You wake up exhausted from a poor night’s sleep. You go to work, push through the day with loads of coffee and sugary vending machine trips, and barely keep it together without falling asleep at your desk. Once home, you call up your favourite delivery place or throw a frozen processed meal into the oven or microwave.

After dinner, you actually start to feel normal- like you can get shit done and then some, it’s your best time of the day! As evening turns to night, you know you should get to sleep, but you’re feeling wired. Your brain just won’t shut off even though your body is ready for a winter’s worth of hibernation.

This is a really familiar story among the women I work with in my 21-Day Happy Hormones Diet program. It’s that ‘wired and tired’ state that over time really wreaks havoc with how we feel and how our bodies and hormones function.

Why Am I Tired And Wired?

The answer lies in the function of two small and little-known endocrine glands in the body, the adrenals! You have two adrenal glands, who sit atop the kidneys like little hats. They’re so important, they regulate your whole stress response! Additionally, the adrenal glands may also produce small amounts of sex hormones like estrogen, testosterone and DHEA. A few of the various functions include:

Releasing cortisol in response to short and long-term stress
Releasing adrenaline and noradrenaline in response to short-term stress (that “Fight or Flight” response)
Control blood pressure
Creation of sex hormones, which increases after menopause

When you’re chronically stressed out, especially over many years, your adrenal glands simply can’t keep up with the demand for stress hormones, and they crash, potentially contributing to Adrenal Fatigue.

Adrenal Fatigue, or insufficiency, or dysfunction is exactly that- your adrenal glands may be fatigued and causing issues in the body. Adrenal Fatigue is characterized by experiencing many of a long list of symptoms, which you can see below. Adrenal Fatigue doesn’t happen over night- it’s something that comes about after years of health issues and stress.

Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue include:

Feeling tired and wired in the evenings, can’t get to or stay asleep and then are bone tired all day long even after drinking coffee
Irrational anger, irritability, anxiety or are quick to cry
Constant fatigue
Weight gain, especially in the belly area
Blood sugar control issues
Low blood pressure
Low blood sugar
Inability to handle stress
Low resilience
Cravings, especially for salty foods
Reliance on stimulants like coffee and sugar to get through the day
Weak immune system- chronic colds, flus and other infections
Mild depression
Insomnia
Lack of motivation or “get up and go:
Short fuse
Brain fog or poor memory
Inability to concentrate
Low libido
Severe PMS

5 Foods to Improve Your Energy and Get a Good Night’s Sleep

#1 Bone Broth

A true superfood, bone broth contains loads of nutrients beneficial for supporting the adrenal glands, restoring energy and improving sleep. For example, bone broth contains loads of minerals like calcium and phosphorous which not only keep our bones strong but also help to calm the nervous system and feed the adrenals.

Bone broth also contains both collagen and gelatin. You may have seen collagen and gelatin supplement powders available at health food stores. They are the latest craze, and for good reason. Collagen supports a healthy immune system and soothes the lining of the digestive tract. Gelatin is where most of the minerals live, soothes gut lining and can calm symptoms of inflammation and immune over-response. All of this together helps to reduce your body’s internal stresses, like inflammation from foods for example.

#2 Root Vegetables

An amazing group of veggies, the roots literally help us feel rooted. This is partly due to the energetics of root vegetables- they grow in the ground and that grounding energy transfers into us when we consume them. The benefits of root vegetables are often best obtained when they’re cooked, as it becomes easier for us to absorb their nutrients.

Root vegetables such as sweet potato, carrots, beets, winter squash, parsnips, turnips and others are indispensable when you want to heal adrenal fatigue, boost your energy and sleep well. They contain complex carbohydrates that are both extremely comforting when we eat them, and slow the spike of blood sugar when we eat, preventing crashes later on. These complex carbs also help our bodies to produce feel good chemicals like serotonin, boosting mood- hence the comforting effect of these foods!

Root veg are also high in many minerals, and the adrenal glands need high amounts of minerals to function well, especially when you’re chronically stressed out. An example of a mineral they contain in abundance is Magnesium. Although they may not have as much as other foods like nuts, seeds and beans, root vegetables are often much easier to digest than the other sources, making it a bit easier to get this calming and rejuvenating mineral into our bodies.

When healing extremely tired adrenal glands, it may be beneficial to use 1/4 to 1/2 cup cooked root veggies with each meal, including breakfast. Having some of these veggies with dinner or before bed can help to reduce sleep disturbances like waking during the night.

#3 Sea veggies

Sea vegetables are not widely used in North America, to our detriment. Sea vegetables are extremely concentrated in nutrients, making them an amazing addition for improving energy, assisting sleep and restoring adrenal function. There are many types of seaweeds, including nori, kelp, dulse, arame, wakame and more.

