TROUBLE SLEEPING? MY TOP 15 TIPS

I was never a great sleeper, all throughout my life. And you know what? It didn’t seem to get in the way of my studies at every school I attended or my work performance.

Until perimenopause hit me between the eyes…

Those hormonal roller coaster rides throughout my 40’s really knocked me on my ass a bit, my friend. So many work days had me running on fumes. I’d use up the energy I had to give great patient care, but once I got home, I crashed, only to then grab a second wind by 10 pm and be wired for hours, interrupting the much-desired sleep. 

Oh the tears those nights. I’d look at the clock, wide-eyed, at 3 am, and worry I’d have to white-knuckle it through the next busy work day all over again.

Just thinking like that was fatiguing, let alone operating on 4 or 5 hours of sleep over and over.

This dynamic all changed once I put my Functional Medicine hat on finally and applied my ridiculous amount of knowledge to my own healing journey. The puzzle pieces started falling into place and finally, I got sleeping 7-8 hours with very little disruption, night after night. 

I proved to myself what worked by  tracking with an Oura ring and the data didn’t lie - I was logging quality deep sleep with great REM periods, now with way more ease and repetition.

What worked? Well, I’m hear to give you the low down on my top tips that might at least get you started on sleeping better.

Sleep is ESSENTIAL for having a healthy body.

Sleep is when your brain drains debris through its glymphatic system, consolidates memories from the day, dreams up new ideas and makes some more sense of the world, and repairs itself.

MY TOP 15 TIPS TO GET YOU SLEEPING BETTER

Practice as many of the following tips, on repeat, as make sense for your needs, and show yourself that you too can Heal by Design and get consistent quality sleep. If you continue to struggle, give me a call to figure out the harder bits that my integrative medical training can help with. But, start with exploring the following…

🌞FIRST MORNING LIGHT

Rain, snow or shine, first morning light (or at least within the first hour) is Nature’s “reset button” for your body. It powers your circadian rhythm, helping stabilize the cortisol/melatonin rhythm needed for optimal energy throughout your day, then sleep throughout your night. 

Morning light helps your brain ramp up production of serotonin (which it converts to melatonin, by the way), dopamine, and alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, all key chemical signals that help regulate your mood, motivation and appetite. Just ensure you aren’t looking through glasses or windows for this morning light as you will have many of the important rays blocked.

Please make this a priority. It is life giving and extending! 

☕NO CAFFEINE PAST NOON

Honestly, this tip varies in its importance for people. Some have the genetics to metabolize caffeine super quickly, while others, like myself, break down caffeine very slowly. If you are in the latter category, please do not have any food with caffeine in the afternoons and evenings! Make this a non-negotiable habit. Caffeine can be so stimulatory that it can completely derail your sleep, even for some people who drink it at noon. Experiment and determine your cut off point and stick to it. 

I know from personal experience that in the darker months of Fall and Winter, if I have caffeine past 10 am, I’ll have a disrupted sleep. In the lighter months, I can tolerate caffeine to around noon or 1 pm. 

🍽️NO EATING 2 HOURS BEFORE BED

The hormone cortisol is in a rhythmic dance with the hormone melatonin throughout each day. Cortisol is higher first thing in the morning and ideally reduces by evening, while melatonin is ideally lower in the morning and increases in the evening, inducing sleep.

When you eat, cortisol is naturally increased. So, if you eat close to bedtime, you will naturally be causing cortisol to rise, thus impacting melatonin levels and therefore sleep.

Make this a nightly habit. Stick to it. It is one of the easiest ways to have a better sleep.

👣MOVEMENT AFTER SUPPER

Research has shown clearly that if you do even 10 minutes of movement with your biggest muscles (your legs) within 45 minutes of eating your meals, your cortisol and blood sugar spikes will be lessened. This means less weight gain, better energy availability, and in the evenings, better sleep. 

A 10-15 minute walk, or some squats, or standing on a vibration plate for 10 minutes are great options to explore. The goal is to make this a consistent habit after your supper at least to set yourself up for a better sleep.

🍷NO EVENING ALCOHOL

If you enjoy an evening sip of your favorite booze, you won’t love this tip. Sorry! But, the fact is, alcohol will disrupt the quality, if not also quantity, of sleep, no matter what. It’s a toxin and your body has to do a lot to get rid of it. 

Like with caffeine, there are fast metabolizers and slow ones, like me, for alcohol. So, maybe a fast metabolizer won’t notice as much impact from evening alcohol as a slow metabolizer. Either way though, it’ll have a negative impact to degrees.

