Sleep is interesting. It’s something we all do, but scientists have yet to figure it out exactly why we do it. It’s murkier than the Kardashian’s dating history. As it stands currently, scientists understands sleep as having four different cycles, creatively named Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and REM sleep. More information can be found here. Currently, medicine agrees that for the best sleep you want to spend the most time in Stage 3. This is how you can get more deep sleep for better rest.
Understanding Deep Sleep
Sleep is broken out into four stages. To keep things simple (and boring), these are named Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4. Sleep tracking apps will combine some of these stages. Stage 1 and 2 combine into “Light Sleep”, Stage 3 into “Deep Sleep” and Stage 4 into REM sleep. These are also commonly broken into “Non-REM” sleep and “REM” sleep.
Most people are familiar with REM sleep, a.k.a the fun one that will have you going on adventures, but this isn’t where the best sleep occurs. REM sleep was also previously believed to be the best sleep. However, it’s now widely accepted that the best deep sleep for better rest occurs in Stage 3.
During Deep Sleep, your brain activity slows. Your body goes into a comatose state and the little robots that live inside of us are dispatched to repair muscle tissue.
How Can You Get More Deep Sleep: Practical Tips
Establish a Consistent Sleep Schedule
The easiest way to get into a deep sleep for better rest is to allow yourself to hit all four stages. This requires you setting a consistent sleep schedule, allowing yourself near 8 hours of sleep. This is more difficult than it sounds.
A few tricks that I’ve learned from experts over the years may come off as intuitive to you. Have a “wind-down” routine. Turn off the TV an hour before bed. Close your eyes. etc.
Here are some other tricks that weren’t as intuitive to me:
Naps are okay
A personal pet peeve for me, an undiagnosed insomniac, is when I’ve been up for 30 hours and I know I’m tired, but I can’t sleep. I lay there after ignoring my body calling for a nap 10 hours prior, wide awake. Turns out, naps are actually okay, you just need to make sure to be awake 8 hours before your desired bed time.
Caffeine is great in the morning. Just not right away.
Do I have a caffeine problem? Yes. Do I need to fix it? Probably, but I’ll work on that problem after I have my morning cup of coffee (I won’t). Now, caffeine definitely has it’s fair share of health problems when taken in mass quantities. That’s not what this post is about though. Caffeine is fine in the morning, but you should wait at least an hour before ingesting any. Otherwise, you risk feeling fatigued, which makes you more susceptible to the nap pitfall.
Waking up to an alarm isn’t ideal, even if we just press snooze
Think about it. Our life revolves an internal clock we refer to as a “Circadian Rhythm”. This is unique to the individual, but it’s our bodies natural 24-hour cycle that inform us when to wake, eat and sleep. It’s not like if we don’t have an alarm screaming in our ear, we’ll never wake up. This is because our body’s natural circadian rhythm will wake us when it’s ready. All this to say, if you wake up naturally in the morning, don’t go back to sleep. I know, it’s a stretch because I struggle with this in the morning too. However, if you get up when your body naturally wants to, you’ll feel a lot more refreshed for the day. This is because your body already identified that you received sufficient deep sleep for better rest.
Create a Sleep-Inducing Environment
What about falling to sleep quicker? Well, I have some tips for that as well and it starts right as you wake up!
Blue Light Filtering Glasses
In the last few decades, Western culture has built a dependence on screens that are constantly emitting light directly into your eyeballs. This is bad, and we’ve known this for a while. However, temptation and convenience prevents us from ignoring these lights. Whether it’s at work, Tiktok, Instagram (click on those to follow me 😎), the football game or the Bachelor, we’re constantly looking at screens.
Due to this, one of the best tools to protect your eyes from getting dry are these blue light filtering glasses. I wear these most of the day and recommend them to all of my friends. Wearing these whenever you look at a screen will help you whenever you’re ready to fall asleep. As a bonus perk, they’ll also keep your eyes healthier for longer.
Sleep Mask
I take this Sleep Mask everywhere (and my friends bully me for it). With my self-diagnosed ADHD, I realized I struggle to keep my eyes closed at night without them. They’re also really good at blocking out extra light attacking my eyelids. I slept through Coachella thanks to these.
They usually fall off in the middle of night and I have to plead with my puppies to tell me where they took my sleep mask, but this is a must have if you’re struggling to fall asleep quickly at night.
Lavender Chamomile Tea
My co-worker has bragged about his tea hobby for years now. I’ve always dismissed him, and I was WRONG FOR THAT. He’s a genius. Tea is awesome. I’m a fan and now pitch it to everybody I can. Without a doubt, I’ll be doing a future article on getting started with tea, so follow me on Tiktok and Instagram to stay in the loop. I’m also hoping to have a free newsletter if, like me, you’re not a fan of social media.
ANYWAYS, yeah, Lavender Chamomile Tea is great. The one I’ve linked to had my muscles feeling like they were falling off when I first had it. I was genuinely concerned to drive after. You can find Lavender Chamomile tea in your local grocery store if you’re nervous about loose leaf tea. However, loose leaf tea will have a stronger effect.
I guarantee that purchasing at least one of the above tools will get improve sleep quality for better rest.
The Importance of Deep Sleep for Health
Here’s to hoping that you can get some KOALA-ity rest now (not sorry 😁).
As mentioned earlier, your body undergoes a lot of maintenance tasks during deep sleep. Your body sends out it’s robots to help heal your mind body and spirit. Your brain has some time to file memories away into the memory banks for later. The body’s muscle tissue is going to begin repairs on the tears. The brain juices (chemicals) are going to release hormones to help your body with healing, as well as better manage your emotions.
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Sleep well. You’ve earned it!
Thanks for reading and, as always, hang in there. You got this!
If you’re wondering what to do after you wake up, check out my other article How to Want to Get out of Bed.
