Bridget Moroney  00:00

I want to let you all know something. No one talks about the most foundational, basic boring stuff because it's just not marketable. Yeah, I said what I said, but here's the thing, one of the most underrated, impactful nootropics and performance enhancers out there is sleep. And it's free and accessible to all of us. So, let's talk about why it's important and how you can make your sleep quality, the best possible in order to perform your best in the gym. And, of course, live a better life outside of it. Let's go. Welcome to the performance RX podcast where the conversations are about health, nutrition and mindset for anyone who considers themselves an athlete from the most elite competitors to those who are simply seeking to improve their athletic performance. We hope the knowledge shared on this show will empower you to reach your physical potential. Thank you so much for tuning in. Now for today's episode. Hey, everyone, welcome to today's show. I'm your host, Bridget Moroney. Let's talk about sleep. In all my years of experience as a coach, whether that was at a CrossFit gym, or with my health and wellness clients, it always is the same scenario, people will go to great lengths to make sure that they have the best structured exercise program, the best nutritional plan, macros, nutrition, timing, all of that supplements are locked in. And then when it comes to sleep, people either completely forget about it, or they completely disregard it. And not just the amount of sleep they're getting, but the actual quality of it. And here's the thing, sleep is essential to health and survival. So just like you wouldn't ignore your hydration needs or your nutritional needs, you shouldn't ignore your sleep needs full stop. So today's podcast is going to be all about sleep and not just about getting enough sleep, but getting enough quality sleep so that it is optimal for not just your health, but also your performance. Because guess what, if you are tired, you're not going to be performing well. And there's quite a few health issues that sleep deprivation can lead to in the short term, and then of course, in the long term down the road. So I'm going to start off with just kind of a couple of different statistics around sleep and talk about why sleep is important. And then we'll actually get into how to hack your sleep a little bit later on in this episode. So just starting right off the bat, the average US adult gets about seven hours of sleep per night, which is the bare minimum really, mostly recommendations are between seven and nine hours, however 33% of the population gets six and a half hours per night or less. And if you are one of those people that say, Oh, well, I get six hours of sleep a night and I work fine. There have been studies that have been done where they take people and they have them sleep for six hours or less and come to find out they perform the same as people who had been up without sleep for 48 hours. So you may think that you are performing well at six hours or less. But you're really not more than likely your body and your mind have just gotten used to performing at such a low level. And if you don't want to take my word for it, that's fine. But here's something else to consider study suggests that people who sleep fewer than six hours per night gain almost twice as much weight over a six year period as people who sleep seven to eight hours per night. So there you go. If nothing else interest in having optimal body composition should be enough to incentivize you to want to get a little bit more sleep. What about excessive sleep? What about getting more than nine hours of sleep? That sounds good, right? Not quite. Studies have also shown that those who sleep more than nine hours per night have similar body composition outcomes to those who sleep less than six hours. So in other words, having too little sleep is not a good thing for your health, for your performance for your body composition. And then the same thing for excessive sleep. So let's talk about why people are sleeping less in the first place. So many people feel like their work demands and their life and their children. And just general life stress in general is the reason for not getting enough sleep. But it's actually kind of a voluntary thing. So what I mean by this is many people are choosing not to go to sleep or not to get enough sleep on a daily basis because of things like TV, socializing, social media. So there's a lot of things in our modern world that are distracting us in general and then are distracting us from getting adequate and proper sleep. About a century ago, the average Americans slept about nine hours each night. And again, this is way before the time of social media, and just media and television in general, certainly the stresses that come from living in our modern world were a little bit different back then, et cetera, et cetera. And if you took away all of the work life demands, and all of the distractions, and the lights, and the social media and the TV and everything else like that, most humans would likely sleep about eight hours per night based on our circadian rhythm, which your circadian rhythm if you're not familiar with it, it's your natural sleep wake cycle. So going back to sleep and body composition really quick, here's a couple of examples of how impactful it can be on your body composition, and, of course, your health and performance. So there was a study done in 2005 of about 10,000 adults. And basically it suggested that the obesity epidemic might be in part caused by a corresponding