So You Can’t Sleep, Now What?

Sleep is precious and I never really understood that until we had two children…

A full night’s sleep is now a distant memory. And I know many of you struggle to sleep too, be it nature calling you to the toilet, young children, or hormonal changes. Good quality sleep seems to be a rarity.

I’ve done blogs on sleep before, so this one is not about ‘how’ to sleep better. I’m going to share with you things you can do to support your health if your sleep is poor.

To pre-frame this advice, it is key to understand that when we don’t sleep well, not only do we ‘feel’ tired. But our body is indeed tired, simple functions become harder to do and processes of renewal and detoxification are slowed. Therefore what we must do is anything that will support our body in that state.

This is not an excuse to put your feet up, in fact that could do more harm than good. Overnight your body ‘cleans house’, it goes through a detox. If we then sit and slouch on a body that has not done this, the toxic load builds. You know that brain fog and lethargy, this explains it.

The other thing that is tempting on a tired body is to ‘wake it up’. Hard exercise, a cold shower, and a strong coffee. They may do the trick short term. But long term they will fry your adrenal system, that reserve energy you have. That will lead to thyroid implications and potentially more serious illness.

So what should you do?

Here are my top 3 tips to help a tried body:

1. Gentle movement, walking. Do this early in the day, it will help to circulate your blood, lymph, and cerebral spinal fluid, aiding the detoxification process. Help your body ‘clean house’.
2. Delay your morning coffee. An early coffee will harm your adrenals and thyroid. Wait an hour after waking.
3. Heat therapy. Hilarious to discuss heat exposure in the UK, but if you can access a sauna, it can really help.

Bonus

1. Carbs for breakfast. Do not skip breakfast on a tired body. Support your system with complex carbs (rice, potatoes) and proteins. This will give sustainable energy to move through the day.

Hope this helps, I’d love to know your top sleep tips?

With love 

Tom