0:00

all right Theresa thank you welcome back to True Hope cast I hope you're doing

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well what's going on how are you I'm good thank you so much for having me back I'm really excited to chat with you

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again about all things sleep and anything else really

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yeah sleep is obviously a huge part of everybody's life you can't live without it there's no question about that and

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yeah we were just talking off there before I hit record here about um New Year's resolutions and

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self-commitments and things like that and I think probably everybody could benefit from um giving a little bit more

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love to our sleep habits our sleep hygiene Etc so we'll we'll get into that

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you know it's going to be a new year pretty soon here but for people who don't know who you are people have not

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listened to that episode beforehand can you just let us know who you are and what it is that you do please

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sure yeah so so certified in clinical sleep health and I'm the founder of sleep better NYC

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uh my team focuses on sleep coaching which for us is kind of an

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all-encompassing term for educating and supporting people with their sleep health so that could mean you know just

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sharing accurate information online you know via social media or podcasts for example

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um it means providing affordable online programs so that people can help themselves

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um it also means specifically for us to help coordinate testing and treatment for people who have Sleep disorders and

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you know we know that everybody sleeps but we don't all do it well and a lot of us don't really know where to start

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maybe we're not getting the help we want from our Health Care system so that is uh that's what I do and that's what we

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do at sleep better NYC how did you get into doing that

1:46

that's a great question um I have been in medical and dental sales and Consulting

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since before I graduated college actually so about 15 years don't do math on that

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um and I've been in sleep the industry of sleep if you will for just the last maybe five or so years

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but as soon as I started working with clinicians who were helping people with

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their sleep I I mean something clicked automatically I became completely obsessed a few years ago I got my own

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clinical credential and I have not stopped since again I just felt like every time I

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started telling everybody like what I was doing in this new job I had a few years ago it was like everybody wanted to talk about it everybody has a problem

2:31

with sleep or their brother does or their husband does or their sister does and it's just so common and and there's

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just so much crazy stuff out there I was like I have to help like kind of gather it all up

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for people and help them understand what's real and what's not and where to go for more support so

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that's where I started cool um you just touched on like sleep guidance we obviously have like food

2:57

guidance from the government and we have we probably have I don't know like there's probably a page on the FDA or

3:04

kill Canada or whatever it is about like advice on sleep which would obviously be super broad because they're trying to

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give advice to millions and millions of people right and we're also looking individual with different jobs and

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different responsibilities and different biology so is there like what's the how

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what's the guidelines like for that are they good are they bad like what

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would you say um you know what they're not awful and they're definitely improving like you said they do have to be you know

3:34

purposely vague because everybody has different you know medical conditions

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and lifestyle and some people work nights and so you know you don't necessarily want to say like you have to sleep between this time and that time

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but for adults generally you know seven to nine hours is recommended and it is

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proven over and over again in the research um we do have the American Academy of sleep medicine the aafm so you know they

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have some guidelines and also the uh I

4:04

might mess up the the association here so don't kill me but like the American Heart Association I believe just updated

4:11

their guidelines even to include sleep so it used to be like the healthy seven things that you had to do including

4:17

nutrition and exercise they included sleep as something you absolutely need to take care of for cardiovascular

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health awesome and are there any like big sleep myths out there that we need to just

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like get clear on before we kind of go forward yeah I mean I don't know there's a lot of sleep meds I think specifically

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because I did just say that seven to nine hours thing I will mention that

4:41

eight hours is like always talked about it is it's not arbitrary but it was

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really just picked because it's in between seven and nine personally I get about seven seven and a half hours of

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sleep if you sleep more or less you're probably fine a lot of it is very subjective

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um and as we age two we do tend to need a little bit less sleep now I'm not saying that we need four hours of sleep

5:06

it is incredibly unlikely that you are a person who can function optimally on

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four hours of sleep or even five hours of sleep but um about six six and a half hours as you

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get older is is also very normal so I like to remind people of that because especially if you are someone who's

5:24

starting to work on your sleep Health you don't want to sort of you know add pressure and get anxiety over oh my God

5:30

I'm not getting that eight hours of sleep because you know maybe you don't need it okay yeah that's pretty solid advice I

5:37

think um yeah I'd love to talk about like the new year new habits commitments and all this

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and you know most people will focus on like you know hitting the gym more eating less kind of junky food maybe

5:49

cooking cooking at home more but sleeping more sleeping better isn't

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usually one of those commitments because obviously we like to we like to commit to things that we can like actively go

6:00

out and do like a behavior and obviously trying to sleep better is certainly a

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behavior but it's not like one of those active ones that you you would associate with like a New Year's resolution for

6:11

example so how and why should we really be like um

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resetting poor sleep habits for the new year I mean the New Year's just like a a

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time stamp right but why is it a good thing to start resetting poor poor sleep habits at any time

6:27

great question you're right it's like we know it's all made up and it's just like a societal thing but we still all do it

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we're still reflecting now we're still thinking about next year so I think that if you have any plans for improvement in

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your life at all sleep Health really needs to be prioritizer or at least part

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of that plan um you know sleep isn't just for rest and it doesn't just make us feel a

6:53

little better you know it's not just something that prevents kids from having a meltdown it it affects all

