How does having more energy sound to you?
Not the short bursts followed by burnout kind of energy, but the stable, sustainable kind that powers your day and leaves something in the tank for life outside of work.
In this episode of Stay at the Top, I’m sharing three simple, science-backed ways to work with your biology, not against it. These strategies will help you boost energy, sharpen focus, and recover better without relying on caffeine or willpower.
Human physiology hasn’t changed for thousands of years. When you align with it, things feel easier, like swimming with the current. When you fight against it, everything takes more effort.
In this episode I share:
- How to align with your circadian rhythm for better energy, focus and sleep
- Why light exposure not caffeine is the best way to start your day
- How to use your sleep chronotype to structure your day around your peak energy and focus
- Why you don’t need more time, you need better timing
- The power of ultradian rhythms and how brain breaks improve focus and creativity
- The fastest way to downregulate your stress response using the physiological sigh
- Why micro breaks are not lazy, they are performance tools
Key Quotes
“When you work with your biology, you make performance feel easier, like swimming with the current.”
“You don’t need more time. You need better timing.”
“Brain breaks aren’t time off, they’re tools for recovery and performance.”
“The best strategies are free, simple, and science-backed.”
Episode Resources
Learn the Physiological Sigh technique mentioned in this episode. It is the fastest way to calm your nervous system and lower your heart rate. Watch Dr Andrew Huberman’s short explainer on YouTube
Jessica Spendlove Website – www.jessicaspendlove.com
Jessica Spendlove Keynotes – JessicaspendloveKeynotes – Jessica Spendlove
The High-Performance Profile Quiz https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/
Jess Spendlove Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/
Jess Spendlove LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/
About Your Host
Jessica Spendlove | Wellbeing Speaker & High Performance Strategist
Jess Spendlove is an international wellbeing and high performance speaker, coach, and advisor. With over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership, elite sport and the military she is known for helping ambitious leaders and teams optimise energy, build resilience, and sustain peak performance.
As one of Australia’s leading performance dietitians and a trusted voice in executive wellbeing, Jess delivers science-backed strategies that empower individuals, teams and organisations to thrive under pressure and achieve long-term success.
Episode Transcript
The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy
Jess Spendlove (00:16.598)
Let me ask you this, how does having more energy sound to you? Now, that could be more stable energy or more capacity to get through everything on your plate. And that also means something left in the tank for life, friends, family, the most important things in your life outside of work. Because in my experience, that’s what most high achievers want.
energy, focus and stamina that they can sustain. Not short bursts followed by burnout.
Jess Spendlove (01:05.078)
Now, so often when people are trying to improve these things, they start by adding something new or adding something more. More routines, more protocols, more strategies, more supplements. But one of the smartest things you can do is work with things that you already have, your own biology and physiology. The truth is human physiology hasn’t changed for thousands of years. And when you align with it, things feel easier.
What you can, the reference I often make in my keynotes is working with your physiology feels like swimming with the current. It’s more effortless and you get to where you’re going faster. But when you fight against it or work against it, similar to swimming against the current, it’s tiring, it’s exhausting, and it takes you longer.
So that’s what I’m going to talk about in today’s episode. I’m sharing three simple science-backed ways that you can work with your biology, not against it. These are small shifts that will help boost your energy, sharpen your focus, and sustain your performance across the day. For work and life. This is without relying on that extra coffee, caffeine, or willpower. Sound good to you? Great.
Let’s get into today’s episode.
Jess Spendlove (02:31.885)
The first way that you can work with your biology or physiology, which is probably the one that you’re most familiar with, is called your circadian rhythm. Now, this is our 24 hour clock which governs a number of physiolog- governs a number of-
Jess Spendlove (02:56.085)
Now, the first way that you can work with your physiology, which is probably the one that you’re most familiar with, is your circadian rhythm. Now, your circadian rhythm is essentially your 24-hour body clock. This governs things like our sleep-wake cycle, as well as a number of different hormonal and biological and metabolic processes.
