Shawn Stevenson is a fitness & nutrition expert, a best selling author, host of a #1 rated Health and Fitness podcast (The Model Health Show), and a world renowned speaker.
He literally “wrote the book on sleep!” And in this episode, Shawn takes us on a deep dive into the topic of sleep and how it just may be the secret that you need to take your life and your game to the highest level.
Shawn’s Background
- Diagnosed with degenerative disc disease at age 20, told he had the spine of an 80 y.o.
- Was an athlete, but was sidelined with this pain
- Started studying physiology/anatomy and nutrition
- Started living a healthier lifestyle regarding exercise and eating
- Lost 30lbs in 6 weeks and his pain was eliminated
- Shawn wrote the book “Sleep Smarter” in 2014, which has been a best selling book since it’s release
Highlights from this episode:
- The “Nacebo Effect”: When you believe something negative is going to happen, it is more likely to come true (the opposite of the Placebo Effect)
- Your body requires the raw materials to heal itself
- Shawn has discovered 2 main causes of weight gain with his clients
- Stress
- Lack of sleep, or better yet, lack of quality of sleep
- Shawn saw the correlation between how he was sleeping and how he was healing
- Your body is healing itself when sleeping
- It’s breaking itself down when you are working out and going about your daily lives
Why does a golfer care about Sleep Quality?
- Brain health and memory (muscle memory)
- Stages of Sleep
- Stages 1 and 2 are REM Sleep
- Stages 3 and 4 are non REM
- Any technique or short term memory is converted into long term during REM sleep (stages 1 & 2)
- Stages 3 & 4 are the anabolic state when the body produces HGH, which is the youth hormone
- 3 & 4 is where the major recovery and rebuilding occur!
Strategies for better sleep
1. Do some form of exercise in the morning when waking
- increases the amount of time in Stages 3 and 4 sleep
- This also helps to set their cortisol and melatonin rhythms
2. Understanding the Light and Dark cycle
- Black out your room at night
3. Get the electronics out of your room
- Especially the TV (couples that have a TV in their room have 50% less sex!)
Alcohol
- Helps you fall asleep, but reduces the amount of time spent in stages 3 and 4 sleep
- Have an alcohol curfew (ie happy hour, vs a late night bender)
Hormones/Nutrition
- Sleep is the anabolic state which produces HGH
- Another important hormone is Insulin, which is very important for energy
- If insulin is “turned on” it’s job is to store fat/energy
- If there is a high amount of carbs present, it will end up storing a lot of that energy
- If your goal is to lose fat, the best way to do that is reduce your carb intake which will turn off the “faucet” of insulin
- You have to find the right ratio of carbs for yourself, your genetics and your goal
*Just one night of sleep deprivation is enough to temporarily make you as insulin resistant as a Type II diabetic.*
When a healthy individual eats a meal, there is a 5% spike in cortisol.
When an overweight individual eats a meal, they can have upwards of a 51% increase in cortisol, which is especially troublesome if you are eating at night.
What is Shawn most excited about?
- The Model Health Show is about to hit their 1,000,000 downloads
- Reaching more people and helping millions of people master their own health!
- His Best selling book!
- Sharing this journey and knowledge with his family.
How to Find Shawn:
website:http://theshawnstevensonmodel.com/
The Model Health Show (on iTunes)
Twitter: @ShawnModel
Facebook: The Shawn Stevenson Model
Get the Book Here!: Sleep Smarter