I test sleep trackers for a living: 5 tricks they've taught me for getting better rest

There are thousands of songs about staying up all night to have fun, yet fewer about how nice it is to go to bed early. After a long day of work, nerve-inducing headlines, and strenuous exercise, all I want is sleep. That’s when the lyrics of Hall and Oates’ song, “When the Morning Comes,” a tune mainly about rejection that can be interpreted as an ode to a good night’s rest, come to mind: “It’ll be all right when the morning comes,” the duo sing. As a sleep enthusiast, I can’t help but agree.

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As a health and wearables editor, I wear smartwatches and smart rings around the clock. By testing these products, my interest in optimizing my sleep and health has grown. Not to brag, but I’m amazing at sleeping — my roommates jokingly refer to me as the Sleepytime Tea Bear. I treat my sleep the same way a professional athlete treats their workout routine, and it’s paying dividends. My sleep scores reach the high eighties and low nineties consistently, and I get around eight hours — the expert-recommended daily sleep dose — every night. My focus is clear and my energy is long-lasting.

If you want to level up your sleep scores, I’ve consulted experts from wearables specialists, such as Oura and Whoop, and drawn on my own experience using these products and witnessing my sleep results to compile a list of tips I swear by for better slumber.

1. Consistency is key

In early January, I caught a sinus infection that kept me bedridden for nearly two weeks. To get better, I would go to bed early — around 8pm. At the beginning, when sleep was dire, I would head off to bed at 9pm; by the tail end of my recovery, I would head off at 10pm. As I became more of a stickler for my sleep times, I would wake up at 6:30am every morning — no alarm needed.

While I wish I didn’t have to endure two weeks of antibiotics, hacking coughs, and blowing my nose to develop an unwavering wake-up time, I’m thankful I got to reconfigure my circadian rhythms to a 6am wake-up time that works for me. I rise earlier, go to work earlier, come home and exercise earlier, and, most importantly, go to bed earlier. It’s great. This pattern is in line with the recommendation of Raphael Vallat, Oura’s lead machine learning data scientist — go to sleep and wake up at the same time seven days a week.

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“Quality sleep isn’t just about time in bed — it’s about consistency and efficiency. A stable nighttime routine and an ideal sleep environment play a crucial role in optimizing rest,” a Whoop spokesperson wrote in an email.

2. How low can your heart rate go?

During sleep, your heart rate will drop lower than your daytime resting heart rate to recover from the day’s activities and stress. Your resting heart rate should lower during the first half of your night’s sleep — though it may rise during REM, Oura explains in a blog post. The earlier in the night your heart rate lowers, the easier it is for your body to recover and for you to wake up fresh and alert.

Exercising late, consuming caffeine well into the afternoon, drinking alcohol, eating a heavy meal before bed, or doing stress-inducing tasks, like scrolling the news or arguing with a partner, can all impact your body’s stress levels, keep you up at night, or inhibit an early heart rate drop.

I’ve noticed that my heart rate lowers earlier in the night when I’ve read before bed or avoided drinking or eating late. On nights when I’ve been out with friends, received stressful news, or had a glass of wine before bed, my heart rate reaches its lowest later in the night, and my readiness or sleep scores are poor.

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Oura’s Vallat offered additional wind-down tips ahead of bedtime. He recommends dimming the lights — “or even better, turn them off” — at least an hour before bedtime to promote melatonin production that, in turn, causes your heart rate to lower. “It’s also important to get some time at the end of the day to reprocess (i.e. think about) the events of the day — otherwise your brain is going to do it anyway when you’re trying to sleep,” he wrote in an email to ZDNET. Meditation, journaling, or a warm bath can help with this rumination.

3. Ditch alcoholic drinks and heavy meals before bed

Those 8pm dinners are taking a toll on your sleep. Eating and drinking before bedtime is a major culprit for that bad sleep score.

Alcohol can promote drowsiness and send you to sleep easier, but the sleep you get after a few drinks is of poorer quality than a sober night of rest. Consuming a drink or two before bedtime can suppress your REM cycles and keep you in lighter sleep stages for longer, according to the National Council on Aging.

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Avoiding late-night snacking, caffeine, and alcohol are some of the most effective nighttime practices, according to Whoop data. If you are having a drink, experts recommend having your last one three hours before bedtime, says the Sleep Foundation.

4. Save your nights for yourself

If it was up to me, I’d go to bed at 10pm every night. When I get a free day to myself, this is normally when I’m shutting my eyes and falling asleep. But if I spent every night alone, I’d be sad and isolated from my friends and family, who regularly schedule things late in the day to catch up. Don’t forget that a healthy social life contributes to a healthy and happy lifestyle.

That’s why I’ve started prioritizing weekend and early afternoon hangouts to see people, instead of trying to cram my evenings with dinners or drinks that keep me out late, far away from my bed. I prefer meeting up for breakfast or lunch on weekends, when drinking, which I try to avoid in excess, is less commonplace than your average dinner or late-night bar outing. This strategy keeps my evenings open for an early, peaceful, undeterred wind-down.

5. Your sleep is only as good as your environment

My bedroom overlooks a noisy and bright Brooklyn street that never sleeps, even while I’m trying to. However, that situation doesn’t stop me from achieving great rest.

That’s because the environment I’ve created for myself dims the brightness of the streetlights and silences the car honks and ambulance sirens outside my window. I can thank two helpers for that: my sleep mask and my sleep earplugs. I picked a sleep mask from Target that’s thick and soft and covers my eyes completely to block light.

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As far as sleep earplugs go, I recommend the Loop Dream earplugs, which are comfortable, light, unobtrusive, and can silence the many noises outside my window. Suppose you’d like to listen to ambient noise, audiobooks, or music before falling asleep. I’d recommend the Ozlo Sleepbuds, which I have tested myself and can without a doubt recommend for comfort and quality.

Maybe sticking something in your ears isn’t the equation for a smooth slumber? If that’s the case, use a speaker or a sleep machine to play white noise instead.

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