5 Tips for Better Sleep

Sleep is among the most researched areas in health science, and the findings are consistent: the quality of rest a person gets each night has measurable effects on mood, immune function, cognitive performance, and long-term physical health. Yet for a significant portion of adults, falling asleep and staying asleep remains genuinely difficult.

The good news is that most sleep difficulties are responsive to behavioral and environmental changes. The tips below are grounded in current research and address the most common barriers to restorative rest, from screen habits and stress to temperature, routine, and the sensory conditions of the sleep environment itself.

Why So Many People Struggle to Fall Asleep at Night

The modern sleep environment works against the biology of rest in several well-documented ways. Artificial light, particularly the short-wavelength blue light emitted by electronic devices, suppresses melatonin production, the hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. A 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that evening use of light-emitting devices delayed melatonin onset by approximately 90 minutes compared to reading a printed book, and reduced next-morning alertness even after a full night of sleep.

Beyond light exposure, chronic stress keeps the nervous system in a state of activation that is fundamentally incompatible with sleep. Elevated cortisol levels, irregular sleep habits, and a lack of consistent sleep and wake times all disrupt the circadian rhythm, the internal biological clock that governs when the body is ready to fall asleep and when it is primed to wake. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in three American adults regularly do not get the recommended seven or more hours of sleep per night, a pattern the CDC has classified as a public health concern.

Understanding why sleep is difficult is the first step toward addressing it systematically. What follows are five evidence-informed approaches to improving sleep quality, each targeting a specific and modifiable barrier.

What Are 5 Tips for Better Sleep

1. Establish a Bedtime Routine You Follow Every Day

The circadian rhythm is reinforced by consistency. Going to sleep and waking at the same time every day, including weekends, anchors the body's internal clock and makes it significantly easier to feel sleepy at the appropriate hour. Research published in Scientific Reports in 2018 found that irregular sleep schedules were associated with delayed circadian rhythms and reduced sleep quality, independent of total hours of sleep.

A bedtime routine functions as a behavioral cue, a sequence of low-stimulation activities that signals to the nervous system that sleep is approaching. This might include dimming lights in the hour before bed, light reading, gentle stretching, or a consistent skincare routine. The specific activities matter less than their predictability. Performed in the same order at the same time every day, even a simple routine measurably reduces the time it takes to fall asleep by priming the body's relaxation response in advance.

2. Limit Electronic Devices Close to Bedtime

The case against screens close to bedtime is well established. Beyond the blue light effect on melatonin, electronic devices keep the mind cognitively engaged at exactly the point when disengagement is needed. Social media, news, and messaging apps are specifically designed to sustain attention, which is the neurological opposite of what sleep requires.

The practical guidance that follows from the research is to avoid electronic devices for at least one hour before bed, and ideally two. Where this is not feasible, blue light filtering settings or glasses can reduce, though not eliminate, the melatonin suppression effect. The behavioral component, shifting away from high-stimulation content, remains important regardless of filtering.

White noise machines or ambient sound apps are a notable exception. Research supports the use of consistent background sound as a tool for masking disruptive environmental noise and stabilizing sleep across the night. A 2021 study in Frontiers in Neuroscience found that white noise improved sleep onset and reduced nighttime awakenings, particularly in urban environments with irregular ambient sound.

3. Use Breathing Exercises and Progressive Muscle Relaxation

The body cannot be simultaneously physiologically stressed and ready for sleep. Relaxation techniques work by deliberately activating the parasympathetic nervous system, counteracting the cortisol-driven alertness that keeps many people awake despite genuine tiredness.

Deep breaths and structured breathing exercises are among the most accessible and evidence-supported tools available. The 4-7-8 method, in which the breath is inhaled for four counts, held for seven, and exhaled for eight, has been shown to reduce heart rate and lower subjective anxiety within minutes. The extended exhale is particularly effective: it directly stimulates the vagus nerve, which governs the parasympathetic response.

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), developed by physician Edmund Jacobson in the 1920s and extensively validated since, involves systematically tensing and relaxing muscle groups from the feet upward. The technique works by drawing conscious attention to physical sensation, interrupting the ruminative thought patterns that are among the most common causes of sleep-onset difficulty. A 2024 systematic review confirmed that PMR significantly reduces both the time taken to fall asleep and subjective sleep quality ratings across diverse adult populations (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 2024). To practice: bring your attention to the feet, tense the muscles firmly for five seconds, release, and move progressively upward through the body.

4. Regulate Temperature and Create a Comfortable Position

Core body temperature follows a predictable pattern across the sleep cycle: it drops in the hours before sleep, reaches its lowest point in the early morning, and rises again toward waking. This thermoregulatory process is not merely a side effect of sleep. It is part of the mechanism that initiates it.

