Sleep

Build a strong foundation by stacking multiple approaches together to find true, sustainable success with sleep.

SYMPTOMS

Insomnia, Nightmares, Feeling Unrested, Poor Memory & Cognition, Depression & Emotional Dysregulation

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Influence on sleep: 10

It’s not: “waking up at the same time every day.”

Nope!  It’s actually mostly about the light you see in the morning and the light you see at night.

When light hits the retina, melatonin falls — waking you up.  This signals to your brain what time of day it is — and the timing and color of the light are paramount.

Find out more about how the light that hits your eyes (and skin) affects your ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up rested.

Influence on sleep: 9

Poor sleep usually means gut issues.

Fixing sleep can go a long way to fixing the gut, but the opposite is true, too: Gut health affects sleep.

Getting control of your digestive system and its flora allow your body to settle into repeatable daily patterns, as well as absorb nutrients and remove toxins — all day, every day.

The inflammation that results from poor digestion can cause your blood sugar to destabilize.  This falling blood sugar can trigger cortisol to rise, waking you up at night or making it hard to fall asleep — when cortisol should be at its lowest.

Influence on sleep: 8

Is your room well-suited for sleep?

Many factors can make a room difficult to sleep in: air quality, light quality, temperature, dust, mold, noise, and EMF.  

A healthy person may be able to sleep “anywhere” for a while — but over time a poor sleeping environment will take its toll on anyone.  

And if you’ve been struggling with sleep for some time, taking stock of your current sleeping situation could be a big step toward relief — and healing.

Influence on sleep: 8

Popping vitamins… Think the risk is low?

Supplements have the ability to drastically alter and throw off your nutritional balance. And when this happens, sleep is often one of the first things to go.

Other folks take very little supplements.  If they have any issues with digestion, or don’t eat a “perfectly balance diet” (whatever that is), nutritional imbalance (and subtle deficiency) is all but guaranteed.

With up to 90% of Americans having both Vitamin D and magnesium deficiencies, is nutritional balance actually a big deal?  Can it affect sleep? 

Absolutely, it can.

Influence on sleep: 7

Mold has the ability to completely destroy sleep.

Mycotoxins produced by mold can be quite neurotoxic and inflammatory — leading to rising inflammation and cortisol and falling blood sugar, and making it hard to stay asleep at night.

Mold can also wreak havoc on the gut, causing poor digestion and even acid reflux when you lay down. Restless limbs and other signs of mineral imbalance and dehydration can also point to the possibility of mold exposure.

Influence on sleep: 6

For folks with chronic issues, too much exercise can make sleep worse.

Poor exercise recovery, unstable blood sugar, and pumping stress hormones are common symptoms of sleep for the chronically ill — and traditional exercise can make those symptoms even worse.

Adapting to a more gentle all-day movement lifestyle, however, can reap rewards for sleep — even as we encourage more blood and lymph flow.