Sea vegetables are high in many minerals, including iron. If iron stores are low, fatigue often sets in, and immune function suffers, putting additional strain on the adrenal glands. Sea veggies are also high in the mineral iodine, something lacking in Western diets as we get away from eating sea foods of all types. Iodine in small amounts is necessary for proper thyroid function, and a sluggish or under-active thyroid will negatively impact the adrenals and your energy levels.

Lastly sea vegetables contain small amounts of tryptophan, an amino acid used to make the happy chemical serotonin. This may mean that sea veggies are a great addition to the diet to boost mood.

Using sea vegetables is easier than you think. You can buy shakers of kelp or dulse in health food stores or online, and shake it onto your food in place of salt. You can use nori sheets to make wraps for lunch instead of flour-based products, and you can sprinkle strings of sea veggies like wakame and arame into soups and salads.

#4 Bell Peppers

Sweet bell peppers are a delicious addition to most any meal. They are also one of the highest sources of vitamin C out there, out-ranked only by papaya. The difference is, bell peppers contain a lot less sugar than papaya, making them a great choice to increase your vitamin C consumption without spiking blood sugar.

The high levels of vitamin C (1 cup contains 157% of your recommended daily intake) in bell peppers are food for your adrenal glands. Specifically, the highest amounts of vitamin C in the body are stored in your adrenal glands. Vitamin C is used to produce all adrenal hormones, especially in the production of cortisol, a hormone released in response to both short and long-term stress. When you’re chronically stressed, your body is going to use up vitamin C very quickly.

When you run low on vitamin C, your adrenal glands go into a panic mode of sorts, releasing even more cortisol, meaning you need even more vitamin C that you don’t have.

Getting bell peppers and other high vitamin C foods like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, strawberries and pineapple on a regular basis can healthfully support your adrenal glands to increase energy and allow for a good night’s rest.

#5 Wild-Caught Salmon

Last on the list, but no less important than the other foods, wild-caught salmon has numerous health benefits for the adrenal glands.

Firstly, wild-caught salmon is high in omega-3 fatty acids, an anti-inflammatory type of fat most of us aren’t getting enough of. Farmed salmon doesn’t have the same levels of omega-3s, so I recommend choosing wild-caught whenever possible.

Omega-3s help to balance blood sugar, and imbalanced blood sugar and insulin levels put more stress on the body and adrenal glands. Omega-3s are also extremely calming to the nervous system, reducing stress and strain on the adrenals. They may also help to boost mood, increase your energy and calm you enough for a good night’s sleep with regular use.

This is a fabulous recipe using salmon to help you get started.

Beyond the omega-3s, wild-caught salmon is a high protein source. Protein of course is needed to create muscles, but it’s also used in the creation of hormones, like the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline. Consuming enough protein (about 20g-30g per meal and 5g-10g per snack) is an excellent way to support energy production, lean muscle mass, hormone production and adrenal function.

Stress is a major contributor to almost all health conditions in my clinical experience as a holistic nutritionist and women’s health expert. Stress is also a major factor in my own health- if I have a particularly stressful month, my period is often delayed because the stress inhibits my body’s ability to ovulate. No ovulation = no period.

I’m going to share a story, not about any particular woman or client, but an amalgamation of similar stories I’ve heard over the years. As you’re reading, if any (or all!) of this fictitious lady’s experiences are like yours, the herbs I’m outlining in this article may be really helpful for you.

For our purposes, let’s call her Judy.

Judy has an on-the-go lifestyle. She’s in a management position at work, which has coworkers and customers constantly coming to her to solve problems. Judy also has 3 kids under the age of 16. She’s married, and her hubby works full time too. When Judy’s alarm goes off, she hits the snooze button about 3 times before finally getting out of bed, throwing on some clothes and rushing out the door with her first coffee of the day. Don’t even think about talking to Judy before her coffee- it might mean disaster.

At work, her day starts immediately with a million problems to be solved. Coworkers even follow her into the bathroom when they need her. By 10AM, Judy’s energy is crashing. She hasn’t eaten breakfast (or has scarfed down a bagel from the local coffee shop) and is on her third cup of coffee. She feels irritable, and flips out on people when it isn’t necessary. By lunch, she’s ravenous. Not having brought a lunch, she heads out to the closest fast food restaurant for something crappy, along with another coffee. She eats while she works.

By 3PM, Judy is having a hard time staying awake. She wants to sleep at her desk, and she’s feeling both anxious and depressed. She knows she has to push through the rest of her work to get home for dinner with the family, so she hits up the vending machine for some chocolate and pounds back some more coffee with sugar. At 5:30PM, she arrives home to 3 hungry kids and a starving hubby. She starts freaking out on her family for stupid stuff, but she can’t help herself. She has zero energy to make dinner, so she orders in pizza- loaded with cheese and processed meats.

