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9 Ways to Hack Your Health for Optimal Rest and Sleep

9 Ways to Hack Your Sleep for Optimal Health and Rest

Dr. Izabella Wentz / February 3, 2015

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This guest post was originally posted in February of 2015, based on personal experience provided by Dave Aprey, author and creator of Bulletproof products. I have since developed new articles and resources for Hashimoto’s that might be helpful for you. For the latest information on sleep, please visit the following:

  • Sleep Solutions for Hashimoto’s
  • Hashimoto’s and Sleep Apnea
  • Hypersomnia and Hashimoto’s

 

Getting adequate rest is crucial for healing, but often people with Hashimoto’s will struggle with insomnia, unrefreshed sleep, blood sugar imbalances, and multiple awakenings throughout the night. I used to wake up drenched in sweat until I tried adding healthy fats to my diet, and going to bed before your second wind is a biggie for people with fatigue and adrenal issues.

Here’s some helpful information about improving your sleep quality from my friend, biohacker Dave Asprey.

Dave has put his Hashimoto’s into remission though biohacking and lifestyle changes and is a huge thyroid advocate. You can listen to a podcast we did together on Hashimoto’s.

HERE’S DAVE:

The 9 Ways To Measure and Hack Your Sleep For Optimal Rest and Health

By: Dave Asprey

Quality sleep is one of the most important variables to improve your brain function, longevity, and performance in all aspects of life. We all know this, but so many people have trouble getting quality sleep. If you’re struggling with getting enough rest, I’ve come up with 9 ways for you to measure and hack your sleep for the best performance.

1) Track your sleep quality

Often when people are having sleep trouble, they don’t know what’s going wrong. That’s why I recommend you start by using a sleep app like SleepCycle on the iPhone. This app simply requires you to put your phone on your mattress under your top sheet and set the alarm. It will then track your sleep patterns and quality using the microphone on your phone.

It’s best to do it for at least a week so that you get a sense of your baseline sleep quality. Once you’ve tracked your sleep, you’ll have all the data you need to hack your sleep. This will ensure that what you’re doing is working and allow you to make adjustments along the way based on how you’re feeling when you wake up and what the numbers are telling you.

2) Wake up at the top of a sleep cycle

As we sleep, we go through different cycles. When you wake up at the top of your sleep cycle, you’ll feel great whereas when you wake up in the middle of a deep sleep, you’ll feel groggy for hours. SleepCycle can also solve this problem. It will act as an alarm clock and wake you at the top of a sleep cycle instead of letting your alarm jerk you awake when you’re in a deep sleep.  This will leave you feeling more refreshed and awake all day.

3) Fill up with fat at dinner

Fat is a long-burning fuel for your mind and body.  Grass-fed butter, animal fat, and coconut oil are all good choices, but extra concentrated MCT oil is my personal favorite.  The shortest length fats of MCT oil are converted into ketones that are immediately used as fuel for your brain, and MCT oil also helps you burn body fat while you sleep. I’ve noticed that I think faster and more clearly the next morning if I have 1-2 tablespoons of MCT oil the night before with dinner or even right before bed.

4) Prime with protein

Our bodies use protein for muscle repair and immune function.  The muscle repair happens at night during deep sleep, so you want to make sure your body has all the raw materials it needs at night to heal and grow new tissue.  The problem is that most forms of protein are not well digested before bed.  A lot of protein powders and even most sources of animal protein take a lot of work to digest and can leave you with a heavy feeling during the night.

Too much protein also raises an alertness chemical in the brain called orexin, which can disrupt your sleep. The solution I recommend is taking 1-2 tablespoons of hydrolyzed grass-fed collagen peptide before bed. Hydrolyzing the proteins makes them more digestible, so they don’t cause the problems listed above.

5) Turn down the lights

For at least a half-hour before going to bed try to avoid bright lights.  Dim your office lights if you absolutely must be working this close to bedtime and kill the unhealthy florescent ones.  Don’t stare at your TV, iPhone, or iPad until you’ve dimmed it all the way, either.  Even five minutes of white light from a screen shuts off your melatonin production and can wreck the quality of your sleep, so it’s best to avoid screens in the evening entirely.

