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

by Shawn Stevenson

Now, get down on the floor and lay belly-down on the ball. Dr. Starrett says, “Spend 5 to 10 minutes ‘ungluing’ your abdominal musculature—just rolling back and forth, stopping where it’s uncomfortable, contracting and relaxing, just breathing into that ball. It’s safe and effective, and it triggers your parasympathetic system to turn on.”

BODYWORK POWER TIP #1 Book yourself a massage this week. When’s the last time you got a massage? If it’s recently, I’d like to congratulate you. Right now, about 10 percent of the US population gets a massage

regularly, and that number is growing fast. If you don’t know of, or don’t currently have the resources for a private massage therapist, then book an appointment at one of the national massage studios because they always have great deals for new clients. It would be the best idea ever to get yourself a monthly membership at one of these massage studios as well. It’ll make sure that you’re going in at least once a month, and it will also give you the ability to try different forms of massage and different therapists until you find one who clicks with you.

BODYWORK POWER TIP #2 Give progressive muscle relaxation a shot. You might think that your muscles are relaxed, but they’re probably not. Many of us hold in c...

slightly “on” even when we consciously believe that we are fully relaxed. To help combat this and truly relax those muscles, the best thing you can do is fully tense them up first. Sound strange? Philip Gehrman, PhD, clinical director of Penn Medicine’s behavioral sleep medicine program at the Penn Sleep Center in Philadelphia, says, “Progressive muscle relaxation is a relaxation exercise in which you systematically tense and then relax all the ...

BODYWORK POWER TIP #3 There are many other tools that you can use for self-massage at home, including foam rollers, tennis balls, lacrosse balls, and trigger point massage tools, just to name a few. And, of course, you have your own hands for self-massage, or a partner’s hands if you know how to ask nicely. Make it a consistent part of your nightly ritual to get just a couple minutes of bodywork in to de-stress from the day.

Putting on your pj’s can be like a mental trigger to relax and wind down for the day.

If you live in a home where you can regulate the

temperature, you’re more fortunate than billions of other people on the planet. With that said, overdoing it on the warmth can result in you not feeling rested when you wake up, even if you slept the “right” amount of hours. If you

have seven covers and an electric blanket, and you’re dressed like you’re going hunting, you just might be preventing your body from getting...

The form and fit of your bedtime clothing is more significant than any fashion statement you can make. Wearing tight, restrictive clothing to bed is a huge sleep mistake you need to avoid. Clothing that is too tight can literally cut off the flow of your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system is the cellular “waste management” system of your body, and an important part of your immune system. It transports and circulates extracellular fluid throughout your body, and you actually have 4 times more lymph fluid than you have blood. When your lymphatic system gets cut off due to restrictive clothing, that extracellular fluid can start to pool in different places in your body, and real nastiness can ensue from there.

Beyond the lower extremities, there could be an even bigger and more dangerous issue for women. This may come as a shock, but a 2009 study found that women who slept in their bras had a 60 percent greater risk for developing breast cancer.

But, if you want to get more information on the bra–breast cancer connection, check out the book Dressed to Kill by medical

anthropologists Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer. As for the fellas, tight, restrictive clothing can cause less-than-desired results, too. Namely, the choice in underwear can potentially have a huge impact on reproductive health.

If you and your partner both sleep in the nude, you can reap the benefits of the feel-good hormone oxytocin. You can get these benefits from intimacy (like sleeping in the same bed), massage, sex, or simply cuddling; the skin-to-skin contact is all that’s required. Oxytocin is a potent anti-stress hormone.

DRESS FOR THE OCCASION POWER TIP #1 A 1991 Harvard study found that women who do not wear bras had half the risk of breast cancer compared to avid bra users. Take bedtime as an optimal opportunity to go bra free. This is a great start to improving your health and cutting down on your programmed bra dependency. For the guys, avoid wearing tight

underwear to bed that keeps your testicles pressed against your body. You’re potentially overheating your family jewels, and not allowing them to extend and retract based on a more natural temperature. Bedtime is a perfect time to wear something looser or to not wear anything at all.

I’ve been using an earthing mat under my desk and sleeping on earthing sheets for about 7 years. These are well-designed products that can be connected to a grounding rod outside your home, or easily into the grounding plug you’ll find in most electrical outlets.

GET GROUNDED POWER TIP #1 Get your direct vitamin G. Make it a regular practice to get some quality time with your bare feet on the ground. This means conductive surfaces like soil, grass, sand (at the beach), and even living bodies of water like the ocean.

A lot of people actually fall asleep at the beach before they can even make it back inside. Now you know it’s not a coincidence; it’s the natural response of someone who finally gets connected with the earth again.

there are mats, sheets,

mattresses, mouse pads, and even bands you can put on specific pain points on your body that are used clinically to reduce pain and inflammation. I was cautious of using the earthing sheets in the beginning because I was working to eliminate EMFs and to remove any unnecessary electronics from my bedroom. However, I was blown away to find that numerous studies, including one published in European Biology and Bioelectromagnetics, demonstrate that earthing immediately reduces the electric fields that are generated within the human body. Authors of the study found that “grounding essentially eliminates the ambient voltage induced on the body from common electricity power sources.” Bottom line: Grounding can protect your cells from the issues associated with EMFs that we talked about in Chapter 12.

getting grounded after a flight is a smart thing to do. I’ve found that this practice virtually eliminates jet lag and helps me to adjust to a new time zone a lot faster. Humans were not designed to skip time zones in a few hours, so utilizing advances like this can really help to revitalize you.

Lawrence Epstein, MD, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, says, “Our body craves routine and likes to know what’s coming.” By creating a pre-sleep ritual, you’re establishing a clear association between specific activities and your sleep.

research has shown that we have an increase in serotonin when we feel significant or important. Journaling and keeping a gratitude log can help you to remember and affirm the innate value you have and why you truly matter.

the most valuable hormone production, enzymatic repair, and more is achieved by getting sleep between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m.

Shawn Stevenson is a bestselling author and founder of The Model Health Show, which has been featured as the #1 health podcast on iTunes with millions of listener downloads every year.