How to live longer by sleeping better

Health
Written By Ying Hao

Last updated: May 5th 2020

Content

  • Contemplation

  • Why do we need to sleep better? (not necessarily more)

    • Improve physical learning

    • Gain Insights in our life

    • Improve physical health, lose weight, get a better skin

    • Natural neural detoxification

  • Sleep tracking

    • Sleep trackers

    • Important Metrics

  • Bedroom Improvements

  • Prepare for a good night sleep during the day

  • Supplements

While some people have never trouble sleeping, others suffer from insomnia and can hardly function because of it. I might be somewhere in between, the last couple of years I endured a lot of stress in personal life, and therefor I slept very bad or poorly at best.

Currently I manage to function pretty well, I train daily, I'm running multiple businesses and have time and energy for my loved ones. But I have subpar sleep: less than 6 hours a night on average, so of course this worries me, I definitely do not recommend everybody sleeping this little. But I did find evidence that with the right optimizations, it can be possible in a healthy manner.

So in this writing I want to give some insights in my findings and list the supplements I take to perform the best I can with the sleep that I got. It’s also an ongoing process, I’m still working actively on improving my sleep quality and lowering stress continuously.

Contemplation

Proper sleep should be a natural default. My assumption was that at least no healthy and ‘happy’ organism should suffer from sleep problems. Since this is counter productive evolutionary wise (reference: The origins and evolution of sleep).

Considering the above, when we do have sleep problems, this most likely means we have challenges in other parts of our lives. To solve the sleep issues in a durable long term way we should actually address those problems first. Of course this is unfortunately not always possible. We cannot simply take a long break from work without consequences or bring our kids to a foster home to name just a few common related subjects.

Something I try to integrate in everything I do is optimization within realistic parameters. I won’t solve my sleep deprivation from one day to the next. So while I’m working on the underlying issues, at the same time I try to optimize in the present instead of waiting for a moment that probably will never come. Waiting for when all the stars are aligned right makes no sense(this is applicable to all changes, progress, diet etc).

So what I try to do is to help the body resort to its natural ability to optimize sleep. I am trying to trigger the mechanisms that are already there. Everything to avoid using sleeping pills which often leads to very nasty side effects, addiction and so on (reference).

Why do we need to sleep better? (not necessarily more)

Sleep is a funny phenomenon. Since it is something that greatly affects all of us without discrimination. It doesn’t matter how rich we are, how old, what job we have, how busy we are or what our ‘perceived’ status is. Sleep is the one thing we can and should all benefit from as much as we can. If you want to live longer and have a better quality of life. If you want to and excel at the things you do in daily life. When acquiring new skills is something your want or learning faster, recovering better. When any of the above is what you strive for than you should spend time and attention to your sleep (quality). Good quality sleep consists of proper REM and Deep Sleep %, high Heart rate variability and a low resting heart rate. Sleeping ‘just’ more hours doesn’t necessarily translate to being healthier or living longer (reference). Good quality sleep does.

Improve physical learning

Since I love to do sports I’m always interested in how to learn faster, progress more efficient. And especially because I prefer sports with a progressive technical skill component. A key factor in learning new motor skills is unsurprisingly: sleep. Research shows that we can increase our motor skill performance by 20 percent with proper sleep! (reference: Practice with sleep makes perfect: sleep-dependent motor skill learning).

Gain insights in your life

This is another very important motivator for me, since I like to think and reflect (and sometimes overthink) things in my life. I welcome everything that can help me navigating choices, patterns and insights. Apparently there is a quite substantial relation between sleep and figuring out complex patterns. So if you are also interested in extracting more explicit knowledge from things your read and learn. Or if you want to gain more insights in what is happening under the surface: improve your sleep. Sleep plays an essential role here. Research shows that sleep increases insight in hidden abstract rules underlying sequences (patterns). (Reference: Sleep Inspires Insight).

Improve physical health, lose weight, get a better skin

There are also many physical benefits to getting good quality sleep. Among other things, sleep will contribute to skin health (reference). It will make you appear younger. It does improve insulin secretion (so lowering your risk for diabetes) and improve healthy cell division. So poor sleep quality will affect your blood sugar regulation negatively

Lack of sleep also leads to (indirect) problems like even obesity. The hunger and satiation controling hormones, ghrelin increase and leptin decrease, will make you hungry and leave you unsatiated when you lack proper sleep. (Sleep and obesity and bodyfat and children).

