Episode 196. How To Get Better Sleep

Welcome to another episode of the In-situ health and fitness podcast! This week on the show, we dive into the fundamentals of sleep to help you achieve better rest and overall well-being. In this episode, we explore the QQRT framework from Dr. Matthew Walker: quantity, quality, regularity and timing. We'll also discuss practical tips for enhancing your sleep hygiene, from managing light exposure to maintaining a cool bedroom environment. If you often wake up feeling unrefreshed, this episode is packed with strategies to improve your sleep and, by extension, your daily health and performance. Tune in to learn how you can start sleeping better tonight!

Notes; 
Dr. Matt Walker: The Science & Practice of Perfecting Your Sleep - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KNsmuCgX6lz8GE2J3393Y?si=ASbg_RhMSPikc5cV9SRkYA

10-Minute Guided Sleep Meditation | SELF
https://youtu.be/LWGSwfchz_A?si=MTuD1WEtnbB2gFFQ

Chapters

• 2:20 How much sleep do you need?
• 6:25 Having a regular sleep schedule is crucial for energy, sleep quality, weight loss, and muscle building.
• 8:30 Alignment of sleep schedule with your chronotype.
• 12:50 How to determine your sleep quality.
• 14:55 Manage light exposure for better sleep.
• 24:45 How caffeine affects your sleep quality and duration.
• 30:35 How to create a calming bedtime routine.
• 36:00 The methods we use to fall asleep.

Transcript

What is up everybody welcome back to the
 in-situ collective podcast on today's
 episode we're going to teach you how to
 get the best night sleep
 [Music]
 ever we have been getting a lot of
 requests for this episode
 sleep is very important everybody else
 is starting to catch on to that and
 learn how important sleep is for you not
 just for your overall health Wellness
 but reaching your goals as well but how
 do we do that how do we know if we're
 getting a good night's sleep all those
 questions we're going to answerer in
 today's episode so make sure you hang
 around to the end do you want to kick us
 off with the first so let's just go over
 briefly what we're going to cover
 because we haven't done a sleep episode
 like an educational start one for ages
 but we keep saying oh we've got a good
 sleep episode or we're going to do a
 good sleep episode so I feel like the
 structure today is going to be firstly
 something new that I learned from an
 Andrew hubman and Dr Matthew walk up
 Podcast which is the Sleep fundamentals
 of
 qqr so that stands for quantity quality
 regularity and timing which is something
 we haven't discussed specifically on the
 podcast we've probably done it
 individually
 different episodes yeah so I thought
 we're going to like bring everything
 we've scattered around our episodes
 together into this episode then we'll
 talk about like sleep hygiene Basics so
 how to improve your sleep if you think
 that your quality isn't all that and
 then at the end we'll talk about like
 what to do when you struggle falling
 asleep because a couple of weeks ago I
 sent out an email about ruminating
 before falling asleep and how to work
 with that and I got a lot of feedback on
 how helpful that was and I didn't
 realize how much people struggled
 actually falling asleep so I thought I'd
 put that in at the end nice okay so
 firstly I feel like the most obvious is
 quantity of sleep and the general
 guideline is 7 to9 hours and that is so
 that you get sufficient deep sleep and
 sufficient REM sleep which is rapid eye
 movement sleep so you need a certain
 amount of cycles per night to feel
 rested the next day and that's different
 for everybody so you might feel rested
 after 7 hours I might feel more rested
 after 8 or 9 hours so it just depends on
 you as the person um so you pay
 attention and record I was going to say
 how do I know yeah how much sleep you're
 getting um in an ideal world you would
 wear like a wearable of some description
 like an aura ring or a whoop or whatever
 else Apple watch maybe to track your
 sleep to see how long you're actually
 sleeping because just because you go to
 bed at 9:00 doesn't NE necessarily mean
 you're going to sleep at 9: um and maybe
 you push snooze a few times in the
 morning when your alarm goes off Etc
 there's lots of variables but yeah just
 tracking how much sleep you get and if
 you want to if you aren't using
 something like a whoop which also has
 like a journal aspect where you can put
 in how you feel as well um if you're
 just writing it down say for example
 just note how you feel like if I if you
 slept for 6 and 1 half hours and you
 feel great put down how you feel did you
 have an afternoon crash though like what
 is how are you feeling throughout the
 day is a big indicator of how much sleep
 you should need at night yeah one of our
 clients Dino actually asked like what
 wearable is the best to track your sleep
 and we actually just come to the
 conclusion that he should just keep a
 diary yeah like when you have a bad
 night's sleep you can go over like what
 led up to that night's sleep you know
 why was it so bad so you don't repeat
 those things because a lot of the time
 we keep repeating processes that give us
 a bad sleep and don't even realize it
 when you write it down you can look over
 last week or so you actually go oh yeah
 true yeah I was doing that one thing
 that you know made me have a bad night's
 sleep so journaling is quite effective
 as well yeah definitely I do like if you
 wanted to choose one wearable I would
 say whoop I've never used Aura ring so
 I'm not really sure how it works but
 when we were wearing a whoop wow that
 was a lot of W's when we were wearing a
 whoop um it asks you in the morning
 questions like did you have alcohol last
 night when was your last um coffee like
 how stressed were were yesterday and
 then at the end of the week and at the
 end of the month it gives you a report
 on how those things affect your recovery
 and your sleep which is super insightful
 but it's a little nerdy like it's a next
 level up from a journal probably yeah it
 takes a journal and body metrics and
 join them join them together yeah is
 very effective because you can see in
 real time and over the periods of time
 what is actually affecting yeah yeah it
 is a good feature I do like that
 so the next one the next cue is quality
 so the the structure of your sleep
 throughout the night how broken is it
 how much deep sleep are you getting how
 much REM sleep are you getting and that
 is a lot harder to track unless you're
 wearing a we a wearable unless you're
 waking up and like writing it down but
 then you're probably like you could be
 waking up in light sleep or you could be
 fully awake and like how often are you
 waking up how often are you spending in
 light sleep a lot of those things are
 really hard to track unless you're
 wearing
 something but at the same time wearing
 something and worrying about the quality
 might cause anxiety and might lead you
 to sleep less efficiently as well so it
 just depends how poorly you think you're
 sleeping like if you feel like you are
 waking up heaps or you feel like you are
 getting 8 or 9 hours sleep and you still
 feel exhausted then maybe there's
 something going on with the quality of
 your sleep and then maybe consider
 tracking it so you can try and find like
 what is it that is not right like are
 you not getting enough REM are you not
 getting enough deep sleep and then you
 can sort of work backwards to see how
 you can fix that which we will get
 to
 um yeah after so after quality which is
 probably going to be the the basis of
 this podcast is how to improve the
 quality we have regularity we talk about
 this all the flipping time right have a
 regular sleep schedule that is the
 absolute best thing can do for your
 energy for your sleep for weight loss
 for muscle building everything that we
 ever talk about having a regular sleep
 schedule is the best cost most cost
 effective easiest thing that you can do
 what do you mean by regular that means
 going to bed and waking up at the same
 times with a 30 minute buffer each each
 side ideally so if you go to bed at 9
 8:30 or 9:30 not going to make much of a
 difference and if you get up at 6
 getting up at 5:30 or 6:30 that's okay
 like that's there's like a window of
 error um but if you're pushing it out
 like on the weekends and you're sleeping
 in an hour an hour and a half 2 hours
 longer which I know is appealing at the
 time um but it's got you're doing
 yourself a disservice like come Monday
 for example cuz it makes it so much
 harder for you to feel alert and for
 your body to get back into the Rhythm
 and honestly you probably spend 3 4 days
 getting the Rhythm them back by going to
 bed at the same time and getting up at
 the same time and then you ruin it by
 staying up late or sleeping in on the
 weekends and then it's just like so much
 effort to get back into the Rhythm so
 just I was going to say like if
 somebody's doing it Friday Saturday
 Sunday night staying up a little bit
 later because it's a weekend and then
 what you've only got Monday Tuesday
 Wednesday Thursday to recover and then
 it's back into Friday night where you
 stay like it's it's very hard for your
 body to get in that cycle but even
 waking like so we're not saying you can
 never go out again or have fun but even
 when you stay out try and get up at the
 same time or close enough to that same
 time that you normally wake up as well
 and just know that staying out later or
 sleeping in is going to make you feel
 groggy and not make you feel your best
 like we're not saying do do or don't do
 these things but it's just what we're
 giving you today is trying to help you
 have the best sleep so that you feel the
 best so that you can perform the best in
 life essentially um real life example we
 were very social on the weekend and went
 out and stayed out past our bedtime even
 all of our friends are like oh you guys
 are you okay to keep going and doing
 things um I got sick every time that we
 do that because my sleep schedule is
 pretty like dialed in um and it is cold
 as hell here at the minute
 but my I went to bed a lot later I had
 drank alcohol so I My Sleep Quality was
