10 Tricks for Better Quality Sleep.
Quality sleep is vital to your hormonal health, cognitive functioning, stress levels and mood!
WHY SLEEP NEEDS TO BE YOUR FULL TIME JOB.
I remember when I used to brag about functioning on 6 hours a sleep a night. I wore it almost like a “I’m productive and can go like the energizer bunny” badge. Until I blew out my adrenals royally from constant sleep deprivation. This caused chronic fatigue and killed my immune system allowing me to catch every bug around. I learned a valuable lesson and now treat sleep like it’s my full time job.
Great nightly sleep is a basic necessity for healthy hormone balance and overall health. Your body knows when you shut your eyes, it’s time to renew and restore on all sorts of levels. Just two nights of bad sleep can mess with your body’s ability to regulate appetite, energy, react to stress, even burn fat. Lack of sleep can actually cause your body to store fat. Yep, and it only takes a couple days of missing valuable zzz’s. If you’re not getting at least 7-9 hours a night, you could be causing your own hormonal imbalance and symptoms.
We need sleep. It’s a vital human function.
According to the Sleep Foundation, 36% of Americans are sleeping less than 7 hours a night. 43% of single parents sleep less than 6 hours per night. And women are 40% higher at risk for insomnia during their lifetime, especially during pregnancy or menopause. This constant deprivation of restorative sleep has caused a rise in work-related accidents, medical errors, car crashes and even mental disorders like anxiety and depression.
There’s now lots of research linking lack of sleep to weight gain too. Our hunger hormone ghrelin and our satiety hormone leptin rely heavily on sleep to balance them out. Inadequate sleep raises stress hormones and has us reaching for those quick, sugary foods. An when leptin gets thrown off, we never quite feel satisfied so we keep on eating. Uuugh.
Honoring our circadian rhythms.
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle.
Since caveman days our genes have aligned with the rising and setting of the sun. I’m sure you’ve heard about circadian rhythms? They represent a very real powerful connection between our physical bodies and the natural world around us. This phenomenon to me, is one of the coolest yet one of the most disrespected in modern times.
Our genes and yes hormones are programmed to fluctuate up and down with sensation of light and dark. When the sun sets and it gets dark, our body is signaled to release the sleep hormone melatonin into our bloodstream creating a relaxed, drowsy and almost euphoric feeling. It also signals our brain function to slow down. Ever feel like your brain doesn’t work as great at night? It’s not meant to.
It also promotes our metabolic function to slow down and prepare for rest and recuperation which is why it’s beneficial to avoid eating after 6 or 7 at night. Your body can’t digest as efficiently or as quickly. And we want our body resting, not digesting.
Stages of sleep.
There are 4 different stages to a sleep cycle. The average person will go through 4 to 6 rounds per night. The stages and cycles are vital to the health of both our body and mind.
Stage 1. Is the dozing off and ranges from 1-5 minutes. Body and brain activities start to slow down, but often in bouts, so you might get some twitching happening.
Stage 2. Your body temperature begins to drop, breathing and heart rate slow, your muscles relax and your body fully commits to rest.
Stage 3. This is where the deep restorative sleep happens as your brain moves into delta waves or slow-wave sleep. This is critical to reach as it’s where the body can repair, restore, renew and grow. There’s evidence that thoughtful thinking, creativity, insight and improved memory happen during this stage as well.
Stage 4. Rapid Eye Movment or REM sleep is called stage 4 where the brain actually shows more activity while our body experiences paralysis as a deep nurturing state. This is known as our dream state (although you can dream at any state) and has been linked to cognitive thinking, memory and learning.
Once you’ve cycled through all stages several times, your genes understand it is time to slow down melatonin production and switch gears.
When that gorgeous sun comes up in the morning an entirely new signalling pattern begins with our body pumping out serotonin production. This of course is our “feel good hormone” which then ramps up metabolic function and energy levels so you wake up feeling fresh, well rested and ready for the day. What a sweet built in system!
Whats gone wrong.
However, technology has advanced at such a fast pace, it’s like our bodies haven’t had time to keep up or adapt and it is proving to be detrimental to our overall health in big ways. Almost 50% of women in this world are operating on less than 6 hours of sleep which is deteriorating our brain function, wearing down our bodily systems and tinkering with our hormonal flow.
While Tomas Edison’s discovery of the electric light opened whole new possibilities for us as humans, we are now bombarded with artificial light and digital stimulation 24 hours a day. This attack on our senses is throwing our natural rhythms off completely. This is why so many of us have lost our ability to fall asleep easily, sleep deeply and flow through all cycles of sleep so we feel refreshed.
Sleep hygiene needs to be taken seriously.
If you are having trouble sleeping, it’s time to up your sleep hygiene. This includes your bedroom environment and sleep-related habits. Here are some simple guidelines.
