As we go back into the UKs 3rd lockdown I keep hearing of people who are struggling to sleep, stress is at an all time high[i] which is completely understandable given the current world situation. When we are stressed, our sleep is often one of the firsts things that goes amiss, but sleep is so important as this is when our body heals itself[ii]. Sleep and gut health are the two things I always first try to improve in clients as this will have the greatest impact on the body’s healing process.
So how can we try to create a good night’s sleep, when we are lying in our beds, tossing and turning or waking early and unable to go to sleep? There may be some underlying issues driving what is going on, which would need thorough investigation by a health practitioner but here is a starting point that you can easily do at home. You are looking to try to bring your circadian rhythm back into a natural pattern, to lower cortisol production, as you cannot create melatonin if your cortisol is still high. A healthy circadian rhythm has the body create a higher amount of cortisol around 8am in the morning and then that will slacken off during the day to be lower at 8pm in the evening, cortisol should then stay low through the night only rising again in the morning to be at its highest by around 8am. If this patten is unsettled it maybe hindering melatonin production or causing you to wake in the night.
During the day
- Wake by 7am and make sure that you open the blinds straight away. Don’t lie in bed snoozing no matter how tired you are.
- If possible step outside within the first 30 min of waking and get some fresh air.
- Balance your blood sugars through the day, an imbalance here can cause you to wake in the night. Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper is very true! Make sure you are getting enough protein and enough healthy fats in your diet to bring balance to your blood glucose control. Reducing your sugar and caffeine intake maybe key.
During the evening
- Make sure you do not eat too late, by not eating later than 7pm you will have given your body enough time to digest before you lie down to go to bed.
- Try not to bath yourself in artificial light from screens – this light stops the body from creating melatonin. Try not to look at a screen at least 1-2 hrs before bed.
- Create an evening routine – make sure you are doing the same thing every evening, in the same pattern. You will eventually trick your brain, so that when it hears the sound of the kettle, smells the tea, the sound of the bath running, that it knows bedtime and sleep is on its way and it will start to make melatonin to aid your journey into sleep.
- Switch on the kettle
- Make a cup of your favourite relaxing evening tea (herbal; no caffeine – camomile, lavender, lemon balm, passionflower, valerian)
- Make sure you have low lights, preferably red or orange in the bedroom, switch them on before your bath so that when you enter the bedroom there is not bright light. Our penile gland that makes melatonin is stimulated by bright light.
- Have a bath with magnesium salts in it, or if you don’t like your bath have a foot bath with magnesium salts for 20 min whilst drinking your tea. Magnesium relaxes the nervous system and helps us to shut down for the night.
- Go to bed and only read relaxing books, nothing to stimulating.
- Do some meditation/deep breathing exercises in bed before sleep – this is proven to lower cortisol.
- Make sure you are going to bed well before midnight. The old saying “an hr before midnight is like 2hrs after midnight” is very true.
During the night
If you wake in the night have your tool kit ready to activate:
- Breathing exercises or a mantra that you can repeat can help to calm the mind and remove those racing thoughts.
- Try not to switch on a bright light to go to the toilet as that will wake the brain.
- Make sure your windows are blacked out so there is not streetlight or moon light entering the room as that can also wake the brain.
- Find some ear plugs that are comfortable and use them so small noises do not disturb you.
It is up to you to create your evening routine, I can only give you suggestions as above, but these have all been shown to work overtime to trick the brain into wanting to go to sleep, as we know sleep is the best healer!
If you are still struggling to get to sleep and want to look into this on a deeper level seeing a nutritional therapist who can assist you is working out why, what is the route cause, is there something missing from your diet, do you not have the right nutrients to create the neurotransmitters needed for sleep. Is your nervous system in need of support. Is it your digestive system keeping you wake at 4am?
Here’s to restful sleep for us all.
[i] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/01/covid-antidepressant-use-at-all-time-high-as-access-to-counselling-in-england-plunges