How to sleep better? 5 effective ways

In this video I will share you five simple step that can improve your sleep significantly.

❥ How many hours of sleep do you get each night?
❥ How do you feel in the morning when you wake up?
❥ Is stress affecting your sleep?

These are all important questions we need to think about.

More and more people are struggling to get enough sleep. There are many reasons why but stress plays a big role in this.

I have had my fair share of sleep challenges over the last few years. In fact, I suffered a pretty bad burnout couple of years ago and after that my sleep went out of the window. I will talk about this further in the near future.

For now, here are 5 tips for you on how to improve your sleep.

1.Phone on flight mode
If you are laying on your bed and scrolling through instagram before sleeping, you will send mixed signals to your brain. Your brain will produce hormone called dopamine and you will find it hard to fall asleep. Therefore, put your phone on flight mode an hour before bed and during your night time routines. (I will do videos about this soon)

2.Meditation 10min
Instead of scrolling your phone, try to meditate even for 10 minutes before bed. You don’t need previous experience on this and you can start e.g. using free apps such as Calm or Headspace. Also, Spotify has so many playlists on meditative music which I often use for relaxation.

3.Nutrition
There are many ways on how to optimize your nutrition for sleep. I would start from the last meal before bed and check what works for your body. Some do well with carbs at night time that calms their bodies down. Others do well with ketogenic meals. Test different ways and find out what works for you. E.g. for me berries work really well at night time.

4.Supplements
There are specific supplements that can help with A) you to fall into sleep faster and B) improve the quality of your sleep. Here are some you can research further and try.

Magnesium. Helps to reduce cortisol, great for the nervous system and for overall recovery. E.g. magnesium citrate is a form that works for many.

EAA (Essential Amino Acids). Neurotransmitters require amino acids as a building block. Many of my clients have reported back to me that their sleep has improved after taking EAA’s at night time. Glycine is an amino acid that especially can help with sleep.

Melatonin. Can make you fall asleep quicker but I would not use it every night. I take 2.5-5 mg of melatonin from time to time to aid me to fall asleep quicker.

5.Hot or Cold shower?
Some do well with cold showers and others with hot showers. For me it's cold in the morning and hot at night. In fact, I have measured my sleep a lot and when I do winter swimming and sauna too close to my bedtime, it takes me longer to fall asleep and the quality of my sleep goes down. You can try it though, maybe the cold shower at night time is the missing piece in your puzzle.


6. Bonus tip: Measure your sleep
As the saying goes, if you can't measure it you can't manage it. Especially if you are struggling with your sleep I would consider measuring it with a smart watch or an Oura Ring like I'm doing. Therefore, you get instant feedback on what is working and what is not. For example, I did a workout last night 2 hours before bed and I wanted to know how my body reacts to it. My HRV (=Heart rate variability), Deep sleep and Rem sleep all went down significantly. That is a clear sign that a workout too close to bedtime is a NO GO for me.

Let me know in the comments how many hours of sleep are you getting per night and what are your favourite hacks to improve it ?

Sleep well!
Tomi Kokko

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Link to the Joe Rogan & Mathew Walker discussion I mentioned:
   • Joe Rogan Experience #1109 - Matthew Walker