In this blog post I explore the many problems caused by poor sleep, how much sleep you need and how you can improve your chances of a good night's sleep...
What happens while we sleep?
Our body is programmed to be awake during the hours of daylight and at rest during the hours of darkness. It is known that our bodies switch onto a repair cycle automatically around 10pm. It then proceeds with repairing anything physical and later into the night around 2am it goes into psychological repair.
This means that if you are awake a long time after 10.30 every evening you are not allowing your body the time it needs to rest and repair itself. One or two nights of partying is not going to disturb the body too much provided we get back to normal, if however we continue to stay up past 10pm every night watching television, eventually our health will change, our moods will start to change, energies will begin to drop and then we can’t think straight, can’t quite wake up – out comes the coffee! We start craving sweet things to keep up our energies. Weight piles on. Now we are overweight and depressed.
As we continue on with this lifestyle, the bodies organs start to suffer, they will make themselves heard by causing aches and pains, stiffness and then injuries occur and well, you know the story… its a downhill spiral from there.
The bottom line is that not getting enough sleep every night will make you overweight, hungry, impotent, hypertensive, and will cause a bad heart.
Imagine that all this can be avoided by just getting to bed on time and having a good nights sleep.
So whats keeping half of us up all night?
Back down to the hormones again. Cortisol a master regulatory hormone in the body is stimulated by light, which includes even digital alarm clocks. Cortisol is also stimulated with caffeine, alcohol and sugar.
Whilst we sit watching the television or computer screen late at night cortisol is being released through the flickering and changing images. Our body receives this as a message that it is summer time and keeps the cortisol levels high to stop the melatonin from taking over.
As we stay awake the body needs energy and starts to crave carbohydrates – hence all the biscuits and chocolate and sugar laden goodies make their appearance and there we are robotically munching and staring at the screen.
Further hormonal disturbances occur from eating carbohydrates that cause blood sugars to elevate, insulin must be released to counteract that sugar and take it out of the bloodstream. You can find out more about the problems with Sugar in my blog of the same name. The end result is you stay up, no desire to sleep with so much activity going on around you. Meanwhile your body cannot do its job of repairing and resting.
Caffeine and Alcohol both create problems in the sleep cycle as they are both stimulating to the nervous system. Caffeine has been shown to have a 6 hour half life, meaning if you take a coffee at 6pm then there will still be half a coffee in your body at midnight - enough to keep you awake.
Night sweats are often (not always) associated with alcohol, as alcohol carries so much sugar it causes big fluctuations in blood sugars. Alcohol also carries ‘empty calories’ and when insulin kicks in it is often too rapid, our blood sugars drop and we need to eat, so if you are waking up in the night for whatever reason, even for a pee, check the above.
The amount of sleep you get will have a direct link to your appetite – for anyone looking to lose weight – get to bed early.
What we can do to improve our quality of sleep…
The most important is to create a comfortable and safe environment, use your bedroom as a bedroom, for relaxation and sleep.
Remove any television sets, computers etc.
Start preparing yourself for bed around 10pm and aim for all lights out by 10.30pm.
Use candles and turn lighting down low in the evenings to create softer and calmer surroundings. Aim for complete darkness – consider black out curtains and remember that anything that gives off lights will stimulate.
Avoid working late at night - this increases stress. As already mentioned, avoid alcohol and sugary snacks.
Don’t take any coffee later than 3pm.
A warm bath before bed can be very calming, try burning lavender and chamomile oils and take the time to breathe deeply.
Music can be a useful tool to help in relaxing and promoting sleep.
The average adult should be aiming for a good nine and a half hours sleep each night, starting as close to dusk as possible. The current average time an adult sleeps is seven hours!
Hope some of the above can help you towards a better nights sleep and better health.
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