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physiological processes down to the cellular level so if you want to do something that is more active

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you know maybe maybe it is something like okay if you're snoring maybe you see a doctor about it or maybe you talk

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to a sleep coach or you go to my Instagram and learn about it um but if you have a goal for example to

7:15

lose weight good quality sleep can help that and I'm not just trying to sell you

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on it there are there are studies that prove that good quality sleep helps you to lose more fat and gain more muscle it

7:27

helps you to rebuild muscle um untreated Sleep Disorders are often related to obesity and that's not a

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coincidence um if you want if one of your bowls is like a promotion at work or you're

7:39

trying to land a really big deal good quality sleep can help you do that because it can help you focus it can

7:45

actually helps the logical part of your brain have a little bit more control than the emotional part of your brain so

7:51

you know you really want all that working if you're trying to land that big deal if you have a big meeting coming up so it might feel like just you

7:58

know something extra you know maybe you'll get around to it maybe you'll focus on it but you know if you tie it into your other goals it does help you I

8:06

I think prioritize them a little bit more yeah I think the the research is pretty

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set in regards to having having decent quality sleep on a regular basis is only

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going to improve Health in so many different aspects right you know we've got associations talking about sleep we

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have um so many neurological conditions set with that set set talking about sleep as well so it's obviously such a

8:32

huge topic and we can't you know we can go without air for you know like minutes we can go without water for a few days

8:38

we can go without food for probably a few weeks but like sleep but I don't think that there's anybody that's been

8:44

like awake for more than like a few days before they start hallucinating going delirious and you know all these things

8:49

you know it's quite simply a huge foundational thing that we all need but it's it's interesting that we

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our bodies can put up with like Decades of like poor sleep habits poor nutrition

9:02

habits poor hydration habits or exercise regimes we can just like the body does

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amazing things to put up with like all of those lacks but it's a it's a

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fundamental necessary ingredient to like a good quality life right yeah I mean I

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always say Obviously ask any parent they've gone days or weeks or months or years even being sleep deprived like the human body

9:25

in the brain is so resilient and on one hand that's really great but on the other hand we we developed this very low

9:32

bar and so often almost every person that I've coached live I feel like will

9:39

say I don't I didn't realize how bad I was feeling until I started feeling better just like you know if you find

9:45

out you have a food allergy for example and you've been eating this food your whole life and then suddenly you you cut it out you start to realize that you had

9:52

all these other symptoms and you didn't even know it was related and the same goes for sleep if you have been not

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sleeping all you've been snoring you have an untreated disorder and then suddenly you do start getting help it's

10:03

like you suddenly realize that maybe you're not so moody and maybe your stomach doesn't hurt all the time maybe

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maybe you're not so forgetful it was just that you were lacking the sleep you needed

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tell me about some of the parents you've worked with because I've got two young kids and I kind of

10:19

figured it out my own sleep thing maybe a year and a half into being a dad and it was basically like I have to just

10:26

like sacrifice some of the stuff that I would used to do in the evenings like I can't go and try and put train and Play

10:32

Soccer three times a week in the evening it's just not possible up undo that and I can't stay up watching TV till 10 11

10:39

o'clock at night so I have to just like for me it was just like sacrificing um but I had to figure that out so like

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there's one day a week what I will probably need to go to bed at 7 30 with the kids especially in the winter like

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why I put one of my kids to bed and I just go to bed like I just I need need that there's some I mean obviously each

10:59

parents each family is going to be different but there are some like decent like consistent recommendations that you

11:04

would like make to most pair newish parents I suppose yeah you know what I was just speaking

11:10

with a new mom a new nutritionist a few weeks ago on Instagram live and she had sort of a Twist on what's really common

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and again you're a parent so maybe you also think this is bad advice but I feel like so often people say sleep in the

11:24

baby sleeps but we also know that we have a million things going on like who really does

11:30

that it's just again adding more pressure but what you just said actually reminded me of something that she said in that don't necessarily try to sleep

11:37

like randomly throughout the day when your baby is napping you know for 15 minutes or an hour or whatever it is but

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if you put the baby down or your kids down around 7 30 maybe you get a nap in

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there and that's it is sort of close to bedtime you know we're we're always kind of worried about are you napping too

11:54

late or too long but again if you're a a parent and you're you're really needing that extra sleep I would recommend going

12:00

to bed when your kid goes to bed even if you know you're going to be awake again later if you wake up for you know around

12:06

9 00 p.m for two hours or something that could work out that could be fine

12:12

yeah I mean I don't want to speak too much in like mothers and like how you know wild it is to give birth and then

12:18

you know have this new baby and everything that's all over the place but like I would I in my my experience of having having two two kids and being

12:25

through two pregnancies and being through two birds that yeah I think the sleeping when your baby sleeps is

12:30

probably a good advice until you recover from the birth that's such a energy draining experience

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even for me I wasn't even doing anything I was just trying yeah I was present I

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was there I was in the room but um yeah like recovering from that certainly would make sense but yeah but you know

12:51

you you've got this like new brand new being that's just like coming to the world that's developing a such a wild

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rate you wouldn't necessarily want to have the same sleep pattern as that person there's such a little little kid

