Welcome to The Hard Truth Podcast.
This is Jeremy Fouts, and today’s topic, we are going to be discussing the benefits of sleep.
I know we all hear it from the time we’re young, you need sleep, you need sleep.
But one thing that I’ve found, when you get older, people think, you know what, why do we need sleep?
And we go through so many health challenges and different things, and we forget the importance of sleep.
And I did a podcast previously, and I made a real short podcast that had some proof of what it does for young athletes.
And go back and listen to that if you have not already.
And I made it real short, that way you could share it with your young athletes.
But as adults, we always forget that sleep also is important for us.
So I’m gonna be discussing that today, the benefits of getting good sleep as an adult.
The Benefits of Sleep, at 48 years old, I’m one of those adults that, what I’m teaching to you today, I really didn’t learn the importance till the last three to four years.
So probably around 44 years old is when I recognize, oh, us adults also need good sleep.
You know, I knew, I heard that when I was younger, that you need good sleep.
But as you start raising a family, you’re starting businesses, you’re starting careers.
You know, you have so much time that you try to invest in self.
You have so much time you’re putting in to make an income.
Then you have so much time you’re spending with your kids.
Then at nighttime, a lot of times, it’s easy just to do something that’s not as productive, just to feel like that is my wind down time.
And we don’t create good routines, good habits to get good sleep.
Now, I’m not a sleep expert, but I can talk to you about four years of what I’ve been really focusing on myself as far as how to get good sleep and to get into a good sleep pattern.
And it has dramatically made a difference in the way I feel, the way I perform in the gym, my attitude, everything.
My life has dramatically improved.
And as I mentioned, in my 30s, I would have laughed about this subject.
If you would have put this on a podcast and said, hey, listen to this guy’s talking about sleep, I’d have said, you’re crazy.
I don’t have time for that.
I mean, I was the guy that would literally drive all the way through the night, you know, take a two hour nap, go to meetings, whatever I had to do.
And I did not understand the importance of sleep.
Now, as I mentioned, I’m not a sleep expert.
So what I did is I’ve actually found a bunch of studies that back up everything that I’m going to tell you.
And I’m not going to sit here and read.
This study was from research by Prather in 2015.
And here’s exactly what it says.
We will put every one of these points that I’m talking about in the notes section description.
So if you want to go look at every one of these studies, then go look at them, learn more in detail.
But my best advice is to start a good routine and start getting about seven to eight hours of sleep a night.
And you’re going to dramatically see a difference in your everyday life.
So the first one, physical benefit of getting good sleep, and this study talks about it, is your immune function.
You know, it’s been proven that people that get more than more than seven hours of sleep is less likely, five times less likely to catch a cold, which a lot of times can lean into more stuff.
It’s been proven on the cardiovascular health in this study that if you get at least seven to eight hours of sleep per night, it will significantly reduce the risk from cardiovascular health.
And you know, I think the reason that this topic of sleep really didn’t start resonating with me until I got to my mid-40s is because we kind of ignore our immune function in our 30s.
We kind of ignore our cardiovascular health because we think we’re bulletproof in our 30s.
But research, guys, has shown your cardiovascular health is heavily linked to the amount of hours that you get.
The next one is weight management.
I work daily with people trying to lose weight, trying to put on muscle.
And it’s proven in this European Heart Journal in 2021 that if you get seven to eight hours of sleep per night, it will significantly improve the amount of good food choices that you make through the day.
The people that get less than seven hours of sleep, it has been proven that they will be consuming more calories from snacks and carbohydrate rich foods than if they would have gotten eight hours of sleep.
I went through a period in this last two to three years that I’ve been trying to put on the most muscle that I can and started really heavily strength training.
I did a little bit in my 30s, but the last three years, I’ve really ramped that up.
And I can tell a big difference in my muscle growth and my body fat content based on how much sleep I get.
You know, I had a friend of mine that coached me a lot when I started strength training.
And he said, Jeremy, he said, your nutrition is a very large part of it on putting on muscle and decreasing body fat.
The next part is hitting the gym and working out with the plan and working out with tension under that muscle.
How much time can we spend, you know, with that muscle getting good quality work in?
But he told me this, and this is something I really didn’t believe him when he said, he said, but muscle growth happens while you’re sleeping.
So while you’re sleeping, your body is recovering and that muscle is building, and your body is able to adapt to, you know, all the things that’s getting through it on a daily basis.
And these people that are struggling with weight management that are not getting good quality of sleep, not only are they not growing muscle, but they’re waking up the next day, sleep deprived, and they’re thinking, well, I’m just gonna grab this donut.
I’m just gonna grab this snack.
I’m just gonna grab, because their mind is not rested.
They are not ready to attack the day.
So weight management is also key in this journal, research journal as well that you can read about.
Next is the mental health benefits.
This is something that I have noticed a big difference in myself.
You know, when I’m rested, at least seven, eight hours of sleep a night, I get up in the morning, I’m able to go through my morning routines.
