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The Ultimate Sleep Guide

Writer's picture: Firoze MehtaFiroze Mehta

Overview

We all know that sleep is absolutely critical to overall well-being, which is why it is one of the 9 fundamental pillars of health. It is the state where your body does the most rest, repair, and detoxing, which is absolutely critical for disease-free optimal health, especially if you have a chronic health condition. If you have regular issues with getting proper sleep, you are setting yourself up for chronic disease, energy issues, mood instabilities, hormonal disturbances, digestive issues, stress and a whole host of other things that will negatively affect your experience of life. What is proper sleep? In bed between 9:30-10:30pm, a good duration appropriate to your body’s needs (7-10 hours), effortless, uninterrupted, and quality, meaning healthy cycles between REM and non-REM sleep.


In the U.S., sleep disorders are becoming increasingly more common. Something like 50-70 million adults have a sleep disorder diagnosis, 50% experience bouts of insomnia, 35% get less than 7 hours of sleep, and over 25 million have obstructive sleep apnea. I’ve heard many people with sleep issues give up trying to solve their situation because they’ve “tried everything”. Many have resorted to drugs and/or other tricks to get them to fall asleep, which only masks the underlying issue and is a poor long-term solution with real consequences.


Whether you’re one who has sleep issues or you believe you sleep just fine, in today’s modern world I would highly recommend everyone read through this sleep guide carefully and implement the changes suggested to ensure you are setting yourself up for the best sleep possible. There’s a lot here so read through, take notes, and tweak your sleep routine slowly over time.


If you still struggle with sleep after all of these tips, don’t get discouraged. The body is extremely complex and it will continue to gift you symptoms to let you know that you haven’t yet addressed the root cause. Basically, if you’ve tried everything on this list for months and are still not getting results, it’s some other area of your life that stands in the way of your peaceful sleep. So you'll want to take a closer look at the 9 fundamental pillars of health and work with someone who can help you achieve optimal health in each area. Whatever you do, don’t give up, keep going.


If you have any questions about anything in this guide, feel free to reach out and we can talk about it more.


Master Sleep Success List

  • Bedding - The importance of bed quality and fit tailored to your preferred comfort level cannot be understated. If it’s been more than 7-10 years since you purchased your current mattress, or if it's sagging in the middle, it may be time for a new one. Here are the criteria you want to look for:

    • Material: you want the mattress to be made of natural, organic fibers (such as organic latex). You may think, “why on Earth would that matter if I’m not eating it and it’s covered with sheets?”. Well, the problem is the majority of standard mattresses are made from synthetic materials that off-gas toxic fumes while you sleep (especially memory foam mattresses). To make matters worse, they are heavily doused with chemical fire retardants that also off-gas toxic fumes. There are many brands out there that specialize in making beds with healthy materials as a priority. One such brand is Avocado Green mattresses for example. So you’ll need to carefully do your research here and invest a bit more than you normally would.

      • Note: this same problem with off-gassing synthetics exists with most new furniture and household products in general. Keep this in mind with anything new you decide to purchase, especially the stuff that ends up in your bedroom. At the very least try to air out these new products by keeping your windows open.

    • Firmness: you’ll want to focus closely on the firmness level that’s right for you. For the longest time, I just assumed the firmer the mattress, the healthier it was for my back. It wasn’t until I came across a knowledgeable sales rep who did some tests to determine that my body type, sleep position, and weight are actually better suited to a plush mattress. My sleep dramatically improved and I actually looked forward to using the mattress each night.

    • Supporting platform: don’t cheap out on your platform either. Whether using a box spring or a platform, everything should be rock-solid, noise-free, and the support slats shouldn’t be too far apart. You can also play with how high or low you want to sleep. If sleep hasn’t been working for you, switching to a position that’s much lower to the ground for example can make certain people feel more comfortable.

      • Note: Putting the box spring and/or the mattress directly on the floor will limit its ability to breathe and can trap your body heat.

    • Sheets: don’t cheap out on bed sheets. They should be of a natural, organic material and a high thread count so that they feel good against your bare skin.

  • Circadian rhythm sync - we are meant to be in sync with the cycles of the sun and moon to properly support our own circadian rhythms. To resync with the natural cycles of the sun/moon, try to get outside early in the morning upon waking and let the natural sunlight into your eyes (do not look directly at the sun). If it’s a clear day, you only need 10min. The more cloudy, the more you can push this to 30-60min. Do the same in the late afternoon, just prior to sunset. These are good opportunities to lay out on your deck/porch and meditate, or go for a quiet walk.

