The importance of sleep
how much sleep do you get?
World health Organization and the National Sleep Foundation both stipulate an average of 8hrs of sleep per night is required to function optimally. Alarmingly only 2/3 of adults in developed countries fail to meet this requirement.
understanding Why we sleep?
- Sleep helps to optimise all our major organs helping them function optimally and become detrimentally impaired when we don't get enough.
- Sleep strengthens and restocks the armoury of our bodies immune system helping us fight off sickness and disease.
- Sleep reforms the bodies metabolic state regulating insulin & blood glucose levels.
- Sleep increases our ability to learn, memorise and make logical decisions.
- Sleep regulates our appetite.
- Dreaming helps our brains process emotions.
What happens if we don't get enough sleep?
- Moderate reductions of sleep for as little as one week disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be diagnosed as pre diabetic.
- Increases appetite (impairs concentration, surpasses Leptin and increases ghrelin another hormone makes you feel full) making you want to eat more and more despite being full.
- Putting your body in a caloric deficit (dieting) without getting enough sleep is useless, typically most the weight you lose will come from muscle mass.
- Consistently sleeping less than 6hr per night severely impaired the immune system doubling your chance of getting cancer.
- Increased chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
- Limited sleep increases likelihood of coronary artery disease.
- Sleep disruptions exacerbates all major psychiatric disorders (Anxiety, Depression & Suicidality.)
what can you do to improve your sleep?
Make Sleep a priority.
- Sleep according to your circadian rhythm. Be consistent go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time, even on weekends.
- Athletes need more sleep 7-10 hrs of quality sleep per night.
- Sleep in a totally pitch black room, turn your room into a bat cave, use blackout blinds and tape over any LED lights with electrical tape.
- Sleep in a quiet room, turn off any electrical devices or use ear plugs.
- Reduce EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequency) Turn all Wifi and Bluetooth devices off, put your phone on airplane mode.
- Avoid taking stimulates after midday, Caffeine has a half life of 5-6hrs (if you have 40mg caffeine your body will process 20mg within 15-45mins but the remaining 20mg will take 5-6hr to eliminate from your system)
- Avoid blue light 1-2hrs before bed, (bright lights prevent melatonin secretion) turn all bright lights off before bed, use candlelights or swap bright LED lights for red lights no TV or Mobile Phones. Blue light blocking glasses will help if it's hard to avoid.
- No Children or Pets in Bed, a slight move or noise can disrupt DEEP or REM sleep.
- Supplements that may help sleep include; Melatonin, Magnesium, GABA, 5-HTP & CBD Oil.
Stress how to monitor & manage
title 0
title 1
Monitoring stress
Within our
HRV (HEART RATE VARIABILITY) IS A BIO MAKER USED TO MONITOR STRESSORS WITHIN DAILY LIFE.
HRV IN A NUTSHELL IS THE LENGTH OF TIME BETWEEN EACH HEART BEAT. THE MORE STRESSED YOU ARE THE LOWER YOUR VARIABILITY, THE LESS STRESSED YOU ARE THE HIGHER THE VARIABILITY.
HRV (HEART RATE VARIABILITY) IS A BIO MAKER USED TO MONITOR STRESSORS WITHIN DAILY LIFE.
HRV IN A NUTSHELL IS THE LENGTH OF TIME BETWEEN EACH HEART BEAT. THE MORE STRESSED YOU ARE THE LOWER YOUR VARIABILITY, THE LESS STRESSED YOU ARE THE HIGHER THE VARIABILITY.