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Every flu season, we brace for an attack on our health. From colds, to flu viruses, to most recently the coronavirus whose outbreak has become a worldwide concern.

We all know to wash our hands and up our vitamin C intake, but how about prioritizing sleep? Sleep is responsible for activating your built-in defense system against harmful germs that can make you ill. Sleep is the best natural immune booster.

Your immune system has three primary jobs:

• Spot disease-causing germs and remove them from the body.
• Neutralize attackers that come from outside the body.
• Build up defenses to protect you from future attacks.

Sleep arms you and helps you to fight back.

Here are 4 actionable strategies to boost your immunity and natural defenses with sleep:

Prioritize

Make sleep a non-negotiable matter. Set a specific bedtime and stick to it. You are training your body to know when it is time to rest and restore. A disruption in your sleep is an invitation for germs and viruses.

Strategize

Set a daily alarm 30 minutes before your bedtime. When it goes off, this should serve as your signal to shift away from what you’re doing and begin to unwind the mind. You cannot sleep if you are stressed. The better your sleep quality, the better your immunity.

Ritualize

Following a regular bedtime ritual even if it’s just brushing your teeth or writing in your journal helps condition your body to recognize it’s time to go to sleep. Without proper sleep rituals, you are more vulnerable to be attacked and to get sick.

Climatize

Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool, between 60º and 67º F (15.5º–19.5º C). A drop in body temperature induces sleep and promotes the production of the “Zzz” hormone melatonin. Give your immune system a daily boost by prioritizing sleep.

While we may not be able to fully control our exposure to germs and diseases, we can build our natural immune defenses in advance. When you sleep better, your immune system fights better.

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When you sleep better, you are better — a better thinker, a better decision maker, a better leader, a better spouse, a better parent, and a better friend. A sleep coach is your partner in becoming that better you.

How is your sleep?

• Do you struggle to shut off your mind, tossing and turning restlessly in your sheets, dreading the inevitable exhaustion waiting for you the following morning?
• Do you wake up during the night and have a hard time going back to sleep, thinking, “Oh no, here we go again…”?
• Do you feel like you’re in a fog in the morning, relying on coffee or energy drinks to make it through the day?

You’re not alone

If any of these scenarios sound familiar to you, you’re not alone. In fact, 1 in 3 people struggle with sleep issues every night. Sleep is one of the first things that go haywire for most people — especially when dealing with uncertainty, worries, and stressful times.

How can something so basic as sleep be so difficult to achieve?

How a sleep coach will help me

What if you knew the sleep secrets used by peak performers like pro athletes, CEOs, and celebrities? What if you could access their behind-the-scenes methods to achieve superior sleep without relying on sleeping pills, supplements, substances, or fancy sleep gadgets?

What if you could fall asleep quicker, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed and energized – no matter what? This is where a sleep coach comes in.

Sleep impacts everything in your life. That’s why sleep coaches are at the forefront of today’s health and personal success revolution.

Your sleep is unique. A sleep coach equips you with personalized strategies, techniques, and tools that are right for your unique needs.

By guiding you through lifestyle and behavior modifications that promote superior, restful sleep, a sleep coach helps you achieve your personal and professional goals. A great day starts with a great night of sleep.

The ABC’s of ‘Why a sleep coach’

Accountability

Sleep coaches guide clients by teaching them to better understand their days so that they can completely understand their nights. When the crucial relationship between daytime activity and nighttime rest is brought together, clients can work to optimize their behaviors and rituals during the day to promote and maximize sleep later in the night.

A coach helps you build up the essential rituals, routines, and boundaries to prevent sleep setbacks and holds you accountable for the actions to take that interfere with quality sleep.

Perhaps while you were busy creating your successes, building your family, and chasing your dreams, the boundary between your day and your night broke down. There are several forces that attack your sleep boundary and cause it to break down: decisions, obstacles, stressors, unresolved mental to-do lists, and worrying about bad outcomes.

A sleep coach helps you identify and analyze those micro-decisions, obstacles and stressors that attack your ability to sleep. They then empower you with practical techniques and tools to shield yourself from future sleep attackers, promoting better sleep and protecting your sleep boundaries from those damaging, old habits.

Based on expertise

Sleep is dynamic and can be complicated when you don’t know what to do with it. In fact, there are over 80 classified sleep disorders! It’s no wonder one in three people find themselves struggling every night.

Sure, anyone can offer quick sleep tips and offer band-aid options, but sleep coaches are specially trained to provide effective, personalized, science-backed solutions. Skilled sleep coaches approach insomnia and sleep problems with the intention to transform, not just inform.

They are trained to identify what keeps you up at night and create a plan to get you to sleep quickly, naturally, and soundly.

Hormones, neurotransmitters, thoughts, stressors, emotions, and many other variables play a role in determining the quality of your sleep. That’s why sleep coaching requires expertise in the interplay of human physiology, neurobiology, chemistry, and psychology. Coaches with a background in healthcare provide sleep solutions that are practical and science-based and do not cater to “trends” or “fads.”

Customized plans

Sleep is a very individualized experience. No two people experience sleep the same. So you could say that you are what you sleep. Sleep coaches work to identify your unique influences, situations, and challenges. A sleep coach will provide you with a personally-tailored roadmap that enables you to remove what’s standing in the way of you getting your best sleep. The sooner you can remove those roadblocks, the quicker you’ll be falling asleep, staying soundly asleep, and waking up refreshed to rock the day.

…to learn what the top 1% of CEOs, professional athletes, and high achievers know about quieting their mind, conquering insomnia, and effortlessly falling and staying asleep — without sleeping pills, supplements, or substances.

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Did you know that the first time anyone ever witnessed the structure of an atom, it wasn’t through a microscope? It was in a dream, and now science can explain why.

Has anyone ever given you the advice to “just sleep on it” before you were about to make a big decision?

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard “sleep on it” — not only in the form of advice, but also in countless movies and TV shows. It’s a very common expression.

There is substantial scientific evidence proving that our minds work more effectively at resolving complicated issues after we’ve allowed ourselves to get some rest.

In 1926, English psychologist Graham Wallis presented a psychological concept known as “The Incubation Effect.” The effect states that once you’ve prepared as best you can, meaning you’ve examined the challenge from several different angles and contemplated on the variety of possible outcomes, the next best step is to just step away altogether.

Recent MRI studies done on the brain while the participants were sleeping revealed an increased level of activity in the frontal cortex of the brain, which is the part of the brain most strongly correlated with creativity. This is where things start to get really interesting.

Bear with me while I get a little science-geeky here. I can’t help it.

In 2012, a  research study presented participants with a series of “remote associates test” items. These test consisted of sets of three seemingly unrelated words, along with a blank space. The participants were required to find the fourth word that functions as a link between the other three.

I’ll give you an example. Here are three words: cookie, sixteen, heart. What’s the fourth word that links these three words?

The answer is sweet. Cookies are sweet, sweet sixteen, sweetheart.

So participants were presented with a series of these three-word test items with varying levels of difficulty. The participants had one minute to solve each item before moving on to the next.

When they reached the end of the test, the group was split into three sections. One section resumed the test after eight hours of sleep, another group resumed the test after an eight-hour break, and the third group went straight back to the beginning and returned to the unsolved items immediately.

The test group that had a full night of rest had allowed their minds to relax into a subconscious state of free association, and when they returned to the test, they were suddenly 40 percent more likely to produce the correct answer.

The sleep group solved a greater number of difficult problems than the other two groups, but there was little to no difference for the number of people who solved the easier problems.

What this study strongly suggests is that sleep boosts creative thinking for more difficult problems.

Our sleeping mind continues to brainstorm

Scientists assert that the formation of seemingly dissociated thoughts coming together in the brain to produce a correlation could be the result of changes to our neurotransmitter systems during sleep.

During sleep, our minds assimilate things in a way that can seem random. This is especially noticeable when considering the bizarre nature of many dreams.

While some dreams are just silly and random, this study and many like it present very compelling evidence to suggest that when we go to sleep knowing we have a problem to solve, our minds continue to brainstorm possible solutions — solutions our waking minds may not have ready access to.

Sleep enhances our ability to integrate unassociated information for creative problem solving.

