3 non negotiables if you want quality sleep
Before we get into the tactical stuff, here’s what happens if you lose just 90 minutes of sleep:
- 30% drop in mental performance: that means fewer ideas and longer time to process a spreadsheet or answer an email.
- 33% drop in reaction time: it gets difficult to focus while driving or operating machinery
- Metabolism goes down: it’s easier to gain weight because you’re hungrier and likely to eat junk
- Cortisol shoots up: you become more anxious and stressful
- Testosterone plummets to the level as if you were 10 years older (that’s INSANE)
That’s just from ONE night of poor sleep.
Can you imagine that accumulation for weeks and months?
Getting quality sleep comes down to many things that play together in harmony.
But the two most important factors are cortisol & core body temperature.
You need a low core body temperature & you need to wind down.
Without those two getting quality sleep becomes a shot in the dark.
Now that you know the 2 key metrics to look at, here’s what I never do to offset those:
1. I eat my last meal of the day no later than 3h before bed. If your body is digesting, then your core body temperature is up. If you’re too hot, then you won’t get much deep sleep. You may be in bed for 8-9h but still feel tired.
2. I avoid blue light exposure 60-90min before going to bed. That’s a hard one for most of us. But blue light offsets your circadian rhythm, which raises cortisol and lowers melatonin.
Which is the exact opposite you want to get good quality sleep. If you still stay on the screen then use bluelight blockers from Truedark or Boncharge – those are two quality brands.
3. I avoid mouth breathing at night. If you breath through the mouth you have less oxygen, cortisol is up and you won’t get that much deep sleep.
I use mouth strips or a hostage tape and this forces my body to breath through the nose. If I forget this I immediately have 5-7 points less on the Oura ring. This is by far the biggest ROI with my sleep.
There are many more things that can help you improve your sleep but form my experience those 3 give the best ROI.