do you have trouble falling asleep staying asleep or feeling well rested in today's video
we are going to be going over eight proven tips to help you sleep better at night and even if you
think that you're a pretty good sleeper you still might be doing things that could be hindering your
recovery with a few simple tweaks not only will you wake up feeling more refreshed but you can
also lower your anxiety balance blood sugar reduce stress decrease your disease risk and more [Music]
thank you hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Kait I'm a certified
health and nutrition coach I post videos twice a week here on YouTube talking all
things insulin resistance weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready to take control of your
metabolic Health make sure to click that subscribe button and you can also find me on Tick Tock and
Instagram whereas your new posts every single day getting proper sleep is so important for our
health it's our body's chance to rest and recover and a poor night's sleep can have an impact on
everything from immune function and hormones to inflammation levels and glucose tolerance
one peer-reviewed study had metabolically healthy men limit their sleep to four hours per night this
lack of sleep resulted in these otherwise healthy men showing signs of pre-diabetes on a glucose
tolerance test and this was after only six nights now their glucose tolerance did return to normal
when they were able to catch up on sleep poor glucose tolerance means your body responds more
dramatically to carbohydrates and poor glucose tolerance is well known to be a risk factor for
type 2 diabetes obesity and hypertension and this is just one example of why it is important to
prioritize our sleep for overall health so let's get into the eight actionable steps you can take
to get a better night's sleep number one watch the sunrise sunlight is one of the main signals
for circadian rhythm our bodies are wired to be alert and energized during the day and calm and
relax in the evenings and at night when we get sunlight exposure in the morning this signals
our bodies to release hormones that will energize us and this also helps our bodies to be able to
better tell when it's evening time and it's time to wind down going for a walk first thing in the
morning or even just sitting in your backyard for a few minutes can not only help you sleep better
but it can help you to feel more energized during the day and limiting your exposure after Sunset
is equally important because if we're exposed to light and blue light specifically in the evening
our bodies become confused and think that it's still daytime and this can keep us alert and
make it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep number two don't drink no one is ever
happy to hear this tip while alcohol does make you feel sleepy and it does get you into deep
sleep faster it's definitely not ideal when we drink adenosine is produced which is a chemical
in the brain that makes us sleepy so yes it can help you to fall asleep faster but after a couple
of hours this effect wears off and people often find they end up waking up throughout the night
alcohol also decreases REM sleep and it increases sleep disturbances so not only does alcohol
increase sleep disturbances but it also decreases REM sleep so if you're looking for a good night's
sleep even just one drink too close to bedtime can be counterproductive now with that being said if
you do have a drink or two far enough away from your bedtime then it might not have that much of
an impact but again your best bet is to not drink at all if you're looking for good sleep quality
number three turn down the temp as we prepare for Sleep our body's temperature naturally decreases
based on our circadian rhythm our body's temperature decreases at night and increases
during the day now if we're sleeping in an environment that's too hot or too cold this can
make it difficult to fall asleep and it can also impair our Sleep Quality Studies have shown that
the ideal sleeping temperature is around 15 to 20 degrees Celsius or 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit so
of course adjusting the thermostat is the first step you want to take and using the correct
bedding based on the season is also important during the winter you want to use sheets that
trap in body heat like flannel and during the summer you want to use something lighter like
cotton now if you're serious about optimizing your sleep environment I want to introduce you to eight
sleeps pod 3 mattress cover by allowing you to customize the temperature of your bed anywhere
from 12 to 43 degrees Celsius the Pod 3 cover can help you improve your sleep environment and in
turn your sleep quality and if you share a bed no worries you can set each side individually which
is is great if one of you runs hot and one of you runs cold the Pod 3 cover fits seamlessly over any
mattress and actually allows you to track your sleep stages heart rate heart rate variability
and more without a wearable device through the compatible app more on this in a second I have
recently started using the Pod 3 cover and I am absolutely loving it as someone who pretty
religiously tracks their sleep and does what they can to optimize it this is one change I have made
that I have noticed a big impact and especially since it's currently summer in Australia and
this whole past week has been mid-30s to low 40s being able to cool my bedding Game Changer the
Pod 3 cover is super easy to set up just slide it over your mattress for a seamless fit and one
additional feature that I think is really great is the built-in alarm but instead of waking up with
sound it gradually increases the temperature and then wakes you up with gentle vibrations
and again this can be done individually on either side of the bed so you don't have to worry about
it waking the other person up so I wanted to give you guys a bit more feedback now that I've been
using my pod 3 cover for a couple of weeks first off it was super easy to set up there's kind of
like one cover underneath and then one on top that you have to put on if you just follow the
instructions it's pretty straightforward and then they kind of zip together but again this is all in
the instruction manual and in the app really easy to do now when I first set it up so you can adjust
