Biohacking sleep II

I wrote about my goal about biohacking sleep a month ago, and wanted to pen down some progress and notes since then.

New hacks tried

• Took a more planned approach between me and my wife to care for baby, so that she got some rest before lulling the baby to sleep, while I got to go to bed by 10pm
• Started using Sleep Cycle app to track my sleep – sleep cycles, bed and wake times, sleep hours, sleep latency,
• Cold showers before bed seems to work better for me
• Took magnesium before bed

Progress and thoughts

Sleep feels slightly more managed right now. Despite baby uncertainties, a 10pm bedtime had been mostly achievable when the nighttime routines were planned. I can mostly wake myself up by 6am without an alarm, but when I try to push it earlier within a wake window of 4.30–5am, I struggle. It seems my body doesn’t do as well on 6h sleep compared to 8h. The fact that I (still) stubbornly refuse daytime naps doesn’t help I guess.

The data from the sleep app had been pretty interesting to read through, especially looking at my sleep graphs between awake, sleep and deep sleep. Some patterns I noticed:

• I plunge into deep sleep within minutes, which means high sleep latency, and in turn that implies I’m not getting sufficient sleep or I’m over-tired.
• I stay in deep sleep till about 1.30-2am, my first sleep cycle.
• Then plunge back down till about 3.30am, my second cycle.
• I noticed that I’m still in my deep sleep phase at around 4.30–5am, which might explain why I struggle to wake up then. When I wake at 6am however, I manage to squeeze in a third cycle, and wake naturally at the end of it.

So perhaps setting a wake alarm window of 4.30–5am is too early. Maybe I’ll try a 5–5.30am window instead.

Cold showers before bed seem to refresh me more, making me feel clear-headed and light, a nice mood to get into sleep. Warm showers on the other hand, seem to have a heavy, hazy effect on my mind and body. Not sure how else to describe it, but it just doesn’t feel as good going to bed with that.

I take magnesium supplements in the day anyway as part of my keto diet, but decided to take one more capsule before sleep. Seemed to help. One cap is just right, too many you might end up running to the toilet!

New experiments and hacks to try

I noticed when the night lamp was on, I sleep worse but wake easier. Now that we turn it off, I sleep better but wake harder. So I’m considering buying a timer power plug to go with the night lamp, which I can set to switch on 15–30min before my stipulated wake window, slowly rousing me awake using light instead of a sudden jolt from the alarm.

Another experiment is to track not just my coffee intake but also tea. On days when I had more tea, I seem more wired and tired out from the caffeine crashes. The type of coffee I take seem to matter as well. Some Nespresso flavours hold stronger coffee, so I got to be more mindful with the flavours.

All in all, some notable progress… at last!