types of sleep - Not Just Paleo

COPYRIGHT
© Kevin Geary, Evan Brand, and Rebooted Body, LLC
This work may not be distributed, altered, sold, copied, or otherwise manipulated without expression written permission from the authors.
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PREFACE
Evan Brand and I met shortly after I launched The Rebooted Body. I
initially reached out to him as a guest for my podcast and after we
recorded episode four -- which seems like ages ago now -- we got to
talking about our outlook on health and fitness. It was pretty clear to
me that we were going to end up collaborating on something down
the road. We both share a passion for helping people in the most
meaningful ways possible and avoiding the “typical” approaches.
Well, that something is here and it’s designed to help you transform a
hugely important area of your life and an area of your life that you
likely struggle with: sleep.
We’d like to invite you to the official REM Rehab private support group
on Facebook. Click here to request access.
~ Kevin
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DISCLAIMER
All material in this guide is provided for your information only and may
not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action or
inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this
information; instead, readers should consult appropriate health
professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being.
The information and opinions expressed here are believed to be
accurate, based on the best judgement available to the authors, and
readers who fail to consult with appropriate health authorities assume
the risk of any injuries. The publisher is not responsible for errors or
omissions.
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1
INTRODUCTION
At 34 years old, Cynthia is still in the early years of her
teaching career. She’s starting to get into a groove and
she loves what she does, save for the stress of
conforming to federal education standards.
It’s February and colder than ever. 27 degrees in
Chicago. Lately, Cynthia has been noticing her weight
climbing and she’s feeling a touch of depression, though she can’t
really pinpoint the source.
Between the weight gain, the depression, feeling rundown and the
stress of her job, her performance as a teacher is suffering. For the
first time this school year all she can think about is the Summer, her
time off, her beach vacation and warm weather.
Cynthia’s feelings and thoughts are typical of a large number of
people. But contrary to conventional wisdom, those thoughts and
feelings are not a requisite for being a human being.
They’re consequences of specific behaviors.
Not prioritizing sleep is a behavior that leads to massive physical and
mental impact. The lack of attention people give to sleep drives their
weight gain, their depression, and their general stress, just as it’s
driving Cynthia’s.
You might counter with, “but she’s not sleeping more in the Summer,
yet she feels better at that time of year.” And that’s true. But, people
are generally under less stress during the warmer months, they’re
taking vacations, they’re out in the Sun which improves their Vitamin
D levels (which chemically improves mood), they’re exercising more,
and they’re losing excess weight because they know they’ll be
wearing less clothing.
Under optimal conditions, sleep becomes less critical. The more
stress the body is under, the more sleep it needs. But that’s the
opposite of how most people behave. The more stress we’re under,
the more we tend to avoid sleep.
Your body is a gauge. If you feel rundown, a tinge of depression, a
cluttered mind, are experiencing less productivity and generally feel
stressed, those are signs that your body is in desperate need of
something. Of course, there’s a nutrition and exercise component to
all of this, but you’ll come to find that sleep is often the number one
factor.
If you’ve had your nutrition dialed in for a while and you stay active
and exercise on a regular basis and still feel like you’re not firing on all
cylinders, then you must take a critical look at sleep.
Similar to nutrition and exercise, you must learn to listen to your body
and follow through to give it what it needs when it needs it. It’s also
important to avoid making sleep mistakes so that when you do
dedicate eight or nine hours to yourself for sleep, that time has a
positive impact. Too often, people get eight or nine hours of sleep but
only a few of those hours were of any quality. Even though the clock
said they did things right, their body is screaming, “Hey, I’m sleep
deprived over here!”
ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?
Difficulty waking up, relying on caffeinated drinks, sugar and fat
cravings, feeling revved up at night, afternoon energy slumps, muscle
soreness that is lasting more than two or three days with regularity,
signs of wacky hormones, the accumulation of belly fat, lack of focus
and mental clarity, depressed productivity, and an unstable mood are
all signs of not getting enough sleep.
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Most of those issues in America are fixed with pills or unhealthy hacks
(more coffee anyone?). Or, people just suffer through them.
Sometimes we know we need more sleep but we’re not willing to take
the time. Often, we’re unaware that it’s a sleep issue at all.
As I mentioned before, getting 8 or 9 hours of sleep according to a
clock doesn’t mean your body is getting the proper amount of quality
sleep it needs. If the clock says one thing and your body says another,
you need to look deeper.
Sleep is one of those lifestyle factors that influences everything that’s
important. I think people get this, but at the same time we’re not
always willing to admit it.
A SLEEP STIGMA
Both authors of this book live in the United States. In this part of the
world, productivity is everything, often to our detriment. People work
long hours, make lots of sacrifices and tend to be over-scheduled.
droves from heart disease, diabetes, and other preventable diseases
directly linked to sleep and other lifestyle factors.
Think about this: in many parts of the world, sleep deprivation is used
as a form of torture. Where we’re from, people are voluntarily
depriving themselves of quality, restorative sleep.
If you dig even deeper you’ll find that most people who put
themselves through this voluntary torture aren’t even that productive!
They’re doing hours upon hours of busy work just so they can say
they put the time in.
Doing what needs to be done for your health and wellbeing often
requires stepping outside of some box that society has placed you in.
The unfortunate reality is that society is not set up as a healthy
environment. You deserve better than this and you’re worth doing
the work. It’s time to roll up your sleeves.
TYPES OF SLEEP
It’s as if sleeping is a weakness to some degree. If I’m asleep, I’m not
adding to my company’s bottom line. If I take a nap, my kids won’t be
getting my attention. If I go to bed earlier, I’ll miss my favorite
television series.
All known animals with a nervous system either sleep or show some
kind of behavior related to sleep. And they engage in that activity for
a third of their lives. But all sleep is not equal. There are two main
types of sleep and each has its place:
It’s unfortunate. We have a health crisis and the productivity-overeverything and entertainment-over-everything mindsets are one of
the main causes. Not only do those thoughts and feelings impact
sleep, they drive the stress cycle. The result is that we’re dying in
NR E M SL E E P - THE Q UIE T SL E E P
During NREM, there is little to no eye movement. You’re highly
unlikely to dream in this state. It’s a very quiet sleep and brain activity
is theorized to be more similar to your organized, conscious thoughts
rather than the confusing, vivid imagination that occurs during REM. In
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the beginning stages of NREM, you’re easily awakened, but as you
transition into the later stages you enter slow-wave sleep or deep
sleep. Most of your time asleep will be spent in NREM.
REM SLEE P - TH E PA R A D OX ICA L S L E E P
REM stands for “rapid eye movement” and is a literal observation for
this type of sleep, named after the fluttering eyelids of people in REM
sleep. Only about 90-120 minutes of your sleep each night is REM
sleep, accumulated in short cycles, and it’s the lightest type of sleep
occurring mostly in the morning hours.
REM sleep is physiologically different from non-REM sleep in that the
body becomes paralyzed as neurotransmitter production is
completely shut down. In people with REM behavior disorder, this
paralyzation does not occur and they act out the movements
according to what they’re experiencing in their dreams.
The purpose of REM is a collection of theories: from consolidation of
memories, to brain and central nervous system development (based
on the fact that babies spend up to 80% of their sleep in REM), to the
“reset” of neurotransmitter receptors.
Both types of sleep are absolutely necessary. Poor sleep occurs when
the cycle and rhythm of sleep is disturbed (both obviously and not
obviously) or shortened and when hormones are disordered. The
focus of this guide is going to be about prioritizing sleep (because
most people cause sleep related problems via their uncaring
approach to sleep), avoiding common disturbances that interrupt
rhythm and cycle, and regulating hormones.
HOW THE SLEEP CYCLE WORKS
Sleep is a cyclical process. While most people consider themselves to
either be awake or asleep, there’s actually a complex transition period
and distinct stages of sleep that you bounce back and forth between.
Sleep anomalies are common during the initial transition and people
may wrongfully consider them to be disorders.
Hypnagogic hallucinations (e.g. the sensation of falling or hearing
someone call your name) are quite common. Another aspect of
Hypnagogia is the Tetris Effect, the continual review and literal
experiencing of a repetitive action that was being performed prior to
sleep. For instance, chess players often report seeing a chess board
and moving chess pieces.
Have you ever been suddenly startled for no reason during sleep
transition? This is called The Myoclonic Jerk and is also very
common.
All of these things can occur during stage one of sleep, which is the
formal transition period. Stage one is a light phase of sleep that only
lasts five to ten minutes. If you’re awakened during this period of
sleep you will feel as if you had not yet fallen asleep.
If you make it through stage one, the next twenty or so minutes will be
characterized by body temperature and heart rate decline. As far as
brain activity goes, sleep spindles -- sharp spikes of brain activity -are a clear sign of stage two sleep and are an important aspect of this
stage. The sleep spindles are theorized to maintain tranquility, map
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nerve control to specific muscles (especially in children) and integrate
new information into existing knowledge.
At this point, stage three begins which is another transition period,
this time between light sleep and deep sleep. Once deep sleep
occurs, you’re considered to be in stage four, which lasts about 30
minutes.
REM sleep is stage five sleep. This is where brain activity will sharply
increase, muscle activity will be paralyzed, and dreaming is likely to
occur.
At this point in the explanation of sleep cycles you’re trying to add all
of this time up and you’re coming to the conclusion that these stages
are too short to constitute an entire night’s sleep. You’re right. That’s
where the cyclical nature of sleep comes in.
You don’t move through these stages, from one to five, and then wake
up. Once the first cycle of stage four sleep is complete, you bounce
back to stage two and three before entering REM. When you leave
REM, you’re bounced back to stage two. You’ll repeat this process
four to five times during the night. As sleep continues, REM stages
become longer (up to an hour at a time).
the clock in your bedroom -- is the mindset shift that will help you the
most. And the more forward steps you take -- even small ones -- the
more you’ll sleep your sleep improve.
Our society looks down on food as medicine and lifestyle as
medicine. They’d rather push drugs and “medications” instead of
simple interventions and adjustments. This has led people to believe
that simple changes can’t possibly transform their sleep -- or their
health for that matter. “That nonsense won’t work, just write me a
prescription for Ambien!”
The truth is that Ambien is what’s NOT necessary. Evan and I are
going to show you how to completely reboot your sleep with simple
food and lifestyle tweaks to help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep
longer, minimize disturbances, and wake up rested. Before all that,
though, we want to make sure you fully understand the impact of poor
sleep.
Let’s get on with it.
While learning about the sleep cycle is interesting, it doesn’t help you
much. This isn’t a book of science, it’s a book about action. So what
does help you?
Understanding that everything about your lifestyle impacts the cycle -the foods you eat, the color of the light in your house at night, your
routine, your stress levels, medications, your weight, your spouse, and
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AT YOUR WORST
It’s November in Atlanta and the temperature outside is
a brisk 40 degrees at 8am. By 3pm, the temperature
could climb as high as 65 degrees. That’s a 62%
increase in temperature driven primarily the sun.
Is there anything else that you know of that could cause
such a massive temperature change in only a matter of
hours?
I don’t.
The sun is a powerful influence on the temperature of the Earth and
far more powerful than any other factor.
Did you know that when it comes to your physical and mental
performance and health there’s an influencer just as powerful? It’s
called sleep. Just as the sun is the main deciding factor in the
temperature of the Earth, sleep is the main deciding factor in the
health and performance of your body. In a healthy individual, nothing
else competes.
Unfortunately, sleep is also one of the most neglected elements of
health and performance. Either we are subject to lifestyle factors that
prevent us from getting the sleep we need or we consciously decide
to limit sleep in exchange for other things like “productivity” or
entertainment.
Limiting sleep or simply getting poor quality sleep has mild to severe
consequences. Some of these you may know about and others may
come as a surprise to you. Either way, it’s important to understand
exactly what’s happening when your sleep is of low quality or low
quantity.
DEPRESSED METABOLIC FUNCTION
In normal metabolic function, hormones like insulin respond to food
intake by signaling muscles and fat cells to absorb glucose. This
normalizes blood sugar and pushes vital nutrients into your cells.
