How to improve your sleep ?

In line with my plan to live 150+ years in good health and after having discussed genetic testing, today we’re tackling the issue of sleep.

Sleep is important and depends on so many things. We all know that it’s important but we never really care about it and we don’t pay sufficient attention as to what causes it to be so bad or good. We tend to just feel tired and to blame it on the difficulty of life. You can take action and improve your sleep quantity and quality now!

Disclaimer #1: If you buy an Oura using my referral link you will get $40 off and if 3 of you buy it, I will get a free Air Purifier.

Disclaimer #2: I am not recommending you take any medicine/supplement without professional supervision.

To better apprehend the sleep issue, let’s use the framework I have created to tackle health issues (more about that here).

· 1. Identify the subject
· 2. Understand what are the main problems
· 3. Search the potential root causes
· 4. (Very Important:) Find a way to measure/quantify the problem over time
· 5. Research solutions:
∘ 5.1. Via Negativa
∘ 5.2. Via Positiva
· 6. Chose a potential solution
· 7. Make sure to test/add the solutions one by one and to measure their effects so that you can find what actually solves your issues. For each of the via positiva solution, make sure to look into the potential side effects / interactions with other things you do/take in life.

1. Identify the subject, educate myself about it through books, blogs and online courses.

1.1. The circadian rythm

Our internal clock is working on the basis of a full 24h cycle. This cycle tells the body when to do what or when to be expected to do what and it helps all our functions to keep synchronised (temperature, HR, blood pressure, production of melatonin and cortisol, digestion etc). Its main influencer is the day/night cycle of the days, with light being the main indicator of where we are in the cycle.

Why does it even matter?
When the circadian cycle is off, then we start getting inconsistent sleep, leading to different issues, the most obvious one being fatigue of the body and of the mind. But it also disrupts your body functions, from hormonal production to intestinal functions. (More on the circadian rhythm on the Sleep Foundation).

1.2. The sleep stages

A sleep cycle has two main phases: REM and orthodox (NREM) sleep. These can be distinguished from one another through an EEG test (which records your brain waves while you’re sleeping). The majority of the time spent in bed every night is categorized as orthodox (NREM) sleep.

NREM sleep is composed of 3 main phases:
- N1: the phase during which you transition from being awake to light sleep, it lasts about 10 minutes.
- N2: the second phase, that lasts 20 to 30 minutes, it’s the light sleep stage, during which you can start to dream. It’s an important phase for motor skills improvement.
- N3: the third phase: deep sleep, that lasts 30 to 40 minutes. During this stage you are completely relaxed and that’s when most of the physical recovery happens. (It’s the most important stage to me as I workout a lot and I want to recover as much as possible to be in good shape the following day). This is when your RH and temperature should be at their lowest.

During REM sleep, you’re at your peak dreaming and the brain is quite active while the rest of your body remains asleep. It’s an important phase for brain cells regeneration and the lack of REM is shown to cause loss of memory, reduced concentration, tiredness and irascibility. Your first REM sleep phase of the night is usually shorter (10 minutes) than the following ones (about 30 minutes).

So this is what a full sleep cycle (about 25+35+30=90 minutes) would look like:

Depending on how long you sleep, you can have 3–6 cycles. The interesting thing is that for most people you get most deep sleep and less REM sleep during the first cycles and then deep sleep decreases and REM sleep increases with the number of cycles. This is clearly visible on the graphs below (measured with my Oura ring):

As cycles pass, deep sleep decreases and REM increases

(More on the sleep stages here).

2. Understand what are the main problems in this area and why there are important, so that I am spending time on a subject that matter

Well, we all know that if we don’t get enough sleep, then we feel both mentally and physically tired, we can’t focus, and our body functions are disrupted. So not only an adequate amount of total sleep is needed but also we want to make sure to:

2.1. Get a consistent circadian rhythm
-> Avoid to disrupt body functions, keep the body synchro

2.2. Get enough deep sleep
-> Better physical and mental recovery + development

2.3. Get enough REM sleep
-> Better mental recovery + development

2.4. You lower your HR as much as possible at night
-> A good indicator of deep sleep and relaxation

The total sleep amount is important because the more you sleep the more REM and deep sleep you’re likely to get.

