The Power Of Sleep And A Few Helpful Sips For Better Shut Eye

What are the first things that come to your mind when you think about living a healthy lifestyle? 

If you’re like most individuals, diet and/or exercise are possibly the first things you think of when it comes to health and wellness. And certainly, these play a vital role in helping you maintain a healthy weight, fight disease, and live a long, healthy life. 

Then, what about managing or reducing stress? 

We now know how detrimental stress can be to our mental, emotional, and even physical health, so many of us regularly seek to incorporate practices aimed at lowering stress. 

But, what about sleep? 

When I was in school, I seldomly remember sleep being discussed as a beneficial part of a healthy lifestyle. 

And now, in adulthood, while we are aware of the fact that sleep is indeed a vital part of health and wellness, it seems as if this aspect of life is a difficult one to prioritize. 

Work deadlines often take priority oversleep.

We often allow a wide variety of items into our weekly, or every day, schedules and routines that take away from sleep.

And, what about a little bit of needed downtime? From watching our favorite television shows to reading a few chapters of a book or doing other activities that seem to serve us in the moment, many of our preferred ways to relax can end up robbing us of needed hours of shut eye.

Sleep is something we can easily overlook or sacrifice for just about every other item on our to-do list, but we must realize that sleep is vitally important, impacting everything from brain health, mood, heart health, disease risk, and so much more. 

But why? 

Why do you need sleep for good health?

And, what could you be doing that hinders sleep? 

Better yet, what could you do to improve sleep? 

We’re answering all of these questions and more as we take an in depth look at the power of sleep!

Why Do You Need Sleep?

Without sleep, you wouldn’t be able to function. 

Ask any new parent, and they’ll emphatically tell you, through tired eyes, just how hard it is to function without sleep. 

Without sleep, you won’t be able to think clearly.

Without sleep, you’re more susceptible to sickness. 

Without sleep, your emotions can be all over the place. 

But why? 

Sleep affects nearly every tissue and organ in your body. 

And personally, I think the best analogy to understand this relationship involves housework. 

As we go about our day-to-day duties, we create messes, even waste. 

So, as a result of normal, everyday living, our trash and recycling bins fill up, our sinks and dishwashers become filled with dirty dishes, our floors (and other surfaces) get dirty, and our clothes need to be washed. 

If we neglect these common chores, we can generally get by for a few days, but then what happens? 

If you fail to empty your trash or recycling bins, you’d have garbage, even bacteria-ridden trash, spilling over onto your floors. You would even risk disease and infection due to unsanitary conditions. 

If you never wash your dishes, you would run out of items to use when cooking meals, either forcing you to prepare and consume foods with unsanitary utensils or eat out for every meal, which also poses risks to your health. 

Or, what if you neglected flushing and cleaning your toilet? I think it’s safe to say none of us would like to imagine the ramifications of avoiding this common task. 

Even neglecting simple chores, such as vacuuming, could lead to the buildup of dirt, dust, and debris, all of which could adversely affect your health and potentially your safety. 

Of course, this is why we regularly do these things, for even though many dislike such chores, neglecting them would create a nightmare. 

And, sleep is very similar! 

When you sleep, your body is actually very busy putting in effort that allows you to feel refreshed, recharged, and relaxed upon waking from restful slumber.

Basically, while you sleep, your body is busy, concentrating on needed efforts - i.e. housework.

In your home, such efforts lead to the following: 

• Emptying your trash and recycling bins results in an empty container, one that’s newly ready to fulfill its job of holding or storing trash. This effort also reduces your risk of disease as you’ve removed any sources of bacteria. 
• Washing dishes leaves you with items refreshed and ready to accomplish their intended purpose of meal prep and consumption.

And just think, the need for doing these common chores arose from you simply living your life. Nothing extravagant, just your normal existence, yet it necessitates these efforts.

Well, similar things happen within your body. 

As you breathe, as your body digests food, as you move - as you exist, really - your body accumulates the byproducts of these normal functions. 

Unfortunately, these byproducts can damage your tissues and cells. 
And, if this damage isn’t counteracted or even cleared from your body, it can accumulate and wreak havoc.

When this happens, your body can become unbalanced, even hindering your natural ability to combat the damage that occurs from these processes, leading to an increased risk of disease, accelerated aging, sickness, and more. 

Enter sleep…

While you sleep, your body essentially takes out the trash by replenishing antioxidants and clearing the byproducts of normal body functioning. 

To add, toxins are also removed from your body while you sleep. 