decrease in the average hours of sleep each night. So basically, the study found that people between the ages of 32 and 49, who sleep fewer than seven hours each night are significantly more likely to be obese. Also, staying awake beyond midnight seemed to increase the likelihood of obesity. Interestingly enough, though, there wasn't any sort of correlation or significant correlation between wakeup time meaning that it didn't matter if people woke up at 5am, or 7am. The two things that really mattered were how much sleep they got. And then of course, if they were going to bed at excessively late times, there was also another study that followed around the growth of more than 9000 children from birth onwards, and the children that slept the least when they were 30 months old, were more likely to be obese at age seven than children who slept more. Also, something else to point out about sleep deprivation and body composition is it's a little bit of a chicken in the egg situation. So what I mean by that is right now, it's not really clear to scientists whether poor sleep is a cause or result of excess body fat, or if it's a combination of both. So some scientists speculate that sleep deprivation could disrupt the hormones that regulate appetite. And that results in excess body fat accumulation. Other scientists believe that it's just the sheer physical discomfort of obesity and sleep apnea, that reduces the chance of getting a good night's sleep. And I will say that I've seen this with other coaches who do work with clients who eventually go on to CPAP machines, once they go on a CPAP machine and they get better quality sleep, the weight just starts melting off of them. I saw one testimony where someone had dropped 20 pounds almost instantly, after going on a CPAP machine because they were just getting better quality sleep and their body was able to restore and recover itself much better. But looking into the hormones there for a minute. So there are a couple of things that happen to us hormonally when we sleep that do affect not only our health and performance, but our body composition. So one of the things is human growth hormone. So when you are sleeping, especially in a deep state of sleep, that's when your growth hormone gets produced. So not getting adequate sleep means that you have decreased growth hormone, another hormone that affects your body composition is thyroid stimulating hormone. And then on the opposite spectrum, your stress hormones like cortisol are elevated, especially in the evening. And so basically, chronic sleep restriction results in an elevated sympathetic nerve activity and a slow insulin response. So it's basically the perfect storm for obesity. So you have lower glucose tolerance, you have increased evening and nocturnal cortisol levels, you have lowered leptin, and then you have insufficient thyroid stimulating hormone. Again, all of these affect your body composition and can exacerbate obesity. And then, of course, just a very simple and logical explanation about lack of sleep and body composition. You're spending more time awake, which means you have more time to consume food. And let's be real if you are staying up past 10, 11pm, Midnight, 1am you're not really making the best food choices. I don't know a single person that is up at 1am noshing down a salad speaking about food choices and going back to hormone for a second here there was a study done with 12 healthy normal weight men and basically they found that just two nights in a row with four hours of sleep and they weren't allowed to nap resulted in lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin. So basically low leptin, and high gorillas are two hormones or two hormones scenarios that are going to stimulate your hunger and appetite. And in the study, the men reported higher overall hunger ratings. And here's the thing, going back to my comment about making better food choices, they weren't craving vegetables or nutrient dense foods, they were creating calorie dense foods, which means processed foods like sweets, baked goods, bread, chips, all of that stuff. So again, think about all these times that maybe you've been sleep deprived, what were you necessarily reaching for guarantee was something calorie dense, because again, calories are what our bodies use for energy. And so if your body is energy deprived, because of lack of sleep, it needs to compensate somehow. And so this is where calorie dense food choices come into play. So I think I've beat the whole bad sleep affects your body composition horse enough here, let's talk a little bit about the health risks and impacts that not getting enough sleep can have on you. So going back to the fact that a lot of people get less than seven hours of sleep, which is like the minimum average that most people should get, basically, you're at greater risk of a heart attack, stroke, and sudden cardiac death. Again, touching on potential weight gain, you're also likely to see insulin resistance and glucose intolerant and type 2 diabetes. So here's another study for you 11, healthy men in their 20s, were only allowed four hours of sleep for six straight nights. And at the end of this, the young men had the insulin sensitivity of a 70, that's seven zero 70 year old, pre diabetic. So even though this was just a small sample size, you still can't ignore that that was a pretty suggestive result there of how poor quality sleep can impact your health. And then of course, there is just how poor sleep or lack of sleep impacts your daily life function and your cognitive abilities. So