The Silent Killer

SLEEP is the topic of today's rant.

It's a very overlooked piece of the puzzle. It's an area I have definitely neglected as well.

If it feels like you're doing everything else right, but you're not making the progress you were hoping for, I'd take a hard look at your sleep schedule.

And there are a lot of ways to easily monitor your sleep these days. I have a Whoop, and the sleep data is my favorite part of it.

The calorie burn data on all the wearables has been proven time and again to be wildly inaccurate, so while it's still fun to keep an eye on, I don't take any stock in that info.

But the sleep data I do pay a little more attention to.

If you have young kids at home I understand that this post has already probably gotten pretty annoying. Everything I'm saying needs to be adjusted to what's realistic within your current day to day. I'll be entering the fatherhood world in a few months and I fully expect my sleep to take a massive hit. But if you can improve your routine in any way relative to your current approach, that's a win.

Here's a pretty staggering stat:

One night of less than 6 hours of sleep on average results in 300-700 additional calories consumed the next day.

There are a lot of reasons for this.

Less time asleep = more time awake = more opportunity to consume more calories.

And if your sleep schedule stinks, you're likely staying up too late. Nothing productive happens after 10 PM. And while up past then you are probably mindlessly snacking or having drinks you don't really need.

Less than 6 hours of sleep also disrupts your hormones, including the ones that impact appetite - ghrelin and leptin.

Ghrelin is your hunger hormone. It's what signals to your brain that you are hungry. Leptin is your satiety hormone. It's what signals to your body that you are full.

These hormones get thrown out of wack while you're sleep deprived. So you feel hungrier than you actually are, and less full than you actually are. Therefore you eat more.

Your willpower and decision making also take a hit while sleep deprived. You are mentally exhausted as well, which can lead to poor decision making across the board.

Sleep is when your body sheds body fat and builds muscle.

If you're in a fat loss phase, it's while you are sleeping when a lot of your body fat actually leaves the body.

And if you're in a muscle building phase, its during sleep when your muscle actually builds and recovers after intense lifts.

So if you're not sleeping enough, progress in both areas will be impacted, even if your diet and weightlifting routine are very on point.

Here's what I've been doing lately to step up my sleep routine:

~1 hour before bed, I throw on the blue light blocker glasses

Look if you can truly commit to zero screen time 1 hour before bed, even better, and then there are obviously no glasses required.

But that sounds super boring. I like watching a good reality tv show or sports before bed just like a normal person.

Wearing the glasses make a huge difference. You will notice yourself gradually getting more tired. Without them, the lights from the tv and your phone will keep you awake for longer.

~1 hour before bed, I try to stop scrolling and put my phone down

I definitely don't always achieve this. But I think it's a reasonable compromise as opposed to going completely cold turkey on the screens, which just isn't realistic. Try putting the phone away and watching your final ep of the night with your blue light glasses on.

Get in bed by latest 10 PM

I actually was asleep by 9:09 PM one night this week. Felt incredible the next day. Woke up at 5 AM sharp before my alarm. That's a bit aggressive, but 10 PM should be the cutoff, unless there's some playoff OT that needs to be watched.

Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day

This doesn't need to be exact to the minute. I like to target hour ranges for bed time (9:30 - 10:30 PM) and wake up (5 - 6 AM). And yes, I stick to this on the weekends too. If you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, your body will come to expect it and you'll start naturally falling asleep and waking up at those times.

Anything I missed? Let me know if you have any sleep techniques that you've found effective.

And consider picking out one of the above and working it into your routine this week.

Stay well, Hal the Health Coach