In type II diabetics, normal levels of insulin don’t trigger action by cells
because the cells’ receptors are “deaf” to the signal; they’ve been
overloaded with ever increasing amounts of insulin creating a cycle
whereby a larger amount of circulating insulin is necessary before the
cells’ insulin receptors will finally listen. This is called insulinresistance.
You may not be a diagnosed type II diabetic, but there’s a chance that
your lack of sleep is creating a situation where your body behaves
like one.
A study from the University of Chicago Medical Center tracked 11
healthy young men over the course of 16 nights. During the first three
nights, these men were permitted to get 8 hours of sleep. For the
following six nights, they were limited to four hours. And for the seven
nights after that they spent 12 hours in bed, total. All of the men in this
study were eating the same diet.
The findings were shocking. The changes in glucose metabolism that
occurred due to this decrease in sleep was significant. The men took
40% longer than normal to regulate blood sugar after a highcarbohydrate meal and both the secretion of insulin and the body’s
response to insulin decreased by 30%. This is in line with the
metabolic function of a type II diabetic. Only three nights of reduced
sleep was required to suppress insulin sensitivity by 25%
Not only does your body behave like a type II diabetic after periods of
low quantity or low quality sleep, chronic sleep deprivation can lead to
the development of full blown type II diabetes.
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Quick Tip: While low carbohydrate diets are helpful for some
people and not well tolerated by others, the evidence suggests
that carbohydrate intake should be kept very low after periods
of low quantity or low quality sleep.
There are ways to mitigate the acute damage from this metabolic
interruption that we’ll share with you later in this guide, but type II
diabetes is something you want to avoid at all costs in the long term.
DISORDERED EATING
One of the main complaints from people interested in losing weight or
who suffer from other unhealthy eating triggers is pervasive hunger -a hunger that just won’t go away no matter what they eat.
A study by the International Journal of Endocrinology revealed that
sleep deprivation (four hours of sleep per night) decreases Leptin
levels by 19% (less satiety) and increases ghrelin levels by 28%
(increased hunger) even after subjects were given a sleep
compensation of 10 hours per night the following two days.
If that’s not bad enough, subjects of a separate study noted an
increase in preference for high glycemic, carbohydrate-based foods
and salty food cravings increased by a massive 45%.
There’s a little bit of a snowball effect here as well. You crave carbs,
your satiety cues go down, your hunger goes up, your body is less
able to handle carbohydrate intake because it can’t adequately
remove sugar from the blood, your willpower is reduced (impaired
judgement and ego depletion), your stress increases, and all of those
things play on each other. In short, all roads lead to failure.
Hunger to that degree can have many causes, but identifying the
most powerful influencers will help you create the most positive
change in the shortest amount of time. Sleep is a powerful influencer
on hunger because it directly influences satiety hormones and creates
a snowball effect.
If one of your goals is to solve unhealthy eating patterns such as
overeating, emotional eating and mindless eating, then sleep is
critical. The consequences of negative sleep on hormonal and
metabolic function are too great to overcome. This can lead to failure
being blamed on things like “not having strong enough willpower.” In
reality, that’s not the case at all -- poor sleep is the culprit.
Leptin and Ghrelin are the two main appetite hormones. When these
hormones are in balance, your hunger and satiety cues are aligned
with your body’s needs and you’re free to take an intuitive approach
to eating. When Leptin and Ghrelin are disordered, hunger can be
pervasive and satiety is nowhere to be found.
Kevin is an expert on disordered eating and eating triggers. If you
want more on that topic from him, check out his action guide: 8
Unhealthy Eating Triggers and How to Conquer Them.
Leptin is the appetite suppressant. Ghrelin is the appetite trigger. Poor
sleep has a negative impact on both.
DECREASED MENTAL PROCESSING
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Are you on a mission to cut a few IQ points? I think it’s pretty safe to
say that all of us need all the IQ points we have and can’t much afford
to lose any. But dropping IQ points is exactly what you’re doing when
you don’t prioritize sleep (or if you suffer from a sleeping disorder).
Your brain has two separate types of memory, just like a computer. It
has a hard drive that stores information for later recall -- declarative
memory -- and it has memory that acts more like RAM (Random
Access Memory) -- called non-declarative memory -- that processes
everyday tasks such as motor skills and perception.
That’s a “rough” parallel because once computers store information,
that information doesn’t change. The human brain, however,
continuously alters and reconstructs memories and information. There
are other differences, but this isn’t a book on neurology.
Continuing with the computer analogy, sleep is like defragmenting a
computer hard drive. During your awake phase, you’re forming new
memories (long-term potentiation). The actual mechanism of memory
formation is the strengthening of nerve synapses, aided by the
neurotransmitter Glutamate.
Quick Tip: Glutamate is also found in the food additive MSG,
which is why MSG can have negative neurological consequences.
Glutamate is toxic to the brain at higher levels.
allows this process to rest while pruning the synapses, healing
excitotoxicity, and possibly engaging in “synaptic scaling,” a process
of memory pruning much like hard drive defragmentation.
A lot of information on computers is placed randomly on the hard
drive -- it’s “fragmented” to different areas. During defragmentation,
this information is reordered to be more logically placed while nonimportant information is discarded. The brain may have a similar
function that occurs during non-REM sleep that is crucial to memory
health and accessibility.
Poor sleep negatively affects long term memory, short term memory,
and cognitive speed and accuracy. It’s important to note that women
tend to tolerate sleep loss better than men (better performance in
some areas when sleep deprived), but recover from sleep loss slower.
And as you’d guess, the older you get the more susceptible you are
to the cognitive side effects of poor sleep.
INCREASE IN RISK OF PREVENTABLE
DISEASE
It’s a given that every lifestyle factor with negative health
consequences is going to increase your chances of developing a
preventable disease. But, poor sleep has some unique negative
health outcomes that are worth highlighting.
TYP E II DIABE TE S
A problem with active memory formation (when awake) is that the
process creates a toxic calcium buildup in brain cells referred to as
excitotoxicity. Sleep is theorized to be the restorative function that
We already talked about how poor sleep affects blood glucose
control. 4-6 hours of sleep can leave you with depressed metabolic
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function akin to having type II diabetes. And chronically poor sleep
can actually lead to the development of the disease.
care greatly about your mating ability, athletic performance, and body
composition.
Obviously, disrupting your body’s ability to control blood glucose is
bad news. On top of that, the scenario promotes weight gain,
especially around the midsection which is also a precursor to
diabetes.
Scientists from the University of Chicago found men who get less than
five hours sleep a night for a week or longer have greatly reduced
levels of testosterone than those who get a good night’s rest.
HEART D I S EAS E
A University of Chicago study showed a negative correlation in
coronary artery calcification (a precursor to heart disease) and sleep
quantity. In other words, the less you sleep the more calcification and
chance for heart disease you incur.
Combine that with chronically elevated blood pressure, increased
physical and mental stress, and increased inflammation, and poor
sleep puts you well on your way to unexpectedly dropping dead from
heart complications. If you have a history of heart disease in your
family, sleep becomes even more important in your life.
We hope you take this seriously because heart disease is the leading
cause of death in the United States. It’s a tragic way to go when family
is considered: there are no goodbyes, no planning or preparation, no
nothing. One day you’re here and the next you’re gone. And it’s
completely preventable in most cases.
DE CLINE I N SE X D R I V E A LO N G W IT H IN H IB IT ED
M USC LE GR OWT H A N D RE PA IR
"Low testosterone levels are associated with reduced well being and
vigor, which may also occur as a consequence of sleep loss" said Van
Cauter.
But, what does low testosterone mean exactly? How low are we
talking about? The study found that poor quantity and poor quality
sleep (5 hours or less) reduces a young man’s testosterone levels by
the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years. That’s critical.
It’s not just important for mating, it’s important for getting stronger and
repairing muscles. Testosterone is an androgen hormone that plays a
growth role in both males and females by binding to muscle cells and
amplifying biochemical signals. It also has a direct impact on Human
Growth Hormone (HGH).
The reduction in testosterone has huge implications for improving
body composition and reaching fitness goals. If you want to look good
naked, that’s going to depend on your lean muscle mass (low body fat
percentage with increased muscle definition). Attaining that lean
muscle mass requires the ability of muscles to both repair and grow.
Poor sleep is a direct hurdle to achieving those goals.
Maybe you don’t care if you get cancer or diabetes. Perhaps you’re in
the “we’re all going to die some day” camp. Even so, I bet you still
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The implications of low testosterone continue -- it’s also been
implicated in hair loss, loss of bone mass, and the accumulation of
abdominal fat.
For men, having testosterone levels slightly above average reduces
the risk for high blood pressure, heart attack, and obesity.
WORS ENE D D E P R E S S I O N
One in five Americans is on prescription drugs for anxiety or
depression. That’s significant, especially when you understand how
closely mood is related to food and lifestyle.
Instead of taking prescription drugs, Americans should be dialing in
their nutrition, auditing their lifestyle and getting more sleep.
If you suffer from anxiety and depression it’s important to understand
that sleep and depression is a cycle: one typically worsens the other
and vice versa. People with insomnia have a ten fold chance of
developing depression compared to those who sleep well.
This can be true even for people who suffer from localized depression
such as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression that
occurs at a certain time of year (usually winter). Sleep and keeping
circadian rhythms on track is key to mitigating or preventing SAD.
If you are on anxiety or depression medication and hope to get off
that medication at some point, sleep and nutrition are going to play a
pivotal role. For now, just know that sleep should be prioritized as it
exacerbates the cycle of depression.
TAKING ACTION TO AVOID BEING AT
YOUR WORST
Now that you understand the huge implications of low quality and low
quantity sleep, it’s time to figure out exactly what you’re going to do
about it.
In later chapters we’re going to dive deep into the tactics of improving
sleep, but right now we need to talk about the overall strategy of
making sleep a priority so you feel able and willing to take action.
Human beings are notorious for knowing why to do things and how to
do things and still not following through. It’s called the “intentionbehavior gap” and it’s the single biggest hurdle standing in your way.
This book is useless if you ingest the information and fail to take
action.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. If you truly want to transform your sleep and
your life, start by following through with the exercise below as it will
help you create both momentum and motivation that are sustainable
no matter what happens.
STE P ONE: LIST YOUR “BIGGEST WHY’S” IN D E TAIL .
Want to know what I hear most often from clients? It’s this: “Even once
you tell me what I need to do, it’s consistency that I have trouble with.”
You’re not alone if you think that. Most people have trouble with
consistency when their why isn’t big enough. If you had some disease
that was going to end your life and the doctor told you that all you had
to do was get 8 hours of quality sleep per night, do you think you
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would be able to follow through? Of course, because that’s a pretty
important REASON to follow through.
If you want to create momentum and motivation that doesn’t falter,
you’re going to have to come up with some important reasons for why
you want to take action. You’ll know you’ve identified important whys
by asking yourself, “Am I willing to fight my ass off for this reason?” If
the answer is yes, you’ve created a big why.
Here’s an example: “If I don’t improve my sleep I’ll be a worse dad to
my son because I’ll have less energy and I’ll be more prone to
blowing up on him in frustrating situations. My son deserves a better
version of me than that.”
I think you’ll agree that’s a much more important why than, “I want to
improve my sleep so I can feel better.”
On a sheet of paper, list up to five big whys. You’ll refer back to this
list when the road gets bumpy, so make sure your whys are
compelling. And remember: you’re worth all of them.
STEP T WO : C R E AT E S M A RT G OA L S T H AT ALIGN W I T H YOU R BI G WH YS
Now that you have your big whys spelled out, it’s time to create
SMART goals that will help you realize those whys. SMART goals are:
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
For example: “I’m going to go to bed 30 minutes earlier each night
and use [example technique from this guide] to improve my sleep
quality for three months while I work myself off of anxiety medication.”
