The Neuroscience Behind Fixing Your Sleep Schedule
Summary
TLDRThis video script emphasizes the importance of aligning lifestyle habits with our natural sleep patterns for better sleep quality. It explains that focusing on sleep hygiene alone is insufficient; instead, one must address waking hours, emotional regulation, work-life balance, and diet. The speaker, a psychiatrist, shares insights on how to manage stress, the significance of morning cortisol levels, and the negative impact of technology on sleep. The key takeaway is that by living a life that naturally demands full-night sleep, one can achieve it without relying on medication or external aids.
Takeaways
- 😴 Focus on waking hours: The speaker emphasizes that to fix sleep schedules, one should focus on waking hours rather than just bedtime routines.
- 🧠 Sleep's purpose: Sleep is to complement waking activities, compensating for the day's mental exertion and preparing the body for rest.
- 🌞 Circadian rhythm: Missing the optimal sleep window can make it difficult to fall asleep, as our bodies have a natural rhythm influenced by day and night cycles.
- 📱 Technology and impulse control: The use of technology before bed can interfere with sleep due to the suppression of negative emotions and impulse control issues.
- 🚫 In-bed procrastination: Modern devices contribute to a new form of procrastination, delaying sleep even after getting into bed.
- 🏃♂️ Exercise and anabolism: Physical activity, especially weightlifting, can promote sleep by signaling the body to repair and build tissues.
- 🧠 Learning and memory consolidation: Engaging in new learning during the day can enhance sleep as the brain consolidates memories during rest.
- 🥗 Diet and sleep: Eating a balanced diet, particularly a carb-heavy meal with protein and fiber before bed, can help induce sleep.
- ⏰ Consistent wake-up time: Waking up at the same time every day, ideally between 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., can improve sleep quality and productivity.
- 🌅 Observing dawn and dusk: Aligning with natural light cycles by observing dawn and dusk can reinforce the body's internal clock and improve sleep patterns.
- 🏋️♀️ Managing stress: Reducing stress through various means such as work, meditation, and exercise can alleviate sleep issues by addressing the root causes.
Q & A
What is the biggest mistake people make when trying to fix their sleep schedule according to the video?
-The biggest mistake is focusing on going to bed at the right time and implementing sleep hygiene practices at night, rather than focusing on fixing waking hours.
Why do human beings sleep for about 8 hours a night?
-Human beings sleep for about 8 hours to compensate or complement their waking activity, as the brain accumulates a chemical called adenosine during the day which signals fatigue and the need for rest.
What is the purpose of sleep from a biological perspective?
-Sleep serves to compensate for the work and activities performed during waking hours, allowing the brain and body to rest, recover, and consolidate memories.
Why is it important to wake up at the right time to fix sleep schedules?
-Waking up at the right time, particularly between 4:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., aligns with the body's circadian rhythm and helps regulate cortisol levels, making it easier to be productive and eventually fall asleep at night.
What is the role of technology in disrupting sleep patterns?
-Technology, especially the use of devices before bed, suppresses negative emotional circuitry and can lead to emotional flooding when devices are put away, making it difficult to fall asleep.
How does the brain handle procrastination and work during the day in relation to sleep?
-The brain keeps track of tasks that need to be done and releases stress signals like cortisol if it perceives that not enough work has been done during the day, which can disrupt sleep.
What is the significance of the 'window' for going to sleep mentioned in the video?
-The 'window' is a specific time frame where the fatigue signals in the brain are high, and the frontal lobes still have enough willpower to restrain impulses, making it the optimal time for sleep.
Why is it recommended to do some work during the day to improve sleep?
-Doing work during the day helps the brain register that an allotment of tasks has been completed, reducing cortisol levels and stress signals that can interfere with sleep.
How does exercise contribute to better sleep?
-Exercise, especially weightlifting, sends signals to the brain that stimulate growth factors and create a need for anabolism, which in turn triggers sleep signals for recovery and tissue building.
What is the recommended diet pattern for promoting healthy sleep?
-Eating throughout the day with a carb-heavy meal before bed that also contains protein and fiber can help maintain insulin levels and induce sleepiness, promoting better sleep quality.
How does managing stress contribute to fixing sleep schedules?
-Stress, particularly chronic stress, releases cortisol which can inhibit the brain's ability to fall asleep. Managing stress through various practices like meditation, exercise, and emotional regulation can help improve sleep.
Outlines
💤 Fixing Sleep Schedule: Prioritizing Waking Hours
The speaker emphasizes that the key to fixing sleep schedules is not focusing on bedtime routines but rather on the waking hours. They explain that sleep is meant to complement our waking activities, and modern disruptions to our waking hours have impaired our sleep signals. The speaker, a psychiatrist, shares their experience in helping patients improve sleep without medication by addressing daytime habits. They also introduce the concept of coaching to help individuals understand and improve their lives from an external perspective, leading to better sleep and overall mental health.
