How did you sleep last night?
Paul Kiely
This week our guest post is written by Paul Kiely – Paul is the head coach and owner of CrossFit Hurstville.
How did you sleep last night? On average, how many hours sleep do you get each night? Do you wake up feeling great? Or, are you still tired upon waking? Do you require the help of drugs to help you sleep?
I was reminded the other day of Joe Rogan’s Podcast #1109 with Professor Matthew Walker. I first came across this podcast and Professor Matthew Walker early last year. I have always been sleep conscious but this really made me consider my current sleep pattern.
He is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Founder and Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. He is also the author of the book “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams”.
Some of my biggest takeaways from this podcast were:
- Adults need 7-9 hours sleep each night. Anything less than that is detrimental to your health
- The role of sleep in memory and skill acquisition- you need to hear this stuff yourself- amazing!
- With sleep accounting for 1/3 of our life, effort needs to be made to make it as good as possible
Three scientifically proven strategies to improve sleep are:
- Regulating your sleep pattern- same sleep and waking time each night/day
- A dark and cool sleep environment
- Switching off (your brain and your technology) 30-60 minutes before sleep
That is merely scratching the surface of the knowledge bombs in this podcast. There are also some other great resources from Professor Matthew Walker that I would recommend watching….
Sleep is Your Superpower (19:16)
Everything You Think You Know About Sleep is Wrong (1:06:36)