Ep 34: 15 Healthy Habits to Better Sleep and Higher Performance

Episode show notes:

Many of the clients I meet (and the people around me) are not getting enough sleep.

Either they can’t sleep because of high stress -levels during the day, or because they work a lot in the evenings, they get disturbed by kids, or because of habits that might be contra-productive to a good night’s sleep that they aren’t aware of. 

Is this you? Or someone you know?

Whatever the reason is, there are a lot of things that can be done to improve sleep, and the bonus effects of turning a bad sleeping situation around are huge. 

In this episode, I will go through 15 healthy habits that will improve the likelihood of getting a good night’s sleep. 

We can’t always control all the things that might keep us up at night, but let’s focus on the things that we can control. 

Sleep is a topic that is very close to my heart, as there have been times in my life when I have felt that I was operating at 20-30% of my capacity, at best, because of sleep deprivation, so I really understand what it’s like, and have been hacking my own and my client’s sleep for many years now. 

As soon as I hear that someone is struggling with sleep, I always go through this checklist with them to quickly see where to focus the attention. 

Some of the habits or tricks are super low-hanging fruit, and some require a bit more effort, but all of them are great and will benefit you, your health, performance, and sleep. 

Hi ladies, 

Whatever goal you have in life, great sleep will support you to get there. 

I’ve talked about this before, but sleep is the most important cornerstone of health and high performance. 

I’ve divided this list intro three parts. Habits to do in the morning, during the day and in the evening. 

Why? Because sleep is not something you perform, it’s something that happens when the conditions are right. And that starts already from the time you wake up. 

It’s easy to forget that everything you do during the day will in someway impact sleep, but it is true, it’s not possible to separate sleep from everything else that is going on in your life. 

It’s also easy to get used to not sleeping well, and think that it’s just the way it is. But nope, it’s not, and it does not have to be like that. 

You are meant for more, and great mental and physical health, high performance and general happiness starts with sleep. 

Before we dive in, I also want to say that sleep is a complex topic and I will not go into specific health conditions or medication that can affect sleep, but you can see this as healthy ones that will beneft everyone.

So let’s dive in.  

Morning:

1. Stick to a regular bedtime (and go to bed early!)

Waking up and going to bed roughly at the same time every day (yes, even on weekends) will help your body clock to know when it is sleep time and wake time, as it reinforces your circadian rhythm. This is even more important if you have sleeping problems. The body loves predictability and regularity is also really good for your wellbeing and hormones. And to increase the amount of deep sleep you get, aim to go to bed as early as you can, for most people the ideal bedtime is around 10 pm. You get the majority of your deep sleep in the beginning of the night, so the earlier you go to bed, the better.  

2. Get daylight in the morning

Getting daylight in the morning will both wake you up and also help you to fall asleep easier at night. Light plays a central role in regulating circadian rhythm, the body's internal clock that signals when to be alert and when to rest. Light also affects the production of melatonin, an essential sleep-promoting hormone.

3. Start your day in a calm way

How your morning starts is usually how it continues. To find a peaceful morning routine is not the easiest if you are woken up by small kids jumping and screaming in the morning, but there are some hacks you can try. 

One of them is to stay in bed after waking up for just a few minutes and putting your hands on your belly and take ten nice deep breaths to get anchored. Another one is to not open your laptop for the day until you have taken at least ten breaths. Or listen to calming music in the morning or a guided relaxation while commuting. If you have more time, this is a GOLDEN chance to set you up for success, by adding for example meditation or yoga. 

4. Keep your blood sugar stable

Just as sleep affects blood sugar levels, blood sugar levels may also impact sleep quality. By eating enough fat, protein and fiber (especially at breakfast) and keeping your blood sugar on a stable level during the day, you can support the body to sleep better at night. Low blood sugar will create a stress response in the body. Episode 4 is all about blood sugar, so if you want to learn more, you can go back to that. 

Healthy Habits to Do During the Day To Improve Sleep

5. Reduce caffeine intake

Caffeine will negatively affect both the quantity and quality of your sleep. This is because caffeine stays in the body longer than you think (½ still left after 5-9 hours, ¼ after 10-12 hours). This means that the coffee you have in the afternoon means How fast you metabolise caffeine is individual but this gives you a sense why falling asleep can be difficult after that afternoon coffee. Experiment with reducing caffeine (or replace coffee for tea) and see what happens! I’ve seen amazing things happen with my client’s and my own sleep after reducing caffeine. This also goes for soft drinks!

6. Work continuously with stress reduction & take regular breaks during the day

So as you probably know, stress is the number one killer of sleep. Insomnia due to high stress levels is incredibly common, and it takes shape as an inability to relax and fall asleep or frequent and/or too early wake-ups. Taking regular micro breaks allows you to destress continuously throughout the day and activate the calming rest & digest system which reduces stress hormones in your body. This will affect your sleep in a more positive way than you might think. Even as little as two minutes of micro breaks have shown effect on my client’s sleep. As I coach with biodata, I’ve seen really cool things happen. Practicing mindfulness or some sort of meditation are the most effective tool there is to improve sleep, and it has so many other health benefits too. As a teacher in mindfulness based stress reduction, I love to both teach how to start with a meditation practice and to guide my clients through meditations if they want to. 