🕒 Understanding the Sleep Window and Adenosine Buildup
This paragraph delves into the concept of the optimal sleep window, which is the period when it's easiest to fall asleep based on circadian rhythms. The speaker discusses how throughout the day, the brain accumulates adenosine, signaling fatigue, and the importance of the frontal lobes' willpower in controlling impulses during this window. They explain that missing this window can lead to difficulty sleeping due to impulse control issues, often exacerbated by technology use before bed.
🛌 Addressing Sleep Procrastination and Emotional Flooding
The speaker introduces the problem of sleep procrastination, both in going to bed and while in bed, which has been exacerbated by the availability of technology. They explain that emotional flooding can occur when one puts away their devices, leading to a rush of suppressed emotions that can be overwhelming. The speaker suggests that addressing this by allowing oneself to be bored and process emotions during the day can help prevent emotional flooding at night, leading to better sleep.
🏋️♂️ The Impact of Work and Physical Activity on Sleep
Here, the speaker discusses the biological need for sleep as a response to the day's work and physical activity. They explain that the brain tracks the work done during the day and uses this to regulate sleep signals. The speaker suggests that completing work early in the day can help reduce stress hormones like cortisol, which can interfere with sleep. They also touch on the concept of anabolism, the body's tissue-building process during sleep, and how physical activity and learning can create a need for sleep.
🍽️ Diet and Its Influence on Sleep Quality
In this paragraph, the speaker addresses the role of diet in sleep, cautioning against patterns that can disrupt sleep, such as having a large meal late in the day or not eating enough throughout the day. They recommend eating regularly and having a carb-heavy meal before bed to stimulate insulin production, which can induce sleepiness. The speaker also advises on the importance of fiber and protein to sustain sleepiness throughout the night.
🤯 Managing Stress and Its Effects on Sleep
The speaker highlights the impact of stress on sleep, explaining how chronic stress can lead to sleeplessness due to the release of stress hormones like cortisol. They suggest that managing stress through work, meditation, exercise, and emotional processing can naturally reduce stress levels, making it easier to fall asleep. The speaker emphasizes that sleep is not the starting point for fixing a disrupted schedule but rather the endpoint after addressing other lifestyle factors.
⏰ The Importance of Waking Up Early and Observing Natural Rhythms
In the final paragraph, the speaker stresses the importance of waking up early during the peak cortisol levels in the morning to align with our natural circadian rhythm. They recommend avoiding caffeine in the late morning and observing both dawn and dusk to send signals to the brain about wakefulness and the time to sleep. The speaker concludes by reiterating that a full night's sleep is a result of a lifestyle that demands it, and by transforming one's life, sleep will naturally follow.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sleep Hygiene
💡Circadian Rhythm
💡Adenosine
💡Frontal Lobes
💡Sleep Procrastination
💡Emotional Flooding
💡Anabolism
💡Cortisol
💡Diet and Sleep
💡Stress Management
💡Technology Use
Highlights
The biggest mistake in fixing sleep schedules is focusing on bedtime rather than waking hours.
Sleep serves to complement waking activities, compensating for the day's exertions.
Modern waking hours have disrupted biological sleep triggers, impairing sleep schedules.
Coaching can improve sleep by offering an external perspective to address life struggles.
There's a specific window for optimal sleep based on the balance of fatigue and impulse control.
Technology, particularly blue light from devices, can delay sleep by suppressing the impulse to rest.
Sleep procrastination occurs both before bed and while in bed, extending the time to fall asleep.
Emotional flooding at bedtime can be mitigated by processing emotions throughout the day.
Boredom can be beneficial, allowing the mind to process emotions that might otherwise disrupt sleep.
Working early in the day helps signal to the brain that it's time to sleep by completing daily tasks.
The brain tracks work completed and uses it as a signal to initiate sleep when tasks are sufficiently addressed.
Exercise, especially weightlifting, can enhance sleep by creating physiological signals for rest.
Learning new information during the day increases sleep signals as the brain prepares to consolidate memory.
Proper diet, especially a carb-heavy meal with protein and fiber before bed, can promote sleep.
Stress can inhibit sleep, and managing stress through daily activities can improve sleep quality.
Waking up early in alignment with the body's circadian rhythm sets the stage for productive work and restful sleep.
Observing natural light cues like dawn and dusk helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle.
Regulating technology use, especially avoiding devices before bed, is crucial for better sleep.
Transforming lifestyle habits rather than just focusing on sleep can lead to more natural and easy sleep.
