The Importance of Sleep

Sleep.... we all have a different experience of it. Different routines, different amounts of sleep required and of course, our general emotional relationship with it.

The benefits

Sleep has many physiological benefits to how we function as a human being. Sleep constitutes the recuperative process of our central nervous system and brain physiology. Sleep also initiates peripheral anabolic processes with the secretion of growth hormone and testosterone (essential for cellular repair and growth) whilst suppressing catabolic processes such as the secretion of cortisol and catecholamines (hormones released by the adrenal glands when experiencing physical or emotional stress/fight or flight mode).

So what does that mean!!? Sleep is the principal method by which our body repairs and restores back to “normal metabolic levels”, not just physically, but mentally too. It is common knowledge that the more active we are through the day, the more physically weary and mentally impaired we become. Restoring our physical and mental alertness, hormonal balance and cellular repair is essential to ensure we are functioning to our optimal level.

 Sleep Impaired?

Being sleep impaired is essentially the physiological reverse of what was mentioned above! The use of the brain during wakefulness will lead to depletion of energy in the cortical areas locally responsible for activity. The level of depletion is monitored, and sleep is initiated when critical levels are reached. With sleep deprivation present, our body will not be restoring back to our normal levels efficiently. Cellular restoration will still occur to some degree with rest, just not close to optimal levels compared to quality sleep. The metabolic and catabolic processes will be in reverse. Our adrenal glands will be over-active as our body struggles to regain hormonal balance back into the parasympathetic nervous system. Resulting in a higher chance of feeling emotionally drained, depressed, stressed, less alert alongside physically fatigued. It’s not all doom and gloom, the human body is resilient, and we can cope with temporary periods of sleep reduction or deprivation. However, the effects of long-term sleep deprivation are more concerning. Increased risk of metabolic disease, depression physical burn-out and weight gain are all publicized concerns associated with sleep deprivation.

 Promoting healthy sleep

Don’t fear! The amount of research available on the effects of irregular sleep is equally combatted with scientific research promoting and educating healthy sleeping habits! We can educate and condition ourselves to have a more positive relationship with sleep. Becoming anxious about lack of sleep can be as damaging as the lack of sleep itself! It can become a “thing” attaching worry/anxiety to sleep. 

There are many among us who can turn the lights out and be asleep in a few minutes. How lucky they are! But for those among us who take a little longer falling asleep, or regularly wake in the middle of the night, there are methods to prepare ourselves for that restful sleep we crave!

 Circadian rhythm

We have a body clock in our brain known as the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, which regulates ourcircadian rhythm. The CR can influence sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, eating habits and digestion, body temperature, and other important bodily functions. The (SCN) is in fact located behind the eyes, as a result, it becomes sensitive between light and dark. If surrounded by artificial light throughout the majority of the day, this can disrupt our ability to sleep at the correct times. In the same logic as too much blue light before bedtime. Getting outdoors surrounded with natural light throughout the day has a positive impact on our sleep.

Creating a regular sleep alongside this will allow your circadian rhythm to become more in tune with your habits and result in a deeper, more restorative sleep. Turning devices to “sleep mode” or wearing very sexy “blue-light omitting” glasses can reduce the impact of direct artificial light that can prevent us from feeling ready for bed. Best to avoid devices 2 hours prior to getting into bed.

 Alcohol and Caffeine 

Both alcohol and caffeine can have a significant effect on our overall quality of sleep, and most importantly, the ability to fall asleep. Caffeine is a stimulant and plays a part in preventing us to fall asleep quickly. Although not everybody has this problem, if you are sensitive to the effects of caffeine consumption, best avoid it after 1pm.

