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Why is it important to get enough ‘good quality’ sleep?

In a world where we are more ‘busy’ than ever - with work, chores, children, relationships and many more aspects of our lives - it’s no surprise that sleep has fallen down the list of priorities for a lot of people.

But, for most adults, 7-8 hours sleep is necessary in order to wake up feeling energized and focused for the busy day ahead.

There are many reasons why getting enough good quality sleep every night is so important:

In contrast, not getting enough sleep, or getting poor quality disrupted sleep, can have adverse effects on your health, energy and mental cognition, both in the short term, and the long term.

Poor sleep has been linked to:

• Heightened stress response ^[7]
  
  
• Increased or more persistent pain ^[8]
  
  
• Depression ^[9]
  
  
• Anxiety ^[10]
  
  
• Cognition, memory and performance deficits ^[11]
  

What contributes to not getting enough sleep, or having poor quality sleep?

There are many environmental and physiological factors that can contribute to poor sleep:

• Irregular sleep schedule
  
  
• Stress
  
  
• Physical pain
  
  
• Certain Medications
  
  
• Age
  
  
• Fidgeting or snoring sleeping partners (people/pets you share a bedroom with)
  
  
• The foods you eat, especially just before bed
  
  
• Drinking alcohol and/or Caffeine
  
  
• Not seeing enough natural bright light early in the day
  Brain stimulation and blue light screens before bed (electronic devices, video games, computer screens etc.)
  
  
• Napping late in the afternoon/evening
  
  
• Using your bed for activities other than sleep (watching tv, playing video games, electronic devices, working etc.)
  

How can you Test how well you sleep?

The simplest indicator is how rested and energized you feel when you wake up. Any feeling of grogginess should be very short lived.

If you do have issues getting to sleep, staying asleep, or waking feeling refreshed, you may want to further investigate why.

A sleep study, or polysomnography, is a test that can be used to help diagnose sleeping disorders.

Polysomnography works by measuring your brain waves, oxygen levels in your blood, breathing and heart rate. It will also measure your leg and eye movements.

Typically a polysomnography is conducted at a hospital or sleep center, so you may want to try the below guide first to see if these simple lifestyle changes are sufficient to make you feel rested again…

The Top 12 Ways to get better quality sleep and more of it:

As we’ve outlined further up this page, it’s absolutely essential that you get enough uninterrupted sleep (7-8 hours for the average adult) in order to wake up feeling energized and focused for the day.

Here’s the top 12 ways you can do that:

1. Stick to a sleeping routine. When it comes to sleep - routine is everything. Consistently sleeping and waking at the same time can aid to enhanced long-term sleep quality ^[12]
   
   
2. Reduce your stress. When your body is in a state of stress (fight or flight mode) the adrenal glands are activated ^[13]. Historically, this is so we had the energy to run from predators, which was not a time for sleeping.
   
   There are many ways to lower your stress levels, such as meditation. You can also try supplementing with our Serenity Anti-Stress Support or 5 HTP products

3. Find the best position to sleep in for your physical pain. Unfortunately, this is not an easy one to solve… However, we live in a world where every type of information is at your fingertips. Try searching something along the lines of:
   “Best position to sleep in for back pain”
   
4. Kick your pet or partner out of your bed. Again, not an easy one to solve. You may love sleeping with your partner, or your pet! But the truth is, if you’re being woken up numerous times a night because of their snoring or moving around… it could be time for them (or you) to hit the spare room!
   
5. Don’t drink too much alcohol. Excessive alcohol drinking disrupts sleep-related physiology ^[14]
   
6. Don’t eat too close to bedtime. Eating should generally stop at least 2 hours before you go to sleep. If you go to bed sooner than 2 hours after you eat, your body is using valuable energy in your sleep to digest and metabolize the food.
   
   This is valuable energy that could be used to help repair damaged tissues in your body, as well as lessening the time your brain and body have to rest and properly re-energize.
   
7. Avoid certain foods before bed. Without going into too much detail, here are some foods you should steer clear of before you go to bed (as well as remembering the 2+ hour rule we mentioned in the previous step):
   

• • • Fried, fatty & ‘heavy’ foods, such as burgers, fries and steaks. These types of food can lay heavy in your stomach and cause indigestion, which will keep you up at night or make it harder to fall asleep.
      
    • High water content such as cucumber & watermelon. Eating foods with a high water content before bed will likely get you up in the middle of the night to go pee!
      
