Sleep Peacefully Safely

Something which we all do and we all have in common and is important for our health, well-being and our cognitive performance. Sleep is essential to us and as natural to us as breathing is. It is very obvious that 84% of the population from all walks of life have problems sleeping throughout their lives, especially those who do shift work. Sleep is a part of our lives where we spend one-third of our lives and knowledge of sleep is not taken seriously or even taught. Although I can not speak for everyone, this article should at least help you in some ways.

Our body's internal biological clock is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) ; it is made of around 50,000 brain cells and receives light directly from the eyes via the optic nerve. Thus light is responsible for regulating our sleep patterns as well as controlling a number of other functions such as hormones, temperature and sleep patterns.

As responsible adults we have free will at what time we go to sleep, but are we being strict enough as workers to look after ourselves and our health? Without proper sleep a number of physical and psychological problems can arise without enough rest, and it is only a matter of time where sleep can have a detrimental effect as we get older. During my time at a number of jobs especially driving I see a number of drivers falling asleep in many areas of the business, luckily not at the wheel. Physical exhaustion can be very detrimental to our health, the most important time is now, this moment and to get here to be present we need to make sure we are fully topped up. How do you feel when your phone battery is on red and low percentage? We need to charge it right? So why not treat our body and mind the same as our smartphones.

Although I can not speak for everyone as all our lives are different away from work, we do all have one thing in common and that is our sleep, or at least we would like more sleep. Hands up in your mind if you would like to have longer in bed, or at least a better night's sleep.

However, our normal sleeping patterns can be changed due to different shift patterns and other factors come into play such as issues or problems at work or how far away you live from work. Regardless of your social life, you should always work around your sleep pattern, the hours of the day and how much sleep you get in preparation for your working shift. Even though how much mental or physical stress you are under, a good night's sleep is vital and could/can save your life.

From the time our heads touch our pillow and we are ready for sleep, sleep doesn’t happen straight away. On average it takes roughly 5--20 minutes to get into a deep sleep. And from this point, there are several stages of sleep.

So here I am not going to go into the details of the science of sleep and research, otherwise, I would end up writing a book on this subject. You can find more information on this on the links I've provided below by a company I trust and follow. I just want to go straight to the facts, some of this information & sleep tools which I have used for over a decade have continued to assist me and have helped many other people too. So I will break these down into categories and try to make it as short as possible.

Sleep Cycles
One important part of sleep is to understand the stages of sleep.

Stage one - NREM is the transition between fully awake and alert to sleep. This can be anything from 5-20mins
Stage 2 - NREM Body temperature drops, heart rate, brain rhythms, and breathing slows down
Stage 3 - NREM Whole-body relaxes, including muscles, breathing rate drops and this is where deepest sleep occurs.
Stage 4 - REM (Rapid Eye Movement) body becomes totally relaxed and immobile this is where dreams occur.

A full sleep cycle can be on average around 90mins / 1.5hours, this is called ultradian sleep cycle and is the transition between NREM-REM. We usually have between 5-6 sleep cycles per night. Breaking this cycle can cause irritability and sluggishness. Our body clock is very very accurate, ever woken up minutes before your alarm goes off? And go back to sleep, only to wake up feeling even more tired? It's best to wake up and stay up, When you wake up naturally this is the best time to wake up. If you think 5-10 minutes is going to help you, it usually doesn't.

Diet (Physical Energy)

Making sure to eat enough calories throughout the day enables your body to function properly and have the physical energy to burn for sleep.

Whatever your diet is, it doesn't matter, just make sure to eat as close to nature as possible and involve the right minerals and vitamins in your diet. If that is from a plant or animal I'm not here to tell you what to eat, however, I find that taking amino acids really helps in the quality of sleep. In amino acids, powder, capsule or pill you will find that on the back of a container L-Glycine will usually be the highest dose ingredient in all the amino acids. So taking amino acids or just 3 grams of clean L-Glycine before going to bed helps shorten how long it takes for you to fall asleep, lowers body temperature which is vital for sleep. This amino acid enhances sleep quality to its a very useful tool, especially for shift workers.

Hydration

Water is the key to keeping your body functioning well, don't rely on caffeine or tea throughout the day especially many many hours before trying to sleep, switch to de-cafe if you prefer the taste. Always aim for more water throughout the day. Having a bottle with you all times is better, frequent small sips of water is better than large quantities in one go. The more your body has a constant supply of water, the also your immune system is healthy and clean.

What people don't usually know is that any type of chocolate before going to bed is a stimulant, as the cacao bean which is where chocolate comes from is a bean just like the coffee bean, although from different trees, they stimulate you. You want to avoid as much physical and mental stimulation before going to bed. The time before bed is a time to slow down your day.

Keeping hydrated throughout the day is essential for bodily functions, during both winter and summer. With lack of hydration we become sluggish and irritable, especially during the colder winter months, where our body needs to flush out toxins from being inside more often. Being dehydrated leads to stress within the body and prone to more illness. We can be around 60% - 85% made of water, and many different parts of our body and organs are of different water density.

When I have just finished a 12-14 hour shift and have to do a similar shift the next day, the first thing I do from arriving home is I put the kettle on, and I make a big tea of camomile flowers, passion flowers and valerian. Strain the brew and I mix in 3 grams of L-Glycine powder. This takes a little time to digest so I am not interrupting my sleep by going to the toilet all night. If you are not a fan of drinking herbal teas, give it a try but if not, and for you smokers out there you can mix 'some' of these sleepy herbs in with your tobacco for a smoke, just make sure not to smoke and drive. You can also get healthy ingesting essential oils that are safe for internal use such as vapes. Whatever you intend to do, just make sure to do your research and always purchase the best quality ingredients and if necessary speak to your doctor if you are unaware if anything that affects any medication or heart problems.

Light & darkness

Natural light is essential for our normal waking functions, with the right amount of sunlight (direct sunlight, even through clouds) helps our body to absorb Vitamin C & D, helps strengthen our immune system & bones, keeping our blood cells healthy and helps us absorb certain minerals like calcium, phosphorus and other important minerals.

Unnatural light has detrimental effects on us during fully awake hours and times before and during sleep. With the current use of social media, smartphones and tablets the blue light that emits from phones can be very damaging to our sleep state, tricking our body to be awake more than it should and not preparing our body naturally before sleep. There are ways around this by installing software to your phones, tablets and laptops which takes away the blue peak from screens. If it is very important for you to be writing or doing work before you go to bed, install software such as f.lux or twilight. This turns your screen to a red/orange hue taking away the blue peak, and relaxing your eyes not making you feel wired and not prepared for sleep at all. Don't worry you can adjust it manually if you happen to be doing some media editing, but it has really helped me to relax my eyes and not cause eye strain.

Another addition which I have found very useful is using different colour lens glasses. I use yellow glasses at different times throughout the day. When it is dark, this helps glare when driving, and helps relax the eyes from eye strain, the best thing about this is during very cloudy days it makes everything look sunny, bright and beautiful and I notice how good my mood has been during wearing these. If I am busy before going to sleep I then switch to red lens glasses. I use these especially during times in the day when it's still light when it's almost bedtime. This has made a huge difference to preparing for sleep.

Darkness

But the most helpful is total darkness. We all know that we want to come home after a long shift, have a shower, get packed for the next day, and then sit down and chill out before going straight to bed, i don't know about other people but this is what I do. We need to unwind from our day before we can actually sleep. A very useful tool is using a blindfold before going to bed. I find just 30mins in total darkness before sleep, helps prepare my mind and body for sleep. I use a blindfold called MindFold, it wraps around your face, and is really comfortable that even in direct sun with your eyes open while wearing it, you can't see any light at all.

Being in darkness before sleep is very essential as your brain will produce the hormone melatonin naturally from being in darkness. Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland in the centre of our brain and it is then released into the bloodstream. However, the presence of white light will cause melatonin production to stop.
So also being hydrated allows this hormone to absorb throughout your body much better. Be creative and try it, if you don't have a good quality eye mask, try a towel, scarf or snood, just always make sure to set an alarm in case you do happen to fall asleep. I usually set two alarms, an alarm 5minutes before I have to get into bed, this allows time for me to switch everything off and get comfortably into bed, plus it helps to have a set routine. As much as this sounds like lots of work and preparation, it really is not.
What to do during darkness before going to sleep? Again be creative, unwind with an audiobook, listen to a subject that you like. There are plenty of different subjects and topics you can find online, TedX talks, audiobooks, documentaries on YouTube or even put on Netflix, or a film you know and listen to in the darkness. Going home to spend some quality time with your partner or spouse, if you want to spend time with each other just talk and explain to them what you are doing, give it a go and relax in darkness, phone a friend or better still try some meditation.

Meditation

Meditation is something that you already do and you are totally unaware of doing it. Meditation isn't about sitting crossed-legged on the floor or doing yoga. You can meditate anywhere anytime, and it doesn't have to be long. There is no right way or wrong way to meditate. Just allow your mind to do what it does, if there is something on your mind, it will pass, just allow the day’s worries and concerns to pass through you, if you think of something just allow it to be present and it will pass, you may even find you enjoy it, you may get inspiration, motivation, ideas or usually a reflection on the day’s issues, goals and occurrences. Meditation is a filter and the best time to do a short meditation is before sleep, it gives us quality time to ourselves, and helps reset and reflect on our day. It so natural that almost all animals do it, we do it too, during our hobbies usually by listening to music, painting, gardening, cooking, walking, doing sport, washing, bathing, when our logical mind (left brain) is distracted and letting go we allow our right brain (creative intuitive mind) to daydream, reflect, we all meditate in our way, we are just not aware that we are doing it.

