A few episodes back, we talked about building a morning routine that would set you up for a great day AND move you forward on what’s most important in your life. But setting up for a great morning starts the night before, so this time, Ryan and Andy will cover the ingredients of a great evening routine.
A few key points:
- Capping off the day so you can shut down and go to sleep
- Our tips for getting a great night’s sleep, every night
- Some different routines we’ve tried, and why we don’t do those anymore
- Why the internet is terrible
Resources mentioned
Transcript of Your PM Routine
Andy: All right, all right, all right. Welcome to the generously moistened banana podcast.
Ryan: Usually I would say something, I was just really trying not to laugh too hard. Every time. Moist. So moist, moist. How you doing man?
Andy: I’m good. I’m good.
Ryan: You’re all right. Have you already done your-
Andy: I’m not moist.
Ryan: That’s a good thing to know man. You’ve already gone through your AM routine, right?
Andy: I’ve gone through my AM routine. So a few weeks ago we talked about morning routines on the show and so today we decided good counterpoint to that, why not talk about cocktail recipes?
Ryan: Yes, exactly.
Andy: Cause it just makes sense.
Ryan: Bitters.
Andy: Right? So today, PM routines, evening routines, what do we do in the evening? Because you know, everyone’s interested in what are the routines, what are the habits, what are the things I can try to do, small things I can try to do consistently every day that are going to add up over time to feeling better, having a better life, better fitness, better health, a better mental state, et cetera. And so evening routines are a part of that. You and I both have had a lot of different routines that we’ve experimented with and hold onto for different durations.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: What’s maybe, Ryan, what’s like the strangest thing that you’ve had as part of an evening routine? Let’s just get that out of the way with.
Ryan: One of the strangest things? Oh my goodness. Strangest. I remember well, actually yeah. When I used to live in Ecoma which is like this mountain, I moved to this mountain. I remember doing, it was a Tibetan meditation. I forgot what it was called, and it was to produce energy in the hands, what was it? I can’t remember exactly. It was just freaking weird. Anyway, I was trying it and it was just basically trying to get all the energy out of your body to go through your hands so that you could sleep better and I think basically it was just a bunch of shit. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was.
Andy: That’s cool. I’ll also share mine. There was, I was also living in the mountains in a different part of Japan at the time and in my mid twenties I was doing a lot of meditation, a lot of experimentation.
Ryan: Yes.
Andy: So I was working on trying to be able to have more control over my dreams.
Ryan: Oh wow, cool.
Andy: Yeah, and so to do that, what I was trying to do at the time was trying to stay awake while going to sleep, so to speak.
Ryan: Okay, okay.
Andy: So I tried a lot of different things and for about a solid month, at one point, I basically did the equivalent of forcing myself to have night terrors while trying to learn how to control my dreams. Basically I was a forcing myself to fall asleep with my eyes open and my mind semi-conscious.
Ryan: My goodness gracious.
Andy: Yeah, it was a freaky time.
Ryan: It sounds like it was a lot of fun. I think the energy thing I was trying to do sounds a lot of better than that.
Andy: Yeah, yours isn’t nearly as weird.
Ryan: Yeah I was trying to think, I mean, for me it’s not a whole lot of weird stuff before bed. I’m just, I love sleeping so much. I think I was always just kind of like ready to go to sleep.
Andy: Right, and this is why, this is another reason why I think this is an interesting topic is because I think that we’re at a phase of Western civilization where sleep is starting to get its due a little bit more.
Ryan: Oh yeah.
Andy: And also you and I and a lot of people listening to this are in a phase of life where, damn, if I’m not tired a lot and I appreciate sleep much more than I did when I was younger.
Ryan: That’s right. You know, good case in point, right now my parents are visiting Japan right now and my wife and I gave up our bed so that they can sleep in the bed. So I’m sleeping on the floor in a different room and I’ll tell you what, I appreciate my sleep a lot more of being in my bed and sleep is a good thing. So for those of you out there who are trying to hack your sleep and not sleep, no, I’ll just straight out say, that’s silly, don’t do it. Make sure you get your sleep. It’s important.
