How to Get More Deep Sleep: 13 Science-Backed Methods & Benefits

Deep sleep is the third stage of sleep, where delta waves (brainwaves) are synchronized and slow. In healthy adults, deep sleep typically makes up 10-25% of total sleep time, and declines naturally with age. You can support your deep sleep with better sleep practices and a maintainable sleep schedule. 

Deep sleep is vital for our daily health, but what is it? And how do we get it? Fixating on achieving a state of restful, deep sleep can really wear you  down if you don’t know where to start. That’s not to mention that deep sleep becomes increasingly important as we get older because we typically end up getting less as we age.

Slow-wave sleep (deep sleep) happens in your third stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM sleep), usually about an hour after you fall and stay asleep without interruption. When you’re in a deep sleep state, your brain's electrical activity slows down to a 0.5 to 2-hertz frequency known as delta waves.

Unfortunately, simply falling asleep at night does not guarantee that you’ll get a sufficient amount of deep sleep which contributes to our cognitive functions, immune system, and overall wellness. Luckily, there are several ways you can achieve more deep sleep, and this post will guide you through some strategies.

Key Takeaways: 

• Deep sleep happens in your third stage of sleeo, the deepest stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep(NREM sleep).
• Most adults should aim to get 7–9 hours of total nightly sleep, deep sleep typically makes up 10% to 25% of the night. 
• Deep sleep contributes to our cognitive function, immune system, and more. Lack of deep sleep can lead to impaired memory, fatigue, and mood changes.

1. Establish a Bedtime Routine

Your body has an internal clock—a circadian timing system regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) —that synchronizes your sleep-wake cycle. It’s important to keep your schedule consistent, but many factors can disrupt your circadian rhythm and prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep.

Good news: you can establish a sleep schedule that trains your mind and body to stay in rhythm. To establish a healthy bedtime routine as an adult, implement habits that are achievable for you in the long term. Below are some routines worth considering:

• Create a relaxing bedtime environment: Make your bedroom dark, quiet and cool.
• Dim artificial lighting throughout your home: Lower ceiling lights and use a dim lamp 60 minutes before bed to avoid bright light suppressing melatonin.
• Relaxation techniques: Draw a warm bath, create a soothing skincare routine, or meditate before bed to relax the body and mind.
• Get into sleepwear: Get into the habit of wearing pajamas to signal to your brain that it’s time to sleep soon.

No matter what bedtime routine you choose, consistency is key. If you're not sure how much sleep you need or when you should go to bed, you can use a sleep calculator to get options for your ideal bedtime and wake-up time.

2. Avoid Caffeine 9 Hours Before Bedtime

Avoid caffeine in the evenings and 6-9 hours before bedtime. Caffeine can reduce sleep quality and the time it takes to fall asleep, especially when taken in the evening around bedtime. 

Adenosine is a chemical in the brain that build up while we’re awake to make us tired and urge us to sleep, and caffeine blocks its receptors. That means it prevents adenosine from signaling to your brain that it's bedtime. And, depending on how fast you metabolize it, caffeine can stay in the system for hours.

Limit or avoid the following altogether before bedtime:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Sugary soft drinks
• Energy drinks
• Chocolate

Sometimes, it’s not the caffeine we crave but the sensations associated with caffeinated substances, like warmth and relaxation. If this is the case, opt for herbal teas and decaffeinated coffee instead to enjoy both sleep and comfort.

3. Avoid Stimulating Electronics Before Bed

One of the best things to do when you can't sleep is avoid stimulating content on your TV, laptop, computer, tablet, or phone. starting one hour before bedtime.

If the content is stimulating – you are scrolling on your phone, auto-playing another episode of a TV show, messaging friends, or even playing video games; it can engage your brain. This can be overstimulating at night and send wrong signals to the brain to stay awake.

Instead, try to slow down and try a nighttime routine that stimulates sleep, like reading a book, writing, or meditating. 

If you use technology as a sleep aid, like app-based sleep stories, meditations, or audiobooks, ensure your screen brightness is set to the minimum and you have phone notifications disabled. 

4. Move Your Body

Regular exercise can help people get more deep sleep during the night. To improve your sleep quality, aim to do moderate exercise three times a week.

Cardiovascular exercise and strength training can impact sleep-regulating hormones. Cortisol is a stress hormone that interferes with sleep at heightened levels, but exercise can help regulate the body’s stress response over time.

