mooney-wellness

Simple Sleep Assessment

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:29:47 GMT

Rate the current SEVERITY of any sleep issues, based on your last two weeks of sleep.

None Mild Moderate Severe Very

1. Difficulty falling asleep 0 1 2 3 4

2. Difficulty staying asleep 0 1 2 3 4

3. Problem waking up too early 0 1 2 3 4

4. How satisfied/dissatisfied are you with your current sleep patterns?

Very Satisfied Very Dissatisfied

0 1 2 3 4

5. To what extent do you consider any potential sleep problems to INTERFERE with your daily functioning (e.g. daytime fatigue, ability to function at work/daily chores, concentration, memory, mood, etc.).

Not at all A little Somewhat Much Very Much

0 1 2 3 4

6. How NOTICEABLE to others do you think any potential sleeping issues are in terms of impairing your quality of life?

Not at all A little Somewhat Much Very Much

0 1 2 3 4

The Physiological Sigh

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:28:52 GMT

I have grown to love The Huberman Lab Podcast and Breathwork. I had such profound experiences with breathwork that I decided to take the training to become a breathwork facilitator. I believe breath is such a powerful tool to regulate our nervous systems; perhaps one of the most powerful ones we possess. The Physiological Sigh is something that everyone can use in real time. It works, and there is a great biological explanation. Andrew Huberman PhD. talks extensively about the Physiological Sigh in The Huberman Lab, and I am so excited to share this information!

If you are stressed, it’s great to get a massage, soak in hot springs, go for a run, or go to yoga, but in reality, you often experience emotional turmoil in the moment. Which is why it's so important to have a tool for that moment.

It is very hard to control your mind when you are in intense states of stress. Good luck being intentional or channeling inner wisdom of mindfulness at the exact moment something is driving you crazy. What do you do? Perhaps you have just enough mental capacity to temporarily think about your response before you react. You need a real time tool.

I will try not to get too geeky, but there is a great biological component to this.

First, a simple explanation: If you want to slow down your heart, lengthen your exhales in relation to the inhales. Calming your nervous system can happen quickly through a long exhale. Priming the exhale with an oxygenated inhale will help deliver oxygen to your blood and eliminate carbon dioxide. Finally, using the skeletal muscles of the diaphragm is a tool to fast-track this process. If this information is good enough, feel free to skip the next three paragraphs, and jump ahead to learn how to incorporate the Physiological Sigh as a reaction to in-the-moment stress.

Breath controls heart rate through reactions between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. When you inhale, your diaphragm moves down as your lungs and heart temporarily expand. As a result, the blood in your heart is at a lower volume than prior to your inhale (in relation to the space in the heart), and your heart moves more slowly. The SA (sinoatrial) node in your heart registers the rate of blood flow, and acts as the pacemaker for your heartbeat. The SA node is constantly trying to achieve a balance of pressure and optimal oxygen distribution of blood throughout your body. A longer inhale causes the SA node to send a signal to your brain that blood is moving more slowly to your heart. The brain sends a return signal to the heart to speed up the heart rate to produce more oxygenated blood flow to muscles throughout your body. Therefore, if you want your heart to beat faster, inhale more vigorously than your exhales. Additionally, if inhales are completed over longer time periods than your exhales, you speed up heart rate. This creates a sympathetic activation response and is a great tool if you need to increase your attention or if you are tired (Journal of General Physiology, 9/13/10 136(3) 237-241, H. Peter Larson). The opposite is also true. If you want to slow down your heart rate and calm yourself, capitalize on the relationship between heart rate, diaphragm, and brain. When you exhale, the diaphragm moves up and gets smaller. The blood volume of the heart is flowing faster through the heart, and the SA node recognizes the faster flow of blood. The SA node sends a message to the brain to slow the heart rate. The parasympathetic nervous system is activated in your brain, via the vagus nerve and baroreceptors in the arteries as well as its relational connection to the diaphragm, and it sends a return signal to slow your heart down. Take a long exhale to calm yourself.

