- 56 minutes ago
Lucie wants to be getting better sleep, so this week she does everything possible to get the best night's sleep.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this week is five days of getting better quality sleep. Hey
00:04everyone and welcome back to Try Living with Lucy. I have recently and pretty
00:07much all of my spare time been reading books and books and books about how to
00:11get better quality sleep. I'm not quite sure why but I've become obsessed with
00:15the topic. Two of my favorite books on this subject are Shawn Stevenson's book
00:19Sleep Smarter and Ariana Huffington's book The Sleep Revolution. And when I say
00:23I've been reading these books I mean I've been reading them. Like with a pen,
00:27hardcore, taking notes, writing down everything, soaking up so much
00:31information, and now I just can't do anything else but share it with you. Some
00:35of my favorite videos in this series have been things like five days of zero waste
00:39or no plastic, five days of Ayurveda, videos where I myself have really taken a
00:44deep dive into a specific topic and then the whole video is about sharing what
00:47I've learned with you. So this video I hope will be very helpful and it's honestly
00:51my goal to improve at least some of your sleep qualities out there and then
00:56hopefully overall that will have some major positive effects in your life
00:59including overall health. So get your notebooks out, get your pencils out, and
01:03get ready to learn. So we all know that in our society sleep is not notoriously
01:07sexy. It's actually a lot sexier to stay up late and to be creative and to party
01:12and to work your f*** off and hustle. And so in our world millions of people are
01:16sleep deprived and are suffering from the effects of it. Sleep regulates a lot of our
01:20body's hormone production and it's actually during sleep that our body releases
01:24much of our growth hormone to maintain and repair muscle. So here's a short list
01:29of some of the effects of getting poor quality sleep. Relationships suffer, work
01:33productivity declines, cortisol your stress hormone is higher, insulin doesn't work
01:37as well and it can throw your blood sugar way off, you're probably feeling pretty
01:41grouchy, you may have dark circles under your eyes, a higher risk of more diseases,
01:45and a lot more. But when you actually sleep well and get good quality sleep here are some of the
01:49positive side effects. Better skin health and appearance, better relationships and
01:53emotional state, lower levels of inflammation, fewer accidents happening in
01:57your life, enhanced immune system function, hormone balance, and a decreased risk of
02:02many diseases. So there are obviously other factors in our lives that affect all of
02:06these things but I would say that the top three most important are eating real
02:10food, getting in some movement, and getting proper quality sleep. You do have to
02:14read some of these books on your own if you want to truly grasp the value of sleep
02:18for yourself. And there are so many studies cited inside with a lot of juicy
02:22information. So this week is about spending each of the five days
02:25implementing some of these tips that I've been learning recently so that I can
02:28jumpstart the improvement of my sleep quality. So let's start with Monday.
02:35Going into Monday the first thing I did was set up a sleep schedule. If sleep is
02:39as important as these books say it is then I need to pop it into my calendar as a
02:43high-priority event. It needs to be in there just the same as if I had a work
02:47meeting or a doctor's appointment. I can't be late, I can't miss it, and I can't
02:51cancel. So on my calendar I scheduled in a stop time for work at 6 p.m. My plan is
02:56to eat dinner at 7 and then starting at 7 30 I'm going to be getting ready for
03:00sleep. Winding down starting all my self-care practices. I once heard someone
03:04equate it to almost having foreplay with sleep. You can't just lie down and expect
03:08to fall asleep. You have to tease it and ease into it. So once I was fully set up for
03:12the week my Monday was focused on the morning time. A great night's sleep
03:16actually begins first thing in the morning. Your body's circadian rhythm is
03:20basically that 24-hour cycle that tells you when to sleep, when to wake up, and
03:25when to eat. And in the past, before the introduction of artificial light into our
03:29world, it was the sunlight and that predictable pattern of lightness and
03:33darkness that controlled these sleep cycles. There are a lot of reasons why
03:37getting proper sunlight exposure helps our bodies and helps this circadian rhythm.
03:41Firstly, and I think this is really cool, sunlight triggers your body to produce
03:46optimal levels of daytime hormones. First on that list is serotonin and as
03:50soon as the receptors in our eyes catch that natural sunlight, we produce more
03:54serotonin which is known to bring about feelings of happiness and well-being.
