So often I hear people suffering the implications of a bad night’s sleep. They get headaches, drink too much caffeine, feel depressed and simply aren’t functioning at their best. We’ve all been there. A 2016 sleep health survey found that in Australia, both poor sleep quality and quantity affects 33-45% of adults [1]. Now, that’s a lot of sleepyheads walking around!

The first step in getting a better night’s sleep is identifying the cause of poor sleep. As there are so many factors involved with sleep, it is so important to find a holistic practitioner such as a naturopath who will work with you to get to the bottom why you aren’t sleeping well, instead of just masking the symptoms. The most common factors involved in insomnia that I have observed in clinical practice are chronic stress (see Simplify Your Life), high caffeine intake, over-stimulation from screens, leading a sedentary lifestyle, and high sugar intake.

Too often people will be prescribed sleeping pills by their doctor as the only means ‘treat’ poor sleep. Unfortunately, conventional sleeping pills come with a range of side effects such as dependency, poor memory, digestive disturbances and grogginess in the morning, [2] which ironically kind of mimic the daytime effects of not sleeping. But hey, when you haven’t slept properly in days, weeks, or even years who can blame you wanting to trying anything?! So before reaching for the sleeping pills, try these simple lifestyle interventions first!

NO SCREENS AT LEAST 1 HOUR BEFORE BED

The blue light from your phone, laptop, tablet and TV actually suppress your sleepy hormone, melatonin. This is because your brain registers the brightness it being day time not sleep time. This can cause you to feel ‘wired’ before bed and can keep you awake. The suppression of melatonin on a regular basis (I’m looking at you night-time-Netflix-fall-asleep-ers) can not only cause insomnia, but it also raises the stress hormone ‘cortisol’ that can lead to feelings of anxiety and exhaustion during the day [3]. Ask your bookworm friend for a recommendation of a good book and fall asleep to that instead. Alternatively, if you like falling asleep to white noise, there are numerous playlists available of rain and nature sounds that can assist with getting to sleep.

EXERCISE

As so many of us have quite sedentary jobs during the day, factoring in exercise is paramount to getting a better sleep. A 2012 study found aerobic exercise to be as effective as sleeping pills in patients with insomnia (minus the side effects) [4]. It also stated that there are bonus antidepressant and anti-anxiety effect of exercise [4].

While exercising at some point in the day is the most important point here, studies have shown that aerobic exercise in the morning is best. This is because aerobic exercise naturally raises your cortisol levels. Cortisol, which is your ‘stress hormone,’ is important and is always in a state of flux. It is naturally high in the morning and lowers come night time. If you find you are wired late at night and exhausted in the mornings, this is a sign that your cortisol levels are out of whack and this can lead to a bad night’s sleep. Therefore, by exercising in the morning you can re-balance your cortisol rhythm and return to a normal sleep-wake cycle. This will have you feeling most energetic in the morning and middle of the day, and are ready for sleep come bedtime. So, pick something that you enjoy or have always wanted to try and factor some movement into your days!

NO CAFFEINE AFTER 1PM

Caffeine suppresses a hormone called adenosine. Adenosine is produced throughout that day and builds up so that you feel sleepy at bedtime. Therefore, caffeine actually works by suppressing adenosine to delay the feelings of sleepiness.

Everyone has a different tolerance to caffeine. I’ve met people that can have a coffee before bed and not have their sleep affected at all. And I’ve met people (AKA, me) that can’t have a coffee after 12pm, or else they won’t sleep that night. It is also common for some people to feel so overstimulated by caffeine that it causes heart palpitations and anxiety and therefore they avoid it altogether. Due to this individual disparity of caffeine tolerance, a general rule of thumb is to cease all caffeine intake after 1pm, particularly if you are susceptible to sleep issues. I’m talking coffee, dark chocolate and black tea and even green tea. If you’re craving something warm and delicious, herbal teas are a great option and I could talk about them for paragraphs but I’ll save that for another post.

SLEEPY HERBS

No not THAT sleepy herb!

I like to see if clients can implement the above changes before using herbal remedies, depending on the severity of their sleep disturbance. If after implementing the above, and if sleep in still impacted, certain herbal medicines can assist in getting you sleepy, falling asleep easily and staying asleep. The beauty of herbal medicines for sleep is that they don’t have side effects and certainly don’t leave you waking up groggy like a sleeping pill would.

My favourite herbal remedies for sleep are passionflower, hops and valerian root. Passionflower assists with getting you to sleep, while hops helps to keep you asleep (and no this does not mean that a beer before bed will fix your sleep but nice try 😉). Valerian is another fabulous sleepy herb that calms the nervous system and also helps with sleep onset and maintenance.

One of the many reasons I love herbal medicine is that I can make up formulas that are tailored to your individual needs. As there is no one-size-fits all formula for sleep and there are always other health aspects at play, contact me for an individualised treatment plan and herbal formula.

REFERENCES

[1] Adams, R, Appleton, S, Taylor, A, McEvoy, D, & Antic, N (2016). Report to the Sleep Health Foundation 2016 Sleep Health Survey of Australian Adults. The University of Adelaide, https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/pdfs/surveys/SleepHealthFoundation-Survey.pdf.

[2] WebMD (2018). Understanding the Side Effects of Sleeping Pills. https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/understanding-the-side-effects-of-sleeping-pills#1.

[3] Shechter, A, Kim, E, W, St-Onge, MP, & Westwood, A.J (2017). Blocking Nocturnal Blue Light for Insomnia: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 96, 196–202. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5703049/.

[4] Passos, GS, Poyares, DLR, Santana, MG, Tufik, S, & Mello, MT (2012). Is Exercise an Alternative Treatment for Chronic Insomnia?. Clinics, 67(6), 653-660. https://dx.doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2012(06)17.