The Best Free Sleep Hacks for Sleep Awareness Week 2025

Plus February raffle winners announced!

I’m Brandon Wilson. I am constantly working toward improving my mind, body, and spirit using various ancient techniques and cutting-edge biohacking tools and devices. I want to be healthy, but not at the expense of being happy. This simple idea is what it means to be wellthy.

For just $6 per month/$60 per year, you get access to the entire archive of over 230 newsletters, audio voiceovers (with extra content and always read by me), participation in the brain training raffle to win monthly biohacking gift bags, and access to the Be Wellthy Club private Facebook group.

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If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you likely just lost an hour of sleep courtesy of Daylight Saving Time (DST). How are you feeling this morning? It’s only a one-hour difference, so why is it so disruptive? Sleep scientist Matthew Walker, PhD, explained a key statistic on the Joe Rogan podcast.

It’s shocking to learn that the spring-forward shenanigans correlate to a statistically significant increase in heart attacks.¹ So, why don’t we stop DST?

Congress has made noise about ending DST, but nothing has happened. A reporter asked President Trump about ending DST, and here’s his response.

Elon Musk conducted an unofficial poll on X, and people were split. The edge went toward having it an hour later.

Here is a fun fact to impress people at your next dinner party. Under what circumstances would the time in a state bordering the Atlantic be the same as in a state bordering the Pacific? A section of Western Florida is in the Central Time Zone, and a section of Oregon is in the Mountain Time Zone, only one hour apart. These two areas will have the same time for one hour at the end of DST because clocks fall back at 2:00 AM on Sunday morning, and that time moves from east to west. So, for one hour until the end of DST in the Mountain Time Zone, Pensacola, FL, and Ontario, OR, will have the same time. Here are a few more interesting facts about DST.

It’s Sleep Awareness Week® 2025, sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation. Sleep was the first topic I covered in this newsletter, and it serves as one of the primary pillars of health. If you have your sleep dialed in, great job! If your sleep could improve, consider this your wake-up call.

I’ve often heard the following: “It must be nice to have the money to spend on all those gadgets and patches and supplements.” First, it is nice, and we all have that thing we spend money on. I choose to invest in my health. Second, I believe bad habits underlie most sleep problems, and there are plenty of simple and free hacks to help.

The BIG list of FREE hacks to improve your sleep

• Reframe your idea of sleep from an obstacle you “have to” do to a special treat you “get to” do.

• Go outside and get at least 10 minutes of sunlight between 6 and 8:30 AM.

• Go to bed and wake up at the same time seven days a week.

• Eat meals at consistent times each day.

• Wait at least 90 minutes after waking before having caffeine. If you are more sensitive to caffeine, cut off your consumption by 2 PM or earlier.

• Note your afternoon dip in energy (however mild or severe). With no significant changes in nighttime sleep or eating an especially large lunch, your ideal bedtime is likely 6-7 hours after that dip.

• Stop consuming calories 2-3 hours before bedtime.

• Eliminate or limit alcohol consumption at least 3 hours before bedtime.

• Avoid excessive napping. Too much napping during the day can make it more difficult to fall asleep at night.

• Turn off all screens at least 90 minutes before bedtime. Yah, right. You’re not going to do that. At least adjust your screen settings to eliminate the blue light and get a more red hue.

• Keep your phone out of your bedroom. Yah, right. You’re not going to do that. At least put it in airplane mode, and do not sleep next to a charging phone.

• Take a warm bath 1 1/2 to 2 hours before bedtime. The bath will increase your core temperature, which will fall accordingly and level out a little cooler when you’re ready to hit the sack.

• The worst time to take a hot bath or shower is 11 AM. A hot bath or shower mid-morning will make you sleepy when you should feel wide awake.

• Wear socks to bed if your hands and feet are too cold.

• Most people’s ideal bedtime is between 9 and 11 PM. Staying up beyond 11 PM can trigger a second wind, making it even harder to fall asleep.

• Don’t wait until you are sleepy to do nightly activities, e.g., wash your face, brush your teeth.

• Dim your lights two hours before bed, or turn off most of them, especially white LEDs and CFLs.

• Perform box breathing in a comfortable chair or bed lying flat on your back. Close your eyes, close your mouth, and slowly breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale through your mouth for four seconds, and hold your lungs empty for four seconds. Repeat the cycle for four minutes.

• If you can't fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and do something relaxing in dim light until you feel sleepy, rather than watching the clock.

• If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, try this 10-minute Yoga Nidra meditation:

• Set your alarm to go off after a round number of 90-minute sleep cycles. For example, if you go to sleep at 10 PM, set your alarm for 5:30 AM ( 7 1/2 hours of sleep is five complete cycles of 90 minutes). In a pinch, try to get a minimum of four cycles (6 hours total) of sleep time.

• Exercise in the morning is excellent for sleep, but avoid intense workouts within 2 hours of bedtime.

• Take note of your body’s position in the morning. That is probably your most comfortable sleeping posture, so posing this way before bed can help you get to sleep more quickly.

• Keep a gratitude journal and write down 3-5 things you’re grateful for at the end of each day.

• Fill a shallow pan or dish with water and put it in the freezer. When the water is frozen solid, remove the pan, add water to the top of the ice, and stir it to chill the water. Hold your breath and put your face into the pan until you can’t stand the cold anymore. Do this trick before bed to drop your body temperature and help you fall asleep faster and sleep deeper.

• Take this short quiz to determine your chronotype, your biological clock that determines your natural preference for morning/evening and sleep style.

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The Daily Habit is where I share my habits related to the fundamentals: sleep, diet, physical activity, mindfulness, and stress management.

Two hours set the tone for each day: the hour before you go to sleep and the hour after you wake up in the morning. Dr. Satchin Panda, the author of The Circadian Code, says that the day doesn’t start when you wake up in the morning. The day begins when you go to bed the night before.

Be deliberate about what you do immediately after waking up and right before going to sleep.

Immediately after waking up:

• Be positive

• Perform a breathing exercise

• Visualize what a successful day will look like

Right before going to sleep:

• Avoid all screens

• Recall the successes of the day

• Write down or mentally list three things you are grateful for

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Congratulations to the February raffle winners 🎉 🎁

Sample raffle prize. Prizes vary each month.

Scott S.

Ariel E.

Last week’s answer

Be Wellthy Club entrants: Scott S., Scott L., Ariel E.

Raffle prizes are for Be Wellthy Club Members only. Club members can email bewellthy@substack.com with the correct answer to each week’s brain training and be entered into a monthly raffle to win one of two prize packages every month. I do respond to every email.

This week:

The answer to the first one is “29 days in February in a leap year.” Complete the rest.

29 D in F in a L Y

12 S of the Z

7 W of the A W

54 C in a D (with the J)

32 D F, at which W F

18 H on a G C

4 Q in a G

See the answer.

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Dave Asprey’s new book Heavily Meditated will be released in May (preorder here). Two years ago, I wrote about his last book, Smarter Not Harder, which I still find an excellent primer for someone interested in biohacking their mind and body.

Keep your loved ones informed with the most up-to-date information about wellness by sharing this newsletter.

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6463000/