How much sleep did you get last night?

How much sleep did you get last night?

Did you get eight hours of sleep last night?

Do you typically sleep through the night uninterrupted?

Do you try to catch up on your sleep over the weekend?

Do you feel refreshed when you get up in the morning?

Do you grant sleep importance?

Sleep is critically important for your health, yet it’s something many people scoff at.

It can be “cool” to not sleep much or say you don’t need much sleep. It may make you sound tough and strong, but…

It’s really a bad idea.

What does your brain think about sleep?

There’s a system in your body called the glymphatic system. You’ve heard of the lymphatic system with an “L”, the glymphatic system is similar but it’s found in your brain.

The lymphatic system is part of your immune system. It protects you against infection and removes “bad” guys from your body. The glymphatic system similarly “cleans house” in your brain. When does it perform this very important activity? It occurs when you’re asleep.

Your body is quite busy when you’re sleeping

You might think, “I’m sleeping. Nothing’s happening.” You’re not moving around too much, but internally a lot is happening. Good sleep protects your brain, it protects your immune system, moving you away from disease rather than toward it.

There’s a multitude of studies to support this important link between sleep, your immune system, and brain health, so I wanted to give you a quick sleep hack.

Sleep in complete darkness

Darkness is really required for sleep. If you can’t get your room perfectly dark, try an eye mask. There are several out in the market. It needs to be padded to fully block the light. It may take a little getting used to, but you won’t believe how much better you can sleep in complete darkness.

Get some white noise

A sound machine is something I recently purchased and really enjoy. It’s wonderful in that it blocks out the ambient noise of your home and nearby environment. I stopped hearing planes, my dog drinking water, my husband snoring, and the birds that enjoy singing before it’s even light out. I was truly impressed with what a difference it made. Let me know what you think. They’re available online inexpensively.

Earplugs anyone?

Earplugs are also helpful if you’re fine with truly not hearing much in your environment. In other words, you have no little ones in the house that you’d have to hear when they woke up and needed you.

The earplugs I have to hand are actually for children and swimming. That may sound odd but I have a small ear canal and traditional earplugs are uncomfortable for me. I have learned from patients that I’m not alone. These particular earplugs mold in the ear to block out water but they don’t go into the cancel and are therefore very comfortable.

If you don’t have that particular problem you’ll likely do fine with the regular ones on the market.

Melatonin if you’re over 40

Last but not least, consider melatonin. If you’ve reached age 40, your melatonin is about half of what it was in when you were 20. By the time you’re 60, your melatonin is 1/8 of what it was in your 20s.

If you’re younger than 40, occasional melatonin use for jet lag or other unusual situations that may make sleep difficult is considered safe.

Decreased melatonin levels are associated with dementia, mood disorders, pain, fibromyalgia, migraine, and type 2 diabetes.

Melatonin is considered to be an anti-cancer as well.

Ensure you’re getting high-quality melatonin and consult your clinician to ensure there are no contraindications for you to take it based on any conditions you may have or medications you’re taking.

Still, having trouble sleeping?

If your sleep quality is not good despite your best efforts, please reach out to me.

There is a reason and we have great success handling sleep problems naturally.

Sleep quality is critical for your health, so don’t continue to ignore it if it’s a problem.

How’s your health?

• Are you concerned about your health?
• Does poor sleep plague you?
• Are you just not feeling “right”?

We can help.

Contact us for a Free Consultation – Call (408) 733-0400.

If you are not local to us you can still receive help; our Destination Clinic treats patients from across the country and internationally.

We help the world’s busiest people regain, retain, and reclaim their health, energy, and resilience.

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