Sleep hygiene: Health depends on sleep: Melatonin?

Sleep hygiene, n. conditions or practices to help get some sleep, feel great, have energy, and prevent disease. (Marie’s definition  😉 )

Less than adequate sleep (between 7-8 hours for an adult) is associated with diabetes and obesity—likely contributing to their development.

Even one day of short sleep reduces immune system health and should be among your natural remedies.

Healing and repairing occurs while you sleep. Good quality and quantity of sleep are essential for good health and overall quality of life yet so few of us get enough. We might experience sleep as a state of unawareness, yet our brain is sorting memories from the day, processing what we learned, storing emotional responses and associations, creating new neural connections… During sleep, our body shifts into a cardiovascular and metabolic state that heals and repairs, removes cellular toxins, and resupplies key nutrients.

How to get good sleep? Here’s your sleep hygiene checklist:

1. Sleep Hygiene Planning and Preparation

Schedule 8½ to 9 hours for a “bedtime routine”.

At least 30 minutes before you want to be asleep. read a book, take a bath, do relaxation yoga, sex, any “slow-down” routine. Doing the same activity each night can train your body to recognize it’s bedtime. Ideas:

• Take a hot Epsom salt/Baking soda bath—raising your body temperature before sleep helps induce sleep and reduce tension. The Bath: 1-2 cups Epson salts, ½ to 1 cup baking soda to the hottest water you can enjoy. Soak at least 20 minutes. Drink some water.
• Train your biological clock by going to sleep and waking up about the same time each day and avoid getting in bed after 11 pm: late-hour sleep is not as healthful as earlier sleep. Many people experience a “wired but tired” phenomenon. If you are one of those, there is a deeper issue; usually a nervous system interference that we can find using Nutrition Response Testing.

• Avoid late afternoon or evening naps or naps longer than 45 minutes (unless you are sick or sleep deprived).Plan to eat dinner early enough to allow an intermittent fast of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. This honors your liver and other night-time organs. Avoid large or spicy meals at dinner.
• Hydrate well throughout the day and then stop at least an hour before you get in bed.

2. Minimize/Avoid Stimulants

• Avoid alcohol (wine, beer, and hard liquor) within 3 hours of bedtime.
• Avoid caffeine- beverages or foods after 4 pm; much earlier if caffeine sensitive (chocolate, Pepsi, Cola’s, Mountain dew, tea, coffees…)
• Avoid Sudafed or other decongestant cold medicines at night. These alter deep sleep during times when your liver and lungs need that sleep pattern.
• Avoid medications—read the fine print, many medications have stimulating effects and ALL sleep aides disrupt normal sleep wave patterns.
• Complete aerobic exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime; resistance training 2 hours prior.

3. Nighttime Tension & Anxiety

• Don’t watch harbingers of bad news before going to bed. No checking email, work, or even TV news channels—news sells on controversy; that’s just not relaxing.
• Create a family agreement that all arguments will be resolved or put on hold after 8PM. That doesn't mean ignore the disagreement—if it isn’t resolved by 8PM, agree to a time to return to the subject. For the rest of the evening, talk about things you enjoy or snuggle while reading your books.
• Avoid reading stimulating, exciting materials in bed—find yourself reading "just one more chapter" in that murder mystery? Until 1AM? ooops. Read a good, neutral, entertaining book. Hardcopy is best for sleep with a small reading light that just illuminates your book. If using a Kindle or iPad, set it to a dark background with light text. When your eyes start to close, let them close.
• Avoid paying bills, checking bank statements or finances or the stock market… before bedtime.
• Plan time to address any stressful life issues—honestly, schedule this into your day. Take a lunch break or other scheduled time specifically to deal with whatever is troubling you. If thoughts hang around for days, please tell me. There may be a nutritional situation holding the thought in place.
• Explore relaxing yoga or stress reducing mindful breathing exercises. Ask for ideas.

4. An Exercise to Fall Asleep or Return to Sleep

Restless? Use this exercise: Pull up an image of a pleasant memory. Holding that image there, pull up another location and image of another pleasant memory. Holding both of those there, pull up a third… keep going until you fall asleep or are holding eight of these for inspection. This works amazingly well on young children when parents use an encouraging voice: Tell them to "Get a picture of a pleasant memory. Good. Hold it there. Get another picture. Hold both there..."

Take a walk after dinner. Separate yourself from your day by taking a walk—then do a different activity that has nothing to do with the business of your day.

5. Disturbing Lights, Noise, Temperature, Other… ?

• Daylight starts before you are ready? Nighttime doesn’t end? Consider blackout shades or a dark covering over your eyes.
• Awaken early with recurrent thoughts? Write them in a journal. If this doesn’t work a nutritional imbalance or some form of toxicity may be holding those thoughts in place. Ask.
• Turn down any bathroom or room lights at least 15 minutes before going to bed. Use wall-plug night lights or dimmers.
• Close windows, use ear plugs, or use a white noise generator or a HEPA air filter to create “white noise” and block out random, unusual noise.
• Turn off or remove any appliances or clocks that make noise.
• Set the temperature of your sleeping area so it is not too hot or too cold.

6. Bedding & Pillows?

Don’t use electric blankets! Electromagnetic fields disrupt your nervous system and your cell’s energy centers (mitochondria). EMFs also stimulate secretions called biofims that let pathogens hide. Turn the TV off, the computer screen off, the music off… if you are sensitive, move clock radios, cell phones, computers and monitors at least 8 feet away.

Allergies? Replace your pillows with hypoallergenic pillows and mattress covers. Get correct pillows that support your head and neck and discard those old pillows and mattress.

Sleep on the highest quality mattress and bed linens you can afford.

7. Supplements & Therapies?

Talk to me. Please.

Any time you use any remedy without checking it on the body… well... that's guessing and guessing is costly. Don’t guess. Please. Let us use Nutrition Response Testing^® to build a program that handles any underlying problem so you can get some sleep, finally!

References:

Brown LK. Can sleep deprivation studies explain why human adults sleep? Curr Opin Pulm Med 2012;18:541–545.

Cincin A, Sari I, Oguz M, Sert S, Bozbay M, Atas H, Ozben B, Tigen K, Basaran Y. Effect of acute sleep deprivation on heart rate recovery in healthy young adults. Sleep Breath 2015;19:631–636.

Davies SK, Ang JE, Revell VL, Holmes B, Mann A, Robertson FP, Cui N, Middleton B, Ackermann K, Kayser M, et al. Effect of sleep deprivation on the human metabolome. ProcNatlAcad SciUSA 2014;111:10761–10766.

Frank E, Sidor MM, Gamble KL, Cirelli C, Sharkey KM, Hoyle N, Tikotzky L, Talbot LS, McCarthy MJ, Hasler BP. Circadian clocks, brain function, and development. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2013;1306:43–67.

Mukherjee S, Patel SR, Kales SN, Ayas NT, Strohl KP, Gozal K, Malhotra A. An Official American Thoracic Society Statement: The Importance of Healthy Sleep Recommendations and Future Priorities. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2015; 191(12):1450–1458.

Xie L, Kang H, Xu Q, Chen MJ, Liao Y, Thiyagarajan M, O’Donnell J, Christensen DJ, Nicholson C, Iliff JJ, et al. Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain. Science 2013;342:373–377.