Sleep is one of our favorite topics here at mbg, and for a very good reason: While it represents an integral cornerstone of overall health and well-being, according to the CDC, over one-third of Americans don’t actually get enough of it. The good news? A variety of sleep hygiene tweaks can help support rest from the time before you get into bed until you wake up the next morning.
Just take it from performance-based doctor Myles Spar, M.D.: When he joined us on the mindbodygreen podcast, Spar rattled off some key techniques to try if you’re looking to promote deep sleep and quality REM sleep. “Those are the most important two parts of your sleep, not just your overall hours,” he says. Why? “Because you need your deep sleep to rest physically, you need your REM sleep to rest brain-wise—creatively and for your hippocampus.”
Here, he explains how to optimize your sleep “performance.” Feel free to grab a sleep tracker and see which of these influences your shut-eye: