Sleep Better Tonight: Try These Simple Tools That Actually Work!

You're not sleeping because you're too busy thinking. Your brain doesn't feel safe enough to relax, and that's why you can't fall asleep even when you really want to. This isn't just about getting more sleep. If you don't fix this now, you'll feel more tired, make more mistakes, and won't have the energy to do what matters most. In this interview, Annika Binns helps me understand what's really stopping me from sleeping well. She explains how stress doesn't always feel like stress. Sometimes it's just doing too much, caring too much, or thinking too much. She shows how even good days can be too full and how your brain needs space to calm down before bed. She gives simple tools to rest during the day, fall asleep faster, and stay asleep longer. Sleep isn't lazy, it's smart. And when you learn to rest better, you can live and lead better too. And if you make it to the end of this video, put a hashtag #believe down in the comments below and we might feature you here in a future video. And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. All right, we're here with Anakin, and she is going to completely change my life. That was the, that was the promise, uh, made up front guarantee. Uh, she's in my master program. She's an amazing human, and she heard that I was having sleep problems, and she said, I think I can fix that, or at least work towards a solution. And she's going to help me on this episode, and, uh, hopefully I can sleep a lot better, which I can use that energy to go change the world. Anakin, what do you think?

You know, I always keep my promises. I love it.

So let's start here. Before we actually dive in, you heard me talk about sleep probably a whole bunch of times at our mastermind events. What was it that I said that made you feel, hey, like I can help this guy?

I think it was probably over a year ago that you mentioned that you had been having sleep, issues. And I, I've been there myself. I had like for several years I was having sleep issues. So whenever people come to me and they're struggling with sleep, I'm like, oh, I feel you. And I'll do whatever I can to help you. And, you know, Evan, sleep issues is always at some level related to stress. It can be everyday stress or it can be old stuff.

Today is a great time because last night I actually had some stress dealing with the situation. Um, you know, you get that like email that, you know, just before going to bed, like, oh my God. Uh, but in general, I don't, I don't feel like stressed out. So it's, it's great that we maybe can handle both, but, uh, okay.

What are we doing? And that's really interesting, Evan, that you're not feeling stressed in general during the day. And we've had that conversation before also. It is normal that, you know, at some points in life, we— our sleep is affected by something. And even me last week, I had several nights where I had stress during the night. Sleep wasn't optimal. I don't know why. And it's normal. It happens. So for anyone listening, it is normal. We are human beings. We're not machines.

We're not robots.

So once in a while, it's normal to have bad sleep. And so I'm curious, let's start with where, like, when did this appear? When did you realize that you were sleeping well, suboptimal, can we put it like that?

I'm trying to think when I started tracking. So one of the biggest challenges that I found since wearing the Oura Ring is I am in bed, but I am not sleeping. So I will, I will— it takes me a while to go to sleep typically. I made a few tweaks, but still. Um, and I'll wake up before I need to wake up. Just— I've— I was hours before I need to wake up and I'll still just wake up. It's like, just sleep. And then I also will wake up in the middle of the night and not know. So there'll be, um, periods of time where, uh, the Oura Ring will say that I, I was awake and like, oh, I didn't realize. I'm not getting up and going to the bathroom or anything. I'm just I just wake up apparently, or stop breathing or something. So that took me down this journey of sleep apnea and fixing my jaw and like all sorts of myofascial tongue exercises and all sorts of crazy things. Because if you ask me, how well do you sleep? Like, I don't know, I get— I'm in bed for 8 hours a night, but I'm only getting like 6.5 hours of sleep. And so I don't know how long it's been as long as I've had my Oura Ring tracking, which is at least a couple years, but it's probably way longer.

Yeah, that's interesting. So, when you wake up in the morning, do you feel like you've actually had 8 hours? Do you feel well-rested or do you feel tired?

Almost never. I don't feel tired. Like, I don't feel like, oh my God, I just want to stay in bed. I don't know, maybe that just entrepreneurship have just wired me. Okay, get up, let's go. Um, but on the days when I do feel— I had one night last week where I slept, I had like an 85 readiness or something. It's like, oh my God, let's change the world, this is amazing. You know, you look at today, last night was not a good night. So it's, it's a great little test here. I slept like 5 hours last night, uh, like asleep 5 hours. A normal night might be 6.5. Um, and I've just gotten used to it, you know, it's like the pain is just there, so you're just used to it. But on the few days, I'd say like maybe 5% of days, I, I feel amazing in the morning. Uh, I can definitely notice a difference. So my normal, my baseline is pretty rough that I just got accustomed to. Yeah.

Oh, that's so interesting that you're saying that, Evan. And I think so, I was having this conversation with my husband last night and he's also been doing some changes and he realizes that he could go on and he even thought that he functioned well on less sleep. And now that he's sleeping more, he's like, wow, this is so different. And I do think a lot of people, especially entrepreneurs, they sleep too little and they're just used to that feeling of being tired, using coffee to get through the day. And it just becomes the new normal, right?