There are many other sleep tools out there, such as weighted blankets which helps relieve anxiety and a sense of feeling safe and helps keep you feeling comfortable and relaxed, your sleeping position also affects your sleep. Grounding/earthing mats. I use these, this connects you to the natural earths free electrons from the ground into the body, there is much science and results from this such as from live blood analysis to jet pilots having better cognitive and deeper sleep, from relieving inflammation in the body, and with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) for athletes, releases pain, mood and also helps to relax the body and mind.

Sound & music

Another very important tool which I use is binaural beats, these are audio tones generated by stereo headphones to produce a whole focused brainwave state of your desired choice, and for this purpose Delta, delta being lower tones. Imagine that our brain is an engine, the faster its brain pulses (cycles per second Hz) the faster and more active our brain is during fully awake and alert consciousness. Beta 13-25hz is what you are currently in now. Alpha 8-13hz is a relaxed state. During meditation, it is slower being in Theta (4-8 hz) and Delta during sleep being (0.5 - 4 hz). Hz being cycles per second or you could see it as 'brain pulses'. Listening to pure tones when going to sleep helps entrain your brain into a deeper state of relaxation and a more deeper sleep. Try to avoid speaking or listening to voices during sleep, as it keeps your brain more active. If you are to download binaural beats, never download them offline from videos as they will never work, as they will be compressed. Make sure to purchase titles like super-sleep, sleeping through the rain from companies like Hemi-Sync which have been going for over 60 years.

My personal routine

My routine from finishing work on a long shift and then doing another long shift the next day. I wear my yellow glasses when driving home and at home. I have my herbal sleepy tea with L-Glycine. I have a shower, put my red glasses on and pack my bag or do what I need to do around the home for the next day. Then I relax and unwind in darkness either speaking to my partner or listening to something on YouTube while wearing my blindfold or meditating. Depending on the time I need to go to bed, once it is time I usually calculate that I need to be in bed for about 8 hours. Leaving me a 15-20 minute window for laying down and falling asleep. If i can get more sleep in that time, then I will use most of my sleeping time for rest. Once I am in bed I put on my blindfold with headphones listening to binaural beat tones and laying on my grounding/earthing sheet. So far this has helped me to get a better quality of sleep.

This is my routine I want to share with you, although everyone's routine, time, social life outside of work is different I can not speak for everyone, but doing these shifts, these are the tools which I have found which work for me and help me have a better quality night's sleep not just in this job but also in many other previous jobs. Just one thing to be aware of is the times you go to sleep during your day's off, making sure to try to be as close to your working hours as possible, otherwise, it can take a long time for your body clock to adjust, and the older you get the harder it can become.

If you are on your day off and have to get up early the next day for work, it's always best to get up as early as what seems comfortable to allow your sleeping cycle to get in alignment. Plus and the bonus is that you get more time to do the things you want to during the day. Applying these tools now can really help you to have the emotional tools for future situations. In regards to supplements try and stay away from synthetic melatonin supplements as this can be hard for your body to then produce it naturally.

Light Machines
Light machines using photic driving are a similar way of how binaural beats work. Although I mentioned that lights can affect the quality of sleep, it depends on what light is used. A standard light bulb can produce a frequency of well over 200hz (also known as Lambda Frequency). It's the highest brain wave state. Purposely made light machines like roXivas RX1 have pre-installed programmes that use close to daylight LED bulbs, which flicker in specific ways to give you psychedelic visuals, a very beautiful experience. The flicker rate can be programmed to flicker 0.5 - 4hz which can put you into deeper states of consciousness such as meditation or sleep. Experienced meditators have used light machines after many years of meditation. These light machines can produce brain effects of 15 years of experience in 15 minutes. Very powerful devices used for people across the world in many professional areas. Many businesses's now wellness centres, especially as mental health is something which is very more highlighted now. And the most successful people out there do meditation. .

If this article helped you and you enjoyed it, you can read more on this subject from the links provided below:
This article has been a mixture of my own knowledge and experiences for 20+ years of my own experience. The light machine I use is from roXiva that has an array of wellness information.

This research was done on myself what best suited me, you can read more about the better sleep series on the roXiva website:

https://roxiva.com/better-sleep-series-volume-one/

https://roxiva.com/better-sleep-series-volume-two/

https://roxiva.com/better-sleep-series-volume-three/

My Best wish to you in your sleep state