Sleep Like an Old Man to Live Like a Young One
Analogy of Life with 8 Hours of Sleep:
The difference between new headphones and the old ones that still work
If my pup can figure out sleep, so can you…
I want to break down the analogy posted above: “The difference between new headphones and the old ones that still work.” I may have mentioned this before, and I will continue to mention it. But I believe this is truly the difference between life without sleep and life with it. Imagine you get brand new wireless headphones, like AirPods. You have been using your trusty wired headphones for three years now and finally upgraded. You try those new headphones, and unless you’re insane, you never go back to the old ones. They both work, but one allows you to listen much clearer, is more reliable, and is just overall higher quality. And the best thing about it is you can always use your old ones for backup.
Can you survive on a low amount of sleep? Of course, I know plenty of people who do. But I also know most people want more energy, to get into better shape, and to live a more stress-free life, which I believe is all granted by great quality sleep.
Here are some of my top tips for sleeping better:
(This one is obvious) Put the phone in another room when you are about to go to sleep!
Have a consistent sleep schedule. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day as much as possible.
Do a calming activity like reading 30 minutes to an hour before bed. Normally, I read a fiction book and I’m knocked out extremely quickly.
Stop consuming liquids and food roughly one to two hours before sleep.
Use a sound machine to equalize the sounds in your room, and keep the room as dark as possible. Or feel free to use eye covers and ear plugs if they work for you!
Supplement with Magnesium! Magnesium has been a game-changer for me. I use Magnesium Glycinate (a simple supplement from any over-the-counter drug store - just make sure the only ingredient in it is Magnesium). I think Magnesium L-Threonate is even better (albeit a bit pricier).
Exercise! Yes, we are back to movement. I like to think that if I am tired when I should be, then I have done enough work for the day to account for it. There’s a balance in energy throughout the day, and your tiredness when bedtime comes around shows this.
So, do you want to feel better, heal better, and perform at the top of your ability every day? Try these out, and let me know if they work for you as they have for me!
Keep reading if you want the full experience of why I do these things in comparison to the tldr (too long, didn’t read) version above.
#1 Put the damn phone in a different room, different location, or somewhere inaccessible from the bed. So why is this so important? To begin, it doesn’t allow you to be distracted and highly stimulated before bed. Believe it or not, when you are on a phone lying in bed, your brain is actually moving a mile a minute. Do I have any science to back this up? Of course not, but I do know that my brain moves a lot slower when there isn’t a shiny Google box in front of my eyes. You get bored, and next thing you know, you’re sleeping. These things were meant to drag you in and make you continuously use them regardless of what your body tells you. It feels better to scroll, but what you should be doing is sleeping. So put the damn phone away, please :)
#2 Consistent sleep schedule. This one is simple yet often terribly followed due to the lack of structure in many people’s lives. This is completely understandable; there is so much going on in life to have such a consistent pattern. Well, at least that was what I thought until I started being more intentional with how I structured my life. Let me break this down: I wake up at 4 AM like a psycho; however, it sets me up to always go to bed early, get ahead of work things, get to the gym, and have time on the weekends to enjoy myself. I build my day around things I want and need to do, which allows me to keep the same sleep schedule. It is the same type of experimenting you would do for anything else in your life. Ask yourself, how can I make time for working out and sleeping correctly? You may have to do some things that are seen as crazy. But once you do them, you realize they fit your lifestyle. I am also not a well-versed human being on the idea of circadian rhythm, but I can feel it. Your body has an internal clock that knows and expects to wake up and sleep every day. That's why sometimes you will wake up before your alarm consistently and feel like you need to sleep when it comes around to normal bedtimes.
#3 Calming activity before bed. The biggest cheat code is doing quick reading 30 minutes to an hour before bed. I find that it controls your breathing and slowly winds your mind and body down. The only part of this that can affect sleep is how interested you are in the actual story. In comparison, though, this activity will most likely be much less engaging than whatever you normally do during the day. This is especially true when compared to scrolling on the phone.
#4 Stopping the consumption of fluids and food 1-2 hours before bed. The way I like to think about this one is just imagining that during sleep, your body needs to focus on one thing: recuperating. Recuperating activities such as repairing tissue, establishing long-term memory, energy restoration, growth of muscle, etc. So when your body has all of these activities to take part in, throwing in digestion and liquid recycling are two more tasks that take away from the more important things. It also helps fight against late-night snacking if you have a set time to stop eating. Benefits of this are more quality sleep, better energy restoration, stable blood sugar levels, less waking up periodically and urinating, and much more.
#5 Use a sound machine to normalize the sleep environment. Okay, this might be more for the light sleepers. But if you’re a person who wakes up from a literal pen drop, then this is for you. I have a little Bluetooth speaker that plays rain sounds throughout the night. I found that the pen drop isn’t necessarily the problem, but the fact that it is an anomaly of sound compared to the noise environment you are in. If everything is completely quiet, that pen drop adds contrast, which causes a response (for light sleepers at least). Imagine a rock in a pond. The moment you throw the rock in there, it creates ripples in a calm lake. But if the lake is already rough water, the moment the rock hits the water, it disperses quickly and the ripple is less impactful. Those little noise disturbances are washed out by the noise machine. Pretty sure people do this for their kids as well, so if it can help a toddler, it can probably help you.
#6 Magnesium! Supplementation with Magnesium has helped solidify my sleep so much. Without getting too in-depth with it, I asked ChatGPT to give me a few sentences with peer-backed research to fill in where I may be wrong (this might not even be right) - “Magnesium helps improve sleep by regulating neurotransmitters and the hormone melatonin, which guide sleep-wake cycles. Studies have shown that magnesium supplementation can enhance sleep quality by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps the body relax and prepare for sleep. Research published in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences found that magnesium supplementation significantly improved sleep time, sleep efficiency, and early morning awakening in elderly participants.” Give it a try!
#7 Oh yeah, we are back and better than ever. EXERCISE! A study published in the journal Advances in Preventive Medicine found that regular physical activity, particularly aerobic exercise, can improve sleep quality, increase total sleep time, and reduce the time it takes to fall asleep. Additionally, the National Sleep Foundation reports that exercise promotes more restorative deep sleep and helps stabilize mood and decompress the mind, which are important factors for naturally transitioning to sleep.
If you made it this far, you’re a real one - sleep tight!
Adding some fun sleep resources below as well (I’m a video guy so bare with me):
