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How to Hack Sleep — Boost your mood, Boost your energy

How to Hack Sleep — Boost your mood, Boost your energy

The world feels less and less stable, causing you to worry throughout the day. And, at night, it can feel like you can’t get to sleep at all.

When you dwell on all the things going wrong, it can make you feel worried and anxious. All of these things keep your mind awake, and make it all the more likely you’d stay awake.

But it’s not just thinking about worries that can cause people to stay awake at night. I might find myself still energized from the day’s work, a rush from putting out multiple fires and emergencies. Perhaps I would exercise too late in the day — the resulting combo of energy and adrenaline keeps me in a heightened state of fight-or-flight. Or, my muscles would feel tight and sore, and this would also lead me to stay awake.

In the past, I had a different set of sleep problems. I would deliberately sacrifice sleep to get more work done. I would pull late nights to get more code written. Get more checkboxes checked. Stay up late to check in more code, sift through documentation, and grind through every action item I could get my hands on. And I’d stay awake while chatting with other programmers in chatrooms.

These sleep-sacrificing habits persisted even more throughout my early medical career. I would stay up to answer a few more e-mails or check my work phone. Type in progress notes after work. And, answer the continuous stream of “invitations” asking me to submit more research papers.

Why is a good night’s sleep great for productivity?

Sleep is one of those seemingly super-obvious Mental Power Hacks that can have a huge payoff. Yet, we often neglect sleep through a gradual build-up of bad habits that may have a more immediate short-term benefit.

Not getting enough sleep can lead to a lot of problems. Insomnia is when you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.

You might have encountered them before:

First, insomnia can affect how well you feel. You may feel less in control of your emotions, more prone to irritation, and more susceptible to stress and anxiety. You might compensate by imbibing caffeine-loaded energy drinks. But, caffeine itself could lead to worsening anxiety.

Exhausted from a hackathon (Photo: Steven Chan)

Second, insomnia can affect how clearly you think. This may lead you to perform worse at your work. This concern has led to mandated rest hours for truck operators, and work hour limits for physicians-in-training. In fact, France implemented a right to disconnect from work law 2017, mandating that employees and companies negotiate times that employees can disengage from work e-mails and messaging.

Third, insomnia can make you less invested in your relationships. Have you felt less energetic or less present with a loved one when you’re feeling sleepy or low on energy? And can you imagine accidentally falling asleep during a dinner date? Not having enough sleep not only makes you less emotionally available, but more prone to irritation and less in control of emotions.

How much sleep should you get each night?

The National Sleep Foundation, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS) recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep for adults, based on expert consensus and scientific evidence in 2015.

Not getting enough sleep can lead to sleepiness during the day. Fatigue, worsened concentration and attention, poor motivation, and restlessness can set in. Even worse, it can lead to people making more clumsy errors — even a lack of awareness of what’s going on. That’s bad news for people operating heavy machinery — like trains or trucks — and for those whose lives depend on being alert and awake.

So what Mental Power Hacks can we use to fix these sleep issues?

Hack #1: Hack together the ultimate sleep environment

Jarring noise. Sweat-inducing heat. Bone-chilling cold. Or, a back-aching mattress. If your bedroom is an uncomfortable, jarring place, why would you expect to sleep faster? Hack your bedroom into a place of tranquility.

How to make your bedroom more comfortable for better sleep

  1. First, ensure there’s a way to turn down noise and light. Use blackout curtains to ensure light doesn’t keep you up: you need darkness for your brain to produce melatonin, a natural signal for sleep.
  2. Turn down the volume of unwanted sounds. Earplugs, sound machines, and even earbuds can help.
  3. Next, ensure that your pillows and mattress provide the comfort you need. Trying out mattresses can help, in this instance. I find that, after strenuous exercise, I prefer firmer memory-foam pillows to better support my neck.
  4. Temperature matters. At times, I get too cold at night, so using electric heating blankets helps me stay comfortable. During hot summers, an electric fan coupled with cooling-gel cushions with breathable pillow covers prevents me from uncomfortable sweating.
A photograph of a person asleep in a white, futuristic-looking Intel-branded sleep pod at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
A sleep pod at the Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas. I miss conventions! (Photo: Steven Chan)

And do you really need high tech? Not necessarily! Sleep pods, multi-colored mood lights, and sound machines could be useful after you’ve tried all the basics.

How can you activate Night Shift and blue light filtering for better sleep?

On your computers, turn on night dimming. These features make the colors of your screen appear on the warmer end of the color spectrum. Reducing the amount of blue light — seen during the day — can help boost melatonin, your brain’s natural sleep hormone. Melatonin makes it easier to fall asleep and is an essential part of your circadian rhythms.

Then, make it so that your computers don’t interrupt you with distracting sounds, phone calls, and pop-up alerts. Most systems call this a “Do Not Disturb” function — while Windows calls it “Focus Assist.”

