Are you getting enough sleep?

Every one of us has an internal body clock that regulates our daily sleep – wake patterns. It governs the release and timing of most energy, mood and sleep related hormones. One of the biggest obstacles facing people who are trying to change the way they look and feel is getting them to understand the importance of getting to sleep on time.

For many people their lifestyles, work hours, living conditions and health don€™t allow them to get the correct sleep-wake signals anymore.
When we don€™t get these correct signals, our sleep – wake patterns suffer and we are left with disrupted sleep patterns, leading to our body becoming stressed from the release of hormones at incorrect times in the day.

Many of our hormones are produced in tune with the cycle of the sun. When light stimulates your skin or eyes, regardless of the source, your brain and hormone system thinks it€™s morning. Cortisol is a stress/activating hormone, and is produced as the sun rises and peaks around mid-morning. As the day progresses these levels decrease, allowing the release of melatonin and it then begins to increase production of growth and repair hormones.

Physical and Psychological recovery

We get our physiological recovery between 10pm and 2pm and our psychological and nervous system recovery between 2am and 6am.

If you are getting into bed at 12pm on a regular basis it means that you are missing two hours a night of your physical recovery. This can result in all sorts of aches, pains and niggles not getting better because your body is not getting full recovery time. Having the TV, computer and a brightly lit house in the evening will also keep levels of stress hormone high past sundown. Since cortisol can take hours to clear from the blood stream, it will prevent the normal release of melatonin, growth hormones and important immune factors, which will cut into your immune systems valuable repair time. Refer to the charts below for more details.

When our bodies are healthy we can get away with the odd late night here or there without affecting us too much. However, when we abuse our sleep times on a regular basis, this becomes a major stress to the body, upsetting hormonal balance and causing adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue presents itself in any number of ways, including chronic fatigue syndrome, viral infections, bacterial and fungal infections and headaches. To overcome fatigue it€™s very important to respect the sleep €“ wake cycle and allow your adrenals to rest.

Stress = risk of disease

When the body is under stress of any sort, the immune system suffers€¦THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS!

Sometimes we cannot change our sleeping situation, for example, shift workers or parents with new babies, so in these situations it is important to look after yourself in all other areas of your life to reduce overall load.

Our bodies crave and need regularity in all areas of our lives and this is not just related to sleep. Our bodies thrive when we have regular eating, sleeping, hydration, exercise and other important life principles. If we have the required regularity then our systems will be in time with our body clock.

Tips to assist you in getting quality sleep

Some things to optimize your sleep €“ wake cycles are:

• Getting to bed on time, minimizing late night TV and computer usage. Try dimming the lights or using candles if possible. Soft music, reading and deep diaphragmatic breathing will also be a huge help.
• Avoid consumption of stimulants after lunch and try to improve your diet to avoid blood sugar levels dropping.
• Exercise! Some type of exercise will actually help you sleep better at night. However, try to avoid high intensity activity late at night, as this will also increase cortisol levels, making it harder to get to sleep.