February 27, 2025
8 min read
Feeling sluggish, irritable or anxious? You might be surprised to learn that the solution doesn’t involve any special supplements or drastic changes to diet. The answer lies right on your pillow! We all know that sleep is crucial, but did you know that the quality and quantity of sleep we get every night can significantly impact our mood, physical wellbeing and ability to function at our best? Just as drinking enough water and eating the right foods daily are high priority for most, sleep is something that should be prioritised every night to support our overall well being.
Why Do You Need Sleep?
Apart from the obvious, lack of sleep does more than just make you feel tired. While the odd night of poor sleep is to be expected, regularly skipping quality time on the pillow for working late or binge watching Netflix can cause short and long term health problems.
Emotional Balance
Obtaining the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep every night helps our brain process and consolidate memories, particularly throughout our REM sleep cycle. This restorative process helps us to process emotions, experiences and memories, allowing us to regulate our emotional responses and problem solve. Have you ever experienced a difficult situation at night that’s left you feeling overwhelmed only to wake up the next day with a more calm and rational point of view? You have sleep to thank for that!
Sleep also plays a key role in balancing cortisol, our stress hormone which is often a culprit for feelings of anxiety and irritability. If you’re constantly running on little sleep you can create a vicious cycle of elevated cortisol levels and emotional dysregulation. When you’re having “one of those days” where everything is irritating you and you feel like nothing is going right, it’s best to reset with our natural sleep remedies below and focus on a good night’s rest. You’ll wake up feeling like a different person!
Immune Health
We all know that sleep supports our physical health, but immunity is often a factor that is overlooked. Although we can’t physically see our immunity it is a vital function to keep our bodies healthy. If you’re in a cycle of feeling run down and easily catching illness, it might be time to consider your sleep health. While you sleep your body is working overtime to repair and regenerate, and this includes its ability to defend against illness.
Particularly during deep sleep, your body ramps up the production of essential immune support cells that play a crucial role in identifying and attacking infected or foreign cells. Without adequate sleep, your body is less likely to produce enough immune support cells, resulting in a weakened immune system.
Inflammation is a natural immune response in the defence against infection, however excessive inflammation caused by lack of sleep can lead to health problems such as autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular issues. A solid sleep routine can support the body’s regulation of the inflammatory response, ensuring our immune system doesn’t overreact or become inefficient.
Physical Health & Weight Management
A late night often leads to poor food choices the following day thanks to an imbalance of hormones and often because we’re tired, craving a sugar hit and don’t have the energy to make a healthy meal. Put simply, a good night's sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy weight range through balance of appetite-regulating hormones while good energy levels will most likely lead to healthier food choices.
Brain Boost
We all know how easy it is to fumble over our words when we’re tired, but the effect that lack of sleep has on our brain goes a lot deeper than just jumbled up words.
In addition to memory consolidation, sleep allows our glymphatic system to detoxify and remove metabolic waste products that are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers. Lack of sleep on a regular basis can significantly impact our brain’s ability to clear out the buildup of harmful substances that can contribute to these diseases.
A good night’s rest can also help to improve cognitive functions such as attention span, problem solving and decision-making abilities. It helps clear the mind and refreshes the brain’s ability to focus, process and retain information.
How to Create Healthy Sleep Patterns
Now that we know why sleep is so important, how do we realistically achieve the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep every night? Today’s hustle mindset can make it difficult to step away from work, family commitments and technology to get the rest we really need, but it’s so important to make it a priority.
Setting up a consistent bedtime and wake time can help to create a rhythm for your natural body clock, which can assist with regulating melatonin. Constantly chopping and changing bedtimes and wake times can be confusing for your brain, making it more difficult to fall asleep.
Similarly, setting a technology switch off time can help set you up for a good night’s rest by giving your eyes and brain a break from the screen well before you hit the pillow. Experts recommend pausing screen time at least an hour before bed to give your brain a chance to wind down.
