2593: Thinking About You in Your Bed by Mark Fisher of Mark Fisher Fitness on Benefits of Better Sleep

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[00:01:08] a good night's sleep? That's the idea behind our new podcast, Good Sleep. Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships Daily is here to help ease you into a peaceful night's rest with some positive affirmations. And these affirmations aren't just comforting, they can help ease anxiety and

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[00:01:37] your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Health Daily episode 2593, Thinking About You In Your Bed by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com and I'm your

[00:01:52] host, Dr. Neil. Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or welcome for the first time if you're new here. This is the podcast where I act as your very own personal narrator and read to you from some of

[00:02:03] the most popular health and fitness blogs online and always with a bit of my commentary at the end. And with that, let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. Thinking About You In Your

[00:02:19] Bed by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. The pursuit of health and hotness is a funny thing. Those seeking the physique of their dreams understandably spend a lot of time, energy, and money on the things that will most obviously affect their results. They'll join gyms, hire

[00:02:38] trainers, buy supplements, and work with nutritionists. They'll look to make big, strong choices on the path to taking control of their fitness. And believe me, I'm all for that. I love me some big, strong choices. While these are positive action steps, humans are not always great about executing

[00:02:57] the day-to-day little things that really add up. Any Mark Fisher Fitness Ninja knows that recovery is a big part of the process. When we're prioritizing getting better over getting tired, we know it's important to make sure we're doing our best to maximize our training by giving our

[00:03:15] body what it needs to respond to the inherently stressful stimulus of getting the F after it. While there may not be anything sexy about drinking sufficient water, doing your soft tissue work, or eating plenty of greens, they're non-negotiables if we really want to achieve peak levels of health

[00:03:34] and hotness. In our experience, one of the most commonly dropped balls is, unfortunately, the very cornerstone of all recovery – sleep. Most of our society has grown accustomed to functioning in a state of chronic sleep deprivation, particularly my beloved fellow New Yorkers.

[00:03:53] New York City is not only the town that doesn't sleep, but it's a town of folks who work their butts off every waking second. So I don't blame anyone for staying up past their bedtime for

[00:04:03] some badly needed downtime watching my numbing TV. Believe me, I totally get it. But if we want to be our best selves, that ain't gonna cut it. Sufficient quality sleep is profoundly important for the many hormonal processes involved in getting hot, whether it be getting leaner or

[00:04:23] adding muscle. Some research has even seen associations between inadequate sleep and obesity. This is to say nothing of the cognitive ramifications of running on fumes. Ever make horrible decisions while bleary-eyed tired? I'll bet you have. So in the interest of helping you

[00:04:40] get your sleep on point, allow me to make some recommendations to maximize your time spent in bed. 1. Make sure your room is pitch black. Seriously, get some blackout curtains. I even recommend trying

[00:04:55] to minimize the number of electronics in your room and covering the light coming from your alarm clock. 2. Consider using white noise if you live in a noisy area. Personally, I love me a simple fan,

[00:05:08] but feel free to get fancy with a white noise machine or mobile app if that's your preference. 3. Develop a consistent bedtime routine. It's ideal to get away from your computer and TV at least an hour before your intended bedtime, so all that light doesn't confuse your brain into

[00:05:26] thinking it's still daytime. Consider adding some meditating, gentle stretching, or boring reading to help slow your brain down. 4. If you find you're sensitive to caffeine, consider scaling back your total consumption and or cutting off as early in the day as possible. 5. Invest in a great bed

[00:05:48] and bedding. Since we ideally want to spend around a third of our life in bed, this is not the place to skimp and try to save some beans. 6. Do everything you can to get your room to an ideal temperature.

[00:06:02] For most folks, the high 60s is ideal. 7. If possible, try to sleep at consistent times every night. This is often hard to do if you have a highly variable schedule, but the more you get in a

[00:06:16] routine here, the easier it will be to get your body in a groove. 8. Generally speaking, most people seem to have superior sleeping quality when they can align their sleeping schedule as close to

[00:06:29] nighttime as possible. If you can choose between sleeping from 10pm to 6am and sleeping from 1am to 9am, the former will usually be superior. 9. Never do work in your bed. Your bed should be for

[00:06:45] sleeping and then maybe light reading. Teaching your body to associate your sleeping quarters with writing work emails is not the best idea. 10. If you have a hard time falling asleep, consider supplementing with melatonin. 11. If you really can't turn your brain off, consider seeing a therapist.

[00:07:06] Seriously, it's that big of a deal. Some people are naturally better or worse sleepers, but if you sense the issue is chronic anxiety, it will serve you to treat the cause and not the symptoms of your

[00:07:18] sleeping problems. 12. Commit to making sleep a priority. Most of us know what it's like to fall into the Twitter and Facebook whirlpool. I promise you, nothing really fascinating is happening that

[00:07:31] you can't catch up on in the morning. So go to bed. Oftentimes, it's the little things that will really make the difference as we're looking to achieve optimal levels of performance in any realm

[00:07:42] of human achievement. If you're not where you want to be with your health and hotness goals, troubleshoot your sleep. Like they say, small hinges swing big doors. Don't let all that hard work go to waste.

[00:07:56] Make sure your time in bed is all that it can be. And yes, I totally mean that every way you think. You just listened to the post titled, Thinking About You In Your Bed by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com

[00:08:14] and I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. I want to go back to something Mark mentioned and that he's absolutely right about. The link between

[00:08:25] a lack of sleep and weight gain. This isn't backed by just one study. Multiple studies have come to the same conclusion. I still remember when the first couple of articles got published and started

[00:08:38] attracting headlines. At the time, I thought to myself, oh, well, let's see where this goes. This may just be one of those cases where one or two studies find this link between lack of sleep and

[00:08:49] weight gain, but with time we'll find out that this was just a fluke. Plus I thought, we need to know why a lack of sleep leads to weight gain. It's not enough to say that one is related to the other.

[00:09:02] We need to understand the mechanisms behind it. Well, since then, study after study after study have been published and scientists believe they understand the reasons why a lack of sleep may

[00:09:17] lead to weight gain. First, as Mark said in his post, when we're tired, we tend to make poorer decisions. So when we're tired, instead of saying, I think I'll make myself a salad for lunch and go

[00:09:28] for a walk after. Instead, we'll say, oh, I'm so tired. I think I'll grab something from a restaurant for lunch and then maybe close my office door and see if I can squeeze in a quick nap. Next, we find

[00:09:40] that the longer we're awake, the more likely we are to eat. And finally, scientists have found that when we don't get enough sleep, we produce more hormones that make us feel hungry. And these same

[00:09:53] hunger hormones may make us crave carbohydrate rich foods. Yikes! So it does seem that sleep is related to weight gain, but the great news is we can do something about it. We can try and improve

[00:10:06] the quality of our sleep as best we can. And if we can't, as Mark said, we can seek help from professionals whose job is to help us get better sleep. All right, that does it for today. I hope

[00:10:19] you have a great rest of your Tuesday if you're listening in real time and I'll see you back here on tomorrow's show where optimal life awaits.