14 science-backed ways to sleep better by Kevin Loria on Jun 2, 2017, 11:31 AM Advertisement
 If you have a few days off over the summer, there's one thing you can do to take care of yourself that will significantly change your life for the better — try to fix your sleeping schedule. More than a third of Americans don't get the seven to nine hours of sleep a night that the CDC recommends. Some people think they can function on less, but usually that's because the sleep-deprived brain loses the ability to tell when it isn't functioning right after just a few nights of short sleep. Getting better sleep can change your life in powerful ways. Simple, everyday adjustments may be all that some people require for better sleep, but there are also things that true insomniacs can do to soothe sleep troubles. Business Insider has reviewed a number of studies and interviewed sleep experts to figure out how to best transform your sleep habits. Here are 14 science-backed tips. SEE ALSO: How to go beyond diet and exercise to incorporate a 'third pillar of fitness' into your training 1. Figure out how much sleep you really need.  Our daily schedules while we're working is often anything but natural. It ignores our individual chronotype (whether we're night owls or morning people) and forces us onto a societal sleep schedule instead of an individual one. Plus, anxiety can make natural sleep difficult. So the next time you have a few days off, go to sleep when you are tired and see how long you naturally sleep — you need a few days for your body to relax and tell you your needs. Most likely, you'll find yourself sleeping seven to nine hours. Take a look at your other habits too. Do you normally watch TV right until you want to get into bed? Do you give yourself any time to get ready for sleep before you actually want to be asleep? Do you do eat or drink anything late at night? You can't change habits until you are aware of what you are already doing.
2. Pick a bedtime.  Don't try to go to bed "as early as possible" — that's a vague goal, which makes it almost impossible to achieve. Instead, plan ahead. Do you want to be up by 7:00? Did your vacation experiment show you that you really need eight hours, not six? Then get in bed by 11:00, if not a little before. Try to stick to your bedtime as closely as possible, even on weekends. But don't freak out if you change your routine every so often. Exceptions are okay.
3. Set some rules for the future.  Since you've already taken note of your habits, you can now start re-building your bedtime routine to train yourself to sleep. Set rules that will help you relax. Maybe dim the lights and turn off the TV an hour before bed. One big one: never do anything work-related in bed, including checking your email or social media accounts. If you associate your bed with work, it'll be much harder to relax there. That old advice about reserving your bed for sleep and sex is pretty solid — even if 9 out 10 Americans ignore it — but really, just make sure you don't do anything in bed that isn't relaxing.
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