Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 327: 10 Hacks for Amazing Sleep!

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

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Hey, everybody, welcome into another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be going over 10 tips about how it is you can go about improving your sleep. Sleep is integral for performance in athletics for performance in business, and showing up in your relationships and managing your mental well-being. The way we move through the world when we are well-slept compared to when we are not is markedly different. Our fitness, our fat loss, and our presence is all increased when our sleep is restful and restorative. And finding ways to improve and enhance sleep can be very difficult, especially if you have children, high amounts of stress, or you are quite busy.

So what I'd like to do today is go over a plethora of tips, tools, and research to help you improve your sleep practically. And I believe there's something in here for everybody. So regardless of where it is you are in life, regardless of how many things may be pulling you in different directions, there's something in here to help you improve your sleep and thusly improve your health. Enjoy the episode. This podcast has some awesome partners. And one of my favorite,

of course, is Legion Athletics. Legion is my go to supplement manufacturer for what I like to call my big rock supplements. This would be my protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post-training formula and creatine, and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. So why do I like Legion so much? What sets them apart? It's quite simple. Legion uses all natural ingredients. All the formulas include natural coloring and natural sweeteners. No artificial sweeteners, just stevia. And every single formulation, be it a pre-workout or a vitamin, contains clinically effective dosages of ingredients shown to work in humans in clinical research supported by robust

trials. No filler, just legit ingredients in each and every formulation proven to work. The whey protein isolate is so light. It's fantastic. It mixes in water. It tastes amazing. And I drink it every day, even as somebody who's lactose intolerant. That's just how high quality this whey protein is. And it's sourced from Irish dairy cows that are raised well, eat their natural diet, and packaged in climate-friendly packaging. I love their plant protein too, for those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products. Also, I love Legion's pre-workout, but specifically the pre-workout that does not contain caffeine. That would be their Stem Free Pulse. I'm a huge, huge fan of beta alanine and L-citrulline, but I don't like

taking in wildly high amounts of caffeine. So if you are somebody who likes pre-workout with caffeine, you can try Pulse. Or if you like it without caffeine because you maybe want to enjoy your morning coffee or monitor your caffeine consumption, try the Pulse Stim Free. My favorite flavors there for sure are the new grape and the amazing, amazing tropical punch. As for my creatine, I get that from Legion's Recharge, five grams each and every day. I take it on the days I train as well as the days I do not because Recharge also contains L-carnitine, which can help with promoting muscle recovery and decreasing soreness, as well as some ingredients to help with creatine utilization. And of course, my favorite supplements for my ancillary micronutrient health are Legion's Multivitamin and Legion's Greens Powder. Not only do these

two products contain a ton of high quality vitamins and minerals, they also contain unique adaptogens like KSM-66 ashwagandha and reishi mushroom, which I like to take each and every day to promote my health. If you want to cover all your bases with a high quality protein, creatine post-workout or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like greens, powders, and multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to legionathletics.com and check out using the promo code Danny. That'll save you 20% on your first order and you'll rack up points that you can use the same way as cash every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. The first and probably easiest of these habits to implement when it

comes to improving your overall sleep quality in the long term is going to be dependent on something known as your chronotype. So your chronotype is essentially the archetype that you fall into whether you are a morning person or an evening person, or as is often said, are you a early bird or are you a night owl? And this is for those of you who have the proclivity for earlier rising. For people who are pretty steadfast in that night owl chronotype, I don't know if changing up the entire way you live is going to be the most effective tool for adjusting your sleep. But for those of you who are able and who don't necessarily mind getting up early in the day, getting up early in the morning, I have found that for over a decade, getting up early has led to consistent deep sleep with very limited interruptions. For, I'd say, at least the last decade, I've been getting up between 4.30 and 5.30 in the morning

with rare exception. And I am usually tired and ready for bed by 8 or 9 p.m. And I know that, you know, the advice of, hey, get up early and get to work and then you'll be tired at night might seem a little bit insensitive. And trust me, we have tons of points and topics and statistics to go through today on the episode. But the first thing I would consider is, is there a way I could go to bed earlier? Which for many of you, the answer is yes. And if you could go to bed a half an hour earlier, awesome. Great. I think you get some benefit out

