Personalized Vitamins as Part of a Comprehensive Lifestyle Approach to Sleep Improvement

Personalized vitamins can play a role in sleep. Good nutrition is a foundational element of effective sleep patterns. However, most people don’t realize that vitamins, in the right amounts and right doses, can augment a sleep strategy. Taking a basic multivitamin will not help. Even picking and choosing individual supplements like Melatonin may not be effective. It is about getting to a well-balanced, integrated, and bioavailable mix of nutrients in the doses that will impact your specific profile. There are a range of personalized vitamin offerings available online that will take you through an assessment process. Look for a personalized vitamin brand with reputable physicians involved. But, a personalized vitamin is a piece of a larger lifestyle approach to this formidable challenge.

One factor to consider is the issue of quality of sleep. Even if you are in bed sleeping for a reasonable period of time, the eight hours may be interrupted hours or not “good” sleep. Your body may never be reaching the stages of deep restorative sleep it needs to function at its best. The reasons for poor sleep may include sleep apnea, snoring, restless leg syndrome, and other sleep disturbances attributable to medical causes and external ones (for example, children). If you suspect that you are getting a sufficient amount of sleep but are still tired, you might consider consulting with your physician about testing for various sleep disorders.

Here’s one more catch: if you are behind in your sleep, you accumulate a sleep debt—a deficit of sleep that you need to replenish. So sleeping in on the weekend is not going to make up for day after day of sleep deprivation. You actually need to make up those lost hours. That sleep-deprived mother of a newborn may need years—yes, years—to recover from all those months of sleeplessness, even once her kids are sleeping through the night. So if you are chronically sleep deprived, you best get to bed now and start making up for lost time!

However, sleep isn’t always easy to come by, even if you are dedicated to the cause. Some tips for getting to sleep:

• Have a regular bedtime and wake-up time. This helps your internal clock and circadian rhythms stay consistent. Forcing yourself to wake up at a consistent time will be the best way to get yourself to sleep at a reasonable hour. Stop all caffeine consumption at noon. Believe it or not, its effects last way longer than you think.
• Minimize alcohol (more on this later). While you think it makes you fall asleep, ultimately it disrupts your ability to get good quality sleep.
• Stop screen time at least an hour before bedtime. Yes, that means reading an old-fashioned book. You know, the paper kind. Screens (especially phone or iPad screens that are close to your eyes) signal to your brain it’s time to wake up.
• Make sure your room is dark, comfortable, and on the cool side.
• Make your bed a place just for sleeping. Don’t associate with wake-time activities (TV, work, etc.).
• Try calming foods prior to bedtime, such as chamomile tea or warm milk.
• Take a warm bath to relax.
• Avoid exercise for three hours prior to bedtime. (However, regular exercise earlier in the day is great for nighttime sleep.)
• Avoid naps longer than fifteen or twenty minutes. Sometimes a little afternoon snooze can hit the spot. Many progressive companies now feature nap rooms for their employees because of the boost in productivity that results. However, don’t overdo it since too much sleep during the day will come back to bite you at bedtime.
• Try a common relaxation technique, such as guided meditation or yogic breathing, or clear your mind by counting backwards from 400 in intervals of four. One expert recommends that you “focus on looking at the inside of your eyes.” All of these options seek to shift your attention from running to-do lists or the litany of thoughts running through your head.

These lifestyle approaches, in combination with a personalized vitamin, can make a difference in the quality and quantity of sleep. It is an opportune time to move past the confusion of mass market shopping for vitamins into a highly-navigated personalized vitamin offering.