Christa 0:00
All right, today, it's just Sheree. And I get the honor of just listening to us riff on a topic that we're both passionate about, which, you know, spoiler alert, we're gonna be talking about sleep, and the importance of sleep, the, you know, the ways that we can manage getting better sleep. But I wanted to open this conversation up first to talk about fatigue, because one of my biggest passions with helping people with is energy, because do the big things that you want to be able to do, you've got to be able to have that, you know, clear thinking and energy throughout the day and not constantly, you know, feel like your couch or your bed is calling your name. That's just a really frustrating place to feel. So before we talk about sleep, I wanted to mention a couple of other things that really can be a driver of fatigue, because some people come to me saying, Gosh, I am just tired all the time, and I sleep and I'm still really tired. So some of the things that can also play a role that warrants a bit more investigating is a thorough thyroid panel, because when your thyroid is low, and on the cellular level, where you're not seeing that T three, that powerful thyroid part of that hormone, you can be fatigued. And you can have, you know, trouble with clear thinking, right, and brain fog, all of those things. So low thyroid is one poor hydration. Yeah, that's another one I see a lot where people just are not drinking enough water throughout the day and buy enough water, I mean, at least 90 ounces in the US, I don't know what you would say in liters, but two to three Liters. Liters. Okay, so probably more water than you're drinking. So hydration can definitely contribute to fatigue, and then a higher toxic burden. And what do I mean by that I just mean frequent alcohol, even if it's not, even if it's just social drinking, like that kind of layers upon itself. process foods, you know, just are chemicals that we put on our skin and in our body and things that were just exposed to so or if you have a methylation problem, meaning genetically, you can't really detoxify well, and that cannot be found in bloodwork. So a high toxic burden can also lead to that brain fog, that fatigue, poor nutrition, I kind of touched on that with all of the processed foods and the alcohol. So if we've kind of looked at all of that, we've got to see, you know, the glaringly obvious element can be lack of sleep. And so let's talk a little bit about sleep. Because I think people get really aggravated and frustrated around the skin, it can seem like this is never ending, I'm never going to fix this. But I want before we kind of really dive into it, the first thing we have to do is recognize that you need to be intentional about sleep. Because I think a lot of us make excuses like oh, I just I can't get sleep, my kids are up and then I want me time at night or, or whatever. But the thing is, sleep is not it's not something you have to earn. It's not like you have to work longer hours to get it or you have to do all these things and chores before you take a quick nap. Or you have to accomplish XYZ before you go to bed at nighttime. It's not something you have to earn, it is something that is probably the highest form of self care because of the impact that sleep has on our health. And then conversely, our lack of health if we don't have enough, yeah, so
Sheree 3:07
sleep is like in my opinion, and like I always think about as like a pyramid of priorities right? Sleep is the foundation of that pyramid. Sleep is the foundation of your health. The quickest way to an early grave is through a lack of sleep, but something Dr. Matthew Walker talks about all the time, he was one of the leading sleep experts in the entire world. And so I think when we're thinking from a functional perspective, when we're thinking about how can we operate at this high level? How can we do the things that we want to do? Like you say, how can we be productive? How can we stay focused throughout the day, but also then have the energy to do the things that we love, it's important to realize that every single physiological function in your body, every single physiological function in your body is affected by sleep, either positively or negatively. So through a lack of sleep, you're either going to inhibit a whole lot of functions, meaning you're going to probably crave more foods that aren't going to serve you, you're looking for quick fixes of energy, you're not going to put as much output into the gym or your workouts or your trainings, you're not going to function effectively from your brain, your immune system suppressed. There's so much going on counter that with you getting enough sleep every night. You waking up in the morning with energy. How much different do you then operate, your hormones are balanced, your gut is able to function at a higher level you have the energy to do the things you love, your brain is clear. There's none of that fog that we're talking about. Your metabolism works better. You make smarter choices with food, you can push your body harder and you're training it when you start to understand that yes, diet and exercise matter. But if you're missing the foundational pillar of sleep, then things really start to go downhill. And you know, I know personally when I was going through university or college as you guys call it, I wore like a lack of sleep like a badge of honor. Oh yeah, I managed to go to work start at 430 in the morning. I've had like five cups of coffee today, got through all of my assignments. I'm going back to work this afternoon, I'm gonna study to live and I'm doing all this on five hours sleep, like, Look at me go look at myself now my cute little idiot, like really stunted, so much like in your developmental years by doing and now sleep like, honestly, excuse the F bomb. But if no one fucks with my sleep, they're a massive trouble, because it's my non negotiable. Like, I cannot get more upset about anything. Interrupting my sleep.