While you sleep, your body also releases human growth hormone, and this stimulates protein synthesis, helping to repair damaged muscles while aiding in building new, healthy muscle tissue. 

Then, another release that occurs during sleep involves cytokines, a protein that helps to regulate your immune system. 

As cytokines are released, this important boost to your immune system doesn’t just help your body fight off colds and other illnesses, it also helps to reduce inflammation.

Chronic inflammation is one of the leading causes of multiple diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. So essentially, you could say this chore performed during sleep is actually keeping you disease-free in many cases. 

While you sleep, your body also produces and regulates many hormones. For instance, hunger, stress, growth, sleep, and satiety hormones are all made and/or released during sleep. 

This is why your appetite can be negatively affected and you’re less apt to handle even simple stresses when you aren’t getting enough sleep. 

Your cognitive abilities can be negatively affected without sleep as well, because while you slumber, everything you’ve learned throughout the day is essentially solidified. 

Your memories are stored, toxins are removed, the waste (byproducts) we mentioned above is removed, and neural pathways are cleared during sleep. 

In other words, your brain undergoes a tremendous amount of repair and restoration while you rest. 

Sleep also serves to regulate your metabolism and blood sugar levels, with sleep deprivation being linked to higher blood sugar and a greater risk of diabetes. 

Even damage done to your skin is repaired or healed as you sleep! 

We’d be here all day if we went into great detail surrounding all of the ways your body is repaired, relaxed, cleared up, stored up, and cleaned out while you sleep, so we’ll keep these next benefits brief, but take a look at these other chores done during sleep:

• Sleep doesn’t just allow your brain to store information, it also helps your brain to sift through all the information you’ve taken in throughout the day, prioritizing what should stay and what should go. 
• Heart rate and blood pressure is regulated during sleep. 
• Your throat muscles get a chance to relax while you sleep. 
• The muscles you work throughout the day, walking, moving, lifting, etc., essentially become paralyzed as you sleep, giving your arms and legs a much-needed rest. 
• Your kidneys produce urine throughout the day due to their needed job of filtering toxins from your body. While you sleep, however, your kidneys actually take a break, allowing them to recharge and prepare for the next day. 
• We mentioned that your skin is also repaired during sleep, but did you know this snoozing perk isn’t available while you’re awake? During waking hours, the energy needed for this type of repair is used elsewhere, so without sleep, your body wouldn’t be able to repair damaged skin tissues (from injury, aging, toxin exposure, and more). 

Wow, that’s a lot of housework done while you’re getting some shut eye!

And, just like household chores, your body needs a few tools to effectively be able to get this needed, restful slumber. 

If you don’t have a trash bin or bags to contain your trash, if you lack soap for cleaning dishes and clothes, or if you lack basic tools for cleaning your toilets, no matter how much effort is exerted to maintain these spaces, you’ll almost always come up lacking. 

And again, sleep is similar. 

Regarding sleep, in order for your body to perform all of the needed tasks we detailed above, it needs time and a few other aids to be able to appropriately cycle through various stages of sleep. 

Let’s start with time. Sleep experts recommend 7-9 hours of nightly, restful sleep for adults. 

But of course, not all sleep is restful.

So, the best way to ensure you can quickly fall asleep and achieve a healthy night of rest is to incorporate any or all of the following science-backed practices: 

• Routines are best. Try to go to bed and awake at the same time each night/morning. Even seek to start (or continue) a nightly routine that sets you up for sleep success, such as taking a warm bath or shower before bed, doing a little light stretching, incorporating a skincare routine. 

Any similar routine, done regularly, can signal to your brain that it’s time for bed, allowing you to fall asleep with ease. 

• Avoid caffeine within around 6-8 hours of bedtime. Since caffeine is a stimulant, this can interfere with sleep. 
• Avoid alcohol or a large meal within a few hours of bedtime as both can disrupt sleep. 
• Keep your bedroom clear of clutter, as a clear/clean space is conducive to relaxation and restfulness. 
• Avoid screens within a few hours of bedtime, as blue light can disturb your circadian rhythm, preventing your body from cycling through needed sleep stages. 
• Keep daytime napping to a minimum of 20 minutes and try not to nap later in the day. 
• Try to avoid working or doing other activities in your bed or bedroom, as this can essentially keep your brain from solely associating your bed with sleep. 
• Take in some natural light each day, preferably soon after you awake in the morning. This helps to normalize your circadian rhythm. 
• Get in some physical activity each day. Exercise uses energy, and when done earlier in the day (you don’t want to exercise too close to bedtime) this can promote healthy sleep later that night.
  