Now, let's focus on your lungs for a moment. Think about how you breathe when you experience stress - often it is shallow. You have tiny sacks in your lungs called alveoli. The job of alveoli is to expand and contract as oxygen is inhaled and circulated into your blood. When you are stressed, the alveoli tend to collapse and are not as efficient. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide builds up in your bloodstream, increasing agitation. Your body will want to replenish the blood with rich oxygen and clear out the carbon dioxide at this time.

Finally, the diaphragm is unique because it has the ability to be subconsciously controlled through natural processes similar to your spleen, pancreas, intestines, or stomach, AND as mentioned earlier, you can also voluntarily expand and contract your diaphragm with skeletal muscle control. You don't need to think about breathing, but you have the choice to override and manipulate your breath. As a result, you can do double or triple inhales and control the timing of your breathing for speed, capacity, and duration. Through a double inhale, you can efficiently re-inflate the alveoli, and cue your nervous system to focus on intentionally moving out of the shallow breathing pattern.

The Physiological Sigh: Double inhale - first for one second, with your second inhale shortly after for ½ to ¾ of a second - to sneak in more air. Hold for several seconds, then perform a long exhale. Through my breathwork training, I learned if you combine your long exhale with a hum or audible sound, and you recruit the superpowers of the vagus nerve (your 10th cranial nerve and the longest and most complex of all cranial nerves) for a deeper calming effect - but this may not be appropriate in the middle of a staff meeting. Repeat this 1-3 times, or more until you gain your desired result or at least enough to find mental clarity to calm your reaction. The double inhale reinflates the alveoli fully in your lungs and the long exhale rids your body of the carbon dioxide, modulating your stress response through slowing your heart rate and calming your nervous system.

This is a fast, hard-wired way to lower your internal reaction to stress the moment you experience it. I would recommend practicing it so it becomes immediate. Think of moments where you find yourself to be stressed and imagine using your physiological sigh as you proceed through that moment. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse so it becomes more instinctual.

This can be applied during weight lifting, at times of the day when you intentionally want to relax, as part of a calming routine before sleep, and certainly if you are triggered in the moment of a life stressor.

Thought Observation/Awareness Exercise

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:27:02 GMT

This exercise is designed to amplify your awareness of your internal thought stream. There are two primary goals for this exercise. The first is to transition from being so immersed in internal thoughts that your nervous system reacts. For example, if you are thinking about a work meeting tomorrow, not being prepared, and feeling nervous about presenting to a large group, even though the meeting is tomorrow, you are producing a stress response in your nervous system the moment you are thinking the thoughts. This triggers sympathetic nervous system reaction to produce cortisol, adrenaline/epinephrine, speed up your heart rate, etc. Your body is reacting like there is a danger in your environment even though the meeting is tomorrow. With this exercise, you will practice observing your thoughts, but not allowing a physiological reaction.

Example:

Move from “Thinker”: I am Frank. I am involved in a stream of thoughts about work responsibilities, preparation, communication, entertaining others, representing my business, demonstrating my value for employment, my desire to be liked, my desire to be smart, etc.

Into the mindset of “Observer”: I am watching as Frank’s mind jumps in a stream of thoughts about work, responsibility, presenting, and intrinsic and extrinsic self-worth.

As an observer, you are separating the thoughts from the self that is thinking the thoughts. From this perspective, Frank’s thinking does not follow a logical sequence, but rather jumps from one topic to another, and sometimes back. This is how thoughts work. Thoughts are typically not just around one theme. Here is a more realistic thought observation process for Frank might look like:

I am watching as Frank’s mind jumps in a stream of thoughts about work, a recent news headline, overwhelming work responsibility, presenting for the meeting tomorrow. And how terrible the last one went, and the sad news from a co-worker earlier this week, a disagreement with a loved one, intrinsic and extrinsic self-worth, and a social media post.

You have a mind that is constantly active with subconscious thought loops. This is a natural process in human brains. There is a term called “highway hypnosis” that describes how a driver can safely operate a vehicle, react to the changing environment, with no mental recall of making those decisions, while their mind is focused on other thoughts. This happens with all rote, basic activities of daily life. It’s also commonly referred to as “daydreaming.”

