Your ultimate sleep guide

We need good sleep just like we need clean water, good food and air to breathe. The moment we start sacrificing sleep, whether directly or indirectly through choices made throughout our day, a key pillar of our health begins to crumble and with it our entire wellbeing. If you don't prioritise getting good sleep, all other areas of your health will struggle to improve no matter what you do.

Deep, uninterrupted and genuinely restorative sleep is unfortunately something that not a lot of people can say they have. We yearn and crave a good night's rest but often end up remaining tired, or plan an early night with no luck falling asleep. But the good news is you can improve your sleep quality greatly. Through your diet, light exposure and lifestyle you can reclaim that youthful sleep of resting deeply, followed by energy upon waking.

Sacrificing sleep whether through later working hours or screen time is never a good idea. Instead, prioritising your sleep like you do your diet is the first step to better sleep. Once you've made that mindset switch, the rest of this article will help you understand how to gain better sleep through simple changes to your day and diet. Let's dive in.

Your light diet

Our bodies are part of nature, and nature has an inbuilt way of telling us when it is time to sleep. Since we are diurnal animals, we sleep at night, and using the cues of sunset and sunrise helps tune our circadian rhythm, which affects hormone production within our body, hormones such as cortisol for rising and melatonin for bringing on that sleep pressure.

The issue with our modern light diet is that we are exposed to so much artificial blue light from screen and LED bulbs, suppressing melatonin production and stopping us from falling asleep easily, as well as affecting our overall sleep quality. By reducing blue light exposure from screens during the day, stepping away from technology at a reasonable hour, switching to incandescent light bulbs instead of LEDs, and wearing blue light blocking glasses, we can greatly reduce the effect this artificial blue light has on us and reclaim our sleep.

Close to bedtime, switching to less stimulating activities such as reading can really help wind the brain down, increase sleep pressure and help you slip off to sleep more easily.

It's also worth remembering that sleep isn't just for rest. The body and brain are working away while we are unconscious, the glymphatic system is helping remove waste from the brain, tissue is being repaired, memories are being consolidated, cellular cleanup is occurring, and the liver is filtering the blood. All of these processes are greatly reduced when sleep is poor.

If you spend all day staring at a screen for work, the most important thing is spending enough time off screens in the evening. Artificial blue light is a tax on your sleep. Always consider your light diet as the first course of action when improving your sleep, and from there, getting sunlight in your eyes at both sunrise and sunset is great for tuning your circadian rhythm.

Magnesium & electrolyte balance

Waking at 2 or 3am, or difficulty falling asleep, are often key indicators of a magnesium deficiency. Seeing as a large percentage of the population is deficient in magnesium, it is one area that must be prioritised, but most go about it in the wrong way.

Firstly, we don't just need magnesium, we need an electrolyte balance. This is especially important if you are someone who wakes in the middle of the night consistently to urinate, meaning the body needs a proper balance of magnesium, salt, chloride, calcium and potassium. 

Secondly, cheap synthetic forms of magnesium will never compare to real magnesium salts. These can be taken orally as magnesium chloride, look for ones from a natural source, you can also take magnesium salt baths, or even as a homemade magnesium chloride solution dissolved into a spray bottle for easy topical application.

Natural forms of magnesium are more easily recognised by the body and can help sleep immensely. 

Inflammation, diet & gut health

It wouldn't be a proper sleep guide without mentioning your day-to-day diet. What you eat affects your sleep, it's as simple as knowing that caffeine can keep you awake. So does a highly inflammatory diet or gut issues.

Removing ultra-processed foods and seed oils from your diet helps immensely. The gut begins to heal, more GABA is produced, and sleep comes so much easier and deeper. Focus on buying organic whole foods and ensure anything with an ingredients list is made from real food ingredients only, avoiding ultra-processed products entirely.

As inflammation drops, the body moves out of a state of fight-or-flight and into genuine rest and that's where deep sleep happens.

