Did you know that reduced sleep can lower your ability to process energy while increasing your cravings for starchy sweets? In an American Council on Exercise article on Slow Metabolism, Tiffini Bachus, RDN explains that when we are sleep deprived hormones like ghrelin, leptin, and cortisol (responsible for hunger, fullness, and increased starchy cravings respectively) are thrown dramatically out of balance. In this state our bodies are primed to store fat. Before you reach for an over the counter sleep aid, try these natural solutions for good rest:
Expend Physical Energy
You may feel mentally exhausted at the end of your day but that doesn’t mean you have necessarily expended the appropriate amount of physical energy to promote good sleep. If you spend most of your day sitting, some sweat-inducing exercise that causes you to breathe heavily will likely help you get to bed earlier and stay asleep. Start with just five minutes of moderate-to-high intensity exercise.
Read a Book
Reading a good book is just enough quiet activity for the brain at bed time. If you’d like to read more about how good sleep can change everything, check out Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life by Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar.
Power Off
Store your portable electronics in a charging station, away from your bed, at least two hours before bed. The artificial light will trick your body into thinking there’s more day light and more to do. Yes, that’s it.
Get Up Early
The body operates on a 24-hour cycle called a circadian rhythm that resets each day when you experience daylight. All of the systems within the body are coordinated by this rhythm. When you rise with the sun your body’s systems are on their natural rhythm; processes like digestion, hormone production, skins cell repair, and sleep are optimized. Learn more about sleep and your circadian rhythm at hormone.org.
While these ideas are not novel, or part of a new trend, they are tried and true. Getting up early and having a bed time may not sound like a ton of fun but there is so much to be gained; beautiful mornings, more time, improved sleep, greater health, a smaller waist line, and a little more sanity. Give these a try and let me know how they work for you. If you’d like help improving your sleep, book your Health Coaching session now. We’ll take an organized and wholistic approach based on research.
Sources:
Hormone Health Network.”Sleep and Circadian Rhythm | Endocrine Society.” Hormone.org, Endocrine Society, 8 May 2020, https://www.hormone.org/your-health-and-hormones/sleep-and-circadian-rhythm