Sleep: Fuel for Your Body, Mind, and Life
In this episode, John and David Grove explore how sleep impacts every part of your life. They discuss the importance of routines, self-care, and physical activity for better sleep, as well as how changes in environment, such as travel or new surroundings, can affect your rest.
They also cover the value of a quality mattress and why MattressGrove delivers mattresses flat with white-glove service. From simple self-care habits to practical sleep tips, this episode offers actionable advice to improve your nights and energize your days.
Key Takeaways
- Sleep is essential for your body, mind, and overall energy.
- Maintaining a daily routine helps prepare your body for restful sleep.
- Your environment influences your sleep. Travel or unfamiliar surroundings may temporarily disrupt it.
- A high-quality mattress significantly improves sleep quality. Boxed mattresses are not suitable for premium comfort.
- Self-care is simple and important. Small daily habits enhance sleep and well-being.
- Engage with the podcast by sharing tips, stories, or questions via Instagram @MattressGrove.
5 Actionable Sleep Tips from This Episode
- Establish a bedtime routine. Start small with a warm bath, brushing teeth, or caffeine-free tea.
- Wake up at the same time every day and avoid hitting the snooze button.
- Stay active and get sunlight during the day to prepare your body for sleep.
- Prioritize a quality mattress and let delivery teams handle setup.
- Practice self-care daily to better care for yourself and others.
Follow and Connect
- Instagram: @MattressGrove
- Available on all major podcast platforms
Transcript
generated by TurboScribe.
[John]
Yeah, and maybe next episode, we'll talk about the other thing that you do on a mattress other than sleep. Oh. Oh.
Text. Oh. No, no, no, no.
Don't text. Don't text.
[David]
And don't watch TV.
[David]
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Healthy Sleep Podcast by MattressGrove. We're your hosts, David and John Grove.
We are brothers and co-owners of MattressGrove, and we're here because we want to talk about how self-care really starts at night.
[John]
Today we're going to dive into why sleep isn't just important, it is the foundation of self-care. It's not just for self-care, it is the foundation, and so it affects everything we do throughout the day. I mean, if we don't get a good night's sleep, it affects our mood, it affects our brain, our heart, our skin, every organ in our body.
So we're going to dive into that today, David, and let's figure out why sleep is so important because we know, because we've been doing this for a long time. We've been doing it for a while. Yes, we have.
[David]
All right. And listening to many, many stories and talking to a lot of people.
[John]
Yes. We're lucky that way because we get to talk to a lot of people, go to different conferences and talk to a lot of people who know a lot of things about sleep, sleep doctors, and we're going to have some of those on here. So let's dive right into it.
Like I mentioned, sleep restores your mind. If you get the right sleep and your brain gets into all the different sleep levels, REM, light sleep, medium sleep, heavy sleep, deep sleep, that's the most important thing of your day. We'll talk about, you know, your day is very important, but what you do, what happens at night is the restoration of all of that inside your brain.
So that's why, I mean, you know, that's why we feel the way we feel, right? Because if we don't get a good night's sleep, that's when we start having other issues.
[David]
That's right. I mean, and we interrupt those different pieces of our sleep by some of the things we do before we even get in bed. So, yeah, I mean, you know, your muscles relax, you know, your body relaxes.
A lot of people will blame a mattress for not having proper support when it's really your muscles that you've worked through the day or it could be a mattress that you don't have the proper support from your mattress. So a lot of people talk about backache from sleeping on a mattress, and that's really due to the fact that the mattress is not supporting your back properly. So your back is trying to, the muscles in your back are actually trying to support your back all night long.
So they get tired. And so when you wake up in the morning, you're going to have some sore muscles there.
[John]
Yeah. No, that's like, yeah. So if you don't have the proper support, if you have a backache, it could be your mattress.
It could be your mattress. Yeah, for sure. If you're not getting the proper support, like David said, your muscles are trying to straighten or keep your back aligned and that mattress not helping that.
But a good supportive mattress will keep your spine aligned, right?
[David]
Yeah.
[John]
So you don't wake up.
[David]
And allow your muscles to relax and recover for the next day.
[John]
Yeah.
