Top 5 Sleep Hacks for Maximum Recovery

Sleep is THE most important thing to nail down as a high-performer.

We all know how good a solid night of sleep feels and how we function the day after, yet most people won’t make it a priority.

Yet, more than 35% of Americans are sleep-deprived.

That means you're not recovering well, you're not able to perform at your best, and you're not emotionally at your best.

To live the best, most fulfilling life possible as humans and athletes, we can't afford to skip out on those 7-9 hours.

I know that if you’re reading this, you don’t want to be one of those zombies, you want to be your best.

5 easy ways to nail your sleep

We put our body’s through the ringer.

Right now I train two times a day (most day) for the past 3 months.

I need to make sure that my body is recovering to the max each and every night.

I've tried a countless number of hacks on our quest for the best night of sleep possible, but these are our top 5 that are accessible to anyone, are natural, and don't cost any money.

Let's dive in.

Sun within 30 to 60 minutes of waking

Getting sun in your eyes early in the day is the most powerful stimulus for:

• Wakefulness during the day

• Falling and staying asleep at night

We have a group of cells (M1 ganglion cell photoreceptors, to be specific) in our eyes that specialize in detecting sunlight.

They pass on the data to our brains that it's time to get going for the day and up-regulate wakefulness processes.

The low-angle, warm morning sun is exactly the stimulus we need to energize us for the day.

You should get sun in your eyes for:

• 5 minutes on a clear day

• 10 minutes on a cloudy day

• 20-30 minutes on a very overcast or rainy day

Your morning light shouldn't be viewed through a window, windshield, or sunglasses, as many of these have UV protection.

It's best to actually get outside; the more direct, the better the effect.

Eat your last meal around 3 hours before sleep

Sleep is our body's prime time to repair, refresh, and recycle.

It's best if we can spend that time healing rather than digesting.

3 hours gives our bodies enough time to digest our dinner, but it's not long enough to be hungry again.

If you're digesting during sleep, there might be some arousals that you don't wake up for but are still disturbing your sleep.

You might think that you slept well because you didn’t wake up, yet your body wasn’t fully at rest.

Don't skip a meal if your only time to eat is 1-2 hours before bedtime, though.

Having the pieces to repair your body is more important than reallocating some energy for digestion.

Do the best that you can.

Watch the sunset

Remember the specialized cells in our eyes? They also light up when we see the sunset.

You might wonder, “wouldn't that wake us up again?”

Good question, but no.

Think of all the unique colors that you see at sunrise compared to sunset; your body also recognizes this.

These sunset-specific frequencies let our bodies know that it's time to wind down for the day. 

Even tribes that don't have electricity go to bed about 3 hours after sundown.

The sun is a great cycle for our circadian rhythms to sync up with.

Taking a 15-minute walk at sunset is the perfect way to wind down for the night.

Avoid bright lights after sunset

While we need a lot of bright light in the morning, only a little bright light at night can throw us out of whack.

• Overhead lights

• Phones

• Laptops

• TVs

Each of these has enough bright light to block melatonin, preventing you from falling into a deep sleep.

In a world that has screens in every room and around every corner, this one can be pretty tricky to navigate.

Turn down your screen's brightness as low as it'll go.

Throw on a pair of blue blockers if you're going to watch a movie.

Use dim lights or lights that are close to the floor for activities that require them.

Bonus points if you only use moonlight or candles.

A big hack is to set up your phone to switch to a red color filter at night through your accessibility settings.

Create a bedtime routine

We are creatures of habit.

When we experience something we've experienced before, we can usually guess what happens next.

Routines make sleep predictable for our bodies.

Our cells and body work best when they're on a schedule and work without changes (Circadian rhythm).

This includes going to sleep at the same time (or pretty close to it) every night; it is crucial.

In our first phase of deep sleep, we release a bolus of growth hormone to aid in all the healing processes sleep provides.

If you didn't know, growth hormone is probably the most potent agent in the recovery process.

Here's the kicker, though:

If you go to bed later than you normally do, you miss that phase of deep sleep and those hormones.

It doesn't get pushed back to later in the night. The next time it will happen is during the next day's sleep.

That’s just how fantastic our body’s clock is.

If there’s one newsletter that you implement into your life, let it be this one.

The trip to the top cannot be made without building a strong foundation.

Try this for one week and we promise that you’ll feel a difference.

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Until next time,

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