5 ways to Improve Sleep Naturally

Here are 5 ways to improve sleep naturally. Learn to decrease insomnia, improve energy, and feel better every day. Remember it is important to identify the cause of why you may be having interrupted or poor sleep by speaking with a physician.

Stress Management

Recognizing stress and your response to stress is an important step to improve sleep naturally. Excess stress due to work, school, financial, or even health-related stress can increase your cortisol levels. Increased cortisol levels can negatively affect the quality and consistency of sleep. Over time this can affect blood sugar elevation and weight gain. Mind body medicine techniques, acupuncture, and massage are great ways to help deal with stress.

Protein and Blood Sugar Regulation

Improving protein at night can help prevent an early cortisol release in the middle of the night, which for some people can cause insomnia, or waking at night. Pair this with uncontrolled stress or anxiety, and a diet high in sugar or even not eating can affect your quality of sleep at night. Even a simple protein snack before going to bed can help improve sleep naturally. Check out this article by Dr. Andrew Simon on how to balance blood sugar naturally.

Alcohol and caffeine

Watching your intake of alcohol and caffeine in a day is an important factor in understanding both the ability to fall asleep naturally, and stay asleep naturally by getting fully restful sleep. By regulating stress, improving overall diet, and evaluating your health through testing like blood sugar, cortisol, and other blood tests, we can determine how much of a role alcohol and caffeine are having on your health, and ability to sleep. Naturopathic Physicians are trained in counseling, nutrition, and safe and appropriate use of herbal medicines to help with reduction of alcohol or caffeine safely.

Exercise

Think of exercise as the component that improves sleep naturally by increasing circulation, utilizing blood sugar effectively, and assisting with stress management. Using more energy earlier in the day, and eating the appropriate foods, can improve exercise tolerance and use energy wisely. In turn, improving nighttime sleep regulation much easier. Try a simple HIIT training with the 7-minute exercise routine to help improve your exercise during the day.

Herbal Remedies and Dietary Supplements

Herbal remedies and natural dietary supplements are often used to help many people to fall asleep but may vary in their efficacy based on the reason someone is having trouble falling asleep naturally.  Meeting with a physician trained in the pathways of sleep health, neurotransmitter health, can help explain why using some of the common supplements like GABA, l-theanine, melatonin may be playing a role in sleep health. Additionally, some herbal remedies like valerian, lavender, and chamomile are often used to aid in relaxation and improve sleep naturally, but may not be indicated for everyone.

Dr. Andrew Simon is a Naturopathic Physician and owner of Rebel Med NW, formally Fit Naturopathic. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor at Bastyr Center for Natural Health in the Mind Body Medicine and Physical Medicine departments. He additionally spends time seeing patients at the NW Ballard Senior Center and exploring new technology’s influence on health. If not working Dr. Andrew Simon can often be found working out at the Olympic Athletic Club or enjoying the fine restaurants in Ballard and Fremont. Call to schedule a free 15 minute phone call or online telemedicine visit.