I am going to do an experiment on sleep suggestions/ideas that I posted in my previous blog. Using myself as the test dummy, I am going to observe my sleep habits and my other activities and track to see if there is any correlation between them.
My list so far of things I'm going to track daily:
Time to bed
Time to sleep (after going to bed)
Time waking up
Number of times to get up/wake up in the night
Total hours of sleep
Weight
Rate quality of sleep on a scale of 0 to 10
Rate how I feel when I wake up on a scale of 0 to 10
Medications taken
Exercise - amount and time of day
Caffeine and alcohol intake - amount and time of day
Water intake - amount and time of day
Journaling - Meditation - Self-energy work
Weather conditions
Time spent watching TV/playing on computer
Time spent working
Time spent outdoors
Mood/Energy Level/Pain Level
My diet
Other health conditions
I'm going to track these things for a month, then see if I find any correlations. For this first month, my intention is to just observe what I'm doing, without making any major changes. I imagine, however, that by tracking things, I may also end up experimenting with different things to see whether there are changes. After the first month, I will choose one or two things to consciously work on changing, based on the factors that seem to be affecting my sleep and my health.
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Sunday, January 19, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Sleep Blog - Part 2 - Insomnia/Sleep Quality
What are the potential problems associated with inadequate or insufficient sleep?
- Decreased cognitive ability
- Slower response times
- Performance detriments
- May impact metabolism in a way that causes obesity
- Worsened symptoms of gastrointestinal diseases (IBS, IBD, GERD, liver disease, colon cancer)
- Increased risk of colon cancer
- Depression
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Inflammation
- Gastrointestinal Diseases
- Cancer
- Increased allergies
(References:
World J Gastroenterol. 2013 Dec 28;19(48):9231-9239. Sleep, immunity and inflammation in gastrointestinal disorders
BMC Public Health. 2014 Jan 9;14(1):19. Influence of health behaviours on the incidence of infection and allergy in adolescents: the AFINOS cross-sectional study.
)
Some suggestions to get a better night's sleep:
1. Keep your room as dark as possible when sleeping. (We bought blackout curtains for our bedroom)
2. Keep your electronic devices at least 3 feet away from the bed (I haven't mastered this. I keep my phone by the bed so I can see what time it is when I wake up).
3. Keep your bedroom organized, neat, and clean. (We do pretty well at this).
4. Sleep nude or in light nightclothes. (I need at least a light shirt...my neck gets cold)
5. Keep your room cool (below 70 degrees), but not too cold. (We sleep best when we turn down the heat to about 65 at bedtime...not that cold in the summer).
6. Use white noise machine if noise bothers you (my husband has a CPAP, that does it for me)
7. Don't sleep with pets and kids (no problem with that here).
8. Sleep regular hours. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. (Here's one I need to work on).
9. Keep household lighting dim from dinner until sleep.
10. Avoid TV and computer before bed. Turn off electronics one hour before bed. (Here's another I can work on).
11. Do relaxing activities (not work related) in the evening
12. Develop a calming bedtime routine. Turn off bright lights, relax with a bath or shower, read quietly or write in a journal. Meditate or listen to soft music. Get relaxed before bed.
13. If you cannot sleep, get out of bed and do something else until you feel the urge to sleep (I will get up and write in my journal in a dimly-lit room).
14. "Download" your thoughts and worries into a journal before going to bed, so that they won't keep you awake.
15. Exercise during the day, but finish vigorous exercise at least 3 hours before bed.
16. Exercise your mind as well as your body during the day (intellectual stimulation helps you sleep better).
17. Avoid napping.
18. Avoid caffeine after noon.
19. Avoid alcohol, especially in the 2-3 hours before bed.
20. Do meditation or visualizations in the evening.
21. Finish dinner 3-4 hours before bed.
22. Before bed, take a relaxing bath, listen to calming music, or read an uplifting book.
23. Limit what you drink before bed to avoid having to get up in the middle of the night.
24. Turn clock away so you don't check it when you wake up in the night. (I can't do this. I get up and look if the clock is turned away).
