One of the biggest problems I’ve faced since I was young was being able to fall asleep. It would take me 1-2 hours or even more to fall asleep after actually going to bed. I think this is because I always have a lot on my mind and I think about what all I have to do the next day. Wasting 1-2 hours falling asleep makes me get less sleep, which is never good. Also for the past month probably I have not had a morning where I woke up and felt refreshed. It seems I wake up and I always still feel tired. This obviously affects my work so I knew I had to do something about it.
A while ago I read this post by Tim Ferris about hacking sleep and it really intrigued me. So I have decided to give hacking my sleep a try. I mean who does not want to be able to fall asleep faster and wake up feeling better? After doing some research here is my plan to hack my sleep.
1. Have a pre-bed snack – Often times I wake up still feeling tired and even at times I have a headache, this can be caused by low blood sugar following sleep. My plan is to have an apple and 1-2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil. The flaxseed oil will increase cell repair during sleep. I plan on getting flaxseed oil capsules because I heard the liquid tastes like cat urine!
2. Avoid late night planning – I used to plan out my next day right before I went to bed. This is a really bad habit! It keeps my mind going, which makes it harder for me to fall asleep. My solution to this is going to be to make my to-do list for the next day by mid-afternoon.
3. Take a Cold shower 1 hour before bed – There are many health benefits to taking cold showers. Most people suggest taking an ice bath before bed, but since I do not have a full bath tub a cold shower is going to have to suffice. I took my first cold shower a few days ago and be warned it is quite the shocker and it is not pleasant at all!
4. 30-45 minutes of relax time – I often don’t relax before I go to bed. Most of the time I go from my computer right into my bed. I’m going to define relax time as either watching tv, reading a book, or just simply relaxing before I go to bed. This way both my mind and body can relax before I decide to go to sleep.
5. Eating meals at set times – Eating meals at set times helps regulate melatonin, ghrelin, leptin, and other hormones that affect sleep cycles. I am going to come up with a good set schedule of meal times. I will most likely do a blog post about it in a few weeks.
So that’s the plan! I really want to stay strong and do this plan for at least 30 days if not longer. I will be updating you to let you know the progress and how it is working out for me. The main goal with this experiment is to fall asleep faster, get better sleep, and wake up feeling refreshed all so I can be more productive. Wish me luck!