Dr Libby: How To Get A Better Night’s Sleep

Want to get a better night’s sleep? These silent saboteurs might be having a big impact on your sleep quality.

You’ve crawled into bed after a long day and you’re so tired you can barely keep your eyes open. Yet somehow, even though you’re exhausted, you have a lousy night’s sleep.

This problem is more common than you might think.

In a sleep survey conducted by Sleepyhead in 2022, nearly half of the 13,000 respondents reported that they experience sleep difficulties, with 63 per cent saying they have trouble sleeping through the night and 56 per cent experiencing restless sleep.

On top of this, 47 per cent struggle to fall asleep and over a third wake too early and can’t get back to sleep. Poor quality sleep is affecting our health and how we function through our days.

What happens when you get a bad night’s sleep?

When we don’t get enough sleep, everything is more difficult.

It affects our mood, how we feel about ourselves and our lives, the food choices we make (say hello to that 10am muffin and coffee and 3pm chocolate biscuit binge!) and how we speak to those we love most in the world.

Lack of sleep can increase inflammation in the body, which in turn is a risk factor for type-2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and poor digestive health and it adds another layer of stress to the body since it doesn’t have sufficient time to repair and restore.

So, if you’re that tired, why is it you can’t get the sleep your body is craving?

What does your morning routine have to do with it?

For some individuals, the cycle of poor sleep begins in the morning when they wake up.

Starting the day with caffeine can disrupt the body’s natural cortisol surge that provides us with vitality and sets the scene for healthy (not excess or deficient) cortisol production over the day and night.

How we choose to nourish ourselves in the first part of our day also tends to set up a pattern of either stable blood sugars or a rollercoaster of ups and downs that has us reaching for sugar-laden snacks, refined carbohydrate-rich foods, or more caffeine to combat the underlying fatigue.

This erratic energy supply can affect mood, concentration, and ultimately, our sleep cycle.

How we start the day is important and has the power to set the tone for the rest of the day so consider your morning habits and their impact on your overall wellbeing.

A more mindful morning routine can lead to increased productivity, improved mood and better sleep at the end of the day.

If your sleep quality could use a boost, try opting for a breakfast with plenty of protein and whole food fats such as poached eggs and avocado on good quality bread.

The lingering effects of caffeine can mean it’s still affecting us eight hours later so it’s also best to drink it in the morning.

Your sleep may also benefit from a period of physical or mental exercise like yoga or meditation, and the avoidance of potentially stress-inducing activities such as immediately checking emails or news upon waking.

How does nutrition affect your sleep?

Nutritional insufficiencies can also contribute to lousy sleep.

Magnesium and calcium help us to relax, while zinc is crucial for your body to be able to build melatonin — your sleep hormone — inside you.

Given zinc is required for hundreds of processes and there are very few food sources these days (oysters and red meats are the richest sources, and there’s a small amount in eggs and seeds like sunflower seeds), it has become a common insufficiency and can be another reason quality sleep is evading too many people.

The impact of screen time

Light destroys melatonin — whether that light is coming from a backlit device or a light above your head.

Given the extensive use of smartphones, tablets, laptops and many other electronic devices, it’s no surprise this too is affecting the quantity and quality of sleep we are getting.

Darkness is a natural cue to our body that it’s time to sleep, allowing melatonin to be produced.

Yet many people are circumnavigating this by staring at bright screens for hours after the sun has gone down and habitually checking their social media or emails before they go to bed.

Create a new habit of not using backlit devices for 90 minutes before sleep if sleep quality is a problem for you.

If you must sleep with your phone near you, switch to flight mode or its equivalent to prevent any notifications or noises in the middle of the night.

And like the light emitted from electronic devices, bright lighting at night can interfere with the signals our body gets that it’s time for rest.

Opt for a lamp or dimmed lighting at least two hours before bed. If you have street lights visible from your windows, try to block them out with curtains or a blind.

Tips for slowing down

If you’re go go go from the moment you wake up in the morning until your head hits the pillow, you’re asking a lot of your body to flip into sleep mode immediately.

We need to give our bodies and minds a chance to slow down. Incorporating an evening ritual that allows us to wind down from our day can mean the difference between lying in bed with our mind racing, tossing and turning because we can’t get to sleep, and easily drifting off into slumber.

Breathwork, meditation, gentle stretching, reading a book or even a cup of herbal tea, when done as part of an evening ritual, can signal to the body that it’s time to prepare for sleep.

What about if you find yourself tossing and turning as you mentally review to-do lists and what still needs to be done well into the night? This mental cataloguing can lead to adrenaline production, stimulating the fight or flight response.

Adrenaline does not want you to sleep deeply as it communicates to your body that your life is in danger. To counteract this, keep a pen and paper handy to capture your thoughts for the next day and commit to long, slow diaphragmatic breaths before bed. The latter helps to decrease stress hormone production and calm the mind.

While these silent saboteurs of sleep are pervasive, their impact is not insurmountable. By adopting these simple yet effective strategies, you can significantly enhance the quality of your slumber, leading to better energy levels and overall health.

Remember, a night of good sleep is not just a luxury — it’s a necessity for a vibrant, energetic life.

Dr Libby Weaver PhD is a nutritional biochemist, 13 times best-selling author and international keynote speaker. Visit Drlibby.com/courses

More from Dr Libby

From beauty sleep to blood sugar levels.

What happens when you don’t have enough ‘beauty sleep’? And how can you encourage a good night’s sleep?

How to manage your blood sugar levels. Our blood glucose levels can have a big impact on how we feel each day.

What to know about hormone imbalances. From sex hormones to stress hormones.

What you can do daily to lower (and prevent) inflammation. These simple changes may reduce low-grade inflammation.

The three stages of stress (and how to manage it). Is there such a thing as good stress?