Christa 5:35
Yeah. Oh my gosh, I mean, it really is. There's so many things and studies that have shown it, you know, insulin sensitivity is worse the next day after someone opts for two days after deficiency, right. So that means that your body's just not even able to manage the glucose that comes in in the form of food, right, so you're more insulin resistant for 24 to 48 hours after lack of sleep, there's also been a study where it was a controlled study, people were able to have certain number of hours of sleep. So let's say between six, seven and eight hours of sleep, and the next day, they ran several tests on them. And one of them was to give them a scenario that was kind of disturbing, right? So let's say something on the news, that was pretty disturbing. And but they had to shift it into a positive light. And the people who had better sleep, were able to shift that story that they just heard somehow find a positive view of it was far better than the people who had less sleep. And so that was just a way to look at it of even even emotionally and mentally we are in better states when we get quality sleep. So let's go through a few steps of what where people can start with it. You know, obviously, there are some outliers here, there are people with severe sleep apnea where you could breathing either, you know, the brain signal or mechanically because something in your airway, right. So there are issues like that sleep apnea that need to be looked into. There are other things like their sleep disorders, for sure. But I would say the majority of people do not have one of these factors, it's really inhibiting their sleep. So we're gonna speak on that today, I'm just kind of the general population, what are some steps that we can do? And number one, I would say determine the amount of sleep that you feel best with because it is very personalized, how much one person needs over the next, I would argue to say that most people don't do well with six hours or less, for sure. Although I did have a patient that only four hours, but that's very rare. Most people need, obviously, on average, seven hours, right? So for me, I know my number is number seven. Like I know that if I get seven hours, I'm spot on. Yeah, what about you,
Sheree 7:40
I'm definitely seven and a half. And I'm also very aware that I have not only that certain number of hours, but I have a certain time, my body thrives if I'm waking up around somewhere between 630 and seven, I tried for years as a personal trainer, like getting up at five o'clock getting up at that 430 getting up. And I just don't function. And I know there's different Chrono types. And we don't need to get into all of that. There's a lot of interesting things. But I think that that leads us to the importance of really tying in with your circadian rhythm. And you know, really making sure that your sleep is regular and regulated. So that yes, you're getting your magic number, whether that's seven, eight or nine, most people need seven to nine hours. And you'll figure it out that after a period of time, but also okay, what time does my body really thrive with going to sleep and thrive with waking up? Yeah,
Christa 8:32
and the rise is really important. Like what time of day, you're getting up. And I think the challenge I know for me now, when you have little bitty kids, things like that, I mean, they are like clockwork, and they will wake up at 630 on the dot every single morning. But for the most part weekends can be kind of that time where you stay up way too late. You have social jetlag where you're staying up till 2am, and you're sleeping till 10am, which is completely off of where you are during the week. So that becomes challenging to get up every single day, let's say 730. Because when you don't need to be up that early. I mean, I know for me personally, I get up at 730 during the week, but then during the weekends, you know 839 sounds amazing, but I really you're getting up at the same time every day and even if you go to bed later Now ideally, you're also having a good a decent bedtime to get that seven hours in. But even if you go to bed at midnight, let's say when you typically we go to bed at 1030. If you still get up at the same time, your body because of that depletion will be more tired and you'll kind of get back into that rhythm much quicker by continually keeping that circadian rhythm and waking up at the same time every day. Speaking of circadian rhythm, let's talk a little bit about that. Like what is your morning routine to kind of keep your body on point with Hey, it's morning time wake up.
