Proper sleep is a necessary and important component of any adrenal recovery program. This is easier said than done due to autonomic and metabolic derangements within the body. Here are some tips we have found helpful in your daily living- how to get the best sleep.
Learning how to get the best sleep begins with the morning routine. An individual can make several important changes to their day to increase sleep quality at night.
When you wake up, get up right away. Do not use the snooze button, as this will fragment your sleep, leading to sleepiness-related daytime impairment. This, in turn, will increase objective sleepiness, causing you to drink more caffeine drinks and become less productive.
After getting up, expose yourself to bright sunlight. Bright light tells your body it is time to wake up. If there is no sun, you should sit in front of the brightest artificial light while you eat, read, or watch television. Research has shown that exposure to early-morning sunlight will help you sleep better at night.
When you eat breakfast, eat one with high tryptophan content, such as eggs, meats, whey protein, and fish. Previous studies have shown that a meat breakfast with high tryptophan content can improve sleep quality.
Learning how to manage and sustain energy throughout the day is vital to getting the best sleep at night. Nutrition is key, as are the following afternoon activities.
After lunch, meditate for 20 minutes with an Adrenal Breathing Exercise or do one of the Adrenal Yoga Exercises in Sessions 1-6. This will reduce sympathetic tone and excitation response and calm your nerves that may be overburdened by morning activities.
If you have to nap, do it closer to noon than your bedtime. Napping too late or too long in the day can interfere with your sleep at night.
Walk barefoot on grass, dirt, sand, or the earth. You will feel much better walking barefoot on the beach, in your yard, or around the house. Walking in the grass or sand will massage your feet and strengthen your leg muscles. Walk in the north / south direction for the best alignment with the Earth’s electric pole. Do the Adrenal Yoga Exercises or Adrenal Breathing Exercises on the lawn.
As the evening approaches, there are several important things to consider when learning to get the best sleep.
Eat some complex carbohydrates at dinner. Studies have shown that eating a small portion of “good” complex carbohydrates promotes the best quality of sleep. Also, some experts believe that carbs trigger your body to secrete insulin, which uses up other amino acids in your bloodstream first, leaving more L-tryptophan to sedate the body.
Eat plenty of good protein. Proteins are used by the body for muscle repair and immune function. During deep sleep, the body repairs muscle tissue at night, and we all need to have healthy and new muscle tissue. The problem is that most forms of protein are not well-digested before bed. Protein powders and even most animal protein sources should be avoided, as they take a lot of energy to digest and can leave you with a heavy feeling during the night. We recommend taking 1-2 tablespoons of hydrolyzed collagen Types I and III before bed.
Eat foods that are high in Oleic Acid. You should use oleic-acid-rich oil on your salad in place of traditional dressing. Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid commonly found in vegetable oils such as olive, canola, sunflower, and animal fat, and it is a precursor of oleamide, which is sleep-inducing and regulates the body’s drive for sleep. For example, according to the National Sunflower Association, cook with high-oleic sunflower oil, typically composed of at least 80 percent oleic acid.
Dim the lights when you are ready to go to bed. Excessive artificial lighting will interfere with your sleeping, and you should start dimming lights around the house 2 hours before bedtime. This will signal your body to produce melatonin and get ready to sleep.
Do not play with your electronic devices two hours before bedtime. Avoid using your video games, smartphones, laptops, computers, TVs, and electronic tablets. They produce short-wavelength or “blue” light. Experts believe that exposure to blue light before sleep can disrupt body rhythms and suppress the release of the hormone melatonin, promoting sleep.
Use blue-blocking goggles if you have to use electronic devices before bedtime. These can block out the harmful blue light emitted by electronic devices such as tablets, laptops, and smartphones, reducing sleep duration and disrupting sleep.
The following bedtime routines will help signal to the brain that sleep is nearing and are excellent ways to learn how to get the best sleep.
Drink some bone broth or eat some gelatin. These foods contain or are high in glycine, an amino acid with sleep-promoting effects. 35% of the amino acids in gelatin (the cooked form of collagen) are glycine, a non-essential amino acid. Recent studies have found that glycine ingestion before bedtime significantly improves sleep quality in people with insomnia. Scientists believe glycine can promote sleep because it can cause a significant decrease in the core body temperature, and the onset of sleep is known to involve a decrease in the core body temperature.
Clear your mind. Make a to-do list for the following day so you can get the things you are most concerned with out of your mind. Keep a gratitude journal. Write down all the things on your mind that could be bothering you. Next, list all the things you are grateful for.
