Sleep

Before even beginning your journey towards fitness and moving; towards the isolation, integration, & finally improvisation.

There are important aspects that you need to makes rules and goals to attain, if you wish to prepared and improve your well being. Today’s topic is sleep. Sleep is the most important thing that requires fixing before anything else. No one is perfect but your should understand the importance. You can do better with loss nights of sleep when younger, but you must also know it’s disadvantages if dragged on for too long. Also as always, everyone is different, some do better and some do worst at any age. External factors, environments also play a factor, etc.

Studies after studies have linked short nights with increased risks of chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases. For example, fewer than 6 hours of sleep per night has been shown to increase low-grade chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, two metabolic processes associated with the development of those health conditions, and a worsening of general health and well-being. Even only one night of poor sleep can provoke negative changes in appetite regulation and food intake. Restricting sleep to 5 hours or less for just one week has been shown in many studies to decrease carbohydrate tolerance and insulin resistance. So, bad sleep packs a double-whammy: it makes you crave the carb-rich foods while impairing your body’s ability to tolerate them. This has led many scientists to believe that sleep deprivation or bad quality of sleep is a predictor to obesity in children and adults. Sleep quantity and quality is also closely related to the activity of the immune system. Lack of sleep means a decreased ability to naturally fight off infection. This explains why you’re more likely to get a cold or flu after not sleeping well for a few nights. The metabolic catalyst to this phenomenon is a hormone called melatonin. It is secreted in the pineal gland, a small gland in the brain, and its production is triggered by exposure to light. Melatonin levels are meant to naturally increase after sundown and when we sleep to allow our immune system to get to work.

This is why sleep helps fight off viruses and infections such as the flu and the common cold. Melatonin is also the first step in a series of metabolic reactions that lead to the production of many hormones, including cortisol and sex hormones. Ever felt a loss of libido after a few bad nights’ sleep? This is the reason why. In fact, it is quite clear in the literature that the most influential factor in one’s testosterone production is actually sleep quantity and quality.

What if you’re a night owl?

The real “wake-up call” here, no pun intended, is that there’s nothing natural about staying up late and sleeping in. Picture a caveman. Other than accidents or maybe some cultural events like celebrations, he would go to sleep at sundown or not long after, and wake up at the crack of dawn. For millions of years, human evolution has maintained our sleep patterns in synch with light exposure. This is what our bodies are adapted for. This natural cycle is called circadian rhythm. This circadian rhythm dictates that cortisol should be high in the morning to give us energy, mental focus, clarity, and be ready to manage daily stressors. As the day progresses, our cortisol levels should taper off and our melatonin levels should increase. This natural cycle of rising and falling levels of different hormones is what makes us feel alert or sleepy at the right time. When we continually stress our system by staying up late at night, we end up disrupting our circadian rhythm. This is the gateway to many dysregulations and why we feel sleepy in the morning and don’t want to go to bed at night.

If you look at books like ‘The One Thing’, you will realize you are only effective about four and half hours a day. Working twenty hours so the quality was poor even though the work hours were very high.

Now that you understand the importance, here are 10 sleep hacks to help (not health advice, please consult a specialist):

#1 Stay away from screens before going to bed

For most people, it is impossible to do. If you are a real estate agent, a school teacher, Stock/Crypto trader, writer, or a personal trainer that writes programs, it’s almost impossible to not see a screen.

First thing you could do though is cut down on social media three hours before you go to bed. You don’t really need to know what someone’s cat looks like today... at least cut that source of distraction. Because one of the problems with social media is that it raises your dopamine, dopamine is great for you, before you train. If you always stimulate the receptors for dopamine that will end up exhausting you.

Melatonin production is a very light-sensitive process and even a tiny amount of light can mess it up and impair your sleep. Your skin contains photoreceptors that detect light, if you are not sleeping in total darkness, your pineal gland will decrease the production of melatonin, the circadian rhythm regulating hormone, and your adrenals will start synthesizing cortisol. To prevent this, make sure you turn off any electronic devices with LED’s and cover the lights with a small piece of electrical tape. Yes, even the tiny red dot on your TV. Block off the light over your bedroom window with a towel if light creeps in. Using blackout curtains is also a good option.

