Are you Missing the Daily Reboot?
You wake up groggy and without energy. Your first cup of coffee cannot come quickly enough and you’re wondering if you are going to make it through the morning. You may say things like “I’m just not a morning person” or “I just don’t function without my morning coffee.”
If this sounds like you here’s some good news. You may have heard endless conversations from health care professionals about the importance of sleep but perhaps breaking down the real reasons for rest are important since “feeling rested” may not seem like a good enough reason to get to sleep at a decent hour.
The organs of your body start to reset during sleep. Let’s start with the timeline.
Your body’s natural melatonin starts to increase about 2 hours before sleep, anywhere between 8-10 pm, with an ideal bedtime of 10-10:30 pm. When you are in bed by 10:30 your body’s organs start to reset to help recover for the next day.
If you decide to “bypass’ this natural rhythm and rally for a second wind your cortisol levels can surge to keep you awake. This is when you begin to be behind the eight ball.
What happens after 10 pm to start with resetting your organs for optimal health?
The resetting process starts as follows:
Between 11-1 the gallbladder resets. The gallbladder is intimately involved in digestion of food as it stores the bile made by the liver, helps with breakdown of fat and helps the body eliminate toxins.
Between 1 and 3 is the time when the liver organ system is at its peak. The liver has over 500 functions, but its most important are to store, cleanse, and detoxify the blood. It is the largest organ after the skin and is the only organ that can completely regenerate itself.
Between 3-5 am your lungs reset. The lungs are the largest organ of detoxification and help assist us to be in the parasympathetic (relaxed) state.
Between 5-7 your large intestine resets which allows for elimination when you wake up.
You can imagine if you are going to bed on a regular basis in the wee hours of the morning you are already behind, and your organs may not be able to do their job to the best of their ability thereby predisposing you to the sluggish feeling every morning but more importantly health concerns.
These organs are intimately involved in metabolism (trouble losing weight?), blood glucose and cholesterol metabolism (high glucose or high cholesterol?), detoxification of heavy metals and endocrine disruptors (don’t feel great and can’t put your finger on it?) and the list goes on and on.
Although sleep is complicated, sleep hygiene is not one to ignore for ultimate health so perhaps this holiday season give yourself the gift of rediscovering rest and see if your mornings start to change for the better – you might not even need that second cup of coffee.
