SLEEP
Kayla Barnes is an entrepreneur, certified brain health coach, and biohacker with a mission to help her clients and community achieve optimal health through science-backed and proven approaches. She is by far one of our most favourite people to follow on instagram where she shares her tips on optimising health in small bite size peices.
Today we are sharing her tips to improve sleep
Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Our bodies are designed to sleep and wake at the same time daily. If we are constantly changing our sleep schedule, our biological preparation for sleep (the release of the hormone melatonin) won’t be on a schedule. Consistency in your sleep/wake schedule is key. You should maintain this consistency even on weekends and vacations.
As nurses, we acknowledge this is almost useless information given the shift work that is involved but we highly recommend planning you roster to avoid those late-early’s!! Trust us, since we have reduced our hours at the hospital to grow VTMN our sleep quality has improved 10 fold
Don’t eat too late –. When we eat a large meal too close to bed, our bodies will prioritise digesting the food over the deeper stages of sleep. Although eating before bed won’t necessarily keep you awake, it can keep you out of the deeper stages of sleep.
Reduce alcohol intake – Alcohol is a neurotoxin and will significantly decrease your quality of sleep. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and can cause feelings of drowsiness. This is why many people convince themselves that they need a drink at night to fall asleep, because Yes, alcohol can make you feel sleepy, but it will then wreck the quality of your sleep throughout the night.
Statistics show that low amounts of alcohol (less than one drink for women and less than two drinks for men) decreases sleep quality by 9.3%. percent.
Moderate alcohol consumption (two drinks for men and one drink for women) decreases sleep quality by 24%.percent. High amounts of alcohol (more than two drinks for men and more than one drink for women) decreases sleep quality by 39.2 percent.% Drinking alcohol suppresses the REM cycles and can lead to frequent sleep disturbances. There are many reasons to reduce or eliminate your alcohol consumption if you want to become a superhuman, but impacting your sleep is a massive reason.
Block out blue light several hours before bed. We live in a world where in which we are attached to our devices from the moment we open our eyes, to the moment that we close them. For better health overall it is best to set limits on screen time, but it is particularly important when we are preparing our bodies and brains for sleep. I suggest putting away technology at least one hour before bed, but if that is impossible for you, I suggest using the red version of blue light blocking glasses before sleep. (The yellow ones are better for the daytime, and the red lenses are best for the evening.) You can wear these one to three hours before sleep.
You can also change the colour filters on your phone and computer to switch to completely red if you do not want to get the glasses. Google “red light phone trick” and it will walk you through the steps. You can also set this up on your computer.
The iPhone does have settings that can change the colour and temperature of the screen with the time of day, but the red colour filters or red light phone and computer hack is significantly better. You also want to avoid bright lights in your home. I recommend getting a red light for your bedroom to use in the evening hours, or a few that you can place throughout your home and use them exclusively in the evening hours.
Put your body into a parasympathetic state at least an hour before. Most of our days are spent in fight- or- flightmode, but for high quality sleep we have to relax our minds and our bodies. You can do this with a meditation practice, breath work, or reading a relaxing book. If TV is your thing, you should avoid watching anxiety-inducing content before bed.
This should be a no-brainer, but if you like to binge on crime shows don’t do it before bed. You also shouldn’t check emails or any other content that may cause you stress before bed. You want to be as relaxed as possible. If you have ruminating thoughts at night when you are in bed, keep a journal nearby so you can jot them down. Once the thoughts are written down, you should feel better about moving away from them.
Use your bedroom for sleep and sex only. This helps to condition your brain that this space is only for those activities.
Keep your room cool. When we sleep, our body temperature naturally drops. By keeping your room cool, you can expedite this process. Also, if you’re are too warm during sleep it can encourage tossing and turning or, restlessness, and even waking up during the night.
Keep your room dark. We are immensely impacted by light. This can be beneficial for our health and sleep when we experience light exposure at the right times, but it can negatively impact our sleep. If we experience light on our skin while sleeping, this can disrupt our circadian cycle, and decrease the quality of our sleep. Keeping bright lights off during the evening can also increase dopamine levels throughout the day.
Make your room as close to zero EMF (electromagnetic fields) as possible. Remove or unplug smart devices, put your phone on in airplane more mode, or keep it out of your room. When we you sleep we you should have zero to extremely minimal amounts of EMF exposure.
Leverage Sunshine sunshine to help you sleep at night. For the best sleep at night, expose yourself to sunshine immediately upon waking. This helps to set your circadian rhythm for the day. Sunlight into the eye’s signals to the brain that it is time to wake up. I also suggest viewing sunlight at sunset, as this further anchors your circadian rhythm and informs the brain that the sun is setting and sends signals for the body to begin winding down. (Getting sunshine within an hour of waking will also trigger a dopamine release and will boost your dopamine receptors, so the circulating dopamine will bind more easily.)
Consider a magnesium supplement. Magnesium is critical for many cellular processes in the body, and it is important for sleep. You can have your magnesium levels tested, but most humans are deficient in magnesium so odds are you would benefit from a full spectrum magnesium. (Full spectrum magnesium has multiple forms of magnesium’s. If you are deficient in one form, you are most likely deficient in multiple forms.) I also love topical magnesium sprays. After my evening shower I enjoy the ritual and sleep boosting benefits of applying a topical magnesium spray.
Avoid caffeine and stimulants too late in the day. Caffeine acts as an “adenosine receptor antagonist.” Adenosine is a substance in your body that promotes sleepiness. Caffeine blocks the adenosine receptor to keep you from feeling sleepy. Caffeine reaches a peak level in your blood within 30 to 60 minutes. It has a half-life of 3 three to 5 five hours. The half-life is the time it takes for your body to eliminate half of the substance. Some people metabolise caffeine faster than others, but it is a healthy practice to stop consuming caffeine after 2 p.m, but If you find that your sleep is still being affected, you may need to stop drinking caffeine even earlier.
Lastly, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and incorporating vigorous exercise into your daily routine improves your sleep quality. Vigorous exercise will tire the body and healthy inputs overall can optimise your sleep quality.
For more bite-size bio hacks we highly recommend giving @kaylabarnes a follow on instagram and reading through more of her blogs like this one at https://www.kaylabarnes.com/