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Language: en
failing to get good sleep means you're
going to fail to be productive the next
day first let's go through the mistakes
that people make that oftentimes they
don't even realize are a mistake eating
late is one of the biggest offenders
people end up eating a heavy meal
oftentimes an hour or two before they go
to bed I think that that is a huge
mistake a big part of what's going to
allow you to sleep in a relaxed state is
to not be digesting food so you want the
food to be able to work its way not just
through your stomach but through your
digestive tract because when you go to
sleep all of that shuts down what ends
up happening is if you've eaten this
large meal and that's sitting in your
stomach or your gut when you go to bed
then your body is going to stop working
on it and that can actually irritate
people which is why oftentimes people
will get stomach aches if they go to bed
too close to when they ate it isn't that
the food is in and of itself problematic
though I'm sure we'll get to the next
one many people are actually making
mistakes there as well the most common
mistake is just eating too close to
bedtime so you want to give yourself a
lot of hours before you end up going to
bed I'll get specific as I walk you
through how to fix these but just eating
too late that's a huge mistake that
people make so you don't want to do that
you want to give your body plenty of
time to be finished with that so it
isn't a distraction while you sleep it
isn't something that ends up upsetting
your stomach and that pain which
certainly I have experienced in my own
life ends up keeping you awake or just
disrupting the stages of your sleep
which is what happens to a lot of people
who don't even realize because their
whole life they've eaten so close to
bedtime they don't even realize that
it's diminishing their ability to get
quality deep sleep another thing that
people do is just their diet itself is
problematic so the most obvious symptom
that people get from eating a poor diet
is they have acid reflux now acid reflux
because it's literally acid building up
in your esophagus you can feel it
gurgling up from your stomach it is so
horrible well it is one of the worst
feelings and trying to sleep like that
no way are you going to get quality
sleep this is where people start popping
Tums which that kind of thing is just
suppressing the symptom it's not getting
to the root cause it's going to be
devastating to your sleep a lot of times
people will try to sleep sitting up it's
really a disaster so you want to be very
thoughtful about the kind of things that
you eat and there's a lot of literature
out there about how what you eat does
have an impact on how you sleep
carbohydrates for instance in your last
meal can have an impact on sleep and
deep sleep and so being very thoughtful
to do self-experimentation there's never
going to be a one-size-fits all but
making sure that you do
self-experimentation to know what kind
of diet you can eat to feel perfect when
you go to bed there is nothing that says
that you shouldn't feel perfect when you
go to bed if you don't feel perfect it's
either a timing or a diet issue and
you're going to want to figure out what
it is that's causing that unease when
you lay down to go to sleep the next
thing that people do is drinking alcohol
drinking alcohol is not only going to
have an impact on things like acid
reflux but it's also going to disrupt
your sleep cycles so alcohol the right
way to think about it while it can be
fun is absolutely a neurotoxin so your
body is trying to metabolize it first to
get rid of it out of your system but the
impacts that it has in your system last
for a very substantial amount of time
you should assume more or less a 24-hour
effect which means even if you're
drinking earlier in the day while it's
going to dramatically minimize the
impact of that you're still going to
have that and it's going to disrupt deep
sleep for sure I can't remember it may
also have implications into REM sleep so
be very thoughtful about drinking
alcohol the next thing people do is in
taking blue and or bright light before
they go to bed so for millions of years
we have evolved to be very cute off of
light and the position of the sun the
brightness the color temperature of the
light and so there really is no way to
escape that they call it a circadian
rhythm your circadian rhythm is baked
into basically every cell in your body
and so even bone cells can detect light
let that sink in sunlight actually
penetrates so deeply into your body that
it will reach the cells in your bone so
be very thoughtful about how you expose
yourself to Blue and bright light
because you are timed to that and so if
you're experiencing blue light near
bedtime it's going to give your body the
signal that it's not bedtime it's time
to stay awake and so when you try to go
to sleep and millions of years of
evolution have told your body that it's
not time to sleep for two three or more
hours after the sun has begun to change
its color temperature and as you notice
as the sun goes down and you get into
sunsets it becomes what they call Magic
hour it's very known as golden hour
literally because the color temperature
of the light is changing all of the
cells in your body are picking up on
that especially your eye cells they've
done research where if you shine a
flashlight on the back of someone's knee
while they're sleeping you can disrupt
their sleep it's literally crazy and
it's something like shining the light
for 30 seconds it's not even for a long
period of time but exposing cells on the
body that you would not think are light
sensitive actually are light sensitive
and it will disrupt your sleep so this
is not a hoax it's not a thing to sell
blue blocking glasses this is a very
real thing and you want to be very
thoughtful about your the color of the
light you're exposing yourself to
depending on the time of day and the
brightness now one thing that I will say
also that people make a mistake on is
they don't go outside and get sunlight
on their skin so when you begin your day
it's going to have a huge influence on
your ability to fall asleep because you
want to regulate that circadian rhythm
so going outside getting light on your
skin getting light in your eyes what
I'll do especially if I'm traveling I
will go outside and I will look up at
the sky not the Sun but I'll look up at
the sky because I want to get as much
bright light into my eyes as possible I
don't do it through Windows partly
because Windows block a certain part of
the UV spectrum and also because in a
building it's even like right inside the
building the amount of brightness that
you get compared to just stepping right
outside is really radically different
and if there's any kind of overhang
whatsoever or you're even a few steps
back into the room it is going to be
dramatically different in terms of the
lumens of light falling into your eye
and onto your skin and again part of the
UV spectrum is blocked by windows so
this doesn't work unless you go outside
now it's better than nothing because
they're you're at least getting brighter
or light than you otherwise would get
but it's really if you're trying to
regulate your circadian rhythm it is
really important to go outside get the
light on your skin even in Winter if I'm
somewhere cold I'll try to get like as
much of a pull-up expose my forearms
obviously my face and neck and try to
get some light onto my skin but just be
very thoughtful about the brightness of
your light which as the evening wears on
and the Sun is going down you want to
start dimming the lights in your house
and even dimming the lights on your
computer another mistake that people
make is they do stressful things right
before they go to bed this is one of the
more important things when I think so my
soul Vice I don't do drugs but I do
stress that one I do and so every time
that I mess up my sleep it is is it
always because I'll say it's 95 of the
time that I mess up my sleep it is
because I ingest something stressful
right before I'm about to go to sleep so
either I check an email or I look at my
text messages or I go on social media I
do something that has the ability to
remind me of something I have to get
done or show me that I have a problem
that's unaddressed or whatever so I've
put a rule into my life that I don't do
those things right before bed it's
really important you not introduce
stress into your uh the the last hour
for me as a cut off the only other thing
that I would create more space than an
hour would be exercise exercise can
really be problematic if you're
exercising close to bed so be very
thoughtful about that because not all
stress is bad so everybody thinks about
stress something that's wearing you down
but working out is a stress working out
is going to kick up stress related
hormones and so if you've got those
stress related hormones coursing through
your veins it's going to be very hard to
fall asleep you're going to feel wired
so be very thoughtful about that now
speaking of being wired another mistake
that people make is they drink caffeine
far too late in the day now everything
when it comes to your health is going to
be individual and there actually is a
gene for how efficient you are at
cleaving the cafe molecule in half so
for me for instance I can eat cat or
drink caffeine later than probably most
people but even I'm pretty paranoid
about intaking caffeine and I intake
very little caffeine so be very
thoughtful about drinking caffeine later
in the day that is going to get your
cortisol levels up it is going to make
it harder for you to sleep so be very
thoughtful to finish that off very early
in the day be very thoughtful to figure
out where your threshold is my dad's
threshold ironically is very early I
think it's like 10 a.m is the last time
that he can drink coffee now for a
fascinating side note did you know that
people with blue eyes are more
susceptible to caffeine than people with
dark colored eyes now let it then not be
ironic my dad has blue eyes and right on
the money is somebody who is likely to
to have a harder time cleaving the
caffeine molecule in half so it stays in
his system longer than it does for
somebody like me
self-experimentation is going to be
important to figure out where it bothers
you and where it doesn't but remember
caffeine is a very potent drug so if you
treat it like a drug I think you will
make fewer mistakes in keeping your
sleep hygiene on point so be thoughtful
about caffeine another thing that people
do is they don't adhere to a consistent
bedtime so part of this goes back to the
idea of the circadian rhythms your body
has a clock and it is very good at
telling time and if you give it a rhythm
that it can get into where it's like
okay this is bedtime it's this many
hours after the sun goes down you want
to make sure that you get a certain
number of hours of sleep before midnight
if I remember correctly every hour of
sleep that you get before midnight
counts as double to how you will feel in
terms of being rested the following day
so it isn't like oh as long as you get
seven hours you're going to be fine you
actually want a certain number of those
hours to be before midnight so that's
very important and if you really want to
freak yourself out about staying up too
late go do a Google search for these
days go ask chat GPT about the link
between Cancer and swing shift it's
crazy and the philosophy or the theory I
suppose is that there's something about
the disruption of the Circadian rhythm
and that you're going to be sleeping
through some of the daylight it's that
kind of important that there is some
very intense correlation don't know that
any causation has been shown yet but
there's a very interesting correlation
between not getting enough hours before
midnight and cancer so be very
thoughtful about how you swing your
sleep schedule because it really does
matter another thing that people do that
is going to disrupt their sleep is not
cooling down the room so this goes back
to an evolutionary perspective
for eons we were out exposed to the
elements so as the sun went down the
temperature would change would obviously
get cooler and when we went to sleep it
was one for one it was going to be the
coolest time of the day even if you live
somewhere hot the coolest time of the
day is always going to be when the sun
is down so understanding that your body
is going to be used to that cycle from
an evolutionary perspective we're used
to that cycle the clock picks up the
internal circadian rhythm clock picks up
on all of that stuff so cooling your
room down we'll talk more in a minute
about exactly what temperatures and and
different ways you can do that so be
very thoughtful to get your room nice
and cool and then another thing that
people do is they don't black out their
room so going back evolutionary
standpoint at night it would be dark the
only thing you would have would be the
moon and the stars and so when you have
a Bright Light present in your room it
