Get the BEST Sleep Using Neuroscience | with EmontheBrain

And I'm like, hey, what's up? Hello. Hey, welcome back. I don't know why I'm holding two drinks. Look at how cute this cup is. I got like these beaker cups from this company that sent me this stuff. Okay. Today we're talking about sleep. And sleep is so important. I used to have problems sleeping because I was on ADHD medication. So I had to figure out a lot of different ways to help sleep. But now that I am not on medication, I. I fall asleep as soon as I close my eyes. So I personally don't have a problem sleeping. And I think that's because of the things that I'm about to tell you that improve sleep. But also, if you do have problems sleeping, these things might help you too. So I will just tell you kind of how I go throughout my day and what I do, because there are things in the morning that you can do to improve your sleep at night as well as things at night. So first things first, get sunlight in your eyes in the morning. Sunlight in the morning activates a biological clock, which is just my way of saying it sets a timer for melatonin release at night. And melatonin is so important for sleep. People usually literally take melatonin to help them fall asleep. But you can get natural melatonin production if you go outside in the morning. So go outside in the morning. And next thing I do is I avoid screens for like an hour before going to sleep. I know a lot of people will say more than that, but just avoiding screens for about an hour. And that's because blue light disrupts your sleep wake cycle as well as kind of increases stress and wakefulness, which is why going outside without sunglasses is so great in the morning for get waking you up as well, because you get blue light as well, full spectrum. And so it's not always bad. Blue light is not always a bad thing. I hear so many people say I wear my blue light blockers all day. Don't do that. Only wear them at night. You do not need them throughout the day. So a little fun fact, but also there is research showing that blue or bright light exposure between the hours of 10pm or 11pm and 2am actually disrupts our dopamine as well. So it affects our reward system. So just avoid screens right before you're about to fall asleep and you'll sleep a lot better on the topic of lighting. So something that I personally do that I started doing when I learned about it over a year ago, was that the receptors in our eyes that receive Light, they're actually in the bottom. And so when we go outside in the morning or during the day, the sun from above, that's how our body knows what time of day it is, the angle of the light, right? So in the early morning and late at night, the sun is low, low solar angle. We're a little less awake. But then when the sun is high, then the body's like, oh, it's midday. We need to be awake. So use this information to your advantage at night time. At night time, I do not keep bright lights on. So at night, I will turn off bright overhead lights and turn on little lamps or floor lights or things like that. So light isn't necessarily horrible. But really, I avoid bright overhead lighting. And that's because it activates the photoreceptors or the light sensors in our eyes, which will increase wakefulness and make it harder to fall asleep. Next thing I do at night is sleep in a cold, dark room. Room darkness is so important for sleep. Sleeping in the pitch black is so important, but then also sleeping in the cold because our body temperature, it really correlates a lot to the depth and quality of sleep that we have. You probably notice when you get really hot, you. It's hard to sleep. Or sometimes if you fall. If I fall asleep with a sweatshirt on, I'll wake up in the middle of the night and, like, rip it off because I'm hot. That's just like a human thing. So sleeping in the cold is so, so important. I know I have a friend that she says she has trouble falling asleep when it's really cold. But, you know, just have an extra blanket or something that you can easily just throw off in the night. But sleeping in the cold is really important. From the body's temperature needs to lower in order to get good quality deep sleep. And. And on that topic of the body's temperature lowering, another thing you can do is take a hot shower or bath before bed. It might seem counterintuitive, but hot showers or baths actually open up our body's blood vessels, and so it actually causes our body to release heat. So being in the hot shower or hot bath actually causes our body to release heat because we warm up. And it's when it's externally warm, the body's like, I need to cool down to maintain homeostasis. The body's all about maintaining homeostasis or an equilibrium. And so if it's super hot out, the body's like, I need to cool down. Let's open up blood vessels and release heat. So that's what happens when you take a hot shower or hot bath. And doing that at night can really help your body cool down, lower body temperature, and it can make it way easier to fall asleep. I actually personally have found that when I take baths before I go to sleep, I just have the best sleep ever. And