3 Part Series. How To Stop Feeling So Tired & Get Into Your Best Shape? Part 1: Improve Your Sleep

Part 1: Sleep and Your Vitality

Feeling tired and sluggish unable to feel the zest for life? Yes, it’s normal to feel like this from time to time, but wait.... if you feel like this all the time? No! It’s absolutely not normal or fair for that matter to feel like you’re dragging your backside behind your eyelids everyday.

So if this rings true for you, please know that you are not alone. Also, be assured that there are some very simple techniques that you can apply today to shake up your daily routine and get you feeling more like your usual self. This is your right as the amazing human being that you are.

During my three part series, come with me to discover how to dust off your chronic lethargy, boost your natural vitality and get you feeling back to your normal sprightly self again.

How can you feel strong enough to attack life as the best version of yourself if you just don’t feel like yourself? The fact is by not taking action, you will remain in this sad gloomy ‘state’. Side note- you maybe in temporary ‘state’ this is not your permanent ‘trait’. Taking action from the information presented here is the most fundamental element to all of this. So that you must, if you want to create positive change.

Best then, to carefully consider all of the discussed attributes to your vitality and focus on changing one area at a time. If you stick to it, over the course of a few weeks and months you will experience an energy turn around that is truly life changing for yourself and the important people around you.

There are many elements to consider when assessing our vitality such as sleep, movement, nutrition, hydration and nature, to name a few.

Firstly, we hone in on the very obvious one that many people struggle with especially within these times is .....Sleep

Not getting enough can cause huge hinderances in progress from your training plus cause a myriad of health problems varying from serious to moderate.

This is because your body and mind require a consistent level of adequate sleep, so that you achieve great results via good recovery from your training, plus you are able to support your optimal health levels.

In terms of training therefore, it’s crucial that sleep issues are addressed straight away should they arise, so that you can get the best results for your investment of time and money from your efforts to get you healthier fitter and stronger.

SLEEP, ENERGY & NUTRITION CYCLE

When it comes to energy regulation, getting enough sleep and quality of sleep has a massive influence on your daily vitality, food choices, portion control, health and wellbeing moreover, your lifespan.

In fact, your sleep runs on the same cycle with your daily level of energy and heavily influences the quality of your nutrition choices.

When clients initially train with me, we work together to carefully assess sleep, energy, & nutrition cycle. In doing so, I help you, the client make very personalised adjustments to this cycle in order to achieve the best quality of health and fitness results from your training.

By the way, If you would like to book in for one of these assessments with me please let me know. I have 3 availabilities this week. Be quick though, first in best dressed. Contact me on bodywizeaustralia@gmail.com to claim your spot before someone else grabs it..

Sleep issues such as insomnia and sleep apnea are more common than you might initially think. Did you know that? As many as one in two older adults report sleep problems, which not only cause fatigue, but also negatively affect general functioning, activities of daily living, and physical and mental health.

The master sleep controller- your circadian rhythm

Controlling your circadian rhythms holds the glue for the vitality of most life form on earth including humans. Circadium rhythms are physical, mental and behavioural changes that hold a 24-hour cycle. Our biological clocks are composed of proteins that interact with cells thoughout our body. It is our bodies natural timing device which consequently controls our circadian rhythm. Your biological clock is regulated by your hypothalamus in your brain which receives direct feedback from your eyes. Specifically light and dark.

Circadium rhythms influence important functions such as hormone release, eating habits and digestion, plus body temperature. Although it it very common for clients to notice first the effect of their circadian rhythm on their personal sleep patterns. As previously mentioned, your brain receives light and dark signals via your eyes. For example, when there is less light at nighttime your body cleverly reacts by making more melatonin so you get more sleepy.

So why would your circadian rhythm be out of sync? Jet lag, light from our electronic devices as well as mutations and changes in particular genes can all confuse our biological clocks.

Needless to say, If you want to optimise your health and fitness, lose weight, balance your hormones, be the high achiever at work and perform at a high standard in the gym, then getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do for yourself.

Food Choices and Sleep

Do you tend to feel the urge to binge on the lavish chocolaty and salty treats in your cupboard especially when you are sleep deprived? Benjamins et al (2020), concluded in their study of food related choices that, upon sleep deprivation, the sleep deprived subjects within their research, were far more likely to naturally opt for higher energy dense foods, as well as negatively influence their self control when it came to food choices.

Although according to the sleepfoundation.org opting for lavish treats which are highly glycemic, greatly impairs your quality of sleep whilst increasing the amount of awakenings per night. This can of course, effect your energy levels the day proceeding.

The sleep foundation also suggest that people who experience chronic sleep problems have not only macronutrient imbalances but also, micronutrient issues in their eating plan. Ie—> they are not getting enough vitamins and minerals in their current eating regime from fruits and veggies.

More specifically, a lack of key vitamins and minerals namely A, C,

D & K are associated with sleep problems, since deficiencies can cause disruptions to hormonal pathways that promote good quality sleep.

