A Guide to Sleep Hygiene…

Sleep hygiene is the practice of good sleep habits. This involves non-medical measures to set your body up for a good restorative sleep with no midnight waking and feeling refreshed when you wake in the morning. There are many factors that play a role in disturbed sleep and there are different kinds, insomnia is the medical term for habitual sleeplessness or the inability to fall asleep. Some people may be shift workers, have sleep apnoea, depression, anxiety or another form of chronic illness like heart disease or diabetes with insomnia as a side effect. The biggest cause of insomnia is stress. Many of us have high levels of stress with our busy lives, trying to read and reply to emails in bed late at night, work, study, family all can cause stress. So even if you aren’t diagnosed with insomnia you may be experiencing it on occasion, or even regularly.

It is so important that we get a decent night’s sleep with research suggesting 8 hours is ideal. Some people are ok with 7 or night but it should not fluctuate outside these numbers otherwise there are many risks to your health including weight gain, irritability, depression, anxiety, increased sugar cravings, increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, thyroid issues, reduced immune function, gut and liver issues, skin problems and an intolerance for stress that can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome. Sleep is our time to regenerate our cells and heal, without it we become very sick.

The following is a guide to developing good sleep hygiene. Start with one or two practices on the list and then develop your full routine

They say it only takes a couple of weeks to develop and be comfortable with a new routine so start slow adding a new practice every couple of nights or each week if you need.

Your sleep hygiene routine…

Step 1

Get to bed on time. It is important to train your body clock to start to go to bed at the same time every night and wake at the same time every morning. If you have been going to bed and waking at all different times throughout the week it makes it hard for you brain to wind down and get ready for sleep to you drift off easily and allow you to wake feeling fresh and ready to start your day. As soon as the sun goes down our bodies stop producing cortisol (our wake hormone) and begin producing melatonin (our sleep

hormone) if you are pushing yourself to stay up later because of that Netflix series you just have to finish the next episode, then levels of cortisol can start creeping up stopping the effects of melatonin and therefore keeping you awake. In the mornings, cortisol is the hormone that wakes you up and keeps you going for the day, that’s right you don’t need coffee, your body is already doing that for you. By hitting the snooze, you reduce your levels of cortisol and so when you wake up the second time you feel groggy and unrefreshed.

Step 2

Create a nice sleepy bedroom environment. This involves turning off lights and using candles or dim lamps that don’t emit blue or fluorescent light, turning off the television and electronic devices, putting the phone away and keeping it away from your bed and start to wind down. This should be done an hour before you plan to shut your eyes. Artificial light keeps cortisol secretion active in your body, by using natural and dimmer light sources you are minimising this effect. Our bodies are still programmed like our Neanderthal ancestors to go to bed when the sun goes down and wake when it rises. Unfortunately, we can’t often go straight to bed when the sun goes down and often work requires people to be up before the sun. Read a book before bed instead of watching television as yes, the T.V. is emitting unnatural light that is messing with your cortisol and melatonin. An app for your phone and laptop which replaces the blue back light with a warm yellow light can also help, Night tone is a good one.

Studies have shown that lavender essential oil if useful for inducing sleep with the added benefit of reducing anxiety so try putting some on your pillow or using a diffuser.

Step 3

Avoid alcohol before bed and excessive drinking. Whilst a glass of wine or two may make you feel sleepy and help you drift of, research has shown it is a cause of midnight and early morning wakefulness. That night cap is actually causing you to wake multiple times during the night. This is due to the diuretic effect of alcohol and also the effect it has on cortisol secretion. Alcohol also puts a pause on your liver’s detoxifying and restorative processes during sleep, so healing and repairing takes a lot longer and you will wake feeling unrefreshed aka hangover!

Step 4

Avoid caffeine after midday. There are many conflicting studies on caffeine consumption but across them all one thing is clear, if you are sensitive to caffeine then it will affect your sleep. To be safe it is suggested to avoid excessive caffeine consumption in general however 2 cups per day is acceptable. The time of day is where it can start to affect your sleep. The half-life of caffeine is up to 8 hours and so if you are having that 3pm pick me up it is going to keep you awake until at least 11 o’clock at night! This is again due to cortisol secretion as caffeine is a stimulant of this hormone's release.

Step 5

Exercise regularly. Exercise is incredibly good for the body and among all the benefits, improved sleep onset and maintenance are only 2 of hundreds! Exercise releases endorphins and dopamine, these are feel-good neurotransmitters and help regulate cortisol. Doing just 30minutes per day of exercise can have benefits on your sleep however, it is important to not do an intense work out just before bed, something like gentle yoga and stretching would be ideal. Yin yoga practice before bed has been shown to improve sleep quality and improve muscle tightness and pain.

Step 6

Diet. Eating high saturated fat, processed foods and sugar is highly detrimental to your health however it is highly detrimental to your sleep as well! The cortisol and melatonin we have been talking about require specific dietary nutrients to be made by the body so they can have their effects. Tryptophan (an amino acid from protein), vitamins B12, folate, B6, C, D, magnesium, zinc and iron and cholesterol are all needed for the chemical reactions and as building blocks for these hormones. A balanced diet incorporating good quality lean meats and vegetable proteins (beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds), dark green leafy and cruciferous vegetables, berries, citrus, bananas and other fruits and a colourful array of vegetables including avocado and olives for healthy fats is important to ensure you are getting adequate nutrition for sleep! Consuming sweets before bed has been known to cause nocturnal hypoglycaemia which is a blood sugar drop in the night which causes a spike in cortisol, waking you up. To prevent this it is important not to have anything to eat in the 2 hours before bed, especially sugar. Consuming caffeine free herbal tea is a great way to stop the late-night sweet cravings, with passionflower and chamomile being great choices as they have sedative effects.

Step 7

Avoid long naps. Whilst it is fine to have a little nap if you are recovering from injury, illness or you might be a new mum and just have to sleep when you can, napping for longer than 40mins has been shown to disrupt your circadian rhythm (your flow of cortisol and melatonin). The ideal nap time is around 20-40mins.

Step 8

Reduce stress. This may sound like a big ask however there a many little things you can do each day to reduce your stress load and thereby reduce cortisol secretion. The mere thought of something stressful induces a cascade of hormones in the body that gets you ready to run from a Sabre-Toothed Tiger (thanks to our ancestors!) we haven’t quite evolved past that yet. Breathing techniques like deep breathing, Wim Hof method and kundalini are great ways to stop the stress response. Also taking a short peaceful walk to clear your head, yoga, meditation, reading your favourite book, positive affirmations, taking a bath, getting a massage or a facial are all ways to reduce your stress. Keeping a journal is also another great way to get a handle on your thoughts and also your sleeping patterns. Try writing down your thoughts and learn which ones to give weight to. Often, we create stressful scenarios in our heads that are unrealistic and we stress for nothing, writing it all down gets in out of your head so you can see and analyse it clearly. Keeping a sleep diary also makes you more aware of triggers that influence your sleep so you can work on them.

Step 9

Quit Smoking. Nicotine, whilst being highly toxic to every tissue in the body, also affects sleep. Smokers sleep lightly and therefore miss out on that deep REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Smokers also suffer more respiratory related sleep problems and experience caffeine like withdrawals during the night as nicotine can be active in your system up to 14 hours. I like to think of this not as quitting, rather you aren’t quitting anything when you stop smoking, you are gaining so much! I have a lot of experience with this so reach out if this is something you’re tackling by clicking here

There you have it!

After implementing these steps I hope you experience restful and peaceful sleep for years to come!

Love Lis x

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