of getting up earlier and going to bed earlier. I think some really valuable work can get done early in the morning before distractions. I think it's a phenomenal time to train physically, to exercise. That can help a lot with sleep. In fact, exercising too close to bedtime is a big reason why so many people struggle to get high quality sleep. The excitatory response the body has towards exercise kind of arouses you too close to bed. So earlier training, earlier wake up times and a set bedtime, you know, having a set bedtime and an early wake time, I think is one of the easiest things you can do. Now, all of these pieces of advice, tips, tricks, hacks, if you will, habits are more difficult or less difficult depending on whether or not you have children, you work a shift, or you engage in shift work. This is nurses. This is firefighters. You have odd hours. So you have to kind of take everything I say with a grain of salt, pick and choose. But for a lot of you, I think, hey, getting up and getting some of this stuff done earlier and making time for myself earlier instead of doing what a lot of us do late into the day. And we'll talk quite a bit

about this on the episode, specifically about how it is that things like screens and blue light keep us up, but we want some time to quote unquote unwind and get away from the world. And we find that time at night before bed on devices. And I think if you can start your day with that time, get active, get moving, not only will this help with regulating your circadian rhythm, we'll talk all about that in the episode today, but I think it will help tremendously with feeling productive, eliminating anxiety late in the day, and being tired enough to fall asleep and get some deep rest. The second tip I have for you, and this is one of those habit tips that, that again kind of works on your calendar and putting some specific cutoffs in place, is try to cut much better sleep quality. You're woken up substantially

fewer times, or you find yourself waking up substantially fewer times and your sleep is more restful. If you have stimulants like caffeine at one, two, 3 PM, which is very common, a lot of people are going for their second, maybe their third coffee or energy drink by that point in the day or a big issue I see. And I see this with a ton of lifters. I see this a lot with like lifters and fitness enthusiasts is making the mistake of engaging. Like, so you have a whole day to train going. This is, this is more for young people, but like a big reason I see younger people cannot sleep. They train later in the evening and they train with heavy stimulant usage. Usually that stimulant is caffeine, but if you're going to be training in the evening

and you want to take a pre-workout supplement, you should probably take one that doesn't have stimulants because your sleep quality will be better if you don't have caffeine so close to when you go to sleep. So like the sheer number of people that I know that are like, man, I just can't fall asleep. They're tossing and turning into the early hours of the morning. A lot of these people have caffeine or other stimulants like nicotine, um, Zen, a very popular oral form of nicotine, nicotine, gum, vaping, not just cigarettes, even chewing tobacco. They're engaging with stimulants a little bit too late in the day for their nervous system to fully unwind, to fully relax, and to fully allow them to get deep, restful, restorative sleep.

And you want to talk about a really nasty cycle to get caught up in. There's two cycles that I talk a lot about on the podcast, one of which is I don't work out, so I'm in pain and I'm in pain. So I don't work out. And another one that I find, this is a relatively common cycle that affects a lot of people's sleep. I don't sleep well. So during the day I am reliant on caffeine. Therefore I use a lot of caffeine. Therefore I don't sleep well. And one thing you have to remember about caffeine is over time you become desensitized to it. So the more you use it, the less you feel it. And the problem there is over time you'll use more and more and more caffeine over and over and over again, day after day after day. You know, it's one coffee, two coffees, three coffees, one energy drink, two energy drinks,

three energy drinks, one scoop of pre-workout, two scoops and so on, right? And when you have this dependence and you are not getting less from the caffeine, naturally we tend to gravitate towards more of the substance. So a lot of times if sleep is a struggle and stimulants are involved, backing off of those can be really, really valuable. And so monitor when it is that your caffeine consumption begins and ends. Try to end it earlier in the day and pay attention to total milligrams of stimulant usage be that with nicotine or caffeine and try to work that number down in the long term too we use a lot of stimulants in this culture and i think some of that kind of gets overlooked but it can be really powerful to monitor your stimulant usage just to make sure you're not overdoing it.

Some interesting stats on sleep before we get from 0.3 over to 0.4 that I thought were rather fascinating. And this comes from a 2016 meta-analysis titled the effects of partial sleep deprivation on energy balance, a systematic review. When they compare groups of people who get adequate sleep to groups of people who do not get adequate sleep, the group of people who do not get adequate sleep, so the individuals in this particular study who did not get adequate sleep over-consumed calories by 385 per day compared to those who did get enough sleep. Interestingly, that's almost 145,000 calories a year. So what we know from this is that poor sleep is associated with increased caloric intake. And if you want to lose weight and you could shave off 385 calories a day just by getting a little extra sleep that would also help with

muscle growth, overall health, cognitive well-being, I would do that. So a lot of you listen because you want to optimize body composition or you want to optimize performance. Sleep's going to help you with both. Having habits around sleep is critical to get consistent good sleep. Another finding in a 2008 meta-analysis of short sleep duration and obesity in children and adults found that adolescents who get poor sleep have an 89% increased risk prevalence for developing obesity and adults with impaired sleep had a 55% increased risk prevalence of developing obesity. Another statistic that'll just blow your mind. This is from the Annals of Internal Medicine. Okay. So it was the same people. This is one of the challenging things

