In this episode, the critical role of sleep in overall health and fitness is explored, emphasizing its impact on everything from energy levels to long-term recovery. Sleep apnea, often overlooked, is highlighted as a significant health risk, contributing to issues like low testosterone, heart disease, and cognitive decline. Improving sleep quality—focusing on deep and REM sleep—is essential for brain function and physical recovery, far beyond just sleep duration.

Listeners are encouraged to pay attention to their sleep habits, including reducing technology use before bed and adopting relaxation techniques to wind down. The discussion also covers the benefits of supplements taken before sleep to aid in the body’s regeneration process, offering practical advice on how to make sleep a cornerstone of a healthier lifestyle.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:04 – The Importance of Sleep

01:29 – Health Risks of Sleep Apnea

03:06 – Quality Over Quantity

04:41 – Impact of Technology on Sleep

09:55 – Supplements and Sleep Recovery

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] A right. We’re talking about sleep tonight. It’s probably the biggest thing that I see people messing up on people and all the time and they want to up their tasks. They want to they want to bring in new peptides. They want to, you know, do whatever because they’re not happy with what the results are getting in the gym or, you know, their energy levels or something else like that. And the thing is, is that those are all great tools and you should definitely look at them. The problem is, is that you’ve got to make sure that you’re good on all fronts. And I think the place that people are missing the most is sleep. And it’s not just that you that you are laying in bed for X amount of time, Right? You know, like I was asleep for six hours. Okay, great. Like where you oxygenated? Have you done sleep study? Did you make sure you’re breathing properly? A lot of people aren’t, especially if you got the Covid vaccine. There’s a lot of people who have other issues where they’re not getting the sleep that they need. They’re not breathing properly. Sleep apnea for weight. Sleep apnea from the size of your neck. The size of your chest. There’s lots and lots lots of women who are petite, who still have sleep apnea. You guys need to get checked if you’re not breathing at night. That is horrible. That’s one of the worst things that can go on because you’re going to with endocrine issues like testosterone problems. We’ve seen all sorts of other fertility issues.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:29] We’ve seen all sorts of other issues with mood and pregnancy and menstrual issues with women who have apnea. It’s it’s a really big deal with men for low testosterone. We see lots of damage to the brain, to dementia, Alzheimer’s. And as like those substances get substantially worse. Epilepsy. I had epilepsy for years because I got damage from a vaccine. And so I don’t breathe very well at night now. And and so, like my pulse ox was getting down to the low 80s, which is causing all sorts of issues. And then when I figure finally figured it out, I got my CPAp and everything’s fine. You know, the brain was cleared up. Everything’s everything’s great. Like oxygen is really, really important to brain tissue. So staying healthy, it’s a really, really, really big deal. So, you know, that’s I talked to a cardiothoracic surgeon like this is a long time ago when I was starting to learn how big a deal sleep apnea was. And I asked him because we were talking about it and was like, how big of a deal is it and what you say. And number, this is a cardiothoracic surgeon, the guy who when you have a heart attack that has heart surgery on you like that guy, and he said at least 50% of the patients that he’s worked on, he would never have met if they didn’t have apnea. So think about that. Like half the people who had a heart attack and survived because a lot of who have heart attacks died. Right. So they survived. They had planning the arteries, all that type of stuff. And he’s telling me flat out that 50% of those guys was directly from apnea. So it’s a giant issue. So get your apnea checked.