Andy: Yeah, so we’re going to talk about routine. There’s, a few things. I mean like when I was in my teens and twenties and even into my early thirties I didn’t have a routine at all. Every night was very different and I went to bed when I went to bed under very different circumstances all the time. Right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: But there’s a lot of benefits to having a solid routine and just like with our morning routines, we don’t like them to be rigid, but we do like to have something that we just kind of, we can get into a groove with. So the main thing though is that you really kind of put a cap on the day. As a society’s evolved, right, we have more convenience in life and that lets us delay or defer a lot of different boundaries, right? We have electricity which lets us carry light into the evening. We have smart phones, which lets us carry our work and the whole of society to bed with us now. You know how many people, like be honest, have you taken your phone to bed? Yes. Have you checked email in bed? Yes.
Ryan: Never.
Andy: We’ve all done it.
Ryan: Never.
Andy: Scrolling through Facebook before bad. I’m just going to see how, it’s so bad.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Right, so that’s why a good solid routine helps you kind of put things in their places, helps restore these boundaries so that you can keep things from spilling over into other parts of your life. Sleep is not something that is optional, right? Eating, sleeping, and moving. These are three essential things that your body needs.
Andy: So routines are important and we’re going to talk about how we kind of set them up and there’s really two things that a good routine does. One is that you set yourself up for the next day. It’s going to sound really familiar to people that listened to the AM routines episode. And the other one is that you just get ready for sleep.
Ryan: Yeah. That’s really about it.
Andy: Yeah, yeah. So let’s talk about how we get ready for the next day first. Like how do you set up for the next day? And some of this is going to sound like, you know, adulting 101, that’s fine, it should. Most of this stuff is pretty obvious, but the thing is the obvious stuff, these are the things that we sometimes have the most trouble sticking to.
Ryan: Yes, yes, yes. So yeah, and jumping right into it. Yeah. If we, reviewing the day. So this is a great one. Reviewing the day also doesn’t mean like for example, we necessarily need to journal. I used to do that before I would go to bed, I would journal and I would look at what my wins that day. What are some of the big things that I accomplished that I’m proud of as well as what are some of the things that I didn’t accomplish and why? I think that’s good too. You can get so deep into journaling and different ways to doing this, but I don’t do that anymore to be honest.
Ryan: Really, I just take a few minutes to reflect on did I do the main thing that I really needed to do that day? And if I wasn’t able to, why? I don’t beat myself up if I didn’t do it, but I just made sure that becomes my priority the next day and that I have that written down on my schedule to do that hopefully first thing in the morning. If I’m not having a meeting or my parents visiting or something like that, so.
Andy: Right, right. Yeah, so I mean if you want to get into journaling, right? Like that’s something that a lot of people recommend and it’s a wonderful a habit. It’s a wonderful experience to do for a period of time. I don’t think that it’s something that you necessarily need to do for your whole life, but it can be useful. Now there’s a lot of different ways to do this. There’s, if you look online, there’s a thousand writing rituals.
Ryan: Yes.
Andy: The main thing is just to look back over the day and ask yourself a couple of questions. You know, one is, you know what could have made today better?
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Right, and this is where you’re just asking what you can learn from things, you know? It’s not trying to find faults. It’s not trying to beat yourself up about mistakes. Just to recognize that, you know, if I had done this this way, things might’ve been a little better. Or maybe next time I’m going to try this. And then the other one though, and I strongly suggest this order, start with what could have been better and then move on to what went well.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Right? And this could really be as easy as patting yourself on the back and saying, I completed all my errands, you know?
Ryan: Absolutely.
Andy: You know, congratulate yourself for finishing and accomplishing the things that
you said you were going to do.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s a big one, that’s a big one. By the way, and coming back to journals, for those of you who are interested in journaling. A five minute journal is something that I’ve used over the years. I still use that from time to time. Again, I mentioned this earlier, I don’t really journal too much anymore, but if I were to go back to journaling, I would go back to my five minutes.
Andy: Yeah and I mean I just write things in a regular notebook, but I’ve developed a format over the years that is very much like the five minute journal too.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: It’s very fast and efficient and so when I am having a phase where I do actually sit down and write for a few minutes every night, then that’s kind of what I use.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: So some other things that are really helpful is, you know, when you’re reflecting on your day and also then to review your schedule for the next day. Again, this is the thing that seems really obvious, but sort of, you know, you check over today’s events to make sure that you’ve done everything you were going to do, that you don’t have anything that’s going to like spill over into the next day. But also just know what you’re going to do, know what time you got to be out the door and what you have to take with you. Is it going to rain tomorrow? Do you need an umbrella or a jacket? This is like I said, very basic adulting 101 stuff. But it’s important and you can dismiss this as something that, it’s so obvious because every day is the same, but it’s not. Think about weekends.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Probably don’t get up at the same time. Probably don’t have the same routine on the weekends. A lot of people might not have anything planned on the weekends and sleep till whenever, but if you don’t have something scheduled, one thing that I like to do on Saturdays and Sundays is if I don’t have somewhere I’m going to go, I like to just make a plan if I don’t have one.