Three hours before bed if you must use a screen at least cut out social media, which will make a huge difference.

If you cannot make a living without having screen time throughout the day you can get good quality certified blue light blocking glasses. They actually block blue light and blue light is what comes from the screens.

In order to maintain your circadian rhythm, wake-up at the same time every day. That means even on the weekends. Don’t sleep in when you stay up late at night. You should instead plan to go to bed a little earlier the next time to make up for it. The most valuable sleep occurs before midnight, so favor it rather than sleeping too long the day after you stayed up later than your regular schedule. Naps are of course a totally viable option to make up for lost shuteye time. They must be taken before late afternoon/evening however. Otherwise they interfere with sleep Establishing a sleep ritual will also help get consistent circadian rhythm. Your body thrives on consistency and routines that support the smooth orchestration of the hormonal cascades. Find out what helps you sleep the most and develop it into a consistent ritual. Develop this into a going to bed ritual that will improve your sleeping patterns.

#2 Block off Cortisol with Chamomile and Reishi

Another thing that disrupts YOUR sleep is making too much cortisol. If you had a very stressful day, for example, you may have received an email that disturbs you, or you could have received really bad news that a family member is sick, it increases cortisol. Sometimes there are days where you have a lot of stuff brought on your shoulders, and you feel so tense that you can’t quiet your mind down. What do you do?

You can get a better night’s sleep by avoiding those cortisol-inducing activities:

- Avoid caffeinated beverages

- Don’t consume carbohydrate-laden foods, as the resulting insulin spike will produce an equivalent cortisol spike

- Don’t have arguments as they tend to raise catecholamines and cortisol

- Avoid doing unpleasant activities such as paying bills right before bed.

- Avoid medication such as Sudafed, which contains pseudoepinephrine. Consult with your doctor or pharmacist before discontinuing any medication or if you have doubts about a drug you are taking

- Avoid watching the news before bed; they tend to favor a negative mindset that disrupts sleep

- Avoid eating too close to bedtime or consuming spicy foods before going to sleep.

You need to bring down your cortisol ASAP. Traditional chamomile tea, it has to be organic, mixed in with Reishi mushroom elixir.

Some people don’t like the Reishi because they find it too bitter, the chamomile kills the taste. So, you boil some water, use two tea bags of each. Put them in the bottom of a cup, pour the water in, put a saucer on top so the heat stays in and let it sit for ten minutes. One of the names for Reishi in one Chinese dialect means the botanical for the professor that lived in his head too much. So, if you tend to worry and you can’t focus your mind on something, Reishi is your best friend. When combined with chamomile it works very well synergistically, and they will drop your cortisol rapidly.

#3 Kava to improve sleep quality

Kava is a plant that is commonly found in the Polynesian Islands, so Fiji and so on. It is very popular with locals. You can consume it either as a tea or in capsules. As a tea, it tastes horrendous. It tastes like mud. The active ingredients are the kavalactones. Kavalactones increase GABA and serotonin which will help you sleep. You preferably want to drink the extract or the tea about an hour before you go to bed. What I’m going to warn you about is that when you drink the tea or the liquid extract you often get a numb tongue. Why? Because Kava contains two natural anesthetics dihydrokavain and dihydromethysticin and they bind to receptors on the tongue. But nothing to be alarmed about. Also, there are a lot of compounds in Kava that look like benzodiazepines like Valium, making it a great product for you if anxiety is preventing you from sleeping. So, give Kava a try if you want.

Concerns about potential liver toxicity associated with Kava consumption sprang after several cases of severe hepatic toxicity possibly associated with the consumption of products containing kava were reported. This escalated into the issue of a consumer advisory in 2002 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This scare proved to be unfounded and Germany lifted the ban in 2014 as a case of ill-defined herbal drug identity, a lack of quality control, as well as misguided regulatory politics. If Kava can increase liver enzymes with long-term use it seems to be more the case with non-herbal supplements which lack supportive glutathione and targets different metabolic pathways. As always quality is key when consuming botanicals.