Transcripts
today we're going to talk about how to
fix your sleep
[Music]
schedule so the biggest mistake that we
tend to make when we are trying to fix
our sleep schedule is we focus on going
to bed right we have all these things
like sleep hygiene like make sure you do
meditation for 30 minutes and go for a
walk and don't eat something super heavy
and avoid cell phones because they have
blue light and something about the
pineal gland and melatonin we focus on
all this stuff at night but that's the
biggest mistake if you want to fix your
sleep schedule what you need to do is
fix your waking hours so what is the
purpose of sleep right why do human
beings sleep if we look at some animals
like whales or Dolphins they'll sleep
for 5 to 20 minutes several times
throughout the day and they're active in
between so the human brain sleeps for
about 8 hours a night to compensate or
complement our waking activity and the
biggest problem in the world today is
that our waking hours have changed so
the biological signals that trigger
sleep have now become impaired so as we
understand why the brain needs to sleep
in the first place we can start to
Institute those things during the day
and then end up making going to sleep
actually incredibly easy and I say this
as a psychiatrist who's work with tons
of patients about 90% of my patients end
up sleeping very very easily after
working together for a few months and do
so without medication I'll have many
patients that come to my office and say
Doc I'm having trouble sleeping like can
you prescribe something and we can
prescribe stuff that's totally okay I'm
not against prescriptions for sleep but
the goal is that you can take those
temporarily but over time we want to
build a life where you're engaging your
body in all of the right ways so that
your sleep signals are at their maximum
when you try to go to bed when people
hear that we offer coaching at HG their
first question is like what on Earth
even is that so here's the basic problem
when you struggle with something in your
life you don't see the problem from the
outside you see it from the inside the
value of a coach is that they can look
at your life from the outside they can
understand what's going on and they can
help guide you to improve things like
motivation accomplish short-term goals
and even increase a sense of purpose in
life and over the long term we also see
improvements in feelings of depression
and anxiety and the best part is we've
had over 100,000 coaching sessions and
we incorporate that feedback to
continually improve our program so if
yall are interested in actually making a
change in your life check out the link
in the description below so let's start
with the first thing that really
confuses a lot of people you have a
window to go to sleep and if you miss
that window it becomes increasingly
difficult to go to sleep some people
will say if I wake up by this time then
I'm okay but if I sleep too long then
I'm groggy or if I wake up too early
then I'm groggy most of us have or all
of us have this thing called a circadian
rhythm which dictates when it is is
easiest to wake up and when it is
easiest to go to sleep and if we miss
that window it becomes increasingly
difficult so the first thing is as we
are awake throughout the day we
accumulate this chemical called
adenosine in our brain and this sort of
signals to us the degree of fatigue we
have and then this sort of makes us want
to go to sleep so throughout the day or
let this is just simplification but we
can say that the fatigue signals in the
brain slowly increase over time then
what happens is we have this other part
of our brain called The frontal lobes so
the frontal loes are the parts of our
brain that restrain impulses and control
our our our Behavior you can kind of
think about them as willpower and
remember that your frontal loes are
getting exhausted throughout the day as
well so there is a very specific window
where the fatigue signals in the brain
are high and your frontal loes have
enough willpower there's enough gas in
the tank to restrain your impulses so
this isn't that the frontal loes have
reached complete exhaustion but there's
this window where you feel tired and
your brain has enough willpower to where
it can restrain your impulses like binge
eating or hopping on your cell phone or
watching something on TV or getting up
and doing whatever right so you have to
be able to restrain impulses to go to
sleep and if we look at people who
really struggle with sleep what ends up
happening you get into bed and then
you're kind of really tired and then you
hop on your cell phone right cuz you
can't really restrain that and then an
hour goes by an hour and a half goes by
you feel really sleepy and then you kind
of jump to something else or you try to
put it away and then you pick it up
again 5 minutes later so if we really
look at what goes on with people who
struggle with sleep they have an impulse
control problem they cannot restrain
their impulses they cannot just sit in
bed and wait to fall asleep right you
have to pick something up and technology
has something to do with that absolutely
but the main issue is that we are
missing this window where our brains are
fatigued enough to go to bed and not so
fatigued that they can't restrain
impulses so for most people this window
is somewhere between 1 and 2 hours it's
this really sweet spot what time of the
day it happens we'll kind of get to a
little bit later but it probably happens
if you wake up around 8:00 it probably
happens somewhere between 9:00 p.m. and
10 p.m. that's your optimal sleep window
if you stay up past that window you will
not have the willpower Reserve to
restrain your impulses and continue
procrastinating going to bed now why is
this becoming an increasing problem so
re researchers have recently discovered
that there are two types of sleep
procrastination there is procrastination
of going to bed okay so this is like I'm
not ready to get into bed yet and what
