149: Kris Gethin, Bestselling Author, Trainer, & Renowned Biohacker: Bodybuilding, Biohacking, Travel, & How It Connects To Sleep!!

Welcome to the sleep as a skill podcast. My name is Molly Eastman. I am the founder of sleep as a skill, a company that optimizes sleep through technology, accountability, and behavioral change. As an ex sleep sufferer turned sleep course creator, I am on a mission to transform the way the world thinks about.

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sleep. Each week I'll be interviewing world class experts ranging from researchers, doctors, innovators and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper. Ultimately, I believe that living a circadian aligned lifestyle is going to be one of the biggest trends in wellness, and I'm committed to keep Keeping you up to date on all the things that you can do today to transform your circadian health and by extension, allowing you to sleep and live better than ever before. 

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Welcome to the sleep is a skill  podcast. This podcast is designed to bring lots of different voices on to talk about the skill set of sleep from various perspectives. And today's guest comes from a entirely new industry that we really haven't touched on. To date on this podcast, Kris Gethin is widely known across the health and fitness space as one of the leading body transformation specialists in the world.

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He has been voted as the world's number one transformation coach and personal trainer on various platforms and governing bodies. As the former co founder of Cage Supplements, former editor in chief of bodybuilding. com. Kris has helped educate and change the lives of millions of people. Kris is the co founder of Gethin's Gyms, host of Kris Gethin podcasts, the author of the bestselling book Body by Design.

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He currently helps celebrities several months of the year, trains clients online year round via www. krisgethin. com and hosts anti aging biohacking seminars worldwide. As I noted, I'm really interested in having a lot of different voices in various industries that can provide their unique perspectives on ways in which we can really make a difference with our sleep.

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One of the things that Kris excels in is how to optimize his sleep on the road. He is on the road. Well over half of the year. So he makes it a bit of a sport, if you will, of how to keep his sleep on track in multiple different locations. So I think you're going to really enjoy today's conversation and as always, a few words from our sponsors before we jump in. 

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Just a quick interesting fact about sleep to mention drinking more than two servings of alcohol per day for men and more than one serving per day for women can decrease sleep quality by 39. 2%. A sleep foundation survey reports, not even mentioning all the indulgent food and late night effects that often come along with it.

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And as we know, sleep is the key to your body's rejuvenation and repair process. It controls hunger and weight loss hormones, boosts energy levels and impacts countless other functions. A good night's sleep will improve your wellbeing much more than just about anything else I can possibly think of on the planet, you know, I'm biased, but gotta say that and sleep is your major to focus on as we head into the fall season and hopefully beyond. 

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This special offer is only available at  magbreakthrough. com forward slash sleep as a skill. I will also include this in the show notes as well.  And welcome to the sleep as a skill podcast. Oh my goodness. We are in for a treat, but a quick aside. Well, this is a first on this podcast, both myself and our guests are walking on this entire podcast.

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This is an example of a real life way that you can support your sleep and health. While you're doing all the things you got to do and this is what's on the court. So I was just sharing before we hit record, I had just ate beforehand and ideally for glucose management, which of course can impact your sleep results.

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If we can get a little movement in that can be really helpful for glucose. And yet. Even just for living a lifestyle that's not completely sedentary throughout the course of our days can certainly impact our sleep. So, we're walking and talking. So, Kris thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

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Of course, Molly. Thank you ever so much. This is kind of weird. Like, we're both on treadmill desks. And I feel like I'm going to bump into you any second here as we're walking towards each other. This is so, like, modernity. in a nutshell. How wild is this? We're getting a chat from across different states and places, literally, geographically.

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So, this is amazing. So, and I think maybe that's potentially a place that we can kind of begin. I know you travel a lot. You're doing a lot in this realm of really trying to make a difference from this aspect of health and well being to hitting the masses. Give us a little bit of a background on how did this come to be?

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How are you traveling so often? And how does this all connect to sleep? Right. Okay. Good question. God, how far do we need to go back here?  So I got into the bodybuilding industry as a whole, probably in the mid nineties.  I actually studied international health and sports therapy in the mid nineties. And that was my ticket out of Wales, where my weird accent comes from.