can really be disruptive to sleep going
back to that idea of shining a
flashlight on the back of your knee can
disrupt your sleep you can understand
how if you keep a night light on or
something like that again especially if
it's artificial light especially if it's
in the daylight color temperature so
it's a blue light that can really be
problematic so you want to get your room
as dark as possible all of those things
are going to cue your body that it's
time to go to sleep so get that as dark
as you can and then one that people
don't talk a lot about but read James
nestor's book breathe which is goes into
how dramatically people are affected by
nasal breathing so you want to make sure
that you if you're not already a nasal
breather that you do something to force
yourself to breathe through your nose so
for me I am very much a mouth breather
as much as that's known as like being
for neanderthals dragging their Knuckles
at night I breathe through my mouth so
what I have had to do over time is I
tape my mouth and so every night I tape
my mouth and I thought oh hey if I do
this for a couple months then I can stop
taping my mouth I'll be so used to
sleeping with my mouth closed all will
be well nope so the second I sleep
without tape on my mouth I start
breathing through my mouth and then it
dries out my Airway and then that ends
up waking me up and so you want to be
breathing through your nose at night I
know there can be a lot of reasons
allergies and the like why people don't
breathe through their nose but you
really want to address that and then one
thing that I know is becoming more
people are becoming more aware of but
that you need to be very thoughtful of
is not to be carrying extra fat on your
body if you're carrying extra fat on
your body the odds of you having sleep
apnea Skyrocket so you want to be very
very thoughtful about that you want to
be able to breathe free and clear and
not have so much weight pressing down on
your chest that breathing is actually
laborious where without your conscious
mind there you know willing you to take
those deep breaths you actually will
stop breathing and you your sleep and if
you stop breathing in your sleep then it
wakes you up a little bit which is going
to disrupt wildly The rhythms of your
sleep and The rhythms of your sleep are
exactly the things that make you feel
well rested that let your body do the
repair mechanisms the cleaning
mechanisms that it needs to do that it
won't be able to do if you're constantly
waking up so not being able to sleep
well is like its own ring of hell so be
very thoughtful and I know that that's
not easy but it is very important and I
cannot stress enough the need to do that
another thing that people do that messes
them up is they set an alarm now the
reason that setting alarm is problematic
is really twofold one setting alarm is
going to be this subconscious thing in
your mind that you know that you have to
get up at a certain time and if you
haven't given yourself plenty of time to
wake up naturally before that there's a
low-grade anxiety that is going to be
messing with you and if you're anything
like me when you're going through your
sleep cycles about every 90 minutes you
tend to come into a much lighter sleep
now for me as I come into that lighter
sleep I actually weigh wake up every
night and have for 15 years so just is a
thing now when I'm stressed then I tend
to have a trouble falling back asleep at
that moment if I'm breathing through my
mouth I have trouble falling back asleep
at that moment and if I have an alarm
that I've set then I really start going
oh man like what time is it is this the
first time I'm waking up the second time
is my alarm about to go off maybe I
should just check really fast you end up
looking at the clock and now you've got
a bit of a problem because one you're
taking light into your eyes two the
timing you're going to be like oh my God
I have to be up in an hour whatever it's
just all things that are not conducive
to falling back asleep so you want to
leave enough time that you can sleep
without setting an alarm there is a
potential that electronic devices in
your room is problematic I have not
noticed this personally but there are
people that
um say that they really can't tell the
difference in the quality of their sleep
I tried tracking it with an aura ring
with and without uh the aura ring turned
on with devices around not around and I
just didn't notice a big difference so
I'm not sure that that one is going to
be something that's problematic for
everybody but it's certainly worth
testing and then last but not least
another possible thing uh is smoking
marijuana I say possible to me I don't
do it I'm convinced it absolutely messes
up your sleep but I have not researched
this well enough other than my n of one
that when I smoke I notice it so uh by
all means self-experiment should it be
legal in your local neighborhood but I
would be very thoughtful about anything
quite frankly other than water that you
drink or smoke that could potentially be
disrupting your sleep so don't take that
stuff for granted be sure to test it out
okay now let me talk about what you do
about all these things what is the ideal
way I'm going to walk you through my
daily habits that lead to very clean
sleep hygiene I am almost never tired I
never need an alarm the only time I I
set an alarm is if I have a ridiculously
early flight or something like that
otherwise I get as much sleep as I need
every night I have all the energy in the
world and so you really can construct
your routine every day to optimize for
Sleep which is going to have huge
impacts in cognition and your overall
health all right so I'm going to go back
through all the things we talked about
before so the first we know that food
timing is an issue so I eat my last meal
at 2 pm I go to bed at nine so I'm
eating my last meal at 2 p.m and the
reason that I do that is what I was
explaining earlier I want to make sure
that I've completely digested that food
that I'm not you know I don't have a
grumbly stomach or anything like that
I'm not going to get a stomach ache so
by giving myself seven full hours not
only have I dealt with the digestive
part but also I'm now going into
intermittent fasting and so by
intermittent fasting I'm training my
body not to be
unable to go without food and so that
allows me to really have relaxed sleep
I'm not hungry I'm not digesting the
food and so I am able to really fall
into a deep sleep on top of that my diet
is incredibly clean so I'm not eating
things that are going to give me things
like acid reflux my diet just by way of
a quick nutshell is I'm always eating
Whole Food whenever I can I try not to
take many calories in from things that
are processed in any way shape or form
so I'm eating meat and vegetables I'm
eating things that are not packaged that
you would recognize more or less from
real life so that is uh just the easiest
way to sum up the way that I approach
food that and I try to keep my
carbohydrate intake to virtually zero
other than green leafy vegetables my
only Indulgence on that front is baby
carrots which believe it or not I'm sure
some people think that's ridiculous but
if you you wear a continuous glucose
monitor you will see that it really will
spike your glucose which by the way is
another thing I try to make sure that my
glucose is very even while I'm sleeping
if I have elevated glucose levels it
will interrupt my sleep it's crazy so
you want to be thoughtful about again
and if one test all of this stuff but be
thoughtful about your glucose levels if
you're somebody that isn't used to
intermittent fasting if you're somebody
that eats a high carbohydrate diet if
you're somebody that is is really feels
like either a rise or a fall in glucose
that's another thing that can interrupt
your sleep so I spend a significant
amount of time throughout the year
probably 20 percent of my year I'm going
to be wearing a continuous glucose
monitor so I know all the things that I
eat I know what kind of impact they have
on me and on a Saturday for instance
where I will have sugar in my life and
so my glucose is going to be elevated I
do find that that's the night that I
sleep the worst it's also by the way the
night that I eat closest to my bedtime I
still try to give at least three hours
for me three hours is just the minimum
even if I'm on vacation I'm gonna go
three hours before I go to bed for the
reasons that I mentioned I just sleep so
much better and to me being tired is a
unique ring of hell I absolutely despise
being tired so yeah I'm gonna do
whatever I can to make sure that I'm
really optimized and glucose is one of
those things so be thoughtful about your
carbohydrate intake be careful about how
close to bed you spike your glucose now
what's interesting is there actually is
data that says if in your last meal you
eat carbohydrates that you will actually
sleep more deeply so be look at that
figure out what your glucose responses
figure out what items you eat that work
and don't work my hunch on that one is
that it would actually be slowly
digesting carbs that are going to be
better for you so it'd be a low glycemic
response carbohydrate that would have
that kind of impact I have to imagine
that a high Spike and then a low crash
is not going to be the kind of thing
that gets somebody to sleep well but all
of this stuff is worth experimenting
just understand the context so you know
going into it what to look out for the
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there are 10 steps I want to take you
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description alright my friend back to
today's episode all right the next thing
on that in terms of diet is I rarely
drink alcohol and when I do let me tell
you I notice a me immediately in my
sleep but I have rules around drinking
alcohol that as a surprise bonus I will
give to you right now I really think if
you're going to drink this is the way to
do it so first of all you want to drink
as early as humanly possible in the day
that's just absolutely critical so I
would much rather see somebody drink at
8am and stop at noon even though
socially people be like what the hell
but if you're on vacation or whatever
which is basically the only time I drink
then I would rather do it early in the
day say at lunch rather than do it at
night for dinner that way I'm gonna have
hours and hours and hours and hours and
hours after my last drink to get
completely sober to drink a ton of water
which is the next thing drink a ton of
water and then make sure that you have
at least three hours from your last meal
to the time that you go to bed that you
go to bed Stone Cold Sober that you've
had a ton of water to drink I find if I
do that and look I'm I am a lightweight
so I don't drink a lot even when I do
drink I know what my limit is I always
stick to my limit but if I do that then
the next day while I certainly don't
feel as good as a day where I did not
drink the day before I don't have a
hangover so again timing makes such a
big difference timing and quantity are
two of the most important things when it
comes to food so be very thoughtful all
right the next thing I do because we
know that light exposure can be so
problematic three hours before bedtime
at least sometimes more if I'm staring
at a computer I'm going to wear blue
blocking glasses I also have my computer
set just in case I don't have my blue
blocking glasses around I'll set my
computer to dial over into night mode
now I could shift it all the way to as
little blue light as humanly possible so
I never needed to wear blue blocking
glasses I don't do that just because so
much of what we do at impact Theory
revolves around imagery so they're often
I don't want it to be so skewed that I
can't tell the true color palette so I
put it somewhere in the middle but at I
do it at sunset and sunrise so at Sunset
it's going to go orange at Sunrise it
will click back into the more typical
computer blue color timed light by doing
that I'm able again to keep my circadian
rhythm regulated but another thing that
I do is as I'm going towards bedtime I
begin dimming the lights and so dimming
the Lights making the light more orange
that all mimics The evolutionary
tendency to as the sun would go down
people would gather around a fire and so
doing all of those things sends the
right signals to you at a cellular level
getting back to that circadian rhythm so
that really helps and I found that
incredibly useful I do that both on my
computer and my phone have it switching
to night mode I think that that can be
really useful now as I mentioned before
stress is my one Vice so stress is the
one thing in my life that I am just I
really pushed the envelope on this so I
have to be really thoughtful to make
sure that I quarantine the things in my
life that I know are likely to cause me
stress to not do them at least an hour
before bedtime and really probably for
the last two hours I start to like
really try to narrow the things down if
I think something is a problem that I
need to address it's going to be
