Continuing our discussion about sleep, here are a few more things I found out by learning and actual testing – they really work!
The next thing is do not eat a big meal late. In fact, if you can eat your last meal before 6pm, (even 5pm!) you will sleep better. While this is not a discussion on how to lose weight, they are related! If you go a long time each day wothout eating, your body will switch over from buring calories as fuel to burning fat as fuel. And the longer you go, 12 hours, 13, 14, 15…the more exponential the benefits are.
But let’s stick to sleep. When you eat a big meal, your heart rate goes up and your body works to digest all that stuff. You lie in bed, and you are hot, because your body is generating heat digesting everything you ate. Then later, in the wee hours when the bulk of the digestion is done and your body has stored all the extra as fat, then you cool down and can sleep better. But, it’s too late – you don’t have enough hours to get enough sleep. So don’t eat late, and don’t eat big for your last meal. Lunch can be big – but not dinner.
Restaurants want you to have drinks, an appetizer, a main course and a desert – because they drive the ticket up and make more money! You have to be smarter than that!
More on great sleep tomorrow!
I love the way you think! I applied for a job at your company a short while ago and then withdrew my application because I realized the role was not inline with my growth plan. However, researching your business in the process of studying for my initial interview brought me to you and I am ever so grateful. You inspire me! Thank you for sharing your story, wisdom and words of encouragement.
Great post! This actually made me think about my teenagers—they don’t eat much for dinner (sometimes they skip it altogether) and they’re still full of energy. They’re skinny, but they seem to fall asleep quickly without a heavy meal slowing them down. I never really connected that with what you’re saying here, but it makes sense! Definitely rethinking my own late dinners now.
Great sleep is truly the foundation of health, perhaps more than diet and certainly more than exercise…although all are needed. Television is the great thief of sleep.