The thought loops serve you in so many incredible ways. You can remember past events, predict the future, and consciously decipher complex feelings and emotions, all while keeping a steady heart rate, digesting your food, regulating your internal temperature, and sensing data from the environment for smell, taste, touch, sound, and vision. Meanwhile, you are driving to the grocery store; operating a 3000 lb car, and singing to the song on the radio with precise rhythm and pitch (or so I tell myself).

As stated earlier, the first goal of this exercise is to just witness your thoughts as an observer. Through witnessing, you can regulate your internal chemistry. The second goal is to observe themes. We so often ruminate over the same themes throughout our day. I invite you to record these themes. Find a blank piece of paper and write down the topics you find yourself thinking about. It might feel silly to initiate this, but it reveals so much information. It is common to spend a significant quantity of energy immersed in thought about the same themes for weeks, years, and even decades, without questioning why or addressing the root cause of these concepts. You can just start with writing everything that comes to your mind, then placing those thoughts into common categories like connection/relationships, respect/recognition, success/failure, health and wellness, identity, control, and time. All individuals are unique, and the themes you have will likely be different from others, though there are often common similarities.

Exercise:

Practice observing your thoughts. Set a timer for one minute and observe your mind at work. You will likely have a period of time in the beginning where nothing happens, as you acutely pay attention to the space. Soon, thoughts will visit. Sit with the silence and focus on the stream of thoughts you have.

Repeat this exercise several times and note what you observe.

Application:

First of all, if you are struggling to sleep, and are finally in a silent environment with less stimulation:

A) This is not the time to solve your stress. Allocate a scheduled time during the day for this. If you are stuck on a few themes, I have so many tools to help find inner clarity.

B) There is a physiological impact of switching from a “thinking” perspective to “observing.” Through thought observation, you are less likely to stimulate the sympathetic reaction of fight of flight. This is an exercise, like a muscle, that you can grow strength from with repetition.

Stress Test

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:25:38 GMT

I want you to leave this next three minutes of reading with a tool that can transform how you react and reset to challenging scenarios. This can be applied if you are dealing with a fear of public speaking, the difficulty focusing at a work meeting, or trying not to be totally overwhelmed when your kids come home from school and destroy all calm and cleanliness of your previously peaceful home.

In each of these scenarios, there is a common thread that involves reacting to the energy of others. What is happening internally, and more importantly, what can you do to start the process of making a lasting change?

You have a complex nervous system that is using patterns and algorithms of past events to predict the future and react to current events. In a case like public speaking, you may subconsciously ramp up your heart rate, shorten your breaths, and alter the pores on your skin to increase sweat gland distribution minutes or even days before you need to actually perform your speech. If it feels like your kids bring a tornado into the house after playing, your nervous system can get hijacked so fast that your reaction is to become a hurricane. When you are patiently listening to your spouse pick apart a minor detail that you omitted from the last three hours of intense household productivity, and you find your internal pressure cooker ready to explode with a precision missile - BOOM - this is the chance to reset. Let's get to work.

In the moment, you are involved in an exchange between internal and external receptive states - exteroception versus interoception. Some humans are naturally more interoceptive while others are gifted at exteroception. In these examples, it does not matter what end of the spectrum your gifts are located - you are struggling with your allocation of energy in reaction to external stimuli.

Interoception/exteroception awareness can be used as a tool to help regulate your nervous system. Here is how:

You feel triggered. Take 2-3 seconds and perform the following steps. As you read this, it may feel like you might need longer. However, if you simulate and practice, this exercise becomes easier.

1. Connect with any point of your body and its contact with the outside world. Feel where your skin touches a loose article of clothing, or where your feet are connecting to the ground. Other examples are where your body is in contact with a seat or what the breeze feels like on your arm. You are focusing your awareness on a location that links your interoceptive world, and the exteroceptive surroundings.

2. Next, move your focus to an internal system. For example, notice which muscles are storing tension (jaw, eyes, neck, back, and hands are good starting places) or focus on your breathing (how full or empty are your lungs at a given moment).

You are temporarily transitioning from external to internal.

