Security Halt!

Sleep Isn’t Weak: Rebuilding Mental Health Through Rest with Rob from Sleep Genius

• Deny Caballero • Season 7 • Episode 375

Share episode

Let us know what you think! Text us!

SPONSORED BY: TITAN SARMS, PRECISION WELLNESS GROUP, and THE SPECIAL FORCES FOUNDATION

 In this episode of Security Halt!, Deny Caballero speaks with Rob from Sleep Genius about the powerful connection between sleep, mental health, and military culture. From his own journey in the military to becoming a sleep expert, Rob unpacks how poor sleep habits compound mental health struggles—especially for veterans. He offers practical tools for improving sleep, such as breathwork, light control, and building supportive environments, while challenging the stigma around rest in high-performance cultures.

 🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube
 📲 Like, share, follow, and subscribe to support the mission and spread awareness 

 Battle Buddy App Links:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.battlebuddy.android&pcampaignid=web_share

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/battle-buddy-by-vetlife/id6742457210

 TITAN SARMS

Use code: CDENNY10

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titan_performance_llc/

Website: https://www.titansarms.com  
 
 PRECISION WELLNESS GROUP 
Use code: Security Halt Podcast 25

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/precisionwellnessgroup/

Website: https://www.precisionwellnessgroup.com/
 
 SPECIAL FORCES FOUNDATION
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/specialforcesfoundation_/
Website: https://specialforcesfoundation.org/
Request Help: https://specialforcesfoundation.org/get-support/

 

Instagram: @securityhalt

X: @SecurityHalt

Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod

LinkedIn: Deny Caballero

 

Follow Rob Today!

Website: https://www.sleepgeni.us/founder

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sleepgeni.us/?hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsweetman/

 

 Hand crafted, custom work, military memorabilia or need something laser engraved? Connect with my good friend Eric Gilgenast.

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main/

Website: https://www.hausgilgenastwoodworks.com/

 

SOF Heritage Designs Custom belt Buckles. Of the Regiment for the Regiment SOF-HD.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sofhdesigns/ 

PURE LIBERTY LABS - Use code: SECURITY_HALT_10

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purelibertylabs/

Website: https://purelibertyla

Support the show

Produced by Security Halt Media

SPEAKER_00:

Secured Hub Podcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arms. Head up an episode description and check out Titan's Arms today. Bob, welcome to SecureDob Podcast, man.

SPEAKER_01:

How are you? I am fantastic. Is my audio good? Is my framing good? Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Solid, man. Usually I have to tell people, I'm like, a little camera left, a little camera right. And they're like, oh what? And then when I go clip the episodes, have their heads missing, I'm like, fuck. No. Oh man. It's awesome fighting individuals from our warrior tribe that are out there doing great things to help individuals. And one thing that doesn't get talked about enough is sleep. You know, in our background, sleep has always been told to us is a it's a prize possession. If you do your work, if you do everything, then you can get a little bit of sleep. It's a but then we have that macho culture. It's like sleep is a crutch. You don't need it. And then on the outside, you learn that uh a vast amount of of the things we're we're experiencing that are that are affecting us, whether it's anxiety, depression, can all get exacerbated by lack of sleep. So today, my man, I want to dive into your journey. How do you go from fucking tip of the spear, as they say, to being a sleep guy?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I never really looked at myself as the tip of the spear. Um, I realized that I think the statistics say something like 0.0008% of Americans um will be a Navy SEAL and put on the trident. So I respect that. And I respect that I at that time had the strength to make it through training and then go out on deployments, and it's it was my honor to serve in that capacity. Uh, but I never felt like I was really the tip of the spear. Um, I always felt like I was a little bit behind the pack, if I'm being honest. Um, and that weighed on me heavily, and I I think that it it probably weighed on everybody heavily. Um and that combined with combat stress and traumatic brain injury that we all seem to have experienced, and things that you saw, uh I think all of us got a little bit worn out uh in service. So for me personally, I did eight years and I I got hurt and I was medically retired. And that was a really depressing moment in my life because I didn't really know what was next. In fact, I I questioned my value. I didn't know if I was worth anything. And you know, you build yourself up for years to be this warrior, and then you can't be a warrior anymore because the Navy doesn't want you. Um your unit doesn't need you anymore. You're you're old and you're washed up. So, what does that mean for me? And I gotta admit, that was that was rough. So, to add salt to a wound, um, I experienced one of my platoon mates took his life. And he he had a series of events that happened in his life that were unfortunate, and I think he was losing his identity as well. But he chose to take that path, and that just messed with me. I thought, well, if this guy could do it, and I I looked at him as a better SEAL, more qualified SEAL. His dad was a SEAL, he was really, I thought, a golden boy in the SEAL teams. If he could do this, then what is some chump like me, you know, how could I defend the demons, right? How could I prevent myself from doing that? And I know it doesn't make sense to think that and to go down that path, but that's where I was at. And so rather than turning to alcohol or um, you know, feeding the depression, what I did was try to make something good out of it. I wanted to make lemonade out of lemons. This situation was tragic, but there was some insight that I was picking up on that maybe this guy, you know, I observed his sleep was really bad and his behaviors surrounding sleep were bad. And I thought, I think his sleep had something to do with his mental health. But here's the catch is that in the SEAL teams, they teach you how to not sleep. They don't teach you anything about getting good sleep. And so I didn't really have that information. It was just a hunch. So I went to Navy Medical Center Balboa, and I started being my annoying self and asking doctors, you know, hey, what's what's the deal with sleep? Is it related to mental health? Is it um something, you know, that we can control? And the truth is, um, the medical doctors didn't have a ton of information. In fact, it seemed that they were trained in drugs and surgery and devices, and that was the main protocol that they leaned on. It wasn't until I found the research surrounding how sleep worked with more of the PhD types, the researchers, um, specifically in neurophysiology and neurobiology, like how does the brain function with sleep and how do all of our hormones work? And I realized that there's a lot of great information and there's things that we could have been doing that would have helped Ryan, I believe would have helped Ryan, both in brain health as well as mental health. And so I realized that there is an inextricable link between sleep health and mental health. And at that time, I decided that this is something that I need to focus on. And I dedicated my life to the study of sleep science so I could help people like Ryan. So that's that's how I became a sleep scientist.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, man. It's um I I feel that it's a cat loss is a catalyst for for action for many of us. Um there's there's not a lot of individuals in the military or veterans that haven't been touched by that problem, by this epidemic of suicide. And it's up to us to take on the the challenge of being involved in healing, being involved in research. Like we know it intimately. We know the life, so we make the perfect individual where we're the that we're cut from the cloth of service for others. So it makes perfect sense to dive into this. But where did the journey begin academically? Did you die as soon as you, you know, you know, you're medically retired, did you go straight into school? Or did you just start doing the investigative journal uh journalism approach of just talking and gathering the facts from people?