7 Non-Diet Sleep Habits That Support Your Health

Hola amigos! Welcome back!

Want more energy? Instead of another crazy diet, tune in to learn more about sleep hygiene.

Highlights of this episode:

• Getting More Energy
• Hormones Affected by Sleep
• Sleep and Body Weight
• Sleep Cycles
• Habits to Improve Sleep

Announcements:

• Listener Feedback Survey is still open!  Click here to give your feedback.  Four lucky participants will be randomly selected to receive a $25 gift card to Amazon.com!
• David’s book releases next year. It focuses on real clients, heroes and sheroes, that took one small bite towards their health that improved energy, mood, or  sleep. The website has a sign-up sheet to launch a feedback group prior to publishing!

Episode Description: 

The human body evolution has created a system that helps us avoid starvation. We have a system that safeguards us from starvation. Another system keeps us awake, to look for food.
When we start dieting, we are creating a starvation state, when we are dieting, you end up creating a caloric deficit, and that caloric deficit starts creating a cascade of certain neurological and physiological functions. That tell your body that there is some sort of threat and it needs to do something.

Now, when there is a perceived threat, the body creates a stress response and that increases cortisol. Excitable neuropeptides and hormones are designed to help us liberate and use energy as much as possible to deal with the proposed threat. We have some great systems that are ready, but in many instances throughout our days, we are not really being chased by a lion or a bear or a saber tooth tiger. No, what we’re dealing in regards to stress are everyday chronic forms of stress like depression, loneliness, frustration, anger, or some form of stress that happens in our day to day.

In the meantime, probably we end up going on some kind of diet. Inadvertently that starvation creates that stress response. The limited food causes the liver and muscles to release energy for us.
A lot of people actually talk about when they first diet -they get an increase release of energy and endorphins. That doesn’t last very long though, because again, the threat is not designed to last long.

So, the body then has to adjust by lowering your metabolism, then you have a low energy system. So then over time, the benefit of the weight loss that you might gain from doing a diet is lost by the long-term effects of slowed metabolism.

[07:20] Sleep and Energy Levels

Sleep throughout the night help manage of hormones. The hunger hormone, ghrelin increases when we get less sleep, therefore, greater senses of hunger. Also, if you are not getting a lot of food, this may decrease your sleep. Then a lack of that sleep allows you to look for more food. That’s our prehistoric bodies doing its job. There is also a reduction in leptin, the satiety or fullness hormone.

A study called “Feeding the Heat on Brown Fat,” which comes from the annals of the New York academy of sciences journal. This was a review that looked at the fat burning mechanisms that are turned on by a neuropeptide hormone called orexin. Orexin is essentially produced in the hypothalamus of the brain. When there is a deficiency of orexin, there’s an increase in a person’s weight gain. This review study found was that there was a relationship with the production of orexin and brown fat. Orexin is a hormone neuropeptide that signals the body or the brain to burn fat so that we get a heat production, and get increased heat.

Therefore, that orexin allows us to use more energy. Interestingly, it is only well-produced when people are not starving. Think about what I mentioned a little while ago. If we go on a calorie restriction or a time restriction type of diet, what ends up happening is that we end up decreasing the amount of orexin. We also increase the likelihood of being awake or being, looking for food. We ended up increasing our hunger hormone. Therefore, what ends up happening is that the body then doesn’t have the ability to break down that fat to produce heat or energy.

[11:30] Sleep Cycles

The lack of sleep produces a cascade of different functions that inhibit our body’s natural ability to use energy efficiently and have energy during the day. We have two major phases in our sleep cycle, especially when we’re adults. The first phase of sleep, if we’re looking at eight hours, the first phase, the first four hours of sleep are generally more of the deep sleep. Less dreams. The second half or second phase of sleep is what we term as more of the dream state of sleep, less deep sleep.

