SLEEP

 Lights out, it is bedtime?  I use this one most nights with my youngest. Sleep is the inevitable function everyone has to go through or die.


Sleep is complicated, as far as what is happening while we sleep, detoxifying the brain, moving short-term to long-term memories, body restoration, etc. We will focus on using it as our base to perform better at work, the gym, and in our household. 
How many times did you have a poor night's sleep, and the next day you were short-tempered, hungry, higher stressed, and ended up getting over-caffeinated? Count me in! 
It is unfortunate how a poor night's sleep will significantly affect the rest of the day. This is how vital sleep quantity and quality has in our day-to-day lives. 
There are some of the biological effects of a reasonable quantity and quality sleep has:
  • Prevents weight gain
  • Improve your immune system
  • Direct impact on your mood
  • Improves exercise performance
  • Better memory
Sleep is something we expect to happen when we meet our pillows at night. Yet, with our busy lives, we tend to neglect our sleep. This is enough reason to improve your sleep quality and quantity. 
When we neglect our sleep, we set ourselves selfs for failure. Failure to eat for our needs, failure to perform our best at the gym, opening ourselves to gain weight. 
 How do we address the changes needed to improve our sleep quality and quantity? 
  1. Optimize light exposure
  2. Caffeine Consumption
  3. Supplements
  4. Create and follow a routine
  5. Extras 

Light exposure this step is a multiple-step procedure. The light exposure can be broken down into a couple of sections. Section 1: Get sunlight first thing in the morning, 2: Get sunlight through the day 3: Eliminate artificial light after sundown 4: Use red or candlelight at night.

This is a bit of a long one since light has an incredible impact on sleep. This is because light is one of the most potent drivers of the circadian cycle, which tells the body when to be awake and sleep. 
Sunlight in the morning, this sends the signal to the body that it is time to be active. It drives some processes in the body that wakes up the inner machinery. This step, in combination with getting sunlight exposure throughout the day, keeps you "awake" and helps with the production of vitamin D. This is why it is recommended if taking Vitamin D supplements, they have to be taken in the morning. In summary, get as much natural sun exposure to optimize your wakefulness cycle during the day. As a tip, I recommend not to use sunglasses during the day to get the full effect of sunlight. As a final tip on light exposure and the circadian cycle, it is highly recommended to go to bed and wake up at the same time every time. 
*Never look at the sun directly for an extended period.




Caffeine, the Anti-Murder juice, is part of a morning routine. Coffee first before we speak and do anything. One cup of coffee has close to 100mg of caffeine, and caffeine has a half-life close to 6 hours. This means that 6 hours after you had that cup of coffee, your body still has 50mg of caffeine. Since caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant, this means that it will get you up and going. This is great during the day, but we want to steer away from it at night. 
Having caffeine in your system is the worst thing you can do to get a good night's sleep.
So what to do? Simple answers limit caffeine and a hard stop on your last caffeine dose. How much caffeine? It is hard to say if you are like me. I try and stop myself at 300mg but usually end up around 400mg. 
How about the hard stop? Ideally, you want to have a hard finish around 12:00pm, but I have been cutting off caffeine around 02:00pm as of late. This translates to going to bed with approximately 50mg or less of coffee. Other factors impact this, such as caffeine metabolization, activity, nutrition, etc. The best way to know is to evaluate your sleep on a day-to-day basis. This is where self-experimentation comes into play. Figure out how much you can drink and an ideal cut-off time to optimize your sleep.



Let's now talk about supplements! There is a slew of supplements out there, magnesium, melatonin, herbal extracts, etc. First off, I want to express my dislike for melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone; we suppress our natural hormone production when taken exogenously. The only instance where I would recommend using it is when traveling and changing time zones. Aside from that, melatonin should be treated with respect and used sparingly. 
There is a spectrum of natural plants/roots as far efficacy of the natural supplement.




Many plants/root supplements can be found in tea forms at your local grocery store. Teas are great to drink at night. If you can make the tea the old-fashioned way, boil water, add the water to your cup, stir your tea slowly, and so on. This process will also be handy to help you slow down and destress before we end the day. If we happen to repeat this, we can slowly create a routine. 


There are two more supplements I want to touch on before I forget. Magnesium, it will improve your sleep or give you disaster pants. The problem is that not all magnesium is created the same. The better magnesium to take for a better night's sleep is Magnesium Glycinate and Citrate. Stay away from Magnesium Oxide, which is the cheaper and more available form of magnesium. The best type of magnesium is Magnesium L-threonate. L-threonate was developed by MIT, and it has an advantage the other classes don't. That is that it can cross the blood-brain barrier! It is more effective per volume.
Lastly, we have CBD! Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive chemical that can help destress and relax you to get better rest when taken.
 One of more than 120 cannabinoids found on the cannabis plant.


We all have a morning routine that we follow unconsciously. We wake up, brush our teeth, take a shower, use the restroom, etc. In addition, some of us even have a pre-workout routine. The purpose of a routine is to "automate" the boring stuff. And with that, we will use the same idea, automate the steps to get the best night's sleep every night. 
How does the nightly routine look like? Based on what we covered, I have my daily nightly routine.
Around 2-3 hours before bedtime, I put my phone on its "night setting" put on my blue-blockers (yellow-red tint glasses) to eliminate blue light. Blue light is what affects your circadian cycle. Once phone, glasses, I use red light bulbs around the house to remove any additional "blue" light sources. After dinner, we will go for a walk most of the night. Mind you, during this time, I still have my glasses on, yes, dorky, but I'll sleep like a baby (minus the pooped diaper). Once home, I will start making tea or take them in supplement form. Before going to bed, I will shower with cycling hot/cold water. Once in bed, time to read a tad bit. This, for me, will increase the quality of sleep as much as possible. 



The extras, many other things can help you sleep better. We can always have a workout, assuming we are not overstressed, sauna, room temperature, the darkness of your room. One last thing that I consider essential for your sleep is a sleep tracker. Most smartwatches can track sleep. Let's maximize the tools we have.
With all this information, let's use what we have and what we can to optimize sleep. Go get those glasses, turn the phone off, make a tea. Prioritize your sleep, and all your nutrition and body composition goals can be achieved faster and easier. 

If any additional questions come up, feel free to reach out. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Nutrition Coach
Hugo Casahonda

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