3. Now, use exteroception: turn your attention to something in your immediate space. Focus on something in your visual field that is obvious and has features you can concentrate on like a physical feature of furniture or variations in color (something you would choose if you were playing “I spy” with a child). If you are more attracted to audible stimulation, channel out the sounds of a particular object like a ceiling fan, footsteps of a passerby, sounds of a moving object in the room, or the humming of a radiator. If it is dinner time, consider a pleasant odor from the kitchen. Extend your focus on this vision, sound, or smell.

4. Next, zoom out and create a mental picture of the entire scene you are in. See yourself and notice the external and internal stimuli. Like taking a picture from a drone floating overhead, you are witnessing a transition between the details of the environment surrounding you, and moving back to your body in internal homeostasis. From a distance, where are points where muscle tension can be released? What is the pace of your breathing? By observing yourself in a way that someone else might, you are cued that you possess an energy to yourself. Even in tense moments, you have the capacity to shift this energy. Create a bigger picture of you and your surroundings in this exact present moment, and allow yourself to deepen awareness into this energy.

5. Recognize the location of your inner Self in relation to this abundance of stimulation. Begin to think about what is recognizable and predictable. Connect with your Self energy. If you struggle to make this connection, please consider a free visit and allow me to explain what this looks like. How do you desire to show up at this moment?

6. Return to the reality you are surrounded by. It may be chaotic, but you can always recalibrate with this exercise.

The first time you try this, it will likely take over 10 seconds to travel through each of these steps (it took me over a minute). Try to repeat it at a faster pace. Try a third and fourth time with a slight increase in speed each time. See if you can do it in under 4 seconds. Try again in under three.

I like to use this with my breath. As I inhale, I start with a point of contact and pull my awareness in. As I exhale, I find a detail in my environment, zoom out, and look back - this is my reset moment.

If this sounds interesting for you to pursue, it is helpful to create a script of areas in your life where you tend to be activated or triggered. Run through these scenarios and rehearse what each of these steps could feel like and how you want your desired response to look. What emotions are you encountering at each part of the process? How do you want to feel at each of these points? Repeat, repeat, repeat. Practice to see what pace you need to proceed through each of these steps. Remember, you can become more efficient. Like a muscle, this can be exercised to a point where you become increasingly efficient. Again, if you get confused about your reaction or want someone to help with structure or accountability, please reach out to me. I really enjoy connecting with others in circumstances like this.

Doctor Recommended

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:11:01 GMT

What do doctors prescribe more than anything else?

When you do your regular check-ups, this topic is often discussed and this will be highly recommended. When you sustain a head injury, the number one recommendation involves minimizing stimulation and doing this. If you are sick or battling an infection, this needs to be prioritized. If you are mechanically injured in an accident, this serves as both a pain remedy as well as a recommendation for re-building and regrowth. Mental health providers make this suggestion as the number one way to help with stress management, and sustained impairments of this are directly linked to all mental health disorders. Even if you get a vaccine, the health benefits of taking that vaccine can be reduced by over 50% if this is not consistent. Additionally, any prescription medication given by your doctor will not be as efficient without adequate amounts of this.

This prescription helps with growth and repair for all systems of your body. Additionally, there is a correlation to your ability to regulate your emotions. This process has a direct impact on how much you are able to remember. Without it, you open your immune system to vulnerabilities that will eventually make you sick, and in absence of it, you will die.

In other words, this is a big deal!

If you are consistently getting less than 6.5 hours of sleep on a regular basis, your body is not functioning at optimal levels, and there are ways to make significant improvements. If you rely on a drink, drug, or substance to help get yourself to sleep, it is likely that you are doing damage to your nervous system and body that can be debilitating to your health. If it takes you longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, get back to sleep after a middle of the night wake-up, or if you wake up 30 minutes earlier than you should, there are tools that can help improve these numbers.

I can help you with your sleep. I bring compassion, education, a plan, and accountability to this process. Think of a personal trainer, but replace exercise with sleep - I expect significant results to take place within 6 weeks of initiating service, and my goal is for clients to have solutions they will incorporate for the rest of their life. I work with adolescents and adults of all ages to get refreshing sleep.

