5 Expert-Backed Ways To Sleep Deeper Tonight & Every Night

August 16, 2023

Curious to learn what a dietitian eats for dinner to get better sleep? Or how a psychologist calms down mental chatter at the end of a long day? Our sleep series The Wind Down asks wellness experts of all kinds to spill what their precious pre-bed hours actually look like.

These routines are inevitably shaped by guests’ respective industries, sleep histories, and personal preferences. But they do share a few key commonalities that you can implement in your own bedroom. Here are some top takeaways from nearly a year of compiling these sleep stories:

This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.

1.

We could all use a go-to cortisol-lowering habit

As a dermatologist and psychiatrist Amy Wechsler, M.D. writes in her routine, “I know that we heal in our sleep when our cortisol is at its lowest.” If her heart is racing and her mind is restless at the end of a long day, she’ll take it as a sign of elevated cortisol levels. To come back to balance, she’ll call on a cortisol-lowering routine and do the abdominal breathing exercise demonstrated in the clip below.

Wechsler isn’t the only one who keeps a quick cortisol come-down in her back pocket to use as needed. Other popular relaxation techniques among Wind Down experts include foam rolling, journaling to offload negative thoughts, doing the The 4-7-8 breath by Andrew Weil, or meditating using binaural beats.

Advertisement

2.

Tracking your sleep is super insightful

There’s a reason nearly half of those featured on The Wind Down wear an Oura ring to bed every night: By collecting data on how much time you spend in various sleep stages, sleep trackers can help you better gauge your sleep quality—and your overall health.

“After buying an Oura ring so I could monitor my sleep more precisely, I saw a direct correlation between the nights I got the least deep sleep and higher sugar readings on my continuous glucose monitor (CGM),” precision medicine doctor Florence Comite, M.D., notes in her routine.

They can also help you identify the amount of time you need in each sleep stage in order to feel your best, and plan your evenings accordingly. “My goal is to fall asleep in less than 5-10 minutes and spend 25-40 percent of the night in deep sleep and 15-25 percent in REM sleep. Since I wear a sleep tracker, I know I usually get my best deep sleep prior to 1 a.m. and the best REM sleep from 3-6 a.m… so if I go to bed too late, it will cut into my deep sleep, and if I get up too early, I lose REM sleep,” writes functional medicine doctor Jill Carnahan, MD.

Of course, not everyone is going to enjoy tracking their sleep down to the minute. For some people, these readings can be more anxiety-inducing than helpful. In that case, experts note that it’s still worthwhile to track your sleep the old-fashioned way: by writing about how you feel when you wake up in the morning.

3.

Even the best sleepers benefit from supplementation

One thing most of them don’t reach for nightly? Melatonin. “Melatonin may be helpful for others, but for me, it just adds to grogginess, so I only take it if traveling internationally to hack jet lag,” writes Carnahan.

Advertisement

4.

Want to set boundaries on nighttime work? Set an alarm

From researchers juggling multiple studies to doctors with a full patient list, the experts featured in this series are busy and don’t work the typical 9 to 5. While it’s best to avoid computer time at night for the sake of sleep, this just isn’t realistic for them.

For the nights they do have to work, many Wind Down guests have a smart hack to keep it from disrupting sleep: They set an alarm and once it goes off, they have to log off for the evening. Not only does this boundary help them limit blue light exposure, it helps ensure their nervous systems get at least some time to recover before sleep, notes clinical psychologist Kaitlin Harkess, PhD, who is a fan of the practice.

5.

Stay open to the latest tech—but don’t forget the basics

Unsurprisingly, some Wind Down routines are packed with the latest and greatest sleep gadgets (case in point: Molly Malloof M.D.’s “biohacker tool room“). Some recent favorites among featured guests include the ChiliPad smart mattress topper, Apollo sleep wearable, ShiftWave zero-gravity recliner chair, and HigherDose PEMF mat.

But no matter how high-tech these routines get, they always come back to the basics, too: The experts featured note that the best way to improve sleep is simply to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time everyday. With sleep, like with so much else, consistency is key.

Here are the stats on the average bedtime and wakeup time from the last 10 routines, in case you’re curious:

• Average hours they sleep a night: 6 hours 57 minutes
• Average ideal wake-up time: 5:57 a.m.
• Average ideal bedtime: 10:18 p.m.

Advertisement

Advertisement