It’s no secret that beautiful, regenerative, cleansing sleep is a foundation for good health and a happy frame of mind.
During these magical hours our bodies rest, repair, archive, ‘take out the rubbish’, and rejuvenate. All essential tasks for both mental and physical health and wellbeing.
If you’re experiencing sleep issues, you’re certainly not alone. More than a third of adults struggle with falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up feeling refreshed.
This means not feeling as great as we could throughout the day.
Not getting enough sleep can be frustrating, overwhelming, and exhausting.
Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Many of us just aren’t getting that.
The good news is that by working with your body’s natural rhythm, rather than against it, you can achieve long, restful, restorative sleep and wake up feeling rested, energised, and ready to sail through your day.
What are the risks of not getting enough sleep?
While one night with poor sleep isn’t the end of the world, over time a slow accumulation of sleep debt can impact the quality of your waking life and increase your risk of more serious conditions.
Sleep deprivation can affect your:
- Immune system
- Heart health
- Hunger signals and weight
- Memory and reaction time
- Energy levels and stamina
- Productivity and creativity
- Mental wellbeing and mood
- Focus
- Appearance
- Sensitivity to pain
Poor-quality sleep brings about changes to metabolic processes in the body including hormone and neurotransmitter disruption, cognitive function, insulin resistance, cardiovascular function, pro-inflammatory signalling, and reduced melatonin production.
Just because you can ‘get by’ with less sleep, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t feel better and operate optimally with extra hours!
Quality sleep helps us to:
✅ Re-energise
✅ Think clearly
✅ Be alert and react quickly
✅ Improve concentration and focus
✅ Make decisions
✅ Learn new skills
✅ Consolidate memories
✅ Support emotional regulation
✅ Support blood sugar levels and a healthy metabolism
✅ Support cardiovascular health
✅ Regulate our hormones
✅ Support our immune system
Circadian rhythms explained
Our bodies operate on a delicate internal 24-hour clock known as the circadian rhythm which runs our sleep, as well as energy levels, hormones, and even digestion.
When this sleep-wake cycle is working well, we feel alert during the day, naturally sleepy in the evening, and sleep is deep and restorative.
When our circadian rhythm is out of sync, nights are restless, 2am wake-ups are common, groggy mornings where it takes a monumental effort to get out of bed and get moving, and wired-but-tired afternoons are the norm.
Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythm, but what, and importantly when we eat, stress, physical activity, and temperature matter too.
Morning daylight helps anchor the body clock and helps set the stage for a consistent rhythm of cortisol and melatonin release. Cortisol should be nice and high in the morning, helping get us up and out of bed. Melatonin is our sleep hormone, released as darkness falls, gently nudging us to slow down and prepare for sleep.
The body thrives on rhythm and predictability.
11 Practical tips to get your rhythm back for a good night’s sleep and better days
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, including weekends
- Get morning light within 30 minutes of waking
- Get outside in natural daylight during the day
- Keep consistent mealtimes each day and don’t eat or drink anything in the 2 hours before bed
- Exercise/move your body daily, ideally earlier in the day
- Limit caffeine consumption in the afternoon
- Limit alcohol
- Dim the lights at night
- Limit screens in the hour or two before bed and stop late-night scrolling
- Keep your bedroom slightly cool
- Address stress with calming practices
Sleep and stress: ‘Locked out’ of deep rest?
There’s a lot going on in the world and our lives today that can leave us feeling uncertain, anxious, or with a busy, racing mind with a hefty load to process each day. All of this can wreak havoc with sleep.
Imagine being ‘locked out’ of deep rest. Your home is there – but everything you need to rest, recover, and feel safe is on the other side of the door.
The smart-home alarm system ‘control centre’ isn’t working properly, and you can’t access what’s inside.
Your nervous system works in a similar way – it’s the control system and alarm system of your body.
When it’s regulated, it helps your body shift into the state you need…Energy when it’s time to act, a steady sense of security during the day, calm when it’s time to rest, digestion after you eat, and deep sleep at night.
But when your nervous system becomes dysregulated, it’s like a smart-home system stuck in the wrong setting.
