Sleep Like a Boss, Perform Like a Beast (2)

​by Ryan Humphries, Co-Owner & Coach
​In the last post on sleep, we talked about how hormones released during sleep are critical to keeping you healthy and happy. Now for the practical application: Here’s are some tips  for a good night’s sleep.

• Shut off your electronics before bed. 

During the day, humans are meant to be awake. We need vitamin D to survive and if we were nocturnal, we'd all have rickets. Humans are supposed to be awake when the sky is blue and asleep when the sky is dark. When your eyes see blue light, a signal is sent to the brain to suppress melatonin (the hormone that anticipates the onset of darkness). This wasn't an issue 100 or even 50 years ago because we didn't have electronics at our fingertips. Fast forward to the land of the touchscreen and we're all looking at TVs, laptops, tablets and smart phones that emit, you guessed it: blue light. At exactly the time when your brain is telling your body to go to bed, your eyes are getting a mixed signal from the blue light telling your brain to suppress the melatonin.
 
If you absolutely must work on your computer, you can download an application like Flux. I use this app daily and as the sun goes down, the screen will adapt to the time of day. Pretty neat.

• Take a cool shower before bed. 
  

While we sleep, our core body temperature is lowered and it takes only a small decrease in body temperature to tell our bodies it's time for bed. I'll admit that this sounded like a terrible idea when I first read about it. However, after experimenting and tracking my sleep habits for a couple months I can say that this definitely decreases the time in which I actually fall asleep. Start with a warm shower, then slowly turn the dial down to where it's just cool enough. You don't necessarily want to do an ice shower, as this will make your core body temperature drop, but then quickly rise trying to acclimate.
 

• Minimize alcohol before bed. 

Believe me, I was a sailor and I can tell you firsthand that there's always an excuse for a drink. However, if maximizing sleep is a goal of yours, cut the booze before bed. Yay day drinking! Although you may "pass out" early from drinking, the quality of your sleep will be interrupted due to the sympathetic nervous system, which doesn't return to baseline until the alcohol is out of your system. Your body won't be able to secret the growth hormones needed for repair, and you'll likely wake up to go to the bathroom as alcohol is a diuretic.

• Black it out! 

I'm referring to the light sources in your room. The darker the better. Just because the light isn't blue, doesn't mean it's not disrupting. You can get "black out" curtains for your windows or use an eye mask, but keep those little flashing lights to a minimum.
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• Reduce Stress

Of course there will always be some sort of stressors in our lives, but there are things we can do to mitigate our body's response. You may have heard of cortisol, the "stress hormone." High concentrations of cortisol can negatively affect your sleep, not to mention make it hard to lose weight. Cortisol levels can be controlled by decreasing stress. In fact, just eating carbs and protein post-workout will decrease cortisol levels significantly (Perhaps you've heard of the post-workout window?). Mediation has also been shown to decrease cortisol.

If you're putting in work in the gym and the kitchen and still not seeing the results you're looking for, check your sleep. Make sleep a priority in your life and everything else may fall into place. Your productivity, sex drive, fat loss, muscle gain, mood, and recovery: All of these things may be positively affected by getting adequate sleep.