When I started gathering research for this post, I was reminded anew of the connection between poor sleep, and our quality of life in a personal way. As I continued to learn, I started to make the realization of just how sleep deprived I must have been throughout my high school experience! And I began to wonder, if I had known this information then, if I had been able to make more conscious decisions around my nutrition, daily habits, and sleep routine, how different would my experience have been? I could have earned those high grades with a lot less effort. I could have saved my mother the grief of pulling me out of bed each morning. I could have relieved myself of the depression and anxiety I often felt. I could have definitely stopped falling asleep in class every day. And I could have shown up in a much more positive, impactful way.
But alas, many of us (especially angst ridden teens) just haven't made the connection between sleep and wellbeing. We devalue sleep. Sleep just isn't sexy. And because of this negligent attitude towards sleep, our health is suffering. Sleep disorders have become one of the largest issues in the United States today, with over 70 million people struggling with insomnia. And poor sleep isn't just impacting your general state of mental health, it also plays a factor in what kinds of foods you'll crave, whether or not you'll gain weight, whether you'll have anxiety and depression, how well you're body is able to build muscle, how well you'll be able to remember things, and whether or not you're processing you're emotional experiences day to day.
If sleep is responsible for deciding so many factors in your life, why has it become so devalued? How as a society did we get here?
I have been thinking a lot lately about how much I consume, and about how my identity as a consumer defines my place in this culture as a whole. Think about it: our society depends on people buying things, lots of things, every single day. Just take a moment to think of all the things you consume, versus the things you create. Most of us consume food other people grew for us. Clothes other people made for us. We live in homes other people built for us. We consume information other people create for us. How much of our time is spent consuming as opposed to just being? And what the heck has this got to do with sleep? Think about it this way: all the things we are consuming in our day to day life, whether it is food, information, news, conversation, social media, even the artificial light lighting up our homes and businesses, all translate into energy. We are consuming too much energy. And this overabundance of energy is affecting our ability to sleep. It is creating a state of hyperarousal. Hyperarousal elevates our heart rate, body temperature, cortisol levels, and sympathetic nervous system, giving us excessive energy at night, causing us to wake up frequently or to not fall asleep at all. By moving indoors and online, we have cut ourselves off from the natural rhythm of life. These days we seem to prioritize everything but sleep to the point that it has become a critical problem.
Why is sleep so important?
Let's start with hormones. Our body has a lot of different hormones that perform a variety of important functions. Many of these hormones are released during our sleep. When our sleep cycles become irregular, so do our hormones. This can end up negatively affecting different areas of our health. Let's cover the main arenas poor sleep affects:
1. Weight Gain
If we all knew how easy it was to loose weight in our sleep, I'm sure plenty of us would be prioritizing it more! That's right. Lack of sleep can actually cause you to gain weight. That is because when we don't sleep, we are more likely to crave sugar and carbs. Why? A few reasons. Let's go back to what I said about hormones. There are two hormones that determine what foods we crave, and how often we crave them. They are ghrelin (the hormone that tells you you're hungry), and leptin (the hormone that tells you you're full). When we are sleep deprived, we actually have higher levels of ghrelin, and lower levels of leptin. This means we feel hungry all the time, and when we eat, we don't actually feel full. Low levels of sleep also increase the hormone cortisol. Cortisol controls our circadian rhythm, and is also released during times of stress. When we have high levels of cortisol, our brain goes into "survival mode," causing us to seek out lots of calories, fast. Both these responses push us to eat calorie dense foods associated with weight gain (think lots of sugar and carbs). Unfortunately this cycle of eating high calorie foods leads to more burn out, higher levels of cortisol, and even less sleep.
2. Chronic Inflammation and Disease
Less sleep causes more inflammation in the body, and inflammation is the precursor to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and autoimmune disorders. This is because insulin, the blood sugar balance hormone, is released from our body during sleep. If we aren't getting enough sleep, our body is flushed with excess insulin, causing inflammation, poor blood sugar balance, insulin resistance, and eventually chronic diseases such as diabetes. It also doesn't help that poor sleep leaves us more susceptible to stress, weakening our immune system, and leaving us even more susceptible.
3. Muscle and Tissue Repair
Testosterone and growth hormone are also released as we sleep. This means that if you are someone who works out, sleep is responsible for actually building the muscle that was stressed during the day. Sleep is also where we repair tissue damage and synthesize protein. Getting less sleep leads you more susceptible to physical injury and muscle deterioration.
4. Brain Health
Our brain actually has it's own process of cleaning called the glymphatic system. The glymphatic system is responsible for cleaning the plaque that accumulates on your brain during sleep. Having a strong glymphatic system is associated with preventing degenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's. Sleep is also the time where we are able to process and consolidate all the information we consumed during the day. This is done through our dreams. Dreaming occurs during the REM cycle of sleep, and it is the time most people wake up throughout the night. When our dreams are disturbed, and our brain isn't able to process our memories and emotions effectively, we aren't able to remember things as clearly leading to poor memory, and brain fog. Good sleep is also strongly associated with emotional health. If you aren't able to effectively process your emotions in your sleep each night, feelings such as anger, guilt, resentment, heart break, and other negative feelings will get carried over in your day to day life. This may affect your relationships and leave you vulnerable to anxiety and depression.
Now that we know the ways in which poor sleep affect our health, let's talk solution! Prioritizing sleep is not impossible in this fast paced world we are living in. We just need to target a few key areas by making adjustments to our attitude and routine.
One key factor to getting a good night's sleep is your exposure to...SUNLIGHT. This is because sunlight is the main factor controlling our body's production of melatonin. And if you don't know, melatonin is the hormone that signals to our body it is time to go to sleep by lowering our body temperature, and making us feel sleepy. Our body is able to start producing melatonin in response to the setting sun. By getting adequate levels of natural sunlight everyday, and limiting our exposure to artificial and "blue light" (hello cell phones, televisions, & computers) before bed, we are able to regulate our melatonin production and get a good night's sleep. Here are some tips to help you regulate your melatonin cycles:
1. Get outside everyday and soak up that natural light
2. Shut off all electronic devices a half hour before bed and keep them out of the bedroom. If you use your cell phone as an alarm, try a store bought alarm clock instead.
3. Set up your home to support your melatonin production by using more forms of natural, less harsh lighting (candles, gentle bulbs, and salt lamps) and black out curtains to keep all light out while getting some sleep
What you eat also plays a role in how well you're able to sleep. Serotonin (the hormone that makes ya happy), is actually a precursor to melatonin, and a big portion of both serotonin and melatonin are produced in the gut! Therefore good gut health is critical for a good night's sleep.
Here are some tips to utilize your diet for a good night's sleep:
1. Eat plenty of fermented foods, prebiotic foods (bananas, apples, oats, artichokes, asparagus), and include a probiotic supplement
2. Avoid processed foods and excess sugar as they contribute to stress and inflame the gut
3. Choose organic. Avoid herbicides, pesticides, and include plenty of leafy greens to assist in detoxing
4. Eat your largest meal during the day, and your smallest meal in the evening. Cut back on night time snacking so your digestive system can wind down with you
5. Some vitamins that have been shown to improve sleep are: Vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids. Make sure you're getting enough of these in your diet
Stress also plays a huge factor in your quality of sleep. Creating the proper sleep environment is the next step. When we spend time preparing our body for sleep, we're less likely to let the worries of the day keep us up. Here are some tips to relax and unwind before bed:
1. Turn your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary by removing clutter and all things not related to sleep from the space. This includes electronics like TVs and computers. Your bedroom should not be a work space or an entertainment space. It should be a sleep space.
2. Establish a bedtime routine to signal to your brain and body that it's time for bed. This can include things like having a hot cup of tea, taking a hot bath or shower, doing some restorative meditation or yoga, or reading a book or magazine, anything that helps you relax and wind down.
3. Find ways to reduce stress in your day to day life. Establish clear boundaries between your work life and your home life, so you aren't bringing the stress of the work day home with you. Find hobbies and social circles that support your well being. Always find ways to "unplug" from the fast paced world of modern living by creating more than you consume.
To your next good night's sleep,
The Homemade Sage