Who hasn’t spent an embarrassing amount of time racking their brains, searching for a solution only to have the answer just pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the night, as if it had been hiding right there the whole time?

During my Grind Mind days, I wouldn’t think twice about agonizing over a difficult challenge with no immediate solution.

At the time, I didn’t realize I was agonizing!

It seemed normal to me that when presented with a difficult challenge that needed a solution, I would keep my brow furrowed and my shoulders hunched. Every waking hour was an opportunity to continue to go over the same details again and again, racking my brain for an answer. Scouring the same information, searching for something I may have missed. My natural determination to succeed morphed me into an insatiable beast that wouldn’t rest until a solution was in its grasp.

During that time of intense thinking and rethinking, my blood pressure would go through the roof. My digestive system would be all out of whack. I skipped meals. My temperament would become irritable, and in every way possible, I was uncomfortable. That’s normal, right? That’s simply what it feels like to be working through a complicated issue, isn’t it?

I would not stop until I had my answer!

When I got home, my kids would be chatting at me all at once, telling me about their day. I’d smile and nod but wasn’t really listening. How could I? I couldn’t think about anything else until the issue was resolved.

What was I missing? I just needed go over all the facts one more time, Exhausted, I’d finally fall asleep.

The next morning, I’d get into the shower, still a bit groggy. The steam was relaxing and the hot water a relief to my tense shoulders.

I’d let out a sigh of relief and give in to the moment, just for a second, and then — pop!

My solution would present itself. What the heck? How did I not see it before?

Fighting our cultural conditioning

I like to joke about my kids giving me gray hair, but let’s face it: My gray came from worrying incessantly during my Grind Mind years in an attempt to force myself to come up with solutions to difficult problems.

As Maximal Achievers, we’re often very effective problem solvers. Playing a vital role in any dynamic, whether it’s your business, your community, or your family, is inevitably going to involve making major decisions now and then. The stakes can get pretty high when there is an important issue on the table, and it can often feel like the well-being of many other people (our team members, clients, family members), is riding on whether or not we make the best choices possible. It can be a lot of pressure!

Cultural conditioning has influenced many of us to have Grind Minds when it comes to problem solving. We’re programmed to equate staying mentally absorbed with being productive. But there’s a difference between thoroughly considering the facts by examining all the angles, and just plain old fashioned worrying, rehashing, and obsessing.

In today’s Go-Go-Go Culture, that line is basically non-existent.

If you feel busy, then you are busy. If you’re busy, then you are getting ahead, or at least not falling behind. Most of us tend to dwell on important and pressing issues, especially when the outcome has major implications not only for our future, but for other people’s futures as well.

Maximal Achievers strive to find that line between constructive analysis of the situation and exhaustive repeating of the problem.

Famous people who ‘slept on it’

The scientific community is teeming with examples of amazing life-altering breakthroughs that came about all thanks to “sleeping on it.”

Einstein wrote an entire book about his dreams and how they contributed to his Nobel Prize-winning Theory of Relativity.

The father of quantum mechanics, Maximal Achiever Niels Bohr, often spoke of the dream that led him to discover the structure of an atom. After years of studying and reconfiguring, one night he dreamt of a nucleus with electrons swirling around it. His vision held true and resulted in a Nobel Prize for physics.

Pharmacologist Otto Loewi ironically discovered acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter which promotes dreaming, during a dream where he was conducting an experiment to prove that nerve transmissions were chemical, and not electrical. I like this one best, because he woke up at midnight and scribbled down the details of the dream, but when he awoke the next day he couldn’t read his handwriting — it’s pretty funny.

Loewi described the rest of this day as the longest day of his life, as he tried and failed to remember his dream. All day long, pulling his hair out, racking his brain, agonizing over the details… only to fall asleep the following night, and have the same dream again! This time he made sure not to forget, and the result was yet another dream-inspired Nobel Prize-winning theory.

Too good to be true?

The struggle many people have with accepting “The Incubation Effect” is that is seems a little too good to be true. “You mean all I have to do is just drop the issue and trust that suddenly blammo — my mind is going to erupt with an instant solution?” It sounds too easy, and when the stakes are high, it doesn’t feel normal to let things ride.

The truth, though? It isn’t easy to give your mind a rest from pressing issues at all. Sometimes doing nothing takes a tremendous amount of conscious effort. Some of our best ideas, our best strategies and solutions pop in our head in our times of leisure. They come and hit you smack — right out of nowhere — when you stop actively thinking about them and let your mind drift. Such is the power of leisure, rest, and sleep.

The tricky part about putting “The Incubation Effect” into action is that incubation feels like non-action, despite the fact that countless MRI studies have proven that sleep is an incredibly active process.

The lesson here is that you can trust your innate intelligence. You are a Maximal Achiever for a reason.

Your brain is a bank, and when you’ve deposited everything you can toward finding a solution, release the details and turn your attention toward feeding your energy. Energy is the antidote to all our challenges.

Getting caught up in the details of a challenging situation will happen to us all. It’s okay to catch yourself spinning your wheels on an issue, so long as you do catch yourself.

Use your emotional charge as a guide to indicate whether the line between thoughtful analysis and exhaustive rehashing has been crossed. Are you feeling frustrated? Is your pulse throbbing? Are you neglecting to meet your basic needs because you’re being consumed by the situation? If so, then it’s likely you’ve done all that you can do for now, and what you need is rest.

Trust yourself to know what to do when the time is right, and then get your mind to bed!

The more distance you can put between your thoughts and the issue at hand, the more effective The Incubation Effect will be.

There’s nothing more effective for releasing our thoughts and feeding our creative energy than getting some sleep.

The Maximal Life is enjoyable, and challenges are part of the thrill. We no longer need to twist ourselves into knots to solve the challenges of life. As Maximal Achievers, we are learning to trust that we already have everything we need. So next time you feel stumped by something, just sleep on it.

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Did you know that when your body doesn’t get enough rest at night, you’re more likely to eat unhealthy food the next day? We all find ourselves getting to bed a little too late every once in a while. Life happens. Maybe you have a strained deadline to meet, or your kid got the flu, or you’ve just got too much on your mind, and you can’t seem to wind down—it just happens sometimes. But a less-than-restful night’s sleep doesn’t have to mean a next day of zombie-like drudgery.

What the Research Says: Homeostasis vs. Willpower

Recent research has provided a better understanding of how sleepless nights can affect our cravings, food choices and nutrition. Study after study shows that people who don’t get enough sleep, end up eating significantly less protein, but more fat and carbs. People suffering from sleep deprivation, even from just one night, also experience a heightened motivation to seek food for reward. That donut and sugary latte in the morning looks more tempting than normal when we are operating on low reserves of sleep.

Homeostasis

is a state of being, where our internal environment is in optimal harmony with itself. It’s what we would call feeling normal. Anytime we don’t feel normal—after a few drinks, after a heated argument, after a bad night’s sleep—homeostasis immediately kicks into gear to bring us back to normal again. Your body is a reporter and getting back to normal means getting more energy. Energy is the antidote. And where is the first place we look when we need energy? Food.
The main culprit is a biochemical shift in appetite-regulating hormones. When people don’t get enough sleep, the hormone leptin decreases. Leptin is the hormone that tells us when we are getting full. Conversely, the hormone that tells us we are hungry, ghrelin, increases. The result? Overeating.

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The Effects of Sleep Deprivation

A Stanford study revealed that when someone is sleep deprived, there is a significant decrease of leptin in their system. Once again, leptin plays an enormously important role in regulating your appetite because it lets us know when we are getting full. Chances are, when you’re tired or sleep deprived, it will be very difficult to avoid junk food.

Remember homeostasis? When you are physically and mentally exhausted, your body will start seeking energy, trying to feel normal again. Your brain will be looking for extra calories to keep everything functioning. Those quick calories can be found easily in chips, cookies, ice cream… everything you typically know to avoid in excess amounts. But, you’re no longer contending with your willpower. You are dealing with a biochemical shift in your ability to make food choices.