Ryan: Yep.
Andy: It can just be like, get up around eight and go grab a coffee, right? Go plan an errand or something so that you can at least have a time that you wake up and do something. Get out of the house, do something semi productive before you wind up the like you roll out of bed, watch some TV and then suddenly it’s like 11:30 or, you know?
Ryan: Yeah. I want to say to, you know, writing or at least knowing what’s going on the very next day in my case helps me mentally to be able to sleep that night because I know that, okay, you know, I know what’s going on the next day and as soon as I know what’s going on that next day then I can shut my brain off. I’m pretty good at doing that. I used to stay up nights thinking and worrying about what’s going on the next day, Andy you you did this too? I know, but I think nowadays we’re at a point now where we’re just like, okay, this is what we need to do tomorrow. And then once we know that we’re ready for that, then boom, we’re able to let go of that and go to bed.
Ryan: The other thing too refers or relates to the AM routines by thinking about that before you go to bed and knowing what’s going on tomorrow, it allows you to not have to rush the next day and thinking, oh my God, I got to do this, I got to do this, when you’ve actually prepared and you know exactly what needs to happen so then you can focus on making
that happen the next day.
Andy: Yep, I know a lot of people that, you know, they like working out in the morning and so part of their evening routine is to get their workout stuff ready. You know?
Ryan: Yeah, yeah.
Andy: That is a really good idea if that’s the way that you do things, you know. If you eat breakfast in the morning, make sure you have stuff in the refrigerator.
Ryan: That’s right, yeah.
Andy: Make sure it’s all prepped, right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: These are really, again, obvious things, but they’re the kinds of things that are easy to forget or they slide or life happens and they don’t work the way that we expect to. If you forgot to go buy cream for your coffee, it’s much better to know that going to bed then wake up in the morning and be like, Oh know there was no cream.
Ryan: Exactly.
Andy: Terrible.
Ryan: Yeah right. Yeah.
Andy: One more thing and this isn’t something that I think is a perfect thing for everyone to do. I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary. But one thing I like to do is I like to clean or fix something. Not every night, but a lot of times. So this gives me like, it can be really simple, like make sure that you’ve washed the dishes or something like that or tighten the screw somewhere.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Little things like that, it’s like one thing that like I’ve made my home better.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: And it’s like you don’t have to go all out or anything, but like
taking care of one thing, it lets you finish with a little bit of completion or accomplishment and I enjoy that.
Ryan: Yeah. Well you know, my wife, I mean stuff before you go to bed, stuff is in its place. And my kids, they prepare for school and everything’s ready so that when you wake up in the morning, you don’t have to scramble around and do that kind of stuff. So yeah, completely agree with that. That’s a good thing.
Andy: Yeah. So, and the other thing with this is, you know, we’ve listed a bunch of things that you can do here, but remember that you don’t have to have a routine that is so rigid that you have to do all of these things every night. I know a lot people have shift work. A lot of people have a work schedules that vary from day to day or hobbies or activities that they do in the evenings. And those things can affect your schedule. I my dojo and practice Tido twice a week and those nights practice starts at seven then after we have dinner after training, because I can’t practice with a full stomach. So by the time I get home, you know, it’s 10:30, 11.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Usually I’m asleep before 11 so I’m not even getting home until later than that. So I’m not going to have the same routine those nights that I do on the other nights when I don’t have something in the evening. And so this is fine, just know that a couple of nights a week, maybe your routine is going to be a little different. And plan for those things, it’d be prepared for that and that’s okay.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: All right so, you might be thinking, hey guys, but none of this is anything at all to do with fitness, and you’re right.
Ryan: But this is where we’re going to talk about how important it is to do all of your pushups before bed.
Andy: Right, right. Because there’s nothing more important in life then getting in your workout before bed. And so I know a lot of people have certain things that they have to take off and you know that’s fine if that’s what you’re into, if you like, you’re welcome to do whatever you like. I know a lot of people that they love to do a little bit of yoga before bed or they do 10 minutes of meditation or they do whatever and that’s fine if those things help you relax.
