Could your sleep disturbance be related to a bad diet or missing nutrients? YES!If you cannot sleep well, that really needs to be fixed, because sleep is important for overall health, longevity and weight loss. If you’re not sleeping enough, you interfere with your weight loss hormones.
First let’s look at these points:
Have you got a good, comfy bed?
Nice quiet environment?
Not too hot, not too cold?
No electrical beeping things or little lights shining into your face?
Not using any ipads, mobile phones, pc, TV other other devices about an hour before going to sleep?
Ok. If these were all ticked, we shall go on.
Recommendations
Take a nice warm shower before bed time. Once settled in your cosy bed, go to YouTube on your phone. Just for a minute…
Type in Guided Meditation for restful sleep. Pick one that goes for 30 minutes or so. Use good headphones….and then relax. Ahhhhh….Nice….. I am totally knocked out by them and 9 x out of ten, do not wake up until morning time.
Food
Are you eating a heavy meal 2 hours before bed time? That is not good. Your system does not like that.
Are you NOT eating enough? If your blood sugar drops too much, some people wake up at around 3am.
One recommendation for a little bedtime snack is a small banana with peanut butter. It sets off a beneficial domino effect with your hormones and helps you to stay asleep.
Calcium: Nature’s Sedative
When you run short on calcium, you experience frequent awakenings in the night. This mineral has a natural calming effect on the nervous system. How about drinking a glass of unsweetened plant milk from the supermarket with added calcium? It has the same amount of calcium as a glass of dairy milk. Check the label.
Vitamin B-12 for Serotonin Production
Even if you you take a Vit B12, your body may not be able to use it. Therefore you may become deficient.
Besides causing irreversible nerve damage, etc. etc. you won’t be able to sleep properly either. Have you had a blood test to check if your levels are ok?
Try a B12 preparation of 2,500mcg or ug….once a week. I use CYONOCOBALAMIN. Check with your doctor if that one is suitable for you. Or split it up into say 250 mcg per day. Most vegans take much less and can get away with it.
There are other types of B12 like methylcobalamin which is a natural product, but may not be as stable. Please check with your health care practitioner to find the best one for you.
Vitamin D3 Modulates Circadian Rhythms.
Recommended daily amount is 2,000IU Vit D3, vegan capsules or tablets or less.
What’s with all this vitamin D talk!? We can’t hear enough about the importance of this vital nutrient,
“Vitamin D turns out to be essential to support your body’s uptake and usage of calcium and magnesium. Its role in sleep involves modulating your circadian rhythm (the sleep/wake cycle that regulates your 24-hour biological clock).”
That was copied from one of my Nutrition textbooks.
You could also try to be out in the sun each day for 20 minutes with your arms and legs exposed, because that’s a way to get VitD as well.
Except as you age, the conversion of sunshine to D3 doesn’t work so well anymore, or when there’s no sun….that also puts a spanner in the works…Pop a vegan VitD3 pill and all’s well 🙂
Except as you age, the conversion of sunshine to D3 doesn’t work so well anymore, or when there’s no sun….that also puts a spanner in the works…Pop a vegan VitD3 pill and all’s well 🙂
So now all what’s left is to make a nice herbal sleep tea with some Valerian herb in it, sip it, have a banana with peanut butter, relax without your laptop…take that warm shower, find YouTube meditation and ZZZZzzzzzz.
Sleep well.
Yours in Health and Skinny Jeans,
Nicki KellyVegan Wellness Coach