Sleep is one of our foundational pillars for health, it supports our memory, our learning abilities, even our cellular repair, our energy levels are influenced by sleep, along with our bodies natural immune defences. Sleep also plays a vital role in our brain health to, including our glymphatic clearance – as we have a bio-directional relationship, healthy sleep strengthens our brain! And we know that a healthy brain helps support restorative sleep every day.
With today being “World Sleep Day” (March 13th), I thought it was an excellent opportunity to share some meaningful information with you about the importance of restorative sleep. So, what is restorative sleep?
Understanding Sleep & its Importance: Restorative regular sleep is critical for overall health and well-being. Getting adequate deep sleep is necessary for your brain and body to function and carry out the many processes required for maintaining health and functioning.
Most people spend about one-third of their lifetimes sleeping, with studies showing 33% of adults get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. A lack of proper sleep puts you at greater risk of many health conditions, including neurological issues, cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, mood issues, and a weakening of the immune system. Not getting enough sleep can even increase oxidative stress and damage your DNA.
The Natural Medicine approach to restorative sleep uncovers and addresses underlying factors contributing to poor or inadequate sleep. This approach can help you address contributing and resulting health issues and instill healthy lifestyle habits of greater well-being.
Common Sleep Disorders & Impact on our Health: High-quality sleep, is so important to our mind and body, so its really no surprise that a lack of sleep can impact many health issues. Some common sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, restless leg syndrome can seriously impact our health and quality of life.
Sleep apnea, can be life threatening sleep disorder that can be easily undiagnosed by our GP’s. Studies have shown that literally millions of people have sleep apnea, with some suffering without a diagnosis. Did you know that there are two (2) types of sleep apnea? One is known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which impacts many people, the other is Central Sleep Apnea which is less common and it arises from the brain itself.
Insomnia occurs when we have trouble falling asleep, or staying asleep, or we may experience constantly waking up during our sleep. It is quite common, with studies showing that it can affect around half of the population. When insomnia becomes long-lasting, or occurring around three (3) or more nights a week for a minimum of three (3) months, it can really increase your risk of many chronic diseases. It can cause depression, high blood pressure, stroke, dementia, obesity, even diabetes, insomnia also causes fatigue, excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired function throughout the day, plus irritability.
Another common sleep disorder that can directly impact our health in a negative way is Restless Leg Syndrome, this is a neurological condition that affects around 10% of the population. It is very disruptive to our sleep as it causes unpleasant urges to move the legs, and we believe that it is caused by a combination of both genetics and nutrient deficiencies such as iron deficiency.
As we can see, long-term lack of restorative sleep and sleep disorders really has a significant health impact on us!
Other Underlying Conditions affecting Sleep: Many conditions we have can also impact on our sleep, conditions such as anxiety, depression, stress, hormonal imbalances, long-term or short-term pain affects the quality & quantity of our sleep. Here is a great example for you, significant increases in mental distress is often associated with inadequate sleep, so we need to bring balance back into the body and improve our overall health to reduce this.
Our gut health is also a major factor in good quality sleep (or lack of), we literally have trillions of micro-organisms living in our gut which we call our microbiome, and this is an area that I particularly love helping people with! The microbes in our body, directly affects not only our health but also our circadian rhythm (our sleep cycles). When our balance of microbes is disrupted (known as dysbiosis), we can have a significantly strong negative impact on our sleep due to the circadian rhythm being out of alignment. The knock-on affect is quite amazing too, first the gut microbes send signals that directly interact with our genes that regulate our circadian rhythm, this then triggers and impacts the balance of our sleep hormones like cortisol, tryptophan and melatonin, and finally our sleep is disrupted because of the influence on our gut-brain axis. A whole series of events that we may be completely unaware off!!
To make it worse, our sleep is also disrupted from shift work (very common in my community), which creates stress and anxiety that can also throw off the balance of our microbiome in the gut! It really sets off a vicious cycle that directly disrupts sleep, reducing the effective function of our nervous system, and our immune system (no wonder so many are wired, worn-out & tired!).
Herbal, Nutritional & Natural Remedies for Sleep: As a Naturopath, we have the qualification & expertise in prescribing Herbal & Nutritional supplements to support our patients experiencing sleep disturbances.
Some of our botanicals can really help with symptoms of mild anxiety, reduce nervous tension in the body, soothe irritability, and even promote a sense of calm throughout the day. This would be ideal if you are experiencing daytime stress, irritability or tension that stops you from unwinding or falling asleep.
Or, if you have a lot of exposure to blue light from screen exposure, light sleep or night-time muscle tension, and need support to balance a healthy sleep pattern in the sleep-wake cycle. Specific herbs & nutrients can further support relaxation, muscle calmness & re-establish a healthy circadian rhythm for more restorative sleep.
Some of our most ancient herbs along with some more modern ones have the ability to help you fall asleep faster, and to stay asleep longer (Oh! that sounds like heaven!). Particularly great for the person who has racing thoughts at night-time, high levels of stress which makes it difficult to initiate sleep and then maintaining the sleep.
There are also Life-Style Modifications that we can bring into our lives to support a healthier sleep hygiene practices to help get more restorative sleep. One, is to make sure you have a good regular sleep routine, this will help to get the body prepared for and to settle into sleep. Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day to set your biological clock. Avoid bright light or blue light for a warm bath, especially with Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salts) and Lavender essential oil can also help to soothe the body & mind, plus it lowers cortisol levels.
It’s also really helpful to have & create what is known as a Sleep-conductive environment, so keep the bedroom dark, decrease any disruptive noises (wear ear-plugs!), use a white noise generator, an air-filter or very low relaxation music. Keep your bedroom at a comfortable temperature & sleep under bedding that can breathe by using natural fabrics like cotton, bamboo.
Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) is another sleep disturber, so try and keep your mobile out of your room when sleeping. Regular physical activity can help to manage chronic stress, plus it helps to sleep deeper, but timing can be important with exercise, studies show that most people have better sleep with aerobic exercise like cardio at least three (3) to four (4) hours before going to bed.
Also, make sure that your evening meal is at least three (3) hours before going to bed too, again, studies do show that eating early (before sunset) can help to digest some of the food and avoid bloating & those heavy feelings of being over-full.
And, if you find that your are having trouble falling asleep, or constantly waking, it may be helpful to you by not just laying in bed looking at the ceiling especially if it is taking you more than 20-30 minutes trying, instead leave your bedroom and go to a quiet, relaxing space to read, or do a mind/body practice like meditation.
When the brain is racing, and filled with so many thoughts, we really have to get them out of our head (preferrable before retiring for the evening), however, if you wake up like this then journaling is fantastic to record your thoughts, then talking things through with a mentor, trusted friend or even a professional counselor is a nice way to resolve any worries.
Sharon’s final thoughts: Sleep is crucial in so many ways in our day to day lives, as a Naturopath we have many tools in our kits to support anyone with a dysfunctional sleep pattern or disturbed circadian rhythm, so please don’t suffer in silence.
x Sharon
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