Health Hotline Magazine | September 2019

HEALTHY SLEEP SOLUTIONS By Lindsay Wilson

The last thing someone who chronically struggles with sleep wants to hear is how important those nightly z’s are, followed by a laundry list of health problems that can ensue from a lack of sleep. Through the fog of exhaustion, they know. But for someone who faces this nightly battle, the harder they chase sleep, the more elusive it can become. Sleep is something that cannot be forced (anyone who has ever found themselves wide awake in the middle of the night knows this), but there are things that can help support the body’s natural circadian rhythm and a normal sleep cycle, including lifestyle habits, certain nutrients, and supplements.

Before we dive into the solutions, let’s recap what a normal sleep cycle looks like: Sleep occurs in two major phases—non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep. NREM is divided into stages 1-3, from falling asleep to light sleep to “slow-wave sleep,” or deep sleep, followed by REM (“dream”) sleep. Over the course of night, we cycle through these phases multiple times, from NREM to REM sleep, with deep sleep predominating in the early part of the

night and bouts of REM sleep getting longer in the latter part of the night. REM sleep is when our brains process and store relevant events of the day, while deep sleep is when tissues are repaired and built, immunity is strengthened, and metabolic waste (including protein plaques and tangles that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease) is cleared from our brains.

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