Sleep Is Sexy (1988)

Now , sleep is sexy . I used to be the guy who was like what are you doing ? What are you doing sleeping eight hours ? What are you doing ? Soft behavior , that is , soft cowardice behavior . Now , I love sleep and I have my Aura ring . We're not sponsored by Aura . They make really good products .

They do and I track my sleep every night and I have a graph on my peak performance tracker . And right now excuse me , right now I'm averaging . My mouse likes to take a quick nap here to conserve battery . I'm , I am averaging . Let me go to my fit . Average sleep score over the last year and two months is 73.15 . Not bad Out of 100 .

Yeah , for sure I don't really like staying up super late , anyway , but I had a moment last night . It's Friday , it's like 8 o'clock , I'm already in bed . I went out , tyron was watching tv . I went out , gave her a kiss , I had my earplugs in , I had my nose strip on . I was like , hey , I don't know what's gonna happen , I might fall .

We call it drift off . Sometimes I just like I'll watch tv and just drift off and I said I might drift off , I don't know what's going to happen . But I had this kind of sad moment where it was like I'm in bed Friday night at 8 o'clock . That's kind of sad it is . It's a little bit sad because , again , I think it's one of those , shouldn't you be ?

clubbing . I could be out clubbing . I could be out drinking an irresponsible amount of alcohol . I could be doing a lot of stuff . For sure I could be doing a lot of stuff . Been there , you've been there Same .

I am grateful that I have been going to bed early and getting up early , and , more than anything , I'm grateful that I've been getting good sleep , because I do feel way different than I ever have in my life , because I was somebody .

How do I feel different ? My mood is better , I'm getting way more done . It feels really good to have a regiment , like it's just kind of the same thing . But again , I also am somebody who doesn't . I don't need much variety , so I'm not saying you have to do it this way .

This is a blanket statement and I feel comfortable putting this out to the world , where I think it could be valuable to almost anybody . There is definitely a way that you could be either getting more , better or more consistent , restful sleep that would be productive to you , your life and everything else , but it kind of has to be a priority .

It's not going to happen by accident , and I think that's the hard thing is , if you're somebody out there right now who feels like sleep is a waste of time , that is a relationship that probably would require some digging to rebuild the relationship , because I used to feel that way and it's understandable why you would .

That was my fitness model in days .

Obviously you know as you get older , swimming's easier on the joints . Awesome , she was very healthy physically . Grandfather passed away at 89 . She was still around for five more years and that was very sad for her because they were together for 60 years .

She lived with us for one summer and my grandma's mind was kind of going and the the reason why it wasn't until my probably late twenties that I started to research sleep on like a pretty deep level and I'm going to send the Ted talk in the show notes . It's very , very sleep is your superpower , is the name of it by Matt Walker .

So I'm going to send that link to the team . Throw that in the show notes , please . But ultimately my mom , mom and I we've had conversations about my grandma and her brain didn't last as long as her body , unfortunately , and she lost herself . And if anyone who's got a grandparent with Alzheimer's or anyone with Alzheimer's , it's really hard to experience that .

They literally lose themselves . There's a film with Anthony Hopkins in it called the Father , and it's extremely powerful . It's a very , very , very famous film . I think it won several Academy Awards , but ultimately it was very much about Alzheimer's and how hard it can be to lose your parents , their mind , because if you lose your brain , you , you lose yourself .

I mean , let's be real , we could chop off kev's arm and he's still kev he's still kev without most of his tattoos , though , depending on what arm you take , depending on which arm you take . But , seriously , we wouldn't lose kev , right ? You take away the brain , you lose kev .

Kev's gone , and that's why sleep's so important , so I don't mean to go that hardcore . A little bit of a negative nancy episode here today , yeah , but the truth is , when I saw that ted talk , it really highlights how much , because my mom and I talked about this in the last piece . My grandma always took care of her body .

She ate right and she exercised every day , but she didn't get sleep , dude . She never got good sleep . She was always up throughout the night . And my mom and I were talking this past holiday season and just saying how that is the reason .

That is all extraneous and supplemental versus a good diet and exercise . Those are great places . I think sleep is the same thing where it's very easy to prioritize fitness because it's an active thing . Yeah , I'll stop at the gym on the way home from work , or I'll go to spin class before I go to work , or whatever .

Whatever it is , I think sleep is one of those things where it seems like , well , if I get up four hours earlier , I'll have four more hours to work . Yes , you will , but those four hours will not nearly be as productive as the eight hours you could just put in after a good night's sleep .

And here's the other thing , because I don't want to be I don't ever want to be this podcast that says , no matter what , you should prioritize sleep more . I think it would be beneficial . But I also understand , circumstantially , if you have a newborn , you're not getting good sleep . I don't know how you would .

I've never done it , but I've heard nothing but nightmare stories sounds terrible .

