Sleep is a tricky thing. Sometimes you can drop straight off, and sometimes you end up tossing and turning well into the night. Figuring out how to sleep better might seem hopeless. In fact, there are quite a few simple, tried-and-true techniques and habits that will help—things that have been developed by experts in the field who have long been pondering the issue.
Some of them are about what you do when you’re in bed. Some of them are about your routine just before you go to bed. Others are about what you do during the day, because sleep is part of a biological cycle in which our waking hours play a crucial role too. So if you’re wondering how to sleep better, here are eight straightforward, expert-approved hacks that are sure to help with shut-eye.
Ciara McGinley, meditation expert and founder of Finding Quiet
Focus on your breathing: If you’ve finished a really difficult day at work, your body isn’t just going to switch off automatically when you close your laptop. Sometimes you need to take a bit of time to get yourself out of your nervous system’s fight-or-flight response. So when you get into bed, or when you’re getting ready for bed, take a few minutes to do a
gentle breathing exercise or a mindfulness practice. The box breathing exercise is the most beginner friendly: you’re inhaling for a count of four through the nose, pausing the breath for a count of four, exhaling through the mouth for a count of four, and pausing on the exhale for a count of four, and you’re imagining a box in your mind as you do it. It’s a really nice way to focus the mind on something other than your thoughts.
Take time to wind down before bed: It could just be 30 minutes before you want to go to sleep, doing things that don’t stimulate the brain—relaxing things, like having a warm shower or listening to some
brown noise as you’re getting ready for bed. I’ve had clients who worked in London and were coming home after a long day, getting straight into bed, and expecting their body to just turn off because they felt tired—but their mind was still buzzing with ideas and their nervous system was still on high alert. No matter what time you’re getting into bed, you need to prepare the mind and body for sleep. —
Josiah Gogarty
Read on for 6 more hacks for better sleep. 
