I used to have very poor sleep habits. I’d stay up late watching tv. When I eventually got in bed, it would take me an hour to fall asleep. Then every time I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, it would take an hour to fall back asleep. Finally, my alarm would go off and I’d hit the snooze button for an hour. I was averaging 4 to 5 hours of poor sleep quality a night.
When I first started trying better sleep strategies, I had no idea how extensive my healthy sleep habits would get. A lot of people may call it excessive. But all my sleep habits have become an easy, comfortable norm for me to improve sleep naturally.
How to Sleep Better at Night Naturally
Quick disclaimer: My content is not professional medical advice. It’s for informational purposes only. I write about my experience of trying different ways to improve computer posture. Improved sleep quality is an important variable that’s directly related to how good (or bad) my computer posture is the next day. If I get poor sleep, I’ll be tired as soon as I get to work. This causes me to have poor posture at my computer desk for most of the day.
I’ve made many wellness purchases in an effort to sleep better at night. Today, I’m going to talk about 4 of those purchases that helped me enhance sleep quality in a big way.
Blackout curtains
I never used to think I needed blackout curtains to improve sleep naturally. I already had good blinds over my bedroom window. There wasn’t much light getting in. At least, I didn’t think there was. In 2022, I finally got some thick, blackout curtains to put over the blinds in my bedroom window. It definitely made my room much darker, which allowed for better sleep at night. This is one of the easiest, inexpensive, natural sleep tips that made a big improvement. I wish I would’ve taken this sleep advice years ago.
Grounding Sheet and Pillowcase
I recently discovered one of the most helpful products I’ve ever used to decrease inflammation. The best part about it is, it does all the work for me while I’m sleeping. This affordable product is called a grounding sheet. I got mine on Amazon. The one I got cost $50. It’s the length of a bed sheet, but it’s only 3 feet wide. It goes on top of my normal fitted bed sheet. The grounding sheet I got can be found here. Amazon does have full-sized sets available, but they are more expensive. I also bought a grounding pillowcase that cost $20, which can be found here.
I’m not affiliated with any company that sells grounding sheets. I bought mine with my own money. And I enjoy sharing products that’ve helped me improve my computer posture by enhancing sleep quality.
Using Grounding Sheet and Pillowcase
My grounding sheet and pillowcase have given me noticeably better sleep at night. Anything that improves my general wellness also improves my computer posture. I started to see improvements after the first few days.
The definition of grounding (in this case) is the process of connecting my body to the ground of the Earth. There are different ways to do this. You could walk outdoors bare foot. Another common way of grounding is sleeping on the ground (when camping, for example). But sleeping on a grounding sheet (in my own bed) is the method that has given me the most benefits. It’s also the most convenient.
The Earth provides us with an endless amount of beneficial electrons. If we’re always indoors, or wearing shoes while we’re outside, we don’t get to take advantage of these electrons and their healing, regenerative processes.
The grounding sheet I have looks like a normal bed sheet.
Except, it has a small metal connector stitched onto the fabric. It comes with a thin wire that attaches to this connector. The other end of the wire plugs into the ground portion of an electrical outlet. It only plugs into the bottom (negative) hole of a 3-prong outlet. The top 2 (positive) slots stay empty.
The sheet is 95% cotton and 5% silver fiber. The energy is conducted through the silver fabric of the sheet. This is how the grounded energy is conducted from the Earth to our grounding sheet. And essentially to our bodies, while we sleep on the grounding sheet in our own bed.
Our bodies are always healing. How well they heal can depend on many variables. Some of my biggest enemies are pain, tension, and inflammation.
I first heard of grounding a few years ago. At that time, I couldn’t remember the last time my bare feet actually touched the Earth. I was always indoors, or I had shoes on when I was outdoors.
Grounding (Bare Foot) and What Not to Do
So, I started doing outdoor workouts (bare foot) at a grass park in my neighborhood. I could definitely notice an improvement in my functionality. Especially in my ankles.
