This email is brought to you by 

Neuro Athletes,

If you're going to unlock the next level health enhancing, life lengthening and all round optimising benefits of sleep, then you're going to have to start treating a good night's rest like it matters, because it does- a whole lot. 

Nothing illustrates the incredible power of sleep more starkly than seeing what happens when you don't get enough. That's right. I'm talking about sleep deprivation.

This is the thing that kicks in after even just one night of getting less than what you need. Sleep deprivation affects every single one of your major organ systems, from your heart to your brain, to your immune system. Yes, it indeed negatively affects how well you learn, how clearly you think, how gracefully you age, and how well you fend off illness.

I recently interviewed Justin Medeiros, the worlds fittest man and winner of the 2021 Crossfit championships. He revealed his recovery techniques, his winning sleep routine and how he has incorporated sleep into his life to increase game day performance.

The interesting part? Sleep is becoming the next holy grail of human performance.

Justin isn’t the only one convinced f this. Tom Brady is famous for his near religious devotion to his sleep routine, which often means going to bed at 8:30 p.m.

Michael Phelps, the winner of the most Olympic medals of all-time considers sleep a vital part of his training and he tracks it the way he does his swimming times. In the year leading up to the Rio Olympics, he averaged 7 hours and 36 minutes of sleep each night.

Jordan Spieth, who goes even farther and aims for eight hours every night.

The connection between sleep and performance has even begun to seep into everyday sports analysis. In February, ESPN ran a piece drawing a connection between a lackluster performance from LeBron James, who plays more minutes than anybody else in the NBA, and rest. As Tom Haberstroh noted, James was expected to rest during the second night of a back-to-back series, but ended up playing anyway–and shooting 8 for 19 and missing two dunks.

Sleep is the next frontier of human performance and if you don’t manage it well now and learn the proper sleep hygiene efficacy, then you will be left behind.

How extra sleep helps

If losing sleep hinders your athletic ability, then it makes sense that getting extra sleep will improve it –and some studies bear out that hypothesis.

In one study, researchers looked at the sleep patterns and output of players on Stanford University’s men’s varsity basketball team. They reported in the journal SLEEP that when players boosted their sleep from an average of fewer than seven hours a night to 8.5 hours over a five- to seven-week period, their performance improved.

They cut their sprint times from 16.2 seconds to 15.5, their free throw percentage improved by 9% and their three point percentage improved 6%. Their mood and reaction time also improved over the period and fatigue lessened.

“You’ve done all of this conditioning and eating great nutrition, and everyone else is doing that, too. But if we improve sleep we get another edge,” Dr. Downey says.

Sleep Restriction and Performance Indicators

• A reduction in cardio-respiratory capacity and potentially negative effect on maximum strength levels.

• Interference of the recovery processes that take place during sleep.

• Increase in symptoms such as depression, confusion, anger, fatigue, and reduced vigor.

• Increase in levels of catabolic hormones such as cortisol in rest…

• Reduction of anabolic hormones such as GH, IGF-1, and testosterone.

• Increased probability of acquiring an injury due to reduced cognitive performance and proprioceptive and neuromuscular alternation.

• The decrease in the immune function may make the athlete more vulnerable to the possibility of suffering from infections, especially of the upper airways.

• A reduction of lean muscle mass due to an unfavorable anabolic setting.

The Ultimate Sleep Cocktail

(Supplements that research has proven to assist with sleep)

1. Magnesium L-Threonate This is an essential form of magnesium that can pass the brain-blood barrier and enters into neurons. Magnesium is involved in over 600 enzymatic reactions in your body, so it’s involved in a lot of different things especially its role with proper memory consolidation in sleep. You need to be sure to get Magnesium Threonate and not other forms of magnesium such as magnesium citrate because they have different purposes and do not cross the blood-brain barrier. Benefits of Magnesium ThreonateDosage of Magnesium ThreonateTake 300-400mg 30 minutes before bed.

   1. Unlike other forms of magnesium, it pierces the blood-brain barrier

   2. Memory consolidation during sleep

   3. Enhances ability of mitochondria to “recharge”

   4. Increases neuroplasticity, aka the brains ability to grow, change, and learn

2. Zinc A zinc deficiency can reduce levels of melatonin. While zinc is known to be important for many biological processes in animals at a molecular and physiological level, new evidence indicates that it may also be involved in the regulation of sleep. Recent research has concluded that zinc serum concentration varies with the amount of sleep, while orally administered zinc increases the amount and the quality of sleep in mice and humans.

3. TheanineThis is an amino acid that can be found in green tea and when taken before bedtime, it will get your brain to attempt to reach REM as much as possible. This means you will be able to fall asleep faster and spend more time dreaming. Benefits of TheanineDosage of TheanineAccording to the detailed study done on Theanine, an adult with a body weight of 60kg (132lbs) should consume between 250mg to 350mg before bed. Huberman recommends consuming Theanine about 30 minutes before bedtime.

   1. Improved sleep

   2. Enhances mental discipline and focus.

   3. It helps ward off mental exhaustion by boosting levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter that assists in promoting relaxation.

   4. It helps stimulate the release of dopamine, an important brain chemical that induces feelings of pleasure and happiness.

   5. Increases alertness by stimulating the production of alpha waves in the brain’s cortex region. This results in increased concentration ability, more energy, and improved learning capacity.

Wrapping Up…

Evidence is becoming more and more clear that sleep can be make it or break it for athletes and their performance success. Athletes should be getting 9 hours of sleep per night and if you believe you perform like an athlete (that is, even if you are on Wall Street working insane hours, you probably can treat yourself the same) then you also need 9 hours of sleep per night.

What’s in the Pipeline?

As requested, The Neuro Experience podcast will be interviewing Vinay Prasad on tomorrow!

I cannot wait to release this!

Until next time.

- Louisa

Discover More Calm, Sharper Focus and Better Sleep.

Using advanced EEG technology to respond to your mind, heart, body and breath, Muse S is a comfy brain sensing headband for sleep tracking and meditation.

Muse S helps you understand and track how well you focus, sleep, and recharge so you can reset during the day and recover each night.

The best part?

It has:- Real-time biofeedback as you meditate- Overnight sleep tracking & insights- 500+ guided meditations & Sleep Journeys- Track & measure your progress

I started using the MUSE headband 6 weeks ago to calm my mind after a crazy day in the office!

The results?

I was able to fall asleep faster and reduced my tosses and turns throughout the night.

Try it out if you struggle to get your mind and body to calm down! You can get 10% off using code NEURO at check out!