I would not say that I like function better on less sleep, um, and I, I deeply value sleep. You sent me that book, um, The Pulse Cure, and so that's been one of the— how do you say the guy's name?

Torkel Faro? Torkel? Torkel?

Yeah, okay. And his, his IG is like Dr. Torkel, I guess. Yeah, that led me to get the Apple Watch and basically it tracks, the Oura Ring will track your heart rate, but it's like 15-minute delay where the Apple Watch is a little faster. And I set an alert that if I'm, I don't know, I don't know my heart's racing. What am I at right now? Like I have zero, I'm at 96 right now.

Yeah.

But I couldn't tell you, am I at 66? Am I at 116? I have no idea. So I have poor awareness or I'm just focusing on different things. Yeah, I don't remember what your question was, but that's fine.

I was just talking about how a lot of people go through the day and they just get so used to functioning because it's like that every day. And you felt that when you actually have that good night's sleep, that you feel amazing. And we want to get you there. Do you fall asleep easily or do you lie awake, ruminate and stuff?

It usually takes me a while to fall asleep. I don't like to say it that way. It's like historically, I just, I don't like the label of like it takes me a while to fall asleep. Yeah, just in general. But historically it has taken me a while to, to fall asleep. My brain, uh, you know, doesn't turn off, which is typical entrepreneurship stuff. Uh, everything that I've done around that, um, you know, meditate, like I can meditate for 10 hours before And then my brain will still be going. It's like there's no— My hack in high school, I guess this has been going on for a while now. Now that I think back, my hack in high school was to listen to a sports radio station because I love the Toronto Blue Jays. It's a baseball team. I would set my alarm clock to— it was like a radio alarm clock to go for an hour. And in that hour, listening to people call in talking about the Blue Jays, I would eventually fall asleep. So having it, having something to distract my brain, but not that I care so much about it that it keeps me awake, has been like trying to— the magic sweet spot. This past week I've been, I've been full on, uh, no phone, no electronics past 9:30, 9:30, 9:30, and then just reading in bed and, um, basically read until I start to yawn. And so that's been the little distraction. I need a mental distraction because if I'm just sitting there, my mind will just go on a million places, which then keeps me awake. Or at least that's what I— maybe not. Maybe I need the right meditation and then I'm, you know, it's gone. I could— I need the right hypnosis and then it's over. Um, but I'm very open. I believe in sleep. I'm an advocate of sleep. I want to sleep. I budget sleep. I don't have anything in my calendar on any day before 10 AM. And I'm going to bed at 9:30. Right. So it's like I have, I have calendar space that I want to be filled up with sleep. So I'm not like, I'll sleep with when I'm dead. Not that person.

Yeah, well, that's a good starting point. You're dedicated, and you want this to happen. And you know that it's important. So okay, I'll definitely make you a hypnotic audio file that will help you go to sleep and stay asleep during the night. And I'll make it based on whatever comes up today. And you know, what is really interesting, and I didn't know this myself until I started tracking my stress levels, is that when we have a day which is just full of activity, it doesn't have to be stressful. You don't have to feel stressed. It's just like when you're doing stuff without taking a break, You are in stress. It doesn't have to be super high stress, but you're activated throughout the day. And when you don't take enough breaks during the day, your body doesn't wind down. Like you can feel mentally relaxed, like there is no stress, but you've been doing stuff. Maybe like for me it was running errands or cooking dinner or going for a walk, just easy stuff like that. And still that was enough stress during the day and it made, it made the stress continue throughout the night. So what you're experiencing, it sounds like that you will fall asleep, but the sleep quality isn't good and you're waking up, which is a sign that there is stress in your system. And there can be a lot of reasons for that. And I know that you did work with Dr. Dunwood as well, and there could be some old stuff there. So often when I work with people, it's either the everyday stress they have right now, or it's all trauma. And I spoke to Dr. Dunwood also and discussed your case. And he said—

What did you find after discussing and discussing my case? Which I'm totally okay with.

Yeah, I was just curious to get his thoughts. And he said, you know, and he's done the work with you, he's done the clearing, and probably it's just current stress, and that's what we need to focus on. So I think that's where we're going to start working, and we can easily do a session later where we go back and see if there's anything else there from childhood or whatever creating that stress. Because what often happens with clients is maybe they had some— something happened during childhood that, that taught their brain that it's dangerous to go to bed. It can be a child and something, maybe something happens and it's not necessarily something dangerous, but there's a loud noise or something that is interpreted as dangerous by the brain. It can create this sensation that it's scary to go to bed or, you know, some people are actually abused and stuff happens and that can create the link to going to bed, that that is a dangerous thing for the brain. I don't think that's the case. I just wanted to mention it. And those are things that often come up when I work with people and we can definitely have a look there later. I don't think we need to.

