<aside> 💡 This pages is a work in progress and contains my notes on stress management. My goal is to provide a reference for every piece of information below, or clearly sate it as personal experience. This is not done yet, but please take it from me that I have tried to relay years of research into a fact-based guide to stress management.

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<aside> 💡 In most of this article I refer to body in a holistic sense to include our minds and brains as well.

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Stress

• Stress is your body preparing for a metabolic outlay. You metabolism is the system that turns nutrients like carbohydrates into energy through oxidation (using your breath).
• Metabolic outlay is like starting a car and reving the engine.
• When your body predicts metabolic outlay it kicks various systems into gear. Your heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, your skin might sweat, your breath rate increases and stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released. You might feel your stomach contracting as your body prepares to fight or flee (to prevent you vomiting during intense exercise).
• When this happens repeatedly and without any actual need for increased metabolic expenditure, it leads to bad stress.

Sleep

<aside> 💡 The desired outcome is to get the sleep your body needs. Sleep is prime time for recovery. Whilst we sleep our bodies repair damage, grow new cells (including neurons) and run many regenerative processes. When we don’t sleep our bodies are less able to regenerate and repair themselves. They tend to compensate by releasing more stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These give us a short term boost, at a long term cost.

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Bedtime ritual

<aside> 💡 A bedtime ritual or routine will help prepare your body for sleep.

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• Stop using screens and devices that demand your attention hours before you go to bed. How many hours depends on your body's state at any given moment. Experiment and find out what works for you.
• We are creatures of habit. Build upon our bodies' desire for habit by establishing a bedtime routine and follow it. You might find that your body responds so well to your habit that you start sleeping better. An example could be:
  • 8pm: turn off all screens
  • 8-8.45pm: watch one episode on Netflix
  • 8.45-9.15: read or meditate
  • 9.15-9.30: turn off lights, close doors, lock door, clean teeth, change, go to bed
  • 9.45: lights out

Sleep patterns

<aside> 💡 Experiment to find out when you body wants to go to sleep and then stick to it.

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• Most people need 8-9 hours’ sleep a night.
• Bed time and wake-up times are normally distributed with the median being about 10p-11pm to 7am.