I have been on a roller coaster of sleep modes. After I had my baby in 2009, I would put the kids to bed and stay up late until 12, 1, 2 in the morning. This was my “me time” and it was quiet and I could decompress and sit on the computer and watch TV. But the kids still got up in the morning at the same time no matter what time I went to bed the night before.
I.was.exhausted! Over time I started to realize that sleeping IS part of the plan. I used to think that if I got less sleep, I was more hard core! Not true.
Fast forward to 2016 and the topic of sleep has been on my mind and my weekly podcast listens and I can’t make enough positive mention about it. Recently I started getting territorial on my sleep and really focused on a regular rhythm, seven days a week. The key was that I didn’t treat the weekends any differently. The body likes rhythm and I held to it routinely and then my energy, physique, and circadian rhythm all came into alignment.
According to Science Daily.com, “A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24 hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. In a strict sense, circadian rhythms are endogenously generated, although they can be modulated by external cues such as sunlight and temperature.”
Mindy Irish Fitness Foundation: My goals with coaching are to teach others that our lives are made up of systems. We each have a life system and it produces results in many areas. If we want different outcomes, we have to execute different systems. One part to our system is sleep and the study of sleep is a huge and growing topic in the wellness industry.
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These are notes from a podcast that really made an impact on me. Below are my notes and my added personal sleep biohacks (ways of exploring my self patterns) and how they have impacted me:
Podcast Source: Ben Coomber Radio, episodes #194 & #195 dated June 6 and 9, 2016
- Circadian Rhythms are cycles of light and dark, awake and asleep that your body experiences. Circadian Rhythms love a consistent wake-up and asleep time.
- Instead of focusing on hours of sleep each night, focus on 90-minute sleep cycles. We sleep in cycles, so have you ever woken up and felt groggy or tired? You’ve likely been in the middle of a cycle!
picture source: science .howstuffworks .com
- Aim to get at least 5 90-minute sleep cycles each night, for a total of 35 cycles in a week. A minimum of 28 cycles a week is doable, but 35 is most ideal for our systems.
- If you lose cycles of sleep in a night (say you’re out later than expected), catch up on 30-minute or 90-minute cycles as naps during the day. 60 minutes would put you in the middle of a cycle, so make it 30 or 90.
- The goal is to get about 4 out of 7 days of at least 5 cycles per night, but life happens, so use the daytime to catch up on missed cycles when you can. Personal Biohack: after a different perspective on my sleep, I realized that if I woke up in the middle of a 90-minute cycle, even after getting a full 5 cycles, I was very groggy and it was hard to wake up. However, if I planned to wake up right at the end of a 90-minute mark in a cycle from the time I went to bed, I felt really rested and charged. Example: I went to bed at 9:30 and planned to wake up at 6:00. Waking at 6 was in the middle of a 90-minute cycle, so I’d be better off to wake at 5 or 6:30 AM instead.
- Have a morning routine. Get your body to slowly wake up, but get used to the day light and activity of the day. Open the blinds, take a shower, walk the dog, water the plants, get outdoors for some sunshine. Drink water as you wake. Prepare to eat a good breakfast. All these systems teach your body to be alert, raising your cortisol levels naturally so you can wake up and start the day, then eventually slowing down and preparing your mind and body to quiet and settle to sleep for the night in a good rhythm.
- In order to get into a good sleep, have pre-bed routines. These include:
1. Darkening rooms; turning down bright overhead lights; Personal biohack: I turn the overhead lights down and use lamps in the kitchen and bedrooms from about 8PM and on.
2. Sleeping with the sun down and rising with the sun rise rhythm
3. Keeping areas quiet so your brain settles down
4. Wear a sleep mask while you sleep to darken the room; Personal biohack: I do this and all my family. We sleep so soundly now!
5. Powering down from the TV, computer, and hand-helds (yes, the phone!) about 90 minutes before you plan to go to sleep. Especially with the phone, the blue light and the scrolling on the internet and social media right before bed illicit a raised cortisol response and that lowers melatonin, which is the hormone you WANT to be high in order to get to sleep; So think of it that cortisol and melatonin are not friends. You want melatonin to be high at night so you fall fast asleep as wanted. If hormone levels are out of balance, you won’t sleep well, the body won’t recover and reset for the next day, weight loss and body fat levels are impacted, and hunger has proven to be HIGHER the next day from lack and loss of sleep. It is all related! Personal biohack: I now charge my phone overnight in the bathroom away from my bed. I don’t even like to bring it near my bed now. I silence it and start to charge it by about 8PM and that’s my way of powering down for the evening.
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I have always said that if you need to start somewhere, start with your sleep. Learn your habits and patterns and make a choice to change it one area at a time. Sleeping more will impact all areas of your life and may be the catalyst of change that you’re looking to find! When I work 1:1 with clients in online coaching, this is one of many areas we focus on each week. Consistently keeping them accountable to their sleep IS part of the plan. Happy sleeping!
-Mindy
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Take a free sleep profile test to get an analysis and feedback on your sleep systems HERE!
Source: Sportsleepcoach.com
