How to get more deep restorative sleep for high functioning individuals

I crash hard every night when my head hits the pillow- out in seconds after I turn out the light.

I’ve always been proud of this quality, but I’ve recently learned that it doesn’t necessarily correlate with deep restorative sleep.

Are you the type of person who crashes fast and sleeps hard? Do you wake up feeling a little sleepy, not 100% ready for the day?

Read on.

Is Your Sleep Pressure Too High?

Crashing fast and hard may not be as much of a sign that you’re a “good sleeper” as it is a sign that you’ve built up a strong need for sleep by running hot throughout the day.

What does running hot mean?

Pushing hard on the nervous system, cognition, or physical body, or some combination can keep you in primarily sympathetic nervous system mode all day. This means that if you go straight to bed in this state, your body has to revoer and get into parasympathetic mode before it can rest and recover.

What I’m learning is that a nervous system ramp down is essential to spend more time in restorative sleep mode while in bed.  I’m not talking about the stuff most of us know- stop looking at screens awhile before bedtime, dim the lights, make the room cool, don’t eat bedtime snacks or have alcohol or caffeine in the hours before bed, etc. There’s a another layer of conscious ramp down and bedtime prep.

Ramp Down Strategies for More Restorative Sleep

I have a habit of doing pushups before bed.  I’ve done it for years. Feels good, but it can ramp up the SNS when I should be activating the PNS. It’s especially important to activate the PNS if you do tend to “run hot” in your days and push yourself from wire to wire.

Instead of sprinting from wake up to head on pillow- some form of body, brain, nervous system/ emotional loading, develop an off ramp to slow down and cool down. 15-30 minutes to let your body know, we’ve down all we’re going to do, now we’re transitioning into rest mode so that we’re primed to do it all again tomorrow.

What activates the PNS? What are some good strategies? Some 15-20 minute Pre-sleep Glide path ideas

• Dim the lights.
• Stop all decision making, planning, thinking about work- focus on gratitude and appreciations, or just a quiet mind.
• Gentle restorative yoga- even 5-10 minutes will help wind down
• Breathwork- longer exhales than inhales activate the PNS 5 minutes or so (I recommend the ibreathe app).
• Foam rolling- break up the fascia- prime your body for recovery during sleep
• Cuddle or gentle talking with a loved one or a pet

Practice Mini Recovery Sessions Throughout the Day

Instead of arriving at the finish line with the radiator overheating and the tire treads thin, try mini-recovery breaks throughout the day.

A few ideas for mini recovery breaks and PNS activation:

• A brief walk outside breathing and looking at the sky and trees and plants etc
• A few minutes of gentle stretching
• Breathing break- a few minutes can refresh and activate the PNS
• Connect with a pet or loved one- the physical contact activates the PNS
• Eat slowly and intentionally. Chew your food.
• Pause and practice gratitude and appreciation
• Hum and sing- these promote vagal tone and PNS activation (gargling does too).
• Meditation
• Weed your garde if you have one
• Water your plants- nurturing promotes PNS

HRV, Deep Sleep, a Deeper Cut with Sleep Hygiene

I was led to improving my sleep after I started tracking HRV. I had always had what I thought were good sleep habits. I did all the basics. I read Sleep Smarter and implemented those ideas. I’ve listened to biohacking nerd podcasts about sleep. This combined with my crash fast and sleep hard experience led me to believe that I was good.

After I started the morning HRV testing and getting a “readiness score”, I started looking at my sleep data from my Apple watch to improve my HRV.

Low and behold, even though I was crashing fast and completing sleep cycles (not waking to an alarm) and waking up (mostly) ready to go, my deep sleep numbers were very low- 35-45 minutes of my entire sleep. A healthy range is 1-2 hours!

This is what led me on a quest to take things to another level with sleep hygiene.

The first hacks that got me results and got me into the 45-55 minute range, and eventually to 1 hour to 1:10 of deep sleep, were: ending my eating window much earlier, cutting calories and finding my ideal calorie and macronutrient ranges (I had been overeating from stress and high activity levels, trying to get back into balance through calorie consumption), and getting to bed consistently earlier. Consistency being a strong key. The body likes routines.

These tweaks got me to over an hour of deep sleep, restorative sleep regularly. Now I’m on a path to increase that, and this is what i’m working on, the conscious ramp down.

I’m guessing that just stopping pushups before bed will move the needle. My SNS has been on the high side for months with anxiety and stress from business and self imposed stress from competitive pickleball (which I’ve put on pause). I don’t need anything nudging it up, especially before bed.

Sweet Dreams

I hope this helps you to improve you restorative sleep and have better, more energized and focused day!

I’m in my 50’s and still learning how to better care for my body, which has done so much for me.

What have I missed? Comment with anything that helps your quality of restorative sleep and wind down before bed.