When we start waking up, the body then releases sugar into the blood to give us a little bit of energy. So, we can go and hunt for food (hence breakfast). And therefore, we end up utilizing our body’s natural systems. When we either don’t get enough of sleep or when we get poor quality of sleep, is that we end up disrupting either the first phase or the second phase. And what ends up happening is that it disrupts the signaling of those hormones, like orexin, insulin, glucagon, ghrelin, and leptin. Then, the body is then incapable of managing the ability to use energy efficiently and therefore we probably get tired during the day.

Even though we don’t eat a lot of food, we can still gain weight with less sleep. The body has to slow down to conserve energy for the body functions, and to conserve energy, our body becomes much more efficient at storing fat. So many people tell say, “I don’t eat a lot” And this is where that weight stigma really starts creeping in. Our society tells us that people in large bodies are lazy, slow, and they eat tons of food. And then we watch these shows on TV that sensationalize people in large bodies eating tons of food all day long.

Actually, most clients are not eating enough to support themselves. Orexin, the neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, is actually is related to a high calorie diet-not more than what we need-but the amount enough to produce a greater quantity of orexin, which therefore stimulates the burning of fat to produce heat or energy. So, diets create sacrificing our natural body’s systems of taking care of our body.

[16:25] 7 Non-Diet Sleep Habits That Support Your Health

#1 – No diets work.

There are no diets that are going to help you sleep better. With one exception, and that is the way of eating that works best for you. It’s very important to get enough food throughout the day so that your body naturally does its bodily functions. Another thing that’s really, really important when we reduce our caloric intake. When we don’t consume enough food by doing some kind of diet, some kind of fat loss or fat cutting or high protein or carbohydrate or time restricted or some kind of cockamamie other type diets that are out there. What we end up doing is we sacrifice our metabolism; we sacrifice our body’s ability to utilize energy efficiently. And therefore, that’s when we start seeing more problems with our sleep.

#2 – Alcohol

The problem with alcohol is that alcohol is not a food. Although we consume it as a food, as a drink, and alcohol is also viewed in the body as a poison or a toxin. The body has to expend a good amount of energy to filter that alcohol and to detoxify us. The liver detoxifies alcohol and all the other systems are muted to some extent. The liver converts the alcohol into a sugar right away, and then later on into a fat. And then of course it affects our brain, our function, and that’s why we get drunk or tipsy.

Alcohol may have some good qualities or health qualities, like red wine’s resveratrol, which is the phytonutrient on the grape skin that gives us that heart protective or cardioprotective qualities.
Just a little bit of alcohol goes a long way. Alcohol can easily affect our sleep because it is a suppressant. It depresses our body and it might actually cause us to fall asleep. But, once that alcohol is converted to sugar, it’s released into our bloodstream, then, we’re awake. So, alcohol very easily disrupts our sleep. That usually occurs three to four hours after consuming alcohol. Check out Episode 24 for more on alcohol.

[20:46] #3 – Caffeine

So, I’m not here to tell you, you have to get rid of caffeine altogether. However, caffeine is a drug. It is a stimulant, which means that it over excites the pituitary gland to release more adrenaline. And therefore, you get a peak of that adrenaline, and after that, in about an hour, people then continue consuming more caffeine or coffee or caffeinated beverages.
That creates a dependency. If you suddenly go cold turkey, you will start getting withdrawal headaches. You’ll can get through that withdrawal within about three to four days.
Caffeine peaks at one hour with a half-life or a duration of about eight to 10 hours. Some people have a high resilience to caffeine, but it still excites the pituitary gland.
A lot of people will complain about the difficulties falling asleep, or the difficulties staying asleep, anxiety, and stress. This could be exasperated by the amount of caffeine that we consume.

Research is unclear about caffeine’s effects on health. The problem isn’t so much with a cup or two of morning coffee, but large amounts, energy drinks and caffeine-like derivatives are problematic for good sleep.