Natural neural detoxification

Somtimes when we dont sleep well, especially when we are in our early twenties we feel invincible and dont care too much, since "we will recover anyway". But there are many important processes in our body going on when we sleep that may have an accumulating effect.

When we are asleep our glympathic system clears out cellular waste, neurotoxins and amyloid and Tau proteins (reference). When we dont get adequate sleep we basically waste (see what I did there) the opportunity for cleaning our cognitive center. When your sleep quality is poor you risk build up of unwanted waste in the brain. And that will make you much more vulnerable to diseases like Alzheimer (reference).

The mitochondria (the structures in your cells that are responsible for energy generation) play an important part in the glympathic system (reference). Therefor working on mitochaondrial health is highly recommended to improve overall health and sleep (reference) . I'm planning to write more about health and the imporance of mitochandrial health later.

Sleep tracking, the metrics

Everything starts with measuring and keeping track of what is going on. This way you can determine your baseline, so you can check and evaluate progress and the impact of what you try. To track my sleep metrics I use the Whoop band, I wear this 24-7 not only for sleep tracking but also for optimizing my training. It is very useful to be able to see how well I slept and therefor how well I recovered to plan my daily strain accordingly. If my recovery is poor, training extra hard will only have a negative (aging) effect. Also when my sleep quality was bad I watch my sugar (carbohydrates) intake even more than I already do usually, because of the blood sugar impact.

Sleep trackers

Before using the Whoop band, I tried the (Nokia) Withings Sleep mat, the Emfit QS, the Nokia Smartwatch and the Oura Ring. I stuck with the Whoop band, because it gives a great quick overview (sleep score) and also the related optimal strain you should put your body through.

Important metrics:

So let's get a bit more practical. What are the metrics that we need to track and what are the values we should aim for?

The most important ones in a list:

  • REM sleep. Should be: 20-25% of your sleep time not the total amount of REM sleep, but the ratio REM/total amount seems to affect the quality of sleep. could lead to: better recall of skills or information acquired in the previous 24 hours, lower average pulse and temperature (at night and waking up). Supplementation might influence this too, see the supplements section.

  • Deep sleep. Should be 10-20%. This correlates directly to better physical performance the next day. Deep sleep is very interesting also considering what happens in brain wave acitivity, high amplitudes but low frequeny. And massive synchronisation of the neurons in our brain, probably for information transfer. Very fascinating.

  • Total amount of sleep. Should be 7-8 hours a night (not time in bed!). Even though we could potentialy improve the quality of our sleep to a point where 6 hours could be sufficient. Without these biohacks that have little long term evidence its safe to say we should fall back to the evolutionary outcome of 7-8 hours of sleep.

  • How quickly you fall asleep. This should be within 15 min. If it takes longer you will have to pay bettter attention to your sleep hygiene (see "what you can do during the day" below). If you lay awake after 20 minutes its even better to go out of the bed, try to relax and unwind) and then try again than staying awake in bed.

  • Disturbances per night. The less disturbances you have, the better. You wont really notice them conciously but they'll rob you from your sleep little by little (also they might interrupt your sleep cycle).

  • HRV. Aim for a high (increasing) heart rate variability. The first time I read about it I was a bit confused because it seems counterintuitive. But the more irregular your heartrate variability the healthier you are.

  • RHR, your resting heart rate. Aim for a low resting heart rate. Cotisol, stress are influence factors here but also your cardiovascular health (so exercise more to improve this!).

  • COVID-19 special: respiratory rate, if you see an increase this might be related to the Corona virus (reference).

Bedroom improvements

A lot can usually be improved already in the bedroom itself.

  • Darkness Get curtains that block out all light coming from outside: sun/moon and street lights etc (reference). Darken all lights from electronics that you might have in your room (try to minimize this anyway because of the electromagnetic pollution, even thought the existence is not yet successfully backed by research)

  • Bed materials Minimize potentially allergenic materials and use materials that promote better thermoregulation (organic cotton) Should still look into: weighted blankets, different type of pillow filling (oat, cherry, spelt or buckwheat are supposed to be good).

  • Room temperature The temperature of the body drops naturally during sleep, to assist with proper thermoregulation I maintain the temperature at night at around 18 degrees Celcius (64 fahrenheit, some prefer 67-70 to fall asleep faster), in order to do so I use both my Honeywell Evohome, controlled by my Athom Homey and the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Link to adjust the temperature even quicker. Note to self: would like to dig into the evidence and see if there are geo-dependent optima.

