5 Sleep Disruption Causes That Are Killing Your Testosterone Production
Of the three pillars of health—training, nutrition, and sleep—it’s no question that sleep is the least sexy of them all…
Oddly enough, it happens to be the most important for your testosterone levels.
You see, no matter how well balanced your nutrition or how regimented your workouts…
If you’re not getting enough QUALITY sleep, you’ll never maximize fat loss, muscle gains, strength, or health in general…
And your t-levels?
Well, they’ll continue to struggle no matter what you try…
Because the time you’re asleep is THE BEST time for raising testosterone levels.
So when you slack on sleep… your manhood suffers.
Now, I’m not just talking about how long you sleep… I’m talking about, how well you sleep… or QUALITY of your sleep…
Which can be thrown off by many different sleep disruptors…
Below are 5 common sleep disruption causes you may be doing BEFORE bed…
Avoid these at all costs as they’re killing your overnight testosterone production…
1 – Too Much Blue Light
When some people have trouble sleeping they switch back and forth on their cell phone between email and social media…
Hoping drowsiness will strike at some point…
And despite feeling tired, it’s still hard to fall asleep.
Maybe you’ve experienced something similar?
If you have, here’s why…
The artificial light—particularly blue light—emitted by electronic screens trigger your body to produce more daytime hormones like cortisol.
And what happens when cortisol goes up?
Melatonin (your sleep hormone) goes down. It’s a recipe for a long sleepless night…
Researchers found using electronics that emit blue light (i.e. iPads, iPhones, Tablets) hours before bedtime have a negative impact on the circadian clock for sleep…
Not only did subjects feel less sleepy during ‘bedtime hours’, but they also had shorter REM sleep compared to subjects who read regular books…
Which, REM sleep is crucial for overnight testosterone and growth hormone production.
Making this blue light is a major inhibitor of your manhood.
And get this…
Not only did the iPad readers produce less melatonin than those who read printed books, but they also woke up more tired the following day.
Drowsiness and lower t-levels? C’mon man…
That’s a double-whammy to your manhood!
Just to give you some perspective, here’s how each hour of exposure to blue light affects melatonin production:
1 hour of blue light exposure = 30 minutes of suppressed melatonin
2 hours of blue light exposure = 1 hour of suppressed melatonin
3 hours of blue light exposure = 1.5 hours of suppressed melatonin
And so on…
Don’t worry, I’m not advising you to shut down your cell phone…
However, it’s certainly not something you’ll want to look at before bed.
Pro Tip: Before bed shut ‘er down and read a book, play a board game with the family, talk with your wife (or go do other bedroom activities), whatever you’d like…
Just stay away from the light.
2 – Sleep Temperature
One of the biggest influencers of sleep is thermoregulation.
When your body is ready for bed, there’s an automatic drop in your core temperature to initiate sleep… (the body is pretty COOL, huh?… get my joke there?)
Yet if the temperature in your room is even a little too high, it could have a negative physiological effect on your body achieving the ideal state for anabolic sleep.
As you can imagine, what we wear to bed is equally crucial to ensuring we’re getting high quality, regenerative sleep…
If you ever find yourself sweating at night… this is definitely for you.
But here’s what’s interesting…
The reason we sweat is that it (the sweat) cools our skin as it evaporates and this helps lower our internal temperature.
So it makes sense that if you sweat when you sleep, your sleep environment wasn’t optimal.
In fact, studies have shown that one of the root causes of insomnia is nocturnally elevated core temperature.
Another study had participants suffering from insomnia wear caps containing circulating water at a cool temperature…
What they found was insomniac test subjects who wore cool caps took about 13 minutes to fall asleep, compared with 16 minutes for the individuals who did not suffer from sleep disorders.
Not only that, but both groups slept for just about the same amount of time they were in bed (89%)!
I’m not saying you’ve got to wear a “cooling cap” to bed, but ensuring that your internal temperature is conducive to quality sleep is critical…
Pro Tip: Turn the temp down in the house. There’s a simple fix for you.
3 – The Wrong Bedroom Habitat
Our brain is always seeking efficiency.
It is constantly looking for patterns to automate behaviors based on our environment.
It’s why when we first learned to drive, we paid very close attention to every little detail. Now, we just get in the car and drive.