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for like a year or a couple of years right and obviously checking in with your body and checking in with yourself

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um and making sure that you're able to take care of like all those other things that are very important for your health as well would be would be important so

13:14

so that's really good advice what about um what about the seasonal changes because I I

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I say this all the time to like some nutrition clients in mind that and if you're you know we're gonna get more

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tired during the winter months you know like the sun's out less it's darker more

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um We're not gonna be making as much of vitamin D so we need to be like you know we need to be like in like literally a

13:38

hibernation mode and I assume yeah 100 000 years ago when we were living in caves and stuff that we wouldn't be you

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know trying to do the same things we do in the summer which would be you know trying to gather food and Hunt food and do all these things we couldn't do that

13:52

in the winter months you know I think it would be dangerous so our biology isn't really any different to to that of

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hunter-gatherers so do you have any decent recommendations for

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um people transitioning into that I mean we're deep into it now like we're in December 15th right now like this is

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like key hibernation stages but like we have this culture of you know we work

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work we go go we don't really stop maybe for a few days over Christmas but yeah like we shouldn't really be expecting to

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to have the same output as we would that's to say like mid-july that is such a good way of saying it in

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a good perspective you know it's one thing to just say okay well seasonal depression time is here or it's it's

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dark now but to actually give that different perspective in saying yeah this exists but we can also expect to

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feel different and to act different um temperature and thermoregulation plays a huge role in sleep so does light

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as you just mentioned you know again it's not a coincidence that we do feel sleepier just in general in the winter

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because melatonin which helps tell our bodies that it's time for sleep is produced

15:02

with darkness and so when we're waking up and it's still dark outside sometimes that can confuse our brains for lack of

15:08

a better phrase you know our circadian rhythm feels like we need to be awake when it's light out and we need to be

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asleep when it's dark out but again you know this modern world we have the internet we have lights and indoor and

15:19

outdoor lights so um sometimes that can be confusing to us and just knowing that can maybe give you

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a little bit of comfort in feeling like okay this is normal and it is seasonal and hopefully it improves and then you can

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just sort of work around it um light for example you can use light therapy I I love like

15:41

these light glasses that they have out now you know you wear them for like 20 minutes you can go on Amazon and get

15:46

like a light box they're probably pretty inexpensive but especially if you are really dragging in the morning or you

15:51

you do have those seasonal depression bouts sometimes as something as simple

15:57

as light therapy can be really helpful and and even though light disrupts melatonin production it can help reset

16:04

your circadian rhythm so if you're doing that light in the morning for example it will help sort of reset everything in

16:09

your brain so that by the time it is time for night and time for bed your brain might be a little bit better adjusted to knowing that it's time for

16:16

sleep so is it important to get outside like every day and in the morning what does

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the kind of research say behind behind that because obviously with the colder

16:28

darker days um in comparison to the middle of the summer like the amount of time you spend

16:34

indoors is like you know it's like tenfold so is it important to get outside and get exposed I know we're

16:39

probably not making actually making vitamin D with the sunlight considering how low it's going to be but obviously

16:46

other benefits to you know being out outside yeah definitely and there are even

16:51

benefits to being outside on a cloudy day I mean you can tell it it's pretty gross and disgusting here I mean it's

16:57

actually pretty dark now too but well it's raining okay so on a day then it's not actually raining when it's just

17:03

like clouding overcast you can still get an unusually high level of light and even help that vitamin D production by

17:09

going outside versus the inside light um I forget what the number is I want to say it's like a thousand times more use

17:15

it like 10 times more like it doesn't feel like that much but again it's natural and we were thinking about what

17:21

our bodies naturally want so the natural light especially early in the morning even if it's on an overcast day can be

17:27

super helpful so like if you can just open your window maybe you don't want to go outside it's freezing open your

17:32

window step outside on your balcony for 15 minutes it can make a huge huge

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impact on the way you feel awake and alert it helps with your serotonin production that helps with your mood but

17:44

also eventually helps with your melatonin production at night so yeah that that natural light in any way can

17:51

be super helpful during the day yeah so we're trying to assist our body's own production regulation all of those

17:59

necessary um neurotransmitters and hormones that are going to support us getting prepared

18:04

to sleep and also preparing to wake up awesome yeah I think the seasonal effect

18:10

of this sort of thing is interesting so I honestly think that that's a normal thing that we're supposed to experience

18:15

we are supposed to have less energy we're supposed to feel more tired we not

18:22

I don't want to say depressed but like we're not supposed to be out doing the same things during the summer right so

18:28

it's like okay the body's saying listen okay we've just been hammering it for six seven months been putting you on

18:34

high alert you've been going going going that's all cool because I've got the sunlight to help me out and I can do all

18:39

that with the with everything but like now it's the winter time this is when you know I want to be a little bit more like a sleepy bear I just want to like

18:46

hibernation mode I want to hibernate I want a big stews and broth really easy to digest foods and I don't want to have

18:54

to like go go constantly all the time right so I I think for a lot a lot of people not everybody because there's obviously serious disorders out there

19:01

but I think I think see at some some level of seasonal affected to sort of for everybody is very very normal but we

