Do you get enough? Do you wake up refreshed, energised and ready to start the day? Well you do if it’s a Body Bootcamp Day! 😜
Our body is geared to follow the sunrise and sunset cycles. This stimulates the correct hormones at the correct time to efficiently manage energy levels and growth and repair.
Unfortunately, we mess about with these natural rhythms by consuming stimulants throughout the day and having bright lights in the evening. This includes the ‘blue light’ from TV’s, laptops, phones and tablets which tricks the photoreceptors in our eyes into thinking it’s morning and so the body secretes cortisol and adrenaline to fire up the system ready to start the day just as we should be powering down for sleep. If cortisol and adrenaline are high, then melatonin, (promotes restful sleep) and growth hormone, (repair, fat burning) are not released, so exacerbating the problem. By the time we go to bed, it’s late, reducing sleep time and that is sub optimal sleep because the hormone levels are the wrong way round.
The next morning we are not ready to rise because we haven’t had enough sleep and the adrenal glands are exhausted so cortisol and adrenaline levels don’t rise. This leads to us consuming more stimulants like coffee and craving sugar so reaching for the high energy foods to get us through the day. If tired, you will also eat more of even the healthy stuff!
So sleep is very important for controlling sugar cravings, regulating hunger, promoting growth and repair to burn body fat and therefore critical to fat loss goals.
· Aim for 8 hours sleep per night
· Dim lights before bed, make the bedroom as dark as possible
· Reduce time using phones/laptops etc in the evening
· Avoid stimulants from early evening onwards (coffee, alcohol)
· Do something relaxing before bed
· Use a light clock as an alarm
Of course if you are struggling with sleep because the kids wake you up or because the Menopause Fairy is visiting, (and she hangs around for a long time….) then some coping mechanisms will be needed. There are some great tips in this blog post about Menopause & Sleep from the awesome people at Precision Nutrition.