Don’t take sleep for granted

From jet lag to new babies, and from noisy neighbours to bad mattresses, there are many things that can interfere with a restful sleep. But beyond that groggy feeling and zapped energy, recent studies have linked sleep time and quality to food cravings and weight gain/obesity, increased risk of chronic disease, poor cognitive performance, among many other negative impacts.

Sleep is the time our body runs in its parasympathetic nervous system to regenerate and repair, so regardless of the main concern, in any naturopathic assessment sleep duration, quality, and how we feel in the morning, are all key areas that are examined. Unfortunately, many people have settled for sub-par shut-eye. And I can’t blame them, because many of our conventional sleep supports have side-effects or don’t deliver a great result.

When we examine sleep, more than just number of hours are looked at. We assess someone’s routine and habits before bed, what time they’re going to bed, what time the light is turned off; how long it takes them to fall asleep and whether they stay asleep. Are they waking often? What happens when the wake up — are they able to go back to sleep easily, does their mind start racing; do they wake up early and feel ready for the day but it’s still early in the morning; do they wake naturally or wake with an alarm; how do they feel getting out of bed; do they need coffee or tea to function and get energy?

All of these factors are important, because from a naturopathic/functional medicine approach, many are treated in different ways.

Beyond the sleeping pill

The fundamental basics to a good night’s rest are known as sleep hygiene. Our body’s hormonal system works on a circadian rhythm, where our hormones are secreted according to an internal clock. Since we don’t have a built in digital alarm in our brain, our body uses cues from our sensory perception system to help run and organize the show. Following good sleep hygiene ensures that we lay a foundation to help set this internal clock. The basics being:

–Aim to go to bed at the same time every day. This might get boring, but our body loves routine. Consistently going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is one of the most important things we can do to set our internal rhythm.

–Avoid stimulants like caffeine later in the day. Ideally, we shouldn’t be having these things out of habit — if we need them daily to keep us going, then there are other areas that should be addressed.

–Avoid screens within an hour of bedtime. This is a very common cause of disturbed sleep. The blue wavelength of light that is emitted from flat screen televisions, our tablets, computers and smart phones has been found is disturb our melatonin production and secretion. Melatonin is the hormone that our pineal gland makes to signal our brain that it time to sleep. When the blue light hits our retina in our eye, it tricks our brain to think it is from sunshine and throws our system off balance. There are apps and programs that add an orange filter to the screen can help minimize this effect.

–Sleep in a room that is completely dark. Use blinds or black out curtains if necessary.

–Don’t drink alcohol before bed. Some people use alcohol to unwind in the evening, which it is helpful for. But alcohol can cause our blood sugar to dip later in the night. Our body will wake us up when our blood sugar dips and we can have a hard time falling back to sleep.

–Take time to unwind. Journaling, taking a bath, listening to relaxing music, reading a real book, or having a cup of herbal tea can all work to soothe our nervous system and prepare us for sleep. If work or life stressors are hanging around, these can often come up at night as we lay awake and worry. Taking time to settle ourselves down is important.

A simple parasympathetic nervous system reset: Square-breathing exercise

Deep breathing, into our “belly” rather than our chest makes us engage our diaphragm. As this happens, it helps to stimulate our vagus nerve, our key nerve for our parasympathetic system.

Inhale for a count of four. Hold with full lungs for a count of four. Exhale for a count of four. Hold with empty lungs for a count of four — repeat 10 times. When you become comfortable with deep breathing, you can increase the time from four seconds to whatever works well for you.

This is a very simple yet effective exercise for calming our mind and nervous system. If your mind wanders, restart.

This column is not intended to provide medical diagnosis or treatment. Do not stop the use of any prescribed medications without discussion with your prescribing physician. If you have any health concerns, please see a health care practitioner.

Dr. Tara Lantz, ND is founder of South Shore Naturopathic in Mahone Bay and has a practice that extends from Halifax to Yarmouth. Dr. Lantz takes a functional medicine approach and incorporates counseling, coaching, bodywork, and acupuncture into her naturopathic practice. Visit her online at www.drtaralantz.ca.