When trying to change our lifestyles to a healthier one, our focus typically revolves around food and exercise. This is a big part of good health, but it’s not the only thing or even the most important in the grand scheme of things. A good night’s sleep is crucial to good health. Without it, it won’t matter how well you eat or how much you exercise. Lack of sleep and/or poor-quality sleep can still affect your health negatively.

Sleep deprivation can affect hormone levels, create cognitive impairment, lower immunity, and decrease energy levels, making it hard to get through your day. It can also create food cravings, due to its effect on cortisol and insulin levels, which can then lead to poor eating habits.

According to studies, there is no ideal amount of sleep that works for everyone. This is due to many factors affecting how much sleep we need: genetics, exercise, environment, stress levels, and age. But according to a few sources, the “optimal” amount for adults aged 18 to 64 years old is 7–9 hours.

If you are very active, have a physically demanding or stressful job or are an athlete, getting 9–10 hours of sleep per day may be beneficial to you for recovery and managing stressors.

As of 2015, one-third of Canadians were not meeting sleep guidelines, which means they are more at risk for illness. Now that we are living in more stressful times, this number may be higher. With more and more worries and sedentary time, sleep can be something more of us start struggling with.

We often hear about foods and supplements that could help us sleep but there are also many lifestyle habits we can do that support quality sleep. If we spend a bit more time focusing on better quality sleep, we could see incredible changes in our moods, memory, immunity, and could help lower the risk factors associated with diabetes and heart disease.

So how can we improve the quality of our sleep? Here are five things we may not have considered before, but could help improve sleep:

1. Watch what you watch on TV. Trying to stop watching TV cold turkey can be tough. We create a habit around TV-watching, so you probably don’t want to give it up completely. So start by changing WHAT you watch. If you watch anything that increases cortisol and dopamine — for example, violent or shocking shows that increase your heart rate or dramas that cause sadness — you are less likely to fall asleep and stay asleep. Shows you watch before sleeping should be calm, shows that don’t get you overly “worked up.” Violent, scary, or very dramatic shows or movies can be overstimulating, which then makes it hard to “shut off” your brain. The artificial light on the TV can also be disruptive to your circadian rhythm (your body’s sleep-wake cycle) and melatonin levels. So, the less you watch right before bed, the better. It is best to stop about an hour before bed if you struggle with falling asleep.

2. Avoid eating right before bed. This has nothing to do with weight loss and everything to do with quality sleep. Your body slows down, including the digestion process, when you are sleeping. Your digestion will be challenged, making it hard to sleep well. ⁠By not eating right before bed and making your last meal three hours before, it allows for some digestion and can give your body time for the food in your stomach to move into your small intestine. Eating also creates the release of insulin, which can change the circadian rhythm. Food can trigger alertness in the brain and interfere with your ability to fall asleep.

3. Don’t go to bed stressed or with a lot on your mind. If you are always tossing and turning when you get in bed, like if you forgot something or something you did or didn’t do is plaguing you, it can cause a terrible cycle of poor sleep. Best practice would be to do a brain dump in a journal to get everything out of your brain to allow you to take a better look at it. Doing some mindful meditation can also be helpful to let go of your day. A busy mind can’t sleep. ⁠

4. Eat healthy carbohydrates at dinner. Carbs like vegetables, legumes, tubers and healthy grains for dinner, if eaten a few hours before, are not going to make you gain weight. On the positive side, these foods help increase levels of tryptophan, which helps facilitate sleep because it converts to serotonin. Serotonin is needed to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. ⁠ This is another good reason to eat your last meal a few hours before you go to bed. It will allow you to start digesting your meal and allows you to feel more rested.

5. Avoid artificial light in your bedroom. When you live in a city, this can be hard. Using blackout curtains or using a sleep mask can help block out unnatural light from street lights and buildings. Avoiding using your phone, iPad, computer, and television right before sleep can be very helpful in allowing your body to feel more relaxed. To create a more restful atmosphere in your home at night, light some candles and turn off the artificial lights. This is a great way to ease tension and alertness.

Levels of human growth hormone (HGH), which aids in healthy body composition (fat, muscle, and bones), helps with proper muscle recovery, and can slow the signs of aging, starts to lower as we age, which is another reason why getting good-quality sleep is important: deep sleep is where we get good levels of HGH. We need sleep for our bodies to recover from the day, have healthy levels of cortisol, improve our cognitive health and more. (Keep in mind that higher insulin levels can hinder HGH production, so another reason not to eat right before bed.)

With quality sleep comes improved energy. This is what helps us feel more motivated and more likely to follow through with more positive healthy habits. We also are much happier, which helps keep healthy relationships and has us seeing life in a much more positive way.

Sources:

Chaput, J-P., Dutil, C., and Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., 2018. Sleeping Hours: What is the Ideal Number and How Does Age Impact This? Nature and Science of Sleep 10: 421–430. Url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6267703/ (accessed Feb 17, 2022).

Government of Canada. Are Canadian Adults Getting Enough Sleep? Url: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/canadian-adults-getting-enough-sleep-infographic.html (accessed Feb. 17, 2022).