  • Blue light - blue light is a part of the visible light spectrum. It is considered to be higher energy because of its shorter wavelength and thus promotes alertness, elevates mood, boosts cognitive function and regulates circadian rhythms. However our excessive use of devices with screens has been proven to mess with our natural sleep cycles, especially when used in the evening without protection. Follow these basic steps to protect yourself:

    • Blue blocking glasses - also known as computer glasses, these will filter out the blue light spectrum which will reduce eye strain and protect you from the harmful effects of staring at a screen excessively. Ideally you would wear these any time you are looking at a screen (cell phone, computer, tv) for longer than 15 minutes, day or night.

      • Note: I don’t recommend wearing these around all the time when you’re not using a device because that will then mess with natural blue light's impact on your wakefulness. So if you wear glasses regularly, don’t get the filtering built into your everyday prescription. You’ll instead want a dedicated prescription pair for screen use and evening use.

    • Night-time mode - most Android and Apple mobile devices now have the built-in ability to filter blue light. You can either set this to be on all the time, or to come on automatically when the sun sets. I would at least do the latter. On your computer or laptop, if you have Windows you can download a program called f.lux and set it to automatically filter after sunset. Newer versions of Windows also have this feature built in under the “Night Light” setting. On Mac, this setting is called “Night Shift”.

    • Device distance - it’s worth mentioning, any time you use a device (mobile, computer, or tv), you’ll want to keep your eyes at a safe distance and not hold it too close to your face because it amplifies the intensity of the light more than linearly. If being further away makes it harder to read, you can easily switch your devices settings to display fonts larger than normal.

  • Device evening use - although many of us have become accustomed to consuming all our content through our phones, computers or TVs, it is generally not supportive to do this directly before you go to sleep. I would definitely recommend against having a TV in your bedroom. At the very least, if you are going to watch something in the evening time, take the blue blocking measures listed above. It’s also important not to consume any content that is high-energy, simulating, or stressful. This means no evening news, scary/violent/drama shows/movies, and no loud/aggressive music or sounds. Even if you enjoy that kind of stuff, leave it for the day-time and switch to content that is more relaxing for the evening time.

  • Wind-down time - after the sun goes down, you generally want to have your routine wind-down along with the cycles of nature. This means moving to a more calming state by reading, reducing/dimming the lighting, playing board games with family, reducing the noise, and allowing yourself a break from any activities or thoughts that are work or stress related. I cannot understate the importance of this step, so give it some thought as to how you can promote more calm during the evening hours after the sun goes down.

  • Lighting - it’s worth mentioning that the type of lighting in your home has an impact on your sleep and overall well being as well. Most modern homes have now switched over to LED or CFL type bulbs which are meant to save energy, but are not natural in the way they emit their light energy. The most natural types of bulbs are incandescent or halogen, even though they consume more energy. If you’re one of the many who’s already switched their entire home over to the “newer/better” bulbs, consider at least switching out the bulbs in the rooms you typically spend time in the evenings. Even better, get bulbs and switches which are dimmable, so that you can bring the light intensity down as well. In terms of color temperature, never buy one of those “cool white” or “daylight” colored bulbs that look bluish. You want soft white only which ends up looking yellowish (more natural light). Salt lamps also emit a very relaxing light (and energy) if you want ambient lighting to promote calmness. Floor lamps and side table lamps are also a good for ambient lighting rather than only using overhead lights. You can even plug these ambient lights into an outlet timer so they come on automatically around sundown so you're then prompted to turn off the other more intense overhead lights.

  • Darkness - conversely to the blue light avoidance, you want your bedroom to be completely dark with no artificial light other than the light of the moon. If you don’t live in an area with light pollution (rare), it’s a good strategy to sleep with the windows uncovered so that you sleep with the light of the moon cycles and wake naturally to the sunrise. However for most people, you’ll definitely want to draw the curtains using “blackout” curtains in situations with heavier light pollution. Then once you have successfully blocked out the light from the outside, scan your room for any and all light emitting sources (alarm clocks, power adapters, leds from electronic devices, etc). Use a tape like black electrical tape to cover all these lights. Night lights are not recommended. If you are the type to wake to use the bathroom, you can have a gentle night light such as this one in the bathroom and leave the door slightly cracked so you know where to walk to. The path should then be completely unobstructed and you’ll want to be mindful to walk slowly and carefully. Try not to turn on any bathroom lights either, as this will further disrupt your body’s “sleep mode”. An alternative to all this is to use a comfortable eye mask, which is especially useful to have on hand for when you are traveling and sleeping with a less than ideal set up.

