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8 BETTER SLEEP HABITS

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What if you could change your daily habits and get better sleep? On average, you’ll spend approximately 26 years asleep. That’s over 9,000 days or almost 230,000 hours. It’s an essential part of your life and is vital to your overall health, particularly your brain health.

Your body needs an average of seven to ten hours of sleep a night. However, busy lifestyles, stress, and even changes in sleep patterns as you age can chip away at how much sleep you end up getting. Because sleep is such a vital part of your existence, developing healthy sleep habits is one thing you can do to take better care of your body and brain.

1- Set a sleep schedule

Of all the things you can do in order to ensure you get healthy sleep, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is the most important. One common misconception is that you can catch up on sleep. Unfortunately, it takes up to four days to recover from one hour of lost sleep. Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule keeps your brain happy and healthy.

2- Exercise daily

It may seem counterintuitive, but staying active throughout the day is a fantastic way to keep your sleep on track. Being active for 30 minutes a day improves sleep quality for myriad reasons. It releases endorphins and lowers cortisol levels in your brain, which work to keep your brain awake. It also stabilizes your sleep-wake cycle so you can not only fall asleep at consistent times but fall into a deeper, higher quality sleep, as well.

3- Be aware of lighting

Your circadian rhythm largely drives your sleep-wake cycle. And this rhythm is directly affected by light—specifically blue light. Sunlight is made up of an array of light, but the one that impacts your circadian rhythm directly are the blue rays. These are strongest in the morning, which is why getting sunlight right when you wake up can help you feel invigorated and energized. These rays lower as the sun sets, allowing your brain to release melatonin and prepare for sleep. Unfortunately, many of the devices in modern-day life, such as televisions, computers, and phones, also have blue light in them. Using blue light glasses at night or avoiding screens for at least one hour before going to bed can help reduce the effect blue light has on your brain and help you fall asleep faster.

4- Eat healthy food

Food plays a crucial role in how well you sleep. A diet consisting of high fiber and low sugar helps you fall asleep faster and can increase the amount of deep, slow-wave sleep you get each night. Sugar and caffeine can not just keep you awake but wake you up throughout the night as well. And because they stay in your system for several hours, you want to avoid them at least eight hours before going to bed. Spicy foods can lead to heartburn or acid reflux, so minimizing those before bed will lead to better quality sleep as well. And foods rich in magnesium and vitamin B boost and balance your melatonin levels, the neurochemical vital to healthy sleep.

5- Create a sleep-friendly environment

Paying attention to where you sleep is an important step in getting quality sleep every night. You get your best sleep in rooms that are cool, dark, quiet, and have minimal clutter in them. If you live near bright street lights, using blackout curtains or a sleep mask can help keep the light out. Earbuds or earplugs designed for sleep can help minimize noise. Ideally, minimize screen time by avoiding watching television or scrolling social media in bed. But a healthy sleep environment also extends to making sure you have a comfortable and supportive mattress, bedding, and pillows. And you want to only use your bed and bedroom for sleep, keeping work or other daytime activities in other areas of your home whenever possible.

6- Meditate

Meditation has significant health benefits, one of which is healthier sleep. Studies in biopsychology, the study of behavior on the brain, has shown that meditation can reduce insomnia by reducing and managing extreme emotions like anger, anxiety, stress, and depression. Meditating before bed can help your body and mind relax so you can fall asleep faster and experience deeper sleep. And meditating during the day can help keep your sleep cycles on track. If you’re feeling tired or fatigued, ten minutes of meditation is equivalent to roughly forty minutes of sleep, so meditating instead of napping can give you the energy boost you need without disrupting your sleep-wake cycle.

7- Know when to nap

Naps can be a secret weapon to daytime productivity but there’s a trick to napping without sacrificing your sleep cycle. First, aim for naps that are ten to twenty minutes long, never going over thirty minutes if you can help it. Second, don’t sleep past 3 pm so that you aren’t disrupting your natural sleep rhythms. Drinking a small cup of coffee before starting your nap can also help you wake up within the allotted time, as caffeine takes roughly twenty to thirty minutes to take effect.

8- Read a Book

One habit that can help develop healthy sleep and reduce screen time before bed is reading a book. In 2009, University of Sussex researchers found that reading a book for at least six minutes before bed lowered stress by 68%. Reading fiction has been found to be as relaxing as meditation, in that it takes your mind out of your worries and allows you to fall into different thought patterns. By clearing your minds, you ease into a relaxed state that helps you fall asleep. Keep in mind, while some e-readers are designed to have low levels of blue light, tablets or phones won’t have the same effect. Actual books are ideal.

