Your good night’s sleep begins the minute you wake up! What you do in the first and last hours of your day can determine whether you get great sleep as well as have elevated daytime mood and focus. For better mental health, physical health, and longevity, you want bright mornings and dark nights.
A rise in the hormone cortisol and a rise in body temperature causes you to wake up in the morning. Most people think of cortisol as the “stress hormone”. You may be thinking “I don’t want high cortisol”. However, this is not the correct way to think about cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone of energy, and we want our cortisol high in the morning. This helps get us moving and ready for the day. A high morning cortisol helps ensure that our nighttime cortisol is low, which makes it easy to fall and stay asleep.
What is the ideal morning routine to ensure great sleep? Wake up, drink a glass of water and within 30-60 minutes of waking, go outside and get sunlight in your eyes. Look in the direction of the sun. You don’t need to look directly at the sun but look in the direction of the sun. Don’t wear a hat or sunglasses; however, eyeglasses or contacts are fine. Even 1 minute of sunlight will benefit you. Better would be 5-10 minutes outside drinking coffee, taking a walk or doing some deep breathing. On a cloudy day you will still be reaping the benefits of light rays into your eyes. Bright light from the sun will amplify your cortisol peak in the morning, cortisol gradually declines throughout the day and cortisol is low before you go to bed, making it easier to fall asleep.
Exercise in the morning also helps elevate your cortisol early in the day. This spike is transient and helps ensure you have low nighttime cortisol.
What can we do in the last hour of the day to help us get to sleep and stay asleep? First, you need to lower your core body temperature. An excellent way to do that is to take a hot shower or bath. When the surface of our skin heats up then our brain says, “we need to lower our core body temperature”. Therefore, after we take a hot shower our core body temperature starts to drop. If you are limited for time, a hot compress over your face will also do the trick to lower your core body temperature.
The second thing to do in the last hour before bedtime is a few long deliberate exhales. When you do a deliberate exhale, your heart rate slows down. Try the physiological sigh. Take a breath in through your nose, then take 1 more short breath in to maximally fill your lungs. Then slowly exhale out of your mouth for 8-10 seconds.
Third, we want dark nights. Dim the lights. Shut off the overhead lights and use a lamp in the evenings. Dim your screen. An eye mask while sleeping can also be beneficial.
I know there is a group of people who can fall asleep but then wake up at 2 or 3 am. Try this trick to get back to sleep! With your eyes closed, move your eyes slowly to the left, then to the right, then up, then down. Move your eyes counterclockwise, then clockwise, then point your eyes towards your nose. Do a long exhale. One to three cycles of this often help people go back to sleep.
Your eyes have many connections to your brain. When your eyes are moving side to side, it quiets the area of the brain that is involved in fear and stress. Two things need to happen for you to fall asleep. It is critical that you are not stressed and that you forget about your body position. The eye movements suppress the areas of the brain involved in anxiety and stress and help you forget about where your limbs are positioned! These eye movements and a long exhale should help you fall back asleep easily.
We all want to get a great night’s sleep and to feel alert and energetic during the day. A few simple and inexpensive lifestyle changes can have a big effect on our quality of sleep. Bright mornings, dark nights, long exhales, and hot showers can help you get superb sleep!
References: Podcast with Andrew Huberman on Practical Wellness Tips, the Danger of If Only Thinking, and the Important “Protocols” for Life.
