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Writer's pictureKyle Spencer Kenny

Understanding Sleep

We spend almost one-third of our lives sleeping, scientists still debate sleep’s underlying purpose. Researchers now understand that sleep affects nearly every organ and tissue in the body, and, as such, influences everything from your metabolism to your mood.


Groundbreaking neuroscience research has also demonstrated that getting around 8 hours of shuteye helps to regulate mood, facilitate learning, and allow the brain to do some important internal housekeeping work.


However, if you are like me, you get nowhere near eight hours of sleep per night. About a year ago, my wife bought me an Oura Ring. If you are not familiar with these rings, they track a huge amount of sleep data. From respiratory rate to each stage of sleep, body movement, body temperature, and many other pieces of information. So, when I began to monitor and study my sleep data, the results were awful. I average around five to six hours per night, hoping to get at least two hours in stage 2 deep sleep. Once I began to recognize what a terrible sleeper I am. I learned that I will just have to accept the fact that I am a fully functioning individual on 4 to 5 hours of sleep at night.


However, doing whatever you can to maintain an adequate sleep schedule is vital. Here are a few things that has helped me improve on my rest of the last year or so:


  • Going to bed at the same time every night. Even on weekends.

  • Being clean before bed. Keep your sleep hygiene up.

  • Never bring food into your bed. Ever.

  • Practice breathing techniques. Inhale for 6secs - pause for 3secs - exhale for 6secs.

  • Use nasal only breathing.

  • Use a comfortable pillow.

  • Limit yourself to 200mg of caffeine per day.

  • Have clean, cozy sheets.

  • If you can't fall asleep, get out of bed after 15mins and go pace around your house.

  • Use blue light filters on your screens.

  • Avoid sugar later in the day.

  • Give up alcohol, you don't need it & it's not worth it.

  • Balanced, proper portion sized meal for dinner.

  • Track your sleep and find the root of the issues.


Even though my sleep schedule is pretty damn rough some of these techniques have been helpful in the past.

If you do not sleep 8 hours per night, and it has been this way for a while, accept the fact and try to take advantage of recovery windows throughout the day.


Close your eyes for 20mins and put your feet above your heart.


'Placebo Sleep' is something else I use regularly. Meaning, if I wake up and know that I slept like garbage, I convince myself to appreciate the minimal sleep I did get.

Telling my mind to block out the feeling of fatigue and go about my day like normal. If we dwell on the fact, we are going to be worse off, glass half full type situation.


From my research, there are 4 stages of sleep: awake/light/deep/REM.

Majority of individuals over the years in my client base think that REM sleep is best, which is false. When we are in the REM state, our brain in activated, dreaming, and using involuntary motor function to twitch various muscle groups in our body, meaning we are not at rest. Where we want to be, is 'Stage 2' deep sleep - here everything is turned off, we are finally in a peaceful state. This stage can be difficult to remain in. I usually aim for 2 to 3 hours of stage 2 deep sleep per night, but it is not like I can control this, all I can do is apply the techniques above and do my best to remain consistent


Lastly, let's talk about supplementation. Melatonin, sleeping pills, CBD oil, valerian root, zinc & magnesium, the list is endless. But what works? Does anything or is it all marketing plots to get you to spend your hard-earned money.

For the longest time, I took a sleep aid every night with the active ingredient called Doxylamine Succinate, which is an antihistamine. After a while, my tolerance seemed to build up, and I was worse off than before. Then I switched over to melatonin, where it was helpful to fall asleep, but I kept waking up at 2am. I tried to increase the dosage of magnesium, which is supposed to help relax your muscles, but still did not work. I took shots of NyQuil, Excedrin PM, high amounts of valerian root, CBD oil, creams, topicals, you name it, I probably have taken it. But after a while, I decided to give it all up and see if how it would go without taking anything. As you can imagine, awful. I think during that window of time, my sleep was the worst it has ever been in my life, with an average of 3 to 4 hours per night, while training for my next Ironman Triathlon.

Anyways, one supplement recommended is melatonin. Our brains produce this hormone naturally, but it seems some have it in an abundance, and others produce very small amounts. I have read about things such as sunlight that help produce more of it, foods such as pistachios have traces of it, and things like stress or cortisol suppress it. Another supplement I refer back to is magnesium. Generally speaking, magnesium helps relax and reduce the inflammation in our muscles. This can and should be taken in the evenings, after work or around 5pm or 6pm. Then lastly, one of my favorites is beet root extract. What this does is dilate the blood vessels allowing an increase in blood flow through muscle tissue. You can really take this one at any time, but I prefer to take it towards the end of the day.

These supplements are not magic, they should be taken in proper dosages and ideally, our sleep follows our circadian rhythm.


Supplement links are posted at the bottom of page.


These days, my sleep is somewhat ideal, after years of trial and error. Really trying to pay attention to what your body is telling your brain is helpful. If it's the end of the day, and I still have energy, I will try to stay up and avoid the bedroom. If it is 8pm and I feel wrecked, into bed I go. But each day, the time is within 30mins no matter what. I also wake up around 4:15am every morning without an alarm clock. Anyways, hope some of this is helpful.



Magnesium Glycinate

Magnesium is an essential nutrient found in many foods. Magnesium Glycinate is a magnesium salt that consists of Magnesium and Glycine and is commonly taken as a Magnesium supplement. Magnesium Glycine has a higher bioavailability than many other forms of Magnesium.





Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland in the middle of the brain. Melatonin plays a key role in maintaining the sleep cycle.

The production of Melatonin first involves Tryptophan being synthesized during digestion from various proteins. When it is light outside, this is converted to Serotonin, and when it is night outside, it is converted to Melatonin.





Beet Root Powder

Beet root powder is from a root vegetable, also known as the garden beet, table beet, red beet, or golden beet. It has edible taproots and leaves that are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Beet root powder has a number of health benefits and is hailed as a superfood.










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