Time for a Heart to Heart Chat about
Your Sleeping Habits
by Michelle M Pearson
February is our Heart-to-Heart month! February contains the famous holiday, Valentine’s Day, which is observed on February 14. (Yes, I put that in there on purpose so you wouldn’t forget!)
This month is a time to make special purposeful expressions of your love and thankfulness to others. So, as we celebrate these matters of the heart, our hearts turn to your heart and the things that will help keep it healthy so you can enjoy life longer and stronger!
Our first heart-to-heart is about your sleeping habits… because we care!
Recent medical studies provide substantial evidence that not getting enough sleep may have more serious consequences than falling asleep at your desk or dark circles under your eyes the next day. In 2008, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that lack of sleep, even missing as little as one hour per night, can promote the plaque build-up that over time can cause heart attacks and strokes.
This particular research team documented that just one hour less on average each night can increase coronary calcium build-up by 16%. So how much sleep are we talking here? The study showed that 27% of those getting less than five hours of sleep each night showed plaque in their heart vessels, while only 6% of participants getting more than seven hours each night showed such atherosclerosis.
While it is commonly accepted that familiar hazards for the heart such as smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes increase risk of heart disease and heart attacks, considering lack of sleep as a risk factor is relatively new to the medical community.
But not here at The Picture of Health. Why? Because we consider the design and function of the body, not the disease itself. Interestingly enough, these studies actually support our teaching that it is the lack of sleep (as well as slights in the other of the 7 Essentials for Health) that actually produces the high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in the first place.
Our powerful, revelatory teaching on the Endocrine System, available above in the Resource center, brings those factors into perspective. For example, did you know that without the proper amount of sleep nightly, say less than 6 hours per night on a regular basis, your risk of Diabetes, and therefore heart disease, increases by as much as a whopping 85%?
Part of the chemistry behind why lack of sleep impacts the heart is through elevated cortisol levels. Too little sleep can raise cortisol levels, a stress response hormone, which fuels inflammation, due to increased homocysteine levels, causing damage to tissues. That damage is what causes the body to send cholesterol to the “rescue.” Elevated cortisol levels also cause sugar cravings and mid-section weight gain. All of these are, again, contributing factors for heart disease.
Here are a few practical tips you can employ to help change your sleep patterns and form new healthy sleep habits:
- Choose to schedule adequate time for sleep. Make changes to your lifestyle that facilitate longer sleeping hours. Sleep should be a priority, not a result of whatever time you have left after everything is completed.
- Sleep in complete darkness to get maximum hormonal balance. Light or darkness each trigger brain chemicals that signal the body to complete different tasks. While you can “sleep” with the light on, your body never fully switches to “nighttime” mode, the critical phases when cleaning, healing, and repairing take place.
- Don’t sleep on a full stomach, or lying on your stomach. Either of these can cause sleep disruption.
- Let the brain sleep as well – turn off music, TV, and other stimulation so the brain will rest, repair, and rebuild! Your brain will stay active on things hours after it has registered them. Just as the eyes are triggers, continuous input through the ears will keep you from entering deep restful sleep.
- Lower the temperature in your bedroom – most people sleep with the room or the breathing air much to warm, which is another hindrance to the nighttime hormones kicking in. A drop in body temperature by a few degrees can help trigger stronger levels of melatonin, can signal the thyroid and other organs to cleanse, and can promote more restful sleep.
- Don’t exercise too close to bedtime – exercise kicks in the cortisol and adrenaline, your stress-hormones. These are at the opposite end of the spectrum from your sleep hormones. Be sure to allow plenty of time after your workouts to reduce your temperature, relax and unwind, and switch gears a bit before bedtime.
- Invest in both a good mattress and a good cervical pillow. The health benefits of this alone would take pages to share! But today, you are learning that a good mattress and pillow are good for your heart health!
- If you are a shift-worker, or work the night shift, be sure you regulate your schedule to accommodate your “night” hours. Most people who work shift work grab a few hours of sleep here and there without ever devoting 7-9 hours fully to getting a good “night’s” sleep. Wear a
sleep mask if you sleep days, so that you simulate night as closely as you can for the body’s hormonal cycles. Failing to do so can, over time, cause a complete change in your personality in addition to the strain on your heart.
In closing, let me say, I used to think I was a “night’ person. I could easily work all night several times per month in order to produce more while others were not around to be distractions. I’d catch up on my sleep later, gets loads done, and was young enough to think it didn’t harm me at all.
That is until I learned about the fearfully, wonderfully made body and discovered there is no such thing as a “night person”. The very design of your body dictates that very important things happen in the body at very specific times, some in the day and some in the night. If you work with the design, it produces health. If you work against it, it will produce dis-ease.
Sure, it appeared that I was doing just fine. But every night, every hour lost, was slowly resulting in silent damage inside. This slow, silent destruction does not show up until the diagnosis is serious and the consequences severe. Did you know that the early warning signs that most people who die from a heart attack have are… the heart attack itself?
This month as we talk heart-to-heart about matters of your heart health, the most important thing you can do is to honestly receive this truth:
You are in charge of the choices you make. You can change them if having a long, healthy life matters to you. Stop putting off changing your sleep and rest patterns simply because you have always done it a certain way, you enjoy doing things that certain way, or you have gotten away with bad choices for years with no apparent damage.