Coffee: Think Before You Drink

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:08:29 GMT

There is a drug circulating that alters your delicate internal chemistry for up to 10 hours at a time. Once comfortable with consumption, you become irritable if you don't get access to it, and in its absence, you may experience headaches, irritability, and lethargy. It is not regulated by the FDA, and it is not illegal - possibly because it is the second-most traded commodity in the world (behind only oil). It is traded on the streets around the world and in your neighborhood, and some people even let children have access to it, despite the abundance of scientific evidence of its harm to growing brains.

Why is coffee so effective at altering our brain? I use a puzzle piece analogy when I work with my clients to describe this phenomenon. The puzzle pieces are synonymous with adenosine - a byproduct of cellular metabolism. The more active you are, the more adenosine you build in your brain. As you move throughout your day, adenosine binds to receptors in your brain, like puzzle pieces. Once you have reached a critical capacity, and the puzzle is full, you feel a sleep drive that is so strong your body knows it is time to fall asleep. During the night, the stores of adenosine are washed away and the process starts over the next day. Caffeine has the same jigsaw connecting features as adenosine, and thus will bind to your brain and block adenosine from filling in the puzzle. As a result, your brain does not experience the familiar signals that result in a feeling of fatigue. Adenosine must wait until the caffeine is released from the binders, and only then can it attach and create sufficient sleep pressure. This is how caffeine works to fake your brain into feeling less tired - and why it is in such high demand.

When you first awaken, your body automatically goes through thousands of complex chemical reactions that promote alertness. You have internal mechanisms that produce cortisol and adrenaline/epinephrine in relation to sensing sunlight and as your brain processes stimulation of senses, muscle activation, and you transition out of sleep. This is an amazing and natural process that does not need external substances, like caffeine - ensuring that internal chemicals and neuromodulators are released naturally like they are designed to do.

Meanwhile, your brain has basal ganglia in a deeper subcortical region, and these basal ganglia are responsible for planning what you need to do. Basal ganglia follow a looping system with your cortex that utilize dopamine to produce decisions to “go” or to suppress these signals for a “no go” reaction, depending on the circumstances. This is critical for survival and has been sharpened through evolution as a means to observe and react to potential dangers associated with leaving a protected space of sleep and transitioning to more exposed environments.

Caffeine too early in the morning (in relation to your wakeup timing) can cause you to be very prone to “go” to action, but also can impair your “no-go” signals, causing your ability to not suppress action to be diminished. In other words, when you are too alert, you might find it hard to avoid actions you want to suppress. Excessive autonomic arousal from early caffeine can create a phase of pseudo-high alertness, which can have a buzz of energy that might feel slightly out of control.

The morning post-wakeup “sweet spot” is when we are cool and calm, we have energy and focus to pursue action and also the energy and focus to suppress action. We are able to naturally maintain longer concentration on tasks and are less easily distracted by things in our environment. In this state, basal ganglia and the cortex are in a balance with the back and forth of the signaling. When allowed to act naturally, these systems are most efficient.

When you are overly fatigued in the morning, even if it shows up as a mental fatigue, the go/no-go pathway recruits a lot of energy to maintain balance. This is often a reason you might use caffeine to find alertness, but ultimately you are ignoring internal signals that you need better sleep. If you feel like you can't go without coffee immediately after waking up, please consider talking to me about sleep; I can help you get notable results in 6 weeks of consistency.

Hydration is also a key component to waking up, and there is often a lack of balance with caffeine and hydration. Caffeine has a disturbing side effect where you might experience symptoms of a headache or the potential trigger of a migraine by not drinking morning coffee. This effect goes to show how powerful the substance of caffeine is on your nervous system. Early hydration is not only great for your body to prepare for movement, lowering joint pain, gently waking up the balance of your GI tract, and regulating your naturally warming temperature, but it also decreases the risk of headaches related to abstaining from caffeine. Though all humans are different, and these recommendations vary throughout scientific literature, it is generally recommended to consume 2 cups of water prior to having caffeine or consuming caloric substances.

