Improve Your Bedtime Routine

Hi, today I’m going to talk about your bed time routine. For those of you who raise kids, you
know that if your kid has a set bedtime routine and always does the same things, it prompts
them for a better sleep, but the next day the kid has also more energy, more focus, more
concentration, and is in a better mood.

Why can’t we do that as adults? So I’m going to give you a list of things you should need to do to
get a better night of sleep.

Rule #1

Stop eating four hours before going to bed. People will go “I’m in a mass gaining lifestyle and I
can’t sleep hungry.” Hey! Lots of kids go to bed hungry and they still thrive, ok. What you will
find is that your appetite in the morning will be greater. And that is a great time to be hungry,
and your energy will go up. So four hours, stop eating.

Rule #2

Three hours, no screen. So no Facebook, no Instagram, no Snapchat or all that bullshit. You
should turn off the lights and just leave the minimal amount of light to get around for the last
three hours before going to bed. And don’t f&%k up the system by turning on a lot of lights
before going to bed to do your bedtime tasks. Discipline yourself towards that. We live in a
society where we work on the flame, we want to have more energy. This is the Yang side of us,
but the intensity at which your flame is going to burn is actually a function of how you’re going
to put oil in the tank. You need to work on that. So by calming your mind down, it’s a great way
to achieve better sleep. Watching a war movie right before you go to bed, I’m sure that going to
affect your sleep.

What is wrong with just basic reading? People say “Oh I got to read that on the internet.” Well,
why don’t you read it on your tablet with a filter for blue light? That will help out. The less
intense the light you are submitted to before going to bed, the more likely you are to make
serotonin, and the more you are going to make GABA, and the more you will make all the right
neurotransmitters to go to sleep. People don’t read enough. They say they don’t have time to
read. Yes, you don’t have time to read because you’re updating your status on Facebook and
want to see how many likes you’ve had. The last three hours are for you. You need to calm
yourself down as we did a hundred years ago. Keeping that in mind, you will have a more restful
sleep.

Rule #3

Now, there are a few ingredients that can help you sleep better. If I had a dollar for every time
somebody asked me what is the best thing for sleep, I would be taking care of the Harvey
hurricane by myself.
Theanine is a wonderful amino acid to calm me down. Glutamine is very important because it
reduces the inflammation in the body. So do probiotics, and of course magnesium. That is why I
developed Yin Reserve. Yin Reserve is inositol, which regulates all the neurotransmitters in the
body; theanine; two types of brain-ready magnesium and some vitamin B6. So the Yin Reserve
as the name says, is to increase your yin reserve, to put more oil in the tank.

You could buy all of those ingredients by themselves, it’s not a “proprietary blend” I actually told
you what’s in it and the ratios. But it’s convenient and people love it. If you are going to use the
Yin Reserve, I have to warn you. Some of you will fall asleep in a matter of minutes. I gave it to a
marketing guy and we were on Facetime and he couldn’t finish the conversation. Myself, I can’t
stay awake more than five minutes when I take the Yin Reserve. So make sure you don’t have to
drive to go home after taking Yin Reserve. Some people take it as much as 45 minutes before, it
works differently. It’s really hard to predict the brain’s response to things that work on
neurotransmitters. But be safe and take it late.

To that, I actually add glutamine. Glutamine ramps down inflammation in the gut. If you have an
inflamed gut, it’s hard to make serotonin. This is the best time to take probiotics. So my bedtime
routine is:

- 2 scoops of Yin Reserve

As far as probiotics, I vary them every day. I might take Saccharomices Boulardii, sometimes I
take the PB-5 from ATP, sometimes I take the ones from DFH. If you look at things like DNA
mapping of your gut, varying your probiotics is a wise idea. And it will definitely enhance the
quality of your sleep.

Rule #4

And the last thing, is what you tell yourself before your bed. So this is the best time to do your
grateful log. If you go to bed in a grateful state, you are going to sleep better. Also if you say to
yourself “I’m going to sleep very well tonight and because of that I’ll have more energy in the
morning”, you will sleep better. If you think that’s woohoo voodoo buls4!t, well f%$k don’t say it
until you’ve tried it. Everybody I’ve told to do that says “it’s different when you say how you’re
going to sleep.

Sometimes, I have flights early in the morning. So instead of saying “F&%k, I’m only going to
sleep 4 hours,” I say “I’m going to sleep fast, and that sleep is going to be restorative” and I go to
bed. I don’t worry about it. So what you tell yourself before you go to bed is very important.
Going to bed in a grateful state is hugely important.

Apply those tips, you’re going to start sleeping much sounder, if you sleep much sounder you’re
going to grow in the gym more. The usefulness of the programs you get in the Dojo of Strength
will increase dramatically because you can’t have a big yang, the flame, the energy unless you
have a big yin. So working on your yin reserve whether it’s by cutting down TV, screen time and
so on will do well for you.

I’m a 100% convinced that those tips will make you grow faster in the gym.

Best of luck,

Coach Charles R. Poliquin