Is it really important to get enough sleep?

Sleep is where you body rejuvenates and heals, so getting enough sleep is important. Most people need between 7-8 hours a night. There are a variety rituals that you can do to prepare your mind and body to relax and go to sleep more easily. It can look different for each person, but creating a habit around going to sleep can be very effective. I keep my bedroom dark and free from any technology and use music to quiet my mind. After implementing a sleep routine for a few weeks, your body and mind start to associate the routine with letting go and getting ready to sleep and becomes an easier process.

I used to get sleep anxiety so bad that I would be up all night, panicking about not being able to sleep and the negative consequences that it could bring. I'd judge myself and be in an anxious whirlwind for entire nights. It got so bad I almost quit my job. But then I found relief through coaching. Now, I haven't had an issue with sleep anxiety or a sleepless night in over a two years. And my career skyrocketed, too!

The number one shift that allowed this transformation to come was realizing this:

Not sleeping is not a problem.

I know this goes against what many may tell you. But truly, if we trust that our body gets what it needs, then if we aren't falling asleep, there is not actual problem. All that has happened is we're not sleeping. That's it. No drama or concern or worry needed.

When we drop the importance of sleep, and instead let ourselves sleep when we feel the urge for it and let ourselves be awake when we don't, then we get to be in alignment with our body and our flow. We don't have to force sleep. And we don't have to make it mean anything bad if we don't sleep.

This takes the pressure away from feeling like we have to get a certain amount of sleep. And this release of pressure allows us to relax, which ironically often helps us fall asleep more quickly when we do go to bed.

For more on this, check out my podcast episode about sleep and sleep anxiety: https://www.beliefseed.com/podcasts/your-work-your-way/episodes/2147592209

Its so interesting that we still don't know a lot about sleep and why we do it. But we do know a few things: when we sleep, our cells regenerate & allow us to process energy more efficiently (this is why after a poor night's sleep, or not enough sleep, you might get the mid-afternoon munchies for something carby. Your body knows that the easiest way to get energy is to eat some easy energy - carbs!), we also know that learning & processing information happens while we sleep. Our stress hormones reset, and we manage stress and our moods better. Sleep is tied to all of our other health habits - eating, mood, and energy for exercise. So, if we want to be healthier, prioritizing sleep is a great start.

Yes, there are several reasons why sleep is so important to all of us. Healing of both mind and body takes place during sleep. A few symptoms that occur without enough sleep are paranoia, aggressive behavior, triggering of bad habits, weight gain, stress, and the list goes on. A healthy nervous system, immune system and emotional system requires sleep. If one is not getting enough sleep, one needs to figure out the root cause. This root cause could be a medical, emotional, mental or spiritual problem that should be addressed quickly.

Sleep is the time that we recover from all the activities from the day. It is when we recharge, burn fat, grow muscle, and overall rebuild our body. The issue is, how many of you sleep well enough to actually recover?

When we sleep, our cells adapt, and the mitochondria spark up, produce ATP (energy) through the Krebs cycle. But to do this, we must have sufficient oxygen in our bloodstream. Remember when I discussed the Bohr's effect? We have to have carbon to attach to oxygen and transfer the oxygen to our cells. Once the cell is oxygenated, the cell becomes productive, and we recharge. BUT, what happens if we do not get enough oxygen throughout the day or night? We never recover. We see this with people who have COPD, smoke, obesity (from the weight compressing the lung's inability to expand), and many other metabolic issues. We can go months without eating, weeks without water, days without sleep, and only minutes without oxygen. This is how crucial oxygen and sleep are, especially when paired with each other.

Our cells can produce something called Hypoxic Induced Factor 1 or HIF-1. HIF-1 is produced during states of hypoxia. This product senses cellular oxygen levels. HIF-1 controls aging but also promotes cancer. As we age, pseudo hypoxia can take place. We literally starve ourselves of oxygen at night, which is why people who never sleep, shift workers, or people with metabolic diseases look older than others. A powerful way to keep our body young and cancer-free is to clear HIF-1.

Some HIF-1 is good, too much will kill us. For instance, we want HIF-1 following a workout to help stimulate recovery and make those significant gains. It also helps with our skin regeneration and keeps a younger profile in general. Too much in the brain will disrupt sleep, promote obesity and cancer, and throw off the heart's pacemaking mechanism within the carotid.

So how can we mitigate the amount of HIF-1 in our system is the question. We have to sleep, and we have to sleep well. Here is a laundry list of simple things we can do to increase our deep sleep:

2-3min cold shower before sleep

Yoga flow of downward dog, cobra, childs pose, and forward fold with 2-3 breaths in each pose

4-7-8 breathing (inhale 4 sec, hold 7 sec, exhale 8 sec)

Blue light blockers 2-3 hours before bed

Blackout the bedroom

NO LIGHT

Put the phone on Do Not Disturb from 10:30-6:00am

Unplug wifi router

Set house temperature to 68 or lower

Mouth tape

Minimize phone usage after 8PM

Don't sleep with the TV on

Eat a banana before bed

GABA

Microdose melatonin

Lions Mane Tea.

Another way we can clear HIF-1 while we sleep is to take Niacin and Zinc before bed. Also, while working out, we can stimulate recovery by holding our breath on the last 2 exercises. One set with high lung volume (Breath in and hold) and one with low lung volume (breath out halfway then hold).

All of these will help drive down inflammatory cells to promote recovery and health and boost immunity.

In Summary, Immune cells keep everything clean and do the body's housekeeping. When tissues need repair, Macrophages show up. If you can control Macrophages, you can control immunity, health, and aging. Macrophages have duality, both good and bad. They can be killers, show up at the onset of injury, physical, pathogenic, and is also where we find HIF-1. They are 1st responders, recruit inflammation, and start the healing process but need them to go away.

Macrophages are also healers or the cleanup crew. It will clear infections. With aging, bad macrophages are always present.

Too much bad and too few good macrophages:

-Can't lose weight

-Weak immune system

-Cancer Prone

-Age faster

We have to understand how to control, shift, and re-balance macrophage populations. In doing that, we have to sleep well to reduce the amount of HIF-1 and promote total recovery to burn fat effectively.