mood, memory, basically going 24 hours without sleep is similar to performing with a blood alcohol level of 0.1%. So basically, you're legally drunk if you haven't slept for 24 hours or more. And as someone who wants spent quite a bit of time not sleeping in college, trying to pull all nighters, I can testify, I did feel pretty intoxicated during those times something to mention really quick about getting quality sleep and enough quality sleep as it pertains to exercise performance, and even muscle gain and growth here. So there's five stages of sleep, basically, light sleep is occurring in the first two stages. And then stages three and four are deep sleep. And this is where your growth hormone secretion occur. So again, as I mentioned earlier, you want to get into deep sleep so that you can secrete those helpful hormones. And of course, your body can repair itself. Basically, a full cycle of all five stages occurs every 90 minutes. So again, this is where the quality comes in, but also the length of how much you're sleeping, because you want to have enough of these 90 minute cycles to get enough GH secretion throughout. And of course, as you might expect, GH secretion can influence physical and mental restoration. So basically, if you are sleeping less than your body needs, not only is GH secretion lowered, but your overall exercise and training, performance can taper off. So it may feel as though that you're working very hard, but you're actually not your body is just very fatigued. What about sleep debt? So the whole thought behind sleep debt is basically it is cumulative, meaning that the more nights with less sleep, you have the greater likelihood of negative effects taking place, kind of like your bank accounts, the more you withdraw from your account, the more likely it is you're going to run into an overdraft and not be able to pay future bills. And initially, it used to be that once you've accrued sleep debt, you can't repay it, but experts actually hypothesize that you can actually repay your hours of sleep debt eventually, whether that's through sleeping in on the weekends or taking naps, it is possible. Of course, ideally, you want to be able to be getting enough quality sleep on a consistent basis. But that whole idea that once you've accrued sleep debt, that's it, you're screwed. It's kind of been debunked. So basically, in summary, sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise when it comes to improving your health performance and body composition. Good sleep helps our bodies and minds recover. It keeps us lean, healthy, happy, mentally focused, and basically getting chronically bad sleep so not enough sleep and not enough good sleep makes it harder to get and stay lean. It makes harder to gain and keep muscle and other types of lean body mass, it disrupts all of your hormones and makes you age faster. It increases your risk of chronic illness, especially heart disease, type 2 diabetes, it drains your IQ and cognitive function. And I didn't mention this, but it kills your libido. The positive news to all of this is just like so many things, when it comes to our health and nutrition is it can be reversed, the opposite is true. So just as having inadequate sleep is bad for you returning to adequate sleep can reduce these risks and put you back online with your health and performance. So here are a couple of ways that you can improve the amount that you're sleeping, and of course, the quality of that sleep when you are in bed. So the first step to getting better quality sleep is creating a sleep routine. And something to add is that this is something that's going to become a habit for you. So just like when you start a new diet, or nutrition protocol or anything else like that, it takes a couple of days to adjust to this, it's going to be the same thing. But what is the sleep routine look like. So just like when you wake up in the morning, you don't instantly spring out of bed and start working and going about your day, you have a little bit of transition time. The same thing works in reverse when going to bed. So what you need to do is create a nighttime routine that tells your body that you're preparing to go to sleep. And basically over time, if you're consistent, your body will start the process automatically. Basically, you want to give yourself an hour buffer to start winding down and getting ready for bed. And again, after enough consistent time of doing this, your body is going to automatically start relaxing and gearing down without you having to consciously do it. The next thing you want to do is keep a regular schedule. So like I said earlier, in this podcast episode, a lot of people go to bed way too late. And that messes up their sleep quality. Another thing that happens is people don't go to bed at a consistent time, maybe there's nights where you go to bed at 11. Then one night you go to bed at midnight, then you're exhausted the next day. So it's 10. And it's just all over the place. So trying to go to bed at a consistent time will allow you to wake up at a consistent time every day. And here's the deal. I know that everyone has lives to live, we have kids, we have jobs, we have social lives. And so maybe it's not realistic to do this seven days a week, but trying to do it five days a week, six days a week, The more consistent you can be, the more your body will know when to release your hormones like melatonin and other sorts of calming hormones before bed that will help you get restful sleep. And in the morning, the opposite will happen where it releases stimulating hormones to