I just noticed that there are more and more coffee/tea cafes opened since the last 6-12 months period. Starbucks and ChaTime outlets are all over the place, plenty of other new 'caffeine and sugar loaded cafes' are more then ever, especially the last 12 months period or so. Why is that so? Why do we have a sudden coffee/tea business 'exploded' in recent time? Do more and more people become addicted to these caffeinated/sugary beverages?
In this post, I will discuss the 'vicious cycle', or domino effect of how poor sleep wake cycles could trigger a vicious cycle, that goes on a roller coaster ride all day and night long, with repetitive weekly and monthly cycles, which eventually turns into a yearly adverse impact.
When we don’t get enough sleep, we are unable to repair the body and the nervous system becomes fragile. Our brains get tired too because thinking during the waking state is highly consumptive. The brain uses a lot of energy when it’s working. Staying awake too much is a bit like leaving all of the lights on and the appliances running in your house 24 hours a day. You’re going to run your energy bill up really quickly.
When you are awake, that means all of your body’s systems are left on. In short order, you are going to create an energy deficit. Once this happens, even when you do sleep, you’ll wake up tired with all of your day’s goals still in front of you. The common way that most people combat this sort of fatigue is to eat more sugar and drink more caffeine for quick energy. This starts a dangerous downward spiral that may look familiar to you. Check this out.
1. You wake up feeling tired but you’ve got a lot to do. You need a 'kick' to get going.
2. You increase your intake of sugar, coffee, tea and/or refined carbohydrates such as boxed breakfast cereals, breads, jams or jellies.
3. You jump in your car and run off, but soon you start feeling hungry. You’re busy and there’s nothing substantial you can eat in the middle of it all so another coffee will do. If there’s something quick, like a vending machine snack maybe, or another piece of fruit; that’s easy, you can eat it on the go. Maybe you reach for one of those so called sports bars, which are simply commercially, manufactured piece of crap usually marketed with photos of what I call, “fit sick people” on them!
4. Your blood sugar is now surging up with each addition of coffee and refined carbs.
5. As your blood sugar rises and the caffeine kicks in, stress hormones are released in response to over stimulation of the fight or flight response. This triggers a series of chemical steps that result in glycogen, a form of sugar stored in your liver being converted to glucose (another form of sugar) to aid in the rapid get away from the lion or tiger that your organs are sure must be chasing you.
6. Now you are literally swimming in sugar so insulin must be released to break it all down before it damages your nerve cells and other tissues. Soon, the insulin does its job, which you experience at some point as feeling tired, wired and hungry. In other word, 'CRASH'.
7. The drop in energy and increase in hunger usually begins the process all over again.
8. Often times, the cycle is capped off by a cup of coffee after dinner. You go to bed exhausted, but as a result of the caffeine and stress hormones it produces, you can’t get a restful night’s sleep. The whole vicious cycle begins the next morning, and the next day and weeks, and months, and years.
The short-term consequences of this cycle will generally affect your energy level and your ability to concentrate, but there are more dangerous and long-term consequences as well. As the body stores the excess sugars and your adrenal glands get overworked from producing so many stress hormones, your pancreas fatigues from producing insulin and the normal ratio between cortisol, and of course the immune regulating and sex hormones becomes progressively disrupted. The outward signs of this begin to manifest as:
• An accumulation of fat around the belly button that spreads out from there
• Mood swings
• Difficulty concentrating
• Low energy
• Pains in the neck, shoulders, lower back
• Weakened immune system often evidenced by frequent colds and minor illnesses
• Trouble recovering from injuries or an increase of injuries
In addition to the sugar/caffeine cycle, another common reason people don’t have adequate time with Dr. Sleep is because they are eating incorrectly for their metabolic requirement, as I‘ve discussed in the previous chapter. The most common mistake that people make which disrupts their sleep patterns is eating too much no-eyes food with dinner, or not calculating sweetened drinks or desserts into their ratio of no-eyes to eyes foods.
If you’re a Polar type, this is particularly problematic because you are extremely sensitive to sugars of all types. When you go to bed without enough fat and protein to maintain your blood sugar through the night, the body must release the stress hormone cortisol to elevate your blood sugar, as described above.
Because cortisol is also an awakening hormone, you’ll find yourself waking up, typically between 1am -3am. If you are hungry and you grab a snack, how easily you are able to return to sleep will depend on what you’ve eaten. If you eat something with adequate fat and protein, you’ve got a much better chance. Unfortunately, most people resort to dessert-like foods, after all, who’s watching right? This usually triggers a spike in energy caused by the refined carbs, making it even more difficult to sleep. Then, when it is time to get up, you’ll feel tired, which will compound your stress response as you face of all that the day holds.
If this cycle goes on long enough, your hormonal system will become over taxed and that opens the door to getting fungal and parasitic infections! You can tell when your body is beyond exhausted and needs to take Dr. Sleep much more seriously because you’ll start waking up in the middle of the night sweating. This occurs because of the elevated stress hormone levels, which excite your metabolism and make your body think that it’s sunrise and time to get out and do some hunting and gathering. The problem is, once you wake up it’s very difficult to return to sleep, and if you do, the quality of sleep is poor.
