Next Level University

Sleep Is Sexy (1988)

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Are you sabotaging your success by skipping sleep? In this episode, Kevin and Alan reveal why sleep isn’t just rest; it’s the secret weapon for better focus, energy, and long-term success. Kevin shares how he went from thinking sleep was a weakness to making it a priority, while Alan breaks down the science behind why poor sleep harms memory, brain health, and productivity. If you’ve ever sacrificed sleep for work, this episode might change your mindset—and show you why sleeping better helps you do more.

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Episode Reference:
Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker | TED - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM

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For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

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Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(4:46) Sleep’s impact on mood and productivity
(6:14) Sleep and brain health
(9:29) Sleep Vs. Diet and exercise
(11:14) Bad habits hurting your sleep
(12:32) At NLU, we want you to win! So, we're giving tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM. https://bit.ly/4dPeTiD
(18:06) Sleep and big goals
(19:21) Why sleep is a pillar of health
(22:23) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Kevin Palmieri:

Sleep. You do every single day. You're already built, you have built-in consistency. You have to do it, you have to do it. So it's one of those things where you can actually I won't say easily, but simply focus on 1% improvements because you already have to do it.

Alan Lazaros:

What's the why? The why is to have a great memory. The neuroscience shows that your brain the number one most important thing that you can do for your brain, is sleep, hydrate, exercise and eat right period. That's all the research shows that.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros:

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up yourief self-worth self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success. Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri:

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today, for episode number 1,988, we're going to talk about sleep and how sleep is sexy. Now, sleep is sexy. I used to be the guy who was like what are you doing? What are you doing sleeping eight hours? What are you doing? Soft behavior, that is, soft cowardice behavior. Now, I love sleep and I have my Aura ring. We're not sponsored by Aura. They make really good products. They do and I track my sleep every night and I have a graph on my peak performance tracker. And right now excuse me, right now I'm averaging. My mouse likes to take a quick nap here to conserve battery. I'm, I am averaging. Let me go to my fit. Average sleep score over the last year and two months is 73.15. Not bad Out of 100.

Alan Lazaros:

Those are rookie numbers in this racket.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, something has happened lately and I've been getting 80, 87. I got a 91 the other day sleep score, so things have been really really good when it comes to sleep.

Alan Lazaros:

I just noticed I dropped below 80. I'm 79,.

Kevin Palmieri:

My average for the quarter I am you break up into quarters Since Jan 1st yeah, oh, okay.

Alan Lazaros:

Are you looking at Aura or are you looking at your tracker?

Kevin Palmieri:

What are you talking about? I'm looking at my tracker. Yeah, I don't know how did you I?

Alan Lazaros:

hide everything except, except for the current quarter.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, excuse me, hold on. Let me take a look. You're going to be devastated when my score is higher than yours? I doubt it. My average Shit 76.

Alan Lazaros:

Dude, it's not easy. Shout out to a couple of my clients they have 80s and up For their average.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's not easy. And here's the thing I had this thought last night where I love sleep I really really do. I love sleep and I have a pretty positive relationship with going to bed early and I have a pretty positive relationship with getting up early. I feel I've always kind of been a morning person. Quote, unquote.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, for sure I don't really like staying up super late, anyway, but I had a moment last night. It's Friday, it's like 8 o'clock, I'm already in bed. I went out, tyron was watching tv. I went out, gave her a kiss, I had my earplugs in, I had my nose strip on. I was like, hey, I don't know what's gonna happen, I might fall. We call it drift off. Sometimes I just like I'll watch tv and just drift off and I said I might drift off, I don't know what's going to happen. But I had this kind of sad moment where it was like I'm in bed Friday night at 8 o'clock. That's kind of sad it is. It's a little bit sad because, again, I think it's one of those, shouldn't you be?

Kevin Palmieri:

clubbing. I could be out clubbing. I could be out drinking an irresponsible amount of alcohol. I could be doing a lot of stuff. For sure I could be doing a lot of stuff. Been there, you've been there Same. I am grateful that I have been going to bed early and getting up early, and, more than anything, I'm grateful that I've been getting good sleep, because I do feel way different than I ever have in my life, because I was somebody.

Kevin Palmieri:

How do I feel different? My mood is better, I'm getting way more done. It feels really good to have a regiment, like it's just kind of the same thing. But again, I also am somebody who doesn't. I don't need much variety, so I'm not saying you have to do it this way. This is a blanket statement and I feel comfortable putting this out to the world, where I think it could be valuable to almost anybody. There is definitely a way that you could be either getting more, better or more consistent, restful sleep that would be productive to you, your life and everything else, but it kind of has to be a priority. It's not going to happen by accident, and I think that's the hard thing is, if you're somebody out there right now who feels like sleep is a waste of time, that is a relationship that probably would require some digging to rebuild the relationship, because I used to feel that way and it's understandable why you would.

