Paige Harris People are constantly looking to biohack and optimize their health, but the biggest health secret out there is right under your nose.
What if I told you I knew a way that you could regulate your appetite, increase your willpower, improve your mood, and boost your creativity? You would want to know exactly how to do it, right? You would even be willing to pay money in order to see those kinds of improvements in your everyday life. I know you would — just think of movies like Limitless, where the main character takes a mind-altering pill that offers many of these same effects.
But what if you could accomplish these things without the use of a drug?
What if you could achieve these things… just by sleeping.
You heard me.
Sleep is the most powerful but underutilized superpower in existence. It allows your body to repair its heart and blood vessels, regulate hunger hormones to ensure you’re not over- or under-eating, and gives your prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain normally responsible for decision making and mood regulation) time to rejuvenate.
Sleep is the world’s easiest biohack.
Despite the benefits that a solid night’s sleep offers, a recent survey showed that half of adults between twenty-five and fifty-five sleep fewer than seven hours on weeknights. (Source.) Additionally, stress kept around 50% of millennials awake for at least one night each month. (Source.) And though many people may not experience outwardly visible effects from a single night of less-than-perfect sleep, research shows that just one single night of sleep deprivation can lead to impaired insulin sensitivity the next day.
This means that lack of sleep in an otherwise healthy person causes them to become temporarily prediabetic. This is a state where blood sugar becomes elevated even without the person hasn’t eaten a single carbohydrate. Scary, right?
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
“Sleep is for the weak.”
Despite the common sayings, sleep is the most important process our bodies’ go through, especially when it comes to keeping your brain healthy and happy. For example, you may have noticed that when you’re super stressed or sleep deprived, you tend to want to eat more processed, sugary treats.
This is because the prefrontal cortex needs sleep to function properly. Without it, our brain turns to the amygdala for help: the part of the brain that’s responsible for fear.
Now, the amygdala knows no bounds when it comes to self control; its only function is to react. Back in our hunter-gatherer days, our amygdala-controlled brains were programmed to seek out sugar to store that energy for a long, potentially food-less winter. This has some carry-over into today; a sleep-deprived person is much more likely to indulge in junk food than someone who’s gotten a full 7-8 hours. Ever heard the term hangry before? Without hunger hormone regulation from sleep, the hanger becomes oh so real.
But sleep quantity isn’t the only thing that matters; you need to have quality sleep, too. Do you tend to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom? Same. However, it may not necessarily be the need to pee that wakes you up. You’re actually waking up for some other reason. Then your brain registers that you’re awake, and you feel the need to pee.
Surprisingly, your nighttime water-drinking habits may not be the thing to blame, especially if you’re an avid exerciser. Instead, you could be experiencing a spike in cortisol, aka the body’s stress hormone. Cortisol is usually highest in the morning hours. It’s responsible for waking us up each day. But during periods of overtraining, your body is mistakenly breaking down sugars and muscle to give you energy during sleep instead of during your waking hours. These hormone fluctuations can also be caused by working really long hours. Having a less than stellar diet increases them, too. (Source.) Cutting back on stressful activities that you have control over could be a good start to getting your hormones back on track. Try dialing back the chronic cardio or swapping out a lift for some yoga.
If you’re waking up feeling tired, know you’re not sleeping enough, or just don’t feel that you’re getting the best quality sleep, try following some of the tips I’ve put together below!
- Keep your bedroom cool. You tend to sleep better when you’re not overheated. Another tip here could be to ditch the fleece-y pajamas. They may be cute and comfy to lounge around in during the wintertime, but they could make you overheat and wake up in the middle of the night!
- Ditch the alcohol. Or at least try not to go to sleep buzzed. Although it may help you fall asleep more quickly, alcohol tends to decrease the amount of time you spend in REM sleep, aka the deep sleep your brain needs to store memories, form neuron connections, and balance its hormones.
- Stop staring at screens. The blue light emitting from them disturbs our natural circadian rhythms. If you must use your phone or laptop before bed, try Color Tinting it red by following the instructions here. I set mine to do this if I tap the home button three times!
- Cut the caffeine. That doesn’t mean you have to kick your coffee habit for good, but stopping your consumption of caffeine at least 6 hours before you plan on catching some Zs may improve sleep quality. This is because caffeine has a half-life of about 5 hours, meaning that if you take in 10mg of caffeine, 5 hours later you will still have 5mg circulating around your body. That won’t make for a restful night! I usually cut myself off after noon at the latest.
- Hide your eyes. Consider investing in a sleep mask or some blackout curtain panels for your bedroom windows. Our bodies were programmed to sleep and rise with the sun, after all. Unless you’re me (the crazy bird that actually enjoys waking up at sunrise even when it happens before 6AM), a sleep mask could help you fake out your brain and convince it to keep releasing melatonin — your body’s natural sleep hormone. That way even if the sun starts to rise, you don’t have to.
- Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Out of all of the other tips here, this one is probably the most beneficial but the most widely ignored. I know it sounds crazy to wake up at the crack of dawn on a weekend when you really want to lie in bed until noon, but our bodies are creatures of habit. They thrive the most when you follow a routine. This doesn’t mean you have to leap out of bed and head to the gym first thing Saturday morning, but getting up at your usual time and meditating or spending some time reading could really improve the quality of your day!
- Don’t stress out about it. Yeah, sleep is really important, but worrying about getting enough of it definitely won’t help you improve its quality. The more anxious you feel about getting enough sleep, the more difficult it will be for you to actually get any. Try starting up a bedtime ritual like meditation, reading for fun, or journaling to wind down. Just make sure that you choose a ritual that you like enough to stick with, and that it doesn’t involve glowing screens.
Now that it’s summertime and the sun is up for longer, sleep quality and quantity is on a decline. But if you follow these tips, hopefully you’ll be able to biohack your way to better health and wellness!
