AMAZING BREAKTHROUGH!
Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu (and probably COVID). It lowers your risk of heart attacks, stroke and diabetes. You'll even feel happier, avoid depression and have less anxiety.
Are you interested?
THEN GO THE F$*K TO SLEEP
Sleep is literally THE key determinant in: - How good a shape you're in physically - How much fat you store and where - How good you are at making decisions - How productive you are - How intelligent you are
In other words, it isn't stress that makes you stronger, it's stress that makes you - Dumber - Fatter - Slower - Poorer
HORMONES AND FATNESS
Decreasing sleep will..... - Increase cortisol - Decrease growth hormone - Decrease testosterone - Decrease thyroid hormone - Decrease leptin (a hormone that raises metabolism and tells you that you're full) - Increases ghrelin (the hormone that tells you 'I'm hungry') - Ruins your gut microbiome, affecting digestion and glucose tolerance.
So not only will you be hungrier if you sleep less, but you'll gain fat easier.
You also don't burn a significant amount of extra calories by staying awake longer, sorry.
INJURY AND PERFORMANCE
- Endurance drops by as much as 30% - Your ability to absorb and utilise oxygen decreases massively - You'll be weaker - You won't clear metabolic by-products as quickly (lactic acid build up will be worse) - Thermoregulation will be affected, decreasing tolerance to hot AND cold - You will suffer decreases in cognition affecting your brains ability to remember basic motor function, potentially leading to injury
PATIENCE AND IRRITABILITY
What happens to your emotions without sleep?
The older, prehistoric part of your brain, the amygdala (also known as the Lizard Brain) becomes more and more disconnected from your conscious, rational thought process with sleep deprivation.
It'll lead to the emotional stability of a drunk, limiting your ability to discern between 'should' and 'could' type thoughts.
So whilst it doesn't inherently make you negative, but what it does do is make you prone to over reacting. This means small stressors will be interpreted as big deals by your nervous system.
INTELLIGENCE
Your ability to learn new things
The more you sleep the more your brain clears out 'useless information' from the short term and stores 'useful' information into the long term.
If you don't sleep as much, your short term memory will be compromised while you're awake on top of a compromised capacity to move into from short term to long term while you sleep.
Not only that, but what you do manage to learn during a sleep-deprived state is lost each night, even if you get a regular amount of sleep.
Your ability to store, learn, and recall information is cut almost in half with as little as two hours sleep depravation.
TIPPING POINTS
After 15 hours of being awake, your brain starts to fail.
After being awake for 19 hours you're about as functional as a drunk, but have no idea you're compromised.
After 7 hours of sleep 10 nights in a row, you operate with the same capacity as if you're been awake for 24 hours. REMEMBER, you're about as functional as a drunk after 19......
HOW CAN YOU TELL WHEN YOU'RE SLEEP DEPRIVED?
You can't!!!!!!
After a few weeks of mild sleep deprivation (which compounds each night), you simply grow accustomed to feeling shitty. Your lower levels of performance, energy and background levels of stress and irritability become the new normal.
THIS is why so many people THINK they can operate on six hours sleep. The brain has blinders on, meanwhile you're turning your organs into slush and limiting your effectiveness in every area of your life.
TIPS TO GET AMAZING SLEEP
1. Get AT LEAST 20 mins of AM sun.
2. Screens off. - 2 hours before bed. - Work with paper and pen if you have work to do or you want to organise your thoughts.
3. Give up stimulants or take none after 10.30am
4. Keep your bedroom cooler, no more than 20 celsius.
5. Go to bed between 8.30pm and 11pm. - Circadian rhythm matters, try to sync up. - Keep the time the same each night. Your body loves routine.
6. Take supplements that aid sleep. - Gabba/Mag - Valerian root
7. Use your bedroom for sleep, reading and sex only. - No TV - No work.
8. Take a short, cool shower before bed. - Cooling your core temperature is good for achieving a deeper sleep.
9. Get rid of bright lights in your bedroom. - Soft lamps are ok. - No LED's
10. Get blackout curtains. - Better yet, try to make your room pitch black - Use eye masks to further enhance the effect (the room still needs to be dark as your skin will perceive light still)
11. Train earlier in the day. - Body temperature stays elevated for up to 4 hours post-training (see point
12. Have your last meal two hours before bed and ensure to have some protein and fats at that meal to stabilise blood sugar in the night.
13. Don't drink alcohol.
14. Sleep on your back - If you snore like me you'll get shoved to sleep on your side though
15. Meditate. - Use a guided mediation before bed. Headspace or BrainFM are good apps for this.
16. Sleep naked. - Remember, keeping temperature low induces superior sleep
17. Eat your meals at the same times each day.
18. Get a heavy blanket. - Anecdotal evidence suggests it helps
19. Get most your hydration earlier in the day. - Ensure you are having your bodyweight X .033 each day a s a minimum. - Finish the bulk of this before 6.30pm though.
20. Napping is ok but DON'T do it after 2pm or for more than 30 mins.
21. Set an alarm for bed time to ingrain the consistency of going at the same time each night.
22. Have adequate 'down time' before bed. - If you work or stress right up until you lay down the anxiety prevents adrenaline and glucocorticoids from declining. - Time to fall asleep will go up. Find something to wind you down.
23. If you're a light sleeper, add white noise. - This keeps noise levels consistent in your sleep space so changes from baseline are less likely to wake you up (try www.rainymood.com)
Comments