My question to you when it comes to your circadian rhythm, even if you’ve heard of it, even if you know what it is, are you actually optimizing it? And this is what I find for most people. There really is this disconnect when they really sit down and think about it between what they know and what they do. I guess, you know, we live in the education economy.
Science-backed strategies are really democratized because of so many fantastic podcasts. I mean, if you’re listening to this now, you’re listening to a podcast. My intention with Stay At The Top is really to give you these science-backed tools and strategies in a way that is fast and digestible and most of all practical. That’s really where I live. I really want to make the complex simple.
But anyway, the long and the short of that is this is part of that information economy. And so the idea of optimizing your circadian rhythm is probably something that you’ve heard about. But as I said, I really want you to reflect on, am I actually doing that? And there’s a few ways that you can really start to…
focus on that and make the most out of it. Now, the first, if we start at the front end of the day, is to get 10 to 15 minutes of natural sunlight on your eyes first thing in the morning. Now, there are a few reasons why this is important and it really helps, you know, not only optimize your circadian rhythm, but give you more energy and improve your mood and set you up to start your day on the front foot. The first is it triggers a release of serotonin.
Jess Spendlove (04:55.055)
in the brain. Now this really helps boost our mood, our focus and our motivation. The other thing with that serotonin release or triggering of serotonin is that serotonin is also a precursor to melatonin. Now melatonin is our sleepy hormone. When we are getting ready to sleep our body is producing more of this melatonin naturally in our body and that
helps us get to sleep.
blocks melatonin and that’s important to know for both the morning and the evening. So in the morning getting that sunlight on our eyes as much as that helps trigger that serotonin it also helps block any residual melatonin that might be in our system which is important for the front end of the day when we’re wanting more energy and elevated mood and better focus and to feel motivated. But what we don’t want at the back end of the day when we’re wanting to optimize our sleep is to be
interfering with that melatonin release which later in the day, I know you know what I’m going to say, is where the lights and the screens come into play. So when we are having light exposure later in the day once the sun is set that’s when it starts to wreak havoc with our circadian rhythm because it is wreaking havoc with our melatonin.
But in the morning when we get that sunlight on our eyes and that serotonin is released, what that also says is, hey, in 14 hours time, about that, when you’re getting ready to go to sleep, I’m gonna trigger the release of melatonin. And so that’s how those two neurotransmitters work together.
Jess Spendlove (06:43.381)
So that sunlight first thing in the morning really is helping to align your circadian rhythm. Now it’s not just about the sunlight in the morning. I mean, that is a critical piece because it signals, it’s morning, we’re getting ready to go. There’s this range of physiological processes that are optimized to support that. But also if we could get sunlight on our eyes across the day to again signal, hey, it’s still the daytime or again in the afternoon when things are starting to
get a little bit darker, that helps signal to our brain that hey the sun’s getting ready to set and then we’re moving more into that later half of the day and in the later half of the day this is when we sleep. So there are so many benefits to doing that. So I guess the reflection is are you doing this? Is there an opportunity for you to align with your circadian rhythm better?
One way you might be familiar with how your circadian rhythm works when it’s optimized is if you go camping or if you go to a health retreat. Now they’re two quite different things. I feel like you’re probably either in the camp of I like to go camping or you’re in the camp of I like to go to a health retreat. I have to say personally, I’m more of a health retreat kind of person.
I wish I was a camper, but I don’t know, probably something I just never did growing up, so that’s why I’m not that,
not that pro camping. But anyway, I’m tangiting here. The purpose of this is when you do either of those things, you are away from artificial light.
Jess Spendlove (08:22.637)
You are in nature. You are really aligning with when the Sun rises and the Sun sets and so you might find in both of those situations that you start to go to bed a lot earlier and then potentially you’re either sleeping longer or maybe you’re waking up earlier just Depending on your chronotype, which we’re to get into in a little bit
And so my question to you is here, if you camp or you go to a health retreat, have you noticed how this influences your circadian rhythm? And now look, in the modern world, living in a way that is aligned to camping or a health retreat is probably not practical, but it definitely gives us some thought on what can we take away from that to help implement into our modern day life. And that again is where that sunlight on the eyes in the morning or starting to restrict our light
exposure, whether it’s from screens, whether it’s from artificial lights in the back end of the day is really supportive there. And then I guess if we’re thinking, okay, well, how can we start to get more sunlight on our eyes in the morning? Here are potentially a few practical ways for you to do that. The first thing is an early morning walk or some exercise outside if that aligns with your lifestyle and how you like to operate.
