Healthy Sleep Enhances Detoxification

How important is healthy sleep during your detox and beyond? Getting enough sleep, and the right kind of sleep, is just as important as food and water for your body. Inadequate or restless sleep could sabotage the success of your detox program.

During sleep, your body releases vital hormones that assist in the growth of healthy cells, healing of tissues, and fighting off infections. According to the National Institutes of Health, “Studies find that the less people sleep, the more likely they are to be overweight or obese, to develop diabetes, and to prefer eating foods that are high in calories and carbohydrates.” ¹

Your body takes care of a number of critical tasks during healthy sleep. It’s much more than simply resting. This is a time for rejuvenation, rebuilding and reprogramming. Your brain stays active during sleep and your body goes through several different cycles throughout the night. During these different stages your body focuses on tasks such as neutralizing and processing toxins, replenishing energy to your different organ systems, processing memories and assimilating information.

The Raw Materials of Healthy Sleep

When your body becomes depleted by a diet of refined foods, stress, alcohol, tobacco, drug use, and/or environmental toxins, it lacks the raw materials to create these hormones. Some people attempt to remedy this by taking melatonin supplements. This fails to address the original cause of depletion. Synthetic hormones can cause dependency, as the body begins to expect the external source and fails to produce its own.

Encourage your body to produce its own sleep hormones by detoxifying your system, eating whole foods, and limiting external stress. The basic nutrients found in whole foods, especially B vitamins, are needed to manufacture these hormones.

Specific foods can provide these hormones as well. You probably know that turkey has lots of tryptophan. But did you know that spirulina, pumpkin seeds, brewer’s yeast and almonds are also great sources of tryptophan? Foods that supply melatonin include oats, sweet corn, daikon radish, brown rice, tomato, and banana.²

How Much Sleep is Healthy?

So there is not a set rule here – but getting roughly 7-8 hours of sleep when you are detoxing is recommended to support this important healing process. You need to allow your body the time to regenerate and perform its nightly detoxification. If you are deprived of sleep you will be less capable of maintaining your detox program – you will be more likely to have cravings and more likely to succumb to them. Lack of sleep will also rob your body and your brain of valuable resources for healing and for coping with stress.

The quality of your sleep is equally important to the amount of time you sleep. If you are in bed from midnight until 9 a.m. but spend 1 hour restlessly trying to fall asleep, another hour awakened during the night, and a final hour snoozing after your alarm goes off – you are not getting a full 7-8 hours of healthy sleep.

Many of us know that with young kids, dogs, and other interruptions, it’s not always possible to sleep continuously for 8 hours. But following a few tips and developing healthy sleep habits will help you to achieve the best possible sleep. During your detox program particularly, building in a healthy sleep routine will make a huge difference for your energy and health.

On the other hand, if you go overboard and spend too much time sleeping or trying to sleep, this may be counterproductive as well. It can create a foggy, dazed feeling as well as deprive you of time to take care of yourself in other ways. Even an extra half hour in your day may allow you time to prepare a detox recipe or use a detox tool like an exercise routine, a detoxifying bath or a sweat treatment.

Gentle exercise or other relaxation treatments will rejuvenate your mind and body, as well. Even 20 minutes of deep relaxation, such as lying in “corpse pose” after a yoga routine, is a healthy substitute for an extra hour of sleep.

How to Develop a Healthy Sleep Schedule

Other experts suggest following your bodily impulses to sleep and wake. In this philosophy you would wait until you’re truly tired to go to sleep and then allow yourself to wake up naturally without an alarm. This may work well biologically but can be impractical in a modern lifestyle that demands more predictability.

Combining these practices to suit your individual needs seems to be the healthiest and most practical. Pay attention to your personal rhythms and energy levels throughout the day to find out what works best for you.

It may take practice to learn to respond to your sleep hormones. We have found that if we don’t make it to bed by 10 pm, we get a “second wind” that sometimes keeps us up until 2 or 3 in the morning!

According to Ayurvedic wisdom, our bodies go through a cycle of phases throughout the day. The phase intended for detoxification is from 10 pm through 2 am. Being asleep with a fairly empty stomach is the best way to maximize this detoxification phase. Earlier in the night is also the time of deepest sleep. Ayurveda says that an hour of sleep before midnight is equal to two hours after midnight.

But if you have trouble falling asleep, or any type of insomnia, don’t go to bed when you aren’t truly tired. Instead choose a calming activity, like reading or taking a bath, until you are truly sleepy.

For more tips on how to assess when you’re sleepy and how to create an effective, healthy sleep schedule, check out this popular article on How to Become An Early Riser.

Tips for Healthy Sleep

• Avoid stimulants. Caffeine from coffee, tea, sodas, and chocolate can take as much as 8 hours to wear off. Nicotine is also a stimulant. Even healthy stimulants like Maca Powder or Raw Cacao are best to avoid later in the day.
• Avoid sedatives. Alcohol for a “night cap” or other types of sedatives may help you fall asleep but you will tend to wake during the night when the sedating effect wears off. The unnatural sedation also disrupts the natural sleep cycle.
• Include whole grains in your diet. When whole grains are properly prepared, chewed well and eaten regularly, they provide energy and endurance, calm nerves and encourage deep sleep.² Be sure to follow our simple whole grain preparation instructions to ensure the maximum benefit.
• Don’t exercise too late in the day. Exercise is a natural energizer and stimulant, so allow at least 3 hours between exercise and your general bedtime.
• Avoid a large meal or beverages before bed. A late meal will keep your body actively digesting and disrupt sleep. Drinking too many fluids will wake you up in the night to urinate.
• Take only short naps early in the day. “Cat naps” are a great form of healthy sleep, especially while detoxing or any time your body needs extra time to heal. They are energizing and boost your brain power. But keep them to less than an hour and don’t nap after 3 p.m. This will keep your naps from disrupting a good night’s sleep.
• Relax before bed. Take a hot bath, listen to relaxing music, or read a pleasurable book before you go to sleep. This will naturally unwind your mind and body and stimulate healthy sleep hormones. Avoid watching TV as a form of relaxation before bed. Television stimulates your mind in ways that are counterproductive to healthy sleep.
• Get enough sunlight. Exposure to sunlight helps to regulate your biological clock and induces healthy sleep patterns. Make sure to get outside in natural sunlight at least 30 minutes per day.
• Don’t lie in bed awake. If you lie in bed unable to sleep for more than 20 minutes, get up and engage in a relaxing activity until you feel sleepy. The anxiety of lying awake in bed will only make sleeping more difficult. Any stress about your sleep patterns is more harmful than the actual lack of sleep.
• Finally, don’t worry! Worrying about lack of sleep is again worse than the actual lack of sleep. Especially if you are trying to shift your sleep routine, you may be off balance and tired for a day or two… take care of yourself, be kind to your body, and use your detox tools. Stay on your detox program and trust that your body will find its rhythm and regain balance over time.

¹ Your Guide to Healthy Sleep, National Institutes of Health, NIH Publication No. 06–5800, April 2006

² Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition (3rd Edition), by Paul Pitchford