Chris Belanger - Sleep, Stress Management and Recovery Coach, Dartmouth, NS Videos

Let’s Talk About: Turkey! 🦃 Upon devouring a hearty meal rich in carbohydrates—imagine a Thanksgiving plate piled with potatoes, stuffing, and of course, turkey 🦃—your body experiences a surge in blood sugar. In response, the pancreas secretes insulin to facilitate the uptake of glucose into cells 🩸, effectively lowering blood sugar levels. Interestingly, insulin also influences amino acid absorption, excluding one: tryptophan. Unlike its counterparts, tryptophan rides solo in the bloodstream after insulin clears the way, and without competition, readily crosses the blood-brain barrier 🧠. Once in the brain, tryptophan converts into serotonin, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of happiness 😊 and drowsiness 😴, providing a biological backdrop to that familiar post-feast slump. So, while turkey does contain tryptophan, it’s the carbohydrate-rich sides that amplify its soporific effect, not the bird itself. #sleep #insomnia #sleepscience

Let's Talk About Caffeine
Let's talk about #caffeine! Caffeine: The Sleep Interrupter ☕💤 While caffeine is often hailed for its ability to banish sleepiness, it’s essential to explore the unseen consequences. By intercepting adenosine—a neurotransmitter propelling us towards sleep—caffeine disrupts our innate sleep-wake cycle, which could alter our sleep quality and patterns. Lingering in the System ⏳🔄 Caffeine has a plasma half-life of about 5 hours, but an elimination half-life swinging between 1.5 to 9.5 hours... which affects our sleep long after we *think* it's out of our system. The Uncharted Influence of Lifelong Exposure 🧒🥤 Our caffeine journey often begins in childhood, through a seemingly harmless sip of soda. This early and continuous exposure make it really challenging for us to understand the full effect of caffeine on our bodies, as our bodies have been adapting to its presence since we were really young. Navigating your caffeine consumption with informed choices ensures that you can still enjoy some of the benefits of coffee... without jeopardizing your sleep health. 🛌✨ Here's to fostering a balanced relationship with our most ancient beverage while preserving our valuable sleep. #sleep #insomnia #coffee