The second thing might be maybe you have breakfast or your morning coffee or a tea or something like that or your electrolytes on your balcony or in your garden Outside where you can get that and the third thing is potentially that school run. So have a think about how that might work I always get the question about you know, sun safety and I totally hear you Personally what I do is I go for an early morning walk and I’ll wear a hat and I won’t wear my sunglasses at that time of day. So
there might be something in there for you to reflect on and take away and try to optimize. The second way that you can align your physiology, the second way that you can align more with your physiology is to know your sleep chronotype. And so I briefly mentioned that in the first one, but what this is essentially about is learning to work within your own internal clock. And so chronotype is really about a genetic
Jess Spendlove (10:34.101)
timing pattern which we are all aligned to that helps improve our energy, our focus and our creativity. Now there are essentially three main chronotypes which are the lions or the early birds. So these people prefer to rise early in the morning and their peak energy and productivity time of the day is in the morning.
We’ve then also got our bears. Now these are really the people that thrive in the middle of the day. They’ve got a steady midday energy state. And to be honest, this is the majority of the population. And then we also have our night owls or our wolves. And these are the people who peak later in the day. I think most people know what their chronotype is, but if you don’t, there were definitely a range of different quizzes,
out there and this isn’t just some quiz people have made up. There is robust evidence-based literature on sleep chronotypes which all of a lot of these quiz which these quizzes has been adopted which these quizzes have been adopted off the back of. The one I normally send people to and look there are a range of ones out there is the sleep doctor
I haven’t done that quiz in a while, it’s only about five or ten minutes and at the end of that, that will tell you whether you’re a lion, you’re a bear or a wolf. It will also tell you if you are a dolphin. Now the dolphin is the only chronotype who doesn’t thrive off an exact rhythm and so if you look into the lion, the bear or the wolf, is very… the peak productivity, peak energy phase is really determined off when they rise and when they go to bed.
Whereas the dolphin, is the smallest part of the population group, less than 10 % last time I looked into it, these people are the only ones who can thrive off a lack of rhythm. And so if we look at that and we look at the fact that 90 % or more of the population are really aligned to these three key chronotypes, it gives us an idea on how we might be able to put some structures and boundaries in place so that we are aligning
Jess Spendlove (12:53.033)
our work and our high priority tasks with when we are at our peak energy focus and creativity. And so for myself, I am a lion and I know that for me, my most important deep work, I like to do first thing in the morning. And so if I can put some boundaries and a bit of a fortress around there and do that as much as possible, look, it’s not always possible. We live in the real world.
but as much as possible I can control the tasks that I do in that time and protect that, then that is helping me get through more work within that window and it’s aligning with my own physiology.
Jess Spendlove (13:38.859)
And so I know what it can feel like when you have a really full day, whether that’s, you you’re working in your own business or you’ve got your own company or whether you’re in the corporate world and you’ve got a lot of commitments and you’re climbing the ladder or you’re at the very top. I know it can feel like we just don’t have enough time. But when it comes to your chronotype,
Is there a way you can align your tasks with your chronotype so you were working at your capacity? And so this isn’t necessarily about you needing more time, but it is maybe about you aligning your day with your sleep chronotype so that you were getting more done in your peak productivity windows. And so I guess the reframe or the question is, do you necessarily need more time or do you just need
better timing. And in my experience, it is more of the latter. It is about better timing and optimizing what we do within that time from an output perspective, but also from our own energy perspective.
Jess Spendlove (14:55.69)
And the beautiful thing about doing this is this really starts to align with your physiology and the outputs to that can look like more consistent energy, fewer crashes and higher quality output. And so my challenge to you here is know your chronotype either innately or do one of those quizzes that I mentioned like the sleep doctor and then think about how you can protect your peak window.
but also think about how you can align the time you wake and the time you go to bed as consistently as possible, as close to what your sleep chronotype is, because this is giving you a biological advantage. This is one of those strategies that has you feeling like you’re swimming with the current rather than against it.
