The 3-Period Playbook for Better Sleep

In this episode of The Healthy Sleep Podcast, John and David Grove break down their unique 3-period framework for sleep. Just like a hockey game, each period matters: your morning, afternoon, and evening habits all contribute to how well you rest at night.

They cover everything from hydration and natural light in the morning, to afternoon movement and supplements, to evening “runway” routines like reading and journaling. The brothers also dive into the role of nutrition, alcohol, and—of course—the importance of having the right mattress.

Whether you’re building better habits or just looking for one small change to try, this episode gives you practical, real-world strategies to finish your “sleep game” strong.

Key Takeaways

• Sleep is a 3-period game: morning, afternoon, and evening all matter.
• Morning routines set the tone. Hydration, movement, and light exposure kickstart your body.
• Afternoon habits like exercise timing and supplements can improve your ability to wind down.
• Evening routines act like a runway. Journaling, reading (on paper, not screens), and relaxation prepare your body for rest.
• Heavy meals and alcohol disrupt your body’s ability to recharge. Lighter, earlier eating supports better sleep.
• A supportive mattress is the “easy button” for finishing strong. Without it, even good routines can fall short.

Actionable Sleep Tips from this Episode

• Start the day with water and natural light to wake your body.
• Use the afternoon for movement. Avoid heavy workouts too close to bedtime.
• Experiment with safe, natural supplements like magnesium — but listen to your body.
• Create an evening runway: dim lights, avoid screens, and pick up a paper book.
• Keep dinner light and finish eating earlier. Limit alcohol to support deep rest.
• Journal for a week. Track routines, sleep quality, and how small changes impact your day.
• Check your mattress. If it’s sagging or past its prime, it may be the missing piece to better sleep.

Follow and Connect

• Instagram: @MattressGrove
• Listen on your favorite podcast platform
  

Transcript

generated by TurboScribe.

[David]
Welcome back to the Healthy Sleep Podcast by MattressGrove. I'm David Grove. This is my brother John and we are the owners of MattressGrove and we believe and know that better sleep starts with everything you do all day long.

[John]
That's true, very true. Today's a special day. It's your birthday.

Happy birthday, buddy. Thank you. Dang, man.

Was it 22, 24, 28 years? Yeah, awesome. Sure.

Been getting great sleep for all these decades, right? Incredible.

[David]
Yeah, learning a lot.

[John]
Learning a lot, that's right. Great sleep comes with a lot of practice, right? Yeah, so happy birthday.

[David]
Thank you, thank you.

[John]
Are you doing good today?

[David]
I'm doing great. I got a great night's sleep. Woke up this morning, hit the ground running.

[John]
Fantastic, awesome, good stuff. Yeah, so today's podcast is, the episode is all about what we do, you know, through the day that shapes how we sleep. You know, if we only think and focus on what we do right before we go to bed, we're missing two-thirds of the day, right?

Because the day's 24 hours. We only sleep eight hours. Most people don't even sleep eight hours.

They're supposed to sleep eight hours. If we do a good job, we sleep eight hours. So what we want to talk about today is morning routines, afternoon or day routines, and then the evening routines.

[David]
Absolutely.

[John]
And so we'll just, yeah, we'll just kind of dive into that. You know, again, we do a lot of research and we talk to a lot of people, so we're always open and love to talk to people all the time. So if you guys get anything out of this podcast, be sure and hit that bell notification.

And one other thing is, you know, if you know somebody that's not getting a good night sleep, share this podcast with them. Feel free and please do share it with them. That'll help us grow it so we can continue to bring more of these great podcasts.

So anyway, yeah, so we, like I said, we got, I mean, we kind of look at it as, I mean, we like hockey, and so we look at the day into like three periods, oftentimes, right? Exactly. First period, morning.

[David]
Morning period, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's kind of where everybody thinks of the day starting. So yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, if you wake up at the same time every day, it's one of the best things you can do.

It's one of the greatest habits. And the next step makes a big impact, too. Do you grab your phone?

Oh, I don't know. I mean, you know, you grab a glass of water, you grab coffee. You know, what is it that you do?

