Sleep Hygiene’s Newest Action Item

Your poor sleep is likely killing you. The good news is, though, we now know more about how we’ve gotten into this sleep debacle and how we can get out of it. 

The first time I heard the term sleep hygiene was in a talk given by Dr. Kirk Parsley in Austin, TX. Parsley, who may have coined the term, took to subject matter expert-status when he noticed chronic illness and tragically low testosterone levels in his preferred patients: elite warfighters. As a Navy SEAL himself, Parsley found that shift work and disrupted sleep was the first best way for him to treat low testosterone levels in SEAL Team members coming home from fighting terrorism. 

Sleep drugs are remarkably dangerous, ineffective at inducing restful sleep, and simply mimic unconsciousness.

As a result, Parsley decided that improving the conditions of sleep naturally was not just the safest, but the most effective way to improve not just sleep quality but the cascade of positive effects therein. 

His list at the time included, interventions like:

• Cold sleeping conditions
• Black out curtains
• Minimizing cortisol inducing stimuli before bed
• Elongated sleep prep routine

Thanks to the progressive work by the enigmatic head of the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University, Andrew Huberman, this conversation is moving to include elements not previously considered. Huberman’s main addition to improve sleep quality is the exposure of the human eye to morning light. According to his science, the natural morning light sets an ideal cadence for natural circadian rhymes and hormone balance such that the forthcoming night’s sleep will be set up for success based on the morning’s exposure to morning light.