Researchers discovered that sleep deprivation creates an excessive response in the primitive parts of the brain. Brain scans done by University of California, Berkeley showed that a sleep-deprived mind becomes hyperactive in the amygdala; the part of the brain that is specifically emotional, reactive, and survival-based. These scans also revealed a significant decrease in the frontal and insular cortex; the parts of the brain that are responsible for evaluation, self-control, and rational decision making. With these two major biochemical shifts in your brain, due to sleep deprivation, you will be hard set not to struggle with making positive food input choices. The study participants that these scans were taken from did. In fact, every single one of them opted for junk food.

Break the Cycle of Temptation: Food for Fuel

Taking care to up-level your nutrition on sleep-deprived days, will regulate your hormone function and prevent an amygdala induced snack attack. When it comes to food choices, deciding what you will do is a plan. Deciding what you won’t do is a dare to your willpower. Don’t play against your willpower. Make a plan.

Exactly like we do in business, making positive choices for food input requires a strategy, an actionable plan made in advance. There are three simple motions that can keep you on point.

Motion One: Amp Up Your Hydration

Start every morning with 8 ounces of water. When we’re running on fumes from a poor night’s sleep, there’s a good chance we’re also dehydrated. Even a mere 1% loss in hydration, which can easily happen overnight, can impair mood, concentration, and metal processing.

There is not a single cell in your body that doesn’t rely on water. Water transports the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that your internal systems needs to all the cells in your body. When you’re running low on sleep, you’re going to need those rivers flowing. Fill a big pitcher with water in the morning or grab the number of water bottles you’d like to drink for the day so that you can be in conscious control of your hydration throughout the day.

Motion Two: Use Caffeine as a Tool, Not a Crutch

If coffee is part of your morning ritual, go ahead and enjoy it. But cut yourself off from caffeine by lunchtime. While coffee may help initially, the effects will not last. You’ll find yourself physically tired but mentally wired when trying to get to bed that evening. And that’s the last thing you need!

Yes, a shot of coffee will undoubtedly help you concentrate and improve mental stamina during stressful periods–in part because it boosts adrenaline. But caffeine not only stomps on the accelerator, it also blocks access to the brakes. In the body, it adheres to the adenosine receptors on nerve cells. This prevents adenosine, a chemical produced in the brain and designed to slow nerve-cell activity, from parking in its usual spot, so it can’t do its usual job of opening blood vessels and inducing calm and getting you ready for sleep in the evening.

A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that even a small dose of caffeine taken  six hours before bedtime can disrupt sleep.

Instead of coffee or energy drinks in the late afternoon, a great alternative is to drink Green Tea. In addition to the beneficial antioxidants, green tea contains the amino acid L-theanine, which studies link with feeling cooler under pressure. The green stuff comes with a jolt of natural caffeine but without an abrupt effect. Prospective jitters and withdrawal symptoms are unlikely, and you’ll enjoy a focused calm. That’s one of the reasons green tea is one of the ingredients in our Positive Input protein shake.

Keep in mind that when you use caffeine as a crutch, you’re borrowing energy, and when you borrow something you’ll eventually have to pay it back—most likely with interest!

Motion Three: Stabilize Your Blood Sugar

This is the step that you you’ll carry with you during crunch time; when it’s too late to drink caffeine but too early to go home and get to bed. Exhaustion combined with low blood sugar is a very stressful and even painful experience. After missing sleep you start the day with marked disadvantages. Sleep deprivation turns into intense sugar cravings. Some studies have shown that just one night of sleep deprivation can make you as insulin resistant as a person with type 2 diabetes.

Help keep your blood sugar stable by prioritizing premium quality protein and healthy fats. This combination is the key. Sugars and simple carbs such as donuts, pasta and bagels will absorb like rapid fire into your system. It’s better for that energy to fuel you more gradually, in a way that will sustain you throughout your day and reduce your cravings.

A Sample Eating Plan

• For breakfast: Choose protein-rich foods such as cottage cheese, plain yogurt, eggs, chicken breast or one of YOUMAXA’s Positive Input protein shakes—they’re simple, repeatable and portable when you’re in a rush.

• For lunch: Eat light. Heavy carbs and overly rich meals will leave you feeling in desperate need for a nap when your already exhausted system goes into digestion. Try 1/3 plate of protein from chicken, fish, beans, or lean beef + 1/3 plate of non-starchy vegetables + 1/3 plate of dense carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, quinoa or beans) with some healthy fats (avocado, olive or coconut oil).

• For dinner: Eat a calming meal. This is the time when hearty carbs can come in. Have a baked potato, whole grain pasta or a slice of warm bread. Carbs will make your serotonin levels go up, and your cortisol levels go down. This is the perfect internal environment for enjoying a relaxing evening with your family and preparing your body for a good night’s sleep.

• For snacks: Snacking is when the sugar binge really looms its ugly head, when you suddenly realize you just ate an entire chocolate cake or reached the bottom of the family sized potato chips. As soon as you realize that your food choices are being overridden by sleep deprivation, switch to hydration, proteins and healthy fats. Turn to crunchy things like nuts, carrots, celery and apples, or chewy things like coconut shreds and berries.

Your sleeping and eating patterns are closely related. Now that you understand how food affects your brain and body chemistry, you can leverage that information to improve your energy, productivity, and mental clarity—even when operating on less sleep. Having an actionable plan is a choice. Not having a plan is a dare that works against your willpower. It’s always possible to fuel our bodies with the Positive Inputs we need to live The Maximal Life!

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Do you ever feel like your brain gets an energy rush the moment you hit the bed, even though your body feels nearly collapsed from exhaustion?

What’s the big idea, Brain? Can’t you see it’s late? What’s so important that it can’t wait until tomorrow?

Do you ever wish you could just reach out and turn the volume down on your brain at night?

Sometimes the mental traffic within the mind can be so loud, it’s like another person is sitting next to you who just won’t shut up and let you get some sleep.

It’s very common for people to report not being able to fall asleep because their brain is too wired with activity, too full of narratives directed at other people, or overstimulated by the constant inputs from digital media. The brain is basically a bank, and every day, we make all kinds of deposits — interactions, experiences, images, sensations, and opinions.

Stuck in a loop

Sometimes we are faced with challenges that don’t have immediately foreseeable solutions.

As natural problem solvers, it can seem almost impossible not to keep going over these types of challenges again and again in our minds. In our determination to find a solution, we can become fairly obsessed with pouring over every single detail, playing out every possible scenario, and scouring our memory for anything we might have missed that could hold the answer.

This type of mental traffic can feel very productive or proactive, even long after it’s gotten to the point where there is no new information, and we are just re-rehearsing the same thoughts over and over. Sometimes the determination to create a solution can get our minds stuck in a loop, like a song playing on repeat.

When our minds are caught up in one of these loops and bedtime rolls around, it’s like “Good luck falling asleep!” Because the lights may be out, and your body may be lying still, but your mind is still racing.

Sometimes it’s some kind of disharmony or miscommunication within our relationships. Maybe someone said something about us that isn’t true, and our sense of pride is knocking around inside our heads, demanding “Justice!!!”

Sometimes it’s a conflict with a spouse or a close friend that leaves us feeling like we can’t be comfortable until things are made right again.

So we toss and turn as our mind churns over the situation again and again. We recall, imagine, and reimagine conversations, playing them out in our minds over and over, sometimes even until it stops being about the original issue at all.

As natural problem-solvers, it may not feel natural to set aside pending issues and just allow ourselves to drift off into a calm and peaceful sleep.

When we have racing thoughts, it can feel like we are stuck in the passenger seat while our brain careens carelessly along an endlessly winding road.

Rehashing difficult situations until our nerves are raw and our minds are obsessed only serves to steal from us what can be enjoyed in the present moment. It may seem like we’re helping by thinking, but the reality is we are just lying there worrying when we could be resting and gathering energy to face the situation at our best.

The determination to disengage from our daily workload and promote restful sleep requires courage and confidence. It took me a long time to build the confidence to say, “If there were a solution today, I would already have found it. When that solution does finally reveal itself, I will be ready to grasp it with both hands and put it into action.”

This is a confidence that is built incrementally, a trust that developed once I began to prioritize restoring my energy levels. Because energy is the antidote to all our challenges.

Today, when I feel my mind begin to reel, spin, and repeat, I know that I am just as capable of setting that mental chatter aside and being the calm in the storm as I am free to allow it to send me spiraling off on a wave of stress hormones.