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And that's what then started my travel. I was working on cruise liners and I lived in Australia, moved to LA, working for publications such as Muscle Fitness. Uh, Flex magazine and I published my own publication and then that got me in with bodybuilding. com as the editor in chief back in 2007. So then I was traveling all the time, covering shows, covering events, being at, uh, expos and at that time I was competing in natural bodybuilding and what I was doing, I believed was healthy.

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But. A bodybuilder actually can have a very unhealthy life because we're consuming double the amount of food that other people are or the average person. So if we're consuming food that has, you know, it's industrialized food. So the meat is full of antibiotics. The, the produce is covered in glyphosate.

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We're consuming double the amount than the average person. And of course we have. More stress, so we need more antioxidants, but the antioxidants that we're feeding ourselves with is covered in glyphosate or herbicides, pesticides, et cetera. So I found that, you know, I wasn't really in a healthy state when I had a lot of my blood work done, even though testosterone levels were good.

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I just didn't feel good. I felt inflamed. My joints felt inflamed, which I thought was the byproduct of heavyweight training. But then as soon as I changed the sources of my food to grass fed, humane raised, organic, looked at the supplements that I was taking to see if they had artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, et cetera, compared to their natural counterparts, that's when I really felt the change.

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And I kind of. merge  the sports performance sector with the biohacking sector and the longevity and how I kind of fell across that was when I was diagnosed. I think we spoke last week about this with a mold toxicity and that's what really made me go down the, like the biohacking rabbit hole of looking at the sources of the food, the coffee, the wine, anything that I was consuming.

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What was the sources? Were there mold spores? Blah, blah, blah. So luckily, I'm able to now travel to bodybuilding events, expos, because I still facilitate that part of my community. But I speak at a lot of biohacking events now across the world, because I'm trying to merge them both together, because I know people from the sports performance sector. 

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aren't really healthy, but they don't know it. So that's what I'm trying to do is educate that crowd. So it doesn't require a lot of traveling. You know, I'm traveling now as of next week through till mid March.  So I won't be back in Boise. I've missed Boise summers for the last two years. So I hope to have one next year here.

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Yeah. Oh, fantastic. Well, one, a lot to unpack there. And of course, then it's interactions with sleep management, certainly with the travel, but also with some of those challenges along the way. Mold certainly we know can absolutely hit for many people on their sleep in different ways. And so how, for you, has Sleep played a role in this puzzle of how to improve your own health when you're dealing with some of those challenges, but then also in this merging of these two worlds.

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All right, yeah, so when I had the mold toxicity,  You know, I wasn't feeling good. I wasn't a good person to be around. I definitely didn't feel myself because if you're only sleeping three hours a night, which was my symptom, then you're not going to be a good person to be around. Like, if I look at the content that I wrote in some books that I published and self published at that time, I'm like, who wrote this?

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Right. You know, it's a completely different person. I'm glad I kind of got out of that. But when I travel now, luckily I never, ever, ever get jet lag because I adhere to my circadian rhythm of the time zone that I'm about to go into. So I may fast during the nighttime there. I may wear my blue light blocking glasses for the time that I'm going there.

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I may wear like an EMF mitigating device, like a wave guard, have that with me and at the hotel rooms that helps never eat the airplane food. Uh, make sure that I'm very, very much hydrated with electrolytes. So that usually helps me get into that circadian rhythm. And if I'm not able to earth and ground myself to the place that I'm going to, I'll wear like, for instance, Bahi trainers or any trainers that are earthing and grounding.

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So that's when I'll bring in the biohacks if I cannot get the real thing, you know. And then when I'm in hotels, that is the difficult part. So I sign every waiver necessary to get my windows open straight away because I don't know if there's mold in the ducts or there's anything in those ducts that's recirculating the air.

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Cause sometimes like I'll be staying in a hotel in India in February for a month, you know, the same hotel. So it's essential that I have. these windows open. And then, you know, I try, I always ask for extra blankets because much like I have a weighted blanket at home, I just find that extra weight really helps with the sleep as well.