Conclusion

Making small changes to your daily routines can make a world of difference when it comes to healthy sleep. If you implement healthy sleep habits and still find yourself struggling, we always recommend seeing a medical professional. Getting quality sleep is one of the most important facets to ensuring your body and mind perform at optimal levels, unlocking your limitless potential.

For more on how to develop better sleep habits, watch this video:

6 AMAZING WOMEN TALK HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MINDSET IN 2023

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With the right mindset, you can achieve anything. Over the years, we’ve interviewed and discussed the powerful principle of mindset with people dedicated to opening the door of possibility for everyone. In honor of International Women’s Day, we want to focus on some amazing women and their stories of perseverance and success.

The first National Women’s Day was held in New York City on February 28, 1909. It took another decade for women to win the right to vote in the United States. Even then, only a few countries celebrated Women’s Day until 1977 when the United Nations adopted it as a globally recognized holiday. It took dedication, focus, and determination to make today possible.

Women continue to champion for a better world in all aspects of life. These six books written by incredible women will help you unlock your limitless potential by helping you change your mindset.

Miracle Mindset: A Mother, Her Son, and Life’s Hardest Lessons by JJ Virgin (republished as Warrior Mom: 7 Secrets to Bold, Brave Resilience)

Sometimes the most powerful lessons are the hardest. JJ Virgin learned that lesson when she sat in a hospital room with her then sixteen-year-old son. He had been in a hit-and-run accident and doctor’s didn’t think he would survive the night. She refused to give up and had to find the mental fortitude to face the biggest and hardest challenge of her life. In a straightforward manner, Virgin shares her story and the lessons that carried her through.

Miracle Mindset is a powerful story of perseverance and mindset. By changing your daily habits, you can make the impossible possible. Virgin writes the lessons she’s learned in a way that anyone going through a difficult time can relate to. No matter what situation you’re in, you have personal power and purpose. It’s just a matter of overcoming your limitations to find them.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Mindset matters. It affects every area of your life. No one understands how pivotal mindset is like Dr. Carol Dweck. Through decades of research she’s unlocked how mindset influences your perception of your talents and abilities. When you change your mindset, you become capable of achieving almost anything.

Do you have a growth mindset? Or have you fallen into the trap of developing a false growth mindset? How does a fixed mindset truly hold you back? The answer to these questions and more can help unlock your motivation so you can transform your life. Mindset walks you through not only how to apply this change in thinking to yourself, but to your business, your relationships, how you parent, and how you train. Once you learn how to see what is possible, the world becomes limitless.

Imagine it Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change by Beth Comstock

The only guarantee in life is change. So, how do you move forward in the face of uncertainty? Beth Comstock has dedicated her career to this very question. The world will never move slower than it does now. Learning how to adapt to constant disruption is vital in this ever-changing landscape.

Comstock shares her experience navigating change over the course of her thirty year career. She’s learned the problem with growth isn’t lack of ideas or knowledge. It’s fear, doubt, and holding onto what you think you know. Through her own experience, Imagine it Forward helps you identify practical ways to become a forward-thinker and creative problem-solver to overcome any obstacle in your life.

Believe It: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable by Jamie Kern Lima

Have you ever felt underestimated? Or let other people’s criticisms of you, your goals, or your dreams make you question everything? Jamie Kern Lima knows exactly what that feels like. She was once a struggling waitress told that no one would ever buy make up from someone with her body type. And yet she turned her brand into an international sensation, selling her company for over billion dollars, and becoming the first female CEO for a brand under L’Oréal’s umbrella.

Jamie almost didn’t make it. She had to develop monumental resilience. But when she did, she stopped being underestimated and become unstoppable. Through relatable, sometimes heartbreaking, often powerful stories from her life, Believe It shows you that you have what it takes to achieve anything and how to stop listening to anyone who says otherwise.

The High-5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit by Mel Robbins

Mel Robbins knows how to tap into your motivation. But before you can reach your goals, you have to believe in yourself first. When was the last time you cheered for yourself? It’s probably been a long time. You may not realize how critical your inner thoughts are. And how much those thoughts stop you from reaching your goals.

You are the most important person in your life. But when was the past time you treated yourself as a priority. It’s time to silence the critic, let go of self-doubt, change your focus, and get the results you deserve. Packed with science-back methods, deeply personal stories, and actual results, The High-Five Habit teaches you how to truly believe in yourself through one simple yet effective habit.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

What differentiates people who succeed versus those who don’t? Why can some people seem to overcome anything while others give up in the face of adversity? Angela Duckworth had a theory. She believed it all came down to one thing: grit.

