This is a real problem that many of us struggle with and I'm hoping that these ideas will let you rest well.
Why am I waking up in the middle of the night?
Our cortisol rhythms are out of balance due to the chronic stressors we experience.
When cortisol is elevated, our body is stimulated and awake. We operate on a 24-hour clock and our body delivers hormones just at the right time- melatonin to help us sleep at night and cortisol to help us rise and greet the day.
Unfortunately, our modern lifestyle of disrupted sleep from having babies, working odd or late hours, working out late at night, unscheduled eating patterns, use of screens late into the night and generally a lifestyle that's always on, has caused major dysfunctions in our body and is wrecking our health.
Our Body Operates Best On a Schedule.
Just like babies, we thrive with a regular, predictable pattern of rest, wake, and eating times. Our body needs to know when it will rest so that it can begin the amazing clean-up processes that occur while we are sleeping. When we eat at predicatble times each day, our body signals the delivery of important enzymes necessary to break down our food properly.
So, the most important thing you can do is to begin aligning your lifestyle to the circadian environment we are naturally wired to operate under. This single strategy will produce amazing improvements;
longer uninterupted sleep.
tighter blood sugar levels with less spikes and dips.
lighter moods and less anxiety.
more energy for daily tasks.
higher productivity.
better metabolic function.
Following the circadian clock, helps us respond to changes in our environment in ways that conserves energy, digest food efficiently, and signals important healing pathways.
Could it be our liver?
2. Between the hours of 1 am- 4am, the liver is invoved in detoxification of all body processes. If the liver is overburdened and not able to do this job efficiently, the nervous system will wake us up in order to allocate more energy toward the necessary detox process.
This is really a blood sugar issue because the liver plays a central role in the metabolism and storage of glucose.
If your blood sugar drops and your liver can't free up stored glucose fast enough while you sleep, your body will wake you up.
Again it's cortisol one of the main hormones that is secreted when blood sugar is low. This helps free up the stored glucose quickly. But the liver can struggle to facilitate this because of becoming overly full of stored sugar [fatty liver], which means blood sugar imbalances are happening - then cortisol will be secreted in the middle of the night.
You will then be awake - wired and tired. So frustrating!!!
What Can I Do?
Eat sufficient protein throughout the day. This is the best way to help to stabilize blood sugar.
Aim for 30g at each meal, especially at breakfast.
Try These Protein-rich Foods.
Eggs - 6g per egg.
1 cup whole milk Greek yogurt - 20g.
3 slices of turkey - 16g.
1/2 cup cottage cheese - 14g.
1 chicken sausage - 14 g.
1 oz. cheese - 6g.
4 oz. chicken/turkey - 25g.
1 cup black beans - 14g.
1 can tuna/salmon - 43 g.
1 cup lentils - 18g.
4 oz. salmon - 35g.
Love Your Liver.
Reduce the daily load on your liver by paying attention to all of these areas;
Alcohol
Fragrances
Endocrine Disrupters found in cleaning and skin care products
VOCs in indoor air
Medications
Heavy Metals
Chlorine in drinking Water
All of these disruptors require work from the liver to detoxify from the body. Making simple shifts to cleaner skin and household products, using air purifiers- especially at night, and filtering drinking water can begin to make a big difference.
Try Magnesium Glycinate.
When we are running on stress hormones and waking up in the middle of the night, this tells us that our body is in need of more magnesium. Imbalanced cortisol levels can lower magnesium levels in the body which also disrupts sleep.
Magnesium increases GABA, which supports relaxation on the cellular level. When we are low in magnesium [and most of us are low], we can wake up in the middle of the night.
Once this sleep cycle is disrupted, it's hard to restore balance without some supplementation of magnesium.
I recommend 600 mg. of Magnesium Glycinate to support restful sleep, to relax muscles for less cramping, and provides stress reduction without any digestion issues.
When do I take it?
For best sleep support take magnesium one hour before bed.
For best stress reduction and feelings of overwhelm, start your day with magnesium.
I hope some of these ideas will encourage you in finding out how to support your health through better sleep.
Thanks, for reading,
Jan
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