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And ensuring that the room is completely blacked out. And I'll usually have like these magnetic. Lights. I think it's, I think it's a German brand. I think it's called Lechblok, Lechblok. So I'll have those red lights, much like the upstairs in my, you know, in my house. It's kind of like what I'm looking at now.

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It looks like a bottle. Yeah, exactly. That's our goal. Amsterdam red, red light district. Yep. Yeah. So there's no flicker or anything like that. That's going to be disturbing my sleep. And I always make very, very, very strict Request at the front desk that I'm not to be disturbed after 630 in the evening, because I'm usually in bed by 730 and I just want to unwind before then.

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Unfortunately, the last time I was in India, they got it the wrong way around. They thought I was not to be disturbed between, uh, whatever time it was in the morning until 630 in the evening, and then they could disturb me after. Took a while to unpack that one. Uh, but that's, you know, those are some of the hacks that I do and I always, I don't always necessarily do this where I'm in nature here and I'll wear the shoes.

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But when I'm in, for instance, in Mumbai, I found the last time that I was there, I was having a hard time sleeping and I was earthing myself in the morning by going for a walk on the beach. Sure. And then I spoke to my friend, Tim Gray, who runs a health optimization summit, very good friend of mine. He said, try earthing yourself in the evening as well before you go to bed.

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I was like, okay, I'll go for a walk on the beach in the evening too. That really helped with my sleep, really helped. And that is not something. That is not like a placebo effect. I'm sleeping, you know, I just wake up in the morning. I checked my aura scores. I'm like, wow. Okay, that works. So there's certain biohacks that I will employ when I'm on the road to help optimize my sleep that I generally won't do at home.

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And of course, you know, like you said, no, no high carb sugar meals, sugar meals before bed. But if I'm on a keto diet, I'll do a cyclical approach. I'll have a lot of carbs in the evening as my last meal just to release serotonin. Uh, real quick, I love what you said about the window piece because I have not done that.

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And have you been able to find that you've been able to actually get them, do they come up and then kind of manually open those for you? How does that work? Yeah. Yeah. They have to come up with special tools because you'll see that square, that square bolt that you just kind of undo. So they'll come up and they'll send maintenance up and do it for you because you have to sign all the waivers that you're not going to jump out, you're not going to kill yourself, blah, blah, blah.

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Blah, blah, blah. It's something that I insist, otherwise I won't stay at that hotel. I love that. So it's so important to kind of take matters into your own hands, especially when you're spending significant amounts of time in those environments. I love that you're doing that. And then also the blankets can be really helpful and that can be potentially helpful too if it's too hot and sometimes they like trap the heat.

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So then you have the other options throughout the time that you're in that space too. So that's really, really brilliant. Now, How much for you over these years, would you say you're being mindful of sleep, prioritizing sleep? So for those listening that might say, well, I want to, I want to look like Kris.

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I want to do all the things that he's doing. How much are you really prioritizing? And how do you think about the importance of that kind of down regulation time? I love how you're setting yourself up powerfully, like sharing for the hotel to not disturb you. It sounds like you're already. blocking that time out.

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Has this been an evolution for you? Did you always prioritize this for your recovery, for the amount that you're training? And how has the mindset been there? No, it wasn't until 2014 when I got diagnosed with a mold toxicity. That was the turning point because when I started to feel the effects, the positive effects of getting a good night's sleep, I was like, okay, this is my number one priority.

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This is my number one biohack.  You can spend money on stem cells and the red light devices, whatever grounding sleep is going to be my number one and with my clients, it's their priority as well. So they may come to me. I think the first thing I'm going to give them is a training program, nutrition program, like, no, let's look at your sleep for us.

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You sleep quality. The, you know, the cadence obviously, and let's prioritize that first, not five days a week, seven days a week. Once we've got that prioritized, then we look at the next thing. So with me, it is my number one priority. You know, I do think about it from the morning before the evening, just to make sure that I'm setting myself for success in the evening, but I'm trying not to stress about, I've got to be in bed by this time, which I was for a while.

