How to Get the Deepest Sleep of Your Life

Sleep is an important part of personal health, but many people struggle to maintain healthy sleep habits.

16:49 16 March 2016

If you have trouble getting enough restful sleep every night, you are not alone. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than one-third of American adults do not get enough sleep on a regular basis.

Luckily, there are tools and techniques that can help. Here is a look at some ways you can get the best sleep of your life and catch up on that accumulated sleep debt.

Get in a Rhythm

The human body finds wakefulness and restfulness along a circadian rhythm. The National Sleep Foundation reports that an adults' best sleep periods occur between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. and in the afternoon between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Take advantage of this natural sleep rhythm to help you sleep better and deeper by maintaining a sleep schedule.

Start by setting a bedtime and wake-up time and sticking to it. This helps you establish a natural rhythm that your body can get used to. It won't take much time until sleep comes more naturally and easily.

Use Sleep Tools

Developing better and deeper sleep is easier if you use a sleep tracker to gauge how well you are already sleeping. For instance, the Beddit tracker is a micro-thin ribbon that attaches to your bed and measures your quality of sleep. It tracks how many hours you slept, your resting heart rate, your sleep cycles, how long it takes for you to fall asleep, and if you were snoring.

If you don't want to attach something to your bed or body, try a sleep app on one of the latest smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S7. Apps like Sleepbot can do many of the things that physical trackers can't do, such as giving you a detailed sleep history, setting smart alarms, silencing texts and calls, and notifying you of what your missed when you wake up.

Let in the Sunshine

Modern habits and activities may be tricking your body and brain into maintaining a bad sleep rhythm. Fortunately, a little natural light can help you remedy this. If you work indoors, go outside and get some sunshine throughout the day to help your body find its natural sleep rhythm. Spending long periods of time away from natural light can impact your daytime wakefulness and can trick your brain into thinking it is time to sleep.

On the other hand, bright lights at night, such as those from energy-saving LED lights, televisions and computer screens, make your body think that it’s daytime. This also impacts your sleep pattern. Dim your lights at night and try to minimize how much you're using your electronics. You also should turn off the TV instead of falling asleep in front of it.

These three tips are simple ways to get deeper, more restful sleep. Follow them and you may find your sleep health is improved overnight