Sleep

The Fruitful Fifteen

Episode Outline/Takeaways

Cortisol stays elevated if you do not get enough sleep. Cortisol naturally goes down at night when you are sleeping. While we need cortisol for day-to-day functionality, we do not want it to stay elevated.

Elevated cortisol levels can lead to health problems like high blood sugar.

Sleep hygiene is a set of habits that you can build to help your body like using your bed for sleep only, avoid caffeine in the afternoon, limiting screen time, and getting physical activity during the day.

The light from screens can decrease your melatonin. When the sun goes down and it gets dark, your melatonin levels rise. The blue light from screens can slow down this process.

Getting morning light can help your circadian rhythms and help your body feel ready to wake up.

Simple steps like parking your car far in the parking lot and walking a little distance to get to work helps with both physical activity and getting sunlight to help your circadian rhythms.

Sleep schedule consistency is important as you can teach your body when it’s time to rest and wake up leading to better sleep quality.

Cool temperatures at night help you sleep and improve your sleep quality.

Hydration is important as dehydration signals can disrupt your sleep. Water is needed for your cells to repair, which typically happens at night. Limiting your hydration window to earlier in the day can help reduce restroom breaks in the middle of the night.

Naps can be beneficial if they are 20 minutes or less for a quick recharge, even if it’s just a “resting your eyes” recharge.

If you sleep longer, your body starts to get into sleep cycles resulting in sleep inertia occurring and disrupting your sleep schedule.

Keeping your caffeine intake to the mornings and cut out any caffeinated drinks after noon can help increase quality of sleep and reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep.

You can push through sleepiness to get that second wind feeling, but that is actually not good for your body. It means your melatonin has decreased which will affect the quality of your sleep.

Both quality and quantity of sleep are important.

Sleep helps with emotional regulation. Stress affects your sleep because your body is on high alert. This can create a cycle. Meditation, yoga nidra, sleep apps, and other methods can help break these cycles.

Yoga nidra is like the Shavasana part of yoga only and can help you fall asleep or reduce stress levels.

Having a wind down routine can help to signal to your body that it is time to go to sleep.

Using dim lighting at night can help signal to your body that it is night time. Using bright lights until bed time can fool your body into thinking it is still daytime.

Quality of television also plays a role in your sleep. Watching the news or anything that may activate emotions can make it harder to fall asleep.

Takeaways:

Sleep should be a priority for both physiological and psychological health.

Optimize your sleep hygiene.

Have a wind down routine.

The quality of sleep is just as important as the quantity of sleep.

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Corner Store Breakfast by Reasonforworry