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The Sleep Hacker, Madrid (2026)

24/12/2020

Is a power nap good for you? I am from the country of "siesta", and although it became less common than outsiders think, I still try to do one whenever I can but, you need to know how to do it.

You feel sleepy when adenosine builds up in your brain, creating what is known as sleep pressure.

There most common two ways to reduce sleep pressure is with caffeine and power napping. I already wrote about the mechanism of caffeine in another post so, let's focus in naps.

Every time you fall asleep, your brain begins to remove adenosine, and that's why if you don't sleep too much, you will feel refreshed. If you do more than 20-25 min, your brain will go into a too deep phase, and you will wake groggy.

A siesta helps to digest better as your body can enter into a proper "rest and digest" mode but be careful: If you reduce too much the sleep pressure, you will have problems to fall asleep at night.

If you didn't sleep enough hours the previous night, you would have too much sleep pressure, to begin with, and you can be overtired and with a foggy brain the whole day. Having a power nap before afternoon can help you keep going, and it can be a better solution than caffeine.

My suggestion: 10-15 min after lunch never after 2 pm.

15/11/2020

How well do you sleep? Do you know the dangers of not having a good sleeping routine? Stress is one the mayor contributors. Sleep deprivation creates the same effects than alcohol or drugs. Keep your mind sharp. Sleep well.

11/08/2019

COULD WAKING UP AT 4 AM BE NORMAL?It is called the advanced sleep phase and affects 0.3% of the adults according to a recent study of The University of California.

Those affected by this condition have a characteristic circadian rhythms that operates earlier than most of the people triggering a strong release of melatonin in the afternoon instead of the evening.

It is usual to wake up earlier and earlier as we age but this phenomenon is different. They also don't suffer from social jet lag (different waking up times in non working days) but they struggle to have social life at night because is difficult for them to keep awake.

Do you know anyone with this condition?

07/08/2019

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WILL MAKE YOU SLEEP BETTER. Researches show that physical activity improves sleep quality and increases sleep duration.

Scientists found a link between regular physical activity and perceptions of sleepiness during the day, which suggests that participation in physical activity on a regular basis may positively influence an individual's productivity at work.

The problem comes when people overestimate the amount of activity they do so maybe they are not doing enough to get the minimum amount that helps sleep quality.

Exercise in early morning and afternoon may also help reset the sleep wake cycle by raising body temperature slightly, then allowing it to drop and trigger sleepiness a few hours later especially, if you are able to exercise outdoors and let your body absorb natural sunlight during the daytime hours.

So, in order to optimise your physical activity/sleep, practice sport really early in the morning when your cortisol is high or in the afternoon.
If you do it in the evening, you might increase too much your cortisol levels and also your body temperature. Both factors can affect your sleep quality

03/08/2019

HOW I WENT FROM THE FIRST PICTURE TO THE SECOND ONE. The changes were amazing. It literally changed my life. How? I learnt a lot about the sleep process and I measured a lot what it worked and what it didn't. The results are here. If i could do it, you can to. I have to say that one of my biggest influences have been . He introduced me to the circadian rhythms and they impact in my health. Thank you Nick!

I will keep working to keep the changes consistent besides the circumstances. But measuring the results plays a critical role and in my opinion the best tool is the .

Keep working, results will come!

@ Madrid, Spain

02/08/2019

BACOPA: THE AMAZING HERB Bacopa monniera (also called brhami) comes from the waterhyssop plant. It's an ayurvedic plant used for brain and mood boosting that also has indirect effects in sleep quality, mainly because of its effects on the stress levels

Its main benefits are:

Antioxidant. Bacopa monnieri contains powerful compounds that may have antioxidant effects by neutralizing free radicals and prevent fat molecules from reacting with free radicals.

Mood booster. Bacopa increases serotonin levels in the hippocampus.

Anti inflammatory. It suppresses the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. These are molecules that stimulate an inflammatory immune response.