19:08

you know we equate that we are quite feeling off as something wrong or something bad that we have to like take

19:15

something for or diagnose or label um but yeah it's just the wintertime

19:21

animals let's just chill out a little bit more and and just I don't know yeah yeah maybe our bodies are telling us to

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slow down and we're we're just fighting at me we should stop fighting it laughs I think less resistance is probably a

19:33

good thing no probably I have a question about temperature when

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sleeping I am I don't like being cold anyway but I do like cold bars and cold showers and

19:46

stuff I think I just more like the personal egotistical male challenge of it all but yeah probably

19:51

yeah I don't I know the health benefits to it as well so that's cool but

19:56

um I remember listening to the Dark Horse podcast with Brett Weinstein and

20:02

he he has on his like sponsorships he has like this like a cooling blanket but

20:09

you can adjust the temperatures and I know that that guy doesn't commit to an ad or a product without knowing

20:16

everything about it but I don't know too much about like what like the science is about there so

20:21

can you talk to us a little bit about um temperature and sleep sure yeah so our our body temperature

20:28

and the temperature in our brain needs to drop to fall asleep and stay asleep wave now our

20:34

body's going to do that on our own but you can certainly help to optimize it you know if you think about someone who

20:40

is a quote-unquote hot sleeper or maybe you wake up sweating in the middle of the night or in the morning I mean that's pretty common but that's not

20:47

because your temperature is raised you know if you took a thermometer in the middle of the night when you were sweating you wouldn't have a fever but

20:53

you feel hot because your body is giving off heat and it's just being held in by your clothes or your your blankets so

21:01

something like a uh I'm gonna assume it's a chili pad or

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something like that a cooling mattress cover can actually really help and and I agree you know there are so many

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products and so much junk out there on the market especially when it comes to sleep but something like that can be

21:19

really helpful because it just helps our body to feel more comfortable

21:24

um you know it's not going to instantly drop your your poor body temperature it can help you maintain that lower

21:30

temperature it can help you maintain the comfort you need to stay asleep and there are some studies that are showing

21:36

just more continuity of sleep and even deeper sleep when you do have that uh

21:42

maintained lower body temperature now again it's not like your your body

21:47

temperature is dropping to like 80 degrees or anything like that but it can drop 0.2 degrees 0.4 degrees and so a

21:54

little bit of cooling can actually make a massive difference because you just need that little tiny bit of change in

22:00

temperature I'm going to have to highlight this little section for my wife who loves the heating on when we sleep and I don't

22:07

because I just get so hot and it's also like this Emmy desert here and it gets super dry as well so if I cut with the

22:14

dry mouth and try try yeah you know you could save a little bit money like save a little bit of money you can sleep a

22:19

little better if you don't turn your heat on as high at night um it's it's kind of ironic actually because he is known to comfort people

22:26

you know you want to be like wrapped up in a cozy little blanket you want to put like the thick warm socks on and so

22:33

we do see studies where you can actually see the reaction in our brains that are stimulating

22:39

um you know relaxation and less anxiety and um you know the drive for sleep but when

22:46

we go to sleep we we should maybe take a few of those layers off we want to help our bodies to actually drop the

22:51

temperature yeah I think it's quite abnormal for the human body to be like

22:58

um well fed and warm like all the time I think that's a very abnormal state for

23:04

how like more ancient biology um so yeah that's interesting that the

23:10

the the body and brain temperature would need to drop in order to like

23:15

do the things it needs to the to keep uh to keep us asleep and make us fall asleep kind of properly that's

23:21

interesting I'm going to put this to a self-test on the weekend I'm gonna sneak out and turn the heating off and see

23:26

what happens there you go yeah I'm not going to propose it because I'll lose that battle anyway um I have another question for you this

23:33

is awesome we're just bouncing around here um I've got a couple of uh so my

23:39

my brother-in-laws they are 15 and 17. they go to the gym

23:46

all the time they are super stacked up um they've got their human growth hormone thing going for them they're

23:53

also in the gym seven days a week but I also like um try to talk to them about

23:59

how like you don't really grow muscles in the gym you kind of you grow it when you're asleep right and that's not

24:04

really clicked for them yet um do you think you can talk to us about the importance of sleep not only for

24:12

um healthy body building muscle but also for like teenagers who are going through like a wild hormonal biological phase

24:20

anyway yeah oh my gosh I mean I'm sure this goes without saying but there's so much

24:26

happening in the teenage body in the teenage brain it's exhausting and they might not realize that they're living it

24:32

you know it's exhausting for their parents too I'm sure but it takes a lot of work for this these hormones to be

24:38

pumping through their body all the time they're growing they're learning they're so active and if if you think about

24:44

doing some of the things a teenager does like at an older age you're like oh my God I could never because it is

24:49

exhausting they just happen to be younger and able to keep up with it more and but you know if we're talking about

24:55

the gym for example human growth hormone hormone excuse me is released during deep sleep of course

25:03

it's you know really set during week and sleep and other times too but it's it's really pumped out during deep sleep and

25:09

you need to be in a good quality deep sleep to get those human growth hormone

25:15

which helps us to build and repair muscles it helps our bones and other tissues and immune system and it's not

