Sleep better to gain muscle, lose fat and live longer

In 2007 US drug companies spent $600, 000, 000 on sleeping pill advertising with in the UK 50, 000, 000 was spent on sleeping pills. The side effects of these drugs are well documented and in my opinion should be avoided by everyone all the time. If you can’t sleep there is an underlying issue with the body that needs to be dealt with.Don’t turn off the warning light, check the engine!!

Studies have shown conclusively that poor sleep quality will hinder hormone production which will slow muscle gain, weight loss and recovery ability as well as decrease life expectancy and productivity during the waking hours.

Sleep le sommeil – Salvador Dali – Local artist (former)

If you wake up during the night for any reason for more than 3 seconds then you didn’t have an optimal nights sleep. Getting up to pee during the night is another sign that you’re not sleeping well. This may sound strange but if you’re really sleeping well you’ll wake up with your bladder ready to burst if you drank a lot the night before.

We all know that sleep is important. We spend about a third of our existence doing it. Here are some top tips to help you sleep better to make more of both your wakeful and sleeping hours!

Dan John is the first guy I heard this off. I’ve found it to be true for me. Getting to bed at 4am and sleeping until 1pm is not the same as sleeping from 9:30pm until 6:30am. Working night shift will take years off your life and is commonly recognised as being cancer promoting.

I learned about this one through Lights Out – TS Wiley. It’s a great read if you can get a hold of it! The human body is very sensitive to light and in order for our hormones to work the way they are supposed to you can’t mess around with night and day cycles too much. Your room should be so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Moonlight on a camping trip in the woods is not a problem since the intensity of the light coming from much further away doesn’t stop the body producing melatonin the way artificial light does. Caves don’t have electrical appliances either so get rid of them too and turn everything off. Never leave your wifi on at night and keep your mobile phone in the room next door (or further away). For more about wifi and electrical pollution click.

All the other things that we do in bed actually make it harder for us to sleep. Getting in the habit or reading and romancing in bed can stop the body from knowing that place is the sleeping place. If you’re having trouble falling asleep find another place to entertain yourself.

The biggest problem I have found with Rugby League players is that after games or when they have time off they will often get to sleep in the early hours of the morning. This will lead them to sleep in or take a long nap the following day putting them off schedule for the rest of the week. By the end of the week they’re starting to get back on a rhythm and it happens all over again. The more rhythmic you can be with your bedtime the better your sleep quality will be.

Magnesium deficiency is very common and will decrease sleep quality. Using IV magnesium will actually put some people to sleep within seconds! The best forms of magnesium for sleep are topical magnesium sulphate and UberMag, Zen Mag (Magnesium Threonate) or Yin Mag from Charles Poliquin. Poor quality magnesium oxide supplements will have little effect if any on sleep quality because they are very hard to absorb. Improving my magnesium levels has been one of the most important improvements I have made in 2012. A blood test which measures RBC (red blood cell) magnesium levels can help verify if you are deficient or not. Every test I have seen so far has shown severe to moderate deficiency. Low magnesium levels are also associated with many other illnesses and power recovery.

Having the routine of finishing everyday being thankful for the positive things in life is a great way to put the mind to rest and prepare to sleep. Most of the time when I do it I’m falling asleep as I get to the last thought!

Sleeping pills are addictive and for many are part of a downwards spiral to ill health. Here are some other options that can help to improve sleep quality without endangering your health. 1-3mg Melatonin, serenity 2.0, sweet dreams 1.0, wind down 2.0. For athletes who are forced to play late at night phosphatidyl serine is a great supplement for bringing cortisol levels back down.

Many people also report sleeping better on the paleo diet probably as a result of some of the above reasons as well as decreasing excito-toxic foods.

Ratm-sleep-now-in-the-fire_music – good for training, not so much for sleeping.