3-Nights To Better Sleep & Energy: The Ultimate Sleep Guide for Tired Executives
Sleep… we know how important it is.
But between late night work meetings, travelling multiple time zones, young kids and a never ending mountain of deadlines…
It becomes increasingly elusive.
Rest assured you’re not the only one.
Teams of global researchers are obsessing over how we in the modern world can restore sleep quality amongst the demands of our fast-paced lifestyles.
Perfecting sleep is about addressing 3 main areas:
Light, Digestion, Temperature.
Light
Screens: screens off 1 hour before sleep. Alternatively, you can dim all screens to the lowest brightness and use blue light blocking glasses.
Lights: turn off any overhead lights once the sun sets. Use lamps and floor lights only
Morning sun: get 10 mins of sunlight in your eyes in the first 30 mins of the sun rising, this keeps our body clock in rhythm
Black out your room: can you see your hand in front of your face? It’s not dark enough. We evolved in caves, no light should be in the room.
Sunrise alarm: you can buy an alarm clock which mimics the sun rising, this is a much more comfortable way to wake than scrambling for a blaring iphone.
2. Digestion
Caffeine: no more than 1-2 coffees 1 hour after waking and no later than 12pm.
No food 2 hours before going to sleep: digesting food keeps the body awake and stops us from being able to fall asleep easily.
No liquids 2-3 hours before bed. If you’re getting up to pee more than once in the night you’re drinking too much liquid.
Limit alcohol: ideally zero, but if you do have a drink try and get it in 2-3 hours before bed so it doesn’t interrupt sleep.
Sleep supplements: L-theanine, Rhodiola, Magnesium
3. Temperature
Drop the room temperature between 19-21 degrees
A hot shower 1 hour before bed will drop your core temperature to below baseline as your body tries to rapidly cool you after the shower. We want a low body temperature when sleeping.
Avoid any cardio 3 hours before sleep. For the same reasons it elevates core body temperature making it hard to sleep.
Cooling mattress: there are many mattresses now which are good at taking heat out of the mattress as it builds up over the night, 8-Sleep being one of the more popular brands. This will help you stay asleep all night.
Drink 1/4 cup of ice water 30 minutes before bed to drop core temperature
So how many of these things are you doing?
Some of them?
None of them?
Whatever the answer there is likely always going to be something you can do to improve sleep.
Great sleep is a skill.
And It’s definitely a skill worth refining.
Where Do You Go From Here?
If you’d like to optimise your health and fitness, join the 30 Day Health Optimisation Blueprint For Executives. Receive 1 email per day for 30 days with the tools and tactics we use at Lockeroom to get our clients into incredible shape.