Sleep is one of nature’s greatest gifts, the time when our bodies restore & rejuvenate and yet many of us struggle at night with our sleep, getting to sleep and staying asleep. Adopting a healthy sleep routine at night will make all the difference when it comes to getting enough sleep. Sleep is the most important thing that we need to get right and is vital to our functioning and yet its value seems to go unrecognized. Essential to our lives, mentally & physically, when we sleep our bodies repair and restore themselves, allowing our muscles to recover, tissue growth to repair and energy to replenished. This restoration process helps us feel refreshed and ready to take on the day.
Have you ever said or heard the words, ‘I can sleep when I’m dead’, Matthew Walker explains this in his book, ‘Why we Sleep’ and how a constant lack of sleep or routinely getting less than 6/7 hours of sleep a night, has many health consequences.
Sleep plays a crucial role in regulating our emotions and mental health. Getting sufficient sleep helps stabilize our mood, reduces stress, and enhances our emotional capacity to recover quickly from difficult and tough situations, making us more resilient.
Sleep deprivation or getting inadequate sleep can contribute to mood swings, irritability, anxiety, and depression, keeping us awake at night. It is also closely linked to lower cognitive functioning and brain health. Looking at ways to adopt a more positive regular sleep pattern, so that you can get an unbroken, full night’s rest, with min 6/7 hours of quality sleep, will help consolidate and strengthen memories, enhance learning, and promote creativity, improving our attention, concentration, and problem-solving abilities.
Have you ever noticed that you are struggling to eat responsibly and wondering ‘Why’ you might be seeing weight gain. A lack of sleep contributes to hormonal imbalances within the body, affecting our metabolism. The hunger hormone ‘Ghrelin’ (which tells us that we are hungry), is increased when we don’t get adequate sleep, enabling us to feel hungry and eat more, at the same time lowering ‘Leptin’ (The hormone that tells us we are full) leaving us with a feeling of always feeling hungry. Cortisol (which controls our stress) and Insulin (which regulates blood sugar, increasing the chance of diabetes) is also affected by an imbalance in hormone levels. Good sleep gives us the physical ability to decrease the rick of various health problems, like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, supporting a healthy immune system and reducing the rick off illness and infection.
Prioritizing sleep is crucial, looking at changing the way we sleep, maintaining positive sleep habits and adopting a healthy sleep routine, will help us to overcome consequences and obstacles that we can encounter when we don’t sleep enough.
Here are just 6 ‘Sleep Well Tips’ that you can adopt into your lifestyle, that will aid a better sleep, allowing your brain and body the ability to mend.
- Turn off electronic devices 30mins before bed = To much blue light from phones/ tablets/ laptops & computers, late at night, disturbs the release of the sleep hormone ‘Melatonin’, leading to problems sleeping & daytime tiredness. Melatonin is produced just after it gets dark. Turn technology off half an hour before you go to bed and leave it out of the bedroom.
- Sleep when you are tired = Trying to sleep when you are not tied will put stress on you trying to go to sleep and make you frustrated.
- Avoid caffeine 4-6 hours before bedtime = These are all chemicals that interfere with sleep. They are natural stimulants which can cause insomnia. It takes up to 7 hours for caffeine to leave your system, so consuming caffeine close to bed, can keep you awake. This includes chocolate, soft drinks & tea. Alcohol effects sleep as it causes you to spend less time in deep sleep, resulting in you being tired in the morning. Smoking upsets your natural circadian rhythm (body clock) altering your clocks genes.
- If you are unable to fall asleep after 20mins, get up = If you find that sleep does not arrive within 20 minutes of you going to bed, leave your bedroom. The best thing to do if you can’t sleep is to get up, go to a dimly lit room and do a relaxing activity. Return to bed only when you’re sleepy.
- Keep the temperature cool & the room dark = Our bodies drop in temperature at night for us to sleep, if we are too hot, it becomes difficult. A cool room will aid in the body reaching its natural temperature for deep sleep. Artificial light from TV’s, computers & energy – saving light bulbs are rich in blue light. Blue light suppresses the release of the sleep hormone melatonin. Look at ways of making the room as dark as it can be.
- Avoid sleeping with your pet = An animal that sleeps in your room or on your bed, making noises or moving around during the night, waking you up, can negatively affect your sleep pattern.