Factors that Affect Sleep
What’s keeping you up at night?
Most humans are biologically wired to sleep. It is a process that is necessary for our survival that influences a range of other systems in our bodies, such as cardiovascular function, metabolism, and our response to stress.
But just because something is necessary doesn’t make it easy to achieve.
There are so many potential factors that influence our ability to sleep, sleep well AND feel well-rested. Some of these factors are outside of our control but the good news is that many of these factors are governable. The hardest part is weeding through the lifestyle and behaviour habits impacting your sleep and finding the root cause of your sleep challenges. Usually it’s not just one thing, but rather several intertwined elements that may be holding you back from getting the rest you need. That’s where my investigative skills come in – learn more about my role as a sleep coach here.
To properly investigate sleep challenges, I look at the 5 Pillars of Healthy Sleep: environment, schedule, headspace, nutrition, and movement. It’s important that each pillar gets assessed in regard to your sleep AND to each other, because we need to look at your sleep from a holistic lens, and often one pillar may be affecting another. For example, you may be watching TikToks in your bed right before you go to sleep. Simple. But then you can’t sleep. You feel alert. All you’re thinking about are recipes, and style inspiration, and whatever’s trending. Then you start thinking about how busy your day is going to be. And what you’ll cook for dinner. But you still can’t sleep. Maybe just a few more videos… and now it’s 2am and YOU STILL CAN’T SLEEP.
If we unpack this, there’s a few things going on:
Watching anything in bed may lead to an unhealthy association between bed and wakeful, stimulating activities, when we really want to be pairing bed with sleep and relaxation.
The content of what is being watched, and how many different things we’re watching, may be overly stimulating, leading to a hyper-aroused state and increasing your cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone.
Looking at any screen an hour before lights out may suppress the production of melatonin, which is a necessary hormone that helps prepare your body for sleep
If our cortisol levels are raised at bedtime, it is physiologically very difficult to fall asleep as things like heart rate, breathing, and temperature are increased. Our bodies like and need to stay cool, and our heart rate needs to be slowed and our breathing needs to be deeper and slower in order to achieve good quality sleep. If our cortisol levels are high at bedtime, it is also very difficult to switch off mentally and just go to bed. Once we’re stimulated, we’re not very good at turning our thoughts down. Then, the harder you try to go to sleep, the less likely sleep will come – any insomniac will tell you that, including myself, who suffered from severe insomnia for years.
If melatonin levels get suppressed and delayed, this is just one more obstacle to falling asleep, because melatonin and cortisol have this funny, inverse relationship. When melatonin levels are high (ideally in the evening), cortisol is typically lower and when cortisol levels are typically higher (usually first thing in the morning), melatonin levels are meant to decrease. But now you’ve got your body and mind all confused at the exact time you’re supposed to be in deep, restorative sleep.
See how it’s all connected? Before I continue, I want to point out why I’ve placed an emphasis on may in this situation. Everyone is different and responds differently to different stimuli, activity, medication, situations, schedules, environment etc. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to sleep. The above example may cause no problem for one individual yet be the main source of sleep disruption for another. Which is why I’m usually hesitant to dish out generic sleep advice without probing deeper into your issues.
That said, there are some factors that can impede your ability to sleep well and feel well-rested and if you’re experiencing sleeping challenges, I encourage you to explore the areas below to consider what might be the root cause of your issues:
Stress and Anxiety
In our fast-paced lives, this is one of the biggest impediments to sleep I see amongst my clients. Our bodies need to be in a physiologically calm state to sleep, and stress and anxiety have the opposite effect, heightening our cortisol levels (stress hormone) and making it difficult to fall and stay asleep.
Light
We need natural, unfiltered sunlight every day (ideally first thing in the morning) to help regulate our sleep cycle and keep us feeling alert and motivated – but this can be a challenge for city dwellers who are working indoors. Conversely, we need to limit our light exposure in the evenings. Too much bright, blue light in the evenings (like screens) can keep us awake for longer than we want.
Schedules
Our bodies need regulation in terms of our sleep schedules and our rituals surrounding sleep. Going to bed and waking up at different times throughout the week confuses our sleep drive and hormone production (like melatonin and cortisol), resulting in a sleepless Sunday night that turns into a groggy Monday morning.
Environment
What you see, hear, smell, touch, and breathe during the night can affect your sleep. The ideal room temperature for quality sleep is between 18-21 degrees. Your bedroom should be like a tranquil cave - cool, dark and quiet. And de-cluttered! Being mindful of allergies (seasonal and pet allergens) and hydration is important because they can affect your respiratory systems during the night. If you’re stuffed up at bedtime, your sleep can be disrupted by a blocked nose or a dry mouth.
Nutrition
What we eat and when we eat can affect both the quantity and quality of our sleep. Certain foods may irritate the stomach, causing acid reflux or GERD in the night, and foods containing high amounts of caffeine or sugar may prevent us from feeling sleepy. Being deficient in certain vitamins and minerals (like B12 or magnesium) or nutrients can have a detrimental effect on our sleep.
Physical Activity
Our bodies need to exert effort during the day so we can feel tired at night. Sedentary living makes it difficult to build up the momentum we need to fall asleep and stay asleep. Movement and exercise also help balance critical hormones in our body that are important for healthy sleep, mood and function like cortisol, dopamine, insulin, thyroid, and sex hormones.
Medical Conditions, Medication, and Hormone Imbalances
Certain conditions may make it difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position, while certain medications or hormone imbalances may have unwanted side effects that can disrupt sleep.
Alcohol
While alcohol can certainly help you relax and feel sleepy, it effectively sedates you, which is different from sleep. Drinking too close to bedtime can rob you of quality sleep and leave you feeling dehydrated and sluggish the next day.
So, how do you determine which factors are affecting you? While there are a range of positive sleep hygiene habits we can follow to help get our sleep on track, we first need to identify the root cause of our sleep issues by viewing sleep from a holistic perspective and examining all the potential inter-related factors that are creating sleep challenges.
To help guide your discovery, why not connect with a sleep coach? Get in touch with me about any questions you may have or to book a free 20-minute discovery call.
