REST and RENEWAL

RENEWAL is an acronym which stands for Rest, Environment, Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Alternatives and Limits which are the principles needed to gaining Health & Wellness. These precepts keep you healthy and can reverse symptoms of illness. This article will concentrate on Rest.

Sleep is the time for major healing in your body. Melatonin is a hormone produced in response to darkness, it protects your cells DNA from damaging free radicals, preventing a host of diseases including cancer. It also is important in the healing of body tissues, fighting bacterial infections and infectious diseases including HIV.

The most common sleep disorder is Insomnia – about one in every seven Canadians have problems going to sleep or staying asleep. Insomnia can lead to sleep deprivation and a sleep deficit can have serious, far reaching effects on your health. For example, interrupted or impaired sleep can:

• Weaken your immune system – leaving you open to illness
• Accelerate tumor growth – encouraging the spread of cancer
• Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you’ve already eaten, causing weight gain
• Impair your memory; especially short term making learning difficult
• Impair your performance on physical or mental tasks, and decrease your problem solving abilities and your ability to think clearly

A good night sleep can seem like a dream to some but it is possible. The most common barrier to sleep is late meals. Aim to go to bed with an empty stomach. Ensuring that your body is resting while you are sleeping is imperative for a sound sleep.

Here are 7 tips to get a good night sleep:

1. Wake up with the sun. Sunlight increases the production of Melatonin at night.
2. Eat a balanced diet rich in plant-based complex carbohydrates and tryptophan. Remember that sleepy feeling you get from eating turkey? Eat foods that help with night time sleep and optimal day time performance: pumpkin seeds, kale, sesame seeds, almonds, black walnuts and black-eyed peas.
3. Exercise. It helps increase hormones found to enhance sleep.
4. Avoid drugs that leave you sleep deprived. Alcohol deprives the body of deep sleep, while caffeine interferes with sleep due to its stimulating properties, Tobacco users miss out on a deep sleep because of withdrawal symptoms during the night. Antidepressants and even sleeping pills decrease Rapid Eye Movement (REM), while the body is metabolizing the drug.
5. Establish and keep your bedtime. Regularity is important for the body to know when to release hormones. Sleep before midnight is worth twice as much for health than sleep after midnight.
6. Sleep in the dark. It is the difference of bright sunlight and dark night that increases Melatonin the healing hormone at night. Exposure to light at night even for a few moments can lower Melatonin levels.
7. Leave your worries behind. Emotional stress can cause poor sleep. Breathe deep, pray, avoid going to bed angry.

Contact me for more tips on better rest. Rest is vital to keeping your body, mind and soul well. You deserve to experience wellness, I can help.

by Michelle Greenman

[Editor's Note: For more articles on sleep and stress natural remedies, read these article on brain performance nutrition, anti-stress herbs, managing stress, the role of amino acids and nuerotransmitters to sleep and stress, and more on melatonin's marvels discussed by Dr. Ramsey.]