Deep Sleep - How to Optimize It

Getting quality sleep is incredibly important for your daytime physical and mental energy levels, brain health, mental health, immune health, and overall wellness. It’s not enough to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep at night. You need quality sleep, which includes deep sleep.

Deep sleep is a critical sleep stage characterized by slow eye movement and downstate with the slowest brain waves during the night. Deep sleep is essential for waking up refreshed and feeling energized during the day.

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What Is Deep Sleep?

Adults need about 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep every night. Deep sleep is a sleep stage that’s a very important part of this necessary, proper sleep. It’s also known as slow wave sleep (SWS) or delta sleep. It is the sleep stage where your body is experiencing the slowest brain waves.

Unlike Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, deep sleep is characterized by slow eye movement and a downstate that allows your neocortical neurons to rest. Experiencing deep sleep each night is absolutely essential for waking up refreshed and feeling energized during the day.

Sleep & Brain Detoxification

Sleep is not only important for rest and relaxation but also for brain detoxification and brain health. It may be surprising, but sleeping may literally help to clear your mind.

A 2013 study funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and published in Science has found that the space between your brain cells increase while you are sleeping. This space increase allows your brain to release toxin buildup from your wakeful times. As a result, sleep changes your brain’s cellular structure.

The study suggests that while you are sleeping, your glymphatic system opens up allowing better fluid flow through the brain. The glymphatic system also plays a role in controlling the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) around your brain and spinal cord.

Importance of Melatonin

Another important aspect of brain detoxification beyond your glymphatic system is melatonin. Melatonin is a nutrient that’s important for a healthy sleep-wake cycle. It is often used as a supplement for insomnia, jetlag, and improving other sleep problems. It is also a powerful brain detoxification agent.

Melatonin helps to clean environmental toxins and other pathogens from your brain.

A 2019 study published in Death and Disease has also found that melatonin helps to reduce inflammation. A 2010 study published in Current Neuropharmacology has found that melatonin deficiency plays a role in oxidative stress and age-related neurodegeneration.

Another 2010 study published in Current Neuropharmacology has found that because melatonin can cross the blood-brain barrier, it can effectively fight neurotoxin agents that may also pass this barrier.

Improving Deep Sleep

Improving your deep sleep is important for brain detoxification, cognitive and neurological health, reduced inflammation, cellular rejuvenation, immune health, daytime energy, and overall health and wellness.

Here a few suggestions:

• Good Sleep Habits
• Reduce Stress & Practice Gratitude
• Get Sunlight During the Day
• Reduce Blue Light Exposure at Night
• Balance Your Blood Sugar
• Improve Nasal Breathing
• Reduce EMF Exposure Optimize Magnesium Levels
  

1. Good Sleep Habits

It's a no-brainer that developing good sleep habits supports deep sleep. One of the most effective ways you can support healthy sleep is going to be at the same time each night and waking up around the same time.

A 2016 review published in Sleep has found that going to sleep and waking up around the same time supports your body’s circadian rhythm, or natural wake-sleep cycle

The review also discussed that waking up and starting the day too early may mean that people are awake during their biological night, shortening their sleep, interrupting their body’s sleep-wake cycle, and reducing insulin sensitivity. Researchers recommend starting school and work no earlier than 8:30 ideally to support a healthy sleep schedule more in tune with your body’s natural needs.

Other than going to bed and waking up around the same time every day, developing a good evening routine can help. Avoid stress, heavy foods, sugar, and alcohol later in the evening at night. Use blue light blocking glasses in the evening and aim to avoid all electronics at least 2 hours before bedtime.

2. Reduce Stress & Practice Gratitude

A 2007 review published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine has found that stress can decrease deep sleep, REM sleep, and sleep efficiency. It can also increase wakefulness and awakenings during the night. Decreasing your stress levels is clearly important for better sleep and deep sleep.

Practicing gratitude is one of the best ways to decrease chronic stress and improve your sleep. You cannot be stressed, sad, or angry in a state of gratitude. Upon waking, recount your blessings in your mind. Be thankful for your family, friends, a roof over your head, food on the table, your body for doing its best, and for a new day ahead.

Beyond gratitude, practicing meditation, breathwork, guided relaxation, and visualization can reduce chronic stress and help you respond to stress better.  Reading scripture, journaling, positive affirmations, mindset shifts, and prayer also help to achieve more calm and relaxation. Yoga, QiGong, Tai Chi, grounding, and spending time in nature are some other great ways to reduce stress, induce relaxation and calm, and support deep sleep at night.

3. Get Sunlight During the Day

A 2020 cross-sectional study published in Science Reports has found that reduced sun exposure during the day and vitamin D deficiency can affect sleep duration and sleep quality. Reduced sunlight during the day can also interfere with your circadian rhythms and sleep cycle.

