"Sleep-The undisputed champ for recovery. But how do you ensure great sleep?"
Quick-What's the best bio-hack for recovery?
Ice bath?
Nope.
Infrared heat?
Nope.
Massage?
Nope.
The absolute best hack for slowing the aging process, fighting inflammation, accelerating the benefits of fasting and overall recovery is sleep. Nothing else comes close.
Sleep is when Buddy the Elf comes in to decorate Gimble's. There's no customers to bump into. The mission is clear. There's nothing to do but trick the place out to make it look like a winter wonderland IF the good people at Gimble’s have got the store ready for Buddy.
What if the good people at Gimble's left a bunch of junk lying around for Buddy to clean up before the store opened? What if a huge delivery of stock came in right at the end of the day that must be put away before Buddy could get started? Buddy’s work would most definitely be cut short and suffer.
It's the same when we sleep. If done right, you can have your body all cleaned up and ready for nothing to be done but restoration and regeneration. This strengthens your immunity, slows aging and gives you overall better health.
So how to we ensure a restful night’s sleep? Well, there are a lot of hacks and strategies for a good night’s slumber, but here’s the big winner to make sure you are setting yourself up for the best recovery possible.
Here’s the problem. Many of you reading this article and even the guy writing this article practice intermittent fasting. Sometimes fasting can disrupt sleep. Food makes you sleepy. It’s supposed to. It’s how our body was designed.
It’s especially important to rest after a big meal. The body knows the best way to use the food we take in for recovery is by getting us to rest. This way all the nutrients are able to be used as efficiently as possible for recovery. It’s why you’re so tired after a big feast. If you stuff your gullet, your body reads this as a recovery feast. The problem is we must deliver the food (like Buddy’s packages) at the correct time.
So how can we get the food we need to nurture our bodies for optimal recovery while also not disrupting sleep? The key is managing our eating and sleeping cycles.
According to author and peak nutrition consultant Joel Greene, “Metabolism and food intake are the most powerful input controls over sleep.”
We are specially talking about what gets our organs in the best working order. It’s timing of food intake with our sleep cycle. All the other things such as no blue light in the bedroom, ultra-darkness, cool temperatures help with brain and hormonal response. But when it comes to organs and creating a regenerative factory in our body we need to make sure we follow the proper eating pattern.
Think of it like your car. Just because you maintain the brake fluid properly doesn’t mean you are helping the tires. You need to maintain the entire system. You need to rotate the tires, keep the brake fluid at an optimal level and then drive properly. It’s a symphony of exercises all working in harmony.
In Joel Greene’s book, “The Immunity Code” he offers up a useful protocol to ensure good, restorative sleep. Here it is.
If you have trouble falling asleep here is a dinner that will help you hack that problem.
The What: Grilled cheese sandwich
The When: One or two hours before bed
The How: On sourdough, with mustard and jalapenos on the inside.
What makes this work are the timing and the functional elements of the foods. Sourdough bread helps ferment good bacteria while you sleep. A bit of mustard and jalapenos on the inside help increase metabolism. If you don’t like jalapenos you can leave them off.
Deep sleep is not just a bonus to good health it's a necessity. It very well may be the biggest hack we have for slowing the aging process. It all ties back to maintaining a healthy and robust immune system. If you want to amp your immunity, slow aging and increase overall health, manage your sleep.