Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Sam Wood, and this is your motivational moment
Speaker 1: for this week, and this is why you shouldn't ignore sleep.
Speaker 1: So sleep's a really interesting one, and I.
Speaker 2: Want to preface what I'm going to say first of
Speaker 2: all by speaking to all of the parents out there,
Speaker 2: because I used to think anyone that couldn't get seven
Speaker 2: or eight hours sleep was full of it.
Speaker 1: And that was just my young naive.
Speaker 2: Never had kids living in a fairyland existence, and now
Speaker 2: as a dad of soon to before, I absolutely understand
Speaker 2: that getting your seven or eight hours, which we'll get
Speaker 2: too soon, is a bit of a pipe dream. And
Speaker 2: for every mum that I particularly have spoken to without
Speaker 2: a great deal of empathy, I apologize retrospectively. But for me,
Speaker 2: sleep had never been an issue. I loved sleep. I
Speaker 2: was training a lot, so I sort of found that
Speaker 2: I was tired getting out really early, sort of five
Speaker 2: am starts to personal trainer for a couple of decades.
Speaker 2: I made sure said it got to bed as early
Speaker 2: as I could. But I always found it interesting when
Speaker 2: I spoke to my clients that there was a certain
Speaker 2: percentage that were convinced that they didn't need it. They
Speaker 2: were no matter how much scientific research I would show
Speaker 2: them or articles or whatever it might be. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I'm not one of those people. I just function
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. Mate, Darry about it up. Four hours
Speaker 2: all I need.
Speaker 1: And they were convinced that they are actually correct.
Speaker 2: I don't think they were. They still we could still
Speaker 2: probably argue about it to this day, but it was
Speaker 2: really interesting. Those people were absolutely convinced that they were
Speaker 2: these group that didn't need much sleep, but anything under
Speaker 2: six hours there is too much evidence to refute that
Speaker 2: you can function at your maximum, both from a mental
Speaker 2: standpoint or a physical standpoint. The magic number is eight,
Speaker 2: which for a lot of people, if you're a long
Speaker 2: way off that, it can seem a really difficult challenge.
Speaker 2: So I always said, of say, let's aim for seven.
Speaker 2: Let's try and get seven hours sleep. If you can
Speaker 2: get eight, fantastic, but you want to get seven. And
Speaker 2: then there's a few other things regarding sleep hygiene or
Speaker 2: sleep routines that I think should be addressed here. Because
Speaker 2: your body really likes going to bed at a consistent
Speaker 2: time of night, and so these people that binge netflix
Speaker 2: still to a and when night and then make up
Speaker 2: for it with a six pm sleep the next night
Speaker 2: and they sort of fluctuating. Your body doesn't really like
Speaker 2: that because it can't get into a rhythm. You say,
Speaker 2: kadi and rhythm, which is what happens when you sleep,
Speaker 2: is really important for the quality of you sleep, not
Speaker 2: just the amount that you're sleeping. And if you're all
Speaker 2: over the place, it's really hard to get into a
Speaker 2: nice rhythm and get into that nice deep sleep where
Speaker 2: your body recovers and your brain recovers at its best.
Speaker 2: So within sort of thirty to sixty minutes, try and
Speaker 2: make it consistent. We live in this crazy world of technology,
Speaker 2: blue light. You know, we're scrolling through Instagram and then
Speaker 2: we put the phone down one foot from our head
Speaker 2: and then we try and have a good night's sleep.
Speaker 2: Sleep hygiene is really important. Put yourself in a dark,
Speaker 2: cold room, try not to have any blue light exposure
Speaker 2: or technology exposure for at least thirty minutes before going
Speaker 2: to bed. Trying it to eat within thirty minutes of
Speaker 2: going to sleep, because you won't get in it as
Speaker 2: deep a sleep if your body's trying to digest a
Speaker 2: lot of food and it's sitting in your stomach. So
Speaker 2: just some simple things like that obviously, meditation techniques or
Speaker 2: breathing techniques or putting something calming on can help the
Speaker 2: quality of you sleep and help you fall asleep faster.
Speaker 1: But again, it's like anything, these are all practices that
Speaker 1: you should build up to.
Speaker 2: So don't just think you click your fingers and you
Speaker 2: have to adopt all of these practices tomorrow and become
Speaker 2: an a grade sleeper overnight. Try one of them at
Speaker 2: a time, look at the areas that perhaps you're doing
Speaker 2: the worst, and I promise you this is one of
Speaker 2: these things that even if you're stubborn and you've convinced yourself.
Speaker 1: You don't need it.
Speaker 2: It's a case if you don't know what you don't know,
Speaker 2: because many of the people that have these arguments that
Speaker 2: I was referring to with had never done any of
Speaker 2: these things, or never had six or seven hours, so
Speaker 2: they didn't actually know what their one hundred percent felt like.
Speaker 2: They'd been running on three cylinders, not knowing they were
Speaker 2: a six cylinder beast and thought three was full capacity.
Speaker 2: And now that they're sleeping properly, it's a total game changer.
Speaker 2: You've got you're in a better mood, you've got more energy,
Speaker 2: you're more productive.
Speaker 1: You know, the list goes on of the benefits there.
Speaker 1: So I'm a big, big believer in sleep.
Speaker 2: People say to me, what's the most important, you know,
Speaker 2: exercise and nutrition, which is a crazy question because they're
Speaker 2: both just as important. Well, one third of that circle
Speaker 2: is you sleep in your recovery. And unless you start
Speaker 2: giving that some time and some energy, you really are
Speaker 2: missing out on a big piece of the puzzle. So
Speaker 2: your listener task for this week is to listen to
Speaker 2: all of my podcasts and you'll sleep like a baby.
Speaker 1: No, I'm only joking.
Speaker 2: I'm only joking as if they're going to produce like
Speaker 2: The listener task for this week is to try and
Speaker 2: get to that magic number seven and to identify perhaps
Speaker 2: where your worst sleep hygiene is or sleep habits are.
Speaker 2: Let's have a really close look at what you do
Speaker 2: from ten pm till midnight, and I bet you there's
Speaker 2: at least sixty minutes of garbage in there that you
Speaker 2: can cut out.
Speaker 1: It's you know, the scrolling.
Speaker 2: Through social media, it's the binging on one of your
Speaker 2: streaming platforms. And if you can't find thirty to sixty
Speaker 2: minutes in there, I'll be absolutely shocked, So have a
Speaker 2: look at those just before you go to bed habits
Speaker 2: and aim for that magic number seven. Even take a
Speaker 2: little sleep journal, so the first thing you do when
Speaker 2: you wake up is you write down how you feel
Speaker 2: you've slept, and then you can write down how that
Speaker 2: makes you feel and reinforce those good behaviors. Yes,