

The F·R·E·S·H Way
Part of my method to lose 150lbs is to get good quality sleep. Sleep is essential for mental and physical health. In a hectic world where sleep is seen as weakness, I’m doing everything I can to balance my mind and body – that means using sleep as a powerful healing tool.
What to do if you can’t sleep (Dr Matt Walker)
“You should not stay in bed for very long awake, because your brain is this remarkably associative device and it quickly learns that the bed is about being awake. So you should go to another room – a room that’s dim. Just read a book – no screens, no phones – and only when you’re sleepy return to the bed. That way your brain relearns the association with your bedroom being about sleep rather than wakefulness.
Try meditating. It just quiets the mind and it dampens down what we call the “fight or flight” branch of the nervous system, which is one of the key features of insomnia. And that can really have some efficacious benefits too.”
SLEEP EXPERT, DR MATTHEW WALKER
I’m in the camp that says your body will sleep with it needs to, just like it’ll eat, drink and exercise when it needs to. We just need to listen to it. Humans never used to sleep for 8 hours straight (that was born out of the industrial revolution). While it’s true that getting enough sleep is vital for mental, physical and emotional health, it doesn’t need to be in one go – but it does need to be quality.
I have to consciously think about preparing for sleep if I want to sleep well. Not eating junk food or drinking alcohol helps, of course, but there are a few things I do to improve the quality of my sleep, including: keeping blue light (laptop/phone screen etc.) out of the bedroom; exercising before bed (stretching or going for a short walk); putting up blackout blinds, having a fresh flow of air and tidying up before bed, keeping cool etc.
Taking a nap in the afternoon whenever my body needs it helps. I also find that going to bed at around the same time each night has a positive effect.
What is clear is that as my health and fitness improves, so does the quality of my sleep and that is sure to be having a knock on effect on my hormones, stress levels and everything that improves sleep overall.

alcohol
Following a carnivore-ish diet I’m obviously avoiding alcohol in the main because it’s basically sugar but also because of its effect on sleep. Any amount of alcohol disrupts our sleep pattern and in particular reduces quality REM sleep, which is essential for emotional well-being.
Here’s a great video about the effects of alcohol on sleep by neuroscientists Dr Matthew Walker & Dr Andrew Huberman.
EXERCISE
Again, the benefits of exercise cannot be underestimated and its effects on sleep are profound. A 2008 study revealed that sedentary people are more closely associated with poor sleep compared with physically active people.
Interestingly, moderate exercise has been shown to have positive effects on sleep, while late night vigorous exercise is known to have increased negative impacts on sleep.
AGE
Both the amount we sleep and the quality of that sleep decreases with age. We need just as much sleep in our later years as we did in our middle years but the brain isn’t capable of generating that sleep, so older people find that their sleep becomes fragmented. It seems to be REM sleep, the deepest stage of sleep, that is affected in particular as we age, so it’s important to spend time helping the body to sleep better through diet, relaxation, exercise etc.