Get The Most of Your ZZZs With 14 Sleepmaxxing Tips

The amount of light in your bedroom is very important because even small amounts of light can affect the quality of your sleep. A dark room triggers your body to produce natural melatonin, which regulates the sleep/wake cycle. Use blackout curtains to get rid of natural light, shut off night lights and hallway lights and put your phone down one hour before bed to get rid of melatonin-disrupting blue light. If unwanted light is still affecting you, an eye mask may help.

Mouth tape can help you learn how to breathe through your nose, reducing snoring, alleviate dry mouth and lessen sleep apnea. This method of sleepmaxxing is popular, but controversial so definitely chat with your doctor first to make sure it's a fit for you. And if the idea of breathing through your nose feels challenging, you can get a nostril expander — like Breathe Right strips — to better open your nasal passages.

Everyone on TikTok recommends magnesium for sleep. While research is till emerging, magnesium does have a calming effect on the body and thereby could help relax you to sleep. There are several forms of magnesium, but the best for sleep seems to be magnesium glycinate, which is the easiest to absorb into the body. Take it at night, on an empty stomach for best results, but just be careful not to take too much since magnesium is a natural laxative, which is not conducive to sleep. As for melatonin, doctors are not recommending chromic usage as it may interfere with your body’s natural production, but it can be helpful for short periods, at a low dosage, to get you on a sleep schedule and help you to recover from jet lag.

Large meals should happen two to three hours before bed, but a little snack of a sleepy food (one that naturally contains magnesium or melatonin) is OK. Kiwi is high in serotonin, which can help regulate sleep patterns. Tart cherries contain melatonin, which regulates your sleep/wake cycle (remember 2023’s Sleepy Girl Mocktail?). Leafy greens, almonds and broccoli are all high in muscle-relaxing magnesium.

Joe Dispenza’s pineal gland meditation is viral right now for helping increase the catching of ZZZs. The pineal gland is also known as "the third eye" and it helps regulate the sleep/wake cycle and melatonin production. This meditation of slow inhalations and engaged muscles is said to help open the gland and leads to better sleep. We can’t say for sure if the science behind the meditation is sound, but if nothing else, meditation is a great way to relax.

Staying hydrated is great. Getting up constantly to pee in the middle of the night is not. Make sure you’re getting fluids during the day but slow down two hours before bed. A small sip is OK, but try not to chug before you snooze, lest you want a full bladder nudging you all night.

This one is going to surprise you but when it comes to wearing a smartwatch or smart ring to track your sleep — maybe don’t! The numbers can cause more anxiety about sleep than be helpful. The best way to track your sleep is to make sure you’re in bed for seven to nine hours a night and let nature take it from there.

Listen up night owls — you may think you can go to bed later and be fine, but studies show the earlier you go to bed, the better it is for you. Your body is on a circadian rhythm that syncs with the daylight and nighttime hours. When you go to bed early, it allows your body to cycle through more sleep cycles, attainting deeper sleep. You also release sleepy hormones like melatonin; epithalamine, which releases learning capacity; and ghrelin, which regulates your appetite. If you go to bed the same time every night and wake up the same time every morning, your body gets on a good schedule, making it easier for you to fall asleep and wakeup, without an alarm.

White noise is all frequencies of sound at once, which your brain interprets as no noise. This can be helpful blocking out city or snoring sounds around you. Play it at a medium volume for best results.

Put the coffee down six hours before bedtime. It may keep you awake, it’s a diuretic that makes you pee, and it can disrupt your sleep hormones. Even if you think you can pound espressos before bed, you’re likely not getting a deep sleep. And if you’re getting better sleep, you don’t need caffeine anyway.

Alcohol might make you feel sleepy initially, but it’s going to suppress REM sleep cycles which help with memory and emotional regulation. You’re going to have fragmented sleep, so go easy on the booze and especially before you turn in for the night.

Daytime exercise is great for sleep but it raises cortisol levels and alertness, which are both bad for sleep. You need to wind down before sleep, not ramp up. Try to keep your workouts two to three hours before bed so you have time to let your body settle.

Not only is sleeping in a cooler room more comfortable but cold temps (between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit) make more melatonin, which helps you regulate your sleep. When your body temperature drops, you’ll get into a deeper sleep cycle, too.

In the morning, get bright sunlight to wake you up and set your circadian rhythm for the day. At night, avoid blue light and maybe even get some red light therapy, via a mask or red light bulb. This will not disrupt your hormones like blue light has been shown in studies to do as red is at the opposite end of the light spectrum.