Sleep Like A Rockstar

We start by examining a typical sleep cycle chart. You can go ahead and google this if you wish to have a visual, or just follow along with the recording. Here I address the deep sleep stage (non-REM) and dream sleep stage (REM) and their associated brainwave states.

Here I discuss what I view to be one of the most important misconceptions about sleep: that we need eight hours in order to feel rejuvenated. Instead, We correlate ultradian cycles with optimal sleep time.

Here I discuss everyone's favorite psychoactive stimulant (myself included). The half-life of caffeine is 6-8 hours depending on your genetics, which means the cup you enjoy in the afternoon is still circulating in your bloodstream at bedtime. We look at how caffeine blocks adenosine, the molecule that builds your pressure to sleep, and why knowing your own cut-off time is one of the simplest changes you can make.

Here I discuss the effects of alcohol on our sleep, and why a nightcap is one of the most misunderstood habits out there. Alcohol is a sedative, and sedation is not the same thing as restorative sleep. We look at how the work of breaking alcohol down into aldehydes fragments the night, how dream (REM) sleep in particular gets suppressed, and why you can spend eight hours in bed after drinking and still wake up feeling unrestored.

Here I discuss the dance between the hormone of light and the hormone of darkness. Cortisol rises to wake you and carry you through the day; melatonin rises in darkness to hand you over to the night. When the two are in rhythm, sleep arrives on its own. When they overlap, you get the familiar pattern of tired all day and wired at bedtime, and that interplay is often what determines the quality of your sleep.

Here I discuss the effects of light on our circadian rhythms and hormone levels. Your eyes are not only for seeing; they are the main way your body works out what time it is. Blue-heavy light says morning, warm red light says evening, and modern living sends those signals in the wrong order. We dive deeper into these circadian mismatches and their effect on our sleep cycles.

Here I discuss the numerous ways we can mitigate the effects of blue light from our screens in the evening. I'd be a hypocrite if i said "Do not look at any screens in the evening before bed", because lets face it, most of us are social beings, and these days using devices are the way we socially interact with those near and far.

Here I discuss an experiment conducted on participants reading ebooks on iPads before bed, to understand the effects on sleep as compared to participants reading paper-back books before bed. The results are astounding.

Here we discuss how Melatonin is made and the effects of natural sunlight viewing in the morning on sleep in the evening. Serotonin is a hormone which is synthesized when natural light enters the eyes in the morning, and it is a precursor for melatonin which is secreted in the presence of darkness.

Here I discuss resetting our circadian clock and getting back in alignment with our natural circadian rhythms by exposing our retinas to the different colors and the different frequencies of natural light at different times of day.

Here I discuss the optimal time to be fast asleep. I address ancient wisdom and look at the latest research regarding hormone release, particularly Human Growth Hormone and the vital role it plays in our health and longevity.

Here I answer a question that sounds obvious until you sit with it: what actually makes sleep good? I correlate the body's repair and regeneration processes with the time that we go to sleep, because of the hormones released during the window between 10pm and 2am. Quality turns out to be about far more than hours logged, and it is the measure worth optimising for.

Here I discuss the definition of 'bad sleep', or sleep deprivation, and its detrimental effects on testosterone. This is a powerful hormone that directly influences your biological age, your muscle and bone, your drive and your mood, and it is one of the clearest examples of how quickly the body registers a run of short nights. It matters for men and women alike.

Here I discuss the effects of sleep deprivation on body composition. It turns out that body fat percentage is heavily influenced by how well or how badly we sleep. Two people can eat the same food and train the same way, and the one who sleeps poorly will hold onto fat and lose lean tissue. If you have been working hard with little to show for it, this lesson is for you.

Here I discuss the effects of good quality sleep, or the lack of it, on our body's immune system. Natural killer cells are part of your front line of defence, the ones that deal with invaders and with cells that have turned rogue. Their numbers and their effectiveness track closely with how you slept, which is why a run of poor nights so often ends with you catching whatever is going around.

Here I discuss what the hormone insulin is and the job it does moving sugar out of your bloodstream and into your cells. I then look at how the quality of your sleep affects how well your body listens to it. Poor sleep makes cells less responsive to insulin, which shows up as energy crashes, cravings and, over time, a metabolic picture you would rather avoid.

