Fix Your Sleep, Fix Your Hormones, Fix your performance?
Sleep is one of the biggest triggers when it comes to cycle irregularity and impaired performance. At the same time, it’s one of the easier things to fix - if we want to…
Maybe you love a 4pm latte with your team at work, or you can’t get through your evening workout without a shot of espresso or your pre-workout.
Perhaps you’re quick to fall down a Tik Tok/YouTube/scrolling rabbit hole until 1am?
Here are some things for you to think about:
What time are you going to bed? The first 5 hours we get are the most valuable and the more of these we can get before midnight the better [1]. Not only this but there are links to this sleep reducing your risks for metabollic disorders and Alzheimers [2]. Are you a night owl? Set a bedtime reminder on your phone and stick to it. If bed time is at midnight now, consider starting to move your bedtime 30 minutes earlier each week for the next month and see how you feel heading to be and actually getting 8 hours sleep (or more?) every night and not just at the weekend?
What screens are you looking at before bed? Your phone? The tv? Your work laptop? Each of these emits blue light waves which are known to impact melatonin production [3]. Consider using a blue light filter on your phone - so that your phone screen has an orange tint or if you’re a glasses wearer add a blue light coating or buy some blue light blocking lenses - amazon have some really great options. Start wearing these from a couple of hours before bed time to improve your sleep quality.
What is interrupting your sleep during the night? Are you living in the city where there are lots of cars passing by, do you live with people who are noisy or neighbours? White noise is a great way to reduce the impact of sudden noises and can help you to fall asleep and stay asleep.
When was your last meal? Are you hungry or waking up hungry? There are no hard and fast rules about when your last meal or snack should be. My advice would just be to think about what you are eating. Have you done are hard workout or eating a high protein diet - a casein based protein shake will release protein slowly throughout the night supporting your muscle recovery. Think about higher levels of tryptophan - a precursor for melatonin, your sleep hormone. These include bananas, turkey, seeds, chocolate and tuna!
Here is your sleep hygiene check list:
Room temperature - the ideal temp is approx 17degrees centigrade
Darkness - the darker the room, the better the sleep. Try to eliminate both natural light and glowing lights.
Screen usage - put your phone down and turn off the tv 1 hour before bed time
Busy brain - keep a notepad and pen next to your bed so that you can write everything down and decide whether its important in the morning
Stress - Have a bath, throw in some epsom salts (great for muscle recovery too) and perhaps some essential oils (chamomile and lavender) and soak for 20 minutes with your favourite audiobook.
Ignore your fitness tracker. Take it off.
It won’t be an over night fix but I promise you that you’ll look back in a couple of weeks and be amazed by the transformation.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9083440/
