“What if scientists could formulate a magic pill which could help you lose weight, perform better in bed, improve your memory, and avoid deadly diseases like Alzheimers and cancer? You’d take it, wouldn’t you?”
– Luke Storey
Great news, that pill already exists and is free to everyone!, It’s called sleep. As you can tell, I’ve really diving down the rabbit hole on sleep research as it’s fascinating!
I highly recommend you all listen to the episode below, starting around 30 minutes in if you want to fast track to the important science behind sleep.
Let me summarize a few of the main issues with under sleeping.
- Getting less than 7-9 hours affects your hormones.Lack of sleep suppresses leptin(the hormone that tells you you’re full) and secretes gremlin (the hormone that tells your brain to eat). This just means you won’t ever really feel full and your hunger cues go way off. Also, you don’t metabolize insulin efficiently so the sugar you do eat gets stored as fat more than it should!
- You make shittier food decisions. Lack of sleep leads to a lack self-control, not only around food quantity, but also food quality. So it’s a double-whammy for weight gain.
- Your body is less able to fight off cancer. Lack of sleep reduces the number of natural killer cells in the body(the cells that kill cancer cels) This means diseases like cancer can spread more easily and our body isn’t as strong as it could be if we just got enough sleep.
- Our muscles and bodies rebuild while we sleep. Why bother working out if you can’t repair yourself? You’ll put yourself into a state of constant stress if you don’t allow the muscles to fully recover which raises cortisol and back to more weight gain… Look, we put the effort into building strong bodies, so make sure you get enough sleep so that it counts.
- Memory loss. The science is so strong for memory loss. There are so many studies and the results are clear: we fuck up more, forget what we just learned and put ourselves at greater risk for alzeimers when we don’t get enough sleep.
- Sleep Deprivation is a little like being drunk (not in the fun way).You make impaired decisions when under slept! That’s why it’s so scary that our nurses and doctors are chronically under slept.For most of us this means being tired can lead to impulse decisions, poor food choices and decreased performance in all areas.
Walker’s tips for improving your sleep (Dr. Matthew Walker, Sleep Researcher)
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even after a bad night’s sleep or on the weekend.
- Keep your bedroom temperature cool; about 18 degrees Celsius is optimal for cooling your body and inducing sleep. Wear socks if you’re feet are cold. It will send the warm blood to your core and help you sleep.
- An hour before bedtime, dim the lights and turn off all screens. Blackout curtains are helpful.
- If you can’t sleep, get out of bed and do something quiet and relaxing until the urge to sleep returns. Then go back to bed.
- Avoid caffeine after 1 p.m. and never go to bed tipsy. Alcohol is a sedative and sedation is not sleep. It also blocks your REM dream sleep, an important part of the sleep cycle.
What I have found is that a bedtime routine is essential! Nights where I have to be out, binge-watch Netflix in bed or change up my routine negatively affect the quality and quantity of my sleep. On top of the tips above, I would add:
- use calming scents like chamomile, lavender or rose in your diffuser, bath or candles (natural ones only!!)
- Magnesium can help a lot of people feel more relaxed and therefore aids in their sleep. We’ll talk more about supplements in our next newsletter.
- Nap if needed! If you area new mom, work shifts or are just more tired than usual, go ahead and put yourself down for a nap in the middle of your day.
- Meditate or stretch. Something calming and as simple as a few stretches help get you out of your head and into your body where you can release any tension you might be holding on to.
Creating an environment and routine that supports deep relaxation and fully restorative sleep is a key component in feeling & looking our best. It’s also imperative for increasing our immunity, decreasing overall inflammation, and supporting our long term health.
Please go ahead and try to make sure you go to bed at the same time every night this week along with continuing your hydration challenge. When we get enough sleep and are hydrated, every aspect of our health (mental, emotional and physical) are positively affected and we can feel our very best!
