We’ve all been there. Stressful day equals no sleep that night, maybe for 2 nights but what if it’s ongoing? What if you are so tired it starts to impact on your life or even your safety. You know how they say not to drive under the influence? Well yeah, driving tired has exactly the same effect and research backs it up!
Our lives are inherently stressful. We can’t get rid of all the stress in our lives. Sometimes it’s beyond our control. The focus needs to shift from reducing stress to stress resilience. We need to be able to weather the storm. But first let’s understand how stress and lack of sleep actually drive each other then we can look at how to break the cycle.
One stressful day at work becomes a stressful week, month, year. Family get sick, there’s another lockdown, money is beyond tight, groceries and fuel now take up most of your pay and before you know it you are having one after another sleepless night. That’s our scenario. Most of us can relate! Adrenaline and cortisol are key factors here keeping us in a state of permanent fight or flight. Adrenaline is there when we are doing a presentation, explaining to the boss why you need yet more time off or having a near miss accident on the highway. It’s useful then for sharpening our senses, diverting blood flow to our limbs for a quick get away and making sure we survive but it’s short lived. Cortisol, it’s work horse brother, gets us out of bed in the morning. It gives us that get up and go without so much heart racing activity BUT it still keeps us wired. The idea is it’s high in the morning and drops by evening to let us get a good night’s sleep. That’s the theory.
When you are chronically stressed the body releases more cortisol to keep you going. This releases glucose from the liver so the brain can stay well fed and ensures that any function that threatens your survival is shut down like digestion or say, SLEEP.
As time goes by cortisol levels become dysregulated and they are the same at 7am as they are at 7pm. Not ideal just as you are heading to bed. They may even be lower in the morning. Enter wired and tired who needs coffee to wake up wine to go to sleep.
That lack of sleep can actually cause a level of distress that also raises cortisol, so we end up with one driving the other. And, cause that’s not distressing enough, it starts to affect our absorption of nutrients, so imbalances also start to drive stress and sleep further into the ditch. And so it goes, on and on, unless the stress stops. Haha! It’s 2022! Not bloody likely!
So, lets talk about how to break the cycle and improve our stress resilience by getting some good sleep.

1. Practice good sleep hygiene by limiting phone and computer time after 7:30pm. I heard that groan! The blue light from screens is a killer and even with a blue light limiter the fast pace of the movements does not a peaceful night make!
2. Turn down bright lights, stay off social media, have a warm shower or bath, practice a meditation or mindfulness activity in the evening before the bed if you can. 
3. Be in bed, asleep by 9pm (or earlier) if possible. Another groan but if you want to function like a human tomorrow then do it!
4. Maintain a consistent wake time to ensure your body is able to complete its sleep cycles. This is a really interesting theory that when we wake is ultimately the bigger predictor of fatigue.
5. Weightless by Marconi union is good sleep music. It’s a pretty hypnotic piece I don’t recommend for driving! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcAVejslrU
6. Simple Minds is an excellent FREE meditation app with good sleep meditations. Actually, doing them in the morning and at night will help you sleep better and behave better through the day. Curb those exhausted tanty’s!

That’s the very basics to be honest. If things have gone beyond this, then get in touch! There are supplements, homeopathics and herbs we can use to help settle the nervous system or treat the underlying cause. Don’t give up!
Sleep is essential for life. You literally can’t do without it. And bear in mind there are other reasons like hormones, thyroid issues, mineral imbalances (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis can easily answer that one), anxiety, depression, other mental illness and so on.  And just like sleep and cortisol drive each other they can also drive any number of other conditions. They are TERRIBLE drivers! Seriously, the worst.
Sleep tight!
 
 

!t’s hard not to get excited about these tests! Ok ok it’s hard for ME not to get excited🤩. I love to get my nerd on when these arrive in my inbox. It’s not just me I promise! Clients love this test! It’s the one I do most of in the clinic. The world of testing is huge so I get asked why this one over others all the time. The answer is pretty simple really, although it’s still multi faceted.
The first is the sheer amount of information it gives me. I can see heavy metal involvement, nutrient levels in the tissues and nutrient ratios. All of those give me in depth personal info on the person in front of me. I can see a tendency to blood sugar dysregulation, why they might be feeling anxious or depressed, why they may have a tendency to allergies or thyroid issues and I can see where they are at regarding stress. Possible ADHD behaviour, digestive issues, potential osteoporosis and hormone imbalance often show up as well. That’s really just scratching the surface!
More importantly, I can see why someone is feeling the way they are AND see what we need to do to correct it. It’s like having a crystal ball! The future looks bright. We can chelate the heavy metals, balance the nutrients and address the core of the issue. HTMA leads to specific, targeted treatment plan which means my clients get great results. WIN WIN!
Sometimes it leads to further testing because it’s not a diagnostic tool but an indicator. Often, I use it in conjunction with blood tests as they both show different things. Pathology is still very important. Blood is what is circulating right now but HTMA shows what’s being stored in the tissues. The body will sequester things like heavy metals away in the tissue to protect the body. In the case of iron, we can see an iron deficit before it turns up in the blood or for heavy metals we can see what’s stored as the first thing the body seeks to do is to pull them out of circulation to the tissues. Fascinating stuff!
Cost factors into my choosing it as well. Especially right now with the cost of living sky rocketing. I want to get my clients the most and best information I can without needing a second mortgage. HTMA is incredibly cost effective. In fact, given the huge amount of information that’s in there it’s actually cheap. And non invasive- just a little trim at the back of your head.
Lastly, but often the biggest reason I use it, is mental health issues. Where mental health is concerned it is the absolute bomb! So many mental health issues can be addressed through rebalancing nutrients. It’s crazy (pun intended) that it isn’t used more often. Nutritional psychiatry is a relatively new concept but this is where it’s at! Even something as simple as imbalance copper to zinc ratio can look like or exacerbate ADHD, depression and anxiety. If we can get the nutrients right then the rest becomes so much easier. It may not fix everything as mental health is incredibly complex but why make it harder than it has to be? If getting the mineral balance right means being able to do the other things you need to do to feel fully well again…why wouldn’t you? I see incredible results using it to target the reasons someone can’t sleep, is incredibly anxious, depressed or can’t settle even on the ADHD meds.
If you are wanting to get this done then let me know when you book. We can order the test in advance and speed up the process by having it in front of us for your initial appointment. Because of their complexity and the need for interpretation I only offer them if you book a consult. It’s well worth the investment in yourself.
I've added a brochure below if you'd like more specific information on HTMA. ​