#4 Lower temperature

Sleep in a cool room. 16 Celsius or about 65 Fahrenheit. If you pre-set your thermostat so that is the temperature when you go to bed you will see an increase in the quality and the length of your sleep.

Included in the list of other Zeitgebers such as light exposure, accumulation of adenosine, social interactions, and food intake... temperature can be found. This means temperature is integral to the regulation of the circadian rhythm. The corollary being that temperature variance causes sleep onset disturbances. Anecdotally there is such a thing as Dysautonomia, which is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system which results amongst other things in elevated body temperature and takes a heavy toll on life quality and sleep.

#5 Take your clothes off <queue sexy music>

Sleep naked. Research shows that when you sleep naked it actually allows your body temperature to drop better at night and that’s how it should be. When the body temperature drops, the management of the whole hormonal cascade from cortisol to insulin to testosterone is affected.

If you really want to sleep better, consider investing in a quality mattress. If you are uncomfortable, this will reflect in the quality of your sleep. It is one of the best investments you’ll ever make.

#6 Stay away from electro-magnetic pollution

Turn off your Wi-Fi and the electricity breaker that goes around your bed. Find out which breaker supplies electricity to the area around your bed, and turn that off before going to bed. After trying it one night, I slept far better.

Treat your phone as if it were a high-tech chemical warfare device.

- Turn your phone off.

- Take the battery out (if you can)

- And leave it at least 4 meters away from your bed.

If you sleep with your phone close to your head you might as well consider putting your head in the micro-wave. Yes, it’s that bad!

One of the problems with turning off the Wi-Fi is that if you live in an apartment building or if you are in a hotel room, you can’t do much about other people’s devices. If you live in a single home dwelling turning off the router will make a huge difference in your sleep quality.

So, it’s a very simple tip, cost-free, that actually reduces the electrical bill and is great for you. If you apply that, it’s one thing that I can guarantee you will feel the difference the very first day.

#7 Turn your room into a Bat Cave

If you ever go to Iceland in the summer, you’ll understand. You need to sleep in the bat cave. Meaning the room has to be as dark as possible. And no, no, no, no source of light. There is very good research out of Finland that shows that the more your skin is exposed to light while you sleep, the likelier you are to have breast cancer.

So even the red dot on the TV, even though your TV is turned off, is showed as a source of light. Light is perceived by the skin, so even if you are wearing an eye mask, that light is bothering your sleep. So, what I recommend, if you don’t turn off the breaker supplying power to your room, is that you unplug everything in your room and make sure you have thick curtains, make the room as black as possible.

The simple use of ear plugs can improve the quality of your sleep, if you are in a noisy environment. Lowering noises by as little as 30 decibels can have a drastic impact on your sleep quality. White noise such as a fan however, is acceptable.

#8 Get the right type of Magnesium

Check your magnesium status. Get good quality magnesium. Take before bedtime.

One of the main reasons why sleep disorders are so common is the western society is actually magnesium deficiency. I’ll warn you right now: don’t take magnesium if you need to drive or anticipate working with any machinery, because a lot of people fall asleep quickly on it (due to being so deficient).

Currently more than 50% (probably more now) of Americans suffer from magnesium deficiency. I cannot emphasis enough the importance of this deficiency as a serious health problem. Magnesium plays a key role in more than 350 enzymes in the body. It is involved in virtually every metabolic process. It is the second most abundant intracellular cation. Plus, if health were not incentive enough...consider this:

Magnesium ranks top of the minerals when it comes to fitness and bodybuilding.

Why?

Increased Torque

Brilla and Haley from Western Washington University in Bellingham published the results of a 7-week, double-blind study in which magnesium supplemented lifters exerted greater quadriceps force than un-supplemented lifters.

ATP Production

Without Magnesium the body cannot produce adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP). ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism. ATP is critically important in bodybuilding.

