General advice that I think basically applies to everybody is to try to lock down sleep, diet, and exercise (not sure what order these go in exactly) solidly.
Random sleep tips:
Try to sleep in as much darkness as possible. Blackout curtains + a sleep mask is as dark as I know how to easily make things, although you might find the sleep mask takes some getting used to. Just a sleep mask is already pretty good.
Blue light from screens at night disrupts your sleep; use f.lux or equivalent to straightforwardly deal with this.
Lower body temperature makes it easier to sleep, so take hot showers at night, which cause your body to cool down in response.
If you’re having trouble falling asleep at a consistent time, consider supplementing small (on the order of 0.1 mg) amounts of melatonin. (Edit: see SSC post on melatonin for more, which recommends 0.3 mg.) A lot of the melatonin you’ll find commercially is 3-5 mg and that’s too much. I deal with this by biting off small pieces, not sure if that’s a good idea. (Melatonin stopped working for me in February anyway, not sure what’s up with that.)
I have thoughts about diet and exercise but fewer general recommendations; the main thing you want here is something that feels good and is sustainable to you.
Other than that, something feels off to me about the framing of the question. I feel like I’d have to know a lot more about what kind of person you are and what kind of things you want out of your life to give reasonable answers. Everything is just very contextual.
General advice that I think basically applies to everybody is to try to lock down sleep, diet, and exercise (not sure what order these go in exactly) solidly.
Random sleep tips:
Try to sleep in as much darkness as possible. Blackout curtains + a sleep mask is as dark as I know how to easily make things, although you might find the sleep mask takes some getting used to. Just a sleep mask is already pretty good.
Blue light from screens at night disrupts your sleep; use f.lux or equivalent to straightforwardly deal with this.
Lower body temperature makes it easier to sleep, so take hot showers at night, which cause your body to cool down in response.
If you’re having trouble falling asleep at a consistent time, consider supplementing small (on the order of 0.1 mg) amounts of melatonin. (Edit: see SSC post on melatonin for more, which recommends 0.3 mg.) A lot of the melatonin you’ll find commercially is 3-5 mg and that’s too much. I deal with this by biting off small pieces, not sure if that’s a good idea. (Melatonin stopped working for me in February anyway, not sure what’s up with that.)
I have thoughts about diet and exercise but fewer general recommendations; the main thing you want here is something that feels good and is sustainable to you.
Other than that, something feels off to me about the framing of the question. I feel like I’d have to know a lot more about what kind of person you are and what kind of things you want out of your life to give reasonable answers. Everything is just very contextual.
That’s interesting advice I haven’t heard before. Do you have further references to know more about the size of that effect?
I do not. Fortunately, you can just test it empirically for yourself!