25:23

that you won't have it if you don't get good sleep but if you're really trying to build up those teenage muscles you

25:28

need to be getting good sleep and you need to have consistent deep quality sleep you know on a pretty regular basis

25:37

um and again just all the all the growth that's happening in your body needs time

25:42

to rest and repair you can't just keep going and going and going

25:48

um even if you feel like you're not tired sleep is again it's something that everybody does

25:54

it is a biological need and and if it wasn't a need then

26:00

you know God or a higher power or Mother Nature whoever really messed up because we do a lot of sleeping and so to think

26:06

of it as just like you know an afterthought or not really that important is very counterproductive because we have

26:12

to do it and we do it all the time so there has to be an important need for it including resting in recovery and growth

26:19

and building your muscles yeah for sure I think I think this is the I think the the sleep thing revoke with our Western

26:26

culture is quite interesting because we obviously have had you know we've got light all of the time accessible and

26:32

especially like you know you live in New York City like when was the last time you saw the Starry Sky and you know what

26:37

I mean yeah not not often yeah and it's it's interesting I I think that the

26:44

um like looking up at the Imagine our ancestors like pre-electricity before that like you know even just a few

26:49

thousand years ago they would look up at the sky and they would see this unbelievable breathtaking Cosmos that

26:55

would just Inspire creativity it would create stories in regards to like the the star signs and the gods and all

27:03

those types of beautiful things and you would be in a sense of awe every single night and it would be just a beautiful

27:10

wonderful thing to be a part of and I think we've lost a lot of connection with with nature when it comes to when

27:17

it comes when it comes to that especially living in cities and having like the like the light kind of drowning

27:23

out that night sky even on even on a clear evening and yeah it's just an interesting interesting in our coach

27:30

we've kind of lost this relationship with the darkness you know the darkness is like you know it's it's the it's the

27:36

yin it's the calm it's the quiet it's the call it's the it's something that's obviously a part of our existence as a

27:42

part of our balance and we well a lot of people are like scared and then we talk about being scared of the

27:48

dark and you know that's that's yeah it's just interesting that we have this that we have this line of disassociation with um with night time with the

27:56

darkness with the stars of the cosmos nature which is such a valuable lesson than a teacher and it's a very humbling

28:02

teacher right for such an a natural thing I think that how that over and over again every single

28:07

day unusual discomfort with it like again

28:12

fighting fighting it but you know resistance is futile well

28:19

I want to talk about helpful substances to sleep there's obviously a whole billion dollar market out there in

28:25

regards to um different products but obviously we've got like we've got Chinese

28:31

medicine we've got different herbs we've got teas you know we've got um you know

28:36

cannabis and all these types of things that can help support people who struggle to sleep um what have you seen work for people

28:44

because obviously everyone's different mm-hmm um you know I could probably talk for

28:49

like an hour on this but I'll just get it out of the way first alcohol is absolutely the most overused

28:54

and also the most counterproductive sleep aid in the world um it is a sedative but it absolutely

29:01

wrecks the quality of your sleep so we can talk about that more later if you want cannabis is definitely being used

29:06

more and more both CBD and indica strands although as far as what I can tell the Indica

29:12

strands has definitely more promising uh results as far as helping with sleep and

29:19

insomnia and potentially other Sleep Disorders as well although as we probably all know the the research is a

29:25

little newer because of all the regulations um you know teas supplements

29:31

prescription pills unfortunately are all very common um I'm I believe that as far as the more

29:37

natural AIDS like teas and supplements they tend to work because they induce a sense of calm and relaxation

29:44

you know there's things like ashwagandha or magnesium in you know wait am I

29:49

saying that right I know that valerian root these things do have a lot of anecdotal proof but also some research

29:56

behind them and they can absolutely help you relax which then can help you sleep so it's not like these things are like

30:03

knocking you out but they can help you get into a better mindset for sleep I do

30:08

I do believe in that and especially when you pair these things with a routine so

30:13

you know you don't just drink your chamomile tea and hop in bed and instantly fall asleep maybe you take

30:18

some time to wind down and you're drinking your tea and then you do you know a five minute routine or a I don't

30:24

know two minutes of breath work so when you pair one of these supplements or these cheese or what have you with with

30:30

your routine I think you can have really really great benefits to your sleep

30:35

yeah I love the routine aspect of that because yeah I think it's so important and so valuable that we have like

30:40

transitions within our day like from waking up going to work you know like

30:46

that shouldn't be this like horrible rushed mixed process where we're like eating breakfast on the subway or in the

30:51

car on the way like so it's such a bad habit to have and the same should be said for sleep you know like there

30:57

should be a clear time frame that's probably at least 30 minutes long where you are you know preparing preparing

31:04

your psycho psychological self your physiological self or sleep whether that's with yeah going to make it going

31:10

to make some tea having a bath reading a book you know doing everything literally slowing your body down particularly your

31:18

brain weighs going from this like high beta phase two you know it's like a filter data phase where you know you're

31:25

certainly slowing down your brain weights a little bit so your body's recognizing that oh okay there's some

31:30

external output this is a message that's telling me that okay we're going to need prepare for sleep now okay guys let's stop making the Melatonin let's start