about study design. Same people, same diet, different sleep protocols. So you put the same people on the same diet. The only thing that's different is one group gets five and a half hours of sleep. The other group gets eight and a half hours. The group that gets eight and a half hours of sleep of the weight that they lose, 50% or more of that weight is body fat. The group that gets less than five and a half, five and a half hours or less, 75% of the weight that they lost was non-fatty tissue, that they lost was non-fatty tissue, meaning a lot of muscle. Same diet, same people. So, sleep plays a huge role in muscle preservation and in overall ability to metabolize and lose body fat. So, a lot of good things happen to your physique when you sleep, and I know how many of you are focused on that. So, some statistics that I think you'll find interesting, let's get into, uh, tip

number three for improving sleep quality. And that's to get into the sun or to get some sun exposure in the early to me, let's call it medium, like durations of the day from like sunrise to maybe one in the afternoon. If you are like constantly in a cubicle or at home with artificial light on, it can be difficult to set up some type of circadian regulation, right? Like you're dysregulated a lot, dark building, bright lights at home. It's dark outside, bright lights on the screen. Wake up early, bright lights on. It's nice to get out in the sun. Vitamin D is a zeitgeiber. That's essentially anything that can influence your circadian rhythm. Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching

company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and best user interface possible. You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells, or Elite Physique, which is a female bodybuilding-focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed specifically to help you develop strength as well as the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back. I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels, but what's cool about this is when you join these programs, you get programming that's updated every single week. the sets to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me

with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific. So you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions. It's a really cool training community and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the core coaching collective, my app-based training community. Back to the show. We synthesize vitamin D from sun exposure, getting out, getting into the sun

and getting movement early into the day. Now, if you follow earlier advice from me on this podcast, you might even get up before the sun, but, and I think you get a tremendous amount if you do that and you get moving, but it's still a good idea to live by these semi-normal day and light cycles. Obviously, there's some parts of the world where the sun isn't out on like a 10 to, you know, it's not out 14 hours and down for 10. It's a little bit different, especially if you're in like Eastern Europe or Alaska. But the point here is early morning sun, adjust light later in the day. We'll talk about that in tip four, which is reduce light exposure in the evening. Try more reading, try playing more games, try having more conversations, even on the phone.

But try to minimize excessive retinal exposure to blue light, otherwise known as artificial light. That's the light from your phone. That's the light from your television. That's the light from your laptop. These lights in particular, this wavelength, this blue wave of light can trigger the eye and therefore through the eye, I believe it's through the super chiasmatic nuclei. How's that for some neurology for you? That light penetrates, hits the retina, super chiasmatic nuclei gets a little confused, shuts down melatonin secretion. So you're going to lose natural melatonin secretion and disrupt that natural circadian cycle by hitting too much blue light late into the evening on these devices. This shouldn't surprise anybody, especially anybody who works with technology.

You're probably pretty familiar with how many late nights on the computer using any software, be it a video editing software, watching YouTube videos, just any nighttime engagement with these devices has a huge potential to disrupt your natural circadian biology, which I think is, if at all possible, something that in the long term, you would certainly be wise to avoid. As far as supplements go for sleep, there's a few supplements that can make a difference. Magnesium, zinc, melatonin, L-theanine you'll hear quite a bit about, people like chamomile and valerian, which are often herbs found in tea. But I think when it comes to supplements, the number one supplement for sleep is not necessarily caffeine, but caffeine regulation. Caffeine is a supplement that so many people use, be that in supplemental

form like pre-workout or energy drink, or in a more natural form from things like tea and coffee. But if you are using a lot of caffeine, it has such potential to disrupt your sleep. Before I went to things like magnesium, ashwagandha, you know, valerian, all the things people are inclined to try. I would look at my caffeine consumption and be like, can I bring this down? Because that has a much greater likelihood of increasing the depth and duration of your sleep than any one of these supplements, in my opinion, based on what I've seen. But I do like a few. I like magnesium, reishi, melatonin, tart cherry, and then I think L-theanine's cool too. You might also try tea with chamomile and valerian later in the night to help with falling asleep, to help with getting relaxed. Tip number six, before you go to bed,