  • Apple macOS: Go to System Preferences > Notifications > Do Not Disturb. To temporarily turn on, Option-click the Notification Center icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
  • Apple iOS: Under Settings > Do Not Disturb.
  • Google Android: Swipe down from the top of the screen. Tap “Do Not Disturb.”
  • Windows: Under Settings > System > Focus Assist.
Coffee can keep you awake!
Don’t touch that coffee — before sleeping! I miss airports.

You’ve now run through your first set of Mental Power Hacks to optimize your sleep environment. Next, let’s talk about the power of scheduling.

Hack #2: Schedule everything — exercise, caffeine cut-offs, & sleep

How to schedule your caffeine intake

Caffeine helps stimulate your central nervous system — your mind, your memory, alertness, and cognition. Caffeine can be a beautiful, wonderful thing to stimulate you during the daytime.

But having a stimulated mind is exactly what you don’t want at night!

It’s now become a habit for me to drink coffee in the morning and at noon. But you want to ensure you stop imbibing the joe at least 6 hours before you sleep. For those who are fanatic about timing caffeine, the average half-life of caffeine is 5 hours, with a range of 1.5 and 9.5 hours.

Then, schedule exercise

Not only will exercise generally reduce stress, but also tire you out faster at night, boost your total sleep time, and improve your sleep quality and efficiency, as shown in multiple studies analyzed by Boston University.

Photo of dumbbells and a barbell.
Ready for Les Mills BodyPUMP — I miss the gym! (Photo: Steven Chan)

How to schedule your sleep

Schedule both pre-sleep and sleep. Both can appear as nightly events on your calendar. This seems silly, but during times of high stress, busy deadlines, and conferences, you don’t want to accidentally commit to activities during my sleep hours. Further, a consistent schedule makes it easier to fall asleep and wake up.

For pre-sleep preparation, reserve 60 to 90 minutes dedicated to winding down. And, for sleep, reserve 7 to 9 hours as a recurring daily event. I myself block out sleep time on Google Calendar — synchronized with Todoist, my task management app. And every time I “accomplish” sleeping, I check it off in Todoist!

A word of caution: sometimes, if you can’t fall asleep immediately, you might feel defeated that you can’t follow this schedule. This could get you more frustrated and you might think, “There’s no way I can sleep now!” And this could lead you to feel more anxious, more worried, resulting in — you guessed it — more insomnia.

Instead, give yourself permission to be flexible with these times. You might not be able to hit the coveted 8-hour mark each night, but the goal is to establish a consistent regimen that relaxes you.

Want to learn more about the power of scheduling? Sign up on Mental Power Hacks for the Hack Productivity course.

Hack #3: Pre-sleep prep before going to bed

What are ways you can relax to get to sleep faster?

Here are five methods you can use your scheduled time to wind down. This will get your mind and body prepared to fall asleep fast.

  1. Warm shower or bath. A review and meta-analysis by the University of Texas at Austin shows this “water-based passive body heating” boosted self-rated sleep quality and sleep efficiency, scheduled 1 to 2 hours before bedtime for at least 10 minutes. It also helped get people to sleep faster. Researchers believe this is because this helps increase blood perfusion to palms and soles, to cool down the core body temperature.
  2. Switch from screen to sound. Ensure all screens are off. No social media, no video streaming, and no e-mails shall add to your stress or stimulation. Instead, listen to low-stimulation podcasts, quiet music, and meditation tracks. I myself watch lectures and classes from educational sites.
  3. Read books. Engrossing, fictional books can take your mind off your own work worries. Use dimmer light with warmer color tones — brighter blue light can suppress melatonin and cause you to continue staying awake. Can’t bear to read more text? Comic books can give you the visual engagement you need without the stimulation of light.
  4. Avoid consuming alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. Both alcohol and nicotine could reduce sleep efficiency by fragmenting sleep at night. Even though alcohol may make it seem like it helps people relax and go to sleep, the withdrawal of alcohol through the night may stimulate your brain at night and disrupt the quality of sleep.
  5. When you hit the bed, ensure that you are fully ready to go to sleep. If you don’t feel like sleeping, don’t go to bed! Instead, go to a different room and do low-stimulation activities, like reading books and listening to audio.
From the Mental Performance Hacks presentation at Talks At Google

We’ve now covered three sets of Mental Power Hacks for sleep — but what if guilt, fear, or frustration makes you want to stay awake?

Hack #4: But what if I want to work at night? What if I feel guilty about sleeping?

I get it. Work calls. Your employers and work colleagues may want to reach you, page you, and show up at your electronic front door, 24/7 — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! They may want to call you on weekends! You may want to show to them that you are accessible, a good team player, and a good employee.

Or, you may feel that your brain is stewing about that daytime project. You’re tempted to pull out the laptop, and re-immerse yourself in the work worlds of Outlook, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Or, you might already be trying to sleep — and you’re feeling frustrated and guilty that you can’t sleep! You might think it’s futile, that you’ll never get to sleep. And, oh, look at that clock.

