By JORDI LIPPE-MCGRAW

GETTING enough sleep is as impor-tant as eating a balanced meal and getting physical activity — and yet 57 percent of Americans think they don’t get enough sleep, according to a Janu-ary study by Princess Cruises.

And who are some of the worst suf-ferers? Rock stars. Between late

nights, irregular eating and chaotic touring sched-ules, it’s no wonder music maestros have trouble getting shut-eye.

Enter Dr. Gabrielle Francis. The naturopathic

doctor, acupuncturist, massage therapist and chi-ropractor has taken on these difficult clients and quickly became known as the “Rock ’n’ Roll Health Guru” to legends such as Bruce Springs-teen, Aerosmith and the Roll-ing Stones.

After touring with, and tending to, some of the big-gest names in music, Francis tells us how she has helped legends catch some zzz’s, and how to adopt their methods so that you, too, can sleep soundly.

By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI

AT its highest level, ball-room dancing is quite a workout: Do you think those high-flying acro-

batics and fleet-footed shim-mies are easy to pull off?

Yet somehow pro Mark Bal-las — back for the 22nd sea-son of “Dancing With the Stars,” which premiered on Monday night — managed years of athletic feats with a pack-a-day cigarette habit.

The son of pro dancers, Bal-las picked up smoking while growing up in England, where his mother, Shirley, hails from.

“I was about 15 or 16 when I started,” recalls Ballas, now 29. “Everyone in my house-hold and my culture, my friends, we all smoked. My grandmother was a heavy smoker — my mom would travel and buy her those big duty-free boxes. It was easy to just take a pack without her knowing.”

Ballas started dancing at age 5 and began making a liv-ing from it when he was around 20, still buying his Marlboro Lights.

“I’d quit on my own and not smoke for a few months, but then I’d fall back into it,” he says. “I always knew in the back of my mind that this wasn’t good.”

Ballas has won “DWTS” twice, both times with former Olympians — figure skater

Kristi Yamaguchi in 2008 and the following year with gym-nast Shawn Johnson. Still, he claims it’s not competition that triggered his cravings.

“It was about everyday stress — if I got into an argu-ment with a friend or if I didn’t get a job that I wanted,” he says.

But the habit finally caught up with him. “I was around 24 [or] 25,” Ballas recalls. “I was in a class, teaching some of my younger kids, and halfway through I was doubled over, gasping for breath.”

He dropped the habit with the help of NicoDerm CQ patches — for which he’s be-come a spokesman. “It worked for me because I’m so active,” he says. “I could put it on in the morning and not think about it for the rest of the day.” Ballas roped in his mother, 55, and they quit together.

Ballas has been smoke-free for two years — no worries that the patch will show when he twirls with his current partner, mixed martial artist Paige VanZant.

The key to not relapsing: He figured out how to control his trigger.

“Nothing is perfect, so I’m not going to let problems that are inevitable in life reduce me to [picking] up a sub-stance,” he says. “That’s an excuse, and I try to live by [a motto of] ‘no excuses’ now.”

his bet to another player at the table, Rick Salomon (famous for playing opposite Paris Hil-ton in her notorious 2000 sex video). Salomon turned it down, and a couple days later Bilzerian bit. Perkins couldn’t be happier. “I may follow him in an RV, and that will be psy-chological torture for Dan,” says the 47-year-old.

Bilzerian, the son of corpo-rate raider Paul Bilzerian, who was convicted of securities and tax law violations in 1989, grew up inside a Tampa, Fla., mansion. In 1999, one year af-ter receiving his GED (he was expelled from high school in his senior year after getting jailed for possession of a ma-chine gun), Bilzerian joined the Navy, was honorably dis-charged in 2003 and ultimate-ly attended the University of Florida, where he majored in business and criminology. It was there, Bilzerian says, where he went broke playing online poker before getting serious about the game.

At age 25, while still attend-ing college, Bilzerian suffered a heart attack at Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel after being awake for four days and party-ing hard with a mix of cocaine and Viagra. He says he took a taxi to the hospital, tried to jump the waiting-room line with a $10,000 bribe, failed at that and wound up being treated by Conrad Murray, the doctor who was found guilty of the involuntary manslaugh-ter of Michael Jackson.

Just two years later, in 2007, Bilzerian was a presence in the high-stakes poker rooms of Nevada, where players re-call him showing up with a

briefcase full of cash. It earned him a nickname: “Suit-case Guy.” He says he won his money playing poker, but ad-mitted to the Wall Street Jour-nal “that he received money in a trust,” which, he says, kicked in when he turned 35.

Blizerian moved to Vegas in 2009 and became notorious for blowing things up in the desert, flying around on private jets, racing fast cars and engaging in nosebleed gambling. He claims to have once lost a coin toss for some $2.3 mil-lion in chips. Such out-rageous stories — and the photos to go with them — have garnered him 16.3 mil-lion Instagram followers.

But these days, it’s his train-ing regimen that fills his Insta-gram feed. In preparation, Bilzerian has reduced his carb intake by 30 percent, upping fats by the same amount.

“I eat five egg whites and two yolks, oatmeal, fruit and almond butter. Then I take zinc, vitamin C and probiot-ics,” he says of his breakfast, which he routinely eats at 1 p.m. “An hour after, I ride in the Red Rock Mountains [out-

side of Las Vegas] for 4½ hours. Then, back home, I have an ice bath and an epsom salt bath, get a massage, eat again and that’s my day.

“My legs hurt, my Achilles is popping, my ass is bruised and I’ve lost six pounds.”

