Scientific lessons to improve the quality of your sleep
learn actionable and science backed techniques that help you sleep better and increase its quality.
Sleep is critical for your health! Whether you see sleep as a burden or the most glorious thing in the world, chances are that you aren’t getting enough quality sleep. Most people need between 7-10 hours per night to function at their peak, yet the average professional reports getting much less than this. And this is disastrous consequences for your brain and body. Inadequate amounts of sleep causes a range of cognitive difficulties (from slower reaction times to decreased focus to worsened memory) and physical ailments (from weight problems to mobility issues to heart disease).
So how can you improve your amount and quality of sleep? This module distills decades of research about self-regulation into actionable mini-lessons designed to help you develop your self-regulation skills. The lessons have been set up to be easy to follow and implement in your daily life. They include a range of tools and tactics to help you better manage yourself and reach your goals.
By getting our Sleep module, you’ll learn how to handle and address common and chronic sleep issues. Our techniques all revolve around sleep, though suggesting different types and times for intervention. Our tips will focus on some quick fixes and micro-habits that address common sleep issues.
We’ve searched hundreds of articles from psychology, neuroscience, pharmacology, neurology, psychiatry, and medicine to guide our approach and to develop the best ways for you to address sleep issues and help you sleep better.
We have then summarized and explained it in a way that is easy to understand and even easier to follow. You will be given quick tactics that you can use in the moment, as well as micro-habits you can implement throughout your day to effectively improve your sleep over time.
It’s important to note that these are non-medical interventions, so there won’t be any drugs mentioned or addressed.
What does it mean to get “enough sleep”?
Many people think that issues with sleep are only about falling asleep. But ensuring you get enough sleep involves multiple facets.
There are four ways in which we categorize sleep issues:
- Getting to sleep or insomnia and related issues. Some common issues might be: can’t fall asleep, can’t sleep when you are trying to, anxiety about sleep, etc.
- Trouble staying asleep, or sleep disruption and related issues. Some common issues might be: waking up in the middle of the night (to pee, because of coughing etc.,), bad dreams, sleep walking, movement while asleep, sleep talking, sleep apnea, etc.
- Trouble waking up, or hypersomnia and related issues. Some common issues might be: trouble getting out of bed in the morning, sleeping too much, sleeping through alarms, getting up and then quickly falling back to sleep, being sluggish in the morning, pain or soreness getting out of bed, etc.
- Feeling sleepy throughout the day, or activities of daily living (ADL) problems and related issues. Some common issues might be: feeling tired in the afternoon, lack of ability to focus at work or school, saddened and depressed mood, agitation and reactivity, slow reflexes, vision problems, etc.
These 4 general categories are how we research sleep related issues. Most people only really think about the first two as sleep related, but all 4 areas implicate sleep!
One thing to remember is that since humans need so much sleep, our sleep quality and duration directly affects every aspect of our lives: energy to play with the dog, focusing on that big project and presentation for work, digesting that Friday feast, our ability to rally at last call on Saturday night, our enjoyment of hanging with friends for the game on Sunday or a relaxing dinner, and the quality of our morning run or mid-afternoon yoga session.
Our sleep habits and issues are a major part of our lives. Another thing to notice is that sleep can be indicative of other major health issues. In terms of your mental health (1, 2), sleep issues are part of the symptoms for:
- depressive disorders,
- substance-use (or addiction) disorders,
- anxiety disorders (like panic attacks, OCD, or eating disorders)
- neurodevelopmental disorders (like autism spectrum),
- neurocognitive disorders and illnesses (like dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease).
Sleep problems are associated with all of these issues, and some of these mental health issues can be catalyzed by sleep issues, especially depressive and anxiety disorders. It can also be indicative of other physical health issues such as:
- Diabetes,
- Cardiovascular diseases (like narcolepsy, lung disease, heart disease), (3, 8)
- Neuromuscular diseases (like arthritis, ALS, and muscular dystrophy) (4), and even
- Implicates your risk of developing cancer. (5, 6, 7)
Sleep is important for all aspects of our health, so don’t think you can get away without sleeping! Paying attention to your sleep habits and sleep quality can help you understand what is going on with your body in ways you don’t even realize. Remember that talking to your doctor about sleep during your regular checkups can help them understand you better and understand your health. The University of Pittsburgh Center for Sleep and Circadian Science has done a lot of research on sleep and has developed scales to help you understand your sleep issues. Remember that these are meant to be used for research, but taking one at home can help keep you on track and informed about your sleep.
