How To Get A Good Night's Sleep - The MindBodyFood Institute

Have you ever been guilty of prioritising emails, phone calls, and messages over getting to bed at a decent hour?

Once you’re actually in bed, it’s very tempting to check your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok accounts.

Sleep deprivation affects a large percentage of the population and contributes to various health concerns. It’s hard to show up every day and be productive, effective and vibrant when you’re consistently lacking sleep.

According to Shawn Stevenson in his latest book, Sleep Smarter – a scientific look at how sleep impacts your mind, body, and performance – sleep is extremely valuable for a vibrant, healthy and happy life.

Sleep is known as the anabolic state. It’s the time that your body is secreting the most powerful, transformational hormones.

If you’re not getting adequate or optimum high quality sleep you’re not going to be getting the hormones to change your body fat and insulin sensitivity, nor produce the anti-aging hormones to keep you young and vital.

You also raise the stress hormone cortisol, increasing your risk of insulin resistance and causing havoc to your moods, energy, weight and cognitive function.

Stevenson writes that just one night of poor sleep quality can make you as insulin resistant as a Type 2 Diabetic!

He also delves deep into the latest research and cites several interesting studies.

One in particular took a group of high-performing executives through a series of tasks. The group were then taken through a deprivation of sleep process for 24 hours before retaking the original tests.

In their sleep deprived states, these busy professionals:

Made 20% more mistakes.
Took twice as long to do the same tasks.

There really is a difference between merely doing work, and being effective at it.

Melatonin is your primary sleep hormone, and at the opposite end of the spectrum to the stress hormone cortisol. Whilst cortisol is high, melatonin is low.

Around 10 pm your body goes through an energy transformation following a natural rise in melatonin that increases internal metabolic energy.

If you’re not getting to bed prior to 10 pm for this energy exchange to occur, your second wind might kick in and use up this precious energy instead of utilising it for repair to your exhausted body.

Workout after dark?

24 hour gyms have become convenient for night time enthusiasts. However, exercising too close to bedtime stimulates cortisol, which prevents melatonin from doing its’ night time repair.

Sleep with your phone beside your head?

Electronic devices emit electromagnetic fields that causes radiation to disrupt your sleep pattern. If when you tuck yourself in you’re still staring at a bright computer device, put that thing away!

The later you stay up, the harder you exercise in the evening, the more you expose your eyes to computer screens, the higher cortisol stays and the less able you are to get the quality rest, repair and hormone balancing sleep you need to function at your best, and keep you young, vibrant and productive.

Make your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary

Keep TV’s, phones and computer screens out of your room and start creating an atmosphere of calm, peace and relaxation at least 2 hours before bed.

Sleep well!

Featured image by Gregory Pappas on Unsplash.

Author:
Viki Thondley

Viki Thondley-Moore is an Integrative Holistic Counsellor, Brain-Based Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Mind-Body Somatic Practitioner, Wellness Coach, Meditation Teacher, Educator and Disordered Eating Specialist. Viki is founder of MindBodyFood and Founder/Director of the MindBodyFood Institute.