The Day Begins at Sunset

Evening - The Start of the Solution-Focused Day.

The belief that the day begins at sunset, and not sunrise, can be traced back thousands of years - and is an integral part of several faiths, including Judaism.

Traditionally, our day starts in the morning. However, anyone who has woken up with an awful hangover, or after a very disturbed night's sleep - and then tried to approach life giving 100% - will testify that, in reality, our day is often shaped by our actions during the previous evening and night.

In terms of health and vitality, I believe that the evening, together with the night’s sleep, should not necessarily be considered just as a period of rest and recuperation from the day before, but also as a time of preparation for the coming day.

Sleep.

Having a good night's sleep is an essential part of this preparation process.

During sleep, our brains actively detoxify and rejuvenate themselves. It has recently been discovered that in Deep Sleep, our brain’s blood flow patterns dramatically alter, causing the blood to actually flow almost entirely out of our brains, allowing a special cleaning fluid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to flood throughout it in rhythmic pulsing waves - washing away any impurities and unwanted by-products such as toxic memory-impairing proteins.

As we sleep, the brain's administrative processes also go into overdrive - sorting, processing, cataloguing, and storing away the masses of information randomly collected during the day - so that we can start the morning with an organised filing system, a neat and tidy workspace, and a clean desktop.

Sleep also facilitates many physiological processes - during which the body heals itself, recalibrates blood pressure, and ‘takes out the garbage’ at a cellular level. This cannot occur when the body is physically and metabolically active in many specific ways - including the digestion of foods and assimilation of alcohol.

Thus the importance of an evening routine, which promotes an effective night's sleep and prepares us for the following day, cannot be emphasised enough. What we do in the evening - what and when we eat or drink, what we think, what we watch, what we plan, what we prepare, and what time we finally close our eyes - can either…

… set us up for having an amazing, fulfilling next day - in line with our Values and Goals

… or can find us waking up off-balance, out of focus and confused - where our values are suppressed, our decision-making impaired, and our goals seem out of reach.

All of these decisions will be addressed at more length throughout your programme, and discussed during the weekly Zoom calls, but it is worth summarising a few of these points here.

What and When we Eat.

“Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper,” or perhaps “Eat your breakfast, share your lunch with a friend, and give your dinner to your enemy”. Whichever proverb you prefer, the message is the same.

Eating a large breakfast and lunch, and then a much lighter meal early in the evening, gives the body time to digest and absorb the food entirely before you go to sleep, which allows it to go into its essential ‘repairing state’ much earlier (and for longer) during the sleep cycles.

What we Think, what we Watch.

When stressed, the body undergoes metabolic and physiological changes, releasing many ‘messengers’, including the hormones Cortisol and Adrenaline into the bloodstream. These, whilst extremely useful in the context of an actual Fight or Flight situation (ancestrally when a wild animal was chasing us), are particularly detrimental when we are trying to get to sleep.

It is, therefore, essential to actively reduce our stress, and especially to avoid situations that exacerbate our stress levels, during the evening.

A definite ‘shut off’ time from work, emails, or discussing financial or sensitive issues - the earlier in the evening the better - will help lower stress levels. And a ‘screen-free’ period of at least an hour - ideally two hours - before we go to bed (especially from TV programmes and films that promote emotions of anger and frustration or invoke past trauma) will help greatly toward paving the way for a good night's sleep.

What we Plan, what we Prepare.

During the ‘shut off’ and ‘screen-free’ period following my light, early-evening dinner, I have found it extremely beneficial to use this time constructively - planning and preparing for the day to come whilst listening to relaxing music.

Preparing my porridge or overnight oats for breakfast, my soup for lunch, planning what I will eat for dinner the following evening and taking food from the freezer to defrost, checking the pantry and writing a shopping list, …. etc.

Importantly, because these are done following my evening meal in an unstressed environment, my decisions are actually controlled by an area of the brain that is very detached and focused - and so are less affected by emotions, cravings, or how tired I am - resulting in better food choices.

All of these tasks not only save me valuable time in the morning - so I have more time for me - but also clears them from my to-do list before my night has even begun, making them one less thing to think about.

What time should you Go To Sleep and Wake Up?

Benjamin Franklin is quoted to have said, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”…. and I recently heard “Lose an hour in the morning, chase it all day” - an old Yiddish saying. I must admit, both resonate with me.

There is a great deal of scientific evidence regarding the health benefits of aligning our behaviour and sleep patterns with our Circadian Rhythm. Creating a regular schedule for eating, and a regular routine when going to bed and waking up - in line with our internal biological clocks.

These biological clocks - which are in nearly every tissue and organ in our body - are controlled by the ‘Master Clock’ (the SCN Nucleus) in our brain, and influence important functions within our bodies - such as the production of melatonin (the hormone that makes you sleepy), and the regulation of our body temperature, our eating habits and digestion, and our immune system - to name just a few.

Bringing our behaviours in line with our circadian rhythm is a simple and effective way to help maximise the body's self-healing capabilities. It brings balance and order to our day.

A Practical Approach.

Even with the best intentions of an organised evening and an early night’s sleep, modern-day life will simply get in the way - and it is often impossible for our day to start at sunset when the rest of the world’s day starts at sunrise. We all have work and family commitments, we occasionally need to travel, and of course there must always be room for socialising, celebrations, and special occasions - all of which invariably occur during the evenings.

It is therefore important that we strike a very healthy balance - intentionally establishing a daily routine that facilitates self-care and order, but also allowing ourselves to embrace the joys and adventures that life offers…

… the chance to be a human being rather than just a human doing.