stressful and I only have two hours
before I go to bed then depending on
what it is if I don't think that I can
move it forward meaningfully that night
because action cures all by the way if
you're feeling anxious about something
99 times out of 100 the right answer is
to do something about it and that's
actually going to dissipate the anxiety
but if it's something that I don't think
that I can move meaningfully forward
that night I will wait to check it the
next day and I have found over time it's
actually better to have that little drip
of like oh I know that's waiting for me
versus actually going in but then an
hour before I go to bed I'm very strict
about it so with but very few exceptions
I stopped stop checking my text messages
I won't look at email or for us the
equivalent I don't look at slack all of
that stuff which could be amazing but it
could also be a problem so same with
social media it's Russian Roulette right
if I go into the comment section people
like yo this is the best thing ever then
it's like a great night but if you go in
the comments section and some
controversy has sparked off and I know
that it's going to be something that
we're going to have to address in the
community that'll ruin a night's sleep
so I am very thoughtful to make sure
that I quarantine that stuff also in
that final hour before I go to bed
whenever humanly possible I like to only
do nice for people that haven't heard me
talk about this before so Monday through
Friday if I'm awake I'm either working
or working out so I work from the moment
I wake up to the moment I go to bed so
even in that last hour I'm still working
but I want to make sure that it's
something that I think is fun it's work
that I want to do it's something that's
really enjoyable for me I do this for a
couple reasons one by the end of the day
I'm tired because I'm busting my ass and
I'm working out which is another mistake
that people make they just don't wear
themselves out they don't work out hard
enough they're not tired they haven't
drained all of their energy and so for
me because I work out first thing in the
morning another thing to get my
circadian rhythm on point I work out in
the morning I don't have caffeine first
thing in the morning I force myself to
wake up you can learn more about that
from Andrew huberman so I forced myself
to wake up naturally I don't drink any
caffeine or anything like that I do work
out immediately after working out that
gets the cortisol pumping and I'm up and
feeling good and then also by the time
I'm going to bed I'm really tired so
that last hour to keep that efficient
I'm still going to do something I'm
still going to do work but I want to do
work that I actually enjoy so if you
start segmenting your day out like that
you can really stretch it and make it
work for you another thing that I do is
I listen to audiobooks as I'm falling
asleep now this is the one thing I don't
know if I can recommend wholeheartedly
just because I do worry a little bit
about having headphones in my ears just
from the minor amount of radiation
that's going to be kicking off from that
so while I don't necessarily recommend
it if you're in a bind and you're
stressed out it's better almost
certainly to get the sleep than it is to
not have the headphones in and not get
the sleep in terms of deleterious impact
to your health so it is a trick that I
have found incredibly useful the type of
book that will work for you is going to
depend so for a long time more than a
year I listened exclusively to fiction
books with storytelling it would put me
in a storytelling mode it was really
helpful but then I found my stress
levels were lowering then I could switch
it over to a non-fiction book which I
actually enjoy more so I would start
listening to the non-fiction book I'm
like wow this is fascinating and then I
would fall asleep and that is something
that has worked out for me that that
trick more than I think anything else
I've done has had the biggest impact on
the amount of sleep that I get because
four years what would happen is I would
wake up in the middle of the night like
I said in that 90 minute part of the
Sleep Cycle I would wake up there would
be something on my mind even if I hadn't
thought about it before I went to bed my
mind would start racing about this
problem that I have to solve and now all
of a sudden I just cannot fall back
asleep and it's two hours is usually my
magic number I will be up for two hours
before I can get back to sleep now when
you break your sleep up like that at
least for me I always felt terrible and
so I was tired a lot and so by figuring
out this trick and all the other things
that I've talked about I've been able to
when I wake up I'm only awake for like
60 seconds 90 seconds maybe and then I'm
back to sleep it has worked wonders
absolutely amazing on the caffeine front
one thing I am again just overall I
drink very little caffeine which I think
is important I don't like the idea of
being addicted to anything so I do
intermittent fasting to make sure that I
am metabolically flexible meaning that
I'm not addicted to glucose so I could
go 24 hours without food I'd be hungry
but if you've ever gone ketogenic and
been adapted to producing and using
ketones efficiently you realize it
completely changes your relationship to
hunger you experience hunger there's no
doubt it's a little bit annoying but
your performance does not decline so I
don't like being addicted to glucose any
more than I like being addicted to
caffeine any more than I would like
being addicted to a drug so I make sure
that whether I have caffeine or don't
have caffeine I feel completely the same
to be honest I drink coffee not for the
caffeine I drink it more for the flavor
and so oftentimes when I go on vacation
I won't have any caffeine or if I'm
traveling I won't have any caffeine I
don't notice that kind of thing I think
matters and so I would encourage people
out there who I know are like eight cups
of coffee a day wean that down to where
you can take it or leave it and then for
me my last sip of caffeine even though I
have have so little that I don't notice
on a day when I don't drink any I never
have caffeine past 1 pm so it could just
be an abundance of caution I'm sure I
could drink it later but I don't because
getting to sleep and getting good sleep
is so important to me because of the way
that it cognitively optimizes you I
think that's critically important now
one of the things we talked about
earlier the problem that people have is
they don't stick to a schedule so
circadian rhythms like the ninth time
we've talked about it but it's really
important so I go to bed at 9 00 PM like
it's a religion I am in bed lights out
I'm not perfect but I'll say 85 to 90
percent of the time I'm in bed by 9 pm
period end of story now it's like last
night where it happened to be a company
party
I'll make exceptions you know I'm when
there's something that matters to me
enough that I'm willing to go to bed a
little bit later fair enough but it
really is 10 to 15 percent of the Year
maximum the rest of it and even then I'm
it's not like I'm going to bed at 1am so
even then I'm missing my schedule by a
little bit not by a lot I think it's
very important to keep your schedule on
point and then I cool my room down to 68
degrees we talked about that before if
you're not getting your room cooled down
then you're not using one of the cues
that you should be using to tell your
body that it's time to go to bed uh so
yeah you can do that now there's a
couple different ways that you can do
that you can use an AC machine you can
do what Rich Roll does and actually
sleep outside you can use a chili pad or
something like that where you have a
cooling system that you sleep on top of
so you don't necessarily have to have AC
or in your apartment or whatever to cool
your environment down so find a way that
works for you but as somebody who lived
in La for a very long time before things
like chili pad came along and I couldn't
afford AC and just the sleeping is
absolute misery something like a Chili
pad is a very useful idea to get that
temperature down I think it's really
important I haven't set an alarm in in
now jeez how many years has it been like
15 years 16 years something like that
maybe 17 years at this point so it has
been a very long time since I set an
alarm and I do that for the two reasons
that I mentioned before I do not want
the stress of the alarm that I know it's
going to be going off at some point and
then I also want to make sure that I let
my body get as much sleep as it needs so
many people live in a chronically sleep
deprived state so make sure that you're
really careful about that and then like
I said before I work out really hard so
that I fall asleep really fast and then
while I don't do anything to diminish
the electrical outputs of devices like I
sleep with my phone next to me obviously
I'm listening to a book so so of course
I am I don't turn my Wi-Fi off at night
or anything like that I have not noticed
that that's had a big impact but I will
say that there are things out there that
indicate that that may be an issue and
then to my point about not smoking uh
marijuana I just don't smoke marijuana
so that was nice and easy maybe not as
fun as some people would like it but I
think that you're going to be
hard-pressed to get great sleep and be
cognitively optimized if you're smoking
all the time so to each their own but I
have a feeling it's worse than people
want to believe after I adapted my night
routine I can tell you that it was
dramatically different the whole reason
that I wanted to get really serious
about my sleep is one like I said it's
just not fun to be tired and so I don't
know if I hate that to an unusual degree
but when I see people that are just
chronically tired I don't understand
it's crazy to me but the real reason
that I changed it is to be cognitively
optimized I I am not able to be
efficient and when I'm tired so even in
the period of my life where I was
working 120 hours a week for eight
months I tried not to disrupt my sleep
now I was so stressed during that period
of course my sleep was being disrupted
to some extent but I was still even in
that trying to prioritize my sleep even
in that period I wasn't setting an alarm
now if you run the math you'll realize I
wasn't sleeping well through that period
And there's no doubt but even during
that period I was doing everything that
I could to try to get as much sleep as I
could because when I'm not getting the
level of sleep I'm not able to think
clearly I'm not able to perform as
efficiently and nobody is so they've
done all kinds of tests it slows down
your reaction time it slows down your
ability to problem solve to navigate
mazes I mean literally everything that
you do is made better or worse by the
amount that you sleep better if you're
sleeping well worse if you're not also I
have found that there's just more joy in
your life when you're not tired so if
you want to elevate your happiness
quotient in your life getting more sleep
is a huge part of that it was
life-changing for me when I was back in
college I was so chronically sleep
deprived that I once took a 13-hour nap
I laid down to take an hour nap forgot
to set an alarm woke up 13 hours later
that is a level of chronic sleep
deprivation that I hope none of you go
through and it was utterly miserable I
hated it nothing is fun colors aren't as
bright you don't want to laugh as much
it's just it's absolutely miserable
really think about all the things you
can make better in your life like memory
my memory got way better my glucose
response got better and this is
something that's been tested so if you
get and I forget it's like if you miss
even two hours of sleep a night that's
directionally correct it may not be
literally correct but if you miss some
distressingly small amount of sleep for
the night night the next day you will
handle glucose the same way a diabetic
does okay that's how sensitive your body
is to sleep you've got to get the sleep
to at a cellular level be able to
perform the way that you want now a
swing like that in your glucose response
is going to have weight loss
implications and so there are a lot of
people out there now talking about if
you're really struggling to lose weight
you may want to make sure that you get
your sleep right now that makes a lot of
sense to me in terms of like if you've
never thought about it the way that you
actually get the fat out of your body is
by oxidizing it and exhaling it so you
have to actually exhale all of the fat
so as you're burning all the calories
even at night you're exhaling that fat
so giving your body what it needs to be
handling that at the cellular level and
then giving it time to shut down
everything else so that you can really
release the fat and I'm saying it like
that because I don't know the actual
mechanism of action I just know that
there are implications here so when it
comes to all the things in my life that
were made better there were things that
just their knock on effects on knock-on
