Sleep: why and how
SLEEP IS A NON-NEGOTIABLE
Ranked higher than diet, healthy sleep is THE thing that the body needs for staying healthy and, even more importantly, in healing.
Not sleeping, and sleep disorders, as studied copiously through night shift workers, is considered carcinogenic. Lack of circadian rhythm and not sleeping leads to:
1. Increase in circulating glucose
2. Increase in circulating insulin
3. Increase in mean arterial pressure
4. Increase in cortisol
5. Increased inflammation
6. Increased levels of Grehlin, decreased levels of leptin = increased appetite and increased visceral fat
Paradoxically, and for various reasons, sleep is something most in the chronic illness arena who are trying to heal simply cannot achieve. There are, however, so many spaces in between sleeping well and a diagnosed sleep pathology. Achieving sleep can be addressed with simple lifestyle changes, or a ridiculously complex house of cards that are far from being considered a medical condition.
What we’ll look at in this blog is what some people call Terraine Medicine. What is the environment from which issues stem? How do we change the terrain of our body and/or environment in order to achieve health and healing? With sleep, and most people, it is many things combined. However, addressing only people with pathological diagnoses sets us up for failure.
Because chronic issues, if not addressed, lead to pathological diagnoses.
My goal here is to create awareness and stop dysfunction before it gets too far gone. We can reclaim sleep at the early stages so the body can heal faster. The following will teach you how to relieve as much of the body burden as possible because many people find resolution to symptoms and labels in very basic approaches.
You just have to be willing to make changes and ask yourself how important is my health?
Let’s first qualify what a good night’s sleep includes:
1) Falling asleep easily but not as soon as your head hits the pillow
2) Sleeping through the night without waking
3) Waking up in the morning feeling rested and refreshed
Curious as to whether or not your sleep is worthy. The following questions is a beginner guide for you and your practitioner towards the cause of your sleep issues.
ask yourself these questions:
Are you satisfied with your sleep?
Do you feel rested in the morning?
Do you stay awake all day without dozing?
Do you fall asleep in less than 30 minutes?
Do you sleep between 6 and 8 hours per night?
Do you have a regular bedtime? If so, when?
Do you have a regular wake time? If so, when?
Do you wake in the middle of the night? If so, is there a regular waking time and how long are you awake?
Are you asleep (or trying to sleep) between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.?
Do you currently have any practices that enhance the quality of your sleep?
What have you tried (habits, supplements, etc.) to remedy sleep troubles in the past?
What (if any) electronics are in your room at nighttime?
On a scale of 1–10, how dark is your bedroom?
Do you consume any stimulants during the day? If so, when?
How would you most generally categorize your sleep troubles: MIND (racing, working, etc.), BODY (pain, discomfort, etc.), or SPIRIT (depression, anxiety, etc.)
In the same way that sleep itself is a non-negotiable, there are multiple things to consider when fine tuning your sleep situation. These non-negotiables of sleep, if you will, on how to prepare yourself and your environment will set up a foundation for success and must be done prior to anything else – supplements, pharmaceuticals, other.
Non-Negotiables of Sleep
Sanctuary – The bedroom is a place for sleep, rest and sex. No TV, No gaming, No work, No arguing.
Pitch Black – The bedroom should be as dark as possible. Black out shades or sleep masks.
Unplug – Use as few literal plugs as possible in the bedroom and unplug anything within 6 feet of your head. Turn your cellphone on airplane mode and wifi off. No glowing lights interrupting the pitch black-use electrical tape if necessary. Unplug your household wifi router at night before bed.
No Glow – From an evolutionary standpoint, the body expects fire like colors or warmer colors closer to bedtime. Try a red lightbulb in the bathroom or hall if you need one for yourself or children. Avoid blue light from phones, tvs or computers at minimum 30 minutes before bed. Try f.lux app or blue blocking glasses if you absolutely must be in front of a device.
Catch the Wave! – When the body follows its natural circadian rhythm, cortisol levels (discussed below) are decreasing and closest to their lowest point between 9pm-10pm for most people. You want to definitely be falling asleep when this hormone is at it’s lowest before it begins to tick back up. In ayurvedic medicine 6pm-10pm is Kapha time and more about slowing down. 10pm is Pitta time when you get things done. So, if you aren’t in bed before that, the body tries to do more. In terms of hormones, the cortisol is most likely amping back up around this time as well. Sticking to a regular bedtime also trains, nurtures and creates routine, thereby safety, for the body. Routine, in its opposite of chaos, is a large step towards healing.
