Simple ways to increase your sleep quality 😴 and quantity 🛌 with holistic sleep coach Morgan Adams

Simple Ways to Increase Your Sleep Quality and Quantity

Graced Health: Perimenopause and Menopause Wellness for Christian Women

Host: Amy Connell

Guest: Morgan Adams, Sleep Coach

 A couple of guidelines that I'll share with you today about how to use light to get better sleep or these are like really very basic simple interventions and it starts in the morning. So within an hour of waking up, it's really, really advised that you get at least 15 minutes of morning sunlight within that hour. Now, the key is no sunglasses. It helps regulate some of your key hormones, cortisol, melatonin, and serotonin throughout the day, because serotonin converts to melatonin. So you've got this whole cascade of events that are kind of triggered once your s- once your eyes hit that sunlight. Hey there. I'm Amy Connell. Welcome to Grace Health, the podcast for women who want simple and grace-filled ways to take care of themselves and enjoy a little chocolate. I'm a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach who wants you to know your eating, movement, and body. Don't have to be perfect. You just need to be able to do what you're called to do. We are back. We are back. As I mentioned in the last episode, which was released August 3rd, 2022, and today is September 13th, 2022. I have been on a mini sabbatical is what I called it during August. So if you miss that episode, make sure you go back and listen to it if that's interesting to you. And if you're curious how it went, by the way, look for a bonus episode this Friday, September 16th on how, wherever you're listening here, you can find it there. You can tune in to see how I grade myself over the last five weeks and spoiler alert. It is not an A+ but you can hear more about that on the bonus episode. Now, over the summer, one of the things that I did was I recorded nearly all of the episodes that you will hear between now and the end of 2022. So I was sitting there with all of this amazing contact, content, and it was really a struggle to determine, like, which one is going to kick off season 15. But then I remembered the question that I was asked by a different podcast host when I was guesting on her podcast called Curious Living, which is a really great show. So if you're looking for some new content, go over there and check her out. But Reverend Monica asked me, "If I'm trying to manage my weight, what's the one piece of advice you'd give me? And I typically will shy away from conversations regarding weight. I respect that this is a personal decision, and everyone deserves the space to make their own decisions about weight or body size without shame or judgment. And by the way, I need to give credit where that, where credit is due for that, um, that, that verbiage. That is from Molly Galbreath with Girls Gone Strong. They have fabulous information and content. You can just check them out at girlsgonestrong.com. So I want to make sure that I give her credit for that because she really put into words how I've been feeling. Anyway, what was my answer to Reverend Monica? I said, "Protect your sleep like you protect your life because the sleep will drive the quality of your life." So that's what we are starting with is an episode about sleep on this little grace filled up, uh, gracefilled podcast about physical, mental, and spiritual health. Sleep impacts your horm- hormones, your immune system, your metabolic system, stress management, decision making skills. And if you have, or you're like, "I don't know, how does it impact your decision making skills?" Just ask yourself next time you're, like, super, super hungry, are you grabbing potato chips or are you grabbing fruit? And it's probably not fruit, but it also impacts your blood sugar. I mean, there's just so much. I didn't even catch all of it. Now, what's kind of interesting to me is since I recorded this episode over the summer, so probably at least two months ago, I have had the privilege of knowing some of the stuff that our guest brings today in implementing some of the few, a few of the tactics that she suggested, and I've even gotten my family on board. So I want to challenge you to do the same. We are going to have a five-day light therapy challenge, the week of October 17th, 2022 on our Grace Health Community Facebook group. So if you're not a member of that yet, click on the show notes to head over and join us October 17th. Now, let me tell you some about our guest, Morgan Adams. Morgan is a holistic sleep coach for women who struggle with getting a good night's sleep consistently. Her goal is to help women feel better and live better, and the key to both begins with a good night's sleep. Morgan is an accredited health coach with additional advanced certifications in sleep science. She's a sought after podcast guest and expert for websites like Mindbody Green. She's also a former insomniac. She spent almost a decade using prescription sleeping pills despite knowing that her overall quality sleep suffered. She now inspires and teaches other women how to confidently, calmly, and effectively get a good night's sleep without the use of sleep aids. Morgan is also a two-time breast cancer survivor. She advocates for a lifestyle of disease prevention and integrating holistic strategies for cancer treatment. Now, one more quick