    • Caffeine. Espresso ice cream, chocolate, coffee, certain types of tea are a few examples of foods that contain caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant, and can make it more difficult for you to get to the deeper stages of sleep that are crucial to waking up energized and focused. This is also true, to a lesser degree, about chocolate.
      
    • Sugary Foods. Insulin spikes can disrupt your sleeping patterns, so it’s best to skip dessert if it’s close to bedtime.
    • Tyramine. Found in processed meats, nuts, red wine, cheese and more - tyramine is an amino acid that triggers the release of noradrenaline which stimulates the body and plays a crucial part in the fight or flight state of the body, thus preventing you from falling asleep!
    • Spice. Even if you love the heat, spicy foods stimulate circulation and raise your body’s temperature. Spicy foods can also cause heartburn, coupled with being too hot - you have a recipe for insomnia (finding it hard to fall asleep, waking up several times during the night and feeling tired throughout the day).
    • Acidic Foods. Raw onions, white wine, citrusy drinks or sauces and more can induce heartburn (acid reflux).
    • “Gassy” foods. Think beans and brussels sprouts. While there’s no doubt that fruit and vegetables high in fiber are good for the body - cramping at night due to excess gas is going to keep you awake, so you should avoid them before bed.

8. Avoid Blue Light at least 1 hour before bed. Blue light exposure suppresses the secretion of melatonin (the hormone that makes you sleepy). This is true for any lights, blue light does this more effectively ^[15].

Any electronic device you own emits blue light - your tv, laptop, computer monitor, cell phone, smart tablet, smart watch, LED lighting and more…

In an ideal world, you’d sit in a lightly candlelit room staring at the wall until you feel tired, then you’d go to bed… However, we appreciate this probably isn’t going to happen.

On most electronic devices (especially tablets, computers and cell phones) there is a setting that will cut out some blue light. The mode is usually called night light, eye comfort shield, or something along those lines. It will tint the screen with a yellow hue, removing most of the blue light your device is emitting. You’ll also be able to change the strength, so the more yellow your screen looks, the more blue light you’re cutting out.

We recommend using this mode at least 2 hours before you go to bed.

You can also buy tinted glasses (search “bluelight glasses”) that have the same effect, although you won’t be able to control the strength like you can on your device.

9. Turn the lights down low. In addition to the above point, turning the “big light” off in your living room, and turning all other lights down low will help with melatonin secretion.
   
   
10.  Don’t watch TV or work in bed. When you do other activities in your bed (other than sleeping) your brain associates that activity with your bed.
    This means that if you frequently work from your bed, your brain will switch into work mode (stress/fight or flight mode) and will hinder your sleeping efforts.
    
    
11. Don’t sleep in to accommodate a late night. Instead, get up at your regular time so your body doesn’t lose its rhythm, and take an early afternoon (not late afternoon) nap if necessary.
    
    
12.  Help your body sleep easier by supplying it with vital nutrients and minerals it needs to sleep well, such as:

Melatonin

First discovered by Aaron Lerner (a dermatologist) in 1958, melatonin has been studied heavily since.

Lerner isolated a compound in the pineal gland of a cow, which he named melatonin.

He then began to study the effect of melatonin on sleep by self experimenting with very large doses of melatonin, to which he reported no side effects other than drowsiness.

Naturally produced in the pineal gland in your brain ^[16], melatonin helps to regulate the circadian rhythm in your body (sleep-wake cycle) ^[17].

When it starts to get dark, your melatonin levels rise, which is how your body knows it’s time to go to sleep.

When it gets light, melatonin levels decrease to help you wake up ^[18].

Blue light exposure at night interrupts sleep because melatonin levels are dramatically decreased [19], however being in darkness only permits melatonin production, as opposed to stimulating it ^[20].

Today, melatonin is one of the most popular supplements in sleep aid because it is a natural treatment for sleeping disorders such as insomnia ^[21].

Rather than “putting” you to sleep, like a lot of over the counter drugs, melatonin lets your body recognise it’s nighttime and helps you relax and fall asleep more easily.

Additionally, melatonin attaches to receptors throughout your body and helps them to relax ^[22].

A review of 11 studies showed melatonin to decrease the time it took to fall asleep, as well as increasing total sleep time compared to a placebo ^[23].

Jet lag is a temporary sleeping disorder, caused by your body’s circadian rhythm being out of sync with the new timezone you’ve just arrived in.

An analysis of various studies saw that melatonin was likely to help reduce the effects of jet lag ^[24].

