08/24/2023
Did you know that people who sleep less than 6 hours a night have double the mortality rate?
Despite the widespread knowledge of sleeps importance, many of us still prioritize other activities over getting enough rest…
Sleep is the shock absorber of your life.
It's important to view sleep as a crucial component of your overall health plan… just as important as your movement and your diet.
This means you get up at the same time every single day. Developing a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends, is essential for optimizing your circadian rhythm, which is your body's internal clock that regulates a host of physiological functions!!
We are rhythmic creatures, and our bodies function best when we establish a regular routine. Everything from our hormones and metabolism to our sleep and energy levels is influenced by our environment and its cycles. As such, we thrive on routine, structure, regularity, and predictability. Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule is an essential part of achieving and maintaining good health and weight management.
Another factor that very positively affects our circadian rhythm is exposure to light. When we wake up, the sun stimulates specific cells in our eyes, which signal the pineal gland to stop producing melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that promotes sleep, and it's essential for maintaining a healthy sleep cycle. When the sun sets, our brains start producing melatonin to help us fall asleep.
If you can, take a 5-10 minute 'break' from whatever you're doing to get outside and expose your eyes to the early morning sun when it comes up.
The morning sunlight serves a critical function in regulating our circadian rhythm. Once the melatonin faucet is turned off, our brains begin a countdown to start producing melatonin around 14 hours later. Therefore, if you stick to a consistent sleep schedule, your body will naturally start to produce melatonin at the same time each night.
Of all the sleep tips hacks out there the most important thing you can do to promote good sleep hygiene is to establish a consistent sleep schedule. Again, this means going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, regardless of your schedule. While it may be challenging to establish this habit at first, it will be well worth the effort.
When all is working as it should be, you should feel changing levels of alertness in the morning and day, and feel increasing levels of sleepiness as you get closer to bedtime. This is all good in and of itself since we all want good sleep, but this ALSO has a dramatically positive effect on physiological stress, moving you from overly sympathetic to less, and lowering and optimizing your cortisol circadian rhythm.
Over time, this reduces strain on your system so things can start to work the way they're supposed to and your body becomes more responsive to specific protocols/programming!
Sleep is medicine. If you feel like your operating system is slow… make sleep a priority for the next 2 weeks and see if that impacts your life and progress is a positive way!!
Susan
