How to Get Your Best Sleep Ever (Even If You've Tried Everything)

If you're exhausted but lying awake at night, struggling to fall asleep even though you're really tired, I want to share some sleep hygiene practices that will truly change your life. Because when you're sleeping better, you're going to have more energy, and that changes everything!

I know you've probably heard all the standard advice. Blue light blockers. Take magnesium before bed. Keep your room cold. Get off your screens.

And yes, you should do all of those things. But I want to give you all the science-backed things to focus on to help you get your best sleep ever.

The Real Reason You Can't Sleep

No one is talking about how sleep is actually a learned neurological response. If you've worked up so much hype around not sleeping and the stress around it, that in itself is going to be a huge hurdle. Your brain is constantly threat scanning. So when you're lying there thinking "I need to go to sleep. I have two more hours and then I'll only get five hours," your brain interprets that as stress. And a stressed brain doesn't sleep well.

5 Sleep Hygiene Practices That Actually Work

Make Your Bed a Sleep-Only Zone

Bed is for sleep and that is it. Don't be reading books, watching TV, or eating snacks in bed. I want your brain to think and remember, "I go to my bed. I lay down. It's dark. I fall asleep." We want to make a pattern here so your brain associates your bed with sleep.

Stop Eating 3-4 Hours Before Bed

Try to have your last meal four hours before you go to bed. Focus on a blood sugar balanced dinner with protein, carbohydrates, fat, and fiber. Half your plate non-starchy veggies, a minimum of 30 grams of protein, and your fat and carb. I love a starchy carb for dinner, like a sweet potato or lentils. Very satiating and supportive of your sleep.

This allows insulin to come down, melatonin to rise, and cortisol to not be spiking all over the place. Melatonin and insulin have an inverse relationship. When insulin is elevated, melatonin is suppressed.

If you're constantly snacking before bed or eating really late meals, insulin stays elevated to help get glucose into your cells. So melatonin is lower. This delays your sleep, makes it hard to fall asleep, reduces your sleep depth, and increases nighttime wakeups.

Wake Up at the Same Time Every Single Day

This is the part that makes people cry, but wake time matters more than your bedtime. No matter how late you go to bed, focus on a consistent wake time.

The brain loves patterns. If you constantly have this consistent wake time, your brain knows that and it speeds up your sleep cycles. Wake up at the same time even on the weekends. Consistency is what trains your brain.

Create a Simple, Consistent Nighttime Routine

It doesn't need to be fancy. It just needs to be the same thing and predictable. I use the app Refocus to shut down work apps on my phone and I do a little red light before bed.

It can be as simple as brushing your teeth, putting on lotion, putting your hair up, and putting your pajamas on. I don't really care what you do. Just make sure it's consistent.

Try the Hot Bath or Shower Trick

Try a really hot bath or shower twenty to thirty minutes before bed. It raises your core body temp and when you get out, your body temp drops rapidly, mimicking your natural temperature decline before sleep. It's not the warmth that makes you sleepy, it’s the cool down afterwards.

The Body Scan Technique for Falling Asleep

If you're laying there and can't fall asleep, try this. Imagine relaxing your toes. When they're fully relaxed, imagine both of your feet being totally relaxed. Then your ankles and the rest of your leg. You can even tighten and then relax that muscle as you go through and feel your entire body relax.

When to Dig Deeper

What if you're doing everything right and you're still not sleeping? Now let's look further. Do we have extreme mineral depletion? Calcium utilization is a big one that impacts sleep. Maybe there's some hormone imbalance. Maybe there's chronic stress patterns. Maybe there's a lot of blood sugar instability.

Sleep isn’t really a root problem. There's something impacting your sleep that we can dig deeper into. If you want to do testing and find out what’s affecting your sleep, we can do that inside the Hormone Reset Program®. 

Getting Your Best Sleep Ever Starts Today

The beautiful thing about all of this is that getting your best sleep ever doesn't have to be complicated. Sleep is literally a skill that you can relearn! Start with just one or two things. Maybe it's moving your dinner earlier. Maybe it's committing to a consistent wake time. Maybe it's creating that simple nighttime routine that signals to your brain it's time for rest.

Give yourself the new routine, the new support and give it seven to 14 days consistently. And see if you notice a difference. Chances are you probably will!

Start Thriving with the Energy You Deserve!

If you're ready to stop just surviving on minimal sleep, get the testing and personalized protocol you need inside the Hormone Reset Program®. Let’s identify exactly what's keeping you up at night and create a personalized plan to fix it for good!