If you can’t fall asleep without the sound of your bedroom fan regardless of the temperature, you’re already harnessing the power of sound to fall asleep faster. The sound of a bedroom fan refers to white noise – a soothing, static sound that drowns out other disruptive noises, like the sound of passing cars on the street. White noise isn’t the only sound color that promotes better sleep, though. Brown, pink, and green noise (nature sounds) are also known to help ease the brain into relaxation, encouraging the onset of sleep. White, brown, and pink noise apps allow you to harness the rainbow of sound colors right from your smartphone. Podcasts and audiobooks help to distract your mind from anxious thoughts that may otherwise keep you awake – as long as you pick a soothing podcast topic or book genre. Moreover, music is proven to shift brainwaves into alpha brainwaves that lead to relaxation. Binaural beats take it a step further, helping the brain shift into delta brainwaves that occur during deep sleep. Guided meditations offer an easy-to-follow script that can help us drift into sleep, too.

Ever feel a lift in your mood after humming along to a song in the car? It’s not just in your head. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Is humming good for you?” the answer is yes! Science shows that humming activates our vagus nerve, taking us out of a state of stress and into a state of relaxation. It lowers blood pressure and improves heart rate variability all while improving lymph flow. In fact, the vibrations created during humming may help the lymphatic system to pump out waste from the body just as well as cold plunge therapy or a lymphatic massage. Moreover, humming reduces happy hormones like oxytocin while surging the body with feel-good endorphins, meaning it’s just as beneficial for the brain and body as a consistent exercise routine. It even causes increased melatonin production which leads to the onset of quality sleep. Bee breathing offers a quick, easy-to-follow humming exercise that you can practice anywhere, anytime. All in all, humming provides a shortcut to calm in any situation, whether practiced before a stressful meeting or before you drift off to bed.

There’s a quick hack for most things these days, including better sleep and pain management. Cold exposure is a popular topic, with many people filming their morning cold plunges in freezing cold water or practicing Wim Hof breathing in extremely cold environments. But does cold exposure really boost sleep, reduce pain, and improve healing? Science suggests that it does. Cold therapy reduces our overall body temperature, boosting the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. Moreover, exposure to cold temperatures may even help us to burn more brown fat, improving our overall calorie expenditure and metabolic health. What’s more, cold exposure therapy offers muscle and tissue repair while promoting accelerated healing. Better yet, you don’t need a fancy cold plunge tank or cryotherapy machine to practice it. The Breg Polar Care Cube offers cryotherapy for at-home use, while DIY ice baths and cold showers provide a free solution to help anyone achieve the benefits of cold therapy, anytime.

Red light therapy has recently gained popularity as a secret weapon for biohacking your way toward wound healing, wrinkle reduction, and more. It’s even used in medical settings to promote faster recovery or combat the side effects of chemotherapy. Whether you purchase your own red lights to use at home or you visit a red light therapy salon, the benefits are seemingly endless. The science behind how red light improves health lies in the way that the wavelengths of red light affect our cells. Red light encourages our cells to produce more energy within the mitochondria, allowing for faster regeneration and repair. Moreover, skin health isn’t the only perk of red light healing. Sleep quality is also proven to improve massively in those who regularly use red light therapy. Red light promotes the secretion of melatonin, a sleep hormone that helps us wind down in the evening. On the other hand, different spectrums of light (like blue light) are proven to interrupt melatonin production, making red light a solid evening light source for your best sleep yet.

Non-sleep deep rest, also known as NSDR, was coined by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman as a quick reset that can help add focus to your day or prepare your brain and body for sleep in the evening. It’s less intimidating than traditional meditation and includes a guided script and body scanning. All you have to do is follow along with the instructions, making it a simple practice for people who are new to the world of mindfulness and meditation. What’s more, it stimulates brain waves similar to that of slow-wave sleep, which is vital for the rejuvenation and healing of the body and mind. Including this practice in your daily routine helps to promote the onset of quality sleep. Many NSDR sleep protocols can be found online, including traditional Yoga Nidra (which NSDR was derived from) and NSDR meditations led by Andrew Huberman himself.

There’s a reason we feel better after a long hug with a loved one. It's the same reason that babies feel comfort when swaddled up tight. This soothing sensation is known as deep pressure stimulation – and it’s a game changer when it comes to managing our nervous system. Deep pressure stimulation soothes the body by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, taking us from a state of stress and overwhelm to a state of relaxation and calm. A weighted blanket provides calming, deep pressure that we can take anywhere, anytime. Using a weighted blanket allows us to reap the benefits of deep pressure stimulation for better sleep, emotional regulation, and more – all without having to hug a loved one all day long. Boost feel-good chemicals dopamine and oxytocin while lowering cortisol with the deep pressure stimulation achieved through using a weighted blanket. Just be sure to select the right material, filling type, size, and weight for optimal results and comfort.

It might be the norm to share a bed with your partner, but a snoring partner and sleep deprivation are closely linked. In fact, spouses of snoring partners wake up 21 times per hour each night when compared to spouses of non-snorers. These disruptions quickly add up, causing massive sleep debt. Aside from being dangerous, sleep debt and deprivation are thought to make us more reactive, impulsive, and grouchy, which is a recipe for even more relationship disasters. If your sleeping schedules or preferences are different, there are a few solutions to improve your relationship and sleep quality. For one, switching your sleep patterns from one long chunk into two or more sections may provide more flexibility with your schedule. Plus, it’s how we naturally slept prior to the industrial revolution. If there’s no other option, you and your partner may benefit from sleeping in separate beds. Although it sounds like a drastic option, a temporary sleep divorce may be necessary to get your health back on track. The Scandinavian sleep method offers a compromise that involves sleeping with two separate blankets rather than one. Moreover, addressing the root cause of your partner’s snoring can solve your sleep disruptions altogether. Typically, mouth breathing is a common culprit - and over 60 percent of us do it habitually rather than breathing through our noses.

Being a student quickly leads to overwhelm and stress due to a heavy workload. With so much to accomplish each day, sleep may take a backseat to other tasks. If you’re not making sleep a priority, you’re not alone. More than half of all college students admit that they’re chronically sleep deprived. However, the dangers linked to a lack of sleep are no joke. And even more concerning, running short on sleep can seriously harm your memory and concentration, leading to poor academic performance. Therefore, skipping sleep means that you’re lowering your ability to achieve your highest success as a student. That’s why we’ve rounded up sleep hacks to help build the best night routine for students that promotes academic excellence. For example, that all-nighter that you think will help you get a better score on tomorrow’s exam may actually decrease your score. And that evening coffee that you rely on to get through homework? It’s keeping you awake at night and throwing off your sleep patterns.

Have you ever been unable to sleep, only to lay in bed for hours restless? Even worse, have you ever laid awake for so long that you begin to hear chirping birds outside? Although the sound of morning bird song is beautiful, there’s nothing more daunting than insomnia that lasts all night long. Sometimes, anxiety about insomnia and being unable to sleep only worsens the issue. Other times, medication or a pre-existing condition may be to blame for your sleepless nights. Half of all adults struggle with insomnia, and identifying which kind you’re dealing with is half the battle. Once you uncover whether or not your anxiety is based on short-term environmental factors or a long-term, serious condition, you can seek the proper lifestyle changes and treatment to finally achieve the quality sleep you’ve been dreaming of.