 Exposure to Nature Happy Monday! We hope, with two resolutions under your belt, you are still enjoying meals with no added sugar and getting better quality sleep! Before we tackle our next big resolution, we'd like to recognize Earth Day with a micro resolution to spend more time in nature. It has been almost 170 years since Walden, Thoreau’s exploration of living simply surrounded by nature, was published. In it, he famously says, “We need the tonic of wilderness… we can never have enough of nature.” Regarding cognitive tasks, he was correct. A growing body of evidence has shown that exposure to nature improves performance of cognitive tasks and urban exposure may be detrimental to cognitive tasks. For example, a recent study found that those who walked for 35 minutes outdoors scored significantly better on the Stroop cognitive task than those who walked indoors on a treadmill. And a follow-up study found that those who walked outside in a forest scored better on a cognitive task than those who walked in an urban environment. As with many phenomena, the mechanism by which this works is poorly understood but theories abound. Each theory relates to how we perceive the color (hue and saturation) and softer lines (fewer edges, less linear) of natural vs. urban environments, as well as the reduced need to filter stimuli such as traffic, crowds and signage. These benefits are best achieved by immersion in nature, but some benefits can be achieved by simulated environments (e.g., virtual reality). In addition:
The Outdoors & Cognitive Decline Those who reside in areas with high greenspace have a reduced risk of developing dementia. In those with dementia, time outdoors has shown to improve mood in a time-dependent fashion. An enriched environment has been shown to stimulate brain plasticity. The health benefits of exposure to nature are so profound that some doctors have taken to prescribing time outdoors. Similarly, the Japanese practice of Forest Bathing has really taken off. You might be a bit skeptical, but what do you have to lose? This week, once a day (bonus if after lunch) lace up those sneakers, grab a friend or the dog and head out to the green spaces in your neighborhood to see if it affects your mental outlook and ability to concentrate later in the day. Track it on the calendar below. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MICRO RESOLUTION: GET IN TOUCH WITH NATURE Log your time in nature each day and record what kind of activity you did. Be sure to continue logging meals without added sugar and time spent in bed. Click or tap to view and download the log.
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 Short Sleep Genes, Sleeping Pills, and Coffee Naps... Oh My! We couldn’t conclude our sleep mini resolution without addressing a number of trends and miscellaneous tidbits of interesting information. Don’t forget to keep logging in your calendar and trying our sleep tips each night. CCP's Curated Sleep Tips The short sleep genes Can you imagine sleeping only 4-6 hours a night and waking up feeling refreshed, and also without suffering the negative physiological consequences of sleep debt? It is estimated that only 3% of the human population encodes for one of the known three “short sleep” genes mutations (DEC2, ADRB1, NPSR1). What a gift! In addition to not requiring sleep to feel refreshed, short sleepers have been found to be Type A personality types, driven, ambitious and also positive outgoing and optimistic. Polyphasic sleep Historians believe that monophasic sleeping (sleeping in a single block of time) didn’t become the norm until the 17th century. That notion, combined with erratic schedules and the need for productivity have led to a trend called polyphasic sleep whereby sleep is broken up into bursts over the course of the day (think single sleep cycles spread out over the course of the day)-much like an infant or animals in the wild. While this trend has many proponents, scientists agree the current research on groups of people who inadvertently follow this style of sleep because of their chosen careers (shift-workers, healthcare workers, emergency responders) is compelling enough to advise against this style of sleep. Sleeping pills Oftentimes when people report difficulty falling asleep, they resort to sleeping pills. However, plainly and simply, sleeping pills are a crutch, allowing the user to mask a deeper physiological or psychological problem that is the source of their difficulty falling asleep. Ironically, sleeping pills don’t actually provide people with more or deeper sleep. The net gain in sleep, depending on the brand, is roughly only 20 minutes of sleep. In actuality, sleeping pills provide sleep amnesia, where the individual forgets they haven’t slept. Sleeping pills can lead to “parasomnias,” whereby people walk, drive, eat, and do other activities while sleeping—talk about danger! Sleeping pills also interact adversely with a long list of over the counter or prescribed medications. Reliance on sleeping pills is not without long-term health consequences either, such as memory problems, depression, hypertension, hormonal fluctuations and weight gain, just to name a few. You may recall from Week 1, that one study places the risk of developing dementia for sleeping pill users at 80%. Worse yet, sleeping pills generally don’t fix the underlying cause of sleeplessness, rebound insomnia is usually