The optimal timing and dosing of caffeine varies by person to person. Through controlled observation of your lifestyle and how your body responds to caffeine, it is fairly simple to follow trends and make adjustments - assuming all other variables are consistent. This is a service I provide, and if you are open-minded to trying this, coffee (or other forms of caffeine) can be used as an excellent tool to power through your postprandial dip of energy you notice after lunch. There is often a prime time to introduce caffeine in the day and an inevitable window where use of coffee should be shut down to avoid any sleep disturbances. These variables depend on many factors from person to person, though there are general guidelines that offer clarity. First, as mentioned earlier, there is such a thing as having coffee too early. Instead, consider allowing your nervous system to wake up naturally. Your brain has an amazing capacity to produce hormones and modulators like cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine (to name a few), and the nervous system is designed to use these chemicals to produce alertness in the morning. Second, coffee can be successfully integrated into a plan to avoid a mid-afternoon crash, if used with intention. Third, if you are a biphasic sleeper, and use naps as a form of recharging, which has been proven to be effective for learning and recovery, caffeine can be used in various ways to build napping structure into your routine. Fourth and finally, there is a point when caffeine intake should stop or it will have deleterious effects on your body and nervous system. There are people that have genes that mask these debilitating effects of caffeine, but your odds of possessing these genes are less than 1 in 15,000.

As far as drinking coffee later in the day, I like to start with the question “why?”. There are many reasons you behave in the ways you do, and often this becomes part of your subconscious thinking patterns. Coffee is a cultural phenomenon, and it is wonderful to travel the world and witness the unique experiences of coffee drinkers to the geographic region where they are located. Drinking coffee looks different in Egypt compared to Fiji, Spain, Ecuador, or New York, and each place offers a nuanced perspective. No matter where you are in the world or how you feel connected to a culture, coffee still impacts your ability to fall asleep if used too late. If you are noticing you feel tired in the later afternoon or early evening, and you rely on a caffeinated beverage to make it through the day, you are ignoring the underlying stress and fatigue. Patching it up with a caffeine-laced band aid is just delaying or prolonging the inevitable need for repair. Worse yet is the correlation to caffeine impairing your body’s ability to be in health-generating slow wave deep sleep. Even when you do fall asleep despite coffee being in your system the caffeine inhibits the growth and repair offered by slow wave deep sleep. Finally, if you are a coffee drinker that is just consuming coffee habitually - because you always have, this can be an opportunity to consider a reframe. Changing habits does not need to be a debilitating practice; instead, it can be used as an opportunity to add something you have been craving at a controlled time of day where space can be created. I love talking about potential and helping with goal setting, and I have some fun tools to integrate into places like this. Though every nervous system is different, I would start with a generalized recommendation to close the coffee window 8-10 hours before bedtime. These details are teased out throughout my sleep consulting practice for an individualized format.

Now that you have digested this material, you may notice that part of you is resistant to this information or you want to debate this. Contact me and let's talk more. fI fully acknowledge that every human is different, and I understand that the work I do must be built around your core needs to feel safe and understood. Your inherent wisdom is the primary guide to every step of my process, and I choose to celebrate imperfections as part of the norm. Coffee is a very personal subject, and so is your sleep.

Upright and Asleep

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:06:46 GMT

Do you find yourself so tired in the evening that you nod off to sleep while sitting on the couch or recliner? Perhaps you have a family member or friend that is known to fall asleep watching the TV in their favorite seat. I have worked in home health care for over a decade, and I became very familiar with people telling me they fall asleep in their living room and eventually transition into their beds at some point later in the night (if at all). There are health risks to doing this, so let's sit back, relax, and stay awake as we dive deeper into this subject.

