From your daily habits to what’s on your plate, including the last thing you do before bed, here are all the levers you need to activate to improve your sleep.
Early dinner…
There is no ideal dinner time, but it is important to keep this meal away from bedtime. “When we digest, the food we eat burns and produces heat, this is called postprandial thermogenesis. However, in order to sleep deeply, the body temperature must drop, so you have to wait long enough for all the nutrients to be digested before going to sleep,” says Gilles Mittier, Diabetes and brain, Inserm nutrition laboratory.
And not too heavy
In order to get a good night’s sleep, laborious digestion is the first thing to avoid, and for a simple reason. “By requiring more effort and energy from the body, it disrupts sleep,” explains nutritionist Laurence Plumey. Therefore, it is better to avoid fatty, heavy and sweet food. “Cooked animal fats, large amounts of protein or even raw vegetables are particularly difficult to digest,” explains nutritionist Laetitia Villerval.
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Set a digital curfew
As a reminder, screens, their content, and the blue light they emit are harmful to sleep. To give your body and brain the ideal conditions to sink into the night, you should put your phone away 30 minutes to 2 hours before bed, depending on the profile, says Professor Pierre Philippe, head of the department of medicine at the university. sleep at the University Hospital of Bordeaux. Therefore, the goal is to avoid exposure to blue light, which is known to disrupt the production of melatonin, also called the sleep hormone. The latter increases in the evening, signaling to our brain that it is time to sleep, it rises at night and falls around the time of awakening. “The exposure to blue light can therefore push back the peak of melatonin secretion, causing a delay in sleep,” comments the doctor.
Walk during the day
During the day, we will seek to increase our physical effort to optimize our deep sleep, which occurs after the sleep phase, just before paradoxical sleep, and which is considered by experts to be our physical and mental central pillar. “Riding a bike, going to and from work, moving around will allow you to better regulate hormones such as prolactin and interleukin, two allies of recovery during deep sleep,” comments neuroscientist Arnaud Rabat.
Exposure to blue light can delay the peak of melatonin secretion, causing delayed sleep.
Professor Pierre Philippe, Head of the University Sleep Medicine Department at the University Hospital of Bordeaux
Adopt the “10-3-2-1-0” method
Created in 2016 by Canadian personal development coach and author Craig Ballentine, it consists of 5 bedtime rules to help you fall asleep and avoid waking up in the night. 10 represents the number of hours before bed and during which no more coffee should be consumed. 3 means the number of hours during which you should not eat or drink alcohol before bed. 2 for the number of hours before bed during which all work is prohibited, 1 for the hour before bed in which we disconnect from the screen, and 0 for the times when we delay getting up in the morning. The method is not revolutionary, but contains medical truths, explains psychiatrist Patrick Lemoine, who specializes in sleep. For example, caffeine can actually prevent sleep, a late dinner and the digestive work it requires will disrupt the night, and alcohol “decreases sleep quality, causes apnea, and leads to dehydration that wakes you up during the night.” he says
Complete a sleep diary
A better understanding of your overall sleep needs is important so you can then apply the rules and ensure quality nights. “Try to keep a sleep diary during your summer vacation, ideally from the second week of vacation,” suggests neurologist Arnaud Rabat. By freeing yourself from social and professional constraints, you are more likely to reflect your true physiological needs, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Once the schedule is established, we set fixed sunrise and bedtime times based on our schedule. “Sleep likes regularity,” summarizes neurologist Dr. Steven Loris.
Find out if you are a morning or evening person
Another experience is that it may be preferable to refine your sleeper profile and thus sleep the number of hours that suit you. This is the circadian typology questionnaire by Swedish researchers Jim Horn and Olov Östberg. With twenty questions about our daily routine, this test allows us to find out whether we are “completely”, “moderately” or “completely” a morning or evening person. Do it, of course, with a calm head and not just before going to bed.
Play sports
It is impossible to sleep well without taking care of your daily lifestyle. Engaging in physical activity during the day will naturally facilitate sleep and allow for deeper sleep. “Physical activity regulates our weight, improves our cardiovascular capacity and helps us manage our emotions, three factors that contribute to good sleep,” explains psychiatrist Isabelle Poirot. Be careful, however, not to exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime. Physical activity increases body temperature, which makes it difficult to sleep. Therefore, we need to give the body time to cool down.
Physical activity regulates our weight, improves our cardiovascular capacity, and helps us manage our emotions—three factors that contribute to good quality sleep.
Isabelle Poirot, psychiatrist
Avoid sleeping
Excessive, strong rhythm fluctuations lead to less restorative nights. “The body needs regularity to be able to create ‘sleep windows’, i.e. moments during which the quality and depth of sleep are optimized,” says Armel Rancilak, neuroscience researcher and sleep specialist at Inserm. By deviating from our normal schedule, certain hormones, such as melatonin, will not have time to synthesize, resulting in a less restful night. That is why the specialist recommends going to bed and waking up at the same time on the weekend as during the week, give or take an hour or two.
Lower the brightness in the evening
We need to “simulate” the sunset at home by gradually reducing the brightness or limiting our exposure to our smartphone screens. Once in bed, you should also make sure to close the shutters or curtains to sleep in total darkness, keep the temperature in your room as low as possible and a quiet sound environment.
Breathe in the 4-7-8 method
Here’s something to help you relax. The method is inspired by yoga. We begin by touching the roof of our mouth with the tip of our tongue, just behind the incisors (we maintain this position throughout the session), then exhale the air from our lungs through our mouth. Then:
1) Close your mouth and inhale through your nose for a count of 4.
2) We hold our breath, mentally counting to 7.
3) Exhale loudly through your mouth for a count of 8. After three repetitions of 4-7-8, you should feel a mild tingling sensation.
Source: Le Figaro