3. Search the possible root causes of the issues and how it happened if possible

The root causes of bad quality sleep are many and most of them are already known to everyone:

• Irregular bed and wake up times
• Screen time before sleep
• Intense stress/activity before sleep, be it physical or emotional
• Ongoing stress/anxiety
• Disease
• Too much alcohol
• Too much food or food right before going to bed
• A room not dark enough
• A room not cold enough
• Noise during the night

Now, the challenge is to pay attention to each of them every day and to identify the possible causes of your bad sleep.

4. (Very Important) Find a way to measure/quantify the problem over time

How do you track sleep? You can always write in the morning how good you felt you slept but this is very subjective and not very measurable. After spending quite a lot of time searching for devices, I found Oura ring.

Oura gives you readings of your RHR, HRV, temperature, Deep Sleep etc

The main metrics I pay attention to are:

1. RHR: I am aiming for a very low, decreasing RHR. The decrease of RHR means that you can go from being awake and in stress to being relaxed and rest. So the lower the more relaxed you’ve been, i.e. the better. Low RHR is also linked to higher longevity (super comprehensive review here).

1. HRV: Linked to your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), your hear rate variability indicates how well you are able to respond to stressors and adapt your body to them. A higher HRV means that you’re heart is slowing down, leaving time for variability between beats while a lower HRV indicates that your heart is beating fast and does not have time for variability between beats. So a high HRV means you’re recovering pretty well while a low HRV means you had too much physical/mental stress. (Learn more here).
2. Temperature: High temperature can be a sign of inflammation, which would cause you to sleep quite badly. I am aiming for low temperatures. Sadly, Oura doesn’t give you your temperature reading but variations from your baseline. The question remains as to how precise these are, so I usually don’t pay attention to variations of ≤0.3°C.
3. Total sleep: as basic as it is, whether you’re getting 3 or 7hours of sleep actually matters, and the more you sleep the better, because it means you’re going to get more REM and deep sleep.
4. Restfulness: It’s a measure of how many times you wake up and how much you move during your sleep. The less you wake up, the better, because it means each time you wake up you need to get back to sleep before reaching deep sleep and REM.
5. Amount of Deep Sleep: as seen above, vital for physical and mental recovery. I want to spend as much time as possible in deep sleep. I just don’t know how trustworthy that metric is from Oura, and whether it randomly varies or not.
6. Amount of REM sleep: as seen above, vital for mental recovery. I have the same scepticism as to the reliability of the measure.

Another variable I should look into is the respiratory rate as the lower the better but somehow I think this info is already incorporated in the RHR.

Oura gives you other data and “scores” but I try not to look at them, I prefer to focus on the raw metrics that really matter to me rather than being tricked in metrics that may involve irrelevant/non reliable information.

Sleep and Readiness scores

In order for me to track these metrics and their correlation with what I do or do not, I use tags. Everyday I write whether I have: drunk alcohol, worked late, late screen time, etc.

After one year of doing this, I will have enough data to get some real insights into what is actually impacting my sleep and how. Doing so for less than a year is really pointless as you won’t have enough data to get statistically significant results. Your sleep results can be impacted by so many other factors, be it your mood, the weather, etc and there might also be a seasonality effect: sleeping better in the winter just because it’s colder or getting way worse sleep in the middle of summer because it’s 30°C.

Oura has a list of tags but you can also add customs ones, here is the complete list of tags I use:

• Nap
• Travel
• MeditationDuringTheDay
• MeditationBeforeSleep
• Sport
• LateSport
• SunExposure
• AlcoolHard
• Wine
• LateAlcool
• Sex
• Sick
• Sauna
• Magnesium
• Valerian
• LateWork
• NoDinner
• LateDinner
• HeavyDinner
• LateScreenTime
• ReadingBeforeSleep
• Fast16H
• Fast1D
• Fast2D
• Fast3D
• EveningWalk
• WimHoffSession

5. Research solutions:

Ok, now that we’ve defined a way quantifying sleep quality, we want to look into what is actually impacting our sleep. The best thing is to start with via negativa solutions, and then adding via positiva solutions.

