Is Poor Sleep Affecting Your Life? Let's take a look at causes and effects of insomnia

Today is World Sleep Day, and the aim is to celebrate sleep and draw attention to the effects of poor sleep on our health. 
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Sleep is arguably just as important as diet and exercise. It is crucial to optimum health and without it, we can’t be healthy. 

The amount we require varies from person to person, but most people need between 7-9 hours.  

Women are often afflicted with poor sleep from time to time, but this can worsen when we hit our 40’s and beyond, due to many factors, but often related to… yes you guessed it… our hormones.  
 
Here are some of the factors that can affect sleep:

• Chronic Stress / adrenal fatigue (disrupted cortisol and melatonin hormones)
• Sleep Apnoea
• Certain medications
• Alcohol 
• Stimulants, often caffeine 
• Poor diet leading to blood sugar fluctuations (which in turn affects cortisol)
• Eating too close to bedtime 
• Not eating enough throughout the day
• Hormonal fluctuations
• Using technology too late/screen use before bed
• Missing your sleep ‘window’
• Lack of sunlight exposure (vitamin D)
• Lack of exercise

 
Poor sleep can impact our health in many ways including:

• Low Energy
• Crave sugary foods
• Irritability
• Brain fog
• Raised stress hormone, cortisol
• Less motivation to be social 
• Higher likelihood of being sedentary (and its associated risks)
• Raised blood pressure
• Linked to T2 diabetes and obesity
• Linked to depression
• Higher risk of hypertension
• Higher risk of cancer
• Higher risk of mortality!

Ok, so that’s the bad news. So, if you suffer from poor sleep, what can you actually do about it? The key is to get to the underlying problem, so that you can treat that, rather than focusing on the symptom of poor sleep. 

1. Focus on Stress levels, what’s causing them to be high and what can be done to reduce them. If you think you have adrenal fatigue or issues with cortisol, get this tested by a private practitioner. Saliva testing is far more accurate than blood, and understanding your cortisol awakening response can also be important. A practitioner can help you with this.   
   
2. Think about when you wake up – Chinese medicine believes poor sleep is linked to different organs of the body. E.g. 11 to 1am is the gall bladder. 1 to 3pm is the liver so focusing on liver support would be a good thing to try. 3 to 5 is lungs, meaning this may be linked to respiratory issues/asthma
   
3. Eat a whole foods diet focused on blood sugar balance. Again, a practitioner who understands blood sugar can help you to get this into check. This is also critical to overall good health, and poor blood sugar is linked to brain fog, belly fat, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome. 
   
4. Avoid any blue light after 8pm. Blue light from TVs, computers and mobile phones can seriously affect your sleep, especially when used regularly over time.  
   
5. Maintain a natural rhythm – we all have a circadian rhythm and if you can work out what yours is, it will help. Go to bed same time, wake same time to regulate the body clock
   
6. Get plenty of exercise – this also helps to balance the natural circadian rhythm. 30 minutes every day, even if just walking on some days. But not too close to bed. 
   
7. Create an environment of darkness, as darkness triggers melatonin, our natural sleep hormone. Use black out blinds. Avoid devices after 8.30 and use amber glasses. Create a bedtime routine 
   
8. Wind down for 90 minutes before bed. Spend time reading, have a bath with essential oils, meditate. When you have chronic insomnia, you need to reset the brain and hormones. This can take time. 
   
9. Spend 20 mins outside each morning to get daylight. Even if it’s cloudy. Walk the kids to school, walk the dog, go for a run, do some exercise in the garden, or just have your cup of tea outside, even in the winter. 
   
10. Avoid night-time exercise as it raises cortisol levels too late in the day.  
    
11. Make sure you drink caffeine before noon and reduce the amount you consume in a day, especially if you are a poor converter (if you get jittery after coffee, you most likely are!). Drink herbal teas like camomile in the evening before bed. 
    
12. Avoid alcohol. Alcohol affects blood sugar and is a stimulant, plus puts strain on the liver, which is the main detoxification organ, which can then in turn wake you during the night. 
    
13. Try 100% pure grade certified essential oils. Lavender, wild orange, bergamot and vetiver are all known to have calming effects on the body and help with sleep. They can be diffused aromatically or put on the soles of feet.  ​
    

If you still aren’t getting relief, speak to a Nutritional Therapist, Naturopath or functional medicine practitioner to get to the bottom of it. There are lots of things you can do including taking certain related supplements. These can be prescribed after testing. 
 
Let me know if you have issues with sleep. What are you doing to help yourself? Have any of my suggestions helped you?