6) Don’t exercise near bedtime

You should not exercise for at least two hours before going to bed unless you count restorative yoga and breathing exercises as exercises. Exercise is highly energizing and raises your cortisol levels, which interferes with sleep.

7) Don’t drink coffee past the afternoon

Coffee puts your mind in an amazing place where you become more productive and perform better.  However, you need to let your mind rest after its high output performances. In general, don’t drink coffee after 2:00 PM or at least 8 hours before bedtime, whichever comes first.

8) Go to bed before your second wind

There is a window from 10:45 and 11 p.m. or so when you naturally get tired. This moves a little bit based on the season. If you don’t go to sleep then and choose to stay awake, you’ll get a cortisol-driven “second wind” that can keep you awake until 2 a.m.  You’ll also get better sleep when you go to bed before 11 p.m. and wake up feeling more rested than if you’d gotten the same amount of sleep starting later.

9) Bring down your stress

Perhaps the most common reason people report not being able to sleep is that they don’t know how to clear their minds and stop worrying.  Deep breathing exercises like Art of Living, pranayama yoga, and meditation can do wonders for helping your brain shut down, recuperate, and prepare for another day of Bulletproof high performance

Don’t let poor quality sleep hold you back any longer. By taking advantage of these tips, you should have the energy you need to finally feel Bulletproof.

Dave Asprey is a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur who spent 15 years and $300,000 to hack his own biology, losing 100 pounds, upgrading his IQ, and lowering his biological age. He runs the No. 1-ranked iTunes health podcast and The Bulletproof Executive blog about using biohacking to increase human performance — and he invented Bulletproof Coffee.

You can find more about biohacking, the art of changing your environment and your biology, so you perform better in his book The Bulletproof Diet, and also on The Bulletproof Executive website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Note from Izabella Wentz, PharmD

Through the use of real foods, dietary fats, targeted supplements and Dave’s other “hacks” -as described in The Bulletproof Diet, a person can really transform his/her health. I personally feel my best (sharper, happier, calmer) eating the high-fat diet that Dave recommends in his book.

I’ve recommended this type of diet to clients, and many have also reported feeling calmer, happier and have lost weight, without feeling hungry or unsatisfied. Additionally, Dave’s suggestion of using fats like butter, ghee or coconut oil or MCT (I use coconut oil or MCT) in conjunction with caffeinated beverages has allowed me to have caffeine without the unpleasant crashes. I posted info about The Bulletproof Diet to my Facebook page the other day, and one of the readers posted that she was in remission from Hashimoto’s thanks to the Bulletproof diet 🙂

***Biohacking is the practice of using various interventions to improve one’s health. One of the keys to successful biohacking is tracking your interventions and results to determine if the change you are making results in an improvement.

When I was trying to get my Hashimoto’s into remission, I developed “The Thyroid Journal” a tracking tool to test the impact of the various interventions I was making.

Wishing you all the best on your journey,

PS. You can also download a free Thyroid Diet Guide, 10 Thyroid friendly recipes, and the Nutrient Depletions and Digestion chapter for free by going to www.thyroidpharmacist.com/gift. You will also receive occasional updates about new research, resources, giveaways and helpful information.

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Filed Under: Recovery, Symptoms Tagged With: Insomnia, Recommended Resources, Root Cause, Sleep, Stress

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Please consult your physician for any health problems and before making any medical or lifestyle changes.

