We love to sleep. And we love to talk about it too.
If you’ve listened to the latest HIM & HER Show episodes with Dr. Matthew Walker and Gracie Norton, you already know that Lauryn and Michael prioritize their sleep, in fact it’s number 1 in their list of wellness musts.
Being a hustler and running on 4 hours of sleep is no longer a badge of honor. Why was it ever? A solid 8 hours is good for our mental health, physical health, hormones, and helps every single cell in our body rest and repair.
But we’re all bound to have a bad night’s sleep once in a while. When it takes a long time to fall asleep, when. you wake up multiple times throughout the night, when you wake up and can’t back to sleep – it’s kind of the worst. So what do we do if we’re falling into bad sleep patterns or, dare we say, you’re on the brink of insomnia?
Today we have Ray Monzer on the blog. As a professional soccer player and health and wellness blogger, dealing with insomnia is his specialty. He’s helped many teammates and friends overcome bad sleep patterns and today he’s sharing all his tips with you.
With that let’s welcome Ray to the blog.
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If insomnia was a company, and they needed to hire a brand ambassador, they wouldn’t hesitate to hire me for the job.
My name is Ray, a pro soccer player currently under contract, and a writer who’s been writing for 2 years now.
Between spending my time training, traveling, researching, and writing articles, I had always aimed to help as many people with their wellness journeys as possible.
What started as helping teammates, coaches, and friends with their general health and fitness problems, became Ray’s Lifestyle Field, my health blog to improve as many lives as possible…and we’re only getting started.
But despite all the knowledge and expertise, there was always one thing I couldn’t overcome: A regular sleep schedule.
I cannot tell you how many bad nights of sleep I’ve had: taking too long to sleep, waking up several times, overthinking, not sleeping at all for consecutive nights.
I remember once I was in Europe. So I was jetlagged, tired, and sleepy…and I STILL couldn’t get myself to shut my eyes and go to dreamland.
And that’s not ideal for me…here’s why.
I’ve been an athlete since 2017. I have been training every day, pushing myself and my body to the limit. And how did it turn out?
Well, I got injured.
I was on the sidelines for 2 out of the 7 years of my career. I quickly learned that recovery is an important aspect of an athlete’s life; to anyone’s life for that matter.
This prompted me to start my own little research.
I’ve read all the books about recovery and tried every single tactic out there. From ice baths, saunas, different diets (keto, carnivore), reading books about it, time management, load management, progressive overloads, managing micro and macronutrients, and even calorie counting (my personal rock bottom).
But none of them really changed anything. I was fit, looked better, and even had the confidence I always wanted…but man, I just couldn’t sleep at night.
After spending years reading and experimenting on my body, as well as spending time in a physiotherapist’s office, and playing for different clubs, I finally understood how the game went.
None of the efforts you make matter if your sleep is hurt. Plain and simple.
When it comes to optimizing sleep to avoid these bad nights, here’s what I tried:
Melatonin
Magnesium L. Threonate
Apigenin
CBD
All the teas
Change of meal times
Change of exercise times
Food for sleep (banana, hot milk)
And none of these made the problem go away. A consultation with the doctor also didn’t help as much.
But, I did manage to fix it.
When it comes to recovery, I have the unfortunate experience of dealing with all the injuries that can happen to an athlete and the average wellness guru (you know…the lower back pain, the shoulder pains when working out, the casual hamstring tears, etc.)
So, why should you listen to me talking about sleep?
Let’s put it like this: If I managed to pull myself out of insomnia, as well as help my entourage and my readers with their sleep, then I think you can find some value in this article.
And most information you read online isn’t accurate, we all know this. So, consider me the filter, where I go through all the misinformation and I give you what really matters.
So….How Do You Recover From A Bad Night’s Sleep?
Here’s how your day should look when you just suffered a terrible night of insomnia:
Don’t snooze, just get out of bed!
Take a cold shower if you’re really sleepy…that will wake you up short term.
Get sunlight: This is your best way of telling your brain that it’s daytime now, which is time to stop making you sleepy.
Caffeine is your ally, but not too much, and not after 12 pm.