Calcium

Extreme fatigue can be caused by calcium deficiency, which can lead to insomnia ^[25].

Low levels of calcium can also cause low mood, and sleeping disorders are a core symptom of low mood ^[26].

Studies conducted on women suffering from PMS claimed that calcium can help to relieve symptoms of low mood, anxiety, water retention and fatigue ^[27].

Vitamin B6

This B vitamin plays a crucial role in regulating mood because it creates neurotransmitters that can regulate emotions, such as dopamine, GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and serotonin ^[28].

Magnesium

Magnesium helps to regulate many neurotransmitters that are involved in sleep, such as GABA ^[29].

A review on insomnia sufferers saw that magnesium supplements helped to lower the time it took for older adults to fall asleep ^[30].

A study on around 4,000 adults saw improvements in sleep duration and quality linked to magnesium intake ^[31].

Furthermore, the hormones of stress can reduce magnesium levels in body tissues, which can result in chronic fatigue.

Many hundreds of chronic fatigue syndrome patients were observed at a referral center, only to find that over half of the patients were deficient in magnesium ^[32].

Lemon Balm

Lemon balm can help to reduce anxiety and symptoms of stress which helps you to relax more easily ^[34].

A double blind, randomized, placebo controlled study on 50 subjects with sleep complaints found that those who took a formula which included lemon balm, saw significant improvements on a modified Athens Insomnia Scale (mAIS) than those who took the placebo ^[35].

Chamomile

Chamomiles' unique properties can benefit your sleep quality.

It contains an antioxidant called apigenin which binds to certain receptors in the brain which may help to promote sleeping while combating insomnia ^[36].

A study found people who ingested chamomile extract twice a day for 28 days reduced their night time awakening by ⅓ and fell asleep 15 minutes faster than those who took a placebo ^[37].

Introducing Feel Younger® Sleep Aid Ultra with 10mg Melatonin

We have mixed these with our unique proprietary blend that can help you sleep better and easier, and potentially give you a whole host of other benefits. Our proprietary blend is made up of:

• L-Tryptophan - melatonin is produced by L-Tryptophan in the pineal gland (in the brain) as well as in the gut, the eyes and immune cells ^[38]
  
  
• Goji (berry) - contain the highest concentration of melatonin than any other berry fruits ^[39]
  
  

• Chamomile - can help improve sleep quality ^[40]
  
  

• Lemon Balm - can help relieve restlessness and sleep disturbances ^[41]
  
  

• Passion Flower - can help to calm your mind and improve quality of sleep ^[42]
  
  

• L-Taurine - an amino acid that increases GABA and glycine to ease anxiety and calm the brain ^[43]
  
  

• Hops - a study on drinking non-alcoholic beer (with hops) at dinnertime saw that the women who drank it showed an improvement in their sleep quality ^[44]
  
  

• St John’s Wort - can help to regulate mood by increasing melatonin production ^[45]
  
  

• GABA - has a natural calming effect on the brain ^[46]
  
  

• Skullcap - contains a compound called Baicalin, which has been used in traditional medicine practices to help treat insomnia [47]. Can also help to improve mood and reduce anxiety ^[48]
  
  

• L-Theanine - can help to promote relaxation and improve sleep ^[49]
  
  

• Ashwagandha - can promote restful sleep and may help to reduce anxiety levels ^[50]
  
  

• Inositol - can help to improve global sleep and subjective sleep quality, as well as sleep time during pregnancy ^[51]
  
  

• 5 HTP - the precursor to serotonin, which can be converted into melatonin. When mixed with GABA, potential effects on sleep promotion are enhanced ^[52]
  

By combining the ingredients listed further up this page, with our unique proprietary blend in an easy to swallow capsule, we’ve taken the stress out of buying each of these ingredients separately, researching and experimenting how much of each you should take and then incorporating them into your diet/supplement regime.

Here at Feel younger, we believe in providing strong doses at reasonable prices. Our Sleep Aid Ultra with 10mg Melatonin capsules provide a 946.8 mg daily dose, and will cost you no more than $19, with discounts available on multiple bottle and subscription purchases.

How Do You Take Feel Younger® Sleep Aid Ultra with 10mg Melatonin?

Take one capsule a day with a glass of water, 20 - 30 minutes before you want to go to bed.

DO NOT EXCEED RECOMMENDED DOSAGE.

Any Cautions?

Do not take alongside other melatonin supplements or medications. Too much melatonin can cause nausea and dizziness.

ALWAYS consult a healthcare professional before taking any new supplements.

Scientific References