Calm Down — Any restful activity that institutes a relaxation state. Reading, meditation, prayer, journaling, listening to music, talking and even watching something funny or good hormone building on tv (as long as using blue blockers).
Rest and Digest — The amount of food, type of food and time of food will be different for each person based on their issues. But, in general, don’t go to bed with a full belly. Food should be consumed about 2 hours or more before you intend to sleep. Digestion is stress on our body.
Temperature – The cooler the space, the better the rest. Cooler probably than you think. 50-60 degrees.
To reiterate, everything above are non-negotiables and supported by an exceptional amount of research at this point. Do these first and see how sleep enhances. Then, and only then, do we look for alternate things to address. Take the time to consider patterns, habits and choices in your healing. Sometimes the simplest things make huge impacts.
BLOOD SUGAR DYSREGULATION & SLEEP
Blood sugar regulation is another non-negotiable in healing, second to sleep. The reason for this is that blood sugar dysregulation disrupts hormones which leads to a cascade of issues. Sleep issues being a large one which can then lead to elimination issues (the third non-negotiable in healing - pooping every day).
If you haven’t noticed, all things affect all things.
In general, blood sugar dysregulation affects sleep because your blood sugar is directly tied to cortisol. Cortisol is your body’s main stress hormone and active when you are in fight or flight. When your blood sugar drops, cortisol spikes to bring it back into balance putting you automatically into fight or flight.
Symptoms of blood sugar drops: cold, internal jittery, outward shaking, ‘hangry’, anxiousness, irritability, brain fog, sweating, hungry to intense hunger, heart palpitations, sluggishness.
Conversely, when you are in fight or flight, and cortisol is high, blood sugar spikes to prepare your body to literally fight or flee the situation. As an FYI, driving in traffic can shift our physiological body into high blood sugar fight or flight.
Coffee, or any type of caffeine, also stimulates cortisol putting the body into fight or flight, elevating blood sugar – even drinking it black with no sugar or dairy.
If your pattern is to eat sugar and or caffeine for breakfast (spiking blood sugar) another caffeinated drink in the afternoon when you have ‘the slump’, wait 6 hours in between lunch and dinner without having enough fiber, protein and fat to sustain the system, or fasting when the body is already under stress, all can trigger an increase in cortisol.
Basically, how our blood sugar behaves from breakfast determines our sleep at night.
This up and down in cortisol from stressful situations and/or blood sugar from eating habits, sets the body up for a pattern of up and down, up and down all day long. This dysregulation follows you into the night waking you up when your blood sugar drops and cortisol rises. The body now believes it’s in danger. Wake up and deal with this!
Since cortisol is our get up and go hormone, preparing us to literally fight or flee, it’s very hard to tame this once it has spiked in the middle of the night. Balancing blood sugar proactively during the day is the best way to begin to balance hormones. Blood sugar directly affects stress hormones which directly affect sex hormones. Hello early or extremely difficult menopause…
there are other factors that increase cortisol levels:
1. Bright light – why our sanctuary needs to be pitch black with no blue light before sleep
2. Danger – why we need to do calming and peaceful activities before bed and consistently tune in during the day with an awareness of getting our bodies always back into rest, digest, release and repair. Nervous system work. Even if we aren’t physically partaking in anything scary, watching suspenseful or scary shows on tv, is basically the same hormonally as if we were literally experiencing them.
3. Intermittent Fasting – this is wonderful in an ideal environment, when the person practicing it isn’t in a heightened sympathetic state or in what is called HPA Axis dysfunction (hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal axis dysfunction) or adrenal fatigue if you have heard of that. Most people with chronic illness/issues are in a state of HPA axis dysfunction and why balancing blood sugar is critical which means eating 3 or more meals a day until the body is stabilized.
Heal before Ideal.
It’s also worth mentioning that people who are Type 1 (autoimmune) Diabetics, Type 2 (diet/lifestyle) Diabetics or Insulin Resistant, have sugar in their tissues. At this point, regulating blood sugar in order to honor circadian rhythms and cortisol levels becomes dire.