effects that you wouldn't expect this is
why I tell people if you're anxious if
you're depressed one of the most
important things you should be looking
at is your sleep if you feel stuck in
life you should look at your sleep
getting your sleep right is arguably the
most foundational the only thing that
might compete with it is your diet your
diet and your sleep are so foundational
your cells are literally made of the
things that you eat and then your sleep
is going to impact every mechanism in
your body from your ability to feel Joy
to your ability to run the Krebs cycle
inside of your cells so make sure that
you get that sleep so a lot of people
ask how important having downtime is in
the evening uh and what my wife and I do
to relax and the honest answer is Monday
through Friday I don't I have not found
it to be very important important to
relax in the evenings but what I have
found it important to do is to not do
things that I find stressful now you
don't want to do things that raise your
cortisol level but I do work so for me
I'm still working but I'm working on
something again that's fun so the idea
would be to give yourself the cues that
night has fallen changing of the color
of the light lowering the intensity of
the light not doing things to raise your
cortisol level making sure they're many
hours between you and your caffeine and
the food and all that all of that stuff
which is stressing you out at a cellular
level maybe a subconscious level that is
pretty important now if you find that
you're going into night time it's coming
up on bedtime and you are feeling
stressed which of course has happened to
me many times then I'll do something
like meditate I will really try to get
myself out of that mode and let go of
that stress so then I will but I
meditate at night maybe five percent of
the time time that it really is pretty
rare that I'm in a situation where I
feel like I have to reach for that so I
think of it more as modes of being than
I think about it as being relaxed so for
me I don't want to be in a problem
solving mode I want to be in a creative
mode so if that means you know switching
over to reading a novel right as I'm
going to bed if that means doing work
that I find incredibly enjoyable if that
means doing work that's creative all of
those things those I have found to be
very advantageous but I have not found
that I need to worry about not doing
work I haven't found that you know I
need to just sit back and watch TV I
don't have that thing where people like
I just need to unwind I can literally
work till the minute I go to bed but I
just have to structure the things that I
do and the ways that we've discussed so
far all right for people who have a hard
time relaxing and are always wanting to
hustle the advice that I would give them
is that you should be hustling even
harder if you're somebody that wants to
hustle I love that I am on Team Hustle I
think it's absolutely incredible but the
reality is you're gonna have to learn
how to meditate you're gonna have to
learn how to step out of that stress
you're going to learn how to
compartmentalize stress so all the
things that we've been talking about in
this breakdown you're gonna have to
learn to do those things because if you
don't and you're going all out right to
the minute you go to bed you're stressed
out and now you're not sleeping it's
going to diminish your ability to hustle
and so I don't understand people that
don't make cognitive optimization their
number one priority you should not be
clapping yourself on the back for the
number of hours that you work as much as
you should be clapping yourself on the
back for how efficiently you work
because you only have three things three
levers that you can pull on and that is
working hard working smart and working
long hours you want to be able to do all
three but the only way that you're going
to be able to work smart is if you're
getting sleep the only way that you're
going to be able to work hard is if at a
cellular level you're rested in getting
sleep and then obviously you can work a
lot of hours but if you're doing that at
the cost of your sleep and your
cognition you're actually going to get
less done so I think it is far more
impressive if somebody works a shorter
day but gets more done than if they work
a longer day and get less done so you
only want to work the number of hours
that you can work really at an ultra
high threshold of course the level of my
productivity changes throughout the day
so in the morning I'm at my absolute
best I get about five or six hours where
I feel like man I'm just absolutely
murdering it and then I begin to shift
my day into a more reactive phase where
it's I'm in meetings we're talking
there's the energy of the room it's very
easy to do that kind of work for me
versus the ultra creative stuff the
really deep work the stuff that requires
just an insane amount of concentration
I'm going to do that right off the jump
in the morning first of all I'm doing it
after I exercise so a book called spark
that goes into whatever the hardest
problem is you need to work on during
the day you want to do it right after
you get your heart rate up and sustain
it up so there are huge benefits to
working out in terms of cognition and so
you want to be really thoughtful about
doing that and so that's something that
I certainly put a lot of energy in so
make sure that you're not diminishing
your cognition I think that that's
really important even though I'm all
about hustle pouring and going hard and
all of that you want to make sure that
you're doing it well so don't let
anybody tell you that oh you need to
relax you need to calm down no but you
do need to compartmentalize you do need
to be thoughtful about doing things that
allow you to optimize your sleep and
that ultimately is the name of the game
is to be more efficient to be able to
hustle harder to be in a physical mental
and emotional condition where you can
push through and do things that other
people can't because they're too tired
they're too fatigued they're not able
the focus if I had seven days to
completely change your mode of being to
improve your focus and energy the things
that I would get you to do are work
harder believe it or not because I want
to make sure that one you're pushing
your limits you want to be constantly
pushing your limits I'm gonna have you
work out harder for the same reason you
want to get yourself out of your comfort
zone pushing into a new Arena expanding
your capabilities that's the whole idea
to working harder it's not to please
somebody else not to impress anybody is
to be able to make sure that you get to
the point where you can actually do more
so if you want to have more energy you
need to be busting your ass in the gym
sleeping is huge but you want to really
push yourself really get capable of more
and the harder that you work the harder
that you work out the more capable
you're going to be the more you're going
to have left everything out in the field
the more likely you are to fall asleep
quickly the more likely you are to stay
in a deep sleep all of that stuff is
going to be hugely important the other
thing that I would do is I would have
you pursue things that matter to you
this is a big issue meaning and purpose
meaning and purpose those are two of the
most important words that you should be
focused on you want to make sure that
you are doing things that matter to you
if you do that it's going to be a lot
easier you're going to have a sense that
you're progressing in your life you're
going to have a sense to what you're
doing is important and you're not going
to have that sense of being stuck or
being in a plateau or aimless all of
that stuff so you want to make sure that
you have a mission that you're going
after that mission that you're working
hard towards that mission that you're
extending your capabilities and when
you're doing that in the service of
something that you love and really think
is important to do now all of a sudden
some of that mental and emotional weight
that people struggle with the depression
the anxiety all of that stuff begins to
alleviate and if you're struggling with
depression and anxiety I'm telling you
it's diet exercise meaning and purpose
and then this is a weird one in terms of
what I would have you do if you want to
optimize your sleep but I'm going to get
you in a loving relationship
this is something that I think that
people really underestimate now it
doesn't necessarily have to be a
romantic relationship though I do very
much encourage that but having close
friends that you can love and laugh with
all of that stuff makes a huge
difference loneliness has as strong of a
negative impact on your longevity as
smoking 15 cigarettes a day that's
insane so you want to be really
thoughtful about going out seeking
relationships all this stuff matters
which brings me to my next point if you
really want to have good sleep make sure
you're having good sex so having loving
relationships being involved with
somebody getting that whole gamut there
is a reason that people fall asleep
after sex the neurochemical release from
orgasm is incredible now of course you
can self-stimulate and get yourself part
of the way there but that's not going to
release all of the feel-good chemicals
that you want in order to really have
something lasting I also think that
there's something where as a tribal
animal
the fact that we get so in sync
biologically with other people your
breathing rate will sync up with
somebody your heart rate will sync up
with somebody women's
um period will psych cycle up with other
women if they are together so it's
really pretty incredible the way that we
get in sync so I have a feeling though I
don't have any studies to back this up
they're probably out there but I have
not I I cannot in good conscience tell
you that I have seen them but I have a
feeling that one thing if they were to
look at they would see is true is that
sleeping next to somebody that you have
a loving relationship with and that you
feel safe around I think that's also
very important is going to make for
better sleep I'm also going to make sure
that you eat your last meal early again
for me it's at 2 p.m 7 hours I go
between that I wouldn't have you drink
late I certainly wouldn't have you
ingest caffeine late I think that's
really important I would get you taping
your mouth I'd have you in a cool room
you'd be blocking blue light bright
light I would get you out of prob
problem solving mode and of course no
drugs or alcohol sorry all right
everybody if you do all of those things
your sleep is going to be on point
you're going to be cognitively optimized
your life is going to be amazing you can
thank me later if you enjoyed this
episode about mastering an evening
routine check out this next clip about
discipline and how it should be a huge
part of your daily life
chronic sleep deprivation has
system-wide effects it feels like sleep
affects every organ system and every
disease State let's be very clear here
cancer cells multiply faster the more
sleep deprived you are
[Music]
as in any Sprint if you're an athlete
running a quarter mile you're going to
need recovery after that
a lot of successful people especially
listening to the things that you're
putting out there have a success ritual
in the morning but a great morning
starts the night before
[Music]
thank you foreign
or bipolar or anxiety or fear or trauma
or PTSD it is stress and they cannot
break the loop I tell you we found the
key to break the loop that's where I am
right now with the sunlights
sleep we need to get cold to stay asleep
we need to stay cold and to wake up we
need to warm up
[Music]
you don't actually get stronger when
you're sprinting you get stronger when
you recover
foreign
[Music]
what do you guys do to be more efficient
in your sleep a very consistent bedtime
I go to bed at midnight I wake up at 6
17 whether I like it or not I stop
caffeine by 2 pm every single day I stop
alcohol roughly three hours before bed
if I'm drinking I'm not that big of a
drinker to be fair I don't exercise in
the evenings I usually exercise based on
my chronotype around 10 30 11 o'clock in
the mornings and that actually helps me
out quite a bit and then when I wake up
in the mornings I get 15 minutes of
sunlight and I drink a bottle of water
that's what I do and it works I tell
people all the time I think I'm the only
sleep doctor in the universe that says
it's okay to fall asleep with the
television on that's interesting I want
people who need to watch The Simpsons to
fall asleep that's just what they need
to do it's amazing if you turn it off
they're up all night like it doesn't
make any sense why would I recommend
them to stop doing something that's
effectively working for them and by the
way having a television on in your room
in the evening there's these things
called television timers they're built
into 99 of televisions today set the
timer and go to bed
so
um when it comes to
rebalancing through nature right
I heard you talk about this and I
thought that it was really interesting