These are two hormones that seem to work hand in hand. Leptin is the body's satiety hormone, it makes us feel satiated or full. Ghrelin is the body's hunger hormone, it's what is released when we're craving food or we need a replenishment of energy.

Here I discuss the effects of sleep deprivation on a part of the brain called the 'Hippocampus' which is associated with our ability to learn new information as well as our ability to remember or recall what we have learned.

Here I discuss 'brainwashing', or rather washing the brain: the necessary process of clearing out the toxic byproducts left behind by a day of brain activity. This clean-up happens largely while you are in deep sleep, which makes deep sleep one of the few levers we have over long-term brain health and neurodegeneration. It is a slow story, and the time to care about it is now.

Here I discuss how the quality of our sleep is directly related to our EQ, or emotional intelligence: the ability to be aware of our own emotions and to regulate them, and to read them accurately in other people. After a poor night the emotional brain runs hot and the part that moderates it runs quiet, which is why small things feel large and patience runs short.

Here I discuss what an antioxidant actually is and what oxidative stress does to us over a lifetime, before turning to the most powerful antioxidant that the body makes for itself: melatonin. Most people know melatonin only as the sleep hormone, but that is a fraction of the story, and it changes how you think about protecting your darkness.

Here I discuss the benefits of sleeping in a room so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face. That standard sounds extreme until you realise how little light it takes to register on the body, and how few bedrooms come close. I cover the usual offenders, from standby LEDs to street light through the curtains, and the simple fixes for each.

Here I discuss the light that the eye cannot see but that the body can still sense, and how this invisible part of the spectrum shows up in a bedroom full of devices, routers and chargers. I cover what we know, what is still debated, and the straightforward, low-cost adjustments you can make to your sleeping environment if you would rather not wait for the science to settle.

Here I discuss the impact of physical exercise on sleep, and specifically how much the timing of that exercise matters. The same session done in the morning and done late in the evening can have quite different effects on how easily you fall asleep, because of what movement does to body temperature and to your stress hormones for hours afterwards.

Here I discuss magnesium, a mineral involved in hundreds of processes in the body and one that a lot of us are quietly short on. I cover why levels drop, how supplementing can help replenish them, and what to look for, since the form of magnesium you choose makes a real difference to whether it supports your sleep or simply passes through you.

Here I discuss temperature, which is one of the most underrated levers in this whole course. Your body needs to drop its core temperature to fall asleep and to stay asleep. I cover vasodilation and vasoconstriction, how the body sheds heat through the hands and feet, and the counter-intuitive ways cold can be used to help that drop happen at bedtime.

Here I discuss the correlation between having a meditation practice and the quality of one's sleep. A regular practice changes how quickly you can come down out of a busy day, which is often the real obstacle at bedtime: not that you cannot sleep, but that you cannot stop. I share what a practice does over time and how little of it you need.

Here I discuss the correlation between the time we eat our last meal, the digestion that follows, and the effects on our sleep. Digestion is work, and asking the body to do that work while it is also trying to cool down, repair and regenerate puts two jobs in competition. I cover how long a gap to leave and what to do when life does not allow for it.

Here I discuss the correlation between sleep posture and the quality of your sleep. The position you spend the night in affects your breathing, your airway, your neck and your lower back, and in some cases whether you snore at all. I go through the common positions, what each one asks of the body, and how to make a change stick if you want one.

Here I discuss a few things to consider when taking an afternoon nap. Done well, a nap is a genuine reset. Done badly, it leaves you groggier than before and quietly borrows from the sleep you need that night. I cover how long to nap, how late in the day is too late, and how to tell which of those two camps your own napping falls into.

Here I discuss Non-Sleep Deep Rest, or NSDR: a set of protocols that put the body into a deeply restorative state while you remain awake. It is not a replacement for a night's sleep, but it is a genuinely useful tool on the days after a short night, in the afternoon dip, or when you need to come down quickly. I cover what it is and how to practise it.

As you can tell from this course, sleep is one of my passions and I believe that it is the bucket that fills all of the other buckets that have an influence over the quality of our life. I hope that you've gotten enough from this course so that you can slowly improve the quality of your sleep over time.