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I'm to a certain degree at work, but sometimes it would cause frustration. Just try to relax. You rush, rush, rush. So you can unwind, you know, it didn't really make sense, but now I have my routine where, okay, I'll spend some time on my PEMF mats unwinding with my wife, watch maybe a TV show. And then I go to bed usually around seven, 38 o'clock, I'll read a book and that book isn't generally like a self help book or entrepreneurship book or anything that's educational.

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It's going to be maybe like a detective style book  where I'm escaping reality and I can lose myself into another dream before I go into dreamscape.  And that really helps me unwind and I don't try to fight the sleep then. Because I'm really enjoying a book as soon as I start to feel tightness come in, then I'll put the book down and then it's lights out and I have a red light lamp.

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I make sure the phone is not in the bedroom. I ensure that, you know, I do have that weighted blankets. I don't like, I've had Brian Hoyer the building biologist come into my house to check where the EMF is. So. Or do the electricity. Uh, I do have like one of those wave guide. I think it's called the key QI.

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Yeah, so I have that by the side of the bed as well because that only I think it's like a 16 16 foot radius. So I have that right right by my bed as well. Make sure that there's no, like, the bed frame is not metal, it is wood. You know, so I'm, and I have earthing sheets as well. Um, so those are all the things that I really kind of focus on to ensure that I have a good night's sleep.

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The room is usually about 67.  My wife hates it, it's too cold. Uh,  but it really helps with my sleep. I blame the ice baths for that. I run hot, very, very hot. Yes, totally. Now what about for clients? Now we've had some bodybuilders on and certainly have spoken to some of the tendencies to see sleep apnea creeping up in the bodybuilding community.

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Are you working with some of your clients on distinguishing that, getting clear on that, kind of treatment of that? Or are you seeing that often? What's your take on  sleep apnea? I've seen that often and sometimes it is a genetic trait where they have like a thicker tongue, uh, you know, tonsils may be a little thicker or their throat is a little smaller, but obviously when they put on a tremendous amount of weight, that is now exaggerated.

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So, you know, what we generally do is work on a lot of nasal breathing. So when they're working out, focus on nasal breathing, of course, if they're doing high intensity interval training. training. Um, then it's not going to happen. I actually did some workouts with Ben Greenfield and everything was like through nasal breathing and we're doing spider man push ups.

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We're doing kettlebell springs. We're doing farm kettlebell  swings. We're doing farmers carry. Like it was impossible for me. It was just, you know, soul destroying. He's very, very fit. So I don't encourage everybody to breathe through their nose all the time, but as much as they possibly can. So they're not used to having their mouth gaping open when they do breathe at night.

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Yeah. Further from that, we look at, um, mouth tape. Like there's a company, I think it's called Dream scape or dream recover. I can't remember. It's a very, very good mouth tape, especially for people that have goatees, so they get used to that. And because a lot of people, a lot of bodybuilders wake up in the night and they just drink water because they're so dry because their mouths are open.

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A lot of them say to them, say to me, I don't think I could do this because I get so thirsty throughout the night. But when they do start mouth taping. They find that they're not thirsty now because they're creating a lot of that dryness through mouth breathing as opposed to nasal breathing. So that's what we usually focus on.

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Oh, absolutely. And so for you, this has also been an evolution of the being cognizant of nasal breathing and then sharing that with your clients. Are there particular Protocols that you have them do outside of training that they bring in or is it do you find that that's sufficient during their workouts?

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Yeah, just during our workouts and outside like if they're walking the dog if they're going shopping Whatever try to be conscious of nasal breathing the whole time Absolutely. Okay Now for you, I know you mentioned the travel piece. Is there, are there things that you do to mitigate that kind of well known first night effect?

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So that phenomenon where we're in a new environment and we tend to have this kind of Potentially an extra level of hyper arousal. We might have a little bit more trouble falling asleep. Are there things that you're doing that you're making sure to pack with you that make you feel more at home? Any things that you call out there with the amount that you're on the road?

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Yeah, it's not so much stuff to have more familiarity with me. It's just making sure that my circadian rhythm is familiar with the environment straight away.  So, uh, for instance, like on the first night, or usually on the flight and on the first night of my new destination, is when, is the only time they'll go heavy on melatonin.