Sleep Loss and Weight Gain.

Is your waist line growing with your restless nights of sleep? There is in fact a direct link between the two.

One off the reasons being is that, sleep deprivation can cause havoc on your feeling hunger and full hormones known as Leptin and Ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that controls energy balance via food intake regulation. It signals to your body when you are full, at what point your body needs to burn calories and when to store or turn those calories into energy. When you sleep, Leptin signals to your body that there’s no need for calories during sleep time therefore it shuts hunger levels down.

Interestingly, sleep deprivation shuts down the Leptin signals in your brain and makes you think you are still hungry when in fact, you are not. Once you finally cave into temptation and reach for the extra pies and lemonade, the lack of leptin helps your body to store those calories easily as fat because it thinks you’re in starvation mode.

On the other hand, Ghrelin is the opposite working hormone that signals to our brain when we are hungry. Again, when you’ve had your big night out, the production of your Ghrelin increases four-fold and therefore increases your appetite. It will also stop burning those calories because it thinks there is a shortage of energy in your body as it’s in survival mode.

The evidence clearly shows that there is a relationship between energy, sleep and your nutrition choices.

Sleep keeps you looking youthful for your age, strong and in shape.

Natural levels of human growth hormone are amazingly beneficial for muscle size, strength whilst at the same time helps to keep body fat under control. Essentially, this is your go to essential building block, keeping you looking youthful as it loves to play the role of the as the anti ageing magician in your body, which also at the same time keeps you in really good shape.

Not only that, but human growth hormone is vital to cellular growth and regeneration from your skin to your bones. That means that when you've trained hard or when you're injured that your growth hormone levels greatly determine your recovery rates.

Interestingly, the most potent and non pharmaceutical stimuli of growth hormone secretion is during deep sleep, high intensity exercise, hypoglycaemia and the infusion of amino acids (Heynes, 1986). Although Growth hormone is released in a pulsatile fashion during the day with surges of secretion occur at 3- to 5-hour intervals, it is generally and largely released during circadian rhythms within the same manner, in fact studies have shown evidence for the largest growth hormone secretion peaks after the first hour of sleep (Godfrey et al 2003) plus during recovery after exercise. The pulsatile release of hGH is also clinically important because it has been shown to be amplified during periods of linear growth (Nindl et al 2001).

All this means is that, the better you sleep the better you will look and feel because your ability to regenerate at the cellular level will outrun your sleep deprived comrades.

Health and Sleep

Over the last few decades there has been growing evidence to suggest that too little sleep and too much sleep are associated with adverse health outcomes, including total mortality, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes hypertension, respiratory disorders, obesity in both children and adults, plus poor self-rated health (Cappuccino Et al 2010)

Daugherty Et Al (2021) report that cardiovascular disease and sleep disturbances are both common and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Interestingly, the data shows that when compared with men, women are more likely suffer from insufficient sleep.

Struggling to remember what's on your shopping list? It seems that is adversely affected by lack there of good quality sleep. It's certainly very concerning to know that Wu et al (2019) have found emerging evidence that suggests that sleep deprivation and circadian rhythm disruption may even interact and increase the risk for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

During their large cross-sectional study Shattuck & Sparks (2021) found that there was supported evidence showing an immunological/inflammatory pathway linking lack of sleep and mortality via an increase in leucocytes. This means that lack of sleep can even lead to inflammation and immunity problems from a cellular level.

The bottom line is this; Your longevity and early mortality risk is reduced by Improving your sleep via the increase of your daily physical activity whilst improving the quality of your eating (Cruz Et al 2020)

Vitality and Sleep

Want to be the highest achiever in the room? Then you better be getting a good nights rest. There is broad consensus that insufficient sleep leads to a general slowing of response speed and increased variability in performance, particularly for simple measures of alertness, attention and vigilance (Kilgore 2010)

Getting enough quality sleep, will aid your body temperature regulation, mood, memory, ability to learn and complete basic tasks well. Lack of it can be seriously detrimental to work performance, even more so when chronic sleep deprivation is experienced. Cognitive performance was found to be impaired among shift working nurses by Kaliyaperumal et al in 2017. This was due to poor sleep quality and decreased alertness during their wakened state. Thus, they conceded that shift work poses significant cognitive risks in work performance.

STRATEGIES YOU CAN PUT IN PLACE TO IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP

Considering the negative ramifications to cardiovascular health, morbidity and vitality, if you are experiencing sleep disturbances it's well worth the effort to getting this under control as soon as possible.

Furthermore, upon reviewing the evidence, it's super apparent that if you want to remain the highest functioning leader in the room, rather than a space cadet, you'd better make sure you are getting ahead by consistently putting these strategies In place so you get 8-9 hrs REM & deep sleep every night (including weekends)

1. Cut out the chemicals that cause sleep disturbances.

With our lives going at 110 million kilometres per hour these days, many of us self medicate with caffeine and alcohol to cope with life’s stresses and long working hours.