Alcohol has been said to aid healthy individuals fall asleep quicker, which has been known to be used by insomniacs as a sleep-aid. However, it prevents rapid eye movement sleep (the cycle when we are dreaming), which typically occurs 90 minutes after falling asleep and is thought of as the most restorative sleep. If restorative sleep is disturbed, it can lead to short term memory loss, lack of concentration, drowsiness and a general lack of alertness (otherwise known as a hangover!) Alcohol also suppresses breathing efficiency, leading to traits of sleep apnea, loud disruptive snoring and pauses in deep restorative breathing.

 Create a Sleep Sanctuary

I was told the bedroom is good for two things, sex and sleep!! Watching TV, working, and even sitting up in bed discussing the trials and tribulations of the day can for some be disruptive to a decent night sleep. Reading a book, listening to music or having a slow, deep breathing stretch can be much more effective in preparing for a restorative sleep. A temperature conducive to a good night sleep has been known to be around 20 degrees, as dark as possible and clutter-free. Being consciously aware of mess and clutter in the sanctuary has been proven to mirror that in the mind, resulting in an active brain! There is an abundance of education out there on how to promote healthy sleep, but at the end of the day, it is all dependent on what works for you as an individual! I know people who can have an expresso before bed and sleep blissfully. The trick is to work out what is effective for you and staying consistent with it in order to gain regular sleeping patterns. 

 Don’t let not sleeping become a “thing”

As eluded to earlier, if you are experiencing random episodes of disruptive sleep, or generally sleep quite poorly, do not panic! Research has shown that we can still go into restoration mode whilst being awake and therefore still allow the body to recover and repair to a degree. Developing an anxious attachment to sleep can become much more complicated to reverse than merely changing a few habits consistently. You will benefit more by using your energy to become mindful of what you could change to promote better sleep as opposed to wasting energy on worry.

Having said that, the most disruptive element preventing good quality sleeping patterns is stress. Being “wired” without sufficient time to “wind down” can play a huge part in becoming sleep deprived. Spending large periods of the day in your sympathetic nervous system “fight or flight” mode can impact the time it takes you to make that shift back into your parasympathetic nervous system, promoting calm to end the day. Mindfulness and meditation practices are certainly a great way to start in combating unhealthy stress levels. Guided mediation would be a good place to start but be mindful this is not for everybody and requires patience and practice. 

If you are lying awake try to avoid looking at the clock, this will only cause your mind to start working and heighten stress levels. Focus on slowing your breath down and take deep breaths lasting 3-4 seconds inhaling and exhaling. This will lower stress levels and will most likely cause you to fall asleep.

If you are still unable to sleep be assured that when we slow the heart rate down and mimic the type of deep breaths taken during sleep, our body is still able to get some rest and go into a restorative state.

To conclude, sleep plays another pivotal role in holistic well-being. Our body does not recover, re-build and restore when we are active. Being mindful to what methods we have in place conducive to slowing-down in preparation for sleep is essential in optimizing our ability to function at our very best. Again, it is easy to get carried away in pushing our bodies to their limits with work, exercise and family. That is great, so long as we create enough time on the other side to eliminate the risk of metabolic disfunction, hormonal imbalance and most commonlyknown, burnout, both physically and emotionally.

Holistic Well-Being

When thinking about our health and well-being, it is easy to get carried away with focusing purely on the optimal physical attributes that we perceive health originates. But, what can we learn and digest from focusing on a more holistic approach to how we take care of our well-being?

A few among us may get put off by the word holistic. It has a stigma surrounding it that revolves around being a bit “new age” or “hippy-like”. With images of yoga retreats, chanting by the campfire while chowing down on tofu and chia-seeds..... 

So, what is it?

Holistic health is a term most suitably associated as an approach towards life. Somewhat contrasting to the opening statement. The term defines how we focus on all aspects of what constitutes to health. The connection between mind, body and spirit. Again, how we perceive each of those categories is subjective. However, we can dissect the term into 5 objective aspects; Physical, Emotional, Social, Spiritual and Intellectual. This refreshing concept has been scientifically proven to show the interrelationship between all 5 of the aspects mentioned. 

