My Experience With A Bad And A Good Night’s Sleep
A Good Night’s Sleep
I present you with today’s topic of interest (queue the epic music): good night’s sleep. I don’t even need to explain why sleep is so essential to us, humans (you know, since every human sleeps). But in case an alien from a distant galaxy with a good understanding of the English language and no need for sleep is reading this… Hello I guess, and I am sorry that this isn’t of much help to you.
Now that I addressed that problem let’s talk about my experience with sleep and how it got better (since that is what this post is about). First of all, let’s answer the most important question:
What does a good night’s sleep have to do with better studying and how does it help in learning new things?
There are quite a few useful things that sleep gives us. The first one is that having a good night’s sleep provides you with more energy (revolutionary, I know). The second benefit is that helps our brain with sorting and storing information. This comes in quite handy when you are studying and need to remember what you learned that day, and is much more useful than people give it credit for (make sure to remember this).
These two are hands down the benefits I love the most about sleep. I am someone who can’t do anything with low energy reserves (if you are the same, I know how it feels), so this is great for me. And, who doesn’t like extra help when learning something new you can’t understand?
If sleep wasn’t already awesome enough, there are plenty of other benefits that a good night of sleep gets you:
- Improved immune system
- Healthy heart
- Improved mood
- Regulated blood sugar
- Reduces stress
- Sharpens your attention
- Prevents diabetes
- Makes you more productive
And many more, but I don’t have time to list them all. If you are interested go to Google, type “benefits of good sleep” and look for yourself (seriously, there are way too many).
My Experience With Bad Sleep
For a long time, I never questioned how good my sleep was. In fact, the idea of good sleep wasn’t really a concept to me. But, from time to time, I would wake up in the middle of the night and not know what to do.
What do you mean “not know what to do”, can’t you just go back to sleep?
That is one of the problems I had. When I woke up in the middle of the night I could not continue to sleep. There was a higher chance the Detroit Pistons win an NBA game this season (which is at 17.1% if I am not mistaken), than for me to go back to sleep once I wake up.
Maybe the problem was that I didn’t have enough patience, since I would get up from my bed if around 15 minutes passed and I still wasn’t asleep. This brings me to my second problem: Sometimes I couldn’t fall asleep and would stay up three more hours than I should have. And then I would have to wake up with 5 hours of sleep (which for me was like being half dead).
I can practically already hear the question “Why don’t you try to lay in bed for more than 15 minutes”?
The answer comes from my love-hate relationship with sleep. I think we can all agree that a good night’s sleep is important. And best of all, it feels good to wake up after a night’s sleep.
But that takes around 8 hours!!!
I have to be unconscious for around 8 hours and do nothing. And on top of that, you want me to lay in bed for more than 15 minutes and try to sleep? Not gonna happen. I would rather feel like I am half-dead than sit there (or in this case lay there) and do nothing. However, when I read that good sleep improves your immune system, I start to second-guess whether this is a good idea (so maybe laying for a bit more is a good idea, I guess am just too stubborn to change that).
How A Book Changed My Perspective On Sleep
The book I am talking about is Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker. The first time I came across this book was somewhere in 2020. If that year brings bad memories, it was the same for me. At that time I got the virus and had to stay in bed. I was feeling sluggish, so I wanted to listen to an audiobook. Something easy to understand.
And in my wish list on audible, I found that book. At that time I thought “Let’s learn a bit about sleep, it could be helpful”. After listening to the whole book for a week, the only thought I had was “OMG, sleep is really, really, really important I have to sleep better”. And can you guess what happens when you think like that?
Of course, I wouldn’t get any sleep.
I was worried about my sleep while trying to sleep, so sleeping became impossible, making me worry even more about my sleep while trying so hard to fall asleep that I got too exhausted worrying and managed to fall asleep😃.
In all seriousness, I had a bad week, where I just couldn’t get enough sleep. Looking back on it now, maybe I slept like always, it’s that my perspective on sleep had changed. After that week, I tried to implement the 12 tips that were recommended by the author of the book.
12 Tips For Healthy Sleep
Here is a list of those 12 tips:
- Stick to a sleep schedule
- Exercise is great, but not too late in the day. Try to exercise at least thirty minutes on most days but not later than two to three hours before your bedtime
- Avoid caffeine and nicotine
- Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed
- Avoid large meals and beverages late at night
- If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep
- Don’t take naps after 3 p.m.
- Relax before bed
- Take a hot bath before bed
- Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom
- Have the right sunlight exposure. Daylight is key to regulating daily sleep patterns. Try to get outside in natural sunlight for at least thirty minutes each day. If possible, wake up with the sun or use very bright lights in the morning
- Don’t lie in bed awake
Now let’s quickly go over them and rate them to see how good they are. Since we are talking about sleep the worst rank will be 1 pillow, while 5 pillows is the best rank.
Stick to a sleep schedule – Rating 5/5 pillows
If you try just one thing try this one. Out of all of the tips given this is by far the most useful one. Even if you go to bed late, try to wake up at the same time every time. Especially remember to wake up at the same time even on weekends. The best way to understand the effects of this tip is to try it for yourself.
Exercise is great, but not too late in the day – Rating 4.5/5 pillows
This one is also great, probably up there with the first tip. The problem is that you have to exercise, which is a bit tough for me since I have to convince myself that exercising is useful even if I don’t want to do it. I might give it a 5 pillow rating in the future because I will “definitely” exercise more in the future, just like every other person who said that.