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, a very dear friend of mine asked me, what is a sleep scientist? She said that there her friends in the group were wondering who this sleep scientist guy is, and it didn't make any sense. And I kind of scratched my head because, you know, when you're in the middle of it, you don't realize that nobody knows what you're talking about. Um, and so sleep science is the study of sleep. If we do this, then we get that. Is it uh repeatable, duplicatable? And so the sleep scientist is someone who studies sleep. And oftentimes you'll find that sleep scientists are PhDs, and I've gotten some flack for calling myself a sleep scientist because I don't have a PhD. But I did, I did seek the academic route, and I wanted to, you know, it in the beginning I thought, well, can I go to sleep scientist school? And I got a bunch of you know, sleep coaching certificates, but I didn't find that there were any really sleep-focused uh degree paths. And I wanted to go perhaps into engineering and maybe into some intersection between how I can build stuff to help sleep and how, you know, like the neurological function of sleep, but I didn't have an undergraduate degree that would lead me on any path that you know I would be accepted in any of these programs. And none of the programs really felt right. And so what I did was just um went for a normal MBA, which is a uh a business degree. And what that did was allow me to get that library card. And I focused on the business concept uh perspective of how do I bring this research that other people that are smarter than me have already done. How do I put that into a container and deliver it to the public? And so I focused all on sleep. Um I wanted to build a sleep pod. And surprisingly, eight years later, I am building sleep pods and I'm trying to get those into the military. That's a completely different uh conversation. But my classmates, I'm sure, were annoyed with me because I was just so laser focused on this sleep science. And most of them, you know, were already PhDs or executives and they just wanted to get a pay bump. They didn't necessarily want to be entrepreneurs, but I wanted to delve into entrepreneurship as it pertains to sleep science. And so I, you know, I think the greatest claim to fame that I had in in graduate school was that I was a good leader. And I think, you know, working with um average civilians, that I I can see why they would think that I'm a good leader, right? I'm coming from the SEAL teams and I'm very direct, all the things that we learn in the military. Um, but I I can tell you that I definitely was not um the best student. I don't think I had the higher grades. I mean, quantitative analysis and statistical regression, all this stuff just was completely over my head. And I I really wanted to learn it, but I was slow to pick up some of the concepts. But I used that library card to go to um the library and gain access to those scholarly journals. When you have a student email, uh they don't charge you. Yeah, yeah, you get the PDFs like that, dog. Yeah, yeah. And so that's what I did. And I've got like this database full of these saved PDFs. And at the time I was just uh compiling them in my brain and taking notes. Now we can just throw it in a chat GPT and it it gives us some pretty cool insights. Um and what I found was that the truth is uh there's a lot more control over our sleep health that we have if if we do the right things, then we we realize, and it's just as simple as that, that we need to have a little bit more discipline over the structure of our sleep, the environment surrounding our sleep. And that's I I wanted to say something for your viewers that um, you know, I I can't claim full credit for this book. Um, this is a lot of research from a lot of great people better than me, but I put all of my thoughts and the structure of this sleep 101 program that I've been running for years, be happy to tell you about on the 62 Romeo book. It's on Amazon. You just have to look up 62 Romeo Sleep101. And this book by itself can be transformative for people. But back to the point, if if we're able to develop a habit, right, if we're able to get into a routine, which I know is absurd when we think about like back-to-back operations, um, I I understand that it's not possible all the time to get uh a great sleep routine. But if we can attempt to keep our batteries on full and do all of the things that I'm talking about in this book, um, then we can keep our batteries on full. And look, just like I spoke uh to members at Pentagon about this topic when I wrote this memorandum called Weaponizing Wellness for the Warfighters. It's not that I want to make a weaker military. I don't want people to have nappy time and snugly poo stuff. It's not about that. We will sleep deprive to complete the mission. I know that. We will sleep deprive in operational training, I know that. But there is absolutely no excuse to continue that when we're in garrison. Absolutely. And the thing is, guys are doing that. And when when you have these poor sleep habits, it leads to poor mental health. There is no question that if you have bad sleep habits, you will exhibit some type of diagnosable symptoms, like as they have written in the DSM V. And if you improve your sleep, those mental health conditions always improve every time. Short of schizophrenia and, you know, manic depressive, bipolar, um, these are more severe issues. But if we are to have good sleep behavior and keep our batteries on full, we can avoid some of the critical things that come with sleep deprivation and poor sleep habits. It starts with the hormones and then it leads to mental health. And then all of a sudden you you want to cover it up by I was guilty of drinking NyQuil every night to go to bed. I had no idea. Jason, the green dragon. Yes, that's an old-fashioned one. Dude. So now I just want to help people keep those batteries on full. And if we keep the batteries on full, then we can handle what life throws at us. When we drain the batteries all the way down, we can manage that better.