How does quality sleep support your body? What happens while you sleep other than dreaming? Why do you need good sleep? Quality sleep very underrated, and one of the most important things you can offer your body. It’s needed for memory anchoring, tissue repair, the ability to focus, concentrate, and to be able to handle daily stressful situations. It’s your bodies way to re-establish balance.
Did you know, we have two natural daily sleep cycles? Prior to the invention of electricity, the sleep cycles were between sundown until midnight and, then around 2am until sunrise, with about two hours in between. This time was used as a meditative, contemplative time, a time to read or write or to have social conversations. Or it was possibly a time for ordinary work such as checking on the farm animals, stoking the fire, conducting other household chores, a time for elaborate prayers, smoking tobacco, or as you might guess, a time for physical intimacy. This diurnal rhythm or ‘two-sleeps’ went on for centuries up until around the beginning of the 20th century. Now, modern technology and electricity affects the sleep cycles of almost everyone.
Now let’s look at sleep from a health perspective? Digestively, sleep provides rest for and repairs the tissues of the body, including the mucosal lining of the digestive system, and improves microbial balance, which are very important for a healthy digestive system. Adequate sleep creates proper production and suppression of hunger hormones which also keeps glucose levels in normal range. Do you feel yourself always wanting a snack? This may be due to lack of quality sleep. Consuming omega-3 fatty acids regulates melatonin levels, which will improve your sleep. Calcium is needed for reaching deep sleep stages and melatonin production. During the deep sleep stage (closer to the beginning of sleep, about three hours) we release human growth hormone- this is what contributes to healing and repairing tissue.
Sleep hygiene- What’s your nightly routine? Consider this:
Turn down lights at least one hour before bed and turn off all electronic devices. This helps eliminate exposure to blue light and rely more on warm red tones that help us get to sleep.
Other ideas? Use black-out shades, try sleep or meditation apps (calm), prayer, journaling, blue light blocker glasses, calm music, shower or bathe before bed, herbal teas like lavender or chamomile to wind down. Having a cooler bedroom or having a window open to hear sounds of nature can help with sleep comfort. Have regular sleep and wake times, and exercise regularly. Avoid caffeine consumption after 3 pm, and no alcohol in the evening. Do not rely on alcohol as a sleep aid. It may help you relax and fall asleep, but it disrupts your sleep in the second part of the night and you may not feel rested.
If you have insomnia, don’t look at the clock to check the time, don’t check your phone, or other screens, or turn a light on to read a book. Keep your eyes closed, take deep breaths, focusing on your breathing. Now remember, every body is different and some of these ideas may or may not work for you. In fact, reading a book in the middle of the night may help you fall back to sleep. Try different things and see what works for you. Need another tip to fall asleep? Don’t try to fall asleep. What do I mean by this? When you’re on the couch you can fall asleep in less than ten minutes watching TV, right? You are not trying to fall asleep. When in bed and ready to fall asleep, think of a category and go through the alphabet naming an item for each letter. For example, use fruit as your category- A, for apple, B for banana, C for cherry, D for dragonfruit, continuing through the whole alphabet. Try it and see how far you get. You can also name the state capitals, or as many cereals you can think of or boy and girl names. You get the picture? It may be a more sophisticated way of counting sheep, but the idea is to get your mind off of the events of the day and worries of life.
Happy zzzzzz’s.
Kathy Swelstad, NTP
Grand Junction Wellness