How to Get a Better Night's Sleep—and Why It Should Be Your Top Priority (Really)

A full night's sleep has implications for cognitive function, mood, metabolism, and even longevity. Here's how to optimize your shut-eye—from blue-light glasses to mindfulness tech.

"I don't have any trouble sleeping," I recently explained to my doctor. I squinted and clarified further. You see, I sleep like a rock. Or like a teenager. "I just don't sleep enough."

With mounting research in the field of sleep science, such a deficit spells exactly that: trouble. The body's circadian rhythm, a 24-hour clock that aligns with the planet as it spins from light to dark, operates something like a baton-wielding conductor—only here, instead of keeping violins and oboes in check, it governs such mechanisms as precisely timed hormone release, changes in core temperature, and a fluctuating heart rate. Disrupting that balance does more than knock the whole thing out of tune (call that jet lag). There's research linking a poor night's sleep to a slump in cognitive performance and mood. Traffic accidents and heart attacks spike even with the slight shift of daylight saving time (particularly in spring, though this weekend's so-called extra hour can still throw off sleep schedules for up to a week.) Long-term implications are particularly alarming, with studies showing increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, even Alzheimer's. (The brain's system for flushing out neurotoxic proteins ramps up during sleep.) There's good reason that last year's Nobel Prize in medicine went to a trio of scientists who made pioneering inroads into the study of circadian rhythm. Its implications are far-reaching.

Not that short sleepers should stress! There is room for troubleshooting. "Way back, people viewed sleep almost as a trait: 'I'm just not a good sleeper, and there's nothing I can do about that,' " says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., a Virginia-based neurologist and sleep specialist who, in addition to running a clinic, helps professional sports teams optimize performance. (That includes the L.A. Dodgers, even if a World Series win was not in the cards.) "Now, more and more people view sleep as something that's dynamic and modifiable," he says. Encouraging words, even for night owls living in an early-bird world. Here, expert advice on everything from naps to nightcaps. Good night, and good luck.

Reconsider the Drink Some of us are quick to metabolize an after-dinner espresso; others swear off caffeine after noon. That much we know. Less understood is the effect of alcohol consumption. While a nightcap gets touted as a liquid lullaby, "alcohol will actually fragment your sleep throughout the night," says Matthew P. Walker, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. A groggy morning is not the only downer. Alcohol suppresses the critical phase of sleep known as rapid eye movement (REM), when dreams fire up. REM plays a key role in cementing memories and learning. More than that, "dream sleep essentially helps reboot the emotional circuits of the brain," says Walker, likening it to "overnight therapy."

Set a Schedule The thing about circadian rhythm is just that: rhythm, regularity, routine. Start by establishing a daily wake-up time and sticking to it, says Winter, who suggests following it up with exercise, breakfast, and a dose of sunshine to alert the brain. That beats a set bedtime, he adds, because it's best to tuck in only when sufficiently sleepy—a wind-down process that has its familiar protocols. Yes, it's important to minimize exposure to light at day's end, whether that's by skipping screens in favor of books, wearing wavelength-filtering glasses, or installing dimmers. Blackout shades are smart (light exposure during sleep may be linked to insulin resistance). And a cup of chamomile—or CAP Beauty's new adaptogenic herb blend, Superior Shuteye, swirled into warm nut milk—is a good bodily cue. If a deadline (or rollicking party) sets you back, continue waking up at your usual time but sneak in afternoon naps as needed (at home; under your desk, George Costanza-style; or inside Casper's The Dreamery). "Most people believe that sleep debt can be made up; it just needs to be made up relatively quickly," says Winter.

Get Tech Support "The technology explosion of wellness and sleep is really staggering. How many mattresses do we need?" says Winter with a laugh. Along with silk eye masks, white-noise machines, and aromatherapy diffusers, there are plenty of mindfulness apps (Inscape, Headspace) to dial things down. Muse 2—a next-gen wearable headband, out this week, that senses brain waves, motion, heart beats, and breathing—takes another crack at meditation, using gentle musical cues to indicate when attention has veered or restlessness has crept in, like training wheels on a bike. "It's a practiceable skill," says Winter, who found Muse after basketball players reported having trouble sleeping after revved-up night games. "[With meditation] it's like shooting free throws in an empty gym. When you develop the skill and create a confidence around it, it changes that action."

Mine the Data And then there are the smart sleep trackers. Last year Fitbit rolled out a program called Sleep Stages, which incorporates heart-rate variability—the fluctuation of time between individual beats—to chart the topography of a night's rest: through light and deep sleep, REM, and the flickers of waking that often go unnoticed. Later this month, the company goes a step further, testing a beta program called Sleep Score, which will assign a nightly number grade. The mere thought might stress out straight-A perfectionists. (For comparison's sake, Conor Heneghan, Ph.D., director of research for algorithms at Fitbit, puts his usual score somewhere in the 70-something percentile.) But it's designed to offer quick insight—how that afternoon run or extra coffee affected sleep, for better or for worse. There's even a vibrating alarm mode, for those who wisely banish their other devices from the bedroom. Heneghan, who previously worked on medical-grade technologies around sleep apnea, sees promise in these everyday interventions. "Most medical conditions, they start out with long-term choices we make around diet and exercise and sleep," he says, echoing why I've recently slapped on my very first Fitbit, in search of a stern-parent effect at bedtime. "If you encourage people to live healthier when they're young, you can hopefully avoid a lot of issues later in life." In the meantime, maybe we'll land some wild dreams.