Lifeboost Sips For Better Sleep

As you’ve been reading this, perhaps you’ve pondered the following question: 

“Hmm, Lifeboost is a coffee company, and caffeine can disrupt sleep, so couldn’t coffee potentially create problems with sleep?”

Yes, we are a coffee company. And yes, caffeine can cause sleep disturbances. 

This is why it’s important to understand two things: 

1- What is the relationship between caffeine (in coffee and tea) and sleep? 

2- How can you enjoy coffee and/or tea when prioritizing healthy sleep? 

We’ll tackle these in order, so first let’s discuss caffeine. 

While you’re awake, your brain produces a chemical called adenosine. And the longer you’re awake, the more this chemical accumulates in your brain. 

Adenosine promotes sleepiness, so the longer you’re awake, and the more this accumulates, the sleepier you get. 

Caffeine affects this process by blocking adenosine.

Of course, this is why you feel awake and alert when you drink coffee, black tea, or other items containing a relatively decent amount of caffeine. 

But, the half-life of caffeine, or the amount of time it takes your body to metabolize and remove this stimulant is thought to be anywhere between 2 and 12 hours. 

Varying amounts of caffeine and the individual differences between one body and the next account for this large range, but on average, this is why experts recommend avoiding caffeine between 6-8 hours before bedtime. 

For some, consuming caffeine too close to bedtime means you’ll have trouble falling asleep. 

For others, this may not interfere with drifting off to sleep, but it can significantly (negatively) impact the quality of sleep you receive while dozing. 

And, when your sleep quality is poor, this means your body can’t do all those needed functions, resulting in feelings of fatigue, poor memory, a greater risk of illness and disease, and so much more. 

Now, for our second question - we’re all coffee (and tea) lovers here, so how can we still enjoy our favorite brews while still getting a quality snooze…no matter what time of day we prefer to sip. 

When it comes to caffeinated coffee and black tea, these are typically your most potently caffeinated brews, so you’ll want to avoid these after roughly 2 pm. 

Green tea is slightly less caffeinated, but still, at roughly 35-50 mg of caffeine per cup, you might not want to unwind with this option. 

So then, what’s a Lifebooster to do? 

Thankfully, we’re closing out our sleep discussion with some incredible options for you to sip without interrupting your sleep. In fact, a few of these options may even help you sleep better! 

First, let’s take a look at decaffeinated coffee. 

From our traditional roasts (Light, Medium, and Dark) to our Cognition Mushroom Coffee and most of our flavored coffee selections, we offer a wide variety of decaffeinated coffee. 

Even better, we use the Swiss Water Method to decaffeinate our coffee. This method not only removes 99.9% of caffeine from coffee (more than conventional methods), but it does also so without using benzene or other harmful chemical solvents.

This means you can enjoy a flavorful, decadently rich, robust cup of your favorite Lifeboost brew any time of day, without disrupting sleep. 

And, when enjoyed as a warm cup near bedtime, this warmth can aid in helping you relax, preparing you for sleep. 

Then, as many of you know, we now carry a select line of teas at Lifeboost. And a few of these are proven winners when it comes to sleep.

Our Golden Sands Serenity Chamomile Tea contains real Egyptian chamomile flowers which are proven to promote relaxation. Sipping this as part of your nightly routine can enhance feelings of calmness, preparing your body for a night of rest. 

And, our Snoozy Snooze Tea essentially takes the notion of a nighttime routine to new heights!

Also an herbal tea, this blend contains multiple non-addictive, natural, sleep-promoting ingredients: 

• Magnesium Glycinate is a bioavailable ingredient with powerful sleep-enhancing qualities. 
• Sweet Orange Powder and Lavender Flowers both provide sleep, mood, and relaxation benefits. 
• Organic Reishi Mushroom has long been used in Eastern medicine, known for its ability to enhance relaxation allowing you to drift off more easily. 
• This tea also contains EZ GABA. GABA is a neurotransmitter that helps your body regulate sleep, mood, and the ability to relax. This ingredient gives your body a boost here, providing another natural win in allowing you to easily find rest.  

So, if you’re a solid caffeinated java fan, consider giving decaf a try for better sleep. 

Then, for a subtle relaxation enhancer before bed, savor some sips of our Golden Sands Serenity Chamomile Tea.

And, if you’re really looking to enhance your sleepy time routine, our Snoozy Snooze Tea is a proven winner.

Check out Lifeboost Coffee Snoozy Snooze Tea.

"Medical Disclaimer
This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of such advice or treatment from a personal physician. All readers/viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither Dr. Charles Livingston nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program."

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