As Maximal Achievers, we are learning to trust in our ability to handle life’s many curveballs on the fly and take appropriate action when those actions become necessary. Life occurs on life’s terms. As Maximal Achievers we are continually learning new ways to transform all of life’s experiences into opportunities that help us create The Maximal Life.

With that mindset, there are no setbacks — only opportunities to learn and to grow. The more we put that mindset into action, the more trust we build in our own ability to achieve the best outcome in any situation.

Three winning techniques

Getting a good night’s rest is something you can build up toward strategically, by taking some very simple actions throughout each day.

Let’s three simple, science-supported tools for quieting the mind at night, at times when sleep is the necessary and appropriate action to take. Because now we know that no matter what challenges lie before us, energy is the antidote. And what better way is there to energize us than a restful night’s sleep?

The three winning strategies for a good night’s sleep are:

1. Use caffeine as an ally, not as a crutch.

So to get started, let’s begin where most of us begin each morning: with our coffee.

Harvard research specialist Frank Hu recently completed a 20-year study on the effects of coffee on the human body, and as it turns out, coffee is AMAZING!

His research covers more than 200,000 participants starting in 1976. The results show that people who drink coffee regularly decrease their risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, Parkinson’s, and liver dysfunction. Wow! The Harvard study also revealed that coffee is associated with decreased risk of depression, helps the body metabolize blood sugar, and can even reduce inflammation!

Coffee is chock full of complex bioactive compounds (hundreds, perhaps thousands of them) that work together alongside minerals and antioxidants to provide many health benefits, but here’s the catch: The caffeine in coffee has nothing to do with the benefits of drinking this wonderfully complex beverage.

Let’s say that another way: You would get the same health benefits from coffee by drinking decaf.

Caffeine is a stimulant, and if you’ll allow me to get a little geeky, I’m going to briefly explain how caffeine works to give you that familiar buzz.

When we become fatigued, and we need to take a break, the body produces a chemical called adenosine. As adenosine begins to build up, the body tells us very clearly that we need to rest. The caffeine found in coffee is so structurally similar to adenosine that it can attach to the adenosine receptors, preventing the body’s report for the need to rest and renew from reaching the brain.

Even though we may essentially be exhausted and running on fumes, for a brief period of time we don’t feel tired. But we only think we have more energy. The reality is that the energy from coffee is counterfeit. It’s borrowed energy that will need to be paid back. That’s why coffee can make us crash.

Research done by The Mayo Clinic has revealed that the turning point for when caffeine begins to work against you is between 500 and 600 milligrams. One 16-ounce cup of coffee contains 200 milligrams of caffeine. So,that’s between 2-3 cups of coffee per day.

The most important finding of this Mayo Clinic study that I want to impress on you is that the caffeine found in coffee has a half-life of 6-8 hours. What that means is that when we drink coffee after 2 p.m., half of that caffeine is still circulating in our system somewhere between 8 and 10pm — right when we are supposed to be winding down for a good night’s sleep.

Setting a coffee cut-off time, ideally around noon, and only enjoying 2-3 cups every morning, allows you to gain all the health benefits of coffee, without using the caffeine as a crutch.

So go ahead, you guys — wake up and smell the coffee! But drink your coffee strategically, not habitually. Set yourself up to win by ensuring your coffee intake isn’t interfering with your rest at night.

2. Avoid disturbing, or distracting media content throughout the day. Carefully curate the content you allow into your mind.

Avoid exposure to disturbing media and excessive ad content. In today’s digital consumer culture, the average person sees over 50,000 ads a day. Our minds are literally flooded by an onslaught of negative news reports and unrealistic depictions of life. I’m sure you’ve all heard the gruesome saying “If it bleeds, it leads.” Well, this kind of attention-stealing and terribly distracting content is designed to trigger our sympathetic nervous system, which floods our body with stress hormones. It’s really as simple as this: Soaking in adrenaline all day from exposure to stressful, negative digital content makes it more difficult to relax at the end of the day.

The brain isn’t like a light switch that you can just turn off. It’s more like a jet engine — it needs to cool off and power down gradually.

Now more than ever before, we have a constant flow of information (most of it useless, let’s be honest) being shoved at us from every direction. For a good night’s sleep, it’s vital that we limit our exposure during the day to this influx of useless information that contributes greatly to mental traffic and internal chatter.

3. Turn to your senses

The final winning strategy for a good night’s rest is turning your focus toward your senses (touch, taste, hearing, sight, and smell). This can involve a variety of techniques to help cool off and power down your jet engine brain at the end of your busy day — different methods will work for different people.

It’s up to you to explore and discover what suits your needs best. For most people, focusing on our senses means disconnecting from our digital devices altogether.

Music

For me, I use music to start focusing on my senses as soon as I get in my car to drive home. Music transcends reality by transporting us into a story that stirs our emotions. By switching the channel in my brain from the logical, focused work channel to the emotional, more playful channel, I prime my evening energy for meeting my kids with a smile.

Audiobooks

Even as very young children, we found that listening to a good story was a great way to settle the mind and make room for a relaxing rest. I have some clients who really love to listen to audiobooks on the way home, because it helps them forget all the details of the day, and all the tasks for tomorrow, and allows them to just enjoy listening to a good story.

Calming touch

For touch, nothing relaxes the sympathetic nervous system and releases feel-good hormones for promoting restful sleep like warm affectionate exchanges with our loved ones. Hugs and kisses from our spouses and our kids are incredibly calming not only for our own nervous systems, but for theirs as well.

Our sense of touch can also mean a warm soak for tired muscles or gentle stretching such as yoga.

An enlivening walk

A brisk walk around the neighborhood is another great way to engage your senses.

Focus is the key

Whatever activity you choose to help your brain cool off and power down, the important thing about this tool is that you really focus on your senses.

If you choose mindful breathing, really feel the air filling your lungs, and notice where your body expands, focus on the space the air is creating, and release it slowly, observing any changes.

If you choose a walk around the neighborhood, listen to the leaves rustle, feel the cool night air on your skin…

If you choose a warm, home-cooked meal, savor every bite intentionally. Notice the different flavors, and enjoy each of them thoroughly…

Relax

The most important factor in relaxing the mind is relaxing the body.

Turning your focus toward your senses brings your awareness into your body and gives your thinking mind some space to unwind.

As Maximal Achievers, we must build the confidence to prioritize our rest and renewal, because we know that when we are running at peak performance, nothing can stop us from living The Maximal Life.

The most difficult part of relaxing at the end of the day, is trusting that you don’t need to be “on” 24/7. Remember: Whether we ‘re seeking answers, solutions, and new ideas, energy is the antidote to all our challenges.

More Articles from YOUMAXA

More Articles from YOUMAXA

Even the best of us can be slowed down by the after-lunch slump. But sometimes we actually have to slow down in order to speed up. Here’s the secret to transforming a post-lunch lull, into a super-charged afternoon:

What time is it where you are right now? Do you have a bunch of tabs open on your computer, trying to answer an email while reading this while also thinking about which item on your packed to-do list to tackle next?

By the time you reach the afternoon, are you often feeling frazzled and low-energy while still facing a busy schedule? Have you wondered if there is some way to overcome that afternoon slump?

As a society, we concern ourselves with making a positive start each morning and creating healthy evening rituals and habits. However, we don’t give as much attention to the middle of the day — to our energy levels, clarity of thought, focus, and productivity in the post-lunch hours between 1 and 4 p.m.

Creating potent midday habits can help us overcome the irritation, tiredness, and lack of creativity many people typically experience after lunch. So this is what I want to share with you today. If you’ve seen my articles on effective time management vs. energy management, or even the one about using the afternoon nap as an effective productivity tool, you’ll notice that here we’re going to take the idea one step further, by outlining the exact actions that will enable you to get the most from the natural ebbs and flows of your body rhythms.

There are specific measures we can take to overcome the daily grind and embrace the peak performer within throughout our workday.

Low on energy, high on stress?

In the whole business of achieving an early-morning boost that leads to an evening productivity boost, product marketers and lifestyle gurus signal that our afternoons don’t require the same amount of focused attention. That is definitely not true!

In my experience, low energy inevitably leads to stress because we’re trying to accomplish things that are beyond our current energy levels.

