In the last couple years, I have been waking up in the middle of the night gripped by some unnamed fear. Things that don’t seem like a big deal in the daytime loom larger than life as a lay awake in bed with my heart pounding. This never used to be a problem, but as life gets increasingly hectic, I’ve lost touch with the feeling that all is fundamentally well. How can I reconnect?

Sincerely,

No Sleep in Brooklyn

Dear No Sleep in Brooklyn,

Thank you for writing in about your experience. I think we all can remember a time where we were caught in this kind of tremendous fear and anxiety that wakes us at night. Our natural knee-jerk reaction to this kind of worry is to want to get rid of it, or turn away from it, and this reaction makes total sense because the fear hurts tremendously.

In this article, I will offer you a mindfulness practice that you can eventually apply to this fear. I say eventually because, as I will advise you below, it will be beneficial for you to start with a less challenging emotion. The teaching I will share with you is a version of the RAIN of self-compassion practice taught by the meditation teacher and psychologist, Tara Brach, PhD. RAIN is acronym that will be fleshed out below. I find it best to clear out space in your day to complete this meditation. Perhaps 15 to 30 minutes will be a good amount of time to dedicate. This will leave you time to get settled into a meditation posture (sitting or lying down, so long as you don’t fall asleep if horizontal) and time to journal about your discoveries afterword.

The first step in this process is coming to a true recognition that there is this enormous fear that is coming up and it feels so big that even the body is reacting to it. The heart is pounding. This recognition is taking the first step in shifting your relationship with the fear. There is a catchphrase coined by the author and psychiatrist, Daniel Siegel, MD, that applies here: “Name
it to tame it.” You said that the fear is “unnamed,” so part of the process of recognition will be to put a word or perhaps a few words to the fear. The subsequent steps of RAIN may help with that.

Another description of meditation that I once read somewhere, some years back, was that the process of meditation involves a getting familiar with what is. Therefore, by recognizing and eventually giving a more descriptive name to your fear is to approach it, accept that it is a part of your present-moment experience, and eventually to dispel or dissipate its power. This is a very different way of being than desiring to suppress it or resist it. It may sound counter intuitive, but the path of mindfulness encourages us to move toward what is frightening. The intention is to eventually come to a place where the fear can be, as Brach teaches, attended to and befriended.

Our next move is to open a compassionate and loving inquiry into this fear. This is where you will gain more familiarity with it. However, because this fear feels big, I would advise you to first practice on an emotion that feels less overwhelming. When working with the energy of self-compassion, mindfulness teachers (such as Brach and Sharon Salzberg) suggest it is often best to start with what is the easiest, and then move toward more challenging emotions.

Furthermore, it sounds like you have a sense that this experience of the unnamed fear seems to amplify when life gets increasingly hectic. Therefore, by working on smaller emotions or thoughts, you may start to chip away at this larger fear. When you have identified an easy emotion, thought, or situation, you can apply the full RAIN of self-compassion to it. Once you feel you have achieved mastery over the lesser emotions, then move onto the next steps of RAIN to the most challenging level of your fear.

The third step is to move closer inward to inquire into this fear. The goal is to do your best to uncover as many dimensions of this fear as you can. This is a process of insight. There are many ways in which you can work this inquiry. What comes to mind for me would be to start with describing how the fear feels—its texture, where it lives in the body, as you sit with it, what else comes up. Pay attention to related thoughts, images, emotions, physical sensations, and what is evoked on a more intuitive level.

The best time to practice working with the fear may not be in the middle of the night. It may be advantageous to try to evoke the fear when you are feeling emotionally balanced and rested, during the day. As you get more skilled with practice, you may be able to work the RAIN steps at night more quickly and come to a peaceful resolution of the fear for that night. Please also be patient with yourself, as this will likely be a practice that you have to come back to more than once. It is a process and practice, not a one-time deal.

Sit with the fear an amount of time that feels wholesome and healthy for you. If the practice becomes too difficult, then step out of it and practice some other form of relaxation that works well for you. I recommend identifying go to coping strategies before stepping in to work on the big fears. These may be abdominal breathing, having a sacred space in your mind that you can visualize for calming, or having some other soothing objects or activities that you can engage in to help you self-regulate if your emotional state is challenged. This brings me to the last step in the RAIN: self-nourishment.

You can practice self-nourishment while holding the fear in your heart and offering to yourself comforting words or actions. Come up with a list of self-soothing statements that you can say to yourself. A few traditional phrases that I have learned over the years from various teachers of Lovingkindness meditation are:

May I be safe.
May I be healthy.
May I be healed.
May I be happy.
May I be at peace.
May I be free from worry.
May I be free from fear.
May I be free from suffering.

The idea is for you to use these words or change them to phrases that have more meaning and resonance for you. I find it particularly powerful to put my hands over my heart while I repeat these phrases to myself in times of challenge. I find it helpful to repeat the full cycle of these phrases for at least three or more repetitions.