inevitable. It is a good idea to have a chat with your concierge physician if you are using sleeping pills more than just a few times a year. Dreams As discussed, we really don’t know why we sleep-we just know we need to get those Zzz's to stay alive and healthy. Unfortunately, we know even less about why we dream! There are more theories in existence about why we dream than we can count. We wanted to re-share this interesting piece of trivia about dreams. Dreaming occurs during the REM stage of sleep and is also called “paradoxical sleep” because the brain is very active, but the body is essentially paralyzed. Why is that? Probably so you don’t act out your dreams and injure yourself or others! Stress Most people tend to find sleep difficult when under stress. However, there is a small subset of the population that when stressed, well, they fall asleep. Scientists don’t completely understand these “fear naps,” but if this is you, we wanted you to know you are not alone! Coffee naps On a long road trip? Staying up late to study? Enter the coffee nap! It takes roughly 20 minutes for the caffeine in coffee to kick in, so the process is to have a cup of coffee, lay down for twenty minutes. Awaken refreshed and ready to go! 
To recap our Sleep Better Mini Resolution:
Remember, our mini resolutions are intended to create habits that build upon one another toward “Brawny Brains.” To emphasize the nature of the curriculum, we will continue to log meals without added sugar as well as our sleeping habits as we begin our next resolution next week. See you next week for a special edition! Until then, keep logging! 
GLOSSARY OF SLEEP-RELATED TERMS Circadian Rhythm. The 24-hour life cycle of an organism. It is most affected by lightness and darkness and impacts physical, mental and behavioral changes within the organism. Sleep Pressure. The pressure to sleep. It is lowest in the morning upon rising and builds throughout the day to be highest at night. Adenosine. A neurotransmitter that promotes sleep pressure. High amounts of adenosine promote sleep pressure. Sleep Efficiency. The ratio between time spent sleeping vs. time spent in bed. Sleep efficiency of 85% or greater is considered ideal. Sleep Latency. The time it takes a person to fall asleep. Less than 20 minutes is ideal. Sleep Architecture. The basic pattern of normal sleep, divided into REM and non-REM sleep. Glymphatic System. The waste clearance system for the central nervous system. It is most active at night during sleep. Sleep Debt. The difference between the amount of sleep needed and the amount of sleep achieved. Use the calendar below to log your time in bed. If you have a sleep tracker, log actual hours slept. Note that the benefits of each resolution build upon the others, and the habits we develop are meant to stay with us well beyond the month the resolution is held. We will continue to log meals without sugar alongside our sleep progress. Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: SLEEP BETTER Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click or tap to view and download the log.  The Architecture of Sleep Good morning! We hope our sleep tips are helping you wake up feeling primed and ready for the day. CCP's Curated Sleep Tips So far, we’ve discussed sleep pressure (the increasing pressure to sleep during the day determined by rising levels of our neurotransmitter adenosine), circadian rhythm (the daily sleep/wake cycles impacting all human physiology influenced by light exposure) and sleep debt (the difference between how much sleep you need vs. how much you get). Now we would like to discuss another sleep topic: sleep architecture. Theories abound but no one really knows why we sleep. What we do know is what happens physiologically to the body during sleep and how this impacts health and vitality. Human sleep is characterized by a succession of sleep cycles. Within each sleep cycle are 4 stages. Within each stage, different physiological changes happen to recharge, restore and repair the body. Completing each stage and cycle fully is the key to sleep quality. FUN FACT: Newborns and those with narcolepsy are the exceptions to the sleep stages rule. Newborns have three stages specific to their age, and narcoleptics spend very little time in earlier sleep stages and almost go straight to REM. Sleep Stages For the rest of us, one full sleep cycle runs about 90 minutes, and we go through about 4-6 sleep cycles per night. One full cycle consists of these four stages: STAGE 1 Lasts about 7 minutes This is your “nodding off” stage, where you are easily awakened. You know that sensation of falling and being awoken with a start? That is called a Hypnic jerk and happens in Stage 1. Fun Fact: These involuntary, rapid muscular movements fall into the same family as hiccups, called myoclonus. Brain plasticity begins. Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to re-wire itself (i.e., learn and modify behavior and as we already know this is critical for avoiding cognitive decline!) STAGE 2 Lasts about 10-25 minutes Still light sleep, but deeper than Stage 1. Blood pressure and body temperature drops (recall how a hot bath causes a sudden drop in body temperature inducing sleepiness). Muscles relax. Memories are consolidated from short to long term, also critical for preventing cognitive decline! STAGE 3 Lasts about 20-40 minutes Termed "slow wave sleep" (SWS) It is quite difficult to be awoken from Stage 3 sleep and if you are awoken, you will be very groggy and likely will suffer from sleep inertia. Stage 3 is where much of the sleep “magic” happens. Stress hormones are reduced, also critical for preventing cognitive decline as these hormones can create oxidative stress in the brain. Toxins washed from brain, also critical to prevent cognitive decline (Fun Fact: your brain swells during the day and at night it shrinks to its normal size through this glymphatic system process). HGH and testosterone are secreted, encouraging tissue repair, muscle growth and development. Immune cells are at peak levels improving immunity, also critical for preventing cognitive decline by protecting the blood/brain barrier. STAGE 4 Lasts up to 4 minutes known as the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage where dreaming occurs This is when you achieve paradoxical sleep where the brain is very active, but the body is paralyzed so you don’t act out your dreams and injure yourself or others. Here, the brain further consolidates memories and processes information, integrates them into the person’s world view, high level abstractions are formed, creative discovery is enhanced and problem solving occurs (hence the expression “sleep on it”). Importantly, mood regulation and emotional processing also occur here via the amygdala. The stages happen in succession and adequate time in each stage is required for the body to achieve benefits of sleep. The Effects of Inadequate Sleep Quality What happens if you sleep with a snorer, or have a dog that barks when the wind blows or live on a busy street and as a result, your cycles are disrupted? In other words, what if you get through stages 1 and 2, but as you are entering Stage 3 something arouses you? Well, you go back to Stage 1 and miss out on the “magic” of Stages 3 and REM… uh oh! Fragmented sleep, i.e., failing to complete the sleep cycles by awakening frequently, ravages the body impacting all areas of our health-no cell is left unaffected. In addition, recent longitudinal studies have learned that the amount of time spent in each cycle changes with age. As we get older we spend more time in Stage 1 and less time in the critical later stages and these changes are associated with cognitive decline. To complete our sleep cycles and to spend enough time in the later sleep stages, we need to build sleep pressure to fall asleep with relative ease (latency) and stay asleep for most of the night (quality) to achieve efficiency (time in bed vs. time spent sleeping) and reap the magic that sleep brings us. All our sleep tips help achieve those goals! But the one tip that has the greatest impact on fragmented sleep is alcohol consumption. While a nightcap may help you conk out faster, alcohol will likely prevent you from entering the deeper/later stages of sleep, waking you in the middle of the night, increasing sleep debt. Alcohol needs time to be metabolized at an approximate rate of 0.016% per hour. If you choose to imbibe before bed, try calculating the time it will take for your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to drop to negligible amounts. (Please note: we are not encouraging alcohol consumption) Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Calculator (Beer, Wine & Liquor) TRACK YOUR PROGRESS Use the calendar below to log your time in bed. If you have a sleep tracker, log actual hours slept. Note that the benefits of each resolution build upon the others, and the habits we develop are meant to stay with us well beyond the month the resolution is held. We will continue to log meals without sugar alongside our sleep progress. Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions. YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: SLEEP BETTER Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click or tap to view and download the log  Balance Your Sleep Spreadsheet and Stay Out of Sleep Debt Happy Monday and welcome to another month of our sleep mini resolution! We hope it is a good morning for you and that you are sleeping better! Once again, here is our list of sleep tips: CCP's Curated Sleep Tips Sleep debt is the difference between hours of sleep needed and the hours actually slept. Everyone has different requirements for sleep. It is unique to the individual and genetically determined—it's the sweet spot of sleep where you awaken refreshed and have energy throughout the day. Your individual need for sleep is best determined in a time and place where you can fall asleep when tired and awaken without an alarm (much like camping under the stars as we recommended in Week 2). Let’s say for example, your requirement for sleep is 7 hours, but you get 6 hours of sleep. That means you are in sleep debt for one hour. Research has shown that it can take FOUR days to recover from one hour of sleep debt! Can you get out of sleep debt? Recent research says “sort of...” If you have had a night of lost sleep, your best strategy is to go to bed a little earlier each evening. In theory this should be doable because your sleep pressure should be high. However, it is not advisable to rely on “sleep bulimia” where your “binge and purge” on sleep (discussed last week) as your regular practice. The distinction is between a pattern of daily reliance use vs. occasional use. Can naps help us recover from sleep debt? Yes, a nap might help but it is the same rationale: occasional use vs. a detrimental habit. If you are in sleep debt and need an occasional nap, here are a few things to consider:
