Why most people's sleep sucks and how to fix it. Yes, it's possible to have great sleep every night.

I’m Angela Shurina, master health executive coach, and I’m making the case for sleep as the most underrated high performance tool: it sharpens decisions, steadies emotions, improves workout recovery, reduces cravings, and lowers the risk of burnout that takes high achievers out of the game.

We dig into the sleep toolkit using research-backed sleep science and real-world coaching patterns I see in leaders all the time. We call out the beliefs that quietly wreck results, like “I’ll sleep more when things calm down,” plus the myth that sleep should just “happen” if you get into bed.

Sleep is a biological state that requires preparation, and the biggest unlock is consistency. You’ll learn why irregular bedtimes and wake times create social jet lag, how light at night suppresses melatonin, why alcohol and late meals disrupt sleep quality, and how morning sunlight, movement, and a calmer evening routine set you up for deeper sleep.

I also share a simple implementation strategy so you do not try everything at once and quit, plus a short list of sleep supplements that may help support relaxation.

If you want better sleep quality, better energy, and more sustainable high performance without burnout, start here, then share it with someone who treats sleep like an afterthought. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell me what sleep habit you’re committing to this week.

Transcript

Welcome And The Promise

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of Changewired Podcast. My name is Angela Shorina. I'm your host. I'm your master health executive coach. Sleep, nutrition, fitness, feeling, looking, doing your absolute best, and most importantly, learning how to implement all of that, holding new habits and knowledge into your life, changing your habits, changing what you do every day, change for personal collective growth and evolution. That's what we are all about here. Change wired. So after listening to this podcast episode, you'll always get away with a few strategies and one action step to get better, invest in yourself, and to learn how to change towards your potential better and better and better.

What The Sleep Toolkit Solves

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Today, guys, we are talking about sleep. We are talking about the sleep toolkit. It's gonna be research-backed advice based on our current understanding of how sleep works and what habits and routines and rituals allow us to consistently, and by consistently, I mean, well, almost every night to have great quality of sleep, so then you can think sharper, make better decisions, feel and look your best, eat well, prevent injuries, don't get sick that often, and be uh crushing your fitness calls. Sleep. You'll understand during this podcast, a why it's so uh counterproductive to try to shortcut your sleep. What the researcher science says, what you actually undermine when you try to minimize sleep. We'll talk about common beliefs that a lot of high achievers and strivers and leaders have that make them deprioritize their sleep and by doing so, deprioritizing or shooting in the food their own objective. So you're gonna understand that. You can understand how you can be right now self-sabotaging without even knowing that, like taking away the quality of sleep that you could be having, but you don't, because you don't implement certain things consistently that are required for the sleep uh state to occur.

