Today I share another piece of my book… about Sleep and Food + Health and Lucidity
"Food and sleep
Eating routines depend somewhat on your chronotype. Nevertheless, here are some general guidelines:
The sun’s rays nourish us, give us vitamin D and reset our circadian cycle. The sun also helps us wake up - serotonin during the day, with 20 minutes’ exposure to the sun, turns into melatonin at night.
Sunlight is the most natural for our cycle (natural body). It is what regulates our entire system. As much as possible, it’s a good idea to adopt a routine in which you go to bed with the sunset and wake up with the sunrise. This way, the entire body regulates itself naturally.
When you feel a low in energy, the sun helps (to energize), as does the warmth of our beloved humans and animals.
Each person has their own food that allows them to relax (or not) and that supports sleep.
The most important thing is for each of us to know what relaxes us, gives us peace, harmony and makes it easier to be centered, helping us to sleep well.
Banana and peanut butter are great for a bedtime snack. This is because Dr. Michael Breus and many other experts in this area recommend that we eat three or three and a half hours before bedtime (the ideal is to eat before the sun sets). With this distance, if you feel hungry close to bedtime, banana or peanut butter will help, as well as oatmeal and other foods that contain sleep-friendly nutrients.
Experiment that you can do with the help of the sleep chart: eat two nights before the sun sets and two nights you eat close to bedtime and at night. Or do it organically, with awareness.
Once again, of course there are exceptions in life and, sometimes, this is not possible to do, but these exceptions are possible to provide you with a good sleep, thanks to a sleep already consolidated before.
Good breakfast foods: pear-avocado and egg.
There are very good things about caffeine, but you need to be careful. Sugar and caffeine interfere with our ability to relax. For those who have trouble falling asleep, you can drink coffee (and eat sweets with sugar) only until 2pm, this is because caffeine remains active for up to 7 hours after we consume it (without us noticing). Pay attention to the caffeine and sugar present in some foods other than coffee.
Hydration
During the night our brain continues to work, albeit at a different frequency and vibration and, together with breathing, sometimes with an open mouth, we become dehydrated. Therefore, when waking up, it is very good to drink water (warm or cold) - to re-hydrate the body. If possible, sunlight also helps. Caffeine only 90 minutes later. For the bravest: cold shower that stimulates a very important nerve for dealing with stress and feeling peace: the vagus nerve.
Depending on each chronotype, you can adjust your routine with everything that has been said so far.
Sleep and Weight
There are several glands that influence our feeling of fullness from what we eat. When we don’t sleep well, it’s harder for us to feel “full” (satisfaction with what we’ve eaten). Everything you do for your sleep also has an impact on your weight.
The golden rule is to know yourself. If you still don’t know what food relaxes you, the invitation is to find out. Each organism is unique and each person reacts differently to certain foods.
Supplements that help you fall asleep and get quality sleep
» Magnesium and vitamin B6 together is a good food supplement. It should be recommended by a naturopath, therapist or doctor. It can help strengthen your system and relax your body.
» Another recommended supplement is vitamin D, ideally with sunlight.
» Another possibility is Cannabidiol.
» Melatonin also helps you sleep better.
» Glycine, which is generally present in collagen supplements, also helps you sleep well.
But it is important to have support in these choices.
Sleep and liquids
One of the reasons for waking up at night is to pee. This can change with a very simple solution: only drink liquids until 2pm - soup included. There will also be exceptions here when intuition tells you that you need, for example, to drink mint tea to digest something more difficult from dinner.
Once your sleep is consolidated, the night can still be good, even if you drank tea that comforted you on a special night.
The combination of these food guidelines and dimming the lights, might be enough to make you feel like you slept well and wake up with a lot of energy.
Health and Lucidity
There are incredible multiple benefits of doing Thalassotherapy and experiencing extreme temperature differences.
Advantages of heat therapies (sauna or Turkish bath):
Eliminates weak mitochondria;
Repairs damaged proteins;
Slows down aging;
Reduces the risk of death;
Helps to reduce weight;
Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure and stroke;
Promotes detoxification.
Advantages of a cold shower (after the sauna):
Activates some of the physical changes that occur with physical exercise;
Activate your vagus nerve;
Train yourself to be more resilient to “stress”;
Stimulates cell regeneration by improving energy.
Advantages of cold water jets
Improves strength and resistance capacity;
Blocks muscle pain;
Reduces brain fog;
Speeds up recovery because it stimulates adrenaline.
Any cold therapy, in particular, makes us more receptive to dopamine (the natural happiness chemical).
Brief stress followed by brief recovery causes cells to grow stronger faster.
The invitation is for your lucidity to increase a little every day.
I hope that this practice gives you more vitality, strength, joy in life and lots of love."
