According to research, every hour of sleep you get before midnight is roughly equivalent to two hours of sleep after midnight.
At 11:00pm if you are still awake, your body releases a large amount of cortisol because it perceives you are under “stress”. The reason for that is because you are awake during what the body perceives should be rest time. Once the cortisol is released you get a second wind and keep going until the adrenaline is finally calmed down.
Our circadian rhythms regulate our hormones, and are based on our human past. Evolutionarily, humans were of course active at daybreak and resting in the dark. In the modern world, we have disrupted that natural cycle with artificial lights and activity. So our hormones are stressed as a result.
These excess hormones at night may make your mind race, and make it challenging to get to sleep early enough to rest well.
Eventually, night after night, this excess cortisol creates a situation where it can be extremely difficult to manage your weight. Cortisol is a hormone that signals for your body to hold on to fat, especially belly fat.
Moreover, the constant flood of the stress and energy hormones at a time when the body should be winding down, puts undue pressure on the adrenal glands and you are putting yourself at risk for Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.
So what can you do if you feel as if sleeping and getting to bed at a reasonable hour is challenging for you? Of course, eliminate coffee (but keep up with the coffee enemas!), get more sleep, juice fast periodically to support your liver, eat a clean raw plant based diet, move your body daily to get some form of exercise, get fresh air and sunshine, and consider two of the most important nutrients for good sleep:
1. Zinc is extremely important for proper sleep, and too much copper in the diet prevents absorption of zinc. Consider doing things that increase your zinc and lower your copper such as eating more mushrooms which contain zinc, while at the same time reducing consumption of nuts, seeds, wheat, and whole grains.
2. Magnesium is also incredibly vital to a good night’s sleep, so increase foods that contain magnesium such as cacao, spinach, swiss chard and sesame seeds. A highly absorbable supplement like Ancient Minerals magnesium oil is also incredibly supportive of sound sleep.
Ultimately with the addition of zinc and magnesium, along with the reduction of caffeine and copper, your sleep should be on a healthier schedule within two weeks.