wake you up. The next thing you want to do, or in this case, not do or at least limit in order to get really good quality sleep is consume alcohol and caffeine. So if you are consuming alcohol and caffeine, try to keep it moderate, especially if you want genuinely restful and restorative sleep that comes from deep sleep. Here's the thing that a lot of people don't realize about alcohol, they think that it's relaxing because Alcohol is a depressant, so it slows you down. However, more than one or two drinks in the evening can interfere with deep sleep. And it can do so as much as having caffeine in the evening. So just like you wouldn't want to drink a whole bunch of coffee right before you go to bed. You shouldn't be pounding down the drinks before you go to bed. And anyone who's experienced sleep disruption because of alcohol, you know what I'm talking about. So you're not getting in to that deep sleep, your body isn't even getting into deep sleep. If you ever woken up with your heart racing, you know what I'm talking about. And again, that's your body counteracting the alcohol that's in it because to your body. Alcohol is basically a poison. And like I said, it's a depressant. So your body is going to do the opposite, which means it's going to release things like adrenaline and everything else like that to counterbalance what's going on in your body. So alcohol is part of our society. It's a lot of ways that people like to socialize, if you can try to limit alcohol to only a few drinks. And as far as caffeine again, I would try not to consume caffeine after 2pm. Otherwise, you may be sleeping for seven hours but again, it's not going to be the best quality sleep also on the topic of drinking, talking about food consumption. So having a large meal immediately before bed can disrupt your ability to fall and stay asleep because your body again is working this time to digest and process the food try not to have a huge meal before bed, just stick with your regularly sized or even small meal a few hours before bedtime. And again, you don't have to do anything special, a nice blend of protein, carbs and fats will keep you satiated. It might even improve your ability to fall asleep as your brain converts carbs to serotonin. So this is something that I've played around with throughout the years and have found it to be really helpful for getting very nice restorative sleep is kind of doing a little bit of a carb back load. So if my daily macro requirement for carbs for the day is 200 grams of carbs, I would probably reserve a good chunk of that for the night time again, not eating a whole bunch of doughnuts or cake right before bed, but just kind of spacing out my carb consumption so that it's a little bit more heavier in the evening side, so that my brain can get that serotonin and again, go into that more restful sleep. And the whole thing about protein is the same thing as well, it's going to keep you satiated. So you're not waking up in the middle of the night hungry. The next thing that you can do to get more restful sleep comes down to managing your stress. So one of the things that people often complain about when it comes to insomnia is their brain is keeping them awake, all the thoughts, all the worries, just obsessing about all the things that we're supposed to do tomorrow tossing, turning, trying to get to sleep and just getting more stressed by the minute. So if you're someone who has a lot of anxiety, or your anxiety gets activated or triggered at night, because of course things are quiet. And so your brain just goes a mile a minute, try doing a brain dump. So take a few minutes, write out a list of whatever is bugging you emails that you need to do the next day calls, project ideas, creative thoughts, all of those thing and whatever's in your brain, you just get it out and you get it onto the paper and you're able to let go of it. And if you're someone who doesn't struggle with anxiety, or a restless mind like this, this is still a great productivity hack, because now you have your day set up for the next day. So when you wake up, you already have your plan, you have your to do list, and you can just get right after it. The next hack for sleep is probably something you've heard a lot about over the past couple of years. And that is turning off your electronics. So our smartphones as helpful and as entertaining as they are. They stimulate our brain, not just with what's on there. But just from a light and noise perspective. So trying to unplug from all screens. So your phone, your TV, your computer, at least 30 minutes before bed can help you get into a more restful state of sleep. If for whatever reason, turning off your screens completely just isn't possible. Or if you read on like a Kindle or a tablet, then what you need to do is switch the screen to the black or dimmer background. Or there's some features, for example on the iPhone, which decreases your screens color temperature. So basically it limits that blue light, which is what is stimulating us to stay awake for longer. So in turn, your brain is going to be able to produce more melatonin as the light levels decrease. So melatonin is something that is secreted by your brain and the pineal gland. And it's known as the darkness hormone. So naturally, when conditions get dark outside, melatonin starts. But since we have all this artificial light, melatonin secretion has decreased in a lot of us. So these are some ways that you can up your own natural production of melatonin. Also on the stress management side before bed is doing something that will specifically