If you are only eating sugar and things that break down into sugar, let’s consider this a fast train, it going so fast through the body, it’s going to derail and you will tank. If you eat protein, fat and fiber, let’s consider this a slow train, it’s going to take its time working through the body. If sugar is a part of the PFF combination, it’s also going to be slowed down to a point that the body can handle it a little better instead of spiking and dropping. A fast train can’t go faster than the slow train in front of it. Sugar behind PFF. More accurately a protein, fat and fiber forward diet.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE SLEEP THAT MAKES SLEEP SO IMPORTANT?
Your sleep is your me time. It creates the foundational aspects of anyone’s health because it is the restoration and resilience at the core of sleeping that we need to benefit from. Sleep gives us the ability to take the insults we are exposed to and right ourselves - whether environmental, internal or relational.
For every hour before midnight that you are asleep, there is a 2:1 ratio for what the body is capable of detoxing and healing. You get double the benefit!
The following four things that happen when you sleep influence every factor of your life:
Energy productions
Neuronal support
Immune modulation
Biotransformation boosting aka Detoxification
Energy Production - Nutrition isn’t just about the food we eat it’s about everything that supports growth and repair. When we sleep, we are in a parasympathetic state. As mentioned above, this is our rest, digest, repair and release. In short, if we aren’t in this state the majority of our day, we aren’t digesting our food, absorbing the nutrients from our food or supplements, our tissues aren’t healing and we aren’t able to release our bowels or for that matter emotions or muscles. We aren’t modulating our cortisol patterns and are therefore in a constant state of inflammation.
Neuronal Support – Neurons are nerve cells, fundamentals of the brain and nervous system. Nerve cell function, our brain waste clearance, cognition, impulse control all depend on sleep. Instead of amygdala function which is what we get with poor sleep (fight or flight mode/reactive, knee jerk reactions), we enter prefrontal cortex function with deep 8 hours (rest and digest mode/conscious, grounded decision making, the ability to stop a reaction).
Immune Modulation – Clearly, we are striving for a balanced immune system. And sleep releases anti-inflammatory cytokines, lowering overactivity of the immune system which is our state when we have autoimmunity. Loss of sleep, and disrupted sleep, enhances proinflammatory cytokines and impacts our natural killer cell production making us more prone and susceptible to cancer growth and viral infections. Sleep supports natural killer cell production and our pituitary’s release of growth hormone which promotes tissue repair. There is a definitive cross talk between our sleep quality and our immune system. This is also bidirectional. So, sometimes our immune system gets thrown off which ultimately affects sleep.
Biotransformation/Detoxification - Sleep is supporting brain detoxification. The space between the cells increases and allows more toxins to release more quickly in the Glymphatic system (the brain’s lymphatic/drainage system).
OTHER FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT SLEEP
COMP – This is a gene that plays a role in poor metabolizing of hormones and neurotransmitters which can keep the body in a chronic state of fight or flight.
Magnesium Deficiency
Sedentary Lifestyle - stagnation in the lymphatic system has links to poor sleep.
Mouth breathing – more common than not, mouth breathing keeps you in a state of fight or flight. See mouth taping below.
High Homocysteine Levels – this is an inflammatory marker in the blood.
Macular degeneration – aging eyes, inflammation in the eyes, any surgery on the eyes, including corrective eye surgery, or blindness decreases your susceptivity to circadian rhythm bc the pineal gland isn’t receiving light as fluidly as it would in healthy eyes. The pineal gland is what releases melatonin based on your light consumption through the optic nerve which then produces a healthy or unhealthy circadian rhythm. Light in the mornings begins the circadian rhythm, no light at night is what creates melatonin. Light at night inhibits melatonin production. But you have to receive light in the morning in order for your circadian rhythm to be balanced.
Low Melatonin – Melatonin, while released by the Pineal gland in the brain, is also synthesized in the gut. There is 400x more melatonin in the gut than there is in the brain. For this reason, you need a healthy gut to have healthy melatonin levels. Melatonin is also an anti-inflammatory for the body and brain. When it is low, it can be a sign of inflammation as the body sends all its resources to quell the fire.
Trauma – Daily stress of being a caregiver, history of or current abuse, ACE (adverse childhood experiences), unresolved emotions.