So you know , you might be able to afford my services , but they're not good , even though I am really good with kids , believe it or not , because I'm a big kid . I am , I'm a big kid . So circumstantially thanks . But unless you're making some good money , that's not going to work . But I think we can all start somewhere , that's all .

This isn't that episode where it's like we're going to give you five ways to optimize your sleep so you only get 90 plus sleep scores .

I didn't go from sleeping four hours a night to having earplugs in a sound machine and nose strips and the heat on 68 and the fan in the right direction . I didn't do all that . Blackout curtains , all that , it was shit . I I feel terrible , like most of the time why is that ? well , I am drinking 700 milligrams of caffeine a day .

That's probably not great . I eat fast food like four times a week . That's probably not good either . Um , I sleep about four hours a night . Hmm , let's see .

nlu listener what is happening ? I just wanted to jump in here and let you know if you want to get to the next level faster . We have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month . You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community . The link to register will be in the show notes .

I know we got to jump shortly , but I We've got seven minutes . We've got some time . I want to highlight this . I was reading a book last night . It talked about anyone with a strong enough why can figure out any how and again , fortune cookie quotes here .

So Emilia and I are weirdos and I know that this is statistically abnormal , but our number one , most important priority is our brain health . She bought blueberries today on my protein pancakes . For my brain , For the brains , I want to have the most magnificent life that I possibly can . And if you think about it , let's take a moment here .

What makes the difference in someone's life ? Alan with a healthier brain is going to be far more capable than Alan who's drinking and smoking and not getting great sleep and not eating right . I've been there , Been there not as good , not as capable , not as much willpower , not as much discipline , not as much well-roundedness , not as much centeredness .

We all know when we are in a crappy state and we get poor sleep , we end up snapping at our partner on accident or or throwing a stinger joke that was inappropriate or whatever it is , we're not our best self . You can't be your best self without great sleep . You can't , and I think that hopefully that helps everybody .

With my clients it's my coaching probably sounds so goddamn boring . I have so many clients tracking sleep so many .

So I roll out of bed right into the cold plunge Head first so I can get the immediate decompression of the coldness . Then I flip upside down like an Olympic swimmer . Come up , boom , bada-bing . First thing I do is look at my aura ring . First thing I do . You know , and I don't do any of that Just so you know .

That is a facetious joke about morning routines . Right before I do my mobility in the morning , I open my Aurora app . You know how it takes a minute to connect , oh yeah . One of the first things I do is I check on my sleep and again , I'm super excited , I'm super excited to do that what did you come in at today ? Today was I think I was 80 today .

Today was a rookie kind of a rookie day for me . I didn't sleep well .

Oh for sure , with all the love .

For me it was ego and stupidity . That Now I still have guilt around it , Like if I sleep bad and I go back to sleep I don't feel good about it still , but it's very much . This isn't about right now , this is for the future .

So if you set a goal and also fitness , you want to talk about muscle building , it all happens at sleep . That's when you repair your muscles .

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You're already , you have built-in consistency . You have to do it . You have to do it . So it's one of those things where you can actually I won't say easily , but simply focus on 1% improvements because you already have to do it .

That's why evening routines and morning routines are so important , because every day you go to sleep and you wake up , and if you don't , you don't have to worry about morning routines because you're dead , or nighttime routines because you're dead , you don't have to worry about it .

But yeah , this year you're going to have 365 opportunities to improve your sleep by a little bit . That's it I . Opportunities to improve your sleep by a little bit , that's it . I'm not saying you have to do it all in one fell swoop .

My goodness , speaking of memory , the whole thing it's a thick book thick and it's a lot of it is about sleep and she's gotten unbelievable . She I used to be the guy hits the plane out , not , you know , I wake up and we're there , it's great . I'm mr sleep man guy , that's the official term . She's surpassed me , brother , she's surpassed me .

I wake up and we're there , it's great . I'm Mr Sleep man guy , that's the official term . She's surpassed me , brother , she's surpassed me . I'm trying to catch her now . That's what's possible , and her memory's way better , way better . It's not close , it's night and day . That bothered me so much when we first got together .

She would wake up early and and leave and it would be like what are you doing ? You got four hours of sleep because we were . You know , when you're new in a relationship , obviously you're up late doing stuff and it's like you can't just get up in five hours . I feel terrible , right same , yeah , same .

I never missed ever like I thought that was cool . It was cool that I was making progress in fitness and I was super consistent , but it was not good for my brain , and again , brain health , not sexy , necessary . All right , we're gonna go . Health , wealth , life and love this is health . We haven't talked about stuff .

We gotta talk about stuff like this because this is stuff that we're actively doing and practicing and I want to make sure we share it , even though it might not be sexy . This might not be the most listened to episode we ever do , but it could be one of the most valuable ones , and that's what we're here for .

As always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you , and at nlu we don't have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow . Get some sleep sleep . Next level , next level nation thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University . We love connecting with the Next Level family .