How to Get Amazing Sleep

How to Get Amazing Sleep

Hey, this week, we'll do a deep dive into sleep. By the end of it, you will a) learn all tools that support sleep and b) integrate them with your routine to wake up feeling refreshed every day. Let's start.

What determines how well we sleep and the quality of our wakeful state? That's governed by two forces, the first force is a chemical force, it's called adenosine. Adenosine is a molecule in our nervous system and body that builds up the longer we are awake. - AH

Sleeping does a ton of stuff in your body. In the early sleep stages, it replenishes cells, recovers muscles, and learns new information. In the second part (REM), it uncouples stressors, sifts through emotions, and unlearns heavy emotional responses. So it's your personal trainer and therapist.

To get the benefits, you need to sync your routine to your body's sleep desires. You can do this with adenosine. It's a molecule responsible for 'sleep hunger'. In the morning, you have a tiny amount.

Then it increases during the day until around 14-16 hours after waking. So, you feel sleepy at night and sleep. This keeps everything in balance and gives your brain a clear signal that it should wake up again in 6-8 hours.

But if you sleep and wake up at the wrong times, adenosine gets messed up. Your body doesn't feel sleepy at night. So, you wake up in the middle of the night and can't enter into a deep enough sleep. You need to time sleep when adenosine is high.

Action for the day

Go to sleep as soon as you feel sleepy. Don't push through the sleepiness.

Even when you feel like you should work longer, watch Netflix, or keep studying. It sounds hard. But those 5 minutes of extra sleep make you more productive and at ease on the next day.

So when do you usually start feeling sleepy? could be 8 pm, 10 pm, midnight, or even after. Just think about your typical night and plan on sleeping at that time. Tell yourself:

"Today, I'm going to go to sleep at __ time".

Just knowing this sets you up to sleep in the right time range. It prepares you for a fantastic wake-up tomorrow. And it's so simple. It's okay if you don't fall asleep quickly. Your brain will learn its wind-down time. So,

Go to sleep as soon as you feel sleepy. whether it's at 9 pm or 2 am.

if you want an action right now, put an alarm at 10 pm to remember to go to sleep. Takes 10 seconds