In this post we are going to discuss tools and methods so we can self improve by Optimized sleep. Sleep is the foundation of mental health, Physical health, Brain health and our performance. Lack of sleep can cause impaired immune system, depression and it can lead to increased mortality.
Sleep immensely impacts our wound healing process, muscle damage recovery and skin health. whether we can think clearly or not, whether we live as long as we possibly can or not, whether we can keep our memories or not all depends on the quality of our sleep.
We can talk for hours of why we need sleep ( If you are interested you can read the book called "why we sleep" for impressive thorough information) I am going to mention some of the information in that book :D
Most adults these days, sleep in a monophasic pattern. what it means is we try to get sleep once a day during the night that the overage of which is less than 7 hours a day!
If we visit untouched cultures that have maintained their original form, those people sleep in a biphasic pattern. The cultures such as the Gabra in northern Kenya or the San people in the Kalahari Desert, maintained their original way of sleeping. Both takes longer sleeps at nights followed by a 30 - 60 minutes nap in the afternoon. do not nap later in the day. don't nap long! 30-60 minutes is fine in the afternoon!
If you sleep less than 8 hours a night, specially less than 6 hours a night, this will happen :
time to physical exhaustion drop by 10 - 30 %
aerobic output is significantly reduced!
decreased in muscle strength
Impairment of cardiovascular system, Metabolism
Increased Blood's carbon dioxide
decreased blood oxygen and increased in lactic acid
Increased hunger and appetite equals to weight gain
disrupted Testosterone production
and ....
It is non negotiable that when we have enough sleep we feel better we perform better.
Now let's talk about how we can improve our sleep, How to fall asleep , stay asleep and fall back into asleep if you wake up in the middle of the night.
For your brain and body to feel alert and ready to work, or if your brain and body to lie down and go to sleep, your brain and body needs cues and input to do that.
the main tools that are allowing you to control when you sleep and to get better sleep are
lights
darkness
temperature, when your body is cooling down you tend to fall asleep, when you sleep your body temperature decrease 1-3 degrease
food: what we eat , when we eat and how much we eat
exercise : it increases our body temperature makes us more alert
Caffeine: There is a molecule in our body called Adenosine which the longer we are awake the more adenosine we get in our body and caffeine prevents the impacts of adenosine
Supplements : Andrew Huberman Famous supplements : 1- Magnesium Threonate, 2-Apigenin 3- Theanine - Inositol
Let's imagine a perfect 24 hours cycle. it starts when we get up , regardless of when we wake up, our body temperature increases and it cause an increase in the hormone cortisol! many people believe cortisol is the stress hormone which might be true but it enhances our immune system , the right time for our cortisol is when we wake up. we don't Cortisol to be increased during the day.
How to reach the maximum cortisol in our body ? get bright sunlight in our eyes early in the day 20-40 minutes after we wake up. we should really try to get sunlight in our eyes, we want the cortisol to rise early in the day. not later! Even if it is a cloudy day. There are many peer reviewed studies out there that sunlight in the morning will increase the quality of your sleep in the nights
If you wake up before the sun is out, turn all the artificial lights ON, then when the sun is out we should get sunlight.
artificial lights cannot impact us the way the sun does because it is not as potent as the sun but artificial lights and phone screen can easily disrupt our sleep cycles.
if it is sunny : 5 minutes - on cloudy days you want 10 minutes
Car windshield weakens this process
Get Some sunlight in the afternoon as the sun starts to descend . it sends a signal to our brain that sleep is coming. it services as a second anchor. It tells your brain the sun is descending.. how ? by the change of the quality of the light we receive
try to get 90% of your days doing this! this is an impressive tool to change your life
Temperature :
1-Alongside the light, you can increase your core temperature. how? you might think hot shower! Wrong. The answer is Cold shower! if you put something cold on your body and brain increase the core temperature! stay in the cold water for 1-3 minutes
It also increases your Dopamine lever! Dopamine is an incredible hormone in our body which is used for important Tasks. our body convert Dopamine into Adrenaline. Dopamine significantly involve in our movement. Parkinson patients lack the ability to produce Dopamine.
Dopamine is the motivation Hormone, when we something unexpected happens to us and it is good news our body increases Dopamine. we talk about motivation and Dopamine later :D
2- Exercise : Exercise increased our core body temperature!
if you exercise in the evening, remember, exercise delays the time your body wants to sleep!
if you want to be alert in the morning and sleep good at nights:
get Sunlight
get Cold shower / Exercise
Caffeine : if you can consume Caffeine and safe for you use this amazing compound. remember if you can , you should delay Caffeine intake for 90-120 minutes. let your body uses all the Adenosine floating around in your blood then take your caffeine. because if you take the caffeine and block the Adenosine receptors, later during the day, when the Caffeine wears off, Adenosine is going to be absorbed and you will have a crash later afternoon! Avoid drinking coffee (consuming Caffeine ) after 4:00 PM if you want to have a high quality sleep. Caffeine will disrupt your sleep. you might think you can sleep well but the quality of sleep is not good
Food
If you eat early in the day it will make you more alert. Do not have big meals. Big meals divert blood from your organs specially your brain and it makes you sleepy and tired!
From 6:00 - 7;00 till when you decide to go to bed
avoid
bright artificial light of any color between 10:00pm to 4:00am
avoid overhead lights
Do
dim your lights and limit using artificial
use candle lights. it is very weaker than artificial
We mostly should reverse what we did in the morning
Hot shower - Sauna if you aim for better sleeping take hot shower or go to sauna
make your sleeping environment cooler, relatively cold. decrease room temperature by 3 degrease. it will helps you stay sleep
Alcohol vs THC
While THC and alcohol can help some people get sleep it is very suboptimal compared to getting sleep completely sober and not high
Supplements:
Magnesium Threonate : 145 milligram
5% of people reported some gut disruption: Diarrhea
- Apigenin:50 milligram
- Theanine:100-400 milligram
Melatonin : Melatonin is a hormone which is controlled by light. dosages that Melatonin supplements have are far far greater than what we need; Melatonin also interact with other hormones such as testosterone and estrogen. Especially for kids high dosage of melatonin can be problematic. 1 every once in a while is okay for adults. but do not take it a often
Inositol : 900 Milligram of inositol 1 hour before the bed is very effective in keeping you asleep. Inositol also reduce anxiety during the day and in subjective terms it make you calmer. Inositol will also fall back asleep. many people get up in the middle of the light to drink water or to use the bathroom ad they have hard times falling back to asleep
Become a Nose Breather : You should become a nose breather. breathing with your nose increase your sleeping quality.
you are going to hate me for this but Do not change your sleep schedule on weekends. Many people will sleep more than their normal sleep time. you should not do that. it is not really bad if you usually wake up at 7;00 and on weekend you wake up at 8:00, but don't extend your sleeping time for 2 or more hours .
i hope you enjoyed "self improvement by Optimized sleep"
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