Sleep Yourself Fertile Tonight

We spend a third of our lives sleeping yet how much do we know about it? Our ability to consciously express ourselves, adapt, evolve and reproduce is due to the events that occur in our sleep.

Why do we sleep?

We learn and heal in our sleep. To do this properly, we surprisingly need energy to sleep! Improper sleep leads to neurological, biochemical and genetic imbalances. 4-6 hours of sleep per night lead to changes in memory and behavior. In less than a week, endocrine function changes resemble the effects of advanced age, early stages of diabetes and insulin resistance.

Some of the conditions linked to sleep deprivation are:

• Depression
• Aggression
• Poor concentration
• Poor immunity
• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Infertility

Sleep and Fertility

The ability to get pregnant (stay pregnant) and to father a child boils down to energy reserves, optimal nutritional status and a clean non toxic internal and external environment. The only exception is a physical obstacle due to malformation or severe scarring of the reproductive system.

At the end of the day, your body’s priority is YOU. It needs to make sure it has enough energy and nutrients to beat your heart, work the liver and kidneys, breathe your lungs and of course feed the brain. Without the healthy function of those and many more you would not exist. They are the body’s number one priority.

Once their needs have been met, digestion and the immune system can be taken care of, but only if there is still enough energy and nutrients to go around.

Lastly the reproductive system, that’s right, the reproductive system and your fertility are the last on your body’s list of priorities because its primary job is to keep you alive.

Think of it as Christmas shopping.

If you had a meager year in terms of earnings, then you’ll limit the presents to only the closest family members and even then you’ll have to pick and choose carefully not to overspend. If you had a fantastic year in financial terms, then not only will you get something special for all you love, but you’ll also maybe donate to the charity and get presents for your wider family and friends.

Your body is no different; it looks at its outgoings and matches them against the incomings. If there is not enough for the luxuries, there won’t be any.

Getting pregnant and growing a new human being with your own reserves, requires a huge amount of spare nutrients and spare energy. Therefore in body’s accounting terms, pregnancy is a luxury, a splurge of energy and nutrients.

Sleep plays a major role in conservation of energy, healing, metabolism, mental well-being, good memory, learning and you guessed it – fertility!

Let’s have a look at the link between sleep and fertility.

Circadian rhythm

It all starts with the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is an inbuilt mechanism which adapts us to the day/night cycle of the planet. The circadian rhythm is regulated by the Pineal gland in the brain. The pineal gland secretes a hormone called Melatonin, when it gets dark to signal the body and the organs to get ready for sleep.

Melatonin is a very important hormone involved in body temperature control, immune system regulation, sleep, appetite regulation and lastly the regulation of reproductive hormones. It is a natural antioxidant in the body, fights cancer cells and prevents cells from aging. Sounds too good to be true! It is because not many people get the benefits from this hormone as its production is inhibited by stress hormones such as Adrenalin and Noradrenalin and by light! The only ones who really benefit from it these days are the little ones who get sent off to bed at 8.30 with a command "lights out". Maybe we should be as disciplined with ourselves.

When we do manage to produce and secrete melatonin into the blood stream, the stress hormones drop, and the health and fertility promoting hormones rise. Heaven! Its secretion peaks at 9pm, which is why it is advisable to go to bed and sleep at that time, to cash in on all the benefits it provides.

And remember, if you want a complete guide with step-by-step instructions on how to sleep yourself fertile including my conception recipe and how to test if you are sleep deprived and what to do about it to sleep like a baby, see my Sleep and Fertility: What Dangers Lurk Behind Sleep Disorders that's part of my "Natural Fertility Cures Program".