Avoid caffeine and nicotine – Rating ?/5 pillows
I was never much of a caffeine drinker, the most I do is 2 cups of coffee per month, and only when I get little sleep. I never tried nicotine so I can’t say much about that. If you are having problems with sleep try avoiding caffeine and nicotine, it might help you.
Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed – Rating ?/5 pillows
Um… Sorry, the same is true for alcohol. I don’t even remember when was the last time I drank any alcohol. As with the previous advice, if you struggle to fall asleep, try to avoid alcohol and see how it goes.
Avoid large meals and beverages late at night – Rating 5/5 pillows
Finally, something I can talk about. I love eating before going to sleep. Or should I say loved? After reading this I tried to stop eating before going to bed. I thought that it would be hard since I loved it so much. I thought that maybe I could eat before going to be from time to time.
But, I was able to fall asleep so much faster and didn’t wake up in the middle of the night anymore. So it became a permanent thing. The last time I eat now is if I want an after-dinner snack, which is always at least 3 hours before sleep.
If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep
I don’t know how to rate this, so I won’t. Some people just need their medicine and I feel like I am not qualified enough to advise on this. If you feel like you need help with your sleep make sure to go to the doctor (preferably someone who knows his stuff when it comes to sleep).
Don’t take naps after 3 p.m. – Rating 3/5 pillows
This is a weird one. On one hand, I can get a good night’s sleep even after napping later than 3 p.m. On the other, if I do it too late, there is no chance for me to go to bed on time. So, if you like to take naps experiment a little and see what time works best for you.
Try some things that you do during the day and see if they can help you relax before going to sleep. If you want to know some tips on how to relax read along, or just click here.
Take a hot bath before bed – Rating 1/5 pillows
Taking a hot bath takes too much time so it’s not for me, that’s all I have to say.
Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom – Rating 4.3/5 pillows
I am 99% sure that this could be 5/5 pillows if I could just keep my phone out of my bedroom. While it could be excellent advice, I doubt many people would go through with the gadget-free part (just like myself, but if you do then here is a pat on the back for you).
I didn’t have a fully dark bedroom and a cool bedroom, but now I do. I can feel that it is easier to sleep when it is not too hot. And obviously it is easier to sleep in a fully dark room (try to block as much light as possible), than the one where the lights are on.
Have the right sunlight exposure – Rating 3.66/5 pillows
To be honest, I just went on Google, typed random number generator for numbers between 100 and 500, and number 366 came out so the rating is 3.66. I don’t know how to evaluate this one exactly. Scientifically it makes sense, but I don’t know how to test it for practical results. I guess I could try to be all day in my room without sunlight and see what happens.
Despite saying all of that, I do follow this advice, since it isn’t all that hard to do. If nothing else helps, trying this might, so give it a go.
Don’t lie in bed awake – Rating 5/5 pillows
Turns out my 15-minute get-out-of-bed strategy (that is what I officially call it now) wasn’t so bad after all. The problem was that I was often playing games, or watching videos on YouTube after I got out of bed. This was a big mistake! Now, I look at the things I have to do tomorrow and start doing them when I can’t fall asleep. This helps me feel sleepy, making it much easier to get a good night’s sleep.
Advice That Doesn’t Fit Anywhere So Why Not Put It Here
Even after my sleep got better, I still continued to read more about sleep (although nothing much, just some articles I see here and there, or when it pops up in a book I am reading ). So here are some other strategies I still use to this day (obviously, with pillow ratings).
Magnesium Before Sleep – Rating 3/5 pillows
Taking magnesium before sleep can help you relax, making it easier to fall asleep. Unfortunately, it seems to help more with the relaxation part, rather than the falling asleep part. Still, from time to time it could help you fall asleep more easily.
Relaxing Every Part Of Your Body – Rating 4.5/5 pillows
There are two ways I found to work for me. The first one is to think of every part of your body. When you think of a part of your body try to relax. If you go through every part of your body you should be fully relaxed (at least in theory, that is).
The second one is to think about a big soft bed that is swallowing you (wait, now that I think about it, this sounds like a horror movie). I think about lying in a soft bed which slowly swallows every part of my body. When it is fully done, I am surrounded by the soft bed, which makes me relaxed (now that I am writing this it sounds quite weird).
This is just an example of what I use. If you can get inspired and come up with a better idea that works for you, that would be great.
I Got Enough Sleep – Rating 5.01/5 pillows
You read that right, this is the only tip that gets above 5 pillows. This tip has less to do with sleep, and more with how you look at sleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night, most of the time I could not fall asleep. And then I heard or read somewhere something along the lines:
If you wake up in the middle of the night, that means your body already got enough sleep.
I don’t know how true this is (it’s probably not, but oh well), but it helped me look at sleep in a new way. Now, when I wake up at 2 a.m. I treat it like the beginning of my day and do my morning routine. At some point, I would start feeling sleepy, which is a sign for me to go back to bed.
If I don’t get enough sleep, I can always take a little 25-minute nap in the afternoon. So it’s fine if from time to time I don’t get a good night’s sleep, I can always catch up, which makes it less frustrating when it happens.
I hope that this has been an eye-opening experience (sorry, for that pun I couldn’t resist). After reading this try to implement some strategies and see what works. Hopefully, something helps you and you get a good night’s sleep.
