How did you sleep last night?
Like a log? Getting a solid, uninterrupted eight hours. Before bounding out of bed this morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to take on the world…?
Because that’s how sleep should be. And not just on a good day – every day.
The good news is, this kind of consistent good-quality sleep is only a supplement away.
It’s called Performance Lab® Sleep.
The Importance of Good Sleep
According to the American Sleep Association (ASA), as many as four in ten of us are not getting as much sleep as we should.
A similar number (37.9%) report unintentionally falling asleep during the day at least once during the last month. And 4.7% of those did it while driving a car! [1]
Scary stuff.
That’s without mentioning the millions of us that routinely put up with being grouchy, irritable and foggy-headed in the morning… Or suffer a crash mid-afternoon and need constant propping up with caffeine… Or suffer aches, pains, muscle cramps, attention deficiency, clumsiness, dulled reactions, memory loss… the list goes on.
All of these things are directly contributed to by a lack of sleep.
Sleep. What is it good for?
Well, pretty much everything. Sleep is an essential human requirement. We eat, drink, breathe and we sleep. And without it, we simply don’t function.
Scientists don’t always agree on exactly why we sleep, but they all agree that we need it. And lots of it.
Esteemed neuroscientist and sleep boffin Matthew Walker states that if it wasn’t so important, we would’ve evolved out of it by now. [2] Suggesting that anything that left prehistoric man so vulnerable to predators and the elements for such a big chunk of the day must have some pretty solid logic behind it. Nature doesn’t often get things wrong.
Supplements to get you to sleep quicker and for longer
During sleep is when our minds and bodies heal. Our cells use this downtime to reproduce and regenerate. At the same time our metabolisms regulate, so our body can literally run repairs while we snooze.
When our brain and body is at rest, energy consumption is generally lowered so more of it can be used to restore bones and muscles.
During deep sleep around 40% of the normal blood flow to the brain instead goes into the major muscle groups. The hormone Prolactin is also released, which is packed with anti-inflammatory properties to sooth the muscles after a big workout.
Tip: Sleep is key to muscle growth. When training, getting the right amount of sleep can be as important as your diet and exercise regime.
Sleep well and run faster for longer…
Science demonstrates that sleep can actively improve performance too. A Stanford University study of college football players found that players who had tried to sleep for ten hours or more, over an eight-week period reported: [3]
- Quicker sprint times…
- Improved stamina…
- Less daytime fatigue.
But the benefits are not limited to the sports arena. Being well rested will help you to think, react and remember things better. Sleep will even help you learn new skills.
A process of ‘consolidation’ takes place during quality sleep, which helps you ‘practise’ new skills you have learned while awake. So whether you are studying for exams, working on your golf swing or trying to nail a new guitar riff – you’ll do it better after a good night’s sleep.
Scientists say that 20% of your sleep should be ‘deep’ sleep. [4] That means, if you’re getting the recommended 7.5-8.5 hours per night, you need around 1.5-2 hours of deep sleep to fully recharge your batteries. This is when your brain processes information, makes links and builds memories.
Why you need a sleep supplement
There’s also good evidence that extending this regenerative phase could also help you lose weight and avoid depression. A lack of sleep causes hormone imbalance which in turn affects appetite and mood.
Sleep also helps keep your heart healthy, helping protect against high blood pressure and cholesterol. And may even help prevent cancer. Research suggests that over-exposure to light reduces melatonin levels, which is though to protect against cancer because it appears to suppress the growth of tumors.
Fact: After just one night of less than five hours sleep, the body’s natural defence against the cancer cells that appear in your body every day will drop by about 70%.[5]
The World Health Organisation has even classed any form of night-time shift work as a probable carcinogen. [6]
So we’re all agreed. Sleep is good. Great in fact.
But what are you supposed to do if you can’t get enough?
Tip: During sleep is when your mind and body heals. Your brain builds memories, your muscles grow and your cells regenerate to protect against illness.
Best Supplement for Sleep: Performance Lab Sleep
Well, sleeping pills are not the answer. Just ask Heath Ledger. Or Jimi Hendrix, or Marilyn Monroe or the many more that became reliant on sleeping pills and took too strong for too long.
Celebrity casualty scare stories aside, many sleeping pills contain sedatives like zolpidem and benzodiazepines, which can linger in the system into the following day and cause erratic side-effects. They can also be habit-forming which is only going to add to your problems. [7]
The rhythm of the night…
The truth is, you can’t fool your body. The key to achieving regular, quality sleep patterns over a long-term period is working with nature, not against it.
It’s all about your Circadian Rhythm. That’s the (roughly) 24-hour beat that we all march to. This daily clock quietly ticks in the background, governing our eating and sleeping patterns, as well as our natural cycles of daytime and night-time.
Performance Lab® Sleep actively supports your circadian rhythm, helping you to regulate sleep patterns and extend the deep-sleep phases when the recovery and regeneration take place.