    • Note: if you have trouble with your eyes adjusting in the dark, this is a sign of poor eye care and/or potential nutritional deficiencies, which can both be corrected over time.

  • Bed as a sleep sanctuary - you may have heard this one before, but you want to only use your bed and bedroom for sleeping at night. You should not use it to do work, reading or any other activity. If you have a smaller living situation where you must have your room be multi-functional, then at least do all your work in a separate desk in the room, never on the bed itself. When you wake, you should always make your bed so that it signals sleep time is over and the bedroom is no longer available for sleep activities.

  • Sleep and wake time - the best time to sleep for optimal sleep hormone release is between the hours of 9PM and 10:30PM. It’s also best to sleep and wake on a fixed schedule so that your body/mind gets used to the routine and better prepares itself for the sleep/wake processes. Ideally, the sunrise will naturally wake you up. But if you have a set up where the curtains are drawn because there is too much light pollution, then set an alarm to wake and make sure it is soft/gentle. If using your phone, most allow you to set it to escalate the volume gradually. Alternatively, they sell bedside sunrise alarm clocks that will wake you with a natural light at sunrise time.

  • Hydration - this may seem unrelated, but it’s very important to hydrate with properly filtered water throughout the day; generally half you body weight (lbs) in oz. You’ll then want to completely cut off all liquids 3 hours before bedtime so that you minimize your chances of needing to wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. This basically means no liquids after dinner. Another good tip is to keep a full glass of water by your bedside and drink this first thing when you wake up, because that is when you are generally the most dehydrated and it can signal your body to wake up and start its daytime processes.

  • Temperature - it’s generally best to sleep in cooler temperatures (65-68F / 18.3-20C) to support restful sleep under the covers. Most thermostats allow you to set a schedule so it’s best to have it set to 68 or lower at least an hour before bedtime, and have it warm back up a half hour before your desired wake time.

  • Air quality

    • Air filters - we’re exposed to all kinds of toxic particles in the air we breathe on a daily basis. While we can’t walk around with something to filter the air all the time, it’s a good idea to get a high quality HEPA air filter and leave it running in your bedroom on a low/maintenance setting. This way at least ⅓ of the air you breathe will be quality controlled. AirDoctor makes good ones, or I’ve also found this one to be reasonably priced and quality. Remember to cover any led status lights your air filter emits to support a dark sleep sanctuary.

    • Fresh air - it’s also a good idea to keep the windows open or at least cracked so that you have a fresh supply of oxygen.

    • Humidity - in certain seasons and climates, you could benefit from having a humidifier in your bedroom to keep the humidity at an ideal level (30-50%) and prevent dryness in your air passages. There are pro’s and con’s to the various types of humidifiers which I won’t go into here. I’ll just say that the most important thing is to keep your humidifier maintained, clean, and free from mold by thoroughly cleaning it periodically.

  • Clothing - it’s best to sleep with minimal clothing when you sleep. If you are to wear some clothing, it should be very light and made of a natural fiber. No pants or socks.

  • Nutrition - Ideally we are stopping all eating/drinking activity after our last meal (3-4 hours before bed time). However every body is different. For some people (especially those on low carb diets), if their blood sugar gets too low during the night time, the body will compensate by releasing cortisol to bring more sugar back into the blood, which will have a stimulating effect that disturbs sleep. For others, the opposite is the case where they are having glucose/insulin issues, and you are getting the classic glucose roller coaster crash resulting from a hyperglycemic spike. If you’re one who has their glucose/insulin levels under control, but are not having enough carbs, consider eating more carbohydrates during the dinner time (complex carbs only, not simple/refined). For very few people, a small bedtime snack is helpful that contains complex carbs and a fat/protein (Ex: apple slices with nut butter or cheese). You’ll have to do some experimenting here if this sounds like you, keeping in mind that this is only a temporary measure that is not ideal long term.