 very poor so everything was out the
 quantity I slept probably 5 or 6 hours
 cuz I got up at the normal time instead
 the quality terrible because I drank
 alcohol the regularity out the window
 and then the timing also out the window
 which is the next thing we're going to
 talk about which is aligning your sleep
 schedule with your chronotype we haven't
 talked about chronotypes for years right
 yeah I feel like you put me on
 chronotypes maybe 5 years ago and then
 we sort of just for about it why did
 that happen it's just very hard to
 incorporate your chronotype with your
 lifestyle because the world is set up
 for 9 to
 5 um so this is probably an optional
 extra but if you have the flexibility
 highly recommend I'll put the link to
 the chronotype quiz that Dr Matthew
 Walker recommends um in the show notes
 so you can go and find out what your
 chronotype is and if you have the
 flexibility to sort of shift your sleep
 schedule so just what's a chronotype a
 chronotype is whether you are a morning
 person a night hour or a regular like
 middle of the day so I feel like a
 morning person would probably go to bed
 at 9:00 get up at 5: say and then maybe
 the next chronotype would be like going
 to bed at 10 or 11: and getting up at 7
 or 8 and then the the other chronotype
 might be like around 12 and getting up
 at like
 n or 10 yeah um so like genetically your
 body will have a preference to one of
 those time slots and if you're fighting
 against it like if you are a night owl
 and you're trying to force yourself to
 be a morning person then you can feel
 like you're always tired and you're
 never rested you're never getting a good
 night's sleep because your biological
 clock just doesn't agree with that so do
 the quiz um play around with it like I
 guess it is also up to interpretation
 quizzes and anything like that that give
 you some kind of label also depend on
 how you answer so even take it a few
 times whenever we do personality quizzes
 and stuff um at Uni for psych they
 always say take it at different times of
 the day take it when you're in different
 moods and just cross reference your
 responses because take it after a night
 out take it after a good night sleep
 exactly because how you respond can yeah
 determine where how you set the rest of
 this up yeah I it's just like I'm I
 guess I haven't talked about it for so
 long because I just all I don't know I'm
 not convinced I guess it is comes down
 to that interpretation because at the
 moment 4:35 o00 is my wake time and to
 start with it was hard but now I F it
 quite easy like can your body just get
 used to different chronotypes I would I
 feel like
 yeah I feel like you can definitely
 train your brain to get used to a
 different chronotype but I don't know
 personally I've always been I need to
 like like 9:00 for as long as I can
 remember has been my bedtime I don't
 know if that's because that's what I
 want physically or if that's just
 society's trained that into
 me but it feels best intuitively it
 feels best for me um like if you could
 do whatever and you didn't have clients
 why are you yawning talking about sleep
 if you could do whatever and you didn't
 have clients in the morning what time
 would you want to get up I'd still like
 I don't know I like getting up that
 early same so I feel like we're the
 morning type um even just asking
 yourself that question without even
 going and doing the chronotype quiz like
 if nothing in your life else mattered if
 nothing else mattered in your life what
 time would you want to get up and what
 time would you want to go to bed mine
 would still be the same as it is
 now okay yeah I don't know something to
 consider yeah so how to determine if you
 are getting a good quality night's sleep
 firstly do you feel refreshed and
 restored when you wake up do you want to
 get out of bed or do you want to lay
 there and rot for another hour then I
 would say do you feel like you can sleep
 well past your alarm because sometimes
 in the morning the alarm goes off and I
 want to lay in bed but I can't sleep
 anymore because my body's like this is
 when we get up let's get up so just
 consider those things um and if you feel
 like you don't feel refreshed restored
 you want to sleep for hours the next
 things that we are going to talk about
 might help you feel better
 because they'll ideally improve your
 Sleep
 Quality um I was just having a flashback
 y it has been a long long time since
 we've done as sleep episode yeah I feel
 like we're and were they good ones back
 then yeah proba we don't go back and try
 and find them but one thing I again back
 then and I remember talking about it now
 you should wake up happy hungry and
 horny oh yeah three hes so you should
 wake up every morning hungry for food CU
 you should have just done a big fast MH
 if you eat 3 hours before you go to bed
 which I'm sure we'll go over maybe we've
 talked about in other podcast so it's
 been a while since you've eaten so you
 should be hungry and you should wake up
 happy you should be waking up ready to