Exercise also releases endorphins, which can reduce stress and elevate our mood. This can help reduce nighttime awakenings, encouraging more restful deep sleep. Pairing regular exercise with the right sleep environment — such as a supportive mattress — can further enhance the quality of your rest.

Some achievable exercises that can facilitate deep sleep include:

• Cardiovascular exercise: Walking, jogging, running, cycling
• Strength training: Push-ups, squats, weightlifting
• Yoga and pilates: Deep breathing exercises, gentle stretches

While exercise can lead to more deep sleep, a heightened heart rate, body temperature, and adrenaline level from vigorous exercise 1-2 hours before bedtime may make it harder to fall sleep. Experiment with an exercise schedule to see what works best for you.

5. Set Your Ideal Sleep Temperature

Although comfort levels vary, most adults sleep well if the temperature is between 60 and 67 degrees. Set yourself up for success by making your bedroom the ideal sleeping temperature.

Just like light influences our circadian rhythm, temperature interacts with our internal rhythms. Our core body temperature fluctuates throughout the day, and it drops to its lowest when we're asleep. External influences that heat our bodies may disrupt our deep sleep, so it's important to keep our body temperatures cool to prevent overheating throughout the night.

While adjusting your air conditioner + fans or opening your windows can be an obvious and effective approach, you could also try the following options:

• Cooling mattress and pillows: Designed to regulate your body temperature and keep you cool throughout the night.
• Blackout curtains: Blocks out light and heat sources.
• Lightweight sleepwear: Sleepwear made of cotton, linen, and silk.

6. Invest in a Good Mattress

If you can’t get comfortable in bed, it may be time to find a new mattress—one that alleviates pressure points, promotes proper alignment, and encourages deeper, more restorative sleep.

A mattress designed to reduce pressure and support your body’s natural curves can help reduce nighttime awakenings that can disrupt how long you stay in deep sleep. In fact, sleepers on Purple  mattresses noted 90% improvement in reported sleep quality¹, helping support better overnight recovery and overall sleep quality.

Here are other considerations for your ideal deeper-sleep mattress:

• Proper spinal alignment: Supporting a neutral spine position to avoid muscle tension.
• Motion isolating: If you share your bed with a partner, motion isolation will help minimise movements so both you and your partner sleep comfortably.
• Temperature regulating: A cooling mattress that regulates temperature can help you maintain deep sleep and avoid sleep disruptions from overheating.

Do note that while good quality mattresses can last you a while, you should consider replacing your mattress every seven to ten years—or whenever you see signs of wear and tear.

7. Replace Your Pillow 

Pillows can also reduce nighttime wake-ups and promote better sleep continuity, provided they're the right ones. While the ideal pillow boils down to individual preference, there are multiple considerations to take into account when searching for the right pillow. Let's see some of them below:

• Neck support: Your pillow should support the natural contours and curvatures of your neck to prevent strain.
• Spinal alignment: Your head and spine should align comfortably with your pillow to avoid muscle strain and waking with neck stiffness or headaches.
• Temperature balance: Cooling pillows can help promote deep sleep and prevent disruptive overheating with their breathable materials, which in turn can facilitate deep sleep. 

For side sleepers in particular, the best pillow for side sleepers is typically firmer and higher-lofted to maintain proper alignment and reduce pressure on the neck and shoulders.

The right pillow for you depends on your preferences, and even if you’ve found the perfect one, be sure to replace it if it loses shape or support (or earlier, if needed). Otherwise, you won’t be feeling the benefits.

8. Introduce Deep Touch Pressure (DTP)

In addition to mattresses and pillows, some products provide Deep Touch Pressure (DTP), which can promotes physical + mental relaxation, as well as pain, ache + muscle tension relief. Weighted blankets are a popular option for those who'd like to experience those benefits.

This type of gentle pressure has been shown to reduce the number of times you wake up overnight, restlessness while you are sleeping, and ease. They have these positive effects on sleep by helping calm the autonomic nervous system before you drift off.

When getting a weighted blanket, consider the following to find the best one for you:

• Weight: Choose a weighted blanket that’s about 10% of your body weight (or within your comfort range).
• Filling material: Organic cotton provides comfortable and substantial weight, but depending on your preference, you can also opt for a blanket with plastic pellets or natural rice/millet fillings.
• Temperature balance: Look for blankets made of cooling material like cotton, linen, and silk.

