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rrggrr

1. Room temperature should be between 60 - 67 degrees F.

2. No electronics, games, and minimal to no blue light 30min to 1hour before sleep.

3. Do not exercise less than 3 hours before sleep. Exception: sex.

4. Coffee and other stimulants before 12pm, not after.

5. Avoid naps longer than 15 minutes day of.

6. Stretch before going to sleep, particularly if you experience minor restless legs or periodic leg movements.

7. Avoid alcohol, will reduce sleep quality.

8. Avoid stimulating TV, conversations or books before sleep.

9. Controversial: Sleep in late if you can. Adequate sleep is more important than consistent sleep rhythm. My opinion only.

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1. I am surprised how 15-19°C could be the temperature range for sleeping. That's just too cold; at least here in India. It's usually around 22°C (72°F) minimum people who have ACs, or the room temperature in temperate places like Pune and Bangalore. My friends say the same thing about SF at least. Is it common to sleep at this relatively cold (15-19°C) temperature in the USA? Also, there must be places/states where people don't use ACs, right?

3. I used to run at night for almost a year. Around 2-4 hours before sleep and very light dinnner after cooling down and then read a bit or so, or listen to soft/light music and fall asleep like a baby at around ~11PM and wake up at ~7pm (never set any alarms; still don't unless I've to catch an early flight or so). That was my best sleeping routine in a long time and I used to feel so awesome throughout the day. I've known people go for for a walk or so and then fall asleep after dinner.

5. Couldn't agree more. If I fall sleep during day it just pushes my sleeping rhythm off the track like anything. Very short naps (esp. after lunch or heavy lunch are quite nice)

9. That I have noticed in many people. I myself though could never really sleep in late, after college (in college or before I could sleep whenever I had an opportunity or wanted - like a lecture, bus, pillion riding etc - what blissfull times!), except some scenarios on some days that I could never pinpoint the reason for sleeping in late (but I feel exceptionally good on those days). So generally I am wide awake by 6.45-7.15AM no matter how late I fall asleep like an alarm clock :( So I try to fall sleep by 11PM.

Are these points your own observations like I've listed mine or established results from research?

Re: 1. I don't think it's a set temp as much as a difference from the daytime temps.

So for us average Americans, 15-19C (59 to 66F) would probably work well, depending on where you live in America.

The given temperature range tries to cover the optimal condition for a broad range of people. Optimal here means that below that many muscles that have to rest in the sleeping state are instead working to compensate the loss of heat (and with them also a bunch of neurons), above that you are kind of forced to move constantly to cool off by exposing the overheated parts of body. 15°C may be too cold for most, but it's ideal for overweight and obese people.

60-67F? That's cold. I live in Fl so if I were to let myself get used to that temp I would literally melt when I went outside.

76F is more reasonable here.

Easy in the winter, crack a window if necessary.

In the summer the A/C bill would be outrageous.

I find the humidity matters a lot, if its 73F and 95% humid I am uncomfortable. If its 75F with 30% I am fine. Also a ceiling fan really helps.

I wonder if it's the absolute temperature that's important or the delta.

3 seems controversial. Vigorous exercise before bed seems OK based on what I've been seeing:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20673290

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/04/sleep-...

"less than 3 hours"

I typically have to sleep with the TV on. I put on some boring documentary with a droning narrator. Otherwise my thoughts just keep me awake until I finally fall asleep from exhaustion.

You can achieve the same effect as the documentary by focusing on your breathing. Starting at 100, you count down with each breath. I've never gotten to zero after years of trying. Amusingly the stereotypical sheep counting method works wonders as well when your thoughts won't give you a break.

I can count a long way down by ones. The pattern is too obvious -- as it also is with even numbers, three, five, nine, ten. I find that counting down by 7s from 1000 does the trick. I can never get to 600 like that before I am asleep.

Yeah, or as someone else suggested too, reasonably easy math formulas like Fibonacci. I also used to advice this to my mates if they had too much to drink and became nauseous when trying to fall asleep.

This is simple advice, but was effective for me after some practice. For months, I had to fall asleep listening to podcasts because my brain would be thinking about work. I just couldn't shut it off.

I decided I couldn't live that way, so I worked on breathing techniques like this. After a couple of weeks, I could finally focus on breathing long enough to fall asleep.

I still have nights where it just doesn't work, but it's made a big difference in my life.

This may work for you but it doesn't work for me and a lot of others. Particularly after a stressful day the basic "10 tips" etc don't work. I've "counted" 300 sheep and gave up. I've counted down from 100. I've tried multiple youtube sleep hypnosis videos. Nothing seems to work after stressful days.

Have you tried ASMR videos?

Never heard of it until now. It's an interesting concept and sounded a little far-fetched but considering there's a reddit subreddit with 128k users I will definitely try it out.

Those creepy whisper videos make me cringe. Each to their own.

I can't help bursting out laughing after a while so it's not the best for sleep!

You can try the Fibonacci sequence instead, it's what I use during stressful moments in the daytime. I also focus on how the bed feels, since this draws attention away from the mentality of getting to sleep as a goal (which is counterproductive for the same reason that forcing yourself not to think about something doesn't work).

I hope this post doesn't sound patronizing as that is not my intention at all. I can definitely relate to the frustration you've described, but for other issues. Based on my own anecdotal experience, it's quite unlikely that you've exhausted all the possible solutions. At the very least, you don't have much to lose in trying one new thing.

I found a surprising source of motivation in books about the Eastern Front of WWII. I figure that if Soviet soldiers managed to survive in those circumstances, I can stay calm and collected in much more favorable conditions.

Don't worry the post didn't sound patronizing at all. I don't always have problems sleeping but I definitely believe I have a harder time than most people even on regular, mostly care-free nights. I definitely don't think I've exhausted all the solutions. I've tried many and they seem to work on "regular" days but they seem to become less effective the more I use them (or just not work on bad days). I sleep eventually either way though so I'm better off than others I think.

My sense is that needing a TV to sleep is a sign of a deeper issue, that of some underlying dissatisfaction or depression or boredom with life.

That is a possibility

The more likely possibility is that the background TV acts as "noise canceller", allowing your focus to hover between non-specific environmental sound, and your internal thoughts. Neither wins your attention, so your mind is at rest and you sleep.

The echo of our internal thoughts darting around as we approach sleep is quite normal. In the absence of TV background noise, the trick would be to not focus or chase or indulge the thoughts but "allow" them to simmer without your involvement, or allow them to pass by without looking at each one in depth; be indifferent from a distance. That's a technique not difficult to master, but is basically how to still your mind and go to sleep.

What? Preferring white noise like background TV has nothing to do with "underlying deep depression". I think anyone who suggests such a thing might be projecting their own issues of that nature.

> 8. Avoid stimulating TV, conversations or books before sleep.

That's no fun!

3- unless one is a woman. From my limited understanding, men get sleepy and women get 'activated' (lack for a better word).

I've seen a good number of data points to the contrary in one particular situation. There was an article about a vibrator alarm clock promoting starting the day with an orgasm, and pretty much every women commenting on the article mentioned how stupid an idea that seemed because they said it would put them right back to sleep.

I figured as much, that's why I said "my limited understanding" (for those who love downvoting and not explaining).

For the commenters below, true. Thanks for the replies all of you.

As an anecdotal contrast, I (male) get activated even when I'm very tired beforehand.

My "observations" from a "few" samples with a lot of data points is that females get very sleepy after quality #3.

You need a larger sample size. Get to work.

I break literally every single rule in your list regularly, and sleep amazingly well.

It's a list for people that have trouble sleeping. Just because A implies B, it doesn't mean that "not A" implies "not B".

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