First of all, it's important to talk to your doctor about sleeping with your head elevated - at any time of the day. Many people that have sleep apnea experience improved symptoms of snoring when their head is elevated. Additionally, when people have acid reflux and GERD, gravity helps the process of getting food into the places it needs to go. When it comes to sleep science and getting the maximum gains of refreshing sleep, every human is different, so you need to find what is best for you. On the other hand, I would argue that the best treatment for sleep apnea is working with a doctor to find a recommended treatment modality for airway management based on your specific symptoms. Additionally, for GERD or acid reflux, if you are eating or drinking anything containing calories in the hours before you try to sleep, perhaps this is a great place to start modifying the timing of your food intake to provide your system some relief. When you have food in your stomach that is in need of being broken down by stomach acid, that acid will irritate the lining of your stomach and esophagus. Many people eat/drink later in the day, experience heartburn, and habitually sleep in their recliners in an attempt to minimize their symptoms, and get into a dependence of initiating sleep with a recliner. Meanwhile, they continue the same destructive behavior of digesting food, and using energy on the food breakdown at the time when their body should be using energy on regrowth and repair.

When you sleep in the hours before bedtime, you are contributing to several factors that decrease the quality of your sleep. Your brain washes away adenosine stores that can be used to strengthen the intensity of your sleep drive at the time when you will need it the most. This means that the intensity of your sleep drive is diminished when it is the desired time to fall asleep. Additionally, evening napping disrupts the architecture of deep sleep in two ways. First, by the likelihood that you will eventually transition into bed, getting potential light exposure and stirring up your nervous system with the need to prepare yourself for bed at a point in the night when it's best for your body to remain as calm as possible. Secondly, because you are impairing your brain to get its much-needed slow wave deep sleep that is most often consumed in the first half of the night.

We have a system in our brain, known as the glymphatic system, that functions to clean the brain of unnecessary debris. Like a sewer system, it washes away waste products to cleanse the brain of potential hazards. This system sustains its greatest productivity during sleep, and is most active during slow-wave sleep that you experience in the beginning of the night. When you sleep, your CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) bathes your brain and it gathers debris that surround neurons. Functional imaging of sleeping brains shows that most of this “wash out” of debris of the glymphatic system takes place during slow-wave sleep in the first 4 hours of nighttime sleep.

Now, think about a brain that is sitting up in a recliner in a sleeping state. There is a physical pressure fluid dynamic that is not as efficient as a body laying flat on a bed. Sitting upright in early sleep reduces the potential of this dynamic. As a result, the brain does not get the greatest benefits of this debris clear-out, including beta amyloid plaques so commonly associated with Alzheimer's disease.

The solution: Don't fall asleep in your recliner or on a couch in the early evening. Other things to avoid should be drinking coffee (even decaf coffee contains caffeine), consuming alcohol or other substances, and eating in this time period, which all have deleterious effects on your sleep architecture. If your body feels excessively tired, there are things to do that can help stay awake. Most people need to stretch - this could be a great time to add a dynamic stretching routine. Yoga is an excellent evening practice. Going for a walk outside is also a great option. While walking, your eyes see less overall skylight, naturally reinforcing your internal circadian programming, and priming your body to transition into a deeper sleep when you do go to bed. Intentionally holding out on the initiation of sleep will make your deeper sleep even more efficient for regrowth and repair. Additionally, this deeper slow wave sleep optimizes memory transport where the bits of memory in your short-term memory banks can be distributed to long-term memory storing centers throughout your brain. You don't want to miss out on the incredible advantages of deep slow wave sleep, so take the steps to make this a priority. As noted, please reach out to discuss if you feel like you might need help or if you would like clarification or more information. The first conversation is free, and I love talking about sleep science.

Stress Your Way To Health

benamooney@gmail.com (Ben Mooney) — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 18:03:22 GMT

Every human experiences “stress” on a daily basis. Stress is often demonized, but it is a natural part of life and human bodies need it for optimal function. Memory, immunity, and the mechanisms that go into growth and repair of our bodies are all enhanced with stress. The question is: does YOUR use of stress help or hinder you?

There are many internal chemicals that are part of the stress response, but I will primarily focus on two important ones: cortisol and adrenaline. For clarification, adrenaline and epinephrine are the same neuromodulator but released in different parts of the body. Epinephrine is released from neurons in the brain, and adrenaline is released from the adrenals located just above the kidneys. Epinephrine and adrenaline are identical, and if you think about it, it must be very important to our bodies because it is released in two very different locations.