Jess Spendlove (15:52.173)
And then the third way that you can align with your physiology is by having more brain breaks across the day. These brain breaks are your cognitive rests, your pit stops for your brain.
And what we need to be thinking about is our brain as the CEO of our body. It is a high performance engine and just like a Formula One high powered car, they need pit stops. They need to strategically decide when they are stopping to change their tires and…
decide which tires they need based on the weather, and all of this is a very strategic decision. What they do not do is just get out on the track and stay out on the track. They need these pit stops to go faster, and that is exactly what we need to be thinking about our brain breaks. Now, the physiology that this is based off is something called an ultradian rhythm, which is a series of micro cycles, which governs a range of things around our hormone and our energy.
These ultradian rhythms or micro cycles are governed off around 90 minutes of peak performance followed by a 20 minute dip or lull. And so the idea here is if you can work in a rhythm of around 90 minutes of output followed by an intentional rest period, this will help optimize your output, reduce fatigue, optimize your focus.
and also align in a way that works with your physiology. Now, the key here is stimulant free time. And so what I would say to you is, is there an opportunity for you to even take a few minutes? I understand you might be listening and going, she’s mentioned a 20 minute lull, that’s not possible or practical for me.
Jess Spendlove (17:53.409)
But what I want you to know is it doesn’t need to be 20 minutes. Of course, if you have 10 or 15 or 20 minutes and you can take a longer brain break and you can get outside and you can go for a walk and maybe you consider doing that in silence, which allows for some reflection and restoration across the day, as well as movement, as well as getting some sunlight on your eyes. There are a multitude of benefits for that. But if that isn’t possible, what could we do within even a few?
minutes. And so this is where we might want to do some box breathing or the physiological sigh. Now box breathing is inhaling for four, holding for four, exhaling for four and holding for four and so you could do that for a few minutes. The physiological sigh is an amazing strategy which if you’ve only got
I don’t know, 30 seconds or a minute in between calls. Say for instance, you’re on back to back Zooms or meetings where you’re in front of a screen or you’re in front of people and from a hormonal response, you know, that means more adrenaline and more cortisol and we’re in this elevated state. The physiological side is the fastest way that you can down regulate. And so what that is, is an inhalation followed by another inhalation
short sharp inhalation and then an exhalation. And so the beautiful thing about that is making sure that we’re maximizing
Jess Spendlove (19:30.849)
And the beautiful thing about that, that is the fastest way for us to bring our heart rate down. And so what that sounds like is one inhalation followed by another short sharp inhalation at the top, followed by a, and we really want to emphasize that exhalation. And so if you can even do that two or three times in between, like I said, meetings, in between calls, in between,
driving to work and running late and feeling stressed, you can use that strategy and that is the fastest way to down-regulate.
Now I would encourage you, that is a really short overview of exactly what that is. If you even Google on YouTube, physiological sigh, this is a video that I often send my coaching clients when we’re talking about this as a micro recovery strategy. The Andrew Huberman video, which he talks through the physiological sigh, including all of the processes that are going on in the body and what the actual strategy is, which I’ve just run you through, but if you want a reference point, that…
It’s about a two or three minute video, so I’d encourage you to do that. Maybe I’ll even try and put the link in the show notes. I just need to make a little note of that so I can send to Shira who helps me edit my podcasts. Just make a note of that. Some other really short sharp intentional brain breaks could be having a glass of water or a herbal tea away from our desk. Maybe this is even where we have that protein rich high fiber snack.
The thing that we want to be doing in the brain break is we want to be stimulant free. So the three things we really want to avoid are our screens, so social media or our inbox, caffeine, stimulant, or sugar or crappy carbs. And so that doesn’t mean that we’re not eating or drinking in that time, but we’re being intentional about what that is. This is also not me saying don’t drink coffee.
