Aaron Hartman, MD shares five sleep habits: keep consistent wake times, go to bed before midnight, skip alcohol and food close to bedtime, avoid screens before sleep, and get morning light. Sleep cycles run 90 to 120 minutes, and your body does most detoxification between 11 PM and 3 AM.
Chapters
There are five things you need to know to get the sleep you need and wake up energized and refreshed. The first thing is this. Don't sleep in. Everybody wants to sleep in on the weekend, it's a big temptation. But sleeping in actually messes up your daily or circadian rhythms. Your body is actually wired or made to cycle with the day and night, and sleeping in past lightning or light coming up actually messes up the natural circadian rhythm. The next most important thing in sleeping is to actually go to bed at the same time every night. But again, the most important first is to go to bed about the same time and not to sleep in every morning. The second thing is to go to bed as early as you can before midnight. Your body goes through these sleep wake cycles that take about 90 minutes for your first REM cycle to go through and then after that 100 to 120 minutes. If you start this cycling after midnight or close to midnight, you won't go through as many of these cycles throughout the night. So going to bed as early as you can before midnight to maximize the amount of sleep time before midnight will make you get better quality sleep throughout the night and wake up refreshed and feeling energized and ready for the day. The third thing is to avoid alcohol and food two hours before going to bed and liquids about one hour before going to bed. Alcohol goes through your liver and activates it to detoxify. And eating food activates your gut to digest and pull out nutrients from your food. You want your liver when you're sleeping to be focusing on detoxifying your body, not the food you ate. And you want your gut to be calm so that your brain can focus on your immune system, energizing your brain. What happens is these deep quality sleep modes, the deep stage 2, 3 sleep and REM sleep is not the same quality when your GI tract and liver are distracted by digestion and detoxification and they should be doing other things. So don't eat two hours before you go to bed, no alcohol two hours before you go to bed, and don't drink anything an hour before going to sleep. The fourth thing is no technology. One hour before going to bed at night, blue lights activate your brain, blue lights rise cor raise cortisol, blue lights suppress melatonin. So if you get exposed to lots of blue lights, especially in the evening going towards bedtime, your brain will think it's still daylight, your cortisol will stay up and it'll be harder for you to get to sleep. The same thing when you wake up first thing in the morning. Being exposed to light, bright light, going outdoors activates cortisol and helps you awaken more and feel more refreshed. So going out in the morning after waking up, getting a good walk, getting sun exposure, all these things can actually help you get a better sleep, wake cycle and feel more refreshed and have more energy in the morning. The third thing is daily exercise or regular exercise. Exercising in the morning and early afternoon set your body up for going to bed. You have these chemicals, these neurotransmitters in your brain that need to be used up and eaten up throughout the day. Exercise helps that process to occur and get you ready for sleep at night. Think about. Think about kids. Think about young kids who are super active and playful. They have a great day running around outside. They're ready for bed come evening. If they're indoors all day long watching tv, playing video games, it's really, really hard for them to go to bed at night. Same thing for you, having activity outdoors. Being physically active prepares your body and brain to go to bed. So those are the five key things you need to have a great night's rest and wake up energized and refreshed. If you stick with these, they'll go a long way to improving your sleep quality. And sleep is super important for health and vitality and resilience. Thanks.
