Block Blue Light
Believe the hype! Limiting your exposure to artificial blue/junk light, especially in the evenings, is a ridiculously effective tool to ensure a kickass sleep. Not just falling asleep and staying asleep, but actually hitting all the crucial phases of sleep throughout the night. Junk light confuses your body, impeding production of sleep hormones. It’s a big deal!
Only in the last decade or so have sleep researchers reaaaally started tapping into all the different restorative and developmental mechanisms that occur during sleep, and what they have established so far is WILD. So much remains a mystery still. Sleep is huge.
You don’t need a scientist to tell you the difference between how you feel after a solid snooze or a crap nap though, right?
A few weeks ago I purchased a pair of 99% blue light blockers. I’ve had 6 years of sleep dramas, and an increasingly complicated, rigid bedtime and supplement routine that never even guaranteed success. The last few weeks have been... ahem... a DREAM. I don’t need any supplements, I can get to sleep immediately without a wind down period, I sleep deeply and go through every sleep stage. I naturally fall asleep and wake up earlier, which makes me think I’ve been working against my chronotype this whole time! (Which is a whole other story)
Obviously these aren’t a panacea, but in combination with other lifestyle factors like diet and exercise, the power of blue light blockers as a tool for restorative sleep can not be understated.