Rub your body down with magnesium oil. Magnesium improves the quality of sleep, and using an oil is the quickest and most convenient way to transmit magnesium swiftly into the body through the thin skin. Just spray 2-3 sprays of magnesium oil under your armpits. Caution: some people behave paradoxically and become more alert.
Read a boring but relaxing book or work paper, but not an e-book. Read a physical book until you feel drowsy and quickly go to bed.
Keep your bedroom dark. Close the curtains in your bedroom to keep it dark and keep out any sunlight coming into your room in the morning.
Do 20 minutes of Adrenal Breathing or Adrenal Yoga Exercises sessions 1 or 2. These sessions are great for helping relax your body before going to bed at night.
Take a tablespoon of honey. Honey can promote relaxation and help ease your body to sleep at night. The natural sugar in honey raises the body’s insulin slightly. It allows tryptophan, the compound well-known for making us lethargic after eating turkey at Thanksgiving, to go into our brains more easily.
Eat a light snack. Eating a light snack such as soaked almonds, turkey or chicken meat, soft-boiled eggs, or cottage cheese before bed can help maintain your blood sugar levels longer at night while you sleep, thus preventing frequent awakenings.
Taking fish oil supplements or eating oily fish can improve your sleep quality. A randomized placebo-controlled study by the University of Oxford, soon to be published in the Journal of Sleep Research in 2014, has found that higher levels of omega-3 DHA, the group of long-chain fatty acids found in algae and seafood, are associated with better sleep. In the study, the British researchers wanted to investigate whether 16 weeks of 600mg daily of supplements of algal sources would improve the sleep of 362 children. The researchers found that the children taking daily omega-3 supplements had nearly one hour (58 minutes) more sleep and seven fewer waking episodes per night than those taking the corn or soybean placebo.
Take a Vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D can lower melatonin levels and, therefore, should be taken usually in the morning. However, many with Adrenal Fatigue have positive benefits from taking Vitamin D at bedtime for poorly understood reasons. It is a weak natural steroid and can help reduce pain and control inflammation.
Use only the soft night light in the bathroom, and do NOT turn on any bright light. If you need to go to the bathroom for any reason, there will be no need to turn the full bathroom or hallway light on in the middle of the night and wake yourself up.
Do not use electronic devices after waking up. Avoid checking your emails or watching late-night TV because electronic devices stimulate brain activity and can disrupt your ability to drift back to sleep.
Keep a light snack next to your bed. Many times, blood glucose levels can drop at night while sleeping and this will cause an alarm to trigger and your body to wake up suddenly, wanting you to replace the blood sugar lost. Keep a snack next to your bed so you do not have to get up and eat it when you wake up in the middle of the night.
Do Adrenal Breathing Exercises. If you wake up in the middle of the night, do the Adrenal Breathing Exercises to help calm down your system and allow you to fall back asleep.
Research has studied how to get the best sleep and found that exercise is very beneficial. Exercise regularly if you have early Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome with mild symptoms. Numerous studies have shown that people who exercise regularly sleep better. Three or four 30-minute exercise sessions per week that were performed in the afternoon on a stationary bike or a treadmill will suffice. This can add about 45 minutes to an hour longer of sleep on most nights, with more vigor and less sleepiness. Exercising close to bedtime is OK. Studies have shown that people who exercised in the last four hours before bedtime reported sleeping just as well as those exercising earlier in the day.
There is NO rigorous exercise if you are in the advanced stages of Adrenal Fatigue with moderate to severe fatigue. Instead, focus on the Adrenal Breathing Exercise, yoga for Adrenal Fatigue, or a slow walk with a heart rate under 120. Any aerobic exercise with a heart rate exceeding 140 beats per minute may trigger excessive adrenaline release as the body’s “flight or fight” response is activated. Walking is good, provided you feel calm and relaxed for 4 continuous hours immediately after walking. Always eat snacks before and after the exercise.
Sleep is vital to healthy living. Learning how to get the best sleep may seem overwhelming at first. However, the biggest thing to understand when studying how to get the best sleep is to slow down towards bedtime. Turning off electronics, eating a healthy snack, dimming the lights, and practicing calming breaths are all great examples of getting the best sleep. Make small changes to your daily routine, and you will notice big differences in your sleep quality.
Ensuring you get the best sleep ever is crucial for your overall well-being and productivity. By implementing the tips and strategies discussed, you can transform your sleep quality and wake up refreshed every morning.
Ready to improve your sleep and experience the benefits of a well-rested life? Give us a call today at +1 (626) 571-1234. Our experts are here to provide personalized advice tailored to your specific sleep needs.