How to Sleep BETTER and SMARTER | Jim Kwik

welcome back quick brain now can you guess the topic we're going to talk about today in this lesson I'm going to talk about a critical thing that is really key to your memory it's key to your mind it's key to your learning which is sleep how you sleep matters especially for your gray matter and so put in the comments how is your sleep in general how is your sleep because you know when you don't get a good night's sleep how are you performing the next day how's your focus how's your ability to concentrate probably not that good it's compromised right what about your memory what about your thinking ability your ability to solve problem what about do you suffer from brain fog or mental fatigue good night's sleep is so critical for your learning and for your memory and when you're not sleeping it impairs almost everything every single thing in your life gets compromised when you don't have the energy and the Vitality the brain power to do the things that you desire and really deserve in your life so so if you want to win the day you have to get a good night's sleep so what is your process well a couple of things that I am really conscious of is to turn into routine so number one I would say your your brain like the rest of your body loves to stay on a schedule so you have these circadian rhythms and this is your biological clock right every 24 hours so going to sleep at the same time and waking up at the same time your brain loves routines and loves that consistency so I would encourage you that even on the weekends if you can go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time a lot of people have alarm clocks to wake up in the morning I suggest you have an alarm go off to go to bed because that's so very important and it's not just the amount of sleep you're getting people say how much sleep should I get seven hours eight hours nine hours really it's the quality of the sleep right the quality of your deep sleep which is restorative to your body the quality of your REM sleep which is restorative to your mind also as well some people use sleep tracking devices and we could talk about that a little bit in the comments about recommendations that that we use in our community uses but go to sleep at the same time now the other thing is you have to be wary of caffeine I know we have a number of coffee drinkers that are out there and they say to stop drinking coffee or caffeinated drinks past two o'clock do not drink past two o'clock because that could stay in your system for upwards of eight plus hours and that could affect your sleep now some people are immune to that but everyone is a little bit bio individual some people could have coffee in the evening and it won't affect them other people are incredibly sensitive I would also suggest that you do not eat or work out too close to bedtime so I would finish those kind of activities a few hours before you're actually going to bed now in the actual process of going to bed my goal is to get into the parasympathetic mode parasympathetic is rest and digest rest and digest this is your recovery right and one of the things I do is really manage my environment because we know through memory training that whatever you're learning or the activity that you're doing gets linked often to the environment that you're in and here's the thing if you use your bedroom or specifically the bed to work to study to do anything other than sleep then what happens is that activity of work and the stress of anxiety checking your emails for instance you're going to connect the two and wonder why you're having trouble sleeping so I would Reserve different places in your home for certain activities it's not always going to be perfect but the goal is progress you do the best you can with what you have and so dedicate that bad area specifically just for sleep now when I'm winding down it's interesting because if you look at Hunter and gatherers when did they know to go to sleep because there would be a change of the environment and usually two of the triggers I want to talk about are light and temperature light and temperature that they knew it was time to go to sleep when the sun went down because it would trigger melatonin physiologically meaning it's time to rest and the problem is we live in a modern day Society with modern day conveniences and we have things like indoor lighting so we don't get those same triggers especially if you're on your devices at night meaning you're watching television you're looking at your laptop your tablet your phone and it emits this blue light and the blue light fools your mind into thinking it's still daylight and so you're not secreting the Melatonin which is your trigger to relax and go to sleep and so what can you do well ideally you're not on your devices the last hour of the day ideally if you have to be on it that you are turning it into night mode that you have some kind of app on your computer or maybe you have blue blocking glasses that keep the blue light out of your eyes and so that is one part of it is the lighting and ideally when you're sleeping you have those blackout curtains because sometimes even a little bit of light can be disturbing light that maybe comes off of an alarm clock maybe lights that's coming in from a street light outside so ideally have it as dark as possible some people are comfortable wearing a mask you know over their eyes something to be able to keep the light out so just be conscious of how light can it affect your brain meaning your eyes are the only part of your brain that you could see right and so keep the light ideally on low some people actually have different tinted light bulbs that they use when they go to sleep whatever works for you fine always what works best for you now also in addition to light you have temperature as a hunter gather you knew it was time to sleep not only because the light went down but the temperature dropped and that temperature drop also physiologically your body reacts by creating that melatonin and saying hey it's time to relax and go to sleep yet again and with modern day conveniences not only do we have light control but we have temperature control you have thermostats that keep you at a certain temperature throughout the day yet we know when your body temperature cools down that's when you're secreting the melatonin to help you to relax so how can you enable to do that well one of the things I sometimes do is take a warm bath or a warm shower because when I come out of it my body temperature starts drop shopping and then I know it's time to go to sleep some people will take a bath and they'll use epsom salt which helps you to relax the magnesium and the salts help you to relax and they're taking a warm bath and they come out and their core body temperature drops which is a signal to be able to go to sleep some people what you'll do and I