How important is good sleep?

How Important is Sleep?  If you've ever experienced sleep disruptions, you know just how hard it can be to function when you aren't fully rejuvenated when you wake up.  Shift workers, people with young children or teenagers, and if you share a bed with someone that snores can all be reasons that your sleep is disrupted from outside sources.  However, commonly when people are concerned about their sleep patterns its because of imbalances from within. 

Turning the brain off at night, waking at 2am, hot flashes, reflux, pain and muscle cramps, having to pee, blood sugar dips and other internal factors can impact sleep.  From these examples alone, we can see that sleep quality and patterns can be altered from a wide range of variables!  It's also tricky because once bad sleep habits set it, it can be difficult to reset the patterns.

Fortunately, there are many ways to help achieve restful sleep, but its important to know what might be the cause behind not sleeping well.  When we sleep our bodies have a chance to rest and take out the trash, especially from the brain.  There are many downstream effects of sleep deprivation from increased risk of heart attacks, to cognitive decline, to elevated cortisol levels, to lack of focus, weight gain, blood sugar dysregulation, weakened immunity and increased cancer risk. 

So, while it might be easy to brush off feeling a little bit tired and choosing to watch one more episode of a show or read one more chapter of a book, eventually the ramifications can catch up with you.  Poor sleep over time can actually be one of the barriers to healing.


How do I Improve my Sleep Quality?

Again, this will depend on the reasons behind your poor sleep.  I've never quite understood how those fancy sleep tests can gather the information that they do (how do you sleep in a clinic with wires strapped to you?), but it might be important to rule out sleep apnea as well.

• Circadian Rhythm
  - our body clock intelligently dictates the release of cortisol in the morning and melatonin at night 
  - light exposure helps to set this clock, so getting sun within an hour of waking up and through the daylight hours is very helpful, while screens and fluorescent lights are not
  - sleep in a very dark room, if you can see your hand at night then there is too much light, you might need to get blackout curtains
  - taking additional Melatonin at night might be beneficial, especially for a shift worker whose body doesn't know if its daytime or nighttime
  - amber coloured glasses can help maintain proper bedtime signalling when using a phone or watching TV in the evening
  - there are red toned lightbulbs for bedside table lamps, book lights, and bathroom night lights too
  
  
• Trouble Falling Asleep
  - "busy brain" is the main culprit behind having trouble falling asleep, but it can also be from imbalanced circadian rhythm
  - choosing less stimulating activities before bed can help to calm the brain down, some people even find reading a book is too exciting!
  - bedtime yoga and meditations are a gentle way to switch the nervous system from sympathetic dominant "fight or flight" to parasympathetic "rest and digest"
  - limit caffeine intake, especially after noon
  - move your body throughout the day to expend both physical and mental energy
  - journaling or keeping a notebook to empty out whatever is on the mind can reduce the contents in the head, even thinking about your "to-do" list can keep you awake
  - sleepy time tea to help relax before bed, as long as this doesn't lead to waking up to urinate
  - other tools like: acupuncture, GABA or l-theanine, magnesium bis-glycinate, valerian root, reishi mushroom, skullcap, melatonin, passionflower and a homeopathic remedy called R14 are all wonderful options
  
  
• Trouble Staying Asleep
  - with this aspect of sleep it is especially important to consider the cause of waking up
  - the time and frequency of wake-ups can also help to determine the cause, for example, being awake from 1-3am is a classic "liver" time in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and 2-4am seems particularly common in perimenopause
  - again, depending on what message your body is trying to deliver, my suggestions will vary to include treatments for hot flashes, urinary frequency, stabilizing blood sugar, reflux and anxiety
  - some of my favourite suggestions include:  a small handful of pumpkin seeds in the evening, slow release melatonin before bed, evening meditation, a couple of drops of valerian root or a tablet of l-theanine, a remedy called "Relax Matrix" that contains inositol and magnesium and l-theanine, another remedy called "Cortisol Reducer", and regular acupuncture treatments

Here is another article I wrote with additional Sleep Solutions.

Poor sleep has so many downstream effects that its a crucial component of improving your overall health.  Sleep is a component of your 24 hour circadian clock, so the patterns of the whole day need to be considered to see a beneficial result.  It might actually be a relief to know that there are things you can do ahead of time to improve your overall rest, so that you can start the day with energy and enthusiasm.

Take good care,
Dr Christa