What habits increase your sleep debt exponentially? Wrong light, wrong times. Blue light after sunset will delay your ability to fall asleep (latency) keeping you tossing and turning under the covers because it keeps you alert and delays melatonin release. (From Week 2) Not exercising. As discussed last week, this adversely affects latency and efficiency by reducing sleep pressure. Alcohol consumption. While a nightcap may help you conk out faster, alcohol will likely prevent you from entering the deeper/later stages of sleep, waking you in the middle of the night, increasing sleep debt. Alcohol needs time to be metabolized at an approximate rate of 0.016% per hour. If you choose to imbibe before bed, try calculating the time it will take for your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to drop to negligible amounts. (Please note: we are not encouraging alcohol consumption.) Seeing is believing! Below is an image of Coach Michele’s sleep tracker on one night with consuming alcohol and the other night without. The stress response is measured by respiration, heart rate and heart rate variability.  PRO TIP: The best habits for minimizing sleep debt are increasing sleep pressure and honoring your circadian rhythm. 
GLOSSARY OF SLEEP-RELATED TERMS
Circadian Rhythm. The 24-hour life cycle of an organism. It is most affected by lightness and darkness and impacts physical, mental and behavioral changes within the organism. Sleep Pressure. The pressure to sleep. It is lowest in the morning upon rising and builds throughout the day to be highest at night. Adenosine. A neurotransmitter that promotes sleep pressure. High amounts of adenosine promote sleep pressure. Sleep Efficiency. The ratio between time spent sleeping vs. time spent in bed. Sleep efficiency of 85% or greater is considered ideal. Sleep Latency. The time it takes a person to fall asleep. Less than 20 minutes is ideal. Sleep Architecture. The basic pattern of normal sleep, divided into REM and non-REM sleep. Glymphatic System. The waste clearance system for the central nervous system. It is most active at night during sleep. Sleep Debt. The difference between the amount of sleep needed and the amount of sleep achieved. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: SLEEP BETTER Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click or tap to view and download the log.  Increasing Sleep Pressure Happy Monday! We hope it is a good morning for you and you are waking feeling more rested. Remember, we're challenging you to try at least one tip each night during our sleep resolution: CCP's Curated Sleep Tips As we mentioned last week, there are two primary drivers impacting alertness and sleepiness at the right times of day. One is the Circadian Rhythm (addressed last week) and the other is sleep pressure. Sleep pressure is our need for sleep and is driven by the neurotransmitter, adenosine. After an evening of sleep, our sleep pressure is typically lowest in the morning and, after a busy day, highest at night. Adenosine is the neurotransmitter responsible for sleep drive. It accumulates in the cells during the day, inducing sleepiness at night and is metabolized during sleep, encouraging wakefulness. Essentially, the “pressure” for sleep rises as the day progresses and adenosine rises in our cells. What do many people do to destroy their sleep pressure? Nap! Naps can be an effective tool to refresh the brain and body on the occasion when you haven’t slept. However, naps become a problem when they replace and interfere with a good night’s sleep because naps reduce sleep pressure. Napping creates a vicious cycle of not sleeping, napping to recover and then not sleeping because you napped! Consistently relying on naps to make up for lost sleep is a sign of a deeper, underlying issue to be discussed with a healthcare professional. How do we increase sleep pressure so we can fall asleep at bedtime? Let's revisit those sleep tips from Week 1 which specifically apply to sleep pressure: Be consistent. Keep the same bed and wake times. It is not unusual for people in today’s busy world to binge and purge on sleep, a habit known as “sleep bulimia.” In other words, they skimp on sleep most days (purge) and catch up when they can (binge). This may be a quick fix to offset sleep debt (discussed next week!), but as a regular habit it can lead to social jetlag or a misaligned circadian rhythm (discussed last week and in our Special Edition on Daylight Saving Time). The body prefers consistency, which means going to bed and rising at mostly the same time. Your body will reward your consistent sleep schedule with high sleep pressure at your chosen sleep time to help you fall asleep faster. Exercise. Exercise is so powerful at reducing sleep latency improving sleep quality and it is considered a valuable non-pharmaceutical weapon against sleeplessness. Why is that? Exercise promotes the secretion of adenosine! The relationship between sleep and exercise is bi-directional. Meaning exercise helps you sleep better and sleeping better helps you have the energy to exercise. Conversely, not exercising will prevent sleep pressure from building, interfering with your sleep and not sleeping will leave you without the energy to perform. Be mindful of what you consume and when.
GLOSSARY OF SLEEP-RELATED TERMS Circadian Rhythm. The 24-hour life cycle of an organism. It is most affected by lightness and darkness and impacts physical, mental and behavioral changes within the organism. Sleep Pressure. The pressure to sleep. It is lowest in the morning upon rising and builds throughout the day to be highest at night. Adenosine. A neurotransmitter that promotes sleep pressure. High amounts of adenosine promote sleep pressure. Sleep Efficiency. The ratio between time spent sleeping vs. time spent in bed. Sleep efficiency of 85% or greater is considered ideal. Sleep Latency. The time it takes a person to fall asleep. Less than 20 minutes is ideal. Sleep Architecture. The basic pattern of normal sleep, divided into REM and non-REM sleep. Glymphatic System. The waste clearance system for the central nervous system. It is most active at night during sleep. Sleep Debt. The difference between the amount of sleep needed and the amount of sleep achieved. Use the calendar below to log your time in bed. If you have a sleep tracker, log actual hours slept. Note that the benefits of each resolution build upon the others, and the habits we develop are meant to stay with us well beyond the month the resolution is held. We will continue to log meals without sugar alongside our sleep progress. Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: SLEEP BETTER Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click or tap to view and download the log  The Circadian Rhythm: Our 24-Hour Cycle of Life Happy Monday! We hope you tried at least one tip last week and are feeling its positive effects! Need that list of sleep tips again? Here it is: CCP's Curated Sleep Tips There are two primary drivers impacting alertness and sleepiness at the right times of day. One is sleep pressure (to be addressed next week) and the other is the Circadian Rhythm. In 2017, the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to three scientists for their work on the circadian rhythm (CR). The circadian rhythm is the 24-hour cycle that drives the physiology of being alive. It is typically generated internally but can be modulated by external cues, such as sunlight and temperature. The hypothalamus in the brain is responsible for synchronizing the circadian rhythm. The Nobel Prize Committee’s announcement summarizes the importance of the circadian rhythm to our health and well-being: “With exquisite precision, our inner clock adapts our physiology to the dramatically different phases of the day. The clock regulates circadian rhythmical functions such as behavior, hormone levels, sleep, body temperature and metabolism. Our well-being is affected when there is a temporary mismatch between our external environment and this internal biological clock. For example, when we travel across several time zones and experience 'jet lag.' There are also indications that chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and the rhythm dictated by our inner timekeeper is associated with increased risk for various diseases.” For modern humans, this circadian rhythm misalignment between lifestyle and rhythm is driven by our exposure to the wrong amounts and types of light, at the wrong times of day. The circadian rhythm is one of the many human primitive physiological systems, the stress response being another, that has not adapted to modern living. Cavemen and women rose with the dawn and slept with the sunset. Their days were spent outside and any light exposure at night was fireside. It is specifically the exposure to the blue spectrum of bright daylight in the AM and midday which drives wakefulness through cortisol secretion, and it is falling darkness that stimulates the release of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Our bodies still require this type and timing of light exposure to function optimally. However, now we rise before the sun, spend most of our days indoors, and go to sleep long after the sun has set with long hours of exposure to blue light from our electronics throughout the day and well into the evening. How can we balance modern living with our primitive physiology? The best way to reset our circadian rhythm is a week of camping under the stars, but we realize this isn’t exactly practical for our purposes here. So, let’s revisit those “Right Light at the Right Time” tips from Week 1, which relate specifically to the circadian rhythm. RIGHT LIGHT AT THE RIGHT TIME Expose yourself to daylight at least twice a day. Start with first-day sun exposure. It is ideal to nab a 10–15-minute walk outside once the sun is up. If you don’t have the time or if the weather isn’t conducive to outdoor activities, then try standing in front of a window and looking outdoors for a few minutes for a meaningful impact on the hypothalamus. Be sure not to look directly into the sun! Light is measured in lux units. The approximate lux of the midday sun is 100,000 units and the lux of a typical office is 100-2,000 units—quite a difference! Walking outside for 10-15 minutes after lunch will not only trick the hypothalamus, but it will also have the added benefit of controlling post-prandial blood glucose and provide you with a mental health break. This bio-hack is so powerful we will repeat it often throughout the year! If getting outside during peak blue daylight hours is not possible, light therapy is an option. Try Googling "Light Therapy Options" to research an indoor light option that can simulate daylight. Curious to know the lux units in your office or home? Google “Lux Meter App Free” and see what is suitable for your device. Minimize your evening blue light exposure. All exposure to light after the sun sets affects the hypothalamus and melatonin production (the sleep hormone), and it is the blue light of our electronics that is especially harmful. Sunlight has strong blue light in its spectrum and is strongest from early AM to midday, primitively intended to produce the greatest amount of wakefulness in humans for productivity and safety. Unfortunately, for the purpose of energy conservation, in 1992 our electronics switched from a green light spectrum to a blue light spectrum. Thus, we are kept alert however long we spend on our phones/devices—and melatonin release is delayed and diminished. Eliminating our devices is not a practical solution, but there are options for minimizing the impact they have: Try Googling your specific device to see if you have factory settings installed that allow you to adjust the display spectrum from cool blues to warmer reds. If not, consider searching your app store “Blue Light Filters” for your specific device selections. Since blue light is in virtually every device as well as in our TVs and artificial lighting, it may be more effective to purchase a pair of blue light blocking glasses to wear after the sun sets. Your third option (and our favorite) is to simply shut it all down an hour before bedtime. Dim the lights, read instead of watching TV and recharge your devices in another room. Fun fact! Newborns do not have a circadian rhythm. It takes the first 2-3 months of life to entrain the circadian rhythm. We’ll see you next week for a deep dive into increasing sleep pressure.
GLOSSARY OF SLEEP-RELATED TERMS Circadian Rhythm. The 24-hour life cycle of an organism. It is most affected by lightness and darkness and impacts physical, mental and behavioral changes within the organism. Sleep Pressure. The pressure to sleep. It is lowest in the morning upon rising and builds throughout the day to be highest at night. Adenosine. A neurotransmitter that promotes sleep pressure. High amounts of adenosine promote sleep pressure. Sleep Efficiency. The ratio between time spent sleeping vs. time spent in bed. Sleep efficiency of 85% or greater is considered ideal. Sleep Latency. The time it takes a person to fall asleep. Less than 20 minutes is ideal. Sleep Architecture. The basic pattern of normal sleep, divided into REM and non-REM sleep. Glymphatic System. The waste clearance system for the central nervous system. It is most active at night during sleep. Sleep Debt. The difference between the amount of sleep needed and the amount of sleep achieved. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: SLEEP BETTER Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click or tap to view and download the log.  Sweet Sleep Hello and Happy Monday! It has been said that sleep is of the brain, by the brain and for the brain. As such, for our next resolution, we will explore what is currently understood about sleep and the brain, and what you can implement and avoid in order to improve your sleep. We’ve curated tips to help improve your sleep, which we'll discuss in greater depth each week. For our 7-week sleep resolution, we encourage you to try one of our sleep tips each day, as well as track the hours spent in bed. You can view our tips and log at the bottom of our weekly emails. You can also view the tips by clicking here. It is also important to consider the quality of sleep within the hours spent in bed. Variables affecting sleep quality include time to fall asleep, hours asleep vs. hours in bed, number of nocturnal wakings, and rising feeling refreshed. These variables are best measured by a sleep tracker. If you have an interest in obtaining one, here are a few to consider. If you prefer something more high tech, here are a few new tools out of the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
