Random musings: Sleep Better

Welcome to the sixth and final part of our series on sleeping better!

Today we'll learn about how diet and exercise affect sleep and how sleep affects diet and exercise. As well as yoga, meditation, mindfulness and other relaxation techniques.

After today, the course won't be available for free, but you can go in and purchase it. There's a lot more available than what I've shared here, including videos, audios, handouts and more.

First, let's look at diet:

Ketogenic Diet: This is a high fat, low carbohydrate diet that consists of 75% of calories from fat, 25% from protein and 5% for carbohydrates.

It can be an effective diet for weight loss and for metabolic conditions, like diabetes.
Sleep problems can arise when people go on a ketogenic diet because of the significant reduction in carbohydrates.
However, studies have shown that ketogenic diets may reduce daytime sleepiness and increase the time spent in REM sleep.

Paleo Diet: This is the avoidance of dairy and processed foods. It ends up typically being lower in carbohydrates, but the main focus is on the elimination of dairy and packaged foods.

If you end up eating more protein on a paleo diet, it may cause sleep disturbances since protein can increase the amount of tyrosine, which triggers the production of stimulating brain chemicals like epinephrine and norepinephrine.
Limiting carbohydrates may reduce the production of serotonin, one of our calming neurotransmitters, possibly interfering with sleep.

And how sleep affects weight loss:

Sleep helps regulate our hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin.
Ghrelin is a hormone that tells your body that it is hungry.
Leptin tells your body that it is full.
When we don't get enough sleep leptin decreases and ghrelin increases, leaving us more hungry than normal.
A good night sleep has been shown to reduce sugar intake by 10 grams per day.
Sleep deprivation makes us more likely to choose foods that are high in sugar and fat.

Here are some vitamins that will help you sleep:

Vitamin D: This fat soluble vitamin affects how much sleep we get and our sleep quality. Low vitamin D has been associated with shortened sleep duration.
Vitamin E: Vitamin E is another fat-soluble vitamin that is also an antioxidant in the body. It can help protect the memory consolidation area of the brain.
Vitamin C: This is a water soluble vitamin that may improve symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. One study in 2009 showed 100 mg of vitamin C and 400 IU of vitamin E taken twice daily reduced apnea episodes (interruptions in breathing).
B6: B6 is a co-factor for many functions in the body. It also may be useful in helping us remember our dreams. A lack of B6 has been linked to symptoms of insomnia and depression. Too much B6 can lead to toxicity so make sure you find a qualified practitioner to help you.
B12: B12 is essential for brain function and turning on and off certain genes in our DNA. It also regulates our sleep-wake cycles, keeping our circadian rhythm in sync.

How exercise helps you sleep...and the best time to exercise, depending on your chronotype:

Sleep deprivation may not affect your exercise performance, if you exercise at less than 75% of your maximum effort.
To perform at above 75% of your maximum threshold, you need a good night's sleep the night before. So if you are an elite athlete or you are trying to beat your best time/ weight, this is important!
Regular exercise can help reduce stress and thus improve sleep.
People with insomnia benefit from exercise — the effects are seen over time, though — so keep it up.
Overtraining and exercising too much can cause insomnia. So make sure you are finding your sweet spot. More is not necessarily better.
Timing of exercise:

Athletic performance can vary as much as 26% depending on the time of day.
Morning exercise can help boost deep sleep.
Nighttime workouts can leave you feeling too energized and delay sleep onset. Your body temperature can also remain elevated for up to 4 hours after working out, another factor that can prevent sleep.

Sleep Optimization Tip: Avoid all but the gentlest forms of exercise within 4 hours of going to bed.

The best time to go on a run depends on your chronotype.

Lions - 5:30 PM: Lions will receive a welcome energy boost from this late-afternoon run.
Dolphins - 7:30 AM: Morning runs will help these light sleepers sleep longer and more deeply.
Bears - 7:30 AM or noon: The early-morning run takes advantage of the fat-burn that comes from working out before breakfast and a midday run will keep appetite in check for the afternoon.
Wolves - 6 PM: Wolves can take advantage of the evening fat burning and appetite suppressant, and enjoy their peak performance at this time.

And finally, how to relax so you can sleep better:

Meditation:

Meditation helps to reprogram our default thinking loops to calm down areas of the brain that can become hyperactive with anxiety.
Senior meditators have been shown to spend more time in slow wave sleep which is the restorative sleep stage.

Remember: 70% of growth hormone, our anti-aging hormone, is released in slow wave sleep.

Meditation may also enhance REM sleep, the stage that allows for memory consolidation, emotional processing, and dreaming.
Meditation also directly increases melatonin levels when practiced at night.

Breathing:

This breathing exercise was developed by the navy seals to lower their heart rate in order to improve accuracy of snippers.
In order to enter a state of unconsciousness, your heart rate needs to be less than 60 beats per minute.
Deep, slow, self-aware breathing is an ancient, powerful way to clear the body of stress and tension.
Deep breathing causes physiological changes in the body, including: reducing muscle tension, slowing your heart rate, lowering blood pressure, exhaling slowly activates the parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest nervous system.
How to:

In a comfortable position, with your eyes open or closed:
Inhale for 4 seconds
Hold your breath for 7 seconds
Exhale slowly for 8 seconds
You can repeat several times.

And mindfulness:

Mindfulness is the practice of focusing your attention on the present moment. We become aware of our thoughts, feelings, and physical experience as well as our surrounding environment.
Mindfulness has been shown to improve sleep quality and reduce daytime fatigue.
It works by alleviating one of the biggest obstacles to sleep: worry.
When researchers compared sleep hygiene (relaxation and sleep education) to mindfulness they found that mindfulness practice improved sleep quality by nearly twice as much.

That wraps the series up...I hope you'll be able to get better sleep now!

Day 1
Day 2

Day 3
Day 4 - 6
Day 7 - 8
Day 9 - 10