That goal is specific (I’m going to do this and this), measurable (did
you get off anxiety meds?), attainable (you verified getting off meds in
this time frame is possible), relevant (it aligns with a big why you set),
and time-bound (it’s confined to a three month time frame).
Under the big whys you’ve already listed on your worksheet, list three
to five SMART goals that align with them.
AU DIT YOUR LIFESTYL E
It doesn’t matter how badly you want to reach your goals if your
lifestyle creates severe limitations on how often you take action and
follow through.
I’m sure you’ve heard (or made) these excuses: “I was doing so well
and then I just got too busy,” or “I was doing so well and then I got
sick,” or “I was doing so well and then money started to get tight.”
Take an honest look at your current lifestyle. Are you time poor,
meaning you have very little time to spend on yourself or are you so
busy that your sleep is affected? Do you have relationship problems
that keep you up at night? Do you eat too late? Do you watch too
much television close to bedtime? Do you drink too much coffee?
Life always has a funny way of getting in the way, doesn’t it? There’s a
reason for that: most people go through life with little to no margin.
Margin is the extra room that allows for flexibility and being
opportunistic. It’s the extra room that provides padding when difficult
situations come up. It’s a defense against the circumstances life is
going to throw at you.
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Auditing your life shows you where margin needs to be increased.
This will reduce stress and insure that you’re not making excuses for
why you failed -- excuses that were avoidable from the start.
Audit everything about your life. If you have a hard time thinking of all
of the factors that apply to your lifestyle, buy a blank journal and
spend three days journaling your actions and activities; then audit
those journal entries.
The next page contains a lifestyle audit diagram that Kevin uses with
his Total Body Reboot clients. Feel free to use it as a guide.
Are you willing to make changes? Figure out what all of the obstacles
are and then work to find solutions for them. If you have trouble, head
over to the REM Rehab Facebook Support Group and ask others for
solutions (instructions in the preface).
This isn’t rocket science, but it’s mission critical stuff. Without a
meaningful why, you won’t stay motivated. And if you don’t remove
the roadblocks, you’ll inevitably get derailed.
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3
SLUMBER SLIP UPS
There are two types of “not knowing.” One is not
knowing what to do and the other is not knowing what
not to do.
The simplest and most straightforward way to make any
positive change in your life is to figure out what action is
working against you and to stop doing it. With regard to
sleep, we call these, “slumber slip ups.”
MEET DAVE
Dave is a typical suburban dad. He has a secure 9 to 5 job that pays
the bills and provides a cozy middle class life for his two children.
He wakes up at 6:15am with his wife to rouse the kids from bed and
get them ready for school. There isn’t a lot of time before the bus
comes to pick the kids up, so breakfast is usually something fast.
Today, it’s a bagel with cream cheese and a glass of orange juice.
Dave’s commute is a bit rough. It’s 45 minutes both ways and he’s
trying to get to work at the same time as everyone else in his city.
That means a stressful dose of rush hour traffic. Thankfully, listening to
The Rebooted Body Podcast and the Not Just Paleo Podcast help him
stay engaged in something other than the traffic not moving quickly
(no, we’re not afraid of shameless plugs).
The work day isn’t always kind to Dave. He likes his co-workers, but
his boss has a not-so-small problem with micromanaging people. It
drives Dave bonkers. His lunch break offers a temporary moment of
sanity -- he hits the meal truck for a big burrito.
After work, Dave hits the gym and then makes it home just in time for
dinner: home-made spaghetti and a much needed glass of wine.
Later, he’ll throw back some popcorn while watching Monday Night
Football. So manly, Dave.
The kids are happy to be free from school and they display that by
chasing each other around the house. Wanting to enjoy his wine in
peace and quiet, Dave gets on to his kids about calming down and
suggests they go play some video games in their room.
Once the game starts, Dave will be enthralled with it until 11:30pm or
so before turning it in for the night. Tomorrow, he’ll repeat all of that
again.
Dave’s story might not match your story, but there’s likely some
similarities. An important takeaway here is that slumber slip ups occur
throughout the day, not just at bedtime. In the following two chapters,
we’re going to set you up for success closer to nightfall. In this
chapter, we’re going to talk about all the stuff you do throughout the
day that’s making it harder for you to fall asleep faster and stay asleep
longer.
SLUMBER SLIP UP: DIET DERANGEMENT
There are a number of diet factors that affect your ability to get to
sleep quickly and stay asleep for the entire night. Two of the most
important factors are hormone regulation and overall metabolism.
Eating things that disorder your hormones and slow your metabolism
are going to wreak havoc on your sleep.
HO R MO NE R E G UL ATIO N
Dave isn’t doing very well on the hormone regulation front. He starts
off the day with a massive blood sugar spike (bagel and orange juice)
that sends insulin surging through his body. He repeats this cycle
again at lunch and dinner. This has implications far and wide in the
body. The preference would be a more steady blood sugar and insulin
pattern throughout the day.
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M ETABOL IS M
As metabolism declines, so to does sleep quality. Dave may not have
any issue here yet, but if he continues to eat this way he’ll eventually
break his metabolism through chronic hormone dysregulation.
If you’re currently “dieting” by using any sort of caloric deficit you’re
going to eventually reduce your metabolism and start to affect your
sleep as well. Yep, another reason diets don’t work. Getting the
proper amount of calories for your needs is critical in maintaining
metabolism and sleep quality.
Quick Tip: If you still buy into the “calories-in, calories-out”
model of nutrition, you definitely need to read this piece on the
truth about calories at The Rebooted Body.
For you ultra low carb readers, going ultra low carb for too long can
also contribute to metabolic and sleep issues. In “Eating for Sleep”
we’ll cover the nutrition protocol we recommend for the best sleep.
SLUMBER SLIP UP: SWIMMING IN STRESS
Our sleep subject, Dave, gets up early, deranges his hormone
function multiple times per day with food (which by itself is a stressor
on the body), has a micromanaging boss that drives his anxiety, sits in
rush hour traffic for 90 minutes a day, and has two children.
We don’t need to get too deep into the biological reactions that are
happening during the hours Dave is awake, but I’m sure you agree
that Dave sounds stressed. Two of the hormones that become
problematic in this scenario are cortisol and adrenaline.
C ORTISO L
Cortisol is a steroid hormone released in response to stress, which
can range from obvious stressors such as your boss yelling at you to
not so obvious ones like low blood sugar.
As with all hormones and their interactions with each other, the
release of cortisol has some consequences: immune suppression,
decreased bone formation, the storage of belly fat in some cases, and
excess appetite (which is why being stressed makes you hungry).
Cortisol is often talked about in a negative light, but it’s an extremely
necessary and helpful hormone when not circulating in excess. The
problems occur when we’re constantly stressed and cortisol never
seems to clear.
The natural ebb and flow of cortisol in the body is high production in
the morning hours (about a 50% increase in production that helps you
wake up), tapering off throughout the day in accordance with
circadian rhythm. Other than that, acute spikes in cortisol will happen
in response to stressors throughout the day. A few stressors and a
few acute spikes are no problem; chronic stressors and chronically
elevated cortisol levels have huge negative health and sleep
implications.
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Keeping cortisol as close to its natural pattern as possible is critical to
achieving quality sleep.
ADRENA LI NE
Adrenaline is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter also released in
larger quantity during stressful situations. It’s job is to regulate heart
rate, blood and air channel diameters, and metabolic patterns through
the manipulation of blood sugar control.
If we get back to Dave, we can see the implications of adrenaline on
sleep. Watching a 3 hour football game with ups and downs of
excitement, tension, and horrible officiating (of course, right?) spike
Dave’s adrenaline right before he goes to bed. If he’s watching his
favorite team, the situation is even worse because he’s more
emotionally invested.
I know from my twelve years of experience as the head coach of an
Olympic Taekwondo team how adrenaline can directly affect sleep
quality. After a long, stressful competition day my mind would
continue to race and I could still feel my body surging from the
excitement. Falling asleep was exponentially harder after big
tournaments.
Three of the easiest ways to tell if your sleep is negatively affected by
high stress levels is how fast you can fall asleep, whether or not you
wake up in the middle of the night to pee (which sometimes is simply
due to excess water consumption but not always), or if you wake up
well before you’re supposed to and can’t go back to sleep.
If any of those three things are occurring, it’s time to seriously address
the stress. Tolerating stress and simply waiting for the work week to
pass so you can sit down and take a breath is leading our population
down the road to destruction.
In chapter one we had you do a lifestyle audit to increase margin in
different areas of your life. If you did that exercise, you’re likely
already experiencing a reduction in stress. The more you audit, the
more you’re going to be able to get rid of preventable stress in your
life.
In Chapter Six we’ll talk about other ways you can de-stress before
hitting the sheets.
SLUMBER SLIP UP: ARTIFICIAL LIGHT AT NIGHT
Adrenaline’s interference with sleep is much more common than most
people realize and is a great starting point to look at if you have
trouble falling asleep.
The first and one of the most detrimental lifestyle factors that
contributes to poor sleep is night-time exposure to artificial light.
STRES S M A NAG E ME N T
The lightbulb has been around for a little over 100 years now. The
problem is, humans have been around for an exponentially longer
amount of time than that. Since the early time of man’s existence, the
We all inherently know that too much stress is a bad thing, yet we
continue to soak in it.
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only light after sunset would have been in the form of fire and
moonlight.
Our eyes, brains and specifically our pineal glands are not adapted to
the large amounts of after-dark light exposure that our modern life
presents.
Artificial light affects not only your sleep quality, but your probability
for developing cancer, obesity, depression, ADHD, metabolic damage,
and seasonal affective disorder (commonly referred to as SAD).
From the most developed research company on the effects of artificial
light at night time, Low Blue Lights:
“The natural 24-hour cycle of light and dark helps maintain precise
alignment of circadian biological rhythms, the general activation of the
central nervous system and various biological and cellular processes, and
entrainment of melatonin release from the pineal gland. Pervasive use of
nighttime lighting disrupts these endogenous processes and creates
potentially harmful health effects and/or hazardous situations with
varying degrees of harm”
Back to Dave and his football game: the TV blasting light at his face
from 8:30pm to 11:30pm isn’t helping his sleep schedule. He also
didn’t turn off the overhead lights in his man cave, so those are
shining down on him as well.
He also sent his kids to play electronic video games right before bed
so he didn’t do them any favors either.
All of these light sources are confusing your body’s natural rhythm.
Mentally, you know it’s night and you’d like to get to sleep soon.
Physically, your body is preparing for the opposite because of its
exposure to artificial light. Do you see where this can become a huge
problem, especially when you repeat the cycle night after night?
SLUMBER SLIP UP: CAFFEINE AND ALCOHOL
Caffeine and Alcohol are two of the most widely sold, used and
abused drugs in the world. The impact of caffeine and alcohol on
sleep quality is generally accepted and known, but not respected.
That wine you're drinking at night? Gotta nix it if you want to reboot
your sleep. Alcohol may help you relax and fall asleep faster, but the
metabolic process of clearing it from your body causes a withdrawal
period that's significant enough to disrupt your sleep. It's also known
to disrupt the sleep cycle, preventing you from achieving normal
periods of REM sleep.
It doesn’t take an expert to realize that caffeine close to bedtime isn’t
helping matters. But you may not realize that even caffeine intake
around 1pm or 2pm can be hindering your sleep.
Caffeine also interrupts the important neurotransmitter, GABA. When it
comes to relaxation, anxiety or more importantly, sleep function, the
calming neurotransmitter GABA is at play. Without enough GABA, the central nervous system fires too rapidly
causes small effects such as anxiety and worry, but can have large
22
effects such as panic attacks, anxiety disorders and even Parkinson's
disease. This is what chronic and extreme low GABA levels can do. I's
a miserable experience that results from the delicate imbalance in the
brain.
Caffeine inhibits GABA production. Remember the way you felt after
too much coffee? That is due to an overload of the neurotransmitter
glutamate without adequate levels of GABA to balance it out. This is why coffee or caffeine in any form may cause anxiety for some
and sleep issues for other. It's important to limit and watch your
caffeine intake. Less is more.