Research tells us that this afternoon slump occurs most frequently between that post-lunch period between 1 and 4 p.m. which is a result of certain biological processes and the ultradian rhythm of the body. This is the time when the body has been awake for many hours, having expended significant amounts of physical and mental energy. This is also the time when the body’s core temperature dips and the body releases sleep hormones. So if you’re feeling drowsy and irritable and out of it during that crucial afternoon period, it’s not your fault. Our body’s rhythms are structured to need some amount of midday downtime. It doesn’t help that there is a significant amount of guilt surrounding the acknowledgement of these perfectly natural body rhythms or finding ways to manage them.

Consider the fact that most of us go to bed at about 11 p.m. and wake up between 6 and 7 a.m. — which, by the way, is not enough sleep, as you well know, having read about the Maximal Life.

So that’s about 17 straight hours of being awake. Even if you’re getting eight hours of sleep, that is still a full 16 hours of being awake at one go. That’s a lot of nonstop working, grinding, just keeping at it! That is just not conducive to the productivity levels of the Maximal Achiever, and research has confirmed that. The body’s energy levels tend to peak after some hours of work and then dip after lunch, at roughly 3 p.m.

A mid-workday break is vital

In fact, research now firmly supports those who say midday breaks are necessary. They’re necessary not only for achieving peak performance, but also for good health over the long term. One study examined hundreds of workers to find that those who lunched at their desks were more stressed and tired. As I have done my own research into this subject, I have become more and more convinced that a midday break — or rather a mid-workday break — is vital for optimal productivity, job performance and good health.

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” —Lou Holtz, football player and coach.

As I researched the importance of the midday break, I came across more facts and case studies that corroborated this hypothesis. The story of Digitalux CEO Dan Scalco was instructive for me: He would usually work rigorous 12-hour days solving problems, managing, pitching — you know, all the stuff expected of high-powered executives.

He struggled with that dreaded midday slump though. He tried a lot of things: working out, multivitamins, supplements, and so on. But none of that seemed to work. Then he tried out a strategy that other CEOs and top managers swear by, something that he was quite skeptical about to begin with: He started to meditate for about 15 to 20 minutes a day, right there in the office.

He would close his eyes and repeat a certain mantra in his head. This, according to him, was like a daily mini-vacation and had the impact of recharging his brain! This is the strategy he devised; this is what worked for him — that was, in fact, life-changing for him!

Ryan Hulland’s story of being tired all the time follows a similar trajectory: As co-owner of Monitoring Management (MonMan), an HVAC and electrical equipment company, working weekends and even nights after getting his little son to bed was taking a toll on him.

For a while, he tried caffeinated beverages to help him stay awake through his days, but that didn’t seem to help. Then he figured out a way to stay on top of things – by taking a walk after lunch. He would return invigorated. But when he did, he found that it seemed like the same old same old back in his office.

So he needed to tweak something else for it to make a difference: he divided his to-do list into different columns – fun, urgent and just ‘stuff’. He would then choose to do things from those lists depending upon how he was feeling. That is what helped make a difference in his workday. He found that by tweaking his schedule, he managed to be about 20 to 30 percent more productive.

Breaks boost energy, health, and happiness

“Our body is a well-set clock which keeps good time,” wrote Joseph Hall, British bishop and satirist, “but if it be too much or indiscreetly tampered with, the alarm runs out before the hour.” At the personal level, I tried many different ways to overcome my own midday slump and found that taking breaks was vital to my productivity and well-being. I realized that those breaks helped break up the tedium of work.

No matter how much we enjoy our work, there are always going to be some boring bits that need doing! Because of that vital break, I am able to approach my work with renewed focus and vigor. I’m less irritable and more empathetic.

The other benefit that I experienced was an improved ability to take in and retain new information and form new connections. It was like I had been working in “diffuse mode,” and then by ensuring that I was making time for that break, it was like I was working in “focused mode” again. The renewed clarity of my thoughts helped me narrow down goals and let me approach them in a more methodical and effective manner.

There’s an undeniable master clock in the body that tells us what the body needs. Become aware of it. What it says to us promotes health and wellness. Our body is our best reporter, and energy is the antidote to all our problems. So instead of fighting the body clock and rhythm, the idea is to work with it. The midday break has positive impacts on our physical self, our cognitive abilities and our emotional well-being as well.

The easy-to-implement S-Shaped Day from my MAXA MINUTES Program fully covers the needs of the Maximal Achiever. It’s a full-day management guide that has helped me, everyone in my office, and so many of my clients become happier and more productive.

Prepare for your afternoon break by getting enough rest at night. Pay attention to your posture. Dedicate time and space for healing and renewal. Allot space in your office for making a healthy snack. Keep in touch with your body’s rhythms, and encourage those in your office to do the same. During the times when you feel overwhelmed or overburdened, take a few minutes to take stock, to recuperate your mind. Break down tasks and prioritize them in ways that feel logical and natural.

Now we know that mid-afternoon meditation worked for Dan, and that Ryan became more productive by taking an afternoon walk and re-strategizing his schedule. As for me, I swear by the 20-minute power nap.

So clearly, different things work for different people. Schedule your day according to the ebbs and flows of energy. Take a mid-workday break. Don’t just spend that time browsing your social media feed — that doesn’t relax and recharge the brain. Bright screens keep our minds stimulated. Instead, ensure the brain gets some down time during your break so it can truly recharge for the work ahead. Detach completely from what you were doing, knowing that when you come back to it, you will be more prepared to give it your all. Let your break time mean doing what you like, what you enjoy, what you cherish.

How to take a break from the grind and enjoy some “me time”:

Do this right now: Think about your workday. Examine the following:

• How many breaks do you allow yourself each day? Maybe on a scale —do you take between zero to 2 breaks a day? One to three?
• On days when you don’t take any breaks at all, are you drinking coffee to supplement your energy levels all day?
• Do you often feel like you’re in a rush?
• How often do you scarf down lunch at your desk?
• How often do you skip eating lunch altogether?
• Do you often feel irritable and impatient during your drive home?

Now do this today:

Make time for lunch. Aim for autonomy and detachment during lunch – both physical and mental. Get away from your desk and your work and all that it entails. Switch off. Give yourself some non-work space, literally and figuratively. Since you’ve been expending mental energy all day, give your brain a rest. So at this time I would advise that you disengage from all electronics. Change the channel, so to speak. Give yourself an ultradian break to recharge and flood your system with feel-good hormones.

Find your magic activity that calms your mind. Today when you take your midday break, don’t give in to the urge to check your email or your social media feed during your break. Take a walk, maybe visit a nearby park, or speak with colleagues about things completely unrelated to work. Climb up and down some stairs to get your circulation going. Talk to a friend or loved one about nothing in particular while taking a stroll. Or find a quiet, preferably dark, undisturbed corner and take a 20-minute power nap. You could listen to some music – uplifting, powerful, interesting music! Close your eyes, will your muscles to relax, and just absorb the sound, letting it all simply flow through you!

Try to do at least one of these. Work it into an afternoon ritual, a habit. As a leader, set an example for your employees. Encourage them to take these breaks as well. And see the difference it makes to overall productivity and well-being at your workplace.

More Articles from YOUMAXA

More Articles from YOUMAXA

Did your last red-eye flight throw you off your game the following day? There are ways to knock jet lag right out of the park. Learn how to bounce back quickly from your next long-distance flight, and show up alert, focused and productive the next day.

For all us who travel, jet lag and the discomfort that accompanies it are familiar territory:

• Daytime sleepiness
• Low energy levels
• Messed-up meal patterns
• And even feeling disoriented.

We’ve all experienced this after crossing over several time zones during air travel – the more time zones you cross, the worse it can be.

The human body was certainly not designed to be cooped up inside a pressurized metal tube in close proximity to a few hundred other people 30,000 feet above the ground for several hours, so it’s no wonder that most people feel the ill effects of jet lag so acutely.

So let’s talk today about why jet lag happens and exactly what happens in the body to produce the familiar symptoms.

“Due to unfortunate circumstances, I am awake.”

A friend texted this to me in the middle of his night when he was out of the country for a business conference for a few days. Sure I laughed at his witty take on what must be a very uncomfortable experience, but it also got me thinking about a very real problem that so many high-powered executives, managers and business owners regularly face.

