Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success

by Shawn Stevenson

You literally get to decide what you make your cells and tissues out of. Your decisions about what you put on your plate are not just impacting you; they are impacting every single part of you. That power is in your hands.

Exercise radically increases the assimilation of nutrients and, more important, aids in the elimination of metabolic wastes, moving your lymphatic system, and pushing toxic waste out of your body.

Sleep is the force multiplier. It will magnify the results you get from your food and movement in the most amazing way if you allow it to. That’s

The body clock is most responsive to sunlight in the early morning, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Exposure to sunlight later is still beneficial but doesn’t provide the same benefit. Of course, this is going to vary depending on the time of the year, but make it a habit to get some sun exposure during that prime-time light period. Getting direct sunlight outdoors for at least half an hour has been shown to produce the most benefit.

Dopamine is tied to motivation and alertness, whereas serotonin is tied to contentment and relaxation.

It’s been shown that human beings get the most beneficial hormonal secretions and recovery by sleeping during the hours of 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. This is what I call money time.

The choices we make each day directly influence how our cells will respond. So, whether it’s a choice in movement, food, sleep, or even the clothes that we wear, something is always going to result from it. And the power is always in your hands to determine what those results will look like.