Cutting out alcohol is a major step. Cutting off caffeine in the early afternoon is another. Avoid reaching for caffeine within the first 90 minutes of waking which can crash your energy levels and make sure you're eating enough food throughout the day.

We actually need energy to sleep. Similar to how some people feel tired after a cup of coffee or satisfying meal, our bodies need fuel to enter the parasympathetic rest-and-digest state required for deep sleep. If we under-eat, restrict carbohydrates too heavily, or fast regularly, our bodies simply cannot reach that state.

Don't fear carbohydrates. Organic potatoes, white rice, squashes and fruit all fuel the body well. A small snack close to bed with some carbs can help, a small bowl of kefir with honey provides carbohydrates, healthy fats and a probiotic boost to get things moving in the morning.

What you eat greatly impacts every area of your health, and sleep is no different. Eat well to sleep well.

Movement

This may seem contradictory to the above, but we also need to ensure we move enough during the day. This is partly down to exertion but also down to allowing our bodies to run their detoxification systems. If we stay sedentary all day, drink coffee, eat plenty and repeat this for weeks on end, it's no surprise that sleep quality begins to decline.

Yes, we need energy to sleep, but our bodies also require exertion. It's a funny balance that means working out while also eating enough and getting sufficient nutrients.

When our muscles have been worked, we've worked up a sweat, and our bodies have been used as they were designed to be, whether that's a hike, a run, a workout or manual labour, endorphins are released, a sense of achievement follows, and sleep comes far more naturally.

Even simply walking more during the day can have you sleeping so much better. Don't spend your life sat down and sedentary. Move your body for better sleep.

Routine & bedtime

Most adults don't have a set bedtime, yet as soon as they have kids, they'll enforce one without question. A bedtime isn't just for children, it sets routine, your body aligns with it, and you'll find yourself feeling consistently sleepy when that time rolls around.

The same goes for waking. Many people set their alarm the night before and try to squeeze in as much sleep as possible. But what if you woke and slept at the same time every day? Your body would adjust accordingly, and eventually the need for an alarm disappears altogether.

Of course, as the seasons change, natural wake and sleep times can shift with the changing light. But setting a consistent bedtime and wake time is crucial for allowing your body to align with your routine and fall asleep with ease.

Never set your bedtime past 11pm and always aim to leave at least 8 to 9 hours for sleep.

Your sleep environment

Sleep has become something to be optimised, and so many people have started wearing technology to bed, smart watches, sensor pillows and high-tech bedding. The truth is you don't need any of it. In fact, you need the opposite: a zero-technology bedroom. The smartest thing in your bedroom should be a basic alarm clock.

Having devices on charge, Wi-Fi radiating and electronics running all contribute to EMF exposure bombarding your body throughout the night which affects not just sleep but overall health. It's difficult to be perfect with this, but removing as much technology as you can from your room and turning off your Wi-Fi overnight can really help reduce EMF exposure and allow the body to sleep better.

Ensuring natural materials in your bedroom such as cotton bedding, wool or feather-filled pillows, a natural-material mattress, houseplants, an open window, and a grounding sheet, can all massively improve your night's sleep by putting you back in touch with nature over technology.

Bedroom lighting should always be minimal. Candles and salt lamps (those with incandescent bulbs) kept low are ideal. In summer, closing the blinds to reduce incoming light is particularly important. Mouth taping is another incredible way to boost sleep quality, ensuring you are breathing through your nose and therefore maintaining a parasympathetic state, rather than the fight-or-flight response that comes with mouth breathing throughout the night.

Summary

Sleep prioritisation is the key to better sleep. No sleeping pills, self-cooling bedsheets or wearable technology will replace nature and a healthy lifestyle when it comes to sleep quality. If you've struggled with sleep, I know how hard it can be, but the good news is that these simple swaps can really help, and sleep tends to get progressively better the longer you focus on the points above. At the end of the day, it's all about winding down, being in a low-cortisol state, and allowing sleep to come to you, not forcing it.

Sleep well friends.