Deep sleep generally occurs at the same time each night (that is, it is to some extent anchored by the circadian clock). To get more and better deep sleep, go to bed at the same time every night.

Since deep sleep tends to dominantly occur early in the night (within the first two hours of falling asleep), you’ll basically lose out on it anytime you go to bed abnormally late.

(In the Hindu medicine system there is an adage… “an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours, after midnight it is worth one hour, after sunrise it is worth zero hours.” I suspect the circadian anchoring of deep sleep is the prime determinant in this heuristic’s truthfulness.)

Alertness early in the day seems to do the trick for me. I think of deep sleep as reaction to how alert I was earlier in the day. So on days I make an effort to activate myself early in the day, I will fall into longer deep sleep that night (2+ hours according to my fitbit). If I just kind wake up and laze around the house without getting much activity, then I I get under and hour of deep sleep, even with the same amount of total sleep.

What seems to work for me is immediate sunlight exposure right when I wake up, 5 - 10 mins of being outside, 16 oz of cold water right around that time, 2-5 mins of an activity that gets my heart rate up (jumping jacks, burpees, jump rope). If I can muster it, a cold shower also helps.

There are other things like getting exercise, avoiding caffeine after a certain time, avoiding light exposure prior to bed, avoiding alcohol, sleeping in a cool room that I think also help. But for me it's the making myself super alert right when I wake up that has the biggest bang for my buck.

This is anecdotal, n = 1 kind of stuff though. And I don't do it every day, and it doesn't work 100% of the time. But I definitely notice that I am far more likely to get a lot of deep sleep when I do those things than when I don't. Hope it helps you in some way.

I’ve struggled for a long time to have a good sleep routine but over the last few months I’ve found some things that actually work for me, to the point where people now think of me as one of the early people at work. I don’t know if this will specifically help deep sleep but my hunch is that for me it has.

What’s worked for me:

- A good memory foam pillow and a new mattress

- Using light as well as sound for my alarm clock. I have my smart lights gradually turn on in my room over a 15-minute period in the morning and have an alarm set on my watch.

- Counterintuitively, having a TV in my room.

So my night routine now is that I’ll retire to my room, get ready for the next day (put clothes out, go over my reminders/notes if I feel like it, etc), then lay in bed and watch a video or two, then dim my lights to a setting I only use for the last part of the night (bedside lamp only at minimum brightness). It’s turned out to be a surprisingly-good sleep hygiene cue for me. I’ll usually then wind down with some more videos but I’ll inevitably start feeling drowsy and then it’s lights-out and the TV gets switched off.

I also switched showering from the morning to the evening and I also make sure to change out of my work clothes when I get home.

This means that in the morning I have very little to think about. I have to just plant my feet on the floor and get moving. Since everything’s already prepared I can do this pretty mindlessly. I don’t drink a coffee until I get into the office.

After a few days of forcing myself to get up like this consistently, it actually started feeling weird not getting up when I first wake up with the morning lights on. I love travelling in to work before the crowds and having quiet time in the office to get work done. Another awesome benefit is that I can relax the routine a bit on the weekend and yet still get up at a reasonable time to have the whole day to do stuff, while at the same time still feeling like I ‘slept in’.

I always considered myself a ‘night owl’ but this experience has made me reconsider. If I don’t have a good routine my sleep pattern will drift later and later and I’ll feel crap all day, whereas keeping this routine I’m getting up earlier and my energy levels feel way more consistent throughout the day, so I don’t know, maybe I’m an early bird that had poor sleep or something.

I have an Oura ring and got it because I had a sense my deep sleep was terrible. I would often wake up at night and wake up with a headache in the morning as I often stay up late and often would not get enough sleep. Found that magnesium personally helped me incredibly. I now sleep through the night, feels like my sleep is much deeper, etc., and my Oura stats show likewise.

Still the other most important thing is to just go to bed on time. If I jump on my computer before bed I almost always get stuck and go to bed way too late. Hard habit to change but essential.

> I have used wearables to measure, it’s always less than an hour for me

Wearables aren't known for their accuracy (unless it's an EEG headband)

That said, 60 minutes of true deep sleep would actually be normal. Deep sleep isn't something you can, or should, be getting all night. It's a sleep phase that normally occupies about 1/8 to 1/4 of your sleep time.

Given the poor accuracy of wearables, I wouldn't worry about anything. It's more important that you get the appropriate duration of sleep (7-9 hours depending on what you need), avoid alcohol (this one is big), avoid caffeine too late in the afternoon or altogether, and get some physical activity mid-day. Everything else will fall into place.

I have been struggling with sleep for a long time, and I'm finally trying to focus on getting more, quality deep sleep. Because when I do sleep, I feel great. Here's what I've been doing to try to improve things:

Make your bedroom the most comfortable place in the entire world for you. I recently bought a new mattress and blankets and I no longer struggle to keep a good temperature (freezing cold vs sweating all night)... can finally side sleep without my shoulders being sore, and can sleep on my stomach without destroying my back. There are tons of mattresses out there, and there's no single one that is good for everybody. I slept with sore shoulders and back for so long... and for no good reason really.

I put an air purifier in my bedroom. It is now my sanctuary that I can go to where there is no dust, no pollen... or at least it's significantly reduced. I also started taking Flonase, and it helps open up my sinuses. For years I've had swollen sinuses due to allergies, but I've felt otherwise fine. I've woken up freaked out a number of times feeling out of breath, I thought I was dreaming it, or just not awake. But with the allergies, my nose swells shut a lot, and I didn't realize that you don't always just automatically breathe through your mouth when you're asleep.

I also started going to bed an hour or so earlier. Not so much with the intention of going directly to sleep, but I kinda spend some time preparing for sleep. It gets me away from the computer, and gets my thoughts away from work. I tend to take my time making my bed, picking out clothes for the next day, etc.

Also having an extra hour reduces the anxiety that I need to fall sleep right now, or I'm gonna feel like shit tomorrow. Getting into bed early, and not trying to sleep seems to make me feel sleepier much quicker. It's almost like I try to bore myself to sleep a bit... Or when you wake up at 3am, you realize that's okay.

And a big one for me is exercise. I am like a wound up dog. And if I don't burn off some energy during the day, I apparently try to burn it off by tossing and turning all night. I have been doing only 30 minutes a day about 4-5 times a week. Nothing super strenuous. I fucking hate exercise. But it helps me sleep much deeper.

Not a sleep expert, but you can do sleep study to see if you may have sleep apnea . If you don't have that, then its about managing your health , environment and stress. Make sure you're not too over weight which can effect your sleep. Make sure your room is cool and not stuffy or hot. Wash your sheets reguarly, nothing beats sleeping in fresh sheets. Look into a better mattress or pillow. Lastly another game changer for me is a weighted blanket. It makes me feel like i'm protected and comforted.

Cut the caffeine, increase the morning exercise. These were by far the biggest improvements for me.

Exercise so you're naturally fatigued ... don't eat before bed. Try and reduce noise/light from the room you sleep in. Don't look at TV or phone before bed.

More sex before bed :D

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