Success doesn’t happen without failure. But how you pick yourself back up and move forward is what matters. Through insightful interviews, hands-on experiments, and historical examples, Grit explains exactly what that special blend of perseverance and passion is, and what it can do. Go beyond talent and learn how to change your life to reach your dreams.

Conclusion

When it comes to achieving your goals, mindset matters. You’re going to face obstacles, and sometimes you’ll fail. Success doesn’t come from talent or luck. It takes focus and motivation. But most importantly, it takes the right mindset. We hope these six books will help you unlock your limitless potential by showing you how to change your mindset no matter what stands in your way.

If you want to learn how to develop a champion’s mindset, watch this episode:

5 HABITS THAT KILL CREATIVITY

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Do you think creativity is a skill you lack? Or do you associate creativity with certain people and you’re not one of them? In our fast-evolving world, creativity is a skill you cannot do without. And most people don’t lack the ability to create. They simply have habits that kill creativity.

The truth is, you were born with an infinite capacity for creativity. Look at any child and you’ll know this is true. But as you grow up, your environment grows more complex, and to cope with these threats, your brain forms habits and sets parameters within which you function almost on auto-pilot. 

If you want to reconnect with your creative side, here are five habits that kill creativity and what you can do to stop them.

How Creativity Works

According to neuroscience, creativity thrives on ‘divergent thinking’. In simpler terms, it’s the ability to connect seemingly unrelated things. Your neural network controls this activity, which is a combination of three brain networks — the default mode network, the executive control network, and the salience network. The default mode network provides your repository of ideas. Concentration, emotions, and decision making are some things that the executive network oversees. And the salience network identifies what information is important and what is not. These three work together to produce ‘creative thinking’, and the habits mentioned below hinder all three of them.

1. Over-rationalizing

Rational thinking is following the safest and most tried-and-tested pattern again and again to solve problems. Your rational mind is risk-averse to new ways of making connections. When you judge every single new idea with your default rational parameters, you stop taking risks and making new connections.

2. The Comfort Zone

This is when you let the default-mode take complete control. If you’ve been doing the same thing for a long time, your brain has fallen into a pattern. This means your salience network won’t present new information or your executive control network won’t weave it in with existing ideas. But this is mistaking a stupor for peace of mind. You’re not allowing your brain to perform creative functions, which are an essential part of its job. Getting too comfortable in one place actually numbs the creative part of your brain into inactivity and affects your brain health in the long term.

3. Fear of Failure

Failure is not a pleasant experience at all. It affects your mood and hormones negatively, which is why you avoid scenarios that can lead to failure. One of those scenarios is risk. But all creative enterprise contains a grain of risk. All new things are a leap into the darkness, however small. If you spend all of your energy avoiding failure, your brain stops generating and connecting new ideas. Focusing on failure is one of the habits that will kill creativity.

4. Information Overload

This is an all too common problem. There is too much information at your fingertips and too little time to analyze and digest it. When your brain becomes saturated with too much information, the salience network experiences immense pressure and cannot perform smoothly. This leads to indecision and overthinking, a sign of overworking the executive control network. Taking time off from a work situation is essential so that your brain has time to sort out the various info and discard the unimportant ones.

5. Not Sharing Ideas

Creativity thrives on collaboration. Letting other people’s voices into your mind offers fresh perspectives and a more diverse set of information points. This helps you look at problems differently. When you hide your ideas and work without outside input, you are missing out on important connections that another person with unique life experiences could identify more easily than you.

Conclusion

You are creative. Your brain has all the components to make creative thinking possible. Yet, it is often your brain that hinders creative growth because it relies too much on habits that kill creativity. It’s time to break the cycle. Kill these five habits and unleash your creative potential.

For more on how to unlock your creative side, watch this video:

HOW COLD WEATHER AFFECTS BRAIN PERFORMANCE

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Have you ever wondered if cold weather affects brain performance? Some find winter weather invigorating. To them, the cold is energizing, making them sharp and at the top of their game. For others, it’s completely different. It makes them tired and sluggish. Cold weather aside, the shorter, cloud-filled days can induce seasonal depression.

Whether you’re a cold weather enthusiast or prefer your chilly days bundled up inside, research has been exploring if weather affects the way the brain works. Is the invigoration simply your perception? Or is there something else at play? They’ve found some surprising results.