Alan Lazaros:

I invest an enormint, enormint, too much. A lot I invest a large amount of time and effort into sleep and the reason why there's a TED Talk. That's super depressing.

Kevin Palmieri:

We love those around here. Yeah, we love depressing. Tell us about it, but it's very important.

Alan Lazaros:

There's a TED Talk in my playlist that I can put in the show notes. I very much stand behind this TED Talk. It shows the neuroscience of sleep. My grandma was 94 years old and she before she passed away. My mom and I went to go visit her and she thought that I was my mom's husband. She's like you, picked a good one. That was my fitness model in days.

Kevin Palmieri:

And that was really it's.

Alan Lazaros:

it's funny that she said that, but it's also really depressing, Right.

Kevin Palmieri:

So a very sad yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

And the reason my grandma, one of the reasons my grandma lived so long 94, is because she swam every single day, every hey, I'm not even exaggerating, I'm talking every day. She went to the Y. I remember she'd wake up 5am every day, swim. So swimming really good for the body. Obviously, you know as you get older, swimming's easier on the body. Obviously you know as you get older, swimming's easier on the joints. Awesome, she was very healthy physically.

Alan Lazaros:

Grandfather passed away at 89. She was still around for five more years and that was very sad for her because they were together for 60 years. She lived with us for one summer and my grandma's mind was kind of going and the the reason why it wasn't until my probably late twenties that I started to research sleep on like a pretty deep level and I'm going to send the Ted talk in the show notes. It's very, very sleep is your superpower, is the name of it by Matt Walker. So I'm going to send that link to the team. Throw that in the show notes, please.

Alan Lazaros:

But ultimately my mom, mom and I we've had conversations about my grandma and her brain didn't last as long as her body, unfortunately, and she lost herself. And if anyone who's got a grandparent with Alzheimer's or anyone with Alzheimer's, it's really hard to experience that. They literally lose themselves. There's a film with Anthony Hopkins in it called the Father, and it's extremely powerful. It's a very, very, very famous film. I think it won several Academy Awards, but ultimately it was very much about Alzheimer's and how hard it can be to lose your parents, their mind, because if you lose your brain, you, you lose yourself.

Alan Lazaros:

I mean, let's be real, we could chop off kev's arm and he's still kev he's still kev without most of his tattoos, though, depending on what arm you take, depending on which arm you take. But, seriously, we wouldn't lose kev, right? You take away the brain, you lose kev. Kev's gone, and that's why sleep's so important, so I don't mean to go that hardcore.

Alan Lazaros:

A little bit of a negative nancy episode here today, yeah, but the truth is, when I saw that ted talk, it really highlights how much, because my mom and I talked about this in the last piece. My grandma always took care of her body. She ate right and she exercised every day, but she didn't get sleep, dude. She never got good sleep. She was always up throughout the night. And my mom and I were talking this past holiday season and just saying how that is the reason.

Kevin Palmieri:

Well, I think it's. If you want to be healthier, diet and exercise is A healthy diet and some level of consistent exercise is a requirement. It just is. I mean, you will be healthier if you do those things. That is a fact. Right, that is a fact. I don't care what fucking detox tea you take, I don't care what supplements you take. That is all extraneous and supplemental versus a good diet and exercise. Those are great places.

Kevin Palmieri:

I think sleep is the same thing where it's very easy to prioritize fitness because it's an active thing. Yeah, I'll stop at the gym on the way home from work, or I'll go to spin class before I go to work, or whatever. Whatever it is, I think sleep is one of those things where it seems like, well, if I get up four hours earlier, I'll have four more hours to work. Yes, you will, but those four hours will not nearly be as productive as the eight hours you could just put in after a good night's sleep. And here's the other thing, because I don't want to be I don't ever want to be this podcast that says, no matter what, you should prioritize sleep more. I think it would be beneficial. But I also understand, circumstantially, if you have a newborn, you're not getting good sleep. I don't know how you would. I've never done it, but I've heard nothing but nightmare stories sounds terrible.

Alan Lazaros:

So that's something again I get a night nurse.

Kevin Palmieri:

One of my clients had a night nurse well you, that costs money right oh yeah, so yeah, especially for a good one I'm gonna say, yeah, I can come watch your baby if you want me to come watch your baby, but I'm dog shit at it. I wouldn't be good. So you know, you might be able to afford my services, but they're not good, even though I am really good with kids, believe it or not, because I'm a big kid. I am, I'm a big kid. So circumstantially thanks. But unless you're making some good money, that's not going to work. But I think we can all start somewhere, that's all. This isn't that episode where it's like we're going to give you five ways to optimize your sleep so you only get 90 plus sleep scores.

Alan Lazaros:

No.