Yeah, I mean, I'm super fascinated by it. As far as I know, I feel like I had like an amazing childhood, super supportive parents, no abuse, super lucky in that respect. So it's either nothing or I'm so blocked that it's like everything, right? Like that's the other option is like, hey, something so devastating happened that it just completely removed my memory of it and I'm still living that pattern, which I'm also totally open to finding a way to uncover that. What you just said about the fear of going to sleep for some reason, a loud noise or monsters or like whatever that I might be afraid of, nothing comes to mind, but I haven't thought about it either. So that's a worthwhile when I was younger, was there any reason why I couldn't go to sleep or have difficulty falling asleep? I think back just to the Blue Jay radio, like having difficulty, and that was my solution. But what caused the problem? Yeah, I don't, I don't, uh, there might be something there.

Yeah. Well, often people don't remember. They can, when I take them back in hypnosis, they can go back to, you know, being 1 year old and they're in bed crying and their parents don't hear them, for example. And that's not really stuff that we will remember and it's still there.

Yeah. Okay. Well, that's good. That's some good food for thought.

Yeah. So yeah, we can have a look at that later. I don't really think we need that. So we'll save it for later. It's an option. So how often do you just give your brain free space to just be with your thoughts during the day?

I'll answer this way. You can tell me if I answer your question. I have different days where I do different things. So I have some days that are just heavy meetings all day and some days that are just way more open. I haven't noticed a trend on like on these days, it's more, I'm better than like I sleep better than others. So like Monday, I mean, is my mentoring day. So it's all day mentoring team, like all day call, 25-minute, 5-minute break, 25-minute, the whole day. And I don't know how I sleep. I usually get a massage on Monday after. So that— my two crazy days, like Monday, Thursday, I then do a massage at night, which usually makes my sleep worse, funny, funnily enough, um, because I maybe rest too much at the massage place, and then it often will hurt my sleep when I do a massage. But other days, like Wednesday, Friday, I book zero. There's nothing booked. On those days and I will create space. So, how I'm interpreting your question, I'm not ever really just sitting around. I mean, I'll go for walks twice a day with Nina. I have a goal to be outside for 2 hours plus every day. But, on a Wednesday or Friday, I'm still very engaged in stuff. But I get to pick whatever I'm working on as opposed to like being tightly controlled by a schedule or calendar.

Is that— is that—

am I answering the question?

Well, but yeah, it is. Uh, it's giving me a good picture. So what we need to remember is that we have the need to process our thoughts and be creative and, and just think about stuff. And when we're switched on, we are not accessing that. We're not doing that. So if we go through the whole day and we're on social media, we're talking to people, there's stuff— we're outside of our head, then we have that need to be inside of our head. And then the evening comes, we've been switched on, focus outward the whole day, and then we're trying to go to sleep and then the brain switches on, right? And when our thoughts are very active, it raises stress levels. It's a, you know, it's really difficult to sleep when we have a lot of thoughts thinking about stuff. And even it doesn't have to be stressful things, right? It's just creative thoughts. I know you're creative. I know you have a lot to do, and it's probably a lot of fun stuff that you're thinking about, and that is enough to affect your sleep. So my, like, one really important thing that I tell all my clients is that you need to give yourself space to just be with your thoughts during the day and just, like, turn off your phone, be with your head, just, just go for a walk. It's fantastic. You do that a lot, and that is really a great way of just, you know, thinking, letting the thoughts just run through and processing whatever is there. And then it's important to remember that we have something called the default mode network and it switches on when we are relaxing. So our, our brain is, it's supposed to start to think and become active. It does that. It's, it's a normal thing. So, and especially when there are a lot of things we haven't thought through, then it will become more active. Like, and like you mentioned at the beginning, okay, you get an email at night and boom, you know, the thoughts are just raising and stuff is happening.

You know what was interesting? If I look at Mondays, it's straight meetings. And what I usually at 1 o'clock, 1 to 2, I'll try to work outside and do something else. That's when I'll like do my email or social media while I walk outside. Even in winter, it's like, it's cold, but I'm walking outside. I added our, my sales team meets every day at 1 o'clock. And so because Monday's our mentoring day, I joined them Monday at 1 o'clock. And what I would find is by my meeting with Nina, which is 3:30, I would be physically crushed and it'd be a lot harder to focus. And I'd really have to push through to— not, it's nothing to do with Nina. She's great.

She is.

It's all Nina's fault. Can you just tell me it's Nina's fault and I can go upstairs and tell her, you know what Anakin said? So what I did was I, I took that out and I meet my sales team on a different day every month, every week. And then I felt better, but that still may not be optimal. Like it, it taking that 1 hour out just helps me stay at a certain level, but, but there still could be, hey, maybe I'm still doing way too much to the point where like, hey, if I did it all the way through, then I'm actually like getting physically crushed is not The end objective.

There are several things like speaking of sleep hygiene and just set like a good night's sleep starts in the morning. And I'm sure that, you know, that getting sunlight in the morning is really important to set your circadian rhythm, right? Because when you view sunlight in the morning, your melatonin production will start 14 hours after.

So I'll wake up. Let me see what right now. Every day I keep track of how long I spend outside. So right now I'm at hour 32:17 and it's like 3:30. So we'll go do a walk outside with Nina after, um, but I usually do an hour or so in the morning every day. Almost every day. I mean, yeah, you'd have to be travel or something, but pretty much every day. Winter— I mean, the Canadian winter sun is not amazing, but still just just fresh air, just different routine. That's fairly consistent. Like every day I'm out in the morning and definitely average 2 to 2.5 hours every day outside. During Mastermind, we don't get enough outside time.

So that, that, I don't know, I don't know how to fix that.

Open suggestions, meet out in the parking lot and chat. But again, apart from those types of things, if I'm at home and I'm on routine, like 85% of my days, I'm getting at least 2, 2.5 hours outside and definitely nursing. Sleep hygiene-wise, I've got a lot dialed in, although I'm still super open, you know, like earplugs, mouth guard, mouth tape, dark room, mask, 8 sleep to cool me down to 19 degrees. I'm sure magnesium, uh, I'm sure all sorts of stuff. Um, and I would love for there to be like some magic weighted blanket that would just put me to sleep at night. I think everything adds just a little bit, which is great, but I think this is still maybe the missing piece, or I hope it's the missing piece.

All the stuff you're doing is great, and I think it's important. And I also know that when we have when we have good sleep, we don't really need to do all the other stuff because sleep will just come naturally. Another thing when it comes to sleep hygiene is indoor lighting. I don't know what your house is like. In my house, we have like downlights on all the ceilings and we are— our biological rhythm is regulated by the sunlight. So in nature, And when the sun is high up in the sky, it is in the middle of the day, right? So when we have a lot of bright light inside, especially when it's up over our head, it tells our head that it's in the middle of the day. So it is super important to turn down the lights and make sure that you have light sources which are more like level with your head. So those are just small things which are important.

Wait, wait, wait. Light sources level with your head?

Yeah, because— so think about it in nature. The sun, the sun regulates our rhythm. In the middle of the day, around noon, the sun is up in the sky, right? And then it gradually goes further and further down and the light gets more red and orange. So when we— we can create that same environment indoors, right? So we can have more dim lighting. A lot of people use like red light bulbs. To give that red light and just turn down at least all the bright light, which is above our head.

So you want lamps instead of overhead?

Yeah. So our house is full of the overhead spotlights and it's just horrible. So I turn them all off and in the winter it's so dark in Norway, so it's just like, I can't see anything.

Yeah. So that's cool. It's a little— I'm trying to think. We don't really— we have pot lights and stuff, but at night Basically, after sun is down, there's no overhead lights. We have some kind of like what is in here, although that's a little bright, but I don't know what kind of light you call that. Is like LED light, probably. A what? Oh, LED. Did you call it LED light? I've never heard it called a LED light.

That's what we say in Norway.

LED light. That's amazing. But it's not, you're not ever looking at the light, right? It's like, it's, it's behind it.

Yeah.

It's had a cabinet. So like that kind of light we have around. And so that would stay on. And most of the house is like a darker, uh, it's not quite red, but like a dark, like orangey, dark yellow, light orangey kind of color. What I used to do is like the computer, we'd have like the red, the red filter and the phone, same thing. But then after 9:30. Now it's just a yellow or like a dark yellow. I wear it, I just basically put it in my shirt and then I read like this and then that's my light source. So it's pretty dark, like sleep hygiene-wise, I'm sure everything could get a little better. But no, like overhead lights are off, but that's a cool distinction. I don't think I've ever heard anybody say make sure it's at your head level, although I guess it makes sense because the sun is setting and it, there is no overhead light apart from the stars, I guess. Yeah, I think we're pretty good there. Although, we'll pay attention.

Well, yeah, it sounds like you're good. And I didn't come up with that myself. I heard it on Huberman Labs, so I'm not going to take credit for it.

He's the one I heard about the morning, like, get outside within 15 minutes. I used to keep a clock, like, I need to be out of the house and like from the feet on the ground in the bedroom to outside in 10 minutes every day. I used to be obsessed about that. Now I take like, that leads like run to the washroom, brush your teeth, get some water, get outside. It's like became this mission. It's like, okay, I don't have to, let's not make it too stressful every morning.

Sounds good because our habits, it's great to have good habits and when they get too rigid and when we create stress around them, it is really counterproductive. Productive. Yeah. Okay. So I had a scientist on my podcast. She was speaking about biorhythms and she said that research showed that it wasn't, it's not really the light, the blue light from our screens that is affecting our sleep. It doesn't really have that much effect on us. What she said that it is really the content of whatever we are viewing that we are being stimulated. You know, an email or a Netflix series or whatever it is that is just creating activity and makes us think more. And that is the biggest obstacle to sleep is what she said. So my question to you, Evan, is, okay, so I know you like to watch some series at night, right? And it doesn't have to be like, I can even watch TV at night and go straight to bed. And have a great night's sleep. So I think it really depends on what you're watching. And you know, when you're next to Nina sitting on the couch, that can just be really positive, creates a lot of oxytocin, and it could be beneficial. So I think like the most important thing to look at is, okay, emails, text messages, and everything that can really spark creativity or a lot of thoughts going on.

Yeah, so I don't have a good way to measure it. My best method has been the heart rate. Like, is my heart rate going up or not? And, um, we don't watch— like, Nina and I will always end the day with watching some show on the couch, relaxing, um, a massage or whatever, and then, and then getting ready for bed. Um, the show we watch is not a business show. It's, I don't know, whatever show, Netflix, um, House of the Dragon or whatever. Um, and when I got this I started noticing that when we watched Blacklist, I don't know if you ever saw that show, was like 10 seasons times 20 episodes. We spent like a year. We watch one show a night, so it's not like we destroy a series. My heart was going into like stress mode. You don't use Oura, you use, what do you use?

Garmin.

Yeah. So the method is a little different, but the restored is the best and stressed is the worst. And then there's two in between. I would spend most of my stress time in the day while watching Blacklist. Like, I'd be stressed out for an hour watching this show. It's like, what is happening? This is the most stressful moment of my day. And so I had to, uh, practice like breathing while I was watching the show. So we didn't stop watching the show, we just started breathing, and then that really helped. And then I had a goal, um, of after the show, how do I get my heart rate down to like— I want it to be high 60s, but then I could never do it. So it's like, okay, like low 70s. How do I get to low 70s? And I could not find a great way besides breathing, uh, which is great actually. So breathing really helped, but it didn't matter what I was doing when I was breathing. If it's just heart rate, I mean, there could be obviously other things happening. But I would sit down and, and I could listen to a meditation track and my heart rate would stay at 72, 73 as long as I was doing the deep breathing. Um, I could load email and social media and like nothing— I guess most of the stuff is interesting-ish but not like emergencies. Uh, same thing, like I wouldn't— doing light work wouldn't impact my heart rate. Um, and but I can never get my heart rate like into the 60s with whatever method I was using. Um, I should check actually. By the time I go to bed now and I'm reading, I take my watch— I don't sleep with anything on me, so I don't like— I just— the Oura Ring, I said I don't sleep with the watch or the phone nearby or anything else. So I actually don't know what my heart rate is. I could try that tonight. What is my heart rate while I'm reading at night in bed? I don't know how to measure to the question of like, what are you doing at night? And are you stressed or thinking? I don't know how to measure it. I feel fine, but that's a terrible measure because I always feel fine unless I'm dying. I'm fine or I'm dying, right? I can't feel the gradient. So, my feeling is a terrible— I'm great. You know, it's like, I'm not a good barometer. So, I need a tool to help me. And so, I thought heart rate would be the best tool. But apart, like the task I'm doing doesn't matter apart from making sure I'm doing deep breathing. So maybe I need a brainwave tool or something else. I'm like completely open. But that was my last experiment was like, how do I get my heart rate down to as low as possible before going to bed?

Yeah. What is really interesting is that you can have inner stress without your heart rate being really, you know, high. So it is just that starting those creative thought processes, just like excitement or the email or I need to remember or those things. And it doesn't— you don't really have to feel stressed. You can feel fine and the measurements can be fine. And still, that will be enough stress to prevent you from sleeping because we need to be in the parasympathetic mode in order to sleep. Well and fall asleep.

Like, can I get a number for that somehow?

Well, so I use the Garmin watch, which is really the best when it comes to measuring in real time. You get feedback like 100% of the time. It does measure heart rate, and that is the number that tells you if you're stressed or not.

Oh, okay. So I mean, I don't know how accurate the Apple Watch is compared to others. I'm sure it could be better. Just from Apple Watch heart rate, I'm in, I mean, even when I look the next day on Oura Ring, it measures heart rate slightly differently. If I breathe, I can get it down. But again, to what you just said, I forgot the exact wording, but like you could still be stressed even though your heart rate is low. So what are we measuring then if we're not measuring heart rate, but I'm still stressed? Like, is there a measure of stress? Because as soon as we rely on like, how do you feel? It's like, I don't know, I feel great.

So let's say that someone sends you an email at night and it's just like, wow, this amazing thing. It's so exciting. Or something pops up. I need to remember it. And you're not stressed, the measurements are great. And you go to bed and your brain is like, I need to remember this thing. I need to process it. I need to, and just, it is just continuing, you know, working on whatever you have in your head. And that is what is creating enough stress so that you're not getting the deep rest, or that could be one of the explanations. I know that for myself and from other people I work with, that when there is a lot of thoughts in my head or stuff going on at night, I just, I can feel fine and I go to bed and I see that I've had stress throughout the night. So personally, I don't do any screens, emails, phones, nothing at night because I know myself. And if something exciting happens, I'm like, yay. And then it's like, oh, sleep.

I will tell you that, that you sent me a, a yoga nidra exercise, uh, or is the like progressive muscle relaxation exercise. And, um, that was the only time— the first time I listened to it was the only time I've ever actually fallen asleep doing any kind of guided exercise. And I've worked with like some huge names. I'm not gonna say anything, you know, on the video, but, uh, and it's been relaxing and fine, but it's— it— I just don't ever fall asleep. Um, we used to use, uh, whatever, all the different meditation apps, and Nina passes out in like 2 seconds. And for me, the meditation has to complete and then I can pass out. But as long as it's going, because it's giving me something active I need to do I'm doing it and I'm focused on doing that thing, and then I can't sleep until it's over. But yours, uh, the first time I've done it subsequently, and, and it gets me relaxed but not sleep. Um, when you're counting, when the counting was happening, I forget where I lost track, and then I, I woke up, I was like, oh, it's done. Where am I? What happened? How long was I out for? So I'm excited for my sleep homework and project here.

Yeah. So I will create an audio file for you and I would love a little wishlist because what is probably beneficial for you is that it's something that you listen to while you're in bed before you go to sleep. Right. So I will normally create those audio files just programming you to fall asleep and to stay asleep and go into deep rest. And the interesting thing about like the other audio file I made for you was like a relaxation you can do in the middle of the day. And when you do relaxation like that, yoga nidra and other stuff, you teach your brain that it's safe to rest, that it's normal, and it becomes a habit. So really taking time to do those relaxing things during the day is beneficial for our sleep because if we're switched on throughout the day doing stuff all the time and then nighttime comes, like our system isn't used to resting anymore. Like if we don't get into parasympathetic mode during the day, we, we lose. It's a habit like everything else. Yeah.

And is there no way to measure that? There's no number to track besides heart rate.

Oh yeah. Well, well, it, the heart rate, it says something about your stress levels. So I haven't used the Apple Watch.

Since, since, uh, talking to you, I've dropped— what did I say? 96? What was I before? Something like that. So we've dropped 14 points. Let's go.

Oh, nice.

Good start.

Yeah, so I, I don't know the Apple Watch, I'm sorry. So I, I use the Garmin watch, and there it gives me a graph, and it's blue when I'm resting and it's orange when I have some kind of stress level. So it's real, like, you can follow it in real time throughout the day.

But it's based on heart rate.

Yeah, it is. Got it.

Okay.

So that is a good measurement. So you need to make sure that you are in deep rest during the day.

Okay.

It can be like, it could be that you're just watching some kind of a show with Nina. Like I, when I like watch a show at night with my family, I'm in deep rest.

I think it depends on what you're watching, or unless it just massively stresses me out, but then that's more the— it's more like an action kind of show. Um, okay, so during the day, yeah, I'm trying to think of my— yeah, probably not. I'm trying to think if I walk around outside, maybe if I sit outside, I might be able to drop it. I can play with it.

Yeah. And it doesn't necessarily have to be that you're meditating or going into deep relaxation. For me, what works is just even I can, I can be working and I can just like recline on the couch and that brings me into parasympathetic mode. So we're all different. We're all like, what works for me might not be what works for you. So you need to make sure that you figure out what works for you. I often just lie down on the floor for maybe 5 minutes or I bring my laptop on the couch and I just lie there and work and that's relaxing.

So I like to take the laptop and work outside when I can, when it's warm enough. We have like a heater outside because Canadian outside time is probably similar to Norway. One of my other goals, so Oura Ring has a restored versus stressed metrics, I guess sounds similar, may not be as good as that one, but My goal is to have equal, like to have more restore time than stress. And I'm about even. Yeah. So on average in a month, I'm a, I'm, I'll keep track. I've got a year's worth of data in a, in a Google Doc every day. Like I track it, uh, restored versus stress time. And I'm a, I'm within half an hour of, of zero. So some days are more like when it's mastermind, it's all stress.

It's like, yeah.

5 hours of stress.

What happened?

But on other days, it's a lot. So but it evens out. So but, but it'd be maybe, I don't know how to get it. It could be a good experiment. Like, how do I get it to be an hour of restoration during the day instead of aiming for even?

Yeah, yeah. Just get enough time during the day where you go into parasympathetic mode. It could be 5 minutes here, it could be an hour there. It doesn't really matter. You just need to teach your system that this is a habit and that will help you sleep during the night. There are some other things, Evan. So, so I used to be like you. I used to be able to fall asleep and then I would wake up super early and just be like, I don't feel stressed, but there's so much I need to do. And there's so much I want to do and I can't sleep. So I might as well just get up and work. So I used to get up at 4 or 5 and just start my work day because I love my work just like you do. The more we have on our plates, the more our brains will be switched on and our brains hate forgetting stuff. Our brains hate losing stuff. So when we have a lot of things in our head, our brain will be, will be scared that we will forget it, that we will lose something. And that can just switch us on so much that we're constantly thinking. So it is super important. And I'm saying this with the biggest heart. I know you love your job and you have a great company and everything. Having too much on your plate is not good for your sleep. So figuring out how you can simplify your work, really. I know you're good at delegating and eliminating and—

Oh, it's great. No, it's an ongoing process. I mean, I heard two things there. One is like the do less, which is great. And it's constantly like, okay, do less and then, ooh, and then do more. It's like, okay, that's too much and then do less. But the do less becomes more impactful each time. But then also the forgetting things at night, I would always just email myself. Now, so one of the things before I read, I'll write down 3 things I'm grateful for and then if I have any notes from the book or I have to remember something, I'll just write it down so that I'm not thinking about it all night. So that is better. But the do less is an on— yeah, I mean, it's an ongoing for sure. You're, you're having this. Yeah.

I know you care about your job, the, your employees, your clients, and I know you are super engaged. So is there a way, and I know there's always a way and we can talk more about this later. So I do this myself. Chunking up, yeah, you want to grow your business. You want to help all these amazing people. You want to do all those things and you have a team and I don't know, or I do know that you are involved in what people are doing. So how can you be less involved in the running of the business and still just like be able to let go and know that things are taken care of? It is running. Like you can be the visionary. But being in the business every day, when it's so big, there's so many moving parts, your brain can't keep an overview over everything. And it is trying to do that. And why is it trying to do that? Yeah, because if it doesn't have an overview over everything, that means it can be something dangerous there. Right? So your brain needs overview. And when it doesn't— when it can't see and remember and capture all the moving parts, it has to put you into stress in case there's something dangerous there. So like one of the most important things is really simplify your life. You can still run the amazing business. And how can you chunk up the stuff you're doing so that you have the few things you need to remember, take care of, and that you can let go of everything else.

So first answer could be just have Nina do more.

So what about her sleep?

She got 90 sleep scores. Okay, she got 90 last night. Like, Nina, okay, you're not doing enough. Let's go. So that's what I— that's what is my first takeaway from Anakin. Nina, you have to do more. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, I think my hack for that— it could be better. Like, my hack has been different things on different days so that I'm not worried about the other stuff on different days. So I know Tuesday is gonna be my YouTube day, so I can just focus on YouTube on Tuesday. And then the rest of the week, I don't think about it too much unless I kind of want to, but I'm not stressed about like, will I get things done or dangerous spots. But to your point, 100%, I can always be doing fewer things that are more high leverage and letting go of the things that, uh, even if I like them, probably shouldn't be doing. And it's that ongoing game, especially as you have team to delegate more, trust more, et cetera. So it's a great reminder actually from a different perspective, 'cause you get that a lot from just in general for growth. You wanna grow your business, you can't do everything. You need team, who, not how, all those things, 10X easier than 2X, et cetera. But also just from an energy perspective, sleep, balance, all that. It's a nice— I'm being hit by both sides now, which is great.

Yeah. I mean, it is impossible for your brain to keep track of everything and it is trying to do that. And by trying to do that, it has to switch on the stress response, which is probably, to be honest, the main reason why you're waking up and not falling asleep because there's so much going on.

Great.

Yeah. So, and I can do a lot of great things with you, hypnosis and audio files and everything. And if all of that stuff is still going on, nothing is gonna change.

Oh, so I can't just blame you if it doesn't work.

Well, you can try.

She's like, I don't care. I'm doing other stuff that doesn't bother me. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, so I say this with all the love and care and everything, and I've been there and I know, like, I want you to have no idea of what's going on in your business, because that is when you can let go and be present and actually reduce some stress. So I know it's a process, it's back and forth, and you will have less to do and then you'll take on more. And balance is a process. It is not an end goal.

Yeah, no, I love it. I, you know, for me then, taking inspiration, how does it, how does it get actionized? Uh, well, it's like habits and calendars, so, uh, that's why I'm asking like numbers. So an easy one could be, you know, restorative time, now aiming for 1 hour a day instead of break even. Yeah, okay. Uh, I don't know, I'm trying to think if there were evening habits. I think we, I mean, so what the audio audio thing you're going to send me. You said you needed some questions around bonuses, or—

I think, I think I have a great idea. So, okay, um, what you need is help falling asleep and then staying in deep sleep, right?

Yeah, uh, deep and REM. My deep sleep— actually, my deep sleep was probably better than my REM sleep. Okay, my REM sleep is usually a little worse than deep, but I would take both. I'll take both.

Okay, good.

But the falling asleep, yeah, I mean, throughout the night, I get it says I wake up a couple times and then I just wake up earlier. Maybe my body's just used to waking up after 6 hours or something instead of actually resting more.

Yeah, so sleep is a habit, right? And okay, so there's one more thing, Evan, and you did touch upon it earlier. It is your identity and what you think and what you say, the stories you create around this. And you were spot on when you said, I can't, don't remember the exact sentence, something about you don't want to talk about it as if it's something that's happening.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a sleep champion. And again, I'm a sleep champion.

Yes.

I crush my sleep. Let's go.

So yeah, and this is so important because, and well, this is often the most difficult thing for people because you need to know that you are already where you want to be and need to have the identity of a sleep champion, like you're saying. We can often get stuck in the thought of, oh, I just need to do X in order to get Y, to get to wherever. And as long as we are thinking that we need to do something in order to get to our goal, we are just making sure that we are stuck exactly where we are. I know you know this, and I just want to mention it. That it is super important that you always just take on the identity of a sleep champion, that you are someone who gets the sleep that you need and that you have good quality sleep. And that's the way it is.

And it's easy. Yeah, it's funny. I forget sometimes, forget who I'm talking to. You know, when I, when I was talking to all the doctors to align my jaw and like my, my breathing, like it was narrow, so like move my jaw forward so that I have more space to breathe so I don't stop breathing in the middle of the night. I would come in and say things like, well, like historically I have, you know, I used to be this person. It's like, what does that mean? Like, are you struggling with sleep or not? Well, historically I have. It's like, okay, yes, I can find, yeah, I struggle with sleep. It causes more confusion. It's like, oh, okay, but I've, you know, Anyway, I'm talking to you. I know better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can just say I have struggled with sleep up until now. Yeah, that's still fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, but why you're here if you've struggled up until now, right?

Yeah.

So many doctors, but it's great. I, I, I 1000% agree. Uh, that's been my hack is like I say, I historically have this, right? It's like, that's the history, but it doesn't have to be what it is right now. Yeah, um, but yeah, I mean, I did that around sickness. I mean, I used to get sick all the time, and I got so sick one time that I was, uh, on the couch with hiccups for a day and a half straight. The most embarrassing thing of all time, just like lying on the— I can't. And I almost went live on my YouTube channel, it's like, is anybody here a doctor? Can anybody help me with like these crazy hiccups? Because I can't I did breathe into your arm and like drink water upside down, like all of the hacks, whatever. Nothing worked. And then I just decided that's it. I am just not getting sick anymore. That's it. I'm done with being sick. And I just, I've barely gotten sick since then where I used to get sick. I just had to believe if you were around me and you coughed, oh my God, I'm gonna get sick, I have the worst immune system. And so then I created the worst immune system. So I'm a, I'm a big buyer on all that stuff, 100%.

Excellent. Yeah, I know you are. Just had to mention it. So, okay, so you continue working on your identity, be more cognizant about light, lighting at night. You do so much great stuff. And how can you just give your brain more space to breathe and think. No emails at night. And it is for, for the benefit of being able to be in this game for a long time. And you know this, when you get the rest, you'll be more productive the next day. So yeah, I don't, I know I don't have to say it still. I just—

No, it's good. It's a great reminder. It's all Awesome reinforcement. And then this audio thing, what's my homework? What am I doing with the audio thing you're going to send me?

Yeah, so I'll send it to you. Well, it's nighttime in Norway now, so tomorrow morning I'll send it to you and you just listen to it when you go to bed at night and I will program you to sleep deep throughout the night and get your REM sleep.

And the worst thing that I'm like having on repeat or what?

No, well, I'll make it probably maybe half an hour long and it will just like, I'm not going to bring you out of it. Like I did on the other audio file, right? Yeah. So it's just going to be you're drifting into sleep and it will just— when it's over, it's over, and you'll just continue sleeping. If you do wake up during the night, you can still turn it on again and listen to it again.

Okay, I'm very excited.

Yeah.

How— so I don't use any electronics in the bedroom, so what, what's the guidance? Is it, is it a phone? Is it a computer?

Is Yeah, well, it will be audio file and you can have it on whatever device you want to have it.

Okay. So yeah, probably laptop with the screen turned off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. You'll, you'll figure it out. You're smart. Okay.

30-day sleep challenge. Let's go. I'm excited.

Excellent. And remember, remember Evan, I can do as much hypnosis as I can. And if you don't make sure that you are, that you're, let's say, tidying up your life so that you have more space, your brain is going to be switched on throughout the night.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm speaking from my experience, personal experience and all my clients. And I used to be like, there's so much going on and my head was just working throughout the night and I wasn't getting any sleep.

So. Yeah, well, I love it. Well, thank you for being, uh, thank you for forcing this, uh, in a very loving, kind way and seeing me, uh, struggle, I guess, for the past year and a half or whatever. And I really appreciate the guidance and support and looking forward to this sleep challenge that I'm about to go on. To see a special guided meditation that Anakin made to help me and you fall asleep faster, check it out right there next to I think you'll love it. Continue to believe. I'll see you there.

Make sure that you're lying in a comfortable position. Now look up towards your eyebrows.