One of the eight elements of THE WHOLESTIC METHOD program is SLEEP!
As I have said often, each of the eight elements are equally important and if one element is out of alignment then the rest are impacted. In order to improve our health, performance and aging process, then we need to take our SLEEP seriously!
Why is sleep so important?
We should wake up feeling energized and ready to tackle the day but I often hear from clients that they can’t fall asleep or stay asleep plus take sleep meds before bed and often wake up feeling exhausted and perhaps grumpy! What side of the bed to you wake up on?
I know from my personal experience, SLEEP MATTERS! Especially after battling “adrenal exhaustion” since 2013 when I would be wide awake at 2AM every night and then stress out that I can’t fall back asleep and that my alarm was going to go off at 4:30AM for my work day! Ever since those horrible nights, I have taken my sleep seriously and even go to bed earlier than most people so I can wind down and prepare for a quality night sleep!
Before I go to sleep, I have a routine that I often follow during the week:
- Bathroom time: brush my teeth, floss and wash my face with scrub and more!
- Take my evening supplements including Megasporebiotic, Berberine or blood sugar supplement, IKOR or BioCBD Caps and sometimes when needed Melatonin (if feeling off my sleep cycle).
- Dim the lights and wear my Swannies blue blocker glasses to block blue light
- Set up the diffuser with sleepy time essential oils as Lavender and use essential oil sleepy time mix pillow spray
- Put the fan on and air purifier plus keep the window fan open or on low even in the winter to have the room cool to help lower core body temp
- Close the blinds and dark velvet curtains
- Read in bed at least 3 pages until sleepy
- No cell phone allowed in bedroom and make sure on Airplane Mode
- No eating 3 hours before bed (16 hour overnight fast)
- Use sleepy time yoga or relaxation meditation type of music on sleep timer (Sonos using Spotify) then turn off so no EMF in bedroom
According to research put together from one of my mentors Ben Greenfield in our KION COACHING program, sleep matters because while we are asleep…
- The body cleans up of our cellular waste occurs while we sleep (and when fasting) which helps with:
- immune function
- stress hormones
- appetite and blood sugar regulation hormones
- inflammatory hormones
- Our natural repair processes and housekeeping services do their job which helps with:
- growth hormones
- muscle repair
- exercise recovery
- immune function
How does lack of sleep or quality and consistent sleep impact your performance in sports and life?
- STRESS, anxiety and depression
- poor insulin use, blood sugar regulation and appetite control
- inflammatory TNF and IL-6 levels rise
- Growth hormone, IGF-1 and testosterone levels lower
- Inhibits anabolic (muscle building) process and recovery
- Immune T-cell activity spikes -compromising our ability to fight infection
- 11% faster time to exhaustion
- Reduction in cardio-respiratory capacity
- Increased probability to over-train
- Decreased lean muscle mass
- and many more factors!
My point is… SLEEP MATTERS and we need to make SLEEP a priority. How much sleep you need is related to genetics, activity and other factors- learn more from Dr. Breus of www.thesleepdoctor.com and find out your chronotype.
- Dolphin- 10% of the population (my chronotype but feel like a lion more!)
- Lions- 15-20 % of the population
- Bears – 50% of the population
- Wolves- 15-20% of the population
Also I have been learning lots from Dr. Satchin Panda in his book The Circadian Code. You can be a part of his study with the myCircadianClock app.
Stay tuned in for more sleep blogs as well as on my weekly show – The WHOLE Athlete if you want to burn fat, optimize health and improve performance in LIFE and SPORTS!
The WHOLESTIC Method Coach,
Debbie Potts
