A good night's sleep is essential to lead a physically and mentally healthy day. If you have trouble sleeping peacefully, these websites and apps will ensure you are well rested from now on.
Medical professionals, mental health experts, and productivity gurus all agree that the critical building block for achievement is sleeping well. Yet so many of us have erratic sleeping patterns, undiagnosed sleep disorders, and poor sleep hygiene. And it's all easy to fix, as these tools show. It's a bunch of simple things you could do, like set up your bedroom differently, track patterns in a sleep diary, or journal your dreams.
1. Sleep Advisor (Web, YouTube): Sleep Science, Product Reviews, and Buyer's Guides
Sleep Advisor is a website dedicated to all things about sleeping. And if you prefer videos over text, it has a fantastic YouTube channel for all the essential information.
The first two sections, Sleep Science and Sleep Hygiene will educate you about anything and everything you need to know about getting a good night's rest. You'll learn scientifically backed secrets to sleep peacefully such as how sleep works, why it's important, disorders and medicines, best habits, ideal duration, and so on. There is a methodical, step-by-step approach to the whole thing that makes Sleep Advisor easier to read than most other sites.
Apart from the info, when you need to buy a new mattress, pillow, mouth guard, or other product, check the reviews on Sleep Advisor. But more than the reviews, pay attention to the Buyer's Guides. This is the real goldmine as Sleep Advisor talks about what you should and shouldn't look for in a product, which might not be something you think of quickly. It can save you money and give you a long-term product you love.
And do check out the Sleep Advisor YouTube channel. It isn't updated regularly anymore, but the library has some excellent videos. For example, there's a 10-minute yoga for better sleep, how to handle sleep anxiety, and a big collection of product reviews.
2. Sleepopolis (Web): 30-Day Challenge, Sleep Facts and Education
Much like Sleep Advisor, Sleepopolis offers several resources about sleep. The website has an extensive collection of sleep product reviews, such as mattresses, pillows, sheets, sound machines, and weighted blankets. If you need to look up a sleep product, you'll probably find it here. But there are two parts of Sleepopolis you should check out regardless of product reviews.
Sleepopolis's education section, Sleep A-Z, is a must-read for anyone who still has doubts about anything regarding sleep. It's broadly broken into five sub-sections: basics, health, disorders, medicines, and kids. Every article offers an in-depth understanding of topics like circadian rhythms, lucid dreams, anxiety, sleep debt, insomnia vs. hypersomnia, night terrors, and more. These articles are written by medical professionals and experts, so you can be assured of quality advice.
What's more, Sleepopolis also offers a 30 Day Challenge to improve your sleep. The Sleep Hygiene Plan has one new activity or item to incorporate into your sleep routine per day for four weeks so that by the end of the month, you're sleeping better than ever before. Go through the article to understand each step's benefits, and how to best implement it.
3. Biohacker's Handbook to Sleep (Ebook): Mind and Body Hacks to Better Sleep
The Biohacker Center in Finland is a collection of products and technologies to help the human mind and body achieve their full potential. The Biohacker's Handbook is an ebook guide to understand how to be at our best in different aspects of life. The first chapter, Sleep, is available as a free PDF sample to download.
The Biohacker's Handbook to Sleep is a 50-page ebook that dives into everything you might want to know about sleep and why it's essential. You'll learn how sleep affects health, productivity, and your body cycles, along with the different stages of sleep.
An entire section on tools to improve sleep will go into things that few resources talk about. For example, the handbook tells you how to set up your bedroom's lighting, bed, temperature, air quality, and other environmental factors. It recommends nutrients to take before sleeping, things to avoid, apps to measure and track sleep, and so on. And if you're a fan of power naps, make sure you read the tips for 20-minute and 90-minute naps, it's pure gold.
Download: The Biohacker's Handbook to Sleep (PDF)
4. Sleep Diary and Sleep Log (Printable): Track Daily Patterns to Find Sleep Disturbances
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recommends maintaining a sleep diary to figure out why you are feeling like you haven't rested enough. The idea is to track all the factors that can affect sleep, and figure out patterns, causes, and effects.
To this end, the AASM released a Two Week Sleep Diary as a free sheet to download and print. It has clear instructions for you to fill each box, which is pretty straight-forward. The sheet will ask you to track the type of day (work, school, holiday), caffeine, medicine, alcohol, and exercise. You will shade in boxes of sleep time, giving you a visual representation of your sleeping hours and patterns across two weeks.
Similarly, the Sleep Foundation offers a week-long Sleep Diary or a Sleep Log. Both track similar factors as AASM's printable, so choose whichever one of the three you like more as a format. Both of Sleep Foundation's printables try to make it easier by giving you half the things to fill when you wake up, and the other half before you go to sleep.
If you prefer the digital route instead of paper, try one of the best sleep apps to track and improve sleep. They won't have the same format but will measure the same metrics.
5. Dream (Web): Dream Journal, Alarm, Soothing Sounds, and Lessons
How we dream is intrinsically woven into how we sleep. Much like tracking sleep, you might need to track your dreams too. Dream is an all-in-one app for those who are looking to upgrade their sleep and dream cycles. It is primarily a dream journal but offers other features like soothing sounds to fall asleep to, an alarm clock, and lessons about sleeping soundly.
The dream journal, which includes a daily reminder, is a place to jot down whatever you remember about your dreams. As with most dream journals, it's best to do this as soon as possible after you wake up, so that you remember your dreams. Once you finish writing, Dream asks you whether it was a dream or a nightmare, what theme it had, and how you felt about it. Every word in the post can be used as a tag for you to look up the dreams later. Dream tracks your input and presents it in a simple chart.
The Lessons section offers a few educational articles and best practices. You'll learn how to sleep better, how to remember and be aware of your dreams, and lucid dreaming techniques like MILD, WILD, and WBTB.
Download: Dream for Android | iOS (Free)
How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Need?
Given the breadth of tools in this article, one or more of them should hopefully work for you to get a good night's sleep. But how many hours of sleep do you really need? Well, it's not a simple answer.
Generally speaking, the number scientists agree upon is somewhere between 7 and 9 hours. But there are caveats. Your age, lifestyle, medical conditions, stress levels, and other factors play into the ideal sleep time for you. You'll find several calculators online to determine the perfect amount. But if you're getting anywhere less than 7 hours of sleep on a regular basis, your body probably needs more.
