Sleep and Nutrition have a bigger connection than you may realize. If you’re suffering from insomnia, the issue might lie in your diet. This piece will explain why sleep is so important and how nutrition and sleep relate to each other - and how a blended juice cleanse detox can help you out if you’re not getting as much shuteye as you should.
Dangers of Sleepless Nights
There are a host of issues that come with not getting enough sleep. No matter how healthy you eat and how much you exercise (and how much you juice cleanse), you can still ruin your health by not getting that needed shuteye. Sleep is so important because this is the time when your body and mind can regenerate and recover from being active all day long. This means that sleep isn’t just important for physical health, but for mental health and cognitive abilities as well.
The most obvious symptom of lack of sleep will be, well, sleepiness. That sounds benign, but trying to get anything done during a day when you haven’t had enough sleep is a real chore. This sleepiness can conceal some more severe effects, such as lack of alertness, problems with memory, increased stress, and difficulty concentrating and exercising. Lack of sleep can also severely impact your immune system.
And that’s just the issues you’ll run into during the short term! Poor sleep patterns over an extended period can lead to some significant health issues. The stress caused by lack of sleep can lead to conditions such as hypertension and stress eating, which can lead to greater weight. Lack of sleep can even mess with the hormones that help regulate your cardiovascular system - this means even more weight being put on, as well as an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Lack of sleep can also lead to severe or worsening depression or anxiety over time.
Tips for Better Sleep
Human society has been doing its best to ruin our ability to sleep in a variety of ways. Too much light in the evenings, and too many glowing screens, tend to confuse our body’s ability to slow down functions in preparation for sleep. The best schedule for sleep involves at least an hour of “downtime” before bed - nothing beats a good book for this. Not only does this relax you, but it also starts to train your brain to associate the time before bed with winding down.
Scheduling is also important. It can be all about when you get up in the morning, as much as when you get to bed. If you can get up at a consistent hour, you’ll start to train your body to go to sleep at a proper time to wake up at that hour.
It’s also important to have a sleeping space free from distractions. For many of us this can be difficult, but cutting down on sound and light is important. If your bed isn’t giving you the comfort you need, you may want to look into a change of mattress or pillows.
And then there’s the very interesting link between sleep and nutrients, which we’ll get into here next. As they say, you are what you eat - and you want to be someone with a body ready for sleep!
Nutrition and Sleep
As you can see, there are plenty of methods to achieve better sleeping habits. One of the most potent methods is actually nutritional. A healthy diet can mean the difference between peaceful slumber and sleepless nights.
We mentioned earlier that lack of sleep can prompt you to start making bad dietary decisions. This relationship works in reverse. Having a proper intake of a wide variety of vitamins and minerals has been shown to improve sleep quality. If you’re missing a key vitamin or other nutrients, you may start to have issues sleeping.
Why is this? Studies are still being done on this, but we do know that sleep is closely related to the complex chemistry in our brain. We also know that getting the right vitamins and minerals improves the function of that brain chemistry - this is why a bad diet can lead to you feeling gross not just physically, but mentally. Our brain releases certain chemicals when it’s time to sleep to help us drift off. If we’re missing the important components of those chemicals, our brain is going to struggle to properly turn itself off and rest. And a brain without rest is going to be an unhappy brain.
Conversely, diets that are too high in carbs may make you feel drowsy during the day but can ruin your sleep when night rolls around. And we all know what diets that are too heavy in sugar and caffeine can do to you - these substances are some of the worst offenders when it comes to ruining sleep schedules.
This is why blended juice cleanses tend to be so great for helping sleep. Firstly, the best diets for sleep are those that are filled with fruits and vegetables (and all those amazing vitamins contained within). Not only does a blended juice cleanse make sure you’re getting a wide range of veggies, but the fact that they are raw means that fewer of those key sleep vitamins have been removed in the prep process. This means your brain is getting everything it needs for a proper shutdown.
Blended juice cleanses are also a great way to give your body a break from carbs, sugar, and caffeine, so you don’t need to worry about any of these substances playing havoc with your ability to get some shuteye. Blended juice cleanses are a great way to feel energetic and focused during the day, and still get plenty of sleep at night.
Want to start to improve your sleep duration and feel amazing during the day? Then give our Chef V blended juice cleanses a spin. With even just a few days you’ll be feeling significantly better - rocking your days, and sleeping sounding during your nights.