The Beliefs That Steal Sleep

SPEAKER_00 2:48

First, maybe let's start from the disempowering, false beliefs that in my work I notice a lot of leaders, a lot of high achievers, and when I talk to people like in general, people have about sleep, and that's what steals the quality of the sleep that they might have, no matter how many hours they decide to sleep. Right? So sleep is about quantity, but even more so about quality. And I always tell to my clients that okay, you might not always decide to sleep optimal amount of time, but I want you to have the right kind of strategies and tools and habits so the hours that you choose to sleep, they are as good as they can be. Because if you don't sleep enough hours and your sleep is crappy, it's like double hit to any of your performance, health, sleep, longevity, well-being, just feeling good, making great decisions, achieving, recovering well from your achievement, right? You undermine all of these objectives and you don't show up sustainably as your best self for people you love and your and your mission. And you might think, well, I'm doing my best and I'm achieving quite a lot, but it's not your potential if you are not at your best and you are not at your best if you always shortcut your sleep. But let's talk specific. Like what happens? Well, let's maybe start with a couple of false and limiting beliefs. From a lot of leaders, I hear something like that. Maybe, you know, not direct quotation, but they mean something along the lines of I'll sleep more when things calm down. And being a high achiever striver, it actually means that you'll always find what to do and you'll always be busy. If you ask a high achiever how are you, very often you would hear busy. And that's not the state of things for most achievers that they're actually trying to avoid. They love doing stuff, they love being busy. So, by definition, when you say I'll sleep more, when things calm down, it's like saying I'm never gonna sleep more. Well, if you're never gonna sleep more, then just say so to yourself instead of trying to make excuses or justify that that's just how life is. No, that's how you chose to live your life. The second thing is a lot of people I worked with and people I talk to think that asleep it's a state that's gonna happen when it's meant to. It's kind of like, well, if I'm in bed and I can't fall asleep and my sleep is crappy, it means either something is wrong with me or it's not meant to be. Or sometimes short sleepers, what they're called in the literature and in the research, people who wake up after, let's say, five hours of sleep and they're awake, like, I'm not sleepy, I'm you know, wired and ready to go. Guess what? It's your stress hormones talking, and it doesn't mean that you need to sleep less, it just means that your sleep, because of how you're wired, of your stress responses, of your routines, etc., cannot happen for longer periods of time. And it cannot happen because you do or don't do certain things which you'll you learn about on this podcast. So, sleep as a state, it's not something that's just gonna happen optimally, no matter what you do. You actually have to follow certain routines and regulate yourself quite well before sleep happens, so you get to get the optimal amount of sleep, which is for most people, seven to nine hours of in uninterrupted good quality sleep. Right? So, sleep state is not just something that happens, and I was also going through um some materials preparing for my board uh exam for master health coaching certification. I was like, I got my certification, but then now I want to be board certified, so it's additional learning and taking additional exams. And the the the in the in the lectures, pre-recorded lectures, a lecturer was saying that over the past uh like two couple of decades, the amount of short sleepers in the population in general increased. And it's not like we changed genetically, it's just the environment and the demands and how wired we are, how stimulated we are. That's what changed. And that's why people sleep less and less population-wide, even though they need the same amount of sleep for optimal health and recovery, right? There's just something alarming, something tells you that it's not you who need less sleep just because you get up two hours earlier than your optimal wake time. It's because the way you structure your self-management, self-regulation, how you wire it, how your stress hormones uh circulate inside of you, how your sleep time is all over the place. But hey, let's first gonna talk about why it is important to prioritize sleep so that you get to achieve more of your goals and live a more beautiful, fulfilling, high performing, high-achieving without burnout uh life experience. So why it's important and what happens when you consistently sleep six hours or less. And then we're gonna talk about the saboteurs or behaviors that you do consciously or unconsciously that sabotage good quality of sleep you could be having, but you don't, because you those things sabotage your sleep. And again, a lot of them you do to yourself. But also, it's a lot has to do with our environment these days. Then we're also gonna talk about a few supplements that seem to be very effective and helpful, but again, remember that routines and certain things you eat or drink, consume are a lot more important than and effective than those supplements. Supplement is like a bandage, right? You cannot heal a wound with a bandage, you can only sort of make it slightly less annoying and help with the healing process. So the same with sleep supplements are like that. And then we're gonna talk briefly about how to implement all of this knowledge that you just learned so you actually do it and succeed instead of just you know listening about that and and I don't know, trying a couple of things for a couple of days and you're like, uh, it doesn't matter, and then getting back to your stuff and nothing really ever changing quality-wise and longevity-wise.