so I'm not a forest bather I'm far more
of a city bather my idea of like the ah
I can finally relax would be in Tokyo
um but I actually do get the whole
notion of getting in rhythm with
absolutely nature what do you have
people do and I'd really like to hear
about the nature rebalancing so there
was a great study that was done they
took 20 insomniacs they brought them
into the woods kept them there for two
weeks lo and behold at the end of the
two weeks almost none of them had
insomnia anymore right so there's lots
of different ideas as to what helped
what hurt things like that I would argue
that the lack of external crazy
stimulation lights on cars noises all of
that was helpful but I think they just
didn't train themselves to the Sun going
up and the sun going down I mean let's
be fair very little insomnia ever
occurred before the electric light bulb
okay so if Edison did anything he
up people's sleep forever because
there's all these other things that you
can now do because we have the presence
of light consistently in the evenings
and so in training yourself to the
natural cycle would be great but let's
be fair
people aren't walking into the woods for
two or three weeks to fix their sleep so
then what can we do along the way and
how do we help these people with
insomnia the biggest problem is between
your ears right every single patient
that I talk to they say Dr Bruce I can't
turn off my brain right that's not a
surrounding problem that doesn't have
anything to do with blue light that has
to do with our inability to slow down
that has to do with our inability to
deal with stress so things like
cognitive behavioral therapy are highly
effective for these people so cognitive
behavioral therapy is a two component
process for insomnia so we know that
insomnia is what we call
psychophysiologic insomnia so psycho
being something going on in the head
physiology in the body so what we do is
we create schedules for people when
should you go to bed and when should you
wake up and that's part one of the
therapy and to be fair we actually
restrict their sleep you would like that
because you don't like sleep right and
so what we do is we tell them if you
normally go to bed at 11 and you don't
fall asleep until one don't get in bed
until one because all you're going to do
is lie there and be pissed off anyway
right so we restrict their sleep we
build up their sleep deprivation on
purpose because we want that natural
sleep deprivation to help them fall
asleep and stay asleep if that doesn't
work then we go to the cognitive portion
the cognitive portion is what do you
think about sleep a lot of people say
well if I don't get eight hours it's
going to peel you know years off the
back end of my life there's no data to
show that
none so what I do is we take all these
dysfunctional thoughts and we ask the
patients what are you thinking about
sleep and we get them to rate them and
then we give them the facts ninety
percent of the time they just don't know
the facts right it's my job to educate
as many people as I possibly can about
what sleep really is
what we know obviously has been the rise
of sleep difficulties in society and
that has been matched by unfortunately
arise in Pharmacology and particularly
sleeping pills and I say unfortunately
not because I'm anti-medication and I
know a lot of people who work at these
pharmaceutical companies and they're
good people great scientists wanting to
do good things
but unfortunately sleeping pills are
largely blunt instruments and they don't
produce naturalistic sleep they're in a
class of drugs that we call the sedative
hypnotics and when we take sleeping
pills we mistake sedation for sleep but
it's not natural sleep and in fact
sleeping pills have been associated with
a significantly high risk of death as
well as cancer
so much so that in 2016 the American
College of Physicians made a landmark
recommended intervention they said that
sleeping pills must no longer be the
first line treatment for insomnia
instead the American College of
Physicians said it has to be cognitive
behavioral therapy for insomnia that
must be the first line recommended
treatment for those sleep problems
and so cognitive behavioral therapy in
general really tries to Target two
things cognitive and behavioral and so
the cognitive aspects for insomnia are
aspects where we try to correct your
beliefs or your misbeliefs around sleep
and some of your ideas around sleep some
of those things that can be either
inappropriate incorrect or just
triggering anxiety or worry so we try to
modify those cognitions those beliefs
but then we also look at what you're
doing in your life the different
behaviors that you're doing or things
that you're not doing and try to correct
the behaviors as well for example how's
your caffeine intake how's your alcohol
intake uh what time are you going to bed
what time are you waking up what's your
chronotype are you a morning type
evening type are you sleeping in harmony
with your chronotype or against your
chronotype
um are you getting daylight in the
morning are you getting too much
daylight uh light at night artificial
light at night do you exercise and so we
change behaviors and we change thought
patterns and together cognitive
behavioral therapy for insomnia is just
as effective as sleeping pills in the
short term but what's great is that when
you stop working with that clinician or
your online program and I should say
that I um I work with a company I'm an
advisor to a company called CUNY
um It's s h u n i dot Io if people want
to go and explore it and you can get
cognitive behavioral therapy online
there but you work with your therapist
and after about uh five or six sessions
you can continue that benefit of
improved sleep for up to five years the
studies have demonstrated now whereas
with sleeping pills when you stop their
use then not only do you go back to the
bad sleep that you perhap you are having
you typically go back to even worse
sleep it's called rebound insomnia and
now you have to go back onto the use so
you become dependent there is an
addiction dependency cycle so that's
really what cbti is and that's really
the best approach for sleeping problems
right now
all right so I have two sleeping
problems one is that there are times
where I will get
um either really stressed or I'll get
really excited and I have a very easy
time falling asleep but then I'll wake
up after three or four hours and I find
it very difficult to fall back asleep
and then the second part just so I don't
forget is sleep inertia in the morning
but what can I do to
um optimize for staying asleep
yes so there it's a case of trying to
deal with that sort of downgrade the
activation of the nervous system the
reason that people typically wake up uh
in the middle of the night and can't get
back to sleep not always but often is
because they have this sort of stress
relief they're carrying this anxiety and
anxiety biologically is the principal
mechanism that we think underlies most
insomnia and what happens in part is
that the fight or flight branch of the
nervous system becomes overactive and
that's exactly why does it shut down
like I find it so easy to fall asleep
but I can tell on the nights where I'm
gonna wake up
but then my subconscious mind kicks it
back alive yeah why why would it be that
way and the reason is because after
about 16 hours of wakefulness you've
built up a lot of that healthy
sleepiness what we call Sleep pressure
and the longer that you're awake the
more of that sleep pressure builds up
and it's a chemical that builds up in
the brain called adenosine
and then when we go into sleep it's the
time when the brain can actually start
to clear out that adenosine and it's so
it starts to lower the Sleep pressure
and after about eight hours of sleep
you've cleared away 16 hours of that
adenosine of that sleepiness and so you
wake up naturally and you feel refreshed
and restored
but what will happen is that you can be
stressed and sort of or excited but the
sleepiness the weight of sleepiness
pulling you down is so heavy at that
point that you can get to sleep but then
three or four hours later you've
jettisoned maybe 50 of all of that
adenosine maybe even more because it
principally happens during deep sleep
and so now your brain is much more
vulnerable to those Awakenings because
it doesn't have the weight of that
sleepiness does that make some sense it
makes total sense it makes you want to
punch myself back to sleep it's no
noches well because the benefits or I
should say the the damage that you do by
not getting sleep is so terrifying that
every time I wake up I'm like come on
like you know how much better you will
perform if you just sleep and I am not
one of those guys it's like hey you
gotta grind in four hours sleep I'm like
if I need nine hours of sleep I want to
get nine hours of sleep every single
night Forever Until the End of Time so
it's just always if you're hoisting that
flag I will salute it and I definitely
you know not everyone but certainly in
the type a sort of particularly business
culture maybe there is this sort of
sleep machismo attitude where people
were there lack of sleep like a badge of
honor
um but you're right it's it's foolhardy
for a number of reasons but let me come
back to that issue of you know beating
ourselves up because
we need to have some degree of
self-compassion when it comes to sleep
you know I am not invulnerable to sleep
problems myself I've had bouts of
insomnia throughout my life to be
completely transparent and open with you
um and everyone every one of us is gonna
have a bad night of sleep it's not
unusual don't worry don't stress you
know back when I was starting to write
the book it took me about four years to
write it in 2014 you know sleep was sort
of the neglected stepsister in the
health conversation of that time and I
was so saddened by the sickness and the
disease and the suffering that was
happening because of a lack of sleep you
know I came out you know all guns
blazing and I think that that was
important but for those people who were
struggling with sleep those people who
had sleep problems with insomnia you
know the book kind of felt almost as
though it was you know sleep or else dot
dot dot
um and I didn't mean it to be that way
so I want to say right now because I've
I've learned to soften and become a much
better appreciator of these conditions
just like you described
if you wake up and you can't get back to
sleep don't worry just realize tonight
is not my night it's not the end of the
world I'm still going to be able to
function somewhat tomorrow
don't stay in bed awake for too long
though that's the important message here
because very tricky I'm super curious to
see what you think about this because I
know where you're going right yeah
you're training yourself that being in
bed is is being awake is okay while
you're in bed so that's right I used to
get up and whether I slept for two hours
three hours whatever if I couldn't fall
back asleep in like 15 minutes I'd get
out of bed and I would go to work and
start doing my thing and then I would go
lay back down and sleep and sometimes
I'd fall asleep for you know two or
three more hours but the number of times
I would wake up with a headache after
that was just too much so it was way
frustrated and I'm like all right
there's got to be something else so what
I found is if I put an audio book on
dude I will be back asleep in like 10 or
15 minutes it's crazy and the only thing
that wakes me up is the fact that I have
headphones in my ears or if they start
yelling in the book or something like
that which always pisses me off uh but
it puts me back to sleep
so reliably it's crazy
that's great that's exactly what we
recommend so don't go to work don't
start checking emails don't eat because
it trains the brain to expect food but
instead in a dim room somewhere
different so you change the context so
you're changing the Learned Association
just read a book listen to an audio book
um meditate in dim light all of these
things are great find out whatever works
for you and then only when you're sleepy
do you return to bed and there's no time
limit for that
and that way you train the brain back
out of a bad Association that it's
learned which is my bed is this place of
being awake which if you repeat that
over time you become trained to be awake
in the bed
and then you will relearn the
association that your bed is the place
where you're asleep so you're a hundred
percent right that's exactly what we
recommend
um to your second question which is
sleep inertia it's a real thing sleep
inertia is typically where we wake up
and your brain requires some time to
kind of warm up to operating temperature
like an old vintage car you know you
can't just turn the engine on and start
you know flooring it and going up to
redline you need to sort of circulate
the fluids and warm the oil up and get
the engine warm and then you can really
start to push it it's the same way with
our brain in some ways now
different people have different
