Nutrition and Lifestyle
Take Your Sleep Seriously
09 June 2022
I am sure everyone has heard how vital sleep is to our general health and wellbeing, but how many of us take it seriously? In a 2018 survey, it was reported that only 6% of us get the recommended 8 hours, whether that be waking up through the night, not able to fall asleep or waking up generally unrefreshed.
Lack of sleep can lead to anxiousness, lowered stress tolerance, mental health issues, reduced energy and performance, poor memory and concentration. But what if I told you there was much more.
A healthy sleep-wake cycle also affects our blood sugar control, thyroid, and adrenal function and so is connected to weight gain and obesity. When your sleep has been bad, we all know how much we crave those naughty, sweet or salty snacks, right!
Two hormones that play a large role in our sleep are cortisol and melatonin. We think of cortisol as our stress hormone, but it's also responsible for helping us to wake up and prime the body for activity.
Melatonin is our sleepy hormone and initiates drowsiness and deep sleep, and you guessed it, increases as the day turns into night.
Melatonin has other very powerful properties to it though. It acts as a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent and has been shown to support blood pressure and cholesterol, has anti-cancer properties, and helps sex hormone balance. Low levels are associated with depression, cardiovascular disease and immune dysfunction.
So, what disrupts these hormones? The body clock works with the day and night-time cycle and we call it a circadian rhythm which is very easy to disturb. As mentioned, cortisol is around in the morning and melatonin increases as the day turns into night. It is the change of light from blue morning light to a redder/orange light that triggers this release, so people who work in enclosed spaces, shift work, travel across different time zones or use a lot of blue (day)light devices such as laptops, tablets and phones, especially late at night, inhibit this release of melatonin. Unfortunately, this has a knock-on effect on cortisol the next day and we find ourselves being cranky, and not dealing with stressful situations so well. Eventually, if this is a regular occurrence, it can push the circadian rhythm out, so you are tired but very much awake at night and then pressing the snooze button several times in the morning because you can’t get up!
So why don’t we take sleep seriously as part of our health and wellbeing?
Many people are stressed coming home from work, opening a bottle of wine, watching TV or diving into social media to escape the day, a feeling of unwinding, which is understandable and a small amount of this engagement is fine. The problem comes when we don’t prioritise our sleep routine or even know we should have one.
Here are 3 things to help you prioritise your sleep
Supporting your sleep is part of the ‘Four Week Health and Wellbeing Programme’, which is also in ‘Harmonise Your Health Deeper’, a membership for those that are starting their health journey and need extra support.
For more information go to https://www.sambrownnutrition.com/programmes-products
Get your free e-book to start getting healthier now! https://www.sambrownnutrition.com/free-ebook-10steps
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