Random musings: Sleep Better

Monday, June 3, 2019

Sleep Better - Day 1

That's the name of a 10 day sleep course by Dr. Michael Breus.

Right now, that course is available for free, but only during the initial 10 days...after that it's $99 to buy permanent access to it. It just started today, so you still have time to get the full benefit from it.

The first day, today, included two videos that last a total of 25 minutes.

In the first video he talks about the physiological benefits of sleep...such as more energy, better cognition, weight loss and improved sex, among other things. I've written about sleep and weight loss here. He also talks about sleep rhythm and sleep drive and they both need to be aligned in order for you to sleep. Sleep rhythm is based on our biological clock and consists of two main hormones...cortisol, which wakes us up, and melatonin which makes us sleep. And sleep drive is how sleepy you are at a given moment. He talks about how you can be totally exhausted but when you go to bed you either don't sleep at all, or only for a brief time because your sleep drive is high but unless you go to bed at the right time for your body clock, your sleep rhythm is off.

He then talks, in the second video, about the four chronotypes, which I've written about here. And here's a link to the quiz to find out your chronotype. Dr. Breus then talks about the different stages of sleep, including REM sleep. He gives a good description of the various stages. And if you have a Fitbit, or other device that tracks sleep, you can see how much time you spent in each stage (depending on the model). I have a Fitbit Blaze (which is, I think, a discontinued model) and this is how I slept yesterday.