In 10+ years I’ve had over 30,000 sessions, worked with multiple Gold Medalists, All-Pros, Super Bowl Champs, NBA Champs, National Champs, 1st rounders, All Americans, high school phenoms, prepubescent athletes, average Joe’s & soccer moms. And none of them really have a clue how to consistently get a good night of sleep.
Wild right? The most primal things: eating, breathing, running, sleeping… we now need advice to perform them optimally.
There’s so much I can write about this topic. I’ve read and studied and practiced and implemented so many different things for my athletes over the years. I’m going to keep this as short as possible.
“Everyone needs 6 hours of sleep. Some people say woah woah woah, I need 8. I say, sleep faster!” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
I’ve read the most successful people only get 4 hours of sleep. I became victim of this thought. I even figured out a little trick to make it quasi-sustainable.
I found that if I had 10cups of vegetables/day, that I was able to process and function fine on 4-5 hours of sleep.
I don’t recommend living like that, but if you happen to get a poor night of sleep, this method can help. But then again, it could be completely unique to me. Unfortunately, I made 4 hours of sleep a habit instead of an exception. It got to the point where, I only got 4-5hours of sleep/night for 4 or 5 years (no exaggeration.) It had some serious repercussions that I’m still dealing with.
Some people might say, “Ok no big deal. So you’re tired. Grow up, drink some coffee and get on with your day/life.” Getting less than 6 hours of sleep increases your risk of heart disease by 300% and if you’re over 45 increases your risk of heart attack by 200%.
One of my problems is I have a very active job that runs late. I need to be very animated and constantly moving to perform, and that uses a lot of energy. Things that require movement and energy require an elevated heart. Once I get home at night, I need to unwind. But it’s not unusual for me to get home anywhere between 8 and 10pm, and if I have meetings after work, 11pm or even 12pm. The time it takes me to unwind, definitely cuts into my sleep, but I’ve convinced myself it is necessary.
After a long day, I’ll talk to my significant other, maybe watch an episode of some random TV show or scan through puppy videos on instagram. The whole process will take about an hour or so. I’ll get to sleep around 11-12pm. Then, I usually wake up around 6am, sometimes earlier and have to start my day.
Does that sound familiar? That looks like a pretty average day for most people right? And that equates to about 6 hours of sleep.
The problem with this is there are certain stages of sleep that occur in accordance with the circadian rhythm. Typically, you’ll get more deep sleep in the beginning of the night, and more REM sleep at the end of the night nearing morning. By staying up late, you’re robbing yourself of deep sleep, and by waking up early, you’re robbing yourself of REM sleep. AND, if you happen to eat late, it will keep your heart rate elevated during sleep to help digest and further rob you of your deep sleep.
Here’s some simple things you can do to help you get a better night of sleep.
8. Go to bed at the same time every night
It really is that simple. You are a creature of habit. Your body will adapt and overcome to survive. If you’re the type of person that goes to bed late, initially you will be stealing deep sleep, but over time, your body will acclimate and make the adjustment. Consistency is key.
7. Don’t drink caffeine too close to bed.
This sounds like a no brainer, but you have no idea how uncommon common sense is. I cannot tell you how often after late dinners, people will order coffee! You know how many people have said to me, “caffeine has the opposite effect on me. I can drink a cup and go right to sleep.”
First off schmuck, no it doesn’t have the opposite effect on you. Caffeine is a chemical; you may just have a higher tolerance to it. This chemical binds to adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a sleep inducing neuro-transmitter, a CNS depressant, a chemical that does a lot of things, one them is slowing your heart rate to suppress arousal, which facilitates sleep. If you’re blocking the receptor that adenosine binds to, then it won’t do its job… simple as that.
The half-life of caffeine is 5-6hours. Which means, if you have a cup of coffee (approximately 100mg caffeine) in 5-6hours there will be 50mg in your blood. This will still have an anti-arousal suppressing or stimulating effect.
6. Don’t eat 4-6hours before bed
I’ve made this suggestion before and people seem to have a big problem with this one. I get it, night time feedings are a tough habit to break. This is typically because people utilize food as coping mechanism to stress reactions. When a lot of people get stressed, they eat, and it helps. So, as a result, when they get home from a long day of work, they want to de-stress, and they do this by eating.