Lifestyle changes can result in improved thyroid function and/or an increased absorption of thyroid hormone medications, leading to a lower required dose and possible symptoms of hyperthyroidism at a dose that was previously stable. Please discuss lifestyle changes with your physician and ensure that your thyroid function is monitored every 6-8 weeks while making lifestyle changes. Symptoms of overmedication include, but are not limited to: rapid or irregular heartbeat, nervousness, irritability or mood swings, muscle weakness or tremors, diarrhea, menstrual irregularities, hair loss, weight loss, insomnia, chest pain, and excessive sweating. Do not start, change, increase, decrease or discontinue your medications without consulting with your physician.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tami says

    December 6, 2014 at 5:16 PM

    What brand of extra concentrated MCT oil do you prefer?
    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella Wentz says

      January 4, 2017 at 1:59 PM

      Tami- You just want to look for extra concentrated MCT oil. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Ruth Ann says

    January 16, 2015 at 5:42 PM

    What is MCT oil and where can I buy it?
    Where do you discuss Body temperatures and Basal Temps and how to raise them to be in the “normal” levels?
    How does heavy metals (lead & mercury) effect the workings of the thyroid
    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella Wentz says

      January 4, 2017 at 2:01 PM

      Ruth- You just want to look for extra concentrated MCT oil. Here are a couple of articles you may find interesting! 🙂

      HEAVY METALS, HORMONES AND HASHIMOTO’S
      https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/heavy-metals-hormones-and-hashimotos

      THYROID AND COLD INTOLERANCE
      https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/thyroid-and-cold-intolerance

      Reply
  3. Cammylynn says

    March 1, 2015 at 6:01 AM

    Do you have any best practices for people who have to work graveyard shifts? DH works from 5pm – 6:20am 3 days a week. The night before first shift we are trying to keep him up until 11/12 and sleep in. On shift he sleeps from 7a – 2pm. The day after last shift he is trying to sleep from 7am – 1pm and then go to bed at regular time of 9pm to get back to regular daytime waking.
    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella Wentz says

      January 4, 2017 at 2:03 PM

      Cammylynn- You may find some answers in this group. When I was first diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, I felt so alone. My doctor didn’t think it was a big deal, and none of my friends or co-workers had it. It wasn’t until I started to research online that I found others who were going through the same thing.

      A couple of years after my diagnosis, I found Hashimoto’s 411, a closed Facebook group run by Alice Berry McDonnell. This group is amazing! It is comprised of an army of highly motivated, smart, supportive women and men (now 45,000+ strong), and each of them sharing ideas of what worked for them, things they were planning to try, and offering support to one another. The comfort I received from knowing that there were others going through the same challenges as I, was enormous.

      https://www.facebook.com/groups/hashimotos411/

      Ask questions. Post your thoughts. Scan the files. It is an absolutely amazing resource. Best of all it’s kept private from spammers.

      Reply
  4. stef says

    May 6, 2015 at 7:59 AM

    I have 2 kids under 3 that still wake up during the night. Do I wait til they are sleeping through or is it a lost
    cause
    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella Wentz says

      January 4, 2017 at 2:04 PM

      Stef- When I was first diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, I felt so alone. My doctor didn’t think it was a big deal, and none of my friends or co-workers had it. It wasn’t until I started to research online that I found others who were going through the same thing.

      A couple of years after my diagnosis, I found Hashimoto’s 411, a closed Facebook group run by Alice Berry McDonnell. This group is amazing! It is comprised of an army of highly motivated, smart, supportive women and men (now 45,000+ strong), and each of them sharing ideas of what worked for them, things they were planning to try, and offering support to one another. The comfort I received from knowing that there were others going through the same challenges as I, was enormous.

      https://www.facebook.com/groups/hashimotos411/

      Ask questions. Post your thoughts. Scan the files. It is an absolutely amazing resource. Best of all it’s kept private from spammers.

      Reply
      • Teresa says

        September 22, 2017 at 7:25 PM

        What is Mct oil and where I can buy?

        Reply
  5. Patty says

    March 4, 2018 at 2:37 PM

    It’s amazing how interconnected everything in our bodies is! Diet, sleep, exercise, you really cover it all! This is the kind of information I don’t get at the doctor’s office. I’m really thankful for this blog Dr. Wentz, everytime I implement your advice I see some kind of positive change. It’s crazy to think that some of my symptoms like brain fog can be helped by something as simple as sleep. Thanks again for a great post!!