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Sure. So I have melatonin suppositories.  Yeah, I'll take that is very, very high dose and that really usually helps me get into my circadian setting no matter the time zone straight away. And then I'll unplug all the electronics, you know,  the phone, the clock, anything that I possibly can. Which can be very difficult when you're in a place like Dubai, where everything is run on, uh, like an iPad, even if you want to order a coffee, it's on the iPad and, you know, everything, even the curtains, everything's electric, so it can be difficult, but I try to do whatever I can to, you know, unplug myself.

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I'll also have like, uh, an EMF, you know, it's like, um, Faraday blanket, like a CMF mitigating blanket. I'll usually put that on the bed that I travel with as well. Like, I think it's a defender shield. I'm not associated with these brands, by the way. A defender shield blanket usually helps as well. Um, so those are the two other things that I say, you know, that I do.

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Earthing is a big one for me. Earthing is a huge one. And I tell everybody, you're flying to a new time zone. If you cannot earth yourself, we're the trainers, whatever. Do whatever you can because even when you're transferring from one plane to the next, sometimes you are going outside. Like if I'm going to India, I'm going to go to London.

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I'll be outside before I go back on the plane to then Mumbai, you know, because that's my halfway point. It's very important that I earth myself and ground myself as soon as I land at any destination. And I love these tips and these things that you're doing and putting into practice. So many of them. Are free or very affordable and for the some of the things that we've mentioned that might have a little bit of investment.

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Those can be things that you're using over the long term. And so they can we can make the argument for the kind of cost benefit analysis now. On the mold piece,  what did you see for yourself with the mold component and sleep? Were there certain things that you really recommend for people that right now are dealing with mold and they are overwhelmed with what to do?

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They're not sleeping well. I know it's a big, big topic, but are there certain things that really made a difference for you? Yeah, now this isn't going to be a blanket approach for everybody, but what worked for me, like I went to Dr. Spanau's clinic in Oldsmar, Florida. That's where I got diagnosed because I was dealing with this for a couple of years and I didn't know what it was.

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I was trying every type of supplement, even medication  to try to sleep at night, really not knowing what it was. And when I went to Dr. Spanau's clinic, I had like  52 blood tests on the first day, stool samples, urine samples, saliva samples, brain scan, everything. And when he went through all my symptoms that I was experiencing without me telling him anything, I was blown away.

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I'm like, wow, it's like you've just lived with me for the past couple of years. So part of the detoxification process for me was taking IVs with glutathione. ALA was in there as well. I was taking binders such as Corella, not anything too. Harsh because it could recycle and I could bind out a lot of my minerals.

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So I was doing a lot of sauna. Uh, I was doing clonic hydrotherapy five days a week as well. And since then I've been doing like weekly coffee enemas. I do take high dose glutathione.  I take ALA just to continue that process and take these binders. I've got a sauna here. So I usually sauna about five days a week as much as I possibly can when I'm traveling as well.

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With binders such as prior to that, and that just really helps continue the detoxification process, you know, and, uh, you know, that's again, but somebody dependent on the symptoms that they have would be dependent on the detox protocols that they go through. Like, I remember, and sometimes when you create. 

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Like some sort of masculinity resistance within yourself, because I'm definitely that kind of person. I'm  in denial of these symptoms. You can actually get sicker and sicker and sicker, so it's a very stupid thing to do. Because I remember being at Dr. Spinalik's clinic, and after I'd have my detox protocol, I'd just go straight to the gym.

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I'm like, okay, I've got to go work out, blah, blah, blah. And I would see some people in that same clinic, in their chairs, after they've had their IV or whatever, just passed out. And I remember saying to the doctor, what's wrong with them? And they said, well, the majority of these people are actually less sick than you.

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But you just have been in denial and you haven't recognized it and you just think it's great to just plow on. And it's very important that you actually, you know, if you've got any issues that you're like, okay, I really need to give into this and go seek special help, because I'm probably not doing myself any favors at the end of the day, because you think, okay, I'm a warrior.

