Physical Resilience | Sleep

Why sleep matters and how you can improve it

Author

Ian Gress
January 12, 2026

Most nights start the same way. Somewhere around 2:17 a.m., the baby wakes and informs us of her displeasure. I’m up to bring her to the real source of comfort: mom.

Some nights it happens twice. Some nights it feels like more. I learned in the military that you can still perform when sleep gets cut short. That lesson didn’t make me bulletproof, but it did keep me steady. When the math says four hours total, I don’t stress about it too much. I remind myself I’ll be alright. I just don’t pretend it’s ideal or sustainable long-term.

On the good nights, when six or seven hours occur in a single stretch, the difference shows up everywhere. No afternoon crash. Less pain in the shoulders. Training is more effective. Work feels crisp. On the rougher nights, I wake a little sore from turning over and the day runs on discipline and coffee.

Learning from some true experts and paying attention to my body taught me something useful. There’s a timeframe in the evening when my feet warm, my body eases, and my mind starts to slow. If I choose to go to sleep during that window, sleep is deeper and way more restful. If I push past that feeling and finish “just one more” thing on a screen or in the garage, I slip back into wake mode and the window closes.

Want to sleep better? Keep reading for some tips on how to improve. None of this is about achieving constant perfect nights. It is about building a toolset for restful sleep most nights and having a simple plan for the ones that do not cooperate.

Why sleep matters to resilience

Sleep is when your body repairs. Skeletal muscle, connective tissue, and the brain all get dedicated maintenance time. That is also when you consolidate what you learned that day. Most adults do best with seven or more hours on average, but life does not always allow that. There is a difference between surviving short sleep and thriving on a steady base. Think of resilience from this perspective as the ability to perform today and still have capacity tomorrow. Good sleep preserves that capacity.

What actually helps, in real life

Start with light. Light is the pendulum for your body clock. Two hours before bed, step away from social media and work. Lower the brightness and shift your lighting to warmer tones. Try to keep it as dark as possible while you are sleeping. It’s acceptable to go as far as covering LED indicator lights with electrical tape to reduce the interior light pollution.

In the morning, aim for real daylight as soon as it is practical. Five to fifteen minutes outside on a bright day, even through clouds, tells the clock where to set the rest of your day. People who get regular morning light tend to find it easier to fall asleep on time at night. This has everything to do with the signals sent to your brain and hormones that are released when full-spectrum light interacts with the cones and rods in the back of your eye. It’s the hormone response that sets the body’s internal clock.

Set the room to cool and quiet, with warm feet. Most adults sleep better in a cooler room, roughly in the mid 60s Fahrenheit. Your core temperature naturally drops at night, and a cool environment helps the process. If your feet are cold, wear thin socks. Warm feet help your body shed heat from the core in the early stages of sleep (and even before).

For noise, a steady fan or rain sound can mask bumps in the night. Keep the volume modest and, if possible, let the sound run only as you fall asleep so it becomes a cue rather than a crutch. And from a security standpoint, you may want some noises in the night to be able to wake you (smoke detector/alarms, children, maybe pets, etc.).

Put caffeine on a clock. Caffeine blocks sleep pressure in the brain long after the last sip. A simple rule that works for many people is to stop six hours before your planned bedtime. If you lean on large doses or know you are sensitive, move the cutoff to eight to ten hours. Front loading caffeine into the first half of your day protects your nights without giving up your morning ritual.

Treat alcohol like a toll or tax. Alcohol can make you drowsy and help you fall asleep, but the tradeoff shows up later. Sleep becomes lighter and more fragmented, and you lose valuable REM in the second half of the night. If you are going to drink, finish three to four hours before bed and keep it light. You will feel the difference the next day.

Watch the timing of your workouts. Evening movement is not the enemy. Easy walks, mobility work, or light to moderate training can fit fine and sometimes help you unwind. The trouble comes from strenuous sessions that end close to bedtime. High strain raises body temperature and sympathetic drive and that can push sleep later and make it shallower. A simple rule is to finish the hard stuff at least four hours before lights out. If your schedule forces a late session, keep the intensity down and give yourself extra time to cool off.

Use NSDR on the hard days. Non-Sleep Deep Rest (coined by Dr. Andrew Huberman) is a short, guided protocol that places the body into a deeply relaxed state while you remain awake. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually enough. I often do it after training. It does not replace sleep, but it can reduce stress, settle your nervous system, and leave you clearer on days after a short night. Think of it as a practical bridge to get you through the rest of the day.

Keep one boundary you will actually honor. Mine is no calls, texts, or social feeds after 9:30 p.m., with rare exceptions. That single control does a lot of work. It removes mental stimulation, protects the two-hour wind down, and prevents the late-night scroll that steals sleep. Pick a control you can keep in your real life, then defend it.

Parents and interrupted sleep

If you have a young child at home, fragmented sleep is a season, not a failure. Control what you can and let the rest go. Keep the bedroom cool and dark. Choose a short bedtime routine you can repeat even on chaotic nights. When you wake to tend a child, keep the lights as low as safety allows and avoid looking into a bright phone. If your household allows it, alternate who responds, or split early mornings so at least one adult gets a stretch of continuity. Recovery will improve the moment those stretches lengthen and, until then, small wins matter.

A simple evening to try this week

Two hours before bed, dim the lights and get off social and work things. An hour out, do something quiet. Light stretching, a book, a few minutes of conversation. Set the room cool. If your feet are cold, add socks. Phone stays out of the bedroom. If your mind is busy in bed, try a short NSDR track or listen to a meditation/prayer (I know…difficult to do without a phone…just be reasonable with it), then turn it off and let the room stay quiet.

The morning after a short night, get outside light and a short walk. Keep caffeine to the first half of the day and drink water. If you train, go lighter and finish early. Keep your usual bedtime that night. Consistency pays you back more than heroics.

One small action

Pick the two-hour window right before bed and implement a strict no work and no social feeds personal policy. Protect it every night this week. Most people feel the effect by night three.

Closing thought

I am not chasing perfect sleep. I am aiming for pretty good most nights with a plan for the ones that fall apart. Light, temperature, timing, and one firm boundary reduce the friction. Over time that steadiness builds the physical base that everything else stands on.

Stay safe out there.

References and further reading

References:

American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult. Consensus statements and position papers.
https://aasm.org/aasm-and-srs-publish-new-sleep-duration-consensus-statement/

Brown TM et al. Recommendations for daytime, evening, and nighttime indoor light exposure to support sleep and wakefulness. PLoS Biology, 2022.
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001571

Gardiner CL et al. Dose and timing effects of caffeine on subsequent sleep. Sleep, 2025.
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/48/4/zsae230/7815486

Leota J et al. Dose–response relationship between evening exercise and sleep. Nature Communications, 2025.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58271-x.pdf

BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. Evening regular activity breaks extend sleep time, 2024.
https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/10/3/e001774

Harvard Health Publishing. Can white noise really help you sleep better, 2025.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/can-white-noise-really-help-you-sleep-better

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