Did you know that if your sleep is poor you may not be experiencing life in the most optimal way possible? Yes, sleep does affect your quality of life and poor sleep can lead to a myriad of health issues like trouble loosing weight, obesity, fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, nutrient deficiencies, even cancer! Did you know that just one night of bad sleep can make you as insulin resistant as a type 2 diabetic? Your chances of sugar cravings and eating in a caloric surplus skyrocket after a night of sleep deprivation.
When I mention optimal sleep I am speaking of falling asleep with no trouble and staying asleep throughout the night, and getting a good base of 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
When the sun goes down, our bodies naturally start to produce melatonin, a hormone that promotes relaxation and regulates the bodies sleep and wake cycle. Did you know that our bodies are made to replicate the suns pattern, waking as it rises, and going to sleep as it sets? This is called our circadian rhythm. Modern day lifestyles and technologies has created the norm of disregarding our circadian rhythms. If we took away all of our modern day advances and lived with nature we would start to experience our bodies returning back to their natural circadian rhythms, pretty cool right?
So how can we create an optimal sleeping pattern that reflects our natural circadian rhythms in our modern day lifestyle? Lets dive in, here are my top 5 tips for optimal sleep:
1. Create a bedtime routine
When we create a routine, our bodies start to recognize it. The more we practice a routine, the more we tend to do our routine without even thinking about it. If we create a routine around sleep, we will increase our chances of falling asleep faster and having optimal sleep. Play around with ideas and see which ones you like and which ones stick. Some ideas you can use in your bedtime routine include: listening to relaxing music, self massage (or massages with your partner!), having sex, using calming essential oils like lavender and chamomile, drinking sleepy time teas like chamomile or valerian root, taking a bath, using topical magnesium in a spray form or in your bath, reading a book, journaling, and many more. Comment below what your bedtime routine looks like!
2. Reduce screen time and stimulants 1-2 hours before bed
Notice how I did not mention watching television or playing Candy Crush on your phone in the bedtime routine section above? That is because screen time and hanging around indoor lighting at night is disruptive to your melatonin production. Our eyes absorb light through the retinas and our skin absorbs light through photoreceptors; when we hang around indoor lighting, day light, and screens these all suppress melatonin production. Studies have shown that exposure to indoor lighting during normal sleeping hours suppresses melatonin levels by more than 50%!
Blue light is the type of light that comes from your electronic devices and many light bulbs in your home. Blue light is the worst offender of suppressing melatonin production. Some ways to avoid blue light once the sun sets and before bed time is to use natural candle light and if you must use your devices, turn them to nighttime mode and wear blue light blocking glasses. You can see the ones I wear here.
As well as cutting out the artificial lighting before bed, cutting out the crap will also help you on your way to a dreamy night sleep. Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others. If you have trouble falling asleep you may be consuming too much caffeine in general or consuming caffeine too late in the day. Try to stop your caffeine consumption after 2pm.
3. Make your bedroom your sanctuary
Many factors in your environment can disturb your sleep including noises, light, temperature, and electronic devices. EMFs (electromagnetic fields) are a controversial topic. EMFs are basically lines of force that emanate from any electrical or wireless device ranging from low frequency (our electricity and appliances) to high frequency (our wireless devices). A study published in Radiation Protection Dosimetry found that melatonin production is significantly disrupted by exposure to EMFs. Also, The World Health Organization has now classified cell phone radiation as a Group 2B carcinogen, the same classification as lead and gasoline!
Although there is not a ton of studies done about the health effects EMFs have on our bodies, it is a good idea to limit your exposure to these especially around bed time. Remove all electronics from your room when you are sleeping and try to position your bed at least 6’ away from all appliances or devices, horizontal and vertically! Put your cell phone in another room while you are sleeping, or turn it off or on airplane mode. You can even go a step further and turn your WIFI completely off during sleeping hours, there is a wall timer you can purchase for that.
To go along with electronics, a great practice for making your bedroom your sanctuary is not mixing your work with the bedroom. If you mix the bedroom with work, you may experience yourself thinking about work when you are trying to fall asleep, or being woken up by thoughts of work! Keep your bedroom for sleeping and you will naturally create a sanctuary.
We talked above about how your skin can absorb light through photoreceptors, so the same remains true while you are sleeping. Even a small light from an alarm clock or from a light post outside can disrupt your melatonin production. Hide any small lights from things in your room you cannot remove like a mounted television, air purifier, alarm clock, smoke detector even. Use black out shades on your windows if you live near a lot of light pollution. My husband and I have gotten so fond of have a pitch black room, every time we sleep in a hotel we bring duck tape and cover up the small green light on the smoke detector and sometimes even tape the drapery to hide all the cracks!
Incorporate your bedtime routine in your sanctuary by setting the mood with non toxic candles, or my favorite, LED candles or a Himalayan salt lamp! Lastly, use a noise machine to block out noises throughout the night (many people do not realize they wake up multiple times throughout the night from these noises) and set the temperature to a setting that promotes optimal sleep for you.
4. Get out in the sun
Along with our circadian rhythm, our bodies are designed to release certain hormones at certain times of the day. Light signals our hypothalamus (a region of the brain that controls body temperature, thirst, hunger and is involved in sleep and emotional activity) and other organs in our bodies to wake up! Light exposure, specifically sunlight, triggers your body to produce daytime hormones like serotonin, a powerful neurotransmitter. Serotonin is a critical component of regulating your bodies internal clock. Spending time in sunlight during the day and reducing your time around indoor lighting at night can make significant improvements on your quality of sleep. When you rise, open your blinds and let in all the light! Try to spend 30 minutes in the sunshine each day, ever notice that you normally sleep like a baby after a day outside or a day at the beach?
5. Exercise
When we exercise, we are actually putting our bodies in a state of stress. This stress, categorized as hormesis, in the right quantities, can be very beneficial for our health! During exercise we are creating micro tears in our muscles and while we sleep, our body goes to work to repair those tears. While we sleep we are recovering. You will actually get the most bang for your sleep by choosing to workout first thing in the morning, when our cortisol hormone is at its highest. Exercising promotes stress in the body, which promotes the release of cortisol. With serotonin and cortisol releasing at optimal times throughout the day you will open yourself up to optimal melatonin secretion at just the right time, bedtime!
In closing, there are so many ways you can optimize your sleep habits but what they all boil down to is staying healthy. Create a lifestyle that is sustainable that will allow you to have optimal sleep naturally. One amazing book I read on sleep is Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson. You can find the book here. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment