When we are having a hard time to get good quality sleep we often tend to think that the cause must be something complicated. The good news is – quite often it’s easy to fix.

Looking towards the evolutionary process

Every animal has certain times of the day that it is awake and others where it will rest. As we are part of this system the same rules apply to us as humans. One thing that differentiates us from other animals is the possibility to widely create our own environment.

Since electricity was invented and usage has been widely applied in our lives, this has led to an environment that is more and more detached from the day and night cycle that our bodies are all hooked into.

We can go into a solarium at midnight, darken our rooms when at sleep in the daytime and do nearly anything we want to at any given day or night time.

This big freedom, unfortunately, brings an even bigger confusion with it for our bodies.

Confusing the Circadian Rhythm

A strong evolutionary signal to wake up in the morning is sunlight. As a consequence, the absence of sunlight when our alarm goes off will make it harder for us to feel awake in the morning. Not getting enough sunlight in the first hours after waking up will leave our bodies with the confusion if the day has already started or not.

Know that feeling?

The confusion adds up when it gets nighttime. Sun goes down, lights go on! TVs, smartphones, tablets running until midnight emitting further (blue) light adding up to the confusion of our bodies.

In the end, our bodies are completely insecure about what is going on. At some point, they will notice that we were up for a long time and that it is time to fall asleep thanks to rising Adenosine levels in our brains. But other important triggers in our bodies that influence hormones (e.g. Melatonin production) might not have been started correctly.

Setting Strong Clear Sleep Signals

So – if you are having a problem with your sleep quality at the moment, you want to start correcting this by setting clear sleep signals.

It’s easy!

In the morning you want to get into bright light. In summer simply get light into your house or have breakfast outside. In winter or in case of early/late working hours you want to get yourself a daytime lamp and use it during breakfast. Furthermore, get your body into motion by moving your body moderately in the first two hours after you get up. A walk, a moderate yoga session or something similar will be just fine here.

In the evening try to avoid watching TV or usage of any other light-emitting devices at least an hour before you go to bed. Also, try to get into a darker environment two hours before you go to bed by dimming your light down and maybe even using blue light reduced bulbs. Get yourself into a quiet state doing things that relax you now. Reading a book, having a bath or doing any other thing that fits this category is the right thing to do now.

Omg – that’s all? Yes!

Implementing these simple mechanisms and giving it a week or two to play out fully will get our bodies back into the frame they need to promote superb sleep.

Now it’s up to you to use these simple mechanisms. Doing so will easily get your body back to synchronicity with the circadian rhythm by providing clarity about the exact point where the day starts and ends for us.

So, be prepared to have a superb sleep again

Michael