9. Upgrade Your Sheets

Your sheets are a key piece of your sleep environment and work with your mattress, pillows, and blankets to give you the best sleep.If you don’t find your sheets comfortable, or they trap heat, they could result in you waking up more overnight. 

Let’s look at some considerations when upgrading your sheets:

• Texture: Natural fibers like cotton and linen are smooth to the touch.
• Temperature regulation: Sheets with lower thread count and made of cotton, linen, wool, and silk are more breathable and help maintain body temperature.
• Moisture regulation: Microfiber sheets help keep skin dry by drawing moisture away, allowing liquids to escape through the fibers more freely.

Note that sheet needs can change with the seasons and over time. Be sure to have multiple sets to rotate throughout the year and replace them when they show signs of wear, like thinning or pilling, since you'll use them so often.

10. Play a Sleep Playlist

Calming, ambient music can create a serene auditory experience that helps facilitate a conducive sleeping environment. Relaxing music helps reduce pre-sleep stress, which can promote relaxation.

While relaxing music is a helpful option to sleep to, there are a variety of other options that can create a sleep-inducing sonic experience. Let’s take a look at two of them below.

• White noise: A consistent, steady sound like that of television static or an electric fan.
• Pink noise: A  balance of different pitches and tones with the lower frequencies being more pronounced. Think rainfall, river streams, and wind sounds.

These continuous sounds can help by masking disruptive background noises that might otherwise wake you up. Consider building a playlist of the above sounds to repeat throughout the night at a controlled and non-disruptive volume.

11. Check in With Your Mental Health

Elevated arousal in your brain and body before sleep is often accompanied by higher cortisol levels, which can promote wakefulness and prevent us from getting deep sleep. While it's not uncommon to get too stressed to sleep, prolonged bouts of sleep deprivation can exacerbate your stress further.

Consider the following methods to help alleviate some of your pre-sleep stress:

• Journal or make to-do lists: If your daily tasks are anxiety-inducing, try writing them down for tomorrow to help clear your mind.
• Practice self-care: Be mindful of your physical and mental limits and implement routines to rest and recover from everyday toils. Try blocking out time in the day specifically for you to engage in a favorite hobby or pastime.
• Meditate: Mindfulness meditation techniques that focus on the now can help repel the stress-inducing thoughts of the week. Try 5-10 minute sessions daily.

While there are a variety of practices and techniques you can incorporate into your daily life to help your mental health and your deep sleep, you should also consult with a licensed professional to address mental health concerns that surface-level methods can’t resolve.

12. Increase Your Fiber

Fiber-rich foods like legumes, grains, fruits, and vegetables can contribute to better sleep quality. Greater fiber intake indirectly addresses bodily sleep disruptors like hunger and digestion problems, and is linked to fewer nighttime wake-ups and more time spent in deep sleep.

Let’s take a look at some of the best foods to help you sleep better below:

• Legumes and nuts: Peanuts, almonds, chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans
• Grains: Quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and bread
• Fruits and vegetables: Avocados, bananas, spinach, kale, and cabbage

While these foods provide gut-healthy fiber, they also contain other benefits, like magnesium, heart-healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates.

Long story short, a nutrient-dense, fibrous diet helps your digestive tract and your heart, and these overall body benefits may improve your sleep quality..

13. Know When to See a Doctor

If you've been experiencing prolonged sleep problems or specific symptoms you can't alleviate through sleep-promoting methods, consult a doctor or board-certified sleep specialist to help diagnose your condition and provide evidence-based treatment.

Consult with your doctor if you experience any of the following:

• Insomnia: If you have persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep at least three nights a week for three months or more, despite good efforts to create a conducive sleep environment. The first-line medical treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i).
• Restless legs syndrome (RLS): If you have sensations or urges to move your legs at night or at bedtime, which is temporarily relieved by movement.
• Sleep apnea: If you or your partner reports you having disruptive snoring, gasping, or choking sounds when you sleep, or if you wake up feeling unrefreshed.
• Parasomnias, like sleepwalking: If you're found walking, talking, or eating while you sleep, unable to recall the sensation of getting up the next morning.

While there are a variety of methods to help get more deep sleep, there may be more serious underlying issues that prevent you from doing so. If you find that your issues are affecting your sleep quality and daytime functioning, it's time to see a doctor.

