Lagoon | Sleep Fitness News - May 18th

👋 Hey there pack members! 

Do bananas help or hurt your sleep?  Find the answer to that and more of your burning questions about optimal sleep and performance in this week’s round  up of sleep and fitness.  Let’s get into it…

 🏃‍♀️ Sleep for Endurance Athletes on the Holley Fueled Nutrition Pod

Host Holley Samuel recently had Dr Amy Bender Director of Clinical Sleep Science at the University of Calgary on her podcast to discuss sleep management for endurance athletes.  Dr. Bender emphasized stress management techniques during the day as a great way to improve sleep quality.  She recommends a “stress journal” where she writes down her stressors during the day, and puts it away well before bedtime.  She also stresses having a routine for falling back asleep.  Her’s is the  4-7-8 breathing technique, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system breathing out longer than breathing in.  Give it a listen to learn about her BEDTIME letter game too.  

☀️ Hatch Launches the Most Advanced Alarm Clock Yet

How did we all become accustomed to a loud blaring alarm to start our day? The worst!  

If we’re getting quality sleep, and proper amounts of it, then theoretically all we should need is a gentle, friendly aid to help get us out of bed.  Hatch recently launched the Restore 2 device to do just that. This “alarm clock” includes a corresponding app and has a range of features including guided bedtime and wake up routines, and of course it’s cornerstone sunlight alarm.  It comes in at a fairly hefty price tag of $200, and there’s a subscription cost of $5/mo for some of the more compelling pieces of content.  Check out the full review from Engadget here.       

Studies Confirm - Take More Steps Get More 💤's

We all know there’s a strong correlation between physical activity and quality sleep.  This article in Psychology Today highlights how something as simple as getting enough steps each day can dramatically improve your sleep. One of the most interesting studies conducted by Japanese researchers found that the number of daily walking steps showed a positive correlation with sleep efficiency, and an inverse correlation with time spent awake after initially falling asleep. If I think about this anecdotally, it totally makes sense - it’s typically easier to fall asleep, and I wake up less often, on days when I get adequate moderate physical activity. 

🍌 Should You Have A Banana Before Bed?

Who doesn’t love bananas?  But did you know there’s a great debate around whether you should eat them before bed?  Me neither.  The case against bananas before bed is that they have high levels of melatonin, and too much melatonin can have counterproductive effects.  Specifically, it can interfere with your circadian rhythm and cause you vivid dreams or nightmares.  The case for bananas is that they are also a good source of magnesium which serves to relax your muscles and mind.  If you’re perplexed, better to just stick with kiwis instead. 

🎨 Can You Boost Your Creativity During Sleep?

MIT researchers recently conducted a study that looked at how sleep boosts our creativity.  The findings were pretty awesome.  The study centered around prompting (or not prompting a control group) to dream or think about trees creatively.  Overall, participants who dreamt about trees scored 78% higher on the creativity metrics than those who stayed awake just observing their thoughts and 63% higher than those who stayed awake thinking about trees. Participants who napped without hearing the “tree prompt” still got a creativity boost, but those who dreamed about trees still performed 48% better. One researcher explained that the findings indicate it is not just sleeping, but “dreaming about that specific topic that helps us be creative about it.”