If this sounds like you, then, unfortunately you’re not alone. The Festival of Sleep Day on 3rd January each year aims to address this very problem. It’s perfectly timed in early January when many of us are suffering from post-festivity exhaustion, often loaded on top of already disordered sleep patterns.
But with the New Year comes the ability to start afresh and getting your sleep on track will have a range of benefits for your overall health.
Nutritionist Suzie Sawyer shares three top tips that should help.
Nature is filled with many things that can help our overall health.
Get out in nature
As humans, we evolved being close to nature, therefore nature will continue to nurture us. And we know from lots of research that being close to nature is especially good for mental wellbeing, which of course, feeds into how well we sleep.
Being outside in the early morning light (without sunglasses) for 20 minutes or so, can really help re-set the body clock. The bright morning light increases the amount of melatonin, our sleep hormone, that the body makes at night.
Being in the great outdoors, even just for a short time each day, can really improve mood too. And if you suffer with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during the winter months, brought on by lack of light, being outside as much as possible will hopefully bring some light into your life too.
On that note, the body naturally likes being in the sunlight because vitamin D, our sunshine vitamin, is made on the skin during the summer months. If you’re struggling to sleep, low vitamin D levels can sometimes exacerbate the problem, so do make sure you’re supplementing now and through the winter. It is recommended that everyone should take a Vitamin D supplement of at least 10ug between October – March in the UK.
Use the power of nature
We know that nature is pretty incredible: it not only provides foods the body needs at the right time of year, but it also produces thousands of herbs and botanical ingredients that we can use to heal our health. When it comes to sleeping, the herbs of note are valerian, lemon balm (great used as a tea), passionflower and ashwagandha.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and anxious before bedtime or during the night, then any of these herbs, which you can take in supplement form, are going to improve the situation. Importantly, none of them will make you feel drowsy the next day. Your local health food shop will be able to help you choose the right remedy for you.
Bring your diet back to nature too
When it comes to our health a rounded approach is best: it’s unlikely to be just one thing that’s going to solve sleep issues. If your diet is loaded with junk food and too much caffeine, then just taking some supplements or going for a daily walk probably won’t be sufficient, particularly if you’re really struggling with insomnia.
Keeping your diet simple and eating foods as near to as nature intended provides the much-needed nutrients the body requires to help it sleep. For example, the mineral magnesium is essential for the nervous system, and therefore sleep, and is found in green, leafy vegetables and whole grains essentially.
Whole grains not only provide magnesium but also B-vitamins which are essential for producing the brain’s neurotransmitters. Plus, they’re utilised to support the adrenal glands that secrete our stress hormones. Nature has your back in many ways when it comes to food and the nutrients it provides.
When preparing meals, think about what the food was in its original form. For example, a chicken breast can be easily stir-fried with some vegetables or cooked in the oven with some herbs such as rosemary and thyme. Chicken also contains plenty of tryptophan, an amino acid which produces serotonin, our happy hormone, which then makes melatonin, the sleep hormone. Nature has it all planned out; you just need to lean in and embrace it!
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