What is also important is that if you find that it is too difficult to work through these phrases on your own, you can call in a council of friends and helpers to support you. You can do this by visualizing powerful people, such as trusted family members or friends, animals, or power places, real or imagined, that help you feel strong, balanced and centered. While holding these images in your mind, feel the beauty and power they offer you and stand firm in that as you offer these words to yourself. Give yourself enough time to complete all the above steps and come back to them as often as needed to work toward a full befriending and embracing of your fears.

Related: Transform Your Fears into Meaningful Growth

You cannot skip to this integration stage, it takes effort, dedication, and an immensely open heart and courage to get there. I believe in you and that you can do it! Please also consider working with a qualified teacher or licensed therapist to give you additional support along the way. This will be especially crucial if you feel like this practice dysregulates you further. It may be that you need the expertise of an in-person guide. I can only offer you education and suggestions here, not a formal assessment or finely attuned approach.

One more thing: I believe that you are very right in realizing that you (and so many of us) must make a return to remembering our own basic goodness in life. This remembrance of our innate beauty, worthiness, and self-love is always a practice. It does not feel that it is a developmental task that we can check off our list of life accomplishments. In our busy, modern lives, we are all constantly operating under time pressure, deadlines, and the challenges of balancing work and life. It is so easy to forget that we are here together on this earth to be joyous beings of love. We are here to be caretakers of each other and of this beautiful earth. So, I invite you, and all of us, to put down in writing on our daily agenda and calendar some dedicated time to simply love and appreciate this amazing, confusing, and most precious life.

Thank you so much for writing in. I am sending you my best heartfelt wishes as you work to bring this practice into your life.

Many blessings,

John

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By now, you’ve hopefully gotten accustomed to preparing your body and mind for sleep by using breathing and counting exercises to clear your head. If you haven’t, check out the first 10-minute meditation in our spring Better Sleep Series here. Next up, we’re focusing on improving the quality of your shuteye to help you feel more rested.

Have you ever gotten seven to eight hours a night and woken up feeling like you haven’t slept a wink? Most likely it’s because you didn’t spend much time in a deep sleep state—the third phase of sleep. The first two phases, preceding deep sleep, are waking and dreaming. Reaching deep sleep is optimal for feeling recharged. This meditation’s mission is to maximize your duration in this state.

To go into deep sleep, a few things need to happen. First, your body needs to be at total rest. Second, your mind also needs to be free of thoughts, which naturally happens when you’re asleep. Third, your mind needs to be relaxed. That means when you’re falling asleep, and in the hours before bedtime, you’re not having any stressful, worrying, or negative thoughts. These types of thoughts encourage your mind to stay at a surface level during sleep because they’re keeping you in a stimulated, agitated state rather than a calm one.

In this meditation, we’ll achieve these three requirements together. You’ll learn to run through a mental checklist to assess whether you’re really truly relaxed and ready to go to bed. You’ll start by checking your body: Where are you holding tension? Where can that tension be released? Then, you’ll check your mind: What is your state of mind? Are you carrying any mental burdens at this given moment? Next, you’ll check your breath: Is it in your throat, chest, or belly?

Lastly, it’s important to always have some happy thoughts or memories before you doze off to help counterbalance anything stressful that happened during the day. Since people normally wake up in the morning with the same thoughts they had when they fell sleep, this is even more crucial. Positive thoughts not only impact your ability to reach deep sleep, but also the entire following day. Though I won’t prompt you to think positive thoughts during the actual meditation, I will encourage you to turn your attention to something you’re grateful for or happy about should you find your mind wandering in the moments before you fall asleep.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related: This Is Where Positive Thinking Begins

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According to the CDC’s latest statistics, more than a third of the U.S. population is sleeping less than seven hours per night. That means that a good amount of Americans are sleep-deprived. Why is this such a big deal? When you’re sleeping, your brain is recalibrating itself, which means it’s working even more than when you’re awake. In order to start each day feeling fresh, focused, and ready for what lies ahead, good sleep is crucial.

But even when someone makes a conscious decision to get more sleep, they still sometimes fail. What you may not realize is that how you prepare for sleep—not just when you’re getting ready for bed, but also throughout the day—makes a huge difference in getting the quality and quantity of rest you need.

As for how to lay the groundwork for good sleep throughout the day, all the things you’ve commonly heard before—no caffeine in the afternoon, avoiding stressful news programs right before bed, powering down electronics a couple of hours before you sleep—will help you achieve a better night’s rest. What and when you eat, how you stimulate or relax your mind, and how much stressful interaction you have can also make an impact. Ideally, the two hours before you hit the hay are spent doing things like reading, meditating, and enjoying quality time with your family. These are all activities that can help you drift off in a positive, relaxed mood, which will only improve the caliber of your sleep.

This introductory meditation, the first of three in our spring Sleep Better Series, will help you prepare your mind for rest through breathing and relaxation techniques. Each month, I’ll be introducing a new meditation to be practiced right before bedtime as often as possible over the next 30 days, all with the aim of helping you sleep better.

