Sleep is our greatest superpower, far outweighing any drug or supplement. Good quality sleep has the ability to help us achieve just about anything we want, tackling whatever challenges our day throws at us. Quite often, we are unaware of how inadequate our sleep really is, and it feels like a good night’s sleep is out of reach. Have you ever thought of sleep as a strategy, just like exercising each day or eating well? There needs to be a plan in place to execute sleep correctly. Once you have this plan, it will be as addictive and enjoyable as exercise or a good meal. In fact, the three most important things we need to be concerned about each day from a health perspective to maximize our potential and output are sleep, nutrition, and exercise. Among these pillars, sleep is the most important as it sets the tone for the day ahead.
Understanding the fundamentals and having an awareness of what sleep actually does for you is crucial. Taking control of your sleep will be a no-brainer. My opinion of sleep used to be that I didn’t need it—I was often quoted as saying, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” After years of not sleeping for days on end or only getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night, and armed with the knowledge I have now, it’s a miracle I’m not dead. The main point of that digression is that no amount of lost sleep impairs you from regaining the power of good sleep habits.
The data I have collected from my clients indicates that across the board, 80% of them are missing up to 70% of their slow-wave sleep and REM sleep cycles. This is catastrophic when it’s continuous.
Let’s start with some confronting facts and truths about sleep—biochemical and behavioral issues attached to the lack of sleep or quality sleep.
Firstly, 70% of human growth hormone, which is responsible for bone and muscle growth, is produced in slow-wave sleep. Human growth hormone is ultimately responsible for our physical output each day. Having one hour less sleep, so 6 instead of 7, impairs your immune system so dramatically that you are four times more likely to catch a cold. The lack of human growth hormone will greatly affect your body’s ability to grow muscle for sculpting or building strength.
From a mental health perspective, cortisol (our stress hormone) increases by 37% after having just one night of insufficient sleep. After two nights, that jumps to 45%. High cortisol increases anxiety, restlessness, and leaves us unable to switch off. Prolonged cortisol elevation can lead to adrenal fatigue and heavily impact the sympathetic nervous system. Beta-amyloid, a neurotoxin produced as a result of insufficient sleep, is directly linked to Alzheimer’s disease and depression.
In terms of cognitive health, the lack of sleep attacks the frontal lobe, the section of the brain that controls decision-making, judgment, concentration, planning, and motivation. If these systems are impaired, it will invariably affect mental health.
Tracking sleep for data and awareness is also great. The two main sleep cycles we want to concern ourselves with are REM sleep, where memory consolidation and hormone detoxification in the brain occur, and deep sleep or slow-wave sleep, where human growth hormone is produced and cellular regeneration promotes deep rest. Light sleep should only happen early in the sleep pattern or if you wake during the night for a toilet break. Waking up to urinate is completely normal, by the way. There should only be around 20-30 minutes of light sleep in your sleep pattern. The rest of the pattern should consist of REM and deep sleep.
Alcohol disrupts sleep terribly. While one drink at night once a week won’t hurt, frequent use will ruin the quality of your sleep. Alcohol needs to be metabolized, which happens slowly over a period of hours. So if you are a regular user of alcohol at night, you may fall asleep quickly, but studies have proven that alcohol disrupts your REM cycle sleep pattern as it finds its way through your bloodstream and then inhibits your ability to fall into a deep sleep. This leaves you in a vicious cycle the next day of stress due to poor sleep quality, and you might reach for alcohol again the next night to calm down after a stressful day. Trust me, I know—I’ve been through it. Stopping doesn’t just happen; you need to put tools in place to help stop drinking, such as meditation and more focus on family time before bed. In our blog resource on meditation, I address this exact issue of alcohol at night.
Preparing a strategy and tips:
Ultimately, preparing a strategy to tackle sleep is important, and for a strategy to work, we need four things. Just like anything, if you want the best result, it should be tailored for you. I am going to add a link to Australia’s leading sleep expert’s website, Olivia, who is brilliant and can provide you with tools, supplements, or blue light glasses.
Firstly, preparing a strategy and sleep routine is crucial. You can’t just stress out all day, then sit down to watch TV and hope for a great sleep. Just like how you can’t roll into the gym without warming up and jumping straight into a squat, it won’t go well for you. Sleep is where our day starts before we wake up and attack the day ahead. We have been asleep, so it makes sense to focus on quality sleep and the correct amount.
To assist with this, there are many hacks, but the top five that are easy to implement are listed below:
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Blocking out blue light is crucial. Blue light is emitted not just from devices but also from all light sources. So turning the lights off and putting on 100% blue light-blocking glasses with orange lenses (not clear lenses) two hours before bed will allow melatonin to naturally produce and assist your circadian rhythm to take over and aid your ability to fall and stay asleep. While wearing the glasses, you can still watch TV if that is part of your switching-off routine.