As you move through the 24-hour period of a day, you are guaranteed to experience periods of cortisol and adrenaline release. This is a given no matter how calm or stressed you are. By timing how you choose to release them and preparing for how you react to stressful stimuli, you can create conditions that favor homeostatic balance.

I use three specific tools with my clients to ramp up cortisol and adrenaline spikes in the morning after waking up. This is best done before adding food calories and other chemical-activating substances like caffeine. As a result, bodies learn to naturally use internal processes efficiently, unmanipulated by exogenous substances. Additionally, the release of cortisol and adrenaline increases alertness for concentration and focus. This is useful if used naturally, because coffee drinkers can save their caffeine jolt for later in the morning to avoid the postprandial dip of fatigue that many people notice after eating lunch.

Tool one: Get up at the same time daily. This is one of the best things you can do for your health, and it is often the first behavior I address with sleep clients to obtain sleep success. Scientific research has traced circadian timing to the cellular level - in other words, every cell in your body is encoded to operate in the natural 24-hour cycle of the day. Every organ and process we experience from digestion, to growth and repair, to learning, to our senses are primed to work best if we follow predictable patterns based on sunlight and darkness. With repetition, the cortisol/adrenaline systems of the human body will naturally time releases in conjunction to a consistent wake-up time, and there is a correlative link to consistent wake-ups and longevity.

Tool two: Light exposure after waking up is a great way to fast-track a natural adrenaline and cortisol spike. The best light is natural light in the eastern sky before the sun is too intense. Obviously, looking straight into the sun is not recommended, but getting indirect morning light exposure is such a great gift to your nervous system. A good goal is to get eastern light exposure within 30 minutes or less after you awaken. Looking east through a window takes up to 50 times longer to get the same lux energy to activate your system, in comparison to going outside. Spending 5-10 minutes without sunglasses is excellent. When you view light, your suprachiasmatic nucleus, the time-keeper of your brain and body, senses the light exposure and triggers a dynamic reaction where corticotropin releasing hormone activates the pituitary to release ACTH, cascading to the adrenals to release cortisol and adrenaline. This release causes the human body to want to move, not rest, and hunger is suppressed. This is great, because it fits well with my next suggestion.

Tool three: Exercise is essentially “controlled stress.” Through exercise, your heart rate increases, blood circulates faster, respirations increase, and your body’s internal temperature rises, similar to what might happen if you encountered a lion on a jungle trail. Exercise has a profound impact on adrenaline and cortisol, which aids in the transition from being asleep to awake, improves focus, energy levels, and learning throughout the day. Additionally, it decreases the likelihood of late-day surges in cortisol which is a signature feature of mental health disorders including major depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

Now that your day is off to a good start, you are chemically prepared to experience inevitable stressors. An irritable child or spouse, frustration with technology, traffic jams, financial concerns, preparing for a presentation, or seeing a disturbing story on the news - these will cause increases in cortisol and adrenaline. This can and should be expected as a natural part of life. During these stressful times, cortisol and adrenaline flood your body and bind to receptors in the brain like the amygdala, and other areas connected to learning, memory, and neuroplasticity. We are designed to be this way neurologically, because we need alertness, and ability to act to potentially respond to danger. This is also a great opportunity to reframe and learn to react to stimuli in a desirable manner. Start with recognizing your common internal and external stressors, and the patterns that are characteristic of these events. The secret is to prepare your real-life reaction so that you are not in a state of chronic cortisol or adrenaline elevation. I have so many tools available for times like these, and I would love to share more if you are interested.

Finally, as you are ending your day and preparing for sleep, you need to continue to be cognizant of adrenaline and cortisol. On a chemical level, your body does not distinguish the difference between reacting to a facebook post and that lion on the jungle trail. Late night use of technology, exposure to bright lights after the sun has set, stressful work projects, or even ruminating thoughts while in bed before sleep will all have a corresponding impact on your sleep and also your overall health. Preparing a sleep hygiene routine that includes light awareness, cut-offs on technology and social media, and ways to manage stressful thoughts is an excellent strategy.

I love connecting with people on ways to improve health and wellness. If you find inspiration from this, are concerned about your stress levels, or have any questions, please consider reaching out for a complimentary meeting.