Luckily, Bilzerian has an ace in the hole via former pro cy-clist Lance Armstrong, who’s giving him training tips, in-cluding pacing; balancing gear shifting; and finding optimal hand and body positions.

“Bill heard that Lance is helping me out and offered him a bet: Lance would have to make the LA to Vegas trip in 15 hours,” says Bilzerian. “Lance considered it, but turned him down.”

If he gets injured to the point that he cannot complete the ride, Bilzerian loses $600,000. If he gets pulled over, minutes spent with the police get added to his allot-ted 48-hour riding time. Bilze-rian cannot use motors or tow ropes, but he can walk if his legs or bikes blow out.

Bilzerian says he plans to spend around $125,000 on equipment, chase vans and support staff including bike techs, a doctor, two chefs, trainer, masseuse and assis-tant. Win or lose, he’ll give

$25,000 to Armstrong’s child cancer charity,

and if he’s victori-ous, he’ll use $350,000 to cover a recent poker loss.

And he plans on doing everything he can to enhance his odds: “I’ll have a dozen bikes in one

of the vans, and may get a gi-ant tricycle” in case his legs lock up. “I might take Provigil, which is what fighter pilots use to stay focused,” he adds. (Says Perkins: “Dan can take any drugs he wants. I think this is the worst bet Dan has ever made — he can die.”)

Win or lose (but not die), Bilzerian figures, “The recov-ery promises to be brutal. I anticipate bed rest and will be surprised if any skin remains on my ass. You hope for the best with these things, but prepare for the worst.”

From BET on Page 35

Health&Fitness

Bilzerian’s bet, by the numbers

Bilzerian is known for his high-stakes antics, including his claim that he once lost a coin toss for $2.3 million.

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WEIRD SCIENCE

In a new study, researchers at the University of Bern in Switzerland

found that ibuprofen is more effective at treating arthritis pain than acetaminophen.

Bill Perkins

rockAbye bAby

The sleep guru to hard-living musicians reveals the secrets to getting some needed shut-eye

Mark Ronson avoids late-night sugar to prevent nightmares “

Our food is composed of a variety of macronutrients that affect the body in different ways,” notes Francis. “Balancing blood sugars

creates a steady flow of energy for the body to maintain all of its functions, including a good night’s sleep.” She suggests eating foods that promote sleep like oat-meal, yogurt, cheese and turkey — and avoiding carbs and alcohol, both loaded with sugar, before bed.

“I’m smart enough to know that eating an ice-cream sundae at 1 a.m is

guaranteed to bring on scarily lucid dreams of the

zombie apocalypse,” Ron-son has said.

Orianthi drinks a magnesi-um-packed drink

“I get this Natural Calm drink now, with high amounts of magnesium,” singer-songwrit-er Orianthi has said. “It’s helped a lot with my bouts of insomnia. I went more than two years without sleeping well before I discovered the magnesium.”

Magnesium is a natural sleep remedy, according to Francis. “It boosts serotonin, lowers cortisol, and eases stress, all things that help with insomnia,” she says. “I rec-ommend taking 300 to 500 mg of the supplement before bed.” Other natu-ral remedies in-clude one ta-blespoon of ome-ga-3 or flax-seed oils, cham-omile, hops and valerian root.

Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe does three-day detoxes“Detoxing isn’t just [for] when you’ve eaten too much pizza and

drank too much beer,” says Francis tells The Post. “Most of us don’t get as much sleep as we should either. That’s why I suggest doing a diet detox to my clients to recalibrate their sleep cycle, reduce stress and reignite their energy.” The detox can be simple — greens like kale and spinach, for example, act as natural detoxifiers and rid the body of harmful chemicals. She recommends starting each morning with her “Rx Star” detox shake, which includes various probiotic- and fiber-packed powders, as well as juice, yogurt and frozen berries, followed by small meals throughout the day consist-ing of lean proteins, healthy fats and carbs.

“I just tried [a three-day detox cleanse] and man! Day four was epic,” Lee says in

Francis’ wellness book, “The Rock-star Remedy.” “I wore a bright yel-low shirt! I never wear bright hap-py colors. The shirt resembled

how I felt. Like the sun!”

Courtney Love of Hole chants twice a day“When we are plagued by anxiety and negative thinking, we tend to hold our breath or breathe

shallow breaths, which causes an accumulation of carbon dioxide in our cells and consequently a

build up of acidity,” Francis says. Releasing that breath through a meditative process, like chant-ing, can help release tension and stress built up throughout the day — which, in turn, can lead to sleep trouble.

“Meditation styles vary,” adds Francis. “To incorpo-rate a practice like this into your routine, turn off all electronics an hour before bed, and find a calming technique of your own.”

Love has said the practice is “critical” to her. “I see the results in my life from chanting twice a day and making that practice consistent. It completely changed my life in so many ways.”

Gabrielle Francis

p Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction has a scheduled naptime“Studies show 30-minute dis-co naps can help you make up for lost sleep,” says Francis. “It’s one of the secret weapons of rock stars on tour.” She also recommends what she calls “lost sleep sessions” for the snooze-deprived. “If I’ve pulled several straight days with little sleep, I’ll give myself one day to crash for several hours straight,” she adds. “It’s a great way to rejuvenate.”Navarro swears by them: “Through some strange turn of events, nap time has become an opiate,” he says in “The Rockstar Reme-dy.” “It’s become my way to shut my brain off.”

Smoke signals

How one dancing champ kicked his pack-a-day habit

Paige VanZant and Mark Ballas take on “Dancing With the Stars.”

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$600,000his winnings if he fin-ishes the challenge successfully

miles he has to ride

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