How to reduce stress in just four weeks
Our days are divided into two alternating states.
First, time and space for activity, using our muscles, and thinking - a period of high metabolism sometimes called the “upstate”, during which we work, exercise, do housework or engage in other forms of activity. Each upstate phase is then followed by a “downstate”, where the body repairs, replenishes and gets ready for the next upstate, for example when we eat and sleep.
That downstate is our opportunity to make the most of our restorative processes via four systems or “domains” - our autonomic nervous system, sleep, exercise and food - and then encourage them to work together to boost our overall wellbeing, helping us to live longer, and more healthily.
The purest form of the downstate is sleep but you don’t have to be asleep to achieve a downstate: you can learn to behave in a way that harnesses your body’s natural restorative processes - balancing the “rev” with the “restore”.
Domain one: Autonomic nervous system
This is basically your body’s unconscious control system, which regulates functions including heart rate, respiratory rate, and “fight or flight” response.
During slow wave sleeping, you take a ‘cardiovascular holiday’, but there are ways to replicate this during your waking hours.
The key to this downstate is proper breathing: by which we can control our heart rate. Slow, deep breathing, defined as around 10 to 12 seconds per breath, five to six breaths per minute, is not only relaxing, but serves as the direct switch from ‘rev’ to ‘restore’.
Breathing through your nose organically slows your inhale and exhale, compared with mouth-breathing. Nasal breathing increases the oxygen capacity of your lungs, as well your energy levels.
Affectionate touch with a partner or a pet lowers the heart rate, as does spending time outdoors. A recent study estimated nearly 10 per cent of people with high blood pressure could get their levels under control if they spent at least 30 minutes in a park each week, due to fresh air and reduction of stress hormones.
Domain two: sleep
Along with clean air and water, nutrient-rich food and shelter, sleep is an essential need for human survival. But, until recently, it has almost entirely been disregarded.
Our ancestors understood this, relying on sleep as their main downstate resource, but today, you are lucky if you get six hours, punctuated by a blaring smartphone alarm.
But short-sleep nights are a false economy and trying to pay off your “sleep debt” by lying in at weekends won’t make up the shortfall. The daily wear and tear of the upstate takes its toll so several nights in a row of suboptimal sleep will also throw your eating hormones out of sync, driving an appetite for high-fat and sugary foods. There are also longer-term concerns. As we age, proteins from brain activity build up, and if they aren’t washed out enough (with sleep), lead to plaques that can lead to dementia.
Early nights are best because time spent asleep during the first part of the night contains the more restorative short-wave sleep - the latter half of the night is full of REM sleep, with comes with higher brain activity.
Domain three: exercise
Exercise better, sleep better. Moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking briskly outside or on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike for around 30 minutes, four days a week, is enough to help even adults with insomnia gain 75 extra minutes of sleep a night.
For those who don’t have much time, try “exercise snacking”: breaking up a longer session into multiple smaller bouts. Taking three 10-minute walks, one after each meal - instead of one 30-minute walk - has produced greater glycaemic gains in people with type 2 diabetes.
You don’t need to become an athlete to boost your exercise-induced downstate. The critical thing is that you get off the sofa, raise your heart rate, increase your circulation, boost your temperature, and flex and stretch your muscles.
And just as getting good sleep decreases your craving for high fat and sugary foods, exercise has similar downstream effects, improving the quality of your meals and reducing intake of carbohydrates and desserts.
Domain four: food
Those who follow a standard western diet - heavy on processed foods and light on fresh fruit and vegetables - are 25 to 30 per cent less likely to experience depression.
But as important as what you eat, is when you eat.
Time restricted eating, restricting your meals to a 10-hour window (dinner at 6pm and breakfast at 10am the next day), can help maintain your best fitness by keeping mealtimes strictly to upstate hours when your body is more prepared for digesting nutrients, fats, and sugars.
Your four-week recovery programme
The most effective way is to get your downstates coincident with one another. For example, exercise is an extreme version of the ‘rev’ state, but it will also stimulate your whole restore response, which occurs in deep sleep.
Start by concentrating on healthy changes within one domain, adding in another until all four run concurrently. This can be done within four weeks – that may seem quick but each one is actually not that hard. If this feels too difficult, it’s fine to take longer over each phase.
Week one: Slow, deep breathing for five minutes every morning or evening.
Week two: Setting an early bedtime (say 10pm) and wake time (say 6am), that you stick to seven days a week, plus the slow breathing.
Week three: Exercise at least three times a week at the same time, plus sticking to your bedtimes and breathing patterns.
Week four: Scheduling your meals to occur within an 8, 10 or 12-hour window, as well as sticking to the breathing, sleeping and exercise plans