What is Sleep Hygiene and Why Is It So Important to our Overall HEALTH? 

Sleep hygiene is the term used to describe healthy sleep habits or behaviours that help to improve both your ability to fall asleep and the amount of time spent in a DEEP SLEEP 

A deep or REM sleep is where our body most effectively recovers. There a lot of things that prevent our body falling into a deep sleep hence why some people wake up after 8 hours feeling tired still; they didn’t have enough DEEP SLEEP 

Why is sleep so important? 

Sleep is one of the most overlooked and underrated tools when it comes to overhauls and individuals health. Why? Because when we sleep OPTIMALLY our body performs a lot of our major health activities that leads to hormone regulation, metabolism optimization and muscle repair (after training) 

The short term impacts of poor sleep hygiene 

At times it can be unavoidable to experience disturbed or shortened sleep. These periods usually lead to lower energy, mood swings, increase in cravings, muscle stiffness and a lack of focus/mental clarity 

 In the longer term if sleep quality continues to either be ignored or not prioritized the individual runs of the risk of serious health issues: gut health issues, weight gain, diabetes, hormonal imbalances, chronic fatigue and mental health issues such as depression 

How Do You Know If Your Sleep Hygiene Is Poor? 

Well, most obvious is if you struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep 

Other signs: 

• If you wake up tired 
• If you suffer energy slumps in the evening 
• If you struggle to focus 
• If you experience frequent heightened cravings 

 

How Can We Start To Practice Good Sleep Hygiene?

Start with the basics

Establish consistent sleep and wake times, this will help to regulate your circadian Rhythm which in turn will help your body regulate the release of cortisol and melatonin, two hormones attached to our sleep quality and energy throughout the day 

Have a good sleep environment: a comfortable bed, a quiet and dark room – even going a step further and keeping your bedroom for sleep only ie not watching tv or eating in bed 

Establish a night routine, this will help signal to yourself that its time to start winding down. Ensuring you spend time before bed calmly winding down, slowing your mind down and getting yourself in a rest state will greatly aid your efforts to fall into that deep sleep 

 

Other ways to enhance sleep hygiene

Once you have the basics in place its time to start optimizing that sleep hygiene with the below

How To Fix Your Circadian Rhythm

Your circadian rhythm, often referred to as your sleep wake cycle, is responsible for a lot of our health factors, regulating metabolism, hormones and our energy levels. Having high cortisol can knock this rhythm off causing issues to your metabolism, hormone regulation and hence general overall health 

However, our body needs a certain level of Cortisol. Cortisol has many important functions in our body: 

• Reduces inflammation
• Helps with the metabolism of glucose 
• Controls our blood pressure 

 

So we NEED cortisol in our body, too much cortisol is where we start to run into health issues. 

When our cortisol hormone levels become unbalanced we can experience many side effects, one being the disruption of our Circadian Rhythm 

The other hormone involved in the Circadian Rhythm is melatonin 

Our body produces this hormone to mainly help us sleep but it also plays a role in regulating our menstrual cycles and even brain health 

Again if our melatonin levels become unbalanced this can disrupt our Circadian Rhythm 

 

Signs your circadian rhythm is off sync: 

 

• Fatigue 
• Brain fog feeling 
• Poor immunity or getting unwell often 
• Weight gain, especially around the tummy 
• Reduced sex drive 
• Broken sleep (trouble falling asleep or disruptions to sleep)
• Skin issues (acne, dry skin, random blemishes) 

You can also request an adrenal stress hormone test from your doctor to see where your cortisol levels are and whether or not you are on the path to an adrenal burn out 

 

There are quite a few ways to regulate your circadian rhythm 

 

• Increase sleeping hours to 7-8 a night 
• Reduce caffeine 
• DELAY Caffeine intake (explained below)
• Introducing a schedule for sleep and wake times 
• Enhance your bedroom environment 
• Exposure to natural sunlight as earlier as possible 
• Blue block glasses in the evenings 
  

After coaching 100s of women who lead stressful lives and/or are going through menopause – two of the most common people who have unbalanced circadian rhythms the two most impactful ones from this list in my experience are reducing caffeine and exposure to natural sunlight 

Lets talk about delaying caffeine because if you have high cortisol levels this will be great to help the natural regulation of this hormone 

Regardless if you have unbalanced cortisol levels or not delaying your caffeine actually optimizes its effects and prevents energy crashes later in the day 

When we first waken our cortisol levels are at their highest. By allowing your body to naturally start decreasing its cortisol levels before you input caffeine will provide a greater and more sustainable energy boost. By drinking caffeine when your bodys natural levels are at its highest you can disturbed the natural regulation of the cortisol hormone 

A delay of 60-90mins is sufficient 

Exposure To Natural sunlight as early as possible 

This will help your body produce melatonin in the evening, which already explained is one of the hormones linked to our sleep wake cycle and our body’s ability to fall into deep sleep

 

Incorporate regular exercise 

Exercising or just moving your body on a regular basis can help your ability to fall asleep and even have a more peaceful sleep 

 

Reduce caffeine and alcohol 

Note the word REDUCE – im not saying to totally eliminate either. But both do impact your overall sleep quality. 

Caffeine for example can stay in our systems up to 8 hours after consumption so although you may be able to fall asleep, it may be preventing your body’s ability to fall into a deep sleep.