7 Tips For An Amazing Night Sleep
Obtaining good quality sleep is one of the most important factors in overall health.
Sleep is when we do a lot of our healing - mentally, physically and emotionally.
Having a good sleep routine may be easier said that done especially for people who work shift work, have young children or have snoring partners in their bed.
Sleep hygiene means having both a bedroom environment and daily routines that promote consistent, uninterrupted sleep. Improving sleep hygiene has little cost and virtually no risk - just a bit of motivation and changes of habits.
Light & Your Circadian Rhythm
Light is a very powerful guide for your body. The connection between our eyes and brain’s timekeeper is an integral part of our circadian rhythm. Light rays hit cells in our eyes and send signals to our brain to tell us if it is day or night.
Thinking about this via evolution, as humans we used to spend a lot of time outside, where we would wake with the sunrise and wind down for sleep with sunset. If we were awake at night time, we would receive light via fire which is a different type of light (red light) than you get in the middle of the day. Who else feels super relaxed and has the best sleep when you go camping?
So even though our daily lives have changed and we are inside more with synthetic “junk” lights in our faces all the time our body is still supposed to be regulated by the sun.
Blue light is everywhere - it comes from the sun, electronic devices, and fluorescent and LED lights. Blue light can be a good thing, exposure during the day wakes you up and makes you more alert, and can even improve your mood. Lack of blue light can cause Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
The issue now though is that newer artificial lights like LED and fluoro light bulbs don’t contain most of the infrared, violet, and red light that is found in sunlight and therefore instead increase the intensity of blue light to a level that our bodies don’t handle too well all the time. This is known as “junk light”.
You are bombarded by this light at work un fluoro lights, on your phone, on your computer, in front of your TV, and all of this blue light is affecting your melatonin production and in turn affecting your sleep.
Normally, the pineal gland in your brain releases melatonin a couple of hours before you normally go to bed. Although blue light can mess with this process and therefore make you feel less sleepy - so then you go on your phone scrolling for longer and getting less sleepy.
My top tips for getting an amazing night sleep
Reduce “Junk” Blue Light
Blue light after the sun has gone down tells the brain that it’s still the middle of the day. This causes your melatonin (sleep hormone) to not be produced and therefore disrupts your sleep cycle.
Blue “Junk” light can come from:
Mobile phones, ipads, tablets, laptops, desktops, TV’s, fluro lights, e-readers.
The best way to reduce exposure to blue light at night time is to not use these devices after the sun goes down. Or at least 2 hours before bed time.
Try reading a book, playing board games, doing a puzzle, art, yoga - it creates space to find new hobbies as most of us spend way too much time on our screens anyway!
Use Blue Blocker glasses
To reduce the exposure to the blue light off screens at night time you can opt to use some blue blocker glasses. This will block the blue light but the stimulation of being on screens can still affect the sleep cycle regardless. You can also use red light filters on all of your devices.
My favourite brands:
Gunner & Baxter Blues. You can also get blue blockers put onto prescription lenses at some optometrists now as well.
Watch the Sunrise & Sunset
To wake up with more energy and to sleep better - red light therapy is an amazing way to achieve this.
The red light you get from the sunrise and sunset - especially getting it direct on your face and in your eyes can help your circadian rhythm significantly. The sunlight needs to be directly from the sun and not going through glass (not through windows or glasses) to get the most benefit.
Watching the sunrise and sunset helps your body clock and is also a beautiful daily ritual.
If you are a shift worker, getting sunlight on your face and in your eyes is essential when you wake up to start your day - no matter what time that may be. It tells your brain that now we are awake and functioning.
Also another hack if you are a shift worker is that you can buy a red light to bask in when you wake up to trigger the same response that morning light does. Something like these Infraredi ones are amazing.
Black out your bedroom
Reducing light in your bedroom is essential to have a good nights sleep.
For shift workers this is even more essential as you may be sleeping during the day when our body is thinking it should be awake.
Using an eye mask and black out blinds in the bedroom is a great start.
I love the Princess & Pea Silk eye masks as they are low tox and have a nice pressure on the band.
Interestingly, pressure on the temples with the eye mask & using ear plugs has be shown to increase sleep quality & melatonin production.
Meditation
Meditation has so many health benefits but one main one is overall sleep improvement. There are many research articles supporting this, but overall meditation has been shown to:
I could post so many research articles with relation to meditation and its health benefits but if you need help learning how to meditate please use an app like Insight Timer, Headspace or Calm.
Use Calming Nutrients:
You need certain nutrients and cofactors to make enough hormones like melatonin, GABA and dopamine which all help your sleep and wake cycle. Assisting that can help your sleep quality.B6
Zinc
Magnesium
Pathway of melatonin synthesis, nutrient influences on pathway enzymes, and proposed actions of melatonin in the body. Adapted from Peuhkuri K, Sihvola N, Korpela R. Dietary factors and fluctuating levels of melatonin. Food & Nutrition Research. 2012;56
7. Nasal breathing
Disturbed breathing and disturbed sleep go hand in hand. It’s actually difficult to snore when you are breathing through the nose slowly and gently. As the air moves faster through the airways, more turbulent airflow happens and there is a drop in air pressure. Snoring can be the first alarm of obstructive sleep apnoea and research suggests that snoring is one of the factors of sleep depravation. Snoring can be reduced when someone can learn to breathe more gently and smoothly while awake which leads to a habitual change in breathing patterns during wakefulness and during sleep.
Did you know that our nose was perfectly designed for breathing (not our mouths). Our noses are perfect filtration and humidifying systems, and you cannot “over-breathe” through the nose like you can through the mouth. Our nose is a perfect regulator of oxygen.
Signs and Symptoms of disordered breathing, mouth breathing and a sleep disorders include:
Dry mouth through the day and on waking
Thirst overnight
Excessive yawning
fast/heavy breathing
Erratic or irregular breathing
restlessness/muscle cramps at night / restless leg syndrome
Waking unrefreshed
Brain fog
Frequent sighing
Tendency to fall asleep in meetings & in front of the TV
Snoring / sleep apnoeas of between 10 seconds and 2 mins
Excessive breathlessness when exercising
My recommendations for all of the above: Buteyko Breathing Method
The Buteyko Institute Method of breathing retraining addresses dysfunctional breathing habits by using breath training exercises, education, awareness of posture, sleep positions and lifestyle behaviours that affect breathing. This method teaches people how to recognise their incorrect breathing patterns and habits and helps to improve breathing - one of our body’s most important tasks.
Breathing is the foundation of our mental and physical fitness
So why not do it properly
As always, for doses or specific recommendations, always consult your health care practitioner.