  • Air quality There is evidence that points towards the relation between air quality and sleep problems (reference). You can optimize by simply ventilate the bedroom during the day and also during the night (I keep the windows and the ventilation grilles slightly open always). Also I use an air filtration system, the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Link, although I am still looking to upgrade this because of the noise it makes (even though I prefer sleeping with low noise levels).

Should still look into:

  • humidity device to keep it constant between 30-50%, some people use an ultrasonic humidifier (air o swiss travel ultrasonic cool mist humidifier).

  • lavender.

Other things I should still look into: place my cell phone at a distance at night (now i keep it right next to the bed), look into the light spectrum of lamps used (will expect little to no impact since i hardly use the lamps in the bedroom), earthing and electromagnetic pollution (reference).

things that might work but i’m unlikely to try:

  • Nightwave pulse light

Prepare for a good night sleep during the day

There are several things you can do or avoid during the day that can have great impact on your sleep at night. One of the most important factors I discovered (and what is backed by evidence, reference) is having a structured consistent rhythm. So a lot of the recommendations on this page are related to supporting a proper carcadian rythem.

  • Consistency Wake up at the same time, regardless of your schedule or obligations.

  • Daily exercise (reference) I like to train at least once a day, both strength training, martial arts, and cardio. Timing of exercise is still something I have to look into more, but the fact that i train already improves sleep (quality) (reference). I should more avoid training two hours before going to bed, because of among other things, the stimulation of the nervous system and the rise in body temperature it causes.

  • Light Setup your workstation next to a window (light exposure). Get a 15 minutes walk minimum in daylight. expose yourself to blue light immediately upon waking up Avoid use of sunglasses (should try sunglasses that wont block blue spectrum light only), Reishi, Zinc (with copper), Magnesium citrate

  • Cold exposure in the evening A hard one :) but i try to shower cold after my evening workout for at least 30 seconds, this can have many benefits in general (not just recommended for the evening) but specifically for sleep improvement, this can help decreasing you body temperature. 10 minute icebaths might have an even better effect. Interesting is that some research claims that a hot bath might increase melatonine release and is related to mechanisms for life extension (the Japanese ofuro).

  • Peace of mind A very important one, since this is of course related to all kind of physical manifestations, stress (cortisol), brain activity etc. So this could already be a whole article on itself (will try to write later more about mediation). But for now things I try to apply: meditate (I love the app Headspace for guided meditation, sometimes I use Calm and recently started with Wake up from Sam Harris).

  • What can als help is: write a to-do-list for the next day (pen and paper to avoid screen time, or something like Remarkable).

  • Write in a gratitude journal, couldn’t make this into a habit yet, but I intend to put renewed effort into this. You can do this together with positive affirmations, to get your mind positive for the next day.

  • Relaxation I sometimes, also no structured habit yet, lay on a spike mat, which is quite relaxing and feels good because I think its a typical embrace of a small problem (‘pain’ caused by spikes) that makes us feel good when we ‘conquer’ it (reference needed?). There is no evidence other than pain relieve that is probably caused by the exposure to competing stimuli so this once could easily be skipped for sleep improvements (reference1, reference2).

Things to avoid:

  • avoid caffeine in any form (coffee, energy drinks, pre workout) 8 hours before going to bed

  • The same applies to cacao (because of the theobromine and thephylline)

  • Limit alcohol intake, and don’t drink close to bed time, alcohol among other negative effects on your body will reduces REM sleep. I quit drinking alcohol at all and feel great.

  • Blue light Minimize Blue light exposure (450-490 nm short wavelength). I use both the default blue light filter on my phone (currently the Samsung S10+) and on top of the the app Twilight, that gives even more control over colors and brightness. During the day it is important to get enough exposure to blue light to prevent melatonin production at the wrong time and to support your carcadian rhythmAvoid blue light (simulate nightfall/sunset). An hour before bed, don’t use a computer, phone, or watch TV (i know, this one is very hard for me as well, not the TV part, I rarely watch TV but I have a hard time putting my phone away. On your computer (windows 10) you can use Night mode and schedule it according to your sleep hygiene, or use a tool like F.Lux (also for Linux and android).

  • Don’t eat late at night. The insulin cells in your pancreas also follow a circadian rhythm. When melatonin is released, insulin producing cells are shutting down, so eating food late at night will cause a much larger bood suger spike followed by an adrenaline (epinephrine) inducing ‘sugar’ crash (reactive hypoglycemia) that will keep you awake.

