This has two benefits.
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Let’s start with sleep
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Researchers looked at stopping the use of your smartphone just 30 minutes before falling asleep. The results? After only four weeks sleep latency was reduced (the amount of time it takes to fall asleep), the amount of time you were actually asleep increased, your sleep quality improved (meaning you were able to achieve those coveted deep sleep waves). They found a reduction in your pre-sleep arousal (or an improvement in your relaxation), and as an added bonus, the NEXT day participants had improved mood (this is definitely me) and working memory. Is there a downside to this? I can’t think of one.
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How blue light affects your body
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Your body needs to produce melatonin (a hormone that helps regulate your circadian rhythm) to let you know it’s time to sleep. This is done through your eyes exposure, or lack thereof to light. It has been shown that light lowers the production of melatonin and that blue light (from smartphones) is extra powerful at doing this, making it even harder for you to fall asleep.
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And now for the effect on your relationship
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This is the easy one, I bet you can guess it. You get that extra little bit of quality time together. You can nurture your connection, check in at the end of a long day, and snag a snuggle increasing your oxytocin secretion (creating those feelings of love).
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If you are struggling with your sleep, I can help! There are many ways (other than just this) to help you fall asleep and stay asleep through the night. You can wake up feeling refreshed, let me get you there.
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DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228756
Tag: women’s health
Add Sex to your Wellness Routine
Let’s say that again. And now let’s think about it.
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What does optimization mean?
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It’s realizing your best life. It’s ensuring you are experiencing pleasure more times than you’re missing out. It’s learning how to make your body work for you. It’s improving your relationship with your body, yourself and your overall health. It’s realizing there are many ways to experience pleasure, it’s making love not porn.
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When we usually seek help
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When something is WRONG. Not when something is not quite right. If we can live with it, we leave it. It doesn’t have to be this way. You know your body better than anybody else. You know when it’s off. So why not address it? It doesn’t have to be a major problem for it to be a MAJOR problem for you.
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What might be wrong?
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Multiple things. Your libido is low. You’re in a love-hate relationship with your body. You experience pain with sex (vulvodynia). You’ve never achieved an orgasm (anorgasmia). You have vaginal dryness. Your period causes you pain and discomfort every month so miss that week. That pesky UTI keeps coming back (or that yeast infection). Your body is not working for YOU period.
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I work with women to help put a pin on what is missing; what is not quite right and then we work together to develop a plan to fix it. Life’s to short to not fully experience pleasure, am I right?
Don’t Forget to Look at your Partner
The cliché about staring into a lover’s eyes? It’s backed by science.
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What the science says
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Eye contact is a cornerstone of non-verbal communication between individuals. (The others are tone, pitch, speed of speech and body language) Did you know that? Eye contact is a key element that connects people when they’re communicating, and it shows their level of intimacy with each other. This is why you feel uncomfortable holding a prolonged gaze with a stranger but are okay to do it with someone you trust.
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Eye contact in your relationship
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Eye contact tells us if our SO is listening and responding to us; it lets us know when we have their full attention, it allows us to see their emotions including when they’re concerned, happy, having fun and feeling love.
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It IMPROVES your communication
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When we look at why a lot of relationships end, it can come down to a breakdown in communication. In the age of screens, it’s becoming harder and harder to get that full attention we crave. When you’re trying to relate something important and their full attention isn’t given in the form of eye contact, people reported having their feelings hurt. If what they are trying to convey isn’t given the attention they feel it deserves, they can withdraw a little bit from that relationship.
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What to do about it?
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The good news here is that making time to give your partner your undivided attention in the way of eye contact can actually work to repair your relationship. It tells them I’m paying attention to you, I see you, you are what I am focusing on. It lets them know you’re interested in what they have to say. It’s that simple.
Yeast Infection Causes Explained
NO ONE LIKES THESE. I will attest to this.
A yeast infection or vaginal candidiasis is a yeast overgrowth in the vaginal canal. It can be itchy, uncomfortable and produce significant amounts of clumpy white discharge.
What is recurrent defined as?
More than four yeast infections in a one-year period.
What can you do?
Traditionally anti-fungal are used to treat yeast infections. This can be dosed either orally or vaginally, but due to the recurrent nature of the infection, the initial treatment is usually followed by at least 6 months of maintenance therapy. Aside from being on antibiotics for an extended period of time, these treatments are not guaranteed to work if the root cause of the yeast infection is not being addressed.
What a Naturopath will do
Your naturopath will take a deep look into WHY you are continually getting yeast infections and what is happening in your body specifically that is allowing this yeast overgrowth which is part of your normal vaginal culture (it should be there, just not in this quantity). You will be assessed on:
- Your vaginal flora & vaginal pH
- Your medication use
- Overall immune system health (this is VERY important to determine why your body isn’t fighting this)
- Your hormone levels (high levels of estrogen have been linked to yeast infections)
- Blood sugar regulation (the primary food source for these guys)
- Your gut microbiome
- And many other factors
From this, a comprehensive plan will be made just for YOU and your needs. The aim is to stop you from getting a yeast infection in the future, avoiding those antibiotics and helping you understand what to do if one pops back up.
Stress and your Libido
Is stress lowering your libido?
Cortisol is one of our bodies main stress hormones, it gets produced when our body is reacting to a threat – real or not. This is great in times of actual danger giving you the best chance to think clearly and move fast.
But when you’re stressed due to your day to day you don’t need it. Cortisol turns down all ‘non-essential’ responses in the body – the reproductive system being one of them. Not feeling turned on when you’re stressed? This could be why.
Although stress can be unavoidable, the way we deal with it is not. Make an appointment to find out ways you can manage your stress to get you back to living the life you want.