they've actually discovered is that
there is a second kind of
procrastination which is while in bed
procrastination this is a completely new
thing so if we look at the science of it
what we find is that human beings I
guess since the dawn of time
procrastinated on going to bed and this
procrastination was somewhere between 30
and 75 minutes and since the Advent of
things like cell phones and easy access
to devices what we've discovered is that
there is a second level of
procrastination so you procrastinate
getting into bed by about 30 to 75
minutes that's fair enough but then once
you are in bed there is within bed
procrastination which is another 30 to
75 minutes and the key thing about
adding this second layer of
procrastination is it puts us outside of
that fatigue and impulse control window
that really nice sweet spot which then
means that we can't really control what
we're doing and we stay up way too long
so the first thing to do if you want to
fix your sleep schedule is really try to
Target that window and recognize that if
you pick up your cell phone you
shouldn't take your cell phone to bed
that's a very practical tip which we'll
get to at the end but if you miss that
window it's not just I'm going to stay
on the phone for an additional 15
minutes or 30 minutes it's not 15 or 30
minutes it's actually going to cost you
way more it's kind of like missing your
flight right like you don't want to
delay if you delay a little bit too long
and you miss your flight you miss the
window and then you're in a lot of
trouble this is the first principle that
I teach my patients that really really
helps them develop a solid sleep
schedule over time the second thing that
we're going to talk about is emotional
flooding so if we look at the overall
effect of technology there is one
uniform thing that basically all
technological devices do this can be
social media this can be browsing Reddit
this can be watching things on YouTube
watching things on Tik Tok shorts
whatever it doesn't matter they all do
one thing they share one thing in common
which is that they suppress our negative
emotional circuitry right so if you're
feeling bad it doesn't matter what you
can do you can binge watch a show you
can play a video game you can watch some
porn you can browse some social media
look at some Twitter trolls like
whatever all of these things have one
shared effect which is that they
suppress your negative emotional C
circuitry now a lot of times people
think okay if I'm suppressing my
negative social emotional circuitry does
that mean that the emotions go away no
this is suppression right it is not
elimination of emotions it is
suppression of emotions so there's a
very common thing that I'm beginning to
see now and I experienced this when I
was struggling with video game addiction
where you suppress these negative
emotional circuits throughout the day
and so the moment that you put your
devices away there's this experience of
emotional flooding the moment that you
put your device away right because
you're like supposed to not watch your
device in bed stay away from your device
so you put it away in what happens a
flood of thoughts tend to come forward
you start to have anxieties you start to
have regrets you start to be depressed
about tomorrow you beat yourself up
right so even if we look at the
emotional experience of trying to go to
bed you're frustrated with yourself why
do I keep on doing this this is such a
waste of time what is that that's
emotional energy and so basically what's
going on is throughout the day what
human beings used to do is process their
emotions if if you look at the
situations in which our brains evolved
they tended to involve a lot of rot
mechanical tasks we're doing stuff like
churning butter or like plowing a field
with an oxen and when you're sitting on
a cart and you're like kind of whipping
the ox and you're not whipping it too
hard it's kind of just trundling along
the road like what's your mind doing
your mind is just processing all these
emotions like human beings used to be so
bored and so when the mind has idle time
when that mind is not occupied by
something what it does is it starts
cleaning out the trash right it the mind
is on empty it's not focusing on
anything now what's going on in our
society is that we have so much sensory
stimulus our mind is so engaged in
laughing at this or looking at a cat
video or getting pissed off by political
beliefs that we don't like whatever the
situation is we don't have time to
process our minor emotional things
throughout the day and so then when we
go to bed our mind finally has empty
time and what does it have to do process
all of these emotions that have built up
so this is the experience of emotional
flooding so then what happens is people
get so overwhelmed or activated by this
emotional flooding that they have to
distract themselves from it right you
feel overwhelmed and what's your
solution pick up a device because that
quiets all the emotions down so then we
get stuck in this pingpong between
overwhelming emotions and distracting
oursel from our emotions because the
overwhelming emotions aren't going to
let us sleep right and you really need
to go to sleep and the more you stress
yourself out the harder it is to sleep
so you ping pong between these two
things until you reach the point of
absolute exhaustion so now it's super
late and the fatigue signals in your
brain are so powerful that you finally
pass out but this is not how you fix
your sleep schedule right this is what
destroys your sleep schedule so what do
we do about emotional flooding give
yourself time during the day to be bored
and let your mind take out the trash so
I recommend an hourlong walk don't
listen to anything no music no podcasts
anything like that in your mind all
these things will start to come up you
can absolutely do things like meditation
and particularly like parasympathetic
meditations are very good we explain
this stuff in Dr K's guide to meditation
