“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” ~ Thomas Dekker
Are Sleep Problems Making You Crazy?
A large proportion of adults worldwide struggle with sleep. It’s easily one of the major problems of our modern society.
This article will give you a pathway to restoring your sleep.
Your mood, resilience, and productivity will improve as you restore your sleep. The most important relationships in your life will benefit as well.
The pathway to restored sleep is explained in three main points:
- The Source of Sleep Problems
- Three Things You Can Start Today to Improve Your Sleep
- Tiger’s Medical Approach to Sleep Problems
The Source of Sleep Problems
1. Stess
We live in an always-on, always-available culture dominated by digital devices. Screen time is the metric of the 21st century.
Our culture and work are inherently stressful, which puts us in a state of activated stress response nearly all the time. When this becomes chronic, it works against sleep.
2. Our Food is Unhealthy
Secondly, our food is unhealthy, and so are our eating habits and routines.
In our medical practice, 90% of the incoming clients are insulin resistant, pre-diabetic, or diabetic.
The processed foods, refined sugars, and soda we consume daily and eat way too late in the day all contribute to physiological imbalances that work against sleep.
3. Bad Habits Around Sleep
Finally, we have bad habits around sleep itself, from noisy, device-filled bedrooms, setting temperatures too high, and having zero routines for your body to adjust to, all contribute to inadequate sleep.
Three Things You Can Start Today to Improve Your Sleep
1. Diaphragmatic Breathing
The first thing is to learn and embrace, as a habit, daily diaphragmatic breathing.
This type of breathing activates your total lung capacity to improve oxygen levels in your blood. It also deactivates the stress response on demand.
Routinely destressing like this will positively impact your ability to sleep.
2. Sleep Hygeine Habits
Secondly, clean up what we call sleep hygiene habits.
This means getting the devices out of the bedroom, no television in the room, setting the temperature to a cool level for you, and investing in a quality bed, along with high-quality bedding.
Moreover, set a specific bed and wake time daily to enable your body to get into a rhythm.
3. Time-Restricted Eating (TRE)
Third, practice time-restricted eating.
This is a simpler version of fasting. The minimum is 13 hours a day.
As part of this habit, make sure to fast for 3 hours before you lay down for bed.
For example, if you finish eating by 7:00 pm, all caloric intake, go to bed at 10:00 pm and take in no calories other than black coffee, water, or tea in the am until 8:00 am.
This improves metabolic efficiency and sleep as well.
How Does Tiger Medical Solve My Sleep Problem?
The Tiger Medical approach is, first and foremost, functional.
We are a root cause, cellular-based medicine clinic. Our clinicians will evaluate advanced testing and any environmental factors that work against your sleep.
It begins with extensive testing, which includes genetic testing.
We often find our clients have genetic markers that set them for a higher propensity for sleep disturbances.
The great thing about gene markers is that there are evidence-based ways to support those gene markers to help improve sleep. Additional testing looks at blood markers and hormone data, including the cortisol cycle, microbiome testing, and advanced brain and cardiovascular imaging.
Tiger physicians will use this mosaic of health data to formulate a particular and customized set of treatments and lifestyle changes to resolve physiological imbalances contributing to your sleep disturbances.
Tiger’s staff also focuses on autonomic nervous system balance.
Your stress response and recovery happen in the autonomic nervous system. Tiger coaches teach you how to balance your autonomic nervous system on demand each day.
Additionally, Tiger coaches teach you the fundamentals of sleep hygiene.
Autonomic balance, sleep hygiene, and a customized treatment plan synergizes with the 8 Tiger health habits to rebuild your sleep over 12 - 18 months. The Tiger approach takes time but delivers enduring solutions that can be sustained.
What Are My Next Best Steps?
If, based on the information you have reviewed here on our website, you feel Tiger is a good fit, then the next best step is to go here to book a call with a Tiger Professional.
In this first call, the entire meeting is about learning your history, struggles, and goals. We want to ensure that you are a good fit for our program and that our Tiger team can help you resolve your challenges.
It’s time to make yourself patient number one and embrace self-care.
The first step in that process is to meet with us to learn how!
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