And then, you know, start to figure out what does work and what doesn't work for you.

[John]
Yeah, no, that's true. That's true. I mean, those are great.

Those are three things that probably 90% of the people do. Some people may just hit the floor and go right to the shower or the bath or whatever. But, you know, we know that the phone is probably one of the ones that people do more often now that we have phones.

Now, you know, you're only 20-some years old. But, you know, back in the day before cell phones, you know, they tell us that, you know, people didn't look at their cell phone because they couldn't. But it's proven that that's really, really bad because really bad for your whole day and your nightly sleep.

It doesn't make sense that at five o'clock, six o'clock in the morning, it affects your nightly sleep. But it definitely affects your day because whatever you see, whether it's an email or a social media post or something, you know, if you're looking for, you know, who liked your post, I mean, it could either be a really good or really bad. So it's proven don't do that first, right?

First day. And also that blue light is not good at night, but it's even equally as bad in the morning because that it makes your circadian rhythm kick out of space. And so another thing that's important, and we've talked to a few doctors, sleep doctors, that talk about the getting some sun rays, right?

[David]
Impact the sun, yep.

[John]
And in ways to get that.

[David]
Just open the window. I mean, get up, open the window, walk outside on the back porch or something, just to get that first bit of light, that natural light is so important to your body. Again, it's it kicks your body into that, that natural rhythm that your body already has.

So yeah, that's a that's a really big one. That's a huge one. Yeah.

[John]
It definitely sets it sets your stage for your day. And it sets your circadian rhythm. It's like wakes you up, you know, back in the day when we weren't used to work on farms, we had to get up, you know, and milk the cows and, you know, clean the stalls and do all that stuff.

And you're up before the sun. And when the sun hits you, you're automatically waking up. But one other thing I remember, she said something that's a good idea.

I mean, most of us commute to work. If you don't commute to work, open a window in the shade, get some sun. But if you commute to work, if you have a sunroof, open your sunroof, because you're going to get some of that sun ray coming in.

And so that again, that'll set it. The earlier you get it, the better. I wear a sleep tracking ring and it it says I have a time frame.

It gives me a time frame like and it's not that long. It's only maybe about 45 minutes to an hour that it says I need to get some I need to get some sun. And so that's you know, that kind of sleep app is probably pretty good because it sets your day.

So, Tip, get some sun. Get some sun on your body. Yep, good vitamin B.

[David]
That's a natural wake up thing. So that kind of says, what about your alarm? You know, you get your alarm and then you hit snooze, and then you hit snooze, and then you hit snooze.

Oh, has that ever felt good? I've never felt good after snoozing.

[John]
It feels good when you hit it, but when you wake up, it is no good. So to snooze, yeah to about that in the snooze button is really your enemy. It feels good, but when you wake up, all of a sudden, man, your just day is just not, you just, because what happens is we go back into like an REM sleep after your body says, hey, it's time to get up.

It's it's whatever time that, you know, you're wanting to wake up five, six, four, whatever time it is. Like you said earlier, make it make it a consistent time. Seven days a week, not five days a week, but it definitely affects you because it takes you out of your natural sleep patterns, because we all have natural sleep patterns.

Absolutely. So yeah, don't hit snooze button.

[David]
The best mornings are the mornings where you wake up right before your alarm goes off.

[John]
That's the point. Yes, good point.

[David]
Man, I mean, my day is so much better. I mean, my morning starts off great. So again, those are the things that usually, your goal is to wake up right before that alarm goes off.

It's wild how your body knows where you are and if you get the right amount of sleep.

[John]
Yeah, that's right. So another thing that I like to do is I like to work out in the morning. It kind of sets the day.

Now, I don't have to do a hard workout. I mean, even a little walk and, you know, a walk will get you some sunlight if it's not too early, but, you know, it'll get you some sunlight and also get your heart rate going and cleans you out. So a light workout in the morning is great.

Some people like to do heavy workouts, but just anything. It doesn't have to be a workout. A walk.

I mean, a walk is good.

