In functional medicine, sleep is recognised not only as the third pillar of health, but also as the foundation for health. 

“To sleep, perchance to dream… To sleep, perchance to heal” 

The World Health Organisation is now calling Sleep Deprivation a carcinogen (something that may cause cancer). Why is that? Because even after one night of sleep deprivation (a max of 4-5 hours of sleep), our natural killer cells in our immune system are lowered by 70%! We are actually preventing our immune system from working to do what it does best in our bodies - fight infection. So essentially, lack of sleep equals lack of healing! 

What else does sleep do? There are two other major functions of sleep. Firstly, our glymphatic system is similar to our lymphatic system (which moves cellular waste out from our bodies) except that it washes over our brain and removes the toxins and broken DNA (waste elimination of the brain). Then, it takes all of our learning and memories from the day and stores them into long term memory. So you can also see why a lack of sleep can contribute to a decrease in learning ability plus an increase in brain related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia. There is also research that shows that Osteopathy and Cranial Osteopathy can actually help assist with our lymphatic and glymphatic drainage (The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, March 2016, Vol. 116, 170-177. doi:10.7556/jaoa.2016.033).

Have you ever noticed that when you don’t sleep enough, you have a hard time making good eating decisions the next day and tend to eat more? That’s because lack of sleep also increases your hunger and decreases your metabolism (Circ Res. 2010 Feb 19;106(3):447-62). Why? So you will have more energy. 

If you are getting less than 6 hours a night of sleep and work out regularly, then you might be burning muscle instead of fat. Why? Because the body thinks you are in a state of alarm and wants to hold onto fat cells for emergency energy. “The amount of human sleep contributes to the maintenance of fat-free body mass at times of decreased energy intake. Lack of sufficient sleep may compromise the efficacy of typical dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction.” (Nedeltcheva AV, et al. Ann Intern Med. 2010 Oct 5;153(7):435-4)

If you are dealing with insomnia, then it’s best to try and look at the root causes which may include hormonal imbalances, infections, inflammation (leaky gut, food intolerances), chronic stress (as it keeps your cortisol levels high at night when they should be low), environmental toxins (blue light from mobiles and iPads stimulates the brain to wake up), or conditions such as sleep apnea. 

Better sleep hygiene? 

The 2018 American Academy of Sleep Medicine has a great list of recommendations on sleep hygiene which you can find HERE

Here are my fav tips:

  1. Remove your screen time 1-2 hours before bed. Don’t take the chance of your brain being too stimulated by the blue light from electronics. Important for children too! It can also help to wear blue light blocking glasses when in front of screens during the day. 
  2. Remove caffeine, tea of soda after 2PM. These are stimulants and adding fuel to the insomnia fire. 
  3. Go to bed at the same time each night and wake the same time each morning. Our bodies love routine. 
  4. Develop an evening wind-down of your own. As kids, we were given a bath and then a bedtime story. This would signal to our brains that it is time to sleep. Think of an enjoyable routine for yourself. Is it an Epsom salt bath with a few drops of lavender? A good book? Relaxing music? You can try this Nighttime Tea recipe to help soothe you. 
  5. Avoid exercising before bed. Unless its a gentle, restorative yoga routine, you might be stimulating your cortisol/adrenaline too much and therefore preventing you from falling asleep. Remember, cortisol should be kept low at night. 


If you really are struggling with sleep, I can help you with some 1:1 coaching. Please email me at carolyn@theperrymount.com for more info.