We wake up by drinking coffee and attempt to initiate better sleep after our stressful day by medicating with alcohol.

Both of these are in fact stimulants that negatively affect sleep.

If you must, limit to 1 cup per day of caffeinated drinks such as fizzy stimulant drinks, coffee & tea at least 6 hours before bed.

Alcoholic drinks are to be limited to one -two units max at least 3 hours before bed.

2. Turn your bedroom into a sleep nurturing environment.

Your circadian rhythm is extremely sensitive to light and dark. If your bedroom is too light, your brain will think it’s day-time. Even a slither of light within your sleeping environment can create havoc to your sleep pattern.

Ensure that you leave your phone in a different room on flight mode so that your sleep is not

disturbed by blue light omitted from smart devices. This also helps you to avoid messages and work emails at all hours of the night causing your brain to go on overload making you stay awake.

Use block out blinds/curtains to omit the light coming through the curtains at night Remember to help regulate your circadian rhythm by opening the curtains to let in the natural light once you wake every morning.

It definitely helps to regulate the bedroom temperature with air-con/ fans /ventilation and the right blankets for the season

Sleep experts agree that you will sleep best at 15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius. Older adults and younger kids (and therefore the parents of) are much more sensitive to temperatures whilst sleeping. So it’s definitely worth getting your bedroom temperature under as much control as possible.

3. Adopt a soothing pre-bedtime routine that’s consistent.

It’s super important to wind your body + mind down, way before the time that you have planned to go to sleep. This way you are controlling your cortisol levels and setting yourself up for a good nights rest.

Firstly, consistency is definitely the key. If you really want to improve your sleep get into the rhythm of going to bed and waking up at the same time every day like your life depends on it. (Yes, even on weekends.)

Experts agree that, Phones, TV, plus your other smart devices especially those with blue light are to be avoided at least 60 minutes before bedtime, in place of more soothing activities that will induce a better nights rest.

Although it might seem counterintuitive, taking a hot bath before bed is not only relaxing, but once you get out of the bath reduces your body temperature and therefore may promote feelings of sleepiness.

Reading: Try reading a book to wind down your mind before bed.

Breathing: learning and applying diaphragmatic breathing into your bed time routine also helps slow you down from the days stresses whilst putting you in good stead for a restorative deep sleep by activating your parasympathetic nervous system (Luciano et al 2001). Breathing diaphragmatically has the potential to restore your body at cellular level allowing you to recover better and faster .

Essential Oils: Preliminary evidence shows that using essential oils such as camomile, lavender, bergamot and cedar wood your pillow can promote relaxation and better quality of sleep by creating sedative effects before bed and aiding the control of anxiety.

4. Follow a consistent training program for at least 6 weeks++

People who experience poor sleeping patterns have been found to be less active then their well rested counterparts.

Although doctors seem to hand the drugs very readily these days, most of the time you don’t actually need to rely on medication to get you to sleep.

Much of the time all you need is to move and move often.

This is because at the foundations, physical activity reduces distress (the bad kind of stress) boosts endorphin release and therefore promotes a better nights rest. Importantly training increases the total amount of time in deep sleep.

Deep sleep or slow wave sleep is the type required to adequately restore the body

Due to the fact that growth hormone is released, heart rate and breathing is slowed, it’s the slow wave type sleep that exercise induces that enables true restoration to occur.

When and what type of exercise should you be doing to promote deep restorative sleep?

Participating in your training program earlier in the day is better for sleep promotion. This is so you can get your cortisol, body temperature well under wraps before hitting the sack.

The type of training which seems to be best at promoting sleep is moderate aerobic type of training.

The key here is to find the solution in nature first before reaching for the meds.

Firstly, make sure you move. Your body is not designed to be stuck at a desk for hours. Secondly, follow a training program that helps with your sleep. Thirdly, stick with that program rigidly to reap the true benefits.

Summary

In conclusion; Getting enough sleep is absolutely vital for your vitality and good training progression from your hard slog in the gym. If your sleep is out of whack, there are many reasons to get this under control. Mainly all the sleep solutions listed here, are natural, cheap and can even save you time as well as money. When applied consistently will reap the biggest and best responses. So commit as much as you possibly can and get your old sprightly self back on track.

Follow me for the remainder of my three part series, for reasons you might feeling tired. Let's explore together the different attributes for your vitality in further detail and turn your energy and life around for the better. .

References

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Cruz BJ, McGregor DE, Cruz JP, Buman MP, Palarea-Albaladejo J, Alfonso-Rosa RM, & Chastin SFM. (2020). Integrating Sleep, Physical Activity & Diet Quality to Estimate All-Cause Mortality Risk: A Combined Compositional Clustering and Survival Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2006 Cycle. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol 189, (10), Pp1057–1064

Daughery SL, Carter JR Bourjeily G. (2020) Cardiovascular Disease in Women Across the Lifespan: The Importance of Sleep. Journal of Women's Health. Vol. 29,(3) Special Section Articles

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