I’m able to hit the gym.
I’m able to come home with a protein shake.
I’m able to get in the office and get to work.
And I stay just pretty even keel throughout the day.
And I’m not wanting a nap.
I’m not overexhausted, but the mental side is what helps me.
I’m able to jump into a meeting, be mentally sharp, be able to focus on the task on hand.
You know, all of you, if you don’t know, my wife has diagnosed me with a severe case of ADD, and it’s hard for me to stay focused.
And without that sleep, that is even more difficult.
And the mental health behind this is something I’ve noticed a big difference is.
This study that I’m looking at in front of me found that sleep-deprived individuals exhibit heightened emotional reactivity to negative stimuli.
This suggests that the adequate sleep helps regulate emotions and maintain mental health.
I mean, I see a lot of people often that, you know, maybe they’re drinking wine at night, they’re doing all these different things that are self-inflicted, and they get up the next morning, they wasn’t able to get a good deep sleep, a good REM sleep.
And so the next morning, they’re lethargic, they’re just not, you know, real sharp.
And then all of a sudden, just one little thing goes wrong, and their emotions are all over the place.
You know, the mental health benefits and the emotional regulation is big.
Read that study.
It will definitely provide the science that says, you know what, I need sleep for my emotional regulation.
Also in the same study, it talks about your depression and anxiety.
You know, we bring on a lot of this because we’re not getting the right amount of sleep.
This study found that sleep disturbances are a significant predictor of depression and anxiety.
Improving sleep quality will alleviate the symptoms of these mental health disorders.
You know, how many people do you know, and you may be listening, and you may be one of them that are dealing with depression and anxiety.
You know, you may be that one, but ask yourself, what is my sleep patterns?
And not how much hours I’m spending in my bed, because you might be sitting there watching Netflix and scrolling through Instagram or whatever the situation, but how many hours am I getting deep sleep?
Am I getting about an hour and 30 minutes?
How many hours am I getting REM sleep?
When the body is recovering?
Am I getting the good quality amount of sleep?
The next one is cognitive function benefits for your memory.
This study gets down deep and talks about the participants who had adequate sleep demonstrated better retention of learned information compared to those that were sleep deprived.
I did this study, or I did this podcast talking about for young athletes, but I also talked about not what I can do for their field performance, but what I can do for their academics.
It’s the same way for us as adults.
I don’t know if any of you guys can relate to this, but there’s been so many times where we’ve traveled and come home or whatever.
The next day, Candice asked me a question.
I’m like, do what?
I mean, I’m just not sharp.
My memory, and I usually have a good memory, but that sleep makes a huge difference in that cognitive, you know, to be able to remember and to be able to be sharp on our toes at all time.
The next one is performance and safety benefits.
You know, there was a research that I read previously to do in this podcast.
I didn’t end up putting it in here, but it talked about a large percentage of the accidents on the road is because people were sleep deprived.
You know, performance, that’s an easy one.
You know, if you are not getting up in the morning and going to a gym, start that.
And the nights that you got seven hours of sleep, eight hours of sleep, you tell me by the comments how better your workout was than the nights you get five or six hours.
Your performance in everything you do, not just the gym, but your work.
If you’re looking to get a promotion in your job, you’re looking to be a better parent.
You know, don’t blame it on your kids if they’re upsetting you because they didn’t put up the dishes exactly when you told them to.
Maybe our emotions are all out of control.
Maybe our performance is not good through the day because we’re not getting good sleep.
Don’t blame your kid.
Do a self-balance check of what are we doing daily, physically, emotionally, nutrition-wise, and our sleep pattern.
This study also talks about the accident prevention.
I did actually put this in.
Sorry about that.
But it talks about drivers who slept fewer than seven hours had a much higher risk of accidents compared to those who slept seven to eight hours.
You know, so I forgot to actually put that in.
So your work, performance, your safety, everything that you’re looking at, accomplishing your weight management, your hormones balancing out correctly.
That’s when it happens is when you’re sleeping, your weight management, all these things are tied together to this one thing called sleep.
Now, I get it.
I’m a parent.
I got a 17 year old now and about to be a 15 year old in August.
It’s so easy to go through life of making a living, taking care of them, and neglecting ourself.
But today, if you’re listening, I would tell you, get your nutrition under control, get you a workout plan, and get your sleep.
And if you will do those three things, every area in your life will improve.
But don’t forget the sleep part, because we neglect that sleep, because we say that we don’t have time to go to bed and start that routine early.
Those same issues are going to be there tomorrow.
Let’s put a journal together of the things we’re going to attack tomorrow.
Let’s erase our mind by not putting no screen time in the last hour.
Let’s stay away from the alcohol consumption.
Let’s stay away from the things that’s going to stimulate the brain.
Let’s take a good personal development book.
Read 10, 15 pages.
And we say we are going to heal the mind and the body for we can be productive tomorrow.
Starts with sleep.
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