and and things like that we've explained
that all over the place you can
absolutely meditate but all you really
have to do is give your mind space okay
as you give your mind space you will
process some of those emotions
automatically you can also do things
like journaling meditation Etc you can
do focused emotional practices or you
can just give yourself some time and the
more that you manage these emotions the
less flooding will happen and the more
calm your mind will be when you go to
bed if your mind is calm then you can
pick a time and the mind will naturally
sleep the third thing that we're going
to talk about is how you spend your
waking hours in particular what we want
to do is try to work ideally early in
the morning so the more work we get done
during the day the easier it will be to
sleep so let's understand why this is so
the first thing is what is the
biological need for sleep sleep is to
compensate for work right so as if you
look at like mammals why do mammals
sleep because mammals are generally
speaking engaged in some degree of work
throughout several hours of the day and
so we have such an evolved brain that we
keep track of this so I want youall to
really pay attention to this I know it's
going to be kind of a stretch but it's
really important to understand so our
brain keeps track of all of the work
that we have to do this is how our brain
reminds you right so let's say you spend
a couple hours like watching Netflix or
whatever and then when it's over your
brain sends you a signal hey we have a
test to study for or we need oh I forgot
I need to stop by the grocery store so
if you think about this very simple
concept of how does the brain remember
to remind you that you need to do things
well very simple in order for that to be
done it must keep track of all of the
things that you have to do and since
it's keeping track of all of the things
that you have to do this creates a very
big problem for sleep so we're going to
explain this a little bit further so
let's take the example of
procrastinating for an exam so you've
got two weeks to study for an exam and
you kind of procrastinate up until the
point of about like 3 days but the
question is why three days why not 5
days why not two days why not a day and
a half how is it that your brain decides
to really induce that last minute Panic
so that you start studying 3 days before
an exam right and it's if you pay
attention it's quite precise it's like
we can procrastinate today tomorrow the
next day one week a week and a half and
then once three days rolls around once
some amount of time rolls around
suddenly our brain is like no more
procrastination we're done last minute
Panic let's go so think about that for a
second how is how does the brain know
how to do that and if you start procr if
you start studying like a a Madman 3
days before a test you'll get like a B
minus or a c you'll pass the exam right
so what that means is our brain actually
keeps track of all of the tasks that we
need to do and when we start to move
forward in our tasks our brain keeps
track of that as well and if we have
procrastinated all day long and we have
not done enough work our brain does not
let us sleep because our brain basically
allots a certain amount of work that we
have to get done every day you have all
of these different tasks that need to be
done and so your brain knows okay like
we need to do at least this amount to
not fall further behind it keeps track
of all of the stuff so what we really
want to do to be able to sleep at night
is if we procrastinated if we haven't
done enough work our brain will say we
have not done our allotted work for the
day this is actually not sufficient and
then it will actually keep us awake
stress signals which we'll get to in
more detail will start to activate so
these are hormones like cortisol and
literally what cortisol does is it goes
to the part of your brain that lets you
you fall asleep and it says hey we're
not done with our work for the day and
you know this right because if your
sleep schedule is messed up when you try
to go to bed your brain will remind you
of all of the things that you should
have done this is the literal experience
of 90% of my patients and so how do we
fix this it is very simple we have to
remove that cortisol signal we have to
remove the cortisol signal by doing some
kind of work the more work you do the
more it tells your brain your brain is
keeping track of it and it's not about
whether it's enough or it's good enough
or anything like that you just need to
do some kind of work and we'll talk
about why that is as well but basically
the more work that you do the better off
you will be at going to sleep because
now your brain doesn't release that
cortisol it says okay I got a lot done
today I feel good about this and so it's
okay there may be a part of your brain
that says it's not enough but that part
of your brain is independent from the
part of your brain that keeps track that
you've done something and once again
what is the biological purpose for sleep
it is to help us rest and recover from
work so if you do some amount of work
during the day it will help you sleep at
night now some people may say but Dr K
even if I do some work like let's say I
take out the trash and I do this or that
that doesn't really solve my problems
and this is the beautiful thing the
architecture that helps you sleep does
not relate to actually solving your
problems it can involve even doing
things that are complete completely
meaningless as long as they involve some
kind of work now this may sound super
confusing but I'll give you all an
example you can even do meaning
meaningless work you don't have to
progress towards your goals it's crazy
you just need to do some kind of work so
let's understand how this works so if
you look at patients who have cancer one
thing that happens is their family
members will bring them lots of food now
this is in a sense kind of silly because
