Sleep. You spend roughly a full third of your life asleep, and according to the Sleep Health Foundation, about a third of people have insomnia.
Even just mild sleep loss leads to impairments in cognitive performance, including attention, both working and longterm memory, as well as reasoning, and causes one to become more prone to error. (source)
Sleep deprivation increases cortisol, our main stress hormone that leads to fat gain, particularly around the midsection, and also causes muscle tissue to be broken down.
A lack of sleep impairs the functioning of leptin, a hormone that provides feelings of satiety and fullness, while improvements in sleep patterns leads to improvements in insulin sensitivity in adults.
Further, even just partial sleep deprivation increases body weight and the amount of food consumed – and this study was done with a group of rats that were bred to be obesity-resistant.
Long story short, a sleep deficit or even poor sleep quality impairs cognitive function, increases stress and leads to a bevy of metabolic issues. So…. Why aren’t more of us trying to maximize this time?
Article at a glance
- Get on a set schedule and routine
- Minimize blue light a few hours before bedtime
- Use melatonin and a Bright Light to entrain your circadian rhythms
- Avoid that evening night cap
- Utilize yoga, meditation and breathing exercises to switch off “fight or flight” mode
- Get by with a little help from your friends
Improving Sleep
- Have a set sleep schedule and routine
“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” – John Irving
Absolutely nothing has a bigger impact on how I feel the next day than the quality and quantity of sleep I get the night prior.
Having a healthy sleep schedule is one of the best ways to increase your energy levels, lose weight and generally feel amazing each day. As an experiment, try just one week of getting 8 or more hours of sleep each night and you will be amazed at how fantastic you feel. Once you realize how powerful a good night’s rest is, you will be much more inclined to improving your sleep patterns long term.
So what’s the main fix? Have a set sleep schedule and routine.
I know we all live hectic, crazy lives, but do your best to keep to a set schedule every night – no computers or tv after 8 or 9 to decrease blue light (we’ll get to this), gentle yoga and/or chamomile tea and a good book at 9 or 9:30, and in bed by 10 or 11.
Some people eat three meals a day, some two, and some (monks and the like) just one meal a day. Come meal time, whether it’s your one and only meal, or your third and final, your body will begin to get hungry – it’s conditioned to expect food at a certain time and at certain intervals. In the same manner, your body comes to expect sleep at a certain time and certain intervals. Having a set schedule and routine helps train your body to sleep when you want it to.
2. Minimize blue light a few hours before sleep
Did you know that staring at your phone, iPad, tv, laptop or computer screen has the ability to drastically impair your sleep quality, even if you are in bed at a reasonable hour?
Let’s talk a bit about human evolution and circadian rhythms – I’ll keep it short. For millions of years, humans had two phases of the day – the sun would rise, and there would be light, and then the sun would set, and there would be darkness.
And for millions of years prior to that, the animals and critters we evolved from experienced the same thing – light all day, and then darkness come sundown. Our bodies have evolved to have a certain amount of time in the daylight, and then a certain amount of time under the cool blanket of the nighttime during which we sleep. This is known as our circadian rhythm, and this diurnal pattern of light/dark controls our bodily processes in huge and profound ways.
Today, we have the option to have a fully lit environment, whether it’s day or night time, and many of us choose to stay up past sundown, bathing in all sorts of artificial light. As it turns out, this is not so great for our circadian rhythm.
Our circadian rhythm acts in large part via our body’s hormones – mainly cortisol to help us wake up in the morning and melatonin to help us fall asleep at night, but with many other bodily functions, chemicals and hormones coming into play.
As you can see, cortisol is like our body’s natural caffeine, helping to wake us up, and melatonin is our body’s natural sleep aid, helping us to fall asleep.
The problem is that all forms of light, but especially blue light, the type emitted from tv screens, tablets, cell phones and computers, disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm and suppresses the release of melatonin.
