Want a Better Quality of Life? Start with Better Sleep—Here’s How!

Sleep—just the word itself can conjure up all kinds of angst for those of us who struggle with getting a good night’s sleep. On this topic, I attended synagogue services last Shabbat in New York, and Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt raised a fascinating question: “Why didn’t G-d create us without the need for sleep?” Imagine how much more productive we’d be if we didn’t have to devote a third of our lives to sleep. His answer: “The purpose of sleep is so we can wake up each morning to a fresh start—the gift of a new day with all it promises. While we are awake, the angels in heaven are silent. But while we sleep, the angels sing.”

While those angels sing, the gift of sleep restores us and cleanses our brain. How do I know? I learned from the ultimate authority on sleep, Meeta Singh, MD. As we go through life, we make connections with people. Sometimes you have a feeling that you’ve met someone who is going to be a special part of your life. Such was the case when Laurie and I met Dr. Singh.

We were at a TIGER 21 Annual Conference, attending lectures and workshops. A session we eagerly anticipated was on Sleep—how to improve our sleep experience. Out walks the speaker, Meeta Singh, and the spotlight hits her. Dr. Singh begins her talk, and she had us at “hello.” Meeta commands every room from the moment she enters it. Meeta is a Michigan psychiatrist who specializes in sleep. Even more than the famous mattress store, Meeta is the real “Sleep Expert.”

Following her presentation on the science of sleep, Meeta fielded questions. She was hammered with some 50 questions, as this topic really resonated with the thousand or so TIGER 21 members. The Q & A dug into every imaginable question about how to improve our sleep, and Meeta popped out one succinct tip after another. 

The next day, a TIGER 21 chair from Michigan was trying to entice me to come to Detroit to conduct an estate planning workshop. Sensing my reluctance, he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. If Laurie and I would come to Detroit, he’d arrange a private dinner for the two of us with Meeta. Done! 

Our time in Michigan with Meeta was magical. We began talking and texting regularly. Meeta even came to Texas and conducted a sleep workshop in our own living room for some lucky friends of ours. A few weeks ago, Meeta gave another sleep presentation to my TIGER 21 group in Dallas. As always, she had us all spellbound and loaded with questions. Her talk was entitled “Bespoke Sleep Optimization: Your Blueprint for Optimal Healthspan and Longevity.” We learned that sleep is one of the premier keys for longevity (along with nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, relationships, and not doing “stupid things” like drinking and driving). The main end-of-life diseases that lead to death are heart disease/stroke, dementia, and cancer. Poor sleep contributes to all of them. Following her scientific presentation, we explored a series of practical tips. I’ll leave the science to Meeta, and will share a dozen of those tips here:

• Develop a winding down routine. “When a plane lands, it doesn’t just drop to the ground.” Consider a hot bath, reading, and a spiritual practice (“meditation is a superpower”).
• Aim for going to bed every night at approximately the same time (within an hour of variance). Your brain loves consistency.
• Protect your sleep environment. “The bedroom is for sleep and sex only.”
• Your bedroom should be dark and cold (65-66 degrees; “as cold and dark as a cave”). Your brain likes light, so don’t activate it.
• White noise masks sudden sounds and helps you stay asleep—just keep the volume low.
• Caffeine, alcohol, and cannabis all interfere with sleep.
• Avoid sleep aids, as they prevent the brain from “power washing” out the toxins that accumulate during the day. Dementia results from the accumulation of toxins in the brain.
• Before you jump to a sleep supplement to help you sleep, address WHY you’re having problems sleeping. (Meeta can help!)
• If you wake up in the middle of the night (Marvin) and your brain starts to activate, don’t look at the clock. Start rhythmic breathing, reading with a book light, or listen to a podcast. Allow sleep to happen, and don’t focus on the fact you’re not falling back asleep. Nothing good comes from trying to solve problems in the middle of the night.
• Naps are a good tool when you hit the time of day when there’s a dip in your alertness. The ideal nap duration is 24.7 minutes, which will restore you for the next four hours.
• Getting less than six hours of sleep is unhealthy and leaves you as impaired “as if you drank several beers before going into an important meeting.” On the other hand, more than 9.5-10 hours of sleep is also unhealthy.
• Dr. Meeta Singh has developed a comprehensive two-week program that provides a complete profile of your sleep (the bespoke Sleep Profiling program). It includes 10 nights of at-home sleep studies to evaluate sleep quality and rule out any underlying sleep disorders. Think of it as a baseline test—similar to checking the health of your heart or lungs—designed to assess whether your sleep is truly healthy. With Proactive Sleep Monitoring, the study is repeated quarterly to track changes over time and to proactively detect any emerging sleep disorders.

If you, like me, struggle with sleep, then Meeta Singh is a godsend. She’s the go-to consultant for professional sports, Olympic, and college sports teams, as well as many large organizations. In fact, irregular sleep is the number one predictor of an athlete getting injured. Meeta can help all of us. Reach out to her at meeta@meetasinghmd.com. She can also add you to the distribution list of her weekly newsletter “The Performance Sleep Bulletin.” I read every word of it, every Monday morning. Meeta is a gift in our lives that Laurie and I are happy to share. As she says, “If you concentrate on the Singh Method, ultimately your relationship with sleep will change.” Wishing you all the benefits from optimizing your sleep and improving your quality of life.

Marvin E. Blum