the different temperatures when you go to sleep the first half of the night so when you should
be mainly getting deep sleep the second half of the night when you should be getting REM sleep
and then for when you wake up so it should be a little bit cooler when you're going to sleep even
cooler during deep sleep get a bit more neutral during REM and then whatever you want to wake up
with it can be hot or cold um so I went a little bit hardcore the first night I think I put the
temperature down six degrees for deep sleep and let me tell you I was so cold so my recommendation
would be when you're first getting started just adjust it one degree at a time see how you sleep
and if it wasn't cool enough then put it down one more degree the next night because if you go too
hardcore like I did it was too cold let me just say that now the next thing I want to talk about
is the comfort so it is really comfortable it's a little bit like it's soft ish not super soft
um it is a little bit like textured bumpy I want to say
um but again super comfortable I've had no trouble adjusting to sleeping on it and I've
only continued to see improvements in my sleep I think so I track my sleep with my
whoop as well and last night I had a 95 recovery my HRV was 106 which is high for me and yeah just
signifies good recovery again like I said you can adjust either side or you can claim the
whole bed to yourself and the whole thing will adjust to the one set of temperatures
um the alarm really great I really like waking up to just the soft vibrations and then I have it set
I think at either neutral or just slightly warm so you just wake up feeling really cozy but yeah I am
absolutely loving the Pod 3 covers so far eight sleep offered me an incredible discount click the
link in the description and you're going to get 150 off the Pod mattress or 100 off the Pod cover
using my code KAIT thanks again to eight sleep for sponsoring this video number four is to stop
eating two hours before bedtime when we eat right before bed our body doesn't have time to digest
and process that food before we go to sleep it takes longer for our heart rate to stabilize and
come down to resting by eating that last bite of food at least two hours before you plan on going
to sleep this can help you fall asleep faster and get better quality Sleep Number Five is to
set a cut off for caffeine consumption this one is pretty self-explanatory caffeine stimulates
activity in the brain and nervous system which makes us more alert so consuming it too late
in the day can make it difficult to sleep now the cutoff time is going to be different for everyone
Some People based on genetics metabolize caffeine faster and some people slower so experiment for
yourself see how late you can have it without it having an impact on your sleep and go from there
number six supplement inositol and magnesium I know satella is a natural compound that has
a lot of benefits one of which is it increases deep sleep I know satol is found in some foods
such as citrus fruits but it's also isolated into a supplement and the main reason that it increases
deep sleep is that it activates serotonin in the brain low serotonin has been linked to insomnia
and Studies have shown that when serotonin increases this helps with insomnia and magnesium
I feel like most people know is beneficial for Sleep magnesium is an electrolyte that plays a key
role in the function of our nervous system it has a calming effect so taking it before bed can help
you to get a more restful sleep and I will link some brands that I recommend for both inositol and
magnesium in the description box down below number seven consider mouth taping now this is one of my
favorite hacks I know I know it sounds a bit crazy mouth taping is exactly what it sounds like you
tape your mouth shut while you sleep so for anyone who sleeps with their mouth open if you have sleep
apnea if you snore mouth taping can have a huge impact on the quality of your sleep not only can
mouth breathing lead to snoring it can also lead to tossing and turning at night and needing to
get up more often throughout the night to pee by taping your mouth shut you are forcing your
body to breathe through your nose and there are so many other benefits that stem from nasal breathing
that I'm not going to get into today but if you want a full video on the benefits of mouth taping
and how it works let me know in the comments down below and I can make one and finally number eight
is to track habits if you make a bunch of changes at once it can be difficult to figure out which
of these are having an actual positive impact on your sleep so writing down the habits you
do every day and recording your sleep quality in the mornings can help to pinpoint what's actually
beneficial now I'm going to quickly mention eight sleep again because if you do have the
Pod cover there are some additional features you can unlock with the 8 Pro membership you get more
data Insight which again can help you to really pinpoint what is helping and hindering your sleep
and you can also receive actionable feedback to build better habits through digital coaching
for myself after tracking for years really I notice a huge decrease in My Sleep Quality when
I number one drink alcohol and number two eat too close to my bedtime and on the flip side I notice
increases to my Sleep Quality when I spend time outside and when I supplement magnesium and all
of these things I've spoken about in today's video and eight sleep makes it really easy to pinpoint
these factors anyways guys that's all I have for you today let me know in the comment section down
below below if you already Implement any of these tips that we spoke about if you don't Implement
any of them which are you going to try out first let me know in the comment section down below and
again thank you to aidsleep for sponsoring this video I'm going to link to the Pod 3 mattress
cover down below and also put my promo code there if you did enjoy this video you might also enjoy
my video on how to be jet lag you can check it out here if you want to catch up on my most recent
upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my coaching programs including my seven
day insulin resistance masterclass you can find those here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye