For adults, experts recommend 7-8 hours of sleep, but it will of course vary with the individual (5). The best gauge of whether you're getting enough sleep or not is how you feel during the day. More important than quantity of sleep is quality of sleep, so it's important to focus on ways to improve how well you sleep and when you sleep. This will include how long it takes to get to sleep, how often you wake up, and length of time in deep and REM sleep. When you wake without an alarm do you feel refreshed and ready to go? Besides daily sleep, the Bible recommends you rest weekly, one day out of seven [ART1].

If you find it difficult to sleep for the recommended 7-8 hours it may be that a biphasic or multi-phasic sleep pattern works best for you. This would involve a short or long nap in the middle of the day, depending on how much sleep you got the night before [ART2]. The terms biurnal or polyurnal means sleeping in two or more segments during a 24-hour period.

Dr. Michael Breus has taken this to a whole new level in which he theorizes that every person belongs to 1 of 4 natural sleep patterns, such as night owl or early bird. According to Dr. Breus, the belief that everybody needs 8 hours of sleep is a myth. He calls the 4 sleep categories chronotypes, labeled according to the specific type of animal that best characterizes each one. Knowing your specific sleep category is important because it dictates the hours of sleep you need, your ideal sleep pattern, and the time of day in which you can achieve the greatest productivity. It varies because everybody is wired with different internal rhythms that are biologically set. This has practical applications ranging from weight loss to the best time of day to do certain things. He has a 4 week program in which you can identify and adapt to your ideal sleep pattern.

Likewise, Dr Dean Posner draws a distinction between “sleep hygiene and Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy (CBT) – a professional program lasting 4-6 weeks. “Sleep hygiene” includes the plethora of often-conflicting advice we typically hear about sleep problems. Things like take a warm bath; make sure the bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool; drink tea; take a pill. You can also wear an inexpensive blindfold and review Bible memory verses.

These things are helpful says Dr. Posner, but chronic insomnia that has developed over several months (e.g., like the arrival of a new baby) requires a structured program to break and build habits related to (INT1)

• • Circadian rhythm
• • Sleep drive
• • Conditioned arousal
• • Restless, racing mind, and finally
• • Sleep hygiene

Our main concern with Dr. Breus is that he recommends not going to bed hungry, which runs counter to the benefits of intermittent fasting – restricted caloric intake during about 2/3 of each 24 hour period, including especially your sleep period. You don’t want digestion interfering with rejuvenation.

To quantify your sleep quality, requires a sleep tracker. According to reviewer Ethan Green, “the Fitbit Versa is the most reliable of the many sleep trackers I’ve tried over the years and is currently my personal favorite. [Note: The Aura Ring is another option that minimizes the EMF threat]. It’s [FitBit] generally accurate when it comes to the measurements I can verify myself. For example, it can tell if I’m lying in bed reading or sleeping, how often I wake up in the night, and what time I finally wake up. And when it comes to fitness tracking, it also seems impressively reliable. The step count is decent, as is my pulse at different intensity levels of training, and automatic movement tracking. So the accuracy of the basic sleep data, heart rate, and movement provide some optimism that the sleep stage tracking is a decent enough estimate.”[ART3]

(Sl2) If you exercise in the evening during your fasting period, use the shower for more than just rinsing off. Think of it as a mitochondrial battery charger. It’s called mitochrondrial biogenesis, and according to Dr. Rhonda Patrick (FoundMyFitness.com), here’s how it works.

When you expose your body to extremes of temperature – both hot and cold – you stimulate your mitochondria for maximum performance, replication and growth. She explains that “Hormesis is the exposure of the body to short bursts of stress that rejuvenate pathways of stress response, activate genes by repairing protein degeneration.”

This is one of 4 primary mechanisms for mitrochondrial biogenesis, including also Resveratrol supplementation, high intensity interval training, and intermittent fasting. Make sure you finish with the cold cycle because that will leave your body core cool in preparation for better sleep [INT2].

Adapting to your natural sleep pattern can also keep you off of drugs. The risks of pharmaceutical sleep aids include accidental falls, grogginess, addiction, and daytime sleepiness. Most of these are in the anticholinergic drug category, which can cause dementia and Alzheimer’s with long-term, heavy use. Learn more about risks of drug use here [ART4]:

(Sl3) According to Dr. Joseoph Mercola, there’s a “magic” benefit that occurs if you don’t eat for at least three or even up to six hours before bedtime. A cofactor called NADPH functions like a battery in your cells to recharge antioxidants as you sleep. Free radicals increase oxidative damage to vital cellular parts, like DNA, cell membranes, protein stem cells, and mitochondria. Antioxidants neutralize the free radicals.

But, when you eat before bedtime, you can’t use those calories, so your body absorbs them, digests them, metabolizes, and stores them as fats [INT3] . “The only way it can store as a fat is to create a fatty acid,” he stated, “ and that is the single biggest consumer of NADPH. So when you eat before bed, you suck down your NADPH levels and radically reduce your body’s ability to reduce oxidative stress while you sleep in your most important regenerating window. So you’re self-sabotaging if you eat less than three hours before bed” (7).

(Sl4) According to MySnoringSoluton.com, we tend to associate “sawing logs” with the ultimate in restful sleep, but would you believe it’s the exact opposite. If you’re not careful, snoring can be deadly (8). Snoring is caused by the tongue falling down into the throat and blocking the airway, repeatedly waking you up and preventing deep sleep and REM sleep.

The result is irritability, daytime fatigue, poor concentration, chronic sleepiness and sleep apnia. This can lead to memory problems, heartburn, depression, ADHD symptoms, loss of motivation and loss of motor skills. If snoring is a big issue you may want to be tested for sleep Apnia. For many, a simple chin strap worn over the head will hold the lower jaw in position to prevent snoring [ART5].