Want Better Sleep?

Sometimes getting quality sleep is hard. Our daily behaviors deeply influence our nights rest. Therefore it is important to know what these factors are in order to better our chances of getting the proper rest we all need!

Tips and Research
Findings!

Sleep is affected by many factors from daily living. These are the top three we advocate to look into!

Nutrition & Diet

When it comes to eating and food consumption everyone has a different diet that has been influenced from their lifestyle and or culture.

The topic we will discuss is how nutrients can affect our sleep.

The vitamins that have been found to affect are:
- Vitamin B12 --> disrupts sleep duration and affects sleep tendency
- Vitamin D --> lack or deficiency of it can lead to shorter sleep duration
  - However the supplementation of
    - Magnesium, zinc, and melatonin have improved sleep quality.
    - Deficiency of vitamin B and magnesium have negative effects on sleep

(Sanlier & Sabuncular, 2020).
"Relationship between nutrition and sleep quality, focusing on the melatonin biosynthesis"

Notable mention

Sleep also plays a factor in our health, here we would like to mention the relationship between irregular sleep and diet

Altered sleeping habits can cause
- Onset of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and obesity because of a dysregulated feeding times
- Therefore those who sleep less increase their chances of becoming obese.
  - The increase of ghrelin and decrease of leptin levels where observed in this section of the study because they , create the sensation of appetite and hunger.

Having a proper sleep schedule can make a impactful change to our health.

(Crispim et al., 2007)
"The influence of sleep and sleep loss upon food intake and metabolism"

Exercise

One of the factors that can affect our sleep is exercise.

In a research study it was found that not everyone reacts the same way when implementing exercise in their daily routine.
- There was a split in participants who received better sleep and those who didn't, or experienced the opposite.

However, in comparison to bad efficiency sleep and good efficiency sleep the study showed that these factors made a difference
- earlier exercise time
- longer exercise duration
- larger calorie consumption
  - All leading to having a slightly longer sleep duration

The relationship between sleep and exercise varies per person.

However the act of exercise showed to have more effect in sleep efficiency rather than continuity.

(Liu et al., 2019).
"How Physical Exercise Level Affects Sleep Quality? Analyzing Big Data Collected from Wearables"

Screen Time

How often we utilize technology and are exposed to it can also have an influence to the quality of our sleep.

A study in South Korea on students was done in order to explore the effects of smartphone addiction on sleep duration in relation to age and gender.

The findings were as followed:
- Phone usage decreases sleep duration for adolescents and the withdrawal from it causes it.
- Smartphone addiction didn’t show any difference in either category (age + gender). However there was a significant difference in smartphone addiction and sleep duration.
- Smartphone addiction was lower in grade 4 students than grade 7. They also have a longer sleep duration than grade 7 students.
- Sleep duration is higher in males than females.
- Girls are more prone to smart addiction than males.

Although the research was toward students from grade 4 and 7, the findings has showed that there is a correlation to how much we use our phones and how it can affect our sleep.

(Yoon et al., 2021).
"The Effects of Children’s Smartphone Addiction on Sleep Duration: The Moderating Effects of Gender and Age"

Recommended Websites

Sleep is still a concept being explored throughout many research studies. Since sleep can be influenced by many factors and is primarily individualized, many findings have supported some good tips. So if you want to know more about how sleep works and positive tips to promote better rest, we recommend these sources for you!

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

sleepeducation.org/healthy-sleep/healthy-sleep-habits/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/sleep_hygiene.html