Your body may want to rest, but the ‘door’ to true relaxation stays locked. Your mind may know you’re safe…but your body keeps reacting as if there’s danger.
Ongoing stress is a primary cause of nervous system dysregulation, keeping the body locked in ‘fight or flight’ mode without adequate time to rest and repair.
Over time, this nervous system dysregulation can show itself as fatigue, gut issues, anxiety, brain fog, inflammation, the feeling that your body is always bracing for something, or poor sleep.
Calm your nervous system for healthier, restorative sleep
A calming bedtime ritual gives your body cues that it’s time to slow down, de-stress and sleep. Your ritual may include some gentle stretches, breathing exercises, listening to relaxing music, reading, a hot bath, or sipping a ‘cup of calm’ Chamomile Passionflower tea.
Sleep and nutrition
When we’re tired, we’re more likely to make poor food choices.
Our food choices and eating patterns can both positively and negatively impact our sleep.
A diet that’s abundant in nutrient dense whole foods, like a Mediterranean-style diet, provides our body with essential macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and sleep-promoting compounds like tryptophan, which are needed to make the chemical messengers serotonin and melatonin.
Diets that are full of processed foods and simple carbohydrates lack the nutrients and minerals required to make these sleep-promoting neurotransmitters and have been shown to negatively impact sleep and create inflammation in the body.
Naturopathic support for a restful night’s sleep
If you’ve tried these basics and are still struggling with sleep, a registered naturopath can help with a comprehensive, holistic approach.
There are many different factors that influence the quality of our sleep ranging from diet and lifestyle choices to hormone imbalances to underlying medical conditions.
Did you know that your gut also operates on a circadian rhythm?
If the internal clock of your gut microbes goes out of sync, this can disrupt sleep because the gut and brain are constantly in two-way communication through chemical signals, hormones, and the nervous system.
The gut microbiome also follows a 24-hour cycle shaped by sleep, light exposure, meal timing, and diet quality.
If our circadian rhythm is disrupted, this can negatively impact the microbiome, causing imbalance.
Both circadian disruption and microbial imbalance are linked to metabolic dysfunction, including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk.
Supporting circadian alignment and gut health can be a key strategy not only for improving your sleep, but also for improving metabolic health, energy, immune resilience and long-term wellbeing.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ here. Digging a little deeper to explore what’s causing your sleep issues may be necessary to get your sleep back on track.
A registered naturopath will work with you to create an individualised plan tailored to your unique health needs, recommending specific dietary and lifestyle changes, and utilising quality supplements and herbal medicine.
Magnesium
Magnesium levels may be depleted when you’re stressed as your body uses and excretes more magnesium than usual during these times.
Additional magnesium support can help replenish what stress and busy schedules can deplete. Magnesium helps with deep, restorative sleep by calming the nervous system, relaxing muscles, and regulating sleep and stress hormones.
There are many forms of magnesium, each with slightly different targeted effects. It’s always best to consult a trained healthcare practitioner such as a registered naturopath to help determine the best form for you.
In some cases magnesium may be combined with other nutritional supplements such as glycine, L-theanine, B complex vitamins, and plant-based phyto-melatonin to help reset the circadian rhythm and optimise sleep.
Sleep-enhancing herbs
Herbal medicine offers an effective natural approach to achieving a healthy, peaceful sleep cycle.
For patients who may have been relying on pharmaceutical sleeping medication for years as the only way to fall asleep, evidence-based herbal and nutritional medicines offer a healthier option.
By identifying the cause of your sleep issues, a naturopath can customise and prescribe a herbal formula, just for you.
Herbs such as Lemon balm, Chamomile, Passionflower, California poppy, Skullcap, Zizyphus (for Zzzzzz) calm the nervous system, reduce anxiety, relax the body, and promote a restful sleep.
Adaptogenic herbs including Withania and Rhodiola help the body adapt to stress, balance cortisol levels, and regulate circadian rhythms to improve sleep quality.
It’s always best to consult a registered naturopath/medical herbalist to ensure herbal medicine is safe, therapeutic, and appropriate for you.
Better sleep starts here
If you’d like some extra support to get your sleep back on track, I’d love to help!
Book an initial consultation with me today.