Night Time Routines
As humans we were designed to sleep for a third of our day to function, as most humans require around 8 hours a night. This is because during sleep, many processes happen in our bodies to allow us to thrive in our waking hours. For one, sleep helps sort through memories and consolidates ones that are important and erases the ones that are not. Sleep also allows your digestive system rest and allows your body to use the energy that is usually spent breaking down food to repair damaged cells and breakdown precancerous cells. Sleep helps regulate appetite and studies have shown that people who are sleep deprived have increased hunger (especially for high carbohydrate foods) because the levels of the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin, get thrown off. Ghrelin is responsible for hunger and leptin opposes ghrelin to allow us to feel satiated. With consecutive nights without sufficient sleep, ghrelin levels increase while leptin decreases, leading to stronger hunger signals and an increase of overeating These effects can lead to weight gain and digestive distress in underslept individuals. Low sleep is also related to increasing insulin resistance, which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. With an increase in hunger (especially for carb loaded foods) and resistance to insulin, lack of sleep doubles your chances of metabolic disease! Lastly, lack of sleep can lead to increased inflammation, which is the root cause of so many diseases, aches and pains. So make sleep a priority in your life.
These are just some of the reasons why sleep is important and a night time routine can be clutch for ensuring you get a good nights rest. With all of the screens we surround ourselves with, it can be hard to wind down at night. The blue light from tv, computers and our phones tells the brain that it is still daytime and to stay up. These throw off our circadian rhythm and offset melatonin and cortisol levels in the brain. Cortisol should be highest in the morning and lowest in the night so you have energy to get up and go in the morning, but then are able to calm down and sleep at night. However, shift-work, exposure to blue light after the sun goes down and high stress can cause cortisol levels to be high at night and make it very hard for you to fall asleep. That is why a nighttime routine is key to calming the body and the mind for a deep sleep to get the circadian rhythm back in alignment and your days on track.
2-3 hours before bed
have your last meal or snack to allow the food to digest before hitting the sheets. If your digestive system has to be up working on food all night, it does not give your body a chance to rest. During sleep we do our “housecleaning” to get rid of dead or dying cells, however this cannot happen if energy is being used on digestion
put on blue-light blocking glasses
pour yourself a cup of non-caffeinated tea like chamomile, tulsi (holy basil) or peppermint. Adaptogens like tulsi can help you zen out and balance cortisol levels. Have your tea while you wind down but not too close to bed so you do not have to wake up in the night to us the bathroom
1 hour before bed
get into comfortable clothes (if you haven’t already)
supplement with magnesium for tight muscles and relaxation, if needed (consult a health care practitioner for supplementation)
wash your face and brush your teeth. If you're super on the ball, floss!
turn off all electronics and put your phone on airplane mode if you need to have it in the room
do a relaxation mediation or journalling exercise to get out all of the wandering thoughts that will be keeping you up at night
Bed Time
make sure to have no light or sound creeping in your room, ear plugs and a sleep mask can help
choose a blanket that is not too hot as it can interrupt your sleep due to overheating. You can also sleep with a ChiliPad or something similar that will help regulate your temperature and has shown to be especially helpful for women in menopause
choose a pillow that supports your neck without forcing it forwards and creating tension
if you need to relax even more, you can do a progressive relaxation of your body which I find works magic when you are having racing thoughts. Start at your feet and work all the way up your body slowly relaxing every muscle along the way. Start with your big toe, focusing on the top of your toe, then the bottom then move to your second toe and do the same thing all the way up your body very slowly. Chances are you wont make it to your hips before you’re out like a light.
Final thoughts
Allow enough time to have a night time routine without it cutting into your sleep time. The last thing you want to do is have stress about not doing all the things you wanted to do before bed, raising cortisol levels and making it even harder to fall asleep. Find what works best for you and stick with it. Our body and our lives work on routine and in cycles, so staying consistent will train your body when it is time to sleep and when it is time to wake up, which makes falling asleep and waking up much easier. Exercise is also a huge factor in sleep. Make sure not to exercise too close to bed as this can boost energy and heat production preventing relaxation. However, having a good workout in the day has been shown to reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep by decreasing anxiety and arousal. Exercise also increases the amount of deep sleep and duration of sleep, as your body requires more rest to repair and build tissues from exercise.
If you are really struggling with sleep there are a few herbs that can help calm the body and the mind and allow you to sleep deeply. However, these herbs are only to be used short term to reset the sleep cycle and then discontinue use to allow your body to get back on track. Melatonin is great for getting back onto your circadian rhythm as it is the hormone that controls this in the brain’s sleep-wake cycle. Melatonin is made from tryptophan just like serotonin, so if you are having mood issues and sleep troubles it is possible that you may be deficient in this amino acid or in protein in general. Other herbs and supplements to consider are valerian root, kava kava, chamomile, passion flower, L-theonine, GABA and 5-HTP. Talk to a health care practitioner for further advice on sleeping supplements as everyone responds differently and some herbs may not be suited for your situation.
Sweet dreams my friends.