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Wellness Wisdom with Dr Suresh Vassen: Sleep Wisdom

SLEEP WISDOM

Those of us who struggle with getting a good night’s rest will try just about anything. One of the more common solutions is taking sedatives. But herbal or pharmaceutical remedies that dull the senses and knock us out only offer short-term, symptomatic relief at best. 

They don’t change the fact that we’re exhausted. 

New science tells us that every gene carries a biological clock that governs when we should eat, sleep, rest, digest, and exercise. loss of sleep efficiency and duration is due to an out-of-synch nervous system, which deals with the regulation of the circadian clock. Living in sync with light-dark circadian cycles is critical for optimal health, sleep, and longevity. 

Over-activity and suppression of natural urges causes exhaustion. 

Chronic suppression of natural urges to sleep, eat, or evacuate at the right times will slowly disrupt the body’s circadian clock. 

An imbalanced, busy, hectic pace driven by sugar, caffeine, and a psychological need for accomplishment can drive the adrenals to make energy (cortisol) beyond its capacity. This results in burnout, sleep issues, and eventual cortisol depletion and hormonal disruption. A lifestyle out of sync with your circadian rhythms causes circadian fatigue. 

Circadian fatigue damages your ability to maintain normal sleep efficiency and duration. 

One of the best biohacks, to increase our total duration of dream (REM) and deep sleep to more than 30%, is to maximise sun exposure, particularly just after sunrise and before sunset. 

Morning sun exposure not only increases production of night-time melatonin in the pineal gland in the brain, but also enhances daytime melatonin production inside our cells, all because of the high levels of red and infrared light. 

This cellular melatonin accounts for 90% of our total melatonin production. So melatonin not only can give you therapeutic sleep and reverse cognitive decline, but also reduces and repairs free radicals oxidative damage to our cells, responsible for all chronic disease and premature ageing.

Are you in sync and competently biohacking nature’s diurnal, circadian and lunar rhythms, for optimal health and wellbeing?