Access our premium module to improve your sleep
Sleep and the Brain
Most people think that sleeping means our body shuts down and rests. While that might be true for most of the body, it’s certainly not true for the brain. The brain is highly active during sleep! There are several things happening in our brains while we sleep. We’ll talk about a few of those processes now.
Measuring Sleep
One major way that we measure sleep is via brain wave activity. The Central Nervous System (CNS) is comprised of the brain and spinal cord. These are the major nerve pathways in our body that allows it to function. Our CNS is an electrochemical system, or one that is governed by electrical and chemical signals. Because of this, we generally discuss brain activity using two methods: electrical measurements and chemical measurements. Brain waves are the frequencies and activation patterns of electrical activity in our nerve cells, specifically those found in the brain. We measure these the same way you’d measure any wave, so those in the ocean or those in your microwave.
Each wave has a peak and a trough, and the measurement from peak to peak, or trough to trough is called the wavelength. We measure the electrical activity in the brain using these wavelengths. There are particular wavelengths associated with different levels of activity in the brain. We use some of these to classify sleep into 5 stages.
Alpha waves are constitutive of awakeness, Beta waves are stage 1 and 2 sleep, though stage 2 sleep has some abnormalities showing that we are moving into stage 2, Theta waves are stage 3, and Delta waves are stage 4. REM or rapid eye movement sleep resembles stage 1 waves, but these also accompany our eyes rapidly moving while the rest of our body remains relaxed.
We use these wavelengths and frequencies to determine sleep stages and how people sleep. You want to most get REM and Stages 3 and 4 sleep. These are the deepest sleep stages that help us reenergize and influence our health and cognitive abilities.
Sleep & Mood
Our brains use sleep as a time to replenish and do some general chores. Just like us, when we’re not at work, the brain uses “off-time” to get other things done. As we said our CNS, and nervous system in general use electrochemical signals.
So our brains send a signal to our bodies to prevent it from moving during sleep using the neurotransmitter GABA. It is our body’s main inhibitory neurotransmitter, so a lack of GABA can cause issues such as sleep walking, and restless leg syndrome.
Our brain is also producing a neurotransmitter called serotonin. We mostly hear about serotonin linked to depression and anxiety. Most medication for these are a type of SSRI or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. What these medications do is allow more serotonin in our system. This is why depression and anxiety is highly linked to sleep. If you aren’t sleeping well you can have similar symptoms to anxiety and depression such as irritability, lack of focus, lack of interest in things, and sluggishness. Getting a good night-sleep can also help combat issues like depression and anxiety.
- Bansil, P., Kuklina, E.V., Merritt, R.K., & Yoon, P.W. (2011).
Associations Between Sleep Disorders, Sleep Duration, Quality of Sleep, and Hypertension: Results From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005 to 2008
Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 13(10), 739-43 - American Psychiatric Association (2013)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association - Wolk, R., Gami, A.S., Garcia-Touchard, A., & Somers, V.K. (2005).
Sleep and Cardiovascular Disease.
Current Problems in Cardiology, 30(12), 625-62. - Culebras, A., (2005)
Sleep and Neuromuscular Disease
Neurologic Clinics, 23(4), 1209-23 - Blask, D.E., (2009).
Melatonin, sleep disturbance and cancer risk.
Sleep Medicine Reviews, 13(4), 257-64. - McElroy, J.A., Newcomb, P.A., Titus-Ernstoff, L., Trentham-Diets, A., Hampton, J.M., & Egan, K.M. (2006).
Duration of sleep and breast cancer risk in a large population based case–control study
Journal of Sleep Research, 15, 241-9 - Zhao, H., Yin, J., Yang, W., Qin, Q., li, T., Shi, Y., Deng, Q., Qei, S., Wang, X.,& Nie, S., (2013).
Sleep Duration and Cancer Risk: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies
Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 14(12), 7509-15. - Miller, J.C., & Hovarth, S.M., (1976).
Cardiac output during human sleep.
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 47(10), 1046-51