In this 10-minute meditation, and the ones that follow, there are going to be some common instructions: Get in a relaxed body position, lay down in bed with your feet about a foot apart and your palms facing up and away from your body. When you have crossed legs, for example, you’re not allowing your muscles to be fully at rest. Once you’ve gotten yourself into this position, turned off the lights, and take a couple of deep breaths. Now, press play.

WANT MORE SLEEP? Sign up here for weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest.

Related:  A 90-Second Solution to Sleep Better Tonight

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Sleep is your best chance to naturally detoxify the nervous and digestive systems and restore balance. Yet many of us wind up staring at the ceiling wide awake when we crawl into bed.

There are a number of reasons why you may be losing sleep, including asthma, allergies, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and more. While you should seek medical assistance to get to the root of the problem of insomnia, you can also apply three simple approaches, based on Ayurvedic medicine, to help you transition into that very necessary state of body relaxation and rejuvenation. Try one or all of the below and see how they help you optimize your sleep.

1. Clean the Scene

Eat light, not spicy before bedtime. A glass of warm milk and honey with a pinch of nutmeg and turmeric could help ease your body into relaxation mode. One hour before turning in, start dimming the lights in your environment and turn off electronics. Use your bed for sleeping not watching TV or checking e-mails. Take a whiff of lavender oil or use a diffuser in your bedroom to signal your brain that it’s time to shut down.

2. Give Yourself a Foot Massage

Use your fingers to trace a line down from between your second and third toes, one foot at a time, until you are about a third of the way down the foot. Gently rub this point for a minute or two while breathing deeply. Do both soles. For an even richer massage, warm some sesame oil and rub it into the feet, then slip on cotton socks to prevent staining your sheets.

3. Practice “So Hum” breathing.

So hum is a simple relaxing breathing technique that you can do anywhere, anytime for any duration. Don’t think of it as a phrase, but rather a pleasing sound—an easy way to slip into a rhythmic, meditative state. You might say the words “So” on the inhale and “Hum” on the exhale out loud, or silently in your own head in conjunction with your breathing pattern. After some practice you will want to inhale for a long, deep count of six and exhale for a long, deep count of six pausing ever so slightly at the top and bottom of each inhale and exhale.

While this is a simple technique, what it’s doing internally is very complex. It is activating a sophisticated set of impulses, soothing your autonomic nervous system, which controls the fight or flight response. It also engages the parasympathetic nervous system to give you a relaxed sense of well-being, perfect for entry into slumberland.

Related: A Natural Guide to Overcoming Sleep Issues

The short guided meditation below will help you learn so hum breathing so you can relax and slip into dreamland.

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When you can’t sleep at night it’s easy to blame the things affecting you in the moment—churning thoughts, a restless body, or uncomfortable surroundings. While these things certainly have an effect on your sleep schedule, it’s important to remember that the quality of your sleep is a reflection of the quality of your daytime. If your day is full of stress, anxiety, hostility or other negative emotions, then all of that will be reflected in the quality of your sleep.

In this video, Deepak Chopra, M.D., explains the ways we can adjust our day-to-day routine to encourage better rest at night. After 6 p.m. it’s important to minimize stimulating activities and focus on things that soothe the mind. According to Chopra, there’s also an optimal time to go to bed, after which the body naturally enters a state of stimulation. Find out what time you should go to bed, and learn about the other habits that affect sleep quality, when you watch the video above.

Related: How Does Sleep Affect Overall Health?

Join Sonima’s free 14-day jumpstart to better sleep for a downloadable guide and daily advice from top experts. Learn more here.

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In this video, join Sonima’s founder, Sonia Jones, and Deepak Chopra, M.D., in learning about the way that meditation can positively affect sleep. Insomnia, says Chopra, is a result of stress, and given the way meditation can work to soothe anxiety, meditation can also be seen as an antidote to sleep issues. During meditation the frequency of the brain’s electromagnetic waves are lowered. While brain activity appears to go down in meditation and sleep, it is actually quite active as the body and mind are repaired and restored during these unique states.

Related: A Meditation to Quiet Anxiety

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Sleep is one of training’s most important tools and getting enough of it—a recommended seven to nine hours per night—is essential for repairing and strengthening overtaxed muscles. When an athlete gets enough shuteye, blood supply increases to muscles and the pituitary gland releases natural growth hormone to facilitate muscle and bone growth, healing, and adaptation. Waking up refreshed means you’re likely rolling out of bed feeling stronger, faster, and ready to tackle another workout. Without a restful night’s cycles of REM and deep sleep, performance and mood wanes.

Related: An Explanation of REM Sleep and Dreams

Few studies have looked into measuring the effect of the overtraining-sleepless connection and insight is sorely needed, says Sophie Killer, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher and performance nutritionist with British Athletics at the English Institute of Sport. “Part of the reason there’s such a paucity of data is because it’s not easy to get approval to overtrain someone,” she says. “We had to find people willing to sign up because we really needed to push their boundaries and have them take a battering.”