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And the thing that most people don't understand is that we have a lot more control over this issue than we tend to think. Um, I was in the same boat. I thought I thought that my insomnia was something that could only be relieved through pharmaceutical intervention. And I was, and I'm still guilty of it. I don't prioritize my sleep, I don't prioritize um myself because I still, within me, just like a lot of our guys, is that that military mindset of the mission has to be completed. You have to do this. This mission has to be executed so you'll stay up till 12. And even the times where I'm I'm doing good and I set that that hard backstop of like, nope, got to be in bed by this time, slowly but surely things will will creep in and I I I waffle on it and I break, knowing full well the benefits of getting my my my optimum sleep is six to seven. This episode is brought to you by Titan SARMS. Head on over to TitansArms.com and buy a stack today. Use my code CDny10 to get your first stack. I recommend the Lean Stack 2. Start living your best life. Titan SARMS. No junk, no bullshit, just results. Six to seven hours of sleep is just that sweet spot for me. But it varies. Um, and and we need to change the culture. And it starts by having conversations like this and having people from our own background that are willing to talk about it. Could you share a little bit with us about your own journey with sleep and how it became like, okay, like this is like, you know, take us from the start of how you used to view sleep to where you're at now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I still struggle sometimes because life is not easy, and sometimes it throws you a curveball. Sometimes you have 24 hours of crazy flight cancellation. That's that's what I'm coming from now. Um so in the teams, that's what we call the SEAL teams. Uh, when I was in the teams, we did not value sleep. And so it was uh bravado to you know hold the watch when you're sleep deprived. And oftentimes we would challenge each other and commend each other on the sleep deprivation that we were willfully exhibiting. And that's okay in the short term. And in fact, when you're younger, uh I shouldn't say that it's okay, but we can rebound from that a lot easier when we're younger. Um but when we have hormonal dysregulation, uh, what tends to happen is um we're not sleeping, our hormones get out of synchronization. Um, there's a big part of deep sleep. Actually, the first cycle of deep sleep is the first big dump of testosterone and human growth hormone. Uh, when our hormones are completely dysregulated, um, we can fight through it by working out more and just like forcing ourselves to be tough. And that can cover up what we're doing to ourselves in large part. And then we ignore it and we say things like Jocko Willink, like, I only need three or four hours of sleep, and I'm just gonna force myself into um you know, discipline. And the truth is, um, there's there's no evidence that shows that um that's sustainable and nor healthy. But what there is a preponderance of evidence is that um if you short sleep, if you don't get good sleep, um if you ruminate and you can't go to bed before night, and and by the way, these are things that we can improve on, uh, that you will have poor health outcomes. We see hypertension across the board, we see mental health conditions across the board, no one can argue with that. And the result um of this poor sleep, I mean, we see it all the time. Like, how many guys go into um the urology clinic at the VA and say, I need to check my testosterone. And then they check it and it's very low. And the doctor will often recommend that they go to the sleep labs uh primarily to focus on obstructive sleep apnea, which is a big issue with men, as and especially uh veterans, and they kind of blow that off. And maybe they get the sleep study and maybe they get a CPAP. Oftentimes they won't use it, which I highly recommend using your CPAP if you're struggling with sleep apnea, even though they won't tell you that you can improve your sleep apnea symptoms. There's ways to do that because there's no business model attached to that. And the rest meds who build these CPAPs, you know, they have a very strong financial incentive to keep the information focused on this is an uncurable problem and you need to have our product. So I will say that it is a life-saving product to be able to get that air into your lungs and into your brain when you're having apneas, but um, there are other resources. And so what we see is that uh a lot of times the guys will go back to urology and say, my testosterone is still low. Get me on TRT. And even on social media, you'll see people saying, Oh yeah, TRT, you know, all of a sudden, you know, my life is better. And these are all sales pitches to sell testosterone. And then guys get on testosterone and they find that it's not as great as they thought it was, and they're stuck in this system where they're reliant on this synthetic testosterone, and it does help with um, you know, improving on lean muscle mass and having this mojo and vigor for life, but it is synthetic and it precludes us oftentimes from having children, and it's not natural. And the truth is we never solved the problem, right? And so until we start to look at why do we have um, you know, poor sleep that leads to low testosterone and how do we solve that, we're actually just putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. And so there are ways to do this. I'd love to share some things with your viewers today that they can do. Um, but I would say my journey um was all of those things. I was on TRT for a couple years. I was able to successfully get off of it. Um, I was able to get my testosterone levels back up through good sleep health and exercise and nutrition. Gut health is important. And um I would say that I was experiencing what a lot of veterans experience, which is um struggling with weight, struggling with energy levels, um, feeling um like the world is coming down on me. And when I was able to get off the robot and figure out what good sleep looks like, then all of a sudden, and by the way, it didn't happen overnight. All of a sudden, I noticed that I have control over my life. And if I do the things that that help my sleep, my sleep gets better, I feel better, I show up for the world better, my hormonal function is better, my outlook on life is better, I my relationships are better, and everything just seems to get better. So while we do need to have um our own internal faith and and you know, give it up to you know God, I think that we're commanded to sort of have personal accountability. And so, in personal accountability, what does that mean? And that is exactly what I talk about in my Sleep 101 program and in this book, is that we can do things to better our lives and get better outcomes. And oftentimes it's not that easy because we're in a very rough situation to where we we can't feel like we can dig ourselves out of that hole. And that is where we struggle as a veteran community, is is after we take off the uniform, um, sometimes it's it's really hard to reach out to our brothers and sisters and make sure that they're okay. And if if we can help each other along the way, be stronger, take on better, you know, we have a big issue with alcohol in the military, um, maybe drink less, maybe make it a little bit cooler to be, you know, focused on nutrition and health and wellness, and uplift each other that we can do this um as a as a whole. Um, but all of those things, when they break down, I think that's a primary reason why we see um the veteran suicides continuing to be a problem.