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I'm going to smash on. I'm kind of old school. It doesn't always work  so wise. And I love that. Then it sounds like you really prioritize taking on this area of your life, taking on this recovery meaningfully and mindfully, and it's clearly made a difference in now how you're managing your life thereafter and the things that you're having your clients prioritize.

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Is that part of your protocol as well? Working with your clients to kind of bring in that building biology? component kind of really doing your due diligence for them and making sure that their environment isn't mold ridden, isn't something we're dealing with EMFs and the laundry list of things that from an environmental perspective could really be impacting their ability to get those gains that they're looking for.

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Yeah, for sure. Like I said, recovery is the number one.  Obviously is the number one priority when it comes to recovery and your recovery dictates your performance. If you're not recovering, you're not performing. So we have to prioritize that. A lot of people in my industry will prioritize, get the music pumping, take that pre workout, go, go, go.

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And they haven't even recovered. So if they're not recovered by, say, 18 percent their performance is only going to be 18 percent or less. So that is always a priority. And yeah, dependent on where that person is living, what their lifestyle is, their career, is it sedentary or not. Yeah, and if they have been major issues with sleeping.

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Then we have to look into these modalities, maybe a building biologist, maybe something a little bit deeper, is there, like, is there mold toxicity, or,  based on their blood work, they could have hypoxia of the mitochondria, and it's nothing to do with mold toxicity. However, those symptoms are very, very similar.

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So, only a blood report for an organic acids test is really, really going to tell you that. So, that's what we'd look at first before taking on all these other things such as the mold toxicity dynamic. Sure. Absolutely. And to your point around being kind of Educated on what we're dealing with, whether it's testing or different modalities that we might utilize, what is your take on tracking sleep and any call outs there?

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So wearables? Yay. Nay. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. As long as that person just doesn't Live their life by that wearable, because some people that they just take it too far. They're like, Hey, my HRV was down. So I didn't do anything today. I'm like, well, let's just look. How did you feel? Did you feel okay? If you felt okay, you could have done it.

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Now we can get caught up. Like I've had a client. A lot of my clients send me their sleep scores every day. Yeah. And he lost his aura ring. And he said, look, I haven't been able to send you the, my tracking. Of my sleep. However, I feel like I'm sleeping so much better now because I'm not stressing about sending you the reports.

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So sometimes it can be bad dependent on that, um, that individual, but I do the same. Sometimes I'll wear the aura. Sometimes I'm like, you know what? I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks. So, you know, if you become too,  I guess, dependent on these wearables and there's a lot of them, then, you know, obviously it can be a little too much, but I do suggest the wearables where you can switch off the Bluetooth.

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So you're not getting penetrated by that all the time, and Aura's great for that. Absolutely. No, I appreciate you call that out too, because we certainly see that now in our programs, everyone has to wear an Aura ring throughout some of our cohort programs in certain stretches of time, but for our one on ones, and everyone's opting into these things, but for our one on ones, and even sometimes in the cohorts, those data vacations or times off, and for some people, doing like, old school kind of sleep diaries, just manually logging can be really freeing and important for them.

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So I'm really glad you called that out because there certainly are those cases where it's not serving people to be hyper fixated on that data. That is very well said. And to your point, the call it around EMFs. We don't want to be adding on additional stressors to the body while we're aiming to recover while we're sleeping.

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Really wise. Now, For every person that we bring on the podcast, we do ask four questions around how you're personally managing your own health and well being. Oh, and you got that great water bottle too, nice and hydrated. Very nice. No plastics. Fantastic. I love that. So, and now I think we might have addressed some of those things, but you can let us know if we missed anything or any additional call outs.

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And our first question is, what does your nightly sleep routine look like? And this could apply for while traveling or at home or anything we might have missed that would be noteworthy for people. Well, I'm wearing a yellow lens, blue light blocking glasses now because I've got two bright lights here that have flicker.

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But as soon as I'm done with this call, I'll swap this out for the red lens. So that blocks out all the artificial light because of course I need a little bit of cortisol while I'm talking to you right now. Exactly.  So I'll block that out because I probably will watch a TV show with my wife. It's called loop, uh, looping.