note before we get going. This season, I am inviting my guests to provide the one simple thing at the end of the show. So when they offer that, that will wrap up our episode. I typically will provide some commentary at the end, but if you'd like to hear some additional thoughts and comments, head over to the Grace Health Community Facebook group, and I will be coming on live Wednesday, September 14th. Okay, let's bring on Morgan. Morgan, welcome to the show. Thank you, Amy. I'm so excited to be here to chat with you and talk to your audience about sleep. I'm really excited too. In fact, you and I met on this, uh, website called PodMatch, which kind of will m- match up hosts and guests. And when you reached out, I think I responded back and I said, "This is an answer to my prayers because I have been wanting to have a conversation about sleep, and I'm really excited that you reached out, and so I'm, um, I'm Let's just jump in, if that's okay with you. Yes. Let's do this. Okay. So first, tell me what is a sleep coach, and tell me what brought you to this field. Well, you know, to put it in really simple terms that most people can relate to, a sleep coach is like a personal trainer for sleep. Okay. So everyone is- We can relate to that. I mean, you know, you know what a personal trainer is. I'm sure everyone else does too. But kind of to, to peel away the layers, um, with that, we are coaching clients to develop better sleep behaviors, provide accountability and lifestyle recommendations. And we also screen for sleep disorders, um, because there are a lot of I mean, there are so many sleep disorders, hundreds, and those folks need to be seen by a doctor. You know, coaches are not, you know, trained to do that. So we are sort of that first line, you know, "Hey, I think you need to be referred." And I have a great, you know, referral network of people that I, that I count on. Um, sleep coaches also really understand, you know, recovery and circadian biology, and we do it all through the lens of behavioral coaching. We know right now that there are about 350,000 fitness coaches in the US. There are about 70,000 nutrition coaches, but we do not know at this point how many sleep coaches there are because it's a relatively new field and it's growing, but it's still kind of in its infancy because I hear s- so many people ask me when I say I'm a sleep coach, what is that? You know, so I'm really just excited to be able to tell people what that is because it's an important thing because a lot of people will get into this more, but a lot of people are really, really struggling with their sleep. In fact, sleep is been termed by the CDC as a public health epidemic, epidemic, and that was actually before the pandemic. So- ... I think it's even worse now. So we do need sleep coaches in this, in this world at this moment. Well, that makes a lot of sense. And as you were talking about the difference in, you know, personal trainers and nutrition coaches and then just this new, this new field of sleep coaches, isn't it ironic that we will gladly hire a personal trainer to help us with one hour of our day, or if you're with me, I'll do 30 or 45 minutes, but it might be a, feel a little weird to hire someone to help you with seven to nine hours of your day. Yes. And at that, and just because, and I'm sure we'll talk some more about this, but I, I'm, I'm sitting here thinking, you know, s- sleep, sleep is such a natural thing that we do. And so I think it's really easy to be like, "Well, I don't need that. I can, you know, I'm supposed to be able to sleep." And yet, we spend so much of our time doing it and sometimes the sleep that we get with that is not quality sleep. And I think that that's one thing that a lot of my community, particularly in this perimenopause, menopausal state is dealing with. So talk to me first about what would, um, what qualifies as quality sleep, because I know that is what we are searching for. Yeah. So quality sleep is really composed of six factors, kind of looking, looking at them at kind of globally. So the first one is regularity, and that's really how consistent your morning and bedtime is on a day-to-day basis. Second one is satisfaction. Do you feel refreshed in the morning? Do you have enough energy to get through the day without loading yourself with Starbucks, you know, at lunchtime? The third is alertness. Are you awake, are you abil- do you have the ability to stay awake during the day, you know, without like taking many, many naps? Um, timing, your middle of your sleep time should be between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM, also duration, and that's mainly like looking at seven to eight hours for most people per night. There's some variation with that. Some people need more, some people need less, but, you know, seven, eight hours is, you know, a, a good amount of sleep to get. And the last, um, the last thing with quality of sleep is looking at efficiency. You should actually be able to sleep, um, be awake less than 30 minutes a night. So if you're adding up that whole stretch of time from the second your head hits the pillow to when you wake up, you really shouldn't have more than a half an hour of awake time, you know, in that stretch of time. So there, there's a lot of different aspects of quality. Um, I think that sometimes people get really hung up on the number itself, you know, there's a sort of myth like, "I must get eight hours of sleep." And, and that's really not true. I mean, people need, that's seven to eight is, you know, sort of the average. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends seven to nine for most adults, but there are people who function great on six and there's some people who need like 10 or more. So it's really an individual type of thing. When you say the middle of your sleep time is between 2:00 and 4:00 AM, so does that mean like if you ... Let's, let's just use me as an example. I am normally like fast asleep. First of all, it takes me about 32 seconds to fall asleep. So I don't know if that's good or bad. But I, I, my husband's like, "You are a medical miracle because you fall asleep so quickly." Anyway, so if I am fast asleep by 10:00 and I get up at 5:20 in the morning, so does that mean if ... So that's about seven hours. So that means if I were to go back three and a half hours, that, that means the middle of my sleep is more like 1:30- ish. Yeah, that's probably good. That's probably fine. Okay. But that's what you mean by the middle of your sleep. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. From the beginning to the end. In other words, it's not ideal to go to bed at 12:00 or 1:00. If you did that, look at this, you know, that, that's, that two, 2:00 to 4:00 AM thing is gonna get skewed a little bit. I mean, yes, there are, there are some outlier people who are night owls and their circadian rhythm dictates that they go to bed late. But for the general population, getting to bed at midnight is kind of pushing it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I can't tell you the last time I went to bed at midnight. I just- Me neither. I just- I, I haven't even stayed up till midnight on New Year's Eve. That hasn't happened in like six years, so I hear you. Yeah, maybe I have with that. I really don't remember. Not, yeah, it's just not that important to me. Okay. So one thing that I'm curious about is how ... So my community is a pretty, you know, we're pretty health minded. We like to move our bodies. We like to put, you know, quality foods in, in our bodies. Um, you know, and that doesn't say that we are all perfect about it. I know I'm not, maybe they are, but I certainly am not. But I'm wondering if you have any foods to help promote that quality sleep that helps with the satisfaction and an alertness and timing and duration. I love those six things that you gave us. Yeah. Uh, do you have any food recommendations? Well, I'll get into a couple food recommendations that have been looked at, but I'd ra- I'd rather kind of talk at first about sort of a general approach to eating. Okay. Um, so my recommendation for better sleep is to really start looking at what you're eating from the time you wake up till the time you go to bed. And really what we're looking for is people eating to balance their blood sugar for the entire day. So that really k- there's a lot to that, um, and there's a, a great book called, um, The Glucose Revolution that is extremely helpful about blood sugar balance. But some general guidelines would be having a healthy fat and protein at every meal and trying to avoid eating carbs just solo. We call them naked carbs. When you're eating for better blood sugar balance, what ends up happening to a lot of people is that they are avoiding those 3:00 AM wake ups. That is something that a lot of women tell me that they have. A lot of clients that I'm working with, they're like, "I wake up at 3:00 AM." And there are many reasons for that, but one of the main reasons is because they haven't had their blood sugar balance throughout the day, and that continues on into the night. So their blood sugar crashes at like three, and because of the blood sugar crash, the cortisol and adrenaline spike, and that's what creates those wake-ups. So that's just kind of a general guideline on how to eat throughout the day, into the evening for better sleep. Um, as far as like a, a particular diet is concerned, there's been some research done lately about the Mediterranean diet, and they're saying that that is actually a sleep promoting kind of diet. Um, the reason is because it's pretty rich in fruits and vegetables, um, nuts, legumes, grains, and seeds, and has a lot of healthy fats, like olive oil and omega-3 fatty acids from all that fish they eat. Now, we've all heard about, you know, it's kind of like a, kind of a urban legend, maybe, uh, that whole thing about the turkey, you fall asleep because of the, the tryptophan and the turkey. There's some, there's some research that, you know, supports that. The reason why, you know, people are falling asleep with these tryptophan rich foods is because tryptophan converts into melatonin, which is our sleep hormone. But there's actually foods that are more, um, tryptophan rich than turkey, and that is mozzarella cheese, roasted soybeans, pumpkin seeds, oat bran, cheddar cheese, and tofu. So those are more promoting f- for tryptophan than turkey. So, um, those are some general guidelines, um, about general, you know, food in general and different things like that and how to eat throughout the day for better health, for better sleep- Okay. ... and better health. Yeah, that's great. Thank you for those specifics. I know we just eat those up when you give us some specific things. And I know obviously everybody is