The Real Cost Of Short Sleep

SPEAKER_00 9:33

So, first the negative consequences you might expect when you become a perpetual short sleeper, six hours or less. 40% all of I'm telling all of this that I'm telling to you right now is based on research and studies. So 40% decision quality drop. After just one poor night, your ability to think clearly and decide well falls by up to 40%. Well, it and it can go a lot more, yes, might be less again, depends on the of like how many nights you didn't sleep well and the rest of your biology and how your brain works, but up to 40% only uh after only one night of poor sleep. And by the way, the worst thing about it, it's not like you're gonna notice. No, your brain is the same machine that does the evaluation. So when your decision quality drops, so is your perception of how well you do cognitively. So you will perform worse and you won't even know it. 60% more emotionally reactive. Sleep-deprived brains are measurably more reactive to stress and negative input, the opposite of the calm strategic present leaders need to do their best work. And 2x double the burnout risk. Chronic short sleep under six hours more than doubles your burnout risk, which means that you will be out of order or functioning very minimally for a lot of time if you constantly shortcut your sleep again, six hours or less. And I know quite a lot of my clients who started with five hours or less. Can you imagine? And again, you can't even notice it or evaluate it objectively, but studies and research and tests can. What else is sleep makes worse for you? Shooting you in the food with all of your health and performance goals. Poor diet choices, sleep deprivation drives sugar and calorie cravings by up to 45%, making healthy eating far harder. Reduced workout quality and slow recovery. The physical investment you're making in the gym or running doesn't land the way it should. Injury accumulation, soft tissues, joints, muscle can only repair during deep sleep, and no dislike dupes, no deep sleep, no good recovery. Immune suppression, you're operating at full output while getting sick more often and taking longer to recover, which minimizes your good decision quality and the way you can be effective. And again, you probably won't even notice, you'll be doing your best, but that best is far from your potential. Emotional reactivity. Higher conversations happen at your worst. Relationships become worse and more difficult and more challenging. You'll feel like everyone is on your case. Not everyone, it's just your brain is different without proper sleep. Worst of all, you're making the short-term reactive decisions on autopilot that shape your business and your life, while you're running on a depleted brain. And again, most people assume that sleep is just about quantity, where actually what you truly want to care about is how to get good quality, which you can't shortcut and do with appeal or some sort of solution that knocks you out, but never actually allows you to have the sleep experience that your body and brain need to recover well to perform at your best. So we talked about again how a lot of people think that sleep is a luxury and they can't afford it. Well, if you can't afford sleep, yeah, it might be a luxury, but then you can't afford your high performance. And if you think you're performing at your highest level, you are wrong. And with cognitive test, you will be proven or shown. So another thing is people again think that sleep is just supposed to happen whenever you buy a body start. Not the case. There are quite a lot of things that make you not sleep ready, like having inconsistent time sleep, waking and going to bed, like having a lot of stressors and demands and feelings like you can't afford that sleep, living in emergency mode, like your brain knows when you are in that mode. And results just always playing catch-up with your life, fighting fires. You fight fires not because that's the only way it can be, but because you are running in your life in a reactive mode, which usually what happens when you don't sleep enough. Right, and again, not knowing what sabotages you asleep. A lot of people think, well, I know how to sleep, I've been sleeping my whole life. But it's like saying I know how to eat, and then majority of population getting abyss while thinking that they know how to eat because they did it their whole life. You know, just because I use my computer every day doesn't make me into a computer programmer, and just because you eat every day doesn't make you a nutritionist.

The Biggest Sleep Saboteur

SPEAKER_00 14:46

So let's talk about practical stuff, like the saboteurs, the behaviors, the routines, the environments that shortcut your sleep, that make your optimal sleep, if not impossible, then very hard. Number one, like number one, I was reviewing the literature for the exam, and number one cause of poor sleep or poor sleep quality. Guess what? Guess what? What's number one behavior that doesn't let you sleep well optimally or for as long as needed? Inconsistent sleep time. Repeating again, so you remember, inconsistent sleep time is number one thing that prevents you from getting the sleep you need. And the reason is your brain needs to actually release certain hormones, change your metabolism, change the way your brain and nervous system work to prepare you for sleep. And your brain, contrary to popular belief, does not know what time you decide to go to bed today or tomorrow. If your sleep wake time is always, you know, slightly off. Your brain does not know how to optimally change your hormones, release melatonin, decrease cortisol, change your nervous system state, change your metabolism so to make you sleepy and align all of the sleep phases so you get optimal recovery and you actually feel sleepy and awake when you want to feel sleepy and when you wanna feel awake. So, number one sleep disruptor is you is the lack of your consistent sleep schedule, hands down. So that is the habit number one I would start. If you can't commit to seven days of sleep on the same time, you'll be perpetually in the state of what's called social jet lag. There is a reason why they have this term, it's kind of like being in jet lag all the time with slightly off everything. Alright. Then

