Rule #5: Sleep is your Superpower

In our current lifestyle of striving for perfection, many of us sacrifice sleep first. Indeed, we wear it as a badge of honor. For the first 50 years of my life, I always would say that I will sleep when I am dead. What I didn’t know was that my lack of sleep was leading to a less healthy lifestyle and ultimately a quicker death.

In fact, sleep problems or just not getting enough sleep can lead to high blood sugar (and ultimately diabetes), artificial hunger, and can change the way your body responds to sickness and disease.¹

High-quality sleep, on the other hand, helps decrease the risk of health issues “including heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and stroke.”² Believe it or not, good quality sleep even helps with managing your weight.³

Here is a great post from Andrew Huberman (Stanford Professor) on the benefits of sleep:

Huberman and Matt Walker (Berkeley professor and Director of the Center for Sleep Science) do a whole series of podcasts on sleep and the benefits. Here are some of the tips that they have provided for better sleep. I find that they help a lot.

1. Try to get at least 7 hours of good sleep a night; this is not easy for those of us that are busy. But try your best. 6 hours should be the very least you get. Sacrifice that nightly tv show to get the extra sleep time.

2. Try to wake up at the same time every day. It trains your mind that there is a certain time for sleep and helps you get higher quality sleep.

3. Get outside within 30 to 60 minutes of waking and see the morning sun. Even if it is cloudy it is beneficial to get outside. Try to do so for 2 to 10 minutes with 10 or more being ideal. Looking through the window doesn’t count. And if you are like me and you wake up in the dark, turn on bright lights and then get outside at sunrise. Also, in an ideal world, you would get outside and see sunset. I rarely do—we all tend to be working then.

4. Try to stop caffeine 8 to 10 hours before you plan to go to sleep. The half-life of caffeine is between 1.5 and 9 hours with a mean of five hours.⁴ Most people know how caffeine impacts their sleep, but it is still worth cutting it off earlier than you think to allow yourself to get a good night’s sleep.

5. Keep the room you sleep in cool. “Your body needs to drop in temperature by 1-3 degrees to fall and stay asleep effectively. Body temperature increases are one reason you wake up.”⁵

6. Try to stop drinking alcohol 2 hours⁶ before you go to bed and stop eating 3 hours before you do.⁷ Nightcaps don’t help you sleep. They might help you fall asleep, but they negatively impact your sleep quality. And if your body needs to digest food while it is sleeping, it is not resting.

7. Talk to a Doctor about whether certain supplements may help you sleep. I take a magnesium supplement that includes Magnesium L-Threonate⁸ and Magnesium Bisglycinate.⁹ I also take Ashwagandha.¹⁰ I find they help me sleep and take them before bed. Huberman also recommends 50mg Apigenin, 100-400mg Theanine, 2g of Glycine (3-4 nights a week) and 100mg GABA (3 to 4 nights a week).¹¹ I don’t take any of them, but sometimes I drink chamomile tea (apigenin) before I go to bed.¹² All of these supplements can have side effects and can also impact other medicines you are taking so make sure to consult your doctor before taking any of them!

I will have more to say about sleep in the future, but for now this is probably a lot to process. Try to adopt a couple of the above tips and see if they help you. I provided the tips above because I have adopted all of them and they have really helped me. I have definitely seen the sleep and resulting health benefits. Good luck!

1. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation/health-effects#:~:text=Physical%20health%20benefits&text=Good%2Dquality%20sleep:,pressure%2C%20obesity%2C%20and%20stroke.

2. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation/health-effects#:~:text=Physical%20health%20benefits&text=Good%2Dquality%20sleep:,pressure%2C%20obesity%2C%20and%20stroke.

3. https://www.webmd.com/diet/sleep-and-weight-loss; https://odphp.health.gov/myhealthfinder/healthy-living/mental-health-and-relationships/get-enough-sleep

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/#:~:text=Caffeine%20(1%2C3%2C7,activity%2C%20and%20decreased%20reaction%20times.

5. https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/toolkit-for-sleep

6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23347102/#:~:text=At%20all%20dosages%2C%20alcohol%20causes,across%20gender%20and%20age%20groups.

7. https://peterattiamd.com/category/sleep/diet-sleep/

8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39252819/#:~:text=Magnesium%2DL%2Dthreonate%20improves%20sleep,problems:%20A%20randomized%20controlled%20trial; https://www.verywellhealth.com/magnesium-l-threonate-vs-magnesium-glycinate-8758091

9. https://www.complete-obgyn.com/blog/using-magnesium-glycinate-to-help-with-your-sleep-insomnia#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20try%20magnesium%20glycinate,not%20need%20a%20prescription%20for%20magnesium%20glycinate.

10. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Ashwagandha-HealthProfessional/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20the%20studies%20found%20that%20ashwagandha%20extract%20had%20a%20small,prominent%20in%20participants%20with%20insomnia.

11. https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/toolkit-for-sleep

12. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229924000591#:~:text=The%20effects%20of%20chamomile%20on%20sleep%20are%20believed%20to%20be,is%20crucial%20for%20promoting%20sleep.