Supplement with Magnesium
Magnesium helps the reabsorption of cortisol and adrenaline as well as helping muscles to relax.Take 100mg of magnesium per 20 kg of body mass at night. For some people, this can disrupt sleep at first due to a disturbance in
digestion, so for these individuals take the magnesium with your dinner, earlier in the night.
Keep consistent
Avoid getting up and going to bed at different times everyday. The more regular you can keep the time you get up in the morning and go to bed at night, the more consistent your circadian rhythm will be. This will allow you to fall asleep at a more regular time.
Melatonin supplementation
Supplementing with melatonin 30 minutes before bed can aid sleep quality. This is hard to find in a bio-available form though, so do your research or use Cherry-Vit juice. Ideally it is better to be effectively producing your own melatonin, so it is not a great habit to get into relying on taking melatonin. However, in times of greater stress or travel, it can be useful to stimulate your sleep cycle.
Supplement with Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps the production of melanin in the brain, which aids in melatonin production at night. Take 1000 IU per 20kg of body mass in the morning to help replenish melatonin for bedtime.
Regulate your temperature
Naturally, the body drops its temperature to go to sleep. So if the ambient temperature in the room is too high it will negatively impact the quality of your sleep. The ideal ambient temperature is between 16-20 degrees. If you can’t manipulate the temperature of your room with air conditioning, then the use of a fan in summer and heater in winter is recommended. Also sleeping with as little clothing on as possible allows your body to naturally regulate its temperature more easily.
Supplement with 5-HTP
Supplement with 5-HTP before bed. There is a host of reasons to supplement with this, as it aids the body’s natural production of serotonin, the good mood hormone. But it also aids natural melatonin production, which in turn helps you get deeper sleep.
Don’t get triggered
Watch your mood before bed. Being angry or overstimulated before bed will also lead to triggering “fight or flight” systems. Avoid arguments and don’t watch the news or overstimulating programs. Another big issue for the younger generation is no gaming before bed, particularly first person shooter games.
Remove blue-light from devices
Blue-light in devices and any bright lights before bed will trigger your brain to think it’s daytime not bedtime. Managing this is essential to a good night sleep. Use the night shift function on your smart phone or tablet and download the f.lux app on your computer, these remove as much of the blue and white spectrums from the screen as possible. Set them to automatically come on as soon as it is sunset and return to normal at sunrise
Cut the caffeine
Caffeine should not be consumed within 6-8 hours of the time you want to go to sleep. If you want to be asleep at 10pm, then no coffee after 2pm, ideally not after 12pm. It takes 6-8 hours for your body to process caffeine and get it
out of your system. Even if you can get to sleep fine, drinking coffee or energy drinks late in the day will still negatively impact the quality of your sleep.
Get checked/discomfort
Discomfort or pain in bed can be a quick way to kill a good nights sleep. If you are tossing and turning because you can’t get comfortable, we suggest that you should get evaluated for any joint, nerve or muscular imbalances you may be suffering from. Booking an appointment to see a chiropractor or asking your existing one, will be your best bet to get a full evaluation. Or if you would prefer to try do it yourself first, check out our MOVEMENT manual for self-assessment and correction tools.
Hormone and sleep cycle regulation have something very important in common... your nervous system. Your brain and central nervous system not only controls these, it controls every basic function in the human body. For your body to
control your sleep cycle at its best, the messages your brain and central nervous system are sending to your body need to get there uninhibited. If something gets in the way of these messages, none of these tips will be of any use to you, as you won’t be able to do anything at your best. A chiropractors sole job in life is to assess and correct any disturbances in the communication of messages coming from the brain to the body. If you try all of the above and are still having sleep issues you probably need to be assessed by a chiropractor to see if you have a communication problem with your nervous system.
For more information regarding chiropractic care and how it can help you lead a healthier more active life or about us and our practice, check out the rest of our website. To book a no obligation initial chiropractic consultation to see how chiropractic care could help you follow this link https://chiropractichq.co.nz/contact-us or contact us via email or phone on the details below. If you wish to get a copy of one of our 5 foundation manuals for more in depth health advise, they are available for purchase from our practice.