03:58Next is melatonin and you've probably heard of people taking melatonin to help
04:01them sleep and it's secreted naturally in our bodies as it gets darker outside but
04:06one of the reasons why it's important to get natural sunlight during the day is to
04:09essentially tell your body that it's the daytime so that it knows when it's
04:13nighttime and it can coordinate that natural production of melatonin at night.
04:17And third is cortisol. Cortisol is notorious for being the stress hormone and of
04:22course you don't want it to be overproduced or underproduced in the body but
04:26at its normal levels cortisol is actually what gives us the energy to be
04:29awake and alert all day so we need cortisol. So yes when you get that daytime
04:33sunlight exposure it encourages the production of cortisol which helps set that
04:38natural rhythm of cortisol in the morning and melatonin at night. Another
04:41thing that's important to note here is that it's not just the sunlight that
04:44helps tune up the circadian rhythm but it's also what time you wake up. According
04:49to psychiatrist and psychotherapist Tracy Marks, going to sleep early and waking
04:53early syncs the body clock with the earth's natural circadian rhythms. And this
04:57is apparently a lot better than trying to sleep in the middle of the day when the
05:01sun is high up in the sky. So if you're not a morning person I already made an
05:04entire five-day challenge video where I tried to become one. So be sure to check
05:08that one out right after this.
05:13One of the most important ways to improve your sleep quality is to truly
05:17focus on the environment of your bedroom. And firstly we have to train our
05:21brains to know almost habitually that the bedroom is meant for two things and
05:25two things only. Sleep and sex. This means we have to stop doing things like
05:30watching TV in bed, binge watching Netflix in bed, bringing our laptops to bed to do
05:34work, scrolling through our phones, and chatting with friends. Because all of these
05:38things tell our brains that the bedroom is a social space but we want the brain
05:42to think of it as a sleep sanctuary. Next we're going to talk about the air
05:45quality in the bedroom because even though this is something we can't see it
05:49is vital. If you have the budget for it getting an air ionizer is a great way to
05:53add more negative ions into the air which can then bind to dust, bacteria, pollen, and other allergens.
05:59Some cheaper ways to re-energize that stale air in the bedroom would be to just
06:03open the window during the daytime, turn on a fan to get things moving, try using a
06:07humidifier, or just add some plants to your bedroom. You might be surprised at
06:11how good some house plants are at filtering the air. So I recently got a
06:15snake plant that absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen at night. Another
06:19major adjustment that you can make to your bedroom to improve your sleep quality
06:22is to make sure your room is 100% dark. I mean blacked out when you go to bed. Get
06:28yourself some blackout curtains, unplug your nightlights, make sure that if you
06:31have an alarm clock you're covering up those lit up digits. I live in New York
06:35City so there's a lot of light pollution leaking in from outside of my windows.
06:39There are car lights, other apartment lights, and just general brightness from
06:43whatever the heck is going on down there. I do know of many people that sleep with
06:46their shades wide open so that the sunlight leaks in in the morning and they
06:50can wake up naturally. But what I'm learning from these books is that it's a
06:53lot better to black out your room, sleep in complete darkness, and then when you
06:57wake up in the morning, open up your shades and let the sun shine. Using an eye
07:01mask can be helpful and I actually have a ton of eye masks to choose from.
07:13But eye masks are not 100% effective and I think that the study in the book Sleep
07:18Smarter that I found to be the most interesting is one that proves that it's
07:21not just light that's visible to our eyes that causes the sleep disruption but
07:25it's actually any light that comes in contact with our skin. So the study put a
07:29fiber optic cable behind the knee of a test subject and illuminated a little
07:34patch of their skin about the size of a quarter. And even though the whole rest of
07:37their body was in darkness and their eyes were being shielded from the light, just
07:41that one little patch of light behind their knee was enough to affect their
07:44overall body temperature and also their melatonin levels. Mind blown.