First off, there is a direct correlation between exercise and reducing depression. It has been well publicised that when we partake in exercise our body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in our brain that reduce our perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. Hence the expression “exercise or laughter is the best medicine” This physiological adaptation allows us to use physical exercise as a tool for stress management, a small demonstration of a holistic health benefit, without any chanting, camp-fire or tofu in sight....

Speaking of endorphins.... how often do you laugh?? Surrounding yourself with positive, happy and I guess, funny social circles also contributes to our overall holistic health. Ticking the social and emotional box in one. Not laughing enough at work, or amongst company you hold close...? Well, get funnier friends or start looking at the brighter side of life, again, a matter of perception here. 

Movement and the brain

Exercise has been scientifically proven to contribute to neurogenesis. Neurogenesis is the process by which neurons are generated from neural stem cells and progenitor cells. Essentially the creation of new cells. A study published in The Journal of Neuroscience confirmed that: Running exercise improves new memory formation along with an increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus. With increased physical activity, the hippocampus grows in size if sustained over time, therefore enhancing our ability to form and retain information. In addition to this, dopamine is also released acting as a neurotransmitter playing a major role in motivation and alertness. Another chemical reaction occurring in the presence of physical activity is the release of serotonin (the happy chemical). Being heavily responsible for the joyous feeling once achieving and accomplishing goals. So, we have three interrelationships occurring here, physical, emotional and the intellectual aspect of holistic well-being.  As we develop as individuals, we naturally develop relationships with people, form connections with places, music and imagery. As touched-on earlier, the hippocampus section of our cerebrum is mainly responsible for recognition memory, of which we consequently form and attach emotions. These are all important characteristics in how we build that perception of how we see well-being and we should be questioning ourselves whether we are linking any of the different aspects of health together? 

Individual awareness 

We have discussed the importance of the interrelationships between aspects that make us a well-rounded, healthy individual. However, the biggest relationship we must continually work on, is the relationship with our self. You could connect this aspect to the "spiritual” side of holistic wellbeing. The conversations we have with ourselves are extremely important on our outlook to life. We can be our own worst critic; we can also be hard on ourselves when we are analysing one’s performances. Be it at work, in relationships or our general ability to cope with the stressors of everyday life. Let’s link the physical and the emotional component again. We have discussed physical activity and its role with neurogenesis (creation of new brain cells) but alongside integrating a patient yet attentive mindfulness practice, studies show that with the two combined we can start to train our brain like a muscle, establishing a new neurological network. By no means is this easy; nor does it happen overnight. Hence, a patient yet attentive start to mindfulness. But we can start to teach our brain to stay calm, and therefore become better equipped to cope with stress and adversity. This links nicely with the activation of serotonin through physical activity, which plays an integral role in enhancing our mood and arousal towards positivity and happiness. Mindfulness is a whole concept in itself, a subject I shall be discussing in depth at a later stage. 

To Conclude

The more we are consistently being physically active and patiently being more mindful of the interrelationships between the aspects that exude holistic well-being, our body starts a “domino affect” creating many physiological adaptions. We feel emotionally more positive due to dopamine and serotonin release. Thus, as a result, our perception of stress, worry or concern becomes suppressed. Furthermore, it is proven our brain becomes more efficient (through neurogenesis) therefore our ability to perform our duties at work, be more of an attentive parent or partner also becomes enhanced. The final yet most important component of this flow-on affect is that with all of the previously mentioned physiological adaptations in mind, we have a better chance of having a more content, happy and loving relationship with our self. Which is where it all starts from..... our perception of well-being. 

So, after all being said, what aspects do you feel you can work on to become more holistically minded with your own well-being...? More attention to “slowing down” becoming more mindful to combat stress? Getting outside walking three times each week? Or is it to create more time for conversations with work colleagues, friends and family to stimulate, memorize and form opinions on a diverse range of topics...? 

A Question of Health, a matter of perspective?