You may have read about my previous ankle issues. Incorrect foot position at a computer caused issues that ended up requiring 3 ankle surgeries. Yes, really. Foot problems caused by sitting.
I want to share the mistake I made in the past, so you can avoid it. When sitting at a computer, I’d always contract my hamstrings (due to either stress or my chair being too low). This hamstring contraction would pull my feet underneath my chair. This created a lot of muscle confusion throughout my entire leg. My hamstrings shortened. My quads and calves lengthened. All of them got tight and inflexible.
I still do occasional outdoor, bare foot workouts. The thing is, they only last about 30 minutes each. The big difference in using these grounding sheets, I’m sleeping on them 8 hours a night.
That’s a huge increase in time. And my sleep quality results have definitely showed. I’ve noticed a decrease in tension, improved functionality in my muscles/joints, and improved digestion. Most importantly, I’ve noticed better sleep at night. I also got a grounding sheet and pillowcase for my dad. He’s experienced noticeable results of sleep optimization just like me.
Mouth Taping
There are many benefits of using mouth tape for sleep. It promotes good oral posture. It also promotes nasal breathing instead of mouth breathing. I used to be a chronic mouth breather. My jaw muscles had excessive muscle tension from holding my mouth open all night to breathe. Now that I use mouth tape for sleeping, I can relax my jaw in a closed, neutral position. This reduced muscle tension has a positive affect on my head, face, and neck muscles as well.
Mouth taping has also improved my oral health and my sleep quality. Since I started mouth taping for sleep in early 2023, I don’t wake up in the middle of the night from a dry mouth anymore. And anything that prevents me from waking up in the middle of the night improves my sleep quality.
To do a deeper dive on mouth taping advantages, check out my article titled Benefits of Using Mouth Tape for Sleep.
Hostage Tape is the best mouth tape for sleeping in my opinion. It stays on comfortably. It’s not painful when I take it off. It also doesn’t leave a residue on my skin afterwards. Click here to visit Hostage Tape’s website. Full disclosure: I earn a very small commission when a purchase is made from that link. Thank you for your support.
Temperature Controlled Mattress Cover
One of my favorite natural sleep solutions is my Eight Sleep Pod Cover. I got mine back in 2019. Admittedly, this is the most expensive way of enhancing sleep quality I’ve tried, but it’s been totally worth it. I can’t imagine sleeping without one. I never wake up in the middle of the night sweating anymore.
The Eight Sleep Pod Cover is basically a mattress cover that has small water lines running throughout it. The second component it comes with is a water tank. It’s about the size of a desktop computer tower. It goes on the floor, next to my bed. It plugs in to the electrical outlet. This is where the water is stored, heated, and cooled.
The Eight Sleep Pod Cover can be cooled to 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
It can also be heated up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. I have mine set to automatically warm up slightly (not much) at 8pm. Then, I set it to cool slightly as soon as I get in bed around 9:30pm. This way my body temperature drops and I fall asleep quickly. It has 4 different pre-set times throughout the night where you can select the desired temperature in advance. I also set mine to warm up slightly before I wake up at 5:30am. This is one of my favorite sleep solutions for waking up naturally, as opposed to a loud alarm clock.
I’m not affiliated with, or compensated by Eight Sleep. It’s a product that I paid my own money for. The Pod Cover has essentially helped improve my computer posture because it creates a natural way to sleep better. Anything that improves my sleep quality is directly related to how good my computer posture is the next day. The Eight Sleep Pod Cover can be found here on their website.
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Thanks for your interest in computer posture.
If this article was helpful, check out my book titled “45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.” It’s available in both digital and paperback versions.
>>> Click here to pick up your copy
This book explains how to improve your posture through different variables of health and wellness. These variables include sitting posture, standing posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing. Poor posture is not just how we sit at a computer. The health habits we practice, 24 hours a day, are directly related to how good (or bad) our computer posture is.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen
P.S. You can sign up for my free computer posture newsletter here.