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5 ways to get more SLEEP – #BelieveLife


good morning believe nation today we’re
going to talk about why and how you can
get more sleep tired we all know the
feeling irritable groggy and
exceptionally lazy chances are you
didn’t sleep enough last night or the
past few nights but what exactly is
enough sleep and more importantly can
you ever catch up on it while the very
function of sleep is still debated by
scientists we do know that it’s
necessary to function efficiently and
productively after all we spend 24 years
of our lifetime sleeping it better be
important
researchers have tested how much is
required each night by assigning groups
of people two four six and eight hours
of sleep over extended periods of time
after 14 days those with eight hours of
sleep exhibited few attention lapses or
cognitive issues however those was six
or four hours of sleep showed a steady
decline in fact after only two weeks the
six hour group showed a similar reaction
time to a person with a blood-alcohol
concentration of 0.1% which is
considered legally drunk the four our
sleepers suffered even more occasionally
falling asleep during their cognitive
tests in both groups brain function
decreased day by day almost linearly
with no sign of leveling off scientists
have dubbed this cumulative effect as
sleep debt so can we recover from it
after a night or two of little sleep
studies show that the body and brain can
fully recover with a few nights of good
sleep
however with long-term sleep deprivation
on the scale of weeks to months the
recovery of cognitive function is much
slower requiring many more nights of
quality sleep on the timescale of months
to years it’s unknown whether brain
function can be fully repaired or if it
causes permanent damage paradoxically
with chronic sleep deprivation your
sleepiness or how tired you feel des
eventually level off meaning that you
become less and less aware of your
objective impairment over time so how
long should you sleep most studies tend
to show that 7 to 8 hours of sleep is
the average ideal for human
apart from the cognitive issues
individuals who consistently sleep less
than seven hours a night have an
increased risk of heart disease obesity
and diabetes not to mention a 12% higher
risk of death on the flip side studies
have shown that while sleeping more than
eight hours does not impair brain
function it also carries an increased
risk of heart disease obesity and
diabetes and a 30% increased risk of
mortality so too much sleep may also be
a bad thing you may have heard the
saying the early bird gets the worm but
when it comes to humans do morning
people really have an advantage over
night owls does one come out on top as
more intelligent or successful than the
other in this battle over bed time does
somewhat surprising truth is that we
have little say in sleep preference as
it’s almost entirely genetically
predetermined chances are if you’re a
night owl it was slightly passed down
from an ancestor who was also a night
owl and from an evolutionary perspective
it makes sense having individuals with
varying sleeping patterns would allow
for better protection of a group
throughout the day and night instead of
everybody sleeping at one time some
people naturally stay up later and some
wake up earlier aware of threats for
predators while others sleep but
considering most modern societal
activities happen between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m.
it may seem clear that night owls are
put at a disadvantage and researchers
have actually coined the term social
jetlag to describe the sleep deprivation
many experience to accommodate social
norms for night owls this social jetlag
feels like living in a different time
zone every single day considering
chronic sleep deprivation has a direct
effect on brain functioning it’s no
surprise that studies report niteowl
University students have lower overall
grades
not to mention early birds tend to
display more positive social traits such
as being proactive and optimistic and
are less prone to depression or
addictions to nicotine alcohol and food
and we can see these traits represented
physically in the brain particularly the
white matter which helps neurons
communicate night owls exhibit
significantly less white matter and as a
result there are fewer pathways for
feel-good hormones such as serotonin or
dopamine to travel through but it’s not
all bad for the late night errs in fact
they tend to be much more creative have
been found to have higher cognitive
abilities and are known to be risk
takers what they lack in white matter
they make up in cortisol levels this
stress hormone gets your body ready to
face an
immediate threat contributing to their
risk-taking behavior which studies show
can translate into opportunities and
potentially much more financial gain
furthermore even though morning people
can be very energetic right after waking
if they tend to lose steam faster than
night owls throughout the day both sides
perform equally well in reaction time
test an hour after waking but after 10
hours of being awake
night owls performed significantly
better your inner clock is regulated by
many proteins which are created from
various genes in your DNA studies have
even shown that a single change of the
genetic code near a gene called period 1
can result in an hour difference in your
waking time as crazy as it seems
scientists also found a correlation
between these same genes and your time
of death the early risers were more
likely to die around 11:00 a.m. while
