Yesterday I was with a new teammate, she was brand new to a plant-based diet but in pretty good shape, so we went out for a 5k run to talk about her goals. During the run we started talking about sleeping and she said that it was impossible for her to get a full 7 hours of sleep.
“I don’t think my stress is out of control, I do have some stress at work, but I leave that at the office. I’m trying to eat cleaner, I don’t drink caffeine after 12, but always wake up at least two to three times a night, either to run to the bathroom or just feeling wide awake.”.
“Ok, tell me about your morning routine, is there anything particularly stressful or on your mind when you wake up?”.
“No, it’s pretty routine. Get up at 6:30, get ready for work, grab some coffee and then head out. I’ve been doing it so long that I can get to work on autopilot”
“What about your evenings?”
“Pretty simple really, after dinner the kids do the cleaning up, my husband and I usually talk about what has happened during the day and what’s going on this weekend, what the kids have going on, and then we sit down on the couch. We usually watch some shows, I like tea (decaffeinated) and maybe a snack. Then we head to bed around 11”.
“Let me tell you about the 3-2-1-0 Method….”
The 3-2-1-0 Method
It’s basically three simple hacks that will help you get more sleep, will help decrease stress (because you get more sleep), and help you feel more physically fit (because you get more sleep, your body recovers more and you are able to do more physical stuff).
3
3 Hours before you go to bed, quit eating! I got bed at 11 PM. So I almost never eat after 7 P.M.. If you are an evening snacker, this will take about a week to get a handle on, but eat a good dinner and then put the food away.
I was listening to a conversation with a plant based cardiologist and he made the statement, “It’s a good thing to go to bed a little hungry.”. You go to bed on an empty stomach and your body can focus on regenerating and not on digesting. You also feel leaner on an empty stomach and for me personally, I don’t snore when I’m not full. My wife appreciates this very much.
2
2 Hours before bed, quit drinking! Two hours seems to be the sweet spot where I don’t feel thirsty before bed but I also don’t have to get up in 3 hours and pee. My goal is to sleep for as long as I can get into a deep sleep, so that I can really recover from the previous days activities and also wake up more refreshed.
1
1 Hour before bed, turn off all electronics!* Studies show the affect of electronics and blue light and it’s affect on your ability to sleep. I personally have found that shutting the screens off at 10 PM (sometimes even earlier) and reading a book helps me sleep deeper and get a more restful night. Notice the asterisk? Well, truth be told I do use an e-reader for reading. Two reasons for this – The light on an e-reader doesn’t have the same type of of blue light found on tv screens / computers / tablets, and if my wife wants to fall asleep faster than I do, there isn’t a light above my head interrupting her ability to sleep.
0
When it is time to sleep – no light! I was surprised to find out how many people keep a light on at night – don’t do it. While we sleep our bodies produce melatonin, a hormone that helps with the sleep cycle and getting the better, more restful sleep. Light has a very detrimental effect to that, the best thing is removing all light from the room. What about an alarm clock?
I do have an alarm clock but it’s on the other side of the room, shows the time in red, and the brightness is set very low. There are studies that show that red light is beneficial to the production of melatonin, but personally I simply sleep better in a room that is as dark as possible.
0*
Another zero? Yeah, this one isn’t personally a problem for me so I can’t directly speak to the benefit of it, but no devices next to the bed! I personally have never been tempted to check social media / sports / news / weather / etc. while in bed, but if this is an issue for you you – remove the devices from your bedroom. If the temptation isn’t present, you won’t wake up and feel the need to check them.
So that’s it – in a nutshell the 3-2-1-0 method.
“It sounds pretty simple, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to do all of those things right now, some things I refuse to give up.”
“I get it, each item on it’s own doesn’t sound crazy, but combining them all at once seems like a pretty big change.”
The world isn’t black and white. This isn’t all or nothing. Major changes to habits tend to fail, minor changes to habits, tend to be successful. If this seems like too much to do all once, start off small with just one thing- maybe start with not eating after dinner, then move on to the next. Remember, this is a habit change – with no end. Will you always follow these rules, no, of course not. I remember the first rule of test taking, if a question says “always” or “never”, then it is (almost always) false. See what I did there?