In the study, Killer and her colleagues at the School of Sport, Exercise, and Health Sciences at Loughborough University, recruited 13 cyclists to complete two nine-day, intensified training periods in which they were given a diet of either moderate or high carbohydrate before, during, and after workouts. Researchers more than doubled the athletes’ baseline training volume and intensity, measuring their VO2, heart rate and power output stats as they trained. They also asked cyclists to keep a mood and diet diary, as well as wear an actigraphy watch to measure movements as they slept.

“We weren’t surprised that the athletes spent more time in bed at night during training,” Killer says. “But we found that despite the increased time in bed, they couldn’t get more sleep and actually got less than before.” The cyclists woke and moved more throughout the night, and logged less total time asleep.

You don’t have to train like a maniac to experience exercise-induced insomnia. Taking on a new fitness goal, such as going from the couch to half marathon training, could over-stress your muscles to the point of acute fatigue. Dubbed “overreaching,” the muscles are broken down during these cycles for a purposeful short-term decrease in performance to make them stronger.

But when athletes find themselves in a cycle of back-to-back racing or upping their mileage too quickly without giving their bodies adequate time to recover, the continual breakdown of muscles can lead to the more serious overtraining syndrome. With overtraining syndrome comes chronic fatigue, lingering muscle soreness, and even depression that can take months or years to recover from.

If a training program is making you feel irritable and low energy plus disrupting your sleep, it’s time to reevaluate your plan. Those symptoms are a first sign that you may need to take a couple of days off or decrease the volume and intensity of your workouts. Doing so might give you a better shot of reaching your fitness goals without sacrificing your body in the process. Killer suggests to practice “rest and recovery, eat decent meals packed with protein and iron, and even cross-training to reduce the mental fatigue that goes along with the grind.”

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We now know that certain nutrients support dozing off, and often, going to bed hungry can make it hard to get comfortable and fall asleep. If you do forage for late-night nibbles, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure your snacking doesn’t cut into sleep.

1. Mind Your Macronutrients

Carbohydrates consumed in the hours before bed reduce the time needed to fall asleep according to one study, especially with high glycemic foods like white rice. In the study, the most impactful result was with carbs eaten four hours before bed but it was also shown that if carbs were eaten one hour prior to bedtime, there was still a modest improvement in sleep quality.

Another study found that high fat diets may negatively impact rest, while other research has shown that special diets in general (low- or high-calorie, high-fat, low-carb, and others) may be associated with worse sleep.

For a good late night snack, aim for a small serving of carbohydrates, possibly with a little protein to keep you sated, but skip excess fat and greasy foods.

2. Keep It Light

Large meals take energy to digest, and some experts suggest that big meals too close to bedtime could contribute to or worsen acid reflux. Eating dinner four to five hours before bed (by 7 p.m. if you sleep at 12 a.m., for example) is generally seen as best, as is not overeating late at night.

If you are planning a before-bed snack, aim to eat about an hour before sleep and keep portion size small. If you’re watching your weight, factor the snack into your overall energy intake. As an example, one cup of cooked rice, one-half cup of cereal, a handful of crackers or one piece of toast represent a snack-size serving between 100 and 200 calories.

3. Make It Mild

Spicy foods are best left for breakfast and lunch, not late dinners or evening snacks. Anecdotally, you might recall a time when spicy foods or peppers led to a little heartburn or indigestion, and anything that affects comfort can affect rest.

One study tested the theory on young men, finding that mustard and Tabasco sauce eaten at dinner resulted in reduced slow wave sleep and longer time needed to fall asleep. One interesting thing they observed was an elevation in body temperature during the first stage of sleep. It’s been established that a drop in temperature precedes drowsiness and that cooler temperatures result in better sleep, leading the researchers to suggest that capsaicin affects sleep via increased body temperature.

Related: A 10-Minute Meditation for Deep Sleep

4. Choose Foods That Support Sleep

These eight snacks pair common ingredients that bring sleep-supporting nutrients without anything that might compromise your rest.

● Pretzels and Peanut Butter: Pretzels are a lower-calorie, high-glycemic carb that can satisfy hunger and most people find them easy on the stomach. Whole grain versions tend to pack a decent amount of fortified vitamins and minerals, but opt for unsalted when available. Pair with a satisfying partner like unsweetened peanut butter or even cottage cheese.

● Rice and Veggies: Microwave leftover (or frozen pre-cooked) jasmine rice with a handful of frozen mixed veggies, or pair it with a little lean protein. Skip the soy sauce (it contains tyramine, which increases alertness) and hot sauce (the spice might cause indigestion), opting for a squeeze of lime or little hummus instead if you need a flavor boost.

● Fresh Popcorn: Popcorn is a natural whole grain and a relatively healthy carbohydrate when homemade. Try an easy microwave method or use an inexpensive air popper. Avoid too much salt or butter close to bedtime, but feel free to drizzle on a little coconut oil for its sleep-supporting lauric acid.