Jess Spendlove (21:35.924)
I love coffee myself and I’m very pro at from a performance perspective, but I think we need to understand why we’re using that caffeine. And just last week I walked past one of my favorite coffee shops at like three, 3.30 in the afternoon and there was a line out the door and I nearly fell over. I kind of wanted to go up to every person and say, you don’t actually need this 3.30 coffee. What you need is a brain break, but.
I didn’t. But it’s just interesting to see that so many people around that 3 3.30, which so many people have that energy dip, that’s what they’re reaching for. So rather than doing that, can we take the extended brain break there? Can we get outside? Can we get some movement? Can we get some sunlight? And then maybe that’s also where we’re having an afternoon snack. And the difference in doing that, both of them will give you energy. One of them is more of false energy, which can impact your sleep in the afternoon. And one of them is a very strategic
form of restoration and reflection. It gives your mind an opportunity to decompress from the day. It gives your physiology a chance to down-regulate and have a pause. And the benefit of that? Incredible.
And so by learning to work with these ultradian rhythms, by taking these brain breaks one to three times a day, you know, maybe start with one and then see if you can dial it up to two or three. But if you can have these very intentional stimulant free breaks, this will support you working with your energy. It will give you some cognitive refresh. It’ll boost your creativity. And the other thing is it actually gives you a chance for reflection and restoration.
that can help you get to sleep better in the afternoon because you are actually allowing moments of that across the day and if you don’t that’s why when your head hits the pillow that it is doing that and ruminating on everything from the day or thinking about your to-do list for tomorrow and if you can get to sleep but that’s happening at 2am, same thing. And so the key are these micro breaks they’re not time off they’re not lazy they are performance tools and this is the third way
Jess Spendlove (23:46.564)
that you can learn to work with your physiology for more energy, better focus and sustained output. And so I guess to just recap this episode, there are three key ways that you can work with your physiology. The first is your circadian rhythm. And so the strategy there or the output, start with some morning sunlight on your eyes. The second one is aligning with your sleep chronotype. Note…
And the point I would say here is know what your chronotype is or reflect on it and then think about the way that you can start to align your day, key priority tasks and also the time that you wake and go to sleep with this. And then the third one, probably the most practical and the most I think impactful in terms of small investment, huge recovery, sorry, small investment, huge impact are your brain breaks. Take these cognitive breaks.
Put them in your diary. Don’t just rely on you remembering them because we get cognitively fatigued across the day. Put them in there. Make a commitment to yourself. Even if you can put it in for 15 minutes and even if you take five, well you know what? The five minutes is better than the no minutes you were taking before. Just what we want to avoid is bouncing between task and task and task and having that adrenaline release, having that cortisol released, or not released, but sustaining a high level of cortisol at time.
in the day where we want that dropping and by having these micro movements to down regulate really will help with that.
The best thing, all of these things, they’re free, they’re science backed, they’re evidence based, and they’re simple to implement. So I’d really encourage you to pick one. Start with one. Which one sounds the easiest for you to implement? Which one sounds like the path of least resistance? Try it for a week or two and observe. How does your energy feel? Do you have more energy? Do you have more stable energy? Is your energy crash and burn in the afternoon less? Are you getting to the end of the week?
Jess Spendlove (25:46.885)
feeling less exhausted. Maybe you’re finding your focus and the output that you’re able to get in your peak productivity window is elevated. Or maybe you’re feeling more rested, less wired and tired. You know the chances potentially all of those things could happen but tune into yourself, tune into those subjective metrics and what your body is telling you.
The final thing I want to leave you with is a reminder that sustainable high performance isn’t about doing more, it’s about working with yourself, with your physiology, learning to swim with the current and not against it or yourself. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Stay At The Top.
If you’ve liked this episode, would love for you to share it with a friend, share it on social media. If you haven’t left a rating and a review, please, I would be so grateful if you would do that, especially if you love the podcast and you’re leaning towards a five star. It really helps get the podcast out there and helps more people find it. On that note, I’ll be back again next week with a guest episode with more tips, tools, and tactics.
helping you not only reach the top, but sustainably stay there. I’ll catch you all then.