 rock and roll and get into your day and
 biologically you should be horny in the
 mornings is that just for boys though
 could be don't know feel like that's a
 boy thing I guess so CU boys you know
 yeah again evolutionary like you should
 wake up and that's
 the mornings are your optimal time for
 your hormones so yeah true and we always
 say if you are trying to achieve a
 health and fitness goal or Aesthetics or
 anything like that the best time to
 train is in the morning because your
 body is optimized to perform best in the
 morning so you know hormones come into
 that so your hormones should be firing
 so you should be horny so horny is just
 not just a state of mind it is a
 chemical reaction in your body as well
 so the morning erections are a good sign
 of vit
 ality and health and a good night's
 sleep okay let's stay on the hormone
 topic I want to talk about light using
 light and dark and the hormone melatonin
 which is what makes you feel sleepy F I
 keep hitting this goddamn mic um so
 melatonin is the hormone that makes you
 feel sleepy um it does other things too
 but we'll just talk about it in the
 context of sleep so Darkness allows the
 release of melatonin to Signal sleep so
 Darkness in the evening allows the
 release of melatonin to Signal sleep and
 then obviously light in the morning is
 going to suppress melatonin so you will
 feel more
 alert um so I feel like that should be
 intuitive right so in the mornings you
 want to expose your eyes and skin to as
 much light as you can ideally sunlight
 but if you live in a gloomy place or
 you're starting the morning super early
 or you're going to the gym in the dark
 then any light still um screens overhead
 lights ideally just something that's s
 that that simulates
 simulates something that simulates the
 sun um to tell your body your brain and
 then your body that it's time to
 suppress melatonin and start to feel
 alert and ready for the rest of the day
 um and then obviously at nighttime I
 feel like we talk about this a lot maybe
 it's just you and I that talk talk about
 it but minimize screens and overhead
 head light at night that should be
 common sense but maybe it's not so in an
 Ideal World you want to stop watching TV
 being on your phone whatever it is an
 hour at least before going to bed and if
 you can even earlier than that just have
 lowle lights on so lights that are like
 on the ground rather than your lamps and
 stuff rather than like your ceiling
 lights and if you want to take it to
 another level get like orange or red
 bulbs in your lamps um
 um yeah just be careful don't run into
 things no you'll be able to see still
 but yeah that is a really good way to
 like indicate to your brain that it's
 time to start whining down and get ready
 to go to sleep for the next 7 to 9
 hours
 um the other thing for light I would say
 would be considering blackout blockout
 curtains and if you can't do that then
 get a sleep mask um but light does also
 come in through your skin and your brain
 does register that so in an ideal world
 no lights in the bedroom at all but you
 could consider a sleep mask as well yeah
 um yeah and also like I know that Hues
 and I know that we talk about trying to
 get sunlight 10 to 15 minutes with
 within waking up or within the first
 hour of waking trying to get natural
 light into your eyes um but in places
 like Melbourne it's so gloomy sometimes
 in the morning like the sun Sun hasn't
 even come out yet today and I'm sure
 there's lots of places like that around
 the world but there's still light
 photons coming through the clouds so
 when you think about how light it is in
 the day versus the night that's still
 light so your brain will still register
 it as light so definitely still go
 outside even if it's gloomy and dark
 because it is still going to benefit
 your sleep later that night mhm are you
 good I feel like you need a nap no no
 just just thinking as we go on okay
 anything to add to the light and dark
 section no I was just going to say uh
 blue light blockers sometimes can be a
 good tool to have especially if you have
 to be on your screen I guess too late
 yeah um and I guess this is where
 supplementing melatonin because I've had
 a few clients struggle with sleep and
 then they supplement with melatonin M
 but if you are again supplements are
 there if you need them not saying
 they're good or bad but it's pointless t
 a melatonin supplement and then still
 like having screens and overhead lights
 and all that sort of stuff sort of
 like you're giving your body the hormone
 to send you to sleep but actually giving
 the external signals of stay awake yeah
 so I just say be careful of that as well
 um I think there's a lot of I haven't
 really dived into it but I've been
 hearing it a bit about melatonin and
 supplementing and all that sort of stuff
 that doesn't seem to be quite good so
 all I'd say to those people just be
 careful with that sort of stuff as well
 CU obviously you're sending mixed
 signals to your body and that can be
 quite damaging and it's not going to
 help you sleep at