● Small Sandwich: Use one piece of bread cut in half, or a small flat bread or wrap. Add in a serving of low-sodium turkey or tuna, baby spinach, tomato, a couple pickles, and cheese, if you like. Skip the onions and spicy condiments, though.

● Cereal and Milk: A glass of milk is an oft-suggested sleep-inducer, but there isn’t much research to back it up. A serving of low-sugar cereal provides carbs though, which are shown to help sleep. If you don’t do dairy, feel free to swap for an unsweetened nut milk of your choice.

● Banana Roll Up: This quick snack has carbs, protein, and healthy fats. Bananas are also rich in potassium, magnesium, folate, and vitamin B6. All you need is a tortilla, a banana, and some nut butter (almonds and sunflower seeds are both rich in sleep-friendly minerals and melatonin).

● Yogurt and Granola: Yogurt is typically high in protein and low in fat, providing a good snack close to bedtime. Just be mindful of the sugar count (some can exceed candy bar levels), and swap for coconut or soy-based if dairy upsets your stomach. Lighter granola or cereal sprinkled on top adds a dose of carbs to keep you sated.

● Oatmeal with Flax: Oatmeal is a pretty easy to prepare, and it brings healthy carbs and minerals. Flax seeds offer melatonin and healthy omega-3s, and fruits like blueberries or bananas can add a little sweetness without giving a strong sugar buzz. You can also try savory oatmeal as well, seasoned with a little salt and olive oil.

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Here are some science-supported reasons why moderately intense activities—like yoga, walking briskly, or biking around town—will never go out of style and may actually be best for your body.

Moderate exercise is good for immunity.

You may have heard of extreme athletes overdoing it to the point they actually make themselves sick. This is not the case with moderate activity. A single session of moderate intensity exercise is actually “immune-enhancing,” according to one recent study from the University of Houston. One hypothesis as to why: Exercise reduces inflammation and stress, among other factors.

Moderate exercise reduces anxiety.

Stewing in the agony of feeling overwhelmed at your desk won’t improve your situation. However, working out the pent-up pressure, literally, over the course of a 30-minute, moderately paced activity may help you stay calm when facing stress triggers. That’s the takeaway from a University of Maryland study, which compared anxiety levels at the start of the study and after 30 minutes of sitting still or cycling, and then again after having subjects see unpleasant photos. The visual stimuli was less likely to induce anxiety in those who had exercised compared to the sedentary group.

Related: How Working Out 4 Times a Week Will Change Your Body

Moderate exercise helps you sleep.

It’s no surprise that you sleep well after a long and intense bout of exercise or manual labor. But you needn’t build a whole fence in a day—or run a marathon—to reap the rewards. Women who walked at a moderate pace for just shy of 60 minutes woke up less frequently throughout the night and were awake for shorter periods of time than those who did nothing throughout the day, according to a study from the University of South Carolina.

Moderate exercise improves your mood.

A runner’s high may be hard won after jogging 10 miles, but a milder form of euphoria can come from milder exercise. In fact, the harder you work when you exercise, the more you may negate these automatic good feelings, according to a study from Chicago State University. Researchers found that among regular exercisers, those who exercised at a low to moderate level were happier overall compared to those who worked out harder.

Moderate exercise is good for memory.

Keep losing your keys? Going for a walk or taking a yoga class might help you recall where you put them. After 30 minutes of moderate exercise, men performed better on tests of memory, reasoning, and planning than they had before being active, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research.

Moderate exercise reduces hunger.

It seems like you would eat even more after a workout—after all, you just burned a bunch of calories. But you may actually eat less. A group of young men who did moderate exercise right before lunch ate 11 percent fewer calories than those who didn’t exercise, according to a Canadian study. Those who worked out mid-morning then had lunch two hours later dished out a whole 23 percent fewer calories.

Moderate exercise boosts your energy.

Is your mid-afternoon eye droop making it harder to read your work email? Going for a short walk around the block may zap your need for a power nap. Getting your heart rate up can make you feel more energized and alert throughout the day, according to a study from the University of Georgia. Researchers had healthy young adults, who reported feeling fatigued, exercise at a low- to moderate-rate three times a week for six weeks. By the end of the study, they reported feeling less tired and more energized than before.

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But not today.

My head was foggy from a bad nights’ sleep, my body felt like lead and I couldn’t bear the thought of facing the world, let alone running. Less than a year earlier, I’d been racing ultramarathons while juggling a career as magazine editor and a family (my husband and I were raising a rambunctious toddler). I had it all in hand until my energy gradually drained away. I lost the motivation to run, became crabby and miserable. As a result, the littlest issues caused me great stress. I felt as though I were running a marathon every day when in reality, I rarely ran at all. The daily marathon of life became harder to sustain as I became more depleted.

Fast-forward four years, my condition improved once I learned that I wasn’t merely tired or suddenly lazy. I had adrenal fatigue, a condition that most doctors are reluctant to diagnose because it manifests so differently in every person.