Cold And The Brain    

It’s important to clarify that even though you put a hat on your head to stay warm, the brain doesn’t actually feel cold. Your skull and layers of protective tissue made up of the meninges and cerebrospinal fluid act as an insular heating system. Even if your head feels cold, your brain is warm. So, what is it about cold weather that produces either sluggish thinking or invigorated creativity?

There’s a pervasive belief in society that cold weather slows you down. Some of this belief stems from comparing human behavior to similarities in hibernating species. The cold makes your fingers and limbs slower, so it makes sense that your entire body reacts in the same way. But research is finding that this isn’t true. At least, not entirely.

In cognitive performance tests focusing on math skills and verbal tests, men performed better at cooler temperatures. However, the primary indicator of whether someone would perform cognitively better or worse was if they were comfortable. Comfort is one of the most important factors in cognitive performance. There are ways you can increase your comfort levels with the cold, and decrease the effect it has on you. Listen to our podcast episode with Wim Hof for more on that.

But cold weather does impact one key area in your body, which affects your brain.

Our Brain and Glucose

One key finding in cold weather studies is how cold weather changes glucose production. Again, while your brain doesn’t feel cold, keeping your body warm requires more energy. Glucose is your brain’s primary energy source. If you don’t increase the amount of glucose levels in your body to both maintain temperature and feed your brain, the result can be sluggish thinking and slower cognitive performance. Remember that your brain uses up to 20% of your total energy every day. If your body starts using more of that energy to stay warm, your brain will struggle to remain sharp, and cognitive functioning will slow down.

When your body temperature struggles to regulate, it can kick the thyroid into hyper-drive. The thyroid is important in maintaining your mood, weight, and energy levels. If lack of glucose causes your thyroid to work overtime, it can overproduce hormones trying to find the right balance, and this can lead to brain fog and feeling overly tired. Unfortunately, because this can also induce weight gain, it can trigger you to eat less, which only makes the problem worse.

In order to produce glucose, it’s essential to eat the right foods in the right amounts. Otherwise, your entire body can become unbalanced. This explains why you might crave heartier meals in the colder months. Your body and brain need the extra energy to function.

Other Key Factors

Researchers have also been studying the implications of winter and mental health, primarily as it relates to Seasonal Affective Disorder or seasonal depression. Almost one-fourth of the population will suffer symptoms of this disorder in their lives.

Seasonal depression has less to do with the weather and more to do with decreased exposure to sunlight, which leads to lower levels of Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps keep you healthy, but it also maintains the balance in your neurochemical levels of important mood hormones like serotonin and dopamine. Drops in these chemicals can cause depression and anxiety, both of which interfere with your cognitive functioning.

Lack of sunlight also impacts your circadian rhythms. With less of the blue light sun rays that stimulate cortisol production, the hormone that tells your brain and body to wake up and get moving, you can begin producing too much melatonin instead. Too much melatonin can lead to you feeling groggy throughout the day. If it’s too cold to exercise outside in the morning, you can help balance your circadian rhythm by adding a sunlamp to your desk.

When combined, this can make it seem like the cold weather is causing you to have slower reaction times, difficulty thinking, increased sleep, and other behavioral symptoms.

Conclusion

Whether you like cold weather or not is a personal preference. Your brain and body may function differently, but the temperature itself does not have a direct impact on the brain. It’s important to understand what causes negative reactions from the cold, however, and adjust both your nutrition, sleep, and exercise routines to help balance your increased energy needs.

Cold is a state of mind. If you’re taking care of your body’s needs, you can use the cold to your advantage through cold therapy training. No matter what the weather brings, you can take measures to ensure that you stay happy, healthy, and productive throughout the year.

For more on how to use cold to your brain advantage, check out our YouTube episode with Wim “The Iceman” Hof:

The Science of Multitasking

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There’s debate in the field of productivity on if the science of multitasking is good or bad. For some, it’s efficient to do more than one task at a time. It’s a way to maximize productivity. In some circles, the people who can engage in multiple tasks effortlessly are the pinnacles of productivity and the standard everyone should strive towards.

Sometimes, multitasking makes sense. If you have to commute to work, you can listen to audiobooks as you drive or record your notes so that you’re ready for a meeting. But doing more than one thing at a time can be a distraction that divides your attention, producing less accurate results.

When it comes to the science of multitasking, the answer is clear: it isn’t good for your brain. Here are three science-backed reasons multitasking doesn’t work, and what you can do instead.

MULTITASKERS HAVE A SHORTER ATTENTION SPAN

A Stanford study found that people who consistently multitask may have a shorter attention span and get distracted more easily. The more media participants had to juggle, the worse their ability to pay attention and focus became.

