The 5 Elements for Better Sleep
My name is Bryant Meyers, author of the book PEMF – the 5th Element of Health. In this document I will give you some practical action steps you can take to improve the quality and the length of your sleep based on what I call the “five elements of better sleep.”
As I discuss in my book there’s five essential elements that we need:
- Food (from the Earth),
- Water,
- Natural sunlight,
- Air (oxygen), and
- PEMF (the Earth’s natural pulsed magnetic fields and the static fields of the Earth).
I will be using that metaphor to walk you through the five elements that you need for better sleep.
I’ll start with a brief overview of circadian rhythms. This is a branch of chronobiology that deals with the daily rhythms of the human body and mind. Chronobiology is a broad umbrella that studies different cycles (monthly or yearly), but the circadian rhythms mainly focus on daily signals. Circadian rhythm is any daily biological process that displays an endogenous and trainable oscillation of about 24 hours. These are things that are cyclical every day and can be studied in the human biology.
Examples of circadian rhythms would be the light/dark cycles, temperature cycles (warm in the day and cool at night), eating cycles (we tend to eat at certain times), and pulsed magnetic fields. As we’ll see, the Schumann resonance varies daily based on which side of the Earth the sun is on. Gravity, which I call the sixth element, is also a cyclical pattern (we stand up during the day and lay down at night).
These cycles which happen every day on planet earth are very much connected to the Earth. There are biological markers which can be monitored that show these daily changes. For example, melatonin is a hormone secreted based on light cycles. The pineal gland will secret melatonin based on signals from light and dark. Blood pressure is another biological marker; it varies throughout the day. Your temperature is warmer during the daytime and cooler at night. Your brainwave activity is faster during the day (active beta brainwave), and more of a slow theta/delta wave at night.
These cycles are measurable in the human biology. We do have an internal biological clock. We also have external cues. We are not a closed system. We are open to our environment. The purpose of this introduction to circadian rhythms is to show that when you can master your circadian biology you’ll find that your sleep is better, your energy levels are higher, you will be more mentally sharp, experience less pain, and be overall more healthy. This all happens when you can synchronize your body and mind to the circadian rhythms of the environment.
Let’s begin with the element Earth. Earth is food. When we talk about Earth we are talking about our eating cycles. Every day you want to have a good breakfast (but not too heavy), a good lunch, and a light dinner. The body is not designed to eat late-night meals. Research on elimination and digestion and assimilation cycles concludes that we typically are eliminating from 4 AM to 12 Noon. Our body is digesting between 12 Noon and 8 PM. And we are assimilating those nutrients from 8 PM to 4 AM. So you want to be primarily eating during the digestion time.
The most important takeaway is to not be eating too late at night. For late snacks try to find foods high in tryptophan. Tryptophan is integral to serotonin and melatonin release. It really helps you to sleep better. Some examples include walnuts, almonds, cherry juice, kale chips, hummus, pineapples, bananas, oranges, sweet corn, rice, barley, and many more. If you’re going to eat those foods, do so lightly because the body is assimilating nutrients at night as well as healing, repairing, and regenerating. Sleep is the time that the body regenerates itself so you don’t want to be eating too heavily at night.
The next element is water. You don’t want to be drinking too much water right before bed (for obvious reasons). And don’t drink too much caffeine because caffeine is a diuretic that will keep you awake at night. And it’s good to avoid smoking later in the day because smoking is also stimulating to the body.
You can think of the element of water like taking a bath or nice hot shower. It’s very relaxing. If you take a bath you can add some sea salts or Epsom salts, and add a little lavender to the water because lavender oil is very relaxing. It’s a great way to wind down the day.
The next element is fire (the light/dark cycles of the Earth). Here’s the key with light. You need a good dose of full spectrum light during the day. Did you know that people whose offices have windows get better sleep than those who are windowless? Getting enough sun exposure every day keeps your body’s clock on-point. Sunlight tells your body to postpone making melatonin, the hormone that make you tired and helps you sleep. Part of the light/dark cycle is to keep your environment dark at night. Before bed it’s best to keep your house dark. It doesn’t have to be pitch black. You can buy amber lights. I like the website LowBlueLights.com. Bright light, and especially blue light, tells your body that it’s daytime. Bright lights, ipads and cellphones, computer screens and TVs can trigger this response. Here’s one of the best tips I can give you for better sleep: two hours before bed try to keep your house dark and use amber lights. You can also wear goggles that filter out blue lights.
LowBlueLights.com also offers an amber book reading light. The hour before bedtime is a good time to wind down, take a shower or bath, and maybe read a book using amber light. You can strategically place amber light bulbs in nightlights around the home. The amber lights appear to your brain and pineal gland as pitch black. I also recommend that you install F.lux on your computer. It changes the screen to a warmer, dimmer display. That helps to reduce the blue light.
The next element is Air. It’s simple with air; you just want to be in a cool environment. Your body goes through temperature cycles between the day and night. After you take a hot shower or bath, it will feel cool when you’re exposed to the air. That shift in temperature will signal your body to produce melatonin.
The next element of health I want to discuss is gravity. To get good sleep every night it’s important to have a good mattress, a good pillow, and good posture while you sleep. Everyone is different with respect to the mattress.
Your spine should be straight if you are a side-sleeper. If you sleep on your back, make sure you have a good pillow or a neck pillow. I don’t recommend sleeping on your stomach, but there are pillows available on Amazon and elsewhere that help with your posture if you’re a stomach sleeper. The key to sleeping and gravity is having good posture while sleeping.
Finally, the fifth element of health and better sleep is PEMF. This is the pulsed magnetic fields of the Earth which naturally resonate at 7.83 Hz. That’s a relaxed alpha state. Encephalogram studies show your brain has four “gears” (almost like a car): Delta, theta, alpha, and beta. Frequencies range from 0-30 Hz. Beta is the active, stimulated brain state. A lot of people will attempt to sleep while their brain is in the beta state (30 Hz). That’s too stimulated.
The key to PEMF therapy through entrainment using the sleep setting on a good, Earthbased PEMF device is that you get theta/delta frequencies. Because the brain is electrical, the low, slow-pulsed magnetic field frequency will calm down your brain, and you’ll go right to sleep. I’ve heard from many people who didn’t buy the PEMF device for better sleep (they bought it for pain or other purposes), but they found that they do sleep better. That’s the very first thing I noticed. It was a time in my life when I have having trouble sleeping, and PEMF therapy really helped. A PEMF therapy device is my #1 recommendation for a tool you can invest in to help you get deep delta sleep every night. It will help your body to heal and regenerate.
Here are the sleep protocols for the iMRS-2000 and the MRS devices based on over 200,000 case studies with patients in a European clinical setting involving a hundred doctors. They recommend doing level 25-50 in the morning, level 25-50 in the afternoon, and level 10 at night. The duration for each session should be 8-16 minutes. You can also use a light and sound system for added relaxation. Right now the iMRS is the only PEMF device that I know of that has an integrated light and sound system. Lay on an Earth-based PEMF mat every night before bed, and you will definitely notice better sleep.