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It it you hit on a lot of things right there, and I just want to hit on one that's that accountability piece. We can get hopeless, we can get filled with this idea that we need to grab on to one thing and pivot to another thing, and we forget the importance of pausing, reflecting on what we're suffering through, what we're going through, and understanding that it's not often going to be just one thing. It's a whole approach to life, changing our habits, changing the way we view things as being like, is this to solve? Is this gonna be the end-all-be-all thing to solve? Like, no, man, you're gonna have to change your habits. You have to work on multiple things. It's not just one thing. If you get caught up in the idea that this one supplement is going to fix everything, you're setting yourself up for failure. It's approaching life and looking at the things that we have to do for ourselves. We have to show up daily for ourselves. And we get we can get sold on the idea of the one thing. When you look on the online marketing for for any device, for any supplement, they always bill it as the one thing that's going to change everything for you. And it it's not like we have to start with the approach to to how we're viewing sleep. And we're fighting culture, man. We're fighting our military culture, we're fighting the American culture of work until you friggin' like exhaust yourself and then keep pushing forward. But in your own research, in your own journey, let's dive into some of the things that you've detailed in the book where we can start, where how we can like start turning the tide on the sleep fight.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I'd I'd love to share everything in this book. Um I want to get this out to the masses. Um, I think the first thing, uh, just taking a step back, is that um if you are struggling with your sleep or struggling with alcohol or struggling with um getting out of the service, transition is tough. I would say that probably the best first step is to seek out those people that are doing it right. Get your community right. And it's so much easier to do things right when everyone else is doing it. And if you're stuck in a negative behavioral loop and you're hanging out with your friends that are also in that same negative loop, then that is a recipe for disaster. And so as we build this community of people who want to eat clean and they focus on good gut biome that affects the brain chemistry and helps our hormonal function, and we're focusing on sleep and eating right and exercising and all this stuff, and you're just talking about it all the time, um, then it becomes much easier. And then you find yourself in a position where you can actually be the one that's pulling in some of those friends that are on that bad path. But let's say that you're ready to improve your life, you're not happy where it's at right now. What do you do? And I think the first thing is we have to get out of this mindset of the quick fix. We are too quick to turn to these solutions that will have rapid results. It's just a thing, right? I want a pill, I want a surgery, I want something to fix me, get that hard reset. And while there is a lot of um positive influence coming from this new uh psychedelic assisted therapy research, and that can be viewed as uh sort of a one-stop shop. Even within these types of transitional therapies, um, if the person doesn't take on new behaviors and personal accountability, they often find themselves back where they started. And so the solution is and always has been changing your mindset, changing your behaviors, and you'll get the outcome that you want. And so I would encourage people the first thing is that you know, this is not going to happen. Uh, the results you want are not gonna happen overnight. But I can share with you that if you begin to do some of the things that I'm about to talk about, um, you will get in time the results that you want. We have everything that we need. And I've seen incredible turnarounds. For example, uh one person I'm thinking of now, uh, this person had experienced extreme PTSD. They experienced a mass casually, mass casualty situation, and they took that very heavily. And then they were working shift work, and um at the time when I met them, their friend encouraged them to come in and take the Sleep 101 program, and they said no. They said, No, I don't want to do it, you know. And this person convinced them. They said, just trust me. And they came in and were quiet in the beginning, and they began to take on uh some of the stuff that I was teaching. And it's like, good, thank goodness this person is trainable, so to speak. And at the time, this person was consistently getting brought into their head shed for a counseling chit, and they were um struggling with relationships at work, struggling with mental outlook, um, definitely not performing at their best, and just kind of forcing themselves to show up every day. And through some of the things that I'm gonna talk about, um, they were able to completely transform their life, not just um with their sleep, but then it led to a better, you know, mental health, a better outlook on life. And this stuff is measurable, right? Both through subjective analysis as well as surveys and objective analysis, we always do sleep measurements. Like I am really a big fan of the URA 4 ring right now. So going through the process of sleep 101, which is very basic stuff. This stuff. Is not rocket science, and I don't claim to have all the answers, right? I'm still learning.