Gut Health – this can be a trigger bc melatonin levels in the GI Tract are depleted. Infection creating high inflammatory markers or infestation of parasites all thrive at night disrupting the nervous system. Many issues like snoring, grinding teeth, sleep apnea can be traced back to gut issues. Once they are resolved, the downstream issues are resolved.
High Sugar Diets – discussed in depth above.
Histamine Spikes – Histamine intolerance and mast cells, which cause spikes of histamine, something very prominent in those with chronic illness and autoimmunity, play a role in circadian rhythm as there are histamine receptors in the brain. Similar to blood sugar, if histamine is spiking and dropping all day long, that pattern will continue through the night and cause waking. High histamine is also inflammatory in and of itself affecting GABA and Serotonin levels both which create calm and happiness in the body.
Nighttime Heartburn – We need to have adequate levels of acid in the stomach in order to not have heartburn. Overpopulation of pathogenic bacteria, exacerbating low stomach acid, thereby heartburn, is linked to sleeplessness. Yes, low stomach acid is what causes heartburn.
Food Irritants – sensitivities to certain foods or literally allergies to certain foods can drive sleeplessness.
Gaba Deficiency – GABA is a neurotransmitter required for sleep and produced in the gut. Constipation or stagnation/inflammation in the gut can interrupt production as well as point to liver challenges and estrogen dominance. Both of these by themselves create sleep disruption and further elevation in cortisol which exacerbates the problem. Parasites also snack on your neurotransmitters and they eat first.
Pain – Obviously if you are in pain, sleep will be hard to achieve. Conversely, sleeplessness is also linked to pain because pain regulation areas in the brain also regulate sleep.
Vitamin D Deficiency – Vitamin D deficiency is a sure sign that the body is inflamed and usually an indicator of chronic illness/autoimmunity. This deficiency is related to increased sleep dysregulation and poor-quality sleep. Vitamin D actually impacts B vitamins production in the microbiome. Deficiency in D doesn’t allow you to be in a state of rest and digest.
Hormonal Imbalance – Hormones can be dysregulated due to toxic exposures and other factors such as gut health and stress.
Drainage Dysfunction – The body’s inability to rid itself of toxins, or stagnant lymp, is enough to compromise sleep.
Heavy Metal Toxicity – Some metals like cadmium are very stimulating and as the body tries to detox while we sleep, those metals can be mobilized in an attempt to get them out. This process disrupts sleep as the metals are flowing through the body to be detoxed instead of being stored.
High Chemical Load - Your body burden of chemicals like glyphosate can agitate you awake.
EMOTIONS
It would be remiss not to bring more attention to emotions outside of the one line labeled ‘trauma’ above.
Emotions are produced, experienced and stored in the body. This makes them very difficult to avoid when going to sleep and makes for a direct throughline when looking at chronic illness, cancer, autoimmunity, etc.
So how do you become present with your nervous system so that you can sleep? Questions that are worth asking: Are you in alignment with your life choices, in your relationships, in your work? Do you have the capacity to address these things? Do you have the capacity to hold boundaries and reclaim your vision for your life? Basically, do you have the energy, health and strength to deal with what is 200 feet in front of you or the stamina to work through the next few thousand feet?
Even if things aren’t conscious to you, the subtle body absorbs these misalignments and creates dysfunction in our physiology. Aligning with your answers to these questions, not in denial, is how best the body moves back into a state of balance. While figuring things out, relaxation techniques, all day, not just before bed, help shift the body into the parasympathetic state of rest, digest, release, repair, receive. Examples of this would be EFT or tapping, grounding exercises, breathwork, gentle exercises, eating well, gratitude, screaming into a pillow, etc. It’s all about processing through things and then processing them out. We have to feel it to heal it.
THE PINEAL GLAND & MELATONIN
Shaped like a pine cone, and named for such, yet smaller than a gain of rice, this organ sits at the cross hairs in our brain between the center of the top of our head and between our eyebrows. It is the organ associated with our ‘third eye’ and is involved in our circadian rhythm, influences reproductive rhythms in animals who mate seasonally and since the beginning of man, has also been known as the seat of consciousness.
Researchers know that in addition to melatonin, a main hormone related to sleep, the pineal gland also produces DMT, a neurotransmitter in the brain released upon dying, dreaming and extreme happiness or self- actualization. DMT can be found in nature and used as a psychedelic in ceremonies such as ayahuasca by the Amazonian Shamans for the sole purpose of healing.