Sheree 9:45
I think the this is what I've been saying to a lot of my clients lately is like the morning routine actually starts with the evening routine because if you don't wind down yourself effectively if you don't then sleep properly, you're gonna wake up in the morning and not feel like doing your morning routine at all. So For example, like just before you recorded this, I was just telling Krista I had a terrible sleep last night. I have been overtraining, overworking. You know, we're all guilty of it at times. And I was super restless all through the night. So I woke up in the morning and I was I rarely can be doing my normal routine. I still did it, because that's the type of person that I am. But it just gives you some context of like, it's so much better if you set yourself up with a solid nighttime routine. And so to answer your question, I shouldn't say my nighttime routine. And it's three things that I really speak to the first one is and I call it my three A's. The first one is like avoiding late meals. So if you're wanting to have a really good quality sleep, you want to make sure you've stopped eating at least two to three hours before you hit the hay before you even start that like I'm going to actually go into bed process. Because if your digestive system is wired up, and your body's trying to regulate your blood sugar's right before you go to bed, it's creating more stress on the system. And so you're far better off having less late night meals, and then giving yourself this beautiful overnight fast, you know, if we're thinking about how it all ties in to gut and hormone health, you need at least 12 hours of fasting overnight. So step one is a avoid late night meals. The second A in this is avoid alcohol, or if you're going to have it have it as early as possible, you know, so it takes a long time for our body to metabolize alcohol, we know alcohol is a poison, we've done a whole episode on alcohol on the podcast and you know, an alcohol drinker at all and my son going out, and I have an event or something like that. And so, you know, for me, it's not a big player in my nighttime routine. But if you are someone who likes to wind down with a glass of wine or you know, have a beverage of choice, making sure it's earlier on in the evening, so that you are able to metabolize it, it's not gonna affect you waking you up during the night as it could as if you actually have it a little bit earlier. And then the third A, which is really where my routine routine comes into play is ambiance. So I you having a dimly lit room, I you making sure like one of the biggest things that I get slack from or pushback from when I talk to people about prioritizing asleep is not having a TV in your bedroom, not having you know your workspace in your bedroom. Ideally, and here. I'm not here, please no, I'm not here to get parenting advice. But ideally, it's not your kid's room, either that's going to disrupt your sleep, your room needs to be the moment you walk into your bedroom, that moment of being I'm in relaxation mode, not I've got stimulus here that's going to really wire me up. So dimly lit, avoiding distractions, I love a blue light blocking glasses with I'm gonna watch TV not in my room, I'm gonna watch TV before bed nine times out of 10. So blue light blocking glasses on from about six or seven in the evening. And then I listened to either meditation or binaural beats like a deep sleep binaural beats to help me fall asleep I normally read for about half an hour before bed. And those are my, my non negotiables those are the things that my body starts to go. Okay, I'm winding down. And I know we're gonna get into supplements in a little bit as well. But I added a few of those too, just to make sure I'm really enhancing my sleep.
Christa 13:12
Yeah, it's the environment is super important. I mean, if your room is a place that creates anxiety, like there's piles everywhere, there's stuff on your bed, or if it's not dark enough, if it's not cold enough, I mean temperature, that's a whole other conversation too. But temperatures should be lower. At night, everybody needs to be cooled. I like to also for you know, share with people who are struggling with falling asleep easier. A warm shower or hot tub or a bath actually does pull down the inner core of the body because the body is fighting to cool down from a warm bath, warm shower hot tub. And so that's what you want to do you want to promote more of that inner cooling and you want to make sure yeah, the environment is a place that feels comfortable or your sheets comfortable, like invest in those kinds of things. Invest in good quality pillows and linens, things that make you feel calm, because the environment is a super big driver, for sure. So you talked a little bit about you know, meditation and things like that. But I think that it's important to have a plan for sleep like okay, what am I going to do what works for me, and for me, I you know, my bedtime routine is kind of a, it's super extensive, you know, brush my teeth, I wash my face with the pajamas on lay down, sometimes it's reading, but there's always a moment of rare for me, like kind of going through my day moment of gratitude moment of, you know, like, just kind of letting go the things that maybe are on my mind that I really want to you know, trust God with like, kind of getting into that space too. So you can just let it go and feel like okay, we've wrapped up a day. And then I do find that when you incorporate some of the stress management tools during the day throughout the day as kind of a normal practice. Then it comes into Playing, you have a better plan for if you wake up in the middle of the night, or if you can't fall asleep. And what I mean by that, for me has been to really be aware of where I hold tension in my body. Like if I'm driving or I'm, you know, in the office and I'm stressed out whatever, like to feel that tension in my shoulders, feel it, feel that tightness, and then be in the present moment and do some deep breaths. And for people get just getting started out, there are so many apps, there's so many different ways that you can set aside five or 10 minutes, because the time to really meditate and focus on calming is not when you're super revved up, it's not in the middle of a panic attack. It's not in the middle of racing thoughts, it's to do it daily, as a pattern as a routine. So that, you know, oh, I know this, I know how to implement some of these calming practices for myself. So one thing that I'll share with all of my patients is box breathing, where you breathe in for a count of four, hold it for four, do a very slow count of four, hold your breath at the bottom of that for four counts, and then keep repeating that. But I love that because it does calm the body physiologically, but it also was a bit of a meditation because you have to focus on counting, not on solving world's problems at that moment. Right. So