severities of sleep inertia I'm actually
like you I suffer from quite bad sleep
inertia you know for the first hour you
know my partnership when I come through
in the morning she wakes up a little bit
earlier than me you know she kind of
knows that I can say look honey I am not
the best version of myself in the first
hour I I know that I may have done
something bad yesterday and we should
talk about it and I I want to resolve
that but can we not do it in the first
hour because I'm not the best version so
firstly accepting that it's normal and
it's real the second thing though
however is you can
sleep in there should typically happens
in very severe amounts if you're
mismatched between your sleep schedule
and your chronotype that's in schedule
and so you can go on um and you can go
online and type Google morningness
eveningness questioner and it's a
questionnaire that you fill out and it
figures out what your chronotype is are
you a morning type somewhere in between
or are you an evening type
and what we find is that morning types
when they wake up in the morning at
their normal time which is very early or
early they don't have sleep inertia
they're good to go they can jump into
the gym and they're like Energizer
bunnies and they're all happy and you
know joyful and to me I'm just like oh
you know whereas evening types waking up
at the time that morning types have to
wake up which is in some ways the way
Society is designed Society is
desperately biased against evening types
and wrongfully so because it's not your
fault it's genetically determined there
are about six or seven genes that we
know right now that dictate what your
chronotype is it's not your fault it's
gifted to you at Birth
um you don't get to choose
now if you are suffering from sleep
inertia what we find is that if you can
sleep a little bit later into the
morning go to bed maybe a little bit
later sleep later play around with that
and see if the speed with which you wake
up is better that your sleep inertia is
less that's one way it may not always
work another way is temperature now it
turns out that when people have a cup of
coffee they say look I just need like
five minutes and I I Swig a couple of
you know mouthfuls of coffee and now I'm
alert that's nonsense caffeine doesn't
actually get into your system until
about 12 to 15 minutes so if you're
feeling any effects of caffeine before
that it's not the caffeine it turns out
that when we go to sleep we drop our
core body temperature we get very cold
we become almost hypothermic
now to wake up we have to warm up
so to to get to sleep we need to get
cold to stay asleep we need to stay cold
and to wake up we need to warm up
and so one way that you can artificially
accelerate or try accelerating your
inertia in a quicker dissipating manner
is to try to warm up more quickly so get
a hot drink in the morning doesn't have
to be caffeine if that's not your thing
I don't drink caffeine but I'm not
against it caffeine is an issue it's not
the really the dose that makes the
poison it's the timing that makes the
poison when it comes to sleep and
caffeine which we can come on to but
drink a hot drink get your body
temperature up if you like if you've got
a smart thermostat program it to start
to rise temperature in your bedroom or
in the house in the last hour before
your alarm
and you could it can really start to
help you wake up and then play around
with these smart lights I have one where
it sort of starts to bring me out of
sleep about five minutes before my alarm
that can help but the data is not good
on it the data on temperature much
better what is that my friend Tom bilyu
here and I have a big question to ask
you how would you rate your level of
personal discipline on a scale of one to
ten if your answer is anything less than
a ten I've got something cool for you
and let me tell you right now discipline
by its very nature means compelling
yourself to do difficult things that are
stressful boring which is what kills
most people or possibly scary or even
painful now here is the thing achieving
huge goals and stretching to reach your
potential requires you to do those
challenging stressful things and to
stick with them even when it gets boring
and it will get boring building your
levels of personal discipline is not
easy but let me tell you it pays off in
fact I will tell you you're never going
to achieve anything meaningful unless
you develop discipline right I've just
released a class from Impact Theory
university called how to build Ironclad
discipline that teaches you the process
of building yourself up in this area so
that you can push yourself to do the
hard things that greatness is going to
require of you right click the link on
the screen register for this class right
now and let's get to work I will see you
inside this Workshop from Impact Theory
University until then my friends be
legendary peace out
foreign
and the biggest thing that I want people
to remember is sleep is healing
that's what our body does in sleep it
heals physically and it heals mentally
so it's it's interesting to me that you
hate sleep because it's the thing that's
going to get you the furthest and the
longest yeah so the my relationship with
sleep goes like this I prioritize it it
is the most important thing for me to
get in terms of my Wellness schedule my
Wellness regime okay the one thing I
don't was sleep which is why I
don't set an alarm do I wish that nature
in its Infinite Wisdom Mr McEwen do I
wish that it had figured out something
through Evolution so that we didn't need
it yes do I admire the Dolphins for
sleeping one hemisphere at a time yes do
I recognize that being tired is a unique
form of torture yes so I have no
interest in sleep deprivation I don't
get it I make sure I get my sleep my
thing is much like we've been talking
about here with sleep efficiency I
believe in you know the that if you
shorten the amount of time that you
sleep you will become less efficient and
you you will actually get less done than
you would just by clocking the hours
getting the sleep that you need and
moving forward but I do think also about
longevity and so if there is something
to look cleaning the glymphatic system
it just takes a certain number of hours
and you need to do it and that's just
that because I do worry in my own life
that I am betraying this is a true
statement I am betraying myself and my
desire to Live Forever by the way I live
my life which is at a thousand miles an
hour every day it's going to be a
U-shaped curve in a way you know so
there's the benefit actually doesn't go
on and on forever yes well there's two
Con well let's say increasing or
decreasing your sleep there's going to
be an optimal point right so you know
your conflict is you want more art in
your day because you want to do really
great things but you can't do really
great things if you're tired and you do
need a certain amount of sleep so yes
you can peel it back so so what we're
you know I think it's quite clear we're
not saying you you must get ERS right
you should try and find the optimum
amount for you if that shortens it down
and you you six hours is great for you
well then you have an extra two hours in
your day if you then keep pushing and
pushing and pushing and go down to like
four hours those two hours are not going
to be your best performance and it's
probably going to actually affect the
other hours in the day so there's a
benefit where you can come down but at
some point you just can't keep scraping
off R's and R's and ours really
incredible to watch you be so Mission
driven and Mission focused and I want to
talk about that at a high level the
notion of really optimizing yourself
because you have a it's very atypical
notion of optimization versus the just
grind it out work your face off kind of
mentality where'd that come from well I
think it's really a pragmatic approach
you know I think you can always get in
that super Grind Mode that that real
push that Sprint to get things done but
as in any Sprint if you're an athlete
running a you know quarter mile you're
going to need recovery after that you
know and I think that that's something
that we can sometimes fail to recognize
that you don't actually get stronger
when you're sprinting you get stronger
when you recover and I think the psyche
is just the same as the body in that we
perform best when we have periods where
we push and then periods where we
reflect integrate recover and so for me
it's just been listening to what works
for me you know I can continue to grind
and continue to perform worse and worse
and worse or I can take the
opportunities when I'm inspired and push
really hard and then take those next
phases to recover adapt and try and come
back the next time and Sprint even
faster Sprint even farther but it's just
finding that balance that's really
effective for me to get what I need to
get done and how do you find that like
is there an internal uh self-awareness
that you've cultivated or yeah there's
like a natural sense to find balance and
I think we all have that I think we know
it we just override that voice we're
like oh more coffee or oh more something
else to hide the signals that our body
is now naturally telling us like our
body is constantly giving us Clues but
the problem is it comes with a whisper
and we can drown out that whisper in a
million different ways with distraction
with you know mental processes with you
know physical things like like I said
drinking coffee or taking Adderall or
doing whatever you need to do to drown
out that sound that says hey really you
need to sleep you know like that's
really what your body is asking for and
so I think it's really just tuning in to
what you need and being able to listen
to that voice and not only hear it but
follow through on what it says if you
had to put a really fine point on what
you think optimization should be when
somebody hears you talking about that
what should they take away from it
well it's ultimately the principle that
you know you want to be a little bit
better in some way tomorrow than you are
today but it's not going to be in a
linear path again these go through
cycles of stress and recovery so it's
just kind of being able to surf the flow
of that and know again it's it's really
comes down to balance so it's the
practices like you need to know what to
do for sure and then you need to know
how to apply those things in the right
way so when you when to push and when to
take the pressure off the gas as well
and I think that's really understanding
that so part of it is the knowledge and
then part of it is the follow-through
and then part of it is the discipline to
know not only when you need to go but
when you need to rest what are things
then that people can do to actually
optimize their sleep yeah this is what
it's really all about
you know I like to start with the low
hanging fruit first
um and something really really
fascinating is just simply
changing or embracing the time of day
that you exercise can improve your sleep
quality and so Appalachian State
University did a really cool study and
they wanted to see what time of day
exercising various times a day how does
it impact Your Sleep Quality and so they
had the study participants to exercise
exclusively at 7 A.M and another phase
exclusively at 1 pm in the afternoon
another phase exclusively at 7 pm in the
evening they compiled all the data and
at the end of the study they found that
morning exercisers spend more time in
the deepest most anabolic stages of
sleep so they're producing more human
growth hormone they have more efficient
sleep cycles what we've been talking
about
they also tend to sleep longer and this
is the one that kind of can get glass
past
on average they had about a 25 percent
greater drop in blood pressure at night
so what's what's up with that that's
correlated with a deactivation of your
sympathetic fight-or-flight nervous
system right so you're actually able to
shift gears get to that parasympathetic
rest and digest calming down by getting
some exercise in in the morning and so
how do we employ this though that's the
question because some people's just like
you know I can't exercise in the morning
and there's also people who exercise in
the morning who might have terrible
sleep
and it's because this is not like the
Magic Bullet this is a thing to stack in
your condition if you're doing this and
then messing up the one I'm going to
talk about next you're probably not
gonna have the best sleep so
here's how to employ this just five
minutes and I tested this each morning I
do this five minutes of exercise you
know it might be just jumping on a
rebounder you know a little mini
trampoline for five minutes go for a
quick power walk uh do some Tabata which
is just four minutes and a little
Mobility work and I guess most people
don't know what Tabata is high intensity
interval training basically it's 20
seconds of exercise followed by 10
seconds of rest repeated over and over
again for four minutes
and in his clinical studies this was
found to outperform
you know traditional cardio like the