31:37

making all these things and preparing us to to get down for the day rather than like yeah like watching TV until like

31:45

midnight having like four or five drinks and then dancing asleep like that you

31:50

might fall asleep really well but like it's like you're more like collapsing collapsing asleep rather than falling

31:57

asleep so yeah it's just I love the idea of using your stuff like inositol and other

32:04

herbs and supplements that have much more of like a subtle well-rounded effect rather than like a sleeping pill

32:11

or something that's just like super harsh super direct like trying to use a grenade to you know do something that's

32:18

that's needs to be more subtle yeah and I mean sleeping pills absolutely have their

32:25

place I was listening to a podcast with Dr Chris winter um a neurologist a sleep physician who

32:31

has Decades of experience with patients on sleeping pills and he makes some really

32:38

good points the first being that you know why do we want to be on a sleeping pill I'm not saying that they're all bad

32:44

or that people don't need it but if you think about why why you want to be on a sleeping pill first of all they're only

32:49

meant to be prescribed for temporary use so if you if you are having a really bad

32:54

bout of insomnia or maybe you're you're grieving and you're just your mind is racing or you know maybe you had

33:01

unfortunately something really bad happen in your life and you're just struggling with sleep of course we can understand why you might want a

33:08

prescription to help you and and those are there to help you but there are very

33:13

few if any studies that prove that people feel better the day after so what

33:19

are you really gaining or giving up so if you're not more productive if you're not happier if you're not feeling well

33:24

rested but you've got that sleep that you you felt like you really needed you

33:30

know how how important are those sleeping pills or maybe you only need to be on them for a few weeks or again talk

33:36

to your doctor about it but they are so strong and they're just knocking us out they're not getting us into a natural

33:42

sleep so we really need to think about that when we are taking and asking for these

33:48

prescription pills which are given out so easily here that's a huge Point thanks thanks for

33:54

bringing that to our attention that you know every you know a lot of medications have their place and you know for a lot

34:00

of people who are obviously suffering it could be in the absolute relief that they need but are we going to the extent like as a

34:07

physician are we telling individuals that this is certainly not a long-term solution to sleep you know this is a

34:13

this is this is like a you know maybe for a few days or a week just to make sure that you're giving your body the

34:19

necessary sleep it needs to be able to do its like foundational repair and restoration yeah that's a huge point so

34:26

thank you for thank you for saying that um tell me about alcohol then why is it so bad

34:31

it's awful well okay I think that we probably all are a lot of people have

34:37

had alcohol and you feel more relaxed and maybe you have drank too much and you pass out so that would make us think

34:46

that alcohol helps with sleep I mean it seems very obvious that we that it would help with sleep right you're literally

34:51

falling asleep because you drink too much but the problem is what it does in our

34:57

brain and that is counterproductive for sleep it messes

35:02

with our sleep architecture which is basically the different stages of your brain so what alcohol will do

35:09

if you're only drinking every now and then alcohol might actually and don't

35:14

harp on this too much but might actually help with some deep sleep but

35:19

that's like literally the only good benefit and it is fleeting after that it will reduce your REM sleep and what

35:27

happens when you reduce your REM sleep is that you feel like garbage the next day not to mention the hangover but you

35:33

if you're not getting REM sleep you're not getting emotional processing you're not getting memory consolidation and and

35:39

moving things from short-term memory to long-term memory and you will wake up a

35:45

lot more frequently maybe you're not even getting into that deep sleep anymore your brain gets very confused as

35:51

it's processing the alcohol and once that alcohol wears off we then tend to see this rebound effect so usually very

35:59

early in the morning or if you are lucky enough to get a nap after a night of drinking you'll have these really crazy

36:04

dreams and so again people might think that signifies you're getting great sleep but it's really your body saying

36:11

oh my God we got such awful sleep before let's rush and get into this REM sleep now and try to make up for it

36:18

but you can't really make up for it your body is trying your brain is incredible it is trying but it's it's just really

36:25

confused when you drink that alcohol and it processes you know not to mention it's a diuretic so you might be using

36:31

the bathroom more often um and again you know the hangover in and of itself is probably uncomfortable

36:37

but yeah I mean it's just it's not a good sleep aid again why are you using it

36:43

would really be the question that you need to think about if you if you love it if you want to drink wine every night

36:49

I'm not going to tell you not to but maybe you have it earlier in the day maybe you have it with dinner and you

36:56

only have one glass I would absolutely never recommend a nightcap or drinking right before bed

37:02

because you think it's going to help you sleep because the answer is it's not yeah I don't think I've ever known

37:09

anyone that would that has like struggled to sleep and then they would have a drink to help them do it there's

37:15

obviously a thing that happens but I just don't know of anybody who would do that I just know people who just like end of the day kids are asleep you've

37:22

had your dinner let's have some drinks you know like that's more of a I don't want to say that's a a better habit but

37:29

it's you know obviously alcohol just wreaks havoc on every every part of the body and you know getting into a

37:34

consistent habit of having a few drinks every night is Just That's not healthy at all um there's no application for that and

37:41

um I always always found it interesting when I studied Chinese medicine that the like three to four o'clock three to five

37:47

o'clock in the morning was like the liver's time to shine then to do its thing and most people who had a bit bit

