Sleep
Mind Lesson Five: Sleep
IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP
Sleep is so important for rest, rejuvenation, recovery, hormonal health, mental health, appetite regulation and almost every other process in our body.
To work at our best, we must try our hardest to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. If you are training hard, or doing anything mentally taxing you will need even more sleep to recover!
WHAT IS SLEEP
There are two basic types of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep (which has three different stages). Each stage has specific brain waves and activity. If you are a healthy sleeper, you cycle through all stages of non-REM and REM sleep several times during a typical night, with increasingly longer, deeper REM periods towards the morning. The body tends to spend more time in non REM sleep earlier in the night, and our cycles tend to go deeper. Towards the morning our cycles are more shallow and contains more REM sleep. We want to try and maintain a quality rhythm with our sleep, so our body can maintain a healthy circadian rhythm and regenerate correctly.
Stage 1 non-REM sleep is the transition from being awake to sleep. During this short period (lasting several minutes) of relatively light sleep, your heartbeat, breathing, and eye movements slow, and your muscles relax with occasional twitches. Your brain waves begin to slow from their daytime wakefulness patterns.
Stage 2 non-REM sleep is a period of light sleep before you enter deeper sleep. Your heartbeat and breathing slow, and muscles relax even further. Your body temperature drops and eye movements stop. Brain wave activity slows but is marked by brief bursts of electrical activity. You spend more of your repeated sleep cycles in stage 2 sleep than in other sleep stages.
Stage 3 non-REM sleep is the period of deep sleep that you need to feel refreshed in the morning. It occurs in longer periods during the first half of the night. Your heartbeat and breathing slow to their lowest levels during sleep. Your muscles are relaxed and it may be difficult to awaken you. Brain waves become even slower.
REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. Your eyes move rapidly from side to side behind closed eyelids. Mixed frequency brain wave activity becomes closer to that seen in wakefulness. Your breathing becomes faster and irregular, and your heart rate and blood pressure increase to near waking levels. Most of your dreaming occurs during REM sleep, although some can also occur in non-REM sleep. Your arm and leg muscles become temporarily paralyzed, which prevents you from acting out your dreams. As you age, you sleep less of your time in REM sleep.
If you understand sleep better, you can see how important it is to have healthy sleep habits!
HOW TO GET BETTER SLEEP
Don’t have caffeine late in the afternoon - Caffeine affects the sleep cycle and stops you from getting into deep sleep which is where the best rest and regeneration occurs, it can also keep you awake overthinking
Nighttime Routine - Having a wind-down routine is a great way to prepare for bed. This routine may include other actions that are on this list, or just be the way that you shower, brush your teeth, set up your bed for sleep.
Turn off Technology - Try not to watch TV or be on your phone right up until bedtime. This can affect your ability to wind down, it’s very easy to spend a long time scrolling plus the light from the devices can mess with your internal signals to switch off and go to sleep. Try an hour before bed placing the devices off or away from your bed.
Drink Tea - Peppermint or Camomile tea can help to relax you before bed.
Meditate and Deep Breathing Before Bed - A great way to get into a parasympathetic (rest and digest) state before you go to bed is to do a legs up meditation and deep breathing before you hop in bed. See the Meditation and Mindfulness article for more details, but the idea is to lay next to your bed, with your head on a pillow and your legs up on the bed. Focus on deep, slow breaths into your diaphragm, you can also listen to binaural beats in headphones to relax.
Do a Body Scan - When lying in bed or doing a legs-up meditation, you can do a body-scan to progressively relax your body and let go of tension. Start with deep breathing, then slowly start from the top of your head and mentally scan down your body, relaxing the muscles as you go along.
Brain Dump - If you tend to get racing thoughts and an overactive mind at night, it can help to “brain dump” your thoughts, worries and ideas into a book, so it’s out on your head. If you are mulling, it would be a good time to practise some meditation and deep breathing to relax your mind and body.
Get to Bed on Time - Don’t sleep procrastinate, switch off and get to bed at a similar time each night.
Wake Up at a Similar time if possible - If possible, try and keep your bed-time and wake-time similar, to encourage a healthy circadian rhythm
Supplement - Some supplements can improve sleep quality and help you to wind down
Magnesium - Magnesium is necessary for every cellular process in the body, and magnesium helps muscles to relax. Taking magnesium is very beneficial before bed to relax the central nervous system.
ATP’s Cort RX - Cort RX has adaptogenic herbs that help to regulate cortisol (your stress hormone) which when high can throw off your sleep cycle
REFERENCES