Here’s How to Sleep Great and Stay Energized–According to The Sleep Doctor

NOTE: This post was written by our friend Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., a double board-certified Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Sleep Specialist also known as The Sleep Doctor. He’s the author of four books, including his most recent, “Energize! Go From Dragging Ass to Kicking It in 30 Days.” We asked him to share a post about his new book, which was released last month. The holidays can bring substantial changes to our routines. Amid all the festivities, the routine-busting nature of the holiday season can disrupt our sleep and drain our energy—even well after they’re over. Busy schedules translate into late bedtimes and crowd out time for physical activity. Parties present us with sugary foods and lots of alcohol. Time with friends and family brings up complicated emotions and sometimes puts us in close quarters with people who are toxic to our emotional health. The cram-it-all-in pressure of the holidays can leave us stressed, drained, and dragging—physically and emotionally—and way short on the sleep we need to stay healthy and feeling our best. Even with the holidays in our rearview mirror, we need strategies for keeping our batteries charged and our nightly rest protected. A Recipe For Keeping Your Batteries Charged Maximizing your body’s natural energy stores and elevating your sleep is the subject of my new book, “Energize!: Go From Dragging Ass to Kicking It in 30 Days.” I wrote Energize with Stacey Griffith, a founding instructor of SoulCycle. Stacey and I have known each other for years. Bringing together my expertise in sleep and chronotype and Stacey’s expertise in metabolism and movement was a fascinating journey for both of us and resulted in a book I’m excited to share with you. Energize! brings together the latest scientific understanding of chronotype and metabolic type (aka body type). Our chronotype and our metabolic type are both determined by our genes. And just as every chronotype has an optimal routine for the “when” of daily life—the timing of sleeping, eating, exercising, working hard, taking it easy—our individual metabolic types have different genetically-driven needs for movement, rest, and recovery. This is all in order to build strength, stamina, flexibility, and maximize physical and mental energy. Establishing daily routines and habits based on chronotype and body type is the remedy for the stress, fatigue, weight gain, low mood and restless sleep that affect so many of us. Don’t know your chronotype? Take this quiz: www.chronoquiz.com. “Energize! is a step-by-step guide to creating individualized routines and habits that help you shed fatigue, stress, sleeplessness, and low mood, and reclaim abundant energy and vitality in your daily life, using your body’s unique circadian and metabolic biology as a roadmap.” Together, Stacey and I dug deep into the scientific research (and conducted research of our own) to develop personalized daily protocols for sleeping, eating and activity for every chronotype and metabolic type. Energize! is a step-by-step guide to creating individualized routines and habits that help you shed fatigue, stress, sleeplessness, and low mood, and reclaim abundant energy and vitality in your daily life, using your body’s unique circadian and metabolic biology as a roadmap. Let’s talk about how you can navigate these times without depleting your energy and losing sleep. Protect Your Resting Energy Protect Your Resting Energy: Get ahead of jet lag to minimize its impact (and stick to your regular sleep routine if you’re staying at home). A lot of us are traveling for the first time in a couple of years. Remember jet lag? Jet lag can drain the fun right out of a journey. It leaves you feeling fatigued, irritable, foggy-headed, sleepless and out of sync with your circadian rhythms. Jet lag gets more severe the farther we travel from our home time zone. A guideline is that it takes a full day to recover from every time zone you cross. And traveling eastbound will have a bigger impact on your sleep and circadian rhythms than traveling west. For all chronotypes and body types, the best way to minimize the impact of jet lag is to adjust your schedule to your destination time as soon as possible. You can start this process before you leave home. The week before your departure, adjust your sleep times, wake times, and meal times closer to the times you’ll be sleeping, eating, and active at your destination. If you’re traveling through a single time zone, you can adjust over a couple of nights to be fully on your destination schedule before you set out. For two or more time zones, adjust your schedule incrementally over a few days, to get closer to your destination time. If you can, sleep during the trip so that you’re less tempted to take a nap before your destination bedtime. Do your best to nap during the times you’d otherwise be asleep according to your destination time zone. When you arrive at your final destination, be sure to follow your new schedule accordingly and don’t turn in for the night until it is bedtime in the current time zone. Don’t go to bed early! Here’s a pro tip that can make adjusting your schedule during travel so much easier: I travel constantly, and I use the Timeshifter app (www.timeshifter.com) to help shift my routine when I’m traveling long distances. Timeshifter takes information about your chronotype, your home base and destination locations, and your flight times and does the work for you to create a personalized schedule for when to eat, when to get light exposure, when to sleep (and nap), when to consume caffeine, and when to take melatonin. What else can you do to minimize the effects of jet lag while you’re on the road this season? Limit alcohol and caffeine. Both alcohol and caffeine will dehydrate you, which intensifies fatigue, exacerbates concentration issues, and can lead to overeating and/or eating at the wrong times for your new schedule. Dehydration also interferes with sleep. To help your body maintain energy, keep alcohol and caffeine consumption to a minimum, and

