When Sleep Quality Becomes Health Quality
You must have heard to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, to eat non-processed foods, and to manage stress effectively, but have you been told to prioritize your sleeping habits?
Sleeping habits can impact health outcomes. Novel to public health messaging is the whole day matters for good health quality – both the healthy habits during waking hours, but also the healthy habit of sleep, which can make up one-third of the hours in a day. Bringing attention to the importance of sleep is World Sleep Day (WSD), which for 2021 is on March 19th.
For weight management and sleeping habits, sleeping habits can be an important aspect. Poor sleeping habits can increase food intake because of the altered hormonal regulation poor sleep can lead to. Specifically, the protective effect of adequate sleep prevents the decrease in the hormone leptin and prevents the increase in the hormone ghrelin and the primary stress hormone, cortisol. These protective effects of sleep on hormonal regulation help to control appetite (Chaput, 2014).
But, what exactly does good sleep mean?
To classify a good sleep, the following three characteristics are to be met: sleep duration, sleep timing and sleep quality. For adults aged 18-64, the sleep recommendation for the duration is 7-9 hours of sleep/night, with a wake-up time and bedtime that allows for weekday-to-weekend consistency.
Sleep quality, reflective of falling asleep within 30 minutes of lying in bed, not waking up consistently in the middle of the night, or waking up feeling refreshed, is reflective of the sleep guide and Journeys feature within the CG Zest Wellness platform, powered by Virgin Pulse. You may be eligible to enroll in the CG Zest Wellness platform, powered by Virgin Pulse, here.
Looking to try a Healthy Sleep Assessment? Try for yourself here:
The first step of the sleep guide is to choose your sleep profile. The six sleep profiles to choose from are:
Setting the Mood: Create a peaceful atmosphere to help fall and stay asleep
Keeping it Going: Continue to maintain healthy sleeping habits
Getting to Bed: Make a good night's sleep a bigger priority to be better rested
Quieting My Mind: Work on ways to settle your mind, thoughts, and worries when trying to sleep
Preparing to Sleep: Develop a regular schedule to perform prior to going to sleep
Sleeping & Shift Work: Work to get better sleep around a unique, shift-based schedule
For the Journeys feature of the CG Zest Wellness platform, powered by Virgin Pulse, each Journey is a series of 10 evidence-based steps with the user experience of one step being done daily. Completing 10 steps cumulates to the completion of a whole Journey.
Try the Healthy Sleep Assessment, as well as the sleep guide and Journeys feature within the CG Zest Wellness platform, powered by Virgin Pulse. This is a must after knowing that sleep is an essential component of health quality, and is interconnected to eating and exercise behaviors.
References:
Caput J.P. (2014) Sleep patterns, diet quality, and energy balance. Physiol Behav, 134: 86-91.
Golem D.L., Martin-Biggers J.T., Koenings M.M., Davis K.F., Byrd-Bredbenner C. (2014) An integrative review of sleep for nutrition professionals. Adv Nutr, 5: 742-759.