different. Like for me, um, my body does not like dairy and I am guaranteed to have a bad night's sleep when I have dairy. So I will skip the mozzarella, but I will dig into those pumpkin seeds. Good. Um, do you have any, like, no-nos? I mean, I have to imagine if you're talking about balancing blood sugar, it's like maybe not a big bowl of ice cream right before bed or something like that. Yeah, that would be something to avoid for sure. So when you're looking at, into the evening and you're looking at dinnertime, you wanna kind of stay away from heavy foods that are fried, um, and unhealthy fats and sugar, like the ice cream. Mm-hmm. So this, this after dinner snacking is, can really be a detriment to your sleep. I really suggest that people have dinner, um, within three hours before they go to bed. So having that kind of three hour window where you, you're not consuming food, it helps a lot because your body, um, can put its energy towards sleep instead of digesting all that food because digesting all that food takes a lot of work. Um, drinks are something that we should probably talk about, mainly caffeine and alcohol. So caffeine, I know, I mean, I personally love my morning coffee. A lot of people, you know, rely on that coffee in the morning, sort of a, sort of a ritual, but it's really important to know that people have different abilities to clear out caffeine and to metabolize it. So general rule of thumb, because if you don't know, you know, how fast you metabolize, you wanna err on the side of caution. So I usually like to recommend that people kind of hold off on, like, hold off on caffeine in the afternoon. So like a good time to stop might be like 11:00 AM or noon. Caffeine has a quarter life of 10 to 12 hours. So if you are having, you know, a cup of coffee after lunch, it could potentially be in your system by the time you go to bed. Wow. Now, I know that there are people out there, and I mean, I've, you've probably met them too, who say, "Oh, I can have a cup of coffee after dinner. I can sleep no problem." Well, okay, they can get to sleep, but when you really look at their data in the morning, you will often find that they have decreased deep sleep, so they're not getting that refreshed sleep that they could be, but they're falling asleep okay. Now, as far as alcohol, this, this can be a lot more problematic for women as we get into our mid- mid-years. Alcohol is actually the most common s- commonly used sleep aid out there. People use it to fall asleep because it actually helps, it does help you get to sleep faster. I mean, we all know this, but the problem is, is that it fragments your sleep and it can reduce your REM stage of sleep, which is critical for memory consolidation and emotional regulation. So I kind of, I kind of guide my clients into thinking about alcohol as something that they should look at for happy hour and not as a nightcap. So, you know, leaving, I, I actually think leaving a four hour window between your last drink and bedtime is ideal. And I've done, I've done actual studies on myself using my Aura Ring looking to see, you know, the impacts of my readiness and my sleep scores v- depending on when I drink. And if I have a drink at like four or five in the afternoon, my sleep is not impacted drastically, but if I have a drink at like eight o'clock at night, I'm done. Like my sleep scores are, are, they're, they're wrecked. So if you do wanna drink alcohol, you know, really, really try to go a little bit earlier than you might normally, so. Yeah. Well, it's funny you say that. So I have a, um, I have an Apple Watch and on there I have an app called Pillow and I know that there's a lot of different ones that's just, it was free, so that's the one I got but where it kind of will analyze your sleep. And I have noticed if I, like if I can have a glass of wine with dinner, but if I'm done by 7:00, that kind of seems to be the tipping point for me, um, as long as I'm kind of done, done by that seven, because otherwise, yeah, totally wrecked, waking up, ho- wine hot flashes, all the things. So totally get that. Yes. I hear that. I hear that so often. Yeah, yeah. Um- We are not 25 anymore. No. Thank God. Yeah, yeah. No kidding. Okay. So in our, in the bio you provided me, um, one of the things that you said was that you really try and help people without, um, sleeping pills, sleeping aids. So I wanna dig into that some. One of the things that I just c- I see, I mean, it is everywhere. And I admit that I, on occasion use this thing too, but melatonin is, is out there and I know that it is a natural hormone, but, uh, you know, I would love to hear your thoughts on that, on usage, um, on dosage, if, if you're even, if that's something that is in your, uh, tool belt of resources, if not. So let's, let's dig some into that- Yeah. Yeah. ... because I think people are probably really interested in that. Sure. Melatonin has gotten a lot of press lately. I don't know if you've seen all these articles, and actually the press has been pretty bad. And I, I kind of go back and forth, um, with my thoughts on melatonin, but it's really more, it's not a sleeping pill. Mm-hmm. It's really like when you're taking it, you're kind of tricking your body into, into feeling like it's nighttime. It doesn't really put you to sleep. It's more telling you, telling your body that it's time to sleep. I did, I did pull a study