The Complete Guide to Sleep Optimisation

The Sleep Crisis

Sleep deprivation is the most widespread and underestimated health crisis of our time. Over a third of adults regularly get less than seven hours of sleep, and the consequences extend far beyond daytime tiredness — impaired immune function, accelerated aging, cognitive decline, and increased risk of chronic disease.

The good news: sleep is highly optimisable. Small changes to your environment, habits, and evening routine can produce dramatic improvements in both quantity and quality.

Circadian Alignment

Your body's internal clock — the circadian rhythm — is the master regulator of sleep quality. Aligning your behaviour with this rhythm is the single most impactful change you can make. The key lever is light exposure: bright light in the morning signals wakefulness, while darkness in the evening signals sleep readiness.

Aim for 10–15 minutes of natural sunlight within the first hour of waking. In the evening, dim artificial lights and minimise screen exposure for at least one hour before bed.

Designing Your Sleep Environment

Your bedroom should be optimised for one purpose: sleep. The three critical environmental factors are temperature, light, and sound.

• Temperature: A cool room (16–19°C) promotes deeper sleep by supporting your body's natural temperature drop
• Light: Complete darkness is ideal — blackout curtains or a sleep mask can make a significant difference
• Sound: Consistent background noise (white noise or a fan) can mask disruptive sounds

Evening Protocols

A consistent evening wind-down routine signals to your brain that sleep is approaching. Effective pre-sleep activities include reading, gentle stretching, breathwork, and journalling. The key is consistency — performing the same sequence each night creates a powerful conditioned response.

Avoid caffeine after noon, limit alcohol (which fragments sleep architecture), and finish eating at least two to three hours before bed. These simple rules eliminate the most common sleep disruptors.

Supplements Worth Considering

While no supplement replaces good sleep hygiene, a few have solid evidence for supporting sleep quality. Magnesium glycinate (200–400mg), taken 30–60 minutes before bed, supports relaxation and may improve sleep onset. Glycine (3g) has been shown to improve subjective sleep quality. Melatonin (0.3–0.5mg) can be useful for jet lag or shift work but is best used intermittently.

Tracking Your Progress

Wearable devices like the Oura Ring and Whoop provide useful data on sleep stages, heart rate variability, and total sleep time. While not perfectly accurate, trends over time can help you identify what's working and what needs adjustment.

At Formation, we incorporate sleep metrics into our holistic assessment of each member's recovery and readiness, adjusting training programmes accordingly.