25. If back pain keeps you awake, sleep with a pillow between your legs or under your knees.
26. Get a pillow that keeps your neck in neutral so you don't wake up with an neck ache. (I've been through what seems like hundreds of pillows...if anyone finds one that works, let me know).
27. Reserve the bed for sleep and sex. (check)
28. Get out in bright light in the morning for 5 to 30 minutes. (My dogs make me do this)
29. Keep a nightlight in the bathroom to keep from having to turn on a bright overhead light if you get up during the night. (There's an easy one I can do).
30. Nicotine is a stimulant. Don't smoke in the 4 hours before bed.
31. If you have chronic insomnia, get evaluated by a doctor. Conditions such as depression, asthma, arthritis, and acid reflux can cause insomnia. Some medications can also cause insomnia.
References: The Hormone Diet by Natasha Turner, ND
The Immune System Recovery Plan, by Susan Blum, MD
http://www.mayoclinic.org/sleep/art-20048379
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-benefits-10/slideshow-sleep-tips
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/healthy-sleep-tips
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/getting/overcoming/tips
Week 5 Update - Exercise Program
I struggled getting my exercises done this past week. Cold, dreary weather makes me want to stay in bed. I managed to do 6 days of exercise, though. I substituted a day of cardio for my yoga day, though. So this week I should probably do yoga twice. My body needs to stretch.
Didn't lose weight this week, but did lose another 1/4 inch off my waistline. I think I'm standing straighter and looking stronger. Apparently getting fit, strong, and thin isn't a quick and easy thing to do. But I'm willing to keep it up, since I'm seeing progress. Now if only spring would come, so I could have warm days to walk outdoors.
Also, can you tell I got a massage between Week 4 and Week 5 as well as between Week 2 and Week 3? My shoulders are straighter after a massage!!
Didn't lose weight this week, but did lose another 1/4 inch off my waistline. I think I'm standing straighter and looking stronger. Apparently getting fit, strong, and thin isn't a quick and easy thing to do. But I'm willing to keep it up, since I'm seeing progress. Now if only spring would come, so I could have warm days to walk outdoors.
Also, can you tell I got a massage between Week 4 and Week 5 as well as between Week 2 and Week 3? My shoulders are straighter after a massage!!
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Sleep - Is getting to bed by 11 better for your health?
Sleep: "Going without makes you tired. Having too much makes you lethargic. Getting the right amount makes you feel good. Going back to sleep makes you feel blurry. Getting up straight away makes you feel good -- and noble. Nothing better." (The Rules of Life, by Richard Templar)
I have been going to bed between midnight and 1 am for many years. Since I'm my own boss, and generally don't start work until 10 am, I still get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. Recently, though, I've had a few things come up that have made me rethink my sleep schedule. First, I've been reading books about the immune system, hormonal balances, and weight loss. I keep finding references to the "ideal" bedtime, which is before 11:00 pm, preferably by 10:00 pm. Second, I've started exercising in the mornings, and feel like I'm losing a lot of day by not getting up earlier. Thirdly, I'm finding as I get older it takes me more time to get going in the morning, so I feel like it would be nice to have a little more time awake before facing the world each day.
Susan Blum, MD, MPH in the Immune System Recovery Plan, recommends going to bed by 10 or 11 to give your body the best rest. Natasha Turner, ND, in The Hormone Diet, also recommends that you are in bed by 11, and 10 would be even better. Dr. Christiane Northrup states that going to bed by 10 is good for your adrenals: "Get plenty of sleep: Sleep is the most effective approach to high adrenaline levels. Many women require eight to ten hours of sleep to function optimally. Try to go to bed by ten P.M. Getting to sleep on the earlier side of midnight is much more restorative to your adrenals than sleep that begins later in the night, even if you sleep late the next morning to get in your full amount of sleep."
This particular paragraph was found on a multitude of web pages: "Most people need at least 7-and-a-half sleep hours per night. If you find that you have problem sleeping, you should make sleep a priority in your life. Schedule the time for sleep and keep this schedule fixed no matter what. You must to go to sleep before 11 PM because our systems--particularly the adrenals--do a majority of recharging and recovering between 11 PM and 1 AM. The gallbladder dumps toxins at the same time. If you are awake between 11 PM and 1 AM, the toxins go back into your liver, which then dumps them back into your system and disrupts your health."
