Everything that improved my sleep

Sleep is what keeps your energy high, your muscles growing, and your mind sharp — it shapes your whole quality of life. Yet a lot of people have sleep problems they don't even know about, whether from breathing issues or just everyday habits.

Here's what's worked for me.

1. Bring your heart rate down before bed

Your heart rate before bed is one of the best predictors of how well you'll sleep. If it's high at night, your body has to spend time calming down before it can reach deep sleep — so you get there later, and the overall quality suffers. The rule is simple: anything that raises your heart rate before bed works against you.

• Caffeine. Stop drinking it around 10 hours before sleep. Caffeine has a half-life of roughly 6 hours, so if you drink a cup at 4 pm, half of it is still in your system at 10 pm.
• Alcohol. It might help you fall asleep, but it raises your heart rate through the night and fragments your sleep. You wake up less rested than you think.
• Exercise. Intense workouts late in the day raise your heart rate and metabolism right when you want them to drop. Train earlier when you can.
• Late eating. Digesting a meal keeps your heart rate and metabolism up. Try to finish your last meal two to three hours before bed.
• Conflict. Avoid arguments and heated conversations close to bedtime. A stressful discussion spikes your heart rate just like caffeine does.

2. Keep the same schedule

Go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day, weekends included. Your body runs on a clock, and it works best when you don't keep resetting it.

3. Get the light right

Get sunlight in your eyes early in the day. Bright morning light sets your internal clock, which makes it easier to feel sleepy at night.

At night, it's the opposite. Blue light tells your brain it's daytime, which suppresses melatonin — the hormone that makes you sleepy. Put all your devices in night mode so they give off a warmer, more orange light in the evening, and stay off them close to bedtime.

4. Make your room cool and dark

Your body temperature needs to drop to fall asleep, so a cooler room helps. Blackout curtains or an eye mask block the light that tells your brain it's still day.

5. Have a wind-down routine

Nothing fancy. Turn off your devices, read a few pages, take a shower. You'll sleep much better than if you go straight from work to bed.

6. Use your bed only for sleep

That way your brain associates the bed with sleeping, and it becomes easier to fall asleep there.

7. Small physical changes

• Tilt your bed. Put a few books under the legs at the head of the bed. Raising your head slightly helps with stomach problems like reflux, and I've found it improves my sleep overall.
• Breathe through your nose. A cheap product I like is a magnetic nasal dilator: you stick small metal tabs on the outside of your nose, and two magnets gently pull your airway wider so you breathe more easily. Mouth tape helps too — it keeps you from breathing through your mouth at night, so you breathe through your nose and breathe better. Just skip it if your nose is blocked.

And if you snore heavily or wake up exhausted no matter what you change, get checked — breathing problems like sleep apnea are exactly the kind that go undiagnosed.

When your mind won't switch off

I struggle with this myself sometimes. Here's what works for me:

• Brain dump. When I'm stuck on a worry or a bad thought, I grab a piece of paper and write it down. Putting the thought on paper actually clears my head, and it's much easier to move on instead of getting stuck in a loop.
• Read until tired. After the brain dump, if I still can't sleep, I read a few pages until I'm more tired.
• Yoga nidra. If I need more, I put on a yoga nidra audio. It guides you through relaxing your body, muscle by muscle. Even if your mind doesn't fully relax, your body does — and one influences the other.

What's the one change that's improved your sleep the most?