Sleep Better

Lesson 8: Switching off, hobbies and the Blue Zones

Goal: see sleep as part of a whole life, and build in daily ways to switch off, so you arrive at bedtime already calm.

Good sleep doesn’t start at 10 pm. People who have ways to properly switch off during the day, through hobbies, people, movement and purpose, tend to find the evening wind-down much easier.

Detaching from work

Work psychologists call it psychological detachment: actually not thinking about work in your time off. In a day-by-day study of office workers, evenings with less detachment from work were followed by more fatigue and lower mood the next morning, while relaxing evenings and evenings spent learning or mastering something were followed by feeling more relaxed and upbeat. Other research has linked better detachment with better sleep.

Ways to help detachment:

A clear end-of-work ritual: close the laptop, write the to-do list (Lesson 7), change clothes, go for a walk.
Turn off work notifications on your phone after hours.
Physically leave the work space, even if it’s just shutting the door on a home office.

Why hobbies help

Hobbies are one of the best ways to switch off because they absorb your attention completely. Sleep researchers’ work on “recovery experiences” suggests the most useful are:

Mastery: learning something challenging but enjoyable. Playing an instrument, a language, climbing, cooking a new dish. (A drum machine or a synth counts!)
Relaxation: low-effort, pleasant things like gardening, walking, fishing, a bath.
Control: choosing what you do with your own time.

Hands-on hobbies, especially ones that use your hands or get you outside, give the busy, planning part of your mind a rest. That’s exactly what you need before sleep.

What the Blue Zones suggest

The Blue Zones are regions identified by researcher and writer Dan Buettner where unusually many people were reported to live into their 90s and 100s: Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece) and Loma Linda (California). From studying them, Buettner’s team distilled nine common habits they call the Power 9. Several are directly about switching off:

Downshift. Everyone has stress; long-lived people have daily routines to shed it. Okinawans take a few moments to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Sardinians have a happy hour with friends, and Ikarians take an afternoon nap.
Purpose. Okinawans call it ikigai and Nicoyans plan de vida: “why I wake up in the morning”. Having a reason to get up gives the day a shape.
Move naturally. Gardening, walking and manual tasks all day, rather than an hour at the gym.
Belong, loved ones first and the right tribe. Strong social ties, family nearby and friends whose habits support good health.

A fair warning: the Blue Zones idea has critics. In 2024 researcher Saul Newman won an Ig Nobel Prize for work suggesting that some extreme-age records in these regions may reflect poor birth records and pension fraud rather than unusually long lives. Whatever the true lifespans, the habits themselves (daily downshifting, purpose, natural movement, connection) line up well with what sleep research tells us: less stress, more daylight and activity, and a calmer evening.

Putting it together

Think of your day as having a natural shape:

Morning: daylight, water, movement, a reason to get up.
Day: focused work, real breaks, time outside.
Late afternoon: a clear end to work, a walk at sunset (Lesson 4), a hobby or time with people.
Evening: dim, slow, screens away, a boring book (Lesson 7).

Exercise 8

List three things that make you lose track of time in a good way, at least one of them away from a screen. Schedule one of them for an evening this week, finishing at least an hour before bed.

Sources

Sonnentag, Binnewies & Mojza (2008), “Did you have a nice evening?” A day-level study on recovery experiences, sleep, and affect, Journal of Applied Psychology
Blue Zones, Power 9
IFLScience, Ig Nobel prizewinner debunks supposed “Blue Zones”

This course is general information, not medical advice. If you have ongoing sleep problems, loud snoring with pauses or gasping, or sleepiness that affects driving or work, see your doctor. In Australia, if you are struggling or feel unsafe, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.