It takes an average of twenty-three minutes to gain your focus back after an interruption, according to a study out of the University of California. That means every time you look away from your work to answer the phone, glance at a text, say hello to a colleague, accept a delivery, etc., it takes over twenty minutes to get back into the task at hand.

Even if multitaskers appear to switch seamlessly between tasks, their brain functionality still takes time to catch up between each change. That means details might slip, memory declines, and performance is detrimentally affected. They may appear to be operating at a ten, but they’re likely only performing at a five or a six.

In comparison, focusing on one task at a time means your brain can give full processing power and resources to that one thing. You’ll be able to get more done faster and then move on to the next item. Your work will improve, your productivity will improve, and you’ll be able to get more done in less time.

MULTITASKING IS BAD FOR YOUR BRAIN

Every time you have to stop and start a task, it takes brain power. In fact, studies show that each change can cost you as much as ten IQ points in terms of energy and functionality. Another study found that multitasking impacted the brain’s performance similarly to taking drugs or staying up all night.

If you aren’t careful, being constantly interrupted as you work can have devastating effects on your body and brain. According to a study from the University of California, Irvine, this can lead to exhaustion and stress-induced illnesses. Your error rates increase and the time to complete each task goes up.

YOUR MEMORY SUFFERS, TOO

Memory relies on focused cognition. It needs a goal. If you’re not focused on the task at hand, you’re essentially telling your brain that what you’re doing in that moment isn’t important. And the odds that you’ll remember the details dramatically decrease. The more focused you are on a task, the more relevance your brain is going to give the task. You’ll remember more about what you were doing, particularly if you connect that task with a goal.

Even more alarming, research is just now understanding how distractions can affect your memory—even if you aren’t currently engaged in a task. You might scroll your social media on your breaks or during meals. But studies show that this can impact both your long- and short-term memory and train distractibility at the same time.

If multitasking is an ingrained habit for you, there might be ways around it. Here are some tips to help you make the most of it and get more done:

1. GROUP TASKS TOGETHER

If you have a lot on your to-do list and can’t seem to gain focus on one activity at a time, group similar items together and work on them together. You can do all your research for various projects in one work session so that you can switch between subjects, but stay in a similar task. The same goes for answering emails and social media messages.

Choose items that need the same skill set, brain power, and creative energy to complete. That way, as you switch between them, the disruption is minimal and you can easily reengage those areas of your brain. This can also help you learn to minimize your to-do list, helping you train your focus. As you get better at completing these similar tasks, start getting more disciplined about how similar they are, and soon, you’ll be focusing on one task at a time.

2. DITCH THE BAD TYPE OF MULTITASKING

The multitasking that’s worse for your brain and work performance is the one that involves unhealthy distractions such as social media, stressing over future events, checking email all the time for no apparent reason, etc. You might set a timer for social media, or limit how much time or the time of day you have access to certain apps. Hide your phone or use a lock app that doesn’t let you in once you set a timer.

As we mentioned in the opening, some types of multitasking aren’t bad. You can listen to audiobooks, podcasts, or lectures while driving, exercising or doing chores. The key is to wait until you’re doing something that doesn’t require the same higher cognitive function. You can walk and listen at the same time with minimal interference in your brain.

Learning how to maximize your time by reducing distractions and increasing how you achieve your productivity can be a game-changer for your output. You’ll find that you have more momentum, clarity, and concentration when you sit down to do more focused work.

3. TAKE BREAKS

One thing multitaskers do that makes the situation even worse is not taking breaks every hour. Your brain needs rest, especially if you’re engaging in taxing activities. Try not to fill that time with even more distractions, or more tasks that require brain power. The more time you can give your brain to rest and recover, the faster you can get back to work—even if that means more multitasking.

Schedule your breaks ahead of time. If you’re doing a lot of multitasking, take them frequently, even if you don’t think you need one. The last thing you want is to feel burnt out at the end of the workday, so give breaks the valuable time they deserve. Allow your mind to wander. Meditate. Practice deep breathing exercises to boost your oxygen levels. Eat a healthy snack or get some exercise.

You want to give your brain the things it needs to function at its best, so be sure you don’t fill this time with work-related activities.

Conclusion

These three tricks will hopefully help you when you multitask, but also help you work towards reducing the amount of multitasking you’re currently doing. Focusing on a single task at a time is the best approach, particularly for executive functionality and higher cognitive processing. You’ll soon discover that you can remember more, increase your attention-span, concentration, and focus, and get more done in less time.

If you want to learn how to focus your distracted mind, watch this episode:

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