Sleep More Deeply
Greater than 1/3 of Americans have trouble sleeping every night. And 51 percent of adults have problems sleeping a few nights each week. Prescription sleeping pills was a $5,000,000,000 business in 2010.
Sleep is absolutely essential for basic maintenance and repair of our neurological, endocrine, immune, musculoskeletal and digestive systems.
MELATONIN is the sleep hormone. It naturally increases after sundown and is part of a normal circadian rhythm. It increases immune function and protects against infection.
This is why you’re so likely to get a cold or flu after not sleeping well for just a night or 2.
So what is a normal Circadian Rhythm?
- Wake and sleep in coordination with light and dark
- Natural or bright light in eyes in morning stimulates cortisol
- Cortisol tells our body to be awake, get moving
- Cortisol should spike in am and drop over the course of the day
- In the evening cortisol and serotonin begin to drop -
- With less light exposure, melatonin increases
- Body anticipates rest/sleep
- But screen light counters melatonin
To sleep well avoid light exposure in the evening. No electronic device use for 2 hours before bed. Use blackout shades so your bedroom is pitch black dark. Cover your digital alarm clock or get an analog clock. Turn off digital devices that glow or that give off any kind of light in the bedroom. And, if you must use electronic devices in the evening, purchase orange goggles to block the spectrum of light that interferes with melatonin production.
Don’t be too full or too hungry, and keep your room cool. Most people do not sleep well in a warm room.
Go to bed earlier! “An hour before midnight is worth two hours after.”
There are 2 types sleep, non-REM and REM. Between the hours of 11pm and 3am you are getting more non-REM. And from 3am to 7am you are getting more REM. We need both. That is why shift workers and night owls can feel fatigued even if they are getting the recommended number of sleep hours, but at odd times.
A full night’s sleep
- Enhances memory and mental clarity
- Improves athletic performance
- Boosts mood and overall energy
- Improves immune function
- Increases stress tolerance
In Teton County, Wyoming when the schools shifted start time from 7:35am to 8:55am, teens started getting an extra hour of sleep. Interestingly, there was a 70 percent drop in car crashes in teenagers the following year.
If you’re trying to lose weight the amount of sleep you get may be just as important as your diet and exercise. Cross-sectional studies from around the world show a consistent increased risk of obesity among children and adult short sleepers. With sleep duration less than 10 hours in children, the likelihood of obesity increased by 89%. In adults who routinely slept less than 5 hours, the increase risk of obesity was 55%.
Ghrelin is a hormone released in the stomach. It signals hunger to the brain. When your stomach is empty, ghrelin is high. After you eat, ghrelin drops.
Leptin is a hormone released from fat cells that suppresses hunger. It tells the brain that you are full.
When you do not get adequate sleep you make more ghrelin and less leptin. This leaves you hungry and increases your overall appetite.
Getting less than 6 hours of sleep per day is associated with
- low-grade chronic inflammation
- worsening insulin resistance
- depression and anxiety
increased risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease
Inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, handle stress, maintain a healthy immune system, and moderate our emotions.
Sleep medications are not without risks, including:
- dependence
- rebound insomnia
- drowsiness
- memory loss
- bizarre sleep walking behavior
- changes in brain chemistry
- constipation, and much more
However, there is a point at which the harmful effects of sleep deprivation can outweigh the potential adverse effects caused by sleeping pills. Sleep meds are best used as a last resort, after non-drug approaches have failed.
Once you get into extreme sleep debt, it can be difficult to make it out without some biochemical assistance. We want to prevent such extreme sleep debt and improve your quality of sleep, as naturally as possible.
Why do we sleep? Twenty years ago the scientific answer was still that we sleep to cure sleepiness. Seems a little lame for something we spend 1/3 of our life doing.
Now we know we sleep because… our body and mind work better when we do, and are impaired when we don’t.
We sleep because the chemical adenosine builds up through the day. We feel less alert as the day progresses due to this buildup. It creates “sleep pressure”, and makes us desire sleep.
Appropriate adenosine accumulation over the day helps us fall asleep quickly at night.
During sleep our brain clears away adenosine so we wake up after about 8 hours feeling refreshed.
What about caffeine? It is a potent adenosine antagonist Preventing buildup of adenosine temporarily creates a mental boost. BUT caffeine keeps adenosine from getting to your brain. So, even if you fall asleep easily after caffeine your restorative non-REM sleep, known as “deep sleep” or “slow-wave sleep” may be reduced.
Caffeine can also increase nighttime waking. The half-life of caffeine is 2-12 hours. Self-experimentation is best, but stopping caffeine by noon or 1pm may be a good idea.
What about alcohol? It acts more like anesthesia than real sleep. A lower dose may increase total sleep time but reduce overall sleep quality. A higher dose can activate “fight or flight” and disrupt sleep.
Eating processed foods reduces sleep quality. Processed foods tend to be inflammatory and are linked to insomnia and non-restorative sleep. They alter the gut micro-biome, which can decrease sleep quality.
Excess body fat contributes to obstructive sleep apnea, a common cause of poor sleep quality.
What’s a body to do?
Six Foods to Eat for Better Sleep:
- Prebiotics – fiber foods, cooked/cooled rice or potatoes
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids – cold water fatty fish, CLO
- Tryptophan-Rich Foods – meat/fish, eggs
- Sour Cherries and Kiwi Fruit – melatonin
- Magnesium-Rich Foods - greens, almonds
- Bone Broth, Gelatin, and Collagen - glycine
Well, how much sleep is enough? If you didn’t set an alarm, would you sleep past it?
If the answer is yes, then your body and brain are not done yet. You need more sleep.
What about sleep efficiency? Know that time in bed is not equal to time sleeping. Most people need 8–9.5 hours in bed in order to get 7–9 hours of sleep. This allows for time to fall asleep, and for night and early morning waking.
ONE MORE THING… if you under-sleep one night, your immune system will be compromised the next day. And recovery sleep the following night does NOT remove that vulnerability.
Likewise, beware of SOCIAL JET LAG. Staying up late and sleeping in on the weekends, then returning to earlier sleep and wake during the week is like flying across time zones every week.
Go to bed at the same time, and wake up at the same time… weekday or weekend.
Regularity is king. It will improve quantity and quality of sleep.
What about when sleep hygiene isn’t enough?
In some cases supplements can be helpful. Magnesium glycinate promotes relaxation and sleep. It actually is probably more helpful for sleep than magnesium citrate, which is commonly marketed as a sleep aid. A magnesium glycinate dose would be 100-200mg one or two times in the afternoon and evening.
Melatonin is helpful for some. I am cautious about long-term use of any hormone though, so I don’t tend to recommend its use on a regular basis.
CBD is helpful for some people. And amino acids such as GABA and tryptophan are often helpful when used appropriately.
Lastly, a no pills approach, such as exercise late afternoon is sometimes all it takes to sleep better. Take time to wind down before turning off the light so you can review the day, finish thinking, and empty your mind.
Also, www.soundersleep.com provides easy-to-follow breathing and movement exercises designed to promote daytime relaxation and a good night’s sleep.
- Coordinate wake/sleep with the light/dark
- Begin slowing down, dimming lights in evening
- Dark, cool room
- Nutrient dense diet w/o processed foods
- Go to bed and wake same time every day
- Enough time in bed to sleep at least 7+ hours
If you are having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, it could be a sign of imbalance in your body. I would be happy to help you get to the root of the problem so you can sleep more deeply and live joyfully! Get in touch.