Sheree 16:19
yeah, no, I totally agree. And I think it's always good to have something that you can go to, you know, and one of the one of the other things I always say to people is if you ask someone that wakes up in the night, like you say, having the box breathing to go to, but also one of the biggest things that can disrupt your sleep, if you are waking up, is checking your phone or checking the time, because all of a sudden the brains like oh, now I'm calculating how many hours I have left asleep. When do I have to get up? What are the things I have to do when I get all of a sudden you're pulling yourself out of that beautiful, deep sleep and or even the REM sleep. And we could do a whole podcast on different types of sleep, but you're in different wavelengths when you're sleeping. And if you pick up your phone, if you check the time, you're automatically pulling yourself out of those deeper delta waves, and quite often fatal waves that you're pulling yourself into something called the beta waves. And that's where you're going to feel a lot more wired. And so if you've got like something to track your sleep, and I both of us have our aura rings, I have an app, I think we both have Apple watches as well. And it can be really insightful, like I will be able to see if I've woken up in the night by tracking. But I refuse to look at the time because I want my body to go back into a sense of sleep, regardless of whether I have half an hour lift, or I have a full five hours if I have managed to wake up during the night. Yeah,
Christa 17:41
yeah. And that kind of comes back to Yes, getting the brain stimulated, but also the light. And you talked, you know, talked a little bit about circadian rhythm. But for me, the circadian rhythm does start in the morning, right to prepare yourself for nighttime. And just the same nighttime calm routine affects how well you'll sleep and wake up in the morning. Like on the drive to work, I don't wear sunglasses, even if it's bright and sunny, because the fact of the matter is, I want to already lay the groundwork because our circadian rhythm really is driven by light and by food. And so that ties it to to don't eat too late. And don't expose your eyes to that brighter light as the evening goes on. Because you want your brain to know Okay, melatonin can rise, because you know, that's our brain utilizes the light. Another thing that I you know, to point out to people to reiterate the importance of stress management, and meditation, even if it's only five or 10 minutes each day, the the counter like waves of melatonin versus cortisol. So normally in an ideal pattern you are your cortisol is rising in the morning, and it's kind of like a an old school slide. It's low at the night at nighttime. But then ultimately, the melatonin then rises in the evening as cortisol is coming down, right. So this should be two ships in the night that crossing each other. And then melatonin rises and it slowly starts to fall somewhere between two and 4am. It'll start to break down some in preparation for waking up around, let's say seven. But the problem is when that starts to break down between that hour of two and 4am people who are just constantly in fight or flight and the cortisol never really gets down the way it should at nighttime. Cortisol just pops right through that melatonin curve, like between two and four. And then they're wide awake, right? The adrenaline's going, the thoughts are going. And so that's a good cue, if you're waking up consistently around that time that it could be, hey, I got to start doing some stress management during the day. So that my body and my brain and everything feels more home at night, right? Because yeah, that's definitely something that takes time. But it's a good cue that you need to start to kind of settle into that and address how you're managing stress day to day.
Sheree 19:50
Oh 100% And that can even be tied into you know, blood sugar regulation in Chinese medicine they look at if you're waking between the hours of one and three it's a liver issue, but At the liver is trying to regulate a lot of the blood sugar. And that ties into that cortisol picture that you're talking about, you know, maybe you did eat late at night, and you're having this big blood sugar crash. And so your body's waking up trying to get some of that blood sugar, you know, moving and regulated. Or maybe it's, you know, the fact that you didn't eat enough and now your body's waking you up. And so if we think about some of the things that you do as like, maybe a sleep aid or a sleep supplement, you know, I want to give you guys some context, when I woke up in the middle of the night, I was it was the same thing that quarters, I know, I'm in a stressful period right now. And I was lying there, I tried the box breathing and like you said, sometimes when you're in the middle of the panic, we're in the middle of that adrenal overwhelm, that still can't be enough. And so I have some key things. I had taken melatonin before I went to bed, I take magnesium before I went to bed, but I was like, Okay, what other aids do I have, because I am feeling overwhelmed. And so I went into my little resources drawer, and I grabbed up my CBD oil, and I grabbed some aromatherapy. So I have like a stress, big sleepy one that has lavender in it, because lavender is a great one to help you kind of wind down. And so I went to those things within 20 minutes of taking Max, I can tell with metal or ring. I was fast asleep. And I've been lying there for well over half an hour prior because my brain was just alert with all of these ideas to bring to the table. And so I'm curious like those are some of my favorite things is CBD, lavender, magnesium, and melatonin a great. I also know there's a lot of research coming out at the moment around inositol to really support sleep, but what are some of the other things that you you love to support yourself with?
