The Totality of Sleep: Comprehensive Guide to Maximize with HRV (Part 1)
This article is written with the idea of someone using a sleep tracker with the focus of maximizing their sleep. A kind of human alpha equation to make sure your body is reaching its peak levels of health. Sleep can be a great tracker of your health, being that it does require hormone balance, optimal nutrition, lifestyle factors, stress management and love.
NOTE: This article is approached and written as a tool to optimize sleep. It is not a comprehensive guide into the full biochemistry of sleep, even though it does dive into some specific pathways. It is also written in terms of using a sleep tracker. Personally, I use the WHOOP and much of the data I discuss is in relation to this device and app. I am sure other trackers are great, and should correlate within reason, this simply happens to be the device I use.
HORMONE FUNCTION
Hormonal balance and maximization is an absolute must to get the best sleep of your life. Thyroid hormone is the number one hormone to optimize, followed by sex hormones. Thyroid hormone has the most impact on the most number of cells and systems in the body.
Seems odd at first glance that focusing on things that affect your wakefulness would have such a profound effect on sleep, but they do. A simple way to think about this will be in terms of energy. If you maximize your energy, which also means using it all up during the day, your body will sleep more efficiently.
Ways to optimize thyroid function, not only for sleep, but also your complete thyroid system:
Get Tested. This means you must run labs to see how your thyroid works. TSH, Total T4, Total T3, Reverse T3, Thyroid Antibodies, and Serum Iodine are the bare minimum to begin to understand the thyroid. (See upcoming Thyroid Lab Test Explanations for details.)
Accessory Tests. CBC w/ Diff, Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, GGT, Homocysteine, D3, DHEA sulfate, Ferritin, Total Iron, % saturation and TIBC would and are also necessary for healthy thyroid function. (See upcoming Thyroid Lab Test Explanations for details.)
Optimizing Dopamine function. This is accomplished by waking at the same time every morning and eating a Farmer’s Breakfast. Protein is necessary to obtain the amino acids needed to drive dopamine function. Another strategy I find that works is calming the mind upon waking. Dopamine and Thyroid Hormone follow the same circadian rhythm curve, thus optimizing one has an effect on the other. They support one another. (See upcoming Dopamine: My Personal Optimization Strategy)
Get moving in the morning. Support a healthy cortisol circadian rhythm. Working out in the morning has shown to be best for all people that don’t make a living through sports and working out. One of the main reasons for this is the cortisol response from exercise. All exercise is ‘stressful’ in a sense it raises cortisol levels. Why not use this to strategically boost cortisol in the morning, which will help your thyroid hormone function more efficiently.
Sex hormone balance. Working out has a profound effect on sex hormone function. Sex hormones in a simplified sense, are highest in the morning. They follow the same circadian rhythm as cortisol, thyroid and dopamine. You could also have sex in the morning which will also support this pattern. If this isn’t an option, working out in a anaerobic fashion is the next best thing.
PROPORTIONS OF SLEEP
Light Sleep: 50% of total sleep hours
When tracking sleep with a heart rate variability monitor, aiming for around 50% of your sleep being light in nature is a great goal. Light sleep includes Stages 1 and 2, and does have some restorative aspects, but overall does not. It allows for your body and mind to still be aware of the surroundings. When this is over 50%, it means you are having a ‘stressful’ form of sleep. During high periods of stress your body will find it difficult to obtain optimal amounts of REM and Deep Sleep and will spend most of the time in Light Sleep.
Deep Sleep: 22-25% of total sleep hours
Stages 3 and 4 of non-REM sleep are called Deep Sleep. Deep Sleep is the period of sleep when your body repairs itself. Growth hormones and factors are produced, your tissue and body are repaired and structural injuries heal during this time. This is essential sleep for everyone as this is how your body gets stronger. As we learned above, working out and optimizing thyroid hormone help sleep. This is the phase of sleep that repairs the body from all the energetic activities performed during the day.
REM Sleep: 21-26% of total sleep hours
REM Sleep is the dream phase of sleep. It is a very brain active form of sleep, where your body shuts down movement, all while having brain activity that is almost like being awake. This is partly where the term REM came from, Rapid Eye Movement. REM sleep can be thought of as a sort of brain detox. It sorts out the thoughts, learnings and activities of the day. This is when memories and skills learned are cemented into long term memory.
PUTTING SLEEP PROPORTIONS TOGETHER
Total sleep time should average around 8 hours per night. I have taken this from many experts in the fields of sleep research, nutritional science, pubmed sources, etc. For instance, when comparing sleep with vitamin D levels it is found that between 7-9 hours of quality sleep is easily obtainable when levels are between 60-70. Above 70 and sleep is impacted. Below 60 and sleep becomes more and more impacted the lower the vitamin D level gets.
When planning for sleep one must take the types of activities you are performing into consideration. For example, an athlete may need to really promote deep sleep in order to keep his body in tip top shape from all the training body breakdown that is happening. A lawyer may need to promote REM sleep in order to keep up the emotional intensity of the courtroom during a long, mentally stressful case. Personally, I find this to be something I must pay attention to. For example, when I am writing a seminar or creating a lot of content to be taught to doctors, I find myself needing up to 40-45% REM sleep during the night to fully take in all the information I am learning and need to incorporate. Conversely during this time, if I workout too hard and strenuous, I find this takes away from my REM sleep.
The harder one works the body, the more Deep Sleep you need. Being that you can only sleep 8 hours a night you must manage your life accordingly. During periods of low mental load and stress; work out hard and build up that strength reserve. Utilize Deep Sleep to help your body heal and recover. During times of high mental load, stress and learning, workout in a way that supports your brain, but not too strenuous as to take away from your REM sleep. This is why I love the tracker I use. I have found it to be very useful in understanding these trends.
The following articles will help take strategies to improve sleep even further with lab testing, lifestyle strategies, supplemental strategies and ways to clear your mind.
Coming up next:
Dopamine: My Personal Optimization Strategy
Deep Sleep Supplementation and Strategies
REM Sleep Supplementation and Strategies