Go the F*ck to Sleep
Sleep! The only thing more popular than this Innate Essential is Sex. Why is it an essential? Why aren’t we getting enough? And what can we do about it?
Sleep, we need it, we want it, we don’t get enough, and we take it for granted. Sleeping doesn’t require any skill set necessarily but can be improved through a proper routine. Aging, however, will decrease our melatonin thus decreasing our ability to sleep as we enter the “golden years”.
Sleeping is a huge part of our animal existence and a necessity for living. Sleeping if done right should take up about a third of your life. Unfortunately, the popular saying, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” couldn’t be further from the truth. Research suggests you’ll be dead sooner if you don’t sleep well.
Rest, Digest and Rebuild
Sleeping is a component of our parasympathetic nervous system. Think – rest, digest and rebuild. We need rest to rebuild. The human body adapts to stressors that we interact with daily. Daily life itself is a stressor and this often is a catalyst to spark our sympathetic nervous system. (Fight or flight). Stress, however is a necessity and important for our bodies and minds to help them grow and progress.
“A smooth sea never built a skilled sailor” – Franklin Roosevelt
Stress is good?
It all depends on your perception. Think of the way a bodybuilder places stress upon their muscles with ever-increasing weight demands. If done slowly enough, the body does not break but adapts and grows bigger and stronger. If done too fast or without any rest, the body is unable to adapt and will not grow. Conversely, think of an astronaut in space. The lack of gravity stressing our bones will cause the body to adapt and decrease bone density making them weaker than our bones here on Earth. A really amazing study showing how our environment changes our epigenetics can be found on the NASA website here.
Best in the rest!
Most of our systems need rest at one time or another. Whether it is the digestive system, the nervous system or even the musculoskeletal system. There are many ways to rest and not all are equal.
Movement, one of our physical Innate Essentials can take place with high intensity or low intensity. Some refer to the lower intensity routines as “active rest”. Think Tai Chi, ROMWOD, some yoga etc. Sleep is the ultimate in Parasympathetic events.
Self-Awareness, one of our emotional Innate Essentials can benefit from resting the body and mind through activities like meditation and prayer. I have two great FREE apps on my phone to utilize both of these methods. One is Omvana for meditation and the other is EchoPrayer.
Reality and Responsibility, another Innate Essential that needs to take a break once in a while. This is what dreams are made of. Enjoy!
Digesting Real Food, one of our chemical Innate Essentials can benefit from fasting. I’m not a fan of consistent lengthy fasts, but I do subscribe to the positive effects of intermittent fasting. Check out a beginners guide here on Mercola.com.
Each of these essentials can benefit from taking a break once in a while. So why is sleep so important that it deserves to be labeled as one of the Innate Essentials?
King of the Rest
Sleep trumps all other types of rest. Sleep is the closest you can get to shutting down the body without dying unless you count that one time you passed out after drinking a whole bottle of Patron. The body will go to extreme lengths to shut down a damaged body, such as a coma. In most countries, we take sleep for granted. We see it as a burden to our daily existence when it really is a blessing.
Sleep on it
On average Americans are only getting 6.8 hours of sleep a night. This is down from 7.9 hours back in the 1940s. The lack of sleep can have disastrous effects on the body such as an increased risk for heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, depression, anxiety, obesity, dementia and many cancers. Many studies have shown that a person sleeping less than 6 hours a night will have physical and mental impairments that match with being intoxicated. On top of that, your immune system will be considerably weaker making you much more susceptible to sickness such as cancer.
How could we screw this up?
It’s not just the fact that we take it for granted. It’s partially that we are just uneducated on sleep. Like a diet, people should understand how to optimize their sleep for a better existence. You wouldn’t eat junk food all day and expect to perform at peak levels, would you?
So, what are we doing to make it harder on ourselves? Let’s start with one of the earliest enemies of sleep?
Electricity and the light bulb. This literally made it possible to control the night. Our ancestors would have gone to bed when it was dark and rose when it was dusk. Another horrible side effect has been light pollution and an inability to see the stars. The psychological effects of all the control over the night and none of the vulnerability have encouraged us to forget our place in the universe. That will be a blog post for later.
Our tech-savvy society is the next offender in this digital age. iPhones, Smart TVs, Computers and tablets have us all distracted. Research has shown that we spend an average of 10 hours with technology. (I think this is grossly understated.) This will decrease the amount of melatonin by more than 50% and delay its release for an average of 3 hours. This is just due to screen time. I haven’t even started a blog on EMF’s yet.
Drugs, Drugs, Drugs. So, you may be thinking that the answer is to supplement with melatonin. Hallelujah! This will help if you’re geriatric or if it is used as a short-term solution to get you back to your natural circadian rhythm. Other than that, it’s useless. It also turns out that more interference when using man-made sleep aids will have many negative side effects and the sleep quality isn’t the same. The use of drugs or supplements that are sleep aids will only aid in confusing your body more.
More Drugs, including marijuana, medications and alcohol may help people fall asleep but the quantity and quality of this sleep are still inferior to creating a natural sleep routine. You cannot cheat your way to the best levels of sleep. It must be done naturally to have the greatest effects.
And still more Drugs! Diet can have some effect on our sleep as well. Caffeine is the most widely used drug in all the world. Starbucks has taken over our street corners and there is still room for the Mom and Pop coffee shops. We are modern drug addicts. Too much caffeine and lack of nutrients are all too common.
If you’re not sure where to start on this one go read my previous blog post on Water and Food. Routines such as the Innate Essentials are key to conquering the basics of life like sleep.
7 Changes to your autopilot sleep routine
So, what would this new routine look like?
1. Schedule your sleep time and wake time, ideally, it will coordinate with dusk and dawn. Set an alarm for now and hopefully, your lifestyle allows for you to wake up in your natural circadian rhythm eventually. For those of you that can’t afford this lifestyle, I love the daylight alarms linked here.
2. Shut down the tech at least 1 hour before your scheduled bedtime, preferably at dusk. Most screen technology is bad for your posture anyway. Read my earlier blog post on Innate Essential for posture.
3. Journal your routine for tomorrow. Journal your priorities for tomorrow. Get the lists out of your head and on paper so your brain can turn off of reality and enter your dreams.
4. Get rid of the man-made sleep aids and other drugs or alcohol. I know, I’m no fun. Fix your problems first, adopt the Innate Essentials and then see if you want to put these things back into your life. Here is a list of 20 sources of toxic chemicals.
5. Last meal roughly three hours before your bedtime. No nightcaps. This can wreak havoc on your blood sugar causing you to wake up. Remember Eat Real Food.
6. Stay cool. Keep your core temp down by sleeping with little clothing (hope my wife reads this) or you can also take a warm bath to cool down your body before bed.
7. Open windows if possible to decrease the amount of Carbon dioxide in your home. We have a whole house fan like this, that cools us down and brings in the fresh air all the while reducing the amount air conditioning we are using. Win, win.
One Adjustment action step
1. Cut out all the crap. If you haven’t made the basic adjustments yet, go back and read the Innate Essential blog posts on Water, Food, Reality and Responsibility, Self Awareness, Toxicities and Posture. We are building on these essentials and I’m hoping you are able to keep up without being overwhelmed.
2. Sleep 7-9 hours (Innate Essential) – Schedule it, make a routine and be disciplined.
3. Enjoy it, for it is almost as good as sex.
Happy Monday
-Nick the DC
Link to our next blog post: Innate Essential #8 – Stress Chemicals
Disclaimer: The One Adjustment website and blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment of any type. One Adjustment uses affiliate links as a means to support the content provided at no extra cost to you. Please see disclaimer link for more details.