Christa 21:42
Yeah, I mean, for me, personally, I don't take anything, I don't have any issues with sleep, I think, I don't know, it's not been my it's not been my struggle. But I deal with a lot of patients that it is their struggle. And so for that reason, I really am intent on finding things, you know, ideally, we're bringing in some of these lifestyle changes. And we're able to manage a lot of this without supplements, but supplements definitely have their place. And magnesium is important across the board no matter what I mean, even if it's not for sleep. But magnesium is kind of a calming, relaxing mineral. So around 300 milligrams of magnesium every night can be helpful. Another thing that has been really helpful for a lot of my patients is glycine powder. And the reason I like glycine is it's not only good for sleep, it's also a precursor to the powerful antioxidant glutathione. It's one of the amino acids that has to be combined with two other amino acids to create glutathione. So when you have that you're also upping your antioxidant and your detoxification pathways and ultimately your ATP and energy production with that. But glycine itself is kind of on the sweeter side. And you can add, I'd like to say around three grams, that's about a teaspoon or half a teaspoon depending on your concentration, but adding it to like a warm tea at night, about 45 minutes before you're planning on going to bed. So that's another one that I have found good success with L theanine is another one that I love. It's an extract from green tea. I love l theanine. During the day, when I'm just feeling stressed. Like I could just feel you know, based on my skull, just kind of like Titan is kind of giving me that headache and it really just helps kind of I like to say screw my head on straight, you know, just kind of gets me a little bit more grounded without feeling weird effects. It's just very grounding, but that's another one that's a natural extract. And it can also really help kind of calm that racing mind. And so I would
Sheree 23:38
I know you got me on talk when I started drinking caffeine, because it's like, how do I accidentally order a triple shot and I was like shaking like crazy. So it
Christa 23:50
is beautiful. And then, you know, I guess the things to avoid when you just said Cathy and made me think of that. I mean avoiding caffeine if you know that that some people just don't break it down as fast as the next I can drink a caffeinated cup of coffee at what going out to dinner. I can end the dinner with that and still go to bed at night. My husband not so much like he just doesn't pick it up as easily. So yeah, knowing yourself knowing to avoid caffeine, avoiding alcohol, it does disrupt sleep, avoiding the sugars, but yeah, adding some of those supplemental support can also just really, really help you out and kind of get a hang of a better routine with it.
Sheree 24:23
You have to have it every night. You know like I said that I very rarely have to take my CBD I try not to take melatonin if I don't you know need it. But I'm also aware just like with anything if you know you're going through a more stressful period, it's like what is it my toolkit? What can I use? Is it supplements is it things to wear me down? I know there's a trending thing at the moment. Tick tock of like the sleepy girl mocktail where everyone's putting like magnesium and cherry tart juice or tart cherry juice because tart cherry helps produce melatonin and there's like a whole host of things going in there and it's like, okay, cool. That might be something that you go to not because it's trending, but because it actually works. And it's like well that's in your toolkit. So I think if you think about, I've given you some supplements, the box breathing things. And I think the biggest thing that you really hit home for me, Krista is things you do during the day as well, you know, like you regulating that nervous system throughout the day so that when it comes to nighttime, it's easier to wind down, are you switching off from work at, you know, six o'clock at the latest. So you've got, you know, hopefully four hours at least, where you're not really having all of these ideas or these there's need to create or there's need to do things, because that's really going to inhibit the body's ability to have a really good quality sleep. So being mindful of what you do during the day, as well as your morning and evening routine makes a big difference. Yeah,
Christa 25:39
for sure. Yeah. And so I think just to summarize it, I mean, the biggest drivers I think is number one, being intentional about okay, I'm going to pay attention to my sleep because it is the biggest factor in my health goals. So being intentional about it, you know, waking up at the same time, most days if you can, making sure you have a really comfortable environment, something that you look forward to snuggling up and right and a good routine, a good plan. What am I going to do with you know, one of my rules for myself is just like, I don't watch TV in bed, I don't even have a TV in our bedroom. We don't watch TV in bed, but I also don't solve problems in bed. So like, if I find myself going there, I remind myself like this is this is not where we do this, this is not that. Like sometimes we have to talk to ourselves like a child, you know, true like brain. Great, I hear you, I know that you were worried about XYZ, we're going to deal with this in the morning like this is not the time or the place. And so then I do some box breathing and focus and I'm very intentional about this sleepy time. This does not solve the world's problems time. And that but it starts through mindfulness and meditation. Like I said, that does not have to be overwhelming. I know people get overwhelmed sometimes I don't have time to sit and meditate but you do have five or 10 minutes to be very present and breathe and making a habit of that and that will show up when you need it at that time.
Sheree 26:54
So yeah, beautiful, some beautiful takeaways. We will put a link with the sleepy protocol to if you are interested in some of those supplements moving forward and just just to give you some go twos and dosages and everything like that. So thank you for joining us and thanks for such an awesome topic cursor. I love it. We always welcome your feedback. Take care guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
