March 2022 – How Food Can Effect Sleep

Welcome to March’s Blog.

Not long now to Spring, 20th March and I’m looking forward to it.  Hopefully you are keeping well and have fared well with the weather we have had recently.  As our weather improves and evenings are lighter we can start to enjoy getting out and about more.

This month I wanted to share with you the following article of how some of the foods we eat can effect our sleep.  We know how important sleep is to us and should anything in our lives not be quite as we want it to be, it can be the first and main thing to be affected.

Eat Your Way to Better Sleep  – by Janet Adams a fellow Solution Focused Hypnotherapist.

Are you looking to lose weight, have you fully embraced the power of sleep in attaining your goals? If you are struggling with sleepless nights are you gaining weight? Are there foods that people with chronic pain can be mindful of?   I/We are not dieticians or nutritionists, but knowing some background can help.

How Poor Sleep Can Impede Weight Loss

  • Regularly sleeping less than 7 hours a night means we have more of a tendency to put on weight and increase our chances of becoming obese.
  • Poor sleep makes it harder to make wise decisions when it comes to food choices. We’re more likely to give in to cravings for unhealthy food.
  • Lack of sleep increases cortisol levels in our body, leading to weight gain (particularly belly fat) and more cravings.
  • The more fat we have, the more appetite-regulating leptin we produce, but it’s less effective. This unbalances the relationship between leptin and ghrelin (the ‘hunger hormone’), and your appetite increases.

How Diet Can Impact Sleep

  • Gut Brain Axis – our stomachs and brains are connected. The more unbalanced our gut brain microorganisms etc are, the harder it is for our central nervous system to cope with stress, and the more difficult it is to sleep. What helps? Fermented foods, olive oil, probiotics and omega 3’s (the Mediterranean diet).
  • Carbohydrates – High amounts of ‘carbs’ do make us sleepy. But if we eat them late at night chances are that we can wake up more often, and not get enough deep sleep. This restricts our body’s time to recharge and re-energise, boost the immune system, recover and repair. A moderate amount of unrefined carbs helps us sleep. They stimulate insulin, which clears the way for tryptophan to reach the brain and help us produce serotonin.
  • Protein – Too much protein in the evening or at night, because it’s hard to digest, stimulates the brain and lowers our ability to sleep – it also reduces the quality of our sleep when we do nod off. Better deep sleep is good for muscle growth, so if, for example, you are working out, less protein later in the day might actually give you better results as well as aid sleep.
  • Fat, sugar, salt – Vegetable cooking oils, processed meats, cakes etc can worsen inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation, for example fibromyalgia, can be too painful to sleep through. REM sleep produces pain-relieving endorphins. Less fat, sugar and salt = less pain.

Foods to Aid Sleep

There is a very simple way to break down how some foods aid sleep.
The Five Steps

  1. Tryptophan, an amino acid, helps us make serotonin. We can only get tryptophan by eating or drinking certain foods.
  2. Calcium helps process tryptophan (and melatonin which signals the body to sleep). Magnesium boosts serotonin and potassium regulates it, helping us stay asleep.
  3. We use serotonin to make melatonin.
  4. We can also eat foods containing melatonin.
  5. Melatonin controls our sleep cycles

Here’s a list of some foods with most or all those vital ingredients in varying degrees

 

 

 

 

It’s also worth bearing in mind not to eat a few hours before bed – this will give the body time to get the benefits of sleep-inducing foods and avoid heartburn/acid reflux. Research also suggests that it might be best to have our largest meal in the morning.

The Take Away

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help improve:

  • Sleep
  • The ability to focus on long term goals, eg weight loss, not short-term rewards.
  • The ability to make healthier lifestyle choices.

It can be useful to have an awareness of how our diets can influence our sleep patterns however some people have certain health conditions or take medications that mean certain foods should be avoided therefore I’d recommend that you discuss it with your GP or a qualified dietician or nutritionist.

Further Reading
Ian Taverner lives with fibromyalgia and approaches dealing with chronic pain with a mindset of maximizing what you can achieve, boosting your overall wellbeing, and embodying how nutrition, mindset, action and mental health can be optimized (you can find him on Facebook, Instagram). I also recommend Laurann O’Reilly’s blogs on her Nutrition by Laurann  (https:// nutritionbylaurann.ie).

Enjoy March, stay safe

Best Wishes

Louise

Feb 2022 – Autism

Hi and Welcome to Feb 2022’s Blog,

Already, I can see signs of Spring, baby lambs, tulips starting to sprout and the snowdrops are out already.  It’s so nice to have the evenings drawing out and getting a bit lighter every day, we are getting about 15 minutes a week, not that I’m counting !!! Yes I’m excited for Spring on 20th March.

Its been a busy month and I’m seeing a variety of clients, young and old with many different issues and conditions that solution focused hypnotherapy can help with.

I thought this month I’d write about autism and how hypnotherapy can help.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world. Autism is a neuro-developmental condition, which means an individual’s brain processes, thinks, and responds to people, information, and the world around them slightly differently.  One in 100 people are on the autism spectrum and there are around 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK. It is more prevalent in males than females with 1 out of every 88 children being diagnosed. Whilst the associated difficulties are well documented, it also brings with it many strengths, which is why I promote a strength-based, solution focused.

Here are some difficulties autistic people may share.

  • Social communication and social interaction challenges
  • High levels of anxiety
  • Shutdowns and meltdowns
  • Repetitive and restrictive behaviours
  • Highly focussed hobbies/interests
  • Sensory sensitivity – smell, touch, light, sound or taste

The characteristics of autism vary from one person to another.  Autistic people do not have any visible disabilities, its hidden and people who do not understand autism or recognise the signs may say, for example, that a child is simply being naughty when it is expressing frustration etc. The majority of people both adults and children with autism often have communication and anxiety issues to some degree.
Autism is not an illness or a disease and cannot be ‘cured.’ Despite that there are many interventions that effectively help autistic people with their lives.

Hypnotherapy is one of these and involves guided relaxation and stress reduction which helps reduce and manage anxiety allowing the mind to be open to suggestions, to create new thinking patterns and habits allowing new positive progress at a pace that suits the client.

Hypnotherapy can help build self esteem, confidence to cope better with every day living and deal more calmly with the ups and downs of every day life. We promote and encourage self regulation, provide tools for managing and controlling the symptoms that autism has enabling a person to function better in society.

I often help and advise parents of children with autism how they can assist their children. A parent who is calm and relaxed, rather than frustrated and stressed can better encourage their child with autism to modify behaviour and encourage self-regulation. A parent may identify their child’s signs of stress and when this happens can help practise what has been learnt i.e. to practice the breathing exercises we did in session.

 

If you are interested in finding out more or booking a free initial consultation please do get in contact with me on 07516 962361.

Best wishes,
Louise

Useful Information links.

National Autistic Society (autism.org.uk)

Help and support (autism.org.uk)

Babcock LDP – COVID-19 resources from the communication and interaction team

Autism Education Trust