GLOSSARY OF SLEEP-RELATED TERMS Circadian Rhythm. The 24-hour life cycle of an organism. It is most affected by lightness and darkness and impacts physical, mental and behavioral changes within the organism. We address the Circadian Rhythm on March 17th. Sleep Pressure. The pressure to sleep. It is lowest in the morning upon rising and builds throughout the day to be highest at night. We address sleep pressure on March 24th. Adenosine. A neurotransmitter that promotes sleep pressure. High amounts of adenosine promote sleep pressure. Sleep Efficiency. The ratio between time spent sleeping vs. time spent in bed. Sleep efficiency of 85% or greater is considered ideal. Sleep Latency. The time it takes a person to fall asleep. Less than 20 minutes is ideal. Sleep Architecture. The basic pattern of normal sleep, divided into REM and non-REM sleep. We address sleep architecture on April 7th. Glymphatic System. The waste clearance system for the central nervous system. It is most active at night during sleep. Sleep Debt. The difference between the amount of sleep needed and the amount of sleep achieved. We address sleep debt on March 31st. Sleep and Brain Health No one really knows why we sleep. Theories abound, but the exact reason is unknown. However, we do know chronic sleep disruption leads to a litany of health disorders and absolute sleep deprivation can lead to death. Likewise, while the exact mechanism by which sleep protects the brain is unclear, it is known that sleep disruption is a critical risk factor for neurodegeneration. Interestingly, some theorize the brain is a biological computer and sleep is the reset button for the operating system. 
Here are some highlights of what we currently understand about sleep and the brain:
A bi-directional relationship also exists between sleep and exercise, and it deserves some extra attention here:
With all this in mind, use the calendar below to log your time in bed. If you have a sleep tracker, log actual hours slept. Note that the benefits of each resolution build upon the others, and the habits we develop are meant to stay with us well beyond the month the resolution is held. We will continue to log meals without sugar alongside our sleep progress. Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions. See you next week! TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: SLEEP BETTER Log how many hours you've slept each day, and record which sleep tip you followed from the above link. Click or tap to view and download the log  Spring Forward Into Better Sleep We are about to embark on an extended resolution around the cognitive benefits of sleep throughout March and some of April. What better way to get started than to prepare for the change in our clocks next weekend? Each year, we spring forward into Daylight Saving Time (DST) the second Sunday in March and we fall back to Standard Time the first Sunday in November. The intention of the extra hour of daylight is to conserve energy, but it has a number of adverse health effects. Beyond a sleep deprived society losing yet another hour of sleep when we spring forward, what is the reason DST is so disruptive to our internal clocks? In essence, every cell in your body has an internal clock that controls your biology on a 24-hour schedule. This is known as the circadian rhythm (CR). The primary driver of the CR is our exposure to lightness and darkness. For optimal functioning, our CR requires exposure to bright light during the day, which keeps us alert and gives us energy during the day, and reduced amounts of light in the evening, which induces drowsiness to get a good night’s rest. However, the opposite happens after DST when it is darker in the morning and lighter in the evening. Your body’s natural CR becomes mismatched with the clock. A misaligned CR will leave you groggy in the morning hours and alert before bed, much like jet lag if you travel west to east. A misaligned CR will not only interfere with your sleep patterns, but also disrupt the appropriate timing of the release of hormones which impact hunger/satiety, mood, immunity, and metabolism. As a result, you might feel tired and grumpy. Furthermore, during this transitional period after DST starts, there are also associated health concerns, such as:
Many agree we should skip the bi-annual time change, and just change the clocks once per year. There are several national petitions circulating to stop “falling back” but most scientists agree eliminating “spring forward” would make more sense, because Standard Time is more closely aligned with our CR. As of now, no changes have been made so we will be switching to DST next weekend. How can we prepare for Daylight Savings?
