A Comprehensive Guide to Better Sleep

1) Must-Have Sleep Apps:

Headspace

Headspace may have made a name for itself as a meditation app, but it's also great for sleep - and my personal favorite app to use when I’m having trouble falling asleep. The app features "sleep casts," which are 45-55 minute-long audio experiences - like adult bedtime stories - that help you to visualize calming experiences, like a slow-moving train or a walk through a garden. The app has up to 30 sleep casts so you’ll never get bored listening to the calming storyteller’s voices. Moreover, the app also contains meditations to prepare you for sleep, guided exercises to help you fall back asleep if you wake up in the middle of the night, sleep music, soundscapes, and sleep radio. This is the perfect app for anyone who has trouble falling asleep or de-stressing before bed!

Sleep Cycle

If you want to learn how you slept, the Sleep Cycle app is for you. It tracks your sleep patterns and provides you with tips to optimize your snooze time. Plus, it includes an alarm clock that slowly wakes you up when you're in your lightest sleep phase so you'll wake up feeling refreshed and ready to greet the day.

Reflectly

If you’re looking to establish a nightly routine that helps you to ease your mind before bed, why not try journaling? Reflectly is an intelligent journal that asks you guided questions and prompts you to organize your thoughts on what happened in the day prior. It helps you to reflect on the day, your thoughts, and any problems you may have faced. The goal of the app is to help you move past thoughts that may have kept you up at night, thus allowing you to sleep more soundly.

2) Must-Have Sleep Supplements:

Moon Juice Dream Dust

Moon Juice Dream Dust is a sleep powder that contains a unique blend of herbs - including one that helps you to release stagnant emotions through your dreams - and soothing chamomile extract to help you zen out and thus pass out. It’s as simple as mixing one to two teaspoons into your pre-bedtime hot water or tea for the ultimate sleep experience.

Perricone MD Sleep Booster

The Perricone MD Sleep Booster supplement not only improves your sleep but also helps you to destress. Along with melatonin, it contains three different ingredients to help combat stress: ashwagandha, magnesium, and l-theanine. This is the perfect supplement to use on those uber-stressful days when there’s no way you would’ve been able to fall asleep otherwise!

HUM Nutrition Mighty Night Supplement

The importance of sleep for your skin is undeniable; the hours you spend resting are an essential time that your skin utilizes to repair and regenerate itself. Lose sleep and it will quickly show up on your face. Which is how HUM came up with the Nutrition Might Night Supplement to aid in both your sleep and your skin. The supplements contain valerian root and passionflower in order to help combat insomnia and keep you asleep, along with ceramides CoQ10, and ferulic acid to give your complexion an added reparative boost.

Kin DreamLight

A glass of wine before bed may make you sleepy, but it’s not necessarily the healthiest option. Enter Kin DreamLight, which markets itself as an alternative to a nightcap. Containing ingredients such as a micro-dose of melatonin, reishi mushroom, and passionflower. Drink this sleep concoction an hour or two before bed chilled, warm, straight up, or mixed. As an added bonus, it also contains clove, ginger, oak, cinnamon, and chili to aid with digestion after a heavy meal.

Kaleidoscope Labs CBD Sleep

CBD has become all the rage in all areas of health and wellness, and especially sleep. Kaleidoscope Labs CBD Sleep capsules contain 30 mg of CBD per dose, along with melatonin, l-theanine, and valerian root. If you’re looking for a CBD sleep supplement you have met your match with Kaleidoscope Labs!

Hush & Hush MindYourMind

Melatonin has become one of the most common ingredients in our sleep supplements, but your body may become reliant on it if you take it every day, which is why some people prefer to avoid it. For those who choose to do so, Hush & Hush MindYourMind’s supplement is a great alternative. Instead, it relies on ingredients like that of tryptophan (the component found in turkey that causes you to be sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner), valerian root, magnesium, and holy basil, all of which work together in order to help ease you into a deep slumber.

3) Habits That Will Aid in Better Sleep:

Increase Bright Light Exposure During the Day

Your body possesses a natural biorhythm clock known as your circadian rhythm. It affects everything from your brain, body, and hormones, to helping you to stay awake and telling you when it’s time to sleep. Sunlight or bright light during the day helps to keep your circadian rhythm working correctly. This improves your daytime energy, as well as nighttime sleep quality and duration. It also reduces the time it takes to fall asleep, increases the amount of sleep you get in a night, and increases your sleep efficiency. Try going outside or staying under bright lights during the day to ensure you’ll sleep soundly at night!

Reduce Blue Light Exposure in the Evening

While exposure to light during the day is beneficial, nighttime light exposure has the opposite effect. This is due to its effect on your circadian rhythm, tricking your brain into thinking it’s still daytime. This reduces hormones like melatonin. Blue light — which electronic devices emit in large amounts — is the worst in this regard. There are several methods you can use to reduce nighttime blue light exposure. These include; wearing blue light glasses, downloading apps for both your phone and computer that block blue light, and turning off any bright lights - including your TV - 2 hours before heading to bed. When you go to bed try to stay away from your electronics - hard as it may be - to get the sleep you desire!

Reduce Irregular or Long Daytime Naps

While short power naps within 30-minute intervals or less are beneficial and can enhance daytime brain function, long or irregular napping during the day can negatively affect both your sleep and your health. Sleeping in the daytime can confuse your internal clock, making it hard for you to fall asleep at night. In fact, long naps during the day may have the opposite of the desired effect, making you much sleepier than you would’ve been otherwise. So next time you want to take a nap make sure you time it for thirty minutes or skip it altogether, to ensure that you’re able to sleep at night!

Try to Sleep and Wake at Consistent Times

Your body’s circadian rhythm functions on a set loop, meant to be aligned with sunrise and sunset. Being consistent with when you go to sleep and when you wake up can help to aid in your sleep quality. Irregular sleep patterns can alter your circadian rhythm and levels of melatonin. If you struggle with sleep, try to get in the habit of waking up and going to bed at similar times. After a few weeks, you may not even need to use an alarm!

Don’t Eat Late in the Evening

Eating late at night can negatively affect both sleep quality and melatonin levels. When we consume food late at night the muscles that digest and metabolize our food have to keep working when they should be resting. This can both hinder your ability to fall asleep as well as preventing you from getting a good quality of sleep. Next time maybe skip the late-night snack so you can feel more rested in the morning!

Exercise Regularly - But not before bed

Exercise is one of the best science-backed ways to improve both your sleep and health. It can enhance all aspects of sleep and can be used to reduce symptoms of insomnia. Although daily exercise is key for a good night’s sleep, performing it too late in the day may cause sleep problems. This is due to the stimulatory effects following exercise, which increases alertness and hormones like epinephrine and adrenaline. So try to exercise earlier in the day to reap the benefits of your exercise when it comes to getting a good night’s rest!