kind of moderate intensity 45 minutes of
exercise in four minutes wow the change
in your cardiovascular benefits body
composition and also changing your
mitochondria as well this is why it
works it does something called a
cortisol reset all right and we talked
about cortisol but again it's a good
thing if it's in the right time and the
right amounts
clinically I would call these people
tired and wired that would come in and
looking at the hormone panels and the
cortisol will be really low in the
morning and high at night thus they have
sleep problems
so you naturally if you're if your
cortisol is on a natural hormone Rhythm
it would be elevated at its peak in the
morning right around 6 a.m to 8 A.M and
then gradually decline as the day goes
does that have to do with what time you
wake up
sort of I mean the cortisol will kind of
tend to nudge you out of sleep but also
we'll tend to notice that as the day is
it your sleep goes on it becomes lighter
and lighter anyways right this is when
you tend to remember your dreams like at
the at the end of the sleep
and so
getting this little boost like helping
your body to propel and get your
cortisol up via exercise helps to reset
that Rhythm and get you back on track so
that's why it works so that's number one
low hanging fruit just get in five
minutes of exercise start in the morning
no matter what just five minutes that's
all you need is going to help to create
this Snowball Effect of good things for
you you know five minutes if this is the
time you do go to the gym and do your
full workout so be it all good but
everybody who's not already doing that
just get that five minutes in the second
one and this one is more of the tough
love and the most difficult but this is
the most important one in our culture
today and this has to do with our Tech
all right so Harvard researchers have
confirmed that blue light exposure from
our favorite devices you know our iPads
or iPhones
Androids tablets televisions they do in
fact suppress your melatonin
substantially because it your body
essentially thinks the sun's out is that
the problem so we have photoreceptors
that are always trying to gauge what
time it is right because our bodies are
wired up to be in sync with nature but
only recently like literally just the
past few decades have we been able to
manipulate and basically create a second
daytime right so your body's just it
doesn't really know how to figure it out
and so the blue and white Spectrum
specifically are the ones that are more
similar to Daylight and so what it's
doing is and so here's what the
researchers found basically
every hour you're on your device at
night suppresses melatonin for about 30
minutes all right so if you're on your
you know you watch a movie a three-hour
movie for example
your melatonin is going to be suppressed
even if you go to bed right after you're
not producing adequate melatonin for
about an hour and a half
and so again you can be unconscious from
sheer physical exhaustion but you're not
going to go through your sleep cycles
efficiently and so just be mindful of
that what I encourage people to do is to
give yourself a screen curfew just 30
minutes all right I don't want to make
this complicated just 30 minutes but
here's the rub
we're addicted to our devices like
straight up we just need to be on I am
we all are you know basically it's
because of this dopamine Loop right
dopamine is so powerful so interesting
dopamine is one of the things I truly
feel has helped to create our
civilization as it is because it drives
us to seek right dopamine drives us to
to seek and and to grow and to find to
discover the internet is perfect for
manipulating this because every time you
look for something you find something
especially social media you seek fine
seek fine you produce the dopamine that
drives you to look but why do you keep
going is every time you find something
you get a little bit of a hit from your
opioid system like it's like this slow
drip I have morphine and so it starts to
like feel really good and to the point
where you might be doing your work and
like you got a deadline and you'll just
you know like I check Instagram real
quick before you know it's like 30
minutes later and you fall into the
internet black hole just like it just
pulls you in so be aware of that I'm not
saying again our connection with tech is
just going to grow so I'm not bashing
that it's just be aware of it and that
when you try to abide by this principle
which will really really help you Sleep
Quality to give yourself a screen curfew
you can't just sit there and twiddle
your thumbs because you'll get what I
call the internet Jitters all right
you'll start getting like a little bit
of a withdrawal effect like
let me just checked one just one one
post what we have to do is this you have
to replace it with something of greater
or equal value it's really that simple
hopefully it's what I encourage people
to do this is an opportunity to connect
right connect with your significant
other your kids the people like physical
like have a real conversation with
somebody right I know it sounds crazy
but it really works it's really really
good
and also this is a great opportunity if
you you know if you're in a relationship
or not whatever you're into you could
you know utilize and I have a chapter on
this as well intimate time because
there's a big connection between sex and
sleep and there's also a big connection
between sleep and sex and how it impacts
your sex life and so when we have an
orgasm for example we produce a chemical
I'm sorry cocktail of chemicals
including oxytocin
norepinephrine prolactin and oxytocin
for example has been found clinically to
basically combat the effects of cortisol
and hopefully sex is more interesting
than Instagram but you know I don't know
it depends on how you're doing it and so
that's what I want people to do a screen
curfew and or use these hacks utilize
some blue light blocker blockers and so
for your desktops laptops things like
that you can get an app called flux that
pulls out the most Troublesome sleep
sucking spectrum of light from your
screen it basically cools your screen
off and it's a simple app you set it and
forget it it's totally free just go to
Dr Google type in f.lux and a couple
clicks and it's on your device I've been
using it for maybe five or six years I
love it and uh for your uh telephone you
know your cell phone we've got on the
iPhones built in now is night shift uh
with Androids the best one out there uh
from my research is one called Twilight
you know so there's options for
everybody then what about the ambient
light at night or if you're watching a
movie again I don't want to get don't
get too neurotic about it but if this is
a problem for you and you're not
sleeping as well as you could be or your
results your body composition are
changing you're not getting that blood
pressure down you're not having that
Focus you need through the day then you
might want to address this but
another little hack is to get some blue
like blocking glasses the first ones I
had was straight up like I just built
the birdhouse but now there's some
really cool stylish ones that you can
rock it as a matter of fact you'll
create a neural Association when you put
the glasses on and you'll start to get
sleepy you know it's nuts and that is
another thing right there is to create
an evening ritual right your brain is
always looking for patterns a lot of
successful people especially listening
to the things that you're putting out
there have a success ritual in the
morning but a great morning starts the
night before you know a truly great
morning
and so
a couple of quick things people can do
is the thermal regulation piece turn
down your thermostat all right now this
one's again this is going to hit a
pressure point for some people but
according to research between 62 and 68
degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for sleep
and so for some people it's going to
sound a little bit Frosty but lowering
the thermostat a little bit can it have
incredible benefit for your sleep but
this doesn't mean you can't use your
covers and put on some warm socks that
kind of thing so cooling off this
thermostat
making sure that your bedroom ideally I
call it a sleep sanctuary and so that
when you walk into your bedroom at night
if your brain has a neural Association
when I go into my bedroom I'm watching
television or I'm working those channels
are going to fire because of the myelin
getting laid down over the years of you
doing that behavior or even months it
can get laid down and so you might have
the intention of going to bed but if
your TV's in there your brain is going
to be firing expecting to watch
television and parts of your brain will
be waking up in a way and so
I encourage people to get the tech out
of your room have your sleep have your
bedroom be a sleep Sanctuary you know or
some place that's just for the the
double s which is sleep and sex here's
also a really interesting reason why
there's an Italian study done and they
found that couples who have a television
in their bedroom have 50 less sex really
yeah yeah that's interesting and you
know this is a little bit more
middle-aged little past middle age the
people in the study but and I know some
people like that's not true I have sex
all the time you probably do it in a
snowstorm like it doesn't matter where
you are like you're a human rabbit it
doesn't matter but for other people it's
like
a distraction right it's a distraction
and it can also you know
um create all of those kind of chemical
soup issues that we've been talking
about with elevating cortisol and those
kind of things so I ideally get your
television out of the room uh the other
Tech and last thing with the Sleep
environment I'll share when I talked
about melatonin needles two conditions
biological night
and you also need a dark environment
and so if you're in an environment where
you're maybe in a Suburban or city
environment where there's like neighbors
porch lights coming in there's LEDs
outside cars coming up and down the
street
as crazy as this sounds that that small
amount of light where we're now dubbing
light pollution
can have a significant impact on your
sleep quality and here's here's why we
know this Cornell University I think did
the best study on this and they took a
test subject and had them sleep in an
otherwise dark room and they took a
light a fiber optic cable and a light
the size of a quarter and put it behind
their knee and that was enough to
disrupt their sleep cycle because your
skin also has photoreceptors that is
sending information to your brain your
nervous system your internal organs to
try to tell your body what time it is is
trying to figure it out
you know so we want to get rid of that
artificial light exposure
now does this mean Moonlighting Stars no
humans have evolved with those things in
their Lux like I actually put a lux
chart in the book it's so small compared
to even the weakest fluorescent bulbs
and so get yourself some blackout
curtains if that external light is an
issue
internal light you know your alarm
clocks and you know light you know lamps
you know some people still are sleeping
with their lights on and things like
that be mindful of that and also what
you can do is just change the bulb color
you know if you still have issues with
the dark which some adults do and that's
okay
um
you can change the bulb cover color and
I actually had some NASA scientists or
people that work with them to send me
some different bulbs because folks in
space they don't have that biological
clock and so they would experience all
these different health challenges they
had to try to figure it out they knew
that it was an issue with their sleep
and so they start to give them different
bulbs for different times of day in a
way you know even though they're in
outer space
so it's really cool what you can do with
these little hacks but bottom line is
you want to have a dark cycle so you can
produce melatonin and you know those are
just a few those are just a few of the
different things people can do
everybody knows that if you're stressed
out take a deep breath well don't take
one deep breath take six and this is
something I talk about a lot the
research from a Japanese study shows
that six deep breaths are what it takes
to actually create State change so start
practicing that you get flustered you
get emotional don't take a breath just
take six use that mental override to
take six damn breaths and really start
to unplug from that and then use use the
cold you know use the cold as an ally
use that to
practice mental override use that to
reduce inflammation use that practice I
think that's something that's really
important making sure you stay hydrated
I talk about the morning mineral
cocktail I think a lot of us we go from
caffeine to all these different other
substances and foods and whatever and a
lot of us are running chronic
dehydration and not only dehydration
from water but the minerals and
electrolytes that you need so adding in
some sea salt or some Himalayan salt in
