The Second Pillar of Functional Medicine: Sleep
- Donna Strickland
- Jul 19
- 7 min read
In continuing our series on the four pillars of functional medicine, we will transitioning from last week's topic of nutrition into the importance of sleep. Our aim is to integrate small, feasible habits to avoid becoming overwhelmed. This ensures that we instill reliable practices that we can lean on for years to come. Outlined as the foundations of achieving optimal health, the four pillars can be used as a whole or individually as a guide to taking small steps towards a healthier future. These four pillars are nutrition, sleep, stress management, and movement — let's focus on our second pillar: sleep.
While it can seem neutral, or seemingly unimportant in the grand scheme of optimal health, sleep is vital for essentially every organ in the body to function properly. Without adequate high-quality sleep, we see outcomes such as metabolic dysfunction, poor detox processes within the body, higher levels of stress and inflammation, poor memory, increased anxiety and depression, and low energy throughout the day. Just as with nutrition, both quality and quantity matter in relation to sleep. God gave us sleep to rest, revitalize, and renew our bodies at a cellular level for the day to come. We are even commanded in scripture to rest — if the Creator of our bodies commands us to prioritize something to ensure bodily health, let’s strive for that! First, let’s outline why sleep is so vitally important.
While we sleep, our body recharges itself, primarily via detoxification throughout the organ system. The teachings of Traditional Chinese Medicine tell us that the body detoxifies according to an internal clock running approximately 11pm-7am. Let’s take a look:
11pm-1am: GALLBLADDER. The gallbladder sends blood to the liver to be detoxified. Waking during this time could point to poor gallbladder function related to diet and/or stress.
1am-3am: LIVER. The liver, significantly necessary for adequate detoxification within the body, filters blood to eliminate toxins and other waste. This time frame is the liver’s primary time for detoxification and waking during this time could indicate liver overload from things like environmental toxins, poor diet, overuse of alcohol, frequent pharmaceutical use, or holding on to feelings of anger.
3am-5am: LUNGS. Our lungs are necessary for providing oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. Chronically waking from deep sleep in the early morning may suggest respiratory issues or unresolved grief.
5am-7am: LARGE INTESTINE. The large intestine’s entire job is to remove waste and toxins from our bodies. Waking during this time points to digestive issues or difficulty letting things go from an emotional perspective.
The brain also plays a key role in detox during sleep by purging toxins and waste buildup via glial cells. Deep sleep is important for the brain’s process of consolidating memories, preparing for a new day of learning and experiences, cellular maintenance, repair, and optimization of neural health.
Integral to brain health and the sleep it requires is gut health. Up to 90% of our serotonin is made in the gut — but only if it is healthy. Serotonin is responsible, among many other things, for stimulating areas of the brain necessary for sleep initiation. It is also converted into melatonin, our body’s sleep hormone. This emphasizes, yet again, why the gut-brain axis is so fundamental to our health. If our gut health is not prioritized, our sleep, among many other things, suffers.
Moving on from the importance of sleep in brain health, we see the significance of quality sleep in relation to metabolism. Poor sleep affects the body’s appetite hormones, leptin and ghrelin, which signal hunger and fullness in the body. Disruption in these hormones strips the body of its innate ability to communicate with us for what it needs or doesn’t need. Absence of this communication system can lead to overeating and decreased insulin sensitivity, causing chronically high blood sugar and potential weight gain. When we fail to prioritize sleep, we are increasing our susceptibility to metabolic disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance later in life.
Now that we understand just how significant adequate high-quality sleep is for optimal health, how do we go about integrating this into our daily lives? Often referred to as sleep hygiene, the routines and habits surrounding our sleep-wake cycle are fundamental to achieving quality sleep. So how do we implement strong habits of sleep hygiene?
Magnesium supplements: Magnesium contributes to the production of GABA in our brains. GABA is a neurotransmitter that inhibits the activity of wake-promoting neurons and initiates relaxation on a cellular level within the brain. It also manages cortisol levels, helping to bring these levels down at nighttime in order to stimulate melatonin production. For full benefits and to avoid causing an imbalance in the body, opt for a full complex supplement rather than a product that contains just one form.
Balance the sleep-wake cycle: Also known as our circadian rhythm, this is our body’s internal clock that stimulates the right hormones to be produced at the right time. When balanced, this process ensures quality sleep and restful waking. Aim to go to sleep and wake up at the same times every day. Build a rhythm that aligns as closely as possible to the rising and setting of the sun. Once implemented, it won’t take long for your body’s cellular and hormonal processes to mirror your habits and run like clockwork to help you sleep and wake with little effort.
