Sleep & Recovery, 17. November 2018

Sleep disorders? 3 easy tips

One in four people has problems with sleep

Millions of people have sleep disorders. According to statistics, every fourth American complains about not sleeping well.

Trouble falling asleep, frequent waking up, short periods of deep sleep,  are the classics when it comes to sleep problems. From my experience, I know that it is a huge challenge for an incredible number of people to get good and restful sleep. The consequences – chronic fatigue, weight gain, increase of various disease risks, muscle loss, impure skin and much more.

To keep you from ruining your sleep, we’re going deep today, the world of growth hormones, sleep, blue light, and more.

At the end I also tell you as a little treat my top 3 tips on sleep, which you can implement immediately!

Sleep: curse and blessing at the same time

The huge advantage of sleep – it’s completely free and always available for everyone! That’s why I always call sleep the cheapest and most effective fat burner and anti-aging helper.

The downside, too many people out there rejecting this gift of nature – sometimes voluntarily, sometimes involuntarily.

Treatment of sleep disorders?

Too many people out there, are having enormous sleeping problems. Quite often, when you get “professional” help, you just get a few superficial tips like:

“Take a few drops of valerian, or just a few sleeping pills, then it will be back ..

Personally, I often find this approach very quick-acting and it’s a shame that in too many cases the cause of the complaint is ignored and only an attempt is made to mask a symptom.

That’s why it’s time for us to talk about what you can do today to optimize your sleep and fight your sleep problems!

What happens while we sleep?

First of all, it is important to understand why sleep is so important and what happens in our body.

Especially during sleep you have to look at the effects of 3 different hormones and their interaction.

• Melatonin
• Cortisol
• Growth Hormones

Depending on how well these 3 hormones are in harmony with you in the evening and in the morning, decide whether you lose more fat, build muscle, jump out of bed early, and much more.

The interaction of 3 hormones is crucial:

# 1: Our “sleep hormone” melatonin

We start with melatonin – also called our sleep hormone. Melatonin is released by the so-called pineal gland in the brain, especially in the evening, and is one of the strongest, body-own antioxidants and free radical scavengers we have.

During the day,  there is a huge accumulation of “dirt” in our brain. This must of course be disposed of by a cleaner. Our personal cleaning power is nocturnal and in our case is called melatonin:

In our example, let’s just call her our personal cleaner Melli.

Melatonin “cleanses” the brain …

Melli is really the most diligent and efficient cleaner you can imagine. Her service starts every day late in the afternoon, where she starts her day actively. Melli has only one giant big problem – Melli LOVES darkness and silence – means she is extremely allergic to high light exposure in the evenings. If she gets too much light exposure in the evening, let’s say through cell phone, computer, or television, she becomes lethargic and can not properly lead her work.

That means, if  you’ll look at screens  you’ll suppress melatonin which will make you feel less tired and will end up destroying your sleep cycles. Which is actually quite logical – I mean, if a lot of “waste” accumulates in the brain, which is not transported away, we will get tired and unfocused.

Do you feel caught? Be honest! I guess so, but no problem. The question is, who does not look at screens before bed?

Which alternatives there are and # 1 insider tip on how you can sustain your melatonin production, despite being on the phone, you’ll learn at the end of the article, where I’ll tell you as promised my 3 most effective sleep hacks.

 

# 2: Correlation between melatonin and cortisol

Melatonin is the first hormone that has a tremendous impact on our sleep. The second is cortisol, our stress hormone, which I have already described in detail here.

In short, melatonin and cortisol should ideally alternate smoothly. Ideally, melatonin is highest in the evening hours, while our stress hormone should be lowest here.

On the other hand, in the early days it is the goal to have little melatonin and lots of cortisol to raise the energy level in the morning.

# 3: secretion of growth hormones

The third hormone associated with our sleep are our growth hormones. These are distributed in high doses, especially in the deep sleep phase. So, when you sleep a little, you start to shrink!

Joking aside. Body growth, or body size, is related to growth hormone only during childhood. Should you ever have children, or maybe even have children, always make sure that the little one sleeps enough. Has worked well for me with my 190 cm. Thank you Mama.

Back to the topic: Many also think that when they hear the word growth hormone, the main task is to build muscle – also wrong. Growth hormones alone have no effect on the so-called hypertrophy, ie human muscle growth. You do this only in effect with hormones such. Testosterone, which I’ll write again separately.

Now you may be wondering – “Hmm, if the primary task in adults is not muscle and body growth – what’s the task?”

Weight loss thanks to growth hormones!

Growth hormones promote especially fat loss! Yes, you heard right. The more growth hormone you produce, the easier it will be for you to lose weight! That’s why I told you at the beginning that sleep is crucial for weight loss.

Further tasks of growth hormones are the regeneration of tissue, including, for example, skin, hair and nails are supported by growth hormones. That’s why the saying “I need my beauty sleep” holds a lot of truth to it.

Summarized:

# 1 Melatonin: In order to sleep easily and sleep through and to carry away all the waste, we need our cleaning power Melli, more precisely melatonin. Melatonin is mainly produced in the evening hours and inhibited by excessive exposure to light in the evenings – cell phones, laptops TVs, LEDS, etc.

# 2 Cortisol: Our stress hormone levels should be pleasantly low, meaning:

• not working out too late at night
• no news (terror, scandals, …)
• no thrillers, horror films 🙂
• no stirring discussions

…Breathing exercises, meditation, carbohydrates, taking a shower, bathing etc. are good solutions to bring your body into a state of rest.

# 3: Growth hormones: These are primarily released in the deep sleep phase, especially after falling asleep, the highest payout is detectable.