The fix? Limit light use, especially blue light coming from tv’s, computers, tablets and smart phones, for two hours leading up to bed time. You can also download f.lux, a program that gradually tints your computer screen more and more orange as the sun begins to set, reducing the amount of blue light emitted. Or you can REALLY nerd out and impress your friends, family and coworkers with these blue-light blocking glasses…
3. Entrain your circadian rhythm
Your circadian rhythm is the collective term for the cycle of bodily processes that occur during a 24 hour period, but largely refers to our sleep/wake cycle. Having a healthy circadian rhythm is paramount to good health, low levels of fat, ample energy and proper mood.
There are a few tricks you can use to sync up your circadian rhythm to our natural sleep/wake cycle. The first is to take melatonin, anywhere from 1 to 3 mg, an hour before the time you’d like to be falling asleep. Do this for roughly a week, and then cease usage as melatonin is a hormone, and any time you take hormones, your body will decrease its own production of them. Melatonin is extremely safe and inexpensive, with 180 1 milligram tablets being just under 5 bucks.
Then, concurrently with melatonin usage, set an alarm for the time you’d like to wake up and immediately use a full-spectrum Bright Light, or simply get some sunlight when you wake up. To make a long story short, the retinohypothalamic tract is a highway of nerves connecting your eyes to the specific location in your brain responsible for your circadian rhythm, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Without proper stimulation of this region of the brain, coming from full spectrum light, your body does not get the full “time to wake up” messages it is supposed to.
The SCN receives input from specialized photosensitive ganglion cells in the retina via the retinohypothalamic tract… When the retina receives light, the vlSCN (ventrolateral SCN) relays this information throughout the SCN allowing entrainment, synchronization, of the person’s or animal’s daily rhythms to the 24-hour cycle in nature.
Full spectrum light from the sun or from a Bright Light stimulates this control center in your brain via the retinohypothalamic tract, but it requires full spectrum light – meaning that sunlight that is being filtered through any windows or sunglasses will not suffice, as these block certain wavelengths of UVB light.
With a Bright Light, simply turn it on within 3 feet of you, facing your body and face while you read the paper or check emails in the morning, for roughly 10 minutes. Keep it positioned on your right for half the time allotted, then switch it over to the left side. Likewise, simply sit outside in direct sunlight facing the sun (not staring into it) in the mornings.
The fix – Spend a week or two entraining your circadian rhythm by strategically using melatonin in the evenings and either a full-spectrum Bright Light or, preferably, full sun exposure. After a week or so, discontinue both and use only on an as-needed basis. A Bright Light also greatly helps with the condition of winter time blues, known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It is advisable to also avoid over-use of sunglasses, as these impinge on the absorption of full spectrum light.
4. Avoid your evening indulgence in alcohol
Many people find that an evening drink or two helps them fall asleep faster, and while it may do just that, it actually hampers deep, restorative sleep as well.
It would be a safe bet to assume that the occasional one or two drinks before bed will do little harm, but that glass of scotch or nice Merlot every single night before sleep? I would say this is a no-no for those seeking to improve their sleep habits.
The Fix – Simply don’t have a night cap every single night before bed. If you do choose to imbibe, take 200 milligrams of L-theanine a half-hour before bed – it’s neuroprotective, helping protect your brain cells from the damaging effects of alcohol, helps the body break down alcohol more quickly, and helps promote deep sleep. L-theanine is an amino-acid like compound found in green tea, responsible for its focusing, calming effects.
5. Activate your parasympathetic nervous system via yoga, meditation and/or breathing exercises
Your autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating your body’s unconscious actions, is split into two groups – the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, from here out referred to as the SNS and PSNS, respectively. Your sympathetic nervous system is generally responsible for all “fight or flight” activities, while the PSNS is responsible for “rest and digest” activities, or bodily process that happen while at rest and not in immediate danger. Needless to say, if your body is in fight or flight mode, chances are you won’t be falling asleep.
You may have heard about a little thing plaguing the people of today – stress. Chronic stress is debilitating and keeps people in constant fight or flight mode. This leads to an overactive SNS, with very little activation of our calming PSNS. Luckily for us, there are more than a few ways to bring our nervous systems back into balance.
