Fortitude Fridays #3

Read Time: 5 mins

Quote:

“Use mistakes and problems as opportunities to get better…not reasons to quit.”

-Angela Duckworth

It’s not a failure if you learn from it and you keep going. No one is perfect and we all stumble now and then. The key is the long term trend. Are you getting better over time? Keep going, keep growing and focus on the long game not the short term bumps.

Question I have been contemplating:

“What can I do today that I was not capable of a year ago?”

I love this question for the simple idea that it highlights where we have grown and stretched. I tend to get caught thinking about how many things I still need to learn rather than all skills I've acquired.

My answer: post a daily informative video for social media for 75 days straight and full saddle pose (pictured)

Book to read:

Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker

Sleep is vital to our health, wellness and longevity but yet the average person does not meet the recommendations for sleep.

The past two decades have exploded with a new research and discoveries linked to sleep and how we can better understand its importance in our daily lives.

Dr Walker, the director of UC Berkley’s Center for Human Sleep Science, discusses this new information, his exploration of why we sleep and how we can harness its power to change our life for the better. This book covers everything from how sleep boosts our ability to learn, make better decisions, recalibrates our emotions, rejuvenates our immune system and regulates our appetite. 

Take Away: Simple and actionable ways to get a better night sleep…starting tonight

Tactic to try: Establish your caffeine window

About a year ago I listened to podcast by Dr. Andrew Huberman of Huberman Lab called Master Your Sleep, and it blew my mind. The snippet that really fascinated me was the actual process of how caffeine effects the body and our neurotransmitters, and how to optimize for better performance. Who doesn’t wish to wake up refreshed, focused, alert, productive during our waking hours and then drift off to deep, restorative sleep? This tactic can help with both.

Here's How: Establish your caffeine window

Delay your caffeine 90-120 mins after waking

Stop your caffeine consumption around 10 hours before you plan on being asleep

Example:

If your wake time is 6 am and you want to be asleep by 10:30 pm then your ideal caffeine window is 7:30-12:30 pm.

Why is this?

Many of us get out of bed in the morning to immediately head for our morning caffeine of choice to get the day rolling and to wake up. The problem is that this sets us up for an inevitable crash in the afternoon. How this works is that adenosine, which is a byproduct of ATP (what our body and brain uses for energy) binds to adenosine receptors. This binding causes drowsiness by slowing down the nerve cell activity and dilation of the blood vessels to let in more oxygen while we sleep. To the nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine and it binds to the adenosine receptor. Instead of slowing down, the nerve cell speeds up, and the adenosine has nowhere to go so it builds up in the system. When the caffeine wears off 6-8 hours and leaves, our system is flooded with adenosine rushing to bind to the receptors that have just been vacated. This binding results in the overwhelming feeling of fatigue mid afternoon, which is why many of us drink more caffeine later in the day to keep us going. The later consumption has the caffeine hanging around in system far longer, preventing us from reaching the deep restorative sleep we acquire in the beginning of our night's rest. Thus, making us wake up feeling less rested/groggy and then cycle repeats.

By delaying our consumption, the body is given the time it needs to complete the natural spikes and elimination of chemicals that aid us in waking up. Since caffeine has half-life of 6-8 hours and a quarter life of 10-12 hours, stopping around 10 hours before bed allows the majority of caffeine to clear the system. Therefore, we are able to hit the deep restorative sleep in the beginning of the night fully. Even if you can have a cup of coffee and immediately fall asleep, the caffeine hinders our ability to reach deep sleep.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have an amazing weekend!

You got this,