As we discuss the neurotransmitter serotonin in the book later on, this
will all make even more sense. Serotonin is actually a precursor to
GABA and enhances it's effect. This is why our recommendations for
supplements including L-Tryptophan and 5-HTP later are listed. They
have a double effect in supporting both mood and relaxation.
What about third shift workers? Working crazy hours and avoiding
caffeine sounds like a sick joke to some, but it’s important to limit
consumption. A safe recommendation is no more than 40 mg within 6
hours of bedtime. A generic eight ounce cup of coffee contains
anywhere from 95-200mg.
The 6 hour time limit is important since the half life of caffeine can last
6 hours or longer depending on several factors:
DO YO U SMO K E ?
Smokers metabolize caffeine 50% faster than non-smokers. However,
that’s not a recommendation to begin smoking or a justification for
continuing!
AR E YO U TAK ING BIRTH CO NTR O L?
Oral contraceptives double the time it takes to metabolize caffeine. It
can take anywhere from 5-10 hours for clearance.
AR E YO U PR E G NANT?
Caffeine’s half-life is 9-11 hours in pregnant women. Of course, you
should already be severely limiting caffeine intake.
HOW MUCH CAF F E INE DID YO U CO NSUME ?
Caffeine’s effects and metabolism length is extended with more
consumption. For example, 600mg of caffeine would stay in your
system 3 times longer than 200mg of caffeine.
HAVE YO U TAK E N OTHE R ME DICATIO NS?
Other substances can also impact the rate of caffeine excretion. The
most common drugs that impact the effects and breakdown of
caffeine are antidepressants and NSAIDs like acetaminophen.
SLUMBER SLIP UP: MEDICATIONS
You can make a ton of changes to your diet and lifestyle that are
designed to improve sleep while still seeing very little benefit because
of a silent and hidden culprit like medication.
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We’re not going to provide a complete list of medications that impact
sleep quality because this isn’t that type of guide, but we recommend
you talk to your pharmacist (who should know everything you take)
and directly ask them if your medication regimen might have any
impact on your sleep quality.
New research is coming to light that shows how damaging sitting is to
our health. Of course -- like the good productive citizens we are -- we
tend to sit all of the time. We sit in the car, sit at work, sit at home; sit,
sit, sit. We send our kids to schools where they sit and then insist that
they sit and do their homework and sit to eat dinner.
If they point out sleep interactions, ask them if there are any
alternatives that won’t affect sleep. If there aren’t, research using
nutrition and strategic supplementation to replace that medication if
it’s not vital (don’t just take your doctor’s word that a medication is
vital -- they’re paid to tell you it is).
It’s a sedentary lifestyle no matter what way you slice it. And if you get
away for an hour to exercise, you’re not erasing all of that sitting. The
research is very clear that exercise does not undo large amounts of
sitting or being generally sedentary.
Also ask your doctor about gluten in medications. Most people aren’t
aware that pharmaceuticals can contain gluten and get exposed
without knowing it. If you’re gluten intolerant to any degree, that can
negatively affect sleep as well.
SLUMBER SLIP UP: NOT BEING ACTIVE
OR SKIPPING EXERCISE
Society tends to put things in boxes. As far as exercise goes, society
tends to think that it’s good only for physical health and performance.
Exercise is amazing for sleep and mental health as well as it increases
serotonin production.
It’s important to make the distinction between being sedentary and
not exercising. You can exercise on a consistent basis and still be
relatively sedentary.
Think about life before all of these modern conveniences. People
walked and did manual labor for a good portion of the day. When they
weren’t walking or working, they were playing (physically -- not
Playstation 4 while downing potato chips), cooking, or relaxing.
Sitting used to be very minimal and now it’s uncommon for people to
move around a lot. This doesn’t just have a huge impact on health, it
disrupts sleep quality. When the body is not used physically, it has a
harder time transitioning into sleep mode. When it’s not used
physically and it has a bunch of stress built up inside it, that makes
sleep even more difficult.
To restore health and sleep quality (and seriously aid in fat loss), get in
the habit of shunning your sedentary lifestyle.
Remember, this has nothing to do with exercise. Here’s seven
suggestions to un-sedentary yourself:
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WAL K DA I LY
The small amount of walking we do as humans these days is
embarrassing. Walking is the most basic human function. The body
craves it. At a minimum, 30-60 minutes of intentional walking daily is
required.
T RA NS ITION TO A STA N DI N G DE S K
If you do work that requires a desk or station, find a way to raise your
workspace so that you can stand and do your work. Buy a stool
instead of a chair so you can lean when you get tired. Just avoid the
90 degree sitting angle and the rounded back at all costs.
Is this convenient? Of course not. But neither is losing all human
function, mobility and eventually your health.
BREAK EV E RY 50 MI N U TE S
You’re busy, I get that. But you’re not too busy to take a 10 minute
break every 50 minutes. Use this time to walk to the water cooler and
grab a few sips of water, socialize, stretch, do some impromptu
bodyweight exercises, practice deep breathing, get outside in the
sun, or any other healthful activity you can think of. This makes a
world of difference.
SI T LIKE YOU R A N CE STO RS
Before the advent of chairs, humans had the mobility to squat
between their legs (butt to ankle). The more we sit, the more we lose
that ability and the loss of that ability is a precursor for disease and
nursing homes.
The boy pictured squats like humans are designed to squat. That’s
how you should sit when you’re doing an activity, waiting for
something, watching television, and so on.
If you can’t squat like that, it’s a good sign you’re losing basic human
function. The good news is that you can work to restore it.
TAKE T HE STAIR S
Almost all multi-story buildings these days have elevators and
escalators. But they also have stairs. If you frequent these buildings,
you have a unique advantage over your fellow humans -- you get to
choose to take the stairs on a regular basis and get those leg muscles
working. Of course, the leg muscles are the largest group of muscles
in the human body; taking the stairs is no joke.
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PL AY ( ESP E C IA LLY WI T H YO UR K IDS )
Play is so important for physical activity and stress relief. If you spend
a few hours playing on a Saturday, I can guarantee you’ll sleep better
that night.
If you have kids, playing with them (away from electronics and
preferably outdoors) enhances your relationship and teaches them
one of the most important parts of life.
Pick the ones that sound most important to you and start to
implement them immediately. You can incorporate the others as you
go -- or maybe you’ll find that just making a few of the changes in
combination with implementing advice from the other chapters
improves your sleep enough to meet your goals.
The last thing we want you to do is stress out about all of this stuff and
freeze up and do nothing. One step at a time, one day at a time -that’s all you need to focus on.
WATCH LE SS T E LE V I S I O N
Americans spend 34 hours a week watching television. That’s almost
equal to the time they spend at work (and we think Americans work
too much!). That’s an additional 34 hours of sitting, likely and
additional 34 hours of mindlessly eating processed foods, and 34
hours not spent playing and moving.
We get that television can be a useful outlet for zoning out every once
in a while. And yes, some shows are educational and beneficial but
most people abuse their televisions and iPads and laptops leading
them to be more sedentary, more disconnected relationally, and less
likely to sleep well (since the light from television and these devices
interrupts sleep as we’ve already discussed).
PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION
As you wrap up this chapter, you’re left with a lot to think about. In no
way are we suggesting that you need to make all of these changes at
once.
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4
EATING FOR
SLEEPING
Nutrition plays a key role in sleep and it’s not just what
you eat prior to bed or when you eat it that matters, but
what your diet looks like on a consistent basis.
This chapter is directly about eating for sleep. It’s not
about eating to lose fat, eating to perform better in your
Crossfit class or anything else. We’re not saying it
WON’T work for those things, but the sole intention is to
provide key concepts for eating for better sleep without including
things that will be detrimental to your health (which it turns out are
usually detrimental to sleep anyway).
THE HIGH SUGAR, POOR SLEEP CONNECTION
Hormones play such a key role in sleep. If you can get your hormones
in order, sleep quality should follow. It’s not the only factor, but it’s a
huge one.
A major aspect of the typical, neolithic human diet is high sugar
consumption. In 1822, the average American consumed less than 10
grams of sugar a day, or roughly the amount of sugar in a can of soda
every five days. In 2012, Americans consumed 765g of sugar over the
same five day period. That’s 130 pounds of sugar per year.
Worse, that’s just refined sugar. Add to that all of the foods we eat that
quickly convert to sugar in the body and the stress on hormones is
compounded. Staples in the American diet like pasta, bread, and
starches turn immediately to sugar in the body and all processed
foods tend to have a very high glycemic load and act in the same
manner.
It’s so bad that our modern bodies have switched gears and bounce
from sugar spike to sugar spike to get through each day. The result is
that we have trouble burning both dietary and stored fat for fuel.
We’re paying the price in the form of obesity, preventable disease,
and poor sleep.
Let’s look at the mechanism behind high sugar consumption and poor
sleep. This is the 101 version.
If you derange your hormones with sugar and high glycemic foods,
you’ll begin to suffer from a degree of insulin resistance. The longer
you do this, the worse it gets. Insulin is a hormone that helps regulate
blood sugar and has the side effect of telling fat cells to store fat.
In an individual with a functional metabolism, the body easily burns fat
for fuel -- both dietary and stored fat -- when insulin levels normalize.
In modern individuals who consume a high sugar diet and survive
from sugar spike to sugar spike, the chronic insulin levels impair the
body’s ability to use fat for fuel.
So, what happens when you turn in for the night under this deranged
scenario? Well, the normal metabolic state during sleep is a state of
fat burning. If you’re unable to burn fat because of a disordered
metabolism, your sleep is greatly interrupted. Many people have
sleep disorders simply because their body is unable to metabolize fat
during sleep.
Of course, this is a vicious cycle. Once sleep is interrupted, other
hormones, such as cortisol and glucagon, become deranged as well.
Stress in general (impaired sleep being a driving factor of stress)
drives up blood sugar (we already talked about how sleep issues
disorder blood sugar). You’re probably getting stressed right now just
thinking about it all!
Take a deep breath because we’re going to talk about how to eat for
hormone regulation and sleep. This is a key piece of the puzzle. Once
you’ve shored up the slumber slip ups we talked about in Chapter 3
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and have switched to the following hormone-regulating diet, you’ll be
well on your way to beauty sleep.
Lastly, they’ve led you to believe that fat consumption makes you fat
and that’s wholly inaccurate. Hormone dysregulation, being
sedentary, sleeping poorly, and eating ANTI foods makes you fat.
THE ROLE OF DIETARY FAT IN HORMONE STABILITY
You can rapidly and sustainably lose body fat with a diet that consists
of 60% or more calories from fat. Saying that fat consumption makes
people fat isn’t just inaccurate, it’s a deliberate lie. All of the evidence
says it’s not the case.
The biggest problem with low fat eating is that it drives high glycemic
eating. There are only three main macronutrients: fat, carbohydrates,
and protein. If you forego the fat, all you’re left with is protein and
carbohydrates.
That’s a big problem. You can’t provide your body with everything it
needs by eating only protein and carbohydrates. And the absence of
fat means you need to make up those lost calories with additional
carbohydrates which further disorders hormones and leads to weight
gain if activity and exercise levels don’t support that carbohydrate
consumption.
Fat is the key macronutrient in hormone regulation and satiety. It’s the
only macronutrient that doesn’t cause an insulin response and it has a
huge balancing impact on the hunger and metabolism regulating
hormones leptin and ghrelin.
Unfortunately, conventional wisdom has demonized and demagogued
fat consumption based on bogus science. They’ve even promoted the
use of unhealthy fats like vegetable and seed oils while ostracizing
healthy fats such as well sourced butter, lard, tallow and even coconut
oil.
Don’t be afraid of fat -- include it at every single meal. Just stay away
from the nasty vegetable and seed oils (clarified in the link above).
Additionally, if you buy conventional meat it’s best to buy lean cuts
and add dietary fat via high quality butter, coconut oil, etc. The fat in
conventional meat is full of toxins that negatively impact your health -we only recommend eating fatty cuts of meat from pastured animals.
