Journey To Total Health 3.0
“Beasts Sleep Too”
By Jesi Mandagaran
I can’t help but snicker at myself as I start this blog entry about SLEEP as someone who used to believe sleeping 5 hours or more were for the lazy. I was wrong—so wrong! As I stated before in the previous blog, sleep is MAGIC. Its healing powers not only influence the shaping of our body but our cognitive function. And whether your goals are weight loss, transformations or gaining muscle, SLEEP is the secret Assassin to slayyy those goals. I say secret because SLEEP tends to take the backseat, intentionally or unintentionally, when on a hot pursuit to fitness goals. But make no mistake, Beasts don’t just PR in the gym. They SLEEP too.
We get it Jesi, so just get 7-8 hours of sleep, right? Getting warmer. Quality is the better intention. Quality and the Quantity—oh yeah—let’s get greedy. Here’s why, when the body is deep sleeping, chemicals are released in your blood circulation improving your immune system. Organ and muscle repairing takes place. Athletes, this is where all the muscle recovery and building take place. That magical HGH—Human Growth Horomone—stuff. HGH is the wizard you want buzzing in your body when you’re looking to achieve weight-loss and/or those muscle gainz! Deep SLEEP is also when anti-inflammatory properties, like Prolactin come out to play, they are crucial for joint recovery, allowing you to go back to the gym and kill it again. Especially when you have those pesky annoying injuries—sleep, my pretty…. SLEEP.
I can hear you mom’s… and dad’s heckling from afar with your inner thoughts like, “She musn’t have kids. You just wait Jesi…” (With your finger less than an inch from my nose). I know, I couldn’t possibly know the struggles/blessings of being a parent and how it’ll affect sleep. So here’s your solution, for those with children… SELL EM’. … Kidding! Here’s an alternative to help get a few REMs into your life. It’s called Polyphasic Sleep. In short, its sleep phases broken up into blocks, kind of like a Cat’s sleeping lifestyle. This would be great for those who work graveyard shifts also. See, Polyphasic Link at bottom of article for additional information.
So how can you ensure those MVP players zooming around in your body while you sleep? Well, I can point you to a homie, Shawn Stevenson, author of “Sleep Smarter”. He has a fantastic one-stop shop in his book for detailed goodies on sleeping better. But here’s a quickie:
- Room Temperature: 60-68 Degrees F—oh yeah, ice party.
- COMPLETE DARKNESS in the bedroom—not even light from a clock.
- Goodbye Technology before bedtime—No Blue/White lights before bedtime.
The chilly room temperature aids in achieving the ideal body temperature for REM sleeping—the ideal deep SLEEP. Complete darkness is ideal for the body’s senses. Just like light signals the body to wake up, the darkness cues the body to enter its SLEEP mode. Any lighting in your bedroom disturbs those nighttime body senses, irritating the melatonin and cortisone’s dudes. And unless you want weight gain and digestive problems, then go ahead; continue with your bedtime FOMO-phone rendezvous.
Otherwise, your emails, Donald Trump tweets, and your Snap-Chit-Chatter-Gram can allllll wait. Instead get cozy with Bae (wink-wink), or read a fiction book—like a real book, filled with pages that smell like your grade school library reminding you of those sweet-childhood days of innocence. You get the picture. Remember, Beasts Sleep Too!
Sweet Dreamzzzz,
Coach Jesi
REFERENCES:
Best Sleeping Temperature Link
