What can I do to stop waking up in the middle of the night?

Let's start with sleep. Sleep is so crucial and definitely your body's number one area of restoration and detoxification. Sleeping at least 7 hours a night will promote optimal health and well being. Sleeping soundly through the night is the goal, but unfortunately it can be difficult for so many people.

Lack of sleep can lead to: Heart disease, diabetes, mental distress, irritability, depression, reduced memory recall, weight gain and decreased resilience to stress.

Factors that will negatively influence sleep: Glowing lights in your bedroom/coming through the window, TV on at bedtime or laptops, pain, snoring, breathing issues, alcohol, blood sugar issues, noise, stress, going to sleep late, fasting, caffeine, and exercising too close to bedtime.

Factors to help you sleep better: A very dark room, comfortable pillows, improving blood sugar.

What does cortisol have to do with it?

In the morning you produce more cortisol or adrenaline to get you up. Visualize a ski slope. Think of cortisol (as your get up and go energy) at it's peak first thing in the morning. Cortisol gradually decrease (down the slope) as the day goes on, and is at its lowest by 10:15 pm when it's time to go to sleep. Falling asleep when cortisol starts to rise again (which is around 10:30 pm for most people) is harder as your energy starts to increase, making falling asleep more difficult.

If you find that you're waking up between the hours of 2-4 am, your blood sugar is most likely dropping in the middle of the night. This causes your body to wake up because your body is out of balance, known as homeostasis. Your body will release cortisol to wake you up in order to get the body back into balance.

To avoid this, try having a "meat pill" to balance your blood sugar and help keep you asleep through the night. A "meat pill" consists of eating a small bit of protein and healthy fat just 10 minutes before bed (a slice of turkey, a small piece of chicken, maybe a spoonful of nut butter on a rice cracker). Ideally, we aren't eating before bed, but if you're having blood sugar issues at night, this is considered to be a healing protocol just for a short time.

Getting blood sugar balanced throughout your day is key in helping with blood sugar issues at night as well.

Give the "meat pill" a try and let's get sleep dialed in for you!

A sleep routine is a great plan of action and as good place to start.

1. Make sure your bedroom is very dark

2. Stick bandaids on any glowing lights

3. Comfortable pillows

4. Not exercising too close to bed time

5. Meat Pill (as explained above).