Sleeeeeeeeep... is so freakin' important!!!

I've talked about this blog for a long time... now is the time.

I have been one of the worst culprits of underestimating the necessity of good quality and quantity sleep. For about 2 years I have been going on 6 or less hours of sleep during the week and about 8 on the weekend. Teasing with the term, "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Well it turns out, that I may be hastening that actual outcome by not making sleep a priority like exercise and nutrition have been. Going to my ol' reliable Dr. Attia for some guidance I am going to share what I have learned and hope, if you need to, you too will make adjustment to your schedule and habits to make sleep a priority in your life of wellness too.  

Poor sleep or not enough of it (less than 7 hours) can lead to:

1. increased insulin resistance by up to a third
2. increased risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome 
3. increased stressed levels
4. lower testosterone levels in men
5. 6-26% increase in cardiovascular disease... this was my scare stat... because of my family history. 
6. strong potential cause of Alzheimer's disease and dementia
7. decreased emotional awareness and management
8. decreased work performance

to name a few.... 

Dr. Attia gets into the science and hormone nitty gritty, but I won't drown you with that here... I will share my experience with you though.  

For the last two years a lot has changed in my life, as it has for many of y'all too... my sleep has become a bottom item on the priority list of my health. I have figured, "I've got the best grip I've ever had on my nutrition and training so I'm not too concerned about sleep." I have been able to do my job, perform consistently in the gym, AND enjoy evenings in my new relationship. HOWEVER, I have been more emotionally unstable, more moody, more "nappy" than I was in the past. Some might say, "menopause?", and yes I do believe that has something to do with it. BUT and this is a HUGE BUT, sleep has an enormous impact on me. How do I know this? Because my sleep has been one of the biggest changes in the last two years. Because in just ELEVEN days of making sleep a priority in my life I can absolutely feel a difference in my emotional stability, energy level, outlook, and performance,  

For our Accountability Club... I tried to bump our sleep minimum up to 8 hours... what I thought was the happy medium for the 7-9 hours recommended. I was slogging away at 6 hours or less per night so I would need to make some BIG changes if I wanted this point each day. After some back and forth we set the minimum for 1 point at 7 hours and two points for 8+ hours. It is definitely hard for us early morning folks, but I can now say well worth it. If you can arrange your daily schedule to get that 8 hours, I believe it will have a huge impact on you too!!! I am currently setting the goal of 7+ hours during the week, allowing enough time to digest dinner before climbing in bed, and 8+ hours on the weekend... so far so good.  

If you have a sleep app option on your watch, I encourage you to use it. I charge my watch intermittently during the day to make sure I have enough battery to last me through the night and morning. What these apps do is tell us the quality of sleep we are having. We are either Awake, in REM, Light Sleeping (Core on the Apple watch), or Deep Sleeping. Each of the three types of sleep do something positive for our health, healing, recovery, and brain. Ideally we cycle between these phases throughout the night... Ideally being the key term.  

As we age deep sleep becomes less and less... research is still uncertain about the cause/effect of this decline. This is very evident in my own pattern of sleep, but I am on a mission to get some more deep sleep in my life.  

Thought-out the day we build up "sleep pressure" in our brains (a chemical called adenosine in our brain) which helps us get the needed sleep cycle for recovery and wellness. We WANT this sleep pressure to build and we should consider building our habits around building this pressure.  

Recommended tips for getting more high quality and quantity sleep:

1. Darkness, making your room as dark as possible would be ideal. Minimize those little LED lights that are often a part of chargers, TV's, digital clocks.
2. LED lighting is the enemy of sleep, it resembles daylight too closely and tells your body to stay awake. It blocks the natural release of melatonin. If you can switch to softer lighting that would be ideal, especially at night.  
3. Turn off all active screen devices at least an hour before bed. They all have blue light which also tells our bodies that it is daytime and we should be awake. Passive devices (TV, music player, books) are all better than the phones and laptops... still not ideal but better.  
4. Cooler temperatures are better for us. 65-degrees is Dr. Attia's recommendation, a little low for me but ... Our core temperature drops by about 1-degree as we fall asleep. We can help this happen with a cooler environment.  
5. Cut back on alcohol or get rid of it all together. It is counter intuitive. While it is initially a sedative, as it is broken down in our digestive system it impairs our ability to sleep with the chemicals it is metabolized into.  
6. Cut back on coffee/caffeine AND be mindful of when you consume it. The half-life of caffeine in the body is up to six hours. So if if we drink a coffee at noon, we still have half a cup's worth of caffeine in our body at 6pm. That double espresso at 3pm... leaves you with a shot of espresso running through your body at 9pm. Add multiple cups a day and daaaaaaaang your body is really forced AWAY from get getting sleepy. Caffeine blocks the build up of adenosine. No bueno. It's having me consider that decaff life again.  
7. If you can fight the urge to nap during the day 😩, this will help build your "sleep pressure".
8. EXERCISE!!!! Ideally not within 2-3 hours of bed time.  
9. Mental clarity... try to avoid stress and anxiety, stay away from work emails and the news... that shit will stress you out. If you have something on your brain... write it down and pick it back up in the morning. Give yourself permission to let it go for the night.  
10. If you've got a bath tub... a nightly soak is a great way to wind down... also will help in bringing the body temp down when you climb into the cool bed. A hot shower will also help.  

What if you can't sleep ... true insomnia. Well, I would seek some help for it. There are natural supplements that help some folks.. I have just started using Magnesium with Melatonin and L-Theanine gummies, coupled with reading before bed and I am sleeping better than I have in a long time. I'll add a CBD gummy if I am feeling a bit too thinky as I get ready for bed. The big pharma sleep medications do help us fall asleep but they do not help us hit the different parts of the cycles that we need to for high quality sleep. Which is why people who take them often wake up feeling tired still.  

I've learned a lot about sleep in this short little chapter I read. Things I am going to try to incorporate into my wellness journey... possibly giving up caffeine (again) and fighting my want for a nap each day. I encourage you to take a serious look at your quality and quantity of sleep. After assessing it, if needed, make some adjustments. The truest assessment is, do you wake up feeling refreshed. That is what sleep is suppose to do for us. If the answer is no... it's not because you're "not a morning person" it is because your are not getting the sleep you need. You can be cranky and refreshed in the morning... but we shouldn't be groggy and cranky.😉

I hope in some way this helps you as much as it did me. Sleep is FO' REAL. As important as our exercise and nutrition... it is time we take it very seriously.