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It's a French TV show. It's really, really cool. Yes. So my buddy, uh, Dr. Dom, I don't know if you've had him on a podcast, he's like the world's leading bio dentist. He got me onto that, so I really enjoy that at the moment. I love something that has subtitles because you have to be focused. Oh, have you seen Dark?

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So good. No, I haven't.  It has subtitles. It's so good. Time travel. Really fascinating. You got, it's such a thinker type show. You will, you'll love it. Time travel must be based on a true story.  Exactly. Right. Very relatable.  So I'll do that. I'll just unwind. And when I do, so I'm on my PEMF device. I just love PEMF really helps me unwind because it's got different settings on there for sleep, meditation, morning, et cetera.

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Absolutely love that. So I'll be on a PEMF for about 30 minutes while a TV show is on. And then you usually walk the dog, get a little bit of activity, just very slow, low intense activity. Then I'll wear the trainers that I'm wearing right now, which are earthing trainers. anything myself before I go to bed.

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I'm not going to be barefoot because it's freezing cold here at the moment. Yeah. And then I usually go into the room. I've got it at 67. I have a weighted blanket on there. I have my red light lamp and I'll pick open a book. So I'm reading the Ian Rankin book at the moment, which is the John Reba series.

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So it's like detective. So I escaped that. reality for the moment. And I'll usually have a cold shower, um, something cold, bring my core temperature down because I run really, really hot. I run really hot. That's not for everybody. Some people can have like, my wife can have a salt bath and she will fall straight asleep.

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So she's fine. Everyone's a little bit different, but cold generally works for me. So that's my sleep routine. Like, like I said, I have a weighted blanket on there, no phone in the room, have the, the red light bulbs.  So, and I have a, I have a sensor, a red sensor light in the bathroom should I get up in the night to use the bathroom.

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So I'm not getting any  flicker during the evening. That's usually my routine in the evening. I love it. I appreciate you calling out the TV part because we will often have people coming our way that now have gotten, they might be dealing with things like sleep anxiety and now they've gotten so fixated on their sleep.

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And this was something I went through when I was dealing with my sleep. Breakdowns around my sleep years ago, and there's some of these situations where it will feel like, okay, I can't have TV. I can't. I can't on all these rules. And it turns out that this can actually be such a great strategy for so many people to help unwind to get their mind kind of off of this fixation.

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It's a really great call out there. Our second question would be what would you say for your morning sleep routine quote unquote with the kind of call out that how we start our day could impact our sleep results in the evening which I noticed you already made that kind of call out so nicely of that the things you're doing throughout the whole course of your day are setting you up for success with your sleep just love that distinction because so many people can think about just the nights and forget all of these things so.

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When you start your day, are there certain things that are important to call out? Yeah, very important. So the number one is trying to get sunlight, trying to get some sunlight. So even if it's like it's winter here now in Boise, Idaho, walking the dog in the morning, getting some sunlight in to penetrate the retina.

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Obviously, sometimes I'll do the red lights, make sure that we get that photo by modulation on our skin, you know, through our skin receptors as well as the retina. So we have those red frequencies in the morning. I believe that sets up our circadian setting for the evening. Um, so that's the number one.

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Earthing as well. Again, I'll be wearing my earthing shoes first thing in the morning. If I am having caffeine, I don't mind a bit of caffeine. I love, uh, Um, um, Sean's ingredient, parmesan, I usually save that for the afternoon because that doesn't have an effect on my sleep. I do the same thing. Yeah.

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Perfect. Yeah. So I'll have the caffeine, uh, sometime in the morning, not generally out straight after I wake up because my cortisol levels are quite high, but I get activity. I like to get my workouts in the morning. If I train in the evening, that generally keeps me up. uh, awake, too much adrenaline pumping.

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So I usually try to get the adrenaline out the way in the morning so I can release my serotonin, oxytocin in the afternoon and evening. So that's generally how it starts in the morning. I love that. That's so great. And I love your call outs around the earthing piece because  We don't always have people addressing that.

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And I think that is such an important call out and often free or very affordable to bring that into your life. So really fantastic. And then our third question is what would we see on your nightstand or if traveling maybe proverbial nightstand, any other elements in your space that are noteworthy that you'd like to have with you?

