Better Tech, Better Sleep Pt. 3

(Continued from Part 2)

Our amazing tech is hijacking our sleep but we can flip that on its head.

The hardest part will be NO SCREEN TIME AN HOUR BEFORE BED. Good luck. It’s a struggle and I’m not above failing at this. My social media feed that is full of people jacking themselves up, puppies, and memes… it’s so enjoyable but I try and that’s all we can do.

When I took the 62Romeo sleep class, I was told to make my bedroom a sleep dojo and that’s what I did. No TV, phone gets plugged in out of reach and on “Do not disturb”. I try to block as much light as possible… I even have an eye mask for when I HAVE to get rest. Try to eliminate as much light and tech as possible. Your bedroom should be for two things… sleep and sex. That’s it. If you do this, your brain will start associating it with those things and will be primed to do one (or both) of those things.

Try breathing exercises. There are a lot of great apps (I know, it’s violating the “no tech” rule but this is very limited and you’ll learn them and ditch the phone quick). Breathing exercises will help slow your heart rate and calm you down, which will help you stay asleep.

Try a smart alarm clock like the Hatch Restore (I’m not promoting just this one but it’s what I have). There are a bunch of similar types and I’m sure they will offer similar results. What I like about this clock is I can schedule a “sleep routine” that helps me relax and get ready for sleep. It has a bunch of light options but I schedule mine to give me 30 minutes of red light while I do my breathing exercises and then the light goes out (no clock face/time shown) and it plays white noise (my fav is the dishwasher). If I have an alarm set for the next morning, it gradually increases the white/blue light I have set until my time and then it plays nice, melodic music to wake me up. I really like it when the light wakes me up before the sound… it’s way less jarring. 

So I don’t have an alarm clock that scares the piss out of me, like our alert tones do at work. Good. Now I’m going to need out on you. I like to know exactly how I’m sleeping. So I have a Whoop strap to track… everything but primarily I got it for my sleep. 

I also use a Withings Sleep Mat and between the two, I get a pretty good idea of how I actually slept.

I can see how I’m sleeping, how I’m recovering, are the night time rituals I’m doing actually doing ANYTHING?!?! You can get similar results off a Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin Watches, probably any smart watch. My point is, having DATA to show you how your sleep is, paired with how you are feeling could help you out. 

So there it is… my thoughts on tech for helping sleep and how to avoid it hurting you. Last thought, if you just CANNOT avoid using a device before bed, perhaps invest in some blue light blocking glasses or screen covers. These have been shown to be better than nothing and the settings on most devices can’t really eliminate ALL blue light.

Happy Sleeping!!