first of all they're getting IV
nutrition they're on chemotherapy the
intestinal lining is sloughing off they
can't even eat anything they feel
nauseous all the time and family brings
food family brings food family brings
food this also happens after someone
passes away right so I'm kind of making
light of this but this is kind of silly
so sorry about that I I don't mean to be
mean but if you look at a funeral the
one thing that there is no shortage of
at a funeral is lots of food everyone's
bringing food everyone's bringing food
everyone's bringing food look the person
is dead right they're not going to need
to eat anything and the family's not
feeling very hungry it's beautiful that
you want to bring some food and it's
great I'm not saying it's a bad thing
but let's understand the psychology of
it why does someone bring food to a
funeral it's because they feel like they
want to do something so if we look at
the human brain what we find is that
taking meaningless action is sufficient
at reducing our cortisol level so this
is a concept that we go into in a lot
more detail when we talk about
overcoming Anxiety by engaging in more
active challenges so there studies that
show that if you are feeling overwhelmed
in life in order to feel less
overwhelmed you can actually take on
more work so if you take on three
additional tasks now you have 13 total
things to do and a lot of people may
think if I have 13 things then I will
feel more overwhelmed because 13 is more
than 10 but the science shows us that
feeling overwhelmed is not about the
total number of tasks that you you do it
is about the number of tasks that you
choose compared to the number of tasks
that you have to deal with so the ratio
of things that you want to work on
versus things that you have to work on
is literally what leads to feeling
overwhelmed the more that we take on the
less overwhelmed we feel and we see this
principle once again in sleep because as
you are feeling stressed out if you work
on anything our brain is keeping track
of this and sort of says okay we've done
some stuff today so now we can go to
sleep so another goal in sleep is
anabolism so anabolism is building your
tissues so if we look at kids kids grow
during sleep if we look at things like
muscle repair muscle repair happens
during sleep our body builds tissue when
we sleep so on the converse side the
other way we can look at it is that if
we need to build tissues then we will
sleep more so children who are going
through growth spurts need to sleep more
when you start working out in exercising
you need to sleep more so let's think
about what's going on there so as you
exercise and as you create small tears
in your muscle fibers literally these
muscle fibers will send signals
inflammatory signals to your your brain
growth factors will start to activate
within your brain these are things like
um uh you know insulin derived growth
factor insulin light growth factor so
all of these kinds of growth factors
will start to send signals to your brain
that will then make you feel sleepy so
one of the best things that you can do
to fall asleep is actually exercise now
this is not to get your Beach bought or
anything like that this is about
physiologically creating the signals
that will travel to your brain and help
you sleep so we absolutely want to
exercise and ideally weightlifting
because weightlifting sends signals to
your bones and to your muscles you'll
get some muscle tear so you really want
to feel that burn in a healthy way we
don't want to create you know ATT tendon
tear or anything like that and all of
these things will send sleep signals to
your brain make it easy for you to sleep
at night the second thing that we're
going to talk about is learning new
stuff so the other thing that our brain
does when we sleep is consolidates
memory so we we take our short-term
memory which lives in the hippocampus
and it kind of gets
Consolidated into other parts of the
hippocampus in into long-term memory so
the more that you are learning the more
sleep signals your brain will be
receiving so as you store a bunch of
stuff in your short-term memory our
brain says holy crap we have to encode
all of this stuff from our Ram into our
hard drive and that requires sleep so
what you will find is people who are
engaged in cognitively intensive tasks
where they are learning like learning
new things learning new languages it
will be easier for them to sleep because
the brain is sending signals sending
signals to your reticular activating
system hey we need sleep hey we need
sleep hey we need sleep so this is
different from just spending cognitive
energy so if I'm playing the same
[ __ ] video game over and over and
over again I'm not learning anything I'm
not rising in rank right I'm not
watching replays I'm not like focused on
learning something then I'm not going to
be able to sleep it is specifically
learning that triggers things like brain
derived neurotrophic factor which will
also help us sleep so we want to send
all of these kind of signals to our
brain to help us sleep next thing that
we're going to talk about is diet so a
big problem that people have when it
comes to sleep is what they actually eat
so this is where what we really want to
do is be careful about what we eat so
here's one pattern that's a huge problem
that interferes with sleep I wake up I
have a cup of coffee coffee is an
appetite suppressant so I don't eat a
whole lot and then 300 p.m. rolls around
I have one big meal and then dinner time
rolls around and I don't feel very
hungry so I don't eat very much and then
even though I had one big meal and it
was kind of unhealthy now my body and
brain are kind of confused because I may
actually be at a caloric deficit or a
nutrient deficit for the day which means
that my brain and my body are not
satisfied I can't actually go to sleep
because I have a caloric deficit or
nutrient deficit both of these things
will keep me awake and lead to nighttime
snacking because some measurement