try to eliminate for like at least one to two hours, really big meals, okay, or alcohol. Even though a lot of people find that like big meals and alcohol can have a very sedative effect, not optimal for getting restful sleep. Both of these things can disrupt your REM sleep too large of a meal and a sedative, but, uh, you know, alcohol being a sedative is interesting because even though it will like help you kind of wind down, it does disrupt your sleep enough and can get you into a cycle of not restful. So I drink, drink to get restful, rest, sleep terribly, kind of have erratic energy throughout the day and so on. I would recommend if you are going to drink, to drink minimally and drink sparingly and try to drink not so close to bed. A couple tips here for environment design,

which I think is critical for sleep. We've talked about light exposure a lot and a way you can help yourself out of that department is with blackout curtains or a sleep mask. Too much light hitting your eyelid, even with your eye closed, can detract from quality sleep. So a good blackout curtain and a good nighttime mask can be really helpful for getting you into a deep, restful state of sleep. I am also impartial, tip number eight, to noise machines that play frequencies like white noise, pink noise, or green noise. If you have an Alexa or you have any wireless speaker or you have a noise machine or a box fan or even installed HVAC air conditioning or a fan in your HVAC system, an ambient kind of consistent sound that is at a particular frequency so as to not be an

excitatory frequency, but more of a relaxing one can be extremely, extremely potent at helping prevent unnecessary wake-ups from outside noises or just for light sleepers in general. I really like those noise machines. And typically what this looks like for me before bed, I ask Alexa to play white noise, pink noise, or green noise. It really just, I don't have any rhyme or reason for which one I pick. I just know all of those help me sleep. Additionally, as we get to tip number nine, talking about the environment that you sleep in, temperature is worth considering. I'm a big fan of like 66 to 68 for sleep. My partner likes to sleep, you know, she likes it warmer, so she has blankets, but keeping the room cooler helps with sleep. And I find this can help a lot with women as they age, especially with

temperature regulation later in the evening, a lot of people get hot at night. So, uh, even though it might not be the best for your bills and you know, I, I have solar on my house, so you're probably getting some of that solar privilege sneaking in here, but keep the room between 66 and 70 degrees. Um, open a window, pop a box fan in it. If you don't have HVAC, if you don't have, you know, climate control can make a really big difference. Um, on the flip side of like getting cool. And I know this is probably counterintuitive in a way because ultimately what happens is your body's going to cool itself down. One of the easiest things you can do to get like really high quality, deep rest early in a sleep cycle is go to bed feeling relaxed.

And one of the best tools for going to bed feeling relaxed is a warm shower or a little sauna. Those two things, and I understand most of you might not have access to a sauna, but a pre-bed sauna is probably the best thing I have ever done for getting a relaxing, deep duration sleep. And I know that most of you do not have a sauna at your home, but if you have a sauna at a gym close to your house, and you maybe know that you want to get a great night's sleep and you can allocate a little bit of time to driving over there and trying the sauna before bed, taking a warm shower after to rinse away the sweat, I guarantee you sleep amazing. It's very

helpful to raise your core body temperature before bed. You will cool down quickly, trust me, but it helps you relax and there's a lot of evidence on warm showers. The last tip, and I know that this probably sounds corny because I listened to a lot of podcasts and there are a ton of mattress sponsors on podcasts. And I do not have a mattress sponsor, but I'm going to sound like one. You do spend a lot of time in bed, especially if you're sleeping the way we want you to be sleeping. And it's very difficult to sleep well if you are on an uncomfortable mattress or you don't have the right pillow or maybe you have a shitty blanket, you name it. If the equipment ain't right, it makes it tougher. And there are a ton of high quality brands manufacturing mattresses now for lower costs

than ever before. You can get quality mattresses for less than you used to be able to because of the competition and because of some of the kind of growth in technology and distribution of these different mattresses. So if it's been a while since you've upgraded your mattress, again, to jokingly sound like the podcast mattress ads, you're going to spend a lot of time in bed. Um, and you would hate to be limited and hate to get less sleep than you ought to because the quality of your mattress or pillow things that can be fixed very quickly, um, probably more easily than a lot of these lifestyle things. So those are things I would definitely consider making sure that you truly are comfortable and regulating heat. Well, when you go to bed, um, you can get a great mattress for like between 800 and 1200 bucks now, thanks to some of these

bed in a box brands. And a lot of them are quite comfortable and use some really high quality materials. Tons of options there, not necessarily something you have to do, but can definitely be worth it. I work with a lot of clients who are older and having the right mattress can make a really big difference. Okay, guys, there you have it. That will do it for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed. Thank you so much for listening. If you did like the episode, do me a favor, tag me on Instagram, screenshot it, share it to your story this episode so I can say thank you. And be sure to leave me a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other people find the show and helps me grow organically. Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next one.