Deep Sleep Benefits

Deep sleep is a part of our larger sleep cycle and integral to our overall health. Without sufficient deep sleep, we may suffer a decline in cognitive functions, growth hormones, memory, and more. Some of the benefits of deep sleep include:

• Growth: Deep sleep is important for growth and development, especially for children, as it triggers the release of growth hormones secretion that supports muscle + tissue development and repair.
• Memory: Deep sleep helps us better retain the information we obtain throughout the day, and form long-term memories.
• Learning: Deep sleep aids cognitive function, which aids our ability to learn new skills and abilities.
• Recovery: Deep sleep gives your body the downtime it needs to rebuild tissue, boost our immune defenses, and recover from daily wear and tear. For athletes, getting enough deep sleep facilitates better athletic performance.
• Mood: Deep sleep helps you manage stress better the next day, helping us manage emotions so everyday hiccups don’t feel overwhelming. 

How Much Deep Sleep Do You Need by Age?

In healthy young adults, deep sleep typically accounts for 10% to 25% of total nighttime sleep. Generally, children spend more time in deep sleep to support body and brain development. The proportion of deep sleep we get gradually decrease as we age.

Your sleep architecture – how much time you spend in different sleep stages – is specific to you. Healthy older adults can typically average under 10% of their total sleep time in the deep sleep stage. This can often be around 30 to 60 minutes, and sometimes even less. This natural decline is due to age-related changes in the brain.

What are the Risks of Not Getting Deep Sleep?

Without sufficient deep sleep, your body may experience a decline in many cognitive functions and and physiological processes we undergo at night while asleep. Below are some of the negative effects that result from a lack of deep sleep:

• Mental fatigue: Concentration, problem-solving skills, and other cognitive functions become more difficult to apply in daily life.
• Hormonal imbalances: Deep sleep is responsible for the release of growth hormones while we sleep, which we use for tissue repair and metabolism. Missing out on deep sleep can disrupt normal metabolic function. 
• Lower immune system function: Our immune systems need the benefits of deep sleep to maintain defenses against diseases and infections effectively. With a weakened immune signaling, your body can be more vulnerable to diseases.

Deep Sleep FAQ

There are multiple factors that contribute to deep sleep deprivation, as well as multiple benefits that come from getting sufficient deep sleep. Understanding them all can be difficult, so we added an FAQ below to reference as you learn how to get more deep sleep.

What Causes Lack of Deep Sleep?

While there are a variety of factors that can cause a lack of deep sleep, some of the main culprits include:

• Insomnia: The source of insomnia can stem from stress, depression, anxiety, and other factors that can cause chronic hyperarousal.
• Sleep apnea: When the muscles in the throat relax too much during sleep, your upper airways can get obstructed, causing loud snoring, gasping, and even choking, and repeated micro-awakenings that can disrupt deep sleep.
• Sleepwalking: Sleepwalking mostly occurs during the deep sleep stage, and while you may be unaware of your movements, your body is unable to gain the full benefits of deep sleep due to fragmented sleep.

What Is Shallow Sleep Syndrome?

Shallow sleep syndrome or nonrestorative sleep is a sleep disturbance where you feel tired even after a full night of sleep. Those who wake from this type of sleep feel fatigued, mentally impaired, and irritable. 

Nonrestorative sleep can result from sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep apnea, and RLS. Like sleep disorders, it requires solving the underlying issues that contribute to it.

Is REM or Deep Sleep Better?

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and deep sleep are distinct stages of sleep; individually, both have immense benefits and are equally essential parts of the sleep cycle.

REM sleep helps with:

• emotional processing
• procedural memory
• learning

Deep sleep helps with:

• Physical restoration
• Growth and development
• Mood regulation

While there’s a lot of crossover between the two types of sleep, you’ll need both for optimal sleep.

Does Melatonin Help You Get More Deep Sleep?

It is a popular option for people to use melatonin supplements when they are aiming to shift their circadian rhythms, like when people are trying to fall asleep while experiencing jet lag. Melatonin works to influence the timing of one's sleep, rather than increasing the amount of deep sleep one gets.

Can You Get Too Much Deep Sleep?

Deep sleep is regulated by your sleep-wake system, which means that typically you will only get as much as you need. It is a vital part of your overall sleep, as your brain waves slow down into delta waves, your body can repair and regenerate muscle, bone, and soft tissue. Some of your key hormones like growth hormones are also timed to release during deep sleep, helping you regulate your metabolism and restore your body for the day.

At Purple, we know the importance of deep sleep. That’s why we design products to help our customers sleep better and live healthier lives. Check out some of our most popular products today.