I am not quite sure of the physiology involved in being awake versus asleep and the functions of the gallbladder and liver, since they are both autonomic, and I'm not sure why being awake would make the toxins go someplace different. Plus, I think that the liver's function is to filter out toxins, not "dump them back into your system." So color me skeptical on that claim.
Throughout the Internet, there are recommendations to go to bed before 11:00 pm, because your adrenal glands recover between 11 pm and 1 am, and they won't do that if you're awake. My research points to the Chinese Acupuncture Meridian Clock as the possible source of this theory.
Since adrenal fatigue can cause a multitude of physical ailments, some of which I've been flirting with over the past couple of years, I did a PubMed search to see if I could find any research to back up the claims that going to bed earlier is healthier for your adrenals. Or is healthier in general. I didn't read all the papers, just the abstracts. But this is what I found:
I found a study suggesting that diabetics that stay up late, sleep late, skip breakfast and fare poorly. The researchers felt that skipping breakfast was probably the major contributor, not the staying up late. (The Relationship Between Breakfast Skipping, Chronotype, and Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes,Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2013;119:155-90. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-396971-2.00007-5. )
A Japanese study found that people who went to bed later were more likely to have depression. Again, though, the bedtime wasn't thought to be the problem as much as the shortage of sleep that resulted from the later bedtime. (Bedtime and Sleep Duration in Relation to Depressive Symptoms among Japanese Workers., Behav Sleep Med. 2013 Oct 24.)
No other studies were found in my quick search to indicate that there is a direct relationship between health and bedtimes. I did find, however, several studies that indicate that chronotype (whether we are early to bed or late to bed types) is genetic, and that the tendency to go to bed early or late is difficult if not impossible to change. I also found that there is a journal that is dedicated to the study of chronobiology, called Chronobiology International.
A recently published study suggested that there were measurable differences in the brain tissue of people with different chronotypes, and suggested that work schedules should fit in with chronotypes as much as possible in order to avoid the problems associated with late chronotypes, such as sleep disturbances, depression, and overuse of stimulants. ("Early to bed, early to rise": Diffusion tensor imaging identifies chronotype-specificity, Chronobiol Int. 2014 Jan 7. )
Another study found differences in personalities between "larks" and "owls," with morning people being more future oriented and night owls being more present oriented. They suggested that self-control was a mediating factor (I need to read this study, because the abstract seems to suggest that morning people have more self-control, which is interesting to me....maybe that's why so many of the morning people feel superior to us night owls). (Explaining why larks are future-oriented and owls are present-oriented: Self-control mediates the chronotype-time perspective relationships.Chronobiol Int. 2013 Oct 16.)
Another study suggested that a morning chronotype is fairly constant throughout life, but people with an evening chronotype sometimes shifted to morning over time. It also found a 1.3 times higher mortality rate for evening people versus morning people. It found that "eveningness" has become more prevalent among the population recently. (Long-term consistency of diurnal-type preferences among men. Chronobiol Int. 2013 Oct 4.)
Web references suggested that you most likely cannot change your chronotype by force of will, although your body may change naturally over time. One article I particularly liked on Mark's Daily Apple, gave a good overview of chronotypes and how to adapt. Again, the suggestion was that it is better to arrange your life around your chronotype than to try to change your chronotype to fit the world's schedule. Even Dr. Oz's blog suggested that the ideal bedtime is based on when you have to get up and how much sleep your body requires, not that any perfect time for everyone exists.
Now the quandary for me: should I try to adapt my bedtime to the 11 pm crowd, potentially saving my adrenal glands and improving my health? Or should I just go with my body's current 12-1 bedtime and adapt my life around that?
My theory for right now is that, since 11 pm is only an hour or two earlier than I currently go to bed, I probably could make that change. I fall on the in-between scale on the Chronotype Test, not completely an early or a late person. So, my next experiment on me is seeing if I can get my bedtime to the point where I can wake up refreshed without an alarm at 7 am.
