It’s still dark outside; I’m tossing around, and I can’t fall back asleep. It’s 4 a.m. I start thinking about work and deadlines, feeling too anxious to fall asleep yet too tired to wake up and function. I eventually get out of bed, exhausted, heading straight for a cup of coffee—the first of many to keep me going through the day…
Does that sound familiar?
That was me in 2019 while surviving a high-pressure job—a walking zombie.
Sleep deprivation is torture for the human body and brain.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, adults should sleep a minimum of 7 hours a day. Continuous sleep deprivation leads to cardiovascular issues, earlier Alzheimer's, increased risk of diabetes and obesity, memory loss, depression and more.
We all need our beauty sleep, and I was desperate to get mine, so my husband, Dave, gave me a sleep-tracking ring for my birthday called Oura. I have worn it day and night for five years, and my sleep quality has increased significantly.
So has my quality of life: I’m more productive, healthier and happier.
In 2023, I published 3 books and wrote over 300 articles on Medium. A big part of it was thanks to quality sleep.
How?
By learning the science behind sleep, I understood how to optimize the precious hours we devote to our pillow every night.
By analyzing data over months and years, I was able to extract patterns and see the impact my lifestyle had on the quality of my sleep - and vice-versa.
This knowledge triggered self-awareness and made me conscious of how important it is to dedicate one third of our day to something as seemingly unproductive as sleeping.
Nothing could be further from the truth: ironically, the better your sleep, the higher your productivity.
What I learned
The key learning was that sleep and quality sleep are 2 very different things.
If you want high-quality repairing and restorative sleep, you must be intentional and make compromises in your lifestyle. Small changes can lead to phenomenal results.
By investing just a little in enhancing the quality of sleep and getting more REM and deep sleep consistently, you start to see your cognitive ability spike and an increase in motivation and focus.
Nothing beats the feeling of waking up fresh and rested, ready to conquer the world - and the keyboard!
The different types of sleep
There are different stages of sleep, and they are all equally important.
The ideal sleep breakdown in an average adult is 20-25% REM sleep, 20-25% deep sleep, and the remaining, light sleep. These stages tend to alternate in cycles throughout the night.
Deep sleep: During this stage, your brain waves are at their slowest, and you are not easily awakened. Your breathing and heart rate also slow down. Deep sleep is important for cognitive function and strengthens your memories and immune system. It also plays a role in language learning and brain development.
REM (Rapid Eye Movement): During this phase, marked by dreaming, our vitals behave similarly to when we are awake (elevated heart rate, irregular breathing, increased brain activity), except that our eyes are closed. REM sleep helps to process emotional experiences, develop the brain, and consolidate memories.
Both types of sleep are critical, and when you cut on sleep, you are depriving your body of the cognitive, physical, and emotional benefits that come with it.
Think of sleep as a diet that needs a balance between the different types of food.
Early birds vs night owls
Each individual has a unique circadian rhythm, also called a chronotype. It’s slightly longer than a 24-hour cycle and helps humans sync both internal activities (body temperature, hormones, fatigue) and external ones (sleep, feeding…, etc.).
Your chronotype is usually determined by genetics and DNA. While some people rise early and are sharp and focused in the morning, others are night creatures and only enter their optimal mental zone later in the day or even at night.
Being aligned with your body clock is key to improving the quality of your sleep, and the more you can synchronize your life with it, the more efficient your sleep is.
Sleep quality is about optimization: it’s not just about how many hours you sleep but also about the time window during which you sleep and the efficiency of those hours.
Although I’ve always been an early bird, after months of data, I discovered that I needed to adjust to my biorhythm and go to bed earlier, around 9ish, to get the most out of the hours in bed.
Shifting my night routine to go to bed earlier made a huge impact on how I felt the next morning: fresh, focused, and rested. In fact, I’m writing this article at 5 am.
Tip: do a trial and go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual and assess how you feel the following day.
Routine
Humans (and animals) are creatures of habit: Our body loves a good routine because it’s predictable and safe.
Our circadian rhythm ensures we naturally create routines. It determines when we feel sleepy, hungry, or awake, and it’s often around the same time of day.
A sleep routine is critical as it teaches our body when to wind down and relax for the night and when to wake up and re-energize for the day.
A big mistake people make is shifting their sleep schedule to fit other needs, be it social, personal, or professional. We usually go to bed later on weekends or when we are binge-watching series or just browsing online. The result is often going to bed one hour later but still waking up at the same time because our body clock is programmed to operate that way.
When you stick to the same schedule every night, following your circadian rhythm, your body has an easier time regulating itself, and you optimize the quality of your sleep.
Tip: try to go to bed every night within a 30-minute time window to build predictability.
Factors that impact our sleep
We all know that things like coffee, alcohol, and screens impact the quality of our sleep; however, looking at the data was a reality check.
A measurement of quality sleep is how fast it takes for your heart rate to reach its lowest level at night. The earlier it reaches it, the better the quality of your sleep.
Small things like having one glass of white wine in the evening significantly affected my heart rate, which was more elevated than usual. So did things like having dinner, particularly a heavier meal too close to bedtime, or an extra cup of coffee in the afternoon.
Caffeine suppresses a chemical in your brain called adenosine that pressures your body to sleep, and it can take 5 to 7 hours for your body to eliminate 50% of it. That means that by the time you go to bed at 10 pm, you are still fighting the effects of a cup of coffee you took at 3 pm.
Although I had always considered myself fit and healthy, my sleep data was a slap in the face. I was drinking too much coffee, often having a “relaxing” glass of wine in the evening, and spending my last minutes awake scrolling through my phone. I was paying the price the following morning.
With a few intentional tweaks, my sleep went from zero to hero in a matter of weeks. I reduced my coffee intake to 2 cups daily (only in the morning), eliminated the glass of wine most evenings, and replaced social media with a book in bed.
The results speak for themselves, and although I don’t sleep many hours (usually 7-7.30), my sleep efficiency has improved dramatically.
Tip: Look at how much coffee, alcohol, and screen time you consume daily, and do a test by reducing the amount and assessing the impact on your sleep.
Fixing your sleep
You don’t need a fancy device to track your sleep and you will be disappointed if you expect a ring to fix your night problems.
What we need is better education about sleep, the science behind it, and how it impacts our cognitive and physical abilities, so that we can make better choices.
Everybody talks about the importance of productivity, but no one teaches us much about sleep and how critical it is for our brain development and holistic well-being.
If you want to be more productive, fix your sleep.
If you want to write better, fix your sleep.
If you want to have more clarity, fix your sleep.
If you want to get better results, fix your sleep.
If you are going to fix one thing…fix your sleep.
Lemons & Lemonade 🌳🍋
Something cool
You can read more about Oura or claim a 40$ discount voucher here.
Check out
’s 5-day FREE course “Transform Your Sleep, Transform Your Life.”“Why We Sleep,” by Matthew Walker, is a fantastic book on sleep.
What you missed
- ’s Online Writing Club is great for new writers who want to make an impact on Substack and Medium.
Very interesting! My sleep schedule has been out of whack for the past few weeks and I haven’t been able to fall asleep till 1 or 2 in the morning. Maybe I should start tracking my own sleep. This is also the second time I have hear about Oura rings so maybe it’s my sign to also look into getting one 👀
I'd love to go to bed earlier. I'm super sleepy this morning. Hopefully in 6-9 months I can sleep at 11pm again which is my best time... till 8 am haha... (guess that will happen wehn my kids are 14 yo).
Toddler wakes up at 6am. Baby is awake the whole night^^
If I could I'd go to bed again Thanks for mentioning my Online Writing Club, Kristina