4 / FEBRUARY 2022 PRIME
How well did you sleep last night? By Nancy Ruby
Secrets to Solid Restful Sleep W
hen was the last time you got a good night’s sleep?
enjoying the sweetness of sound sleep ever since. How about you?
Enjoyed the evening hours as a time to wind down mindfully?
I know from personal experience how frustrating it can be to toss and turn, trying everything under the sun (or moon?!) to get better sleep and STILL feel exhausted. You might even start to think something is wrong with you or that you’ll never get a good night’s rest again.
Laid your head on the pillow as soon as you felt the first urge need to get horizontal? Winter is upon us and now, more than any other time of the year, sleep should be a priority. It’s integral to how you think, feel, focus, move, and live, yet it’s a major challenge for many. I had to learn the hard way. Yep, I was convinced that being a “night owl” was just who I was. Until l wasn’t. It took some time and effort to establish new habits that allowed my natural circadian rhythms to guide me home to my true rhythms. And I’ve been
Keep in mind that sleep troubles are common and not always your fault. Don’t make things harder by beating yourself up. That just breeds stress and you guessed it—more lost sleep. Resting isn’t just about sleep. Please remember that there’s more to rest than snoozing. Rest should happen during our waking hours too.
What do I mean by that? Whether it’s meditation, breath work, mindful movement, or a stroll around the block to breathe in fresh air and reconnect with nature, implementing a simple practice that helps you rest your nervous system when you’re awake will do wonders for all your waking hours. Doing so will help boost productivity, mood, energy, focus and can even help set you up for better sleep at night. Why is sleep so important? Many major restorative functions occur while we sleep. For adults, the biggies are muscle growth, protein synthesis, and tissue and cell repair. For infants and children, hormone production and brain development are key (which is why they need so much more sleep than adults). Perhaps the most restorative
function of sleep has to do with a neurotransmitter called adenosine. While you’re awake, your neurons fire and cells power you through the day. This process produces adenosine. It builds up all day long, leading to a decrease in dopamine—the neurotransmitter that keeps you alert and focused. So as adenosine goes up, dopamine goes down, resulting in that sleepy feeling you get at night. While you sleep, you clear adenosine from your body and start fresh in the morning feeling alert (study). The more sleep you get, the lower the level of adenosine and the more alert you’ll feel in the morning. Know this: If you’re cutting yourself short in the sleep department, you’re also cutting your overall well-being short. Inadequate sleep can increase your chances of developing