A 2015 study on basic yoga postures concluded that “Yoga practising group showed significant improvement in various cognitive functions, such as performance enhancement, neural activity, attention, and executive function. It also resulted in increase in the heart rate variability, parasympathetic nervous system activity, and balanced autonomic nervous system reactivity.” Yoga postures not only provide a noticeable cognitive boost but allowed more parasympathetic activity, as well as more balance and adaptability between sympathetic and parasympathetic modes. Sounds good to me.
A 2012 study on yoga concluded that “According to the proposed theory, the decreased PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) and GABAergic activity that underlies stress-related disorders can be corrected by yoga practices resulting in amelioration of disease symptoms. This has far-reaching implications for the integration of yoga-based practices in the treatment of broad array of disorders exacerbated by stress.” Another win for yoga.
Meditation helps bring the body’s nervous system back into balance as well. The 2015 study The Influence of Buddhist Meditation Traditions on the Autonomic System and Attention stated “we review new evidence that shows that types of meditation that developed out of certain traditions such as Vajrayana and Hindu Tantric lead to heightened sympathetic activation and phasic alertness, while types of meditation from other traditions such as Theravada and Mahayana elicit heightened parasympathetic activity and tonic alertness.” The majority of meditation practices available today are mainly those that activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and not the Tantric type that tone the sympathetic nervous system.
Furthermore, a 2016 study of a certain type of pranayama, or yogic breathing exercise, concluded that their study “showed that Bhr.P (Bhramari pranayama) practice produces relaxed state and in this state parasympathetic activity overrides the sympathetic activity.”
The 2013 study Assessment of the effects of pranayama/alternate nostril breathing on the parasympathetic nervous system in young adults concluded that “This study showed that the parasympathetic tone was enhanced appreciably in the participants. The observations of this study suggest that the yogic exercise of A.N.B. (alternate nostril breathing) influences the parasympathetic nervous system significantly.”
The Fix – Pick up a basic yoga and meditation practice. If you aren’t well versed in either, find a class near you, or pick up one of many DVDs to follow along with at home. Once you get the hang of it, you can formulate your own routine. For those curious, here is how to do alternate nostril breathing, as well as Bhramari pranayama.
6. Get by with a little help from your friends
Along with melatonin and L-theanine, a few other herbs and supplements can help you get a better nights rest.
Magnesium is a vital mineral that is essential for over 300 biochemical reactions within the body, but unfortunately most Americans are deficient, due to a poor diet and rapidly declining levels of magnesium in our soil. Magnesium acts not only within the brain to calm you down, but also throughout the entire body by helping to keep cortisol in check (source).
Try to eat foods high in magnesium, such as pumpkin seeds, dark leafy greens, and my personal favorite, 80-90% dark chocolate. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a magnesium supplement on hand, especially for those of us who live hectic, stressful lives, work out regularly, or drink alcohol regularly, as these all rapidly deplete magnesium. Try magnesium citrate, or if your budget allows, magnesium threonate, which is more readily used by the brain.
I’m almost never without a quality magnesium supplement, both because it is so crucial to good health and because I like to work hard and play hard. I would recommend that anyone experiencing sleep problems or anxiety should start by eating more magnesium rich foods and/or supplementing with a quality magnesium supplement. It’s always best to look towards fixing your diet first rather than supplementing.
Use calming herbs such as chamomile and valerian root. Chamomile acts upon both GABA and benzodiazepine receptors in the brain, helping you to relax and calm down, and is a gentle herb with a long history of safe use. Valerian root acts not only on GABA receptors but also upon adenosine receptors – these are the same receptors that caffeine binds to in the brain, but instead of blocking those receptors as caffeine would, valerian root activates them, helping one to fall asleep.
Chamomile tea is readily available, inexpensive and delicious, and valerian root capsules are easy to find as well.
Bonus Tip!
Keep a dream journal – By keeping a dream journal, you provide yourself an opportunity to peer into your own subconscious mind – over time, you’ll piece together many recurring habits, wishes, fears and desires. Keeping a dream journal has truly been one of the most insightful and interesting practices I’ve kept up with.
A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read. ~ The Talmud
The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. ~ Sigmund Freud