[David]
Awesome.
[John]
We talk about the sleep being a foundation with our moods, with all of our different organs and how our brain, but the one thing is, if you think about it this way, you can't pour from an empty cup, right? If you don't fill it up, then you can't pour from it. So the only way you pour, and what I'm talking about is, and what the sleep experts say is, your cup is empty at the end of the day.
It should be empty. If it's not empty at the end of the day, then you didn't do what you need to do during the day. But most of us, I know everybody listening, we empty our cups, right?
So you can't pour from that empty cup if you don't restore it, if you don't fill it back up. And that's what the brain does when we get a good night's sleep and we're properly supported. Sleep also reduces stress.
A lot of people, we all go through depression times and things are tough, and we say, well, I need to get better sleep or I need to go to sleep. A lot of people just go to sleep and they sleep for 12 hours. Well, that's not really a good idea either because how our bodies are set, they're set to get eight hours of sleep, basically, eight good hours of sleep.
So and when we are consistent with our sleep and our sleep patterns, then we get that eight hours and we have less stress, less anxiety, less prone to catching diseases or to catch a cold. So the key is not to sleep more, but to kind of get that quality sleep, right?
[David]
Right. Absolutely. Yeah.
Because, I mean, again, it's your body healing itself, whether it's your muscles, whether it's your brain, your dreams or another piece of that, you know, like John mentioned, your immune system, everything is rebuilding and re-energizing itself at night while you're sleeping. So it's very important that you get that full eight hours of sleep.
[John]
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, one thing too, you know, a lot of us today, I know I do, you know, I take supplements and so, but if we're taking supplements to better our life, feel better, whether it's, you know, protein or whatever it could be, but we're skipping thinking about what we're doing with our sleep and we're not really focused on our sleep, then we're skipping step one.
You know, you can take all the supplements in the world, but if you don't get a good night's sleep, they don't even work because they can't, because your body's not acting, you know, operating at its maximum. So, you know, it's good to take supplements. Don't you think it's good to take supplements?
[David]
I think they can help. I mean, definitely. But, you know, again, like you said, if you're counterproductive by not getting a good night's sleep, these other things don't work.
It's like diet, like exercise. I mean, you gotta have a good night's sleep.
[John]
Yeah.
[David]
You got to. It's the one thing that the body has to have. Yeah.
It has to have. I mean, we don't have to eat great. We don't have to exercise, but you gotta sleep.
You gotta sleep. The three-legged stool, right?
[John]
The three-legged stool. The three-legged stool. But if you chop off that sleep part, it doesn't matter how much you eat well, how much you exercise, your body will shut down.
It will shut down. It will shut down. Yeah.
You mentioned, you know, exercise, and I mean, you know, exercise is super important, right? And you know, we all know we need to do more exercise, and hopefully, you know, we are working towards that. But if we exercise hard, then we got to recuperate, and again, sleep is that piece.
You know, yeah, you can take supplements, and I highly recommend you take recovery supplements if that works for you, but the number one supplement is sleep, and it's natural. So if you work out hard, no question gets you a good night's sleep because that recovers your muscles better than anything, better than water, which we need water, better than protein, or better than creatine, or whatever you may take, sleep will be best, right? And you're getting better, stronger muscles, right?
[David]
And I mean, you mentioned, you know, getting 12 hours of sleep. You know, you can think about that like, kind of like, you know, okay, so if I walk an hour every day in the afternoon, you know, all of a sudden, it becomes natural. I'm not sore.
I feel great. But if all of a sudden, I decide, hey, look, I'm going to walk for three hours in the afternoon. The next day, I'm going to be really sore, and I think that's similar to sleep.
You know, if you get 12, if you take, you know, try to get 12 hours of sleep, you can't just recover. It doesn't work that way. Yeah.
So, you know, you keep a good routine, you keep your, you know, hours in the, you know, keep your sleep in the eight hours. I think you, you know, you're so much better off that way because the 12-hour doesn't work and the four hours trying to make up for, you know, later on getting the eight hours, it just doesn't work. No, no.
[John]
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's definitely.
Yeah. You can't make up for it. No question.