the night owls were more likely to die
before 6:00 p.m. what about teenagers
you say it’s true most tend to be night
owls due to the hormonal changes during
puberty but this tends to wane out into
your genetic default as you enter
adulthood so while there may be some
truth to early words getting the worm
night owls aren’t exactly lagging behind
in life they’re just lagging behind in
time
I think that really the most important
first step is to acknowledge that sleep
is important it’s like anything else if
people will sort of reflect on it and
say hey you know what sleep is not a
luxury it’s not for the lazy it’s not
you know something that I’ll do later
but it’s really important and meaningful
and will improve the rest of my life
that’s the first step to getting better
sleep yeah because you have to give it
that importance that people say I’ll
sleep when I’m dead then they’re there
negated sooner sooner right and then
they’re not on a regular sleep schedule
either because they’re not giving it
it’s important so let’s talk about the
regular sleep schedule so you know there
are a number of really simple things
that that people can do that can
meaningfully improve their sleep and and
it’s funny when I think about it I tell
people you know those of us who have
kids the stuff that we do for our
children to encourage better sleep if it
would simply don’t do those things
ourselves we’d benefit immensely so you
know our kids get a regular bedtime why
because our bodies love repetition and
predictability and patterns and so going
to bed at the same time every night
waking up at the same time every morning
is really ideal and it facilitates
better sleep okay that’s a good that’s a
good point right there is there anything
else we can do in that game right so
what else do we do for our kids we
establish bedtime rituals right our
children get a bath a story a kiss
goodnight those rituals can be very
powerful and reinforce good sleep and
make it easier to obtain good sleep so
you know for adults do some light
reading some some quiet stretching have
a cup of chamomile tea take a warm
shower something enjoyable relaxing that
you can do on a regular basis and it
really helps your body in your mind
realize hey it’s time to transition from
my multitasking really crazy over
extended day to this sort of blissful
tranquil world of sleeping you need that
little transition and a bedtime ritual
can really powerfully do that I’d like
that treating it kind of to say like you
wouldn’t give your child a big sugary
snack or keep them up out their bedtime
you know that’s a recipe for disaster
why would we do that to ourselves
exactly kind of you kind of ease into it
okay with a repeatable predictable
ritual also nutritionally do not eat a
bunch of carbohydrates before you go to
bed Sugar’s
rains pastas Rice’s even beans and fruit
lower your carbohydrate consumption
before you go to bed that’s why I
suggest for dinner doing organic
vegetables nuts and seeds and organic
meat so organic meat vegetables nuts and
seeds those are the things you should
really eating before dinner not a lot of
other stuff the other thing I recommend
is if you are consuming caffeine don’t
consume it after three o’clock in the
afternoon hey a little bit okay is for
breakfast if you’re doing some green tea
or even some organic coffee but when you
do it later in the day caffeine has a
12-hour half-life which means 12 hours
it’s gonna stay in your system so if
you’re drinking that at 4 o’clock it’s
not out of your system until 4 a.m. the
next day and so really it’s important
that really you only do caffeine if
you’re gonna do it first thing in the
morning not later on in the day the
other thing that’s really important in
terms of sleep patterns it’s making sure
you’re getting proper nutrients
magnesium and studies have has actually
been shown to help you sleep better so
have a mega 3 fatty acids so load up on
foods high in magnesium like nuts and
seeds and raw dairy products also in
foods containing omega-3 fats like
grass-fed beef flax seeds chia seeds
salmon fish oil taking a cod liver oil
supplement all those things can be
vitally important when it comes to
sleeping well and the last thing here is
exercise I found when I’m exercising I
sleep a lot better than that night
especially when I’m doing burst training
or weight training can actually help you
sleep better as well make your bedroom a
haven for sleep the first critical thing
is make it as dark as you possibly can
and also make it slightly cool very
important actually reduce the amount of
light exposure at least half an hour
before you go to bed light increases
levels of alertness and will delay sleep
what’s the last thing that most of us do
before we go to bed we stand in a
massively lit bathroom with looking into
the mirror cleaning our teeth is the
worst thing we could possibly do to tip
it before we went to sleep turn off
those mobile phones turn off those
computers turn off all of those things
that are also going to excite the brain
so the more time we spend in bed awake
not sleeping the more time it drives
from the
to our brain into our body that the bed
is the place for tossing and turning not
the place for sleeping if you if all the
time you spend in bed if most of that
time is spent sleeping you know you
train yourself you program yourself that
that’s what the bed is for but on the
other hand if you’re spending a lot of
time awake what you end up doing is the
opposite you end up programming yourself
to be awake which is why a lot of times
people can feel really really tired then
they get into bed and their mind starts
