Optimal Sleep Series Part 2

This is the final installment of a two-part series if you haven't read part one click here to get caught up.

Sleep is the first thing you should improve to positively impact your emotions, strength, mood, wakefulness, and recovery. Nutrition, movement, mindfulness, etc. are all great things to improve, but sleep plays such a massive role in how all of our body systems function, and if your sleep quality is low, then everything else suffers. 

A lot of the below information comes from sleep researcher Dr. Matthew Walker who wrote the book "Why We Sleep." He was also featured on Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman's podcasts.

Last week we shared several ways to improve your sleep by altering your sleep positions and choosing the right mattress/pillows/sheets for your bed. 

This week we will be diving into 8 simple ways to improve your sleep QUALITY. Sleep quantity is also essential, but let's work on improving the quality of your current amount of sleep first. 

1. Temperature and Your Brain

Have you ever taken a bath or been in the hot tub, and you get sleepy? The brain wants to be at a specific temperature to fall asleep. In fact, it needs to drop about 4 degrees Fahrenheit before you fall asleep. How can you achieve this quickly and effectively? In the hot tub example, the body is getting very hot and trying to expel heat through the hands and feet (extremities) and pulling the warm blood away from the brain; thus, the temperature of your brain drops, and you get sleepy. 

You could achieve this by 1) setting your thermostat between 66 and 71 degrees and 2) taking a bath before bed or wearing socks to bed.

If it is too hot in the room, you will struggle to fall asleep. 

Wearing socks sounds terrible, but by doing so, your body temperature warms up. Like the hot tub, the body generates heat and tries to expel heat through your hands and feet, pulling warm blood away from the brain and allowing you to fall asleep quicker. I usually take the socks off at some point in the middle of the night.

2. Light and Melatonin 

Obviously, the thing that wakes you up every day is the giant, glowing ball of radiation that we float around 24/7. The sun emits several different rays of energy, one of which is a blue light that tells our brain to stop producing a hormone called melatonin. All light can suppress melatonin secretion in the brain, but blue light is much stronger. 

Blue light is emitted by screens, TVs, most overhead lights, and "daylight bulbs" in our homes.

When the sun goes down, it is a good idea to turn off as many bright white/ overhead lights in your home. Rely on indirect lighting to light your home (hallway light, for instance). 

Set your phones/computers to automatically shift your device's color "temperature" to eliminate as much blue light as possible. Use Night Shift on Apple products or Night Mode/Night Light on Android/PC products to automatically adjust the lighting of your screen when the sun goes down. 

As much as this hurts, avoid using your phone or watching TV in bed! Consider reading a book to help you "doze off" before bed and get to a restful place.

3. Caffeine and Adenosine

Avoid taking any stimulants 8-10 hours before your bedtime. If you go to sleep at 10, you should stop drinking caffeine around 10am-12pm. Caffeine suppresses the effects of adenosine in our blood. ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) is a chemical required for most processes in the body, especially muscle activation. When ATP is used throughout the day, it is converted to adenosine. As adenosine continues to build up in the body it signals to the body that it is time to go to sleep. ATP is then recreated overnight. Caffeine blocks the receptors for adenosine; thus, if you keep drinking caffeine late into the day, your body cannot tell you that it is time to sleep. 

Keep in mind that even chocolate (often a nighttime snack) can have caffeine in it, as well as the sugar that hypes you up!

4. Consistency and Circadian Rhythm

Pick a sleep schedule and be consistent with when you go to bed and wake up. Your body thrives on routine. By following a specific schedule, you will fall asleep faster and wake more quickly in the morning. 

To assist your circadian rhythm, try to get outside to greet the sun when you wake up. If possible, face the direction of the sun. 30-minutes of sun exposure (not necessarily directly in the sun) each day is ideal, but any amount will do. This helps tell your brain that it is morning and time to wake up. Again, when the sun goes down, reduce the number of lights that are directly blasting your face. 

For those of you that have gone camping for several days, you likely find that you go to sleep a couple of hours after the sun goes down and wake up just before or right as the sun comes up - and you probably feel more alert than you have in a while!  

5. Eatin' and Sleepin'

If possible, avoid eating a big meal at least 3 hours before you plan to go to bed. Small snacking is okay! Eating a big meal can disrupt the stages of your sleep or prevent you from falling asleep altogether. 

Avoid drinking too many fluids before bed. If you stop drinking plentiful amounts of liquid about 2 hours before bed, the number of times you wake up to pee will reduce, and you will sleep better.

6. Tossing and Turning with Stress

Stress and "an endless stream of thoughts" are common for people when first laying down to bed. Make sure that you have a period of time before bed that is relaxing.

Work, relationships, intense movies/shows, and video games can all put us in a state of fight or flight. If you go straight from those stressful activities to bed, it can be tough to wind down. Even if it is past your bedtime, it may be more effective for you to read, meditate/breathe, journal, take a bath, etc., to wind down. You may find that you will fall asleep faster than just jumping into bed. 

If you can't fall asleep or wake up in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep, this can create more anxiety about not sleeping. Consider getting out of bed and doing a leisurely activity - read a book again, meditate, or journal your intrusive thoughts. This can ease your mind and help you feel sleepy again. 

7. Drugs and Sleep Quality

Alcohol, Marijuana, and prescription sleep pills can all help us fall asleep, but unfortunately, there is more to sleep than just falling asleep. You have various sleep stages throughout that night that when under the influence of drugs, may not ever occur. You might literally be sleeping for 8 hours, but the substances in your bloodstream may impact whether or not you get Deep Sleep and/or REM sleep. These two stages support short and long-term memory, hormones (like growth hormone production), and overall learning. If you are on prescription medication, make sure to understand if it affects your sleep. If so, talk to your doctor to see if it can be changed to something else. 

8. You are a Science Experiment

None of the above things are perfect for anyone. Even the top sleep researcher says that he struggles with every aspect of his own advice. So, we can strive to do better, just like every area of our life, but do not get hung up on being perfect. Doing so will create more stress and anxiety before and during your sleep, thus affecting your sleep.

Choose ONE of the pieces of advice above and practice it for a few days. How do you feel? If it worked or didn't work, try a different one for a few days. Treat yourself like a science experiment. 

Making changes takes time. Don't expect your sleep to shift overnight. I know that many people struggle to get more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep at night. Hopefully, this above information makes those 5 or 6 hours more fruitful for you. 

With that, have a great rest of your day and a fantastic night's sleep. 

-Andrew

PS:

2 Weeks ago, we shared an amazing story of our member Seth who fell 75 feet off a cliff 20 years... and NOW IS WITHOUT PAIN! Read below!