When someone asks you how your night went: “Didn’t get much sleep, but I did get a few hours of anxiety in!”
A well-timed The Office meme always delivers that sense of futility and irony.

Does that mean you should feel guilty about needing rest, recovery, and relaxation?

You might think that sleep is not a productive use of time, but sleep can actually make you more productive. Let’s reframe this another way: if you don’t sleep, you won’t be at your best for work. With adequate, good quality sleep, you will perform better, you’ll think more clearly, and you’ll feel more energetic at work.

So, in effect, it’s in your workplace’s best interest that you do get sleep! How can you go about this?

First, schedule worry time. If thinking about things over and over again keeps you awake at night, consider allowing yourself to journal those worries — but during a specific time of day. This can be in the evening, for up to an hour. You can learn more about Worry Time in the Mental Power Hacks’ guide to empowering yourself amidst stress.

Steven Chan writing on a Microsoft Surface Pro computer.
This Mental Power Hacker is writing down worries — during worry time (Photo: Stephen Daugherty)

Set boundaries & expectations. You are within your rights to set expectations as to how you can or cannot be contacted. You can certainly state, repeat, and reiterate what you can do — for instance, that you are happy to answer text messages during business hours and work hours of 9am to 5pm. This is a nice way of saying “no” to being on call outside of those hours.

If you are being asked to answer phone calls or get pulled into work meetings at night, consider requesting specific renumeration to be “on call.” You may also consider finding alternate workplaces that respect your boundaries and needs.

Even amidst an emergency, you still deserve sleep. Employers may use COVID-19 as an excuse to double your workload or heightened productivity expectations. But, frankly, you’re no use to anyone — your employer, yourself, or your household — if your mind or body is not at its optimum.

What if you still can’t get to sleep?

Here are some things to look out for to help troubleshoot sleep:

Do sleep tracking devices help?

Sleep tracking devices — like those on Android Wear smartwatches — could help you learn how often you wake up, how long you sleep, and the times you sleep. You can then start to identify patterns and correlate these with your daytime habits. With this data, you can also collaborate with your physician and other specialists.

There are some issues with sleep trackers’ accuracy, compared to medical-grade polysomnography, but I personally think it can be more helpful than sleep diaries. Sleep diaries are worksheets where you track your hours of sleep, but it requires more manual labor. Quite frankly, I find that people forget to write these down each day.

A clean hotel room showing a well-made bed and nice furnishings.
A good night’s sleep in a comfortable environment (Photo: Steven Chan)

Do naps worsen your nighttime sleep?

Did you nap during the late afternoon? If you already caught some sleep in the daytime, it may prevent you from going to sleep faster. Avoid naps during the daytime. To avoid naps, forcing yourself to stay awake in a safe manner — with, say, loud music or a stimulating environment — will help you fall asleep quickly at night.

Do you feel fatigued in the morning — and live in an area with minimal sunlight?

About an hour of bright blue light exposure in the morning could help stabilize your circadian rhythm, improve daytime fatigue, and help you go to sleep at your desired time. It’s a yin-yang situation: boosting awakefulness in the morning could help you sleep better.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night?

Some people wake up from nightmares that remind them of bad memories from the past. Some wake up to use the restroom, because they drank too much water before they went to sleep. And some wake up because they keep their door open — and their dogs start barking for food in the early morning!

Are there medical causes for poor sleep issues?

You may want to seek a healthcare professional to address sleep issues. Prescribers such as physicians and nurse practitioners may recommend medications, herbs, and vitamins. They may also look into other causes of sleep issues, such as thyroid imbalances, sleep apnea, and chronic pain.

How can psychiatrists and psychologists help with sleep?

If you see a psychiatrist or psychologist for a longer visit, they can dive deeper into strategies, techniques, and environmental setups, and other psychiatric causes that might hold you back from a good night’s sleep. You can also consider getting sleep coaching apps, and exploring websites from reliable healthcare organizations. Stanford Health Care discusses insomnia, for instance.

From the Mental Performance Hacks presentation at Talks At Google

What are cheap, inexpensive ways to get insomnia help?

Finally, finances can be tight, so it’s OK if you don’t want to shell out money for an app. Try some of these free and low-cost resources:

  • Your smartphone’s built-in timer could help you track your worry hour and pre-sleep rituals.
  • Meditations and serenity tracks on YouTube, podcasts, and Apple Music
  • Free Google Play apps from renowned healthcare institutions, like the Veterans Affairs’, can be helpful even if you aren’t a veteran.
  • Veterans Affairs has a free Path to Better Sleep PDF guide and online training course.

These won’t address other issues that need to be addressed — like medical, psychiatric, occupational, or social stressors — but they are one step of many you can take for better sleep.

Sweet dreams!


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© 2020 Steven Chan. All rights reserved worldwide. Copyright violation may subject the violator to legal prosecution. Photo licensed from StockUnlimited 1677194

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