 all wait what's not going to help you
 sleep when you're you're taking
 melatonin and having overhead lights you
 got that oh I see it's counteract
 counterintuitive to your body yeah that
 makes sense um I feel like if you just
 start to use if you don't already use
 the light and dark technique and you
 start to use it you not you should
 definitely notice a massive difference
 um because that's so hardwired for that
 it's insane so use it to your advantage
 okay the next thing I wanted to talk
 about was temperature because I feel
 like this is very overlooked I don't
 know what it is with people here but
 when it's cold outside they want the
 temperature in their apartment to be
 like 30° it's insane right whereas we
 like we have a what do you call it
 central heating and cooling ducted
 ducted Heating and Cooling um so like in
 the day we probably have it on 24 or
 something warm but then at night time or
 in the after in the evening probably we
 turn it down to like
 19° cool so that the bedroom is cool
 because it is really hard for your body
 to relax and get into it's actually more
 your brain your brain needs to cool for
 you to be able to get into the deep and
 the REM sleep so ideally you want it to
 be your bedroom 19° or less that's the
 number that um Matthew Walker like
 recommend aiming for 19° but also do
 your best to support your body in
 cooling its core body temperature down
 as well um because I I'm pretty sure it
 has to cool down like a whole degree for
 you to be at like the optimal body
 temperature which doesn't sound like
 much but when you think about it it's a
 lot of work for your body to do that so
 you can do that basically by having a
 hot shower um because you'll increase
 your body's temperature and then it will
 it'll decrease itself it'll like work
 it'll take it as a signal to decrease
 the body temperature for you to get
 ready to go to bed does that yeah yeah
 definitely it just it's very confusing
 when people hear that it's like I want I
 want to get hot to get cold yeah so you
 think about it your body regulates so
 when you jump in a cold ice bath your
 body's trying to warm itself up to
 combat that cold so your body
 temperature doesn't get too cold and
 then when you have a hot shower it's
 trying to cool you down so you don't
 overheat yeah so it's just a bit
 around and and understandable and I
 think a lot of people get that wrong as
 well and jump in a cold shower before
 bed you should have a hot shower and
 your body starts to try and cool itself
 MH yeah yeah like the last couple of
 nights our AC hasn't been working and
 the irregularity in the temperature of
 our bedroom has ruined our sleep like
 honestly it made has made such a big
 difference that I forgot how much of an
 impact the temperature and having a
 temperature control department has on
 our ability to have a good night's sleep
 it's crazy so yeah definitely consider
 that okay next I had food and meal
 timing mhm so what was the three a while
 ago you you put out an analogy like
 three 3 2 1 yeah go on yeah a lot of
 people found it quite easy and i' got a
 lot of comments which is quite cool but
 3 hours before bed no food 2 hours
 before bed no liquids M and one hour
 before bed no
 screens yeah yeah that's right y um
 obviously again that's a lot easier said
 than done sometimes life and all that
 sort of stuff you have to eat three like
 you know maybe two or 1 hour before bed
 so be it but just trying to work on that
 makes a big difference um I know it's
 quite hard not to drink 2 hours before
 you go to bed but maybe just less a lot
 less like I just find like just tiny
 little sips of water cuz I think I'm
 thirsty but not that thirsty just cuz
 I've been drinking so much throughout
 the day um and yeah definitely no
 screens an hour before bed you know
 that's I think that's the easiest one
 for most people to do uh the other two
 sort of obviously family friends you
 know lifestyle come into it as well so
 but just I think everybody can sort of
 try and work on at least 60 Minutes of
 no screens before bed is quite easy to
 start with yeah um I think worst case
 scenario like try 2 hours
 maximum eating something 2 hours maximum
 before going to bed and if you have to
 eat close to going to bed just eat
 something like smaller because it is
 it's a lot of work for your body to
 digest food so then you aren't getting
 in the full body deep sleep like you
 would if you had eaten 2 hours prior to
 getting into bed and then there's like
 it increases the chance of reflux it
 increases increases the chance of you
 being thirsty and waking up to go get a
 drink which then increases the chance of
 you having to go to the toilet so just
 it's a ripple effect you just push it
 out for 3 to 2 hours before there's a
 lot of things that won't happen that
 will help you sleep better and I know
 there's some people out there like
 caffeine they're like I can have a
 coffee or I can eat just before bed and
 it doesn't affect me it does you just
 don't realize it and you could be having
 a better night's sleep and not realize