[David]
Don't you think? And, you know, and then you're gonna take in some water, which is a good thing. You know, hydrating your body after you've been asleep is a big key thing, too.

So yeah, no, I think that, you know, when you get up and you start moving, it really starts your day off right. No doubt about that.

[John]
Yeah, the water is important. I know I've changed my routine. I used to drink coffee first in the morning, and then I read that that's really bad because, like you mentioned, you lose up to a liter, liter and a half of water through, you know, just your body losing it over the night, and the first thing you do is throw coffee into your system.

With caffeine, it's really harmful. So if you do that, just start drinking water. I drink two glasses of water before I drink some coffee, and I drink decaf in the morning because my sleep app says that's what I'm supposed to do.

It says I'm supposed to wait for two hours or whatever after I wake up, again, for my natural rhythm to kick in. So then I can drink my coffee. Right.

[David]
Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, and one of the other things is that, you know, when I change, and I don't do this all the time, but I try, is that, you know, when I prepare the night before for my morning, I know where my keys are, I know where my wallet is, I have everything ready, then when I wake up in the morning, I'm not stressed. I'm not worried about where my keys are, I'm not worried about all those things.

I did them the night before. And so, you know, again, it's kind of like my morning is so much better, and I can move forward, you know, just waking up, and then I can focus on my exercise, my water intake, and those things. So, you know, that's what I've experienced through the morning process, is that, you know, the less things I have to worry about in the morning, the better my morning is.

[John]
Yeah, no, that's true. That's, I think, the highest performers say that, too. Yeah, a lot of times they don't wear, you know, they just wear the same thing all the time.

They wear a black shirt with, you know, black pants, a gray shirt, a white shirt, you know, it's got a whole wardrobe of white shirts, black pants, I don't have to worry about it. I haven't gotten there yet, but I think it's a good idea, you know, if you struggle with that in the morning.

[David]
Yep, exactly, exactly. So, I mean, yeah, so you get through your morning routine, now you get into the afternoon, and all of a sudden you're like, okay, well, how's my afternoon impact sleep? And so, well, think about it.

If you, you know, if you're taking caffeine in, what happens? Your body is getting that energy, and it takes a long time for caffeine to get out of your system, for sure.

[John]
It does, yeah, it does. It takes longer than you imagine. I actually, I'll share a little story.

I didn't do the right thing, and I drank a Red Bull, like, at 6 p.m. this past weekend, and I don't know, I just felt like I needed to. Some UFC fights were coming on, and I thought I should stay up. But anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up not going to, not staying up, even seeing it.

I went to sleep, but man, I woke up, and I kind of went to sleep pretty easy, but then I woke up at like 2 a.m., and man, my heart was racing. I was like, good Lord, I couldn't think any, I mean, I just, I was like, God, what's going on? And so I drank some water, and laid back in bed, and did my little routine, which my routine is, I'll go through the alphabet, and I just start with A, and I start thinking about, like, where does it start with A?

It's the ant, you know, awesome, and then I go to B, and then go, and hopefully I don't get to Z.

[David]
If you get to Z, you gotta start with the numbers, probably.

[John]
Exactly, that's not good, that's not good. But, but yeah, it was weird. My heart was racing, and it was just so, and I know that was, that was not smart, but I do share that, because I think even if you have an iced coffee, like after two or three, the, the half-life of that caffeine, and how, you know, everybody's metabolism is different, but it takes a lot of time, a lot more time for it to get out of your system.

[David]
Yeah.

[John]
So you might be able to go to sleep, but it's still in your system, and you wake up, and you're like, holy, this is not good.

[David]
No.

[John]
Holy, yeah, this isn't good. So, so I'm not doing that anymore.

[David]
No.

[John]
It's a bad, bad decision.

[David]
You'll do it again. I probably will. But not soon, because I remember, that's right, not soon.