In my next blog, I'm going to review all the suggestions for getting to bed and getting to sleep, and then choose a few to try.
I have been going to bed between midnight and 1 am for many years. Since I'm my own boss, and generally don't start work until 10 am, I still get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. Recently, though, I've had a few things come up that have made me rethink my sleep schedule. First, I've been reading books about the immune system, hormonal balances, and weight loss. I keep finding references to the "ideal" bedtime, which is before 11:00 pm, preferably by 10:00 pm. Second, I've started exercising in the mornings, and feel like I'm losing a lot of day by not getting up earlier. Thirdly, I'm finding as I get older it takes me more time to get going in the morning, so I feel like it would be nice to have a little more time awake before facing the world each day.Susan Blum, MD, MPH in the Immune System Recovery Plan, recommends going to bed by 10 or 11 to give your body the best rest. Natasha Turner, ND, in The Hormone Diet, also recommends that you are in bed by 11, and 10 would be even better. Dr. Christiane Northrup states that going to bed by 10 is good for your adrenals: "Get plenty of sleep: Sleep is the most effective approach to high adrenaline levels. Many women require eight to ten hours of sleep to function optimally. Try to go to bed by ten P.M. Getting to sleep on the earlier side of midnight is much more restorative to your adrenals than sleep that begins later in the night, even if you sleep late the next morning to get in your full amount of sleep."
This particular paragraph was found on a multitude of web pages: "Most people need at least 7-and-a-half sleep hours per night. If you find that you have problem sleeping, you should make sleep a priority in your life. Schedule the time for sleep and keep this schedule fixed no matter what. You must to go to sleep before 11 PM because our systems--particularly the adrenals--do a majority of recharging and recovering between 11 PM and 1 AM. The gallbladder dumps toxins at the same time. If you are awake between 11 PM and 1 AM, the toxins go back into your liver, which then dumps them back into your system and disrupts your health."
I am not quite sure of the physiology involved in being awake versus asleep and the functions of the gallbladder and liver, since they are both autonomic, and I'm not sure why being awake would make the toxins go someplace different. Plus, I think that the liver's function is to filter out toxins, not "dump them back into your system." So color me skeptical on that claim.
Throughout the Internet, there are recommendations to go to bed before 11:00 pm, because your adrenal glands recover between 11 pm and 1 am, and they won't do that if you're awake. My research points to the Chinese Acupuncture Meridian Clock as the possible source of this theory.
“I encourage all of my patients to go to bed at 11 p.m. so that they are sleeping soundly by 1 a.m.,” says Susan Wadden, an acupuncturist in Shoreline, Wash.
Each organ system in acupuncture has an assigned two-hour time frame. One o’clock in the morning is when when the liver time cycle begins. Between 1 and 3 a.m. is the optimal time for the liver to cleanse itself. This cleansing, which plays a big role in whether we feel rested when we wake up, happens most efficiently when a person is in a deep state of sleep.
- See more at: http://www.thehealersjournal.com/2013/05/04/acupuncturist-health-tips-to-remember/#sthash.4X64SkHb.dpufSince adrenal fatigue can cause a multitude of physical ailments, some of which I've been flirting with over the past couple of years, I did a PubMed search to see if I could find any research to back up the claims that going to bed earlier is healthier for your adrenals. Or is healthier in general. I didn't read all the papers, just the abstracts. But this is what I found:
I found a study suggesting that diabetics that stay up late, sleep late, skip breakfast and fare poorly. The researchers felt that skipping breakfast was probably the major contributor, not the staying up late. (The Relationship Between Breakfast Skipping, Chronotype, and Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes,Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2013;119:155-90. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-396971-2.00007-5. )
A Japanese study found that people who went to bed later were more likely to have depression. Again, though, the bedtime wasn't thought to be the problem as much as the shortage of sleep that resulted from the later bedtime. (Bedtime and Sleep Duration in Relation to Depressive Symptoms among Japanese Workers., Behav Sleep Med. 2013 Oct 24.)