“Adrenal fatigue isn’t an illness per se. It’s a collection of fatigue-related symptoms,” says naturopathic physician Eric Wood, who practices holistic medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “This profound state of depletion isn’t something for which doctors can conduct laboratory tests until the condition is extremely severe.”

A Hormonal Response

Whenever the adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidney, are stimulated by stress, they excrete hormones including cortisol, adrenaline, and testosterone, which play a role in increasing heart rate and blood pressure, slowing digestion, and shutting down executive brain functions, among other physiological changes collectively known as the stress response.

This response prepares the body for “fight or flight” by giving you the short-term advantage of being slightly stronger, more alert and prepared for action. Normally, when the threat (stress trigger) goes away, the body resets itself by re-balancing hormones and re-activating bodily systems—like digestion and high-level brain activity—that had been temporarily suppressed.

The problem is when the body stays in flight-or-fight mode all day, day after day, making you susceptible to conditions like adrenal fatigue.

“Adrenal fatigue is a huge issue in our fast-paced society where people wear their busy-ness like badges of honor,” says Michelle Eads, M.D., of Colorado Springs, Colorado. “The symptoms of adrenal fatigue are so prevalent in our stressed-out society that they’ve become the ‘normal’ way to live.”

Over time, the effects of excess work, high stress, little vacation, fast-paced lifestyle, poor diet, and environmental toxins lead to adrenal gland dysfunction, the symptoms of which are different for everyone but usually include:

Difficulty sleeping

Hormonal shifts let you may fall asleep immediately at bed time, but leave you wide awake in the early morning hours, charged up and unable to fall back asleep.

Fatigue

You’re wired but tired during the day, especially in the middle of the afternoon, when hormones dip and you feel like crawling under the desk for a nap.

Decreased energy and motivation to exercise

You lose interest or energy to partake in you normally enjoy, as well as a decline in professional drive and libido.

Weight gain

You may become sensitive to certain foods and notice a decrease in appetite or crave sugar and gain weight (especially around your middle).

Inability to make fitness gains

No matter how hard you push yourself, you become more tired instead of fitter due to the body’s compromised ability to heal after exercise.

Frequent anxiety

You are easily overwhelmed by your emotions in response to even minor stressors or conflicts. You have trouble keeping up with your daily schedule and obligations.

A Holistic Solution

Jill Carnahan, M.D., a functional medicine doctor in Louisville, Colorado, is quick to point out that any treatment plan should consider all the lifestyle habits contributing to your stress, including exercise. “Treating the adrenals won’t really help unless you also treat the condition’s root cause,” says Carnahan.

For runners and other active people, she emphasizes the importance of not training too hard during the adrenal fatigue recovery period, which may take several months. “It’s important to remain active but avoid overexertion, which further stresses the adrenals and makes recovery difficult.”

And since the body’s physical and hormonal response is the same to life stress as it is to physical activity, proactively managing your emotional stress is equally critical to the recovery process.

“I recommend activities that trigger calm-inducing chemical shifts in the brain and body such as meditation, relaxing walks with a good friend or spouse, playing with the dog, yoga, fishing, or some other hobby or fun activity you enjoy,” says Eads.

Related: 9 Essential Yoga Poses to Boost Energy

During my recovery, I replaced a portion of my running volume with yoga and meditation. It didn’t take long before I was enjoying running again, getting fitter even while running less than before.

Changing my diet was also critical to recovery, in particular, cutting way back on coffee and other caffeine-containing foods and drinks designed to give athletes an ergogenic boost. But I noticed the most significant improvements when I changed my daily diet to include more vegetables and less processed foods.

“A proper diet of whole or minimally processed foods must be part of your adrenal restoration program,” Wood suggests. “Consume a diet comprised of mostly whole foods and rich in quality proteins, healthy fats and lower-glycemic load carbohydrates. Combined with adequate hydration, this forms a very solid foundation for adrenal recovery.”

After few months of deliberate self-care and rest, I was back to running ultramarathons, but with a more mindful approach, involving balancing the stress of training and life with good sleep, whole-foods diet, and a mindfulness practice. Being a runner, having a career and family are all vitally important to me, but not at the expense of my health.

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A study published in the journal Appetite in 2013 conducted by University of Pennsylvania researchers examined correlations between diet and sleep duration in over 5,500 Americans that participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Normal sleepers, defined as people who got seven to eight hours of sleep, ate the widest variety of foods, drank more tap water, and had diets with more theobromine, a plant chemical found in cocoa and chocolate, and dodecanoic acid, a saturated fatty acid.

People who had abnormally short or long sleep durations exhibited deficiencies in a few nutrients, including lycopene, thiamin, folate, phosphorus, selenium, vitamin C, iron, zinc, dodecanoic acid, theobromine, magnesium, potassium, alpha-carotene, and choline. Long and short sleepers’ diets also showed less variety, included less tap water, and were more likely to be restricted (low in calories, carbs, or protein), with long sleepers consuming the most alcohol.