destress you. So some examples could be gentle movements. So stretching, yoga, even just taking a nice casual stroll around the block. And again, it doesn't have to be like an hour long yoga session, five to 15 minutes can release tension. And then of course, activate all of those relaxation hormones in your body reading is also a great thing that you can do. So it's still providing you some sort of entertainment or engagement. But unlike TV, it's not going to keep you overstimulated through light and noise and things like that, of course, make sure that whatever you're reading isn't too engaging. And it's not something like a thriller or horror novel or anything else like that. That's going to keep you up forever. And then the last thing that you could do is just simple things like meditation, or deep breathing as a way to relax and calm down. Another thing to emphasize when it comes to creating your perfect sleep routine is as I've already mentioned, you want to go to bed before midnight. So I mentioned earlier that people that went to bed after midnight had terrible body composition and health biomarkers. Here's the reason why. So because of the way our natural circadian rhythm works, every hour of sleep before midnight, is worth two hours after. So basically, according to some sleep experts, they really emphasize the fact that we're meant to go to bed when it gets dark and when it gets light. So going to bed after midnight just really messes with that circadian rhythm. And therefore you don't get the best quality sleep you could. Another thing to factor in when you're trying to set up your sleep routine to get the best and most high quality sleep is to think about how much sleep you actually need. So in the beginning of this episode, I talked about how most people need around seven to nine hours of sleep per night. So this basically means that seven should be your baseline, whether you're getting it or not. And if you're getting more of it, then that could be your baseline. For most people, you have to be up to work school, whatever a certain time. So let's just say for example, that you have to wake up at 5:15 in order to get ready for your job, school, whatever. So then ideally, you should be in bed by 9:30, and asleep by 10 o'clock. So again, that 9:30 Bed time is your relaxation, one downtime, so getting in bed at 10:15 doesn't count because your body still needs to wind down and actually relax. So it can go to sleep, you also need to factor in transition time. So in other words, don't assume that you're going to press stop on whatever movie or activity you're doing at 9:29. And just be right in bed at 9:30 You need to start moving in the direction of bed at nine o'clock. So yeah, figure out what time you need to be awake in the morning and then basically reverse engineer your sleep needs from there also factoring in things like transition time, relaxation time, and then of course, sleep latency. So for an average healthy person, sleep latency is around 10 to 20 minutes to actually get into restful sleep. Another thing you can do to help normalize your circadian rhythm is exercise. So exercising regularly helps you normalize your circadian rhythms and helps you tone down the sympathetic nervous system. And it helps you regulate your endocrine function. So all of these things play into your sleep and wake cycles. Little bit of caveat there, save your intense exercise for during the day. So doing some high intensity interval training or some heavy weight training late in the evening might rev you up with all of the adrenaline and keep you from getting some good quality sleep or make it very tough for you to get restful sleep. So that kind of wraps it up for different things that you can do for your bedtime routine to help you get into some good, deep quality sleep. Now let's move on to something else that a lot of people don't realize can have a big impact on their sleep, and that is optimizing your sleep environment. So first things first, I mentioned this already when I was talking about melatonin, but darkness is a huge factor in getting restful sleep. Like I mentioned before, Melatonin is a hormone produced by your brain that signals your body that it's time to sleep and so therefore making your room as dark as possible will maximize your melatonin production. And so what does this look like? So first of all, what you want to do is make sure that you're limiting light, especially blue light, which is what comes from our TVs our computers, our cell phones. So that's going to be something that inhibits melatonin production, it makes it harder to fall in, stay asleep a couple of things that you can and should do to make sure that you're limiting your light exposure. First thing dim all lights at night. So if you can install some low wattage light bulbs in your bedroom and keep things as dim as possible in the hour before your planned bedtime. So something else that you can do is cover up your windows very well get some really heavy high quality curtains so that you can block out any sort of light from your neighbor's houses, street lamps, etc. Another thing that people often do, which helps immensely is putting their phone in another room or at the very least putting it facedown so if you get a notification in the middle of the night or anything else like that your screen isn't going to glow another thing you can do that is a feature on iPhone I know for sure is having it on the night shift so that will automatically dim the screen to warmer colors and it'll block any notifications so that it doesn't ping you