Spending the hours before bed watching TV or working on the computer? You could be placing stress on your body and affecting the quality of your sleep!
Our bodies have a natural rhythm known as the circadian cycle. Or the sleep wake cycle. Nearly all living creatures are affected by this.
Its simple really. When the sun lightens up our day your body produces the wake hormone cortisol. Cortisol is at its peak between the hours of 6:00am-9:00am. Then from 12 noon it slowly starts to decrease, dropping to its lowest level at 6pm.
If you are stressed, working on computers, watching big screen TVs and sitting in brightly lit rooms, these things will all contribute to keeping your cortisol levels up in your body. This will affect your melatonin production.
Melatonin is the hormone responsible for sleep and repair. It’s cycle starts at around 6pm and peaks between the hours of 10:00pm – 2:00am in the morning. If you go to bed at 12pm you have already lost two hours of vital repair.
The hours you chose to sleep are just as important as the duration.
A good example of this is Russell. Russell asked for my help as he is having difficulty losing belly fat. Russell works night shift. Even though he sleeps 6 to 7 hours during the day, his body is missing out on that vital repair sleep it needs and is producing excess cortisol. Which can lead to fat gain. In Russell’s case we are working with him on his food choices and making sure that he keeps normal sleep hours on his days off.
For the rest of us who keep normal hours I recommend a sleep time routine. This involves dimming the lights a least an hour before bed, turning off your TV, phones and computers and hopping into bed no later than 10pm.
For help with all of your sleep or other health issues, you can contact me at Strive Holistic Personal Training www.strive-training.com .
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