How do we get the best night of sleep?

Sleeping pills, melatonin pills, tranquilizers, and various other substances are now used by millions of people to be able to go to sleep. It’s reported that over 80 million people in America are having trouble with sleep which is seriously affecting the quality of their life. If you are one of those people, you must realize that it shouldn’t be that way and that sleeping should happen naturally. So, how do we get we get the best night of sleep?

Sleeping used to be more simple than it is today. Life has gotten faster, more connected and more hectic 24/7, and it’s harder to follow a circadian rhythm.

Circadian rhythm is a natural cycle which nature and humans have been abiding by for 10000 years. We used to rise with the Sun and went to sleep when it got dark out, like all the other creatures. There was simply no other option, and today that is a challenge for humans.

We are living in a world of constant buzz. Commercials, infomercials, emails, messages, and notifications are omnipresent. In a world like that, it takes conscious effort to sleep properly. And if you don’t have good night sleep, you are not the half the person you can be.

What does proper sleep mean? It means 8-9 hours of interrupted sleep, naturally, every day.

Of course, we can operate with less sleep, and many people do so on a daily basis. Some people even brag about sleeping less and being able to work more hours. Young, motivated people usually fall into that category. It’s okay to do it for some time, but it’s not healthy in the long run, especially if you are older and can’t recover that fast.

Two most common sleeping problems that we face today is falling asleep and staying asleep. It’s possible to have both issues, and each of them has different causes.

If you are having trouble with waking up during the night, more than likely it’s between 1-3 a.m., as it is the most common time of waking up. That’s an indication of your liver detoxing because that is when it is most active. Improving diet and eliminating toxins is a great way to battle this.

If you are waking up between 3-5 a.m., that indicates lungs issues. That's when we build up the immune system in which lungs have a huge role.

If you have trouble falling asleep, your first thought should be setting up the proper conditions to sleep. As it goes dark, we get a signal from eyes to the pineal gland which releases melatonin, and that makes us drowsy.

If it’s bright and light, your body shuts off the production of melatonin. Melatonin’s primary role in the human body is detox, so it destroys cancer cells, and that’s another significant reason to have a healthy production of it.

When you go to sleep, your room should be pitch black, without any source of light. It should be cool and quiet. Back in Neanderthal days, there was no source of light at night, and it was colder, there were no sounds, and people slept well. That’s the environment you should try to accomplish.

Shut down the heat in your apartment, and decrease cell phone use because blue light stimulates your eyes and shuts down production of melatonin, the same goes for LED lights.

LED lights are popular at workplaces, and if at your work you have LED lights, remember to walk outside the office for at least 20-30 min during the day to get natural sunlight to increase melatonin levels.

Develop healthy ways to fall asleep. If you are using alcohol to go asleep, you will often wake up because you will not produce melatonin and not go into REM (Rapid eye movement).

REM is when you restore and develop your short-term memory and the ability to focus. Lack of REM may cause anxiety, irritability and other cognitive shortcomings, especially if you are having prolonged sleep issues.

Some people are exhausted during the day, and they have a second wind of energy at night. That may be indicative of an imbalance in cortisol production and release in the body, which gives them energy and they become too wired to sleep. It’s a chance that there is adrenal insufficiency, and taking herbs such as Ashwagandha may help with that unwanted energy boost.

People who use marijuana to fall asleep claim that it’s the best sleeping aid and that they are sleeping like babies. While marijuana can have benefits with relaxing your muscles and have a soothing effect on the organism; it has other health risks, such as decreased grey matter in the brain, heart, and lung function.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has proven to have some health benefits, but you risk grogginess and reduced brain function the next day.

Some people use melatonin pills to fall asleep, and they justify that by saying it’s a natural hormone which we release anyway. While that is correct, you must realize that melatonin is not a sleeping pill and that it’s a hormone which simulates darkness, and there are some side effects like grogginess and headaches. You shouldn’t use it every day as a crutch to go to sleep, but for short-term use you shouldn’t have any problems.

Eating habits are also fundamental when it comes to proper sleep. Sugar and carbs interfere with sleep because sugar releases serotonin, the feel-good hormone. If we consume too much sugar, we deplete our reservoir of serotonin.

Since serotonin is a precursor of releasing melatonin, our sleep gets imbalanced.

The ketogenic diet (high fat, medium protein, low carb) has a positive influence on sleep because it has low carb and sugar consumption. Before you go to bed, it’s best to eat a good source of healthy fats, because fats are slowly digested, and when you're sleeping your body uses fat for fuel.

Carbs give us energy, and it’s best to eat them during the day because if you eat them at night, they will be the energy that we will not spend and it will be stored as fat in your body.

Vegan and vegetarians often develop sleep challenges, because they are eating more carbs. Eating meats (especially liver) is an excellent source of b vitamins and tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid, a precursor to making melatonin, and it’s prevalent in meat and eggs.

A derivative of bad sleep is stress, and managing it is extremely important. If we go to bed with smartphones, with work, and keep a busy mind – we are not going to produce melatonin. If your mind is stressed, because of a mind-body connection you will you twitch, twist and turn during the night, and it will cause you to wake up and have less quality sleep.

We should remove all electronic devices out of the room at least one hour before we go to sleep. Having TV, laptops, and smartphones in the bedroom will affect your sleep. As the old saying goes, we should use the bedroom for two things only, and they both start with the letter S.

Developing a breathing practice such as meditation will calm you down before bed, and it will have a positive impact on your stress levels.

For people who are always on the go and have much stress, Kava (organic, water-based) is a remarkable herb, to shut things off and unwind before bed.

Magnesium is another great supplement that is great for the overall function of the organism, and it will also help us stay asleep. Almost every adult lacks it because of the stress, sugar, alcohol and meat consumption, which double the rate of magnesium expenditure.

Try to go to sleep at the same time and to wake up at the same time, for your body to fall into a routine. If you have decided to improve your sleep maybe you will stare at the wall for some time before you get drowsy, but that’s ok, don’t reach for your smartphone.

It’s a process, and it takes discipline to develop healthy sleeping practices, but it is definitely worth it and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Subscribe to the podcast here- https://www.drbartprecourt.com/healthmadesimple

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/drbartprecourt/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/drbartprecourt/