Hey guys,
Welcome to the last update of 2025.
I want to finish by talking to you about what I'm seeing around sleep right now.
Lately a lot of people have been telling me the same thing about their sleep.
They're getting enough hours,
But they're not waking up feeling restored.
They'll say things like,
I slept,
But I'm still tired.
I wake up during the night and can't switch off.
I myself know this occasionally.
They're also saying I feel like my sleep is light,
Even on good nights.
What's interesting is most of these people don't actually struggle to fall asleep.
They struggle to stay in deep restorative sleep.
And this is where sleep gets misunderstood.
Most people think sleep quality is about what happens at night.
In reality,
Sleep quality is largely determined by what happens during the day.
Your body doesn't decide how deeply you sleep when your head hits the pillow.
It decides based on the signals it's been receiving from the past,
Previous 12 to 16 hours.
If your system has been running slightly on edge all day,
Rushing,
Reacting,
Mentally switching tasks,
Your brain goes to bed in the same state.
You might fall asleep from exhaustion,
But your nervous system never fully powers down.
That's why so many people experience frequent waking,
Vivid or busy dreams,
Early morning waking with a racing mind.
Another thing I'm seeing a lot is people blaming sleep itself.
They start chasing perfect routines,
Supplements,
Trackers,
And scores.
But sleep isn't something you can force.
It's something the body allows when it feels safe enough to let go.
And that is really key,
Safe enough to let go.
Safety in physiological terms doesn't mean comfort,
It means predictability.
It means your system trusts that it doesn't need to stay alert.
When that trust isn't there,
Sleep becomes lighter and more fragmented,
Even if you're technically asleep for eight hours.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is people trying to fix sleep at night.
They add more strategies,
More effort,
More pressure.
That often makes things worse.
Sleep improves when not trying harder,
But when your body learns it doesn't need to stay vigilant.
I know this from my previous job as an intensive care paramedic in shift work.
When that happens,
People notice changes like fewer night wakings,
Deeper sleep without trying,
Waking up clearer and more refreshed.
And the key point here is this.
If your sleep feels fragile,
Broken or unrefreshing,
It doesn't mean something is wrong with you.
It usually means your system hasn't been given enough consistent signals of down-regulating during the day,
I.
E.
Going in to rest and digest.
Sleep is not a separate event.
It's the final chapter of the day's physiology.
When the day is chaotic internally,
The night reflects it.
When the day is steadier,
Sleep follows.
That's the pattern I'm seeing over and over again,
Even within myself when the stress builds.
And it's why improving sleep is rarely about bedtime itself and almost always about how the body is operating long before you lie down.
So with that in mind,
Let's go back and let's refresh what we have been doing all year.
Closing the mouth,
Placing the tongue on the roof of the mouth and breathing nasally,
Slow and low whenever we can,
Harnessing carbon dioxide,
Nitric oxide and putting ourselves into rest and digest.
Now,
Finally,
I'd like to thank you for supporting the breathwork initiatives I continue to put forward.
I wish you and your family and friends a Merry Christmas.
And if you do have some time off,
I hope it's relaxing and safe and happy.
Thanks again.
And I'll see you in 2026.
Remember,
I want you to breathe right.