do myself is turn down the thermostat in the bedroom at night time for me it's about 66 degrees Fahrenheit 66 67 degrees Fahrenheit is really a sweet spot you want it to be cool but you don't want it to be so cold that it is distracting right and it's keeping you awake some people use devices they have a mattress pad that helps to chill and reduce the temperature also as well there are all kinds of ways to be able to to do that some people use masks on their head that also cools them down whatever you use be conscious of the lighting be conscious please of of the temperature the other environmental things besides lighting and temperature is sound and so if you happen to be fortunate enough to live in an environment where it's very quiet that's wonderful but if you live in the city or you maybe you have a partner a bed partner that is snoring or makes noises you might want to use earplugs if that's comfortable for you some people choose to use White Noise machines also as well what I do also is I set my intention for the next day so you know in my morning routine as I've talked about I drink water first thing in the morning so I'll set my environment accordingly I really want to manage the environment not just light and temperature and sound but I'll also manage my environment specifically not working right and what do you have on your nightstand I'm curious put in the comments what do you have in your nightstand for me I have a sleep tracker I have a glass of water because I want it there when I wake up so I could drink the water right away basically when it comes to habits my thought is I want to make the things that are good for me easy and the things that are not good for me difficult what do I mean by that I want it to be easy for me first thing in the morning to hydrate so I put the water there I want it to be difficult to check my phone right you've heard me a lot of videos online one of them has like 37 million views on Facebook just saying don't touch your phone the first half an hour of the day one of the things you can do is control your environment and not have your phone by your bedside right so I don't have my phone at the nightstand and I would say to do that because I make your life easier it's kind of like if you don't want to eat bread when it's being served and they ask you to do you want some bread say no up front otherwise if they set the bread there you're gonna have to say no in your mind like 30 times during the course of that meal no no no easier to control your environment and make it easy to do the good things difficult to do the harmful things all right on the side of my bed besides a glass of water and uh also my sleep tractor I have two other things I have a journal and in that journal is where I take notes on gratitude one of the wonderful things you could do before you go to bed it helps you get in that parasympathetic rest and digest is writing just two or three things that you're grateful for that day because gratitude gives you a calm right it takes you out of your executive mind it gives allows you to appreciate the things that are most important to you and that's in a relaxed safe place to be able to trigger your mind to go to sleep also in that journal I record my dreams meaning that one of the first things I do first thing in the morning is I write down my dreams because I think there's a lot of treasure and ideas that come out of dream states but I have my journal there to be able to capture my dreams and be able to do my gratitude the last thing I have on my nightstand besides a glass of water or tracking device a journal is a fiction book and I say fiction books specifically because I don't want to watch a device at night I don't want to read also a business book or a neuroscience book because that gets me my executive brain I love fiction reading at night I absolutely love it because remember leaders are readers I used to read non-fiction books all the time because I just want to level up and get better right when I started reading fiction reading I started to see also these studies saying that reading fiction actually boosts your your EQ you know where non-fiction reading can boost your your IQ you can learn new ideas and thoughts and insights fiction reading actually your emotional quotient makes you more emotionally intelligent it helps you to create empathy and build your empathy because you get to see things from different points of view through a narrative through storytelling it also boosts your creativity it also boosts your imagination your ability to be able to uh to relate to other individuals so very very powerful Plus for me fiction reading is incredibly entertaining so pick a fiction book that's Light reading I love to do that at night it helps me to phase down and these are all activities that I stack you don't have to do every single thing I'm saying but what it allows you to do is even if you just did one or two or three things it's better than what than nothing so those are some of my favorite things that I do what I would love to know is what's your favorite brain tip when it comes to sleeping what's your favorite habit what's your go-to what you're non-negotiable what's your sleep advice please put it in the comments because remember we're here to do this together we're all in this path together to be able to realize and reveal our fullest potential and you're not just learning from me you want to learn from each other you get to teach each other also as well and when you teach it you get to learn it twice all right fantastic so that's your homework get a good night's sleep today and tomorrow and teach these strategies to other individuals let me know what works for you and let me know your sleep advice is there a certain supplement that you take that helps you to be able to sleep is there certain rituals that you do like maybe going through and scanning your body as you're laying there reviewing your day as I've talked about to boost your episodic memory setting an intention much like you do at night where you need to wake up at a certain time and maybe it's earlier and you happen to wake up within minutes of the alarm clock well that same power of your mind what if you set an intention to uh to wake up happy you know the power of your mind to be able to work on things while you're sleeping and in your dreams you could also set that same intention like you said the intention of waking up at a specific time and you end up doing it very close to that time that's the power of your mind so all these wonderful ideas please share in the comments and I'll see you in our next lesson foreign

Channel: Jim Kwik

Views: 159,145

Keywords: jim kwik, better sleep, sleep smarter, sleep better, sleep routine, sleep and caffeine, sleep habits, kwik brain, best temperature for sleep, sleep tips

Id: FQMWPbArES0

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023