Limit screens & blue light before bed/after dark: Consuming light from electronic devices near bedtime can disrupt the hormonal process of quality sleep by triggering our brains to produce cortisol (awake hormone) instead of melatonin (sleep hormone). When the brain stimulates cortisol production, the rest of the body thinks it is daytime and halts the rest of their nighttime processes (detoxing, cellular cleanup, etc.) and we are left to function without the benefits of these processes.
Avoid stimulants: Just like device usage in the hours leading up to sleep, consuming things like coffee, alcohol, or simple sugars near bedtime causes disruptions in the sleep-wake cycle. Caffeine amps up our heart rate, creating an inability to fall asleep, or fitful sleep once drifting off. Aim to avoid caffeine after 1pm daily. Alcohol, while commonly thought to calm or wind us down, significantly affects our REM sleep — the cycle of sleep necessary for cognitive functions such as memory and mood. Alcohol before sleep has also been linked to nightmares, night sweats, and worsened symptoms of sleep apnea. Consuming simple sugars in the hours leading up to sleep causes blood sugar and insulin to spike, subsequently stimulating the brain. Prolonged consumption of simple sugars near bedtime leads to an inability to fall asleep, eventually developing into insomnia, and increased sugar cravings due to a disruption in appetite hormones.
Eat dinner early: Aim to have your last large meal of the day before 7pm, or 3 hours before going to sleep. Prioritizing this helps improve digestion, regulate blood sugar levels, and ensures higher quality sleep. By eating within the hours of daylight, we are respecting the body’s natural cycles and allowing those processes to continue undeterred. If you are hungry near bedtime, opt for a small snack high in protein to ensure sustained energy release while sleeping.
Sleep environment: Aim to sleep in a cool & dark room each night. Keeping it cool helps the body maintain a balanced body temperature and thereby maintaining high-quality, uninterrupted sleep throughout the night. Investing in cotton bedding is another great step in balancing body temperature, as cotton is a natural product rather than synthetic and is naturally temperature-regulating. Although it can seem like an insignificant personal preference, sleeping in a dark room has been scientifically shown to result in better quality sleep (yes, even for our kiddos). Avoid nightlights or sleeping with the TV on to ensure that your brain is able to communicate effectively with the rest of the body to promote sleep instead of waking.
Establish a calm nighttime routine: This is especially important for women, as we tend to ruminate and ‘file’ away our experiences or conversations from the day as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Set your goal time for sleep and start an hour before then with a book or journaling, calming music, and a cup of lavender or chamomile tea. Begin keeping a prayer journal and set aside this time at night to pray over people close to you. Deep breathing exercises have also been scientifically shown to lower anxiety levels, calm the body on a cellular level, and even reduce insomnia and depressive symptoms.
Prioritize quality sleep, especially for women: Females of all ages need 1-2hrs more sleep than men, especially the week before and during menstruation. Not prioritizing this can lead to poor memory and brain health, slower metabolism, inadequate detoxification within the body, poor mitochondrial function, and more, as we age. Whereas men need slightly less sleep in order to function optimally, not prioritizing it can lead to the same unwanted outcomes in their health.
Regular exercise: Significantly important for quality sleep, exercise reduces stress and inflammation and stimulates neuroplasticity (the brains ability to rewire itself & retain new information). It also aids in regulating the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, also known as our circadian rhythm, by causing us to feel tired by bedtime due to energy expenditure during our workouts. This, in turn, promotes higher sleep quality and ensures that we garner the benefits of longer, deeper sleep. To avoid energy spikes close to bedtime, aim to workout earlier in the day or first thing in the morning rather than in the evening.
Changing our habits and routines to prioritize a healthier sleep schedule may seem bothersome at first but be assured — God created our bodies to need sleep. Respecting His perfect design will only reap the benefits of optimal health in the long run. Lean into the call for rest — we were not designed to pursue, work, achieve, and grind 24/7. We will find much more fulfillment in the design of our Creator than in what the world may expect of us!
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. Genesis 2:2
Research showing the importance of sleep for optimal health:
Sleep is essential to health:
Harvard Medical School on why sleep is so important:
Sleep & chronic disease risk:
Sleep duration and health outcomes in adults:
Traditional Chinese Medicine Organ Body Clock:
An estimated 90% of our serotonin is synthesized in the gut: