Sleep your way to a better body

Why worry about your sleep?

Sleep is a huge factor that must be considered when looking at health, well-being, fat loss and shape change. Many of us find that we do not have enough time in the day to achieve everything we want, so what’s the first thing to be sacrificed to get some more time?….sleep. Reducing your sleep time may give you more time to get your daily tasks done but you must then make sure that the quality of your sleep is optimised to allow maximum recovery. If not, you will be doing these daily tasks with sub-par efficiency and are likely to find this extra awake time only makes up for the inefficiency of your normal awake time. Furthermore consistent sleep deprivation (from lack of sleep time and/or sleep quality) may increase the chance of you not achieving your wanted shape change. Additionally there is an increased risk of suffering from long term health problems such as depression, cancer and heart disease. On top of all of the wouldn’t it be nicer to feel refreshed and energised everyday rather than tired and groggy?

In a previous blog Sleep tight - why is sleep important? I covered what happens during sleep and how this benefits the body. To quickly summarise that blog sleep is important for hormonal control plus physical and mental recovery. For those looking to reduce their body fat I would recommend a minimum of seven hours a night. If you want to know more about these mechanisms feel free to check out the blog.

I knew that by optimising my sleep quality I would reap many benefits with the most important to me being an improvement in the rate of my shape change, improved immunity, increased recovery and gains from training, whilst also reducing my stress and that tired feeling. To ensure I experienced all these benefits I turned to Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson. This book provides 21 evidence based methods that can increase your sleep quality (scientific references are also provided) and I wanted to to share the ones I find most effective these with you.

Know the value of sleep

Prioritise sleep. To increase the chance of changing your sleep quality and reaping the benefits you must truly believe that the methods you implement will be effective. I find knowing that the methods have been researched and proven to work combined with what the expected benefits are help me ‘buy in’ to a method (hence the reason for reading Sleep Smarter and writing this blog.). The list of advantages of improved sleep quality is long and include benefits such as reduced stress, improved memory, reduced risk of diabetes, etc. (plus there are the ones I have previously mentioned).

Get some sun

Your body follows a natural sleep-wake cycle called the circadian rhythm and the timing of this effects the release of hormones. One such hormone is Melatonin which can help you fall into a ‘deeper’ sleep and its release is suppressed by daylight and stimulated by darkness. To ensure you get a good dose of this hormone at the right time you should try increase your exposure to daylight where possible. I know this can be difficult for many people who work indoors so here are a few tips to help: make sure you are sat next to the window at your workplace, get outside in the daylight during your lunch break, go for a morning walk before you begin work.

Stay away from screens before bedtime

I believe this tip (plus one other which I will discuss shortly) have been the real game changers for my sleep. Artificial blue light emitted by electronic screens stimulates the production of daytime hormones which will throw off your circadian rhythm. Furthermore watching screens has been shown to activate large areas of your brain make you feel more stimulated and not sleepy! It is recommended that you pull yourself away from screens at least 90 mins before you sleep, realistically I probably do 30 mins. My old nighttime routine involved watching tv before bed (which I imagine is the same for many others) so I have now changed this to sitting and chatting with the wife or reading a book. If neither of these options are for you then why not try listing to a podcast or practicing some relaxation yoga (just as long as your not watching a screen to do it).

Have a caffeine curfew

Caffeine is a very powerful stimulant which is great for getting you going in the morning but as you can probably guess it won’t help you sleep at night. A caffeine curfew can help reduce the negative effect caffeine can have on your sleep. The question is then how long should you leave between caffeine consumption and bed? Well caffeine has a half-life between 5-8 hours, this means that if you have a cup of coffee at midday (which contains ~ 95 mg of caffeine) then by 8.00pm you will still have ~ 48 mg of caffeine in your system. Bearing this in mind I have a caffeine curfew of 2.00pm, for the who are more sensitive to caffeine you may want this curfew to be earlier.

Use a Magnesium spray

I believe this is the second best tip that has had a big effect on optimising my sleep. Magnesium calms the nervous system, aids circulation and relaxes muscles. Around 80 % of the population of the US is deficient in magnesium meaning there is high chance that you are as well. I found the best way to increase my magnesium levels was through the use of BetterYou Magnesium Oil Body Spray. I use a 10 sprays every night and I normally focus the sprays on my thighs (front and back), lower back, neck, shoulders and chest. Be sure to rub the oil in and wash your hands after. Please be aware you may need to consume more water once you start using the spray as magnesium can draw water into your bowels. You should also be aware excessive supplementation of magnesium (which can be done through the use of too many sprays, combining salt baths and the sprays or oral supplementing) can lead to stomach upsets and that’s why I stick to only 10 sprays a night.

Blacked out

As you probably understand now your body is very sensitive to light and any source of light can negatively effect your sleep. Unfortunately the modern day bedroom can contain many sources of light such as digital alarm clocks, chargers, baby monitors but normally the largest source is from street lights or car lights coming though the windows. Removing all sources of light in your room (you ay have to just turn the baby monitor to face down) is a quick win to improve your sleep. If you really want to take it to the next level you can invest in blackout curtains which will take care of any light entering from outside.

Create a garden of Eden

The quality of air in your bedroom will influence how well your body can undergo its natural healing and growth processes during sleep. For most the bedroom is an area deodorants, hairsprays, aftershaves, perfumes etc. are sprayed. Combine this with a low influx of clean air because the windows are closed (especially during the winter, unless you live somewhere very warm and not North Wales) and quickly the quality of air can be found to be quite poor. An obvious fix is to make sure you do all your smelly applications outside of your bedroom and keep the window open. To take it one step further you can also invest in a Perennial Snake plant which absorbs carbon dioxide and produces oxygen at night (other plants do this during the day). The Perennial Snake plant is also a very low maintenance plant meaning it does not require much effort to keep it alive.

So there you have it, my favourite 7 (out the the possible 21) proven tips to improve your quality of sleep. These tips are my favourite because a) they are easy; b) they are not expensive; c) they actually work and have certainly improved the quality of my sleep.

Sleep tight readers and if you have any questions then please don’t hesitate to get in contact.