Why Sleep?
Sleep is a natural human super power, but in our modern culture we treat it more like an obstacle to work around. We have all been guilty of trading an hour of sleep for an extra hour of work, chores around the house, or just scrolling the internet. Well the more you learn about sleep, the more you learn how vital it is to almost every system and process in your body. How much body fat your body retains? Yep - studies show that quality sleep helps regulate that process. Your cognitive abilities? How accurately and quickly you can perform tasks? Yep - studies show that quality sleep dramatically improves these processes. Your bodies ability to fight off viruses? Yep - studies show that quality sleep is essential for your immune system to be at its best. The list goes on and on. So instead of viewing sleep as a “nice to have” we should be looking at sleep as a non-negotiable and looking for ways to optimize our approach.
Screen Time
Reducing screen time before bed is likely the number one thing you can do to improve your quality of sleep. Evening screen time has become such a fixture of the modern schedule that its almost hard to imagine what a bedtime routine would look like with out it. You would have to play some cards, or do some stretching, or read a book, or talk to your spouse!?! Sounds so lame!!! But the facts remain that since screens have become the main event before bed our sleep quality has decreased, and we are more overweight, more sick, and less healthy become of it.
Screens offer a dual threat to our sleep. First our physiology is not designed to have the blue light stimulation that they give us at night. Our bodies have rhythms that are synced to day time and night time - and one of those rhythms is to sleep when its dark. This process is endlessly complicated, and delicate. When we flood our eyeballs with blue light from screens our bodies get a signal that its daytime. Instead of producing sleep assisting hormones like melatonin, our bodies do their daytime routine and flood our system with awake hormones like cortisol.
In addition to the blue light, the actual content on the screens makes our sleep worse. We get dopamine dumps from social media notifications, and adrenaline from satisfying TV shows. So instead of winding down before bed we are amping up. Then when we cant sleep because of our screens, we reach over screens and restart the cycle.
Sleep & Exercise
Good news for all of us gym rats. Having a CONSISTENT exercise routine is a verified hack towards improving your sleep. Even more than that - lifting heavy weights is especially effective on producing better sleep. CAN I GET AN AMEN!!? It no surprise that sleep also improves your performance in the gym. Thats why professional athletes at the peak of their powers are maniacs about protecting their sleep. So, what does that mean for us amateur exercise racers? We can use the gym as a check up. When that barbell weight that is normally super light feels really heavy, or when your 2k row is :30 longer than it normally is - thats your body giving you real time feed back. And if you have multiple days in a row of bad feed back, it might be time to assess. Am I sleeping well? Am I stressed? Am I eating enough? Most people aren’t in tune enough with their body to notice these signs until they become big problems, but we get the chance to check in and recalibrate daily.
More Resources
If you want to learn more about sleep there is an awesome book by Shawn Stevenson called Sleep Smarter. Shawn also has a great podcast called The Model Health Show covering all things health. Below is the link to Episode 537 one of his many episodes on Sleep.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-model-health-show/id640246578?i=1000544272987
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