By increasing your fat intake and maintaining protein intake, you’ll be
increasing your satiety and you’ll naturally eat less food. You’ll also
allow your body to burn stored body fat for fuel as hormone
regulation improves the function of fat cells and the body’s ability to
use both stored and dietary fat as fuel. Oh, and your sleep will
improve!
A TRYPTOPHAN-RICH DIET
A study showed that a Tryptophan-rich breakfast combined with
sunlight exposure would aid deeper sleep.
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L-Tryptophan is one of the 10 essential amino acids used in the body.
This amino acid is responsible for an even larger part of our health
beyond sleep quality.
Without a proper level of GABA we can feel anxious, worrisome and
have many negative thought patterns of doom and gloom. Of course,
GABA depletion has a negative impact on sleep as well.
Tryptophan is required for the production of serotonin, our feel-good
neurotransmitter. Since a large amount of the serotonin we produce
comes from the gut itself, quality foods containing tryptophan become
critical.
The good news is that we can support this neurotransmitter and
restore balance with food. Specifically, the body uses sulfur to restore
GABA levels.
More importantly, the production of the hormone melatonin (a key
sleep hormone) requires the presence of serotonin. It works like this:
There are many sulfur-rich foods to choose from: grass-fed beef,
eggs, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy,
onions, shallots, garlic, and leeks. There are others, especially foods
related to those already listed.
Food -> L-Tryptophan -> Serotonin -> Melatonin -> Quality Sleep
Therefore, with the addition and presence of Tryptophan in the diet,
the process of creating serotonin and melatonin is optimized.
Aim to include tryptophan-rich foods in your diet on a regular basis
from the following sources: Grass-fed Beef, Pasture-raised eggs,
Turkey, Nuts & Seeds, Raw Dairy (if you have quality access).
Eating a meal containing these foods three to four hours before sleep
can put all of the right conditions for great sleep in motion.
A GABA-SUPPORTING DIET
Due to the fast-paced nature that the majority of us live in, our calming
neurotransmitter GABA can become depleted. GABA can be thought
of as your brain’s brakes -- it slows activity.
By boosting our GABA levels with these foods, we can assure that our
dietary intake is positively impacting our sleep.
7 GUIDELINES FOR EATING FOR SLEEP
Eating for sleep is mainly about eating for hormone regulation, namely
blood sugar stability. If you’re new to this way of eating, follow the
seven guidelines below.
# 1: E AT TWO TO THR E E HO R MO NE - STABIL IZ ING
M EAL S PE R DAY.
It doesn’t matter when you eat or how much you eat, it matters what
you eat (though you should avoid large meals right before bed time).
The three main macronutrients you’ll be consuming are fat, protein,
and carbs and should be prioritized in that order. Fat first, protein
second, carbs third. Make sure to eat the highest quality foods you
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can find in each category (e.g. if you eat a fatty cut of meat for the fat
and protein requirements, make it grass-fed. Choose non-starchy
vegetables for carbs).
Just like we’re prioritizing macronutrients, we have to prioritize the
entire carbohydrate category as well. For now, all carbohydrates
should come from plant sources, prioritized like this:
As for quantity, eat until you’re sated and stop when you’re full. If you
find that difficult, you may be suffering from some unhealthy eating
triggers.
Vegetables > Berries > Fruits
# 2 : AVO ID SN ACKI N G.
Snacking tells your body, “Hey, I’m going to give you food every two
to three hours.” Then, you hit the sheets at night hoping to make it
eight or nine hours without interruption. See the problem?
Again, we’re going for hormone stability here based on the
assumption that you might have some metabolic derangement. Once
your metabolism is verified to be functional and sleep is improving,
this prioritization matters little.
# 5: AIM F O R O NE G R AM O F PR OTE IN PE R
OU NCE O F L E AN BO DY MASS (NOT WE IG HT).
So how do you make it through the day only eating two or three
meals and no snacks? Once you prioritize fat and protein, you’ll see
how easy it is, especially if you have some weight to lose because
your body will be gnawing on that stored body fat now that your
hormones are stabilized.
This guideline is about making sure you eat enough protein AND
making sure you don’t eat too much. The law of diminishing returns
shows up quickly with regard to protein after a certain point. Eat too
little and your body doesn’t get what it needs; eat too much and it
turns to sugar and starts to lead us away from our goals.
# 3: EAT WH OLE FOOD S A N D AVO ID A N T I
F O OD S.
One of the biggest mistakes people going “low carb” make is to
prioritize protein. So they become high protein, moderate fat, and low
carb. That doesn’t create optimal conditions. It’s fat that must be
prioritized.
You can easily follow the hormone-stability protocol of prioritizing fat,
then protein, then carbs without caring whatsoever about quality. But,
we want you to be healthier than that, so get all of your calories from
whole food sources being careful not to eat processed foods and
ANTI foods. Besides, the body always functions better on real food,
and that means it sleeps better on real food too.
# 4: WHEN YOU E AT P L A N TS , P R IO RIT IZ E T H E M
L IKE THIS . . .
To make sure you’re not eating too much or too little protein, aim for
around one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (that’s
weight minus fat -- not total weight).
# 6: DO N’ T DR INK SUGAR .
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Naturally, you’re trying to limit sugar intake. When we’re talking about
foods, that’s pretty straightforward. But, some people still run into
problems with sugary drinks -- many times because they drink without
thinking and aren’t always sure how much sugar is contained in a
specific beverage.
For example, how often do you have a margarita at a restaurant?
Frozen margaritas can contain up to 90 grams of sugar. Their
unfrozen counterparts are similar. And how many times have you said,
“I’ll take two.”
When working out, people tend to reach for sports drinks. But, that’s
like reaching for a can of soda -- the sugar load is very similar.
Do you put sugar in your coffee in the morning? That’s additional
sugar consumption most people forget about. And don’t get us
started on those sugar-laden lattes and cappuccinos.
Quick Tip: We enjoy our coffee one of two ways: with heavy
whipping cream or bulletproof (never with sweeteners). If you
currently use Half and Half, milk, or sweeteners (natural or artificial) we highly recommend you try making the switch.
In a world where everyone is only concerned about calories, the
amount of sugar in beverages isn’t always clearly stated. You have to
be vigilant so you’re not consuming these hidden sugars.
# 7: S UPPL E ME N T WI T H RES ISTA N T STA RC H
Resistant Starch (RS) is a starch that resists digestion. Where most
starches convert to glucose in the small intestine as other
carbohydrates do, RS resists digestion and passes through to the
large intestine where it behaves much like dietary fiber and is
fermented by gut bacteria (making it a prebiotic).
“Instead of being digested by amylases in the upper digestive tract, it
passes to the bowel, where it is fermented by bacteria into short chain
fatty acids (SCFA). SCFA are acidic, so they lower bowel pH, which
facilitates proliferation of good bugs and inhibits growth of pathogenic
bacteria. All of this extra fermentation and availability of SCFA provides
fuel or energy for the colonocytes [cells lining the colon], which are a
barrier against infection.”
There are a host of benefits to resistant starch, but the main one we’re
after is blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity.
RS intake is associated with several changes in metabolism which may
confer some health benefits. RS intake seems to decrease postprandial
glycemic and insulinemic responses, lower plasma cholesterol and
triglyceride concentrations, improve whole body insulin sensitivity,
increase satiety, and reduce fat storage. [source]
There are other studies to back that one up, such as this one on
insulin sensitivity and metabolism. There’s more on both glycemia and
satiety here. For those of you who care greatly about fat
accumulation, there’s this:
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These data indicate that replacement of 5.4% of total dietary carbohydrate
with RS significantly increased post-prandial lipid oxidation and therefore
could decrease fat accumulation in the long-term. [source]
In layman’s terms, resistant starch blunts blood glucose spikes when
eating higher glycemic foods at the current meal as well as the
subsequent meal. Yep, it enhances the second meal effect -- a
physiological change in your body’s ability to clear glucose from the
blood at meals directly following low carbohydrate eating or resistant
starch consumption.
What that means for you is more stable blood sugar which optimizes
hormone regulation and -- in the end -- improves your sleep quality.
The problem with resistant starch is that it’s hard to come by. For this
reason, we recommend supplementation in the form of unmodified
potato starch.
To supplement with potato starch, simply blend 1 to 4 tablespoons
with any cold liquid (if you heat resistant starch, it loses its resistant
properties so don’t put it in anything hot).
It doesn’t have any flavor, so you can blend it right in cold water or do
what I do and blend it in your smoothie. Start out slow and gradually
work your way up to 4 tablespoons.
FOLLOWING THESE GUIDELINES
Follow these guidelines to improve sleep for at least 45 days before
making adjustments. After 45 days, feel free to venture away from
these recommendations while being careful to watch for noticeable
changes in sleep.
It may be helpful to journal about your sleep for a few weeks after
making changes; note the changes along with any changes in sleep
patterns. After a few weeks, review the journal entries and see if you
can pinpoint things that seem to really help or really hurt and then use
that information to continue to optimize your sleep.
A NOTE ABOUT ULTRA LOW CARB EATING AND SLEEP
Many clients have complained that their sleep is not as good when
they’ve undergone long periods of low carb eating. This is not true for
everyone, but it’s a possibility for low carb eaters.
If you’re a consistently low carb eater and you’re having sleep
problems, consider adding in safe starches (potatoes, rice) or extra
fruit as a test. Do this a few nights in a row and watch for sleep
improvements. If you’re concerned about blood sugar spikes or aren’t
particularly active, use resistant starch supplementation to blunt the
effects and partition the starches and fruit toward the evening so
there are no ill-effects on your cravings or energy levels during the
day.
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5
CALIBRATE YOUR
CAVE
Now that we’ve covered some of the damage that sleep
deprivation causes, the hidden behaviors in your daily
routine that inhibit sleep, and how best to eat for
improved sleep, let’s talk about how to optimize your
sleeping environment for success.
This is one of the easier parts of this guide to take action
on, so let’s get started.
Your bedroom can either be set up for amazing sleep or pitiful sleep. If
you were going to torture someone with sleep deprivation, you
probably wouldn’t make it really dark, quiet, and cozy would you?
While you might think your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cozy, you’re
probably missing some key issues. Let’s optimize!
SOME THINGS JUST HAVE TO GO
Remove as many technological devices from your bedroom as
possible. This includes alarm clocks, cell phones, tablets, televisions
and dvd players.
“What, no television!!”
Right. We’d highly recommend you remove it as it doesn’t promote a
sleep-friendly atmosphere. We know how painful that suggestion
might be to some of you, but you can’t argue that watching The
Walking Dead right before you turn in for the night is a great way to
achieve deep sleep.
If you do not want to remove these devices, keep them as far away
from the bed as possible and cover ANY and ALL lights on these
devices. You might not think the little LEDs on these devices emit
enough light to interrupt sleep, but they do. A test on mice discovered
that even a small light from a laser pointer is enough to disrupt the
circadian rhythm and disorder melatonin production.
Our optic nerve is responsible for sending a signal to the
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN), which signals the body to wake up.
Light of any kind also signals your SCN to start other processes
associated with being awake such as raising body temperature and
producing cortisol. This hormone is supposed to be highest in the
morning to get you going, and lowest at night, not the opposite!
If you tend to wake up an hour or two before you want to and have
trouble going back to sleep, that’s a sign that your cortisol is offrhythm. Once cortisol production starts ramping up, it’s very hard to
fall back asleep (there’s a hack for this in Chapter 7). Of course, light is
a main precursor to cortisol production so you can see where light of
any kind can become an issue.
LIMIT WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR CAVE
Some people spend a lot of time in their bedrooms. They watch
television there, they work or play on their laptop or tablet, and they
read books (usually with a light on).
The brain associates where you sleep with sleep, except when you
crowd out that activity with a bunch of other activities. In other words,
you want to make sure that when you enter your bedroom, your brain
begins associating that action with sleep and sleep only.
There’s one concession: sex. So remember the two Ss: sex and sleep.