Should still try/look into:

  • reduce intake of tyramine (which increases the noradrenaline production, supposedly boosts brain activity and keeps you awake). So no cheese, chocolate, eggplant, potato, sauerkraut, spinach, tomato at dinner. I have to say for me that would take quite some effort especially eating vegetarian keto most of the time.

  • Effects of the following on GABA in the brain: Valerian, Chamomile, Passion Flower, Hops, Kava

  • Effects of hydration: wakefulness between 1am-3am can be related to dehydration, since this is supposedly the time your liver is the most active. Drink 2-3 dl, 90 minutes before bedtime.

  • Sleep without clothes, for temperature purposes and some sources even say the clothes can give negative pressure on your lymphatic system.

  • Blue light filtering (adjusting) my smart lights in the evening (I think I should be able to do this with some scenes in my Athom Homey. Also on the other hand, I want to experiment with red spectrum light stimulation, which should induce melatonin production. Also I have to dig into Dave Asprey’s red light therapy findings. Other things you could do is block off all LED's from chargers and such, by simple (electrical tape) or even TrueDark dots (biohacked.com). On your television you can use a Drift TV HDMI box, I still have to see if thats something for me.

  • Dimming the lights in the evening (at least two hours before bed time). Too much light at night can reduce your melatonin enough to negatively impact your sleep (reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21193540)

  • Breathing exercises.

  • almond butter and celery or flaxseed oil before bed time for cell repair, decrease fatigue (to avoid sleeping a lot and still feel tired). (read more about from dr. Seth Roberts)

  • Iso lateral exercise, resistance training (one arm or leg), some people report faster-to-sleep times after these type of exercises. The more complext the stabilization required the faster.

Things I discarded but that might be useful for others:

  • Earplugs, wont work for me because I have a bit of tinnitus, so the opposite applies to me, I sleep better having some comforting ‘white’ noise around me.

  • Sleep mask/eye patch. Just won’t work for me.

  • Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (electrosleep), I have no reason (yet) to look into this, but apparently it can help.

  • Some people especially who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or ‘winter depression’ might benefit from a full spectrum light therapy lamp (I never used this myself). Some people report great results with a blue light emitter like the Philips GoLite

Supplements

Supplements and nutrients to support sleep, by inducing brain wave patterns associated with the N1 phase, melatonin production and/or relaxation,

  • Magnesium Citrate 400 mg It’s important to know that there are several forms of magnesium, one not to confuse with the other: for example I take magnesium citrate prior to bed but magnesium malate in the morning to aid with exercise (increase stamina and sooth muscle pain). Magnesium citrate should decrease your cortisol levels and increase the amount of deep sleep (reference 1, reference 2)

  • Ashwaganda Helps maintaining balanced blood sugar (reference)

  • Zinc

  • ZMA

  • 5-htp

Still have to look into and try: magnesium chloride bath (I already got the stuff, planning to try this soon especially after strenuous strength training days, salt lamp (?). Theanine, GABA, Taurine

  • Taking 200mcg of huperzine-A can increase total REM sleep by 20-30%, slwoing the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This is a apparaently a popular nootropic and can help by accelerate learning, lucid dreaming and language acquisition. Supplementing this has also some contraindications, so be careful!

Other recommendations

Side sleeping

Glympathic cleareance in rats is much better sleeping on their sides.

Side sleeping lowers blood pressure and heart rate.

Reduces the chance for sleep apnea (which is pretty important to try to get rid off anyway since it is probably a sign of dysfunctional mitochondria).

Follow up stuff I’m planning to write about

Evolution and sleep, stoicism and sleep, how to wake up properly, extensive experiment and habit forming on power napping.

Recommended research, books to read

These are some books and articles/authors I recommend reading, or things that I want to dig into deeper in the future.

  • Why we sleep

  • Biohackers manual

  • Superhuman dave asprey

  • Dr. Allen Rechtschaffen, Anthony Kales “A Manual of Standardized Terminology, Techniques and Scoring System for Sleep Stages of Human Subjects”

  • Nathaniel Kleitman (1950), his work on the circadian clock and REM sleep

  • Freud and the role of dreaming

  • Henri Piéron “Le problème ohysiologique du sommeil”

  • Dr. Seth Roberts writings about sleep

Still adding to this article:

Quick List, what to take when, what to do when (maybe a table where you can toggle some options)

Summary

What helps me to get my attention back to sleeping properly, going to bed 'early' and consistently is the realisation that sleep is the price we pay for being active. So this makes it all so obvious that unless you are good with slowly deteriorating your own helath and performace you will have to sleep well.

Ying Hao
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