I started researching why jet lag happens, and came across some really shocking facts.

The science of jet lag

Allow me to get a little geeky here and present you with some of the science behind the business of jet lag.

As we go through our day, certain hormones dip and peak at more or less specified times. For instance, melatonin rises during the night and falls during the daylight hours. Cortisol is higher during the morning hours and tapers off as the day progresses. Even the body’s core temperature changes with the time of day. It falls while we are fast asleep at night and rises during the day when we are up and about at our most active.

Obviously, when you travel to a different time zone, your circadian rhythm (your body clock) gets confused. Suddenly you’re in a place where for everyone else it’s time to sleep, but your body is telling you that it will remain awake several hours before it feels the need to sleep. And then getting up is just as difficult, because your body clock is accustomed to waking up a lot later.

It isn’t just that the body ends up without sufficient rest — other bodily processes such as recovery and healing are impaired too. Apart from different waking, sleeping, and eating patterns, the body may also have to adjust to a different climate, longer or shorter daylight hours, and so on. The more time zones you cross, the more your body has to struggles to adjust. Traveling from the northern to the southern hemisphere or vice-versa will cause similar upheavals.

Now this is just one aspect of jet lag. The other is the actual stresses and risks of travel itself.

The travel risks we ignore

When we think about travel risks, we may think about plane crashes. But we rarely think about the health hazards of all the flights that reach their destinations safely: the poor air quality, being immobile for hours and hours, probably not enough hydration and food which is — let’s face it — pretty bad no matter what the airline ads tell us.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot sleep on a plane, even on long-haul flights, no matter how much my seat reclines and how much legroom I have. So getting any kind of rest is always going to be difficult – is it any wonder that most of us tend to feel like exhausted zombies when we land?

Then of course there is probably some amount of work-related stress, the problem of being out of one’s comfort zone, and of having to manage without the people and the things we’re used to having around us.

For instance, did you know that the humidity of the air in the pressurized cabin of is abnormally low? It can be as low as 6 percent relative humidity — lower than the most arid deserts!

Human beings need humidity levels of between 45 and 55 percent to be most comfortable. It’s easy to understand how these conditions can easily result in dehydration, drying of the mucus membranes, and a weakening of the immune system. That’s one of the reasons why you’re more susceptible to catch a cold or the flu so easily while you’re traveling.

The other reason, of course, is the close proximity to so many other people, packed together in such a small space with no way to avoid contact with the bacteria and viruses they may have brought as unintended carry-ons.

As for the antibacterial spray and air fresheners they spray into the cabin, that’s chemical exposure we don’t need — particularly those with allergies or asthma.

More serious risks

If you think these are unimportant, you may want to know about some far more serious health risks that air travel poses:

There is also some unsettling evidence that indicates, when jet lag remains unaddressed and consistent, it may increase risk of some types of cancer and can also impair the memory.

Plus, sitting in the same space with no exercise and little movement for hours significantly increases risk of deep vein thrombosis — the formation of potentially fatal blood clots.

One study also suggests you may need to wear sunscreen if you fly during the day and have a window seat.

And some frequent fliers (people who fly cross-country or equivalent at least twice a month) may be exposed to more radiation than nuclear power workers!

Jet lag is an actual sleep disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic. Studies show that people feel the ill effects of jet lag even when they travel between just two time zones and that prolonged jet lag can have long-term consequences like higher chances of cancer, heart-disease, infertility, and cognitive deficits. When the time difference is 8 or more hours, the symptoms of jet lag are typically the most severe.

Over the years, I have personally experienced many of the symptoms of jet lag and have had friends and associates describe their symptoms to me. They range from fatigue to sore muscles to a feeling of just being unwell having and low energy. Many also feel some amount of nausea and are either unable to eat properly or may feel discomfort when they eat. There may be difficulties concentrating, and even a feeling of being disoriented. There could be physical symptoms such as swollen feet and ankles, headaches and that awful ringing in the ears. Oftentimes, there is just that anxious or uneasy feeling to contend with.

I have seen sleep disturbances from jet lag last for up to a week, and it may take even longer for the body to settle back into its rhythm. I have a close friend who was starting to show some rather marked symptoms of jet lag after his repeated trips.

One particular jaunt of his started with an L.A.-to-London flight and then on to a bunch of meetings and presentations before he hopped on even more flights, from London to New Delhi and then on to Tokyo! When he finally got back home, it took him weeks to recover.

Effective solutions for jet lag

Enough of the doom and gloom now! Yes, jet lag can be bad, travel fatigue is real, but with a little planning and insight into your own system, you can save yourself from the worst of it. The body is a reporter, and when your body reports symptoms of jet lag, there are some very effective measures you can take to minimize and overcome the undesirable effects.  Here are some of the solutions I’ve tested and found to be effective for combating jet lag:

First, plan for your trip. If you’re going to travel eastwards, say New York to London for a week, it may make sense to start getting to bed half an hour early, building up to a couple of hours early before your trip; ease into your destination’s time zone, so to speak. Do the reverse if traveling westward. Also, if possible, plan your trip in a way that there are no layovers or only a short one.

Second, prepare for the actual journey by packing a few healthy snacks: some nuts, seeds, or fruit really help regulate blood sugar and dipping energy levels. Sip water regularly, throughout your flight. Consider avoiding coffee. I find that it always dehydrates me – at 6% humidity, it’s something I cannot afford! One of the best ways to get quality nutrition as well as sufficient hydration is to reach for a Positive Input Protein Shake. Positive Input and its travel-friendly shaker are my constant travel companions and one of the reasons why I manage to stave off the worst effects of jet lag. Not only do I get the benefit of effective nutrition from powerful ingredients such as L-glutamine, D-ribose, magnesium, and antioxidants, I find that I am less likely to catch a cold or feel unwell at the end of the flight. Plus I get to avoid that ghastly onboard food – which I freely confess to disliking intensely!

Third, I make it a point to wear compression socks on long-haul flights and to try to get up and walk around as and whenever possible to keep the circulation going. I also find that wearing earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones helps me a great deal. We tend not to realize how fatiguing and stressful noise can be and how much less tired one feels simply by cutting out the noise pollution!

After you land, continue to eat healthy and stay hydrated. Make sure you get sun exposure so that the body absorbs the natural light and understands at a biological level when day and night are now taking place. Maybe take power naps when you need a boost during the work day, so that you sustain your energy levels. Another recent post covered the science of effective napping in great detail — you might want to check that out as well. Also try to fit in some vigorous exercise to help you sleep at night.

In the end, remember what’s most important: Being away from family puts strain on relationships. So make time to connect with family and friends before you leave and once you’re back. Make sure you touch base regularly throughout your trip. I love video calling my family back home just before my kids’ bedtime and afterwards I spend some quality time chatting about nothing in particular with my lovely wife, the way I would if I were home.

Remember, travel is often an integral aspect of being a busy professional. We have a wide reach, and much to contribute to the world as a whole. Face the challenges of jet lag head on by making a plan in advance.

So the next time you’re traveling for a key presentation or a high-profile negotiation, you’ll have one less thing to worry about. Knock your jet lag out of the park and show up ready to conquer your day!

More Articles from YOUMAXA

More Articles from YOUMAXA

Did you know there’s solid science behind effective napping? That there’s a right way and a wrong way to take a nap? Read more to find out how a strategic nap can help you power through each day.

Do you love taking a nap? I love taking a nap! Giving into that sleepy feeling, shutting those heavy eyes, sinking into a lovely, restful, delightful state! And then waking up feeling refreshed, recharged, and ready to just get up and go! They don’t call it a “power nap” for nothing!

How many species of animals in the world try to get their sleep all at once? Only one – human beings! That’s it. Just us humans. Think about it — every other animal on earth is what they call multiphasic. They get their rest in spurts throughout the day, not all at one go.

And guess what — biologically, we humans are also designed to be multiphasic, to nap every day. It’s coded into our physical and cultural DNA! It’s what nature intended and what’s good for us. So today I want to look at the importance of taking that all-important break during the day.

