

Improve Stress & Anxiety
Perhaps one of the primary reasons why a lot of people lose sleep. Find out how, and what you can do about it.
WATCH
Lying in bed awake.
It's not a nightmare. It's a REALITY for many people.
For the most part, this can be really helped when addressing many aspects of the reasons why you're awake.
Do you struggle to fall asleep?
Do you fall asleep ok but then wake again and struggle to fall asleep?
There are many potential reasons for this. One of them is hormonal. Another is stress, and another is anxiety.
Stress & anxiety are the two biggest reasons why people don’t sleep very well. And it doesn’t matter what the cause of the stress is, because the bodies physiological response is exactly the same.
You see… as humans we think we have evolved over time to deal with stress. It’s just that many people have a lot more stress in their lives today, when compared to times gone by. But our body’s response is still exactly the same as it was thousands of years ago.
And that exact response is this: During periods of high stress and anxiety your body releases a hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol is a natural hormone produced by the adrenal gland but too much of it does two primary things to prevent you from going to sleep.
**The first response** is that cortisol elevates your blood sugar levels. Cortisol is a class of hormone known as a GLUCO Corticoid. The GLUCO part of the name is from GLUCOSE. You see - when you are stressed, your body THINKS you’ve got to run from that tiger or that threat from generations ago. It’s the exact same response any other animal has when under threat. You might have heard of it. It’s called “fight or flight”. You either stay to fight, or you run away. When stress is really bad and constant, you freeze. And stay put. Kind of like a deer in headlights.
So your body increases available energy. If you want to sleep well, you most definitely do not want high blood sugar levels. It’s kind of the same as eating right before bed.
**The second response** is that cortisol has an inverse effect on Melatonin. You need melatonin to rise to be able to sleep. You need cortisol to rise in the morning to wake up. This is one of the major reasons we have issues when we fly across time zones, creating a phenomenon (and you might have heard of it… ) called JET LAG.
Cortisol naturally rises first thing in the morning.
But it needs to reduce at night for sleep to occur. Ask anyone who’s on a corticosteroid medication. There’s a very good reason why your doctor tells you take this sort of thing first thing in the morning.
So other than stress, What else increases cortisol?
1. Chronic pain.
2. Inflammation.
3. Medications like steroids, Ritalin and some antidepressants.
4. Diet high in sugar
5. Caffeine.
6. Alcohol.
7. Blue light at night
8. And... strangely enough, exercise.
Cortisol helps break down fats, proteins and carbohydrates. But, it’s indiscriminate. It actually also breaks down connective tissue, and the gut lining so that you can develop what’s called a “leaky gut” - to which your immune system mounts an immune response to.
However, we actually NEED Cortisol. If we don’t have it we may obtain a diagnosis of Adrenal Insufficiency or Addisons Disease. Too much cortisol tips our body the other way - into what’s known as “Cushing’s Syndrome”.
How do you reduce cortisol??
Stress is reduced in only a handful of ways.
1. Changing your internal dialog with mindfulness and meditation and perhaps therapy like CBT-I
2. Changing dietary factors that cause an increase in cortisol
3. Improving magnesium,
4. Changing your exercise regime
5. Changing and improving your mattress and environment.
When you take control of your sleep, you take control of your life.
Getting that good nights sleep can literally change your life.
EVERYTHING is better with solid, quality sleep.
Don't know where to begin? Take our brief survey:

Related Products
-
Inner Balance - Coherence Plus
Regular price $440.00 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per