That’s what your bedroom is for -- nothing more, nothing less. If we
are engaged in activities beyond these two, our brains learn that the
bed is for activity and that it should keep the body awake for them.
Also, as we discussed earlier, the blue and artificial light from
technology also plays a significant role in receiving the signal to
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sleep. You definitely don’t want to be receiving blue light in the same
environment you’re trying to sleep in.
While we’re going to show you how to deal with blue light after dark
in a later chapter, the brain activity that is created by these devices
does not promote good sleep conditions.
You may not immediately realize how many things you tend to do in
your bedroom. Start by simply being aware of your bedroom activity
over the next 72 hours. Once you have a handle on the things you
tend to do in your bedroom, you can start transitioning to sleep and
sex only.
Lastly, while many people suggest reading before bed to make you
sleepy, we don’t recommend it. The problem with reading is that it
gets your mind thinking: new ideas, possibilities, character
development, and so on. You don’t want to increase brain activity
prior to bed. Also, you typically need artificial light to read -- and that’s
already been ruled out.
You might be wondering why the range is still so big. It’s important to
keep in mind that everyone is a unique individual in unique living
conditions. The material of your comforter and sheets, your mattress,
your thyroid function, and your natural body temperature all play a roll
in determining what specific temperature your body prefers for sleep.
Quick Tip: A German study showed that putting on socks right
before going to bed helped the subjects fall asleep faster and
also woke up less during the night. (It’s worked for us too.)
One of the concepts we’re going to discuss in the next chapter is
keeping a sleep journal of changes you make along with sleep
ratings. Temperature is one of the adjustable factors that we highly
recommend you journal and experiment with. Making your room too
hot or too cold at night is one of the most notorious sleep errors.
KILL ALL EXTERNAL LIGHT
TEMPERATURE REGULATION
Science and evolutionary biology both point to the fact that we’ve
adapted to a cooler temperature when we sleep. As the sun sets, a
natural temperature decrease is what our bodies expect.
The optimal temperature range for quality sleep is 60 to 68 degrees
Fahrenheit. Any warmer or cooler and signs of restlessness start to
occur.
For many people that live in the city, light pollution is a major
detriment to the population. You turn off the lights in your bedroom to
prepare for sleep and close the blinds and there’s still some light
getting in.
Blocking out light through your bedroom windows with blackout
curtains or Mylar material may hold the key to light-free sleep.
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Mylar is the same material that lines the inside of astronauts
spacesuits. It reflects out over 90% of UV rays and can also reduce
your cooling costs in the summer.
You can purchase an emergency blanket on Amazon for less than $5.
Take measurements of your window size and trim the thin sheet of
material to fit.
The mylar will go on the inside of the window in front of the blinds or
curtains. The shiny side should face outwards. Simply tape the
corners of the material to the window and you’re set.
The good news is that you’ll sleep better. The bad news is that the
outside of your house will now look like a spaceship. Sorry.
Evan’s wife allowed him to keep them up after seeing the 30% drop in
the electricity bill in the summer. She didn’t mind the reduction in light
beaming in the window either.
If you’re not into the NASA look, you can buy premium blackout
shades that are custom fit for your windows. It’s a more expensive
solution, but it’s more elegant.
DEALING WITH NOISE
We now know that light affects cortisol production and sleep quality,
but what about sound? If you live in the city you may hear frequent car
traffic. If you live near train tracks you might hear a train at the wrong
time of night or early morning. One of the author’s grandparents used
to live near an airport and you’d constantly hear the planes, especially
at night.
Light isn’t the only enemy. One sleep study found that sound, both
traffic noise and low frequency noise, interrupt normal cortisol
patterns.
After you’ve taken steps to block all light from entering your cozy
cave, we recommend blocking out sound as well. Since there’s
nothing you can do to the structure of your home, you’re only left with
two options: a noise canceling device that you put into your ear or a
white noise device.
We don’t recommend putting things in or on your ears during sleep
because the sensation can wake you up. Also, for safety reasons it’s
important to still be able to hear in case of emergency -- survival is still
an evolutionary necessity.
That leaves us with white noise -- noise that is a constant amplitude
throughout the audible frequency range. It can only be produced
electronically or mechanically. True white noise sounds like constant,
unwavering radio static.
Thankfully, there are sound devices that simulate more favorable and
less annoying white-noise style sound. By using these devices, you
can over-ride external noise that would normally influence your sleep
pattern. The white noise will prevent you from hearing these external
sounds by delivering a steady dose of noise that does not negatively
affect sleep. Think about it as if you’re blending ALL noise into a
steady background noise that your brain can easily tune out.
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In this way, adding noise to your room is actually the preferred
method of canceling noise out completely. The technical term for this
is “sound masking.”
The preferred device is a $45 mechanical machine called the Marpac
Dohm. This thing is no joke -- 4.5 stars on Amazon after 4000+
reviews. It’s portable for travel as well. Skip the rest of your options
and go with this.
Note: If you currently sleep in a silent room with no white noise, it can
take a while to make the adjustment. But once you do, you’ll thank us.
CLEAN AIR
Even though the housemaid won’t admit it, the inside of our home is
much dirtier than the fresh air outside. As far as airborne bacteria,
allergens and other pathogens, indoor air quality is generally poor.
Poor air negatively affects sleep. And in many cases, it’s so bad that it
can cause congestion and respiratory issues that severely impact
both sleep and health.
You can improve the air quality of your bedroom with a simple HEPA
air purifier. For this, we turn to another $45 device, the Honeywell
Compact Air Purifier. There are much more expensive air filters and
we’d recommend those for larger spaces, but this Honeywell compact
air filter is enough for an 85 square foot space (your sleeping area).
It’s permanent HEPA-type filter captures up to 99% of mold spores,
pollen, pet dander, smoke and dust.
As a final note about air quality, being a smoker or living with a
smoker greatly impacts air quality and sleep quality and leads to many
respiratory disorders. For the smoker, nicotine is a stimulant that can
alter sleep quality.
If you can’t quit, you should consider making the switch to ecigarettes as they produce an innocuous vapor.
SHEETS AND SLEEPWEAR
We know how much you love those satin pajamas you got for
Christmas. Or the idea of having satin sheets. But, the truth is that the
material of your clothing and bedding is a big factor in restorative
sleep -- choose wisely and you sleep well, choose poorly and you
don’t.
We recommend light cotton that’s fitting, but slightly loose. Cotton is a
wonderful material in that it provides a bit of warmth while being
extremely breathable. Your clothing isn’t what should provide the
warmth at night -- that’s the job of your bed sheets.
The main goal of your sleepwear should be to provide a base layer
while staying out of your way as you make adjustments during the
night. Oversized shirts and night gowns can get you tangled up while
satin or flannel pajamas can cause you to overheat or sweat too
much.
If you have temperature regulation down to a science, you can opt to
sleep naked or in underwear only, though this can create problems if
the room temperature drops too much (such as in the winter).
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The preference here is to keep the human body as mobile and
comfortable as possible while providing warmth via bedding, which
should also be cotton sheets with a thick, warm comforter that allows
the room to be on the cool side without making you uncomfortable.
Note: Low quality innerspring mattresses will develop “black holes”
and soft and hard spots. Sometimes these can be dealt with by
flipping or rotating the mattress, but we’d prefer you to invest more in
a mattress that doesn’t develop these issues.
YOUR MATTRESS
The Sleep Number bed is a popular air-based bed. We don’t
recommend any air inflated beds and certainly don’t recommend
water beds.
Do you know your sleep number? Just kidding -- one of the authors
had a sleep number bed and hated it!
The key to mattresses is not too firm (which causes discomfort to
build up during the night) OR too soft (which lacks the support you
need and puts you in bad positions).
If you sleep with another person, it’s important that their night-time
adjustments don’t translate to your side of the bed (very typical for
innerspring mattresses).
Memory foam mattresses have become very popular, but they do
have downsides. While movement doesn’t translate from one person
to another, it can be difficult to adjust your sleep position and they can
cause you to overheat due to the material and lack of breathability.
As with everything, there are tradeoffs. We still recommend
innerspring and if you REALLY care about your sleep, you might want
to consider putting two separate beds side by side. This provides one
bed for you and one for your partner which gives you the versatility of
innerspring without the pitfalls (movement transfer).
YOUR PILLOW
It sounds silly for me to tell you this because it’s such an obvious
factor, but I went weeks struggling with sleep while doing everything
correctly all because my pillow was inadequate.
Like all pillows, it started out just right. But over time it turned into a
drooping, deflated, empty shell. Because I could bunch it up and
make it “comfortable enough” to fall asleep, I neglected to change it
out.
Bad move. While I was able to fall asleep, I was tossing and turning.
Of course, once you’re in La La Land you’re not quite sure why you’re
unable to sleep well. It took weeks before I realized that the tossing
and turning was starting only a couple hours after hitting the sheets
because that’s exactly how long it took for my pillow to deflate and
stop providing critical support.
Like magic, once I swapped the pillow out my sleep went back to
being wonderful. Don’t discount the necessity of a quality pillow and
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take a good hard look at your pillow’s current state if you’ve had it for
a while.
WRAP UP
Feel free to make changes slowly over time. You don’t have to go out
and buy a noise machine, new pajamas, an air filter, a new mattress,
and blackout shades all at once.
Temperature is easy enough to fix. Light and noise are probably the
first things you want to check off the list after that. Then you can start
improving the other areas.
Have fun!
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6
REVAMP YOUR
ROUTINE
A client who was struggling with reaching their fat loss
goals was coming to me for advice. Their nutrition was
dialed in and they were doing the recommended
exercise protocol, but something was still off. They didn’t
feel great and their fat loss progress had stalled. Worse
(according to them), it was their belly fat they were
having trouble with.
“What’s your sleep like these days?” I asked.
“I’m not getting very good sleep, to tell you the truth,” they replied.
So I pressed further, “okay, walk me through your bedtime routine.”
“Well, about 11:30pm when my eyelids start to get really heavy I turn
off the television, take a few sips of water, let the dog out, and jump in
bed.”
My client was spending a couple hours soaking up a bunch of blue
light from the television and then jumping in bed not long after.
Additionally, those sips of water were causing my client to have to get
up around 3am to pee, disturbing the sleep cycle.
Even if everything else was in place for great sleep, this “routine” was
an unmitigated disaster.
AFTER SUNSET, START BLOCKING BLUE LIGHT
The setting Sun is a great cue for starting your sleep routine. This
doesn’t mean you have to go to bed when the Sun sets, it just means
you should start your routine, which can last as long as your schedule
dictates. The key here is that the Sun is an organic trigger that your
body and your circadian rhythm responds to.
Once the Sun is down, the color of the light you interact with becomes
critical. We discussed the why behind this in chapter three. For this
reason, it’s important to identify all of the blue light producing devices
in your home so you can take steps to mitigate them after sunset.
There’s two ways that we recommend you take action with this:
STE P ONE: F.LUX
A bedtime routine should set you up for success and should start long
before you’re feeling like you need to get in bed. Preferably, you
should develop a very consistent schedule with your routine. The
more it changes, the less “in rhythm” you’ll be.
If you tend to use your computer after sunset, we recommend
installing a program on your computer called f.lux. This is a free
program you can install on Windows, Mac, and jailbroken iPhones and
iPads.
In this chapter we’re going to help you with ideas for creating an
optimal bedtime routine. You don’t have to adopt it exactly; feel free
to use these ideas to piece together your own.
f.lux automatically shifts the color output of your monitor at sunset to
an orange hue, completely removing the blue light. It does this
according to your computer’s clock and automatically adjusts for
Daylight Savings Time and daily sunset times.
The installation of f.lux takes care of a major source of blue light after
dark. The problem is that there are many other sources that f.lux can’t
help you with, so an additional step is needed.
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STEP T WO : B LU E B LOC K I NG G L AS S E S
f.lux -- the computer program we just talked about -- only has you
covered for computers and certain devices. What about all of the
other stuff, like your television? And what if you’re going out after dark
and have no control of the lights and devices around you?
