Good Afternoon!
Today I want to talk about the importance of proper sleep, which is something I struggled with all my life, until this year.
Before we dive into how I have gone about improving it there are some things we need to cover.
First is… everyone is different. What worked for me, may not work for you. That’s why you have to test different variables and see what you can figure out.
Second is my condition was extreme, and medical in nature… insomnia isn’t something you get every now and then when you have a night where you can’t sleep. This is akin to saying that because you feel sad when something bad happens that you have depression.
They aren’t the same thing, and people use this incorrectly all the time.
I will never say that you MUST do something in order to succeed… but if you don’t get this right you greatly hinder your chances of making Profiit.
The Tools I Use
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Oura Ring/App to measure the different variables related to sleep.
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Blue light blocking glasses for the evening.
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120mg Melatonin at bed time
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My air conditioner to make my bedroom 62 degrees Fahrenheit
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Limit caffeine and other stimulants and never have any later than noon
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Get up and go to bed within a 1 hour window
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No exercise or strenuous activity 2 hours before bed
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No eating 2 hours before bed
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Take melatonin when I go to bed
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Put on glasses at sundown, don’t take them off until I start to fall asleep
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Keep the bedroom as dark as possible and free from distractions
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Sleep mask. I tried a bunch of different ones and all they did was annoy me
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Tryptophan. Tried a few brands to no effect
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Doing nothing but sleep/be intimate in the bedroom. I found if I just went and laid down that I couldn’t shut my mind off. Having the TV on for half hour or so on something mindless really helped me.
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White noise machine my sources on the inside tell me that Santa Claus will be bringing me one of these
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Weighted Blanket pretty skeptical on this but its worth a shot
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Turning my phone off. I know this will help a lot… but I am scared something might happen that needs my attention.
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Essential Oil Diffuser in the bedroom
Diet
My diet has been mostly keto since I started working on this. I can’t say for sure it had an effect on this or not… but there has been a strong correlation.
Metrics
First step is to get an Oura Ring. There is also a bracelet product that does the same thing, but I forget the brand name right now.
You can’t improve what you can’t measure so this is almost a prerequisite.
Here is my most recent sleep and readiness score along with some other metrics
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Total Sleep
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REM Sleep
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Deep Sleep
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Resting heart rate
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Heart Rate Variability
Total Sleep: Usually I need to get 7+ hours. This night I got less than that so it kept me out of the 90s.
REM Sleep: REM sleep means rapid eye movement sleep. This is one of the stages of sleep and is when you start dreaming. I usually need about 1:30 of this so I did well on it on this night.
Deep Sleep: This is when the brain produces alpha waves and is the most important type of sleep. On optimal nights I get like 1:30 – 2:00 so I was a little low this night. The blue blocker glasses really helped me improve this variable.
Resting Hear Rate: This has been a lot higher for me than normal lately, I haven’t quite figured out why (though it is still far better than most people) I like it to be in the mid 50s to low 60s
Heart Rate Variability: This is by far my biggest struggle. I want to improve this by a good 30% in the next few weeks.
Those are the biggest factors I found that contributed to my sleep quality… but like I said it is different for everyone. Get an Oura Ring or other device and start measuring different variables on your own.
Conclusion
I know this is a rather dry topic, but I think it is important.
I also realize that in entrepreneurial circles there is often some bullshit pride that comes with “I barely get any sleep I am working so hard!”
I know because I not only used to say that, I believed it.
That’s nonsense. There is literally no correlation between working all the time at the expense of sleep, and improved success.
I urge everyone to work on this and not make excuses as to why you can’t.
Plenty of people have businesses, families and other obligations and still have good sleep habits.
This has been a problem for me all my life. Technically it still is. But right now is the best I have ever managed it… and its no coincidence that I have had the most successful year of my life.
Please work on your sleep, it will improve your health, business, relationships, and life.
Sweet dreams.
CMW