6 Hours a Night? Maybe it’s a Thing

Getting more with LESS is my goal.

Actually, my goal is getting MORE with MORE, but I am also realistic and know that getting eight hours every night isn’t a reality for a lot of days.

So, now my focus is more on Sleep EFFICIENCY vs Sleep Quality.

Think of it like this. 60 years ago, we thought that we needed 2-300g of carbohydrates/grains per day to be “healthy,” now it is widely accepted that there are many variables to that.

We also used to think that all fat is bad and should be limited… We now know that to be not exactly true.

What about sleep? How long have we been pushing for this magic number of eight hours?

So, I am just proposing that maybe, just maybe, it’s more about the QUALITY of sleep that we get, compared to the quantity?

It’s purely speculation on my part. I would of course agree that getting more sleep is probably better, but if I had to choose between eight hours of moderate quality sleep and six hours of higher quality sleep… I’d choose the latter

Before I get into a few of the nitty gritty things that you can try, I do recommend that you try QUALIA NIGHT.

I don’t take it every night (although it is perfectly fine to), but it is something that has seemed to help restore some of my sleep patterns.

It has a few super cool ingredients, for one, this herb called gotu kola which promotes mental relaxation.

It also has holy basil leaf extract which supports stress regulation to quiet cognitive overactivity at night… This is huge for me because my brain is ALWAYS going.

But as far as efficiency goes, it has white peony root extract which supports a steadier sleep cycle once you’re actually sleeping. I think this is even more important than the sleep onset.

If you want to try it out, here’s a Discount link (up to 50% off): TRY QUALIA NIGHT HERE

Qualia Night is currently up to 50% off if you click here and will score you an extra 15% off. Go for it, and your sleep nutrition game is almost entirely taken care.

Now that my quick trick that I have been using for the past 6-7 months is out of the bag, let’s get a bit more sciencey on some things you can do in your daily life:

Wait 30-60 Minutes After Getting Up Before Having Coffee:
The wild thing is that we actually start conditioning our bodies to get used to the adrenaline dump we get from coffee.

I am not opposed to coffee… heck, I love it. But waking up first thing in the morning and immediately having coffee can actually kick start your diurnal clock to ramp the wake up process up prior to that usual time if it becomes habit.

Essentially, the body recognizes that you get a normal adrenaline jolt at 6:15am every day, so it starts upregulating processes to wake up up by then every day. this means you could start having changes occur even a few hours before that, thereby reducing your sleep quality.

Hot Bath Habits 1-2x Per Week
I used to say that only a sauna would work, but recently I have been seeing evidence from even taking very hot baths with the head exposed having similar effects as a sauna.

How this affects sleep is interesting. It has to do with what is called the glymphatic system in the brain.

It is a system of the brain that flushes cerebral spinal fluid through the brain to flush metabolites and waste particles out of the brain.

Ordinarily this accelerates a bit during sleep (one of the many benefits). But we can also get a benefit by encouraging it OUTSIDE of sleep.

One way to do that is through increasing intracranial pressure with a hot bath or sauna. Basically, it increases the blood flow and intracranial pressure through the brain, which accelerates this “washing” process.

I have noticed a pretty significant difference in how I wake up feeling refreshed since making this a habit a couple times per week within about 3 hours of bedtime.

Peeing
Not everyone has this problem, but some do and don’t even realize it.

I end up having to pee in the middle of the night, sometimes twice. It’s a problem because it certainly does disrupt sleep.

What I have made a habit of doing is hyperhydrating a bit earlier in the day, and then reducing water intake after about 5pm.

I find that I am a smidget less hydrated in the morning, so I hydrate up a bit extra with some salt in my water, but the effect of NOT waking up to pee in the middle of the night helps me so dang much.

A few of the other things I have addressed before:
– Not eating 3 Hours Prior to Bed
– 1/4 Cup Tart Cherry Juice WITH Dinner
– 1x per week 2-5mg Melatonin to retain schedule
– Cod Liver Oil (or fish oil, but Cod Liver Preferred), this helps get you bioavailable vitamin D and vitamin A
– Qualia Night if you’re looking to establish a better longer term habit

Sleep is my focus this year…. but I am also careful not to make it such a focus that I stress out about it and don’t sleep well over it! Ha!

Don’t overthink it, just rise above it and enjoy the process 🙂

See you tomorrow!

Aggressivefatloss.com