How is sleep impacted by this biomechanical process?

Sleep is the time when the body remodels in my experience

A number of folks have asked me how I sleep.

And so I think it’s an interesting topic that is worth an article as it has evolved and led me to some interesting hypotheses.

In general I never had a major sleep problem

From the time I was young I always slept pretty decently. I had plenty of things going wrong at various times but sleep never seemed to be the main issue.

Even as a young adult I seemed to fall asleep pretty easily. For example when I was living in Tokyo in 2001 I’d get on the crowded subway to go to work in my suit.

And there was always this perception that there’d be Japanese businessmen falling asleep all over the place in crowded subways. But i seemed to master that much better than them! haha

I’d be standing there hanging onto the handle above my head and conk right out while leaning on the person next to me. Both in the morning on my way to work and on the way back.

But in hindsight I think I was tired a bit too much during the day. I’d only sleep about 6 hrs at night, but then i’d often find myself having to take these little naps.

Even at lunchtime i’d often sneak away to a quiet spot and take a powernap.

With this biomechanical process my need to sleep has evolved

In the past ten years as I iterated on this process my sleep has always been relatively ok but I noticed that sometimes I need a lot more sleep than others.

For example about a year back I remember feeling like I could operate amazing off of just 6 hrs of sleep. And I wouldn’t even really nap during the day.

Each morning i’d hop up around 7am, take my son to school, and then go right to work. And work with some breaks for meals, time with the family, etc. till about 11pm or so. A solid 14 hrs or so each weekday.

These days I need at least 8 hrs of sleep. Plus i often take at least one nap of at least 30 minutes… usually around 7pm or so.

When I wake up in the morning to take my son to school (around 7am) i still feel a ton of pressure in my skull and neck. And so I drive him to school feeling like a zombie, come back home, and fall right asleep again for another couple of hours. Often not waking up till 10 or 11am.

But then working till 1am or 2am. So I work somewhere between 12-14hrs these days.

I think i’ve gone through these types of cycles several times the past decade. Meaning that sometimes I needed just 6 hrs or so whereas sometimes my body needed 8+ hrs.

I sleep whenever i’m tired as I do this process

My general rule with this process is that I never try to overpower my body. If my body tells me these days that i need 8hrs, I give it 8 hrs.

If i get tired in the middle of the day, I just put my head down and try to nap.

I’ll often just lay down on the floor in my coworking office here in Bangkok and conk out for 20-30 minutes.

I never try to ‘force’ myself to stay awake if I am tired because I generally view that if I do that then i’m not gonna be very productive. I’m not thinking nearly as quickly or clearly.

Much better to take a nap and then be at a 100% again because I can just see that there is a massive difference between these two states.

Also note that I work for myself, which makes this type of flexible schedule very easy to follow. Whereas folks that need to go to an office are going to find it more challenging.

An example of the ‘lines’ on my face after I wake up

Sleep to me is the time when the body remodels the best

Before I go to bed everynight I am usually doing at least an hour of my fast method stretches and this is putting a lot of pressure into the skull and neck.

As soon as I lay down to sleep I can feel this pressure start to dissipate. But it takes time.

Even after sleeping 8 hours I can often feel that it is not fully dissipated.

Also when I wake up I will almost always see lines on my body. Often on my arms, my torso or my back. These lines indicate to me that the body is remodeling (untwisting, etc).

I do not see these lines much if I have not slept.

So I’ve kind of concluded that the model generally remodels the best when sleeping.

Perhaps it has something to do with all the muscles relaxing and therefore things can move the easiest.

Do I have any special tips for sleeping?

I often start out on my back for the first 10-15 minutes but then almost always switch to my side before I fall asleep.

And I find that the lines appear a bit easier when i’m laying on my side.

Does that mean I think it’s a bad thing to sleep on your back? No. I just personally find it a bit harder to sleep that way.

I don’t really agree with these folks that make sleeping on your back out to be some kind of evil thing. I just think our bodies were engineered too intelligently for that to be the case.

Closing thoughts

Sleep is a critical part of this biomechanical healing process in my experience.

Because it is when the body is absorbing the stretch that you put on it during the day. And by absorbing the stretch it also remodels a bit (in a positive way).

So you’re essentially untwisting the skeleton and inflating the skull during sleep.

Which should be evident through clues like lines on your body, face, etc.

Also your sleep is likely to evolve a bit. Sometimes you will need a lot more sleep. And during those times I encourage you to just give your body as much sleep as it needs.

Remember that the body is, in my view, much smarter than us about what it needs. And this is particularly relevant to sleep.