Get some sunlight during the day. Open up the curtains and let the sunshine in. Take a walk outside and exercise outdoors. Sit out during the day to enjoy a cup of tea, eat lunch, or read a book. Even during the colder months, it’s important that you get some sunshine as long as it’s out and get as much sunlight as possible.

During the colder and darker months, when you may not be getting enough sunlight, you may want to try a light therapy lamp to avoid seasonal depression (SAD) and support your sleep.

4. Regular Movement & Exercise

A 2017 systematic review published in Advances in Preventive Medicine has found that regular exercise can support your sleep. Move your body regularly throughout the day. Start your day with some stretching, yoga, or a light walk. Get up and stretch regularly throughout the day. Take a walk during lunch or in the evening. Try a mini dance session or quick trampoline session. Ride your bike instead of driving.

Exercise at least five times a week. Try a mix of strength and resistance training, such as weight lifting, kettlebell workouts, resistance bands, bodyweight workouts, or CrossFit, cardiovascular exercises, such as jogging, biking, dancing, aerobics classes, or swimming, and low-impact workouts, such as yoga, Pilates, barre workouts, or TaiChi. However, do not within 3 hours before sleep. It can stimulate your mind and body and make sleep more difficult.

5. Reduce Blue Light Exposure at Night

According to a 2009 study published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, blue light exposure stimulates the brain, increases alertness, and increases your heart rate which can interfere with your sleep. Reducing your blue light exposure at night is critical for supporting your sleep cycle and deep sleep.

Dim your light in the evening. Use specific light dimming night bulbs. To reduce blue light exposure from your computer, laptop, tablet, phone, and other electronics, use blue light blocking glasses. Even if you are using these blue light blocking glasses, it’s important that you turn off your electronics at least two hours before sleep, reduce stimulation, relax, and unwind your body and mind.

6. Blackout Your Room

A 2011 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism has found that being in a fully lit room close to bedtime can suppress melatonin production and duration and interfere with sleep. Dimming light night bulbs. Sleeping in a lighter room can also interfere with melatonin production and your circadian rhythms. It may also be more stimulating and keep you awake.

Blacking out your room with the help of a good blackout curtain and closing your door. Use an eye mask. Using an eye mask is particularly important if you are traveling and sleeping outside of your home without being able to control the curtains and the darkness of the room.

7. Balance Your Blood Sugar

Blood sugar imbalances can cause sugar crashes, quick bursts of energy, insomnia, and disrupted sleep. A 2020 study by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has found an association between high blood sugar and sleep apnea.

To keep our blood sugar levels stable, follow an anti-inflammatory diet low in sugar and carbs and high in healthy fats. Eat lots of greens, vegetables, herbs, spices, fermented foods, grass-fed butter and ghee, grass-fed beef, pasture-raised poultry and eggs, wild-caught fish, and wild game. You may learn more about the ketogenic diet.

8. Improve Nasal Breathing

A 1987 study published in the Journal of Laryngology and Otology has found that nasal breathing can improve your sleep. Nasal breathing helps to humidifier the air entering your body, improve oxygen circulation, and filter foreign particles. It may also reduce snoring and daytime sleepiness while improving nighttime sleep.

Knowing how you breathe at night can be difficult to know since you are sleeping. If you are dealing with congestion, nasal breathing can also become more difficult.

9. Reduce EMF Exposure

Electric and magnetic fields or EMFs are electromagnetic frequencies that are found everywhere around us. EMFs are also referred to as radiation. EMFs are related to the use of electrical power and various forms of light, including natural and man-made light sources. They are being emitted from the electronics that you love and use daily, including your cell phones, tablets, laptops, WiFi, and so on.

Regular EMF exposure can lead to an array of symptoms and health issues. According to a 2012  study published in the Iranian Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering, even low EMF exposure can interfere with sleep quality.

Use your phone, computer, and other electronics only when necessary, choosing hardwired connections instead of WiFi, turning off your WiFi when not in use, keeping your devices in airplane mode or off when not used, sleeping away from your devices, choosing landlines and face-to-face contact instead of using your cell phone, avoiding BlueTooth devices, and generally reducing your electronic use.

Since completely avoiding EMF exposure is impossible, even if you move off-grid, protecting yourself from EMF exposure is critical.

10. Optimize Magnesium Levels

Magnesium is an important mineral for muscle relaxation, sleep, mental health, inflammation reduction, exercise performance, healthy blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. A 2012 double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial published in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences has found that magnesium can reduce insomnia and support your sleep.

Most people are deficient in magnesium and can benefit from supplementation. I recommend using Ancient Minerals Magnesium Lotion with Melatonin and Mag Sleep or Brain Calm Magnesium for better sleep. You may also add some magnesium-rich foods, like greens, avocados, nuts, and seeds, to your diet.

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