⏱ 6-minute read

For seven and a half years I worked night shift as a nurse.

Seven and a half years of sleeping a few hours prior to going to work, a short nap afterwards, and then doing it all over again. Trying to sleep normal times at night on my nights off, eating at the wrong times, and never quite feeling fully rested no matter how many hours I spent in bed took its toll.

Not all at once — but gradually over time. The fatigue that never fully lifted. The brain fog that made it difficult to think. The mood that was harder to regulate. The weight that crept on despite my best efforts. The gut issues that I chalked up to stress and irregular eating.

I knew sleep was important. But knowing something clinically and understanding what it is doing to your body in real time are two very different things. And it was not until I left night shift and committed to restoring my sleep that I began to understand just how important sleep is to everything. Not just to feeling rested, but to so much more.

Maybe you have not worked night shift, and this is not your experience, yet still struggle with getting good sleep. This newsletter is for you too. For anyone who struggles to get good rest or who is trying to correct their ‘broken’ circadian rhythm. It is not an overnight fix. It requires systematically giving your body what it needs and over time it will improve.

(If you want to know where to start- scroll down to the 5 sleep habits that will change your life).

Sleep is one of the most biologically active and productive states your body enters — and what happens during those hours determines, in large part, how every other hour of your day functions.

While you sleep your brain runs a dedicated waste-clearance system called the glymphatic system — essentially pressure-washing toxic metabolic byproducts that accumulate during waking hours, including beta-amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease. Your pituitary gland releases growth hormone — which repairs muscle tissue, supports fat metabolism, and drives cellular regeneration throughout the body. Your immune system produces cytokines and deploys immune cells. Your gut lining regenerates. Your cortisol rhythm resets for the day ahead. Your memories consolidate from short-term to long-term storage. Your emotional experiences from the day are processed and integrated.

This is your body's most important repair window — and it should not be compressed, skipped, or adequately replaced by caffeine and willpower.

Seven to eight hours is not a recommendation for the weak. Look at is as a biological requirement — established by decades of sleep research — for the vast majority of adults. The science is clear: people who consistently sleep less than seven hours show measurably impaired cognitive function, elevated inflammatory markers, suppressed immune response, increased visceral fat accumulation, disrupted blood sugar regulation, elevated cortisol, accelerated cellular aging, and significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, and dementia.

And it is not just quantity. Quality matters enormously. Eight hours of fragmented, shallow, or chemically altered sleep — disrupted by stress, alcohol, screens, or a dysregulated nervous system — does not deliver the same biological benefit as eight hours of deep, architecturally complete sleep. Your body needs to move through the full sleep cycle — light sleep, deep sleep, and REM — to receive the full spectrum of sleep's restorative effects.

My circadian rhythm — the internal biological clock that governs the timing of cortisol, melatonin, digestion, immune function, and dozens of other physiological processes — had been systematically disrupted for years. Fixing it required intention, consistency, and time.

Healing my gut changed my sleep. As I began addressing the gut dysbiosis — repairing the gut lining, restoring beneficial bacteria, reducing intestinal inflammation — my sleep began to improve. The gut-sleep connection is bidirectional and profound. A healthy gut produces adequate serotonin — the precursor to melatonin. It supports the parasympathetic nervous system function that is a prerequisite for quality sleep. It reduces the systemic inflammation that disrupts sleep architecture. Healing the gut was not a sleep intervention I had planned. It turned out to be one of the most powerful ones I made.

Supporting my vagus nerve changed everything about how my nervous system could wind down. The vagus nerve governs the shift from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (rest and digest) function — the transition that must happen for quality sleep to occur. Night shift had left my nervous system chronically activated — wired in ways that made genuine rest feel physiologically impossible even when I was exhausted. Intentional vagal activation practices — slow breathing, humming, prayer and stillness, cold water — gradually rebuilt my nervous system's ability to downshift. And when my nervous system learned to downshift reliably, my sleep followed.

Morning sunlight became non-negotiable. Within the first thirty minutes of waking, I step outside for natural light exposure. This anchors the cortisol awakening response, sets the circadian rhythm, and starts the biological countdown for melatonin release that evening. It is one of the simplest and most evidence-supported sleep interventions available.

Reading before bed replaced screens. I had been a screen-in-bed person for years — phone, tablet, television — without understanding what it was doing to my quality of sleep. Replacing screens with a physical book in the hour before bed was uncomfortable at first. My nervous system was so accustomed to stimulation that stillness initially felt boring. But over time reading became a genuine wind-down ritual. The single stream focus of reading quiets the default mode network, reduces cortisol, and eases the nervous system into the parasympathetic state that sleep requires.

