[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]

Music & the Brain: Choosing the Right Playlist

💥🗞️Hot off the press!!

If you have any interest in improving your sleep👋, listen to this:

🎶 A brand new study found that listening to music for 30 minutes before bedtime may improve sleep:

Participants downloaded an app called *Music Star* and listened to music for at least 30 minutes at bedtime for 4 weeks.

👉 They experienced better sleep quality and longer sleep than people not listening to music.

The Music Star app is designed as a multicolored star, with each corner of the star linking to a different tempo of music:

🔵 Blue playlists are the quietest

🟢 Green playlists are more lively

🔴 Red playlists are the most upbeat

⚪ Gray playlists are more for focus

So, if you’re trying out new ideas for a bedtime routine, maybe you could think about adding music to the mix 🎶

Know a friend who might want to hear this? Tag 3 people in the comments to share ⤵️

P.S. For the detail-oriented: The study was called MUSTAFI: Music to Improve Sleep Quality in Adults with Depression & Insomnia. It was presented in March at The European Psychiatric Association 2023 Congress.

Foods to Help You Sleep 🍒

✨ Foods that help you sleep ✨

I don’t recommend eating right before bed. It can disrupt digestion, slow your metabolism, and contribute to weight gain.

But if you find yourself feeling hungry early in the evening and want a snack that will support better sleep, here are some backed by science:

🥜Foods high in magnesium (to calm the nervous system):

Oats

Almonds

Cashews

Chia Seeds

🥣 Foods containing tryptophan (to make serotonin):

Pistachios

Sesame Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

Cottage Cheese

🍒 Foods that support melatonin production:

Kiwis

Oranges

Bananas

Pineapples

Tart Cherry Juice

Do you have a favorite evening snack? Let me know in the comments! ⤵️

5 Things that Sabotage Sleep 💤

🚫 Stop doing these things if you want better sleep 🚫

Who doesn’t want better sleep? It’s the key to more energy, weight loss, mental clarity, and just feeling GOOD. 

Check your habits first. Do you do any of these 5 things that could be secretly ruining your sleep?

❌ Alcohol. Even though alcohol initially calms the nervous system, it disrupts the normal phases of the sleep cycle as it wears off during the night. 

❌ Sugar. Eating sweets and refined carbohydrates causes blood sugar fluctuations that disrupt sleep.

❌ Late-day caffeine. It can take up to 10 hours for caffeine to completely clear from your system, so pay attention to when you drink that last sip of coffee.

❌Sitting around. Movement and exercise are key to healthy hormones, a regulated internal clock, and quality sleep. 

❌ Nighttime Screens. The blue light that emits from your phone, tablet, or TV  interferes with your natural production of melatonin, the hormone needed for sleep.

Before you grab a pill (even something natural), take a look at these habits and see if you notice better sleep when you stop them. 

If you found this helpful, leave me your favorite emoji in the comments!