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Sleep in the Fitness & Nutrition News

Thank you for requesting the article on SLEEP from the Fitness & Nutrition Newsletter. As one of our health coaching clients calls it, “The magic formula for falling asleep immediately.”

What is sleep? There are a number of theories:

The neurons become fatigued and simply lower their activities below the level required for consciousness,
The brain inhibits the reticular activating system, and
The brain and nervous system operate on nerve energy, a form of electricity. The body, like an electric car, needs to be recharged at night. Sleep is a partial shutdown for recharging.

What is the purpose of sleep? The primary purpose of sleep is to generate nerve energy or low level electricity, but there are other beneficial purposes. The physiological rest obtained during sleep is extraordinarily valuable. During the prolonged rest, the body restocks its cells and organs with fuel, replaces cells that have lost their vitality and rids itself of extraordinary toxins that my have been un-eliminated the previous day.

What determines the quality of our sleep? The amount of sleep that a person needs varies according to the individual’s body and sleeping conditions. Some people get by on six hours of sleep while others require eight hours of sleep. Sleep needs vary with every individual and every circumstance. People sleep more in winter than in summer. Mental workers sleep more than physical workers. People who work and sleep outdoors get by with less sleep than those who work just as hard indoors and sleep indoors. True healthy people require less sleep than less healthy individuals. Some of the things that affect sleep are fresh air, exercise, eating practices, and relaxation.

What are favorable conditions of sleep? Noise free, elimination of light, proper mattress, relatively empty stomach, no excitement such as a TV prior to sleep, in many cases, sleeping with another person, and getting proper nutrition (see information below.)

What are some sleep problems? Insomnia resulting from too much stimuli, apnea from obstructions or improper commands from the brain, snoring due to flabby muscles or fatty growths, narcolepsy, and affects from medications. Most of these problems are eliminated or improved by improving overall health.

How can you put yourself to sleep? The primary reason most people have trouble sleeping is that there is something on their mind. Some people fall asleep easily because they do not take life seriously and do not worry about other people and their troubles. They just accept life as it shows up. But, for many people it has become a real problem and they need a simple procedure to put themselves to sleep.

Over the years I have studied many forms of meditation and self-hypnotism which I found very effective, both is relaxing and in putting myself to sleep. However, you don’t have to spend all the time I did in research and education. I’m including the simple procedure I use to put myself to sleep within two or three minutes. One of the mistakes people make is using the bed for reading. They get involved with a story and can’t put it down. I do my reading in an easy chair with proper lighting. I go to bed when I’m tired and I immediately go to sleep. Another mistake is listening to the late-night news that consists primarily of murder, rape, assault, and other heinous crimes. Your mind tends to work on the last input it has received. That’s why it is not a good idea to punish or reprimand children immediately before putting them to bed. They will have nightmares.

The procedure for putting yourself to sleep is so simple you may doubt that it will work. I can assure you it does and my wife will attest that I fall asleep as soon as I put my head on the pillow. Getting her to follow the procedure is another story. You’ve probably heard that you can’t teach your spouse to drive an automobile. Well, you can’t teach them anything unless they really want to do it, so all you can do is set the example.

The procedure is accomplished by purposely mixing up your thoughts so completely that you forget a particular problem you were worried about. All you have to do is put your mind on a simple, routine system of thinking, which is so easy to follow that it becomes almost automatic to continue even after you have been interrupted by unintentional and unrelated thoughts.

There are some preparatory measures that will help insure success.

1. Put your body in a natural, relaxed position with nothing to disturb your comfort. Lay directly on your back in a straight position with your arms along side your body so your blood can flow freely. Place your legs is a straight position to get rid of all the possible kinks and bends in all other parts or the body.

2. Put a pillow under your head, but not under your shoulders. Slowly take deep breaths so your lungs fill with air, then exhale to empty them completely. Inhale again to fill the lungs normally and then try to inhale a little more after that. Exhale normally and then try to exhale still more.

Here is the procedure:

Imagine walking over a blackboard with imaginary chalk in your hand and slowly draw a vertical straight line form the top to the bottom of the board. Do this several times more. Now imagine you are slowly drawing the figure two (2) extending the full height of the board. Do this several times more. Next do the same with the figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. .Any other system of mixing your thoughts could be as effective, but this method has been used for a long time and has proven effective.

If you draw the figures very slowly, you will probably be asleep before you know it, and when you wake up you won’t remember what figure you drew last. If you do the thinking rapidly, it will only keep you awake. Using ten seconds or more to draw each figure will stop you thinking, you’ll become very drowsy and then lose consciousness entirely.

If you wake up in the middle of the night, you will be able to put yourself to sleep easier than you did before. I would encourage you to try this method that has worked so successfully for me. Don’t think about it. Just do it and know if you follow the directions correctly, you will put yourself to sleep every time.

BONUS TIP: Getting to your subconscious level

There are many words used to describe meditation or getting to your alpha level. The technique I use allows you to be knowledgeable of what is going on around you and yet focus on a particular issue. What I do is sit upright in a comfortable chair, close my eyes, and take a few deep breaths. Then I continue breathing naturally and count backwards from fifty (50) with one count per breath. I take a breath and as I exhale I count 50. Then I take another breath and count 49, and so forth. By the time I am down to zero (0) I am totally relaxed and my subconscious brain can work on what ever issue I want.