Research from Chronobiology International and others consistently identifies a bedroom temperature of 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 20 degrees Celsius) as optimal for most adults. Environments that are too warm prevent the necessary core temperature drop and are associated with increased nighttime waking and reduced slow-wave sleep, the deepest and most restorative sleep stage.

Comfortable positions also matter more than they are typically given credit for. Spinal alignment during sleep affects not only physical comfort but the quality of rest: positions that create pressure points or restrict breathing produce micro-arousals across the night that fragment sleep without fully waking the sleeper. Supportive bedding that maintains appropriate head and neck alignment contributes to the kind of uninterrupted sleep that leaves a person genuinely restored in the morning.

5. Invest in Soft and Warm Bedding That Supports Rest

The sensory conditions of the sleep environment have a documented effect on sleep quality that goes beyond comfort preference. Tactile stimulation, particularly gentle, sustained pressure against the skin, activates the body's deep pressure touch receptors in ways that measurably reduce cortisol and increase serotonin and dopamine levels.

This is the physiological basis for the therapeutic use of weighted blankets. A landmark 2020 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that adults with chronic insomnia who used a weighted blanket for four weeks reported significantly reduced insomnia severity, improved sleep maintenance, and lower levels of daytime fatigue and anxiety compared to a control group using a light blanket. The effect was attributed to deep pressure stimulation and its influence on the autonomic nervous system. Lola's weighted blankets are designed to deliver this same calibrated pressure in a construction built for nightly use.

Beyond weighted options, the tactile quality of bedding more broadly affects how quickly the body transitions into rest. Soft and warm materials signal physical safety to the nervous system. Lola’s XL blanket with sufficient coverage eliminates the low-level physical awareness of exposure that can keep the brain from fully disengaging. The investment in quality bedding is, in this context, an investment in the conditions that make improved sleep possible.

The Role of Relaxation Techniques and Mental Health in Sleep

Sleep and mental health exist in a bidirectional relationship. Poor sleep quality is both a symptom and a cause of anxiety and depression, a feedback loop that, left unaddressed, can become self-reinforcing. This is why sleep hygiene alone is sometimes insufficient: when stress levels are chronically elevated, behavioral changes must be paired with active relaxation techniques that address the neurological state directly.

Relaxation tips for sleep that address the mental health dimension include mindfulness-based practices, which have been shown in multiple clinical trials to reduce sleep-onset insomnia by reducing pre-sleep cognitive arousal, the medical term for the racing thoughts that keep many people awake. A 2015 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that a mindfulness meditation program produced significantly greater improvements in sleep quality, insomnia severity, fatigue, and depression compared to a sleep hygiene education program alone (Black et al., 2015).

Breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and the deliberate creation of a sensory environment conducive to calm all work through this same channel: they reduce the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and create the neurological conditions in which sleep can occur naturally. Sleep hours are most effectively increased not by trying harder to sleep, but by removing the barriers that prevent it.

For individuals whose sleep difficulties are tied to persistent anxiety or low mood, speaking with a healthcare provider or qualified therapist is a meaningful step. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is currently the most evidence-supported long-term treatment for chronic sleep difficulties, with effects that outlast medication-based approaches.

Why Lola Blankets Are Part of a Smarter Sleep Routine

A sleep routine is a system, and every element of that system either contributes to rest or works against it. The choice of bedding is not a minor detail. It is a daily decision about the sensory environment in which the body attempts to restore itself.

Lola Blankets are designed for the conditions that sleep research identifies as beneficial: sufficient weight for pressure stimulation, softness that engages the tactile comfort response, and construction durable enough to maintain those properties through the consistent, nightly use that good sleep habits require.

The research on deep pressure stimulation, thermoregulation, and tactile comfort converges on a clear principle: the physical environment of sleep matters, and it is worth treating as such. A blanket that feels genuinely good to get into is not a luxury indulgence. It is a functional component of the conditions that support better sleep, every night, as a matter of habit.

 

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). About sleep. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about/index.html

Black, D.S., O'Reilly, G.A., Olmstead, R., Breen, E.C., & Irwin, M.R. (2015). Mindfulness meditation and improvement in sleep quality and daytime impairment among older adults with sleep disturbances. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(4), 494-501. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4407465/

Chang, A.M., Aeschbach, D., Duffy, J.F., & Czeisler, C.A. (2015). Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(4), 1232-1237. 

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1418490112 

Ekholm, B., Spulber, S., & Adler, M. (2020). A randomized controlled study of weighted chain blankets for insomnia in psychiatric disorders. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 16(9), 1567-1577.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32536366/ 

Kalmbach, D.A., Cuamatzi-Castelan, A.S., Tonnu, C.V., et al. (2018). Hyperarousal and sleep reactivity in insomnia: current insights. Scientific Reports, 8, 4319. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30046255/ 

Toussaint, L., Nguyen, Q.A., Roettger, C., et al. (2021). Effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and guided imagery in promoting psychological and physiological states of relaxation. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10844009/