Get Your Sleep On

We’ve all had that sleepless night, where no matter how many sheep we count or how much warm milk we’ve had to drink, we’re still tossing and turning. The next day is spent raiding the coffee machine to stay alert. It turns out that one night without sleep can have more of an effect on day to day life than originally thought. In one of the largest sleep studies ever conducted, researchers at the University of Michigan looked at how staying awake all night affects something called placekeeping.¹ Placekeeping is the ability to complete a series of steps without losing one’s place.

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The study showed that trouble sleeping can double the odds of making placekeeping errors and triples the number of lapses in attention.

That’s a huge cost to staying up and can make even the simplest task, such as driving a car, dangerous.

The good news is that there are lifestyle adjustments that can help you sleep better. Here’s a look at what’s been clinically studied and what shows promise in improving sleep quality:

1. Balance your gut microbiome: Current research shows that the gut and sleep affect each other.² Imbalances in the gut microbiome can cause sleep disruption, while poor sleep quality can lead to an unbalanced gut.³ To get your gut back into balance, take a two-step approach. First, eat prebiotic foods that support the microbiome such as beans, Jerusalem artichokes, chicory root, raw dandelion greens, leeks, onions, garlic, asparagus and oats. Second, find a good quality probiotic to help rebalance your gut microbiome.
2. Take up hatha yoga: In a six-week study conducted this year, the group of people who started a high-intensity hatha yoga (HIY) routine reported improved sleep and reduced sleep disruption.⁴ Styles like ashtanga and vinyasa flow are examples of HIY. The best time to work out depends on your body clock. If you want to go to sleep early, grab an Active and shoot for morning workouts; if you typically have an afternoon slump, try taking Balance prior to lunch to avoid that post meal carb crash that hits in the middle of the afternoon and skip the cat nap to maintain your night time sleeping schedule.*
3. Play music before bed: Listening to music has been shown to improve sleep quality.⁵ The trick is to make sure it’s slow and rhythmic to slow your heart rate down. In a recent study with nursing students, participants played music for up to an hour at 70% of the normal volume they normally would. Scientists are actively exploring music therapy for relaxation, creating a focal point to reduce stressful thoughts and entrainment of biological rhythms.
4. Warm up your feet in bed: It may sound like something your grandmother would say, but it turns out that it’s true. Putting on socks before bed has been clinically studied and the results show that, for adults at least, warming your feet helps you fall asleep faster.⁶ That’s because sleep and wakefulness is closely related to body temperature. An added benefit? Toasty feet help to prevent heat loss from all over the body, which means that you feel more relaxed.
5. Take Plexus Sleep when occasional sleeplessness strikes: If you find that you're struggling to drift off to dreamland, these delicious gummies can help. Each gummy features 5 mgs of melatonin to help you regulate your natural sleep cycles. Melatonin signals to the body that it's time to sleep so you can fall asleep faster.*

Sweet dreams!

References/Sources:

1. 1. https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2019/science-underestimated-dangerous-effects-of-sleep-deprivation/
   2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6290721/
   3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27793219
   4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31733760
   5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31221932
   6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17070562