I really need to start doing that again. Okay, another tip for sleep that I live by this. I live by this. And I don't just say bed, I say room. Bedroom in general. I do not spend time in my bed or even in my room unless I'm getting dressed right in my room. So the only time I spend time in my bed is sleep. And that's it. The only time I'm in my bed is for sleep. And that's really important because I've mentioned this a few times now on my YouTube channel. But the brain loves to create associations. If you only use your bed for sleep and sex, then your brain only has those two activities to associate that location with. And so you will just find it way easier to fall asleep if your brain only has the association of sleep with your bed and then you know, your bedroom. So that's another reason why I will not do work in my bedroom. Like having your desk in your bedroom is just not good for sleep and relaxation. Your brain is going to find it way more difficult to relax and fall asleep if you spend a ton of time not sleeping in your room. That's just the way the brain works. It loves to create associations with the environment that we are in. And so use that to your advantage and only be in your bed for sleep and sex. And then the Holy grail. This one is my bible. Sleep frequencies. I haven't slept without sleep frequencies in probably two years. Sleep frequencies or hypnosis? Sleep hypnosis. I love sleep hypnosis as well. And that is because of the brain's transition and the brain waves. And I'll talk about that at a different time. But I've talked about theta waves and stuff on my social media platforms as well, my other social media platforms. But sleep frequencies. I used to sleep with them before I even knew why they worked. I would sleep with them and I just knew they helped me. But then I started to learn about the auditory system and when I was majoring in neuroscience in undergrad, and then I just kept going throughout grad school and talk to people that actually study the auditory system and ask them so many questions. And now I live by sleep frequencies. But there are a few frequencies that are amazing for sleep. Let me list them. 528 Hz. 528 Hz has been shown in some studies to reduce cortisol and reduce stress and anxiety. And that's just very helpful if you're trying to fall asleep, reducing stress and anxiety. So if you feel, like, overwhelmed or stressed, 528Hz might be really helpful. Another one is 432Hz. 432Hz increases the power of alpha waves in the brain. And alpha waves are associated with being calm and relaxed, which can really help you chill out before falling asleep. And it can help you get into a more calm, relaxed state. Okay, so then the next two that I'm about to mention, these really correlate with brain waves. So delta binaural beats or theta. So delta is associated with deep sleep, and theta is kind of associated with more REM sleep. But there is one track on YouTube that is so legendary, and it actually goes from theta to delta. So it follows the brain's natural transition into sleep. And it has this in an audio track, which is just incredible. And I love that. But then there's also separate ones. So there's theta binaural beats, and then there's delta binaural beats as well. And those are super helpful, and they increase deep sleep, and they also decrease the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, which is really helpful if people struggle with that. Another thing that I really like for sleep is magnesium and L Theanine. I know I talk about L Theanine for focus, but L. Theanine really also, like, 432Hz. L theanine increases the power of alpha waves in the brain, which is associated with being calm, relaxed state. So when you combine L. Theanine with caffeine, you're energized, but in flow and relaxed. And then when you combine L Theanine with magnesium, which is really helpful for sleep sleep, you get improved sleep. And so I actually take this powder. Of course, it's vitamin juice. I love Moon juice. I seriously love them. But it's actually this powder called magnesium. It's like a play on words because, oh, like relaxing meditation. But it's magnesium and L Theanine. And they have. It has like, four, three or four different types of bioavailable magnesium. People are always asking me, like, where? Which magnesium? Which form? But this one is actually developed to be the most bioavailable, which I really appreciate. And then it has L. Theanine in it, and then it doesn't have any, like, the artificial fillers or any of that, which I also really appreciate because I. I feel like there's so much of that out there with the capsules, and there's all gums and oils and that doesn't have any of that. So I really like it. And there's two flavors. There's like a berry flavor and there's a blue lemon flavor. And they're both phenomenal. So it's kind of like a little sweet treat before bed. But it also really helps sleep too, so that's great. I actually just got this. Hold on, I'm about to show you. I just got this meditation, this Muse headband. They sent it to me and I'm so excited to use it, but I haven't used it yet. But actually I was