An afternoon crash (natural dip) will hit you hard. Resist it by taking a walk, working out, or even another cold shower.
Work Out!!!!!!! If there was ever a time to work out, it’s after a bad night’s sleep.
Do not sleep until the next night. If you’re used to taking regular naps, then continue taking them. If you don’t nap regularly, don’t start now. You’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
Go to bed 7-8 hours before waking up.
During The Night
If insomnia is hitting you, and you can’t seem to sleep, then get out of bed. There’s a thing your brain does that can hurt your sleep chances, and that’s associating wakefulness with your bedroom.
If you can’t sleep, then get out of your bedroom. Go read, meditate, keep yourself occupied. Don’t force yourself to sleep…I have tried it, and I always lost.
Plus, I find that when you get out of bed and do something else, it keeps your mind away from wanting to sleep, and you get tired again.
Don’t take sleeping pills or sedatives. It’s been proven that sleeping pills do not produce the same hormones as your body (the best example would be melatonin).
As for sedatives, you’re just not conscious for a few hours. It’s not sleep, you’re in no way resting or dreaming. And, if your body gets used to sleeping pills to sleep…then that becomes an addiction, an unhealthy one if you ask me.
PS. If you’re an overthinker, try journaling in the middle of the night. It’s a great way to get rid of your thoughts, and you tire your brain.
Don’t Start Napping, Please
I’ll go ahead and simply say that when you just suffered from a bad night’s sleep, then there isn’t much to do. Simply ignore it…
“Yeah, thanks, but that’s not easy to do.”
What I mean is that when it comes to sleep, regularity is the name of the game. If one night turned out bad, then in the bigger picture, we should just wait for the next one.
Sleep expert Matthew Walker (check out his HIM & HER Show episode here) has said that: During the day, the longer that we’re awake, we build up sleepiness, and that’s good, it’s healthy. It means we’ll fall asleep and stay asleep at night.”
This is why when you decide to take naps, you hurt that “sleepiness buildup,” and then you start an unfortunate chain of bad night sleep.
Remember, if we have one bad night, we should limit the damage. By napping, we might spread the damage, and affect our sleep schedule.
Cold and Coffee
I remember one afternoon, I came home from work and I was extremely tired and dangerously sleepy. The day before I went to sleep late and woke up at 5 am. Despite being too sleepy, I really wanted to work out that day.
So, what did I do? I took a cold shower, as cold as I could handle. When I tell you the shock revived me, I mean it.
Cold is a life hack when you need to wake up…it shocks your body and puts you in an alert state where it produces adrenaline. We all know adrenaline is something we need when we feel sleepy.
Where am I going with this?
Well, coffee will only help in the short term. It keeps you awake, but you cannot spend the whole day drinking coffee…after 12 pm, you should stop.
And with the afternoon crash coming hard, try to take these cold showers to give you the boost necessary to get through the next part of the day. You can take more than one. It won’t feel good, and you’ll hate my guts, but you’ll avoid sleep, which is something we established as necessary. If you have access to a cold plunge, that’s great. If you don’t, check out these cold plunge alternatives.
I’ll happily take the hate for your well-being!
About Food And Water
Have you ever noticed that after a bad night, you start eating? I mean, EATING. You get so hungry that you crave every food you can think of, especially junk food.
Well, that’s normal.
It’s been proven that a bad night’s sleep leads to an increase in ghrelin (the hormone associated with appetite) and a decrease in leptin (the hormone associated with satiety).
You basically get hungry more and take longer to get full. Those same hormonal imbalances happen when you’re hungover as well.
So, be mindful of your eating patterns. I know dairy helps with satiety, and proteins tend to get you fuller than carbs and fats.
Concerning hydration…just drink the damn water. You’re already sleepy, imagine being dehydrated on top of this. Your mood and mental state will be all over the place.
Alcohol: “I’ll Just Drink Myself To Sleep”
Right, that statement sounds wrong…and it is.
I’ll simply tell you this: sleeping from being drunk is not the same as natural sleep. If I quote again our good friend Matt Walker about alcohol, he says: “[…] you’re just knocking yourself out, it’s not naturalistic sleep, and it also fragments your sleep. You wake up many more times during the night […]”
Don’t drink and snore.