In this case, we recommend blue blocking glasses. These glasses will
block the blue light from everything, no matter the circumstances. This
brand is great option because the lenses wrap around and cover your
peripheral vision.
TWO HOURS BEFORE BED, TAKE YOUR MAGNESIUM
Set a gentle alarm or notification/reminder for two hours before you
want to go to bed. When that notification alerts you, take your
magnesium supplement.
The Natural Calm brand is our preferred brand and has the best
ingredients and tastes very good as well. It’s our number one
recommendation. There’s more information on why and how
magnesium works to help you sleep in Chapter 7.
Another supplement we recommend that’s a little more complex is
called New Mood by Onnit which has 200mg of magnesium, 500mg
of L-Tryptophan and 100mg of 5-HTP. There’s more information on LTryptophan in chapter four.
SELF-PHYSICAL THERAPY ABOUT AN
HOUR BEFORE BED
Alright, you’ve set yourself up for success by blocking out blue light
since the sun went down and so far your bedtime routine hasn’t
interrupted anything that you normally enjoy doing.
You’ve also given your body calming and sleep-inspiring supplements:
magnesium and L-Tryptophan. On top of that you’ve been eating
hormone stabilizing and sleep promoting foods. In other words,
you’ve built a strong foundation for sleep success.
At this point, it might take a little extra push to develop a new, but
critical habit. It’s not always easy to pull yourself away an hour before
bed but this is truly where the magic is going to happen.
An hour before bed, foam roll or lay on an acupressure mat. This is
going to start the process of relaxing your muscles and your mind.
This is what we refer to as “self physical therapy” time. Accupressure,
foam rolling, and myofascial release with simple tools like lacrosse
balls release tension and stress, restore mobility, and prevent injury.
We recommend combining meditation with your self-physical therapy
time to start to wind your mind down. The fact that you’re doing this
therapy after your magnesium supplementation is a bonus.
This session should last about 15 minutes. We also recommend that
you play some relaxing music during this time. If your spouse is
already asleep or you just want to keep the general noise levels down
(or maybe someone is making noise elsewhere that’s distracting), it’s
a good idea to put on headphones.
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Note: If you typically brush your teeth before bed, do that first. Teeth
brushing shouldn’t interfere with the rest of your routine.
If you aren’t sure how to do self-physical therapy, you can get
access to Kevin’s Total Body Reboot self physical therapy module
by visiting http://myrebootedbody.com/SPT/ -- it contains over a
dozen self-physical therapy instructional video segments along with
three full morning and night routines.
POUR IT OUT ON PAPER
This step is critical for maximizing the benefit of the following steps in
the routine. Some people have an aversion to journaling or don’t feel
that it will be beneficial. Almost everyone who actually follows through
with journaling attests to how important it is and how much it helped
them. Take our word for it and take action on this component of the
routine.
TAKE A RELAXING SLEEP-INDUCING BATH
You’ve relaxed your muscles with magnesium and foam rolling or
acupressure, you’ve relaxed your mind with meditation, now it’s time
to completely empty your thoughts and emotions.
If you want to incorporate this step, get your bath running and
prepared before you do your foam rolling or acupressure meditation
session. It’s frustrating to wait for a bath to fill and be ready and we’re
trying to limit frustration during this hour.
Any thoughts and emotions still bouncing around inside you can keep
your mind busy and interfere with falling asleep. The best way to
finish quieting your mind is to journal about your day. Pour it all out on
paper.
Immediately after your journaling session, hop in the bath. Now that
your mind is clear you’ll be able to take full advantage of this special
bath time. And no, this isn’t just any regular old bath, it’s a deep sleep
inducing bath.
Here’s the deal: the head stays busy until you evacuate things from it.
Once your mind knows that attention has been paid to something via
permanent record (writing, in this case) it’s willing to stop thinking
about it and becomes at ease.
WAR M WAT E R
Your journal should be sitting on your side table ready to go. Spend 5
to 10 minutes journaling what happened during the day, your thoughts
about those events, how you felt about those events, and how you
want to feel about those events.
The water should not be extremely hot, just warm and relaxing. I
typically choose a temperature that will keep the water warm for
about 20 minutes. You don’t want to start to feel cold toward the end
of the bath.
If you didn’t take magnesium as a supplement, you can add it to the
bath now via epsom salt and it will be absorbed through the skin.
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L IG HTS O F F
You want the room to be dark during your bath, with your relaxing
music still playing. If you need a little bit of light to help you get in and
out of the bath and find your way around the bathroom, light a candle
or two. Candles produce orange light so they’re fine. Again, avoid any
sources of blue light during this time.
ESSENTIAL OI LS
Your bath may include the use of essential oils if your skin is not
sensitive. We recommend the following oils specifically for sleep
induction and you can experiment with them or rotate them as
desired: lavender and roman chamomile (together), neroli, clary sage,
vetiver, patchouli, sandalwood, cedarwood, and marjoram.
You can also experiment with oil blends, which are pre-blended oils
for specific purposes (such as relaxation). This essential oils set has
some of the ones we mentioned along with blends that should do the
trick.
You can mix these essential oils straight into your bath and you can
even put a drop on your pillow. If you’d like to fill the room with them,
a diffuser is best.
This isn’t just a great sleep exercise, it’s a wonderful habit that
promotes mental and emotional health. It’s a great form of self-care.
COMMENCE SLEEP WITH STRETCHLYING.
Stretchlying is a little-known technique that places you in the optimal
sleep position. It’s a little counter-intuitive and takes some practice,
but you’ll quickly figure it out and it can have huge positive benefits
for you.
There’s a video we recommend you watch for getting into the proper
position. You should begin every night’s sleep with this stretchlying
technique as it puts your body in proper alignment. Of course, you’ll
end up moving around at night, but this technique will help you fall
asleep faster and stay asleep longer before you start making
nighttime adjustments.
THE OPTIMAL SLEEP POSITION
Since the organs on the front of our bodies get compressed during
sleep, it’s best to avoid this position. Also nerves and joints may
become affected while lying on the stomach causing sore necks and
tingling arms. If you’re a stomach sleeper, sorry to burst your bubble
but that position is one of the worst.
The side position is much better in terms of unwanted compression
but there can be downsides to this position as well, especially if
you’re using an inadequate pillow -- too much pressure is placed on
the spine when your head is not in a neutral position.
The best sleep position for most people is on the back. A slight head
elevation with a soft and fluffy pillow may help. Additionally, to
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achieve a cloud-like, fully supported sleep position, place additional
pillows behind the knees and under the elbows while placing your
hands on your chest. This puts the lower back and shoulders in a
stable position.
The goal is to learn about your individual body. While we can make
recommendations, they won’t apply to everyone. And some people
will have factors and circumstances that are unique to your situation.
Systematic experimentation and evaluation is the key to determining
your specific “sleep code.”
Poor body alignment is one of the factors responsible for waking
some people up multiple times per night. Set yourself up for success
using the above tips.
ACHIEVING THE MOST OPTIMAL ROUTINE
There are so many factors that can contribute to good sleep or poor
sleep. So how do you know what’s helping and what’s hurting? One
thing we recommend is to use a separate sleep journal and make
changes to your routine, diet, etc. systematically. As part of your
routine, grade your sleep on a scale of 1 to 10 every morning you
wake up and place that grade next to changes you’ve made.
You may want to make sure a change gets repeated 3 days in a row
and gets graded three times before you make a judgement about that
specific change.
Though this process sounds tedious, it’s an investment that gives you
information that you can use for the rest of your life and ends all of the
guess-work. You’ll know exactly what helps and what doesn’t and
you’ll be able to spot other issues that need to be addressed as well
that we may not have mentioned.
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7
HACK YOUR
HIBERNATION
People will always seek out the more advanced tactics
for improving their health, even if they do not have the
basics covered. Are you guilty of that? Did you skip right
to this chapter because it sounded the coolest? Don’t lie
to me!
Alright, let’s get on with it.
Although nutritional supplements and vitamins may seem benign, they
are just as capable of altering neurotransmitters and hormones as
pharmaceuticals. Always consult with a qualified healthcare
practitioner before trying anything listed in this guide. We prefer if you
can find someone who specializes in sleep disorders, holistic
medicine, or amino acid therapy.
It’s also important to let someone close to you know if you are
beginning or changing your supplement or vitamin regimen. That way,
your perception of yourself will not be your only method of keeping
track of mood changes, improvements or side effects.
RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTS
We don’t want to say that supplements are necessary for achieving
quality sleep, but they certainly help. This is especially true if you can’t
control all of the circumstances that affect sleep in your life (which is
often the case).
These are not in any particular order. We’ve placed a * next to the
supplements we think you should start with.
contains suntheanine is the highest-quality available. Other LTheanine supplements that do not list “sun” theanine are inferior.
M AG NE SIUM*
“Magnesium controls over three hundred enzymes in the body and mind. It
is critical for maintaining healthy parasympathetic functioning, which
produces a calm, relaxed nervous system, and is commonly deficient in
people consuming a high-carbohydrate diet.” ~ Nora Gedgaudas | Primal
Body Primal Mind.
Magnesium glycinate is a form of magnesium that is absorbed
extremely well and can ease the body into relaxation. Our clients have
also reported a reduction in hot flashes from magnesium
supplementation.
A dosage of up to 800mg two hours before bed is recommended.
Experiment with the dosage by watching your stools -- if you get
diarrhea, you can back off a bit.
Again, our preferred supplement is two teaspoons of Natural Calm.
L -T HEA NIN E
L - TRYPTO PHAN*
A study showed that the amino acid L-Theanine, which is also found
naturally in green and black tea, gave a significantly higher sleep
percentage score for boys that were suffering from ADHD.
The supplemental version of this amino acid can provide relief from
stress and anxiety, while improving sleep quality.
Supplemental capsules can purchased here. The dosage of
200-400mg can be wonderful for anxiety, physical tension and a
racing mind that can interfere with restful sleep. The product that
Dosages of 500mg are recommended. A high-quality capsule is
available to purchase here. L-Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin,
giving this supplement a 1-2 punch for relaxation and happiness.
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Do not take L-Tryptophan if you have a carcinoid tumor or are
currently on antidepressants unless you are under careful, qualified
medical supervision.
KRILL O IL OR H I GH GRA D E F IS H O IL
A study showed that Omega-3 supplementation helps improve
symptoms of depression and sleep apnea.
Artic Krill Oil, which is far superior to other types of krill, is available for
purchase here. Recommended dosage is 2 capsules or 2,000mg per
day.
An alternative that we recommend is Nordic Naturals fish oil, which is
a high quality, mercury-free fish oil.
And hey, even if it doesn’t help you sleep it’s a supplement you
should be taking anyway.
VI TAM IN D*
Vitamin D is arguably the most potent antioxidant in the body and
actually works more like a hormone.
One study showed that Vitamin D deficiency is another problem that
can contribute to sleep problems and a majority of the population is
deficient in it.
Remember that the best way to get adequate Vitamin D is to get full
body, non-sunscreen sun exposure. If that is not possible for you,
supplementation is critical.
If you have a need or interest in taking Vitamin D, first you should visit
WellnessFX and order a test for 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 or choose their
baseline or higher package that includes a Vitamin D test. The Vitamin
D Council recommends levels to be 60 to 80 ng/dL.
Recommended dosage is 1000IU per 25 pounds of bodyweight. D3 is
the more bioavailable version and is very inexpensive. Our preferred
brand is Nutrigold D3. You can also opt for a liquid emulsion form.
VAL E R IAN R OOT
Valerian is a flowering plant that is a common ingredient in herbal teas
that promotes sleep (it’s often used to treat insomnia). It’s also been
used to treat anxiety and gastrointestinal distress related to Irritable
Bowel Syndrome.
It’s also available as a supplement but we recommend drinking a
valerian tea prior to bedtime. Some people have reported vivid
dreams after drinking valerian tea and others have reported
nightmares (though Kevin hasn’t experienced this personally).
Everyone is different, but it’s worth experimenting with because
valerian does work for most people. Kevin’s favorite brand is Yogi
Bedtime.