So, so, you know, we mentioned that sleep is, is makes you, makes you look better, makes you feel better. It makes your skin better. So I guess the old adage that, uh, get your beauty sleep, I guess that's, does that work?
Absolutely. You must be getting yours because you're looking pretty beautiful.
[David]
I'm working, I'm working on it, but I've seen some people that didn't.
[John]
Yeah.
[David]
So we definitely, uh, definitely need to encourage them.
[John]
So yeah, absolutely. And you know, the thing about it is, is, um, it sleeps cheap. I mean, it's, it's, I don't want to say it's free cause there's, you know, there's opportunity cost of when you're sleeping, you can't be doing something else, but there's, there's nothing more important than getting that good night's sleep.
So no question. It makes your, makes our, makes our body, makes everything better. It does.
It definitely does. Um, we taught, and again, we talked about how sleep, you know, fuels our body as well. Um, you know, again, we talked about three legged stool, um, you know, we all, you know, we want to sleep better, we want to eat better, we want to exercise more.
Um, but there's not one thing that will fuel you better than sleep. You know, it's, it's a fuel to your body. You know, we don't think of it that way, um, but I've heard some sleep experts talk about that, that, you know, that is the fuel, um, the energy, uh, that, that gives you the next day.
Um, you know, we talked about getting another day, um, which we all know, um, go off on a little tangent, you know, we, we, we feel grateful to be here today. We feel grateful to get this day because we're not guaranteed. But um, if we get another day tomorrow, then let's make it our best day by getting great sleep tonight.
Um, you know, so that we can perform tomorrow because we're not guaranteed another day. But when we get another day, boy, I'm happy.
[David]
It's a great thing. It is a great thing. Yes, it is.
We have to have that next day. It is what we live for.
[John]
We, you know, we do, we do live for the next day. That's for sure. Yeah.
So again, uh, you know, just circling back around, um, you know, we, we, um, got to get a better night's sleep. You know, we all do. We do.
Yeah. I mean, and then that will make a, that'll enable us to make the good decisions to eat better, eat, eat healthier, cleaner. Um, it'll also help us, um, you know, want to work out, go on that mile walk method and then you get a better night's sleep.
And now you go two miles and you go three miles.
[David]
Yeah. I mean, you know, again, it goes back to, we gotta, we gotta make sure that that cup, it gets full again. And so, you know, we got to think about all the things that we, that we do during the day that, that make that cup complete so that we can move forward and get a great night's sleep.
And then the next day, start again and start fresh so that we can pour into everybody else's cup and help them too. So that's, it's all about, it's all about sleep to us. Yes.
[John]
For sure. Yeah. Yeah.
It is. But to your point, you know, um, sleep is very, is most important, but also we have, we really need to focus on, you know, getting up at the right time, right. And then what we do throughout the day.
So if we don't fill our cup through the day, as far as, you know, um, the, the energy that we use then at night, it makes it a little bit more difficult to sleep, right. Because, um, our brains, how they're set up is we want to take in a lot of different, um, you know, uh, senses, use our senses, use our energy. Um, you know, uh, we always sleep better.
I mean, right. I mean, we always sleep better if we're, if we're, if we're, if we're comfortable, if we, we finish the day strong, if we accomplish our, you know, five things that we need to do today. Um, and you know, we stopped and we just know the roses, maybe we put our feet in the stand or put our feet on the ground.
I mean, there's just things that make us feel good through the day. So then when it comes time for sleep, we're ready. That's right.
And then we get a good night's sleep on a good mattress.
[David]
That's right. Everybody loves to go out and run around on the beach, you know, run in the ocean, get tired. You know, that night you're going to sleep like a baby and it's, it's all because you filled that cup.
You, you got all those things going on and, uh, during the day and you were able to sit back and relax and, and think about those things. Then your body gets, you know, you go to sleep, your body starts to go, Hey, look, you know, your muscles are going, man, that was great. I actually got to enjoy the ocean.
I got to enjoy the running on the beach or whatever it is. And you know, so, so your, your muscles are doing the same thing. They're going to, you know, relax.
