Prioritize Your Sleep
Sleep optimization is a key lifestyle factor that contributes much more than we tend to think to our overall well-being, healthspan and life-span. It may very well be THE foundation of our mental and physical health and performance in all endeavors. Not getting enough sleep can adversely influence mood, concentration, memory retention, and productivity, and can contribute to high blood pressure, increased stress hormone levels (cortisol), irregular heartbeat, a compromised immune system, obesity, sexual dysfunction, premature aging, certain cancers, and heart disease. Chronic sleep deprivation affects how the body processes and stores carbohydrates and alters hormones that affect appetite and metabolism which can derail weight management goals. “Sleep is not an optional lifestyle luxury. It is a non-negotiable biological necessity. It is your life-support system. And it is mother nature’s best effort at immortality.” – “Sleep Is Your Superpower”
Insufficient sleep (quantity & quality):
Weakens the immune system
Increases the risk of certain forms of cancer
Increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease
Increases risk of CVD, stroke, heart failure
Contributes to all major psychiatric conditions including depression, anxiety, and suicidality
Disrupts blood sugar levels, contributing to the development of type 2 diabetes
Disrupts concentration of certain “hunger hormones” contributing to weight gain and obesity
Disrupts the concentration of critical sex hormones
Weakens the nervous system including brain function by decreased memory-making and learning
Advances the aging process
Making optimal sleep of the highest priority lifestyle behaviors is key to optimizing overall wellness, health, and longevity.
12 tips that can help you improve your slumber:
1) Make a concerted effort to synchronize your sleep habits with the rising and setting of the sun. This is an effort to set our circadian clock with the earth’s natural rotation around the sun. If you wake up before the sun is out and you want to be awake, turn on artificial lights and then go outside once the sun rises. The earth’s light and dark cycles — The Circadian Clock – governs our sleeping and eating patterns as well as the precise timing of important hormone secretions, brain wave patterns, and cellular repair and regeneration based on a 24-hour cycle. It is important to create both a morning and evening routine to signal to your body that it is time to rise or time to dream.
2) Try to wake up naturally w/o an alarm near sunrise. Expose yourself to direct sunlight within the first 15-30 after waking up. Light and UV rays from the sun (which are nutrients) will signal to the brain and body a natural elevation in serotonin and cortisol levels which will help you feel refreshed and energized. Our bodies have evolved for such an existence.
3) Acknowledge the sunset. Just as the rising sun signals to the brain and body telling us it is time to wake up and get moving, the setting sun sends the opposite signal that soon, it will be time to sleep, preparing the mind and body for rest and stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. Cortisol levels should fall in the afternoon and be very low by evening time while melatonin levels should begin to inversely rise.
4) After sundown, avoid bright lights. Use dimmers and or candles to signal to your brain/body it is time to wind down and prepare for rest/sleep/rejuvenation. Bright overhead lights between 10 pm and 4 am are particularly sleep-disrupting. Here is a simple rule: only use as much artificial lighting as is necessary for you to remain and move about safely at night. Blue blockers can help a bit at night but still dim the lights. Viewing bright lights of all colors disrupts your circadian system. Candlelight and moonlight are optimal.
5) Minimize stress as much as possible. Watching the evening news, scrolling through social media or watching a scary movie late at night can help us pass the time, but are not helpful if we want to prioritize our sleep. Activities that cause significant distress will raise cortisol levels (our stress hormone). Just when we want cortisol to drop, we are ramping it up. This will not allow natural melatonin production to be optimized and help us prepare for a good night’s sleep.
6) Go to sleep when you first start to feel sleepy. Pushing through that sleepy late evening feeling and going to sleep too late (for you) is one reason people wake at 3 am and can’t fall back asleep.
7) Your Sleep Environment is VERY important: Sleep in a quiet, tidy, cool, dark room. It’s ok to layer on blankets that you can remove but make the room as cool as tolerable (~ 65 degrees). Your body needs to drop in temperature by 1-3 degrees to fall and stay asleep effectively. Rising body temperature is one reason you wake up. Thus, keep your room cool and remove blankets as needed.
8) Avoid caffeine within 8-12 hours of bedtime. People metabolize caffeine at different rates but on average, the half-life of caffeine is 6-8 hours. Which means if you drink a Rockstar at noon with your lunch, at 8pm, you still have half of the Rockstar (half of the caffeine) still in your system. Caffeine in the system can make it very difficult to fall asleep.
9) If you have sleep disturbances, insomnia, or anxiety about sleep, You may find the research-supported protocols on the Reveri app very helpful. Do the Reveri sleep self-hypnosis 3x / week at any time of day. It’s only 10-15 min long and can help you rewire your nervous system to be able to relax faster.
10) Limit daytime naps to less than 90 min, or don’t nap at all if you are having difficulty falling asleep at night. Naps can be healthy and helpful, unless they are interfering with your ability to fall asleep at bedtime.
11) Avoid alcohol and sedative medication wherever possible. Alcohol and most sleep medications do not provide the quality of sleep you are looking for. These are sedatives, which is a different kind of slumber. (Ab)use of prescription sleeping pills is a problem in our country. Sleeping pills do not induce natural sleep, can damage health, and increase the risk of life-threatening diseases. They can also cause grogginess the following day, which in turn, will have people looking for a pick-me-up in the form of a highly caffeinated beverage, which of course can hamper sleep later on. This vicious cycle of being “wired and tired” all the time is a problem that needs to be broken if we want high quality sleep and wakefulness throughout the day.
12) If you wake up in the middle of the night (which is actually quite normal to do once or so each night) but you can’t fall back asleep, there are some tools you may consider. Try a Non-Sleep-Deep-Rest or Yoga Nidra protocol. These are no-cost tools that have proven effective for some people.
In Conclusion: When we interfere with the circadian cycle via excessive artificial light & digital stimulation after sunset, irregular bed & wake times, sleep aids, alcohol, poor food (particularly excess carbohydrates in the hours before bedtime), jet lag, graveyard shift work, and alarm clocks, we disrupt some of the very processes we depend upon to stay healthy, happy, productive, and focused. This was a very natural process for our ancestors that we do not adhere to as well in our modern-day living with our bright lights and continuous stimulation from devices. Here are several other resources you can use to help improve your sleep quality:
More resources and references:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
Andrew Huberman & Dr. Matthew Walker: The Science & Practice of Perfecting Your Sleep