07:52So Monday was spent focusing on the morning time and Tuesday was all about the
07:56bedroom environment. But I know there are a bunch of things we can do throughout
08:00the course of our day to improve our sleep quality for later that night. So here are
08:03two things that can help. Starting with physical activity and exercise. One thing
08:07I find fascinating about exercise is that everyone thinks that the moment they
08:11leave the gym they are so much stronger than when they first walked in. But that
08:15couldn't be further from the truth. Working out and exercising actually creates
08:19thousands of micro tears in your muscle fibers and actually leaves you in way
08:23worse shape than before you walked into the gym. On his podcast called The Model
08:26Health Show, Shawn Stevenson talks about how if you were to go to the doctor right
08:31after going to the gym and if you were to get blood work done, your doctor might
08:34actually think you were sick because your stress hormones would be elevated, your
08:38inflammatory markers would be way up, your blood sugar levels might be off and so
08:42much more. So where am I going with all this? Well exercise doesn't actually pay off and build us up
08:47until we've properly slept. Another important tip that I implemented on
08:51Wednesday is to exercise early in the day. I was probably the first person at the
08:56gym on Wednesday. It was totally empty and there's a whole chapter in Sleep
08:59Smarter about how our body temperatures naturally fluctuate during the day and to
09:04make a long scientific story short and easily digestible. When it's time to sleep
09:08there's an automatic drop in our body temperatures to help us with that. In fact
09:12we're actually supposed to sleep with our rooms between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, which is
09:17pretty cool. And I don't mean cool, I mean cool. So knowing that our body
09:21temperatures are supposed to drop when it's time for sleep, it makes sense why
09:24evening exercise is not ideal. Working out can significantly raise your core body
09:29temperature and then it's going to take some time for that temperature to come
09:32down. Also going back to the cortisol that we talked about on Monday, exercise can
09:36help encourage that natural release of cortisol. So exercising early in the
09:40morning is helpful for helping to put your cortisol cycle on track. A lot of these
09:44books have great information about what type of exercise is best, but I will give
09:48you a little hint and let you know that Shawn Stevenson from Sleep Smarter is a big
09:52fan of weight lifting. And secondly, aside from physical activity, another thing we
09:57can do to improve our sleep quality is to set a caffeine curfew or as I like to
10:01call it, a coffee cutoff. Even though I tried five days of no coffee before, I am
10:05personally back on the coffee train. I love a good cup of coffee and I do
10:09subscribe to the idea that good quality coffee is really good for you. The issue with
10:13coffee and sleep is the caffeine content. So what many people don't know is that
10:17caffeine has a half-life of around five to eight hours. It's a little different
10:21for everyone. And this means that after that five to eight hour window, half of the
10:25substance is still active in your system. So let's say that based on your unique
10:29biochemical makeup, it's an eight-hour half-life for you. This means that if you
10:32had 200 milligrams of caffeine at 10 a.m. by 6 p.m. you still have 100 milligrams in
10:38your system. By 2 a.m. you still have 50 milligrams in your system and so on and so
10:43forth. So if you're one of those people that's knocking back late afternoon
10:46coffees or somebody that's having a coffee or a cappuccino after dinnertime,
10:51just know that this caffeine can be causing major sleep disturbances. Shawn
10:55recommends a 2 p.m. caffeine curfew if you want to make sure that by 10 p.m. at
10:59least half of the caffeine content is out of your system.
11:04I'm sure some of you out there watching this right now are thinking, uh, well it's the late
11:08afternoon already. I didn't get any sun exposure. I didn't work out today. I just had
11:12coffee like 10 minutes ago. So what can I do right now to sleep better tonight? And
11:17I hear you. I'm about to help you. A few things you can do right before you go to
11:20sleep to drastically improve the quality of your sleep are, number one, stop
11:25looking at screens at least a half an hour before you go to bed. Computers, phones,
11:29TVs, iPads, these have all got to go. All of these devices put out this
11:33artificial blue light that triggers our bodies to produce more cortisol and
11:37stifles our body's natural melatonin production. And if you're sitting there right
11:41now saying to yourself, I just can't think of one thing to do at night that
11:44doesn't involve looking at a screen, here's a quick list. Talk to somebody.