    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella says

      March 4, 2018 at 3:44 PM

      Patty – you are very welcome! One of the best—and easiest—places to start is your sleep and self-care routine. Going to bed on time (not past 11pm, ideally before 10pm) and supplementing with magnesium citrate (most people are deficient in this element) can help your body prepare for the rest of the protocols needed on your journey to health. Having Hashimoto’s can feel very stressful. Having out of range thyroid hormones, adrenal fatigue, negative food sensitivities and low nutrient levels can lead to feelings of anxiety, hopelessness and stress. Treating these issues one at a time is the best plan of action. You can recover and regain your health! My new book Hashimoto’s Protocol is a step by step guide to the interventions that helped 80% of the people 80% of the time. I hope you check it out.

      Hashimoto’s Protocol
      http://amzn.to/2B5J1mq

      Reply
  6. Kesha says

    March 16, 2018 at 1:28 PM

    I’ve been trying to get my friends to improve their sleep for years! It really is so important. But I didn’t know that having a healthy Hashimoto friendly diet played such a big role in sleep. Bless you Dr. Wentz I am definitely going to send this article to my friends with thyroid problems!

    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella says

      March 17, 2018 at 3:51 PM

      Kesha – thank you for sharing my research! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Serene Yew Ker Huan says

    September 15, 2018 at 4:04 PM

    Thank You Dr. Wentz. I have applied to join Hashimoto 411 after reading your comments left in 2017! Now the closed group members have increased from 45,000+ to 75,000+!

    I want to thank you for your awesome and useful advice all these while concerning Hashimoto Thyroiditis. They are practical and beneficial.

    Reply
  8. Jennifer Collins says

    May 15, 2020 at 7:05 PM

    Can’t use melatonin supplements? I don’t know what to do when go to sleep.

    Reply
    • Dr. Izabella Wentz says

      May 19, 2020 at 2:57 PM

      Jennifer – thank you for reaching out! I’m so sorry you are struggling with this.<3 Sleep deprivation is a huge stressor on the body and contributes to adrenal hormone imbalances, which then initiate the development of autoimmunity. Sleep deprivation is also the quickest way to get yourself into adrenal fatigue, in fact, sleep deprivation is what scientists use to induce HPA axis dysfunction in laboratory animals! The most fundamental recommendation of all for adrenal health is sleep!

      Caffeine is also known to interfere with sleep, and because most of our liver detoxifying and healing takes place when we’re sleeping, we want to avoid anything that may interfere with sleep. We want to give the body every opportunity to heal. Additionally, caffeine weakens the adrenals and can increase gut permeability. Research has also shown that when people with autoimmune thyroid disease took magnesium citrate for six weeks, they reported feeling better with more energy, better sleep, less anxiety, and less constipation. These patients also had reductions in TSH! Magnesium citrate and magnesium glycinate are great sources of oral magnesium supplements.

      Here are some articles I hope you find helpful:

      ARE YOUR ADRENALS SABOTAGING YOUR HEALTH?
      https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/are-your-adrenals-sabotaging-your-health

      NEW STUDIES ON MAGNESIUM AND THYROID HEALTH
      https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/new-studies-on-magnesium-and-thyroid-health

      Reply

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Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Please consult your physician for any health problems and before making any medical or lifestyle changes.


Lifestyle changes can result in improved thyroid function and/or an increased absorption of thyroid hormone medications, leading to a lower required dose and possible symptoms of hyperthyroidism at a dose that was previously stable. Please discuss lifestyle changes with your physician and ensure that your thyroid function is monitored every 6-8 weeks while making lifestyle changes. Symptoms of overmedication include, but are not limited to: rapid or irregular heartbeat, nervousness, irritability or mood swings, muscle weakness or tremors, diarrhea, menstrual irregularities, hair loss, weight loss, insomnia, chest pain, and excessive sweating. Do not start, change, increase, decrease or discontinue your medications without consulting with your physician.


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