#25: Optimising Your Sleep

In this episode, Dr. Matt Walker discusses principles and practices for optimizing sleep, specifically for individuals without clinical insomnia. He distinguishes this episode from a future mini-series on insomnia treatment. The episode covers five conventional sleep hygiene tips: maintaining regular sleep schedule, keeping the bedroom cool, ensuring darkness, avoiding prolonged wakefulness in bed, and limiting alcohol and caffeine intake. Additionally, Dr. Walker shares five unconventional tips: avoiding compensatory behaviors like sleeping in or napping after a bad night's sleep, establishing a relaxing wind-down routine, avoiding naps especially in the late afternoon, taking a mental walk instead of counting sheep, and removing clock faces from the bedroom. He emphasizes that these tips are for optimizing sleep, not treating insomnia, and uses an analogy of athletic training to illustrate the importance of addressing underlying issues before optimizing performance.