Get Ahead of Aging, by Fixing Your Sleep First.

You already know that sleep is not just about feeling rested.Poor or fragmented sleep affects memory, mood, blood sugar, blood pressure, and how much reserve you feel you have for the things you care about most. For many, the options that get suggested first are medications or supplements, and movement often does not enter the conversation.Exercise, however, is one of highest impact health (& sleep improvement) strategy you fully control.It interacts with your circadian rhythm, your stress response, your muscles, and your brain. It can potentially deepen your sleep, shorten how long you lie awake during your sleep, and reduce the emotional “charge” around insomnia.It also has its own direct links to brain health and dementia risk.Over just the last few years, research on exercise and sleep has accelerated: large wearable-device datasets, pooled analyses of dozens of trials, and brain-imaging work now give a more 3-dimensional view of how movement interacts with your sleep than we have ever had before.When you look at this newer research as a whole, every decision to move a bit more becomes a positive step you are taking towards sleeping, thinking, and functioning better in the years ahead.In this article, we’ll cover– How different exercise types can influence your sleep quality and sleep structure – What large, recent pooled data sets suggest about how much & what kind of exercise seems most effective for sleep – Which exercise modes—can influence brain circuits in a direction that looks more like good sleepers. – What an Alzheimer’s study suggests about exercise and sleep architecture at the level of brain pathology. – Finally, we’ll cover 5 actionable strategies to help you translate all of this into an exercise approach that supports better sleep, more daytime energy, and longevity.Let’s get started.

Sleep struggles in your 50s, 60s, and beyond aren’t “just aging”—and, they’re often solvable.

➤ Someone recently asked me this question, and it captures a challenge many people never find the right answer for:“But, Kat, how do you manage to fall back asleep?”They assumed there was a single trick — some breathing pattern, a magic tea, a special routine.They’d already tried the usual fixes: blackout curtains, no screens at night, melatonin, caffeine detox, even prescription sleep aids.Nothing worked.Why Falling Back Asleep Is Less About Technique—and More About Your BaselineMost people think of falling back asleep as something you do.In reality, the deciding factor is whether your body can shift gears into a low-arousal, sleep-permissive state on its own.That capacity isn’t built in the moment. It’s shaped by what your system has been exposed to over the previous hours — and in some cases, days.

It’s not HRV, glucose, or inflammation. But it predicts your risk of stroke, dementia, and kidney decline decades before symptoms.When was the last time you checked your blood pressure—without being told to? Most people only learn their numbers when they’re already high.But here’s what often gets missed:Blood pressure is one of the strongest, easiest-to-monitor predictors of long-term health.And ~50% of all U.S. adults already fall above the “normal” range. That’s not just a cardiovascular issue. It’s a brain, kidney, and aging issue.Let’s unpack why—plus the simple protocol I’ve followed to keep mine at 101/66 for 20+ years.No meds. No salt restriction.

If you see yourself in Person A, you’re in very familiar company.My aim is to help you move toward Person B:Person A: “I do everything right for sleep—no caffeine after 11, dark room, blue-light blockers, magnesium, breathwork, all of it. It’s helped somewhat… or a little… sometimes.”vs.Person B: “I’m generally not strict about it. I keep a sensible rhythm, but I don’t overthink it. I don’t need rituals to fall asleep. I sleep 7–9 hours, wake up once to pee, and fall back asleep within seconds.”The Person A scenario is what I most often hear (& what I experienced myself for decades).Today, most of my clients move toward Person B once we’ve identified and addressed their root cause(s).The good news is that Person B is achievable for almost everyone—even in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.

It’s not HRV, glucose, or inflammation. But it predicts your risk of stroke, dementia, and kidney decline decades before symptoms.When was the last time you checked your blood pressure—without being told to? Most people only learn their numbers when they’re already high.But here’s what often gets missed:Blood pressure is one of the strongest, easiest-to-monitor predictors of long-term health.And ~50% of all U.S. adults already fall above the “normal” range. That’s not just a cardiovascular issue. It’s a brain, kidney, and aging issue.Let’s unpack why—plus the simple protocol I’ve followed to keep mine at 101/66 for 20+ years.No meds. No salt restriction.