Every hour of life is precious. Invest in yourself an extra hour of sleep per night and your years of reward will more than be worth the changes you make right now. It’s your health. It’s your choice.
So, that’s our heart-to-heart today. If you struggle with making time to sleep, going to sleep, or staying asleep, or find that you could benefit from some practical take-away instruction on how the body responds, how to change these patterns, and how to renew the mind to health, join us monthly for The Joshua Groups coaching and twice weekly for new blog articles.
Stay tuned for more in the series, “Heart-to-Heart for Your Health” all month long – every Monday and Thursday morning!
(For more teaching on individual topics, please watch for our soon to be revealed NEW Products and Resources Page and get the downloads. There will be more than thirty hours of teachings available for your benefit!)
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Believe. Choose. ACTIVATE. Achieve. (Repeat.)
Michelle Pearson is a dynamic wellness coach, speaker, author, and the Founder & President of Picture of Health Inc. (http://thepictureofhealth.com). On a personal health journey for the past 21 years, Michelle’s mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life through the use of state-of-the-art educational resources to produce significant and lasting health breakthroughs.
Learn Anything? Please leave questions and comments below!
Dr. Michelle's mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life, ever-growing in the Kingdom of God.
Michelle is a mountain-taker in all expressions of her calling. Sometimes it is on literal mountains leading ladies on spiritual adventures in faith. Other days, it is consulting with Kingdom-minded businesses and ministries to develop professional website platforms and social media strategies. Still other times, you will find her training mountain-takers to possess their physical land - their health, spirit, soul, and body - teaching classes and doing wellness evaluations for churches and corporations large and small, as well as providing "secret service" concierge wellness services for other speakers and ministers.
Wherever the call of God takes her, she firmly believes it is time for Christian businesses, entrepreneurs, and ministry leaders to be diligent to ‘write the vision and post it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may be able to read it easily and quickly as they hasten by.’ And then ACT on the vision.
Read more About and Experience here: http://thepictureofhealth.com/michelle-2
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I always thought that college age peoples system was made up different …because they all seem to be night owls. Penne Stae University even offers courses after midnight …because that is when the students are wide awake…. is this just defying the way the body was designed? personally I love a good nights sleep …I think it is a gift .
I knew getting enough sleep was important for the body to rebuild itself, but I didn't realize that a lack of sleep actually caused abundant problems. Thanks for explaining it all. I will now try to sleep in the dark and cover up that annoying alarm clock light….. thanks.
How many hours nightly for sleep, do you recommend for teenagers?
I have always called myself a night owl too! Well, I am learning that sleep is so vital and I must make changes in my sleeping patterns if I want to enjoy the health God has intended for me. I have seen a direct correlation to my getting enough sleep and my PH level rising into a better range. I also know that I have less anxiety during the times that I get the proper amount of sleep. It is all a matter of making the right choices! Thank you Dr. Pearson and Michelle for sharing the truth. Thank you most of all Heavenly Father for bringing me revelation of the truth and opening my eyes to the truth and most of all for your patience and longsuffering!!!
It took me a while to get to the place where I turned off the TV before going to bed. It was an adjustment and I had a bad habit of falling asleep with the TV on thinking it lulled me to sleep. I had no idea lowering the room temperature a little would have such great benefits! I also like to sleep on my stomach, so now I have another adjustment to make. I had been wanting to change this since my girlfriend told me laying on your face causes wrinkles. I have no idea how much truth is in that one, but I certainly could be sleeping better and need these tips!
It was a new experience trying to sleep in our new call room in our new NICU!. You would certainly (at least for the most part) approve that it can be almost total darkness except for the blinking smoke detector and what I learned was the motion sensor that blinked green and then the center would turn red periodically. I kept hearing thumps and bumps overhead. Now adult critical care is above us, and I couldn't imagine what they were doing so frequently to cause so much noise. I leaned that it was the tube system that was making the thumps and bumps. The other bothersome thing was the air vent right above the bed making a lot of noise blowing air right on the bed. I have been told that the noise from these air vents is being addressed. It isn't quite so loud in the baby's rooms, so something can be done to make it a little quieter I'm thinking. I'm thinking that I'm not so much in agreement with the colder temperature to sleep though – I was cold, got awake being cold and shivering. Since the storage place for the laundry isn't quite established yet, I couldn't go get another blanket. I did think about putting my coat over the covers though! The thermostat said it was 70, but I'm thinking it isn't an accurate reading with that air blowing directly onto the bed. And, NO there isn't anywhere else the bed could be placed in the room. The room is a very oddly shaped place with the widest part being wide enough for a little bed table, the bed, and a nightstand – this is a twin bed too! The mattress and box springs are brand new and it has that memory foam stuff in the mattress. I will adjust to that input for sleep, it was just an interesting two days (really 56 hours) in the new unit! Thought you might enjoy knowing about our new call room!
Another great, informative article! I used to sleep with either a light on or the radio on. Now I sleep in complete darkness & silence and get much better sleep. And yes, it is definately an advantage to make sleep a priority not just when you have time to do it.