Importance of Sleep

 It is great to be back again after a month break. The computer was not working, and had to be taken away for a repair. As much as it was not great to be posting, it was also a time to reflect, and I have some great posts to put together and share with you in the next few weeks, so I do hope you enjoy it, and if you do have any ideas for future please let me know in the comments section. 

As you can imagine, when a problem arises, the stress of that (or any life changing moment) can impact on our sleep. Sleep is so important, especially for our health, as that is the time when our brain, organs, and our body has the opportunity to recover from the daily stresses and challenges that is put upon our body. When we do not get enough sleep, we wake up feeling tired, moody, lethargic, but also we tend to make poor choices when choosing food. If there is a daily period or onset where there is a lack of sleep, this can then turn into a negative effect on our health, which can lead to other health issues. 

I can discuss this from a personal experience but also from the point of view when I have clients. When I am supporting clients I ask them for their food diary recordings. On the recordings the question asks "what were you feeling before that meal was eaten?" The client asks me the reason for this. I do not respond, until after the diary is analysed. The reason I ask this question is because I am looking the reason why that particular food was eaten. Was it eaten because they were hungry? Were they bored? Were they at a party? Were they stressed? I then use this to go into their lifestyle/routine, and take it from there. 

The patterns I am noticing is that when there is a lack of sleep, the food pattern has changed. For example they tend to increase the amount of a particular food or drink, whatever it is. Being a Nutritionist is not about food itself, it is about balance and lifestyle. This is where sleep is a big part of the lifestyle. 

I would recommend 8 hours of solid sleep (no waking up in the middle of the night) a day. Even between 6 to 8 hours is fine as well. Less than four hours I would not personally recommend, as the body really needs time to recover, and recharge the batteries as the saying goes. The more hours of sleep, the better. 

There are great tools and products to aid with sleep. I have mentioned previously that meditation apps are fantastic. I use Jason Stephenson, Michael Sealey, the link below is the one that I am using at the moment. 

sleep meditation

I have also started using body oils to help me to get into a great mood before sleep. This was given to me from a friend, but I like it. You get a bar of soap, epsom salt, two essential oils. The company is called Love and Pamper. They have a great range of other products. The oil I am using contains a mixture of orange, ylang ylang, patchouli and neroli. The smell is wonderful especially on the skin. As I mentioned before that there are other oils with different smells, and I will be trying the others when this one runs out. 

I have attached the picture below so that you can see it :

I have also put the link for amazon in case you would like more details and to purchase: Love and Pamper