2923: 5 Ways to Simplify Your Sleep by Melani Schweder with No Sidebar on Restorative Rest

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Health Daily, 5 Ways to Simplify Your Sleep by Melani Schweder with NoSidebar.com and I'm your host and narrator, Dr. Neal Malik. Happy Thursday to you. Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily where I read to you from popular health and fitness blogs to help you optimize your health. It's like a gigantic ongoing audiobook that's free of charge. Today's post is from NoSidebar.com, a simple living website that's typically narrated on my brother's podcast. That's Optimal Living Daily.

[00:00:30] So if you like the content today, definitely check out my brother's show. And with that, let's get right to today's post and start optimizing your life. 5 Ways to Simplify Your Sleep by Melani Schweder with NoSidebar.com We're in the middle of a crisis right now, a sleep crisis. An estimated 160 million Americans have trouble either falling or staying asleep at least once per week.

[00:00:58] And nearly 30% of those struggle with sleep on a nightly basis. We are collectively sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated, and hyper-stimulated. And it's slowly killing us. And trust me, marketers are taking notice. Just in the last few years alone, the sleep industry with its fancy mattresses, sleep laboratories, and medications is worth over $7 billion. If you were to do an online search of things to help you sleep at night, you'd be bombarded with millions of hits.

[00:01:27] Advertisements for fancy phone apps, prescription sleep aids, and other bedroom gizmos would flood your page. And while a lot of these things may help, it's not unusual to feel overwhelmed by all the choices. Sleep should be something natural and easy, right? So why are so many of us clamoring for some decent shut-eye? The truth is, our bodies and our worlds are complex. Our diets are lacking, our environments are polluted, and our brains are taxed by our fondness for indoor, sedentary time, and our addiction to electronics.

[00:01:56] However, that does not mean that we have no power or control over our health. Quite the contrary. Getting refreshing, repairing sleep, even while living a modern lifestyle is not a pipe dream, and it doesn't have to be complicated. How to simplify your sleep. With just a few simple changes and a dedication to your self-care, you can finally enjoy the restful nights that you deserve. The five easy tips I'm about to share with you can help retrain your mind and body to slip effortlessly into peaceful slumber.

[00:02:25] 1. Cut down on the caffeine. Before you clutch your latte in fear, hear me out. Approximately 90% of the world uses some form of caffeine every day, and when it comes to sleep quality, it's important to take a mindful approach. Caffeine's half-life is about 5 hours, meaning that out of the 100mg you may have downed at 8am, 50mg is still floating around at 1pm, and you probably got 10-20mg in your system come bedtime. You could think about cutting yourself off by noon,

[00:02:55] or try mixing in some decaf until your body adjusts. For extra simplicity points, think about all the money you'll be saving when you're buying fewer $6 drinks. 2. Take a timeout. Most of us tackle dozens of tasks each and every day, never stopping to eat a real meal, much less enjoy the silence. But this insistence on go-go-go may be hurting our ability to sleep at night. Once our brains get wired up, it takes a while for them to come back down,

[00:03:22] especially since this kind of productivity stress excites our fight-or-flight hormones. Taking regular breaks throughout the day is best, but even just one longer timeout session in the evening hours may help transition your mind and body into a restful state. 30 minutes of blissful silence, whether you're meditating, watching the sunset, or writing in your journal, can pave the way towards deeper Zs. 3. Unplug. I know you've probably heard this before, but that's because it's true.

[00:03:51] The blue light emitted from electronic devices halts the release of melatonin in your brain, making it harder to fall asleep. If you're sitting in bed, scrolling through social media, on your phone or on your tablet, you're sending the signal to your body to stay awake and alert. Besides the biochemical changes that come from electronics, you're more likely to be emotionally keyed up after consuming some kind of media as well. Reading Facebook feeds, answering emails, watching TV shows, these can all affect our ability to let go and wind down at the end of the day.

[00:04:21] For the best sleep, power down your electronics two hours before bedtime. 4. Make a cave. Do you know that your skin contains tiny sensory cells that pick up on light and vibration in your environment? This is one of the reasons why sleep masks don't cut it for many people. Our bodies evolve to sleep when we experience three things. One, a drop in temperature. Two, a reduction in light. More specifically, light moving towards the warm end of the spectrum. And three, a shift in soundscape.

[00:04:49] Do yourself a favor and make your bedroom as cave-like as possible at night. Cover the windows, turn down the thermostat, and unplug all the beeping and flashing devices before getting under the covers. Five, consider going herbal. Sometimes, especially with particularly stubborn insomnia, we may need a little help, and that's okay. Talk to your doctor about natural biocompounds like melatonin, GABA, L-theanine, or magnesium.

[00:05:14] And possibly ask them about herbs like valerian, hops, passionflower, chamomile, ashwagandha, lavender, and lemon balm. Do your research and speak to your physician, especially if you're taking prescription medication. Simplifying your life shouldn't stop after decluttering your closets. Apply some easy, time-tested wisdom to your sleep routine too. Many of my clients have suffered from insomnia for years and have tried dozens of expensive and complicated therapies only to find that a few simple changes was all it took to finally get some good shut-eye.

[00:05:44] When we get quality rest, our bodies and minds can repair themselves, giving us the energy and clarity to live our waking hours with mindfulness and intention. And that sounds like a pretty solid investment to me. You just listened to the post titled, Five Ways to Simplify Your Sleep, by Melanie Schwader, with nosidebar.com. Then I'll be right back with my commentary. Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:06:10] I agree with Melanie that it seems like we have a sleep crisis. So many of the people that I speak with complain about not getting enough restful deep sleep or not getting enough hours of sleep. And yes, of course, we can always blame it on our tablets and our phones. I'm human and I've been guilty of having my phone sitting on my chest before I'm trying to go to sleep. I don't do it that often, but it happens. So let's say that's one thing you're not willing to let go of. Maybe you feel like you won't fall asleep unless you have your phone sitting on your chest.

[00:06:41] That's okay, try one of Melanie's other suggestions that I just read to you. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine. We're finding that this may be partly genetically based. So some folks, if they consume caffeine after 10 a.m., it affects their sleep at 10 p.m. later that night. So just see whether you need to cut back on your caffeine sooner in the morning. Others, it doesn't affect them. They can drink a full leaded cup of coffee right before bed and they get great sleep.

[00:07:09] So again, play with that and see what happens. I am definitely the type though to make a cave. I know I sleep much better when the room is on the colder side. It's dark and there's not a whole lot of sounds going on. When I'm in hotels, I often completely unplug the alarm clock because first I use the alarm on my phone and then I usually put my phone in the nightstand drawer. That way there's no light being emitted anywhere. I don't know if you've ever seen a domesticated mouse go to sleep.

[00:07:37] They have their little plastic home inside their cage and what they'll do is they'll get in there and make a little cave and they'll push all their little shavings up into the doorway so that it's a nice, dark, cozy little space. That's kind of what I like. Now something that wasn't mentioned in Melanie's article but I know she's probably thinking about it, one of the best ways to de-stress your mind and body is to get some regular exercise. There are many, many studies that support the idea that those that regularly exercise fall asleep faster,

[00:08:05] sleep deeper and longer than those that don't. All right, that does it for today. Thank you as always for listening. I'll see you back here tomorrow as usual for our Friday Q&A and where your optimal life awaits. Let's see you back here.