M EL ATO NIN
The hormone melatonin is the last resort for sleep problems. A
salivary melatonin test may be beneficial before considering
supplementation to help determine your current circadian rhythm.
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Melatonin may be effective, but should be used with caution, if at all.
Using melatonin is similar to using any other hormone therapy. The
body’s natural production is reduced when melatonin is added to the
system.
Melatonin supplementation can also worsen depression. Since
melatonin regulates our insulin secretion, it’s best not to alter this
harmony. However, as a last resort, use .5-2 mg dosage 1 hour before
desired bed time.
LIGHT THERAPY
Light therapy, specifically devices that emit 10,000 lux, have been
used to treat Alzheimer's, ADHD, seasonal and non-seasonal
depression, jet lag and shift-work disorder.
Light therapy can make profound shifts in neurotransmitter function.
Specifically, the production of serotonin speeds up with the use of
light therapy. Winter is the time for the lowest serotonin production.
This therapy can also have a positive effect on dopamine in the brain.
Quick Tip: Light is a major factor in melatonin production. Using the tips we’ve already talked about to avoid blue light exposure after dark as well as having access to real light during the
day (rather than fluorescent lighting) is key to proper melatonin
production. Don’t consider supplementation until you’ve fixed
the factors that may be blocking the natural dosing of melatonin.
Light boxes should be used upon waking for 5-20 minutes. The
lightbox should be placed 12-18 inches away from the face in the
peripheral vision. Good placements are on your bathroom counter
while getting ready in the morning or your desk when checking emails
in the morning.
Getting your rhythm and natural melatonin production in order may
start immediately upon waking. As an added tip, walk outside as soon
as possible after waking and spend ten or fifteen minutes looking in
the direction of the sunrise.
Important notes for swing-shift or third-shift workers: Use the light box
when YOU wakeup. If your “morning” is 11PM and you have a shift
starting at midnight, use the light box upon waking.
If your schedule dictates that you wake up before sunrise, do
everything within your power to make adjustments to that schedule.
The human body is designed to wake up with the sun, not before it.
That’s a critical piece to stabilizing rhythm.
Supplement with Onnit Melatonin5 with Lemon Balm.
NatureBright carries one of the highest-quality, USA made, 10,000 lux
light boxes available.
If you can, get off third shift. We realize that there are a lot of factors
that go into why you’re a third shift worker, but do everything within
your power to make a change. Third shift work will destroy your
health.
Evan has spoken with Senior Scientist and Physicist Dr. Richard
Hansler, the founder of the NASA funded Lighting Innovations
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Corporation, for over 2 hours on his radio show about the extreme
importance of this topic. Those interviews are here and here.
EARTHING MATS
Up until fairly modern times, shoes were uncommon. In fact, there are
still millions of humans that do not wear or own shoes around the
world. Obviously this is usually due to extreme poverty, not choice,
but it’s still the natural condition for human beings.
Besides manipulating the foot and causing all sorts of physical
movement problems, modern shoes are comprised of synthetics,
plastics, rubbers and many other 21st century materials that
completely remove any connection to the Earth.
The term earthing refers to the grounding of the human body’s
electrical circuit via a special mat that grounds you just like being in
contact with the Earth. This vital connection is responsible for rest,
repair and growth. The mat allows you to maintain this connection
while you’re indoors.
In a study with a control group, the following results were seen after
using earthing mats:
85% went to sleep quicker, 93% reported sleeping better throughout
the night, 100% reported waking, being and feeling more rested, 82%
experienced a significant reduction in muscle stiffness, 74%
experienced the elimination of/or a reduction of chronic back and
joint pain, and 78% reported improved general health.
In the 21st century, most people can’t remember the last time their
bare feet touched the dirt. Therein lies the problem.
In addition, several subjects in the study also reported experiencing
significant relief from asthmatic and respiratory conditions,
rheumatoid arthritis, PMS, sleep apnea and hypertension.
On top of that, we sleep on metal bed frames and springs, walk
around on carpet and artificial wood and are completely disconnected
from the highly-important source of natural energy.
Dr Russell Whitten of Ojai, CA confirmed these findings when he took
an interest in the study and additionally grounded 35 of his own
patients and found similar results.
Also, with the introduction of smart phones, tablets and many other
electronics, we are adding even more extra electricity to the equation.
It’s so bad that we now carry a large excess of electricity in the body.
There’s no need for an earthing mat if you spend 8 hours a day
walking barefoot in your garden or yard. However, most people do
not have the time or resources to do this.
Removing your shoes and placing your feet on damp grass, dirt, sand
and mud will begin the reduction process.
Over 100 pages of research and science discussing the technology
and benefits of these modern grounding devices can be found in Dr.
Stephen Sinatra’s book called Earthing - The Most Important Health
Discovery Ever?
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Throughout his book, numerous studies and thermal imaging cameras
show the reduction in pain, inflammation and stress hormones built up
in the body.
People report less pain, higher quality, deeper sleep and an
improvement in mobility and outlook in daily life.
Evan uses a mat every night when he sleeps. He reports waking up
more refreshed and having more sustained energy throughout the
day. Not to mention, his chronic low back inflammation and pain has
disappeared.
Our human evolution of sleeping on the “ground” might be right after
all! Here’s an earthing mat you can check out.
This therapy was invented by Neurophysiologist Dr. John Lilly in 1954.
Dr. Lilly determined that over 90% of our central nervous system’s
workload was to focus on stimuli such as sight, sound, touch and most
importantly, gravity.
When you take these senses away, the part of our brain that focuses
on examining and analyzing our environment is allowed to relax and
calm down.
This therapy can be extremely useful for creativity, anxiety,
depression, racing thoughts, stress and other stress-induced
conditions.
Floatation centers are located across the world. A free website,
where-to-float.com will help you find one near you.
SENSORY DEPRIVATION
Sensory deprivation, also known as REST (Restricted Environmental
Stimulation Therapy) is the removal of sensory input such as light,
sound, smell and gravity. This therapy technique is one of the most
profoundly relaxing experiences a human will ever encounter.
The therapy is done in what’s called a float tank or pod. These tanks
vary in size, but all are large enough for one person to comfortably lay
inside.
The person lays in the tank which has an average of 10 inches of
water and 1000 pounds of epsom salt dissolved into it. Oh, and it’s
pitch black inside. A sense of floating and zero gravity follows.
Not only does the large amount of epsom salt that is dissolved into
the water allow you to float, it detoxes the body and provides an
incredible absorption of magnesium, which we talked about earlier.
As you settle into a relaxed, or theta state, the stress hormones
adrenaline and cortisol plummet. A sense of relaxation and well-being
obtained from a one hour session may last for up to 48 hours.
There’s a good reason that pro athletes, writers, psychologists and
many other high-performance people use these tanks regularly.
Sometimes we will use a floatation session in combination with a
therapeutic deep tissue massage for an incredible sense of peace
and comfort.
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HACKING ADRENAL FATIGUE 101
You’re going to prepare two separate concoctions:
Adrenal fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms that results
when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. This is a
condition most associated with intense or prolonged stress. It can also
arise after a bout of fighting off severe bacterial or viral infection.
1). 5 parts sugar + 1 part sea salt in a tiny cup.
We’re quickly mentioning adrenal fatigue here because it can have a
severe impact on sleep and most people haven’t heard of it and
understand very little about it.
Symptoms of adrenal fatigue are: You feel tired for no reason. You
have trouble getting up in the morning, even when you go to bed at a
reasonable hour. You are feeling rundown or overwhelmed. You have
difficulty bouncing back from stress or illness. You crave salty and
sweet snacks. You feel more awake, alert and energetic after 6PM
than you do all day.
2). 1/8 to 1/4 tsp sea salt dissolved in a small glass of water.
The salt/sugar hack is your back-to-sleep concoction, to be placed
under your tongue if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night
(or anytime before you’re supposed to wake up).
The salt water hack is your adrenal-calming drink to be consumed
immediately upon waking, before you even make it out of bed.
Aside from those two hacks, you should probably do your own
research on adrenal fatigue because the worse it gets, the harder it is
to recover from it. When we say it can get bad, we mean it can be
debilitating -- don’t take it lightly.
If you suspect that you have some adrenal fatigue, there are steps
you can start to take to begin to heal.
HACKING A BAD NIGHT’S SLEEP
Obviously, removing as much stress from your life helps immensely
and improving sleep does as well. But sometimes it’s a vicious cycle:
adrenal fatigue inhibits sleep and poor sleep exacerbates stress and
adrenal fatigue. So frustrating!
This guide is all about how to reboot your sleep so you can avoid low
quality and low quantity sleep. But nobody is perfect, right? If you end
up with a night of bad sleep, you still don’t have to suffer ALL of the
consequences.
There are two tactics that you can employ immediately: one that helps
you fall back asleep quickly if you happen to wake up in the night
(common with deranged cortisol or adrenaline or a busted circadian
rhythm) and another that calms your adrenals.
Before we close out this chapter, let’s talk about how to hack poor
sleep and mitigate the damage it can cause.
In chapter two, we talked about all of the side effects of poor sleep,
including chronic poor sleep. One of those side effects is depressed
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metabolic function. If you get 6 hours or less sleep per night, you’re
basically a type II diabetic the following day -- physiologically.
WELL DONE!
You can mitigate the damage by following a strict low carb protocol.
After a poor night of sleep avoid all sugar, grains, starches, and other
high glycemic carbohydrates. In fact, the only carbs you should ingest
should come from non-starchy vegetables. Your depressed metabolic
function simply can’t handle anything beyond that.
You made it to the end. Now, it’s time to put what you’ve learned into
practice. Remember the “intention behavior gap” that I talked about
earlier? It’s time to close that gap. Right now, make a list of FIVE
changes that you’re going to implement and DO THEM. Don’t forget
that we have a private support group specifically for REM Rehab
readers on Facebook where you can go to discuss concepts in the
book, ask questions, get additional tips and advice, and so on.
Bad sleep also negatively affects immune function. For this reason,
we suggest an extra 5000 IUs of Vitamin D and 800mg of Vitamin C -of course, you should also be supplementing daily with a good
probiotic to promote gut health as well as experimenting with
resistant starch.
We’ll see you there!
You can also mitigate the negative effects of poor sleep by taking a
quick nap. However, this nap should be less than 20 minutes in
length. Naps longer than 30 minutes can lead to “sleep inertia” which
will leave you waking up groggy and even more tired. You can take up
to two of these power naps the following day, but we don’t
recommend taking one within a few hours of bed time as it may
interfere with your ability to fall asleep that night.
One night of bad sleep can be quickly overcome, but if you start
compounding the problem night after night it really starts to take its
toll and you’ll notice that it becomes much harder to achieve realignment. Good luck!
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8
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
KEVIN GEARY
Kevin Geary is a holistic health coach, founder of The Rebooted
Body, and host of the rapidly growing Rebooted Body Podcast.
His Total Body Reboot program is a sought-after online coaching
program and community that combines ancestral science and
modern psychology. Kevin personally works with clients in over 14
countries to reprogram their body and mind for sustainable fat loss,
vibrant health, and peak performance through this signature
program.
Kevin is also the author of the action guide 8 Unhealthy Eating
Triggers and How to Conquer Them and is working on a full book
called Reboot Your Kids: How to Ditch Poor Eating and Upgrade
Your Child’s Habits, Health, and Happiness.
He lives in Atlanta with his wife, daughter, and American Pit Bull
Terrier Naomi.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
EVAN BRAND
Evan Brand is the writer and podcast host behind Not Just Paleo.
He uses personal experience along with his collaboration with
experts in holistic medicine, neurofeedback, and alternative health
to conquer one main goal...to help you discover what, why and
how to simplify and improve your life in the 21st Century.
From his time working in the 4,000 acres of the Temperate forests
to his experiences drifting away in a sensory deprivation tank, Evan
explores all realms of life to discover the true potential for human
health and happiness.
You can keep up with Evan and his show at NotJustPaleo.com
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