Sleep Schedule Success
The solutions to your sleeping problems
There may be no greater frustration than not being able to fall asleep. We agonize over this because we all innately understand the vital importance of a good night's rest. Physical health, mental health, and most of all, performance are greatly diminished when we are sleep deprived. Your ability to function; at work, as a parent, as a student, as an athlete, in any human capacity, your brain and physical body need recovery to operate at an optimal level.
Especially when you look over at the clock and see it’s almost time to get up.
To simplify things, this article will focus specifically on the three (3) most important factors I think are most crucial to setting yourself up for a good night's sleep.
In my nearly twenty (20) years as a health coach, I see patterns repeat themselves, and I also see what solutions are truly the most effective to helping those people. Working with student athletes, busy parents who work full-time, and retired seniors, has given me a broad scope to really assess the situation.
With each group, the commonalities are quite clear : the main culprit to a horrible nights sleep seem to generally arise from three (3) common problems.
1. Sleeping In The Dark
Sounds obvious right? Too many people have more lights on in their bedrooms than they realize and it’s harming their sleep. First of all, this directly includes screen time. Watching tv in bed to fall asleep is a bad idea. Unfortunately, many people have swapped phones and tablets for the tv, increasing blue light absorption (horrible for sleeping) and creating more strain for your eyes.
There was a fascinating Cornell University study conducted by Dr. Stevenson, where a subject slept in a dark room but had a light the size of a quarter shone behind the person’s knee.
“That was enough to disrupt the sleep cycle,” says Stevenson. “You have photoreceptors in your skin, so your skin picks up light.” Interestingly, moonlight doesn’t have the same effect, but streetlights or a neighbor’s porch light beaming in through your window can hurt sleep quality or keep you up.
“Get some blackout curtains,” says Dr. Stevenson. “Turn off all electronics or cover them up so your room becomes as much of a cave as possible.”
Again, this would seem obvious, but too many people have yet to embrace the darkness.
2. Consistent Bedtimes
Experts, like Dr Stevenson all suggest going to bed between 9pm and 11pm. That’s the ideal window for most people physiologically speaking, as we solar powered beings, and vice versa get a boost from the lunar cycle when it comes to sleeping. The body experiences a natural drop in core temperature to facilitate sleep during that period, and it increases enzymatic activity that helps repair the brain and tissues. Science does not lie.
If you stay up past that time, those enzymes can be used to keep you awake rather than for recovery. That’s why often you can get a second wind right before you go to bed, which makes you feel like staying up and watching TV. By establishing a pattern—ideally, going to bed and waking up at the same time on a daily basis—you train your body to shut down when you want to sleep and wake up when it needs to. We program ourselves for better or worse. Take control of your programming.
3. Eating to sleep better
“The gut-brain health connection is huge for sleep quality,” says Dr Stevenson. “Everything you put in your belly is influencing melatonin production, storage, and utilization.” By eating more of the foods that contain the precursors of sleep hormones, you can improve your ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and enjoy higher-quality rest. We are what we eat.
One of my absolute favorite sleep aides is cold-pressed cherry juice, which is a natural source of melatonin. I usually simply add an ounce to my greek yogurt smoothie daily. Food wise, meats like turkey & poultry contain tryptophan. Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin, which is a precursor to melatonin. Eggs and fish are higher melatonin-containing food groups in animal foods, whereas in plant foods, nuts are with the highest content of melatonin. Some kinds of mushrooms, cereals and germinated legumes or seeds are also good dietary sources of melatonin.
Want some meat-free options? Hemp Seeds contain many of the same sleep boosting properties along with green leafy vegetables.
Goji berries have the highest concentrations of melatonin and the third-highest antioxidant capacity of any common dried fruit—five times more than raisins and second only to dried pomegranate seeds.
Final thoughts.
Your bedroom should prioritize sleeping !!
Try to watch your shows in the tv room, without snacking after dinner, and without drinking. Make sure you exercise daily, even if just getting 10k steps (approximately 2 miles walk on average) and a light stretch afterwards. That daily walk can also combine with another huge factor in your sleep quality, getting morning sunlight. Humans must get sunlight daily, (yes even on a cloudy day) and breathing at a zone 2 heart rate (walking pace) daily. Lastly, just start setting concrete times. Turn off all electronics by 10p, and set your alarm for 630a daily, no matter what.
My last tip. Your morning routine, and bedtime routine, go hand in hand. If you wake up, hydrate yourself, get some sunlight, & movement, all before starting work, the odds of a successful bedtime routine increase substantially.
