7 Best Tips and 13 Biohacks to Improve your Sleep and Beat Insomnia

“Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day”

Matthew Walker

Sleep is the absolute foundation of your mental health, your physical health, and your performance in all endeavors.

If you want to optimize your health, be more productive, gain muscles and burn fat — getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do.

Here we’ve gathered the most efficient tips and biohacks for improving sleep and beating insomnia.

Foundational Tips

Morning

1. View Sunlight within the first 30-60 min after waking.

As much as you can. At least 10 minutes on a sunny day and 20 minutes on a cloudy. Don’t stare straight on Sun! 

Sunlight activates intrinsically photosensitive melanopsin cells in your retina, which send signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which in turn sends a huge number of signals out to your entire body, that triggers cortisol increase and provides a wake-up signal for your brain and body.

Light viewing early in the day is the most powerful stimulus for wakefulness throughout the day. Also, it has a powerful, positive impact on your ability to fall and stay asleep at night [1, 2, 3]. 

If you wake up before sunrise — turn on bright artificial lights and view sunlight once the sun has risen.

2. Maximize your Cortisol levels in the morning.

Cortisol, also known as “Stress Hormone” helps your body to wake up.

You want high cortisol in the morning, to be energetic. And you want low cortisol in the evening, to fall deeply asleep. 

There are 3 main ways to increase morning cortisol. It’s better to use them all.

• Morning sunlight.
• Exercises or at least some movement: walking, jogging, calisthenics, etc.
• Deliberate Cold Water exposure: cold shower, cold bath. 

Evening 

3. Avoid Caffeine intake after 2 p.m.

You may not be able to relax naturally when you consume caffeine late in the day because caffeine stimulates your nervous system.

Caffeine stays in your blood for 6–9 hours. Therefore, drinking coffee after 2 p.m. can significantly worsen sleep quality [4].

4. Avoid Bright Light in the evening, especially Blue Light.

Avoid bright artificial lights of any color in the evening, because that would wake up your brain and body and disrupt your sleep [2]. 

Moreover, avoid any kind of blue light (TV, screens, led lights, cold artificial light). Blue light significantly decreases the production of melatonin – the sleep hormone [6, 7, 8].

Use blue light blockers (glasses) and blue light filters for screens (f.lux) if you need to watch screens after sunset.

5. Avoid alcohol.

Alcohol inhibits melatonin [9, 10, 11] (sleep hormone) and somatotropin [12] (growth hormone) secretion, which dramatically decreases sleep quality.

6. Avoid eating late in the evening.

As well as alcohol intake, eating late at night dramatically affects both sleep quality, and melatonin and growth hormone release [13, 14, 15, 16, 17].

7. Go along with your Circadian Rhythm.

The circadian rhythm of your body aligns itself with sunrises and sunsets.

Go to sleep and wake up at the same time. Irregular sleep patterns alter your circadian rhythm and levels of melatonin, which cause poor sleep quality [18, 19, 20]. 

Biohacks for Better Sleep

Supplements

You can use one or some combination of them. 

1. Magnesium threonate 150 mg [21, 22]. 

2. Apigenin 50 mg [23].

3. L-Theanine 100-400 mg [24, 25]. 

4. Glycine 2g [26, 27] + GAВA 100-300 mg [28]. 

5. Myo-Inositol 900mg [29].

6. Valerian root 500 mg [30, 31, 32].

7. Ashwagandha 250-500 mg [33, 34, 35].

Foods for Sleep

8. Herbal teas for better sleep and against insomnia.

To improve sleep quality drink herbal tea with Melissa, Chamomilla, and Lavender — 1 hour before bedtime [36, 37, 38, 39, 40].

9. Tryptophan-rich foods.

In order to synthesize melatonin, your brain needs an amino acid called Tryptophan. 

Products that are rich in tryptophan: chicken, turkey, salmon, beef, pumpkin and sesame seeds, eggs, and tofu [41]. 

Other Biohacks for Sleep

10. Sleep in a cool room.

Set up your bedroom temperature at 64-68 degrees Fahrenheit or 18-20 degrees Celsium [42, 43]. 

11. Avoid any light at night, even dim.

Early in the day, you need a lot of light and photons, but at night even a little bit of artificial light can mess up your circadian clocks [44, 45].

You can use sleep masks, but not tight.

12. Take a hot bath or shower before sleep.

That will compensatory cool down your body temperature and improve the quality of sleep and facilitates earlier sleep onset [46].

13. Try and practice Yoga Nidra.

Yoga Nidra is a promising intervention for sleep disorders because of its purported ability to induce mental, physical, and emotional relaxation [47, 48].

To enhance the effect of Yoga Nidra, also use a PEMF device, such as AmpCoil. 
It will help you relax, recharge, reduce inflammation and improve blood circulation!

SUMMARY

Foundational tips for sleep

1. View sunlight within the first 30-60 min after waking.
2. Maximize your Cortisol in the morning: sunlight, exercise, cold water.
3. Avoid Caffeine intake after 2 p.m.
4. Avoid Bright Light in the evening, especially Blue Light.
5. Avoid alcohol.
6. Avoid eating late in the evening.
7. Go along with your Circadian rhythm.

Biohacks for sleep

1. Magnesium threonate 150 mg.
2. Apigenin 50 mg.
3. L-Theanine 100-400 mg.
4. Glycine 2g + GAMA 100-300mg.
5. Myo-Inositol 900mg.
6. Valerian root 500 mg.
7. Ashwagandha 250-500 mg.
8. Herbal tea: Melissa, Chamomilla, and Lavender.
9. Tryptophan-rich foods: chicken, turkey, pumpkin seeds, eggs, tofu.
10. Sleep in a cool room.
11. Avoid any light at night, even dim.
12. Take a hot bath or shower before sleep.
13. Try and practice Yoga Nidra.

Bonus

🔥 Here you can find product codes with discounts up to $500 for some great biohacking products that can help you stay healthy and sleep well! 

• AmpCoil ($99 off)
• BioStrap (10% off)
• BrainTap (Free 15-day Gift)
• The Crystal Blanket (15% off)
• BiOptimizers supplements (10% off)
• CellCore Supplements (Free Consultation) 
• Dry Farm Wines (Extra bottle for 1 Penny!)

⭐ And here are some amazing Beautifully Broken Podcast Episodes related to this topic:

• #117 The MAGIC of Peptides with Nathalie Niddam (Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify)
• #32 The Fasting Mimicking Diet, Deep Sleep, and the Copilot Experience with Laura McKowen (Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify)
• #30 A Nobel Prize and Doubling Life Expectancy with Chris Burres (Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify)
• #20 Biological Dentistry, Biohacking and Breathing with Gene Sambataro (Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify)

This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.