Biohacking on a Budget: 5 Simple, Low-Cost Biohacks For Better Health

These days, we’re all about learning how to DIY just about everything. The allure of finding and trying new methods for widely accepted practices in hopes of getting better or faster results is real. So, it’s no wonder we’re totally into biohacking, which basically refers to the practice of studying our diet and lifestyle and making changes to achieve optimal health and overall well-being. What is Biohacking? While some biohacking methods are very simple and might sound quite familiar—like meditation, intermittent fasting, and light therapy—some are extreme and meant to alter the biology of the body in order to enhance its productivity and performance level. Biohacking practices aimed at optimizing brain function have gained popularity, with individuals seeking ways to improve focus, memory, and overall mental well-being.  Some people will even use expensive and unproven technology to alter their body chemistry, with goals like living forever (or, perhaps to 150!), adding enhancements like night vision or the ability to pay for coffee with a flick of their wrist. For most of us, though, we just want simple and low-cost ways to improve our biology for better quality of life and health, right? Here are a few biohacks you can try without breaking the bank or implanting technology under your skin. These methods offer promising avenues for optimizing brain function and promoting well-being, empowering individuals to take charge of their cognitive health without excessive costs or invasive procedures. Here are a few biohacks you can try without breaking the bank or implanting technology under your skin. 5 Low-Budget Biohacks to Try 1. Eliminate refined sugar. You may already be aware that sugar is a leading cause of inflammation, which is the root cause of almost every condition and disease. Yet, the typical American adult consumes about 60 pounds of added sugar each year, or 77 grams of supplemental sugar (nearly ½ cup!) each day, according to the American Heart Association. That’s not doing our hearts—or our waistlines or brains—any favors. Human studies confirm the link between added sugar and higher inflammatory markers. Excess sugar consumption has been associated with heart disease, obesity, dementia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and many more wellness woes. Knowing all of the above, cutting out refined sugar seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? So, why are we still eating this stuff, knowing it’s not so great for our health? While scientists and nutrition experts have argued about this for some time, there’s evidence that eating sugar may cause symptoms similar to addiction. This explains why it’s so difficult for many people to stop. While not the easiest biohack on the list, it’s sure to have a positive impact on your health. Plus, it’s definitely not going to cost you any more to eliminate this sweet ingredient. It may even save you money in the long run. 2. Eat veggies multiple times a day. Eating lots of vegetables isn’t a new recommendation for improving your health. This has always been on the list of top things to do to get the nutrients your body needs to thrive. Veggies contain multiple antioxidants that fight inflammation in your body. So, the more vegetables you can add to your plate at every meal, the better. But for some reason, there is this misconception that making healthier food choices is more expensive than eating quick and less nutritious meals. Sure, you can spend a lot of money on fresh, organic vegetables that go to waste after sitting in your fridge for too long, but you don’t always have to buy fresh produce. Organic frozen veggies can be even more nutritious than fresh ones. RELATED: Are Frozen Fruits and Vegetables as Healthy as Fresh? So, next time you’re at the grocery store, why not add a mix of your favorite fresh and frozen veggies to your cart, and start plotting how to incorporate them into your meals for the week? Challenge yourself and see how many different recipes you can come up with using the same vegetables. You may be surprised by how many fun and healthy recipes there are out there. 3. Eat grass-fed beef (and butter) and low-mercury, high in omega-3 fish. So, what’s the deal with grass-fed and finished beef, anyway? What’s the difference between it and standard beef? Well, for starters, did you know that grass-fed beef contains up to five times as much omega-3 as grain-fed beef? Plus, it contains about twice as much CLA (conjugated linoleic acid)—a fatty acid associated with several health benefits—as its grain-fed bovine brethren. It shouldn’t be surprising then that grass-fed butter offers some added health benefits, too. It contains higher amounts of beta carotene—a potent antioxidant that’s been linked to a reduced risk of several chronic diseases—than regular butter. Again, some people automatically assume that eating grass-fed beef and grass-fed butter is going to be way more expensive. If you eat a lot of meat, then it might be, but one way to cut down on the expense of grass-fed meat is to eat less meat in general (but better quality). Then replace half of your typical meat intake with plant protein (like mushrooms and legumes). When it comes to fish, there’s actually no need to buy fresh wild salmon—unless you want to, on occasion—as canned versions are much less expensive. You can also replace wild salmon with canned sardines, which are high in omega-3s, low in mercury, and highly affordable. 4. Eat pastured eggs. All eggs are packed with important nutrients like protein, vitamin D, and choline, a compound essential for brain health. Eggs are affordable and their nutritional value can easily be taken up a notch by buying pasture-raised. In addition to being lower in calories and total fat, pasture-raised foods have higher levels of vitamins and a healthier balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats than conventional meat and dairy products. Specifically, eggs from poultry raised on pasture have 10% less fat, 40% more vitamin A, and 400% more omega-3s. In an ideal scenario, you’d buy your eggs straight

