How better sleep leads to less stress and more resiliency

Let’s talk sleep and stress. Two necessary and predominant elements of human life; there is no being human without them. But did you know that as well as existing together, they also work together.
Enter: our circadian rhythm. Our body evolved in such a way that it has it’s own clock for when different functions and tasks take place. It knew we couldn’t possibly take care of our biological processes, daily tasks and healing all at the same time. So it created a natural 24 hour cycle in which there are opportunity for all necessary processes to take place (talk about the master of time management!) Our circadian rhythm is important not only for sleep, but also for regulation of our stress response. By mastering our sleep routine, we tap into this natural cycle and can better manage our stress. While there are many (read: all) processes that rely on the circadian rhythm, we’ll focus on sleep and stress in this article.
Why does sleep matter? It’s vital for our physical, mental and emotional health. In our sleep, we restore or organs and tissues, replenish our immune system, and release hormones and neurotransmitters to support everyday life. The list can go on and on, but we’ll focus here on how it relates to stress.

Sleep helps to regulate our stress hormones.

Cortisol is our main stress hormone. It is produced in our adrenal glands, and cycles everyday in our bodies. It is important for wakefulness and stress resiliency. It also get produced in response to a stressor, such as a danger to our life (running from a bear) or stressors such as giving a public speech, or in everyday situations such as having a high pressure job or a busy family. These stressors causes a release of cortisol into our blood to activate systems to deal with this perceived stress. This activation includes: increasing our heart rate and blood pressure, increasing our lung capacity for air, and mobilize glucose stores into out blood for energy. When these stress responses are activated multiple times a day, day after day, for weeks, months and years, we lose the natural cycle of cortisol and begin to live in a state of chronically elevated stress levels. This will further cause havoc on a variety of systems, such as our cardiovascular system, digestive system and reproductive system. Additionally, it will throw off our circadian rhythm.
Another hormone that plays a key role in our circadian rhythm is melatonin. Melatonin does so much more than helping us sleep – it is also a powerful antioxidant, and supports and triggers much of the necessary rejuvenation that occurs in our sleep.

The players in the circadian rhythm

Cortisol and melatonin have a inverse relationship with each other in our circadian rhythm. Cortisol rises while we sleep through the early morning, peaking when we wake up. This peak gives us the “umph” to get our day started. It will slowly decreases, with a smaller peak in the afternoon, then dropping off in the evening. As it gets dark outside, cortisol drops off, melatonin begins ramping up. The elevation of melatonin helps make us feel sleepy, helps us fall asleep and stay asleep for the first few hours of our sleep cycle.
Stress is often one of the factors leading to disturbed sleep. We may stay up later to keep up with the demands of our life – sneak it some extra work, clean up from the day, or fit in some alone time! Stress can also lead to difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, and waking up not feeling rested. This leads to increased stress, poorer sleep and so the vicious cycle ensues.

How can we harness this natural rhythm to get our best sleep and reduce our stress levels.

If we intervene with providing our bodies with a nourishing sleep, in turn will we manage our stress levels better throughout the day and reduce the impact it has on our health.
The best way to approach this is to hone in on our natural circadian rhythm and use it to our advantage. This means using triggers such as light vs darkness and slowing down before going to bed. We can use principles of sleep hygiene to help with this.
  • Sleep hygiene 
    • Be consistent with bedtime and waking time (even on weekends!)
    • When the sun goes down:
      • support the cycle by reducing the brightness in our space once it becomes dark outside. This might look like lowering the brightness if our lights are on dimmers, or not using overhead lights and instead utilize lamps or candles for light in the evening.
    • 60-90 mins before desired bedtime
      • further to reducing light exposure: no electronic use at least 60 minutes before bed. Also, this reduces the extra stimulation right before bed, so that you’ll getting the zzz’s as soon as you hit the pillow.
      • Establish a night time ritual: maybe it’s having a bath, reading a book, some meditation or light stretching. Maybe it’s enjoying a cup of sleepy time tea. Journalling. Find what makes you look forward to this time in the evening, and creates the transition from your busy daytime self to the your relaxed, sleep master self.
    • Ensure the you have a dark environment for sleeping – no night lights, lights through the windows or door, no flashing phone or clock lights.
    • Bedroom is for 2 activities, and 2 activities only (can you guess?) 1. Sleep. 2. Being intimate.
  • Troubleshooting
    • If you have a difficult time falling asleep, after 20-30mins, get out of bed, leave the bedroom and do something else. Try light reading or meditation, until you feel sleepy again then head back to bed. All this staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning will just make you frustrated – not a great set up for a great sleep. Remember, if you do get up – continue no electronics or overhead lights.
    • Unrelenting, circulating thoughts? Keep a journal or notepad by your bed – and write those thoughts down!
    • If continue you find you are lying in bed unable to fall asleep, try waking up 15 minutes earlier in the morning.
How amazing it is that our body evolved such a beautiful rhythm to allow all necessary aspects of our life to happen. When we become in tuned with our bodies natural cycles rather than resisting it, we connect with our body’s natural ability to regulate itself. Revealing once again, it’s capacity to heal and care for itself. The healing power of our body.
References:
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