After dinner, her day still doesn’t stop. With homework, laundry, cleaning and TV, she’s heading to bed about 11PM. Of course, by this time, she’s gotten a second wind- she’s wired but tired and can’t fall asleep so she stays up watching TV and drinking wine until 2AM when slumber finally arrives. Her sleep is restless, and she’s back to pressing that snooze button all over again the next day.

Does this story sound familiar? Too much to do, too little support and not enough time to do it in? Feeling anxious, depressed, tired and pissed off at life- simply going through the motions without really living?

This is an all-too-common situation, which wreaks havoc on our mood, our hormones and our stress-regulating adrenal glands.

Luckily, medicinal herbs can be seriously helpful in regulating mood, creating stable energy and bringing back that joie de vivre you used to have. Below I’m outlining 6 of my favourite medicinal herbs for mood and stress. If you want to use them, you can get them all blended together in my Stress Tea!

6 Effective Medicinal Herbs to Manage Stress and Adrenal Fatigue

Nettle

Nettle is a fantastic herb for women, and it grows locally in North America! You might even find it in your backyard or during a hike. Nettle is what’s known as an adaptogen herb, or a medicinal herb that can help the body react to stress- by bringing you up or relaxing you, no coffee or alcohol needed.

Using nettle can provide the body with loads of stress + mood boosting nutrients including magnesium, iron, calcium, vitamin C and some B complex vitamins. Nettle is also anti-inflammatory, and inflammation can breed all types of health issues, putting more stress on the body. If your sleep is disturbed because you’re waking to pee, nettle may be able to help you get. Good night’s sleep.

Nettle is a seriously amazing tonic for women’s bodies, being so full of nutrients with the ability to tone the entire female reproductive system. Nettle is quite a safe herb to use (although it might sting you when fresh!) and works well for many women under stress.

Oatstraw

Another local (to me) adaptogen herb, oat straw has many benefits for the on-the-go, stressed out woman. The high levels of adrenal-supporting B vitamins make this herb a great addition to your natural medicine cabinet. If your libido is low, oat straw could be a great tonic.

Oatstraw is a seriously soothing herb that acts as a nervine tonic, soothing anxiety, especially when combined with chamomile and lemon balm. You can get these herbs all together in my Stress Tea formula. Even exhaustion and mild depression can be supported with oat straw. Like nettle, oatstraw is safe for most anyone to use.

Chamomile

One of my absolute favourite herbs for women (hence why I’ve added it to both my Stress Tea and Cramp Tea, chamomile tastes delicious and can be grown in your backyard!

Chamomile has an affinity for both the nervous system and digestive system, making it a great addition if you have a nervous stomach, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The reason for this is that it has bitter properties, stimulating more digestive juices and liver detoxification.

It is of course calming to the nervous system, and is a great ally if you have anxiety- especially if it comes premenstrually.

As a bonus, if you have irregular or absent menstrual cycles, switching between chamomile and red raspberry leaf tea for a few days is something I’ve seen bring on menstrual flow.

Lemon Balm

Another fantastic herb for women with stress, depression, anxiety and hormonal imbalances, lemon balm aka melissa is incredibly calming. Lemon balm is also easy to grow- being a member of the mint family, it will grow like wildfire without much attention.

If you have a hard time relaxing or getting a good night’s sleep, lemon balm can calm your nerves, release tension headaches and gently support those with mild depression.

Lemon balm also has analgesic (pain-relieving) properties, making it excellent for use with period pain, cramping, stomach upset and headaches.

Contraindications: Lemon balm should not be used within a few hours of taking thyroid medication unless recommended and monitored by a qualified practitioner.

Tulsi

I first learned of this herb during nutrition school, and have been in love with it ever since. Tulsi aka Holy Basil is an adaptogen, and it’s the first herb I’m mentioning that doesn’t grow wildly in my area, although you can buy plants or seeds and grow it in your garden. It hails from India, where it has been used for generations in Ayurvedic medicine to help stressed out and tired people.

Like chamomile, tulsi can also aid digestion, specifically with gas and bloating due to it’s carminative properties. Tulsi is both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.

Rose Petals

I LOVE to drink the scent of roses. Personally I find it extremely calming, almost like being wrapped up in cozy blankets and slippers on a dreary winter’s day (which is what I’m seeing as I look out the window writing this). Interestingly, roses aren’t just for looking at or giving on Valentine’s Day.

Though they definitely do have aphrodisiac properties, when it comes to stress and mood, roses are beneficial when your mood needs an uplift. If you’ve been feeling blue or have mild depression, roses can create a feeling of well-being and mild euphoria (oh, ya).

Be sure that if you want to use the roses in your garden for medicinal purposes, you use organic, non-sprayed plants, as roses are usually heavy with pesticides.