Nootropic. It boosts brain functions, spatial memory, the ability of processing information and memory consolidation.

Reduction of ADHD. It improves attention, cognition, and impulse control in children with ADHD.

Reduction of anxiety and stress. Bacopa monnieri helps reduce stress and anxiety by elevating your mood and reducing levels of cortisol (a hormone involved in your stress levels). It hacks how our genes respond to stress, specificially the HSP70 biomarker.

Blood pressure management. Bacopa monnieri reduces both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels by releasing nitric oxide. Nitric oxide dilates blood vessels so blood flow is improved.

So, although is not a true sleep aid, it can help to improve your sleep and definitly your mood and cognition.

Have you ever tried it? What are your experiences with Bacopa? Let's share it in the comments!

31/07/2019

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED SLEEP DIVORCING? It is basically, sleeping in separate beds or even in separate rooms.

This sleeping solution might sound too radical, but if you’ve ever had a sleepless night because of your partner's snoring then you might even consider it.

The reasons for a sleep divorce can be snoring, tossing and duvet tussling or different sleep schedules

According to a survey from Slumber Cloud, 12 percent of American couples have filed for a sleep divorce, and 30 percent have discussed it.

A 2010 survey carried out by the American National Sleep Foundation found that almost a quarter of married couples already sleep in different beds, despite being in a healthy relationship.

And another study found that more than 200,000 Australian couples are choosing to sleep in seperate bedrooms so they can get a good night's sleep

Sleeping separately allow you to get enough rest so it can actually improve your relationship.

It's actually a practical solution because if you're being disturbed by your partner's snoring, and you're not getting enough sleep, then you need to do something to be able to rest well.

What do you do? If you could choose freely, would do it? Let me know! 😉

29/07/2019

DO YOU SUFFER FROM SOCIAL JET LAG? Social jet lag is what happens when we go to bed later and wake up later at the weekend than at weekdays.

Jetlag is a consequence of shifting our bodies between different time zones while travelling.

Social jet lag is when at the weekend we decide to go to bed later than usual so we also we wake up later.

Two-thirds of the population experience at least one hour of social jetlag a week, and a third experience two hours or more

The consequence of "social jetlagging" is chronic sleep deprivation that has been linked to very serious diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression.

Also, social jetlag disrupts our circadian rhythm so if you change the timing of your light exposure, the timing of the clocks in your organs and tissues also shift in a disorganized way.

If you constantly go to sleep at different times at the weekends (and therefore, shifting the timing of your sleep and light exposure) your clocks will be perpetually out of synchrony.

So, the conclusion is obvious: try to keep always the same schedule!

27/07/2019

CAN YOUR SMARTPHONE MEASURE YOUR SLEEP? I’ve been testing a lot of different ways to measure my sleep performance.

It’s almost impossible to know the quality of your sleep without a way to measure it.

Although you can notice how awake you are in the mornings, you can’t know the different stages you have been through.

Sleep scientists have fancy machines to measure them with accuracy but for common people without any medical problem, there are affordable ways to do it.

The most affordable way is using free apps. Well, more or less free. You have the basic version for free and then you need to pay for the other upgraded options (usually, quite unnecessary).

I tested the apps against, smartbands wearables (like the ) or specifically designed devices (like sleep sensor).

The conclusion for me is that apps aren’t as precise as other options but have some advantages:

You always go with your telephone everywhere.

They give you free data.

They have a build-on alarm that wakes up in the “best moment”.

The cons are:

You need to have them turned on (you can have them in flight mode).

They can use a lot of battery (especially in sonar mode).

You need to place them in a specific place.

Do you use one? Which one? Why does it work for you? Share with me your thoughts and soon I will prepare a post comparing the best options in the market!

25/07/2019

WHITE NOISE COULD MAKE YOU SLEEP. One of my best aids when I have noisy neighbours in a hotel is white noise. But, what is white noise?

