Early to Bed - the One Thing That Calms Your Cortisol, Pain, and Stress Levels

Are you stressed, overweight, and health issues creeping up faster than you thought it would?

You’ve tried a hundred diets and supplement pills. You’ve tried to increase exercise. You turn to pills and drugs to keep energy up, the weight off, and anything to help you get a handle on life again. You don’t know what else to do, and the chronic daily stress weighing you down mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

Your stress levels is high because you’re permanently on a cortisol high.

When you’ve slept well, it is easier to deal anything when you wake up. Stress and unpleasant situations can wear you down even harder if you’re still fatigued after a poor night’s sleep. 

But it’s not just the quality and duration of sleep that affect cortisol levels. What time you go to bed and wake up also plays a role. Research shows that people who work night shifts and sleep during the day are more likely to have elevated cortisol levels.

Shift work under the age of 40 is associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) and higher cortisol levels.

 Cortisol Is More than a Stress Hormone

Cortisol is known as a hormone released in response to stress. But it plays a crucial role in regulating our sleep-wake cycle, having to work in tandem with other hormones like melatonin. It also regulates metabolism, reducing inflammation, and controlling blood sugar levels.

Cortisol can be elevated due to lack of sleep, especially in the evening after a lack of sleep. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system is responsible for producing cortisol. 

When a threat to the body appears, the hypothalamus, a part of your brain, synthesizes special substances that are sent to the pituitary epididymis. That in turns turn, sends a signal to the adrenal glands. In response, the adrenal cortex releases cortisol, some of which again enters the brain, affecting the thinking process. This relationship between the brain and the kidneys is called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or the HPA for short.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is also responsible for regulating sleep cycles. Stress, illness, or poor nutrition can activate the axis. Subsequently, this can worsen your sleep and increase cortisol.

If You’re Sleeping Late, You’re Living a like a Shift-Worker

The thing is, you’re living like a shift-worker even if you think leading a normal day-night lifestyle. You’re ruining your HPA response just by staying up late, and creating a wired-up stress response for yourself the next day.

If you keep the night owl life, you’re creating a higher stress level than you actually could have.

How can you change your nighttime habits to actually get to sleep earlier?

Sleep hygiene is one of the deciding factors in its quality. Try to create an environment in which the amount of noise and light is minimal. This will help blackout curtains, eye masks, earplugs.

Tips to Help You Fall Asleep Earlier if You Want to Calm Your Cortisol Levels:

• Go to bed and wake up at the same time.

  Keep consistent. You’re trying to reset hormones and keep a more productive, calm balance of hormones, rather than live in hormonal hell.

• Sleep hygiene is one of the deciding factors in its quality.

  Create an environment in which the amount of noise and light is minimal. This will help blackout curtains, eye masks, earplugs.

• Wash bedding and sleepwear regularly.

  Fresh clean laundry helps the body to relax. Anything that helps you relax is a friend. Keep it non-toxic.

• Put away devices that emit blue light (TV, phone, tablet) 2-3 hours before bed.

  Blue light jacks up cortisol.

• Avoid caffeinated drinks in the afternoon.

  Caffeine’s half-life, is anywhere from 2 to 12 hours, depending on your body.

• Avoid excessive strength and cardio activities two hours before bed.

  Avoid anything overly mentalling stimulating before bed. This means cutting out most news because they’re primed to grab attention and proke a reaction.

• Try a grounding sheet.

  In this study, researchers found grounding the human body to earth (“earthing”) during sleep reduced cortisol levels at night and even re-synced cortisol levels with the natural 24-hour circadian rhythm profile.

Lifestyle Tip for a Calm Home - Deep Sleep

Of all the factors contributing to poor health and unsatisfied relationships, stress is perhaps the most overlooked.  

At home, while the stress response can be a helpful biological function, enabling you to respond to daily tasks, demands, and and urgencies, this "lifesaving" reaction ends up doing far more harm than good when continually triggered.

And many of the small everyday details at home can trigger stress: financial worries, clutter, juggling multiple tasks, overwhelming demands, even if they are from our loved ones…

Why you want deep sleep

Deep sleep is the stage of sleep that helps the brain rest and recover, allowing it to replenish energy. keeping hormones balanced. The pituitary gland secretes human growth hormone during this stage, which helps tissues in the body grow and regenerate cells.

The most important thing that a person can do is to set aside more time for sleep. Doing so allows the body to go through more sleep cycles, which makes it possible to have more deep sleep.

Emotional Resilience Reduces the Impact of Stress

Stress is an inescapable part of life; it's how you address it that will determine whether it will translate into health problems later on. The stress reaction should dissipate as quickly as possible after the perceived danger has passed. The scientific term for this is "resilience" — your ability to rapidly return to normal, physically and emotionally, after a stressful event.

