How can you improve your sleep quality?

I'm excited about this month's?newsletter, as improving our?sleep quality is something most of us can hugely benefit from. And the good news? It's not THAT hard to do...

Sleep tip of the month

Do you want to boost your sleep quality? Get moving!

A growing number of studies suggest that exercise improves sleep. This is the case in both trained and untrained healthy people, but also in patients suffering from insomnia (who have trouble falling and/or staying asleep) or sleep apnea. Improved physical fitness can even reduce the risk of developing disturbed sleep, so it's good for everyone!

The best time of day?

Sure, we can debate the exact optimal timing, but at the end of the day, it?doesn't really matter THAT much, as long as you get it in! Very intense exercise in the 1-2 hours before bed?can?be disruptive to some people's sleep. I am definitely someone who cannot go to a spinning class at 7 pm and still have good sleep, it'll be restless. But for folks?with the occasional pre-bed anxiety, exercise has been shown to improve sleep, as it reduces that anxiety.

What do I do myself?

If I didn't have kids and didn't care about using my most productive hours for work, I'd probably always exercise first thing in the morning, it feels great to start a day like that. But given that I?do?have kids and I?do?care about using the morning hours to get my best work done, I usually end up exercising around lunchtime (and having late lunches). Ideally, I'd use my afternoon (post-lunch) dip for exercise instead, preferably outside, to use those less productive hours in a healthy way. Unfortunately, it's often the most difficult time of day to make it happen. And to be motivated!?

Keep in mind:?As always: the most optimal thing for sleep might not be realistic for you, so go for the "second best" if you can actually stick to that instead!

So?

The take-home message is that ANY physical activity during the day will boost your sleep at night, whether it's aerobic exercise?(cardio), strength training, or mind-body exercise?such as yoga or tai chi.

Rookie Mistake of the Month

Caffeine = a stimulant!

Caffeine is a great sleepiness-fighter and it's been shown in many studies to improve our physical and cognitive performance. This is probably why so many people in the world drink caffeine (~90% of adults!).

How do we normally get sleepy?

Before explaining how caffeine works, it helps to know how we normally get sleepy. You might have heard of adenosine. It's?a neurotransmitter?that builds up as we are awake because it's a byproduct of our brain cells using energy. Adenosine makes us feel sleepy and relaxed, it's basically a natural sleeping pill.?

Mechanism: Caffeine works because it's a doppelganger

When caffeine enters the brain through our blood, it acts as a doppelganger to adenosine and attaches to adenosine receptors. These?are widespread in several areas of our brain, involved in the regulation of sleep, arousal, and cognition. By sitting on the adenosine receptors, caffeine blocks the hypnotic effect of adenosine and prevents us from feeling sleepy.

Does caffeine REALLY improve performance though?

Although caffeine boosts performance in many studies, there are 2 difficulties with these studies.

First: it's VERY hard to find people who are not already caffeine "addicted" given that the vast majority of adults regularly drink caffeine. That's an issue because in anyone going through even subtle caffeine withdrawal, caffeine will always improve performance. However, it would just fix the performance drop caused by the withdrawal, and get you back to your original baseline.

Second: Most people (a.k.a. undergraduate study participants) are chronically sleep deprived. Their sleepiness causes underperformance, and caffeine improves such underperformance in tired people (again getting them back to baseline). But it's still unclear whether caffeine truly has a positive performance effect in well-rested individuals.

Caffeine and sleep

Despite the uncertainty of caffeine really boosting performance in well-rested individuals, we are certain that caffeine can disrupt sleep in multiple different ways, some of which you might not be aware of.

• It takes longer?to fall asleep
• Deep sleep is shorter and less deep
• Total sleep duration decreases

It turns out that people generally underestimate the effects of caffeine on their sleep (probably because it can be hard to notice subtle changes in sleep quality or sleep depth).

The tricky thing

The issue is really caffeine's long half-life (4-7 hours), which is much longer than most people think. This means that 8-14 hours after drinking your caffeine, it's at 25% of its original peak. One study even found deep sleep to be less deep when participants took 200mg of caffeine at 7:15 am in the morning, a time you wouldn't usually get worried about it impacting your sleep.

How much is 200mg of caffeine?

And 200mg is not outrageous: 2 mugs of tea (75mg each) and one can of cola (40mg) will get you very close. FYI: A mug of filter coffee has 140mg and an ounce of espresso has 63 mg.

The take-home message?

If you're a caffeine drinker, and you'd like to improve your sleep quality and/or performance, try cutting back on both total caffeine and caffeine close to bedtime. For example: have a hard rule of no caffeine in the 8 hours before bedtime, and experiment with fewer caffeinated drinks in total.

Try decaf like me!?

It's available more and more, and honestly, it's hard to taste any difference. A recent study even showed that regular coffee drinkers have fewer caffeine withdrawal symptoms (such as fatigue) when drinking decaf, even when they KNOW it's decaf! Amazing no?!

Product recommendation

Black-out curtains

In the northern hemisphere, we are getting close?to the summer solstice;?our days are getting longer and the sun comes up earlier, which can disrupt our sleep quality in the morning. Having curtains that really block out ALL light will help you get better sleep AND it will keep your bedroom cool in the summer months. Blinds and eyemasks can be another great help with this, so whatever works in your home situation, consider a little home improvement project focused on keeping the sun out this summer.

That's it for this month!

Sleep well! ??

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