The problem with this is it takes your stomach 4-6 hours to clear food. That means your body will be spending time breaking down the food in your sleep, which as I stated above will elevate your heart rate. Increased periods of elevated heart rate will reduce deep sleep as well as decrease physical recovery. The slower your heart rate, the less work your heart is doing. Yes, even your heart needs a break sometimes.
5. Try to make your last meal of the day vegan
This sounds absurd, but it works. Meat takes a lot of energy to digest. The thermogenic effect of protein is 25-30%, carbs 6-8% and fat 2-3%. Most vegan meals are easier to digest because they’re typically lower in protein and higher in carbs and fat. This is especially helpful if you’re eating closer to the 4-6hour window.
This actually makes the partitioning of macros a little easier to handle. You can simply eat majority of your meat in the mornings/afternoons, and your carbs afternoon/evenings.
4. Control your temperature
Taking a warm shower before bed can draw blood to the skin, which will help keep your body cool if the environment is cool. The optimal sleeping room temperature is 60-67°f.
I have a tendency to run a little hot when I sleep. And when it’s too hot, I toss and turn and even get nightmares. To combat this, once in bed, I’ll fall asleep with just the sheet covering me. Now, if I get into bed and I’m cold and shivering, I allow myself to warmup and adjust to the environment, but once I do, I make sure to take off the comforter. This will allow me to actually get cold as I sleep. I will actually wake up briefly, in the middle of the night because I’m cold, put the comforter back on and pass right out.
3. Control and slow your heart rate
I like to use slow tempo breathing to slow my heart rate. Hyperventilation is when you breathe real fast which in turn, speeds up your heart rate. You can regulate this by controlling your exhalation. I use a 2-2-10-2 tempo while trying to fall asleep: 2 second inhale, 2 second pause, 10 second exhale, 2 second pause, repeat. I’ll to that 5-10 times. 4 rounds of that is about 60seconds. It’s not a full meditation session obviously, but it’s a start. And by doing this for a couple of minutes, it’s will definitely slow your heart rate down, which will allow you to relax. This technique can also have a positive impact on HRV.
2. Melatonin
Keeping your body in line with the circadian rhythm will definitely help with natural melatonin production. Wear blue light filter glasses once the sun sets and make sure to look at the bright sky once you wake up. This will let your body know, it’s morning and time to start the cycle to prepare for sleep.
1. Monitor your sleep
This is important. You need to find a consistent way to monitor your sleep. Accountability is huge. By doing this, you can start to track and monitor your sleep and sleep based performance. By seeing the direct impact made by sleep, you will start making sure to actually give yourself more sleep.
You’d be surprised how poorly you track it on your own. I tried doing it with a pen and paper by my bedside, and to track wakeups is a pain in the ass. It’s incredibly ineffective and annoying.
Thankfully, there are a few products out there to help you monitor your sleep. I believe the Apple watch does it, as well as fit bits. There is also a company called whoop that I believe specializes in sleep measuring. I hate wearing watches, and I especially hate sleeping with watches. They are pretty annoying to me, especially when sleeping.
I personally use Oura Ring; they don’t use a wrist device, they use a ring. Plus, they also have a cloud that allows my athletes to give me permission to monitor their sleep. It’s pretty awesome. By doing this, I’ve been able to help improve everyone’s sleep, which in turn improves the quality of their lives as well as performance.
I came across Oura Ring randomly, and one of my pro guys had also mentioned it to me. So I did some research on them and really like their product. I sent them an email name dropping the hell out of my clientele and they were kind enough to put me in touch with some higher ups and give me a discount for everyone in my gym.
Both members of my gym and I have been using it for over 6 months. Like every product it has it’s bugs but it does its job. I can confidently say that using this product to monitor my sleep has positively impacted my life.
If you’re interested in their product, at checkout use promocode: FREAKSTRENGTH and you will get $50 off your purchase.
To be honest, if you’re getting 8 hours of sleep every night, you probably didn’t need to read this. In my experience, very few people actually do. These are sneaky little tricks that everyone can use without taking supplements or sleep aids. Hopefully they work for you.