A lack of deep sleep leads to fatigue the next day. Here is the very simple solution to put in place to have more restorative nights.
Deep sleep is the holy grail of physical recovery and memory consolidation. It is during this sleep phase that our body repairs its tissues, boosts its immune system and cleanses the brain of toxins accumulated during the day. However, with stress and screens, this “high quality” sleep is often the first to be sacrificed. We then wake up with this feeling of mental fog, as if the battery had never really charged. The good news is that this is not inevitable: it is possible to “force” your brain to dive into this restorative stage faster and for longer.
Dr. Michael Breus, renowned neurologist nicknamed “The Sleep Doctor”, has developed a practical technique to achieve this. According to him, the secret lies not in what you do after you go to bed, but in the half hour beforehand. By applying his method, you can gain up to 20 minutes of actual deep sleep for an average sleeper. “This may not seem like much, but neurologically, it is a huge victory because it allows the brain to immediately switch to the richest deep cycles of the night, thus avoiding micro-awakenings caused by an overly agitated nervous system.“, he explains.
The neurologist’s flagship technique is the “15-15” rule. It involves dividing the last 30 minutes before going to bed into two simple steps. During the first 15 minutes, you clear your brain: it’s time for logistics (preparing your clothes, writing down the list of tasks for the next day). This helps relieve the mental load and lowers the level of cortisol, the stress hormone which blocks access to deep sleep. The next 15 minutes are reserved for pure relaxation, without any screens: reading, gentle stretching, deep breathing, creative activity.
The objective is to lower the heart rate to send a clear signal to the brain: the danger zone has passed, recovery can begin. Once the nervous system is soothed by this ritual, all that remains is to optimize the external factors. There are several simple adjustments to your environment that help maintain those slow brain waves throughout the night.
Other simple hygiene rules can increase deep sleep time. The temperature of the room should neither be too low nor too high (around 18-19°C). Taking a hot shower an hour before bed encourages a drop in core temperature, the natural trigger for slow-wave sleep. Then, pay attention to the brightness: dimming the lights after dinner helps the brain secrete melatonin. Finally, regularity remains the king of tricks: going to bed and getting up at the same time, even on weekends, trains the brain to trigger the delta waves of deep sleep automatically and much more powerfully.