I use this technique at least once every day and sometimes more. I’ve found it very effective and hope you do also.

One most important factors in sleeping well and getting a good nights rest is making sure your body has all of the nutrients it needs, particularly the minerals. Every day I take nutritional supplements with my breakfast and every evening with my dinner.

The researchers at Consumer Lab just reported that eleven multi-vitamin products for people failed the ConsumerLab.com tests. A number of products were short important vitamins or minerals. A children's vitamin contained too much vitamin A — exceeding tolerable levels. A vitamin, supposedly specifically for women, was contaminated with lead. Three products failed to break apart properly, suggesting that they might go through the body not fully used.

So how do you know that you are taking a nutritional supplement that provides you with optimum nutrition? At the end of this message, I've included an excerpt from The Comparative Guide for Nutritional Supplements by BioScientist Lyle McWilliams.

But first, here is some background information on Nutritional Supplements from Dr. Ray Strand:

Nutritional Supplementation

The most important lifestyle change that each and every one of you needs is actually the simplest to achieve. You merely need to begin taking what I refer to as cellular nutrition. This is consuming nutritional supplements that provide all the nutrients to the cell at optimal levels (those levels shown to provide a health benefit in our medical literature) and allowing the cell to decide what it does and does not need. This concept of nutritional supplementation not only allows you to correct any nutritional deficiencies but also allows you to bring all these important micronutrients needed by the cell back to optimal levels. My book, "What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You" Thomas Nelson (2002) details the problem of oxidative stress and the solution, which is cellular nutrition. I am only able to review the highlights of that book at this time; however, I would encourage all of you to get this book so that you can learn in greater detail about the health benefits that nutritional supplementation offers. This book is available on this web page's book store.

Oxidative Stress

The scientific medical literature is beginning to show us that the root or underlying cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer dementia, and even insulin resistance is due to oxidative stress. As I shared with you in week four's training, oxidative stress initially attacks the capillary bed within the muscle. This creates vasoconstriction (narrowing of the arteries) of the capillary bed, which makes it more difficult for insulin to pass from the blood stream to the cell where it is able to perform its job. But what is oxidative stress?

As our body utilizes oxygen needed to sustain life itself, occasionally a charged oxygen molecule is produced called a free radical. This oxygen molecule has at least one unpaired electron in its outer orbit, which gives it an electrical charge. This electrical charge creates a highly-reactive oxygen molecule that has very rapid movement in its quest to find an additional electron from any source nearby. If this free radical is not readily neutralized by an antioxidant, which has the ability to give this free radical an additional electron and render it harmless, it can go on to create even more volatile free radicals, damage the cell wall, vessel wall, proteins, fats, and even the DNA nucleus of the cell. However, we are not defenseless against this attack by these free radicals. Our bodies actually make antioxidants and we are able to get additional antioxidants from our foods - primarily our fruits and vegetables. It all becomes a matter of balance. You want to have enough antioxidants available to handle the number of free radicals you produce. If you don't, then oxidative stress occurs and your body is damaged.

The number of free radicals you produce is not steady or constant. There are many situations and conditions that increase the number of free radicals you produce. Excessive emotional stress, excessive exercise, pollutants in our air, food, and water, cigarette smoke, medications, sunlight, and radiation all cause us to make excessive free radicals. Because of our stressful lifestyles, polluted environment, and poor diet, the medical literature has shown us that supplementing our diet with a wide variety of different antioxidants and their supporting minerals and vitamin B cofactors offers us significant health benefits.

Health Benefits of Nutritional Supplements

Enhance the immune system
Enhance the antioxidant defense system
Decrease the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer
Decrease the risk of arthritis, macular degeneration, and cataracts
Decrease the risk of asthma and hay fever
Decrease the risk of Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, and many other chronic degenerative diseases
Improved sensitivity to your own insulin and it helps release fat
Sleeping better

Why nutritional supplementation – the conclusion

I feel that it is important to summarize all the reasons cellular nutrition is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle when it comes to insulin resistance. First, oxidative stress and inflammation are the initial insult that occurs in the capillary bed of the muscle and building up the body's natural antioxidant defense system helps bring this oxidative stress back under control. Second, antioxidants, especially vitamin E and vitamin C, are able to protect the oxidative stress created by elevated levels of insulin, fat, and glucose in our blood stream following a high-Glycemic or high-fat meal.

Antioxidants along with chromium, magnesium, selenium, vanadium, and many other micronutrients enhance the release and action of insulin, which helps correct the underlying problem of insulin resistance. When cellular nutrition is combined with a modest aerobic exercise program and a healthy diet, you have the absolute best chance of truly reversing insulin resistance and not only releasing fat, but lowering your blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and cholesterol levels. It will also raise your HDL cholesterol levels. Are you beginning to see the overall picture?

It is critical to truly understand what you are trying to accomplish and realizing the fact that the scientific medical literature supports what you are doing. I personally believe that providing your body with cellular nutrition is the most important aspect of the Healthy for Life Program. Taking your supplements is the easiest lifestyle change you need to make. It takes less than 1 minute of your day to accomplish this goal.