capability in our brain our brain is
keeping track of the number of meals
we've had the number of calories we've
had the number of nutrients we've had
and if we're deficient in some way it
won't let us sleep and it'll keep us
awake until we eat something again
instead what we really want to do is
make sure you eat throughout the day as
much as possible so we want to have two
to three meals a day and this is the
last thing is that before you go to bed
our dinner should actually be quite
heavy and can have a fair load of
carbohydrates so what we really want is
a carb heavy meal but that also has
protein and fiber and there's a couple
reasons for this why do we want a carb
heavy meal so we want a carb heavy meal
because this stimulates stimulates
insulin and Insulin makes us sleepy we
want to induce a food coma at night now
if we eat a highly processed meal before
bed we will get a big insulin Spike
followed by a blood sugar crash and so
even if you eat a ton of calories with
no fiber so you can eat like a 2,000
calorie meal and you will still actually
Fe feel hungry within a few hours if
there is insufficient protein and
insufficient fiber the reason that we
want to add fiber and protein to our
heavy carb meal is it slows down the
release of carbohydrate into our system
because our body has to digest all this
other stuff it dilutes out the
carbohydrate as we dilute out the
carbohydrate we slowly absorb
carbohydrate which slowly keeps our
insulin levels High which keeps us
sleepy for a sustained period of time
which allows us to actually fall asleep
so if you want to have a big bowl of
pasta with a salad in some kind of
grilled chicken or fish or something
like that that is a ideal meal before
you go to sleep you can also do
something like have a burrito we don't
want to go too carb heavy on the burrito
make sure there's plenty of protein in
there plenty of vegetables you can eat
all kinds of good stuff plenty of salsa
and you're totally golden lettuce tomato
whatever you want in there is totally
good so we actually want to eat a heavy
meal before we go to bed that will help
us induce sleep the last thing that we
want to consider is that stress in and
of itself will keep us awake now this is
a huge problem today because our society
is so full of stress so used to be that
stresses were acute things right so I'm
like hunting in the jungle and I see a
tiger so I'm stressed out once a week
when I run into a tiger now we have all
of these chronic stressors so grades at
the end of the semester mortgage at the
end of the month I have to I'm worried
about dating and I'm worried about my ex
should I break up should I not break up
I don't really know what to do my family
is stressing out so we have all of these
chronic stressors and as we saw we saw
that cortisol actually travels to the
reticular activating system which is
where our sleep signals come from and
actually inhibits us from falling asleep
so as we see a rise in chronic stress we
are seeing chronic sleeplessness okay
because the the brain is not able to
fall asleep because our brain thinks
we're in danger so it's not going to let
us fall asleep or get restful sleep so
this is where we need to manage our
stress and I know that in and of itself
is a huge task but this is kind of what
my point is about sleep is if you want
to fix your sleep schedule everyone
thinks that F fixing your sleep schedule
is where you start right everyone thinks
oh my God like I need to fix my sleep
schedule because I'm going to bed at a
crazy time I'm waking up at a crazy time
nothing is consistent so I can't fix my
relationships I can't study I can't work
I can't do anything I can't exercise
because my sleep schedule is screwed up
everyone thinks things start with the
sleep schedule but things don't start
with the sleep schedule sleep schedule
is the final thing so this is what's
really crazy and this is what I've seen
with most of my patients everyone tries
to tackle sleep first but you can't
tackle sleep first sleep is the last
thing that you actually tackle because
what we need to do is fix all of these
signals we need to fix all of the
circumstances all of the biological and
neurochemical signals that induc sleep
once we do all of those things then
sleep will come very easily and this is
exactly why it's so hard to fix because
we're trying to do the last thing first
you can't you don't start at the Finish
Line right you have to run the whole
race before you get to the finish line
so this is something that's very
important to understand we must manage
our stress so we've talked about some of
the things that we've already kind of
given you all the answers to do that
right so if you start doing a little bit
more work during the day if you start
meditating if you start walking and and
and managing your emotions if you start
journaling if you start exercising if
you start eating healthy in the right
way your stress will naturally come down
we've covered stress relief in so many
other places across the channel so
definitely check that stuff out but as
long as you stressed out it will be
difficult to sleep so let's end with one
final thing so one last tip that I would
give yall is waking up when you're tired
is easier neuroscientifically than going
to bed when you're not so the biggest
mistake that a lot of people make is
that sleep is not about going to bed on
time it is about waking up on time or
even waking up very early so the the
last tip that I'm going to give yall is
that you should wake up sometime between
4:00 a.m. and 7: a.m. 7:00 a.m. is the
late end of when you should wake up now
why is this the first is that we have
something called a circadian rhythm
which is our body's biological clock and
we actually have a very high level of
cortisol early in the morning so
medically when we're trying to test
whether someone has a cortisol
deficiency or a cortisol tumor or
something like that we will actually
have to do this this lab test we have to
do it at 700 a.m.