5.1. Via Negativa: what can I stop doing/eating (partly/fully) to solve the problem ?

Easy and cheap to do, with no side effects, I like to start with via negativa solutions. Here are a few of them:

• No screen 60 mins before sleep -> reading instead
• Lighter meals and before 20.30
• Less alcohol
• Opening the window to have the bedroom chilled before I go to bed
• Getting sun exposure early in the morning to start your circadian cycle

5.2. Via Positiva: what can do/add to my life to solve the problem ?

Below is a list of things I do/supplements I take to help me improve my sleep.

• Taking Magnesium Glycinate to prevent insomnia and reduce stress levels and cortisol levels. (Read more about it here).
• Valerian is also a very Lindy way of improving sleep. Used since 460 before B.C., it helps you to relax both your body and mind. (Read this paper for more info).
• Doing meditation before going to sleep or other breathing exercises, can help you to slow your breath and RHR (as well as to reduce your temperature) and get into sleep more easily.
• Taking a short and slow walk outside, in fresh air, before going to bed can also help you relax your mind.
• Zinc: A lack of zinc can cause the conversion of 5-HTP to serotonin to be inefficient, leading to insufficient melatonin production. Sufficient intake of zinc also ameliorates sleep architecture and testosterone production (and higher testosterone is associated with better sleep quality for men according to this study).

6. Chose a potential solution, do it, and measure before and after or at regular intervals to see if this actually solve your issues.

So, I started by cutting screens 30mins before going to bed and reading a book instead, and it helped quite a lot: my total amount of deep sleep went from an average of 35 minutes to an average of 55 minutes. I also noticed that the cycles were more regular instead of my sleep just being 20 minutes of deep sleep followed my 6 hours of light sleep. I am now testing 60 minutes before bed.

I find myself liking a chill room before going to bed, and even though I don’t measure the room temperature, I fall faster asleep when the air is fresh and the window open. I don’t have much issue with external noises as I’m quite resistant to these. The few times I woke up at night is when my girlfriend is waking me up.

I am also trying to meditate and to take valerian at irregular intervals. I try not to use more than one solution a day so that it’s easier to measure the effects with tags and isolate which action can positively impact my sleep.

I can see the effects of bigger and late meals on my temperature, as well as high alcohol intakes (with an average increase of +0.5°C). So I try to limit these or if I do them, then I know how to organize the following day to recover better, like doing a nap.

(On naps: I found out that after lunch I’m usually digesting and so feeling tired and not efficient at all)

I try to start the day by spending some time outside in the sun (when sun there is as I live in London…) so that I can reset my circadian cycle. I definitely feel better and more energetic for the day when I do so, but is it because of the effect of the sun on the mood or because of the circadian reset ? I can’t say.

When I do a lot of workout (I do boxing) and felt very inflamed, a sauna and/or a cryo session will help to reduce inflammation so I sleep a bit better at night. I have yet to get enough data to measure the statistical significance of this one. And obviously late sport is linked with longer time to fall asleep + higher temperature + less sleep in general.

7. Make sure to test/add the solutions one by one and to measure their effects so that you can find what actually solves your issues. For each of the via positiva solution, make sure to look into the potential side effects / interactions with other things you do/take in life.

I try not to use multiple solutions on the same day but I try several of them during the same week. I try to randomly chose which solution to use. This is so that I get a representative sample, not impacted by doing a given action on weekends only, or during summer/winter only etc. Once I have more than a year of data I will be able to do my analysis. I will post the results alongside statistical evidence (on my self so n=1 and everyone is different) later.

We also need Oura Ring to actually add access to tags via their cloud, which is still not the case. Without tags, any analysis using solely their cloud is pointless really. The good thing with their cloud is you can access their data directly via their API and do your analysis in Python for example. I will publish my Jupyter Notebook with my analysis.

As usual, any question, please let me know.