Why Sleep Might Be the Missing Piece in Your Health Puzzle

Jun 17

You’ve probably heard it before:
“Get more sleep. Sleep is important. Prioritize rest.”
Cool. But you’re busy, overstimulated, behind on laundry, trying to eat right, maybe working out—and sleep feels like the first thing to go.

The irony?
Sleep is the first thing that should stay.
Because without it, everything else - your nutrition, training, energy, hormones, focus, motivation - suffers.

And if you feel like you're doing “everything right” but still not making progress?

👉 Sleep might be the missing piece.

Let’s be real: we don’t treat sleep like we treat workouts or nutrition

You don’t schedule your bedtime like you schedule your workouts.
You don’t feel “productive” when you go to bed early.
You probably downplay sleep struggles as “just part of life.”

But science would disagree.

Sleep is not just rest - it’s regeneration

Think of sleep like your body’s internal housekeeping staff.
While you’re sleeping, your body is:

Repairing muscle tissue
Regulating blood sugar and insulin sensitivity
Resetting hunger and stress hormones
Processing memories and emotions
Strengthening your immune system
Clearing brain fog and inflammation

No supplement, no workout, no green smoothie can replace what sleep does for free.

And here’s what happens when you don’t get enough of it:

Just one night of poor sleep can:

Increase ghrelin (your hunger hormone)
Decrease leptin (your satiety hormone)
Spike cortisol (stress hormone)
Impair insulin sensitivity by up to 40%
Lower reaction time, memory, and decision-making
Raise cravings for high-calorie, high-fat foods

So if you’ve ever felt like:

“I have no willpower today”
“I’m hungrier than usual”
“I skipped the gym and went for a drive-thru run instead”

…it might not be about discipline at all.
It might be about sleep debt.

Client story: “Doing everything right” and still stuck

A coaching client came to me tracking macros, strength training 3x/week, drinking water, doing “all the things.”

But she felt exhausted, stressed, bloated, and stuck in her weight.

Turns out? She was sleeping barely 5 hours a night due to late-night work and Netflix.
We worked together to build a sleep routine—shifting her schedule by just 30 minutes a night at first, then building from there.

Within 2 weeks:

Her hunger stabilized
Her workouts felt stronger
Her cravings dipped dramatically
She stopped hitting a wall at 3PM

We didn’t change her food. We didn’t add more workouts.
We just gave her body the recovery window it needed.

So how much sleep do we actually need?

Most adults need 7–9 hours of sleep per night.

And no—you can’t “make it up” on weekends.
Chronic sleep debt builds up over time, and your body doesn’t just bounce back from it in one long Saturday nap.

But quality matters just as much as quantity.

Sleep hygiene 101: Setting your body up for real rest

Sleep hygiene = habits and environment that support quality rest.

Try this checklist:

✅ Cool, dark bedroom (65–68°F)
✅ Blackout curtains or eye mask
✅ No screens 30–60 min before bed
✅ Wind-down ritual (tea, stretching, journaling, light reading)
✅ Consistent bedtime and wake-up—even on weekends
✅ No heavy meals, alcohol, or caffeine within a few hours of sleep

If you're not sleeping well, start small:

Set a wind-down timer.
60 minutes before bed, start dimming lights, shutting screens, and signaling to your brain that sleep is coming.
It can also be helpful to use an app like OPAL to block you out of certain “tempting” apps like social media, streaming apps, games, etc. (I set mine to lock me out at 8pm and it has been nothing short of AMAZING!)
Stack a bedtime routine.
Create 2–3 calming habits you can repeat nightly (ex: brush teeth → stretch for 2 min → read 5 pages).
Cut caffeine earlier.
Even a cup of coffee at 2PM can still impact sleep. Experiment with a 12PM cutoff and see how you feel.
Protect your sleep like a meeting.
Block it off. Make it sacred. You’re not “losing” time—you’re giving yourself fuel.