7 Tips for a Good Night Sleep: Basics of Sleep and Improving Emotional Health

Sleep is an essential task that every person needs in order to be at their very best. In just one day of no sleep your body becomes increasingly weaker, disoriented, and overall loss of functionality. Strangely the military wants to create a super soldier that would not need sleep and could last hours in combat or watch during times of war. In no way does that sound like a good idea, the fact being…you need sleep to give your body the rest, repair and restoration that it needs to be at its best.

In the context of emotional studies have shown that good sleep is essential to our emotional health.

How?...you might ask

Well it comes down to understanding the basics of sleep. Sleep is a full brain effort. Different regions of the brain serve different functions to help you sleep.

The Sleep Basics:

Hypothalamus: The control center. It contains a cluster of cells known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, it detects light and serves as the pacemaker of your circadian rhythm (the sleep-wake cycle)

The Brain Stem: Communication department, it communicates with the hypothalamus to control when you sleep and when you wake up. The hypothalamus and brainstem release the chemical GABA to reduce arousal in different areas of your body. It also sends signals to your muscles for when your body transitions between REM Sleep (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep) and non-REM sleep. When these signals are delivered our body knows to calm down and not act out dreams or nightmares.

The Thalamus: The Messenger to the cerebral cortex (Memory Maker). The Thalamus usually takes in information, carries it over to the cerebral cortex, and creates short term and long term memories. When we are sleeping it tunes out the outside world and leaves us to the images and sounds that play out in our dreams.

The Pineal Gland: Supply Shop. When the pineal gland receives the signal from the hypothalamus, specifically the suprachiasmatic nucleus, it releases a special hormone known as melatonin that pushes our body to sleep when the lights go out. Dark room means better sleep.

The Basal Forebrain: Supports the wake and sleep cycle through releasing adenosine, a chemical that supports your sleep drive. Caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine, hence keeping you awake.

Amygdala: Emotions manager, it is responsible for processing emotions and becomes increasingly active during the REM cycle.

The Sleep Stages:

You have interval sleep cycles, REM and non-REM sleep. The intervals occur multiple times throughout the night. They differ based on brain waves and neuron activity. Deeper REM cycle periods occurring toward the morning.

Stage 1 Non REM cycle: Last 5-10 Minutes. The first transition from being awake to being asleep. All your basic functions slow down, your eyes are closed, and your body twitches a bit.

Stage 2 Non REM Cycle: Lasts about 20 Minutes. Your heart rate begins to slow down further, your body temperature drops, and your eyes will stop moving. This stage repeats most in the night.

Stage 3: Non REM Cycle: The period where deep sleep occurs, your blood pressure stops, your breathing begins to slow, and your muscles are fully relaxed. This is the stage where your body repairs itself.

REM Sleep: Occur 90 minutes after you first go to bed. Your brain becomes active again and you start to dream. All your body functions such as breathing and blood pressure rise to almost awake levels. Your body is fully paralyzed in that it protects you from not acting out the dreams you are having.

The Stages are important for body repair and memory formation.

In one study, since REM sleep is associated with memory, it is closely correlated with triggers and the memories associated with traumatic experience. Your body reacts to different triggers and causes physiological responses, such as increases in heart rate and breathing rate. Since our body is forming these memories during stage 3 and REM cycles, the body does not consolidate the good memories needed to handle these stressors

In another study, lack of sleep increases the stress hormones, such as cortisol. Subjects who had sleep deprivation had higher levels of cortisol during the later half of the day, when levels should be decreasing. On a side note, this makes sense. Humans go into survival mode when we are under high levels of stress, preparing against danger. Lack of sleep would tell our body that we are “on watch” and to be aware of any danger. However, sleep deprivation does not help us as it keeps us suboptimal both physically and mentally.

We know sleep is important, arguably it's probably the most important factor to keeping the balance in our daily lives.

Here is Halal Holistics: 7 Tips to set you up for a Good Night Sleep

1. Early to bed, Early to Rise: Ben Franklin said it first. Set a fixed time to go to sleep and wake up that works best with your schedule. In the Muslim tradition, sleeping after the evening prayer and waking up before morning prayer is our timeframe. Another way to look at it would be to get AT LEAST 6 hours of sleep. Suppose 11pm to 5am. You will have a few REM cycles and solid intervals for deep sleep.

2. Winding it Down: Slow things down, No phones, no computers, no blogging. Close up those conversations and give your eyes a break from all the light.

3. Cleaning Yourself: Muslims have a concept called Wudu, or ablution. We rinse our body before prayers in an act of purification. It consists of a few steps which we can go over another time, as a practice it's very refreshing and a lot like having a nighttime face wash routine. You may want to add this one after brushing your teeth. Think of it like this, you’re washing the grime of your day before bed.

4. Setting the bed, our beds are left out to the elements all day. Dusting your bed is generally a good practice as a clean cool bed is always nice to lay in. Our beds are often covered in dust so a little dusting before laying down is a good practice.

5. Darkening the room. Your body responds to light! So less light dark as possible

6. Clearing your mind. Easy to say, harder to do. If you are the type that gets lost in the silence in your thoughts, this tip is important. One thing is for sure is to sleep with a clean heart. By that it means yes you may reflect but not ruminate. Leave the regrets and forgive yourself and the world before you close your eyes. The day is over, tomorrow is a new one. Leave today’s woes to today, tackle tomorrow with a fresh new you. Another tip that helps is making a list. Don’t think too much into it, just write whatever is lingering in your mind, bullet form, handwritten! Then take that paper and put it away, leave it for tomorrow, now is bedtime.

7. Sleeping positions matter, when you're laying down you want to be comfortable and in a position that's good for blood flow. Sleep on your right side.Go into a semi-fetal like position and start catching your Zs. When your knees are tucked towards the chest with the hands pulled in. The slight curve of the spine in this position relieves pressure and stress on the back. Side sleeping also improves breathing, people who suffer from sleep apnea, breathe better when sleeping on their side. Sleeping on your left side or on your stomach can add unnecessary pressure on your heart and lungs. Sleeping your stomach reduces oxygen intake and may help you sleep faster because you’re actively constricting your breathing but it's not good for you overall. On the other hand, one study concluded sleeping on the right side improved blood flow and improved blood pressure for people who suffer from hypertension.

As a side note, If you have a hectic schedule or long hours. Take Naps. If you are feeling groggy or just need a little time to yourself. Take a 10-20 minute nap. This duration is safe since it will not leave you feeling drowsy when you wake up.

Sleep is an essential need for everyone. About 1 in 3 adults — and even more adolescents — don’t get enough sleep, which can affect their health and well-being. Lack of sleep or poor sleep, can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and dementia. Building a good sleep routine now can prevent all these things.

Thank You for Reading and Hope to hear from you all soon!

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