None of these changes worked overnight. Being consistent over weeks and months my sleep improved. There is a significant difference in my energy, my mental clarity, my emotional resilience, and my gut health.

These are the foundational habits that research most consistently supports — and that made the most direct difference in my own recovery. Start with one. Add another the following week. Consistency compounded over time is everything.

1. Set a consistent sleep and wake time — and hold it every single day including weekends. Your circadian rhythm is an anchor system. It functions best — and melatonin releases most reliably — when your body can predict when sleep and waking will occur. The shift between your weekday and weekend sleep schedule — what researchers call social jet lag — disrupts your circadian rhythm in ways that compound through the week, making Monday and Tuesday the most physiologically impaired days for many adults. Choose a wake time that works for your life and hold it seven days a week.

2. Protect 7 to 8 hours of sleep time every night. Seven to eight hours is a biological requirement — not a preference. If you are currently sleeping less than this consistently, adding even thirty minutes per night produces measurable improvements in cognitive function, immune response, and emotional regulation within one to two weeks. Work backward from your wake time to determine what your bedtime needs to be — and treat it as seriously as any other non-negotiable in your day.

3. Turn off all electronic devices one hour before bedtime. Screens emit blue wavelength light that signals to your brain that it is still daytime — suppressing melatonin production by up to 50% and delaying sleep onset by one to three hours even when you feel tired. The hour before bed is your most important melatonin-building window. Protecting it from screen exposure is one of the single highest-impact sleep interventions available. Replace screens with reading, gentle stretching, prayer, or quiet conversation. Your nervous system will thank you within days.

4. Avoid eating within 3 hours of bedtime. Eating close to bedtime elevates core body temperature — which must drop for sleep to initiate and deepen — and triggers digestive activity that interferes with the overnight gut repair and microbiome restoration that sleep is designed to support. Late eating also elevates blood sugar and insulin, which disrupts growth hormone release during deep sleep.

5. Get natural light during the day and dim the lights in the evening. Your sleep-wake cycle is governed by light — specifically by the contrast between bright light during the day and darkness at night. Abundant natural light during daylight hours anchors the circadian clock, supports the healthy morning cortisol peak, and primes melatonin for its evening release. Bright artificial lighting in the evening disrupts that release by signaling to the brain that the day is still ongoing. Make morning outdoor light a daily non-negotiable — even five to ten minutes. And after 7pm dim overhead lights, switch to lamps, and use warm low-level lighting that supports the body's natural wind-down. This light-dark contrast is one of the most powerful and most overlooked circadian regulators available.

Your body was designed for rest. Protecting your sleep is not self-indulgence. It is stewardship — of the body, the mind, and the energy you need to live the life you were made for.

Scripture doesn’t present rest as something you have to earn. It shows it as part of how we were designed to live. God rested on the seventh day—not out of need, but to establish rest as intentional and sacred, woven into creation itself. That same rest is offered to us.

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." — Isaiah 40:29-31

Sleep is the foundation beneath every other aspect of your health. Your gut health, hormones and immune function. Your cognitive clarity, emotional resilience and metabolic health.

I know what it is to lose it and how much it impacts the body. And I know what it feels like to get it back. It takes intention and consistency. Addressing the root causes rather than just managing the symptoms.

Start tonight with just one habit. One step. Your body knows how to rest — it just needs you to create the conditions that let it.

Your body was designed to thrive. Sometimes it just needs the right building blocks to remember how.

With faith, science, and wellness,
Liz, The Wellness Nurse

Registered Nurse | Certified Mental Wellness Coach

P.S. Hit reply and share- what is your biggest sleep challenge right now? I read every response and genuinely want to know.

The Wellness Nurse newsletter—a blend of nursing wisdom, faith-based encouragement, and progressive gut-brain health strategies. Share with a friend.

FREE weekly emails: Nursing stories, quick tips, recommendations, faith-based support and lessons learned.

(Coming Soon) PAID membership ($11/month): In-depth guides with meal plans, grocery lists, and comprehensive support. If you are already receiving my free weekly emails you will be the first to know when it launches (plus get founding member pricing)

A note on transparency: some links in this newsletter are affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase through them — at no added cost to you. I want you to know that this never changes what I recommend or why. I share only what I personally use, genuinely believe in, and would recommend to someone I love. My goal is always your health and wellbeing first — and that will never change.

⚕️ Medical Disclaimer The content in The Wellness Nurse is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your health practices or supplement routine.