 it just by pushing that back a little
 bit Yeah okay the next thing I want to
 talk about was caffeine oh yeah um so
 caffeine just to clarify coffee caffeine
 does not reduce your need for sleep I
 feel like it's common that if I have
 coffee then I I can function on less
 sleep so that's fine but it doesn't
 reduce your need for sleep it only
 temporarily masks your sleepiness so
 think about it as if you are tired
 honestly I don't really have caffeine
 because I'm tired I have caffeine
 because I want to work and I like the
 taste of it like I don't wait until I'm
 sleepy to have caffeine does that make
 sense yep um um
 so yeah try to think of it
 as something to increase your Baseline
 rather than get you to Baseline yeah
 does that make does that make sense um
 so if you are yeah you're getting to the
 afternoon and you're getting sleepy and
 then you get that coffee it's not
 actually doing anything it's a Band-Aid
 effect that's temporarily making you
 less sleepy and it's going to affect
 your sleep the coming night and then
 make you sleepier the next day and it's
 a never ending vicious cycle of caffeine
 dependence yeah it's more and more
 sounds like a drug yeah well it is but
 it's just like yeah if you're somebody
 that wakes up and can't function without
 a
 coffee I've heard people that are on
 meth say the same thing about meth can't
 function without meth and like don't
 rely on it yeah don't rely on it use it
 as a tool so in an Ideal World you want
 to avoid having caffeine 8 to 10 hours
 before going to sleep obviously some
 people metabolize caffeine a lot faster
 and a lot more efficiently which means
 they get it out of their system um a lot
 quicker than other people but ideally 8
 to 10 hours before bed don't have any
 caffeine um and also if you are
 experiencing afternoon crashes
 frequently then definitely try delaying
 your caffeine intake in the morning
 because that like having an after I know
 it's very very common to have an
 afternoon crash of energy but that is
 your first sign that something with your
 sleep isn't quite right and the fact
 that it's really hard for you to get out
 of bed but if you're having like a
 massive afternoon slump like you can't
 get through the afternoon without sugar
 or chocolate or something caffeinated
 then you need to change something so
 ideally delaying your coffee in the
 morning should help you not have a slump
 until it's bedtime so Andrew hubman does
 recommend 90 minutes with don't have C
 within 90 minutes of waking um we do
 that and I think it makes a massive
 difference huge difference yeah yeah so
 try to delay your caffeine the first 90
 minutes honestly fill it with trying to
 get sunlight in your eyes going for a
 10-minute walk doing a 10minute yoga
 drinking water having a
 shower 90 minutes of pass eating 20
 grams of protein yeah you can easily
 fill 90 minutes in the morning with
 other things before having caffeine y
 okay do you think that that is
 sufficient caffeine rundown just be
 careful of caffeine as well a lot of
 teas are caffeinated I think people get
 like they're like I'll swap my coffee
 for a green tea um there's still a lot
 of caffeine in green tea MH uh it's just
 Caff uh teas have Aline in it which what
 we got in this which masks the caffeine
 high that you would get from coffee so
 just be careful of Caff uh teas as well
 and energy drinks obviously yeah uh it
 can be quite caffeinated
 cool okay next we have implementing a
 windown routine I think this is often
 overlooked a lot of people like super
 busy with their day then they come home
 and they're cooking cleaning doing
 chores watching Netflix and then they're
 like I got to go to bed quickly and
 you're probably like have a million
 things going through your mind you're
 like energized over tired most likely
 over caffinated most likely um so I
 think that implementing a a windown
 routine is just as important is having a
 morning
 routine so you can signal to your brain
 and body it's all about signaling to
 your brain like your brain will do
 whatever you tell it to do you just have
 to choose the right things to tell it
 that you want for it to get the behavior
 that you want yeah
 so I feel like it's obvious but trying
 to do relaxing activities an hour before
 bed like meditation reading stretching
 even cleaning the house like in low
 light um yeah I was going to say that
 like obviously every this is going to be
 very different for everybody and there's
 obviously a lot of people out there with
 you know um kids and all that sort of
 stuff
 like your routine is going to look like
 whatever but you know if you are still
 working and doing things before bedtime
 you can turn the lights off yeah you
 know be in a relaxed State you don't
 have to have the TV Go music playing and
 working and got you know chores going
 you can just do slowly calmly do one
 thing at a time you'll chip through them
 but it's just no distractions like
 probably getting rid of your phone a
 little bit before bed as well obviously
 getting off social media and all that
 sort of stuff I know a mom that instead
