Do you really get sleep?
- Sunday, 02 October 2011 10:58
Circardian Rhythms - the missing link to fitness
Considering you only get the physical benefit of exercise when you feed your body and rest it sufficiently to stimulate the rebuilding process, we thought this topic deserved a little more attention. Sleep is so incredibly, unbelievably important to your overall function, your physical repair, your psychological repair, your life! So here is a brief run-down on sleep and simple steps you can take to improve it.
Diagram 1 & 2: Paul Chek,'Eat, Move and Be Healthy'
The first diagram (from 'Eat, Move and Be Healthy' by Paul Chek) shows our natural sleep/wake cycle, with fluctuating stress and recovery hormones with the cycle of the sun. Stress activating hormones (the black squiggle) are produced as the sun rises and peak around mid-morning, which is an essential function that has kept us alive for millenia. The increased release of stress hormones should diminish as the sun goes down stimulating the body's recovery process with the release of growth and repair hormones (the white squiggle). Our bodies are designed to wind down from sunset until about 10pm when sleep and physical repair should begin. Psychogenic (psychological) repair takes place from about 2am to 6am.
The second diagram is unfortunately a more realistic sleep pattern for stressed individuals, with no real decrease in stress hormones until the head hits the pillow, meaning that you are robbing the body of its chance to recover. Although a healthy body can cope with intermittent circadian stress, long-term circardian stress often leads to depressed immunity, adrenal fatigue, illness, obesity and chronic fatigue. Sleep isn't a luxury, it's a necessity for physical and psychological repair.
Six simple steps to 'get' sleep:
1. Artifical Lights and TV: keep stress hormones low by dimming artifical lights to simulate a natural 'wind-down' to prepare our bodies for sleep. This includes dimming full spectrum lights, and minimising exposure to flickering lights from TVs and computers. TV shows that are stressful jack up your stress hormones as your body doesn't know the difference between a real and a percieved event, so watch something that makes you laugh!
2. Ditch the phones: Electromagnetic Radiation from things like your mobile phone can really mess you around, so why not try removing them from the bedroom and see if this helps your sleep.
3. No caffeine after 3pm: caffeine has a half-life of six hours, so if you take your last cup of coffee at 3pm, it will still be in your system at 6pm! You don't want to be jacked up when you are trying to rest.
4. Blood Sugar: Ok this is a big one. Big meals late at night will stop you from getting slow wave sleep as your body prioritises digestion over repair, so keep your evening meal small, and decrease your carb ratios. If your blood sugar levels crash in the middle of the night, this will stimulate your liver to release glucose to get back into balance, and also your adrenals to release cortisol which wakes you up! It would make sense then to make sure you keep simple sugars out of your mouth in the evening, and go for more protein and fat sources one hour before bed.
5. Get to bed by 10.30: This is the most basic, just get to bed on time. You may need to phase this in gradually, but it's a use it or lose it thing. Make time for exercise and not sleep, and you will find you just get tired, sick, fat and injured.
6. Drink plenty of water: Keep well hydrated by drinking filtered or mineral water throughout the day. Stay away from tap water!
For more information on sleep and how it affects your health, please get yourself a copy of 'Eat, Move and Be Healthy' by Paul Chek HERE or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to learn more about our services.