That's right, no, yeah, because I, and it is, I mean, caffeine, anytime that I drink caffeine in the afternoons, I, I toss and turn trying to go to bed.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
So it impacts me a little differently, but yeah, no, it is, it definitely makes a big impact to you, and that, that's something that, that you need to think about, and you know, we don't think about it until we're trying to go to sleep. So again, these are, these are tips and things that we've learned along the way that, you know, we encourage you to think about. Just, just think about it, because, you know, again, we go through our days sometimes, and we just kind of grab whatever we've been grabbing and doing, whether it's food, or drink, or anything like that, so.

[John]
It's our habits, yeah, our habits. If they're good habits, that's good, but you know, it's, you get on that autopilot, and you reach for your phone first thing in the morning, or you go to the coffee first thing in the morning, or in the afternoon, you drink, drink coffee, and it's like, I shouldn't have done that. Right.

But we're on autopilot a lot of times, and, and that's where I think, you know, again, if we're, if we're aware, and we don't, you know, we just do one thing at a time. We can't do all those things. I mean, you just, let's just focus on one thing.

So I'm focusing on not drinking coffee.

[David]
No more Red Bulls. That's right.

[John]
Lord, but yeah, no, that's.

[David]
Well, we were talking about exercise, and you know, if I exercise too late in the evening, I do the same thing. I toss and turn. I can't go to sleep.

My body's, my blood's pumping, and my heart's still, you know, jacked up, and I'm just like, I just can't get there. So, you know, again, those are things that I've learned about my body, and I've also done some research and stuff about exercise late, and stuff like that. So it's, it impacts everybody differently.

[John]
But exercise during the day is okay. I mean, you know, we can do that. So if you want to do a hard exercise, you know, just do it before, you know, two, before it gets too, too late in the afternoon, you know, before six or seven, probably.

But, and again, it depends on when you go to sleep. If you go to sleep at nine, then you need to do it four or five in the day, if you're gonna do a hard workout, for sure. Because, yeah, definitely, it definitely affects, you know, how we're, how we're, how we go to sleep.

Because you can't, I mean, obviously, you've all worked up, you know. If you play soccer, you play a match of something, and then all of a sudden you go home, it's like, you're gonna be up for a while, because your body's trying to calm down. So that's a good point.

And, you know, I, here's another thing that was interesting. Well, we're talking about eating routines. Two, is I took, I took a magnesium, and you could take three of these tablets.

And I took one, and it actually calmed me down. I mean, it actually, not after, it was just a normal night. This was a Monday night, I think.

And then, so, you know, so I think that's a good supplement, you know, check with your doctor or whatever. But I just took one. It said you could take three, because my body, I know supplements affect me.

[David]
Right.

[John]
A lot. So I have to be careful. I, I mean, you remember I took that Lion's Mane.

[David]
Oh, man.

[John]
I mean, I, you know, I wanted to be smart, you know, because Lion's Mane is great. Do research, and then take some Lion's Mane. So, you know, I'm smart.

I go to my local health food store, and it's a supermarket, and they, I'm looking at all the little capsules and everything. And this lady comes back, can I help you? I said, yeah, I'm looking for some Lion's Mane.

I want to be smarter. And she said, oh, yeah, it'll make you smart. But we got some fresh over here in the, yeah, it was in the, in the, in the cooler area with the other mushrooms and the, and the vegetables.

And so I said, well, great. I mean, how much do I take? Oh, she said, just whatever.

What do I do with it? We'll just put it on, you know, salad or something. Well, I went home and, and, you know, we were fixing homemade tacos.

Great. So I started chopping this stuff up, and it was weird. It's like stringy, kind of white.

And I started putting on my tacos. Great. I ate it.

Didn't taste great. But man, that night, oh, boy, I about wanted to vomit. And all the next day.

So you know what, I threw that away. So that being said, you just have to be careful. You know, obviously, I ate too much.

I'm not doing that anymore. No, maybe, maybe start with the caps. If it says take three, I'm gonna take one.

And then I'll work up to it. That's right. But yeah, so the magnesium did, did seem to, you know, just kind of help.

Just, just, I could feel it a little bit. I don't really need it. But I was, I'd like to know, I mean, you know, what it does.

