6 Steps To Better Sleep.

Good morning everyone. I hope you're feeling well rested... and if not, or today is the exception to the rule... this email could be PERFECT for you. I'm going to run through 6 steps to better sleep. Because as I've written about before, sleep is ESSENTIAL if performance is important to you. And that's true whether that performance is inside or outside of the gym. Some parts of your sleep are out of your control. If you've got young children, they're going to disturb the hell out of your sleep for a good few years. But there are some aspects which will always be within your control. So you'll find these 6 steps applicable and actionable whoever you are. Let's get into them. 1. Acknowledge The Circadium Rhythm Your circadium rhythm is your repeating sleep rhythm, which tells you when to sleep and when to wake. When it's working well and in your favour, it will tell you to sleep at the same time each day, and it will tell you to wake up at the same time each day. When it's really on point, you'll fall asleep really easily at the right time, and wake up without your alarm feeling refreshed at the right time. Imagine that! Seems impossible most of the time. And the reality is that most people will find this very hard to achieve, especially as an everyday athlete with a busy work, social, family and training schedule to fit into the same 24 hours as everyone else. BUT, that doesn't mean you can't work on it and improve it. At the most basic level, you need to identify a consistent sleep time, and wake time. Then actually stick to it. That rhythm can be unique to you, but it just needs to be consistent. Then, your body and mind will start to understand when bedtime actually is, automatically start winding down, and you'll start falling asleep when your head hits the pillow (ish). 2. Be Careful With Caffeine I've also written about caffeine previously, and how it's a great stimulant to take in the mornings and pre-training to give yourself a little boost. But stimulants and sleep do not go well together. You want to be as un-stimulated as possible going into your sleep routine to ensure you fall asleep quickly, and sleep deeply. Caffeine has a half-life of around 8 hours, meaning that 8 hours after ingesting it you'll still likely be experiencing the effects of it (even if you can't feel it). A good rule to set yourself is no caffeine within 8 hours of going to bed, so if bed time is 10pm, caffeine intake stops at 2pm. 3. And Also Be Careful With Alcohol If we have a drink, we usually have it in the evening. Mainly because for some reason it's socially unacceptable and frowned upon to turn up to work half-cut. But having an evening drink will more often than not negatively impact your sleep. It'll prevent your sleeping as deeply, increase the chances of you waking up at points of lighter sleep during the night, and potentially block yourself from entering the valuable deep REM sleep that your body will be craving as an everyday athlete. This doesn't mean you should never drink in the evening. Just be aware that the above is likely to happen. And the more drink, the bigger the problem. So if you have a big training, work, or life day the following day, or your really focussing on improving your sleep, be mindful of the booze. 4. Make Your Bedroom DARK A dark room is significantly better for your sleep. It's built into us that we should be awake during the light daytime hours, and asleep in the dark nighttime hours. But things like street-lights, house lights, gadgets and TV bring more and more light into our evenings and even our bedrooms. And as someone who values their sleep, you need to fight this. Get all the gadgets out of your bedroom. No phone, no TV, no standby lights. Get yourself and old-school alarm-clock. And black out your windows as much as possible with blackout blinds and heavy curtains. This has been my set-up for the last 3 years, and I'll never go back. You'll really notice the difference a truly dark room makes to your sleep. 5. Your Sleep Environment In a similar vein to light, there are other aspects of your sleep environment that you can control. Light we know about. You can control the temperature (most of the time). Cooler is better and helps you sleep remain unbroken throughout the night. You can control the noise (mostly). Quieter is obviously better, and ear-plugs are a good backup for external noises that can't be removed. Then finally your bedroom needs to be a place of calm and relaxation. So no work items, keep it clutter free, and for gods sake leave your smart phone in the other room. 6. Calm The Mind Finally, you want to try and calm your mind as much as possible. Some days, you'll tick every box for what I've written above, and your mind will still be spinning from the last meeting you had at work, tomorrows hard deadline, the competition you've entered at the weekend, or how your partner just did THE most annoying thing 30 seconds before getting into bed. So anything you can do to calm your mind is going to help your sleep in these instances, and all other instances as well. Write to-do lists for tomorrow when you finish work, not at 9:59pm, and leave work to within work hours (wherever possible). Ditch the phone. Everything that's on there at 9:59pm will be there at 7am as well. And build a pre-sleep routine that reminds your mind that it's time to slow down, switch off, and fall into a great deep sleep. For me that looks like living room lights off and curtains closed at 8:30pm, TV off at 9:30pm, in bed by 9:45pm, read for 15 minutes, lights off and sleep at 10pm. And these days I often fall asleep within 5 minutes of putting my head down.

Summary

Sometimes you cannot control how much you sleep as an everyday athlete. Work, life and kids can all be hugely unpredictable factors in your life. But... all of the above you CAN control, and you can use them to help ensure that when you're trying to sleep, you stand a good chance of falling asleep, and then enjoying some deep sleep when you are down. Take 5 minutes now to think about which points from the above 6 steps you can start implementing straight away to improve your sleep. You performance inside and outside the gym will massively improve alongside as well. Thanks, Ian.