Diet, exercise, and pain directly influence your hormones, inflammation, and nervous system. Poor nutrition, limited movement, or ongoing pain keep your body stressed - making it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, and feel restored.
It's a proven fact that what you eat & drink, when you eat and drink, and how much (or lack) of exercise has a direct correlation to your sleep outcomes.
So what are some tips and tricks to help you begin to simplify your diet so you can help sleep?
Diet Tips to improve sleep include:
You should decrease:
1. Decrease caffeine intake (especially after midday) as it takes a long time (12 hrs) for your body to metabolise caffeine.
2. Decrease or eliminate alcohol - if you have it, try to not have it too close to bedtime.
3. Decrease high sugar food and sugary drinks before bed. Sugar fuels the brain!
4. Don't have “heavy” meals before bed. It takes your body a long time to metabolise fatty meals.
You should increase:
1. High quality fish oils. They’re known to improve sleep scores.
2. Foods higher in magnesium - there are a number of foods that do this or you can supplement magnesium orally or via skin application.
3. Foods high in antioxidants such as kiwifruit & tart cherries.
While all of these things are known to improve sleep, it’s all in moderation and in balance. For example, you can’t just go and consume a huge amount of magnesium or fish oils on a daily basis. It has to be consistent, and even then, you still need to make sure your bed time routine and environment is adequate.
Exercise Tips to improve sleep include:
1. Do ANY exercise. Anything is better than nothing! It uses up energy stores of "ATP" (Adenosine Tri Phosphate, part of your energy system), and you need higher levels of the resultant "Adenosine" to improve sleep drive.
2. The more exercise you do though (especially cardio) the more inflammation you create, and the harder it is to sleep.
3. Exercise in the morning or during the day, not close to bed time. It's a stimulant at night.
It’s pretty much as simple as that.
... And poor sleep increases pain and inflammation!
If you suffer from this, you'll need no convincing that if you can change or alter this somehow (especially without drugs or medication) you'd be happier for it.
We're all about helping you change your pain & inflammation, and how this can positively affect your sleep.
It's super important to see a qualified healthcare practitioner to help guide you towards the potential reasons for the problem.
As practitioners ourselves, we work closely with many Medical and Allied healthcare professionals and communicate with your provider directly if and when required.
If you need more assistance, we will either refer you to back to your provider, or provide solutions as to who may benefit your condition.
Pain and inflammation are often more noticeable at night when you're trying to sleep!!
So even if you're swallowing anti-inflammatories, and pain killers, sometimes that is STILL not enough.
However, the reality is... you cannot keep taking them, without some adverse effect over time.
For example: taking too many non-steroidals such as Voltaren may affect your stomach lining over time.
We have products and services designed to help you head in the right (natural) direction when it comes to improving your pain and inflammation state, and when you do, you'll notice an improvement in your sleep.
There are so many "structural" (spinal, muscular or nerve) reasons that cause pain, and it's for these reasons people lose sleep.
We understand this.
So while investigating a new mattress may help you, it's imperative that we understand any underlying pathology that may be sitting in the background, preventing sleep.
Part of your solution could be as simple as you needing to have your spine adjusted or mobilised, or doing basic stretches or exercises to help free up your neck so you feel better with your head on a pillow.
All qualified healthcare practitioners can identify if something needs further intervention or testing.
If in doubt, you should always speak to your healthcare practitioner first. We'll be the first to refer you if this is the case!
As mentioned above, we work closely with a lot of practitioners, and are happy to liaise with them on your behalf, to get the best outcome possible for you.
Our number one goal is to help you. You can book an in person or video call to discuss your unique situation. This is all part of our service. It's one of the best things you can do for your sleep.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
When you improve your sleep, you improve your health.