why is that it's because we know that
there is a biological peak of cortisol
early in the morning so why do we want
to wake up around that time so the first
thing is if we wake up around that time
our ability to work will be easier
because we naturally have a high level
of cortisol which means we will be
activated our body will be in a
stressful state it doesn't feel
stressful because it's first thing in
the morning that's the beautiful thing
but it it allows us to focus and and
really complete tasks so what we really
want to do is wake up around 5:30 in the
morning okay you're going to be groggy
that's okay don't drink coffee right
away but you can have coffee or tea or
whatever do whatever you need to to wake
up early and then we want to get to work
right away the first 4 hours of the day
wake up at 5:00 a.m. and work until 9:00
if you do this so many things will get
better your brain will be like okay
we've gotten all of the work that we
need to do in the day like you'll be
crazy it's crazy how productive you will
be in the morning now some people will
say but I'm not a morning person I'm a
night owl so in my experience a lot of
night owls aren't actually night owls
they are very early morning people right
so they their Windows of work that start
around midnight or whatever like that's
actually okay you can wake up at 2: a.m.
no big deal a lot of monasteries and
asham will have people wake up around
midnight so if you look at matens which
I think is a Catholic Ceremony they
actually wake up at midnight they go to
bed at like 6:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. and they
actually wake up at midnight that's
actually totally fine you want to wake
up super early and get some stuff done
you're going to have this cortisol Peak
which will help you do the work if you
want to caffeinate go ahead and
caffeinate have a really solid breakfast
around 9: and then here's where the
really important thing comes in when
you're feeling tired you don't go to
sleep right so then you have to stay up
until whatever your natural bedtime is
6:00 p.m. 7: p.m. 8:00 p.m. I don't care
you can fall asleep at any time between
6:00 and 10: p.m. don't stay up past
your inhibition window right so if we
get that that frontal lobe fatigue then
you're going to be in trouble try to
avoid caffeine afternoon ideally avoid
caffeine after 10: a.m. so what we want
to do it's going to be a real struggle
but if you can sort of readapt to this
schedule which is sort of biologically
there's millions of years of evolution
that are supporting you and doing this
you'll be really good so you want to
wake up early and then the other thing
to consider is that we want to observe
Dawn and observe dusk okay so when we
observe Dawn it sends all these signals
to our brain that hey it's like time to
wake up and then when we observe dusk
it's like our brain is closing the book
right so kind of like opening the book
and closing the book as we observe dusk
so you want to be outside or at least
have access to a window during Dawn and
dusk this will send a lot of positive
beneficial signals to your brain and
your body that it's time for bed
millions of years of evolution will be
supporting you and if we look at the
problem in sleep schedules the problem
in sleep schedules is that in our
society today we have gotten rid of all
of the things that induce sleep right we
stay in this room these four walls we're
not in tune with the sun we sleep at any
random time we wake at at any random
time we eat at any random time we
suppress our emotions we don't do our
work we procrastinate all the time we
have such good tools for procrastination
we miss this fatigue window where it's
actually capable where you're actually
capable of going to sleep we add an
extra 75 minutes of procrastination time
so everything we're doing is not aligned
with actually sleeping all of the
functions of sleep are not things that
we're doing we don't exercise we don't
use our body and so our brain and our
body utilize sleep to to fix all of
these things and if we don't do all of
those things no wonder it is difficult
to sleep so fixing your sleep schedule
is about understanding why do we sleep
what is the function of sleep and then
leaning into that function the more that
you do the things that sleep is designed
to compensate for the stronger the
biological signals that will will allow
you to sleep now the last point is
technology right so if y all haven't
figured it out you must regulate your
technology use but this becomes way
easier when you do everything else so
absolutely avoid your cell phone before
you go to bed recognize that if you have
any access to a technological device for
1 hour in your sleep window it will be
longer than an hour you'll miss that
window and your s so so wake up early
you know eat solidly do some work
exercise then you're saying but Dr K I
have to transform my life absolutely if
you transform your life sleep will come
easily and this is what I've seen in 90%
of my patients right is that as we start
fix ing their life now sleep becomes
natural it becomes easy I used to
struggle so much going to sleep in my
20s it's so easy for me to sleep now I
hit the pillow and done and this is what
I've seen in most of my patients and you
can do it too you just must have the
right kind of life for the right kind of
sleep and if you want to sleep a full
night then you need have to have a life
that demands that you sleep a full night
so give this a shot and I can't
guarantee that it'll work but I've seen
it very consistently and you'll be
amazed at how well it works B
[Music]
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