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5 Strategies to Master Sleep & Optimize ZEN Project 8® Results

Apr 5, 2017 | ZEN Bodi

By Mark Macdonald, ZEN Brand Ambassador & New York Times Best Selling Author

We’ve all heard it. “You are what you eat.” What we should be saying is, “You are what you metabolize.”

The reality is that even when your nutrition and exercise are dialed in with ZEN Project 8® and your weight management efforts, your sleep may be the X-factor that unlocks the power of your metabolism and helps maximize your body’s ability to burn fat and build muscle!

As you consider how to master your sleep and maximize weight loss, it’s important to dive into:

  • Your sleep cycles
  • The three hormones that trigger weight gain when you’re sleep deprived
  • Five strategies that put you in the driver’s seat for good sleep


First up: The power of 90 minutes

Just as your cellphone has a battery that needs to be recharged, your body and mind need to be consistently recharged. Sleep is your body’s battery.

Think of your sleep as powerful 90-minute cycles with multiple stages that repeat all night long.

Each cycle has four stages, and ends with REM sleep, your dream state. Stage 1 and 2 are considered light sleep – that twilight sleep we all know. Light sleep gets your body ready to enter deep sleep.

Stage 3 and 4 are deep sleep, which repair and rejuvenate your body. Where deep sleep strengthens your body, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep organizes your mind. It’s a filing system for your memories and thoughts. Once REM sleep is over, the cycle repeats.


Balanced hormones = a leaner & lighter body

In a perfect world, we would all get enough sleep. The problem is the majority of us live in a state of chronic sleep deprivation, and that causes big challenges with three main hormones: ghrelin, leptin & cortisol.

Look at ghrelin and leptin as the two hormones that balance your appetite. Ghrelin is produced in your gastrointestinal tract and stimulates hunger. Leptin is produced in your fat cells and tells your body when you’re full. This is one of the reasons we designed ZEN Shape® to help balance your leptin hormone.

When you’re sleep deprived, your body releases too much ghrelin, increasing your appetite and inhibiting the release of leptin. That in turn prevents you from feeling full, and triggers higher calorie consumption and weight gain.

Now, if that wasn’t bad enough, the other hormone affected by lack of sleep is cortisol, your stress hormone. That unwanted belly fat we all love so much (yeah, right!) is mostly caused by cortisol. When you’re tired, your cortisol levels will naturally rise, which directly affects your blood sugar. This increases your appetite and causes cravings. It also leads to higher calorie and carbohydrate intake, which spikes your blood sugar and causes fat storage.

5 strategies to master your sleep

You know why your body needs sleep, and you’re probably familiar with some of the hormonal challenges that are triggered without adequate sleep. Now it’s time to get your sleep dialed in and your metabolism rockin’ with these five strategies.

Strategy 1 – Set a sleep schedule
As much as many of us hate set schedules, the reality is our bodies love them. Your body’s goal is to stay in rhythm and balance, and the best way to do that is by having a sleep schedule.

Simply start with the number of hours you need to sleep each night and wake up feeling rested. The amount of sleep a person needs is individual and genetic, so that could be seven, eight or nine hours for you. Once you know your hours, set your bedtime and waking time for each day. Of course, there will be the occasional late night. We all have to live a little!

On those late nights, you should still aim to wake up at your set time. Then go to sleep a little earlier the next couple of nights until you’ve made up for the hours you’ve lost. You heard me right: Sleep can be recovered!

Strategy 2 – Resist the snooze button
It feels so good hitting that snooze button and knowing you have 30 more minutes in bed. … Well, it felt good until now!

That snooze button is a huge factor in slowing down and potentially halting your weight loss efforts!

Once you hit the snooze button, your deep sleep and REM sleep is complete. You will only stay in light sleep, which does nothing for recharging your body and mind. It’s basically wasted sleep. To ensure that you’re getting the best quality sleep, you’re much better off setting your alarm to sound later, and waking up right when it goes off.

Strategy 3 – Sleep in a quiet, dark environment
Because you sleep in roughly 90-minute cycles, you’ll enter the light sleep stage multiple times through the night. If you sleep with the TV on or any noise that changes in volume, it will wake you as you re-enter light sleep, interrupting your sleep cycles.

If you need noise, try a noise machine for uninterrupted sound. If you like falling asleep with the TV on, set a timer for it to turn off in 30 minutes.

Sleeping in a quiet environment is only part of the equation. You also want to create a dark environment. Your sleep hormone, melatonin, is released in the dark and inhibited in the light. The more natural melatonin your body can release, the better quality sleep you’ll have. So keep those lights off and shades drawn!

Strategy 4 – Create downtime
We live in a fast-paced world, and we are pulled in multiple directions. That nonstop hustling can make it difficult to relax before bed. This is exactly why parents create downtime routines for their kids. It prepares them for sleep.

If you have ever struggled to fall asleep or wake up in the middle of the night with your mind racing, creating downtime could be your solution. Some downtime examples would be taking a bath, reading, listening to music, watching a movie or taking a light family walk – basically anything that relaxes you and helps bring you down from the day.

Strategy 5 – Ditch the booze
Alcohol fools many people. They think because alcohol relaxes them and helps them fall asleep, then it must be good to drink before bed. Big mistake!

Though alcohol may initially help you fall asleep, it causes major interruptions in your sleep cycles. If you’re having a drink at night, make sure it’s at least two or three hours before you go to bed. That will help prevent the alcohol from negatively affecting your sleep cycles.

Quick Note: If you’re moderately drinking alcohol on the program, it’s ideal for you to wait until your ZEN THRIVE Phase™. Check out our ZEN Project 8 FAQs, which shares how to moderately drink alcohol and stay on plan.


There you have it, your complete 411 on sleep and the exact steps for you to take your sleep to the next level and maximize your results even faster!

Ready to take your body and health to the next level and get into summer shape?

If so, connect with the person who shared this blog with you and start your ZEN Project 8 transformation today!

And if you’re already rocking ZEN Project 8, now you have the sleep strategies to get even better results!