in the middle of the night. If you have an old school alarm clock that is digital, maybe you could try to cover it up so that the screens not glowing or at least tried to dim it or you can look for one that illuminates only when you touch it. The next thing you want to do when it comes to optimizing your sleeping environment is to create a relaxing sleep area that is quiet and free of clutter. Ideally your bed room should be a sanctuary it should be relatively organized and peaceful. So when you go in there, you're more inclined to relax. So things like clothes all over the floor, your furniture, boxes, books all over the place. Tangled cords can make you feel stress and interfere with your ability to relax, especially if you're someone who has Type A. So really treat your bedroom like a sanctuary. as simple and as cheesy as it sounds, it does make a big difference. The next thing you want to look at in setting up your ideal sleep environment is the temperature. So a lot of studies have come out that show that most people sleep better when it's cool. And ideally, they say around 65 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit, there are also some people that sleep better at a neutral temperature. So it just kind of depends on your own preferences. And what you notice gets you into a more restful state. Just like so many things, a lot of people are unique when it comes to this. So figure out what works best for you. And then try to regulate your bedroom to that temperature each night as consistently as possible. Another thing to think about is noise. So like I mentioned, you want your bedroom to be as quiet as possible so that you're not waking up and disrupted if you need to using white noise might be an option there especially if you live in an urban environment. If you live in an apartment where you hear a lot of people and noises and these things disrupt your your sleep then yeah, steady state of white noise could really help. And I've even heard some people talk recently about brown noise as a more relaxing alternative. There's tons of apps out there download it on your phone, or even just having a fan or something like that could be enough to drown out the other background noises that come from living in a city or other environments that are horribly distracting. And the last thing that you want to think about when you are designing your perfect sleep routine is how you wake up. So the whole purpose of sleep is so that our bodies can rest and recharge so that we can go on about our days the next day. Think of sleep as something that begins the moment you wake up. So in other words, what you do during the day will affect what happens at night. A lot of people when they wake up, they have a really harsh, jarring alarm. And that definitely gets you out of bed. But it's not really a really fun, or even relaxing or even optimal way to wake up and also jacks up your heart rate, which in turn jacks up your stress hormones. And immediately you're starting the day in that sympathetic fight or flight mode. So something to consider when you are trying to figure out how to wake up could be as simple as taking advantage of your natural rhythms. So as I mentioned before, sleep occurs in natural stages alternating between deep and light sleep and we sleep more and more lightly as the night goes on. So if you wake up at just the right moment and one of your lighter sleep stages, you'll feel reasonably good. On the other hand, if you're forced to wake up while in a deep sleep phase, you'll feel really groggy, disoriented and sleepy. And you'll have something called sleep inertia. So there's actually a couple of different types of apps out there that will track your sleep according to whatever wearable you have your iWatch, your whoop bracelet, an oura ring, etc. And once you get into that light sleep stage, it'll set an alarm and wake you up naturally. So this has actually happened to me a couple of times using the whoop bracelet, and it is a much more enjoyable way to wake up. And I'm also instantly alert. If that's not really an ideal way to wake up or you don't have a way to really hack your wake up or your sleep cycle like that, then waking up to light could be another alternative for you. So the human body is designed to get sleepy when it gets dark. And so the opposite is true. You wake up when it's light. So one thing that people have come out with recently is a dawn simulating alarm clock. And this is especially beneficial if you are doing what I suggested a few moments ago. And using light blocking shades you're not going to get the natural sunlight coming into your room if you have light blocking shades, but what you can do is get one of these Dawn simulating alarm clocks that basically glows brighter at whatever time you want to wake up research shows that when people are slowly roused, especially by something like gradually increasing light levels, they feel much more alert and relaxed than when they're woken up by a sudden blaring alarm. The other reason why you want to have light when you wake up in the morning is increasing light has also been shown to raise cortisol in the morning, which is an important signal to your body to wake up. Cortisol gets a bad rap because there's a lot of people out there that say, Oh, it's a stress hormone. It makes you fat. It destroys your health and yes, excess cortisol does do that. But it does play a critical role in and getting our bodies awake and alert and ready to go on with the day. So using again, your natural sleep wake cycle of melatonin in the evening, when it