This very scenario, by the way, is one of the fastest ways for men’s sexual performance to diminish, which is why so many young men now carry Viagra around with them. Bear in mind, ED used to be a symptom of males in the 60's. In females, this process diminishes their interest in sex and makes it harder and harder for them to reach orgasm. If that’s not enough, this same process makes your skin look as though it’s aging rapidly and, as I’ve said, accumulating fat around the middle is common. Soon enough, your thyroid gland must slow your metabolism in an attempt to save your life, literally, so now your body temperature starts dropping, your mood becomes unreliable and often you feel apathetic and lethargic, and, fat now accumulates around the hips and back of the arms, and in time, the face and the chest too. This problem is much more common in females because their hormonal system is much more delicate than men.
For more details and tips on how to sleep properly, you can read my SLEEP posts which I wrote previously. Dr. Sleep is one’s chief physician in charge of rest, whether it is sleep or just quiet time. Rest essentially determines how much you can do or accomplish. We all need quiet time in addition to sleep, because our body-mind requires quiet time during the day to repair and re-energize itself.
Today, there is a lack of quiet time in most of our lives. Imagine going to a hotel in city centre and getting a hotel room near the street. All night long you’ll hear the garbage trucks, the sirens, and people coming out of bars drunk, yelling and screaming at each other. You won’t get any quiet time, let alone quality sleep, and every day you’ll find yourself becoming more and more tired.
For whoever suffering from work stress and exhaustion, you MUST listen to your body, else you will fail in your health no matter how much supplements you take or how expensive your skin care products total up your bill trying to mask that aging skin or face.
Now, there are other forms of rest that are valuable as well. Each of these contributes to your general recovery so that you are recharged. They are total rest, active rest and passive rest. We’ve really already discussed total rest in some depth, with deep sleep as the main example of that kind of rest. Total rest can also include taking a day completely off from work and any other stresses. However, you get it, total rest is the very foundation of the recovery and repair cycles, as I’ve described earlier. Active rest is essentially a reduction in workload. If you’re taking an active rest, you’re still working and completing your goals, whatever they may be. The point is that you’re not working at them as intensely. While active rest may sound as though it can slow you down, in truth it can make you more efficient. By decreasing the burden you’re facing you give your mind the chance to re-energize itself, so that when you’re back at 100% of your workload, you’re re-focused and thinking more clearly. If you’re finding that you’re struggling at work, but can’t afford to take time off, active rest could be your best bet to completing your work projects more efficiently.
For professional athletes, active rest days are days when the intensity of your training is typically about 60% of your high-intensity training days or current personal best performance. Active rest days are excellent days to work on the technical aspects of your training as well.
Passive rest is a short term break from the work tasks or projects you’re currently involved in. Passive rest should completely divert your mind from the work you have been involved in. In doing so, it creates the space for your mind to re-energize and re-focus. Even a short, 10-minute break of this kind can reduce the amount of stress you feel. There are all sorts of ways to get passive rest, including:
• Listening to music
• A short, quiet walk
• Reading
• Meditation
If you take your work seriously and you want to succeed, you must take your rest just as seriously, since your rest allows you to operate at your best. Plan your rest, just as you would plan any other appointment. Your body will thank you for it and you’ll work more efficiently than ever.
If none of those techniques appeal to you, there are many other ways to give your mind the rest it needs. Just remember that whatever kind of rest-break you decide on, it should take your mind completely away from what you have been working on.
For whoever suffering from work stress and exhaustion, you MUST listen to your body, else you will fail in your health no matter how much supplements you take or how expensive your skin care products total up your bill trying to mask that aging skin or face.
Now, there are other forms of rest that are valuable as well. Each of these contributes to your general recovery so that you are recharged. They are total rest, active rest and passive rest. We’ve really already discussed total rest in some depth, with deep sleep as the main example of that kind of rest. Total rest can also include taking a day completely off from work and any other stresses. However, you get it, total rest is the very foundation of the recovery and repair cycles, as I’ve described earlier. Active rest is essentially a reduction in workload. If you’re taking an active rest, you’re still working and completing your goals, whatever they may be. The point is that you’re not working at them as intensely. While active rest may sound as though it can slow you down, in truth it can make you more efficient. By decreasing the burden you’re facing you give your mind the chance to re-energize itself, so that when you’re back at 100% of your workload, you’re re-focused and thinking more clearly. If you’re finding that you’re struggling at work, but can’t afford to take time off, active rest could be your best bet to completing your work projects more efficiently.
For professional athletes, active rest days are days when the intensity of your training is typically about 60% of your high-intensity training days or current personal best performance. Active rest days are excellent days to work on the technical aspects of your training as well.
Passive rest is a short term break from the work tasks or projects you’re currently involved in. Passive rest should completely divert your mind from the work you have been involved in. In doing so, it creates the space for your mind to re-energize and re-focus. Even a short, 10-minute break of this kind can reduce the amount of stress you feel. There are all sorts of ways to get passive rest, including:
• Listening to music
• A short, quiet walk
• Reading
• Meditation
If you take your work seriously and you want to succeed, you must take your rest just as seriously, since your rest allows you to operate at your best. Plan your rest, just as you would plan any other appointment. Your body will thank you for it and you’ll work more efficiently than ever.
If none of those techniques appeal to you, there are many other ways to give your mind the rest it needs. Just remember that whatever kind of rest-break you decide on, it should take your mind completely away from what you have been working on.
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