Sleep Procrastination: What It Is and How to Stop Doing It, Pronto!

Sleep procrastination. Have you ever heard of it? Even if you haven’t, chances are you’re doing it, at least some of the time. Let’s dive into sleep procrastination so you can spot this snooze-wrecking habit—and bust it for good! What Is Sleep Procrastination? According to this Instagram post by our friend Dr. Michael J. Breus, AKA The Sleep Doctor, sleep procrastination is when you put off bedtime to reclaim personal time.  You might find yourself: Scrolling social media Watching Netflix (or an endless loop of cat videos) Reading Online shopping Engaging in an abundance of other non-productive, time-sucking activities Not that all of these things are non-productive, of course. But if you’re not careful, before you know it, you’ve lost track of time and you’ve cut into your precious sleeping hours. As we know from the Sleep Deep pillar of the 8 Pillars of a Nutritious Life, poor sleep quality and quantity trickle down into our daily lives. No bueno! So what is one to do? How to Avoid Sleep Procrastination Your first step should be to calculate your bedtime, then work backward from there. This article shares with you the exact process that Dr. Breus advises, based on REM sleep cycles. Once you have your ideal bedtime, use these tips to create a plan for avoiding sleep procrastination: Make time for yourself throughout the day—and earlier in the day!—so you’re not trying to squeeze in “me time” late at night Set an alarm to turn off your TV or electronics Have an accountability partner who will make sure you’re sticking to your plan Try a “power-down” hour before you go to bed More from our founder Keri Glassman, RD, and Dr. Michael Breus Want even more sleep procrastination tips? Check out this discussion between Nutritious Life founder Keri Glassman, who is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), and Dr. Michael Breus:   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by NUTRITIOUS LIFE (@nutritiouslifeofficial)   (Image: Shutterstock)

How to Calculate Your Bedtime

Targeting Your Ideal Bedtime Creating your ideal bedtime significantly increases the chances you’ll get both the quantity and the quality of sleep you need. You may be unsure about the right bedtime, but you’re likely to know exactly what your wake time needs to be. That’s because most people have what I call a socially determined wake up time. There is some external commitment—caring for a child, getting ready for work or school, getting the dog outside—that dictates when we must wake and begin our day. Most of us do not have a wake time that is wholly within our control. Bedtime, on the other hand, offers us much more discretion and freedom. In order to set your ideal bedtime, you’ll start by using your wake time. Sleep Goals In creating a nightly sleep routine and an ideal bedtime, you’re working to meet a couple fundamental sleep goals: getting enough sleep, and making sure it is high-quality rest. My two-part sleep calculator will help you do both. This simple sleep calculator uses information about your sleep cycle to get sufficient rest, maintain healthy circadian and sleep-wake rhythms, and wake naturally feeling refreshed and ready to begin your day. Ideal Bedtime Sleep Calculator This formula tackles sleep quantity. The only information you need is your wake-up time. Here’s how it works: The average sleep cycle is 90 minutes long A typical night of sleep includes 5 full sleep cycles 90 x 5 = 450 minutes, or 7.5 hours Starting at your wake time, work back 7.5 hours to find your bedtime For example: You need to wake at 6 a.m. to get ready for work. Counting back 7.5 hours, your ideal bedtime is 10:30 p.m. That means lights out, in bed, ready for sleep at that time. This bedtime is a starting point, and may need some adjustment, as individual sleep cycles vary in their duration. Try your new bedtime for a week. The goal is to wake naturally about 5-10 minutes ahead of your alarm. If you find yourself waking significantly ahead of your alarm, move your bedtime slightly later. If after a week, you’re still sleeping right through to your alarm, you need to shift your bedtime earlier. Do so in 15-minute increments until you’re waking naturally just before your alarm. Not Just More Sleep, But Better The Ideal Bedtime sleep calculator takes care of sleep quantity. But what about sleep quality? Sleep quality is achieved by sustained rest, with sufficient time spent in each of the four sleep stages—Stages 1-3 and REM sleep—to maintain physical and mental health and function. Sleep efficiency is one important measure of sleep quality used by sleep scientists and physicians. There’s an easy, low-tech way to measure sleep efficiency that requires no sleep tracking devices or equipment. You need only a few basic pieces of information about your night of sleep: The total amount of time you spend in bed sleeping—or trying to sleep—between bedtime and waking How long it takes you to fall asleep The amount of time you spent awake during the night Let’s say you spent a total of 7 hours, or 420 minutes, in bed last night. It took you 25 minutes to fall asleep. You spent another 25 minutes awake throughout the night, a result of three separate periods of wakefulness. Here’s how to calculate your sleep efficiency for this night: Total sleep time: 420 minutes Minus time to fall asleep: 25 minutes Minus total time spent awake: 25 minutes Actual time spent sleeping: 370 minutes (6 hours, 10 minutes) Divide 370 minutes by 420 minutes = 88%. This number represents your sleep efficiency for that night. In sleep science, we consider 85% or higher a healthy sleep efficiency and a reasonable goal. Ninety percent is considered a very good sleep efficiency. If your number isn’t quite there yet, don’t be discouraged. With attention to your sleep—and a new bedtime—you’ll see this important number start to rise.

How to Calm Your Mind at Night

Tell us if this sounds familiar. You’re exhausted and can’t wait to get into your cozy bed, yet the moment you try to settle in, your mind starts to go over all the things you didn’t get to that day. Or, you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the following day. The next thing you know, it’s been two hours and you’re still awake.  Our busy brains can be one of the biggest sleep saboteurs. These unprecedented times are adding heightened anxieties that can exacerbate the issue. To make matters worse, researchers at the University of California Berkeley have found that a sleepless night can trigger anxiety up to 30% versus a full night’s sleep which can calm emotions. This leaves us with a tricky conundrum. We need sleep to keep our anxiety at bay, yet our anxiety is keeping us up. So, what do we do?  We talked to leading sleep experts to get their top tricks to calm our minds at night.  HOW TO CALM YOUR MIND AT NIGHT Create a Nightly Bedtime Ritual  You all know we love a bedtime routine, so it bears repeating. Just like you would do for a child, you want to go back to basics and set up your own nighttime rituals.  “Do the same things before bed so your brain knows it has to start preparing for sleep,” says Colin House, Intellibed’s sleep expert.   Some things to add to your routine could include: Turn off all your screens at least 30 minutes before bed and dim the lights Read  Meditate Journal to get out all the looming to-dos populating your brain  All of the experts we spoke to said we should go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time each day. “Our bodies need routine in order to sync our circadian rhythms. Create and maintain a bedtime routine,” says Lauri Leadley, CCSH, RPSGT, co-founder of Valley Sleep Center. She also recommends you start your day off with an alarm that is gentle and soothing, not a sound that creates tension.  Check out how NL founder Keri Glassman sets herself up for sleep success here!  Try Progressive Relaxation Dr. Thanuja Hamilton recommends progressive relaxation for those middle-of-the-night wake-ups. The process involves actively relaxing each body part from head to toe by tensing it up and then relaxing while breathing out. “You end up taking your body to an even more relaxed state than it was at rest,” explains Dr. Hamilton, who is medical director at Jefferson University Hospital Sleep Lab. “The hope is that you can distract yourself while relaxing. The goal is that you fall back asleep before getting to your toes.” Avoid the Temptation to Reach for Your Phone Limiting exposure to blue light will help your body fall asleep naturally. “Before bed, download your favorite meditation (we recommend MindTravel meditations) and add them to your Amazon playlist,” says Murray Hidary, the mastermind behind MindTravel. “This way, all you have to do is say, ‘Alexa, play MindTravel Sleep’ and you’ll be able to relax without picking up your gadget.” Focus on Your Breath Meditation is a great way to help calm your mind. But, if you have a partner, you may not want to play a guided meditation and wake them up. Hidary recommends a simple box breath technique that you can do in silence. You breathe in for four counts, hold it for four counts, exhale for four counts, and hold for four counts, etc. “Meditation is simply bringing your focus to the present moment,” he says. “Any time your brain wants to put its attention on the sleep you’re not getting, the things you forgot to do today, or worse … work, put your focus back on your breath.” If you really need that guidance, headphones can help. “You can also utilize imagery by imagining yourself somewhere you love, like a beach,” says Leadley. “Sync your breath with the sound of the ocean waves. See, hear, and smell all the things around you in this beautiful, calming place. This will help detour your thoughts and worries so that you can relax and drift off to sleep.” If after 15 minutes you’re still awake, Leadley suggests that you get out of bed and read under a dim light until you feel sleepy, and then return to bed.  Don’t Beat Yourself Up About Not Sleeping Obsessing about the fact that you aren’t sleeping can further your inability to fall back asleep.  Studies have shown that it’s not the total of uninterrupted sleep that makes a difference, but rather the aggregate total,” says Hidary. “So, if you find yourself in a pattern of waking up in the middle of the night and needing to nap in the middle of the day, give yourself the rest that your body—and your brain—needs.” Have Sex Yup, you read that right. More than one of our experts recommended having sex before  going to bed. The hormones that are released when you climax boost oxytocin (the hormone that makes you feel closer to your partner) and lowers your cortisol (stress-related hormone) levels.  So, you’ll be feeling happy and relaxed, which are two great helpers in igniting sound sleep. (photo credit: Shutterstock)

Ask Keri: Should I Take Melatonin to Help Me Sleep?

Keri Says:  By now, most of us understand the importance of sleep, yet most of us aren’t getting the quality shut-eye we need. To name a few of sleep’s claims to fame, proper sleep is critical for weight management, alleviates stress, and assists in making exercise more focused and efficient. How much you sleep, as well as the quality of your sleep, will affect nearly every aspect of how you function each day.   You’ve tried creating an evening routine…you sip on a relaxing cup of chamomile tea, add sleep-inducing foods to your dinner, and consistently practice meditation, but you’re still tossing and turning in the sheets. Before you throw your silk pillowcase across the room (we get it, not sleeping is so frustrating), there’s another option to explore.  One question I’m asked all the time is whether or not to take melatonin as a sleep aid. To find out if it’s right for you, here’s the breakdown on the supplement. Does Melatonin Work?  Melatonin is the hormone that lets your body know when it’s time to sleep and time to wake up—otherwise known as your circadian rhythm. Darkness cues the pineal gland in the brain to release melatonin into the bloodstream, preparing us to sleep at night. Light from the sun rising decreases melatonin production.  When experiencing sleep trouble, many people use melatonin supplements to give their body an extra boost of this sleep-inducing hormone.  The research on effectiveness is mixed, and is also dependent upon why you’re using melatonin. One meta-analysis found that, for those with insomnia, taking melatonin can shorten the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and improves sleep duration and quality. Another review noted conflicting results depending on the study population. Specifically, those without diagnosed insomnia didn’t see a significant benefit. Age might also be another important factor. We produce less melatonin as we age, so some evidence suggests the best results are seen in older adults.  If you’re working the night shift and want help sleeping during the day, melatonin might  improve daytime sleep quality; although the benefit is still probably small. One review of nine placebo-controlled randomized trials found that melatonin supplements increased daytime sleep length by 24 minutes.  Still, there’s good news for anyone jet-setting across time zones. Most research shows that melatonin can improve symptoms of jet lag such as alertness, daytime sleepiness, and tiredness.  If you want to give melatonin a try, it is recommended you take 1 to 5 mg an hour before bed.  Is It Safe?  Before you stock up on melatonin supplements, there are a few considerations you need to keep in mind. While melatonin is likely safe for most adults when used in the short-term (up to 2 months), there hasn’t been enough research to know if it’s okay to use for longer periods of time. You should think of melatonin as a temporary fix rather than a lifelong solution.  You’ll also want to think twice if you’re on blood-thinning medications, diabetes drugs, or birth control pills. Melatonin can negatively interact with these medications. Always talk to your doctor before trying new supplements.  One last note…you might want to be cautious when giving melatonin to your children. Because melatonin is a hormone, some experts express concern that it could interfere with development during adolescence. More research is needed to understand the safety of melatonin supplements in children.  The Bottom Line If you’re struggling with sleep problems, first address the root cause of your sleepless nights before turning to supplements.  I love the term “sleep hygiene” because I believe there should be a systematic, pristine approach to bedtime just like there is to washing your hands or brushing your teeth. Sleep is the Nutritious Life pillar I struggle with the most, so I’ve worked on following basic sleep “hygiene” rules such as banishing electronics from the bedroom, going to bed at the same time each night, exercising regularly, and meditating. Sleep specialists have shown time after time that these steps make it easier to fall asleep, stay asleep, and get the best quality sleep you possibly can. That being said, supplements can play a part in your evening routine, too. If you still need help getting some zzz’s, an occasional melatonin supplement before bed may be helpful. I’m also a fan of a nightly chamomile tea.  (photo credit: Shutterstock)

