30-day Sleep Challenge: Small changes to your nighttime habits can make a big difference

"Challenge conquered!"

That's what Bonnie Markham, one of the more than 1,800 members of our 30-Day Sleep Challenge Facebook group, posted.

"I have learned that little changes can make a huge difference," she wrote. "I am now, once again sleeping through the night and feeling awake in the morning. All I changed was not going to bed until tired, reading before getting into bed and finding the right relaxation tape to listen to."

Of course, not everyone is feeling quite so well rested. But as our challenge comes to a close, many of us have come to learn about our sleep rhythms and make small, doable changes that improved the quality and quantity of our rest.

As we move forward, our long-term Snooze Goal is to build on to what we learned through the challenge.

Some participants found that keeping a sleep diary (as we did during the first week of the challenge), paying attention to when they felt sleepy and going to bed then helped them sleep better. Others discovered that keeping a regular sleep/wake schedule helped them fall asleep and wake up more easily.

For Shelly Miller Peters, a member of our Facebook group, the week spent following sleep hygiene recommendations made the biggest change.

"I've been wearing my Fitbit to bed to help track my sleep patterns," she posted. "It's been keeping me aware of how I'm sleeping and showing me that when I take time to wind down, read a book and no phone, limit caffeine, I actually sleep a lot better!"

I learned that there may be some things I can't change about my sleep. My alarm will always go off a little earlier than I wish it would. And the likelihood of one of my young daughters waking me up in the middle of the night remains high.

But installing blackout curtains, putting away my phone at least an hour before bed, meditating and avoiding checking the clock when I wake up at night? These changes made a real difference for me.

And, who knows, maybe if I practice enough, I will eventually master the art of taking a nap, one of the sleep hacks I tried the last week of our challenge.

If you worked to make healthy changes to your sleep and still struggle with not feeling rested, ask your doctor if a sleep study would be appropriate for you. There's a questionnaire — called STOP-BANG (stopbang.com) — that doctors often use to screen for sleep apnea. It's available online if you want to check your score.

I'm going to keep working to boost my sleep, as are many of those who took part in the challenge. We're in good company. The Minnesota Vikings will be right there with us.

Eric Sugarman, the vice president of sports medicine for the team, said he has been working to teach his players about the role sleep plays in their recovery.

"These guys suffer a lot of stress to their muscles and ligaments and brains and everything else. Sleep is one of the key factors of regeneration and letting your body recover for the next day. We just try to emphasize that to our players," he said.

"We found that it was essential to educate our players on not only how important it is to sleep eight hours a night if possible, but how to sleep properly. We've educated them on how to put your brain at rest, and what the proper conditions are for sleeping. A cool room, a dark room, stay off your mobile devices an hour before you go to bed."

Vikings players also track their own sleep using Sleep Number 360 smart beds, which use a biometric sensor that's integrated into the mattress to give a sleep score based on breathing, heart rates and restful periods.

And power naps aren't discouraged, Sugarman added.

"Sleep is really, really important for an athlete's success and it's paramount to their recovery and peak performance," he said. "We have a room in our beautiful new building that is dedicated to recovery. And, you know, sometimes the guys do take a nap in there."

The 30-Day Sleep Challenge has been a great team effort. Hopefully, we'll continue to learn about how essential sleep is to our health — from improving mood to lowering risks for heart disease, cancer and diabetes — and make it a priority, not just for 30 days, but for the rest of our lives.