Just know that if you choose to indulge a bit in the evening, accept that it will impact your sleep negatively. Just don’t do it often.

🥤SALTED WATER

This tip is particularly important for those who struggle with nighttime urination that wakes them. But, it’s a great tip for everyone unless they’ve been instructed to reduce salt intake by a physician for medical reasons.

I have found that drinking salted water in the early evening to be very helpful in helping me have a deeper sleep. I simply stop drinking at least one hour before bedtime so that I am not woken up to pee. 

The generally accepted rule of thumb is to salt a litre of filtered water with about ¼ teaspoon of non-iodized sea salt. Experiment with this tip and find what works well for you and do that nightly.

I’d like to add here that if you are not hydrating well each day, that one thing alone can negatively impact sleep quality and quantity. Dehydration is destructive to health. So, make hydration a major priority.

🕶️DARKNESS

Do the work to reduce blue light exposure in the evenings. I know you’ve likely heard this everywhere on social media and in other blogs. And, listen, I know it’s challenging to do this well. But, there is an excellent library of data supporting this as THAT important for the health of your body and longevity with increased health span. 

Ease into it if you’ve not yet mastered this action. My top suggestion is something I do every evening - I wear blue blocker glasses OVER my prescription ones when reading or alone when watching TV and cooking. Decent glasses for this are not super cheap, but in my opinion based on my experience with feeling rested and sleeping well, it’s a wise investment. And quality glasses last a long time. 

If you just don’t want to wear the glasses most evenings, then at the very least play around with keeping lights off more often, using red bulbs in lamps used in the evenings, and reading by salt lamp light (low lux) instead of an e-reader, computer, phone or incandescent bulb. 

Do some research and figure this out because it heavily impacts your quality of life. Light exposure - especially blue light - after the sun goes down, naturally interrupts your body’s natural melatonin production and can keep your cortisol elevated at a time it shouldn’t be. This influences not only your brain health and sleep, but also your appetite, stress perception and weight gain!

🛀MAGNESIUM 

The mineral, magnesium, is essential for your body for a lot of your chemistry. It is water soluble, so is easily lost through urination and sweating. Therefore, you must replenish it daily through food. Unfortunately, it is common to be lower in magnesium stores. Without enough, you’ll experience more stress, muscle strain, and poorer sleep. 

So, magnesium is a non-negotiable supplement for me every evening, without fail. Science shows it impacts the GABA receptors in the brain which help induce deeper relaxation. It also relaxes muscles naturally (and 100’s more actions). And listen up, your body uses it up very fast when stressed out, so replenish!

If you want to dose higher like I do, at 450 mg per night, ensure you are using magnesium glycinate. If you were to dose magnesium oxide or magnesium citrate at that level nightly, you’d likely end up with diarrhea. If you are prone to constipation, however, you can consider some magnesium citrate plus add in some magnesium glycinate. 

Magnesium is generally well tolerated on an empty stomach, so give it a try. Quality matters, by the way, so when doing your research on products, choose the cleanest brands. My go to for years has been Magnesium Glycinate Complex by Designs for Health. I recommend taking this at least an hour before bedtime with a little water so you can pee before bed so having a need to urinate isn’t the thing that wakes you up!

I additionally always add a couple of pumps of Magnesium Lotion by Ancient Minerals to my feet and hands at bedtime for an extra dose to help me sleep.

Equally, you might like to explore an evening salt bath in lieu of magnesium supplements (or with a lesser dose) or magnesium lotion or a sauna (if not yet in your budget to get one). The bath will warm you up and the magnesium will calm your nervous system, readying you for sleep. The best form of magnesium for baths for skin uptake is magnesium chloride, but a second best option is epsom salts. Keep these clean from additives. If you want to add some essential oils, add your own quality choices for sleep, such as lavender.

💊PROGESTERONE SUPPLEMENTATION

For me, taking progesterone in the evenings started in late perimenopause and has continued into post-menopause. Progesterone is one of your dominant flex hormones that is not only essential for reproduction but also for immune regulation, sleep, sugar control and much more. So, not only can it make the perimenopausal transition less challenging, since it helps balance out the chaotic estrogen changes at that time, it can preserve some of your sleep and keep inflammation down a bit too. 

Dosing, according to research at the time of this article, is supported at 100 - 200 mg nightly. This requires a prescription from a prescribing practitioner. Ensure you are receiving true progesterone and not a progestin. If you need support with this, I can help you.