With these tips and tools, you can adjust your circadian rhythm and conquer the fog and grog of Daylight Savings. We’ll see you next week as we begin our next resolution to Sleep Better! Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions.  The Final Week of Our Sugar Detox How do you feel? Right now, you should be experiencing the “magic” of reduced sugar consumption: steady energy throughout the day, better digestion, improved sleep and level moods. Keep up the good work! If you find yourself still craving sugar, try quenching your thirst with some no added-sugar options below. Sugar cravings can be a mask for dehydration. Staying hydrated is yet another interrelated resolution we will tackle mid-year. We enter Week 4 by removing sugar from dinner! The same principles apply to dinner as lunch. In Week 4, you hopefully gained confidence in your ability to read labels. But what happens when you cannot read a label? When you are in a restaurant or at a picnic, BBQ or affair or event? How do you choose wisely? You can ask the wait staff if there is added sugar, but you may not get an accurate answer. Here are a few tips to navigate dining outside the home: Where is the hidden sugar in a restaurant?
Want to enjoy a cocktail? Sure! Keep in mind, the plain alcohols with no added sugar are: tequila, vodka, and gin. If you level up to a flavored spirit, sugar has likely been added. But remember what you add to the spirit is typically where the downfall occurs. Almost ALL mixers and fruit juices have added sugar! Here are a few examples of mixers that are sugar bombs:
To keep it free of added sugar, keep it simple with vodka and club soda or tequila with fresh lime. Where do we go from here? Just because we are wrapping up the resolution doesn’t mean we need to go back to our “old ways.” As we discussed in week one, added sugar can negatively impact the brain in several ways, and the average American consumes sugar in excess. So, what are some potential strategies for reducing added sugar going forward? Some people are able to stay sugar-free all the time with exceptions for special occasions. Perhaps this could be you, too! It just takes time to learn what works for you in real life, and then allow your palate to make that final adjustment. If a no-sugar-added lifestyle doesn’t interest you, decide what your allowances will be:
We hope you enjoyed this month’s Sugar Detox! See you next week for a new resolution! TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: REDUCE YOUR SUGAR INTAKE Click or tap to view and download the log.  Lunch with a Side of Sugar Withdrawals Happy Monday and welcome to your third week of our Sugar Detox! At this point, with added sugar removed from your breakfast and snacks, you may start experiencing some sugar withdrawal symptoms like fatigue, headache, crankiness, brain fog and cravings. These symptoms are perfectly normal and temporary! Stay strong, power through it, try to get adequate sleep and remember your dietary friends are protein, greens, fiber and fluids. In Week 1, we mentioned the association between the microbiome and sugar consumption – both interrelated resolutions, to be revisited during our future resolution about the microbiome. Last week we advised of the connection between sleep and sugar consumption- again another example of those interrelated resolutions. Exercise is also an interrelated resolution because it helps the body “use up” excess sugar, minimizing its detrimental effects. Simple movements (exercise such as walks, yoga, etc.) helps take the edge off during a sugar detox, providing you with energy, lifting the brain fog and reducing headaches. We have a future resolution around exercise. This week, we continue to remove added sugar from breakfast and snacks, and also resolve to remove added sugar from home cooked lunches. No-Added-Sugar Lunch As discussed in Week One, breakfast is typically a sugar bomb, but the sugar is typically easy to identify. Lunch, however, can be trickier. Hidden sugars are in everything from processed meat to salad dressing, bread, prepared soups and sauces, as well as many beverages. Remember to read the labels of your ingredients before banging the pots and pans! PRO TIP: The amount of sugar in condiments, sauces and dressings is mind blowing. Keep them free of added sugar with the Primal Kitchen line. Easy make-ahead options
No time, in no time!
Between the bread Bread often has added sugar. Here are a few alternatives to try for your afternoon sandwich: What to drink with your meal or throughout the day?
Feel free to email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele at [email protected] with your individual questions. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS YOUR MINI RESOLUTION: REDUCE YOUR SUGAR INTAKE Click or tap to view and download the log. |
MICHELE MCCAMBRIDGE, MPH, MSMichele is the Senior VP of Membership Development at Concierge Choice Physicians. She is also a professional in the areas of nutrition, fitness and wellness. Archives
April 2025
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