[00:03:06] The other thing is, is that what’s your deep what’s your REM like, what you’re like, what is your quality of the sleep that you’re getting? That’s how your brain defrag. It’s how your brain resets. It’s how your whole body regenerates and heals is at night. So, you know, tracking those things is really good. I’ve gone to sleep, which I love mostly for the heating and the cooling. I go to work on the on the heating part because it’s the way the bed works. So when you set an alarm, it will be nice and cold and then you’re like, I want to get up at 4 a.m.. What about 345? It starts heating the bed instead of cooling it, and then it starts vibrating to help wake you up Like it’s really cool, but I have it. So that’s what I’m sweating because it makes me it’s. It’s too hot, which is apparently not not a big degree change for me, but it’s an amazing bag that attracts everything else. Movement, snoring, you know, deep sleep, heart rate variability, all that stuff. And that’s the stuff that you guys need to start kind of looking at if you’re really wanting to maximize your gains, is, you know, are we getting the deep sleep? And here’s the deal. These have been the REM. I have seen that the peptides I’m taking the growth hormone peptides in the K, I think do make an effect on both of those two things. I feel different when I wake up. And it’s funny because the as my man, I feel on like I can look at my my my sleep seven like yup like maxed out my room and my my deep and so getting those is really important. You know there’s a big piece of how much are you staring at your phone or iPad or TV, you know, right before you go to bed.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:41] So many people are sitting there scrolling Facebook or checking emails or, you know, doing whatever on their phone or their iPad. And then they literally, like set it down and then don’t why can’t I go to sleep? Or you’ve just been staring at a screen. It’s waking your brain up and making your brain think that it’s noon. And so try to then get it to go to sleep is a bit more difficult. So, you know, setting up a a ritual, a this is how I go to bed, right? So 30 minutes before I go to bed. Get off my devices. You know, maybe I read, you know, read the Bible, read a magazine, read a book, read something that’s not filled with light blasting in your eyes. So don’t use a Kindle or an iPad to read read an actual book. Or one of the things we do is like, I’ll teach you meditation function. So you turn the lights down low. This is one of the ones I like. Okay. You’re listening to listen. All of it. So get a bowl with a candle and make sure that from where you stick the candle, like fill the bowl with sand. So when the candle falls over, it falls in the sand. It doesn’t fall off the bowl under the carpet and set the house on fire. So and then you can light the candle and just kind of sit back and just kind of watch the candle and sit and relax and breathe. And as you’re doing this, you know, let everything else in the mind kind of like just dissipate out and just focus on the flame and just sit and breathe and focus on that flame. Let everything else from the deck kind of melt away and then relax your feet, relax your legs, relax your upper legs, your stomach, you know, do the whole body then can go back through the whole body and just relax and try to be at peace and try to relax and just breathe a little deeper, breathe a little bit slower.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:22] This is where we start doing our breathing exercises and just kind of really try to, you know, focus on calming down and relaxing and just kind of breathing the day out. And as you start doing this, it will not happen very well in the first couple of days, just FYI. But as you start doing this and you start kind of getting yourself calmed down and relaxed and chilled out and, you know, just at peace, then when you go and you go to bed, you’re going to sleep a lot better. So as soon as you start this process, that’s when you’re going to take your CBD this morning, your take your CBD or CBD or CBD and it’s going to take your melatonin. You’re going to take those things. You guys are going to help move that pet piece along. Well, that’s kind of the big piece because if we can get our mind ready for sleep and then get your 6 to 8 hours, it’s going to be a whole lot bigger deal for you. And so that’s going to be one of those big things. And then make sure that you leave enough time to wake up after 6 or 8 hours. You know, like a lot of people were like, well, I’ll get in bed when I get in bed and I’ve got to get up. And so they get 4 or 5 hours of sleep and they’re always like, I don’t know where my health is going. That sleep is massive. Like if you’re training, if you’re if you’re an athlete and you’re trying to get muscles to grow, you’re trying to get injuries to heal.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:32] You’ve got to sleep. That’s when you heal and regenerate. You go to the gym to tear your muscles apart. You go to sleep to let them grow, to heal, regenerate. That’s when everything’s super important. And so if you’re not getting your sleep, you’re not getting your gains straight up. Just just put that in your head because that’s how it is. And so if you’re if you if you have an injury, if you if you have surgery, if you’re not getting your sleep, you’re not getting better if you’re sick. And if you don’t, you’re not sleeping, you’re not getting better. So factor that in. So all you moms out there who are kind of rundown and ragged, but that’s okay because I’ll I’ll clean the house at night and I’ll get the kids up in the morning and I’ll get four hours of sleep or five hours sleep. That’s okay. That’s not okay. Like you’re you’ve got to figure out how to get your day together, where you can get your 6 to 8 because it’s not for you. It’s for the family long term. So, again, part of the mom lecture, but you got to take care of you so you can take care of the other people. So get that sleep. Really figure it out for you to do one thing for your health. Figure out your day where you can get your sleep. Like, figure this peace out. The whole calm down thing. You know, get in bed, go to sleep, get your six, eight hours. Not everybody needs eight. Get your six, eight hours.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:39] You’ll be great. Back on the oxygen thing. My CPAp is hooked to an oxygen concentrator, so my oxygen level at night is 100% because I’ve spent too many years with it too low. I want to make sure that from now on, my brain has my body has all the oxygen you can ever want to heal, regenerate, repair. So those are those things. The other thing that I do is remember, again, your body’s healing, regenerate and repairing at night. And so I take a bunch of supplements about 45 minutes before I go to bed. So they have time to digesting how to get in the system because I want my body to have whatever nutrients it needs to heal, regenerate, repair while I’m asleep. So I take my collagen, I take my you know, I take some like B vitamins. Not not well, I’ll take, you know, sex and hair and that sort of thing. I take the touch. I take, you know, a lot of magnesium and lysine and, you know, omega three fatty acids. I’ll take the RFA. And, you know, I take the stuff that helps, you know, the sulfur fat in the tumor act, the the green tea extract, the stuff that helps you regenerate stem cell function in the gut, probiotics, like all those things. So digestive enzymes, because I’ve eaten calories beforehand, I will make sure that stuff gets cleaned up. So all of those things because I know that when I’m asleep, that’s my body’s healing, regenerating.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:55] So, you know, I think my branch changed again. Forget about because again, I want more leucine and iso leucine in the body. And so if your focus really, really heavily on your sleep is your health, your gains, your regeneration, all of those things are going to start getting a lot better. And it’s not it’s not the first time you do it, but as you because you’ve got to dig yourself out of the whole 90%, you guys have to dig yourself out of a hole. You’re you’re pushing yourself so hard, your body can’t barely keep up. And so you’re going have to dig yourself out of a little hole. So you’re going to do this for a little while before you start noticing, yeah, this is really helping. But the more you kind of focus on your sleep, like I said, if you’re going to pick one thing to get better at you get better at your sleep. Like, that’s going to be the biggest thing that you can do for your entire health, for your athletic gains, for your long term anti-aging, for all that stuff is the number one thing to do. So focus on that. Read about it. I’ll talk about a hurry later. I’m kind of I’m kind of up in the air on it. But we’ll go over her variability in the day. But focus on your sleep. If you guys can get your sleep and it’s can be a whole lot better for you. So if you have any questions, have some questions at Chalmers want to start or drop in the comments. Thanks. When I say thanks for your time.

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

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