They're going to, you know, recover. And so, you know, it's just, it's all about what you do to prepare for, for your sleep. It's so important all the entire day.
So do you sleep better at the beach? I do. It depends.
It depends on what, who's with me and what they're, what, what we're engaging in.
[John]
Yeah.
[David]
Yeah. No, it's, it's, um, you know, it's a change of environment, so it changes my sleep habit. And so I, I get my physical part of, of trying to get a good night's sleep is a little bit better.
I'm, I'm doing something a little different, but, um, you know, it is definitely a, a mindset of, okay, I'm in a different place, so I don't do my normal routines. Um, so it's a, it's a little different. It's a struggle.
[John]
Yeah.
[David]
It's definitely a struggle. So, um, when I'm at home and I'm actually sitting in, in doing my actual good sleep routines, which is, I look, I fail at that too. I do.
I mean, but, you know, in general, I think that, um, you know, as long as I fill that cup up, I can get a good night's sleep. Even, even, you know, even in a hotel mattress, um, you know, they're not the greatest, but, uh, some places do have good ones and you know that when you get on, on a really good mattress. Um, so I think that, you know, my body definitely needs, needs to be, uh, you know, expended during the day so that I get a good night's sleep physically.
[John]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
The beaches. I mean, and any travel is always a little bit difficult, but to your point, um, you know, if the, if the mattress is good, I mean, usually we get a better night's sleep, you know, because we're extended, you know, expended our energy and, and we did, did a lot of those, those fun things. Um, we filled our cup, but, um, yeah, that's, that's interesting.
Uh, you know, I know, uh, you and I, we, we go backpacking sometimes and, um, you know, I know that first night of, um, of sleep, it's, um, it, uh, it's a little difficult just because I'm out of my realm, but that second and third night or fourth night, does that baby? Yeah. Right.
[David]
Does that work for you too?
[John]
Oh yeah.
[David]
Absolutely. We've talked about it. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, cause I, it's a new environment thing.
And then all of a sudden you get, you get your, your system down, your body gets acclimated back and you, you expend all that during the day you take in the, and again, I think that it's not, it's not just physical, definitely during the day. I mean, it's the, it's the, the senses, you know, you, you smell things, you, you feel the sunlight, um, you know, all the, all, I mean, just anything visual that you see, you know, you take that in. And then at the end of the day, you lay down and you go, God, that day was so beautiful.
It was awesome. You know, especially in the mountains, you look over, you know, like that valley and you see it, and then you envision it as you're going to be sleeping. You're just like, oh, this is awesome.
So you do, you know, you just start to dive into that. But yeah, it's definitely, it's sleep is so awesome when you get a good night's sleep and you wake up the next day and you're just like, yeah, I had a great day yesterday. Ready to hike another 14 miles.
[John]
Yeah, and do it again. Yeah, no, that's true. Well, you know, obviously we don't get to sleep in our MattressGrove mattresses when we're backpacking.
It may be nice, but we gotta figure that out. Yeah, but you know, we, you know, speaking of, I mean, we don't, we don't, you know, we don't roll mattresses. We don't put mattresses in boxes because, you know, that would be a camp mattress.
It wouldn't be a backpacking mattress, but it would be a camp mattress. So, you know, all of our mattresses are delivered flat. That's what we do.
We believe that the mattress, you know, should be manufactured flat and delivered flat. And that's just one thing that we really lean heavy on, you know, because if you put one of our mattresses in a box, guess what?
[David]
It turns into a big round thing that all of a sudden it blows up. The cardboard goes everywhere. Yeah, people.
I mean, we did do it. We did do it. We were experimenting and we did do it.
And it's not a pretty picture. It's not pretty, you know, and so I think that that's one of the things that we want to make sure everybody understands is that when you get a good quality mattress, you cannot put it in a box. It will blow the box up.
It's absolutely can't do it.
[John]
And it's heavy. It's a pain in the neck, you know, yeah. I mean, yeah.
Drop it on your doorstep. Yeah, I mean, who wants to drag that thing in the house?
[David]
Hundred and some, 140 pound mattress. You're going to try to lug that in. Let the proper experienced delivery teams come in and set it up for you.
