Sleepy Sunday Newsletter
by 8hrS
Chapter 8 - August
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Selfcare Tip of the Month.
 Instead of buying fresh vegetables, buy and eat the frozen variants. Vegetables are frozen at source, meaning they're picked and immediately frozen. This preserves more nutrients than fresh vegetables that need to be transported to the point of sale etc.
Ow, and inflation tip... they're cheaper.
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Sleep Tip of the Month
 Keep your wake-up time consistent. Yes, even if you've had a rough night out. Not a popular one, but sleeping in is never really a good idea. Even if you've missed your regular bedtime with 3 hours, it's better to wake up at your usual time than to try and catchup on the Sleep. That way you'll at least minimise the damage: your body is smart and will optimize for the most important stages of Sleep in the follow up night. If you sleep in, your rhythm might get out of whack for a week, leading to longer lasting issues in your energy etc.
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Media tips of the Month.
 Listen: The Science of Everything Podcast is exactly what it says it is. It explains the science behind everyday things. And you already feel us coming... There's an episode on The Science of Sleep. It stays pretty basic, but a great refresher on the main concepts!
 Read: The Sleep Solution by Dr. Chris Winter. Great book full of scientific gems (f.e. Did you know Sleeping plays an important role in Alzheimer prevention) as well as light-hearted but spot-on Sleep advise from one of the world's top neurologists.
 Watch: Thomas DeLauer is mostly known for his KETO knowledge, but a couple of months ago he also had a pretty interesting video on what to eat to Sleep well. Have a look here. So, what will become your new late-night snack?
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Sleep and Performance + Building Muscle.
This one is for the Athletes amongst us or just for anyone that cares about optimizing performance, physically or cognitively.
If you've ever tried to get at peak performance after a night of bad Sleep, this will come as no surprise: lack of Sleep impacts performance.
But how much? Well, let us tell you exactly:
After one night of no Sleep, overall performance decreased with −7.6% compared to normal sleep. The largest decrement was for skill-based tasks (−20.9%), followed by strength-endurance (−9.9%), anaerobic power (−6.3%), HIIT (−6.2%), endurance (−5.6%), speed/power endurance (−2.9%), and strength (−2.9%).Subgroup analyses indicated that the adverse effect of sleep loss was significant for lower-body strength tasks (−3.4%), but not upper-body strength tasks (−1.6%). Exercise tasks performed in both the a.m. and p.m. were negatively affected, with larger effects observed for tasks performed in the p.m.
There, some data to back up what you intuitively already knew.
Aside from that, it also impacts protein synthesis (= building muscle). One night of total Sleep deprivation reduced protein synthesis by 18%. It decreased plasma testosterone by 21% and increased plasma cortisol by 24%. Sustained deprivation will even turn you catabolic (meaning your body will start tearing down muscles).
So if you want to be strong, build muscle and perform: Sleep equally strong.
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8hrS August update: 8hrs > 8hours, Sleep to Move.
Mysterious as always but:
Our rebranding is in full swing. We are doing an offline Activation in Amsterdam soon - stay tuned.
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Take a Deep Breath.
Have you ever heard of the physiological sigh? Physiologically it's a mechanism your body uses to manage the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. But it's also one of the most powerful and quick anti-stress tools, activating your body's parasympathetic nervous system (the 'rest and digest' system, vs. the sympathetic 'fight or flight' system).
Try it right now:
1. Long Inhale through the nose until your lungs are almost full.
2. Then another quick inhale through the nose to fill up the lungs even more.
3. Exhale all air with a long sigh through the mouth.
4. Feel the relaxing glow.
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A note from the Founder.
What I got from my law degree and lawyer job?
Sleep deprivation.
Jokes aside, a little backstory: I have a background in law, obtaining a masters in corporate law back in 2019. After graduating I was convinced I was going to turn into a real-life Harvey Specter, so I embarked my career as an M&A lawyer (meaning I helped companies take over other companies) at a big law firm. A year full of 16 hour work days, grumpy sleep deprived colleagues and 10.000 document-file rooms later, I didn't feel much of a Harvey. I realised I never was really passionate about the field of law at all and found the environment rather toxic - so I quit. I went into e-commerce and found my passion in human health, physiology and Sleep, however I could never really shake the feeling that I 'wasted' around 7 years of my life studying this hyper-specific thing that would never amount to anything.
But recently, something dawned on me: I read through A LOT of scientific studies and very dense reports on health, supplements and sleep in order to keep on top of things with 8hrS. And I've always managed to distill the main message or main results of these studies rather fast while keeping a critical mindset. It's only recently I've realised that this is a learned skill from... years of piercing through contracts or regulations during due diligence as a lawyer.
So not only did my stint as a lawyer serve as a foundation for building 8hrS through the realisation that Sleep and rest is so important for my performance (both cognitively as physically). It also armed me with the skills to process A LOT of information in a short amount of time and distill the core values - priceless in this confusing industry.
Moral of the story: skills you learn are almost ALWAYS transferable, nothing is wasted. And it's at the most random moments you'll realise 'hey, this is super useful'. So go out and try stuff, if you don't like it, you can pivot and you'll probably still benefit from learning the stuff you have learned, whatever it be.
Mathias
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