  • Thoughts - One of the main struggles people have is their own mind when their head hits the pillow. Stressful thoughts full of judgment/regret of the day’s past and worry about the future ahead consume our focus and keep us in an agitated state. This is the opposite of mindfulness. When you exercise your consciousness muscle, you are able to refocus your awareness away from toxic thought patterns and towards calming activities such as focus on the breath, gratitude, positive dreaming, etc. The best way to build this muscle is to start a regular meditation practice, which I will not go into here. A shorter term solution is to simply place your right hand on your heart and your left hand on your belly and focus your attention on your breath. Your belly will rise with your in-breath and fall as you exhale. It will be smooth and natural, not forced, and will automatically slow down the moment you place your awareness on your breath. As you get into the rhythm, think more calming/pleasant thoughts. If there is a dream you have for a better life, play it out in your mind’s eye with as much detail as possible, and have fun with it. The state of mind you carry into your sleep will directly affect the quality of your sleep, your dreams, and the reality you manifest in the following day.

  • Exercise and movement - you want to make sure you are utilizing your body properly during the daytime, the way we were meant to. This doesn’t have to be going to the gym. Just being outdoors and going for a 30 minute walk can be enough. But basically we’ve become too stagnant in our modern culture, spending too much time indoors and seated. Move your body. Stretch. Sweat. Use your muscles. Regular movement activities like this will drastically improve the quality of your sleep. Just be careful with too much physical activity in the evening time as this can leave you feeling energized making it difficult to wind-down for sleep.

  • White noise - Although it is best to sleep in complete silence, or with the natural sounds of the nature that surrounds you, I would advocate trying out a clean white noise if you are having trouble sleeping. Humidifiers, air purifiers, or noise machines like this one are all decent solutions (on the lowest noise setting). This is especially helpful if you have inconsistent sounds that can wake/distract you while you’re trying to sleep (city sounds, trains, pets, sleeping partners, kids waking early, etc). Another alternative is to wear foam ear plugs, which are especially handy to have when you are traveling and sleeping with a less than ideal set up.

  • Caffeine - if you are going to consume coffee or tea, it is best done before noon. Anytime after that and you are risking affecting the quality of your sleep cycles (even if you’re able to fall asleep normally). The same goes for chocolate, especially when in high concentrations of cocoa/cacao. Everyone metabolizes caffeine differently, so some may be able to get away with consuming it later and some need to stop even earlier by 10am. But generally, caffeine consumption should be reserved for the morning time only.

  • Prescription drugs - often times prescription drugs can interfere with our hormones and sleep cycles. Many even list insomnia as one of the side effects. If you’re having issues with sleep, consider speaking with your doctor to see what your other options are. The long-term goal should always be to work on the underlying root cause that the drug is trying to mask so that eventually you're no longer dependent on the phamaceutical.

    • Sleep aids - I do not recommend the long-term use of sleep aids such as Ambien or any other sedative drugs. The goal should always be to resolve your sleep issues naturally, as long term use of these drugs can lead to serious downstream health consequences (as is the case with most pharmaceuticals). Make it a goal to constantly improve your sleep and don’t give up until you get results.

  • Alcohol/Marijuana - some people use weed or alcohol (“night cap”) to help them sleep. Even though these may help you to fall asleep, studies show that alcohol or marijuana use before bedtime will negatively affect the quality of your sleep cycles and thus affect your overall restfulness. This is not a good long-term strategy, even though marijuana is considered “natural", so consider stopping this habit.

  • Naps - You want to be careful with napping. The risk is that if you nap during the day because you’re tired (likely from not getting enough sleep the previous night), you could reduce your drive to sleep in the following night. This will lead to an unhealthy, vicious cycle. If you must nap, keep it short (ideally 20min, but no longer than 30min) using a gentle alarm to stay within that time frame. If you need a longer nap, then go for a 90 minute nap (one full NREM/REM cycle), again using an alarm to not go over. These optimal napping intervals have been well studied to leave you feeling refreshed and not risk interfering with the upcoming night’s sleep.

  • Sleep apnea - if you are known to be a snorer, you want to get a sleep study done to check if you have a sleep apnea issue. If you do, it is best to get on a CPAP machine that will help you to breathe without obstruction and oxygen deprivation. You’ll also want to make it a goal to get retested and off the CPAP machine by correcting the underlying root cause. If you do get a CPAP machine, do your research and get a high quality one that does not have issues with cheap internal foam materials breaking down over time. You’ll also want to clean the unit as directed regularly to avoid any mold build up.

  • Thyroid/hormonal issues - imbalances in your hormone levels will absolutely play a role in your sleep quality. If you are having sleep issues, have your doctor pull a full blood panel to rule this out. If it turns out you do have some sort of imbalance, you’ll want to treat the root cause naturally rather than taking hormone replacement as your long-term solution.