Kevin Palmieri:

Because I don't get 90 plus sleep scores every night. Neither does Alan, and Alan is optimized way more than I am when it comes to sleep. But what is one thing we could do to move into a more positive direction? I didn't go from sleeping four hours a night to having earplugs in a sound machine and nose strips and the heat on 68 and the fan in the right direction. I didn't do all that. Blackout curtains, all that, it was shit. I I feel terrible, like most of the time why is that?

Kevin Palmieri:

well, I am drinking 700 milligrams of caffeine a day. That's probably not great. I eat fast food like four times a week. That's probably not good either. Um, I sleep about four hours a night. Hmm, let's see.

Alan Lazaros:

Let's see about that nlu listener what is happening? I just wanted to jump in here and let you know if you want to get to the next level faster. We have a free virtual monthly meetup at the first Thursday of every month. You can connect with like-minded people and become a bigger part of this amazing global community. The link to register will be in the show notes. I know we got to jump shortly, but I We've got seven minutes. We've got some time.

Alan Lazaros:

I want to highlight this. I was reading a book last night. It talked about anyone with a strong enough why can figure out any how and again, fortune cookie quotes here.

Kevin Palmieri:

Yeah, it sounds great?

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, it does. What's the why? The why is to have a great memory. The neuroscience shows that your brain the number one most important thing that you can do for your brain is sleep, hydrate, exercise and eat right. Period. That's all. The research shows that One of the reasons Emilia and I we walk every other day Walks are really good for your brain too. So Emilia and I are weirdos and I know that this is statistically abnormal, but our number one, most important priority is our brain health. She bought blueberries today on my protein pancakes. For my brain, For the brains, I want to have the most magnificent life that I possibly can.

Alan Lazaros:

And if you think about it, let's take a moment here. What makes the difference in someone's life? Alan with a healthier brain is going to be far more capable than Alan who's drinking and smoking and not getting great sleep and not eating right. I've been there, Been there not as good, not as capable, not as much willpower, not as much discipline, not as much well-roundedness, not as much centeredness. We all know when we are in a crappy state and we get poor sleep, we end up snapping at our partner on accident or or throwing a stinger joke that was inappropriate or whatever it is, we're not our best self. You can't be your best self without great sleep. You can't, and I think that hopefully that helps everybody. With my clients it's my coaching probably sounds so goddamn boring.

Alan Lazaros:

I have so many clients tracking sleep so many.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's great, though it sucks in the beginning, but it's great. I love it Every day. Again, we're not sponsored by Aura. Whatever Apple Watch has this as a bunch of different apps Whoop, there's a bunch. I don't even know all of them. Alan has an Apple Watch. We're also not sponsored by them.

Alan Lazaros:

We're not sponsored by anything we sponsor ourselves. This episode, brought to you by Apple Watch. Everyone. My Aura rings on when I show people.

Kevin Palmieri:

Why didn't you get it on your ring finger?

Alan Lazaros:

Nah, man. Why, though, that ain't me? What do you mean? Because I don't want people to think I'm married yet that's going to be for my First of all.

Kevin Palmieri:

It goes in your left hand. So that's right there, Nobody's going to. If they think you're married and it's on the wrong hand. They don't know.

Alan Lazaros:

Yeah, right, Like come on. What was I going to?

Kevin Palmieri:

say oh, every morning, right, I wake up, I roll out of bed right into the cold plunge immediately. Okay, I sleep with my AirPods in and my audio book playing, so when I wake up it's already playing. I don't even have to hit play, so I don't even have to worry about that. So I roll out of bed right into the cold plunge Head first so I can get the immediate decompression of the coldness. Then I flip upside down like an Olympic swimmer. Come up, boom, bada-bing. First thing I do is look at my aura ring. First thing I do. You know, and I don't do any of that Just so you know. That is a facetious joke about morning routines. Right before I do my mobility in the morning, I open my Aurora app. You know how it takes a minute to connect, oh yeah.

Kevin Palmieri:

One of the first things I do is I check on my sleep and again, I'm super excited, I'm super excited to do that what did you come in at today? Today was I think I was 80 today. Today was a rookie kind of a rookie day for me. I didn't sleep well.

Alan Lazaros:

Same If anyone got any messages from me late night. That's when I can't sleep. I don't kind of catch up on work 80.

Kevin Palmieri:

Sleep score 86. Optimal readiness score Not bad. Yesterday was 87.

Alan Lazaros:

Nice. Yeah, it's been good it's been good as someone, 62 last night, not great. It's not great 85, great, 85, 85. Emilia and I send each other our scores every day slash sometimes, alan sends it to me by accident and calls me babe so life's good as someone who used to get shitty sleep, what would you say to younger Kev? Cause he was fucking up? Oh for sure, with all the love.

