RESTFUL, CURATIVE SLEEP
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The following information is excerpts
from the book Thin Over
40 by Dr. Jantz. We encourage all members to purchase the book (remember you get a discount off the book price) and apply the 12-week weight loss plan that is fully outlined in the book. If you apply the principles in Thin Over 40 along with all the benefits
provided on this website, you can be Thin for Life.
As we have stated
throughout this site, at Thin for Life and The Center, Inc., we are concerned about all aspects of your
life-emotional,
physical, spiritual, intellectual, relational, and nutritional. The
following information is to help you develop intellectually and help you improve emotionally through Restful, Curative Sleep. The
information shared will also help you improve your body physically.
Yes, good sleep can help you physically also.
Successful Sleep
You know how hard
it is to have an active, productive day when you’ve had a lousy time
sleeping the night before. You can’t concentrate, you’re lethargic,
and all you can think about is sneaking off somewhere to take a
nap. Everything about your day just seems to take more effort than
usual. It generally puts you into survival mode, where you’ll do
the bare minimum, just to get out the door and back in bed. You’re
grumpy, you’re grouchy, and even your body seems to hurt more as
everyday aches and pains are magnified.
Even
though there is a biological trigger for sleep - melatonin -
produced by the pituitary gland during hours of darkness, we can do
a lot to mess up that process. One of the prime ways is to
over-stimulate ourselves in the evening hours, overriding our body’s
natural inclination towards slowing down and preparing for sleep.
All of
us need to take time during each day to slow down the pace and give
our minds and our bodies a break from the constant barrage of
responsibilities and duties we are called on to perform.
I
(Dr. Jantz) learned that even though a person “sleeps” for the recommended seven
to eight hours a night, the quality of that sleep might be so
compromised, they wake up fatigued, irritable, and functioning at a
sub-normal level.
Contrary to the
idea that sleep is a time of inactivity, there’s a lot going on
while our bodies are sleeping. It’s the time when we’re actively
involved in repair and maintenance of large and small injuries and
insults. During sleep, the body produces high levels of human
growth hormone (HGH), which corrects damage to our cells and helps
promote the formation of lean muscle tissue. During sleep, our
brains are also sorting and organizing all of the information it’s
had to process during the day. You could consider it kind of a
nightly “defrag” of your brain. Deep sleep, which can’t be
immediately achieved, or REM sleep (for Rapid Eye Movement) is where
we dream, a state in which our brains are amazingly active. It’s
time we gave sleep, and by extension ourselves, more respect.
How well you sleep has a direct effect on your weight
maintenance and weight loss. If you are tired, you don’t feel like
exercising or moving much, for that matter. If you’re sleeping
poorly, you may spend a greater number of hours either sleeping or
napping, all of which is time of reduced caloric need. Your
metabolism goes down and you burn fewer calories.
Remember, sleep is brought about by the production of melatonin
during the hours of darkness. How many of us, though, keep the
lights blaring, the television or radio blasting, or sit
nose-to-nose with the computer screen, right up until the time we go
to bed? Is it any wonder we have trouble even getting to sleep or
toss and turn all night?
It can
be anything from giving yourself permission to sit and read a book
for a half-an-hour before going to bed, to putting on a relaxing CD
of music or nature sounds to encourage your mind to relax. It could
be taking a hot bath or spending some time in a Jacuzzi or hot tub,
if you have one available. It could be enjoying a burst of activity
in the early evening to encourage your body to relax later on.
Ideally, you want
to consume the bulk of your calories before 3:00 PM in the
afternoon. This way, your stomach will be relatively empty during
sleep. How many of us have over eaten an evening meal or indulged
in too large a late night snack and then found it difficult to relax
and go to sleep? Over eating at night also causes your insulin
levels to surge, prompting the familiar response of just wanting to
take a nap after dinner. The more you eat, the more energy your
body puts into the digestive process and the less energy you have to
get up, get out, and get moving.
Worry
Worry
robs us of sleep. It is a great deal of mental activity that rarely
produces any beneficial insight or unforeseen solution. Yet, still
we do it. In order to get the rest we need, we need to stop.