gets dark cortisol in the morning, when it gets light can help you have a more balanced overall sleep wake cycle. The last Wake Up option that you could consider is using soft slowly building noise. So if your natural rhythm isn't an option, and a light alarm clock isn't an option then just simply using an alarm setting on your phone that is not so abrupt and jarring can be beneficial. So I know I have an iPhone, they have things like birds chirping, and just really soft music that gradually gets louder. And again, this is a better alternative than just the typical alarm. So once you've officially woken up from your sleep there, there's a couple of things you want to do to make sure that you wake up the most optimally, the first thing is to get moving right away. So I think most people can agree that hitting the snooze button, when your alarm goes off is one of the worst things you can do, you're just delaying the inevitable there. So alarm goes off, get out of bed, you could even do something where you put your phone or your alarm clock across the room. So this requires you to get out of bed immediately if you want the alarm to go off. And then from there, just keep the momentum going, just go to the restroom, go to the kitchen, get your coffee, in my experience, the sooner you get moving, the easier it is to wake up and get on with your day. And then once you are awake, another thing to do, which is going to help with that cycle and just wake you up in general is exposing yourself to more light. So basically, that stops your melatonin production, that's going to increase your wakefulness. And something that you want to do throughout the day is get as much natural light as you can. So things like fluorescent light bulbs and everything else like that aren't really great for us. But try to get outside of your office, try to get outside of your home, just go for a five to 10 minute walk, maybe run some errands at lunch, eat outside, do as much as you can to get as much natural sun as possible. And in turn, you'll see a big difference in your sleep quality. And like I said, just your natural energy and biological rhythms throughout the day. So there you have it a couple of reasons, more than a couple of reasons why sleep is so important for our health, our performance, our body composition, our longevity, and then a couple of simple ways that you can make your sleep better than it already is. And don't misunderstand me just because I say something is simple doesn't mean it's easy. So going back to that whole idea that it's not going to happen overnight, no pun intended, but it's not going to happen immediately. So just taking into mind that it's going to be a process, it's going to be a habit. But if you stay consistent with it, if you keep going with it, you're going to see the effects sooner than you think and your health, your body, your longevity are going to thank you for it. So just wrap things up. Couple of things to remember good sleep is crucial for good health. I don't care if you see someone on the internet saying that they are performing great off of five hours of sleep, they are lying to themselves and it is eventually going to get caught up to them. Don't be fooled, get your seven hours minimum, have the best quality sleep you can make that a priority try to think of sleep as a 24 hour process. So what you do during your waking period will affect your sleeping period and vice versa. So think about that when it comes to your exercise your stress what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat. Try to reinforce your natural circadian needs. So when it's supposed to be dark and quiet, try to make your life and your home as dark and quiet as possible. I suppose to be bright and noisy, get moving and try to get as much natural sunlight as you can. As early as you can. Just like with any habit, give your body and mind transition time. So give yourself 30 minutes, preferably an hour in the evening to slowly wind down and prepare for sleep. And like I said with anything consistency is king. So stick to a routine our bodies love routines and consistency. So if your body knows what to expect in your day is going to make going to sleep and waking up a lot easier than if you are random with it. And one last thing even though you can't control your actual sleep, you can control your sleep behaviors and environment and that in turn will have a more positive outcome on the quality of your sleep. Check out the show notes for some more references and studies on sleep. Hit me up on social media @Aspiretocoaching with any questions you have about sleep and how to get a better, more quality night of it. We'll see you next time. All right. That's all for today's show. Thank you so much again for listening and be sure to head over to aspiretocoaching.com/podcast As to check out the show notes for today's episode. There, you'll find some of the links we've mentioned on today's podcast, as well as some of the previous episodes we've done. And while you're there, please make sure you sign up for our show updates. I am always updating the show and bringing in bonus content. So you do not want to miss out on any of that. One last thing. If you loved this episode, and you think a friend would really enjoy it as well, grab the link and share it out for me, please, it really does help spread the word of this podcast and the topics that we discussed on our episodes. And at the end of the day, my goal is to empower as many people on their performance journey as possible. Thank you all so much again, and we'll see you next time.