Sleep, Glorious Sleep
Announcements - For the Peloton Users
Peloton has a feature called Stacks (which Peloton users are likely familiar with). The feature was introduced in January 2021 and allows members to cue up multiple classes prior to working out, thus eliminating the need to search for say, a stretching class after completing a cycling or running workout. While the classes are saved to the member’s profile as part of their workout history, they are not saved in total as a stacked class, making them difficult to revisit or share. In the coming weeks, I’m going to be introducing curated stacks that cover a variety of workout types that can be referenced and shared using one link. More details to follow in upcoming newsletters.
Health and Fitness News from Around the Web
Fitness Technology
Smart mattress company Eight Sleep adds integration with Peloton, Apple health, and others - Eight Sleep, a company that sells connected mattresses and toppers that allow you to adjust the temperature, track your sleep metrics and more have just announced integrations with many popular health and fitness apps, providing more insights on exercise and recovery as it pertains to sleep.
How does the Apple Watch calculate calories burned and is it accurate? - A good read if you’re interested in how your Apple Watch tracks calories (move goal on Apple Watch). It also includes some guidelines on daily calorie needs and tips for getting the most accurate measurements from your Apple Watch.
Exercise
5 Easy Ways To Burn Fat Without "Exercising," Trainer Says - I’ll put this in the “clickbait” category, but the piece offers some useful tips for getting in some exercise doing everyday tasks, like hunting around the house to find one of the five pair of reading glasses I have laying around!
7 exercises to tone and strengthen your back - This Today Show segment by Stephanie Mansour focuses on exercises for toning and strengthening the back, with many of the exercises requiring no weight or a light dumbbell set and a mat.
Nutrition
Daily Coffee May Benefit the Heart and Help You Live Longer – Here’s How Much To Drink - Drinking coffee—particularly two to three cups a day—is not only associated with a lower risk of heart disease and dangerous heart rhythms but also with living longer, according to studies being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session. These trends held true for both people with and without cardiovascular disease. “We found coffee drinking had either a neutral effect—meaning that it did no harm—or was associated with benefits to heart health, said Peter M. Kistler, MD, professor and head of arrhythmia research at the Alfred Hospital and Baker Heart Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and the study’s senior author.”
Eating “Healthy” Might Be Hurting Your Performance - This is one of the better pieces I came across over the past several days about nutrition, food rules (including carbs and processed foods) and ensuring you’re consuming enough calories for your specific needs. From the article:
Proper fueling when you’re training is about more than just eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full, and it’s tough to get enough calories when you’re avoiding often-demonized calorically dense foods. While we’re thankfully undergoing a seismic cultural shift away from traditional diets and restrictive eating, subtler food rules like “don’t eat processed foods” or “limit carbs” persist among health-conscious people. These principles might seem innocuous, but the trouble with food rules is that they almost always decrease your caloric intake, and many active people have internalized ideas that make it tough to consume enough energy throughout the day. Limiting carbs might mean swapping bread for vegetables, and avoiding processed food could lead you to forgo on-the-go snacks or tasty desserts.
I've heard it's important to eat protein right after a workout — even if I'm not lifting weights. Is that true? - Well, I heard the same thing. Registered dietitian and personal trainer Alix Turoff says that when you consume protein doesn't matter, as long as you're getting enough of it in your diet throughout the day.
The Big Read - Sleep, Glorious Sleep!
We are all aware of the impact of getting a good night’s rest on our physical and mental well-being, but for many, quality sleep can be elusive. According to the CDC, adults ages 18 to 60 require at least 7 hours of sleep per night, but many of use don’t approach that on a regular basis. Reasons for this can range from sleep disorders like sleep apnea to work or home related stress. If you are having trouble sleeping, its obviously best to talk to your doctor about the best treatment for your situation.
For a good portion of my life, I was a “good” sleeper. I went to bed and woke up around the same time every night and I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep. Several years ago while working on a stressful months-long work project that in some cases required “all-nighters,” I developed some poor habits that greatly impacted my sleep hygiene. It took a great deal of work and trial and error to redevelop healthy sleeping habits and while I may not be getting 7 hours of sleep every night, I do come close. I don’t have the perfect formula and as I previously mentioned, if you’re having trouble sleeping, its best to talk to your doctor. But here are some things you can try if you find yourself having trouble sleeping at night. Note that these suggestions are based on my personal experience, so mileage may vary.
Set a sleep schedule and try to stick to it - I get that this is easier said than done, but for me, it’s the single biggest change I’ve made in changing my poor sleep habits. I wake up every morning between 4:30AM and 5:00AM to write and tape a daily news podcast. This means that in order to get 7 hours of sleep, I need to go to bed between 9:30 and 10:00 every night and I’ve largely been able to stick to that schedule.
Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bed - I’m mainly a morning coffee drinker so for me, caffeine is not an issue. Alcohol on the other hand became more of a sleep aid for me and while I would fall asleep relatively easily, I would also wake up during the night and have trouble falling back asleep. For me, doing away with that nightly drink greatly improved my sleep quality and studies prove this out.
Track your sleep - Privacy concerns aside, I’m a very data-driven person and when it comes to my health, I’ve become a bit obsessed with my biometrics and that includes when I sleep. I use three different bits of technology to track my sleep, mainly because each has a slightly different approach (also because I’m a nerd; one method is plenty).
Apple Watch - Apple Watch includes sleep tracking natively, but it takes a slightly different approach than other sleep trackers. The focus of the Apple Watch sleep app is on bedtime routine and bedtime schedule. I set my sleep and wake up time for each night, along with the amount of time prior to bedtime I want to be reminded to wind down. I wear my watch to bed and it wakes me up by haptic touch in the morning.
Sleep Number bed - If you own a sleep number mattress, it has sleep tracking built-in. The technology, called Sleep IQ, calculates a sleep score based on time to fall asleep, restless sleep, restful sleep and the number of times (if any) you need to get up in the night. It also tracks breath and heart rate as well as circadian rhythm. There isn’t a score that is considered bad and I use it mainly for trends to understand on a given night what impacts my sleep, good or bad.
AutoSleep - Autosleep is an Apple Watch Sleep App that works whether you wear your watch to bed or not, though there is a lot more data available if you wear your watch. Like Sleep IQ, the app calculates a sleep rating based on quality sleep, deep sleep and heart rate. It will also calculate a “readiness” score that combines heart rate variability and waking pulse to “provide insight into your mental and physical state.” I use the app to get additional data points about my sleep and as a sort of check against what I’m seeing from my Sleep Number Bed.
There are other factors (limiting screen time for example), but focusing on these areas helped turn my terrible bedtime habits into a routine that eventually retrained my body to know when it was time to sleep.
In Thursday’s newsletter, I’ll be covering how to set up a home gym to make it as convenient as possible to build exercise into your day. Thanks for reading and if you are enjoying this newsletter, please share with your friends.