Evening Habits That Ruin Sleep

SPEAKER_00 16:48

let's talk about evening saboteurs or behaviors and routines and environments that can sabotage your sleep through different mechanisms. Bright light overhead after dark suppresses melatonin, which makes you sleepy, makes you fall asleep and prepare your whole biology for sleep. Screen exposure with no blue light protection, meaning there are apps, there is night mode on different phones and your computer, also your TV screen might not have that blue light protection. So either a blue light protecting glasses or again, certain night mode, certain apps, or don't just don't use screens an hour before bed. Eating within two, three hours before bed will change your metabolism, not in a favorable for your sleep way. Alcohol within six hours of sleep will change and destroy quite a lot of significant quality of your sleep. No wind down transition. Your brain needs routine. You are not a computer who just shuts down. You need about like, I don't know, one hour, 30 minutes when you dim the line, when you take the shower, where you put the things off, when you shut down everything. You need to wind down. Like if I were to come to compare you to a computer, you are a computer who needs 30 minutes to run shutting down sequence. Think about it that way, and put on your calendar or put alarm on, where 30 minutes before your sleeping time you need to start winding down. Irregular bedtime.

Daytime Choices That Set Sleep Up

SPEAKER_00 18:26

We talked about irregularity, then morning and daytime saboteurs. No morning sunlight, which is needed to actually bump up your cortisol. So in 14 to 16 hours, your melatonin can gradually rise and you can fall asleep, fall asleep, feel sleepy, and have a beautiful sleep experience, right? So morning light is very actually important. So you can use different light panels, which are not as great as getting outside for 10 minutes at least, but also a good helper. Irregular wake-in type times will also contribute to you not being as sharp and ready to go, and that means then by the time it's night, you're also not gonna be that sleepy and ready to sleep. Caffeine too late, ideal, like ideal, ideal, you would stop your caffeine 12 hours before bed, or at least, at the very least, like by 1, 2 p.m. or 8 to 10 hours, even though they say that half-life of caffeine in your body is 12 hours. So by the time 12 hours passed, it's like there is still some caffeine. So the and you might fall asleep, but your sleep architecture is just not gonna be the same. And if you don't believe me, try day with caffeine without caffeine, track it with some device and see how it's gonna change your sleep quality. No physical movement. If you are sedentary, don't get your steps, don't train, especially first part of the day, you're kind of like sitting. That's gonna be detrimental to your sleep quality. So physical activity does matter. The more active people are, especially in the first part of the day, the easier it is to fall asleep at night. High stress evenings, when you bump up your cortisol, your dopamine with some stimulants and stimulating work or activities, it's gonna take longer. Or if you do hard workout, less than two, three hours before bed, it's gonna be harder for your body and brain to shut down. So that's why it's really good to be super active physically, and otherwise in the morning, in the afternoon, and then start sort of winding down in the evening, and then wrong sleep environment, dark, cool, and quiet. Dark, cool and quiet. Remember, guys, and for most of you, that means getting yourself a good sleep mask, getting yourself uh earplugs that you can sleep with comfortably. It takes some time to adjust, but then it should be like a game changer for the quietness and your sleep. Cool, yes, when you're hot, it's very hard for your body to have optimal sleep experience. It is recommended to take a hot shower so then the body can cool itself down, and the drop in temperature will actually be super beneficial for you to feel sleepy, fall asleep, and have a better sleep experience.