  • EMF’s - in today’s modern world, our body’s are constantly inundated with electromagnetic frequencies that have an unquantifiable (but undeniable) impact on our well-being. We need to give our bodies a rest from all the WIFI signals, cell signals, GPS, Bluetooth, IR, radio frequencies, etc that are coursing through our bodies and playing with our energetics on a sub-atomic level. There are a few strategies to set up your bedroom to be a sanctuary from EMF exposure.

    • WIFI - the easiest way to take a break from WIFI EMF exposure at night is to turn your router off during your sleeping hours. There are many ways to do this, but the simplest way is to connect your WIFI router to an outlet timer that will switch itself off during the night hours, and back on again when you normally wake.

    • Cell signals - it’s best to keep all cell phones in the bedroom on airplane mode to ensure no signals are being transmitted close to your body while you sleep. You also want to turn off “location services” which remain on even in airplane mode. Better yet, turn your phone off all together. If you insist on having your cell phone on for emergencies (not recommended for numerous reasons), then keep your phone in an adjacent room and on the ringer so you can hear a call. You’ll then also want to set it up to only make a sound for calls and not any other text messages or notifications. This is configurable on most phones.

    • Other wireless devices - If you have any other wireless devices in or around your room, you’ll want to turn those off as well (Bluetooth devices, speakers, cameras, etc). A better long term solution is to “dumb down” your house and go back to more old school wired technologies. In the age of the “internet of everything”, most typical household appliances now come with built-in WIFI (garage door openers, refrigerators, dishwashers, laundry machines, etc). If you already have these expensive products, try to see if these features can be switched off or disabled if you’re not using them.

    • Smart meters - If your home has a “smart meter” for your electricity, consider calling your electric company to see if they can switch this out for a regular analog meter. There may be an extra fee for them to make the change and for someone to come monthly to check the usage.

  • Other sleep tricks/hacks (more coming soon)

    • Try changing up the routine and sleeping with your head at the foot of your bed.

    • Try downloading some calming audiobooks to help you fall asleep (my favorite is anything by Alan Watts). Audible has a timer feature that will switch off after a set amount of time. If you download the books, this should work even on airplane mode.

    • Try the Reveri app and do the self-hypnosis protocols 3x per week.

    • If you wake in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep, try an ‘NSDR’ protocol (search YouTube for easy to follow guides). ‘Yoga nidra’ is also a good one to try.

    • Try some aromatherapy by getting an essential oils diffuser. Some great calming oils are lavender, rose, sandalwood, and vanilla. They also typically make sleep blend oils. You’ll want to turn the diffuser lighting off for bedtime. You can also put a drop or two of the lavender on the bottom of your feet.

    • Herbal formulas + CBD: there are many natural formulas that contain sleep promoting herbs that can be helpful and are more suitable than something like melatonin. Look for ones that contain things like valerian, passionflower, lemon balm, chamomile, hops strobile, or l-theanine. They even make full-spectrum CBD sleep formulas that have both the CBD and the herbs combined. Try to get tinctures or sprays that can be absorbed sublingually so that you don’t have to take water to swallow the pill too close to bedtime.

    • Taking glycine in the evenings has been shown to be beneficial as it is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that promotes calm and plays a critical role in initiating normal patterns of REM sleep. It is also an extremely important amino acid that the body makes but not in sufficient quantities with our modern lifestyle (plays a crucial role in the pathway to detox glyphosate).

    • Ashwagandha is also an excellent adaptogenic herb that supports relaxation (GABA production) and sleep. However if you're sensitive to nightshades, you'll want to avoid this.

    • Other supportive supplements for sleep as recommended by Andrew Huberman: Magnesium Threonate (145mg), Magnesium Bisglycinate (200mg), Apigenin (50mg), Theanine (100-400mg), GABA (100mg).

    • If you have an infrared sauna, that is best used in the evenings to support sleep.

    • Epsom salt baths are also a good strategy for evening time relaxation and sleep preparation. The magnesium in the Epsom salts are very relaxing to the mind and body. Keep the lighting low using candles and add a few drops of your favorite sleep promoting essential oil like lavender. To neutralize the chlorine in the tap water, you can put a 1000mg of cheap sodium ascorbate powder (vitamin C) in the bath water.


About the Author


Firoze Mehta is a Nutrition Therapist Master and Certified Hippocrates Health Educator® specializing in helping people with cancer. Whatever the health condition, Firoze helps others to learn the truth about health and disease, while providing the guidance and support of a personal coach. If you're interested in learning more, click here.

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