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Food – Eating our last meal at least two hours, but preferably three hours before you need to be in bed, is important. The digestion process actually takes up 12% of our daily energy expenditure and burns a lot of calories. So eating is equivalent to going for a 5km run, and you don’t want to do that before bed. Having a dinner that is lighter than your lunchtime meal is a good idea, and it should be constructed with quality protein. Fatty fish is the best choice, but eggs or tofu are also good choices. If seafood is not for you, pick a protein that is easier to digest and add some healthy fats, such as avocado or nuts, with some leafy greens.
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Having a shower at night will aid the process by actioning the thermogenesis process. A warm shower heats us up, and stepping out into the bathroom cools us down, which cues melatonin to kick in.
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Drinking good quality sleep tea and taking a magnesium sleep tablet or supplement will also help relax the nervous system. If you struggle to fall asleep, using ashwagandha will aid the falling asleep process and assist with deep sleep. However, it shouldn’t be used for more than 4-6 weeks. It should be used to assist you while you build a bedtime routine.
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Limit caffeine use. This one is hard for some people, and it’s a double-edged sword. I know this well because I suffered severely from adrenal fatigue, so I used to drink lots of caffeine. But if you have difficulty switching off until late at night, having three or more hits of caffeine each day is going to really affect you.
Now I will share with you my bedtime routine and daily strategies for better sleep.
My Sleep Strategy and daily routine:
Morning: Alarm at 4:30, wake up at 4:50 am. Turn on some dull lights to help kick in my cortisol naturally. Make licorice tea, which boosts cortisol naturally. Have some Life Cykle lion’s mane mushroom extract. Lion’s mane is also known to improve REM cycle sleep patterns and get my brain in the zone. Sometimes I meditate for 5 minutes to visualize my morning ahead, particularly if I wake up stressed or anxious.
8-8:30 am: Eat a high-protein breakfast and have a coffee.
9 am – 12:30 pm: School drop-off, work, meetings, and exercise happen in this period.
12:30-1 pm: Lunch. If I need to, I meditate and nap for 20 minutes. This doesn’t happen every day, as things come up regularly.
1:30 – 3 pm: Complete all tasks to tidy up my day and prepare a snack for late afternoon. Also, do school pick-up Wed-Fri at this time. I also have a green tea with some Life Cykle cordyceps mushroom extract if I’m feeling a little flat to boost me up without fear of being wired late at night. Meditate for 5-10 minutes if needed in this time slot.
4 pm: Have a snack to fuel me for the afternoon classes and to avoid having a heavy meal at night, which will make it less likely for me to wind down.
4:30- 6:45 pm: Work at the gym.
7-7:30 pm: Prepare dinner. Ideally, I will have a meal prepped, usually fish. Have a shower to regulate my body’s tempo and relax. Also, make school lunches if not already done earlier in the day.
7:30-7:45 pm: Put on blue light-blocking glasses in preparation for bed. From this time onwards, I may watch TV, reply to messages, or do a small amount of work on occasion if I feel the need to, all the time wearing blue light-blocking glasses. Have a sleep tea with some Life Cykle reishi mushroom extract to calm my nervous system and relax at night.
8:30-9 pm: Even when my son stays with me, we are both in bed with lights off, and the phone is face down on the bedside table. I fall asleep fully between 9:10-9:30 pm.
As you can see, I plan my day from the morning in preparation for being able to fully fall asleep by 9-9:30 pm. That gives me just enough time to get 7 hours in, although I have to hope they are quality hours. My aim is to adjust this further to get to bed right at 8:30 pm. My most important job for the day is to turn up at my best for my clients, my son, and myself. Everything hinges on me sleeping at my best, eating my best, and exercising to balance my hormones and emotions.
I will underline this by saying that this routine doesn’t work every day. Things change regularly—meetings run long, my son gets sick and throws things out of whack, and I might go and have a drink at night every few weeks after work and on weekends. Driving trucks happens. But even then, the key parts of the strategy stay in place, so as not to get disrupted too much.
I am in no way a sleep expert or coach, and I encourage you to take a look at Olivia’s website and listen to any of the podcasts and interviews she has done to gain more information on how to treat severe sleep insomnia or deprivation. Even if you think you sleep just fine, there is always more we can do to improve all aspects of our health. Australia’s leading sleep expert, Olivia Arezzolo, provides valuable information, coaching, resources, and a free quiz that you can take. I’ll also attach a free 28 day tracker to help you create a solid sleep routine, that you can tick off each day.
Website: https://oliviaarezzolo.com.au/
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References: Olivia Arezzolo, Andrew Huberman