Resilient People Are More Tuned in to Bodily Cues of Stress

During times of stress and uncertainty, your resilience is a crucial factor for how well you get through things; “resilience” is the scientific term for your body’s ability to rapidly return to normal or a harmonious equilibrium.

Some people are naturally more resilient than others, and researchers have long pondered the reasons why. One hypothesis is that people who are more resilient have learnt to listen to their body. 

Deep Sleep Builds Emotional Resilience

Exposure to trauma can weaken your emotional resilience. The good news is you can rebuild or improve it as well. One solid strategy that can help build emotional resilience is good sleep. Research shows people who get more deep sleep are less fearful.

The study,6 published in the Journal of Neuroscience, claims to be the first to demonstrate that sound, deep sleep helps buffer against emotional distress, while sleeping poorly raises your risk of experiencing a difficult event as emotionally traumatizing. According to the authors:

"Sleep, and particularly rapid-eye movement sleep (REM), has been implicated in the modulation of neural activity following fear conditioning and extinction in both human and animal studies. It has long been presumed that such effects play a role in the formation and persistence of post-traumatic stress disorder, of which sleep impairments are a core feature … 

In the current study, we employed long-term mobile sleep monitoring and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) to explore whether trait-like variations in sleep patterns … predict subsequent patterns of neural activity during fear learning. 

Our results indicate that higher baseline levels of REM sleep predict reduced fear-related activity in, and connectivity between, the hippocampus, amygdala and ventromedial PFC during conditioning. Additionally, skin-conductance-responses (SCR) were weakly correlated to the activity in the amygdala. 

Conversely, there was no direct correlation between REM sleep and SCR, indicating that REM may only modulate fear acquisition indirectly. In a follow-up experiment, we show that these results are replicable, though to a lesser extent, when measuring sleep over a single night just prior to conditioning. As such, baseline sleep parameters may be able to serve as biomarkers for resilience, or lack thereof, to trauma."

The link between mental health and REM sleep (deep sleep)

Long-standing clinical observations demonstrate that nearly all mood and anxiety disorders co-occur with one or more sleep abnormalities. 

And for Mothers, post partum depression and emotional resilience

Much of “post partum depression” is in fact sleep deprivation that wears at our ability to cope with the range of physical, psychological, and hormonal changes—that occur at least well over the first year of having baby.

For the woman whose nervous system is frozen and suppressed, the intensity of birth (despite being a worthwhile experience to bring their baby earth side) can expose, provoke, or stir up stored survival stress from old trauma resulting in the labels PPA or PPD.

(And if you didn’t know, suicide is the leading cause of death for new moms.)

When I became a mother, the bone-deep exhaustion that comes with it coloured my world. Even though I learnt to function daily with it, my mind battled a continual fog.

There is nothing quite like new parent sleep deprivation. It can be a shock for new parents, and even for second (or third, fourth...) time parents. 

Rather than adding emotional demands on the new, emotionally worn, parent, I believe it is more effective to prioritise space for quality rest.

Create emotional resilience at home with deep sleep

Sleep post-children will probably never be the same. However, recharging looks different as a mom, and I have learnt to expand my definition of rest to include relaxing activities and naps instead of believing that night-time sleep is the only good form of rest. 

Here are some ways to create small spaces to rest at home during the day:

• Comfortable seating areas around the house. If you have a few minutes on the couch, close your eyes and allow them to rest by taking in less light and visual stimulation.

• Uncluttered areas where you can relax into a soothing stretch or yoga pose, such as a child’s pose or legs up the wall. This allows your parasympathetic system to kick in as your breathing slows down.

• Baby’s nap area is not just a space reserved for childish slumber. It’s a vital spot to replenish your nurturing energies. When you do get to nap with your nap, avoid television, radio, and looking at your clock so you aren’t counting the moments to do the chores (or when baby has broken the nap). A cool, dark environment is also optimal for napping, if it is calm for adult as well as children’s sensibilities.

• Create a bedroom sleep sanctuary. Have fun with this and make it a place for rest beyond your wildest dreams.

Does your home help or hinder how well you handle difficult circumstances? How well do you handle the effects of stress and negative emotions? Let’s make space for real deep sleep — for real emotional resilience.

How to Make Your Bed: The Building Biology Way

“If you make your bed, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. That was the golden nugget of advice that Admiral McRaven gave during a commencement address: “make your bed.” You can watch the short clip here.

It seems innocuous, but the truth is that making your bed automatically gives you a “win” at the very beginning of your day. This win greatly impacts your motivation to keep going and, therefore, your actions. What if this “win” is biologically primed to support your health and vitality? Making your bed could be a crucial daily routine that sets up a biologically supportive sleep sanctuary for you to have quality deep sleep.

As McRaven puts it, “if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”

So, is there a biologically optimal way to make a bed? What can we learn from the health issues plaguing modern life about how to approach designing for this important chunk of everyday life? Here are some notes on the ideal biological sleeping arrangements—from sleep hygiene to non-toxic materials.