SPEAKER_00:

This episode is also brought to you by Precision Wellness Group. Getting your hormones optimized shouldn't be a difficult task. And Dr. Taylor Bosley has changed the game. Head on over to Precision Wellness Group.com, enroll, and become a patient today.

SPEAKER_01:

But they had a complete turnaround. And not only did everyone at work notice, but they were promoted. They were given a more responsibility in the position that they probably deserved based on their experience. And still to this day, it's been years since I helped this person on their journey. Even just the other day, they posted on my social media that, you know, this changed my life. And that that brings a lot of joy for me because remember, as I transitioned out of the Navy, I thought I was maybe not worth anything and I didn't have anything to offer. And so it really is heartwarming to know that I'm good at something and that I'm I'm able to make a difference. So let's let's dig in a little bit on some of the basics while we have time. Absolutely. So if you are going to have a good sleep, um, you have to think about the neurological function of sleep. And in fact, the sleep dojo is what I like to call it. Our sleep environment, wherever we sleep, whether it's in a hotel or in a foxhole, right? If we're at home where we can control everything, and oftentimes it is harder to control everything, dogs, right? Yep. Um, spouses, children, uh especially newborns. And by the way, if you have children, um, you're just gonna have to accept the fact that you will lose live uh years off your life uh from sleep deprivation. It just is what it is. And and so I'm so jealous of people that have perfect sleeping children because it's it's a blessing. But if we focus in on the sleep dojo as the first thing, the sleep dojo, I look at it as okay, I trained jujitsu. What is my dojo like? It's a place of respect, it's a place of sanctity and learning and honor and like sort of discipline, and there's rules, right? Like when we step onto the mat, we always remove our shoes and we bow and we show uh respect for uh the dojo and the instructor, and we listen. And while we're there, uh we hope to learn things and improve ourselves. Well, I would say that if a third of our life is spent in the bedroom, that I think it deserves a little bit of attention. And so some of the big ones are light, sound, and temperature, and there's more, but we must control the light in our space. Everybody's heard about blue light. Uh the blue is the frequency, it's a slower frequency. It is the one that uh affects our melanopsin ganglion cells and our retina more than any other frequency, and that's the rub. That's what scientists have found. And in fact, if you have this blue light exposure, especially if it's bright, we can slow down the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. So consecutively, I can uh phase shift someone's melatonin production in a laboratory by introducing blue light at night. We call it A-L-A-N, Al-N, artificial light at night. And if we do that, then we're losing one of the big three in terms of hormonal uh function for inducing sleep, right? We have melatonin, we have adenosine, we have GABA, right? So our body is helping us go to sleep and helping us start these processes that are a cascade effect, right? Then we have melatonin production and then testosterone production and human growth hormone production, and our immune system rebuilds itself and our cellular repair. Imagine what happens to somebody if they're not getting adequate sleep, right? Everything falls apart. But if you're able to get good sleep, now we're talking about good brain health, good uh metabolic health. Our bodies are able to repair. And we have to. This is how our bodies function. We we break it down throughout the day and we rebuild it at night. So if we're able to control the light in our sleep dojo, um, that is a huge factor. And so what do I mean? Yes, go to Walmart or wherever and get blackout curtains. Yes, take electrical tape and cover up all the LEDs from all the glowing stuff that we buy and we put in our room. Um, and so if we're able to control the light, and and ideally our eyes are are sensitive to watching a sunset and lowering that that light. So some people have even gone as far as to get um like Phillips hue lighting or customer. Yeah, custom crest drawn lighting. And the the light that you're looking for should be amber or red. Um, you know, just like when we use on Navy ships, we use red lights at night because the light is is harder to see uh at distance. And so we have to have light discipline. And if we tone down the lights, both the light volume and the color of the light, and make it a tranquil environment for our eyes, then our brain says, oh, it's time for sleep. And it records that. And each night, if we have consistency in which we uh signal the brain, remember our eyes are connected to our brain, it's the only part of our brain external to our skull, it's always sensing. And so if we if we look at this neurological perspective of sleep, um, we can begin to have a degree of control. Those are things that we can control. So if light is very important, the next one is temperature. So if temperature, if it's too hot or too cold, uh it can make it difficult for our body to reach homeostasis. Our body naturally wants to cool off, and so the recommendation is that you keep your temperature 65 to 69. But also there's an aspect of the body sensing the diurnal change of the earth. And so if it's if it's warm in the day, our body knows that. And if it's cold at night, our body knows that. And if it's 70 degrees year-round and we live in a cubicle and we come home and it's always 70 degrees, our body struggles to find that circadian rhythm. And so we do want heat in the day and we do want cold at night. And a lot of my colleagues in the temperature business for sleep, they'll say, you know, there's that one to two degree trigger that triggers sleep. It's true. And so if we're able to cool off the body, it can reach homeostasis, it triggers that sleep. Our brain is recording, like, oh, this is nighttime, and it's a time map for our circadian rhythm. So it's saying, oh, at 9 p.m. it's getting cooler. And it does change seasonally. Uh uh, we don't have time to get into the different um time zones in different areas of the world when there's not a lot of light in the winter, we have seasonal effective disorder. It's it's a very complex thing. But in general, we want it to be cooler at night. So we have light, temperature, we have sound. Most people don't realize that our brain is still picking up on sound while we're asleep. That that's how we're still alive. Because imagine in tribal days, you're sleeping in a tree and you hear a twig snap. That could be something that could kill you, right? Yep. And so our brain is wired to uh pick up on those sounds and pull us out of our sleep cycle and potentially wake us up. What is the threshold? Well, Dr. Muzette did studies on healthy individuals and measured their sleep in a laboratory and then introduced noise during the sleep period and then measured their sleep, measured their brainwave activity. And what he found was at 35 decibels, I'm probably talking at 60 decibels. A decibel is just a way that we measure sound. At 35 decibels, he was able to see an interruption in the sleep cycle. Now that's terrible because if you're interrupting your sleep cycle, if it's that deep sleep, which is is very fickle, that first big deep sleep cycle when we fall into sleep, oftentimes we can skip right over that if we're in an unfamiliar environment. And if you're introducing noise and it interrupts that sleep cycle, all of a sudden you don't get the advantages of those that hormone production. So I'm gonna say something that's controversial, and