Increased Anabolic Hormones

Research has shown that magnesium is pivotal in Lipid (fat) metabolism and therefore the production of testosterone. Studies also show increased growth hormone and IGF-1 levels with optimal magnesium intake.

Necessary for Protein Synthesis

Research has shown a positive correlation between magnesium levels and lean tissue growth rates (protein synthesis).

#9 Bedroom activity <queue ultra sexy music>

You have heard me say it all the time: avoid stimulating activities before bedtime.

That excludes sex, especially with a partner. So, you know sex with a partner and sex alone have very different hormonal response. Don’t expect the same result from a sleep-inducing perspective from sex with a partner from basically the masturbating domain.

As mentioned earlier social interactions influence the circadian rhythm. Night-time is favorable to one-on-one conversations and introspectiveness. Definitely not the time for high octane brain-storming or fiery arguments. Remember that your actions create your mindset.

Some people will play videos games before going to bed, or watch The Punisher, or some form of violence and then they expect they can sleep. Whatever you have seen in the last three hours before you go to bed will affect your mindset and it will disrupt your sleep. So, if you are the type of person that watches CNN, which is all bad news, before you go to bed, it’s going to disrupt your sleep. So again, I’ve said avoid screen time but particularly things that are highly stimulating. Make sense?

You need to realize that several of your habits can contribute to stimulate your mind before going to bed. Avoid doing things such as;

Watching TV

Playing video games

Answering emails or texts

Working out too late at night

Leaving your phone next to your bed (putting it on “silent” doesn’t fix this)

Those will tend to disrupt your sleep by increasing the activity of your brain and boosting cortisol before bed. Not a good thing! Using electronic devices will mess up your production of melatonin in the evening and lead to poorer quality sleep. Develop habits that help you go to bed, but also avoid those that will decrease your ability to get a good night’s rest.

#10 End the day with positive energy

The use of a grateful log.

A grateful log is a log in which you write things you are grateful for. It’s pretty simple. If you write down what you are grateful for it’s like you are resetting short term memory in your computer. It allows you to have a better night’s sleep and puts you in a different mindset. It’s something that should be strongly encouraged to parents to do with their kids.

Kids when they are very young don’t know how to write, so it would take forever to do it. Instead you ask them three questions before you go to bed, the questions would be:

1) What good did you do for someone today?

2) What good did someone do for you?

3) What did you learn today?

Reading 15 minutes before sleep can also go a long way into helping you sleep better. You should avoid books that are intellectually stimulating and use this time for fun reading - think anything that makes you feel like on a summer holiday. This will lower mental stress and reduce stimulation before bedtime. If you use electronic readers, pick one where you can adjust background lighting.

It is recommended to parents to have the kid pick up a book and learn something. A page or two. So, if you want them to learn a foreign language pick up six words before they go to bed. If they love animals they can read about snow leopards before going to bed, it doesn’t really matter.

But the kid knows three things: they are loved, they love someone, and they are learning something. You as a parent should actually write down what you are grateful for.

You should write down things you are grateful for that just happened today; things that you want to be grateful for in the future, so it sets your mind up. Then you should also write at the end how you could be better. And when you get that off your mind, sleep is far more restorative and you will make more progress.

Conclusion

Sleep matters! Hopefully your enjoyed these 10 hacks to help you. Put them in practice and you will be healthier, leaner, and make more gains both physically and mentally. They say you can’t out-train a bad diet. Can’t out-sleep a poor lifestyle. Basics are the basics and you can’t beat the basics.

Further improve your sleeping ritual with these habits:

- Do light static stretching or yoga for 15 minutes; this will help bring down your cortisol

- Write an action plan for any unfinished projects or thoughts you might have

- Make positive statements about your ability to go to sleep and get a restful night

- Write down any negative thoughts you have in a journal; this will contribute to stopping your mind from focusing on them

- Use positive self-talk to promote good energy

- Use relaxing essential oils such as lavender or take an Epsom salt bath

God Bless