The pineal gland is hugely important for both sleep and the repair of our body, mind and spirit if you follow the science and the mysticism of our being.
Melatonin is produced in the first three hours of sleep. The darker the room, the more melatonin the body outputs. You can also drink some unsweetened, organic Montmorency Cherry Juice, 1oz. in 8oz. filtered water, to help boost levels. Any foods with tryptophan, the precursor to melatonin, is also good to consume.
Like everything in the body, we want a balanced amount of this hormone as it is an anti-inflammatory and a high potency antioxidant. Melatonin boosts the production of immune components including natural killer cells which have the capacity to target metastasized cancer cells. Low levels correlate to chronic illness and cancer, particularly breast cancer. So much so, that very high dose melatonin supplementation is used in integrative therapies for not only breast cancer but for many types of cancer.
Your circadian rhythm, or the body’s rhythm according to the earth’s rhythm, has to be working in sync to be secreting melatonin. Circadian rhythm alone is a significant predictor of survival time for breast cancer patients.
Melatonin stores decrease as we age. Nightly supplementation at bedtime at a dose of 1mg-3mg is recommended with cancer dosages ranging between 3mg-50mg.
Both the pineal gland and melatonin are anti-aging, disease fighting, stress relieving and cycle regulating.
When this organ is working well, most likely the rest of the body is too. Tapping, humming, toning all stimulate the pineal gland as it reacts to any type of vibration, cadence or rhythm which is find ironic as it sets our own body’s rhythm. Get plenty of daylight during the day and limit blue light from a screen at night and any light in the bedroom while sleeping. Don’t turn on your phone or the tv if you wake up in the middle of the night to pass the time. You’re sending your optic nerve light, which stops melatonin production.
Other things that inhibit melatonin production and stimulate the body (double whammy)
NSAIDS (ibuprofen). Zyflamend is an alternative or curcumin
Large doses of B12. Even if you have pernicious anemia, don’t go overboard.
Interestingly, B12 acts on the pineal gland and provokes a faster release of melatonin. However, on the tail end of this, B12 allows melatonin to drop off faster.
Caffeine at any point during the day
Steroid drugs
Alcohol
Fluoride – Fluoride calcifies the pineal gland. Filter your water with an additional fluoride filter or you can distill water. This helps your thyroid gland significantly too!
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS (EMFs) & SLEEP
At this point in our culture, we have normalized devices such as TVs, iPhones, iPads, computers in every room of our home. How many wireless devices do you have? The wireless router, anything that needs a wireless signal, or is giving off a wireless signal, is constantly spraying out EMFs to shake hands and make that connection so the wifi works.
Our health is the collateral damage of this ‘spray’ as these EMFs adversely affect our natural melatonin production and propel yeast growth in our bodies at six hundred times its normal rate.
The pineal gland and our bodies don’t discriminate between natural and man-made energy fields. This is why unplugging wifi routers at night or anything plugged in within 6 feet of your body should be unhooked. Remove Apple watches (to track your sleep-the irony). Aura rings can turn off Bluetooth and still have it collect data. Simply plug it in to retrieve the data in the morning.
Before you chock this up to voodoo science, know that there is a particularly strong amount of research on how these wavelengths are affecting our biofield as every cell in our body is negatively and positively charged. Any frequency that far exceeds the earth’s frequency of 7.83 Hz, disrupts our body’s natural rhythm.
Anything with Bluetooth or blue light, which is anything usually with wifi/EMF, the pineal gland also sees as a fluorescent light and will turn off melatonin production for 5-6 hours after you have that exposure. Even candles are off gassing toxins. At night, turn on your salt lamps, use blue blocking glasses if being on a screen is necessary or at the very least incandescent low wattage bulbs for your lighting.
MOUTH BREATHING
Literally breathing through the mouth instead of the nose can be an extreme detriment to your sleep and your overall health. There is no such thing as a healthy mouth breather. It increases cardiovascular disease, immune response, dry mouth which by itself leads to bad breath and cavities and increases the risk of ear and throat infections. It activates your body’s fight or flight response and translates to sleep disorders and snoring.
Snoring is a large indicator that you are mouth breathing.
Mouth breathing affects the bone structure of our faces which leads to sleep apnea and other issues. It’s worth mentioning that sleep apnea is also caused by gut issues and conversely from braces creating a narrower face, not solely from mouth breathing.
Mouth breathing restricts blood flow and therefore our mental health. It creates excess histamine in the body and an excess intake of CO2. These changes take place in under 30 minutes of mouth breathing.
Healthy breath through the nose sets you up for a healthy nasal microbiome. Similar to every surface of your body, the good or pathogenic bugs in your nose and back of throat are determined by whether or not you breathe through your nose or mouth. Breathing through your nose also gives you the added benefit of nitric oxide assisting with lower blood pressure and serenity.
Mouth taping can be used to see if the nasal passageways can be trained to work again. This is literally what it sounds like. You tape your mouth shut before bed with a low adhesive tape. It isn’t a cure all but if the taping works your health is better for it. This is especially beneficial if wearing a C-PAP because the machine isn’t working unless breathing through your nose. Mouth taping won’t cure sleep apnea but it will point out if you have a narrow airway.
If the tape stays on, you can breathe and you feel better, then you can officially nose breathe and maybe you just need a bit more specialty therapy to help this process along.
If the taping doesn’t work, then there is a more severe issue that needs to be addressed and you should see an ENT. Possible deviated septum that needs to be corrected or expansion of the maxillary area or other.
Mouth taping can be an interesting and inexpensive way of actually treating yourself or a way to learn more about what is going on in your body.
YOUR SLEEP HYGEINE CHECKLIST
Resolve Root Cause Issues (first and foremost)
Night grinding, sleep apnea, choking on your tongue, needing nightguards, snoring, etc. These all are symptoms of gut issues that need to be addressed
Fatigued all day but sleep ‘fine’. Who can’t rest and compensate with alcohol, this is a sign of deeper issues.
Heavy metals disrupt sleep
If you lay down at night and your symptoms kick back up, this is a sign of deeper issues.
Follow Non-Negotiables of Sleep 1-8 listed above while working on root causes
Consistency/Routine is Key
Go to bed at the same time every night
Eat your last meal 2 hours before going to sleep. 4 hours if dealing with health issues.
A caveat to this is if there are blood sugar issues.
Stay away from alcohol
Showering at night can discharge your nervous system and be a signal to your circadian rhythm
Surround yourself with warm colored light. Wear blue blockers if watching a screen.
Turn off Wifi in the house and unplug anything in your room before sleeping.
Use a sleep mask or black out curtains
Tell your nervous system it’s safe by thinking of three things for which you are grateful.
WHAT does NOT BELONG IN THE BEDROOM
Stimulating light bulbs-LED, CFL, smart bulbs, etc.
Exercise equipment
Piles of stuff or projects
Anything work related – need to tell the body it’s a safe space to rest
Stimulating colors or images
Rugs, carpets, or anything collecting dust, dust mites, or mold. Most are made with plastic fibers and are off gassing. Bare hardwood floors are best.
Smart devices – alexa, blue tooth/wifi, climate control, smart TVs, etc.
Electronics – if it plugs in, it’s stimulating.
Electronic beds – unplug this at best. This is 20-30 unnecessary volts all night.
Metal beds – this disrupts/amplifies the body’s voltage.
Personal devices – phones (landlines or cell), iPads, laptops, wearables like apple watches, etc. Especially if they are ON and emitting signals.
DEVICES TO ASSIST WITH SLEEP & NIGHTLY CALM
Sperti.com – Vitamin D Lamp
CESUltra.com – Nervous System Recalibration (Runs on battery. No EMF concern)
LiveEMFSafe.com – Body Voltage Kit
ConsciousSpaces.com – Sleep Canopy
TrueDark.com – Blue Light Blocking Glasses
JustGetFlux.com – Downloadable Program for Blue Light Screens
SwissDreamBeds.com – Natural Wood and Fabric Beds
AustinAir.com – Air Filter
Organic Linens – Formaldehyde can cause insomnia
HiTechAirReactor.com – can be used in combination with an air filter.
O3WaterWorks.com – Ozonated Laundry System to rid chemicals from sheets. This does not replace organic linens.
SLEEP Support supplements
Lifewave.com – Silent Nights Patch
This is a signaling patch which is great for travel. You can wear it for a few days to a week.
Wear it during the day as well to help calm the body. This is a great product layered with other products but you have to address root causes of sleep issues.
Fullscript.com – Quicksilver Melatonin 20 minutes before bed. Another pump if you wake up.
Melatonin might stimulate. It is a mobilizer to help flush out the brain at night. It might be dislodging toxins like cadmium or other heavy metals.
Grogginess will go away after a few days or weeks.
Melatonin supplementation does NOT compromise your ability to make melatonin.
Zetpil.com – Melatonin Cream 200mg
Fullscript.com -Metabolic Maintenance 500mg Tryptophan
Fullscript.com – Microbiome Labs ZenBiome Sleep
This is a probiotic that helps with sleep
Fullscript.com – Results RNA, Resteva Sleep Extra Strength Spray
Fullscript.com – Metabolic Maintenance, Magnesium Glycinate
Glycine pushes out glyphosate so you should combine this with a binder
Fullscript.com – Sabre Sciences, iMagT Powder which is Magnesium L-Threonate
This crosses the blood brain barrier which helps calm inflammation if there are toxins or infection in the brain.
This is used for chronic neck tension which is most likely infection that needs to be addressed.
This is used for restless leg which is most likely parasites and EMF that need to be addressed.
ActivationProducts.com – Ease Magnesium Spray
NuLeafNaturals.com – Delta 9 CBD
CellCore.com – CT Minerals (copy code: 9xfbkZ0M to order)
It’s possible if your body has been toxic or fighting infection for a long time, your mitochondria are too depleted to sleep. These are bioavailable trace minerals to restore your capacity for rest.
MasterAminoAcidPattern.com – MAP Aminos
These are extremely bioavailable amino acids which the body needs to help heal.
Mitozen.com – Sandman Suppositories
These include melatonin, CBD, Glutathione
Anti-anxiety and anti-inflammatory
Do not take if you are sensitive to Sulphur or glutathione
BioPureUS.com – Liposomal Melatonin
Ipothecarystore.com – Somnium GABA
Applied to backs of ears and goes well with magnesium
Parasites eat your GABA and other neurotransmitters so ultimately need to get rid of parasites for sleep to resolve.
HORMONAL SUPPORT SUPPLEMENTS
Zetpil.com – DHEA Transdermal
Cellcore.com – S-TRO (copy code: 9xfbkZ0M to order)
Fullscript.com – Quicksilver Longevity Elite
*It should be noted that hormones are downstream of other things going on in the body. They are the last to be affected. If hormones are out of balance, more than likely, there are some upstream issues that need to be addressed.
CONCLUSION
You spend 1/3 of your life sleeping so think about what you are breathing and touching and what your nervous system is feeling in this environment. Consider this investment of time, energy and resources to be the best thing you can do for your health.
Some people think that sleep is their only problem therefore there should be one solution. Usually, though, this one problem has been compounded over decades and requires multiple things to breakdown and resolve.
Terraine medicine, as I began this blog, is about balancing our environments both internally and externally for the sake of healing.
When you are rested, it’s much easier to make conscious decisions because your nervous system begins to regulate. You expand into your creative and come into your true, full, authentic self. You might currently feel like you are residing in a space of ‘chop wood, carry water’ ‘chop wood, carry water’. This is all the capacity you have. I get it.
Do what’s cheap or free first by eliminating and then go from there.
Bring a feeling of empowerment to your sleep as there is so much you can do! Start with just one thing.
Resources:
Why is Sleep Important? NIH.gov
The Interrelationship Between Sleep, Diet and Glucose Metabolism
Mechanisms of Association of Sleep on Metabolic Syndrome
Physiology of the Pineal Gland and Melatonin
The human pineal gland and melatonin in aging and Alzheimer’s Disease
Melatonin and Cancer Treatment: Current Knowledge and Future Opportunities
Effect of Long Term Exposure of Mice to 900MGz GSM Radiation
Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna
Effects of chronic fluorosis on the brain
Mouth breathing: Adverse effects on facial growth, health, academics, and behavior
Mouth breathing: Etiology and Effects
The impact of mouth taping in mouth breathers with mild obstructive sleep apnea
Disclaimer: Information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before beginning any diet, supplementation or exercise program. Statements and opinions contained on this website and other related sources (blog and social media platforms) are provided as informative and educational tools only. Whole Body Health & Healing cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy or effectiveness of the information to your unique circumstance.