What’s happening folks!?

I hesitated on sharing today’s email but it’s so important I decided I had to bring it to your attention!

What I am going to share with you is something I suspect you could improve and may be the key to you getting results in the areas of fat loss, strength, and energy!

You ready for this….

You need to work on your sleep

I know that’s not very sexy but if you aren’t sleeping well, you aren’t getting the most out of your workouts and you are probably not making the ideal choices when it comes to food.

Poor quality sleep (under 7hrs) is the biggest contributor to a lack of energy.

If you find yourself crushing coffee or your favorite energy drink to feel like you have energy this is for you!

Poor sleep also impacts your ability to recover from your workouts.

Better sleep equals better recovery which leads to getting better results!

Poor sleep is also proven to increase your desire for sweets, and sugary processed food.  If you find yourself leaning on sweets often, adding an extra hour of sleep just may be the cure.

Getting great sleep is hard.

It’s a challenge

It will take focused effort and work.  I bet as you are reading this you may be thinking

“I just can’t sleep no matter what I do”

Today I’m going to give you a few tips that you may not have considered and if you start doing them now are shown to improve sleep quality and duration!

1. No caffeine 10hrs before bed.  If you aren’t sleeping 7hrs plus and struggle to fall asleep or have multiple wake ups this alone can be a game changer.  It may make your afternoons tough for a few weeks, but this will lead to better sleep and over time you won’t even need that caffeine boost in the afternoon.

2. Turn off your phone, your TV, and any other artificial light you can part with at least 1hr before bed.  Getting adults to do this is as difficult as getting a teenager to go to bed before midnight!  I know you may think you need to fall asleep with the TV on or use your phone late into the evening, but it is absolutely impacting sleep quality.  Sleep latency is the term for how long it takes you to fall asleep so if you struggle with that I would start with this tip!

3. Wake up at the same time every day and get real light (sun) as soon as possible.  Light is a huge factor in sleep quality and the light you get in the morning regulates hormone production relative to cortisol and melatonin.  What this means is as soon as the sun comes up and you can get outside you should let your eyes find the light for 10min.  Don’t stare at the sun!  Just take in the morning sun and enjoy a glass of water.  This may sound silly and it’s so simple you may want to ignore it, but at sunrise you set yourself up for a good night’s sleep.  Try this if you dare.

4. Make your room DARK.  I used to like to have a night light or TV on until I learned how sensitive we are to light.  You may be able to fall asleep with the tv on or some other light but factually speaking it is disturbing your sleep quality.  There’s a difference between being unconscious and getting restful sleep.

5. Eat your last meal 2-3hrs before bed.  If your body is digesting food, it cannot repair itself for a good sleep. There are also some other blood sugar ramifications to take in the consideration. If you wake up around two or 3 AM and tend to eat close to bedtime your blood sugar could be falling which in return causes a cortisol spike that wakes you up.

If you aren’t sold yet here’s a few more reasons why sleep is so powerful and the results you can expect!

Sleep improves:

1. Increased energy…. I know I already mentioned this, but it needs to be repeated.  When you talk to most adults over 40 the number one thing, they suffer from is low energy.  Better sleep goes a long way towards better energy!

2. Mental health…feeling stressed or anxious?  Better sleep will help you handle those feelings and increase your resistance to stress.

3. Increased libido.  We are all adults here…this is a taboo topic, but the facts are sleep improves hormone function and that’s a major key to libido and feeling your best!

4. Hormones will improve.  Sleep helps with all the important hormones you want to optimize from insulin sensitivity to testosterone, estrogen, pregnenolone balance.  This is a big deal and hormone docs are a dime a dozen today.  That’s the solution many choose but some people simply may not need it if they got 7-9hrs of quality sleep.

5. Improves your immune system.  One thing we should all be conscious of these days is the impact our immune system plays on our quality of life.  Better immune system equals better resistance to illness and virus.

If I haven’t sold, you on better sleep by now I don’t know what to do haha!

I’m gonna keep trying either way!

If you need help with your sleep that’s one thing, we have helped many of our clients with at BCI!

Until next time,

Andy McCloy