your body's internal clock 4.

  • Avoiding Late Caffeine: Refrain from consuming caffeine in the middle of the night or too close to bed. Eliminating caffeine in phase two of the day can promote deeper rest, facilitating habit formation and neural plasticity 4.

  • Regularity: Maintain a regular sleep schedule as much as possible. Varying sleep times by more than an hour on a regular basis can disrupt sleep quality 5.

  • Quality Over Quantity: Pay attention not just to the amount of sleep you get but also the quality. Ensure you're getting plenty of slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, which are crucial for brain and body recovery 5.

  • Behavioral Emphasis: Focus on getting the timing of your exercise and the type of exercise optimized. Leveraging different tools at critical periods of the day can improve your sleep quality dramatically. Prioritize behaviors that are cost-free before considering supplements or digital tools 6.

Implementing these tips as part of your sleep routine can contribute to improved sleep quality, overall health, and daily performance.

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