Welcome to CrouchingL’s Wellness Series!

I plan on writing a series of short, to-the-point blog posts on easy things anyone can do to optimize their mental focus, energy, and “joie de vivre”.

Let’s dive right into the series and start with the Elephant in the Room; that thing we spend a third of our entire lives doing: SLEEP.

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How important is sleep really?

Here’s what happens when you DON’T get enough Good Quality Sleep:

• Cognitive: Impairment to Attention, Concentration, Reasoning, Problem-Solving Skills, Memory
• Mood: Increased Irritability (the smallest things that normally do not annoy you WILL annoy you), Stress, Anxiety, Feelings of Depression
• Weakened Immune System: Easily Get Sick and Longer Recovery Times
• Weight Gain: Increased Appetite and Cravings for High Calorie, Carbohydrate-Rich Foods
• Skin Aging: Dull Skin, Fine Lines, and Dark Circles Under Eyes

When you are sleepy you probably couldn’t even make it this far in reading this blog post!! How dare you?!! And after all this time I spent preparing it! Wait, who am I talking to right now then? Hmm…well tell your sleepy “friend” to come back tomorrow and try reading this again and I’ll forgive them.

There are essentially two versions of you:

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1) The version of you that would be great in a zombie movie, and
2) The “You” that you yourself likes AND the rest of the world likes.

“Split Screen: Same Person Sleep Deprived on one side and
Wide Awake as a Superhero on the other side”
[generated using generative AI]

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Now let’s get to more practical, actionable advice.

Note: The tricky part with optimizing sleep is that everyone is a little different. So in order to discover your perfect sleep formula you will have to experiment on yourself.

Quick Action Items for Improving Sleep Quality and
Discovering Your Ideal Sleep Formula:

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Duration:

• Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night
• (Optional) Use a wearable device (such as an Apple Watch) and aim for at least 1.5 hour of Deep Sleep and 1.5 hour of REM sleep each night

Consistency:

• Sleep and wake up at the same time each day, even on weekends
• Aim to sleep between 9-11PM and wake up between 6-8AM every day if possible

Environment:

• Temperature: Aim for setting the temperature to no more than 70 degrees Fahrenheit when sleeping
• Noise: Use a Sound Machine to listen to White Noise or Calming Soundscapes (such as ocean sounds)
• Light: Use Blackout Curtains and make the room as dark as possible

Good Pre-Bedtime Activities:

• Avoid Caffeine 6 hours before bedtime
• Avoid Alcohol 4 hours before bedtime
• Avoid Exercise 1 hour before bedtime
• Avoid Blue Light from electronics after 9PM
• Create a Todo list for the next day so that you release stress and anxiety associated with them
• Take a warm bath or shower
• Meditate/Listen To Music/Do Deep Breathing Exercises
• Snuggle

Quality:

• Note daily how refreshed you feel each morning when you wake up and continue to tweak all of the previous parameters until you find an ideal sleep formula that works for you.

Quickly Recovering From Lack Of Sleep:

• Of course life gets in the way sometimes and it isn’t possible for us to get nearly enough sleep. If you are very sleep deprived and need to wake up try taking a Caffeine Nap! Down a caffeinated beverage very fast and take a 20 minute nap. When napping, it takes nearly that long for caffeine to get through your system and really kick in so when you wake up you get a special energy boost that is stronger than either caffeine or napping gives you separately. This is an especially useful technique for long road trips.

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Controversial Opinion:

Given how important good quality sleep is–to practically everything–I would like to make a, potentially controversial, claim of something I truly believe:

Couples should not fall asleep in the same bed together.

There, I said it! I think there are few things that have caused more relationship strain and conflict than poor sleep. Couples do not even realize that lack of sleep is the silent killer that is making every interaction and every argument they have with each other much worse.

Spending intimate time together right before sleeping or shortly after waking up is amazing, but as a society do we really have to be so sensitive as to take offense if someone we are in love with wants to leave the room to fall asleep and to come back the next morning? We’ll still love each other in the morning.

It is estimated that 40% of men snore. Is it ok, honey, for me to go to another room and snore in peace? And by peace, I mean peace for me. Because when I sleep by myself I can happily snore, but when I sleep with you, you are going to keep waking me up and force me to sleep “politely”, and act like you are the only victim in this scenario. But forget about me for a second. This is really a win-win scenario for you.

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My Futurist Predictions for the Field of Sleep:

And lastly, before I close out this blog post, just for fun, I wanted to put on my Futurist Goggles and make a quick prediction on two trends I would love to see happening in the far future with regards to sleep.

1) Can we decrease the amount of time human beings need to sleep without sacrificing the primary benefits? It has been shown that Deep Sleep and REM sleep are where most of the best magical benefits of sleep occur. These phases only take up two hours a night. Can we find a way to cut out an hour or two or five from the other less important phases of sleep, and give everyone back 6-15+ years of their lives?

2) Can we create a Dream Selection Device that allows us to choose what kind of dreams we want to have? Maybe it is a collection of sequenced sounds, smells, and lighting that create strong “dream influencers” which can influence the direction of our dream adventures. Or maybe it is a “safe” drug or other kind of neural stimulator.

Surprisingly, there is still so much about sleep that we just don’t know! This is an amazing area for research given all of the potential benefits it could bring to humanity.

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Thanks for tuning in! I hope to see you next time!! I miss you already! And for those who missed my very first blog post on “The Secret to Happiness”, jump to this link here!

– CrouchingL

The next blog post in the Wellness Series is already live! Click here to read Improving Hydration.