[24:20] #4 – Late Eating

Eating late is not problematic in of itself. When it comes to eating late, we have to look at the amount and how close to bedtime we’re actually eating. The other factor to take into consideration is how much we are eating and what eating pattern we have earlier on in the day, because that will affect the time you eat at night and what you end up choosing.

A very common denominator is a very low consumption of food early in the day. Caffeine is an appetite suppressant, so less food is consumed in the morning, but then eating more in the evening or choosing hyper-palatable foods, which are high in sugar, high in fat, high in salt. Eating late can disrupt your ability to sleep efficiently because of the natural digestive process. Heartburn and sugar into your blood can disrupt sleep.

[28:13] #5 – Liquids

Many of us drink a small amount of liquids early on in the day, then play a little bit of catch up at night. All liquids are a natural diuretic, so sleeping is disrupted to get up go to the bathroom.

Drinking liquids during the day also consuming higher water volume foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, rice, pasta, soups. We absorb 20 to 30% more water from the food that you eat than from the water you actually drink, which also then produces less need to urinate because that water is utilized throughout your body. How efficient!

[31:37] #6 -Screen Time

Screen time is definitely going to affect your ability to sleep, like the amount of time you sleep and the quality of sleep. The blue light disrupts the REM part of your sleep or the deep sleep as well.
Listen to Episode 14, my guest was Dr. Yishan Xu, who is a sleep psychologist and therapist, and her practice is the Mind and Body Garden Psychiatry in San Francisco.

You are also overstimulated. The algorithms of social media are designed to keep you on that side as long as possible, because the way they make money is through selling ads.
Any screen time is definitely going to affect your sleep. Now, the problem here is that the longer you stay awake, the greater likelihood your appetite increases. Remember, if you’re awake, your body thinks it needs to hunt for food. And so therefore there’s an increased desire that may occur to eat something. This is where people get these nighttime cravings for snacking.

[35:25] #7 – Shutdown Routine

If you’re driving your car, riding on the highway, going 70 miles an hour, then you don’t just put your car in park and then park it. No, you have to slow down. You have to slow down when you get off the exit, going into the city streets, going into your neighborhood, pulling into your driveway, or the parking spot, then, you have to shut it down. Without a shutdown routine, brain is spinning with all of the stuff that’s going on.

For example, yes, brush your teeth, brush your hair, take a shower. A hot shower lowers your body temperature and increases melatonin. Sometimes if you start a meditation process or a simply deep breathing exercise that can help you into some form of relaxation, can slow down your body to prepare you for sleep. The more blue, light, or regular light, the greater the stimulation of your excitation hormones and melatonin is suppressed. Another shutdown routine is journaling to create a conscious dumping of consciousness. But, if you find yourself more stimulated, that may not be the routine for you.

The National Sleep Foundation has some great little tidbits on what you can do to help enhance your sleep.  If you get an opportunity to listen to Episode 33, my guest was Dr. Lydia Sosenko. She is a dentist and an expert in oral dental sleep appliances like C-PAP, jaw adjust guards, etc.

David talks about sleep with a lot clients because they are needing that quality of sleep. At Orozco Nutrition, we do focus in on energy levels.

Resources from Episode:

• National Sleep Foundation – Top 10 Tips for Better Sleep
• Study Review – Feeding the heat on brown fat

Where do I go from here?

• If you like this episode, then download the show wherever you listen to your podcasts at Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, iHeartRadio, Castbox, etc!
• Hit that subscribe button so you won’t miss another episode.
•  Big Ask: Leave a Review! Please, take a few minutes and leave me a review on your podcast app. Each review helps other listeners find the podcast, which provides me with the ability to continue bring you unique content. So spread the love. Loss for words? Just write what you like about the show.
• Share the show with friends.
• If you want to work with us, schedule an appointment or a free 15 minute discovery call. Explore our website and click Schedule an Appointment. Or, reach us by email info@orozconutrition.com or phone 678-568-4717.

Once again, I greatly appreciate you for listening and supporting my show. Remember, it really only takes One Small Bite to start transforming your life.

Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!