with your water is going to be effective
I wake up every morning 16 ounces of
water Himalayan sea salt about three
grams of that and a splash of lemon
that's something that's really important
finding some way to practice mindfulness
so finding that way to get to mental
Stillness I think is really important
knowing your body enough to know all
right this is what happens when I have a
bunch of sugar you know I feel good for
the second then the insulin kicks in and
then I go hyperglycemic then I feel
exhausted and then I reach for more
coffee like you got to have insight into
those cycles and understand what's going
to best for you and knowing and knowing
yourself with training knowing what
movement patterns help knowing how your
body feels and reacts
um you know getting your head and your
ego out of your sex life so it can be a
way to really engage with your partner
in a way that creates deeper connection
and allows you to be mindful be present
you know be in the big now
um sleeping taking naps you know I think
that's one thing that a lot of people
Miss they think that you have to get all
your sleep overnight in this
uninterrupted eight hours so good luck I
don't know anybody who gets
uninterrupted eight hours maybe one or
two people but for the most of us you
know we're going to get what we can at
night but then feel free to take a nap
or what Nick little Hill in his book
sleep calls a controlled recovery period
30 minutes where you just kind of zone
out and allow yourself to recover
and then of course on the on the other
side
it's a lot of the other things we talked
about but ultimately you know trust that
you got to forgive yourself you know
forgive yourself for everything that's
happened in the past understand that
you're not the same person that you were
then you're the person that's learned
from all those things you know hair
colitis has a quote no man steps in the
same river twice where he's not the same
river it's not the same river and he's
not the same man you know we're we're
different at any different moment and we
can decide to be different we can decide
to have listened to this and change
something or change everything or change
whatever we have that ability we have
way more power than we recognize and
what people will tell us that we have so
stepping into that power and deciding
for ourselves what we want to do with it
when people are depressed or bipolar or
anxiety or fear or trauma or PTSD it is
stress and they cannot break the loop I
tell you we found the key to break the
loop that's where I am right now with
the science
and now this needs to be implemented for
those in need and there are many many in
need your neurology is inside that and
it connects with your body the way
nature matter to be and in the
primordial state of our cells the cell
should be protected by proteins but
because of our comfort zone Behavior
they are inactive does deflammatory
impulses through the transcription
factors just little and who go
into the cell and they begin to mess up
the telomeres the longevity the cell
division the condition thereof and we
live shorter and better so less and we
are becoming vulnerable for the wrong
genome expressions and that causes
diseases
guys this is really interesting if this
is really um shaking down to hormeses
which said another way is a little bit
of bad does you a lot of good yeah and
so you actually need something that
stresses the system in a way that most
people would think of as bad yeah it
actually ends up being good and this is
where
um I'm Jarred in the best way possible
with what you were saying about it being
this meditative experience for you
because I think of going in ice is
brutally painful of requiring all of my
discipline and desire to battle through
and I I wouldn't have thought of it as
being something that I have to relax
into of you know really sort of
releasing Letting Go relaxing almost
removing myself from the certainly
removing myself from the suffering of
the pain but I'm curious are you when
you're doing this and you've talked
about dipping under the ice and going
into this meditative State and you've
described it with these sound effects
which I always found really interesting
but when you're going into that do you
feel the pain and divorce yourself from
the suffering or do you literally not
feel
any discomfort you feel anything but you
learn to let go
you follow the breath and thus the
hormonal system the endocrine system
which we have shown in scientific
research is really active within your
command and with that comes the
adrenaline the epinephrine the opiates
and cannabinoids all right now they are
very strong have a really they're really
strong painkillers as well yes right yes
so that's interesting so you're saying
that you're actually killing the Pain by
tapping into that system because you've
kicked off all this neuropharmacology
basis yes okay that's super interesting
what I want to know is when you're going
into the meditative State you know
you've just been injected with um the
endotoxins yes
what are you visualizing like what are
you actually thinking when you're trying
to get to Adrenaline or bone marrow or I
tell you
um if you go into to us you're really
not thinking about your mortgage or your
wife or this or that you're not going to
picnic you feel the focus will be on
your feeling
how to get this feeling into adaptation
and to overcome whatever is coming
and it goes directly
and I I tell you the the cold has been
my teacher
I just followed the teacher the feeling
learned to let go intuitively I felt I
want to do this I did yoga I did kung fu
I did all kinds of things and and uh
great but the cold is really your
merciless but righteous and I was ready
to go in I felt intuitively I want to go
in because it has got something I don't
know what it is and yes I went in and I
failed it the connection was there
Beyond any word and that's what I was
looking for this tapping into deeper
parts of the brain feeling Pure Energy
feeling power innate capacitated power
we have to deal with that I was looking
for that and since then I went on and on
and on and on I did all these records
and many more challenges I did crazy
stuff really sitting all the night in in
your shorts outside in freezing
temperatures and feel great that is
something that is power and I've been
venturing and discovering more and more
and finally I began to realize but it's
all in the mind
oh yes so learning to let go in the
right way following your breath the
breath is able to Prime the body
and then your mind the Neurology of the
mind if I'm able to make my skin
temperature not going down while being
exposed to ice cold water skin
temperature that's power
and that power is the same power we can
learn to embrace and awaken
in which we are able to tackle any
stressor in the world
any stressor emotionally and physically
and mentally whatever you come up we are
built to be able to oppose that to get
through and to learn and not to be
afraid because we have the power of the
Mind
I would argue that Ambien is going to
have a really big competitor it's called
weed and it's out and it's recreational
in a couple of States I live in you know
California and it's very very
interesting you smoke sure interesting
absolutely what do you find that it does
to your sleep so it depends on when you
smoke it what you smoke and how much you
smoke so it's all there's a lot of
different things out there but I've
written extensively about if you're
going to use marijuana to help you sleep
what should you look for right I've also
broken down the cannabinoids so a lot of
people out there talking about CBD CBD
CBD right let me be clear you'd have to
have almost 200 milligrams of CBD to
have any effect on sleep much lower
dosage to help with pain you want CBN
okay CBN which turns out to be oxidized
THC helps with sleep much more at least
that's what the data would suggest so
how does one oxidize THC you let weed
lie around for a little while and it's
basically CBN is old weed now to be fair
people are learning how to process it
and make that process move quicker but
what we're starting to see is now we're
starting to see cannabis like if you go
into a cannabis dispensary and you say
what have you got for sleep they have a
section
right like when people in my age 50 51
years old are walking into a dispensary
we're not going there to get high we're
going there because we got pain we have
sleep issues and we and we want to use
the medicine right that's where the gold
is and so when you start to really look
at it like let's treat it like a
medicine let's look at it in a way that
can be helpful I mean we have an entire
endocannabinoid system in our body that
isn't being used except for with
cannabinoids so and also to be fair
cannabinoids are in many other things
besides marijuana but they're really in
marijuana so why shouldn't we start to
walk down that path create that
technology and help more people all
right so you've said that if you're
going to drink alcohol stop three hours
before bed what's the protocol with weed
so I think it's going to be different
and to be honest with you I don't think
I know yet
um it's definitely something that I'm
studying and I'm learning more and more
and more about but I would argue that
the tinctures like the the liquid that
comes in the droppers that you can do
sublingually I would say that would be a
place to start I've even heard of that
oh you just drop it under your tongue
yeah you just take it drop it underneath
your tongue let it sit there 60 seconds
swallow it close your eyes one thing
that is super weird is things that
during the day are not in any way shape
or form intimidating or daunting when
I'm supposed to be sleeping so if I wake
up in the middle of the night I'll start
stressing about something and I'll I'm
literally like once I get out of bed
this is not going to stress me out so
why is it stressing me out at night is
there a part of my brain that shuts off
is there a part of my brain that becomes
active like why are things at night do
they seem so big and dramatic whereas in
the day it's like it's not a big deal
yeah I we actually don't really fully
understand it in truth but part of this
is to do with context that it's dark
um you don't have full awareness you
don't have full functioning of the brain
because when we wake up that sleep
inertia by the way in part is because
your prefrontal cortex which is the part
of the brain that makes us most human
it's like the CEO of the brain it's very
good at understanding high level
Concepts putting things into
contextually appropriate boxes making
top-down control decisions it regulates
our emotions
that part of the brain is the last thing
to come back online as we wake up and
that's why we're not very you know
brilliant if we have sleep inertia but
when we're waking up out of sleep in the
middle of the night we also have some of
that so we don't have the rational
logical part of our brain fully engaged
plus the context is one that's dark and
so we don't have sort of the daylight
sort of giving us this sort of normative
safe feeling and so what happens is that
the brain starts to default to
rumination and catastrophization you
know it's almost like this Rolodex of
anxiety that then starts to unfold and
that one memory that you know you bring
back into mind
um at that moment of waking up is the
finger that flicks the Domino on that
Cascade of of you know rumination so
again just realize I've done this before
I've experienced this before I know that
tomorrow by you know one or two PM in
the afternoon I think about this and I
think that was ridiculous to be worrying
about it's it's okay try to remind
yourself of that look at what sleep you
need and look about how you can make
that more efficient it is the single
most in my opinion most important thing
that you could do easily which will have
a really positive impact as we discussed
in like literally every organ in your
body it reduces your risks just of so
many comorbidities for someone who wants
to be and a lot of your listeners are
going to try and looking at high
performance output if you are not
managing your sleep it is crazy to think
that you can run an Optimum efficiency
all right so I'll slightly change it for
you because I imagine your answer is
going to be something to do with sleep
if it is what is the one thing people
should do that would have the biggest
impact on their sleep know your
chronotype without question it's super
easy go to chronoquiz.com it's my
website you'll learn in 30 questions
what your chronotype is and then you can
figure out I mean in my book I tell
people the best time to have sex Eat A
Cheeseburger ask your boss for a raise
and sleep so it's useful in all facets
of Life your morning routine is every
bit as important as your evening routine
so be sure to check out this next
episode where I explain what you should
do every morning to get a great start to
your day let us dive into the very first
question this one comes from Louis
Christine imbeing this is from the
connection