Practical example:

If you look at your mobile phone continuously in the evening, you will produce less melatonin and you will not get into a state of restful sleep and thus not to optimal results in terms of fat loss, muscle growth, improvement of cognition and so on.

Due to poor sleep, your body has to produce more cortisol during the day to keep you awake. This in turn causes you to have an excess of stress hormones in the evening. The too much of cortisol will finally affect you negatively as you will have troubles falling asleep, or staying asleep throughout the night.

A terrible vicious circle in which many people are trapped throughout their lives, increasing the risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, obesity or other ailments.

 

3 simple tips for restful sleep:

Where there is a cause for a problem, there is a known solution. Here, as promised, my top 3 tips for better sleep:

# 1: Avoid blue light exposure before going to sleep!

If you want to or have to look at screens, work with a blue light filter for your phone, laptop or tablet. As already briefly mentioned, the artificial light sources, be it cell phones, laptops, etc., always contain a high proportion of blue light. Our brain / eye can hardly differentiate this from daylight and adjusts itself hormonally to the light exposure. Melatonin is screwed down, cortisol upwards.

Twilight, Nightshift, etc. for smartphones and tablets

That’s why there is a relatively simple and easy tip that you can implement immediately – install a blue light blocker on your device.

If you are an iPhone user, you have it, unless you have an ancient iPhone, as the so-called Nightshift mode even preinstalled. You can activate this very easily

If necessary, there is also an app that is romantically called Twilight, which can be used as a blue light filter.

F.lux for PC and laptop

For PCs and laptops, there is a program called F.Lux, which can also be installed for free and filters the blue light portion of the display.

So you can filter out at least some of it and make sure you protect your precious melatonin.

Blue light blocking glasses for professionals

If you want to go to the full and want to do the best for your health and your body, put on a pair of blue light blocking glasses.

Depending on the manufacturer, this filters out up to 99% of the artificial blue light component, which is certainly remarkable. With the Nightshift mode you can not make 99%, which is why I bought such a fashionable item. Looks really pretty ugly, but my girlfriend loves me anyway. She has also gained one, which is why we are ugly with each other – well, there are always solutions.

# 2: Avoid negative bullshit before sleeping!

That means, watch no news, thrillers, action movies, etc. before going to bed. Also avoid heated discussions, arguments, or anything that goes in that direction. Extremely important because our subconscious mind is often stronger than we think.

Imagine your brain, like a clean, pure glass of water, now you dump dirty water into the clean water, which causes the glass to turn to the negative and sooner or later is completely dirty.

It is the same with your brain when faced with negativity, murder, manslaughter, environmental disasters, terrorist attacks or similar before sleeping.

As you sleep, your brain will need to process those impressions. This automatically negatively affects your sleep quality and worsens your recovery.

 

How do you manage to properly feed your brain?

What really helps me and what I recommend to so many customers is a daily journal, which is very easy and quick to implement.

The journal can for example be used in a form of a gratitude journal:

Get a little notebook and note 3 things every night for which you are grateful from the bottom of your heart. Afterwards, stay in a short mood of gratitude.

Also reading can really help. I always tend to things that interest me – health, training, mindset, nutrition, etc. But also biographies etc. are my favorites when it comes to books. Stay away from thrillers, thrillers etc. These are more likely to spin you up, which we do not need at this particular time of day.

# 3: Use inositol before going to bed:

Basically, I’m always a friend of controlling everything about habits, diet, etc., but certain supplements have been shown to help people with sleep problems very well. Important here: I’m not talking about sleeping pills! You should keep your fingers out of it, as sleeping pills do nothing but fool you into a state of sleep.

There are different supplements, which you can install. For most people, I have the best experience with inositol

Inositol also known as “muscle sugar”, is a hexavalent sugar alcohol that is very common in nature. Studies have shown that it not only helps treat PCOs, or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, but can also help with issues such as depression, panic attacks, etc. It has a very relaxing effect on the organism, which is why I recommend it always about 30 minutes before going to sleep. From a dose perspective, you have to find out the right dose for you. For my part I  have the best effect with 1-2 teaspoon in powder form.

Quite often, however, a very small dose is enough, as it is often recommended on the packaging. As a 100 kg gorilla like me, you always need something more from everything. 🙂 Just dissolve in water and drink. Great, especially for falling asleep.

 

 

Conclusion

# 1 stop looking at displays. Strictly speaking, go about two hours before going to sleep. But best start with an hour and definitely use a blue light filter, or possibly a pair of  blue light blocking glasses.

# 2: No negativity before going to bed – Thriller, news, arguments negatively affect your subconscious, increase your stress hormones and worsen your sleep! Work with a grateful log and try to get in a parasympathetic state.

# 3: Supplement with inositol to help your sleep.

Of course, there are many more tips and tricks, such as carbohydrates in the evening, meditating, your sleep hygiene, etc. but this is beyond the scope here today.

 

How long should you sleep?

Maybe you wondered why I have not said anything about sleeping time yet. This is simply because the required sleep time is very individual! There are people who are fit after 6 hours and there are many like me who have their “sweet spot” in about 7-8 hours.

Overall, however, it can be said that the range between 6-8 hours is best. Anything above, or below, may have a negative impact on our health. For this reason, the “sleep catch up” on the weekend with 10-12 hours of sleep, is pretty much nonsense.

Pay attention to your body and what it needs, but above all pay attention not only to the quantity of sleep, but above all to the quality. The ideal would be to fall asleep within 5 minutes, sleep through without waking up and then get up early in the morning without delay, fatigue, etc.

If you get that far, your sleep seems to be pretty good, if you can not do that, be sure to implement my tips. I am very curious how they help you. 😉

With that, I wish you a restful bed rest and hope you could take away some new knowledge with you.

Coach Markus