Ep 9. Improve Your Sleep to Boost Mental & Physical Capacity

Episode Show Notes

Sleep, sleep, sleep. Can you ever get enough of it? 

We all know how important sleep is for our wellbeing and performance, and still, we are a society of sleep-deprived zombies. 

Women actually need more sleep than men, and at the same time, we are 40% more likely to suffer from insomnia according to Sleep Foundation. 

There are so many reasons for this, such as stress, hormones, kids, pregnancies, huge responsibilities at work and home, etc but there are some low-hanging fruit that you can start with to improve your sleep.

Today’s episode will dive into some of my favorite tips and tricks to get more quality sleep and share how it helped one of my clients. 

Sleeping better will not only improve how you feel, but it will also boost your mental and physical capacity to be able to perform at a high level. 

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Hi ladies, 

How often do you wake up feeling happy, refreshed, and ready to take on a new day? 

Can you count those days on one hand? 

Many of my new clients are struggling to get enough sleep. And unfortunately, they are in great company, as this is such a common problem among high-achieving women leaders. 

Not being able to fall asleep, or waking up in the middle of the night with a pounding heart or spinning head, is routine for many. 

I love to nerd out on all sorts of health topics and sleep science is one of them. I have hacked my own sleep for many years now, as sleeping problems were a huge factor in my own exhaustion. 

As sleep is such a complex topic, it’s often necessary to look at it from a holistic perspective. And that’s exactly what I do with my clients, assessing their habits to understand what’s going on and what we can tweak.

I can’t possibly cover everything sleep-related in one episode, but I like to start with what I call the low-hanging fruits and how tweaking those helped one of my women leader clients, whom we can call Sarah. 

So Sarah reached out to me because she was so stressed and had severe sleeping problems. Her anxiety was high and she was very close to burnout. Thanks to her high motivation to feel better and not go on sick leave, we managed to turn it around and she could continue working.

Caffeine Consumption. 

One of the first things we did to address the sleeping problems was to look at her caffeine consumption. 

It turned out that she had 4-5 cups of coffee a day, of which the last ones at 4 pm. And because her sleep was so bad, she needed that much coffee to be able to get through the day and perform at a high level in her leadership role. It really was a vicious cycle.

Coffee is delicious and a live savior for many. But did you know that caffeine actually has a half-life of up to six hours? This means that after 6 hours 50% of the caffeine is still in your system. It also means that it has a quarter-life of 10-12 hours! 

To give you an example; If you have a cup of coffee at 2 pm, a quarter or more is still in your body at midnight. It’s like you would down a quarter of a cup of coffee just before going to bed! 

Sarah was not aware of this, as sooo many others, but no wonder why she had a raising heart and spinning head when it was time to sleep. 

So we gradually cut down caffeine until she was down to only one cup a day in the morning. 

Together with a few other tweaks, that I will talk about shortly, her sleep improved drastically! 

She could fall asleep easier and stay asleep. She also felt less stressed and anxious and experienced that her focus and decision-making abilities improved. 

So I’m not all against coffee, but I actually experienced exactly the same thing as my client. 

After my second child, I couldn’t tolerate it anymore, and now I only drink tea. I’m happier and I sleep a lot better. 

The thing with caffeine is that it increases adrenaline and cortisol. Combining that with a nervous system that is already overheated with stress and sleep deprivation, it’s like putting fuel to the fire. 

So, if you are experiencing a lot of stress and/or sleeping problems, cutting down as much as you can on caffeine can make a big difference. Tea also has caffeine but a lot less, so replacing a few cups of coffee with tea is a great start. 

Too much caffeine also messes up our hormones which can affect a whole range of functions. Women’s health is a big interest of mine and I could make a full episode on just caffeine and its effect on us, and I probably will, but over to the second strategy; 

Timing and type of exercise

My client loves to exercise, and so do I! The issue was that she kept exercising at a high level even if she was super stressed and did not sleep at all. And also the timing of the exercise did not help. 

The high-intensity training and running that was part of her routine, fueled the stress and made it harder to sleep. It’s the same thing as caffeine, it triggers a release of cortisol, and a stressed body can’t push those levels down properly. 

This is something I learned the hard way too. 

The timing of exercise is also important to look at. Sarah would usually work out in the evening after the kids had gone to bed, as that’s when she had time. That made it harder to unwind and get the body ready for sleep. 

We discussed this and Sarah agreed to experiment with replacing the evening runs with walks or yoga and do soft strength training earlier in the day. Her body could just not handle that kind of hard-core workout at that point, but she still wanted to move in some way, which we all need! 

Evening walks make it easier to relax, and it’s also a great way to reflect on your day.

Adding Meditation to Your Routine

Sarah’s days were packed with back-to-back meetings, projects, deadlines, and employee challenges. We needed to find a way to start those days in a calm and centered way. The way your day starts is usually how they continue, so she blocked time in her calendar to meditate for ten minutes every morning, before her first meeting. 

This made it easier to create a new routine, that she could stick to. She still meditates daily, and this also keeps her stress levels down at a healthy level. The stress you experience during the day, stays with you at night, and will create something called sleep stress. So finding ways to reduce stress will also improve your sleep.

No Work After 6 pm

Sarah was used to picking up the laptop after the kids were asleep and work until 10-11 pm. This also made it impossible to wind down and fall asleep, as her brain was full of to-dos, decisions, challenges, and projects.

We set a deadline to no work after 6 pm. This forced her to prioritize, delegate and not take on more work than she could handle between normal working hours. 

In addition to these things I’ve mentioned, we also worked on her perfectionist mindset, her high demands on herself, the loud inner bitch, her values and priorities, and a bunch of other things. 

If you want to learn more about how to handle your inner bitch or inner critic, check out episode 1. I’ll leave a link in the show notes. 

And if you want to go further into the topic of sleep, check out episode 4 on food hacks and how keeping your blood sugar levels stable can improve your sleep.

Back to Sarah. 

Today, she is in a completely different state and shines like a star! Full of energy, motivation and inspiration. 

I’m so happy for her and inspired by her determination and willingness to take things on.

If you need support to deal with stress, sleep or a loud inner bitch, to improve performance and feel better, head to my website and fill out the form. 

I would love to talk to you!

Until next time, take care of yourself and go be a badass!