July 2008

Articles

NUTRITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR SLEEP AND AGING

by Constantine Darling

In today’s society, our circadian rhythms are falling out of synch with normal sleep patterns.  This causes us to lose the effect of our youth hormones and their anti-cancer protection properties.

Modern research has brought us a new understanding of sleep.  At McGill University in Montreal, research was done to determine when aging begins.  The results showed that aging began at 24 years.  From birth to 24, regardless of what we do, nature gives us a survival advantage. Up to 24, our hormones and enzymes are elevated.  At 24, our survival advantage is lost.  Our hormone and enzyme levels then plateau from 24 -34.  This is a second opportunity given to us by nature, but there is no real advantage to procreate.  At 34, nature says thanks, but I don’t need you any more.  From 34 on, you take up valuable space, food, and are competition to the younger crowd.  At 34, aging begins like a descending waterfall, accelerating over time.  We can participate to slow it down, or unwittingly accelerate it for an early demise.
 
Ages 34-44 comprise the decade of vulnerability for us.  It is when the aging process is most rapid.  The average American or Canadian woman between 24-34 ages 18.6 yrs.  The average male, 16.2 years.

We lose it as a species between 34-44.  Biologically, we are well into our 50’s by the time we are chronologically 44.  Body fat accumulates; the hair thins, we don’t sleep well, we lose libido.  People let go and give up because it is too difficult to keep up with the aging process.

Where does sleep fit in to this?

Daytime is the catabolic stage of metabolism where wear and tear occurs on the body.  Aging accelerates during the day.  A 24-hour period is broken into circadian rhythms:  a light period and a dark period.  Our ancestors were hunters and gatherers.  The rhythms of the day affected their appetite and fertility.  It increased melatonin and suppressed sex hormones during the night.  Today, there are two biological systems we look at during the catabolic stage:  melatonin and estrogen/testosterone.  As we lose our libido, we are accelerating the aging process.

It is only in the dark cycle of night that the endocrine system goes into the anabolic stage, to restore, revitalize and regenerate every function.  It we do not restore at close to 100% each night, we function at something less than 100%.  Over time, this accumulates a sleep debt that accelerates aging.

Researchers have found that it is not sleep that we need, but it is more important to be in total darkness in order for us to adapt to the circadian rhythm and reap the benefits of generation. Total darkness keeps us in tune with nature’s cosmic clock.  Our biological clock senses the colder days in winter and the hotter days in summer.  Our bodies are adapted to that.  Most of us have lost that rhythm.  We stay up in the dark cycle of night and disobey the cycles of the day.

We were meant not necessarily to go into deep sleep, but to go into total darkness.  Research was done at the University of Pennsylvania where a person was put in a bed with a little light coming into the room from under the door and a night-light was on.
Another person was sitting up in a lazy boy chair all night, in a pitch-black room, without any sleep. The person in the chair in the morning was totally vibrant.  The other person was tired.  The person in the chair got the message: “Everything in nature is quiet.  That primordial part of yourself can let go and go into the anabolic, restorative state.”

A person may think s/he is sleeping, but may never go into deep sleep if there is light in the environment.  First and foremost, the body knows how to survive.  We can’t fool it; if the computer is on, night lights, vcr, your chryptochrome cells on the surface of your skin say to that primordial part of your brain, ‘do not go into deep sleep. You may have to defend yourself.’  It is not deep sleep we need, but a pitch-dark environment.  We don’t fall into sleep unless it is pitch-dark.

There is a sequence of hormones that affect our quality of sleep.  This hormonal sequence is set into motion with a specific type of food that we eat for dinner.  If we eat the right supper, say 15-20 grams of protein for a woman 25 grams for a man, but with a lot of low density carbohydrates, this is the proper combination for proper, anabolic, restorative sleep.

When we eat low-density carbohydrates for supper, i.e., salads, we produce seratonin.  If we eat around 5 o’clock, an hour later we produce seratonin.  It is the mood-modulating hormone.  It differentiates us from being an animal with being a loving human being.

With proper levels of seratonin, we do not crave food, alcohol or any other abusive behavior.  We feel wonderful in spite of the events that may be happening in our life.  We are motivated and clarity is at its optimum.  We feel fulfilled and emotionally balanced.
Seratonin cascades in the pineal gland, sometimes known as the 3rd eye.  The pineal gland takes the seratonin, and in a few steps converts it into melatonin.

If we have a light supper, our seratonin makes melatonin. Then, if we go into a pitch- black environment, melatonin puts us into deep sleep.

To conserve our energy and to survive longer, melatonin turns down our body temperature by 1 degree.  For survival of the body, it shifts into a slower, cooler metabolism and REM sleep occurs.  That is why people need a blanket, even in the summer, because deep sleep lowers the body temperature.  Lower temperature helps us survive longer because our engines are running cooler.  We should sleep 8-10 hours.

When our temperature drops, our body makes human growth hormone-- igf-1.  It comes from slow wave sleep, giving us little hits of HGH through the course of 4 or 5 hours--if we are in a dark environment with seratonin and melatonin in our system.   It also helps if we meditate before sleep. 

