As we are continuing this theme of Nutrition Gaps, I want to hone in on the very basic lifestyle gaps that impact our health and nutrition. We discussed Water last week, but this week I want to emphasize SLEEP. This is a key health gap many of us have deprived ourselves of, and has major impacts on our body’s overall ability to function.
Fascinating article all about how the understanding of “Sleep medicine” has evolved and how 2005 was a breakthrough year for the science of sleep. As we are entering into the cold/flu seasons, I hope this serves as a reminder to boost that immune system by simply taking the time to sleep.
This term “sleep medicine” couldn’t be more true and I don’t know why we have devalued sleep in our society. From experience, I personally know when I don’t get enough sleep, I get sick. So what is the best cure? Obviously, more sleep! So, before bragging about how you only got 4 hours the night before, first read through all the disorders that can come out of that lifestyle practice.
One article referenced, The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep,
describes that “Newer studies are strengthening known and suspected relationships between inadequate sleep and a wide range of disorders, including hypertension, obesity and type-2 diabetes, impaired immune functioning, cardiovascular disease and arrhythmias,mood disorders, neurodegeneration and dementia, and even loneliness.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6281147/
From John Hopkin’s article, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-science-of-sleep-understanding-what-happens-when-you-sleep
Another cool word you can add to your vocabulary is “brain plasticity,” and this is our brain’s ability to adapt during the day when we receive new inputs. Plus, sleep allows ample time for our brain to clean out and remove waste products from our brain cells. Another interesting study is actually the impact of sleep on your metabolism and that every night of sleep lost makes you more vulnerable to pre-diabetic state. So, if you know you are stressing about your weight, make sure you are getting the proper amount of sleep to restore your metabolism. In college, I was horrible about getting enough sleep. I would only get 4 hours of sleep (& yes I did brag about it) BUT I really struggled with managing my weight. Of course, once I returned home for the winter holidays, I took extra time to sleep and just within a week of being home I would lose 5 lbs. Not only is sleep powerful medicine for our body, but also the mind.
From a mental health perspective-The University of Oxford has a great resource written by Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience who describes tackling our mental health and how sleep could be the key. He uncovers the internal biological clocks which are hard wired from our genomes and why understanding the genetic and biochemical basis of mental illness will be drastically improved from proper sleep medicine.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/why-sleep-could-be-key-tackling-mental-illness
One last thing I want to emphasize about the importance of sleep is for Cycle Syncing.
Why is sleep so crucial especially before and during your period?
Transitioning with that biological clock, us as women need to also respect and listen to our bodies when we need more sleep. This typically occurs in our late luteal phase and is when our hormones dip, specifically estrogen levels decline significantly while progesterone levels rise. It is recommended that while your body transitions to this state, to prioritize 8 hours a night, drink enough water, and engage in some type of physical exercise, since movement is excellent medicine as well. (Source: In The Flo by Alisa Vitti).
Look forward to our next article: All About Sugar as we are gearing up the holiday season and focusing on how to find a balance with the tricks n treats.