In
order to relax, that transition time between wake and sleep needs to
be a positive, supportive review of your day and yourself. If
you’ve had a great day, you need to take comfort in that, not
consider it an aberration. If you’ve had a bad day, you need to
evaluate what went wrong and why, for the purpose of learning and
growing from it. It’s time for you to pay attention – and direct –
the voices in your head that lull you to sleep.
Ask yourself whether you are the sort of person who
has trouble “putting down” the day. Do you put it down and then
immediately pick it back up again by worry and reliving it? Do you
ever feel satisfied with how the day has gone? Or do you find
yourself with a constant complaint about your life that just won’t
go away? Have you ever used alcohol or drugs to help you sleep so
you could turn off that voice in your head? Are you so consumed with
what you need to do tomorrow that you can’t relax and rest tonight?
Remind yourself that you are in control of your life,
and your rest. Commit to reducing your habit of worrying so you can
increase the quality of your sleep.
Developing a Routine
Think about your activity patterns during the
evening. Do you go to bed early some nights yet stay up late on
others? This is especially important as we head into the
weekend. Some of us will get to bed at a “normal” time during the
week but think of the weekend as a time when it doesn’t really
matter when we go to bed, as long as we sleep later to make up for
it. This isn’t really an issue if it happens rarely – life has a way
of requiring certain flexibility. But if this is your pattern on a
regular basis, your sleep cycles could become disturbed.
Dr. Michael
Vitiello, a psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor at the
University of Washington, and a senior scientist with the Sleep
Research Group listed some steps you
can take to improve your sleep. We want you to see them because they
will support what you’ve learned already this week and provide you
with another voice on how important this aspect of your life is.
Paraphrased, here are Dr. Vitiello’s tips:
-
As much as you
can, keep to a regular sleep schedule.
-
Get enough
sleep each night. If you don’t, you’ll have trouble repaying your
sleep debt.
-
Prepare your
environment. Keep it dark, quiet, a comfortable temperature, with
a comfortable mattress and good airflow.
-
Don’t drink or
smoke from the late afternoon on. Cigarettes are a stimulant and
alcohol adversely affects sleep quality.
-
Keep your
bedroom a sanctuary. Don’t keep a television, a computer, or a
desk in there.
-
Having trouble
sleeping? Try warm milk. It has properties that help you sleep.
-
If you can’t
get to sleep, turn the clock around. t won’t help just watching
and thinking about how late it’s getting.
-
Exercise during
the day and expose yourself to light.
-
If it helps,
take a warm bath or shower in the evening.
5HTP (5-dyroxytryptamine)
There is
another step you can take to improve the quality of your sleep. It
is 5HTP. This supplement assists in the supply of serotonin to the brain. Serotonin is what
is called a precursor to melatonin, the substance produced by your
pituitary during hours of darkness that triggers your brain to
sleep. If your body is compromised in its ability to produce enough
melatonin to encourage a healthy sleep cycle, we have found 5HTP to
be of great help. Learn more about 5HTP by reading our section on Nutritional and Hormonal Support.
Relaxation
The weekend can be a wonderful time to relax and refresh.
For too many of us, however, relaxing means sitting in our easy
chair, with the television on, munching non-stop for hours, while
sipping our favorite relaxing beverage of choice. It’s time for us
to rethink the concept of relaxation and disconnect it from only
eating and drinking. Today, intentionally choose a different way of
unwinding from the week. It might be to get out of the house with
family and engage in an enjoyable, group activity. It might be
tackling that one home project you’ve put off, knowing how great it
will feel when it’s checked off your list! It might be to get
outside and work in the yard. Or go into the city and view an art
exhibit. Whatever it is, find something that is intellectually
engaging and involves some amount of physical movement. Bring your
water with you and, whenever possible, include a family member or
friend.
For more detailed information on the topics
discussed, read Thin Over
40 by Dr. Jantz. And remember, it is not just for
those who are over 40.
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