Big boy needs his sleep.

We often hear how important sleep is, how it’s the key to recovery, how it’s so essential for brain function; however, most of us, myself included, have neglected sleep. We, as men, have, for the most part, paid close attention and attempted to control every aspect of our lives, but we systematically and continuously neglect our sleep.
Ask yourself, how often have you sacrificed sleep? How often have you traded in glorious hours of rest and recovery for a night out, or, perhaps cramming for finals?

I don’t need to tell you the importance of sleep and the physical and mental impact lack of sleep has, instead, I’ll include sources below for you to review if you wish, and, will also include sources to everything I discuss here as quickly as we can, since it’s going to be quite long.

The breakdown:
When you sleep, your body sends you through stages of sleep, and most of you have heard of the sleepy cycles (think light and deep sleep), what is often overlooked is the time in which one enters these stages. Typically, sleep cycles last roughly 90 minutes. What does this mean for you? You should time your sleep accordingly.

If you wake yourself in the lighter stages of sleep, it’s much easier to get up, and, takes far less time for you to get going; therefore, you should adjust your bedtime accordingly. An easy way to calculate for those who aren’t mathematically gifted is this:
1 sleep cycle = 1.5 hours
2 sleep cycles = 3 hours
4 sleep cycles = 6 hours

The 4th cycle is the minimum you should be getting, but it sets an easy marker and makes calculating the sleep needed/wanted.

Since most people will feel more comfortable with about 7 hours, we must add another sleep cycle, resulting in seven and a half hours (7.5) which I’ve found to work well for me.

Now that you have a very basic understanding how sleep cycles work, we must work to manipulate everything to work in our favor, allowing us to maximize sleep.

Humans are creatures of habit, so we must develop a system prior to bed, to let your body know you’re going to sleep. Think Pavlov.
It may be difficult, but you should try to get to sleep at around the same time as best as you can. The more you become accustomed to sleeping at the same time, the easier it is for your body to know what it must do. It drastically reduces the tossing and turning at night trying to get yourself to sleep.
Another aspect that most people neglect is when they should sleep and when they should wake up with regards to their sleep cycle. Most of you are thinking “ill just go to bed 7.5 hours before I plan to wake up”, which, isn’t too far off, but we need to take into account how we fall asleep as well.

Something to incorporate into your life is meditation. There's a bunch of information out there and even more misinformation. The easiest way (assuming you’re a beginner) is to download an app called insight timer.
Once installed, go to the guided section, click the search bar, and type in tara brach. Her first video is Vipassana (basic) meditation. Do that before bed. Meditation will slow down your thinking, heartbeat, and and put you not only in a better mood, but allow you to be better suited for sleep.

One does not simply put his head on the pillow and stroll off to wonderland. It takes roughly 15 minutes for the average person to sleep. This number varies between person to person more so than sleep cycles that are needed, so adjust this number accordingly. That being said, if you do fall asleep within 15 minutes, add that to the amount of sleep you wish to have, and go to bed then. For a person wanting 7 hours and 30 minutes of sleep, should go to bed 7 hours and 45 minutes before he needs to wake up.  15 minutes is the average time for people to fall asleep.

Continuing with the theme of habit, stretching is one of the best things you can do prior to bed. Personally, I foam roll on top of stretching some 45 minutes before bed and really have at it. Relaxing the muscles will help you fall asleep and is another step you can add to your creating of habits to help with sleep.

The most common problem people face is blue light. Whether it be computer screens, TV’s, pretty much any light bulb blaring in your face, these lights mess up your circadian rhythm.

The circadian rhythm, for those who don’t know, is the body’s internal clock. When nighttime rolls around, your body is supposed to start shutting you down and sending your ass to bed. Blue lights conflict with this cycle, tricking your body into thinking it's still daylight.

So what can be done?

One of the easiest and most cost effective way is to install f.lux on your computer
The program can be found here: https://justgetflux.com/

This program adapts your screen to the time of day, gradually becoming redder. The idea is, it reduces the blue light, and by doing so, not only strains your eyes less, but reduces the effect of blue light on your sleep.


The same should be done for your phone, but I’m not quite sure how to do so for the iphone. I’m sure some googling around will yield some results, but for android users, there's twilight. Same concept as f.lux, but on your phone.

While these apps help, they don’t eliminate the entirety of the problem. For that, you’re going to have to open up your wallet, but I promise, it’ll be well worth it.

Blue light blocking glasses can eliminate most of the blue light coming your way, and can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/ESSENTIALS-E-801-C1-Protection-Resistant-52-18-135/dp/B00G04DGYW/ref=pd_sim_469_6?ie=UTF8&dpID=3105-nm%2Bv8L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1VPW6NQ0BVK6K0TSPK7G

or

http://www.amazon.com/Uvex-S1933X-Eyewear-SCT-Orange-Anti-Fog/dp/B000USRG90/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456300594&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+light+blocking+glasses

It’s super cheap, and, if worn as the sun sets (most people just wear it an hour before bed), blocks the blue light from disrupting your rhythm, and, as night falls, will allow you to quickly and easily fall asleep.

While we’re on the subject of light, one should eliminate all forms of light coming into the room when one is in bed. Either get a sleep mask (they’re cheap as well), or go with the free version: hanging some things on your window to prevent light from getting in. When it's bed time, and all the lights are off, you should be able to put your hand in front of your face and not see it.

Another thing I have incorporated along with the glasses is the gradual dimming of the lights in my home. In my room for example, I have one main light to light everything up, and a hallway light.. About an hour before bed, I switch to the hall light. I’ve read that skin can absorbs the light (makes sense, because vitamin D), but read a few articles claiming that this could mess with one's sleep cycle as well. While I haven’t read enough to confidently claim it's true, my anecdotal evidence says it works.

Since lighting won't disrupt you, the only other thing left is sound. Either get a stereo to play white noise, or get ear plugs to deaden noises around you. I generally suggest keeping electronics away from the bedroom, but this can be the only exception. I would highly advise against taking your phone into the bed with you as well.

I personally enjoy brown noise, and play it during my prep stages for sleep. When I drop the melatonin, the brown noise come on. Brown noise has proven to be effective in helping one sleep, so, give it a shot. Play it before hand if you’re going to use ear plugs.
Supplementation:
While supplements aren’t necessary, they can be added to further increase not only the deep sleep one gets, but allow for one to adjust for the time they want to sleep as well as adjusting sleep cycles.

Melatonin:
You want a low dose of melatonin. The most common doses are 3-5mg but thats way to god damn high. You want something along the lines of 300mcg.

http://www.amazon.com/Sundown-Naturals-Melatonin-Tablets-tablets/dp/B000GG2I9O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456300005&sr=8-1&keywords=300+mcg+melatonin

http://www.powdercity.com/products/melatonin-powder

You can grab it from powdercity and it’ll be cheaper if you buy in larger quantities, but their single dose is 1mg. Cutting that into a 3rd from a tiny scooper can be difficult, but you can do it. If you have a scale to weigh your doses, definitely go this route or buy one.



Glycine:
Another supplement allows for you to stay in the deeper states of sleep. While this won't help you fall asleep, it will keep you there.  Taking this in 3g doses is optimal. It also tastes really sweet!

http://www.powdercity.com/products/l-glycine-powder-benefits

http://www.amazon.com/Now-Foods-Glycine-Capsules-100-Count/dp/B002J0RHTQ/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1456776320&sr=8-1&keywords=glycine