 of watching TV after 7even she has two
 kids and instead of watching TV they put
 on a podcast and they often actually
 listen to Andrew hubman um and the kids
 like they don't really know what's going
 on but they still pick up on things like
 as far as their language allows them to
 understand what's happening but it's
 very low stimulation you don't have the
 blue light from the TV like you're just
 listening to his calm deep voice while
 they do their bath routine and
 everything and then everyone feels calm
 and rested and it's like just makes you
 all slow down and come more inward I
 suppose yeah I think another important
 thing in the windown routine should be
 considering avoiding stimulating
 activities in your bedroom or in bed so
 no TV in bed no phone no social media in
 bed
 um no eating in bed no drinking in bed
 like you want to tell your brain that
 bed is the place to sleep the more you
 can make that connection the stronger
 you can make that connection between the
 bed being just the place you sleep the
 better so do everything in your power to
 tell your brain every single night that
 this is where we go to sleep and that's
 it still blows my mind that people have
 TVs in their bedrooms it's the biggest
 thing one of the a lot of people say I
 can't sleep without the TV you can sleep
 a whole lot better without TV it's just
 going to take a little while to get used
 to it but yeah get rid of the TV in your
 bedroom best thing you can do I agree
 okay the last point before we move on to
 what to do when you have trouble falling
 asleep is alcohol very true briefly
 alcohol is a sedative not a sleep aid
 alcohol might help you fall asleep
 faster but it absolutely Ruins Your
 Sleep Quality it just causes fragmented
 sleep you don't get the deep sleep you
 don't get the rapid eye movement sleep
 as much as you need all it does is give
 you the illusion that you can fall
 asleep faster that's all I want to say
 on alcohol it's not a sleep aid it's a
 sedative okay is that clear yep um
 so this mean it let's this leads us
 directly in when you have trouble
 falling asleep because I feel like a lot
 of people will have what you call a
 night cap assuming that that is what's
 helping you fall asleep yeah and maybe
 it is but this the quality is not there
 so when you have trouble falling asleep
 first I would say get out of bed if
 you're in bed and you're tossing and
 turning and getting on your phone and
 getting more frustrated and angry that
 you can't fall asleep just get out of
 bed go sit on the couch and read a book
 like walk around do some yoga because
 like I said before you want to only
 associate bed with falling asleep so
 just get out for 20 minutes your phone
 shouldn't be in your bedroom anyway and
 well everyone's phone phones in the
 bedroom let's be real um so yeah just
 get out and try
 and I guess signal to your brain like
 we're calming down and then go back and
 try to fall asleep and then repeat as
 much as you have to honestly um because
 it will take
 practice the next thing that I would say
 when you have trouble falling asleep is
 just do nothing like just be still out
 of the bed right um just sit there
 because you're going to get bored and
 you're going to get sleep sit there in
 the dark if you have to and just do
 nothing until you're sleepy enough to go
 to bed it sounds dumb but yeah that's
 that's the only way to tell your brain
 that we're ready to sleep like if you're
 scrolling then your brain's like oh
 we're still doing something we're still
 looking for something what are we
 looking for so it's going to stay alert
 um yeah I don't know what else to say on
 that point the next thing that I put in
 my email a couple of weeks ago was doing
 a mental walk so I do this quite often
 where like your TOs and turning and
 you're thinking about the day and the
 things you should have said and the
 things you should have done and the
 things you have to do tomorrow just try
 your best
 to take yourself on a mental walk
 without those other things coming in so
 pick a place that you know a route that
 you know and just pretend you are
 walking through there it's like it's
 similar to the counting sheep technique
 but there's more to think about because
 it's like what is around you you know
 you are trying to retrieve from your
 memory the things that you have passed
 um and if you can even better on your
 walk take more pay more attention to the
 things around you so you can use that at
 night like what am I actually seeing on
 this walk rather than just you know
 mindlessly walking
 um yeah and then the last one I was
 going to say was limit naps I don't
 really care about naps I would just
 prefer to push through but I know lots
 of people nap and if you have trouble
 falling asleep then definitely and you
 are napping in the day limit them to 20
 to 30 minutes maximum you don't need to
 have a nap for an hour and a half 2
 hours in the day unless you're sleeping
 like 4 hours at night maybe but if
 you're sleeping for 7 to 9 hours and you
 still are napping for like an hour maybe