How To Counter The Effects Of A Bad Night’s Sleep
If you plan to keep yourself awake, then I have given you everything you need. But, there’s more…
Sleep is so important that one bad night can be very dangerous. There are so many drawbacks that I picked a random study to prove my point:
A study made at Uppsala University found that losing a night of sleep may increase blood levels of Alzheimer’s biomarkers.
From one night…
However, you can save yourself. Remember when I told you to work out with like 7 exclamation points? Yeah, that’s because a single HIIT workout can counter some of the effects of a bad night’s sleep.
“Exercise can be a saving grace”
Another way that you can counter the effects of sleep is that no matter who you are, and in what state you might be in, you are always at your cognitive best within the first 3 hours of waking up.
This is in our DNA, and it has to do with our circadian rhythm (our body’s natural clock). It’s also the reason why we’re sleepy at night.
So, instead of sleeping in, hitting the snooze button, or complaining about our night, why not use these three hours to do some productive work?
FUN FACT: I’m someone who considers himself a procrastinator, although I am working on it. I found that my absolute best productive state happens early in the morning, particularly after a bad night’s sleep. I don’t know why, but I always find myself doing things I always push off after a terrible night. Weird, right?
So, if there’s something I can tell you, it’s try to be productive after a bad night’s sleep. At least for the first hours. You’ll pass the time quickly and won’t let that bad night ruin your day.
The Power Of Building A System
Alright, I’ve given you the tools to handle even the worst of nights, both during and after.
How do we make sure these nights don’t happen?
This section is important because it’s what got me out of my insomnia cycle. You need to build a system.
You should treat your sleep with tenderness, care, and affection.
That means:
Sleep and wake up at the same time every day, aligned with your circadian rhythm
Sleep in a cold room, whatever that may mean for you (“optimal” is 64°F)
Blackout before and during bedtime; natural light during waking hours.
Avoid anything that may affect your sleep like screens, sugar, caffeine, etc.
By keeping the same sleep and wake-up time every day (aligned with the circadian rhythm), your body gets used to feeling sleepy around bedtime. Instead of forcing yourself to sleep, you will naturally want to go to bed, which is the top 5 best feelings ever if you ask me.
Sleeping in a blackout, cold room is something most sleep experts agree on, and it works. Your body needs to lower its temperature to sleep, and by helping it, you decrease your chances of a bad night’s sleep.
Our bodies are also reactive to light, and generally, lights mean wake-up time; blackout means sleep.
That’s how our bodies perceive it, and that’s also why screens might destroy your brain’s concept of light, and ruin your sleep chances.
I’ve told you about how devastating a bad night is. Well, a bad system is even worse. Bad sleeping habits increase all-cause mortality, hurt your hormones for weight loss or fitness progress, and increase your stress levels.
Just like psychologist Heythem Naji said: “If you’re constantly stressed, it’s your own fault”…and who else is to blame for your sleeping patterns?
If you made it this far, then you’re up to date on all the sleeping info and tips. You know about some great health experts, and some worrying studies, and exactly what to do when you’ve had a bad night’s sleep.
As for me, I hope you learned something valuable from the article, and your perception of sleep has changed for the better.
As I grow my name in the wellness niche, I will continue to write about health, wellness, and recovery, as well as my favorite thing in the world, soccer.
You can read my work on Ray’s Lifestyle Field.
Sleep well!
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Before we go, a hot tip from TEAM TSC: always keep and ice roller, sheet mask and Barefaced reusable eye masks on hand. This tool kit is magic after a bad night’s sleep or if you run puffy. Trust us.
Be sure to check out Ray’s blog for more on nutrition, wellness and soccer if that’s your thing. We hope you found these tips useful if you’ve suffering with your sleep lately. Let us know if you have any sleeping hacks in the comments below.
x, The Skinny Confidential team
+ To get the deepest sleep of your life, learn more about mouth taping.
++ Learn more about sleep health from expert Dr. Walker here.
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