If you’re a busy professional constantly battling broken sleep, try incorporating these small shifts into your evening routine. You don’t need to overhaul your life—just a few intentional steps can dramatically improve your rest. Better sleep means better focus, productivity, and mood the next day, so why not start tonight?

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If you’ve ever found yourself tossing and turning at night, thinking about a work project, the conversation you had with the barista that morning, whether or not you remembered to turn off the light in the garage, or maybe just the near never-ending to-do list that comes with being a human in 2024, know this. You’re not alone. 

For busy professionals, the struggle for quality sleep is real. In fact, sleep has been recognized as one of the most predominate future indicators of chronic disease. As public consciousness has grown more informed on the impact of quality sleep whole industries around sleep tech, supplements and rituals have propped up.

But here’s the thing, getting regular deep rest doesn’t have to be complex. More than anything quality sleep is tied to physiological habits we can incorporate no different from brushing our teeth. A few simple adjustments to your routine can make all the difference in how you wind down and set yourself up for a restful night. Here’s a combination of tactics I’ve found work best for me in improving sleep, even with a packed schedule.

Shut Down Electronics at Least 1 Hour Before Bed

We all know that blue light from our phones and laptops can mess with our sleep, but how many of us actually shut off our screens before bed? Make it a point to turn off all electronics at least an hour before you hit the pillow. The emails, texts, and Instagram scrolls can wait. I set an alarm for 9p every night to close the laptop, and put my phone on Airplane mode outside of my bedroom. I sometimes let myself watch TV before bed to wind down, but not without turning off all the lights and adjusting the screen settings on the TV to filter out stimulating blue light. 

Keep Your Mattress Cool

A common trend I started to notice while battling my own intermittent bouts of insomnia over the past several years – I would often wake up sweating, my body had overheated. Keeping your mattress cool (there are cooling mattress pads if you want to go the extra mile) helps regulate your body temperature. This is crucial for falling into deep sleep. Learning the cause and effect, and how to regulate my body temperature has been one of the biggest unlocks for me on sleep. Eight Sleep has recently ascended to dominate the high priced technology enabled mattress game, starting at $3k. A cheaper and just as effective option that I use is the Chili Pad. You can find them on Amazon for about $600. 

Manage your Gut 

This one might come as a bit of a surprise, but working on managing inflammation in the gut and generally cutting down on inflammatory and/or acidic food before bedtime has made a noticeable impact on my sleep. In particular I noticed that after consuming heavy amounts of processed grains, or otherwise non-whole foods for a meaningful stretch of time that I’d typically not be achieving as restful sleep. In working with a health coach I put myself on a high quality water soluble probiotic and took it every morning for 30 days. Not only did my inflammatory symptoms essentially vanish but I noticed my sleep improving in tandem. 

Timing of Your Last Meal and Fluids

Ever wake up in the middle of the night, thirsty or, worse, needing a bathroom break? Apparently this one becomes more common as we grow older. Try to eat your last meal by 6 PM and stop drinking fluids by 8 PM. When we eat a big meal too close to bedtime our body has to exert calories to breakdown that food. The digestion can keep our body stimulated making it harder to doze off. Teaching our brain that night-time disruptions aren’t the end of the world is also a quality practice. I’ll regularly still wake up around 2-3a and need to use the restroom, and have found that by avoiding any bright light or other stimulus and incorporating mindfulness I can quickly doze back off within an hour. If I find that I wake up around 4-5 sometimes I’ll just make a decision to get up and start my day. I won’t be running at 100% that day, more like 80% but I would rather keep my circadian rhythm regular instead of trying to sleep from say 6-8a and kick off another sleep cycle, leading to grogginess and impacted sleep the following night.

Observe Your Stress Levels

Stress is one of the biggest sleep disruptors, and many of us don’t realize how much our minds race at night. I certainly didn’t. After a health coach introduced me to Oura ring’s ‘Daytime Stress’ tracker, I became a little addicted to watching it ebb and flow throughout my day. It’s pretty incredible data. For example, if I found myself on a stressful call that day, or maybe got in an argument with someone I’ll notice that my stress level would spike. Many of us don’t realize how much time we spend throughout the day in an elevated state of stress. In general finding a way to turn down thoughts, stress, activity of the mind, the better your sleep will be. I’ve found that tracking my stress levels using an Oura ring or a similar device helps me gauge how my body is winding down before bed. Over time, you’ll start to notice patterns and make adjustments that help your body relax as you approach bedtime.

Add a Calming Nightly Ritual

Find what helps calm your mind and body at the end of the day. Whether that’s a short meditation, stretching, or simply reading, stick with it. For me, fiction books, the 5 minute journal, and maybe 10 mins of mindfulness help slow down the brain and gently ease me into sleep mode.

The two biggest unlocks in this list for me have been 1. Bringing down my body temperature and 2. Managing my stress levels. If nothing else, incorporate both and notice if they don’t improve your sleep.