 something is a little wrong do you have
 anything else that you would like to add
 um one thing I do I probably did this
 meditation like I could probably count
 the times I've done a guided meditation
 on one hand I don't even think I've done
 it five times but it's a type of
 meditation where you take a breath in
 into I don't even how to explain it I've
 done a few guided ones I'll try and put
 it in the show notes I'll find out what
 it's actually called but you take a
 breath in as you breathe in you breathe
 that breath goes into your hand then as
 you breathe out the tension leaves and
 you just breathe all that tension and
 you draw that tension out of your
 hand like I've literally done that
 guided I think before with you and if I
 can't can't sleep I literally just do
 that it just blocks everything out of
 your mind and you listen to your body I
 I don't know like again it's not
 something that I spent a lot of time
 learning how to do it's quite easy yeah
 and when I can't fall asleep and my
 mind's racing I just do that sometimes
 it doesn't work but most of the times it
 does and again it's super easy like I
 don't know it's just one thing I've
 always done without much practice I know
 a lot of times people hear oh breath
 meditations and all that sort of stuff
 and you know hate doing it or hate
 learning how to do it I think if you do
 it once guided you have the gist and
 it's quite effective that's one thing I
 do yeah I think similar to that is just
 like a body scan too yeah like mentally
 just like relaxing like I love it in the
 yoga session when you do shavas
 shavasana is that what it's called and
 you like have to go through and like
 physically relax every part of your face
 yeah it's pretty much that you're just
 using your breath to breathe into those
 parts and then breathe out like I guess
 it's the same thing that's yeah one last
 thing I would say about when trying to
 fall asleep and ruminating would be to
 write things down that you have to do
 tomorrow so you don't have to keep
 rethinking it while trying to go to
 sleep I'm so bad at that if you can just
 quickly like write down all of the
 things you have to do tomorrow even if
 it even if it's like change batteries in
 the remote like all the little things
 that you're just keeping in your brain
 for later just write them all down
 because then you're like I know it's
 there I don't have to worry about it and
 I can just go to sleep something I need
 to start doing again I've done that in
 the past super effective yeah I think so
 too cool that's all that I that I wanted
 to talk about today perfect anything
 else that you think would be
 beneficial
 um no do we sort of spoke about taping
 mouths and all that sort of stuff in the
 last episode maybe go back and have a
 quick listen to that I do Tim stamp all
 the episodes so obviously if you've
 lasted this long you've lasted through
 the whole lot but if you're like what
 did they say about timing you can just
 go back and I'll time stamp it for you
 so it's easy to relisten to that one
 part um but as always we want to hear
 everybody else's like mac was actually
 saying the other day that we get so
 caught up in our routine that we forget
 that other people do this or that or we
 don't know about that or yeah I really
 struggle when we come to the educational
 episodes like this
 one I I feel like we always Overlook the
 basics because the basics are so normal
 to us but like the last two weeks or so
 when I've been speaking to people it's
 so apparent that people don't actually
 know how to improve their sleep if
 they're sleeping poorly already it's
 just I feel like it's not as common
 knowledge as you and I assume it to be
 so and we have spent a lot of time
 working on this a lot of time it's not
 like we just went yeah overnight and
 we've changed everything we've spent
 quite a few years dialing everything in
 changing everything learning stuff like
 are we still I'm still learning stuff
 about how to make it better and how to
 make it more digestible and easy for you
 guys to interpret and use because
 there's endless even for us to interpret
 and use so it's it's a constant thing
 that slowly changes again one thing I
 want to just before we go is just it's
 not going to change overnight like if
 you've done a few changes you're not
 going to wake up the next day feeling
 amazing and on top of the world it does
 take a few nights unfortunately I feel
 like it might take 2 or 3 weeks for your
 sleep to get better and your siav
 rhythms to dial in and all it takes is
 one night to throw it out yeah it's just
 the part about it but that's just
 how it is for us humans so don't feel
 discouraged after if it doesn't feel
 like it's changing after a few nights
 give it a few weeks and yes you're can
 to have the odd night sleep here
 and there but that happens you can learn
 from that right and just keep moving
 forwards awesome thank you everybody for
 tuning in we appreciate your time and
 we'll talk to you all in the next
 episode bye
 oh
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