Even remove your old mattress for you. You know, whatever your needs are. It's a service that, you know, is untouchable.
So you don't have to worry about a thing.
[John]
All you got to do is worry about making the mattress up. That's right.
[David]
That's exactly right. So, I mean, you know, that night, as soon as you get it, you don't have to wait for it to come back up and, you know, three or four hours of, oh, well, I'm not sure if I waited long enough.
[John]
Yeah, yeah.
[David]
To do any of that stuff.
[John]
And the mattress is good. That's what we do. You know, we will deliver directly to you.
Our retail partners, they'll deliver right to you. You know, White Glove, free delivery. So, I mean, that's the only way.
That's really the only way to get a mattress. But anyway, got off topic, but I, you know. We did, didn't we?
You know, we don't have any sponsors. We don't accept any sponsors. We don't say what we want to say.
But, you know. That wasn't an ad, was it? MattressGrove?
Was that an ad? Was that a plug? No, that was who we are.
[David]
Oh, yeah, that's who we are. Okay, gotcha.
[John]
Awesome. So, sleep tip of the week. So, one thing that might help everybody is, you know, if you really don't know where to start, set an alarm, you know.
Set an alarm for the end of the day at whatever time. You know, if you want to go to bed at 10 o'clock, maybe set the alarm at eight o'clock and start your routine. Start whatever routine that may be.
Maybe it is, you know, drinking some water, taking a warm bath, you know, brushing your teeth. I'd highly recommend that. Definitely, brush your teeth.
[David]
Yeah, I highly recommend that.
[John]
But whatever routine, just start a little routine. And maybe it doesn't need to be a two-hour routine. But, I mean, you know, if you think about, you know, if you have children or when you were a child, because, I mean, all of us were a child, right?
We had routines, right? Our parents said, here, here's what we're going to do. You know, okay, you're going to drink some more milk or you're going to take a bath.
You know, we're going to take a bath. Well, for some reason, somewhere along the line, we decided that that was not a good idea for us. And we started doing other things.
We don't do a routine anymore. So, a routine would be where I would kind of start just a simple routine, whatever that may be. Like I said, it could be a shower.
It could be a bath. It could be a warm tea. Don't drink coffee, caffeine.
Coffee's probably not a good idea when you're getting ready to go to sleep.
[David]
That's right.
[John]
But start there. But then set an alarm or whatever. And remember, get up at the same time, but don't hit the snooze button.
Don't hit the snooze button, yeah. Get up. And so anyway, awesome.
But yeah, self-care, it doesn't have to be complicated. I mean, it really doesn't, you know, it's simple. Then that's a great way to start self-care.
And for some reason, along the way, again, at the same time that we stopped doing our routine, we stopped taking care of ourselves because we have to start taking care of our kids, our spouse, our friends, or whatever. So there's nothing wrong with self-care. And we should do.
We should be, you know, very in, you know, we should think about our self-care. I know I do. You know, I'm not perfect.
We're none of us are perfect, but every day, just get a little bit better.
[David]
If I don't take care of myself, I definitely can't take care of anybody else.
[John]
That's so true. Yeah, that is so true. Awesome.
Well, thank you guys for watching. We appreciate it. You know, if you liked this episode, please like it and share it with your friends.
You know, we always welcome any DMs at MattressGrove, at sign MattressGrove on Instagram. You can follow us and find us on whatever podcast platform that you found this on or you prefer, you know. So we appreciate it, but send us a DM and any questions, we'll bring them here.
Any sleep tips that you guys may have. We would really, really like to share them here.
[David]
We'd love to hear their stories.
[John]
Yes, absolutely. We'd love to hear your stories. Good and bad.
[David]
Yep, definitely, definitely. We love the good ones, but the bad ones are good. They get funny.
[John]
Yeah, and maybe next episode, we'll talk about the other thing that you do on a mattress other than sleep. Oh, oh. Text.
No, oh no, no, no, don't text.
[David]
Don't text, don't text. And don't watch TV.
[John]
No. So maybe we'll talk about that.
[David]
That's right.
[John]
That's more fun anyway, right? That's right, oh yeah. All right.
Until next time, sleep better.