7. Exercise at a moderate level of intensity (and not too late at night)

Exercising is awesome, we all know that, and can really support sleep, performance and general wellbeing. But, if you exercise really hard and intense exercise on top of an already stressed nervous system can really put fuel to the fire. So to balance exercise with relaxation and make sure you don’t exercise too late in the evening. This is due to the stimulating effect of exercise, which increases alertness and hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. And this I had no idea about back in the days, Yoga or walks in the evening is perfect, and try to keep more intense exercise to mornings or day-time. 

8. Avoid nicotine

Nicotine is a very strong stimulant, just as caffeine, and has a lot of side effects apart from being incredibly addictive. One of them is being a nasty sleep disruptor. As I also work with coaching through biodata from smart rings and smart watches, I’ve seen massive and quick improvements in sleep when my clients have reduced nicotine.

Healthy Habits to do In the Evening to Improve Sleep

9. Reduce alcohol intake

Alcohol will make you sleepy, but it’s a sneaky one. You might find it easier to fall asleep when you have been drinking alcohol. However, just because you fall asleep quickly doesn’t mean that you will have good quality sleep. You are much more likely to sleep lighter and wake up more frequently throughout the night, with alcohol in your system. You also reduce both your important REM sleep and deep sleep significantly after just one glass of wine. So of course I’m not saying that you should stop drinking alcohol and never have fun ever again, but heavily reducing it can be a game changer if you have sleeping problems. 

10. Unwind (ideally) an hour before bed with dimmed lights

If you are a parent, you know everything about bedtime routines for kids. And this is not just for them, adults need it too. Gently preparing your body and mind for sleep is such a gold mine, and it will make a huge difference to quality and quantity of sleep and how fast you fall asleep. This means introducing relaxing habits such as having a cup of herbal tea, reading fiction, journaling, meditating, stretching or doing light yoga, going for a walk. That is the opposite of watching exciting or scary tv-shows, netflix, having arguments, vacuuming the house or working ;)

Also, something that’s good to know is that bright lights can cause confusion and disruption of your body clock, since melatonin levels increase with darkness and decrease with light. You can improve your sleep by dimming your lights at least one hour before bedtime to increase the production of melatonin. Episode 19 is all about unwinding, I’ll drop a link in the show notes. So in this case it’s actually better to stay up a bit later, 

11. Reduce screen time (or wear blublockers)

Melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy, is suppressed by the blue light from screens. Your brain believes it is still daytime when you are exposed to blue light in the evening (or when waking up at night) - making it harder to fall asleep. Experiment with turning all screens off in the evening and see for yourself what happens. This with blublockers, there are glasses that blocks the blue light.

12. Take a hot bath/shower an hour before bed (+ add Epsom salt)

When you take a bath or shower, your body temperature increases. But, after a short time, it actually goes down and that reduction in core body temperature will help you fall asleep easier and to stay asleep. If you can combine the bath with calm music and/or a few drops of lavender oil or Epsom salt (which is packed with magnesium) in the water it’s even more effective. Magnesium from the Epsom salt is absorbed through the skin and will help you to relax and sleep better.

13. Make sure your bedroom is cool, quiet and dark

Keeping your bedroom at a temperature between 16-18°C, is ideal. Your body’s temperature needs to decrease to fall asleep, and a cool, but not cold room, will help you settle into and maintain sleep throughout the night. Keeping the bedroom as dark and quiet as possible helps a lot too. (Earplugs and an eye mask is allowed here!) 

14. Nasal breathing at night

Nasal breathing is incredibly important when it comes to improving your sleep. If you cannot breathe through the nose at night, you will get less REM sleep and wake up easier. Mouth breathing also leads to snoring and also sleep apnea is correlated to mouth breathing. Since two years back, I actually sleep with a bit of a mouth tape to make sure I breathe through my nose and it really helps. It is geeky but very effective. Will support you to breathe through your 

15. Practice gratitude

End the day by practicing gratitude. This can be laying in bed and thinking about the things you are grateful for, or do some journaling. It’s a proven strategy to make you happier and less stressed, and it’s such a nice ritual to have to think about things that makes you happy. 

So, I’ll leave it here. I have more tips than these 15 but it’s a great start! 

All of these habits and tips are in the show notes but I have also made a pdf of them that you can download here.

And now, of course, you don’t need to implement all 15 at once, I would highly recommend to not do that. Start with one or two and just see what happens. Do some journaling, if you notice any difference, and let that guide you, small things can make a huge difference. So I really invite you to see this as a list of inspiration and work with it in any way you like. 

I covered a lot today, and please don’t feel overwhelmed with more to-do’s and fixes and changes now. Implementing new habits can take time, and I made an episode earlier on implementing new habits, nr 11, so check that out if you want some guidance on implementing new habits. 

I hope this have given you inspiration and hope. And even if you are not struggling with sleep today, see if some of these habits can improve it even further. 

I have been tracking my sleep and health with smart watches and the smart ring OURA, and it has taught me so much. 

I have even decided to add coaching through biometrics to my program, as it is incredibly effective to improve health and performance. 

I would love to hear what you take away from this episode, so please send me a DM, email and let me know what you will try! 

And if you feel like sleep, stress, lack of healthy habits, low confidence or a nasty inner critic is getting in the way of having the life and career you want, I’m here for you! 

I know we can make magic happen together, and I would love to support you to step into the version of yourself that I know is there and help you get to the next level. 

Either you book a 60 min strategy session on my website where we go deep on a specific topic, or you fill out the work with me form, to explore if we are a great fit to work together in my 1:1 program. 

Until next time, take care of yourself, and go be a badass!