AMA #2: Improve Sleep, Reduce Sugar Cravings, Optimal Protein Intake, Stretching Frequency & More

Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and cannabis—and let's put under the umbrella of cannabis THC and CBD—in the 8 and ideally within the 12 hours prior to sleep if your goal is to improve the total amount of slow-wave sleep that you're getting and your overall sleep architecture.

It's well-known that avoiding food intake in the 2 hours prior to sleep is going to greatly assist in the amount of growth hormone output that you achieve during the early stages of the night and the depth and duration of slow-wave sleep.

For most people—that is, for 95% of people out there—getting at least 6 hours of sleep per night, at least, and ideally more like 7 or 8, is going to be the goal.

Avoiding caffeine intake within that 8-12 hours of bedtime will greatly assist in you getting more slow-wave sleep and higher quality rapid eye movement sleep.

There is, however, another supplement that... can greatly enhance the quality of your sleep—and, in particular, people who are following a low-carbohydrate diet who have trouble falling and staying asleep seem to benefit from it—and that is so-called inositol.

Some people will find that even if they have a glass of wine or a beer with lunch that the amount of slow-wave sleep, and sometimes even the rapid eye movement sleep, that they get at night is reduced and that their overall sleep architecture is disrupted.

Exercising intensely in the 6 hours prior to bedtime for many people—not all, but for many people—can disrupt the total amount of slow-wave sleep that they get.

For those of us, like myself, that need a 20 or 30 minute nap in the afternoon, great. That doesn't necessarily mean you're not getting enough sleep at night. So, if you get sleepy enough to want to nap in the afternoon, that's not an indication, necessarily, that you are not getting enough sleep at night.

The dreams that occur during deep sleep tend to be of a less emotional nature than the sorts of dreams that one experiences in rapid eye movement sleep.

The goal should be to balance the total amount of slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep across the night ... The closer those two numbers are to one another, the better overall architecture of your sleep.

If you're only sleeping 4 or 5 hours per night, it's very hard to imagine that you're getting a balance of slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep.

Deep sleep... is vitally important, in particular, for repair of bodily tissues. During deep sleep, you secrete growth hormone ... You secrete growth hormone every night when you go to sleep, but most of that growth hormone release is restricted to the first half of your sleep night.