3 Simple Health Hacks for Better Sleep

Easy practices that really work in terms of getting more Zzzs—and are good for your overall health, too.

Can’t Sleep? 4 Bulletproof Tools to Kick Insomnia

Can’t sleep? Tossing and turning making for some very restless nights? Losing precious hours of sleep can make even the most bright-eyed and bushy-tailed of us feel groggy, unfocused and just flat out cranky the next day. According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems at least a few nights a week, and greater than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month. If none of that describes you, we’re all jealous. For the rest of us, we need to be proactive to get ahead on some zzz’s. Science tells us that just like there are healthy foods that help you feel energized, boost your immune system and have glowing skin, there are also foods that help you sleep. But if you’ve got that covered, then I’ve got four non food tips for when you can’t sleep, too. Can’t Sleep? 4 Bulletproof Tools to Kick Insomnia Sleep (with the right) light: It’s time to stop caring what you look like when you’re asleep, peops. A sleep mask can go a long way by creating an environment of complete darkness. I’ve been accused of keeping it too bright in the bedroom, so take it from me, I know this change works. If the whole mask thing freaks you out or you’re more high tech than that you may want to try one of my favorite gadgets by Withings. This sleek alarm clock lights up your room in just the right way to help promote the secretion of sleep hormones! Yep, you read that right. Snooze without sounds: If the sound of cicadas is driving you crazy instead of helping you drift off to sleep, take control of your eardrums and invest in a white noise machine. On the go? Digital noise works, too. In fact, your white noise app just may take Instagram’s spot on your iphone. It’s also useful for those times when you find your hotel room is by the ice machine. Smell your way to sleep: Aromatherapy is one my favorite ways to help with relaxation and sleep. Try a dab of lavender on your pillow or rub into your temples. One study even showed essential oils like lavender cause a similar reaction on specific neuroreceptors as anti-anxiety medications. Lavender has long been associated with reducing anxiety and decreasing insomnia. Have you heard of Lavender and chill? It’s like Netflix and chill without the Netflix. Stress it out: Got things on the mind? I feel your pain, big time. I usually go to bed with just about 1,000 things on my mind nightly. A good way to put the buzzing in your head to rest is to write it down. Yes, put pen to paper and write down the few things you’re stressing about. You can get back to them in the morning but they’ll be less likely to take your zzz’s when you’ve released them for the evening. Can’t sleep just became can’t stay awake. Say goodbye to blinking cell phones, digital clocks, or faulty window shades. It’s time to make your dreams come true and get the rest that you deserve. Now go buy yourself some new fave pjs – seriously, if fun workout gear motivates you to get to the gym, then fun jammies should motivate you to get to bed – and challenge yourself to get a solid 8 hours tonight.