🔋Treat Sleep as Your Job (ATP#40)

Hey friend,

I’ve been largely offline over the last few weeks. That break was really necessary, and I’m now starting fresh into new adventures (if you contacted me recently and haven’t heard back, this is why!).

Recharging batteries feels good, and there’s a way you can recharge your batteries every day: sleep.

If you’ve been following me for a while already, you know that sleep is one of my favorite topics, and I just stumbled across a quote that read something like “Treat Sleep as Your Job,” and this quote captures perfectly how we should all think about it.

This email shows why we should all treat sleep like a job with an impressive earnings potential.

In this newsletter, we’ll cover:

• How sleep improves your brain function and life

• How to improve sleep

• When to seek professional help.

How sleep improves your brain function and life

Here’s a list of 7 benefits of sleep:

1. Memory consolidation.

Memories stabilize while you sleep.

You’ll have difficulty learning if you don’t get enough sleep.

Pro tip: shift your learning activities to evening hours. What you learn in the hours before sleep gets prioritized for consolidation overnight.

If you study earlier, do a recap before bed.

2. Higher cognitive functions.

Your reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making processes only work if you get enough high-quality sleep.

Sleep deprivation impairs your thinking because your prefrontal cortex (the most essential structure for higher cognitive functions) underperforms when sleep-deprived.

3. Toxin removal.

While you sleep, your brain cleans itself from waste & toxic proteins.

That’s your glymphatic system at work. It’s like a waste disposal system on autopilot that keeps your brain healthy.

It reduces the risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders.

4. Emotion regulation.

Have you noticed that when you’re sleep-deprived, you overreact quickly?

That’s because a lack of sleep makes you hyperreactive to emotional triggers.

After a good night’s sleep, you regulate your emotions a lot better.

5. Reaction times.

Some situations require quick reactions, e.g., when you’re driving or practicing certain sports.

Research shows that even small increases in sleep duration boost reaction times.

Quicker reaction times could even be life-saving!

6. Creativity & innovation.

Have you ever been chewing on a problem for a long time, and after a good night’s sleep, the solution appeared like illumination?

Or woke up with a great idea in your head?

Your brain forms new connections overnight, leading to new ideas & solutions.

If you’re stuck on an issue, postpone it to the next day.

Most of the time, the solution appears like magic (but in reality, your brain did the work overnight).

7. Appetite regulation.

Sleep deprivation messes with your hormones, your brain’s reward system, and your brain’s hypothalamus (where appetite is regulated).

You won’t feel adequate hunger and satiety signals anymore, and you’ll make more impulsive food choices.

Sleep is a central pillar of weight management.

How to improve sleep

First of all, your ideal sleep duration is an individual phenomenon.

Most adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night for optimal results, and very few thrive on less sleep (really very very few!!!).

It may take some experimentation to find your sweet spot.

And there are a few things you can do to sleep better:

1. No screens in bed or shortly before bedtime.

The light exposure messes with your sleep hormones.

A workaround is a blue light filter, and I admit that I sometimes read in bed from my tablet with the filter on (I live in South America, and it’s hard to find books in German or English here, which are my preferred reading languages, so I rely a lot on ebooks).

Filters help a bit because they reduce the blue light that disrupts sleep (by suppressing the sleep hormone melatonin), but they’re far from perfect.

So even if you use a filter, don’t overdo it. My limit is once or twice a week.

And you should definitely not scroll on social media in bed, even with the filter on.

Opt for quiet activities like reading a book.

2. Maintain constant bedtimes.

Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, even on weekends, helps a lot.

Aim for a deviation of ± 1 hour max.

3. Sleep in a cool environment.

Science has identified 16-18°C (60-64°F) as the ideal bedroom temperature.

4. No heavy meals or alcohol in the last 3 hours before bed.

Heavy meals mean your digestive system is busy, which is ok during the day but not when you want to sleep.

Alcohol helps you fall asleep (and many people drink it for that reason), but it messes with your sleep cycles, so you’ll wake up earlier or have lighter sleep in the second half of the night, and you won’t feel well rested the next day.

If you have trouble waking up at night to go to the bathroom, limit your fluid intake at least 2 hours before bed.

A word about caffeine: It stays in your system longer than you may think. Try cutting it out at least 8 hours before sleep.

5. Ensure a quiet surrounding.

It reduces the number of nighttime wakings.

Consider using earplugs if your environment is noisy enough to wake you up.

6. Create a dark environment.

Our ancestors used natural light as a pacemaker, but it's not recommended today due to luminous contamination.

Light exposure during sleep alters your sleep hormones and reduces sleep quality.

Use blackout curtains or a sleep mask.

7. Consider separate blankets.

If you share your bed with someone (e.g., your partner), you may share the same blanket.

In my home country (Germany), it’s atypical, but I’ve seen it in many other countries.

The problem is that if you share a blanket, the other person’s movements are more likely to wake you up. Research also shows that men and women have different temperature-regulation systems, and that with a shared blanket, individual temperature needs are hard to meet.

So: For the sake of your health, consider getting separate blankets.

Here in Chile, couples share a blanket, but I brought the German tradition of separate blankets with me. 😉

8. Wind down in the evening.

A wind-down routine, such as stretching, breathing exercises, or journaling, prepares your body and mind for bedtime.

Especially after an intense day, calming down is necessary for good sleep.

Find a routine that works for you.

If you wake up at 3 am thinking about stressors (e.g., your work), it’s a sign that stress is affecting your sleep. If this is you, you need a wind-down routine to process your stressors before sleep.

9. Don’t stress over sleep.

There are times when sleep is suboptimal.

Either because you have a baby or young kids at home who wake you up at night, or you’re going through difficult times.

Sometimes you may just have a bad night for no specific reason, or there may be a special event that keeps you up later and makes you eat and drink late.

It happens, and it’s part of life.

Accept that not every night is perfect. Aiming to have a good night on most nights is enough.

When should you seek help?

If you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early at least 3 times a week for 3 months or more, it’s a sign of chronic insomnia, and you should contact a certified healthcare provider.

Also note: Waking up several times at night is normal, but repeated full awakenings that interfere with daytime functioning may require professional assessment.

Wrapping up

Sleep is essential for every function you can think of: memory, reasoning, emotion, and many more.

That’s why you should give it the top 1 priority in your life.

And there’s a lot you can do to optimize it.

Sleep as if your life depends on it, or “as if it were your job”.

Now available: The Neuroscience-Optimized Morning Routine!

After months in the making, I’m proud to present my new guide to you.

What it is (and what it isn’t):

• It’s a science-backed, flexible routine you can adapt to your life

• It’s built to help you feel calmer and more focused

• It’s not a miracle fix or one-size-fits-all solution

Format: PDF guide with three bonus tools included

As a newsletter subscriber, you’re getting a $10 discount (valid for the next 24 hours). So head to this link and grab your guide and the bonuses before the price goes up tomorrow!

That’s it for today!

And now?

• You can follow me on X and Threads for more inspiration.

• If you find my newsletter valuable, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee here. ☕ It’s how I keep this newsletter free.

• Reply to this email with your thoughts or questions. I read every email. 💌

Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com.