White noise is when sound waves of a broad spectrum of frequencies are combined, forming a sound similar to the constant hum a fan creates when it’s blowing air or an engine car is on.
Some people even use the sound of old propeller aeroplanes as white noise.

White noise helps to sleep in two different ways:

By blocking distracting noises
By producing soothing sounds that are relaxing and help to induce sleep.

Somehow these kind of sounds help to sleep better through all the night and it's used to help premature babies to sleep.

How to create white noise:

White Noise Machines: White noise machines may generate their own white noise or play it back in a loop.

Nature Sound Machines: Many people find nature sounds like rainfall and ocean waves more relaxing than white noise.
Apps: There a many apps in the market that make exactly the same although the telephone's speaker is not powerful enough and you have to use headphones that might be uncomfortable while sleeping.

Be aware: Falling asleep with the TV on or music playing in the background can interfere with sleep plus the blue light emitted from the TV and other electronics suppresses melatonin production.
sleepdisorders

24/07/2019

HOW TO SLEEP BETTER IN SUMMER. Days in summer get longer. We are being stimulated by sunlight during longer periods of time so the production of melatonin is delayed and your body doesn't feel the need of going to sleep until later.

Summer evenings can be sometimes particularly hot. It is actually harder to sleep when it gets hotter because one of the body markers to go to sleep is a decrease in body temperature.

Also, a consequence of being hotter is that people have to sleep with the windows open therefore, there is a bigger amount of light in the room plus days are longer and the dawn comes sooner disrupting your sleep.

In some parts of the world nights can be also very hot (definitely in Barcelona!). A hot night affects our circadian rhythm but also makes the sleep more unpleasant so we don't rest as deep as we should for a restorative night.

In summer, schedules are usually more relaxed, especially when you are on holidays. You might not be on holidays but your children are. This affects the whole family sleep pattern.

And if you are on holidays, then you tend to be more relaxed indulging yourself more so you go to sleep later.

Also in summer people drink alcohol in a more daily basis. Sangria is refreshing but alcohol decreases deep sleep. So, even when it might help to fall asleep faster, when it's metabolized, it creates the opposite effect.

In order to avoid this disruption in your sleep quality you can:

Reduce the amount of light in your bedroom.

If you can’t keep your window closed at night (like me) use a sleeping mask. The best in my opinion is .

Reduce the amount of light in the evenings and use blue blocking glasses (I use )

Have a shower one before bed to reduce body temperature.

Create an air flow in your room to keep you fresh or use a silent fan.

Don’t drink too much alcohol at night!

Try to keep the schedule with your kids.

22/07/2019

GROUNDING FOR SLEEPING. Grounding means being connected electrically to the earth.

Our shoes and beds insulate us from the earth electric field and makes very difficult to discharge our electric voltage.

Also, the daily rhythm of chemical and hormonal cycling in the human body is regulated and maintained by faint electromagnetic signals generated by the Earth’s electrons.

Drs. Karol and Pawel Sokal in Poland and Clint Ober in the United States were the first ones to pursuit a scientific evidence that grounding impacts human physiology and health.

Basically, what they found was that there are evidences that when we ground ourselves there is of a powerful and positive shift in the electrical state of the body and the electrodynamics of blood, and a boost to self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms.

There isn't a clear and definitive explanation of why these effects happen but it seems that earthing allows a transfer of electrons from the ground into the body.

It's known that inflammation is caused by free radicals and that free radicals are neutralized by electrons from any source. Electrons are the source of the neutralizing power of antioxidants.

So that could be the reason why some people report a reduction of pain due to inflammation.

I've been trying earthing for 18 months and I have to admit that it had a positive effect in my wellbeing and sleep without reaching the spectaculars changes that people claim.

The way to ground yourself while sleeping is using special sheets with silver embedded in the fabric. These sheets have to be connected to the ground connection wall socket.

The feeling of using grounded sheets is really nice, almost protective and comforting. For me it hasn't been a game changer but I wouldn't stop sleep with them!

The Sleep Hacker