The same happens in different environments.
We just walk into a room and perform a given action automatically.
But why does this happen and, more importantly, why should you care?
Have you heard of Myelin?
It’s a sheath-like material that forms an insulating and protective coating around nerve fibers, enabling them to quickly conduct impulses between the brain and the body.
Myelin grows when action is repeated. It helps create muscle memory.
Now, when it comes to your bedroom, the last thing you want to do is make it an environment where numerous activities take place.
If your bedroom is a place where you work or watch TV you’re not going to create a strong neuro-association with sleep when you’re in there…
Instead, you’ll feel stimulated to work or watch TV. Not sleep…
You see, the things you do in your bedroom can have an enormous impact on your ability to fall asleep and can greatly affect your quality of sleep.
Pro Tip: You should aim to create a sleep space where your body and brain can automatically associate with rest and relaxation…
Not stress or other activities.
4 – Not Getting Enough Sunlight
Wait, what?
Let me explain…
Your sleep cycle is heavily influenced by the amount of sunlight you get during the day.
You see, as humans, we’ve evolved with a foreseeable pattern of light and dark that has always — and will always — control our sleep cycles.
And too little sunlight during the day will negatively impact your sleep.
This is mainly due to serotonin, a neurotransmitter that is crucial to regulating your body’s circadian timing system (a.k.a. internal clock).
Serotonin is influenced by a few things: diet, exercise, and sunlight.
Failing to get enough sunlight each day will cause serotonin production to suffer, knocking your internal clock out of whack.
In fact, a recent study that looked at the sleep quality of office workers recorded this:
“Workers exposed to sunlight through windows on the job got more sleep and reported a higher quality of life than those without natural light access at work..”
Why is this?
Simple.
Serotonin and serotonin transporters are found in our skin cells and are heavily influenced by exposure to sunlight.
When you soak in the sun your skin absorbs UV rays that promote serotonin.
Serotonin, according to The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, can shape into melatonin; a hormone that regulates sleep.
I’d also note that research has found that getting more sunlight exposure led to lower cortisol levels later in the day when compared to being exposed to dim light…
Which, you may already know…
Cortisol is the enemy to your t-levels.
The lower the better (unless you’re running from a bear attack)
Pro Tip: Spend at least 10-minutes of your day getting quality sunshine. I’d recommend an outdoor session of Anabolic Running to get triple the t-boosting benefits (from sprints, vitamin D, and better sleep)
5 – Your Timing Is ‘Off’
Have you ever been driving home from a long day’s work and all you could think about was hitting the mattress?
Then, when you finally get home, shower, and lay down, you just can’t sleep… and suddenly you’re wide awake?
Maybe you don’t have to get up as early the next morning… so you stay up a bit longer.
You still manage to sleep your 8 hours… but you’re even more tired and groggy in the morning than usual?
Why, if you’re sleeping the recommended 7-9 hours, are you still feeling sleep deprived?
It’s because human beings get the most rejuvenating sleep during very specific times.
And unfortunately, if you miss that special window of opportunity, you’ll dramatically decrease your sleep quality and your body’s ability to fully recover.
Have you ever slept much less than usual and still jumped out of bed with more energy in the morning?
It’s because you more than likely slept during this particular time!
This “special sleep time” is when we experience the highest secretion of beneficial hormones such as melatonin, Human Growth Hormone, and more.
If your sleep schedule is not lined up with this seemingly magical time, you’ll never get the best, most rejuvenating sleep possible.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re sleeping 7-9 hours or 10-12, if your body is chronically deprived of the regenerative sleep that occurs during this very small window, you’ll still feel tired when you wake up in the morning.
Why is this specific sleep time so special?
It’s because during these hours your body increases internal metabolic energy to aid in repair and recovery; to strengthen and rejuvenate your body.
Here’s the issue: if we’re not asleep during this time, the increase in metabolic energy that occurs can make it even more difficult to fall asleep.
Now, that’s just a few of many sleep disruptor causes you may be doing throughout the day…
They’re very common… but are short-changing your testosterone production and growth hormone production while you sleep.
Remember… sleep is one of the most (if not THE most) important factors contributing to your testosterone levels…
Because you can do everything right…
Yet if your sleep is “jacked up”, you can say nighty-night to your manhood.