[David]
Right. And I think, you know, melatonin is another one that a lot of people use and stuff. It does help.

I mean, it can help. And you just try not to use it all the time. You know, I mean, again, these are things that, you know, experiment with your body and what you, what works for you.

And, you know, they work for some people.

[John]
Yeah, absolutely.

[David]
It's just one thing. But yeah, it's starting in those evening habits and things and talk about some things that really, really benefit you for the evening. Like I was saying earlier, you know, prepare for the morning so that your morning is better.

But some of those things are things to wind yourself down. Yeah, I need to go put, make sure my keys are where they're supposed to be in my wallet. Everything's where it's supposed to be picking out your clothes, stuff like that.

Settles your body down for that night knowing that, okay, it's time for me to go to bed, you know, and so all, all of these little tips and things are just, just to help everybody that we've, we've, you know, experienced and talked to several people about.

[John]
I love it. I love it. Yeah.

I mean, if you, and again, if you think about it, just like you said, if you, if you have everything in place, then it's not something you have to worry about while you're sleeping. Right. And you wake up and then you don't have to go through the ABCs.

[David]
Right. You know, you don't have that, oh my gosh, waking up.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
Wait, wait, I didn't do this or didn't do that. And so, yeah. And then, then you're up at three o'clock in the morning, flashlight, you know, looking for stuff or turn lights on and, and aggravating other people.

And so, you know, because, you know, I mean, if you're up, might as well wake everybody else up, right?

[John]
That's right. Bang, bang some pans, make some noise. Absolutely.

So yeah, no, that's right. Any kind of ritual you can do and, and whether it's like you're talking about setting all your clothes, making sure that's done, brush your teeth. Brush your teeth.

Don't forget to brush your teeth. I hope everybody brushes their teeth, but you know, some people may not. They may, maybe they forget, but things happen.

Yeah, it does. It does. And then, you know, other things you can do is, you know, you can do like a light stretch.

I think stretching is really good. You know, we all, as we age a little bit, it's, it's, we get tighter. So.

I need to start that then. Right. I'm getting older.

Yes, yes, you are. Yes, you are. Today.

It's amazing. You're older today than you were yesterday. Yeah, I know.

That's weird.

[David]
Yeah, that's kind of weird.

[John]
I don't feel it though. No, I hope not. No, no way.

Other things, you know, I know we, you and I talked about reading and, you know, we both have a hard time reading, but it actually puts me to sleep, puts you to sleep. We talked about it. So, you know, I need to read 10 pages.

I may get to five and then I'm out. Boats on my belly. I wake up.

Oh, I got to read five more pages or else I just go to sleep. Right. That's right.

Yeah.

[David]
Yeah, exactly. It is. It's like the first page and I'm out.

But again, it's, it's kind of, I've tried to do digital book and that's even worse.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
I mean, it is. It's like, oh my God. My eyes were killing me, but my body's just shutting down.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
Yeah. I like, I like pages.

[John]
Yeah, I do too. I like to feel them. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I agree. And also if you don't have like the blocking, you know, sunglasses or you don't have a tablet that you can read on. I mean, that's going to keep you up.

Yeah. I mean, you may again, may go to sleep, but then you wake back up because that blue light tricks your brain and thinking it's actually supposed to be awake. Right.

[David]
Yeah. I mean, and you know, a lot of times you, you'll lay down and you can feel your eyes trying to open back up.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
You know, you're just, you're not relaxed at all.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
And that's usually it's from the blue light. Yeah.

[John]
So, so avoid meals, heavy meals. You get to have a little snack, but heavy meals and alcohol. Right.

[David]
Yeah. I mean, you know, I think, you know, like alcohol, like one drink obviously is probably not going to hurt you.

[John]
Right.

[David]
And if you, if you overdo. Yeah, it's not good.

[John]
Right.

[David]
It's bad.

[John]
Yeah.

[David]
It really does mess up your, your, uh, your body to relax because you're trying to produce, uh, you know, process that alcohol.

[John]
Sure. Sure.

