By Vaughn Gray

1. Don’t Treat Your Brain Like a Light Switch

Light switches are pretty amazing. You flip them one way, and the room is instantly flooded with light. Flip them the other way, and the room goes dark. Absolutely nothing in your body works like this, and this is especially true of your brain. Changes in our bodies and brains happen gradually. Watching an exciting movie, focusing on work, exercising, or even dwelling on the problems of the day (or the next day) all push the brain into go mode. It then takes hours for the brain to calm down. If you do these things right before bed time, the odds are you’ll have trouble falling asleep.

2. Don’t watch TV or Work on the Computer Within 90 Minutes of your Bed Time

Light wakes us up. Even a pen light shined on your leg can pull your body out of deep sleep. This is because through all of human history up until the last 100 years or so, our wake/sleep schedule was tuned to the rising and setting of the sun. With the advent of electric lights, we’ve broken away from this pattern, but the centers in our brain that control sleep haven’t changed. They still take bright light as a signal that it's morning time and that we should be up and moving around. When exposed to bright light, it takes hours for our brains to fully switch out of wake-up mode. The effects of light on the brain are more powerfully stimulatory than just about anything with the exceptions of drugs like caffeine and aerobic exercise. If you expose yourself to bright light, say a big screen TV, a well lit room, or, worst of all, a computer screen, right before bed, it will invariably make it harder for you to fall asleep and/or reduce sleep quality. As discussed above, your brain simply can’t move into sleep mode at the drop of a dime. So try to keep light levels low an hour before bed. Read by a low light lamp or listen to music. If you have to get up during the night, try using a night light.

3. Meditate Before Bed

Mediation is a wonderful way to prepare your body for sleep. In addition to clearing your mind of distracting, stimulating thoughts, meditation syncs mind and body, helping both to relax and transition into sleep. Our Meditation Tutorial offers a user friendly guide to getting started with meditation.

4. Exercise in the Early Morning and the Afternoon

As mentioned, exercise is just about the strongest thing you can do to stimulate mind and body to wakefulness. If you regularly exercise in both the early morning and afternoon (on alternate days, unless you are a serious athlete) you’ll burn through more energy during the day, helping you feel more alert all day, and also helping you sleep more deeply at night. Try to stop exercising at least three, and, better, four hours before bed time. See Stay Energized Naturally for more.

5. Avoid Eating Big Meals at Night

Big meals require a lot of energy to digest, and mobilizing all of that energy wakes your body up. Eat light at night, and save your big meal for lunch. Try steamed veggies with olive oil and fish or chicken for a few nights, and then switch to a stir fry of veggies with olive oil and brown rice for a few nights. See if you notice a difference in how deeply you sleep. Some people sleep better after a protein and fat meal (fish/chicken), others after a carbohydrate and fat based meal (brown rice with olive oil).