going and they don’t quite know why I’ve
been there okay but how if you just
can’t sleep does time really matter so
this is a really important question you
know time during the night can be a
slippery thing sometimes it feels like
an hours gone by but it’s only been five
minutes but on the other hand sometimes
it feels like only a few minutes have
gone by but it might have been a half an
hour well the problem is the more time
you spend in bed awake not sleeping the
more like they’re going to develop some
sort of insomnia so what you need to do
is once you hit around 20-30 minutes
maybe a little more depending on who you
are you’ve gotten to the point where
that sleep is not happening it’s best to
just get out of bed do something else
for a little bit just try to get in a
little while okay so if 30 minutes have
passed get up and do something but what
what kind of activity would you be doing
in the middle of the night exactly so
you want something that’s not too
exciting because you want to be able to
put it down in 30 minutes or 45 minutes
or however long you want to give
yourself before you try again
so if you get too engrossed in it so if
you’re someone who gets engrossed in a
book that might not be the best idea but
if you’re someone for whom the books
relaxes you it’s a great idea also you
might want to avoid doing work because
sometimes when people pick up the
computer and start working in the middle
of the night a lot of time can go by and
and you might end up waking yourself up
a little more and it might be hard to
get back to sleep also don’t do anything
that involves turning and turning on the
bright lights and so if you’re using a
computer or something make sure the
lights are pretty dim so it doesn’t wake
you up too much yeah that’s a good point
especially with all the social media we
have and all the gadgets but now that
sounds like we’re kind of giving up on
the idea of getting any rest because
we’re getting up is that the case no
you’re not saying you’re not giving up
you’re not see what you’re saying is
you’re being realistic the sleep isn’t
happening
right now and the more you chase after
it the further away it’s gonna get what
you need to do is is let that anxiety go
let that stress go just accept the fact
okay sleep is not gonna happen right now
but if you’re gonna sleep well later you
need to give you need to give it a give
it a break and try again later if
anything you’ll end up sleeping more in
the long run the short run may be a
little less but you’ll end up sleeping
more in the long run because you’re
gonna be programming your bed your brain
that the bed is for sleep and not for
wake your thoughts you gotta get them
under control the way to do it is be in
a place of gratitude just say thank you
that’s it when you get into bed just say
thank you to your god to your Creator to
yourself to the world to the cosmos
whatever your personal faith or beliefs
are just go when you think about
anything if you think about anything is
just be grateful just think about all
the things you’re grateful for in you I
don’t think about all the things you
need to do tomorrow that’s gonna whack
you out just think about the things that
you’re genuinely grateful for in life
because you know what a happy heart
rests well so if you can just be happy
and grateful for the things that you do
have in life the the person and the
choices you’ve had in your life the
blessings that are all around us all the
time the good things that have gone on
in your life just think about those
it’ll help you fall to sleep much more
peacefully and easily you’ll drift out
just fine
wait set your alarm for eight hours
later and before you go to bed so you
know you’re getting that time and and
try to do it if you wake up early just
lie in bed thinking about all the things
you’re grateful for in life maybe some
of the things you have to do as you wake
up to slowly wake yourself up don’t wake
up and immediately check your screens
that sets the anchor and it trains your
brain
gotta get up gonna handle gotta handle
gonna have and that’s why you’re waking
up too early often and kind of freaked
out and you can’t stop because you’re
actually conditioning your brain to get
up and check all these things don’t do
that when you wake up instead have a
morning ritual that doesn’t include
checking and everything check in to
yourself think about your thoughts maybe
stretch your body do your exercise your
workout
then plan the day and get at it if you
keep these things in mind if you
actually practice them you’ll start to
have a whole new experience with sleep
you’ll feel better about it it’ll be
less pressure about it you’ll sleep
great you’ll wake up great you’ll start
to feel more energized more engaged with
your life
more enthusiastic cuz you actually for
the first time feel rested clear ready
to tackle on the day you’ll get to
experience what we call the charged leg
if you want some sounds that will help
calm you down and fall asleep here are 5
soundtracks that might help you
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because Rishi Cup TV
asked me to so there’s a topic that you
want me to cover in the next edition of
believe life leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do I’d
also love to know how much sleep are you
getting is it enough is it not enough
are you gonna change that now after
watching this video leave it in the
comments below I’m really curious to
find out thank you so much for watching
have an amazing day continue to believe
and I’ll see you soon
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