Implementation Plan That Sticks

SPEAKER_00 21:20

So that is it, guys. If you need to re-listen to that again, please do. But also, let me share with you a few tips here on the implementation side of things. And once you decide what habit to start with to optimize your sleep, A, don't start all of them, you'll do nothing. Start with consistent sleep time for like two weeks, just go to bed and wake up at the same time, plus minus 20 minutes. That alone will be a game changer. Well, don't drink alcohol as well, close to bedtime. That that is a real killer. To any of your sleep efforts. But then what can help you to implement all of the sleep protocols? Know your why. Understand why you're committed to sleep. Not just like I'm gonna make it happen when I have time. No, why you're committed. Block it out in your calendar, just like my best clients do. From I don't know, for me it's 8:30 to 4:30. I'm out. I there is nothing happening in my head in my calendar. Whenever I find myself doing something, even at 8:30, I'm like, okay, that is shut down sequence right now. I try to be done by 8, but when I can't, like at 8:30, cut off. Second one, again, fixed sleep and wake time. That is your number one priority. Block again, sleep like a board meeting on your calendar, build up a wind-down protocol, 30 minutes, you know, close the day, dim the light, take a shower, signal sleep to your brain in the morning, get outside, get active. Even if it's for five minutes, it's gonna be a game changer for your sleep at night. And then start small, start small, guys. Start small, start with one thing. That is the most effective way to coach people to change their behavior. Start with one thing, track it, dial it in, commit to it, make it into a habit, and only then, if you're able to do that, add things on top of that.

Supplements That Can Help

SPEAKER_00 23:31

So that is it. Oh, I also promised you a short list of supplements that actually work and are beneficial and have a biological understood way of acting, helping you to facilitate sleep. Again, it is not what is gonna make your sleep the best it can be. Those are helpers. The main stuff you already learned, starting with consistent sleep wake time. So magnesium glycinate, 300-400 milligrams before bed, somewhere around like 60 minutes before bed. Alphaanine, which is a compound found in green tea, I think in any tea, but especially in green tea. 1-200 milligrams before bed. You also can take it with that magnesium. Tart cherry juice, 30 milliliters concentrate, diluted. It's a natural source of melatonin, if you didn't know that, which helps to feel sleepy, not too actually, it's not a sleeping pill. Avoiding well, avoiding large meals, not so much on the supplement side, but that is something you consume. And then six hour alcohol rule, no alcohol rule, and caffeine cut off at least, very least, eight to ten hours before bed. But again, alpheanine, magnesium, epigenin, which is extract from chamomile, you know, chamomile tea, still really good. Chamomile extract or a supplement with that might be more potent. So magnesium, altheanine, epigenine, and get to bed on time, guys. Get to bed on time. So that is this is the end of your sleep toolkit. And I hope that now you have everything there is to know at the moment to maximize your sleep quality. Now you also understand how not getting the sleep that you need and you want is not just luxury, it's not just sleeping in, it's not just more rest. You literally create more injury, sickness, stupid decision making, and emotional reactivity, and less energy, and poor eating habits, and gaining weight and losing muscle. You make all of that, you add all of that onto your plate, trying to deal with life challenges and achieving things. So remember all of that when you decide to shortcut your sleep. Treat sleep is the investment necessary, it's like a fuel for being your best, for showing up as your best consistently for year after year after year. So other people, your vision can rely on you. That's what sleep is. Sleep not for yourself, but for others, because only then can you be your best and others can rely on you consistently. So that is my sleep

Final Pitch And Share Request

SPEAKER_00 26:37

pitch. Now you have the toolkit. If you have any questions, my Instagram handle Angela Brainbody Coach, Angela Brainbody Coach, all one word. What else? Don't forget to share this podcast episode with a few people who might think that sleep, like you know, think that you do when you're dead, you're gonna be dead like faster and with more suffering. And who also might not know all these finer details that are needed to happen for your sleep to actually be possible, right? So share this podcast episode, read, review, ask questions, and for the love of God and human potential, go to bed on time. Thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Until next time, keep growing.