[New Study] Sleep, Stress, & Anxiety

👋 Raise your hand if you want more resilience to stress!

Less anxiety?

Yes please 🤚

New research shows that one way to achieve these things is simply by getting BETTER SLEEP.

The study looked at data from 1600 healthy adults during 2020 (an anxious time for lots of people!). Most of the participants were women.

They found that both positive coping strategies and higher quality sleep made people more resilient to stress and anxiety—independently, meaning each of these things work on their own.

Need some tips & motivation for better sleep?

✅ Keep the room cool

✅ Turn off screens in the evening

✅ Commit to a calming routine

✅ Cut off caffeine in the afternoon

✅ Get exercise during the day!

We have lots of tools in our functional medicine toolbox to help with stress, anxiety, & sleep.

Like if you found this helpful ❤️

Reference

Sullivan EC, James E, Henderson LM, McCall C, Cairney SA. The influence of emotion regulation strategies and sleep quality on depression and anxiety [published online ahead of print, 2023 Jun 21]. Cortex. 2023;166:286-305. [link]

🦉Night-Owl Guys? Open Up.

🦉 Any night-owl guys out there?

If you think you don’t need sleep 😴, you’re fooling yourself.

Here’s a partial list of ways that sleep affects men’s health & hormones:

✔️ Good sleep is needed for the release of growth hormone, which is needed to build muscle, decrease body fat, and maintain brain health.

✔️ A study of more than 2000 men in the United States found impaired sleep to be linked to lower testosterone levels.

✔️ Sleeping less than 5 hours per night has been linked to a 10% - 15% decrease in testosterone levels.

✔️ Sleep is essential for maintaining healthy blood sugar levels and maintaining a healthy weight.

I know that sleep is a real challenge for some people (we have strategies to fix that!), but if cutting your sleep short is a conscious choice you are making, you might want to reconsider.

References

Patel P, Shiff B, Kohn TP, Ramasamy R. Impaired sleep is associated with low testosterone in US adult males: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. World J Urol. 2019;37(7):1449-1453. [link]

Leproult R, Van Cauter E. Effect of 1 week of sleep restriction on testosterone levels in young healthy men. JAMA. 2011;305(21):2173-2174. [link]

Super Simple Sleep Hack 💤

Did you know this?👇

🙏🙏Gratitude improves sleep🙏🙏

Backed by research ✅

Massive benefits ✅

Easy to do ✅

One thing I love to do is a simple gratitude journal. You can do this any time of day, but if you’re the type that needs a little more help winding down at night, do it right before bed.

✏️ It’s as easy as writing down 3 things you feel grateful for today.

Done and done.

It may just improve your sleep 💤

Which will have a domino effect into the rest of your life—with better energy, mood, focus, performance, metabolism, and more.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments ⤵️

Want optimal brain health? Don’t skip this.

Fun fact! 

Sleep doesn’t only give you energy, boost your metabolism, and help with weight loss…

🔥 Sleep is essential for neuroplasticity 🔥

Neuro what? (you may be asking)

Neuroplasticity means that our brain cells have the ability to reorganize and create new connections—like rewiring. 

It’s how people recover function after a stroke or a traumatic brain injury, and it’s also how we train the brain for optimal function as we age 🧠

Research shows that during sleep, microglia become active in the brain, repairing damage, making new connections, and supporting neuroplasticity. 

💫Pretty awesome if you ask me. 

Are you interested in optimizing your brain function as you age? 

👉Just remember that sleep should be part of the strategy. 

If you learned something from this post, be sure to like ❤️ and follow for more! 

When Worry Gets in the Way of Sleep...

Too anxious to sleep?

People struggle with sleep for all different reasons, but if you’re one who can’t stop the thoughts and the worries, this post is for you.

💞 If this is you, let me know in the comments 💞

Here’s the thing:

Our minds respond to PHYSICAL inputs (like nutrients & foods) and also MENTAL inputs (like journaling, taking a bath, or other bedtime routines).

I love *chamomile tea* because it sends the body both of these types of signals.

✅ Chamomile has long been used in herbal traditions to calm the nervous system and support relaxation.

✅ Taking the time to sit and sip a cup of tea sends a message to the brain that it’s time to transition to calm.

Chamomile is generally safe except in the case of allergies. It’s in the same plant family as ragweed, which is a common allergen so be aware.

What do you think? Will you try it?