It is especially helpful if we don’t eat after 7:30 p.m.  Eating after 7:30 causes insulin to rise.  It is a survival hormone.  It turns the cells on and causes them to absorb nutrients.  When insulin is in the bloodstream, it sends a message to the brain that it is storage time. Insulin is king of the blood stream. All other hormones back off. No other process is possible, including sleep.  The most important thing for survival is to get cells energy, and insulin is king of the block in this department.  This causes melatonin levels dwindle.  We lose that deep quality of sleep by allowing systems to go out of control.

With little hits of HGH throughout the night, we are growing and developing, even if we have a less than optimum diet.  Up to age 24, we can eat whatever we want and still have high levels of HGH.  After 24 we have to work hard for it.  When we get HGH after 24, it causes us to regenerate, renew, revitalize, restore.  The internal sundial that we inherited from our hunter gather ancestors kept them in circadian rhythm.  Today we are out of biological synch.  Our bodies are in uncertainty.  Nature intended us to have around 9 hours of sleep a night.

As humans, we are the great unslept.  By the end of any one year, an adult is in sleep debt of 458 hours, or three weeks.  An 80 year old person is in debt by 36680 hours. There is such a thing as sleep bankruptcy.  It affects 70% of adults.  We don’t know what it means to be a natural person, in synch with metabolic energy systems operating at an optimum level.

When we get an HGH hit, we go into deeper stages of sleep.  There is a connection going on.  At 4 a.m., we start to secrete a lot of the hormone prolactin (it allows a mother’s breasts to make milk).  It is why every monk and nun wakes up at 3-4 a.m. to meditate.  During a deep cycle of sleep, when prolactin turns on a biological switch, it opens our subconscious mind to look at unresolved issues; it causes dilemmas to come into our conscious mind where we are able to deal with them and clarify.  Prolactin is only active between 4-6 in the morning.  It is a master switch that opens our subconscious mind.  If prolactin is not released, we lose the ability to cleanse our nervous system, reduce stress, and turn on our immune response for the day.  Once prolactin wears off, we make dopamine, the get up and go hormone.  With dopamine, you don’t need caffeine.  Following that, cortisol is made.  With cortisol, we are alert and ready to go. We are not daydreaming and sleepy. 

Without this, we are not ready to go in the morning.  With proper levels of prolactin and dopamine, cycles of depression drop away quickly.  Our predisposition for the day is better. Dopamine keeps us motivated and creative and enthusiastic for the day.

In nature’s kingdom, cats sleep 15 hours. Chimps, 12 hours. Dogs, 10 hours.  We have lost sight of the dark cycles.  We have lost the relationship between sleep, darkness, wellness and health.  We think night is for entertainment and work, sitting in front of the computer.

We need to recalibrate our hormones to be in proper cycles, when to eat, when not.  To be balanced naturally, we have to re-orientate.  We have fallen out of synch with nature.    By becoming more in synch, we are giving ourselves a survival advantage that nature has reduced after age 34.

Melatonin from the pineal gland is the strongest antioxidant in the brain.  Most of us are losing our alertness and motivation by not taking advantage of the deep dark of night.  If you can’t sleep, get up and sit in a chair in the dark.  Pray for the planet.  It allows your hormones to get back in sequence and balance.

If you are traveling, make your hotel room as dark as possible. Put a towel under the door to block the hallway light.  Unplug the tv, vcr, to reduce electro magnetic frequency. Turn the digital clock away and wrap it in a towel.  Use chairs to block light from coming in through the curtains.  Lean a lamp where the curtains meet in the middle. At home, get heavy-duty curtains. 

The only light that does not affect us is moonlight.  Light in the room at night is what causes us to gain weight, lose hair and lose our thermodynamic survival capability.  When we were hunters/gatherers, we naturally followed circadian rhythms. We slept when the sun set and awoke when the sun rose.  We shifted sleep times seasonally because, as winter came, we needed less food.  In the summer, longer days meant to eat.  The body knows that following a warm summer, there is a long, darker colder period.   You put on a portable, 20 lb. energy pack (called fat) in the summer to get you by in the long, dark winter.  In the past, we put weight on when we were meant to burn body fat for energy.  We have lost that process.  When we stay up late with artificial lights, our biological survival system interprets this as a long, warm day.  A long, warm day means to eat.  We are falling victim to a warm weather pattern, even in the winter.  At night you can have herbal tea, chamomile, but no honey.  Try not to eat anything.

By doing otherwise, we accelerate aging, produce a wrong hormonal sequence, and prolactin is lost. By losing HGH, when we eat calories at night, our body can’t do anything but store it as long term energy.  The body can only use the amount of energy it needs; what it doesn’t need is stored as fat.  There is no other choice but these two for the body.

By ignoring the circadian rhythm, our metabolic energy system breaks down and communication is lost throughout the system. Eating at night is based on light, not hunger.  You don’t need calories at night.  You need sleep, calm.  If you can’t sleep, sit up in a dark environment.  If it is 4 a.m., use prolactin to solve your dilemma.

Ideally, in winter you should be in bed by 9:00 p.m., and in summer, 10:30 p.m.  We offer this as a suggestion to tune in to the ancient sundial inside your body, which is connected to the cosmic clock of the universe.

Ó 2007   The above is an excerpt from Romancing Sleep, by Constantine Darling and Terri Salvatore-Swahn. The text is based on a lecture by Sam Graci, researcher and nutritionist, who contributed this information for Romancing Sleep.  For more detailed information, please see:  The Food Connection, by Sam Graci