The next step in the equation is the place and what I'm getting at is your sleep sanctuary. Just take a moment to process the connotation of the word sanctuary. It's very simple. I know what you're thinking you want to skip this, this lecture this module, but it's very critical. The bedroom really, you've heard this before, I'm sure she'll be used for sleeping and sex and maybe a little bit of reading too. But everything else, all the other distractions, the noise, the lights, the TVs, all that should be removed.

It's your sanctuary, your cave your retreat for sleep, recovery, and recharging your body and mind. A few words about bedroom hygiene. Ideally, the temperature would be between 65 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. If you're in another part of the world, I apologize, you'll have to do the conversion for Celsius. But this comes out of the scientific literature that a cooler environment allows our bodies to sleep Better. And this there's certainly some individual variability.

People who've got thyroid conditions or pre or pre menopausal women may have some some other temperature preferences. But for the vast majority of us 65 to 67 Fahrenheit is really ideal. It's got to be dark. I know if some people sleep with the blinds open or they have a TV on or things like that. The reason being we'll get to more in the physiology section, but it really should be dark. I mean, if you if you really have a lot of street lights or a lot of ambient light coming in, consider getting blackout curtains is the way to really eliminate extra light signal the light will trigger some changes in the brain and the hormone production, particularly of melatonin, which you don't want and invest in a bed and a pillow.

I see a ton of patients in my practice who've got issues with sleep, back pain, neck pain, and when you start asking questions, it really comes down to this. I mean are you willing to spend a little bit of dollars on your sleep and your health? Or are you going to spend it in physical therapy, doctor's visits, things like that. So ask yourself how old is your mattress How old are your pillows, matches Half Life shelf life, maybe about seven years depends I'm a particular fan of the TempurPedic. mattress but spring box mattresses need to be replaced they don't last an entire lifetime. Pillow should be changed out to I mean think about it your your head and your face and your hair are on this pillow and even though there's a pillowcase on it and still collects bacteria, dust, germs, things like that.

If you have a pet that sleeps in your room, you're accumulating all that other stuff on your pillow as well. Think about how often you wake up with aches and pains. A lot of that can be directly tied to the quality of your sleeping apparatus your bed, your pillows, etc. holey sheet. You know if your sheets are worn and uncovered Trouble, just spend a little money and replace them. It sounds silly, but just think about when you've ever stayed at someone else's house or stayed at a really nice hotel, and you peel back the covers and the sheets are just comfortable and inviting.

Think about that, how that just sort of triggers a whole different mind set. So I like to utilize a seven year rule just if you had your mattress for seven years, it's time to get rid of it and invest in a new one. being vigilant about noise is so important. I know tons of people watch TV and I listen to music and doing all these other stimulating activities in the bedroom. And it really not only interrupts sleep, but also the light also triggers some biochemical changes which can delay or prevent sleep. Closing windows.

You know, obviously there's a lot of things that go on in your house in your life life but if possible, you know, get the pets out of the bedroom. I mean, kids are A beautiful part of life and certainly going to interfere with sleep from time to time. But you know, really creating a environment for them as well to sleep trying to remove the electronic devices and any TVs and phones and all those things from your kids rooms is really helpful just to create a an environment in the entire house where everybody's in tuned to the same page when it comes to the importance of sleep. So if needed some distraction if you live in a urban area or maybe your neighbors are noisy, you might want to invest in a white noise type of device. We use these for a number of years when our kids were younger, just subtle, a white noise or maybe a waterfall or something like that.

You can experiment and see what works for you. A fan or other devices the low drone and hum of a fan can certainly drown out some of the urban noises that might be keeping you awake at night. It really push came to shove earplugs. Certainly they'll be a way to block out some sound. I personally think they're very uncomfortable. I tried them before in a clinical trial.

In the did not like it, but some people definitely swear by them and ask your partner, you know, if your partner's tapping away, it's sending texts and their phones, pinging and chiming all night while they're watching TV, you know, really come together as a couple and get on the same page in terms of the importance of sleep. And there are similar devices out there. I'll talk more about that in the potions and products and plant section. But one is cocoon I just want to bring that up here. It's it's a fascinating sleep device that sort of tracks brainwaves and also blocks out some sounds. So very cool.

I'll share more about that, in the later module. Some construction tricks, we built a new house and I know that my wife likes to exercise at a much earlier time in the day than I do. Oftentimes, it's, you know, crazy early morning hours. So we put in some specific baffles in the ceiling in the walls that really help absorb the sound and prevent it from transmitting to other people. parts of the house that would otherwise wake up the kids or wake up the animals and get the dogs barking and all that. So very simple construction trick, some aftermarket things such as you know, sound panels, wall art, things like that, you can really kind of absorb some of the sounds and aftermarket solutions that you can add to your home to really sort of not only insulate a particularly noisy area, like a Kids TV room or a workout exercise room with the treadmill, but also your bedroom to try and block out some of those extra sounds.

It's certainly a more investment in terms of money and time, but it can be perfectly well worth the expense and justifiable if you really struggle with sleeping well. Again, the midnight prep, get the lights off, you know, the devices in the bedroom, the blue lights, that all stimulates the pineal gland it affects melatonin production and sort of delays the onset of sleep. If you're gonna get up in the night, you know, you might wanna use a flashlight or have a nightlight. I'll share more about some specific wavelengths of nightlights that will not disrupt your sleep as much as a traditional LED bulb. Remember melatonin we'll talk all about the sleep, bio hacks and supplements and products but you know it's just part of the routine if you're if you're using melatonin to help shift your sleep cycle because of travel or you're trying to, you know, replace a deficiency.

Just remember that and the comfortable extras, just getting yourself in the mood getting situated. If it's, you know, going to be extra chilly that night. Extra blankets I know it sounds silly but waking up the middle night because you're cold or maybe you're sick that day and you're a little bit chilled, just being prepared. As all I'm asking here. And just the environment. Remember you're not only investing in the comfort of your your bed but you want to have comfort all around and that's visual, auditory, and tactile, all the the senses that are involved in the preparatory phase.

Sleep is so important in creating a perfect sanctuary. So the average 75 year old has already spent 25 years of their life in bed sleeping, that's over 9125 days. So if you couch it in those terms, I think it's easy to see that investing a little bit now in periodically to keep your sleep environment in perfect shape is really going to make a huge difference over the span of your life.