Sleep As Medicine

Who knew that something so simple, and so natural as sleep could be such an effective treatment?

Sleep is something we can’t avoid - it’s a basic human mechanism, so it's pretty concerning that such a high proportion of people either don’t get enough sleep or just don’t sleep as effectively as they should.

In the UK, we have £multi-billion industries built to service our desire for restful sleep: pick from an almost infinite range of beds in different sizes, mattresses of all types and firmness, an endless range of pillows, bedding, and all sorts of other paraphernalia, from lavender drops for your pillow to fancy alarm clocks which play soothing music, and Smartphone apps with all manner of gizmos.

We also have one of the safest environments for sleep, largely safe from burglary and home invasion, with warm, dry homes and full tummies, not everyone in the world has such a privileged life as the average Brit.

How ironic, then, that as a nation we struggle so badly with something so natural. In my case, 10 years of nightly insomnia left me tired, emotional, drained, anxious, grumpy.

Tiredness affects all our interactions: with our friends and family, work colleagues, ability to complete daily tasks and to deal with whatever life throws at us. One or two nights of poor sleep is bad enough: constantly poor sleep over a long period has far reaching effects.

Getting really tired has the opposite effect: we all know how much irritability increases with tiredness. It also confuses our appetite, increases sugar cravings, makes us prone to accidents, and increases markers for other major illnesses including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, etc.

What to do about it

Sleeping well, and getting enough is extremely beneficial in the restoration of balance to the system.

Achieving restful, beneficial sleep, and enough of it, is one of the key weapons in beating this syndrome. By this I mean sleep for at least 8 hrs, if not 10 or 12 when needed, which is undisturbed, which gives the body enough time to enter REM sleep, the deepest and most beneficial phases and which enables the body to deploy it’s own weapon: adult growth hormone.

There is much written about how to achieve the best sleep, and interestingly, all the primal diet exponents feature it heavily: in the stakes of building a great body, sleep is almost universally cited as part of the solution. Here are the basics:

• sleep in a dark room, with no electric lights or other distractions. Use black-out blinds to stop natural/other light from creeping in.

• limit your exposure to artificial blue light (from computer screens, tablets, TV) for the last hour or so before bed.

• avoid having electronic gadgets in the bedroom - leave mobile phones in another room.

• do not work in your bedroom - bedrooms should be about sleeping and relaxing (in all its forms!). If you associate your bedroom with work, it will make it that much harder to switch off come night time.

• do not exercise late at night - exercise releases many hormones, which your body needs to enjoy and process. This is not conducive to good sleep.

• sleep for as long as your body needs it, if that means you wake later some mornings than others, so be it.

• wake naturally: avoid using alarm clocks or other devices which jolt you from sleep.

• sleep with the natural day/night times in your area, I realise this isn’t totally possible in Britain, as no-one wants to go to bed at 4pm in the winter, but it’s worth some consideration.

• listen to your body: it has a great way of letting you know that you’re tired. If you’re tired, sleep.

• exercise can play a role in helping to improve subsequent sleep - if your body is physically tired, it can make a terrific difference to the quality of your sleep.

• ensure that you've eaten enough for dinner (so that you don't wake hungry) and early enough so that the effects of processing your food have passed. Avoid carbs in the evening as these increase our insulin response which, in turn, magnifies the production of cortisol and adrenaline.

Sleep and the treatments on this blog:

If you’re following the programme and following my treatments to rebalance your hormone system, remember that your body will be going through some changes - it may well be making progress that hasn’t been possible for years. This in itself is likely to give the body a greater need for sleep.

Don't underestimate the benefits of sleep:

Do not underestimate that because this treatment is free and available to all, that it should be treated lightly or with passing regard. This is one of the best treatments there is, ignore it at your peril, and to the detriment of your recovery.

If I offered a 3-day course, costing, say £1500, which would rejuvenate your body, heal your mind and send you away feeling like a new person, with better skin, brighter eyes and improved digestion, there are those that would pay it. Let’s face it, there are already beauty treatments which cost at least this much but which can’t match these results, and they are immensely popular. I’ve sometimes had the thought that I should set up “sleep clinics” where I bring people to a location and ask them to pay me £500 per night to have a great night’s sleep. Money for old rope, but some people don’t understand the value of anything unless it has a price tag.

Sleep and Adult Growth Hormone

Adult growth hormone is the natural substance deployed by the body to regenerate, rebuild, replenish, and it does almost all of its work at night.

In a body with endocrine distress, these effects are magnified has a double-whammy effect - by not getting enough sleep, not only is the body tired, but it’s also not rebuilding. Magnify the effects of this over many years as I did and you have a body which is broken and falling apart, without all the other bad stuff which is going on in the rest of the syndrome.

Even if you don’t feel as though you need more sleep, remember that you are in a rebuild phase and that the greatest weapon in our armoury is restful sleep - embrace it.

I’ve also found that some of the treatments elsewhere on this blog will promote better sleep, even in those who have struggled with insomnia for years. If this is the case for you, embrace it, do all you can to maximise the effect (I’m guessing that you’ll want to anyway).