Another major plus is that it does it all naturally. Performance Lab® Sleep is:
- Gluten, soy, allergen and synthetic additive free
- Vegan-friendly
- Non-GMO
- Non-habit forming
- GMP certified
Even the capsules are 100% natural, made from vegan-friendly tapioca.
How Performance Lab Sleep works
The contents are made up of three key ingredients: Montmorency Tart Cherry, L-Tryptophan and Magnesium.
Montmorency Tart Cherry (as CherryPURE®, 500 mg)is the world’s richest natural source of melatonin. Sometimes called the ‘darkness hormone’, melatonin is nature’s way of telling you it’s time for bed.
When it starts to get dark, it naturally secretes into your brain encouraging the onset of sleep. When it starts to get light, your melatonin levels drop which tells your brain it’s time to wake up.
Some supplements use synthetic supplements, but Montmorency Tart Cherry is 100% pure, natural and additive-free. One capsule will deliver the same nutrition found in a 25 g serving.
L-Tryptophan (as TryptoPure®, 250 mg) is an amino acid that acts as a natural mood balancer. It works alongside the tart cherry to optimise your sleep hormones, boosting serotonin levels which in turn prompts more melatonin.
By complementing the sleep-inducing chemicals in your brain, it helps keep your mood bright in the daytime and calm at night. Which is key to developing a healthy long-term sleep pattern.
Tip: A melatonin boost can help counteract artificial light sources – like late night TV and tablet use – which can disrupt sleep patterns.
The third and final step to sleep heaven is the mineral Magnesium (100 mg). This essential mineral provides tonnes of life-sustaining benefits including plenty that help us sleep.
A magnesium massage for your body, mind and soul…
Magnesium helps our muscles relax, supporting the gradual drop of blood pressure that precedes sleep. It can reduce twitching and involuntary movement during the night and also helps to calm our central nervous system. Giving us the best chance of deep, undisturbed sleep.
One of the issues with magnesium is the dosage. Natural content in fruit and veg has declined by 30% over the last sixty years, due to the way food is produced. And a further 80-90% is lost during food processing.
On top of that, plain magnesium is only 30-40% bioavailable – that is, only about a third actually makes it into your system to do any good.
To counter act this Performance Lab Sleep uses three advanced, high-absorption forms:
Magnesium Bisglycinate is magnesium chemically bound with glycine – another helpful sleep-supporting amino acid. This protects it from stomach acids and allows more to be absorbed through your intestines.
Magnesium Taurate is a powerful combination of magnesium and taurine, an amino acid that helps you produce gamma-aminobutyric acid (that’s GABA to me and you). This helps carry soothing messages from the brain to your central nervous system, easing you gently towards natural sleep.
BioGenesis™ Magnesium is the company’s own purpose-designed magnesium that is grown on lab-cultured probiotics. It produces a nature-identical mineral form but has far superior absorption rates.
Tip: All the key ingredients – Montmorency Tart Cherry, L-Tryptophan and Magnesium – can be sourced and taken independently. But this works out cheaper and works just as well.
Conclusion
We all function better after quality sleep. Mentally, physically and spiritually.
In fact, if sleeping came out today as a revolutionary new supplement, we’d be all over it.
Imagine if you discovered a cure-all that could make you live longer and look better. Boost your memory and help you think. Make you run faster and recover quicker. Keep you slim and lower food cravings. Protect you from cancer and heart disease. And make you less anxious, less depressed and feel happier…
Interested? Damn right!
Well, this is the next best thing.
We’ve found a clean, safe sleep supplement specifically designed to get you to sleep quicker, to extend your regeneration sleep phase and to have you wake up primed and ready to perform to your maximum. Every day.
We recommend Performance Lab® Sleep.
Upsides:
- It supports natural hormone production to build healthy, consistent sleep patterns.
- Its unique blend is designed to not just help you fall asleep quicker, but to stay in the key regenerative phase for longer.
- All ingredients are completely natural, so perfectly safe for daily use.
- No groggy side effects from sedatives or synthetic additives.
Downsides:
- It’s only available online via their website: www.PerformanceLab.com
- It’s not cheap. But you can’t put a price on good sleep.
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Footnotes:
- American Sleep Association. ‘Sleep and Sleep Disorder Statistics.’ About Sleep. Sleep Association, Feb 2019. <https://www.sleepassociation.org/about-sleep/sleep-statistics/>
- Walker, Matthew. Why We Sleep. London. Penguin, 2018.
- Sleep Education. ‘Stanford NCAA football players sleep longer, perform better.’ Sleep Education Blogspot. Feb 2019.
- New Health Advisor. ‘How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Need.’ New Health Advisor, Feb 2019. <https://www.newhealthadvisor.com/How-Much-Deep-Sleep-Do-You-Need.html>
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- MedHelp. ‘Common Questions and Answers about Zolpidem benzodiazepine’. Health Questions. Feb 2019. <https://healthquestions.medhelp.org/zolpidem-benzodiazepine>
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