Calm days usually lead to a calm sleep, so make it a priority to take regular breaks throughout the day to rest, eat and drink enough water so that you’re not running on adrenaline when you finally hit the pillow.
Creating a consistent sleep routine signals to your body that it’s time to start winding down. While an hour-long sleep routine isn’t always possible every night, there are small self-care rituals you can incorporate prior to bedtime to help promote a sense of relaxation for your mind and body. In addition to ditching technology, try these natural sleep remedies alongside your consistent bedtime routine for your best sleep yet.
Natural Sleep Remedies
A warm bath is great, but if you really want to create a bedtime routine that promotes full balance of the mind, body and soul, try one of these Ayurvedic Inspired Rituals to help you drift off to sleep with ease.
Dry Body Brushing
If you’re short on time, this 5 minute nightly ritual is perfect for you!
Inspired by ancient Ayurvedic healing traditions, Garshana dry body brushing is a nourishing ritual that stimulates lymphatic drainage, improves the body’s natural detoxification channels and boosts circulation to revitalise and rejuvenate skin. Topically, the gentle bristles work to exfoliate and slough away dead skin cells, stimulating cellular turnover, for brighter, firmer, more radiant skin. On a deeper level, incorporating Garshana dry body brushing into your daily routine is a powerful way to implement self-care, increase blood flow and reduce inflammation.
For optimal results, incorporate LAMAV’s Sustainable Garshana Dry Body Brush into your pre-bed routine and always brush towards your heart to work with your body’s natural flow of lymph and promote improved blood flow.
Finish with a warm shower to wash away exfoliated skin and further calm the body before enjoying a deep sleep.
Abhyanga Massage
No time for a massage? No problems! Abhyanga Massage is a form of self massage that can be enjoyed anytime in the comfort of your own home and its benefits extend beyond the skin’s surface. According to Ancient Ayurveda, Abhyanga Massage can help to strengthen and balance the 5 essential elements within each of us to ensure our dominant Dosha is supported for optimal mind and body balance. It can also improve lymphatic drainage, detoxification, reduce inflammation and bring calm and balance to the nervous system.
LAMAV’s Ayurvedic Body Oils have been thoughtfully crafted to help you set an intention for your Abhyanga ritual—to uplift, unwind or nourish. Click here to re-create LAMAV’s signature Abhyanga Ritual at home and enjoy sweet dreams.
Body Gua Sha
The perfect pair to LAMAV’s Ayurvedic Body Oils, our sustainably sourced Body Gua Sha will glide over the skin, releasing tension from tired muscles to achieve full body relaxation before you hit the sheets. Suffering from restless legs or tense shoulders? Use the end of the tool for a deeper massage to melt away knots and feel the stress of the day melt away.
Kansa Wand
With its roots firmly planted in Ayurvedic tradition, the Kansa wand has been around for thousands of years and is a small dome-shaped tool that supports Ayurvedic philosophy – that for holistic health, beauty and wellbeing, it’s essential to balance the mind, body and spirit. The Kansa wand is believed to assist in this pursuit by aligning the Doshas, helping to unblock energy channels and promoting improved health, beauty and vitality.
Made from a sacred bronze metal and sustainable teak wood, LAMAV’s Kansa Wand is primarily used to aid in lymphatic drainage, detoxification and relaxation – making it the ultimate skincare meets selfcare tool to add to your nightly routine.
Pair LAMAV’s Kansa wand with one of our Organic Face Oils and focus on areas that hold tension as we work our way through the day - the jaw, temples and forehead are a great place to start. You can enjoy this ritual in bed with a book pre-sleep or as a sleep remedy to help you re-settle when you find yourself tossing and turning through the middle of the night.
Sleep isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. It’s easy to sacrifice sleep in replace of one more TV episode or one more hour of work, but the recovery and rejuvenation of your mind and body should always take priority. Allowing yourself adequate rest everyday gives you the ability to face each new day with energy and focus. As Anne Lamott said - “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
