Hey guys! My name is Jamie and I'm a first year resident in emergency medicine!
In my last video, I talked about the importance of sleep when it comes to learning and other
cognitive functions like reasoning, memory, attention and attainment of information.
If you guys haven’t checked it out I’ll put a link in the description box or you can
check it out HERE.
So in today’s video, I wanna give you guys some tips on how to get better sleep and how
to wake up early.
The key is practicing good sleep hygiene.
Sleep hygiene is just recommended practices or habits you can do to promote better sleep.
So let’s start easy and then work our way up.
My Tip Number 1 is to Avoid Blue Light Nowadays our lives are full of screens.
We have our laptops, TVs, smartphones, tablets, e-readers and now even our watches have screens
on them.
A lot of these screens emit blue light and recent studies have shown that blue light
suppresses melatonin.
Melatonin is a hormone produced by our bodies and its main function is to tell our bodies
when to sleep and when to wake up.
It’s not easy to avoid screens since a lot of us are dependent on it for school or work.
For me personally, I can’t just simply avoid screens at night because a lot of my studying
is done in the evening.
But there are several ways to avoid blue light.
For example some professionals like designers, programmers and other people who work with
their computer all day long wear special glasses that block blue light and studies have shown
that they are effective.
There are other ways to block blue light.
In iOS, there is a setting called Night Shift that lets you adjust the color temperature
of the screen to warmer colors at night.
Admittedly, I can’t say for certain if it’s blocks enough blue light to be significant
but what I can say for certain is it’s a lot less strenuous on the eyes.
This same setting is also available on macOS under system preferences and there are similar
third party apps that lets you do the same thing on Android and Windows.
Tip Number 2 is watch your eating and drinking!
To be a little bit more particular I would say watch your coffee intake.
As many of you guys know I love coffee and I probably have way too many coffee gadgets.
For me, if I’m having coffee, I try to have my last cup at 3pm.
A good rule of thumb is to avoid caffeine for at least six hours before bedtime.
And this of course is different for different people, some people are more sensitive to
caffeine than others so if you are, you probably have to have your last cup a little bit earlier.
Also there are some food that have caffeine in them like protein bars, ice cream, tea,
candy and even hot chocolate.
So I would keep this in mind when if you’re looking for snacks to munch on while studying
or doing work.
In addition, when it comes to eating, I would suggest not eating a big meal so close to
bedtime.
Some meals are harder to digest and that could hinder your sleep.
If you get hungry at night, I suggest snacking on foods that are easier to digest for your
body,
Tip Number 3 is to make your room conducive to sleeping.
Like I mentioned before, light suppresses our melatonin production so it’s important
that we keep our bedrooms dark.
It also serves as a powerful cue to tell our bodies to wind down and rest.
It’s also important to keep quiet.
Sometimes it’s hard to avoid noise especially if you live in a city.
There’s traffic and random city noises so for that I suggest wearing earplugs.
A common concern when it comes to wearing earplugs is missing alarms especially if you
have an early morning.
For me they tend to fall out by the time my alarm goes off so it hasn’t been an issue
for me but if you’re really worried I would suggest wearing them over the weekend and
gauging if you can get away with wearing them.
Another tip to keep bedrooms more conducive to sleeping is keeping it cool.
When we sleep our bodies decreases its temperature so sleeping in a cool environment will help
make this process easier.
The suggested temperature is between 65 degrees to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and that’s 18 to
24 degrees Celsius.
Tip Number 4 is establishing a pre-sleep routine I think having a pre-sleep routine can really
help with sleep.
This would be a good time to do something relaxing and help you unwind from the day
like taking a bath, practicing a skin care routine, reading a book, or even journaling
to reflect on your day.
For me, my pre-sleep routine includes cleaning Candy’s litter box, washing my face and
brushing my teeth and checking the calendar for the next day.
One more closing tip is having a consistent sleep schedule.
I know that can be really difficult for medical students or residents.
But sleeping and waking up at the same time sets our bodies internal clock so it would
be best to keep waking up at the same time even on the weekends or on off days.
So that’s all the tips I have today!
Hope you guys found the video useful!
Please give some of the tips a try and let me know if you notice any difference in the
quality of sleep you get.
Thank you guys so much for watching and I’ll see you guys next time.
BYE!