Are You Having Difficulty Falling Asleep? Try These Tips!

By Lydia Wallie, Nutrition Director

If you struggle to fall asleep at night or lay awake for hours, that’s often a sign of high cortisol at night. Under healthy circumstances, cortisol levels are higher in the morning and lower towards the end of the day. But chronic stress, poor sleep habits, and a not-so-restful evening routine can leave cortisol levels higher at bedtime.

Try these strategies:

Stair-step your carbs.

Instead of having a high-carb breakfast like oatmeal and banana, eat protein for breakfast (eggs and avocado) and the majority of your carbs at dinner. “Imagine insulin and cortisol on a seesaw. When one gets higher, the other gets lower. Higher carbs push cortisol down. Lower carb meals allow cortisol to stay higher.” - Dr. Alan Christianson.

Drink a cup of Tulsi (holy basil) or chamomile tea.

Tulsi is a safe herbal intervention that may assist in dealing with psychological and immunological stress, and chamomile is shown to have anxiolytic (prevents or reduces anxiety) properties. (1, 2)

Sources:

(1) PMID: 28400848

(2) PMID: 19593179