Ryan: That’s right, yeah.
Andy: And we’re going to get to relaxation in a little bit, but I will just go on and say, if you feel like you want to do something physical for your body that’s relaxing before bed, you don’t want to do like a hardcore workout because then your heart rate’s going to be elevated.
Ryan: You’re ramped up.
Andy: But if you Google GMB relaxation routine, we’ve got a good one that we put together and that is something that can help you. It’s Just a few minutes and it’s really good. So with that said, let’s talk about relaxing and getting ready for sleep.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: So Ryan and I both, I think number one activity for both of us is just reading.
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. Every single night. That is the one thing that is a standard for me. I don’t, I can’t go to sleep well, I can go to sleep anytime, but I meant like I want to read before I go to bed and so that’s what I do. And mind you, it’s not on my iPad, it’s my Kindle, it’s on my Kindle or it’s an actual real book. Yeah so.
Andy: Yeah, I like reading and also personally I don’t like reading nonfiction unless it’s narrative nonfiction.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: I like reading fiction before bed. Nonfiction, a lot of times if it’s technical material, it makes me start thinking too much and I’ll get an idea in my head and then I will have a hard time sleeping because I’ve read something that’s too stimulating for me.
Ryan: Exactly the same. That’s right, I’m reading my no-brainer book where I can just kind of shut my brain off with what’s going on. Any kind of thing that’s related to work, anything that’s related to learning something new, that happens earlier in the day. Usually in the mornings.
Andy: Yeah. And so another one is light stretching. Like we mentioned, GMB has a routine for this. You know, you might just spend something, a few minutes stretching out anything that you’re normally tight in or anything that you worked especially hard in a training session or something. That’s fine.
Ryan: My daughter and I used to do that quite a bit. She would come back from swim practice and she usually gets back around nine o’clock which is pretty late for her. But she needed to stretch is what we do is we would stretch together after we took a bath. We didn’t take a bath together, but you know what I mean. But I mean that’s a big thing in Japan is that you either shower or you take your bath in the evening before you go to bed. It’s also a great thing too because taking that bath will relax you and especially in the winter it’s great because it’ll warm you up.
Andy: Well it makes you feel warm, but it also helps your core body temperature drop, which is something that’s really important for sleep too. So a warm bath or a hot bath 30 minutes to an hour before you go to sleep can be really, really beneficial in terms of signaling your body that it’s time to start winding things down.
Andy: Another thing in terms of relaxation is just stay the fuck away from the TV or your phone. Neither of those things is going to help you relax. You know, both of them are just going to stimulate you more making and worry and that kind of thing. So turn those things off don’t take them into the bedroom with you. Don’t be using this kind of stuff while you’re trying to relax because it’s not relaxing. Nobody’s ever felt relaxed after watching TV. They felt tired and a lot of people don’t know the difference because this is kind of the world we live in now that we tire ourselves off in this high tension state, but it’s not the same thing as being relaxed.
Ryan: That’s right. And with phones too, you know, I have my phone in a different room when I charge it in the evening. I don’t even take it with me. It’s not by my bed or anything like that. That’s me now. I mean, I used to, of course we’ve all done that. But yeah, just like Andy said, stop watching the TV couple hours before you actually sleep and put your phone somewhere else so you’re not on it.
Andy: Yeah, I actually do sleep next to my phone because I use it as my alarm, but I keep mine in airplane mode. So it’s not transmitting anything or picking up any signals or anything like that.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s good.
Andy: So, you know, we mentioned this earlier too in terms of preparation, but also again, getting ready for sleep. Reflecting on the day just helps you not take the day with you to bed. It just one more time, just sort of think back and put the day to rest and end it so that you’re not thinking about it while you’re trying to sleep.
Ryan: Yeah, this is, over the years, you know, owning a business. The two of us and Jarlo, we’ve had a lot on our minds over the years and thought about a lot of stuff but the thing that’s really helped me the most in order to really sleep is to understand how to shut off. And if you are having trouble because there’s so much going on in your mind while you’re trying to sleep, check out Headspace. I mean, you know, we’re not getting money from them or anything like that affiliates or what not but I think Headspace, if you’ve never really meditated before, I think it’s a good program to use. They’ve got a good sleep, not even program, but like a follow along a little meditation that you can do. Also check out some breathing patterns. We’re not going to mention those right now in here, but just Google that, checkout breathing for sleep, something like that. So that’s something that’s helped me over the years.
