The most important thing you will do today is sleep. Sleep is there for our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing and to help our body rest and recharge.
As someone who never respected my sleep when I was younger and burned out, I now have the utmost respect and discipline around my sleep – and here’s why I want you to too.
How much sleep do you need?
A little background first. During the night your adrenal glands recharge, especially between 2-4am. If it is common for you to wake during this time, it is proof you are taxing your adrenals.
For a complete adrenal recharge, you need a minimum of 7-9 hours sleep a night. To ensure you get the deepest sleep you need to go to bed by 10pm so you have four crucial hours of sleep before the 2am mark.
What happens when you don’t get the right sleep
Still think you can get away without the right amount of sleep? Think again. Sleep deprivation can have a dramatic effect on your body.
If you aren’t sleeping well, and your adrenals are tired, you are probably cranky, moody, carrying a little extra weight and feeling like you’ve lost your mojo. But it doesn’t stop there.
A study conducted by the University of Chicago followed a group of student volunteers who slept only four hours per night for six consecutive days. The consequences of these actions caused higher blood pressure, insulin resistance (the precursor to diabetes) and fewer antibodies – just in this short amount of time. Now imagine what we do to ourselves when this happens over a period of months and years.
Even more concerning, an extensive sleep study conducted in the UK by the University of Oxford found that going 17 hours without sleep can have similar effects on your body as a blood alcohol level of 0.05%.
Supporting your adrenals for a better night sleep
It never ceases to amaze me that people will take an hour or two to get ready to go out but do no preparation to go to sleep. When you have recharged, you wake with energy to start your day. If you are not doing that, think about giving your sleep and adrenals some support by using my favourite class of herbs – Adaptogens.
Your “Chi”, your life force lives in your adrenal glands and when you run out of adrenal energy and “Chi” you die. So speaking as a person who shamed their adrenals in their younger years and now knows the benefits of looking after them from a place of prevention, please go to bed on time six days a week and sort out a program for looking after your adrenals.
Need a little help?
I might just know someone who put their 27-year naturopathic career into the speciality of preventing burnout. I heard she’s a pretty cool, peace, rainbow and unicorn loving, biker, surfing chick too.