The midday nap is something that human cultures have practiced until just recently. Somewhere along the way we decided we had to live the grind to be successful – that we must work through the day and sleep only once during a 24-hour cycle. I’m here to tell you that a midday reboot is vital. Taking daily naps has been the practice of geniuses throughout history, and many respected studies now prove the value of this practice beyond doubt!

Now you and I may have been brought up in a work culture that frowns at the idea of sleeping in the afternoon. We may even be conditioned to think of this as “slacking off.” At many companies, an afternoon nap can still get a person fired! But there are sound reasons why more forward-thinking companies like Apple, Nike, Google, and Deloitte are helping to incorporate power naps into employee workdays.

The culture of napping is ancient!

Traditional societies have long understood its importance, particularly in parts of the world where it’s hot in the afternoon.

The ancient Romans were known to take a midday nap which they called a “sexta” (for the sixth hour of the day). Most of us have heard its name in Spanish, the “siesta.” It’s called “riposo” in Italy They all refer to that same delicious little postprandial sleep that the cultures of so many countries still cherish — and with good reason, as research is now confirming.

It could be a short 20-minute nap or a longer time span devoted to sleeping in the afternoon. In many countries, the shops close, the streets appear deserted, and the atmosphere becomes still and calm for several hours after lunch. And then everyone reemerges for an energetic evening of work, socializing, and more.

A midday reboot can recharge you for that afternoon conference. It keeps you alert on your evening commute home and continues to energize you through an evening where you can spend meaningful time with the family.

Sleep is not for the weak

The Grind Mind messaging we receive from today’s alarmist media suggests, “Don’t sleep during the day; it’s bad for you. It reflects poorly on your work ethic. You’ll miss opportunities to get ahead.”

This cultural conditioning we’ve been subjected to for so long directly conflicts with scientific research telling us something quite different — something that makes a whole lot more sense.

If you stick to the sleep-just-once-every-24-hours formula, you’re looking at 16 straight hours of being awake without rest at the very least. So is it any wonder that you experience that dreaded post-lunch slump? By mid-afternoon you’re beginning to feel droopy and groggy. By the time you navigate traffic and get home, you barely have the energy to eat dinner. A short afternoon nap is the ideal way to reset your energy. Energy is the antidote!

Your bodily processes such as digestion, blood pressure maintenance, and body temperature are all interconnected with the body’s circadian rhythms and, therefore, with sleep. What does an afternoon nap do? In a sense, it helps reset that body clock. It helps you get over the grogginess that tends to creep in around mid-afternoon.

Depending on how long you nap, the brief rest will have different impacts on you, but research shows that even taking a nap as short as 6 minutes can help. You read that right — just a six-minute nap can activate a midday reboot!

The energy secret the famous and the successful swear by

Apart from the fact that they are all famous, what do Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Alva Edison, Napoleon Bonaparte, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Salvador Dali, and John F. Kennedy have in common?

You guessed it — they would all nap during the day. Napoleon was famous for being able to sleep anywhere, even on his horse!

Some of them actually felt ashamed of their afternoon naps. Edison thought that sleep was a waste of time and would only sleep for just a few hours each night. But he would secretly take small catnaps during the day at home, in his lab, or at the library. Da Vinci didn’t believe in sleeping much at night and was also known to take short 15-minute naps during the day.

Many of these great thinkers and achievers reported to experiencing what is called a hypnagogic nap. This is an altered state of consciousness wherein the mind experiences some vivid imagery and sensations. Dali, Einstein, and Edison all reported that new ideas and images would flood their brain during that time of semi-sleep.

The evidence is not just anecdotal. Researchers have found that napping helps with learning and retaining learned material. Test scores of nappers are better than those of non-nappers. One study found that those who took short daytime naps performed better on a battery of cognitive assessment tests. And if you’re worried that a daytime nap will interfere with nighttime sleep, rest easy — studies have demonstrated that short power naps don’t, in fact, interfere with proper nighttime sleep.

So many reasons to nap

If we could just overcome the hesitation we may feel about napping, the cultural conditioning that has stigmatized taking care of ourselves, we could reap rich dividends. I did!

When I began to notice that I would drag a bit in the afternoon, I chose that time for some experimental napping. With some trial and error, I found that a 20-minute nap worked for me. Less wasn’t enough, and if I slept longer, sleep inertia would set in, and I would feel dull and disconnected. Longer naps also interfered with sleep at night, so 20 minutes was the magic number for me.

I found that those short, 20-minute naps restored my alertness. Afterwards, I was able to focus again and regain my vigor. I could handle meetings, presentations, and conferences without any dragging or fatigue.

A nap also sharpens my senses. I thought it was my imagination, but it’s actually true: Taste, touch, hearing — a nap heightens and sharpens all the senses.

I’ve also found I get some of my best ideas after an afternoon nap. Research confirms this. Sleep does actually boost creativity because of the way the mind becomes relaxed and forms new connections.

I’m also more productive and less bored after a nap. I am able to manage my time better and do more within a shorter period. On my commute home, I find that my reaction times are quicker and I am much less likely to feel road rage.

Naps also help reduce the risk of heart disease, this country’s leading cause of premature death. Here’s a statistic to chew on: Those who take at least three afternoon naps a week are 37% less likely to die of heart disease than those who don’t nap!

Research strongly suggests that napping boosts the immune system as well.

My own personal experience has also confirmed for me what the research says about the impacts of naps on learning and memory. In college, if I took a nap after studying hard, it helped me retain and recall my material better.

Naps don’t just help me mentally — I also find that my physical stamina and sports performance improved because of my napping habit. So, don’t shy away from taking that nap. It’s the best medicine, yet there’s no co-pay or deductible for a nap. It doesn’t cost a dime.

Don’t just stand there — lie down!

So here’s how you can make a real difference to your life just by napping:

First, forget the guilt. If you’re anything like how I used to be, you probably associate napping during the day with some amount of stigma. You probably think of it as a sign of laziness or shirking. Get over that. Recognize and embrace that the dreaded post-lunch slump is a natural signal from your body, and make the decision to heed that signal and use that afternoon nap to boost your energy level, productivity, creativity, and your long-term health.

Second, understand how naps work. Like I said, 20 minutes works really well for me, but you may need to adjust this to what works for you.

A complete sleep cycle takes 90 minutes. The first 20 minutes are light REM sleep (REM stands for rapid eye movement), after which you slip into deeper stages of sleep. In general, a nap that’s longer than 30 minutes generates sleep inertia, and you may awaken still feeling sluggish and groggy because you’ve woken up while in a deeper stage of sleep.

If you can spare the time for a full 90-minute nap, however, it’s almost like a mini-night’s sleep. It will give you some of the benefits of a night’s worth of sleep – helping consolidate memory and releasing the growth hormone for repair of bones and muscle. If you had a big workout in the morning or have a late night ahead of you, that may be the nap you need! So decide which type and duration of nap works for you.

Third, create favorable conditions for your nap. Dim the lights, create a quiet space and make sure the ambient temperature is cool and comfortable. Use a light blanket if possible. If you’ve seen my series of YouTube episodes on how sleeping can make you more successful, you’ll know that even our skin has light sensors, so using a blanket will help you sleep better. Make time for your nap and prioritize it. Once you get into the habit, you will find that you’re able to fall asleep quicker and awaken at the right time without the need for any kind of alarm.

Fourth and finally, use caffeine judiciously. If you’re a confirmed coffee lover, this formula may be just the thing for you: Have your coffee right before your nap. It sounds counterintuitive, but since it takes time for the body to respond to caffeine, by the time the caffeine kicks in, you’re ready to get up anyway!

It’s by no means necessary to combine caffeine with your nap, but I have seen this work well for lots of people. Just keep in mind that coffee has a half-life of six hours, meaning if you drink coffee in the afternoon, prepare for an additional rush right around bedtime!

The caffeine from green tea may be a wiser choice, because the energy is more mellow, and the effects won’t linger into the evening hours. That’s why green tea is an ingredient in the Positive Input shake mix.

Don’t take time out — add time in

Naps don’t take time out of your day — they literally add time to your life. Nap time is self time. So do yourself the favor of slowing down around midday and giving yourself a break. Give yourself some shut-eye to regenerate, relax, reenergize, and ready yourself for the rest of the day.