Generally, progesterone will not be prescribed for women not yet in perimenopause, except to preserve pregnancy, in some cases. So, ensure you work with a qualified health care practitioner who understands current research for what might work best for you. If you do not qualify for a prescription, there are herbs that can help your body make more progesterone naturally, such as Chastetree (aka Vitex).

🫠SAUNA THERAPY

If you have a sauna or sauna blanket, this tip is for you. Warming your body with red light and heat before bed can really help get your body in a great state for deeper sleep. Sauna time can boost circulation, promote heat-shock proteins that repair mitochondria, and encourage relaxation. 

I like to do sauna therapy after my workouts in the mornings. But, on days I don’t do a strength training workout, I switch up the time to do it before bed for 20-30 minutes. I recommend doing a quick body rinse in the shower after, and go to bed.

A cost effective sauna option I endorse is the mobile sauna blanket called EMBERS Sauna Blanket by Orion. (Use my 10% discount code at checkout: KRISTA10)

🥶KEEP BEDROOM COOL

This is very useful for women in perimenopause and post-menopause when the natural thermostat can be a little wonky sometimes for many years. Keeping your bedroom cool can reduce your night sweats overnight which of course would interrupt your sleep. But, just keeping the temperature low is good for everyone as it supports a healthier sleep overall. 

Now, if you’re super cold at bedtime, you might find it tough to fall asleep in a cool room. If this is you, warm up before bed with sauna time, a warm shower, or even a hot water bottle at your feet. 

🛌WEIGHTED BLANKET

I LOVE my 15 pound weighted blanket, but only in the cold Fall and Winter months. I love the extra weight which helps me fall asleep quickly, but which also keeps my body heat in the sheets keeping me warm all night. My room is always quite cold all throughout the year, so in the colder months, keeping heat in my sheets works for me.

✍️BRAIN DUMP WRITING

I love this one! It worked so well for me in perimenopause and I still use it today in post-menopause. 

Before I read and do any type of meditation, I spend a few minutes free writing any top thoughts I have onto a notepad that I keep beside my bed. I brain dump as much as I can so that those thoughts are less likely to interrupt my sleep AND so I can have the list in the morning to refer to for things I wanted to remember to do. Game changer! 

📖READ

I’m a huge reader, but only get time to read books unrelated to work at bedtime. I love this time for myself and it really helps my mind switch gears and get ready for sleep. The imperative here though is to keep blue light down as much as possible. So, read with blue blocker glasses on, even if you wear yours over prescription glasses, and/or read to the low light of a salt lamp (only one lux). If you don’t do this, likely the blue light will interrupt your melatonin production.

🧘YOGA NIDRA & MEDITATION

Yoga Nidra is a meditative process where you listen to a recording of someone walking you through each area of your body and consciously bringing awareness and relaxation there. This one practice revolutionized my sleep early on. I started with practicing it nightly for between 20 and 30 minutes, listening to various recordings on my favorite meditation app, Insight Timer. After a couple of months of this, now I practice it nightly for my work week and sometimes take one or two days off over the weekend when I do other forms of meditation.

I also am a big proponent of using Binaural Beats for sleep some evenings. These are recordings of various tones that I listen to through the Spotify app. I prefer Yoga Nidra myself, but will sometimes switch it up with Binaural Beats for a change. They work well.

Of course, ANY form of meditation you are drawn to can be used at bedtime to help your brain and rest of your body get into a deeper state of relaxation, ready for sleep. The imperative here is to do some form of meditation consistently to get your body into the habit of expecting it and developing a relaxation habit at bedtime. Once you try one of these techniques for a week or two at a time, you’ll figure out the best that work for you. Do those on repeat.

FINAL INSIGHTS

Everything listed above are things I have learned to implement regularly for myself as I worked through the menopausal transition. Without enough quality sleep, I guarantee you will not thrive no matter what stage of life you’re in. So, do some or all these things. Experiment. Find what works for you right now. And know this might need to be adapted as you change and age. Pay attention. Sleep will do more for you than most things.

Mastering circadian biology is about building resilience into your body’s chemistry. Protect your light environment, hydrate deeply, get first morning sunlight exposure, time your eating, monitor your food choices with time of day and so on. Doing these things will teach your body how to rebound faster after the inevitable occasional disrupted nights and big stressors. These things tame the chaos.

Ok, lights out! ZZZ

Hugs,

Dr. Krista

DrAc, IFMCP

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