A recent 2015 study of older men also found that lower vitamin D levels were associated with shorter sleep duration and more time spent awake after initially falling asleep. Another University of Pennsylvania study of the NHANES data looked at relationships between nutrients and specific sleep complaints.

People who consume a wide variety of foods and drink more water demonstrate fewer sleep issues.

Here’s an overview of findings for four types of sleep issues:

• Difficulty falling asleep was linked with lower overall calorie intake and diets lower in alpha carotene, selenium, calcium, and dodecanoic acid, but higher in hexadecanoic acid.
• Difficulty staying asleep was linked with limited and special diets, high sodium and hexanoic acid intake, and diets low in carbohydrates, vitamin D, butanoic acid, dodecanoic acid, and lycopene.
• Non-restorative sleep was linked with diets high in fat/cholesterol and butanoic, but low in vitamin C, calcium, and plain water.
• Daytime fatigue was linked with special diets, high-calorie diets, and diets high or low in fat, as well as diets high in theobromine and low in potassium and plain water.

Macronutrients have also demonstrated an effect on sleep in other research. Results have been somewhat contradictory, but a 2014 review published in the journal Sleep Medicine summarizes that solid high-carb, high-glycemic index foods like rice and potatoes may be beneficial for improving sleep latency, or the time it takes to fall asleep, when eaten more than one hour prior to bedtime. The review also indicates that high-protein diets may be helpful for overall sleep quality, while high-fat diets are associated with shorter sleep.

Similar sentiments were echoed about fat in a separate study, which found that higher fat diets were linked with less sleep and more napping in postmenopausal women.

What is not entirely clear yet is the exact direction of the relationship between sleep and diet, as it appears to work in multiple ways. In addition to diet potentially affecting sleep patterns, evidence suggests that not sleeping enough makes people more likely to crave junk foods and to overeat, which could perpetuate long-term weight gain and further exacerbate sleep problems. For example, one recent 2015 study linked sleep habits to body weight and diet, suggesting that longer sleep duration might even moderate certain genetic predispositions to obesity by altering dietary habits.

The Best Foods for Sleep

The idea of eating clean involves sticking to a balanced diet composed largely of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, while avoiding processed, non-nutritive foods. This approach seems to fit in well with data on sleep nutrition, as it promotes a varied diet that includes a balance of protein, carbs, and fat.

While more research is needed to establish direct links between diet and sleep, a body nourished with a variety of fresh foods has better access to the building blocks it needs to create necessary neurotransmitters, balance hormones, repair tissues, and carry out its essential functions like regulating sleep and wake cycles. Here are some of the whole foods that pack the biggest punches of sleep-promoting vitamins and minerals.

Vegetables

Most fresh vegetables are rich in vitamins and fiber, but a few stand out when it comes to sleep. Leafy greens like kale, mustard, chard, spinach, and collard bring lutein, zeaxanthin, calcium, and potassium. Carrots are packed with alpha carotene, vitamin C, potassium, and folate. Mushrooms, particularly varieties like maitake, are rich in vitamin D and minerals, helpful especially during winter months.

Fruits

The sweet side of the produce spectrum delivers some of the most diverse vitamins and minerals. Things like watermelon, guava, tomatoes, and bell peppers bring vitamin C, lycopene, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and folate. Montmorency tart cherry juice and kiwifruit have been studied for their potential sleep benefits. Pumpkin is very high in alpha carotene, potassium, and vitamin c, making it a great addition to smoothies, oatmeal, and other goodies.

Protein

Eggs have a mix of choline, vitamin D, phosphorous, selenium, and other important nutrients. Wild fish including salmon, cod, and halibut also prove beneficial, with vitamin D, selenium, choline, and healthy fats.

Related: The Best Plant-Based Sources of Protein

Nuts, Seeds and Beans

Brazil nuts are a top source of selenium and other minerals, with walnuts also providing healthy fats and vitamins. Sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds have a wealth of minerals like phosphorus, thiamin, and magnesium, and are perfect additions for salads and snacks. Beans also provide healthy carbs, protein, and nutrients, and lima beans contain tons of potassium and other minerals.

Grains

Whole grains are essential sources of carbohydrates and fiber, as well as powerful minerals and vitamins. Millet is a good source of folate, potassium, and phosphorus. Kamut brings lutein and zeaxanthin, choline, selenium, potassium, and magnesium, while teff is a calcium and magnesium powerhouse. Others like freekeh, barley, oats, and wheat berries are rich in diverse nutrients, too.

Healthy Fats

In terms of data on diet and sleep, dodecanoic (lauric) acid found in coconuts, coconut oil, and red palm oil seems to offer benefits. The fatty acids found in butter, however, seem to have a negative impact.

Chocolate

A scoop of cacao powder in your smoothie or nibble of dark chocolate packs theobromine. Research shows healthy sleepers’ diets are rich in this compound. Learn more about the health benefits of dark chocolate here.

Water

H2O is associated with better rest in multiple studies. Keep in mind you could be dehydrated even if you don’t feel thirsty. Learn more about how to stay properly hydrated here.

Sign-up for Sonima’s free 12-week meditation plan to better sleep. Receive weekly reminders featuring smart sleeping tips and guided, 10-minute meditations to help ensure a better night’s rest. Learn more here.

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Her theory that exercise improved her sleep was confirmed when she moved to San Diego last year, leaving her job at a law firm to become a writer. “Now I walk three miles a day, an average of five days a week, and I regularly sleep eight hours a night,” says Davis. “Even better, my sleep feels more restful. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I go right back to sleep. I feel like this has to be due to my new regular exercise routine.”

New research shows that Davis is on to something: One study of more than 2,500 men and women between the ages of 18 and 85 found that just two-and-a-half hours of moderate to vigorous exercise each week can improve sleep quality by a whopping 65 percent. And those regular sweat sessions have a double-whammy effect. Those who break a sweat say they get more and better shut-eye each night and report feeling less sleepy during the day than those who don’t get as much physical activity.

The most recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation found similar results, showing a compelling association between exercise and better sleep. After reviewing data from a sample of 1,000 adults between the ages of 23 and 60, not only did exercisers report sleeping well and non-exercisers report being the sleepiest, but those who said their movement qualified as “vigorous” reported the best sleep.

“There is a lot of new, exciting research that shows exercise does improve sleep,” says Robert S. Rosenberg, D.O., a board-certified sleep medicine practitioner and the medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Prescott Valley in Arizona. “In fact, sleep research that was previously used as gold standard advice—for example, not working out in the evenings—has been debunked,” says Rosenberg.

Sharing Rosenberg’s sentiments are held by Meir Kryger, M.D., a professor of medicine at Yale University and editor-in-chief of the most widely used textbook in sleep medicine, The Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine. Kryger adds that the exercise-sleep benefits also work both ways. “Not only is there data to suggest that exercise improves nighttime sleep, but there’s research showing the opposite is true as well—that good sleep enhances your ability to exercise,” says Kryger.

Need a little push to set the alarm earlier for a morning walk or to make the effort to get to that yoga class after a long day at work? Here’s the newest thinking on why moving your body works so well to help you get a better night’s rest.

Exercise prompts deeper sleep. When scientists looked at the brain waves of exercisers versus non-exercisers during the night, they found that those who work out experience more slow wave sleep. Why? It’s during slow wave sleep that you produce the most growth hormone, says Rosenberg, which is needed to repair muscle tissue that’s broken down when you exercise. And while all of this repair work happens on a deep level that you likely won’t pick up on, what you will notice is waking up feeling rejuvenated after a night of profound, uninterrupted sleep.

Related: Try this sleep meditation for a restful night.

Breaking a sweat changes body temps. Physical movement causes your core body temperature to rise. As you cool down, that body temp drops, too. “This drop in body temperature is one of the body’s signals that it’s time to sleep,” says Rosenberg. This is one theory behind the new research that shows those who exercise within two hours of bedtime sleep better than those who don’t exercise. “You can officially ignore that old advice about not exercising in the evenings,” he says. “While we used to think it hindered sleep, we now know it can actually help.”

Working out blisses you out. Anyone who’s ever experienced a “runner’s high” or that post-yoga glow understands that exercise almost always results in an improvement in mood—and research has finally proven why. “We always used to talk about exercise-induced endorphins—those feel-good hormones that lift our spirits,” says Rosenberg. Now, scientists have measured something called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), one of many nerve growth factors in the body that has been associated with both improved mood and cognitive function. Studies show that exercise boosts BDNF levels, which lifts your spirits and wards against depression. So, if you chalk your sleep issues up to feeling down or ruminating about the darker aspects of your life, a good sweat session may go a long way toward easing your blues—and helping you snag a better night’s rest as a result.

Exercise makes you less anxious. Ever notice how you sleep like a baby when you’re on vacation? Odds are, it has something to do with the reprieve from your daily stressors, such as a demanding boss or never-ending to-do list. Turns out regular exercise can mitigate this ever-present, low-grade stress enough to help you get more Zzz’s. Sleep specialists have known for a while now that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells. Now, research is showing that those new neurons are actually more resistant to stress than the older ones. It’s almost as if the positive “stress” of exercise preps the body to be able to better handle stress in other forms, says Rosenberg. What’s more, the stress-relieving effects of exercise seem to last through the night. “While everyone experiences a drop in the stress hormone cortisol at night, it appears that exercisers experience a more drastic decrease,” he says.

Fitness helps sustain all-day energy. Moving your body doesn’t just help you count fewer sheep. Research shows it can also boost alertness during the day. One study published in the journal Neuroscience Letters found that study participants experienced improved mental alertness and reaction time during periods when they were exercising regularly versus times when they were sedentary. Couple this with the better rest you’ll get on a regular basis and you can kiss those 3 p.m. slumps goodbye.

Photo by Hailey Wist

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