Andy: But be careful with that, because there’s the thing that’s gone around the internet lately that’s like, oh this is the thing that Navy seals used to go to sleep in a
few minutes.
Ryan: Yeah,
Andy: That actually is bull shit so.
Ryan: Yeah, stuff like that, yeah really.
Andy: Don’t follow that one?
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. Look at something that’s going to be able to help calm you down when you’re doing that. Or I got to be honest, just fricking count sheep. It sounds dumb but it will or whatever you want to count. Something that I used to do, I don’t really do this anymore, but in order to keep me from thinking about other stuff, what I would do is I would do Brazilian jujitsu in my head or something similar, you know, like think about doing a handstand or something where I’m just kind of focused on that and actually it would just, I would end up drifting off and sleeping pretty quickly. That was just something that I’ve used over the years.
Andy: Yeah.
Ryan: As far as getting ready for sleep, what were you going to say? Yeah, so getting ready for sleep, something that I do nowadays, is I use earplugs, those little foam earplugs. Some people might not like that. They think that they can’t hear what’s going on around them and it’s dangerous or whatnot. But you know what, I found that I am able to hear if there were an emergency or something that I need to be able to get up and do something. So I keep these in every single night, especially when I travel and it just really helps me to sleep. Not to get to sleep, but actually stay asleep.
Andy: Yeah. Yeah, quiet is definitely a good thing. You know, for me, getting ready for sleep is really just, I go to the bathroom and take out my contacts, make sure I’ve brushed my teeth. And so, but I will say if I’ve been traveling sometimes and if I’m in a weird time zone or something and I just want to make sure that I get as much sleep as possible, I’ll take some melatonin. It’s not something that I recommend as part of your regular routine because you don’t want to, it’s not a drug, you can’t have a dependency to it, but you can train your body to expect that much more melatonin than it’s naturally producing. And you don’t want to do that. But if you do have a night that you’re just not able to sleep, it’s definitely a thing that you, it’s nice to have on hand to make sure that you can get to sleep.
Ryan: Yeah. I tend to just go with six shots of tequila. That works out pretty well for me.
Andy: Yeah. And so you also, Ryan, you’ve mentioned that you take a magnesium supplement before bed.
Ryan: Oh, that’s right.
Andy: And I do the same.
Ryan: Magnesium, yeah. Especially when I’m traveling and so yeah, use that.
Andy: Helps me stay asleep longer and I feel like I get better sleep that way and a guaranteed morning boner.
Ryan: Oh yes. That’s always wonderful. Yeah, hang your hat on that thing.
Andy: For gentlemen over the age of 30 something, this is one of the things that it is, as your hormones change and testosterone production starts to decline, your hormonal balance is changing. You’ll notice that this is something that is impacted. So magnesium is something that helps in mechanisms that I don’t fully understand, I’m willing to admit. Helps to stimulate your hormones in in a way that is positive.
Ryan: And that’s actually the original name of GMB, which is, yeah, guaranteed morning boner.
Andy: Yes.
Ryan: That’s it.
Andy: That’s exactly the impetus of starting this whole company. Now you know. So let’s also talk about the environment that you sleep in because this is really important too. Like most of my preparation really comes down to this and there’s three things that are important here. Dark, cool and quiet. Now we all think that turning off the lights and it gets dark, but you know that if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can see miraculously, even though you thought it was dark when you went to bed, you wake up at later on at night and you’ve adjusted and your pupils are dilated and you can see in the dark now. Well that means that there’s light.
Andy: So you really can get better sleep by keeping your room even darker. And so this is where things like heavier curtains come into play. This is things where closing doors or making sure that you don’t have things on in your room that emit light. And these days a lot of things do, device chargers, power strips, all kinds of things where you don’t see them during the day but then at night you’ll notice that there’s a little bit of light coming from behind the TV even though it’s all off because you have a power strip back there and it’s got that stupid red switch that lights up to let you know that it’s turned on. These things, are adding light and are making it harder for you to stay asleep.
Andy: So one thing that I do, especially when I travel, I find that you can’t unplug all of the things in a hotel room or an Airbnb or something. But I actually carry a, a role of athletic tape with me. And this is good because I tape up my toes or something. If I’m going to be doing something, some kind of training, I’ve broken a lot of my toes, so taping helps them. But also I can put a couple layers of tape over like an led on a clock or something like that or on fire alarm.
