Restorative sleep happens when brain activity during sleep helps restore your body and mind, fundamentally resetting you for another day of activity. When you wake up from restorative sleep, you feel well rested and ready for the day.
Sleep is non-restorative when you wake up feeling unrefreshed despite having slept 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, the recommended number of hours for adults. For children aged 6- to 13-year-olds, 9 to 11 hours per night is recommended and for 14- to 17-year-olds, 8 to 10 hours.
Not getting enough restorative sleep can affect your health, mood and energy, not to mention your ability to function during the day. Being deprived of restorative sleep can lead to short-term memory loss and brain fog, impaired decision-making and the tendency to make errors. This, in turn, affects intellectual performance and can harm academic achievement and productivity at work. Some people may drink coffee or caffeinated beverages to help them get through the day, but this is merely a Band-aid solution, and furthermore, consuming too much caffeine may disrupt cortisol levels (see below).
What causes non-restorative sleep?
- insomnia
- stress and chronically elevated cortisol levels
- anxiety or other mood disorders
- hormone imbalances
- chronic fatigue syndrome
- restless leg syndrome
- sleep apnea
- jet lag or shift work
- chronic pain
- sleep disruptions due to young children, hot flashes, urge to urinate, etc.
- poor sleep hygiene
Do you suffer from non-restorative sleep? Looking for ways to improve your sleep? Whether it’s anxiety, unprocessed stress, an overactive mind, hot flashes waking you up or hormone imbalances, Dr. Ardyce Yik can address the root causes of non-restorative sleep and prescribe evidence-based nutraceuticals to help you get the rest you need. Below are some ways to help you body get ready for a night of restorative sleep. If you’ve tried everything below but to no avail, it’s time to look deeper. Click here to contact Dr. Yik.
What can we do to combat poor sleep hygiene and promote a good night’s sleep?
- Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed.
- Avoid foods or beverages containing caffeine at least 6 hours prior to bedtime. Caffeinated foods and beverages include coffee, black tea, green tea, chocolate, energy drinks and soft drinks/ soda.
- Expose yourself to bright light during the day. Minimise use of bright lights in the evening. Once it gets dark outside, your pineal gland begins to produce and secrete melatonin, a hormone which controls your sleep-wake cycle. Continuously being exposed to light during the evening will affect melatonin levels and sleep. One study showed that melatonin was suppressed in preschool children who were exposed to bright light in the evening. In the study, one hour of bright-light exposure in the evening suppressed the children’s melatonin secretion by around 90% and these levels remained suppressed for up to 50 minutes after light exposure.
- Sleep in total darkness. Do not use night lights. Get black-out blinds if you need to. Any light during sleep will disrupt your body’s melatonin production and stimulate the production of cortisol, a stress hormone, which has the opposite effect of melatonin.
- Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. When you have a regular routine, your body will learn when to wind down in the evening to prepare for sleep. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day will help to establish a proper sleep-wake cycle.
Click here to read more tips on how to get better sleep, naturally.
SOURCE: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6616396/
Dr. Ardyce Yik ND 