0 (1s):
Hello, and welcome to the get lean and eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin. I'm a certified health coach, trainer and author. This podcast is for middle-aged men and women looking to optimize their health and get their bodies back to what it once was 10 to 15 years ago. I will give you simple, actionable items to get long-term sustainable results. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
1 (33s):
All right. Welcome to the get lean eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin. Hope you have a great Tuesday. I am. And I want to just talk a little bit about sleep and optimizing it because with all my guests that I have coming on, it's like the number one principle that, that continues to come up and really most everything else doesn't matter that much. You know, if you're not getting quality, sleep quality because fragmented sleep like 10 hours of fragmented sleep is not as healthy as getting seven hours of decent restorative sleep. So what are some best practices when it comes to getting some quality sleep? I'm going to go through that today. So get your pen and paper out. And here we go.
1 (1m 13s):
Number one, minimize artificial light after dark. I'm sure you've heard this. You have blue light coming from all your screens like cell phones, laptops, even television. I was lucky to never grow up with a television in my room. And so I have no really desire to watch much before bed, but if you do, you could put on some blue light glasses. If you really want to watch something, or you have to be on your phone for something, there's a ton of different companies out there, and you can minimize the blue light with some blue light glasses. Also, if you need like a nightlight, a Himalayan salt lamp, very relaxing, you can meditate with it or just leave it on if you got to get up in the middle of the night.
1 (1m 53s):
So check out a Himalayan salt lamp. I really love those. Number two, come up with a relaxing pre bedtime routine about an hour before bed. Now this is so important. I always talk about a morning ritual. Well, let's talk a little bit about having a solid pre bedtime routine. And one of those I would say is avoiding electronic devices. Number two, I would say is, you know, you want to do something that sort of will calm. You relax, perhaps perhaps a bath, maybe even some short Mitt, you know, meditation, even if it's 10, 20 minutes of meditation reading a book. I mean, I don't know about you, but reading a book book really helps put me asleep.
1 (2m 37s):
So I'm not the greatest book reader, but I will read about 30 minutes before I go to bed. And that's a great one as well. So you want to come up with a good pre bedtime routine and I would start that about an hour before you go to sleep. Number three, create a sleep sanctuary. Yeah. So bed bedrooms should only be for sleep per se, right? Where not an office desk. We're not eating meals in our bed. We're not going out our computers and our phones, even our TV screens. Like I mentioned, I never grew up with a TV in my room and it worked out just fine. So, you know, if you want to watch TV, maybe watching in another room, but when it's time for bed, if you just have your bedroom as like a really dark experience and keeping it cool, which is another great tip.
1 (3m 24s):
You know, you want to keep that bedroom somewhere between, let's say 60 and 67 degrees and maybe some cooling mattresses and things like that. Cause your body temperature does rise throughout the night. So create that perfect sleep sanctuary. Number four, keep a consistent sleep schedule. This one's a big one for me. I just literally tried to go to bed every night at the same time and get up around the same time in the morning. And that works out, I would say 80, 90% of the time. So if you can, if you can do that, like for me, I like to be in bed around 10, 10 30, and then I'll usually get up around six, six 30. And that's about consistent day in, day out because you know, your melatonin production that gets released it, it'll naturally sort of adapt to the times that you're going to sleep.
1 (4m 11s):
And so you're going to get some big improvements if you, if you keep that time consistent. So that's number four. Number five is work out. I wouldn't work out so close to bedtime. I would try to work out at some point during the day because getting a good sweat and will definitely help you settle down in the evening. You know, if you think of it this way, if you get, if you get a good night's sleep, that's going to help your workout the next day. And if you work out, that's going to help you go to sleep. So you don't have to do a grueling two hour workout. I've talked a lot about with some of my guests like a micro workout. Okay. 30 minutes. That's about what my workouts are right now. I go hard for 20, 30 minutes, honestly.
1 (4m 52s):
And that's it. So get a workout in that will help you for you're asleep for sure. Number six. And I know some people really love these beverages caffeine. I know some of you probably have enough caffeine that you're so used to it. You could probably drink it all day and not even realize it, which is not a good thing. So I would definitely recommend taking a few days off of caffeine and not rely too much on it, but I would also avoid it, you know, four to six hours before bedtime and then alcohol and other popular beverage. I'm not a huge fan of alcohol, but if you are going to have it, I wouldn't go overboard. And I would have it, you know, maybe within about three hours before you go to sleep because they both can disrupt from quality sleep.
1 (5m 34s):
So those are the, my six tips. You know, I think by taking these steps and prioritizing sleep, everything else is gonna fall into place. So if you really, you know, for the new year, you know, 20, 21, make it a priority to improve the quality of your sleep, everything else, your stress, your workouts, you know, your weight loss goals, everything else will help. It'll help them. And it will help the fall on this place. So getting better quality sleep is definitely going to help you be the best version of yourself every day. So please share this with anyone that you think needs to start getting some quality sleep. And if you do love the get lean equally podcasts, I'd love for you to subscribe, rate and give a review on iTunes or Spotify.
1 (6m 17s):
We're on all the major devices. So hope you enjoy this one, focus on prioritizing your sleep until next time. Have a great day and talk to you then.
0 (6m 28s):
Thanks for listening to the get lean, eat clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine. And I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member. That's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