37:53

of a drinking issue on the weekends or even throughout the week would wake up during that time when the liver is like

38:01

having to work extra extra hard having to go through it's like three stage detoxification process to kind of like

38:06

Get rid of that alcohol and get it out of the body and yeah like having to pee more and having more breaks in the sleep

38:13

cycle is just like it's just gonna wreak havoc and I don't know how much of a hangover is just poor sleep and sleep

38:20

deprivation and like you're probably going to bed late anyway so it's just all like all totally adds up and yeah

38:27

yeah it's a wild thing I don't drink in the winter because I don't have any real craving for like a like a drink in the

38:33

winter time like I don't like putting cold stuff in my you know like it's cold I don't have that craving luckily

38:39

because I have a lot of people that have no problem with that yeah which is fine but you know I I like having a you know

38:45

like a a cider after a soccer game in the in the summer you know like that's that's much more appealing to me that's

38:51

true yeah yeah so it's uh I I feel I'm quite lucky with that but yeah a lot of people like it's um

38:57

it kind of blows my mind that alcohol is so freely accepted in our society when

39:03

we know we know it is like probably worse than smoking and even smoking's

39:09

still alive yeah it's questionable the smoking should still be legal right

39:18

um 30 substances and how bad they are for you basically and alcohol was at the

39:24

top and I feel like cannabis wasn't even until like the second page mushrooms was like the very last thing on the list and

39:30

it's like we kind of all know this but because it's very accepted in our society we just kind of like forget

39:36

about it but yeah that's pretty bad it's no it's really bad and yeah it's obviously been decades and decades and

39:42

there's lobbying and tax stuff that goes into its big money some of the biggest corporate companies in the world

39:48

obviously alcohol companies and um even with the outstanding evidence and

39:55

everyone knows that drinking is not very good for you but we don't really talk about the like The Addictive qualities or something like that the habitual

40:02

um things that go on with that as well and you know it ends up being a Crux for a lot of people and the fact that you

40:08

could in most countries get alcohol 24 7 you can even just like go into like doordash or skip the dishes and get

40:14

alcohol sent with you yeah Pizza these days like that's too easy like that's too easy to just slip into a bad habit

40:21

and be a big Crux on the health system like I don't know I'm just not too sure we should be in acts like in the dire

40:27

state in 2022 but again that's a separate podcast exactly I mean I did see something even

40:33

where they had um patients who did drink regularly and

40:40

they felt like they were drinking to help them sleep and so then they would wake up the next day and and over time

40:46

as they got they built that tolerance to the alcohol I I believe those people had

40:52

you know an issue with alcohol although I don't remember exactly what's happening in the study but they were building a tolerance to the alcohol so

40:57

slowly they would feel less hungover but they would still be so incredibly sleepy and later in the day they would feel

41:04

pretty bad and so they would then think oh I guess I have to drink more alcohol

41:11

to sleep better and to counteract this and it it it seemed just so crazy to me

41:17

but it's not because they don't they don't know nobody told them how not to do that or maybe someone told them but

41:23

they didn't understand or maybe they don't care you know maybe they do have that addiction but it is interesting

41:29

what people really do especially and again if you're not getting good sleep maybe you're you're uh logical part of

41:37

your brain isn't that active I don't know but yeah it's funny those people actually chose to drink more because they were feeling bad but they're

41:44

probably feeling bad because their sleep was bad yeah it's a it's a vicious circle and

41:49

obviously there's so much that goes into a healthy body and looking at Health span and lifespan and you know sleep is

41:56

just one huge huge aspect of that and yeah it's yeah it's a it's a holistic

42:01

wheel that's for sure um I wanna I got so many questions for you but I want to ask you about

42:06

um like sleep disruption cell phones because I think I don't know nine times

42:12

at nine out of ten people probably have their phone within a meter of their

42:18

precious brain's precious body which you know we

42:23

are electromagnetic beings and any type of electric tool signal is going to

42:29

affect that for sure is there what's this what's the research on on like emfs

42:35

and and sleep you know I have been looking into this a lot more lately especially because a lot

42:41

of us have those sleep trackers um I do work on the clinical side in

42:46

monitoring patients who are being treated for sleep apnea and a lot of these things have Bluetooth built into

42:52

them so as you know our devices emit electrical Fields you know especially when we're

42:58

using Bluetooth and even when they're turned off it seems now when we look at EEG or brain waves and a sleep study

43:04

they don't seem to really be affected that much or at least not significantly by the emfs so that's good news

43:12

um but strong and extended exposure to EMF has

43:18

been shown to disrupt neuroendocrine processes so brain and hormones

43:25

um I've seen some research that shows the effects of EMF are more harmful when we're sleeping than when we're awake

43:32

um this is possibly due to you know the complex Cascade of physiological events

43:38

that are going on in our brains while we're sleeping we're not really protected from the outside world and

43:44

we're also releasing that melatonin in the dark when we're sleeping and a melatonin is a hormone which I just

43:50

mentioned is is one of the things that might be disrupted by these emfs so

43:55

this might affect sleep it might affect immune function cell repair

44:00

um I mean I'm not an expert in emfs and I didn't participate in any of the research I just mentioned but

