Over the holidays, and after several years of consideration, I finally bought myself an Oura Ring (Gen 3, Horizon, Gold, and most importantly, on sale.) Reader, I fear it’s proven to be very much worth the money so far. I had an Apple Watch for the last two years, but hated how often I had to charge it, and generally found it to be lacking the kind of humanism that I look for in tech products. In short, my Oura ring is really nice to me, and the app messaging is empathetic.
This little ring has taught me a lot about myself in a short few weeks, one key insight being that I’m not amazing at sleeping. If I miss a few hours of sleep, it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll be crying in the next 24 hours. I know everyone (or most people) can’t function on little sleep, but I really fall apart, and I fall apart quickly.
The main things I struggle with when it comes to sleeping are:
I tend to wake up around 3 AM every night, often struggling to get back to sleep.
I sleep hot. I think this is a relatively new and probably hormonal thing, but I frequently wake up in a pool of sweat.
I have a hard time falling asleep naturally before midnight (this is partly an ADHD thing.)
Generally, my body seems to have a constant hum of physical anxiety, meaning that the sleep I do get isn’t all that restful.
I almost always wake up in the middle of a REM cycle.
This is a recommendations substack, so here are the things I’ve tried that I’ve loved so far:
Accepting that I’m simply someone who needs to take 3mg of melatonin nightly in order to fall asleep before midnight.
Switching to 100% cotton bedding, including my duvet cover. No more polyester or modal in my bed! I used to be a huge modal fan, and despite its softness, I am too sweaty for this otherwise magical material.
This is a three-parter:
Switching to a Scandi-style duvet setup, meaning that my husband and I each have our own twin-size duvets that we use in our king-size bed. This is completely standard across many parts of Europe, and it’s undeniably superior, IMO. The smaller size also makes our duvets much more portable, so I can easily use mine when I’m just watching TV on the couch.
In each of our twin-size duvet covers is an XL King goose down and feather duvet. Using the “wrong size” (a larger) duvet insert is actually the secret to those yummy, fluffy duvets you see at places like Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn. You could also put two of the same size duvets on top of each other for the same effect, but this tends to be way more expensive. TLDR: The next time you’re looking for a duvet, SIZE UP! That’s an order.
Having my own duvet means that I can use a much more lightweight duvet than my husband, who runs cold. I bought this one, and because of how much duck down is inside, it’s the fluffiest, lightest, crunchy-in-a-good-way duvet. I would buy it again tomorrow if it got ruined.
I’ve extolled the virtues of a Hue lighting system many times before, and sleep support is another amazing benefit of smart lighting. My bedside light (the undeniably stunning IKEA Fado lamp) mimics the sunrise in the morning, starting 30 minutes before my alarm. At 8:30 PM, every night, my entire home goes into “Red Light Therapy” mode. This is just a fancy way of saying that every one of the 11 hue bulbs around my home turn red, and dim to about 40% brightness. I think of it as an antidote to all of the sleep-disrupting blue light I’m exposed to all day.
My winter arc includes “Bath-y Winter,” which is a Gen Z-ish way of saying that I take a 45-minute bath every night with 3 cups of epsom salt. I buy my epsom salt 4 kilograms at a time, either from Bulk Barn or Walmart. I cannot deny that this was heavily inspired by this iconic Emily Weiss interview with Vogue, which I weirdly think about a lot.
Endel. Just trust me on this one.