As a health practitioner, my first question when consulting with prospective clients is “what does health and well-being mean to you?” This has to be clear from the outset and ultimately evolve with time. Of course, there are objective parameters integral to what defines a healthy human. Normal values of blood sugar, cholesterol balance both HDL and LDL, normal blood pressure, resting pulse rate and generally how well our cardiovascular and respiratory systems are functioning. All clear on those and a full bill of health is often summarised.

But, when we think about the meaning behind health and well-being, our brain can often churn out a large variety of ideas and values. These can also change from time to time based upon how we are feeling in that present phase of life and can often develop more deeply over time. But is there a fundamental description of what it means to be healthy?

“A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease" (World Health Organization)

The above definition states three obvious characteristics, physical, mental and social well-being. Again, what do they all mean independently? Let's not dissect the above statement too hastily...

The answer is subjective. How one sees the world and perceives health can bring an array of different areas to discuss. Does health revolve purely around physical well-being, or does it involve mental health? Does a healthy individual integrate well in a diverse society? If you were to illustrate what health means, how would it look to you? When a friend states that you look “well”, why is this comment often received as a sign of gaining weight or looking fuller in the face? Or “don’t lose any more weight, will you?” An interesting thought...

Personally, I see physical health being governed by the word balance. A balanced amount of physical activities that move the body in various planes of movement, working on strength, coordinating motor-skills and flexibility. Complimenting these attributes is a balanced amount of cardiovascular activity. Accessing both lower/moderate HR training zones with lesser amount of higher intensity training included. How to achieve that? That answer is complex and based upon the individual's current health status of course. But think about it, what bouts of exercise require strength, endurance, flexibility and co-ordination? Pretty much any sport... Can you train each physical attribute independently? Absolutely, hence one’s outlook towards the physical component to health being governed by the word balance.

How many of you automatically associate mental health being a large component of well-being? After all, how we perceive physical health is a picture constructed in our brain through information we have absorbed over time that resonates to us as individuals. How we manage emotions such as stress, anxiety, sadness, anger and joy contribute to how healthy we are as an individual. How well is an individual who has conditioned themselves to train every morning of the week? Sometimes twice in the same day. Yet, struggles to sleep at night, and finds they become even more anxious if they do not tick the boxes of training each and every day. But they look amazing naked!? What is going on inside is as much of a contributing factor to wellness as how someone looks on the outside, they have to align in with that magic word of balance. The two factors coexist.

As a social experiment, ask 5 people close to you what their definition of health would be? A loved one, a friend and three work colleagues. The answers will show what I'm getting at here... the independent interpretation of what it means to be healthy.

In my opinion, one aspect of health doesn’t stand out more than the other, they have to interrelate in one large clear perception of what it means to be healthy, to you. Values are an integral part of finding this. The importance of rest and relaxation, managing life’s stressors through mindfulness and meditation and creating time to socialise with love ones and friends. It wasn’t too long ago that the vast majority of the population would primarily focus on training their physical state. As the stigma surrounding mental health is fortunately becoming increasingly reversed, with more publicised science backing how important it is to pay attention to how we treat ourselves on the inside. We are happy to pay an accountant to advise us on our financial health, a personal trainer to advise us on our physical health. Finally, there is more awareness accessibility and education for reaching out for a specialist to strategise and educate us on our mental health. We are now seeing a change in society’s image of what it means to be a healthy human-being.

The purpose of this blog post was not to dissect each element of health and ascertain how each play their part in holistic well-being. Nor was it to preach vast amounts of education and science with how to be healthy. It was to get you thinking, questioning and searching for what health means to you, and where health and well-being places in your order of priorities. You could already be doing you very well! But It is becoming far too common that we only start to really prioritise and commit to our health once we are faced with adversity. Be it an illness, injury or when reminded how precious our mind and body really are through others.

This post kicks-off a series where I will be dissecting the fundamentals of health and tips to maximize the way we are working towards optimal health and well-being, stay tuned...!