How to get Good Sleep – 10 Tips

1. Get to bed by 10pm and aim to be asleep by 10.30pm (this is a struggle even for a committed health geek like myself!)
2. Try not to watch late night TV, particularly the news, which is almost always bad news or anything scary, and eliminate bright lights in the hour before bedtime.  Remember anything that increases cortisol levels before bedtime will affect your sleep and the amount of growth and repair your body is capable of.
3. Aim to get 8 hours of sleep minimum each night.
4. Sleep in a room that is completely dark.
5. Avoid stimulants including caffeine, sugar and nicotine after lunch.
6. Drink plenty of water
7. Exercise – the appropriate level of exercise for you will generally help you sleep better at night.
8. Try unplugging all electrical appliances in your bedroom and keep mobile phones well away from you even if they are turned off.
9. Keep a sleep diary and note down the foods and drinks that disrupt your sleep and those that help you to sleep well and wake up feeling rested.
10. If you have the ability to cat nap during the day to catch up on lost sleep, aim for a 20minute stint of shut eye.

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Why is Sleep so important?

We hear all the time that sleep is important for our health, but no one really explains why and what affect a lack of sleep has on the body.  This article will attempt to explain the importance of sleep without actually sending you off to sleep as a result of reading it – at least that’s my goal.

I’ll start with my own recommendations for sleep as part of any fat loss (not weight loss) and overall health programme and then explain why it’s important.

“Get to bed before 10.30pm at least 5 nights a week and aim to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night.”

Why is it important to get to sleep before 10.30pm?

The cycles of night and day or dark and light, are controlled by movements of the sun and planets in what is known as a circadian rhythm.  Humans as well as almost every living creature on earth have followed these natural rhythms for hundreds of thousands of years.  That was until Thomas Edison mass produced the light bulb and electricity was plugged into every home.  Nowadays there’s a mass of late night TV and bright lights at the touch of a switch, but these changes have only occurred over the last 150 years or so.   Yes I know we’ve known about fire for over 5000 years, but the last 150 years is really when we have started changing our sleep habits as a result of technology.

Our hormonal systems have not changed at all in the last 150 years, which means that whenever light stimulates your skin or eyes, regardless of the source, your brain and hormonal system think its morning.  In response to light your hormonal system releases cortisol, a powerful hormone that prepares the body for movement, work, combat or whatever is necessary for survival.  This disrupts what should be happening because as the sun goes down cortisol levels decrease allowing the release of melatonin (your sleep hormone) and an increase in the levels of growth and repair hormones.  Physical repair of the body mostly take place while you’re asleep between 10pm and 2am.  After 2am the immune and repair energies are more focused on psychogenic (mental) repair which lasts until we awaken. Therefore if you don’t go to sleep until late, you miss out on the really important growth and repair phase, which can lead to a whole host of health problems on top of making you feel tired and lousy, even if you did manage to get 8 hours of sleep.

Why do we need 8 hours of sleep?

Chicago University did a brilliant study a few years ago which demonstrated the problems with getting less than 8 hours of sleep each night.  One group of adults was given a maximum of 5.2 hours of sleep every night for 8 nights whilst the control group was given a minimum of 8 hours sleep.  After just 8 days both groups were given a high carbohydrate breakfast.  The sleep deprived group had to release 40% more insulin than the control group and it took them 50% longer to get their blood sugar under control , even though they had 40% more insulin! Even more amazing is that this study records what happens to the body after just 8 days of between 5-6 hours of sleep each night, whereas in reality many people get less than 8 hours sleep every night of the week.

Insulin is your primary fat storing hormone, and the Chicago university study proves that sleep deprivation makes you insulin resistant, or in other words it makes you store more of a proportion of everything you eat as fat.  You’ll also no doubt have noticed that after a bad night’s sleep you crave crap sugary food all day and that’s again down to Insulin.

Top 10 tips to get Good Sleep

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