The most common complaint among 25-50 year olds today is that they don’t get anywhere near enough sleep.

Your first few years of work are fun. You have money for the first time, you’re doing new things, and you’re probably partying pretty hard with your friends now that you can afford to do so. But once you’ve been out of college for a few years and your work gets serious, sleep usually starts to suffer.

You stay late after work answering emails. When you get home, you eat a quick dinner and then play on your phone or computer until midnight. Then your phone wakes you up at 6am after a night of tossing and turning, and the cycle continues.

After a few months of this, you’ll probably find that you’re chronically exhausted.

Sleep deprivation is something that can build up over a long time, and there is no overnight fix. The idea of ‘catching up’ on your sleep over a weekend just doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.

Thankfully, there are plenty of ways you can improve the quality of your sleep naturally, without turning to sleeping pills. You can make yourself fall asleep much quicker at night, and stay asleep for far longer.

Let’s look at some of the best ways to achieve this!

One of the biggest mistakes people make is looking at their screens shortly before they go to bed.

Digital screens – whether from your phone, your laptop, or your TV – give off a lot of light in the blue wavelength. This is high energy, short wavelength light. It is not usually given off by lightbulbs, candles, and so on. But it is given off by the sun.

When our eyes take in blue light, our brain produces less melatonin. We become more alert, engaged, and mentally energetic. Our desire to sleep diminishes. This is extremely useful during the day, but at night it is disastrous.

More specifically, the fact that blue light disrupts melatonin means that it stops you from getting enough deep sleep – the periods of sleep when melatonin levels are highest and we are getting the most rest.

So even if you can look at your phone at night and still drift off, you will be getting a higher proportion of light, REM sleep and a lot less deep, truly restful sleep. The consequences of this are potentially enormous (source).

The reason for the 8pm cut-off is simple: the suppressing effect that blue light has on melatonin seems to last for a couple of hours. Staying away from digital screens after 8pm will give you plenty of time to get back to a normal melatonin cycle before you start reaching peak levels between 11pm and 1am.

A more extreme measure is to start using sleep supplements to help you drift off easier and stay asleep for longer. But we’re not talking about the kind of tranquilizers that so many people in the US are reliant on nowadays. Nor are we talking about things like CBD oil, or just regular cannabis. While a lot of people no doubt get plenty of help from CBD, this article is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of using a psychoactive to get to sleep.

No, we’re talking about natural sleep supplements made of herbal extracts, amino acids, and so on. No drugs, no tranquilizers, no pharmaceuticals.

Contrary to what you might think, natural herbal extracts can have a pretty dramatic effect on your sleeping patterns. Combining these substances into a stack – using them in the right combination at the same time – can really work wonders for people who are struggling to get a good night’s sleep.

For example, Genius Sleep aid is used by thousands of people to optimize their sleep each night. It has plenty of positive reviews online, and it clearly sells extremely well. Another good option might be Performance Lab Sleep; a more refined, minimalist, yet extremely powerful sleep aid. Take a look at some of the top rated sleeping supplements on Natural Nootropic and see if any take your fancy.

It isn't a good idea to go cheap with sleep supplements. Your sleep isn't something you want to really risk losing with low quality supplements. Invest in a professional, thoroughly tested product and stick with that!