Andy: Fire alarms. Why do fire alarms blink in hotels? This is the stupidest thing. I don’t want to see it. So I’ll put tape over these things to keep them from blinking all damn night and keeping me awake. Dark is so important to letting the body know that supposed to stay asleep. Light cycles are part of our circadian rhythms.
Andy: The second one then is cool. You sleep better in a cooler environment, you know, and yes, it feels good to get under the warm covers in a winter but if you get too hot then your body temperature rises and you start to wake up. This also deals with the circadian rhythm. When the sun rises it gets warmer and that signals the body that it needs to start waking up. So keeping yourself cool. Doesn’t mean you have to crank the AC down to 50 or anything, you know? But staying cool is helpful for staying asleep. Any other one is just quiet. So this is like Ryan.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s what the earplugs are for me. Yeah, exactly. So funny thing is is Bri, my dog, snores like crazy.
Andy: She does.
Ryan: So that’s another reason why I started wearing earplugs. Poor girl, she getting old. I probably snore too, but I don’t know. I have my earplugs in and I’m also asleep. But yeah, the quiet, that’s a big thing. We’re very lucky where we live in Japan, it’s pretty quiet. I mean, you know, Osaka is crazy if you go, you know, live downtown, there’s no way I could do that. But also where you live as well, it’s pretty quiet considering that you live in-
Andy: One of the largest cities in the world. Yeah, I live in a city of 40 million people, but my area around my house is actually pretty quiet. I know this is something that is a real challenge for a lot of people and there’s different things. There’s white noise machines that try to drown things out. You can use earplugs, whatever works for you. But try to keep your environment quieter or try to drown out the noise some way that works for you, that can really help.
Andy: So let’s talk a little bit about some things that are not good for sleep because this is important to the number one I talked about light. Bright lights. Bright lights. From your room, from your TV, especially blue light. Blue light shuts down your melatonin production as blue light enters your eyes and makes it harder for you to sleep. So that’s why you’ll see some of these crazy people wearing like amber colored glasses in the evening. And I think that might be going a little far. But I do have, I was very lucky. My home that I live in now came with a special light in the living room that has daytime and evening modes and in the evening it automatically starts to cut the blue light at sundown.
Ryan: That’s pretty cool.
Andy: It’s amazing.
Ryan: That is pretty cool.
Andy: And so yeah, I guess I can’t really say anything cause it’s functionally the same as wearing big yellow glasses. But yeah, that’s another reason why watching TV late into the night isn’t really good for trying to sleep because you’re getting a lot of light into your eyes. Another thing that’s probably not so good for sleep is eating a lot of food.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s huge for me. I know if I eat too close to what I’m going to sleep, I just, I have a really hard time sleeping. And so I eat pretty early anyway. I mean lot of people are surprised. Sometimes five, five 30 I’ll eat and everybody’s like, oh that’s so early. But then again, I sleep pretty well that day. So sometimes though, you know, protein, a little extra protein will help. But I do find, like last night we went out and ate the yakiniku, which is basically grilled meat. I ate so much of that. Got the meat sweats, you know, time to time, from time to time. That’s cool. But I wouldn’t do that every single night.
Andy: No.
Ryan: You know, Andy already mentioned this too, working out before bed, like really hard workout. That’s not going to be good either. It’s going to really ramp you up and chances are you won’t sleep well that night.
Andy: Yep, that’s true. Another thing, which is ironic because I’m currently enjoying a little bit of a Michter’s small batch bourbon, but alcohol also does suppress your sleep.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: And this is one of those things where again, it’s moderation is key. If you get drunk, you’re not going to sleep well. Everybody knows, everybody who’s ever been drunk knows you don’t sleep. So again, this goes back to adulting 101, you know it and so just act like it, okay?
Ryan: Yes.
Andy: I like bourbon. You like tequila.
Ryan: Oh yeah.
Andy: Reposcado.
Ryan: But we’re just not going to pound it before we go to bed.
Andy: Right. Be an adult.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: This again goes back to my thing about cultivating advice.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: Really find the things that you like and enjoy the hell out of them in smaller quantities. Make them feel special and that is definitely the way I prefer to drink.
Ryan: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Andy: Also just one last thing that is counterproductive to sleep in general, the fucking internet.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah.