If you’re still holding onto negative feelings about napping, replace them with positive ones. Think it means you’re slacking? It actually means your recharging yourself for better work. Think you’re too busy to nap? If you’re that busy, you need to nap.   

“When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.”

Do what you need to, to achieve your own peak performance and to embrace the success you know you were born for! Take that nap. Or, better yet, give yourself that nap. Be your Maximal Self each day!

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Picture this: You’re in the middle of an important meeting when you suddenly feel your brain start to shut down. Not only can you not remember what you were going to say, but everyone is staring at you and waiting for a response.

For weeks before the meeting, you spent hours getting your facts and numbers straight. But now you’re so fatigued that even staring at the wall is asking for way too much.

Do you think you might have brain fog?

What is brain fog?

Brain fog is the inability to think clearly. You may forget important facts, lose focus, or struggle to find the right words in conversation. Staying foggy invites people to talk over you because they’re worried it will take you 10 minutes to make your point.

We’ve all been there — trying to get things done around the office when brain fog slows you down. You may even lose full days of productivity.

A high percentage of us struggle from nutrient deficiencies that ultimately lower our energy reserves. Leveling up your diet can replenish those deficiencies. If you’re feeling foggy on a regular basis, it’s time to get real, right here, right now. Because you don’t have to accept it.

Today we’re gonna clear the fog. 

You can reverse it

Let’s face it — brain fog is not a sign of getting older or a genetic curse cast upon you at birth. Your brain health may be more resilient at 16, but it doesn’t have to deteriorate just because you’re turning 50 or even 100! You have the power to reverse brain fog when you change how you treat your body and pay attention to the reports it’s sending you. When the world tells you there’s nothing you can do, it’s time to tune them out and listen to your body.

In the age of the Grind Mind, brain health gets pushed aside. We get overloaded by too much information and too many unhealthy options.

And those inputs — they don’t care about you. Social media doesn’t care that your brain can’t handle the hours you’ve spent scrolling over its feed. That candy bar you ate for breakfast isn’t interested in your nutrition.

If you can’t think straight, you’ll find yourself falling behind more and more. You’ll start working harder but getting less done. If you feel like brain fog is stopping you from being more productive, there are ways to climb down from the clouds so you can start propelling yourself forward.

Garbage in, garbage out

When you’re sitting in that meeting, you might imagine that the problem is just in your head. But your brain is connected to everything! Brain fog can affect everything from your immune system to your heart. While you may feel it most up top, there’s a lot going on down below, too.

So what’s causing it all? Well, as the old saying goes, you are what you eat. 

Your health is strongly impacted by your lifestyle, and your lifestyle is fueled by what you’re inputting into your body. If you’re skipping food altogether or scarfing it down as quickly as the food can be put on the plate, you can overload your systems. If you’re filling your body with caffeine, refined carbs, and sugar, your brain cells will start to get inflamed, which can lead to hormonal changes that affect your mood, energy, and clarity. 

And nutritional backlash is headed your way. It’s the truth. Your nutritional inputs always determine your performance outputs. 

Now let’s imagine you’re sitting in a meeting when a new thought pops into your head. How much work do you have to do after this meeting ends? Once you realize you may not have the strength to tackle your to-do list, the body will begin issuing reports:

Your cortisol will skyrocket with the stress of uncertainty.

Your serotonin will start to drop because you’re feeling like you’ll never get anything done.

And your brain kicks you into a state of fatigue that won’t let up until you take care of yourself. 

Inflammation in the brain

The brain inflammation that results from stress and nutritional deficiencies is linked to everything from depression to dementia. Science shows that when your brain is inflamed, it activates your microglial cells. And yes, I’m getting a little geeky here, but stay with me. Microglial cells are a part of your immune system, and they live in your central nervous system. To earn their keep, they remove damaged neurons or infections. So how can activation of those cells be bad?

Well, there are several types of microglial cells in the brain. And some of these cells secrete the wrong kinds of chemicals, including those that promote the growth of tumors. Studies also indicate that the microglia can be closely associated with the amount of plaque found in your brain. Whether it’s in your head or mouth, you really don’t want plaque anywhere in your body. 

So while you may not be cursing your microglial cells during your meeting, you should know that inflammation can be impacting your ability to think. If you don’t pay attention to the first signs of fog, that inflammation can develop into something far worse.

Clearing the fog all starts with what your input into your body every day. 

Antidotes to brain inflammation

Healthy complex carbs and fibers from fruits and veggies are great positive inputs and can reduce brain cell inflammation, sweet potatoes, ancient grains, and a diet rich in plant-based proteins are all excellent replacements for the processed carbs and sugar in your diet that cause the inflammation in the first place. 

You see, mindfulness about our nutrition helps clear the fog every day. Complex carbs are linked to the levels of serotonin in your brain. Because serotonin is a chemical that enhances your personal sense of well-being, a boost of it can help you clear your mind from stress and focus on what’s in front of you.  

And while you may be sick of hearing this, the right veggies can be a huge fighter against brain fog. A bite of brightly colored and nutrient-dense salad can defend against oxidative stress in the brain. Too much untreated oxidative stress can lead to cell death and chronic disease.

Also, adding in omega-3 fatty acids from sources like lean fish or walnuts can lighten the stress in your brain and lift the fog. These foods also add in the healthy fats you need to keep your brain going through the workday and beyond. Avocado, chia seeds, cheese, dark chocolate, and olive oil can all go on your shopping list.

It would be a stretch to say that eating a banana or carrot during your meeting would instantly pull you out of the funk, but a sustained diet of produce will greatly increase your odds of getting your groove back. 

Protein and hydration

Adding a well-sourced protein is another weapon to add to your arsenal to banish brain fog. When you don’t have enough essential amino acids from your diet, you can’t rely on yourself to make up the deficit. When you start adding high-protein foods like lean meats and eggs, you can increase the hormones in your brain that actually lead to coherent thoughts. Unless if you are following a carefully designed diet, aim for up to half of your body weight in grams of protein, so if you weigh 150 pounds (68 kilograms) try to consume at least 75g of protein. I use a Positive Input protein shake to cut back on my math without sacrificing my nutrition. Practical, sustainable, repeatable: I keep my shaker bottle ready no matter where I am. Without that shake, I’d end up leaning into my cravings for junk.

Finally, let’s not forget about water.

You’re made of up to 70% water, and up to 75% of all brain processes take place surrounded by water. In other words, reach for water in that meeting! I’ll simplify this for you: You don’t have to measure out each cup, but you should be aiming for about half your body weight in ounces. In other words, a 150-pound man should be drinking about 75 ounces (2.2 liters) of pure water. Not only can water help your body rid itself of everything from toxins to waste, and it can boost your mental clarity.

As you replace the negative stuff with the positive inputs, your body will start keeping a more regular schedule, which means your brain will recognize what you need and when you need it. The body is a reporter, and it’s our job to learn how to read the information it reports to us. Your friends may tell you to rely on your doctor, but your doctor won’t be there when you feel your head dropping toward your desk at lunch. 

Once you give the body what it needs, the fog lifts.

Small adjustments

Obviously getting enough sleep, exercise, and relaxation are also crucial building blocks for clearing the fog. Wellness isn’t a matter of joining a gym or forcing yourself to sit on a beach for 8 hours a day. It’s a matter of understanding the rhythm of your days and adjusting them, little by little, until those adjustments become an everyday ritual. 

As you learn to read the body’s reports, you’ll start to see things with a clearer head. You’ll actually speak up in the meeting with something brilliant to say.

You are the one person who has control over your actions. You’re the one who can scale back on the late-night hours. You’re the one who can put down the potato chips and pick up a delicious and nutritious protein shake.

But it’s important to say that if you think you’re experiencing cognitive changes beyond that of normal brain fog, it may be worthwhile to see a health professional and find out if there’s not more going on behind the scenes.

Thanks for taking some time out of your busy day to understand more about what causes brain fog. I’ve been around the block a few times, and I know that your brain is not the enemy. A clear mind gives you the authority you want in your meeting and the clarity to carry you well into the night. If you want to be a Maximal Achiever, you have to exercise the power you have over what goes in your body. When you focus on positive inputs, you start your journey toward a Maximal Life. 

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