Kells Blogpost: America’s #1 Health Problem (and what you can do to avoid it)

Here at the Kells we will constantly be delving into, dissecting and trying to improve upon the three universal pillars of health: Diet, exercise and sleep. These three areas are the foundation on which healthy living is built, and regardless of what kind of fitness you are into, you should care very much about where these three pieces fall within your spectrum of wellness.

Now, while these pillars may not be new concepts to anyone reading this, the little secret here is this: THE most important of the three (by far) is the one that gets consistently ignored on a nightly basis by more than 100 million Americans.

Sleep.

I know….change the channel, right? It’s sexy to talk about fitness regimens like CrossFit. And it seems that people get swept-up in a new “miracle” dieting fad every few years. But SLEEP? BORING. I get it…but ignore these facts at your own risk.

Sleep is actually even a dirty word in some circles, isn’t it? Gordon Gekko never slept (or ate lunch). Governator Ahhhhnold Swarchenegger tells us that if we want to get ahead in life, we need to hurry up and “sleep faster”. We have years of social programming embedded in our collective psyche telling us that we have to sleep less to achieve more. And nothing could be further from the truth.

According to sleep expert Dr. Kirk Parsley (see link below), chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk for almost every single major disease state, including cancer, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and depression. The biggest problem, though? NONE of us believe that we, as individuals, are affected by this.

In all likelihood whoever is reading this right now believes that they are not impacted by a lack of sleep. We all think we feel fine…and that might be true! IF you are getting 7-9 hours of sleep every single night. If you are not (like the vast majority of Americans), then you probably have some work to do.

“But I’m busy!! I need to unwind at night! I have a crazy schedule!”

Some of the most hard driving, successful, busy individuals in the world get 8-9 hours of sleep per night, because they know that it is critical to do so. The difference between them and the person who gets 6 hours per night? The perception of sleep. In the information age, sleep is treated as a luxury rather than a necessity. We now have the tools in place to work 18-20 hour days, so we go for it. Gotta get that big promotion. Gotta climb the corporate ladder!

Nope.

We are not machines. Our cells have clocks embedded in them that refuse to conform to our desire to get less sleep. Further, our primal “hardware” is not even equipped to handle our society as it currently exists (the elements/stimulation that we are now exposed to on a daily basis). Our “Tribe Size” is too big (thanks to Facebook, Twitter, etc), and we biologically can’t handle it.  

But we still stay up just a little later anyway. We check the news feed. We unwind from the day with a little Duck Dynasty. And it’s hurting us.

The Science Behind Sleep

Despite the fact that most of us would like to flip a switch and be asleep, we know that it is not that easy. Sleep is a process…there is no active mechanism to turn it off and on. It is simply the absence of adrenal function. And when our normal circadian rhythm is in-synch, we see a healthy release of cortisol, which is a steroid hormone that our body releases to suppress the immune system (we want this) and aid in the metabolism of fat, protein and carbs.

Understand, though, that there are different levels of sleep that we attain throughout the night, and the money-maker for us is deep sleep. Deep sleep takes place at various intervals of the night (picture a mountain range chart…and the deep sleep “valleys” take place earlier upon initial sleep, with the duration gets shorter as the night goes on). It is best at about 2 hours in. Here, we see a huge benefit in the generation of testosterone, growth hormone (a phenomenal fat burner) and immune system benefit. In fact, the benefits of deep sleep are many, including better: body composition, memory, cognitive speed, healing, strength, endurance, decreased inflammation, hormone release and mental simulation (executive function/decision making).

….so yeah, it’s kind of important.

And by the way, The #1 predictor of how much will power you have (or put another way, how to best optimize your own will power) is how much you sleep. Let’s repeat that one…

The #1 predictor of how much will power you have (or put another way, how to best optimize your own will power) is how much you sleep.

Guys, I hope you’re grasping how important this stuff is. If you're joining us at the Kells, and if Crossfit is part of your fitness regimen, then your intent is probably to get “better” on many fronts. To get healthier. And if this is the case, then you are overlooking something extremely critical to your goals if you are not getting enough sleep.

If you tell me that you're serious about a healthy lifestyle, about improving all aspects of your life, or even just about getting a little better from a wellness perspective...but you are not serious about your sleep? Then I would have to respectfully disagree with how serious you are. We cannot realistically expect to repeatedly PR our deadlift, or to get those elusive double unders as fast as we want them, or kill it at the office, or have our bodies do what we want them to do and perform the way we want them to perform if we can't execute on one of the most basic yet extremely critical components of a healthy lifestyle. You have to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night….period. And this is not a soap box – ALL OF US struggle with this. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do something about it.

NOW WHAT?

So how to begin? Like any lifestyle change, especially one that is difficult to achieve, we do it slowly. We commit to it. You most likely are not going to start getting an extra two hours of sleep tonight and sustain it…that's not realistic. Start with just a basic awareness of the importance of sleep. Don't just take my word for it, take a look at the links I've attached below and do your own research.

Next? Start with going to bed 30 minutes earlier every night for 2 to 3 weeks. And if that gets you across that seven hour threshold, great. And maybe try to get a little bit more over the course of the next few weeks and months. And if you’re still not at seven hours? Add 30 more until you get there.

Start slow, make your goals achievable, and stick to it. This is the first step to sustainable change.

-Mike

Next time we’ll take a look at the evil cousin to “not enough sleep”……Sugar.

Helpful links on sleep:

http://theconversation.com/peak-athletic-performance-is-dependent-on-sleep-cycle-36769

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9C_8-OoxI

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why