Making your bed helps deep sleep

If you make your bed with your health in mind, you are creating a clean, tox-free sleeping environment. You are making a space that you can rest and relax easily in. Good sleep helps maintain a healthy circadian rhythm — this is is vital because many bodily and hormonal functions operate based on your circadian rhythm, including such important everyday functions such as sleepiness, wakefulness, and hunger. 

If you can make your bed every day, you would be creating a bed sanctuary for proper daily deep sleep that necessary for health.

Why you want deep sleep

Deep sleep is the stage of sleep that helps the brain rest and recover, allowing it to replenish energy. keeping hormones balanced. The pituitary gland secretes human growth hormone during this stage, which helps tissues in the body grow and regenerate cells.

The most important thing that a person can do is to set aside more time for sleep. Doing so allows the body to go through more sleep cycles, which makes it possible to have more deep sleep.

But we know getting good sleep is not as simple as just closing your eyes. Setting up your bed and bedroom environment as a sleep sanctuary will help you achieve this.

Here are how sleep strategies can help from the perspective of building biology. And in every single action, these habits can be very powerful. As you sleep in your bed night after night, waking up from the same bed routine day after day.

So let’s look at a few closely…

Choose natural bedding

The options can seem overwhelming when it comes to sheets and pillows. Consider your sheets and pillows and choose what is tox-free and most sleep-enhancing for your needs.

The most tox-free bedding is made with natural fabrics through processes that use less water than traditional practices and don’t require harsh chemicals like pesticides or bleach or inexpensive and dangerous additives like micro plastics.

Useful guidelines include: Global Organic Textile Standard, Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX, Cradle to Cradle, and Fair Trade. These give their individual stamps of approval on products, promising that they meet certain markers in order to be considered ethically sourced, organic, safe, and responsibly labeled.

Depending on your preferences, natural bedding generally boast inherent benefits like moisture wicking and antibacterial properties.

Here is a brief list:

• Organic cotton

  Cotton is breathable, inexpensive, readily available, and easy to care for. Organic also means it is processed without using chemicals like fertilizers or pesticides or genetic modifications which reduce its susceptibility to insects like bollworm.

• Organic Hemp & Organic Linen

  Two more classic natural bedding fabrics are hemp and linen. They’re both stronger than cotton, with hemp being up to eight times stronger.

• Eucalyptus fiber

  The feel of eucalyptus is downy, resistant to irritants like dust and mold, and naturally cooling. Eucalyptus plants also combat congestion, repel insects, and promote relaxation.

• Organic latex

  The properties of organic latex make it naturally mold-, mildew-, bacteria-, and dust-resistant.

Declutter the bedroom

A clean home is a happy home, because it is a healthy.

While a home doesn’t need to be sanitised or spotless, when you tidy the bedroom, it provides a clear slate for restful sleep.

Tidying the bedroom will not only provide you with another small win for the day, it will relieve stress so that your mind can fully focus on what matters most. Learn how building biology principles can be a part of stress management techniques.

Declutter your light environment

Avoiding blue light, such as smartphones or computers near bedtime, is essential to allowing the cascade of hormones necessary for enough deep rest.

At night, keep the room as dark as possible by covering windows and turning off lights from alarm clocks and other electronic devices.

Opening and shutting your windows helps make a consistent sleep schedule and trying to fall asleep and wake up at consistent times.

Declutter your EMF environment

The last thing you want in your bedroom environment are artificial EMFs. Sleep is when your body begins the heavy duty of clearing fluid.

Artificial EMFs interfere with this process, and add oxidative stress, which leads to inflammation and weakens your cells over time[*]. Your body uses up antioxidants combating EMF radiation, leaving your cells open to damage from other sources of stress.

Growing research has found that EMFs may hit your brain especially hard and could even contribute to neurodegeneration.

EMFs can come from WiFi, cell phones, laptops, and other everyday electronic devices. Learn more here, or book a home consult.

Taking the time to make your bed

As society seem to get ever busier and high tech, sleep is seeming a bigger and bigger luxury and all things bedroom is seeing a renaissance of interest as people chase what they perceive to be elusive sleep.

I think we are realising the importance of how intertwined our bed and sleep: it is part of basic hygiene and essential to our self-care.

We spend a third of our lives asleep, or about under half of every day. This means that we are constantly being exposed to any chemicals or microscopic bacteria. It also means we are exposed to any pollution and toxins permeating our sleep environment.

The good news is that you can decrease a lot of your exposure to pollution, and increase your resilience, by a lot with just the simple action of making your bed. Try making your bed daily with these building biology practices.

---

For more help, get in touch for a FREE discovery call to find out your needs to create the perfect sleep sanctuary.

So let’s get started because making your bed can change your health.

P.S. Don’t forget to grab your guide to a biological home. click here, and I’ll send it to your inbox in a few minutes. This is the perfect way to get started with the building biology principles you just learnt about.