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Anything important in life typically has its own routine .
Star athletes have a routine for practicing every single day in your professional life .
You probably have a routine of what you do in your office or your place of business .
Well , if sleeping well is important to you , you need to have a set routine .
What we're gonna focus on in this section is your nighttime routine .
What you do in those couple of hours before trying to fall asleep .
So pay attention , some of these you may have heard before .
Some will be new .
This first tip is one you've heard before .
If you've ever read any article about how to get better sleep or reduce insomnia , but few people actually practice it .
I have to stress .
This is absolutely critical if you want to increase the odds of sleeping .
And the tip is this at least one hour , preferably two hours before you're trying to fall asleep .
Turn off all of these and these and televisions , electronic screens jumble your brain at so many levels .
If you're watching Game of Thrones and it is right before you're about to fall asleep , you've got all these violent images and other images circulating in your brain .
If you're checking your email right before you're supposed to go to sleep and you get an email from an important client complaining about something , your brain is gonna go into a jumble of thinking of all the things you're gonna tell this client why they're wrong and why you're right .
It is going to agitate you too much .
It's going to destroy your ability to relax and drift off into sleep .
Now , if you have a job where your boss expects you to answer emails at 10 o'clock at night , first of all , I feel sorry and I realize in this economy you don't really need to hear me tell you get a better job , but it's time to start looking because long term this is destructive to your health .
If you let people know that they cannot expect you to respond to emails after a certain time , most of the time people will respect that people will treat you the way you ask to be treated .
So this is the first really huge habit .
You cannot be looking at screens right before you go to sleep .
This means don't fall asleep in front of the TV .
Oh , yeah .
But TJ , I , I always fall asleep in front of the TV .
I have no problem getting to sleep .
I wake up at three in the morning when you're waking up at three in the morning because you're falling asleep in front of a television .
So this is the first really , really huge tip .
As far as your evening routines , you've got to cut off all access to screens , your cell phone , in particular ipads , computers and televisions , a firm cut off .
So if you wanna be asleep at 10 , it means you're not looking at any screens after 9 p.m. So if I'm being mean and not letting you watch TV or Netflix or talk to friends on social media the last hour of the night , what are you supposed to do ?
My recommendation ?
Read an actual paper book .
I understand you can have Kindle and read a book online .
The problem with Kindle is it's too easy to get other notifications , other emails , you might be using it on an ipad .
You've got all this light going in your brain and even if you're using the , the Kindle on an actual Kindle and the light is not as bad , there's still that temptation to look at other notifications .
So my recommendation an old fashion , it can be a brand new book but a paper book , either a hardback or a paper book .
Here's a good read , a really interesting book .
This is Atomic Habits by James Clear , which is a great book .
And if you don't like that , maybe read a boring book .
This is a book my wife likes to read because she finds it boring and it helps her drift off to sleep faster .
It's great for your brain at many levels .
It's generally much more calming and you're stopping your brain from being bombarded with new messages from friends , clients , colleagues , professional commitments , people angry with you .
This has a profound , profound impact on your ability to not just fall asleep at a better time but to fall asleep with a peaceful mindset .
So get books , you can use library books , you don't have to spend any money , but get books , put them next to your bed or put them in a living room even better and not read in your bed .
And that's what you should do the last hour of the night .
In addition to staying away from cell phone screens , ipad screens , TV , screens , do everything you can to stay away from bright lights .
That bright light is telling your brain .
Hey , wake up , it's morning .
That's how we are hardwired from hundreds of thousands of years ago .
So the less bright light you can subject yourself to the better .
So try to keep dim lighting on in any room .
You're gonna be in the last hour or two before you go to bed .
Lighting is great for waking you up .
You want to expose yourself to light in the morning but not in the evening when you're trying to position yourself for a great night's sleep .
Here's the part where I sound really uncool and I recognize that I apologize for this .
But if you want to have the best night's sleep and you wanna reduce your chances of insomnia .
You need to go to bed at the same time every single night .
I realize if you're a teenager , you're a young , single person and going to parties and dating , that's hard to do .
But the whole idea of I'm gonna go to bed early during the week , stay up really late Friday , Saturday night .
It messes up the sleep schedule tremendously .
It's not how we are programmed to sleep .
My recommendation , pick a set time .
You want to go to bed every single night and then back up from that , if you know , you want to go to sleep at 10 , that means at nine o'clock , you have to stop watching movies , talking to friends on the phone , texting , going on Facebook , you've got to stop all of that at nine o'clock .
So figure out what time works for you and plan accordingly .
What else relaxes you ?
Everyone's different .
You might like to light a candle an hour before you go to bed in your bedroom .
You might like to listen to meditation music .
You might like to do a silent meditation .
I do my meditation in the morning , but you might like to do it in the evening .
The point is figure out a set routine and stick with it .
You want your brain to start associating certain activities with shutting down for the day ending things , getting calm , relax .
So whether it's taking a bubble bath , whether it is listening to really relaxing music , whether it is burning incense having a candle .
Figure out what works for you .
What puts you in a good relaxing mood and then stick to it , start it at a set time .
If you've turned off your TV , or you've stopped working , whatever it is you do at nine , you wanna be asleep at 10 , start that routine .
Then what's the temperature of your room ?
For most people ?
Again , everyone can be different .
But for most people , it's simply easier to get a good night sleep in a relatively cool room , 65 °F is typically the number .
Now you may want to adjust .
But if you're sweating , if you're too warm , it is going to impede your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep .
So try to regulate the temperature as much as possible , make it as cool as possible .
But where you are still comfortable , try to avoid the warmer room .
Now , presumably before you go to bed , you do have a set routine .
Whether you wash your face , floss , your teeth , brush your teeth , water , pick gargle all of those things , obviously continue to do that .
Here's something else I do .
That helps because I do wake up in the middle of the night sometimes with a dry mouth .
So I make sure to have a glass of water right next to my bed .
So I don't have to get up .
I don't have to turn on lights .
I don't have to fiddle with anything the glass of water is right there .
Now , I don't recommend that you use a bottle with a cap because if you're all of a sudden awake , dry mouth at three in the morning having to twist a cap and twist it on , that could be enough to agitate you keep you awake and then you don't get back to sleep .
I want it to be as simple as possible .
That's why I find nothing beats a simple glass of water .
That's a part of my presle routine every night to get that , put it next to the bed one last night time routine I have before going to bed and that is to consciously try to not drink anything a good three hours before bedtime 7 p.m. Since I wanna go to sleep at 10 could be different for you after 7 p.m. I try not to drink anything , water , alcohol , anything like that .
Because if I do , there's a much greater chance I'll have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet .
Now , this is an issue that is more likely to affect older people and especially older men .
But if you find that you ever had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet , then you may want to cut back on what you drink and when you drink it and try to reduce eating and drinking several hours before you go to sleep because the less you have to get up to go to the bathroom or the toilet , the easier it is to get a good night's sleep .