📚 How to Sleep Like A Caveman, The Best Book Summary App, and more.

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👋 Hey everyone,

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📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “How To Sleep Like A Caveman” by Dr. Merijn van de Laar.

We spend nearly one-third of our lives in bed. Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most amazing feelings in the world.

But if you have trouble falling or staying asleep, going to bed can feel like a punishment.

In this book, Dr. Laar shares new research about the science of sleep. He explains everything from why we sometimes jerk awake when falling asleep to how to treat insomnia.

If you liked “Why We Sleep”, you’ll enjoy this book.

Here are a few short lessons from the book:

📖

1) How to Adapt to Jet Lag

Your body has an internal biological clock that knows when it’s time to go to sleep and when to wake up.

But when you travel, especially long distances, that clock gets out of whack. This is also known as jet lag.

Dr. Laar’s rule of thumb is that for every 2-hour time shift, you need 1 day to adapt.

So if you are going from San Francisco to Amsterdam, then you’ll need about 9 days for your body to fully adjust to the new time zone.

One of the best things you can do to help shift your internal clock is to view sunlight in the morning hours of your new destination and also view the sunset during the evening.

It’s a simple, effective, and zero-cost strategy that will help reduce jet lag and improve your mood.

📖

2) Don’t Trust Your Mind After Midnight

This isn’t so much a sleep tip, but it is a good life tip to remember.

Ever noticed how nothing good usually happens after midnight? Well, there’s a scientific reason for that.

It’s a phenomenon called “mind after midnight.”

Researchers have found that after 12am, people are more likely to think negatively, worry, and make impulsive and poor decisions.

And things get worse the longer you stay up. For most people, the absolute low point is between 2am-3am.

Studies indicate that suicides are more likely to occur around this time, with the risk of someone taking their own life 3x higher than during the day.

This is especially dangerous for people with depression or insomnia, since the two disorders often occur together.

Untreated insomnia is associated with a 4x higher risk of a depressive disorder.

And about 75% of people with depression sleep poorly, and 1 in 8 chronically poor sleepers experience depression.

If you experience either condition, it’s important to take your sleep seriously and get to bed before midnight.

📖

3) Quick Sleeping Tips

Dr. Laar shares a ton of lessons throughout the book, so instead of one final lesson, here are a few quick tips:

• As you get older, you naturally become a morning person: It’s normal to wake up around 7am at age 30 but 6am at age 60.

• Reconnect with nature: Try to get outdoors and view sunlight in the morning when you wake up and avoid viewing artificial light in the evening before bed.

• Reduce Stress: Aim to reduce your stress levels through mindfulness or relaxation exercises to help you fall asleep at night.

• Keep regular bedtimes: Varying the time at which you go to bed will decrease your sleep quality, so try to go to bed around the same time every night.

• Avoid alcohol: Sleep studies show that after a night of drinking, you will wake up more often and lose about 1 hour of sleep.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) For every 2-hour change in time zone, you’ll need about 1 day to adapt.

2) Don’t trust your mind after midnight. Go to bed before then or you might make a decision you’ll regret.

3) If you want to fall asleep faster or get deeper sleep, do yourself a favor and read “Why We Sleep” or “How To Sleep Like A Caveman”.

💎 Weekly Gem:

App: Shortform

I’ve tried several different book summary apps over the years and Shortform is the best one out there.

They have 1,000+ book summaries, and at the end of each summary, there are exercises to help you apply what you’ve learned.

I also like to read their summaries as a way of sampling books before deciding whether to buy them and to review key lessons from my favorite books.

The first 100 people to sign up will receive a FREE 5-day Shortform subscription here!

Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.

PS: Want to learn all of my best reading tips in just 2 hours?

The Art of Reading is my flagship course that will teach you how to read more and better. You’ll learn how to find time to read more books, stay focused while reading, remember more of what you read, take notes in books, use AI to become a better reader, and so much more. Join 600+ readers here.