My name’s James Daniels, ex-insomniac, Paleo Diet follower and author of Paleo Sleep, the paleo-inspired sleep program that optimizes your sleep-wake cycle by realigning your body with Mother-Nature.
That’s me on the right with my wife Katy. Yes, I look a lot healthier than I did 15 years ago.
In a nutshell, my program teaches you how to sleep like a caveman, which in the modern day means getting a good, solid, refreshing night’s sleep every single night.
Whether you suffer from a couple of bad night’s sleep a week, you’re a seasoned insomniac like I was, or you simply want to optimize your sleep to better your health, increase energy levels, reduce chance of illness, hike your productivity levels, live longer and generally feel happier and more alive, my program WILL WORK wonders for you.
But just in case you’ve landed on this page thinking, “So, what’s a little lost sleep?” I want you to know that building up a sleep debt poses serious health risks.
Just one night of missed or inadequate sleep is sufficient to make you as insulin resistant as a type 2 diabetic”.– Robb Wolf .
Consider how important diet is for repairing the body, warding off illness, preventing fatigue, and promoting longevity. These are just some of the reasons you went Paleo in the first place, right?
Well, skimping on sleep has just as many serious health implications as eating a diet laden with processed sugars, dairy and gluten. Here’s just a few of them:
Sleep deprivation has been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels and irregular heartbeat.
Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of killer cells that fight off immunity, which means you are more likely to get sick with a serious illness.
Sleep deprivation affects the way the body stores and produces carbohydrates. This alters the activity of hormones that regulate appe e, causing us to crave more food.
Those with a sleep debt are 10x more likely to have an auto accident and other accidents in general. You are also more likely to make mistakes at work, which could be very serious if you are a doctor, pilot or machinery operator.
Lack of sleep affects mood. It makes us irritable and impatient and impairs concentration and focus. Being in this zone makes us unhappy and demoralized, affecting our relationships, work performance, exercise and eating habits. Stay like this for too long and depression can set in, causing another issue to deal with.
I hit the wall of insomnia during my s. I went through some stressful times, what with my parents breaking up, the stress of studies and the loss of a close friend. By my twenties I was a walking zombie, which wasn’t helped by the fact that I was working nights to support my study. This compounded the existing sleep debt I’d built up, and by the time I was put on pills, I was at the door of mental and physical exhaustion.
The pills did put me to sleep, but as soon as I came off them I went right back to my old sleeping habits – a few hours a night, if that. I was totally lost, my body didn’t know when to sleep and could only sleep with meds. I was getting weaker and sicker.
I had to sort myself out before lack of sleep totally ruined my life. And so I took a stand. I figured, I’m not sleeping anyway so why not use this time to try and crawl out of this ditch.
I began to use those sleepless nights to study. I studied sleep through the ages. I began comparing the way man lived 10,000 years ago to the way he lives today.
Sleeping problems, as we know them today, only began to surface around 200-300 years ago; pretty much when man began living and eating dramatically differently to the way in which his body was used to.
When electricity came about things got a whole lot worse because man started sleeping at odd hours. And when the agricultural revolution took full pace, the changes to food, work and modern living that came with it began to seriously mess with our sleep.
And so here we are today, with 1 in 3 Americans suffering from some degree of insomnia, and 1 in 10 on sleeping pills.
Sleep is as natural as eating – and just as important to our health – yet we’ve neglected sleep so badly we’ve become sick.
My study realizations led me to take drastic action. I began A-B testing my sleep, testing what effect particular aspects of lifestyle had on my sleep. My research uncovered six key areas that were… 
No comments:
Post a Comment