I'll I'll tell you why it's controversial, that you should be wearing earplugs or having white noise or having a fan or something that elevates the noise in the in the sleep dojo, something that's smooth and melodic, um, or buffers out the sound, because what we're trying to do with white white noise, for example, is if we elevate the sound of this smooth melodic uh noise, as it was, then all of a sudden we can't hear the noise spikes. And our brain habituates to the sound, whatever it is. And if we're using these techniques, then all of a sudden uh we don't have these interruptions that we're we're not even aware of, right? If you live in a noisy city, and so the the rub there is that very frequently veterans will tell me, Rob, I can't do that because I have to be alert all the time. I have kids, you know, I'm I'm nervous about the area that I live in. I want to be ready at any time. And if something happens and I don't hear it, then I'm not being a man or I'm not able to handle the situation. And the truth is, if we're always on guard and we're always alert and we're always sensitive, we call it the sympathetic nervous system for a reason, right? It keeps us in this fight or flight and we're not able to relax and really slip into that deep sleep. If we're always on guard and we're not getting as good of quality of sleep as our body is asking for, then if that situation happens, when we are called to duty, we will not be fully ready. And so what I tell people is like there's a threshold, right? Like there's a balance. You can use white noise or earplugs or whatever, and it's not necessarily going to preclude you from responding to a situation. The truth is, if something happens, you're still going to wake up. But if you're completely sleep deprived and you're worn out and you're not able to respond effectively, then you're doing yourself a disservice. So I would encourage people to get the best sleep they can through these techniques that I'm talking about. And when that situation happens, you will be ready, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's counterintuitive to consistently put ourselves in that stressful mindset. Um, that's one of the first things I always tell guys to that we need to address, we need to fix. We got to get you out of fight or flight. And and we've told ourselves for a vast majority of our career that this is what makes me valuable, being at the ready, being constantly amped up. And it's so bad for our health, man. Like it affects so much. And if we would just get that out of our mindset of like, dude, like you're more valuable to us, to your family, to your kids. When you finally get that reset to be back at a normal baseline, when you're back to a true zero, then you can re respond, not react. You can be responding to situations at the proper level. Like you don't have to go from you don't have to be that guy that's constantly irritated at a at a hundred percent. Like you can throttle it back. That's why I always tell guys, be willing to try out the uh SGB, be willing to get a stelic ganglion block and really reset, man. Uh, because you're right, man. Like that's that's part of sleep. That's part of being able to get actual restful, re restorative sleep, which for a lot of us we don't get. We we have this idea of what sleep is. And it's rarely the understanding of sleep cycles, right? Could you break that down for us a little bit? Understanding that sleep isn't this one baseline thing where we actually just close our eyes and we we zonk out like, oh, I got sleep. That's it. It's uh it it's it's more than that. It's it's it's deeper.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, if we can take a step back, um the stelic ganglion block, um, I put that in the same wheelhouse as um some of the psychedelic assisted therapy modalities. It's very different. It's more like a cortisol shot to that um inflamed knee, right? But um there's a lot of value in getting an SGB. And if guys are are facing, guys and gals, if they're facing um a lot of static from their nervous system, um it can cause some serious mental health issues. And oftentimes when people um get the SGB, um instantly they feel relief. But I would say that um while that is a very good approach, especially if someone's hitting rock bottom, what is the long-term solution? We get back to if our nervous system and our brain stem is hyperactivated, right? And we see this hyperactive amygdala function, um, we're always on alert. And you know, in the military, they teach us situational awareness and attention to detail. That they want us to always be on guard. And so how do we turn that off? And so I would say that um I'm not going to give medical advice. Um, if your doctor says um take an SGB and try that, uh, I'm not against that at all. But what is the long-term solution? Because the truth is we can regulate our nervous system. We have a sympathetic state, which means that um we're activated, we're alert, we're ready to respond to anything. And it's not bad. I in fact, it saved my life many times. But how do we turn that off? And oftentimes guys go to the SGB because they can't turn it off. Now, what does that solve? That solves the immediate threat of the world falling apart. However, um, I would encourage people to look to the behavioral practices that will lead to nervous system control. And so I think the next insight that I really want to share with you and your viewers is that, first of all, uh, a lot of times we're just like a body with a head cut off. We're just floating around in the world with no connection to our nervous system. And connecting to your nervous system can be scary, it can be uh intimidating, and it can be elusive. Like, what are you even talking about? But the truth is um we have a different um system and it our body functioned completely different when we're in this state. And it's the parasympathetic. So if the sympathetic is responsive to our environment, then the parasympathetic is when we're able to relax and everything about our body changes. Yeah. Um when you're able to sense your nervous system and you're able to shift into a parasympathetic nervous system state, you might feel like yawning, you might have more salivation, you might have warmth in your hands. And so how do we get there? And the truth is um it's not easy in the beginning, especially if we're attuned to being always sympathetically activated, right? We're always responsive to our environment, we're always locked on, um, we're always like ruminating about these thoughts before we go to bed. We have to be able to let go of those thoughts, first of all, which can take a little bit of meditation. Um I like to say that um, you know, prayer is asking and meditation is listening. Um that's not always true, but if we're able to quiet our mind, right, and you say, well, how in the heck can I do that? Um, I'll tell you. Um, then we're able to relax and drop in. And what I mean by that is if we're able to calm down our nervous system, then all of a sudden the body relaxes. All of a sudden, the energy is diverted from um protecting ourselves and it shifts to rest and digest, as they say it. It shifts to um being able to function uh with sleep, with digestion, with cellular repair, all of these things. And so the the trick to getting over the hump when you feel like I can't be quiet in in my mind, I can't relax. I think the best way to approach it is to begin with breath work. And breath work yeah, breath work, breath work seems um silly at first. And admittedly, I was not good at it in the beginning, but it's something that we can control. And a lot of times we don't even realize that we're breathing, and we don't realize that we can change our entire body by controlling the breath in a certain way. One of the ones that I like to uh lean