Kevin Palmieri:

I feel so much smarter, nice. I feel like my brain. I feel like my brain is capable of so much more. You don't know, you. I think oftentimes the things that we wear as badges of honor are more badges of ego and or just stupidity, Nice, and for me it was ego and stupidity. I'm not saying, look, it's up to you to decide what it was for you. For me it was ego and stupidity. That Now I still have guilt around it, Like if I sleep bad and I go back to sleep I don't feel good about it still, but it's very much. This isn't about right now, this is for the future.

Alan Lazaros:

Do you believe the version of you that wasn't getting good sleep could sustain the level of business we're building right now?

Kevin Palmieri:

No, I think I could do the work. Yeah, a lot of this is out of necessity.

Alan Lazaros:

So if you don't have big goals, if you don't have certain goals, sorry, if you don't have certain goals, it's sometimes you won't. My clients are not optimizing their sleep to optimize their sleep. No one optimizes sleep for funsies.

Kevin Palmieri:

I don't want to say no one, but very few people. You know what? I think we could say Transformational goals, that, because that's what big is dependent If you have a transformational goal A goal that requires you to improve your sleep. Well, yes, that's wildly specific. Your sleep, well, yes, I mean that's wildly specific. But yes, yes, yes.

Alan Lazaros:

Well, that's, I think, the point of goals is it helps you. You and I did not get our rings and dial in our sleep because we wanted better sleep. We wanted the by-product of what better sleep would bring, which is sharper, more willpower, the ability to put more on the court, help more people trainings, podcasts, coaching, all that stuff. So if you set a goal and also fitness, you want to talk about muscle building, it all happens at sleep. That's when you repair your muscles.

Kevin Palmieri:

The rest is needed, yeah.

Alan Lazaros:

The rest is needed. A lot of bodybuilders take naps periodically throughout the day. I mean, I used to do that a lot back in my fitness days, but sleep is a pillar, an absolute pillar.

Kevin Palmieri:

It's not sexy, yeah, but the title of this episode is Sleep is Sexy. It's not, I know, and I'm not going to necessarily try to convince you that it is. I just think that it's one of those things that, if you can, okay, this is the thing. This is why I think it's so important We've got to go in one minute Sleep. You do every single day. You're already, you have built-in consistency. You have to do it. You have to do it.

Kevin Palmieri:

So it's one of those things where you can actually I won't say easily, but simply focus on 1% improvements because you already have to do it. That's why evening routines and morning routines are so important, because every day you go to sleep and you wake up, and if you don't, you don't have to worry about morning routines because you're dead, or nighttime routines because you're dead, you don't have to worry about it. But yeah, this year you're going to have 365 opportunities to improve your sleep by a little bit. That's it I. Opportunities to improve your sleep by a little bit, that's it. I'm not saying you have to do it all in one fell swoop.

Alan Lazaros:

Last piece Sure. Emilia and I got together five years ago. She had memory challenges. She's been open about that, public about that, and I bought her a book called Brain Recovery, memory Recovery, memory Rescue, memory Rescue or Recovery.

Alan Lazaros:

My goodness, speaking of memory, the whole thing it's a thick book thick and it's a lot of it is about sleep and she's gotten unbelievable. She I used to be the guy hits the plane out, not, you know, I wake up and we're there, it's great. I'm mr sleep man guy, that's the official term. She's surpassed me, brother, she's surpassed me. I wake up and we're there, it's great. I'm Mr Sleep man guy, that's the official term. She's surpassed me, brother, she's surpassed me. I'm trying to catch her now. That's what's possible, and her memory's way better, way better. It's not close, it's night and day. That bothered me so much when we first got together. She would wake up early and and leave and it would be like what are you doing? You got four hours of sleep because we were. You know, when you're new in a relationship, obviously you're up late doing stuff and it's like you can't just get up in five hours. I feel terrible, right same, yeah, same.

Kevin Palmieri:

I remember I used to when I was dating, before Tara and I got together, I would stay up late and this person lived like an hour away from where I lived and we would go to bed at 1 in the morning. I would get up at 5 every time, no matter what, drive home, take my pre-workout and Matt and I would go to the gym. I never missed ever like I thought that was cool. It was cool that I was making progress in fitness and I was super consistent, but it was not good for my brain, and again, brain health, not sexy, necessary. All right, we're gonna go.

Kevin Palmieri:

Health, wealth, life and love this is health. We haven't talked about stuff. We gotta talk about stuff like this because this is stuff that we're actively doing and practicing and I want to make sure we share it, even though it might not be sexy. This might not be the most listened to episode we ever do, but it could be one of the most valuable ones, and that's what we're here for. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at nlu we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow. Get some sleep sleep.

Kevin Palmieri:

Next level, next level nation thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros:

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

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Kevin Palmieri

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