11:48Whenever Michael gets home from work, we sit on the couch and we talk. Read a book.
11:52Maybe one of the books I've already mentioned today. Water your plants. Write a
11:55letter to someone you love. Prep a meal for the following day. Practice playing an
11:59instrument.
12:05Look up at the stars. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. This list does go on and on and
12:10these are all things that our ancestors used to do before the invention of the
12:14internet and technology. Now listen, I love the internet just as much as the
12:18next youtuber. I've built my whole business and my whole career on it, but that
12:22doesn't mean I have to be constantly connected, especially just before I'm
12:25about to fall asleep. Alright, now here's the second thing you can do tonight to
12:29improve your sleep quality. Going back to our discussion about core body
12:32temperature, make sure you're sleeping in loose, breathable clothing. I know that for
12:37so many people, they just pile on the clothing. Sweatshirts, sweatpants, robes.
12:42Going to sleep, they're like going off to the arctic tundra. But you're going to
12:45sleep a lot better if you're just a little bit cooler. I wear baggy oversized
12:49clothing to bed. Much of it is Michael's hand-me-downs and it really helps keep me
12:53at a comfortable temperature. And the third thing you can do, I don't want to say
12:56right now because you might not have this product right now, but next day
12:59delivery, order it now. You'll have it by tomorrow. Spray your body with magnesium oil
13:04before you go to bed. Magnesium is necessary for many of the functions in
13:07our bodies, but today a large portion of the population is deficient in it. And
13:11actually one central symptom of a magnesium deficiency is chronic insomnia. It
13:16all comes back to sleep. But as Sean shares in his book, research shows that a
13:20large percentage of that magnesium is lost in the digestive process. So then
13:25what's another way to get that magnesium inside of your body effectively? And the
13:29answer is putting it on your skin. So take a look online and do some research to see
13:33which brand you'd prefer, and then keep it next to your bed. And just before you go
13:37to sleep, spray it onto your chest, your neck, your shoulders, or really anywhere
13:41that you're feeling sore.
13:46Friday has come as it always does, and we've just gone through tons of tips, but
13:51honestly there are so many other things to look at too that are very important
13:54here. To name a few, alcohol consumption, the food you eat and the health of your gut
13:58microbiome, the mattress you're sleeping on, the various positions you sleep in, and a lot more.
14:03First, let's look at alcohol. It's no secret that alcohol helps a lot of people
14:07fall asleep faster, but what it's really doing in there is disrupting your REM
14:11sleep cycle, so your body and brain are not able to fully rejuvenate. So wrap up
14:16those drinks at least three hours before you try to go to bed, and be sure to drink
14:20a ton of water alongside your alcohol to stay hydrated. Up next, your gut. I did an
14:24entire episode on gut health, so be sure to check that one out. But just remember, you
14:29are what you eat, and whatever you choose to put in your body can do a major number on your
14:33overall
14:33health. Also, 95% of your body's serotonin is found in your gut. And do you know what
14:38else is in your gut? Melatonin. So if things are running smoothly down there, you will have
14:43a tremendous increase in your quality of sleep. If you're sleeping normal hours, approximately
14:47one-third of your life will be spent on your mattress. So I recently swapped out my mattress
14:52for a new organic mattress that has no toxic dyes, no chemicals, and also no flame retardants,
14:57which can release toxic gases into the air. On my own YouTube channel, I either just released,
15:02or I'm just about to release a whole video about this. It's called 17 Ways to Make Your
15:06Home More Organic, so definitely go check that out. And lastly, your sleeping position. So here
15:11are some of the sleeping positions that we tend to gravitate towards. The fetus, the log, the
15:16yearner, the soldier, the free-faller, and the starfish. There are some pros and cons to
15:21each position, so just make sure you're reading up about the differences. And also make sure you're
15:25making any necessary adjustments to correct any mistakes you're making. Obviously, I'm
15:29just starting to scratch the surface here when it comes to sleep and truly understanding
15:33how important it is for our bodies and minds. And if all else fails, have safe, consensual
15:38sex. As I heard Ariana Huffington say on a podcast recently, orgasms are Mother Nature's
15:44Ambien. Interesting. Good to know.