into is box breathing. Yeah. Um, box breathing, for example, you can breathe in for six seconds, and when I say breathe in for six seconds, what I mean is you empty all of the air out of your lungs by bringing your stomach into your spine and fully exhaling. Then when you breathe, you want to get a full breath of air so that there's no room left in your lungs. And oftentimes it can feel like a lot of pressure. And then we hold for six seconds. And so what we're doing is six seconds and creating four walls of a box. So the second uh wall is holding it for six seconds, and then we let out fully for six seconds. And when I say fully, what I mean is we are completely emptying our lungs and our diaphragm and our stomach can come out to breathe in and push in to breathe out. And then at the bottom of this box that lasts six seconds for the four walls of this six-second box, um, we want to hold with no breath. And this is very scary for a lot of people when they first experience it. Um, if you're able to do this, let's say 10 rounds, you're giving the signals to your body, like, here is what I'm doing. And oftentimes box breathing can be um uh activating for some people. And so there's another one that I want to share with you. But in controlling the breath, we're able to control our body. We're signaling to the body, here's where I'm at, and here's what I'm doing. And the body does respond. So uh if if box breathing isn't your favorite, um, a lot of people um don't like that one. Uh, there's tons of stuff out there. There's Wim Hof, there's all types of, you know, uh deregulation practices uh within breath work. Another one that's really um successful is four, seven, eight. You breathe in for four, you hold for seven, and you breathe out for eight. Um and there's all types of variations, there's all types of tips and tricks and techniques. But if we're able to focus on the breath work, then we can tap into our nervous system. And if we can tap into our nervous system and boom, switch into this sympathetic nervous system state, all of a sudden it becomes much easier to quiet those threatening thoughts that run through our mind all the time. And so all of these practices are individual and is there's different aspects to it. But if we're able to carry on these practices, all of a sudden, when we go to our sleep dojo, we have the power and ability to shift into the state that we want to be in, and that leads to better sleep health outcomes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Absolutely, man. I I like the the premise of the sleep dojo. It really helps us better understand that you control your environment. Like that's one thing that you brought up a good point that I need to address, and that's the light in my bedroom. Like that was the last thing where I'm like, fuck. I've got so many gadgets and so many things that are on my nightstand that are always on. And that and the the lights just you know, the little red light from the friggin' the the surge protector, the the even the light, the nightstand I have, like I can change that right now. And I've I've I talk about this all the time. And it wasn't until right now that I realized I need to get back my Phillips Hughes. I need to friggin' change my light in my room. Because I have it in my my little girl's room, her light, it's red, or the uh the amber light. And like, why don't I do that for my own bedroom? Yeah, a lot of knowledge to take away on from today's episode. But Rob, before we close out, if we want to get a hold of you and we want to work with you, or we just want to know more about the book, where can we get our hands on it and where can we go to connect with you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thanks for asking. Um, anyone can email me. I try to address everyone that I have time to. My email is Rob at sleepgenus. That's S-L-E-E-P-G-E-N-I dot us. It's a little bit of a play on words there. Um that's also the website, and I'm on all socials for the most part. I'm not always good about being on there, but I've really been trying to post uh useful content to inspire people to sleep better and that their problems aren't, you know, isolated. Everybody struggles in life. Um I like to show up to different places and uh deliver keynote speeches on sleep. Um I'm open to do workshops and stuff like that for organizations. I still do private coaching uh with individuals who want um a higher level of care and want that individualized coaching because oftentimes things come up after weeks of working together that we weren't aware that were there, and we can help address those and um and and decode those. The book 62 Romeo, I tried to keep it simple and cheap online. I think it's 10 bucks. You can go on on Amazon. Yeah, you can go on Amazon. Amazon has a lot of books, and so you must type in 62R O M E O, that's 62 Romeo, sleep101. Only two words, and it'll pop up. Otherwise, you can find the links to all that on all my social medias. Um, but you can order it, and if you want a signed copy, I'm always open to doing that. I feel like that's a special way to connect with people. And especially if you're willing to give me an Amazon review. I think sometimes um the reason why it's hard to find on Amazon is because I don't have a ton of reviews and it's a new thing. I just published it this year. Uh, but this book not only uh is good to use um on its own, but it also is a partner manual if somebody wants to take the Sleep 101 course. We have the course online now. You can take it on your own, or um, you can jump into a cohort or do, you know, there's there's a lot of different options out there. But I would encourage everybody to think about their sleep and how much of an incredible impact it can have on your life. And it's a third of our life is in the bedroom. So don't wait. Start working on this stuff today. Um I'm happy to help.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, awesome, man. I'll make it even easier for you guys listening at home. Pause right now, go to the episode description. All those links will be right there, or or right here. Look at that. Right in front of you. It's all glittery and everything. Go there today, leave a review, buy a copy, or if you're struggling, take a moment, take a knee, reflect. The most important thing we can do right now is be honest with ourselves. Do I need help with my sleep? The answer is yes. So stop trying to navigate it by yourself and hook up with Rob. Get some help. If it was any other part of your performance, if it was working out, if it was weight loss, you'd say, you know what, I'm gonna get a coach. Why not get a sleep coach? Why not try it? Be willing to try something new to get a better night's sleep. I'm telling you, you won't regret it. Invest in yourself, invest in your health, and it's gonna pay out in huge dividends in your work performance. If you're in the military, I'm telling you, it's the one thing that you can do for yourself today to do better. If you're in special operations, you can't pass this up. Improve your sleep today and watch yourself perform better tomorrow. I'm telling you, do it. Rob, thank you so much for being here today, brother. And thank you for what you're doing. We need more individuals from our warrior tribe to step up and figure out how we can help the rest of us. And oftentimes, it doesn't have to be this complex thing where you need to spend 15 to 20 years in academia. It really can be as simple as getting a peer-to-peer support certification. Be willing to dive back in. If you're at 70% or 80% of fixing yourself in your situation, be willing to turn around and help the guys and gals behind you. Thank you guys for tuning in. Again, Rob, thank you so much for being here, and we'll see you all next time. Until then, take care.

Head Shot

Deny Caballero

Host