The trouble with sleeping, is that a lot of people don’t get enough of it. According to Mental Health UK, around one in five British adults aren’t getting enough rest. Not only can this leave us grouchy, there are serious health implications, too: Harvard Health lists obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease as the possible effects of chronic sleep deprivation.
What’s more, a meta review looking at studies of over 1,382,999 participants found that sleeping less than the recommended seven hours increases our mortality risk by a whopping 12%.
I’d rate my own current sleep quality about three out of five. Some nights I can fall asleep quickly, others I’m up thinking about all the flippin’ emails I have to send the next day, and how creatively unfulfilled I feel (and please do read my novel on Substack). When I do get to sleep I often wake up earlier than I’d like and spend the next hour tossing and turning, often having strange dreams.
While I’ve dabbled with protein shakes before, sleep supplements have never really been on my radar. Until I got the memo about what elite British sailor Ben Ainslie and his wife, Georgie, the television presenter and podcaster are doing in this space.
Ainslie, star of the America’s Cup and one of our country’s most celebrated sportsmen, has always prioritised sleep and recovery in his training regiment, and recently the duo launched ainslie + ainslie’s NIGHT POWDER, a tincture designed to recalibrate your circadian rhythms, helping you achieve rest, and peak performance.
It’s packed with all the good stuff, including tart cherry extract – proven to improve sleep – manganese to help protect cells from oxidative stress and, interestingly, saffron, found to aid sleep in adults with self-reported sleep complaints.
Hannah Mills, OBE, two-time world champion in the Women’s 470 class, swears by it. “Feeling refreshed is massive for me,” she says. “I have a two-year-old daughter and if I can’t get good quality sleep I can’t be the mum I want to be. It’s not about hours of sleep, it’s quality. Taking the product has helped me feel more refreshed in the morning. It helps me have that mental break from what I’m doing and to find my headspace again.”
Intrigued to find out how sleep supplements might transform my kip time, over the course of a week I took the indicated amount of NIGHT POWDER an hour or two before bed and recorded the results. Here’s what happened.
Sunday
My first thought is that this product is very sweet, but taken as a shot, it goes down easily enough. I sleep well but dream of tigers on the loose – which I put down to the film I watched before bed. More importantly, I get up and reluctantly go to the gym to do back day. I feel weak but then, I haven’t been in a while.
Monday
Today I sleep longer but when I wake up it’s overcast and raining. Usually a morning run helps my mood in this situation, but the weather rules it out. I knuckle down to work, feeling sore from the previous day.
Tuesday
It feels like the benefits are starting to kick in. I took NIGHT POWDER later, just before bed, and I’m up at 7:30am for a half-asleep HIIT session. I may be half asleep but my body actually feels OK. I feel more focused and energised for the rest of the day.
Wednesday
To fully understand the impact of NIGHT POWDER, I decide to get up at 4am and watch Ben compete in the America’s Cup in Barcelona. It’s a long day so maybe it’s the adrenaline of rocketing about in various boats, or maybe it’s NIGHT POWDER kicking in but strangely, when I arrive back home close to midnight, I’m not completely shattered.
Thursday
After a massive day yesterday, I actually woke up feeling pretty good with decent energy levels. I head out for a run, get on with some work, and also do a gym session in the evening. I’m a little shocked at how not tired I feel.
Friday
Thursday night was tricky because I felt so good, I accidentally stayed up to 3am playing video games. Still, I was up at 8am to go bouldering. I felt fine but my climbing wasn’t my best – although I put that down to weak wrists and not having climbed for two weeks rather than energy levels.
Saturday
Woke up feeling pretty good and went to the gym after breakfast. I was even able to get a bench and went relatively heavy on chest. I also did legs, and an abs circuit with a kettlebell followed by a short run. It felt good to push myself and for the first time in a long time, I actually have the energy to do so.
So, did NIGHT POWDER work? I am sleeping better, I have more energy and I’m less sore when I wake up. But, my mind does still churn over with inconsequential work worries.
The thing is, sleeping better has put me in a more realistic frame of mind, one where I can stop my thoughts racing before bed, and just settle down a bit more. Like Mills said, it’s helped me find my headspace, and for me, that’s absolutely the key to a restful night’s sleep.
Find out more at ainslieainslie.com
link