Are you sleeping well at night?

Didn't we use to always laugh at your parents who were in bed 9/10pm sharp every night or even the fact they would doze off in front of the telly around that time!

Well did you ever ask yourself why they got up with the sunrise while you were still on snooze when the alarm went off at that hour! And then wondered how the heck did they have so much energy early in the morning, when the only thing that would have got you out of bed is being physically removed!

Well times have changed and getting to bed early is really the last thing on everyone's minds nowadays! And it clearly wouldn't make a difference no matter how early they have to get up the next day. Some of you may get home late after work and only start winding down and having dinner around 8/9pm and others are glued to their TV soaps and even big brother (even though we don't like to admit it).

On average most of us are in bed past the hour of midnight and to make things worst we can't even fall asleep!

So what do you do about this?

Do you call it insomnia and take a visit down to your local chemist for some so called natural sleeping pills that only cause drowsiness the next day and in order for your poor body to stay awake you overdose on caffeine which I will explain later on only keeps you awake at night, so here's this vicious circle you're accidently falling into!

Or do you just blame on the fact you're a night owl and definitely not a morning person whenever someone asks you! And try and catch on sleep over the weekends by having sleep-in yet by that time, your body was so sleep deprived you have slept half the weekend away!

Cortisol

Here is one issue that maybe the reason why. Let me relate this to myself and my battle with these parasites in my gut which I discovered I had back early this year. These little buggers have different sleep patterns to us humans so they are usually active at around 1am-3am eating away at your food nutrients before you can! So not only do we find it hard to get out of bed in the mornings because they cause fatigue, draining all our energy as your bodies can't get the nutrients that it needs. BUT they also have an effect on a very important hormone called cortisol, which is a stress hormone.

At night while the parasites become active in our guts our bodies temperature rises and seeing as under the covers we start to sweat to cool ourselves down. Cortisol is released which disturbs our sleep patterns hence the reason your may wake in the middle of the night finding it hard to fall back to sleep! Funny that my doctors told me a while back "don't worry it's normal, everyone sweats in their sleep at night!" Really? So that's normal is it I think not yet the allopathic approach to such things as hormones and gut dysfunction is gone about different by treating the symptoms and not improving your health by getting to the root cause first.

Circadian Cycle

Secondly most people aren't aware about the circadian cycle and I'm so glad I have applied this sleep cycle to my lifestyle nowadays. The results are instant! It's simple! All you need to do is get to bed by 10.30pm at the latest. Now for some this might be a challenge and later on I will give you some tips on helping you relax and fall to sleep at night without having to take any harmful pills.

So the circadian cycle in simple terms is your bodies' natural pattern with the sun and moon (day and night) as the sun goes down this is when we should be asleep and rising with the sun in the morning because whenever any light hits your skin your brain and hormonal system automatically thinks its morning. Cortisol is realised stimulating the body ready for movement which is what we should be doing (ever heard many fitness gurus and magazine advising us to workout in the morning) well they were right in this sense. Cortisol is at its highest between 6am-9am it does lower slightly but is still remains elevated throughout the day. So on the other hand when the sun goes down your cortisol levels decrease that allows melatonin to release, which therefore increase the levels of growth and repair hormones.

So ideally we should start chilling-out as the sun goes down but this isn't always the case for most people. In this day and age most people finish work late and shockingly would hit the gym and put their bodies through a very high intensive workout routine and what happens adrenaline goes up! Cortisol levels increase and they find it hard to sleep at night. But what makes it worst is our bodies physical repair accrues between the hours of 10pm-2am anytime after that is all mental repair. So even if you were to get to bed by 12am and still get your 8 hours sleep, you would have missed out 2 hours of this vital physical repair cycle which in the long run sets you up for all sorts of niggling issues, such as injuries, frequent colds and even adrenal fatigue.

Adrenaline

During my crazy gym days I would be following a late night gym session at least 5 nights a week not getting to bed till after 12am having trouble falling asleep I was fooled into believing that I still was full of energy as some nights I felt like going for mid-night runs and just wanted to go and have a second heavy session in a 24 hour gym! But I was running on ADRENALINE that tricks you into feeling great!

Crazy as that sounds looking back I just didn't know this was a strong terenant pushing me into stage 3 Adrenal Exhaustion. Of course I'm not stating this will happen to each and every person who trains late at night or leads a late night shift, which affect his or her sleep patterns. But people tend to accept now that it's ok to be sick 3 times a year or have the injury that keeps recurring every few months? Why should be it this way when you can correct by just a simple adjustment in your lifestyle and sleeping patterns.

Relax

Ok so you find it hard to get to sleep lets take a look at some blocking factors that may well be preventing this, candles and massage stones we have already covered the late night work-outs as one, but a not so obvious stimulants is artificial light! Whether it's television, laptops, mobile phones or your funky lamp shade they all act as a simulate tricking your body into thinking its daytime!

So once again this falls back to more cortisol being realised which take hours to clear from your blood stream, preventing the usual release of melatonin, growth hormones and valuable immune factors therefore affecting your immune system's important repair time! So reduce your exposure to bright lights for at least 2 hours before bed, turn off laptop and TV and try and use the time to relax and unwind light some candles listen to music and chill out.

Caffeine

Drinking caffeine if you have to no later than lunch time, the reason why I say this because firstly caffeine is a stimulants which elevates cortisol levels, and secondly if you have a cup of coffee around 3pm it remains in your blood stream until 9pm so long to that early nights sleep.

Sugar

Sugar in its many different forms also acts as a stimulant and you will be surprised how many of the foods you buy contain hidden sugars, sugar can be also known by these names (galactose, glucose, arabinose, ribose, xylose, deoxyribose, lactose, trehalose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose, fructose, corn syrup).

So here is a interesting fact for you - only 1 teaspoon of sugar is known to suppress your immune system for as long as four hours! Your average breakfast cereal contains 46% - 53% sugar as well as most items we buy pre packed contains sugar just read the label and see for yourself and yes I'm not talking just desserts folks I mean savoury foods as well. So try preparing a healthy lunch the night before with wholesome organic ingredients that have been freshly brought and not been tampered with.

Lastly eating right for your metabolic type is essential to prevent blood sugar levels fluctuating (www.healthexcel.com). Typically most people grab something sweet when this happens that sends you off in this bad cycle and once again cortisol increases inhibiting you from getting a good night sleep. So folks I thought I would once again share some of my experiences through improving my health with you I hope you find this information useful and can start to apply to your life.

For more information on parasites and metabolic typing you can contact me through my website.

Written by Vahdaneh Vahid from VV Fitness.

Images: iStock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net