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Yeah, so I'll have the wave guard with me on my nightstand. I'll have a red lamp so I have a travel, sort of like, nightstand. It's only small. Sure, yeah. Lamp and, uh, books. That's it. Yeah. The simplicity itself, by the way, I've seen such a through line. on this podcast now with asking everyone these questions and it is noteworthy I think the minimalist approach and actually how you called out too often unplugging  things and kind of minimizing the amount of things and some of the people that are still kind of struggling with sleep.

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Or, you know, have certain challenges with their sleep. Often, I've noticed that they might have way more things, you know, that are on their nightstand. It's kind of whatever that might look like, but I think that minimalist approach can really be really beneficial. So really great call outs there. And then the fourth question that we ask everyone is, what would you say to date has made the biggest change to the management of your sleep or said another way, biggest aha moment in managing your own sleep?

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I would say it's being calm about it and not stressing about it because one of the reasons why, like I had hypoxia of the mitochondria, which I thought was mold toxicity again, and that was because I was stressing about getting all my biohacks in in the morning, trying to get work done before I even entered the gym at midday.

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Now I've changed that around. If I can't get my red light in, so what? If I can't get my sauna in, so what? If I can't get all these modalities in in the morning, it doesn't matter. Because I was stressing to try to get my health applications done in the morning before I get to my work, and then get through all my work before I get to the gym.

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And it just caused issues that, of course, there's some dietary interventions and some small supplemental interventions that I made. But it was my lifestyle change. And this only happened very recently. Yeah, really changed everything again. So the biggest thing that I say to everybody, so stress about it all.

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It's just one step at a time. And if you can get a couple of those steps in great, if you can't get all of them in, so what? You know? So now I look at everything through the week, you know, like that 80, 20  profile, you know, that we look at as long as you get, you know, 80 percent of the things done. That's okay.

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The other 20 don't, don't stress about it. It's fine. You know, so that's. That's what I try to tell people is just don't stress about it. Just relax. Oh, gee, this is so good. It's actually, I just got off a call with a new client that everything you're saying, when I have to have her listen to exactly this, which how to one, be aware of some of these things that can make a difference.

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But to not let them own us. So I think it's really, really so wise that you point to that because these are all available to us to make a difference and yet not at the expense of our mental health. So love that. 100%. And what I've noticed, like I, I measure my biological age, methylation telling me it's like an age or glycans and what I found, like when I started this process coming from like the bodybuilding world, which I believe was healthy.

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My biological age was several years older. Then my chronological age. Now I've brought it down like I'm four 50 next year. I'm 49 now. Wow. And I've just brought it down to six. Look. Amazing. Thank you. It's, it's the filters , uh, 26 years old is my biological age, and I believe the main pro, uh, the main promoter is not like the stem cells or the HBO or anything like that.

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It's sleep 100%. And I feel so much better. Like I was in my thirties now at this age, and I believe sleep has been the major contributor. Wow. I love that. Mic drop. Okay. Well, that is perfect. Music to our ears on this sort of podcast. Now, anyone who's listening, I'm clear, is going to want to know more about how they can be a part of your world, what you're taking on, your latest and greatest biohacks and things that you're sharing and The transformations that you're making with your clients and beyond.

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So what are the best ways for people to follow you? Probably best to go to my Instagram. It's at K R I S G E T H I N. And just send me a DM got any questions. Fantastic. Well, Chris, thank you so much for taking the time. I know that got a busy schedule and you're able to fit this in and it really doesn't.

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Go unnoticed. So I appreciate it. And I know the listeners will be really grateful. So thank you again. And for the work that you're doing and for your emphasis on sleep. And likewise, thank you ever so much for allowing me to speak on your beautiful platform, Molly, I really, really appreciate it. Ah, thank you. 

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You've been listening to The Sleep Is a Skill Podcast, the top podcast for people who wanna take their sleep skills to the next level. Every Monday, I send out the Sleep Obsessions newsletter, which aims to be one of the most obsessive newsletters on the planet. Fun Facts. I've never missed A Monday for over five years and counting, and it contains everything that you need to know in the fascinating world of sleep.

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