5 Ways to Ruin Sleep

First the Facts

• It’s possible to sabotage your sleep with your habits and lifestyle throughout the day
• The following things interfere with your circadian rhythm and/or reduce your melatonin production:
  
  • Alcohol
  • Sugar
  • Caffeine
  • Inactivity
  • Screens

Who doesn’t want better sleep? Sleep is essential for things like more energy, weight loss, mental clarity, and just feeling HUMAN. But what do you do if sleep is hard to come by? Before you dish out tons of cash for sleep aids, first check your habits. You might be doing one—or all—of the following things which could be ruining your sleep before your head even hits the pillow!

Alcohol

You may have experienced alcohol’s sedative effect, which is known to help with the onset of sleep, but alcohol is actually likely to disrupt the sleep cycle and reduce the quality of your rest.

The sleep cycle is broken up into four stages: the first two stages take place in the first 25 minutes of sleep and are followed by stage three, called “slow wave” sleep, aka deep sleep. The fourth stage, REM sleep, happens roughy 90 minutes after you’ve fallen asleep.

It’s believed that REM sleep is essential to cognitive functions like learning, memory, and creativity. And guess what phase of sleep alcohol is likely to suppress? You guessed it—REM sleep. Alcohol essentially creates an imbalance between deep sleep and REM sleep. Alcohol might plunge you into a deep sleep quickly, but your quality of sleep throughout the night will suffer, causing you to wake up not feeling rested.

Sugar

Research suggests that sugar reduces the quality of sleep, and many of us already know this to be true. Ever notice how one of the benefits of starting a new diet or eating plan—many of which reduce your sugar intake—is that you sleep better, or it takes less time to fall asleep?

This is because sugar disrupts your circadian rhythm in a variety of ways. Sugar causes inflammation, which often triggers physical and psychological changes that are guaranteed to make sleeping more difficult, like:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Gastrointestinal issues (constipation, acid reflux, etc.)

Sugar also causes blood sugar spikes, which is associated with poor sleep. Any way you slice it (sorry for the pie imagery) sugar is not helping you catch those Z’s.

Caffeine (Late in the Day)

Okay, this one’s a bit of no brainer, right?

But did you know that it can take up to 10 hours for caffeine to completely clear your system? 😱Best pay close attention to when you have that last cup of coffee for the day.

But coffee isn’t the only culprit. Don’t forget a good amount of caffeine is lurking in other foods like teas and chocolate.

Caffeine interferes with the production of melatonin, the hormone needed for sleep. Whether its coffee or hiding elsewhere in your diet, caffeine could definitely be sabotaging your sleep.

Inactivity

Don’t feel like you have to rush out and adopt a new, hardcore exercise regimen. The point here is to simply get moving throughout your day.

Movement and exercise are essential for healthy hormones, a well-regulated internal clock, and quality sleep. And these three things are interconnected!

TIP 💥Whether its due to inactivity or any of the other enemies of sleep we’ve mentioned, hormonal imbalance may be the root cause behind your sleep problems. Let us help! Try our Breakthrough Program, where we offer 1-1 coaching and comprehensive lab testing that will pave the way for a real breakthrough in your health!

If your body is not active during the day, it throws off your circadian rhythm, confusing your body’s ability to naturally shut down.

Nighttime Screens

All the screens in your house—your phone, tablet, computer, and t.v.—emit blue light.

Unlike other forms of light, our eyes can’t effectively filter blue light, so more of it passes through the eye to the retina. Ever notice how tired your eyes are when you forget to take a break during the workday, or after binging a new series on Netflix?

Blue light is especially destructive to your sleep right before bed because it suppresses the production of melatonin. So if you find yourself reaching for melatonin pills, first try eliminating screen time within 30 minutes of bed! That alone may be enough of a boost in melatonin to help you fall asleep more easily.