Bio Hack #4 Setting Your Day for Success

☀️ Your alarm should be gentle, quiet (i.e. birdsong) - we don’t want to startle our way into waking.  A quiet, gentle entry into our day, keeps our adrenal response low.

☀️ You should aim to wake you up at the end of a 90-minute sleep cycle. How do you know when this is?

• Choose your wake-up time

• Count back in 90-minute chunks

• Add 15 mins, and that will give you your bedtime

• And pay attention to getting to bed at the same time every night

☀️ Get early morning sunlight onto your eye. Stand outside with your coffee or tea, and look around the skyline, not necessary at the rising sun, but in the general direction.  Even an overcast day, the sun, through the clouds will provide approximately 1075 lumens vs. your indoor lights at around 150-200.  On a bright sunny day, you’ll access approximately 107527 lumens! Why do we do this?

• This will set you circadian rhythm and ensure that your ‘body clock’ understands that your day has commenced. Even that overcast sunlight will trigger this wake-up response

• Looking through a window doesn’t count ☹️ Glass decreases the absorption of light by approximately 60%

• If it’s dark outside, in the morning then light that house up with the brightest bluest lights that exist to mankind. Bright in the morning, dull and with a change to the tone of your bulbs for evening lighting; (side lamps, standard lamps and wall lights - yellow, orange, red - think sunset tones)

☀️ Caffeine is a fabulous performance enhancing drug, so go crazy; drop the sugar though, and add a good dollop of thick cream 😊 And for a longer energy expression during the day, try to take your coffee 60 minutes or so, after waking

☀️ DO NOT interact with your cell phone until you have left the bedroom!

• Looking at your phone prior to showering, dressing, caffeinating, will trigger your stress response unnecessarily and spike nor-epinephrine (anxiety, hypervigilance and compound the effects of sub-standard sleep)

• Take a moment to think about how blessed you are in that moment. It’s called ‘savouring’. While you may perceive, believe, or be experiencing a less-than-ideal life in general, this moment, right now, with good coffee, warm house, and free will, is a moment to acknowledge. Just a thought of ‘wow, great coffee – how blessed am I?’, will set you up with the right ‘good’ chemical response. Dopamine (motivation, reward), oxytocin (trust, joy), the right levels of focus with nor-epinephrine (being present)

☀️ Add a 30 second – 3-minute cold water tail to your hot shower. This spikes the epinephrine (adrenal) response (good energy) and may provide up to a 3–4-hour mood enhancing, steady and healthy, dopamine release

• If you’re grumpy in the morning, this is absolute gold. Warm shower, then tail the shower to full cold. (Go full cold after a week or so of turning the temperature down slowly)

☀️ And if you do wake and you’re really lacking energy and/or experience anxious or negative thoughts, really, truly reflect on the last two hours of your night. The anxious thoughts on waking, and lack of energy have a direct correlation to high levels of dopamine, and stress related neurotransmitters, being present in your blood stream prior to bed.  Dopamine, cortisol (stress), adrenaline, all inhibit the loading of appropriate levels of your sleep enhancing neurotransmitter, melatonin.