No other studies were found in my quick search to indicate that there is a direct relationship between health and bedtimes. I did find, however, several studies that indicate that chronotype (whether we are early to bed or late to bed types) is genetic, and that the tendency to go to bed early or late is difficult if not impossible to change. I also found that there is a journal that is dedicated to the study of chronobiology, called Chronobiology International.
A recently published study suggested that there were measurable differences in the brain tissue of people with different chronotypes, and suggested that work schedules should fit in with chronotypes as much as possible in order to avoid the problems associated with late chronotypes, such as sleep disturbances, depression, and overuse of stimulants. ("Early to bed, early to rise": Diffusion tensor imaging identifies chronotype-specificity, Chronobiol Int. 2014 Jan 7. )
Another study found differences in personalities between "larks" and "owls," with morning people being more future oriented and night owls being more present oriented. They suggested that self-control was a mediating factor (I need to read this study, because the abstract seems to suggest that morning people have more self-control, which is interesting to me....maybe that's why so many of the morning people feel superior to us night owls). (Explaining why larks are future-oriented and owls are present-oriented: Self-control mediates the chronotype-time perspective relationships.Chronobiol Int. 2013 Oct 16.)
Another study suggested that a morning chronotype is fairly constant throughout life, but people with an evening chronotype sometimes shifted to morning over time. It also found a 1.3 times higher mortality rate for evening people versus morning people. It found that "eveningness" has become more prevalent among the population recently. (Long-term consistency of diurnal-type preferences among men. Chronobiol Int. 2013 Oct 4.)
Now the quandary for me: should I try to adapt my bedtime to the 11 pm crowd, potentially saving my adrenal glands and improving my health? Or should I just go with my body's current 12-1 bedtime and adapt my life around that?
My theory for right now is that, since 11 pm is only an hour or two earlier than I currently go to bed, I probably could make that change. I fall on the in-between scale on the Chronotype Test, not completely an early or a late person. So, my next experiment on me is seeing if I can get my bedtime to the point where I can wake up refreshed without an alarm at 7 am.
In my next blog, I'm going to review all the suggestions for getting to bed and getting to sleep, and then choose a few to try.
Monday, January 6, 2014
One month into the Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription
Well, I've done it. With the exception of taking 3 days off while traveling, I followed The Hormone Diet Exercise Prescription for four weeks.
Results: Weight: Lost 4 1/2 pounds -- even with Christmas and New Year's in the month
Results: Weight: Lost 4 1/2 pounds -- even with Christmas and New Year's in the month
Waist - lost 2 inches
Energy - better.
Pain level - not too bad. I only got really bad over the 3 days I skipped. I was also traveling, eating things I shouldn't, and I missed taking my arthritis medication because I didn't pack it.
Improvements: I am able to walk faster without pain, and am increasing the amount of weight I can lift.
I also made a conscious decision to NOT count calories over the month, but eat when I felt hungry.
Conclusion: I have no criticisms of this at all. I see and feel results. Despite my arthritis and my lack of weight lifting exercises over the past several years, I was able to do the exercises in this plan without making myself overly sore or risking injury. I was able to modify the ones I didn't feel ready to take on yet. Because these exercises use hand weights, I can add weight as needed to keep them challenging, so I won't get bored or get "too good" at it to do it. Because a workout takes only 30 minutes, I had a hard time finding excuses to skip it because I was "too busy." Doing my workouts in the morning before showering helped me not have the excuse of not wanting to get sweaty and take another shower. (I did have hair issues, but nobody in the gym said anything). On cardio days when it was nice, I went to the park and walked -- getting outdoors felt great, and using my 30-minute interval recording made it a good workout.
Overall, I'm giving this two thumbs up and planning to continue it indefinitely. I still want to add an evening walk or bike ride for relaxation at the end of the day -- I will start that when it's not snowy and icy out.
Note: Just a reminder, if you haven't been following, my workout routine is:
Day 1: Strength - abs and core
Day 2: 30 min cardio intervals
Day 3: Strength - legs and core
Day 4: 30-60 min yoga
Day 5: Strength - arms and core
Day 6: Cardio intervals or yoga
Day 7: Rest
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