SUV Smashes through Wife’s Salon: 3 Ways to Increase Your Intelligence, Reaction Time and Longevity

Reaction time is everything. Whether you’re a mom making quick family decisions, a student looking to ace the next exam, or a busy professional, reaction time and mental aptitude determine whether you succeed or fail. One slight weakness, things can go bad fast, as was the case in the above photo.

A routine doctor’s visit caused this patient to miss the brake as she pealed into the community parking lot, ultimately smashing through my wife’s salon. Near the broken window, children usually sit patiently, waiting for Mom to get her highlights. On this occasion, that seat was empty. But a short lapse in reaction time could have drastically altered someone’s life forever.

Life rarely gives second chances. And according to the latest research, the best way to insure that you don’t have to rely on one is to get more REM sleep – Rapid Eye Movement sleep.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania recently showed that many people today are not operating on all “mental cylinders” due to a lack of deep, restful sleep. No surprise there. I learned from an ad on TV that “one out of four people” can’t read a pregnancy test. Did they come from a Montessori school? Are these people 4 years old?

Using a test known as the psychomotor vigilance task, or P.V.T., it was found that test subjects who received less than eight hours of sleep had the decision making skills, mental prowess, and reaction times of a DMV attendant – really low. Commenting on the outcomes, scientists stated that, “those who had eight hours of sleep hardly had any attention lapses and no cognitive declines over the 14 days of the study. What was interesting was that those in the four- and six-hour groups had P.V.T. results that declined steadily with almost each passing day.”

Lack of sleep also speeds up aging. In another study, 500 participants were monitored over a 5 year period. Calcification (a disruptive process in the arteries that leads to heart disease) was measured regularly. Researchers found that those who got deeper, more relaxing sleep, had “lower calcification.”

In fact, just one small increase in sleep duration, lowered calcification rates. They found that, ” One hour more of sleep [per night] decreased the estimated odds of calcification by 33%.” This is better than any single drug or nutritional supplement.

It’s not inexplicable. When we sleep, our body becomes its own internal pharmacy and produces key hormones in the body that regulate mental ability and overall health. This is “hormonal intelligence.” Here are three ways to tap into this innate, “medicine cabinet” for better sleep and mental prowess:

1. Use my knock-out creation, SerotoninFX, one hour before planned bedtime

Using whole herb valerian and naturally occurring L-tryptophan, SerotoninFX works on GABA receptors to induce REM sleep, without causing addiction or drowsiness upon waking.

2. Replace coffee with yerba mate tea.

Coffee has the potential to displace a sleep inducing compound known as adenosine – thereby preventing your knockout switch from being flipped on. The South American tea, Yerba Mate, can give you a kick, but without the long-lasting displacement of our internal sleep meds. If you’re serious about sleep, especially for recovery and muscle growth, don’t consumer after 2pm.

3. Supplement with acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR)

ALCAR is well known for enhancing mental ability during waking hours. If you’re taking whey isolate protein, your body is able to produce ALCAR on its own, therefore preventing you from having to choke down more pills.

I know my readers can interpret a pregnancy test. But if you truly want to be at the top of your game, it’s all about hormone intelligence. Life isn’t about having more time, it’s about being able to use that time more efficiently, and that’s where more sleep is going to make a huge difference in your life. Make it a point to sleep eight hours every night.