[David]
That's what I was like to heavy foods, you know, heavy, greasy foods, or, or, you know, we'll keep your body working extra on that digestive track. And so, you know, it doesn't get the time to rest and eating early, you know, I mean, can, can help it again. These are suggestions for you to try.

And, um, you know, there's a lot of them here. So, I mean, that's, we went over a lot of stuff. I'd hate for somebody to just go do it all.

[John]
Yeah. It'd be like, this isn't any fun. Yeah.

[David]
So just one little thing, but if you do, we'd love to hear about it.

[John]
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Let us know.

Let us know. Absolutely. Um, so, I mean, we think of, uh, the evening routine kind of like a runway.

So, you know, it's, uh, it's what we do. We just make it smooth, make it steady. Don't try to do it all at one time.

Just do, do some little things, you know, do maybe start journaling or something like that. You know, maybe think about, um, you know, generally what you did that day and how your sleep was. Right.

Um, there's tons of apps out there. Um, you know, if you have a sleep device or that monitors it, that'll, that'll help. Um, but even that, you still have to journal it, um, or, or note it, note it, but that'll tell you a lot, you know, just like anything else KPIs, man.

[David]
Oh, yeah. It'd be amazing what you would learn about yourself. Just, just journal for a week and see what little changes make to your, your entire day.

Uh, and then your sleep. So, I mean, again, that, that third period is very important, but, but, you know, again, you got to start the game in first period, second period is very important as well, but that third period, you got to finish, you got to finish.

[John]
That's right.

[David]
Yep.

[John]
But if you take care of that first and second, yeah, it almost guarantees that that third period is going to be good. Right. It may, it may not be perfect, but it'll be good.

Um, and, and, and good can turn to great for sure. Um, yeah. Awesome.

So, um, we didn't talk about the other thing that really matters, um, that we all love is our mattress. Um, obviously, you know, if you, you can do all these things, you can do your first and second, third period perfectly. But if you don't have that third period comfort support and durability, if your mattress is sagging, your back's hurting, if it's not giving you the right support, if it's over, you know, uh, a few, uh, eight years, our bodies change a lot.

So you need to look at that, but, um, make sure you got a good mattress.

[David]
Well, and, and, you know, when you're ready for, to try some things, a new mattress is the ultimate time to try it. You know, anytime you get something new, y'all, you know, it's great to try some new things. Um, so, you know, get you a new mattress, start working on some of these different, you know, different routines and, and it'll be amazing what happens, but a good mattress is always going to help you out.

[John]
Definitely. Definitely. And we talked about that before that's kind of the easy button, you know, obviously, um, we, we, we run mattress grove on mattress grove and, um, we, you know, obviously we love to help people get a better night's sleep.

That's why we're here. Um, and if, if we can help them with a mattress, we're happy to help there. They can go to mattressgrove.com or, or, um, they can hit us at, you know, @mattressgrove on, um, Instagram. And, uh, you know, if you go to mattressgrove.com, our, our number comes right up to our shared number. Yeah. Give us a call.

We'd love to talk to you. You know, we'd love to talk to anybody about sleep, um, about routines. Uh, obviously we can talk about mattresses too.

Um, so, uh, yeah.

[David]
Try something, try something for sure.

[John]
Definitely, definitely try. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, um, you know, I, I think, um, we talk about, you know, uh, we, we thought we talked about what you do in the morning.

We talked about what we do in the second period in the afternoon. We talked about the evening. I mean, if there's just one thing, like you said, try something, try it, try it, whatever it is, journaling or just, you know, try just getting up and not get up, get up, get up every time, every day.

But yeah. Awesome. Well, good.

Well, well, thank you guys. Um, you know, for tuning in to the healthy living, uh, the healthy sleep podcast by MattressGrove. We appreciate you guys.

Um, and, uh, you know, again, if you like what you saw, please hit the like button, um, share it with people that, that, you know, that might need sleep. Say people don't need sleep. I mean, heck, uh, but we appreciate you guys tuning in.

Um, uh, hit that bell notification and you'll, uh, you'll know when we do the next one. So until next time sleep, get better sleep.