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I’m not a healthcare professional, and this isn’t a prescription for better sleep. It’s a list of the things I’ve been trying. Supplements in particular are worth discussing with a professional rather than copying from a blog.
Making the room easier to sleep in
The least glamorous changes are probably the easiest to explain:
- Less phone time in bed. I’m trying to keep it under 15 minutes, ideally none. Putting the phone down also means fewer things to get absorbed in when I meant to be sleeping.
- Two layers of curtains. Curtains plus a roller blind keep outside light out.
- Loop earplugs. Helpful for noise, less helpful for the morning treasure hunt when they’ve fallen out.
- A sleep mask. Another layer against light, and another thing that sometimes ends up on the floor.
- An IKEA air purifier. Part of the bedroom setup. It can filter some particles when used and maintained correctly, but it doesn’t make the room free of pollutants or replace ventilation.
Winding down
I sometimes use Whoop’s blue-light-blocking glasses for an hour or two before bed. Whether those glasses improve sleep isn’t settled; reducing late-night stimulation and screen use may be the more useful part of the experiment.
Breathwork or a body-scan meditation helps me slow down. I’d keep the breathing comfortable and unforced rather than chase unusually long timed breaths. A body scan is a useful alternative when focusing on breathing feels like more effort than relaxation.
I’ve also tried 200 mg of magnesium at least an hour before bed. My impression is that it helps, but I haven’t isolated its effect, and evidence for treating sleep problems with magnesium is limited. It isn’t suitable for everyone.
What I still want to explore
Less PC time in the final hour of the evening is on the list. So is moving a large meal away from bedtime if it leaves me uncomfortable. That doesn’t need to become a rigid four-to-six-hour fast or a rule against drinking water when I’m thirsty.
CBD has caught my attention, but I haven’t tried it here. It can interact with medication and has potential liver effects; legal availability isn’t the same as a good reason to take it. Bed-temperature systems such as Eight Sleep are also interesting, but too expensive for me right now.
I use Whoop 4.0 and the second-generation Nest Hub to look for patterns. I care about how rested I feel too. An app’s sleep-stage estimate doesn’t get the final say on whether I had a good night.
Archive note: restored from my 2023 notes. The publication date is approximate, and products and routines reflect that period.