Succumb to a sleep curfew. Believe it or not the body likes going to bed and waking up at the same time. Keeping the same bed time hour is secretly telling your body how much time it has to renew before the next day. I know it can be hard but it is one of the best gifts you can give your body is a full night’s rest.
Dim the lights. Since our circadian rhythm is so sensitive to light, see if you can get in the habit of dimming lights once it gets dark. Turn off any overhead lights and perhaps just keep a lamp or two on. I personally do this starting around 8pm, giving my body a good full two hours of winding down before bed time.
Drop the temperature. Dropping your thermostat down can also help with the quality of sleep. Several studies show that 64-65 degrees seems to be the ideal temperature for optimum sleep. Your body’s internal temperature is also part of the circadian rhythm system. It starts to cool itself down as you go to bed, reaching its coolest point around 5am. If your environemnt is too hot or too cold, it can disrupt this natural body process which leads to quality sleep.
Set screen curfews. This is a BIGGIE! And might possibly be one of the harder things to do. Whether you admit it or not, we all have somewhat of a digital addiction. Our phones have become pacifiers for adults. I’ve been practicing taking walks without the phone, running simple errands and turning it off while hiking or any time I’m in nature. Instead tuning in to the sounds or lack there of around me. If you need to work on the computer, try doing it earlier in the evening. Just 5 minutes of white light from a screen can disrupt your production of melatonin for up to 4 hours. So seriously turn the phone, computer and TV OFF as early before bed as you can. The hour prior to sleep is a fabulous time to journal, do some stretching or good old fashion reading an actual paper book. Just make sure to set a timer so you crawl in bed at a decent hour.
No carbs before bed. Carbs can depress your hunger hormone ghrelin and give you trouble slipping into deeper stages of sleep. This means carbs can actually prevent you from getting deep sleep. Eating before bed also disrupts the natural release of HGH human growth hormone which helps us build and maintain our muscle mass.
Get f.lux. F.lux is a software I have on my computer which changes the light or the screen to be easier on the eyes by removing the blue and green lights. I can set it to change at a given time signaling me it is time to start winding down. You also manually set the tones for what’s comfortable for you. This has been a life-saver for me and really has helped me curb my night time screen usage if I indeed have a deadline to meet. It does take some getting used to as it gives a warm orange hue. Not great if you are doing graphic design and trying to get colors just right. But otherwise, I highly recommend.
Invest in blue light glasses. While there’s lots of information for and against the use of blue light glasses, I can personally attest to them making a huge difference for me. Blue light from digital electronics can send the wrong signals to the body and mess with the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. I wear them any time I’m in front of my computer day or night. I want to do everything I can to protect my precious circadian Rhythm.
Weight blanket. This has been one of my favorite hacks for improving my sleep. It uses deep pressure stimulation (weight on your body) to help our body’s feel safe, hence calming down our sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze) and allow our parasympathetic (tend and mend) nervous system to take over. This triggers heart rate to slow down as well as your breathing. It’s the same calming effect as being swaddled as a baby or a thunder shirt for dogs. Weighted blankets are thought to stimulate the production of melotonin and reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol. People suffering from insomnia, anxiety, stress, autism and ADHD have had great results improving their sleep.
Eye pillow. Gone are the days of satin, silky, sexy eye pillows. Now you can buy eye pillows that create certain pressure around the eyes to prevent eye bags, headaches and the like. Eye pillow ensures complete darkness allowing your body’s own natural melatonin producing system to run efficiently. I also use an eye pillow every night. Did you know that even the slightest light on a closed eye-lid can affect you dropping into all cycles of sleep? Even the light from the clock radio. The first few nights with my Remedy eyepillow from Blubox were intense. I found the fear of not seeing creeping in as soon as I put it on. It was an odd and unexpected observation. It allowed me to get curious about this unconscious thought “habit”. However the sleep I got was deep, real and refreshing. I don’t remember falling asleep and still don’t. Taking off the mask in the morning signals such an exciting new day for me. I simply love it and won’t travel without it.
Take Ashwaganda. Ashwaganda is an ancient medicinal herb classified as an adaptogen. This simply means it can adapt to what your body needs at the time taken. Pretty coo, huh? I recently started taking it at night to improve the quality of my sleep and am in love. The root is known to help your body manage stress, thus reducing cortisol levels (which is one of my main missions in life). I literally describe my sleep with this as goo-goo ga-ga baby sleep. So deep, so safe, so comfortable and cozy. It’s also knows to lower blood sugar levels in healthy people and those suffering from diabetes.
I can’t urge you enough to treat your sleep as your number one hormonal health regimen. If these suggestions feel like a lot to start all at once, slow down. Try one per week. Let me know how it goes. Happy zzzz’s.
