THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

Read time - 4 minutes

The Sleep Issue (1 of 2)

In this issue:

• My history with sleep

• The sleep heirarchy

• How to get better sleep (the macro habits)

My sleep story

I’ve been a good sleeper almost my whole life.

My family members used to joke that I could sleep everywhere.

In business school i learned first-hand how much better I performed with a good night sleep - compared against my classmates who pulled all-nighters.

Then I had kids.

And then I had serious business challenges.

And then I got divorced.

And then all those things occurred at exactly the same time.

While I think there was likely a long-term slide in my sleep quality, the events above, and my memories of it, made it feel like a pretty swift decline.

My only tool at the time was alcohol - I’d have a few drinks to help go to sleep, wake up at some point way to early with anxiety buzzing through me.

That cycle repeated until I found myself one day completely spent.

• I hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in weeks

• My anxiety was becoming unmanageable

• I couldn’t think clearly about anything

I was in trouble.

Luckily - two friends encouraged me to get help. I went to the doctor and described my symptoms - my body was buzzing from anxiety.

I was in a bad place.

He prescribed me an antidepressant that he took personally - called mirtazapine.

Mirtazapine was an anxiety & depression medication that had a side effect of causing drowsiness - so you took it at night before bed.

I filled the prescription and flew to Scottsdale with my girlfriend.

I took the medication before bed, and slept.

I slept for 13 hours. I sweated through my sheets.

the next few days I was a bit of a zombie. But I slept. A lot.

The mirtazapine worked. It made me sleep deeply, every night, without much sleep prep or sleep hygiene required.

It also allowed me to heal. It allowed my body and mind to rest, after some years of burning the candle at both ends.

Since that weekend - I’ve worked on myself to develop the mindset, tools, and habits required to be mentally and physically healthy regardless of what’s happening in my life, and achieve consistent, high quality sleep, without the need for medications.

That work culminated early this year when I successfully stopped taking Mirtazapine, and retrained myself to sleep without it.

The Sleep Heirarchy

The importance of sleep has always been preached by wellness experts. It’s prominence has recently evolved, however.

It’s gone from being one of many things to focus on - to being the foundation of all things.

Chart courtesy of kcbalancedyou.

Sleep is also the foundation of mental health, and without it, the primary accelerant to mental health deterioration in humans.

Chart courtesy of Sleepfoundation.org.

This is why I make sleep my primary measurable in my wellness journey.

• I have to workout consistently to sleep well

• I have to eat healthy to sleep well

• I have to meditate to sleep well

• I have to have healthy relationships to sleep well

• I have to have meaningful work that pays well to sleep well

I use many measurables - but if I only had one, how I sleep could get me 90% of the way to knowing how I’m doing everywhere.

How to Get Better Sleep

The “how to” section of sleep can get pretty lengthy - since almost everything you do throughout your day is going to affect how you sleep.

We can think about sleep, and all wellness activities, in terms of Macro and micro activities.

Macro are the big lifestyle habits that move 80% of the needle.

Micro are the tactics that get us the rest of the way there.

The trick in life is to focus on the macro activites. The problem is, the macro activities are boring and hard, so most people ignore them, and waste energy on micro activities.

Quick example so you know what I’m talking about, then I’ll jump into the macro activities (you have to wait a week for the micro activities):

• Macro - Eat a quality diet with single-ingredient, unprocessed foods, and minimal sugar.

• Micro - Take a hot bath to relax and alter body temperature for easier sleep onset.

Both of these recommendations are sound, and taking a bath is effective. But if you eat garbage all day, taking a bath is wrapping duct tape around a broken pipe.

You see what I mean? Macros first.

Here’s the Macros:

1. Nutrition - Eat real, unprocessed foods all the time. Minimize sugar and processed foods and seed oils. Focus on food quality.

2. Exercise & Active lifestyle - Live a lifestyle of movement with intense exercise 3-5 days a week and regular, daily movement outdoors. Every day. For my physical wellness philosophy please read The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #2.

   Play could be a separate category - but also fits within an active lifestyle. For my philosophy on play read The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #6

3. Growth & purpose - Ongoing, lifelong commitment to learning, personal growth, and aligning our life to our purpose, is the key to optimal mental fitness. The saying “if we’re not growing we’re dying” applies to all things in life, especially our mental selves.

   This includes the work we do. If you hate the work you do, you’ll likely never b

4. Mindfulness - Meditation is scientifically proven to change our our minds work. It’s not some woo-woo practice for yogis and buddhist monks. Mindfulness practices are the core of mental fitness. They train your brain to organize your thoughts and allow you to be present. For my mental health philosophy please read The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #3

5. Human connection - Build deep, strong relationships with family and loved ones. Be part of communities and things greater than yourself. Build deep friendships. For my philosophy on friendships read The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #5

6. Substance management - All the substances we ingest affect our sleep. The two primary ones are caffeine and alcohol.

   Put simply - both affect our sleep dramatically, and have a direct correlation to sleep quality. Want to improve sleep? Reduce caffeine and alcohol. I’m biased towards alcohol in terms of priority because of how dangerous alcohol is for most people.

   I say this with love and empathy, especially because it has taken me many years to feel strong in this arena - if you’re having trouble with sleep or anywhere in life - cut out alcohol first, and then worry about everything else.

That’s it - that’s the newsletter. If you want to improve your sleep, first work on improving your life overall.

Do you feel catfished?

Excited to dig into some juicy sleep tactics and get slapped with a “get a job you like” recommendation?

I probably would too - also, the truth hurts.

I’ll get into the macros next week, don’t worry.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a micro to work on - here’s the #1 tactic for better sleep:

Wake up at the same time every day

I know - that ones also kind of boring - it’s universally recommended as the #1 tactic by sleep doctors though.

Give that a try.

I’ll talk to you next week,

Mike

Thanks for reading The Lifestyle Entrepreneur

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