Andy: Just there is nothing on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube that is going to help you sleep. There is nothing on the internet that is going to help you sleep, I promise you. Just don’t do it. Just don’t. You don’t need to know what’s going on. You’ll be fine until morning.
Ryan: It can wait, it can wait forever. You don’t need it.
Andy: Forever. So you know, like all of this stuff, just like our AM routines that we talked about before, all this stuff really closely mirrors like the GMB method and a lot of ways is that we have a lot of different components of what makes a good day and what makes a good night. And you don’t need all of these things every day. But if you know what the basic components of a good evening are for you, you can try to get as many of those in regularly as your schedule that day allows.
Andy: Each person is going to have different needs from things and there’s this continuum between having a routine and having the flexibility that’s going to allow you to live your life, right? Cause you know, if you have a strict routine that doesn’t let you ever go out with friends or something like that, that’s not going to be good for your life, right? So it’s not an all or nothing, never an all or nothing.
Ryan: Yeah and other things too, like where you are in your life currently. Like for example, having a baby, if you have a newborn baby, I mean, oh yeah, you throw your routine out the window, you know what I mean?
Andy: Yes.
Ryan: It’s completely different, you know? And then having kids, like my kids right now, we actually do have a really good routine because they need that routine. And so it’s nice. It doesn’t mean that it happens every night, you know? Grandma and grandpa come to visit so the routines are completely changed. You got to understand that that’s going to happen to just go with it. So, yeah.
Andy: The other thing is, just remember this is also straight out of the AM routines episode that we talked about, is that when you’re looking at balance in your life, don’t try to have a perfectly balanced routine every evening. Aim for balance over the course of a week. A week is a really good period over which to say that I’m getting an average of eight-ish hours of sleep. You might not get that every night and it’s okay. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need that other nights, you know? It’s not to say that you can really make up for a bad sleep, but you can give yourself more rest to return to normal, return to healthy. Right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: So aim for balance over a while. If you don’t get seven nights of perfect journaling and yoga before bed, it’s completely fine. But find the things that you can get over the course of a week, a few times average and that’s going to be great for you.
Ryan: Yeah, just like nutrition, I mean, different topic of course, but yeah. Rather
than, yeah. Find that balance, find that balance. Also something else in here, you’ve also got, you know, in here is, you know, Google GMB sleep for some recommendations on that, we have an article on that, so just GMB fitness sleep and it’ll come right up there, in the Google.
Andy: Yep. The Google is your friend. So kind of key points here is first just finish today, right? Cap it off, finish work, finish your stuff, make sure that you can just put an end to the day, right? And then you know, kind of think about what you’ve got coming tomorrow and reflect on how things have gone, right? Doesn’t have to be a big deal, but just spend a little time reflecting and preparing and then make yourself ready to sleep, right? That’s really all it comes down to. Remember that you can’t do everything.
Ryan: Yeah.
Andy: And that’s fine. Do what you can worry a little less about what’s optimal and more about what you can and will actually do and benefit from.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. That’s good.
Andy: All right Ryan, what’s your number one super quick, easy tip that everybody listening can do to have a better sort of routine every evening?
Ryan: Easiest thing, I would say this routine is something to do, I think it’s going to help set you up for the next day. And this is something that we’ve kind of harped on quite a bit today and that is, get off the phone, get off your phone, you know, turn it off, don’t need to be on the internet. What I do is if it helps you, set a time, say like, okay, from 9:00 PM I’m not going to be looking at my phone at all. And it might be difficult in the beginning, but I really believe that this is a big thing cause it’s going to help you to kind of wind down and turn your brain off, which is a good thing. And instead of being on your phone, go read.
Andy: Yep, iPhones now, have screen time, turn it on, set a time.
Ryan: Yes, use it, use it, use it, use it. So I think that’s one of the, one of the easier things that you can do. I mean, not that it’s not going to be hard, but I think it is a little bit easier compared to some of the other stuff. So give that a try from today.
Andy: All right.
Ryan: All right. Thanks for listening.
Andy: All right, that’s it. Thanks for listening. Good night.
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Hi, I'm Andy Fossett ๐
A lifelong martial artist and former schoolteacher, Andyโs deeply concerned with autonomy and fitness education. As CEO of GMB Fitness, heโs dedicated to providing an open, accessible culture for both clients and staff to enjoy exploring more of what theyโre truly capable of.
He's best known for his wildly off-topic rants on the GMB Podcast and spends the majority of his time eating burgers, sipping bourbon, and reading books.