online. Everyone's been saying me, I look like Naruto. But I was online and I saw that it actually has the ability to. It's like a whoop or a aura ring. It can measure your sleep. And so I'm about to start doing my own research studies on myself and seeing exactly how much these things improve your sleep. So I can be talking percentages and data with you guys. I'm really excited about that. But until then. Oh, yeah. And they also gave me a discount code too, so if anyone wants to try it. I haven't even tried it yet, so I can't really see speak on it. People say it's really cool. I'm really excited about it because there's also. It gives you feedback. So if you're meditating, it'll be like, oh, your mind is wandering. And it'll play a sound or something. Yeah, it's super dope. I'm excited. I'll have to probably. I'll make like a whole video about it. That'll be cool. But yeah, link in my bio if you want to go check that out too. Or link in my bio. I'll put the link in the bottom with the code. I'm so used to Instagram and Tik Tok. But yeah, I'll put the link in the thing in the notes below if you want to go check it out. I feel like it's so popular now. People always talk to me about the Muse. Like, have you tried the Muse? I haven't, but I'm about to, so that'll be really fun. Okay, let's go into just a few more things that really are helpful for sleep. So one thing I want to point out is that. Okay, so daily meditation is amazing for actually improving your brain and your body's ability to relax, calm down, and fall asleep. If you meditate every day, your brain just gets more used to and better at not overthinking and letting thoughts go and just falling asleep. Like, I have no problem falling asleep anymore because I don't have thoughts racing through my mind anymore. Like, truly, when I'm falling asleep, like, I don't have shit that I worry about. Like, it just doesn't. It's not present there, which is so crazy. And I never would have the amount that things have changed in the past couple years, truly, because I used to lay away thinking about all the things I had to do and now I don't. So it's crazy. And I definitely don't have less things to do. I only have more things that I have going on now. So meditation. But I want to point out that do don't like. Okay, so mindfulness meditation in the morning is great. That's what I do. A lot of people want to know about meditating at night. So there actually has been research that's that shows that mindfulness meditation at night will actually decrease your ability to fall asleep. And that's because it increases blood flow through the prefrontal cortex and also like, it just increases concentration. Which is why I love mindfulness meditation in the morning for focus and being productive. But meditation, if you're doing a meditation at night, the best type of meditation to do is really more of one that is literally made for relaxation or a sleep meditation that guides you through like relaxing parts of your body and things like that. But any type of meditation where you're focusing on something not good to do at night, because yeah, that would be like doing work up to the last minute and then immediately trying to fall asleep after that. You need a break before falling asleep. You need to give your brain a little bit of like a. A chill relaxation period before falling asleep. And then one more thing that is really helpful for falling asleep is daily exercise. Daily exercise improves sleep drastically. If I don't exercise, I always kind of feel like I just am a little more restless throughout the day. But exercise just. It really. I mean, also it does just literally physically make you more tired, so improves sleep that way. But there are other mechanisms by which exercise improves sleep. And it's really helpful for sleep. Increasing blood flow in the morning is just so helpful for sleep. And those are all the tips that I have for today. I really hope that this helps you guys and also leave comments and questions. I love seeing everyone's comments and questions in these videos just because I feel like my comments get kind of crazy in other places, but here on YouTube, I get to actually see them. And I feel like you guys just leave such amazing comments. Seriously, I'll be reading them and they make me smile. I had somebody make me cry before. I appreciate all of you so much. So seriously for just tuning in and watching through the video. So thank you so much. I have a surprise, actually, for my people that stay till the end. I have a surprise. I am dropping Merch soon. And this merch is so cute. It's insanely cute. So this is a special announcement just for my YouTube people, because you guys are so special. Everyone's special. But I really appreciate you guys for being here. So I'm dropping Merch soon. I'll probably have it in about two weeks or less. So stay tuned. I'm super excited about it. It's so cute. There's going to be a lot of different color options and styles. So until next time, I love you so much. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. A wonderful, wonderful week. You are wonderful. You are beautiful. Peace.