44:06

I know there is a ton of information out there a lot of it is very unsubstantiated but

44:12

that's not to say it's not true I I just feel like there needs to be more research um personally to what you just said I

44:20

don't sleep with my phone by my bed I mean I do it for a few other reasons too but I I am aware of it so I won't sleep

44:27

with my phone by my bed I don't typically recommend like those uh Bluetooth like headbands that you sleep

44:34

with unless somebody's asking for one then I'll I'll tell them one that I like but I I do try to avoid it

44:42

I feel like it can't hurt to avoid it as much as possible although I think it really has to do with the strength and

44:48

the how long you're exposed to it I would avoid it if you could yeah

44:53

obviously you've got the aspect of like being exposed to that light you've got the distance you know strain on your

44:59

eyes for example and just the habit of like you know maybe looking at your phone for an hour before right and like

45:05

the first thing you do when you wake up you know we're talking about transitions you know it's probably not the best thing is to just flick your phone on check your social media right away like

45:13

it's probably not the best thing for your mental health and yeah I go back to I go back to the

45:19

whole caveman thing it's just like um I'm sure a huge part of our

45:26

biological process for going to sleep is is is uh connected to

45:32

Darkness quiet sensory literary sensory deprivation and

45:37

then also just like the yeah like I mean we wouldn't have had like Electronics around us but obviously the Earth is an

45:44

electromagnetic field as well so once they were not completely foreign to those type of things but it's just like how much and how frequently so I think

45:52

as as much quiet as possible literal quiet whether that's like actually like from hearing and actually like the the

45:59

energetic quiet the matter we're going to be when we sleep I think yeah and you know like you're saying about things

46:04

being natural we we have complicated so many things in our life and a lot of times for the better you know of course

46:10

I'm I mean I'm on electronics right now I have my phone like four feet away from me I know that we need it and it really

46:16

improves our lives but when it comes to something as simple as sleep we are

46:22

looking for all these gadgets and all these things and all these trackers and maybe we just need to simplify it a little bit maybe we just need to put

46:27

them away from our bed for a little while um and you know along with all the habits that we do or don't do in the

46:33

bedroom as well which can help you sleep so I don't know exactly how much emfs are

46:40

bad for your sleep I know that your brain waves seem to be in good shape but it is like that hormone disruption that

46:46

I that I do worry about so if you can avoid it I I would so if everyone's putting their phone

46:54

away on the bed so there's no there's no phones on the bedside table anymore after our discussion so what ideal

47:00

bedside table situation oh that's a good question

47:06

um if you read I would definitely put a book by your bedside table maybe a few because if you are someone who gets up in the middle of the night and maybe has

47:12

trouble falling asleep maybe you want to read something but particularly maybe something that you've already read so

47:18

it's not as exciting or stimulating to you um I really love smart alarm clocks

47:26

some of those do have Bluetooth so try not to put them directly by your bed but um to help you wake up in a more natural

47:31

way like I like to recommend the lofty or it's very similar to The Hatch where it will

47:37

wake you up with different sounds or tones the lofty for example actually

47:42

wakes me up once very quietly and I honestly don't even notice sometimes and then it will wake me up a few minutes

47:48

later so I feel like I just naturally woke up versus like a blaring alarm clock or like my phone alarm clock which

47:55

I feel like people get like really traumatized by like every time I hear the sound I'm like cringing

48:00

so things like that you know a noise machine maybe a sleep mask if it's not

48:05

very dark in your room simple things that are not simulating Electronics not your phone

48:11

not your iPad things like that beautiful great recommendations Theresa

48:17

you're awesome thank you so much for coming onto the show again I love it thank you thank you thank you covered so

48:22

many I I love chatting about sleep and health and all that good stuff yeah it's so so

48:29

important to talk about and it's just it's just a good reminder for people people just like with their own busy lives we just forget about these things

48:35

like something that we just like all do every night on a consistent basis sometimes it just

48:43

doesn't get the attention it deserves because we just don't always do it right it's just something that we'll always do and

48:48

um obviously having the quality is very very important as well and yeah it's just important we have these conversations just remind everyone a

48:55

little bit like you know like if you if you're feeling a little bit a little bit extra tired a little bit extra and fatigued then you know maybe we should

49:01

just like have a have a really good week's sleep focus on that and I'm sure you're going to feel a lot better for

49:07

her absolutely I agree great we're in agreement that's wonderful well thank you again for

49:13

coming onto the show today sir how can people get hold of you um primarily I do a ton of posting on

49:19

Instagram I have some help but I do read all the DMS in the comments my Instagram

49:25

is at sleepbetternyc no dots or spaces um if you have any questions or you want

49:32

to see the kind of products we offer or the programs we can do to just help yourself or if you are a patient with a

49:37

sleep disorder all of that information can be found on our website which is sleepbetter dot NYC so it's not.com it's

49:44

dot NYC all right that's awesome thanks so much again thank you thank you have a

49:49

great day you too well that is it for this episode of True hope because the official podcast of true hope Canada

49:54

we'll see you next week don't forget to subscribe if you haven't yet you can leave us a review if you feel like doing that but that's it we'll see you soon

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