though that I'll share with you about melatonin. It's a little bit, it's kind of, it's kind of shocking. It was, um, 2013, it had over 1,600 people in it, and it showed that people who took melatonin supplements fell asleep seven minutes faster and increased overall sleep time by eight minutes. Honestly, that's not, that's not super impressive. Right. So it's really not, it's really not all that impressive about your overall, um, sleep time and falling asleep faster. It's, it's really more useful in situations where there's jet lag or circadian rhythm disorder. If you are gonna use it for run of the mill sleeping problems, um, I would say start with the smallest dose possible, which, you know, looking like 0.5 to one milligrams. Unfortunately though, most of the melatonin pills that are sold over the counter are like three to five milligrams, which is pushing it a little bit. It's, I don't think that's unsafe, but I think that when you can dose anything low, that's preferable. Also, a lot of people find that when they dose higher with melatonin, they get grog- they have that grogginess feeling in the morning, which nobody wants. Um, if you are gonna do melatonin, I would definitely suggest looking at the label to make sure it has a, a USP certification, which means it's been, um, it's been tested to, to essentially make sure that what's in it, what they say is on the bottle is what's in it. This is very alarming, actually. They did a study where they found, um, the content of more than 70% of melatonin supplements varied widely from their label claims. The concentration ranged from 83% less than the amount listed to 478% more. Whoa. So I mean, that's on the, on the more side is kind of serious. So imagine if it said there was three milligrams in it and there was like four times the amount, that's a lot of melatonin. So I think it's really, you know, the bottom line with melatonin is sort of, it's not harmful, but use, use it judiciously and, um, a lot of times, um, people dose it too close to bedtime. Uh, I've actually run into people who dose it, um, when they wake up at night, which is definitely, you don't wanna d- you don't wanna take it while you're in your sleep, in the sleeping hours. So I actually advise most people to take their melatonin maybe an hour or two before bed, because again, it's working on the timing. It's not going to put you to sleep. It's just sort of like setting the stage for sleep. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Okay. An hour or two ahead of time. Um, does it, does it impact the sleep quality at all? Does it change your, your REM sleep and non- REM and all of that? No, it's not really changing that quality. It's really more changing the timing of the sleep. Okay. So there's a lot people can do with melatonin for jet lag and circadian rhythm disorders. People, um, you know, who have more serious sleep issues, there's, you know, there's a, a, a protocol that you can follow, but generally speaking, you know, I don't think it's gonna, like, move the mark for someone who has insomnia. It's, it's not ... If someone has true legitimate insomnia, it's taking, telling, taking melatonin is not going to be the fix for that. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So you're talking some, you've mentioned a couple times about circadian rhythm, and I know that you have talked about using light to help sleep. Yes. So I kind of, I assume that that is at least in the same realm. So t- talk to us some about that and how we can optimize our circadian rhythm using light or using some of these other tools that you, um, that you recommend. Yeah. This is a subject I've gotten very fascinated with lately. It's a circadian biology and there is a book that I recommend, uh, people to take a look at. It's called The Circadian Code by Dr. Sachin Panda. It is ... We, we are going to see a lot more in the next couple years about circadian biology and circadian rhythm, but a couple of guidelines that I'll share with you today about how to use light to get better sleep, or these are like really very basic, simple interventions, and it starts in the morning. So within an hour of waking up, it's really, really advised that you get at least 15 minutes of morning sunlight, um, within that hour. Now, the key is no sunglasses because I will, I will frequently take my dog for a walk in the morning and I'll see neighbors walking, they've got their sunglasses on and I'm like, "No, take them off." The reason why we don't wanna wear sunglasses is because we actually want the sunlight to hit our retina and when that sunlight hits the retina, it sends a trigger to our suprachia- to suprachiasmatic nucleus. That's a tough tongue twister. Yeah. And, and that, that, it's called the SCN and that is basically our central circadian pacemaker and entrains us to environmental light and dark cycle. And when you have that trigger happen and your supercos- cosmetic nuc- nucleus, I still can't say it. That's okay. Um, it really, it helps, it helps regulate some of your key hormones, cortisol, melatonin, and serotonin throughout the day, because serotonin converts to melatonin. So you've got this whole cascade of events that are kind of triggered once your s- once your eyes hit that sunlight. And then throughout the day, it's really good to get several bursts of light during the day. And that's mainly just by taking a walk. And if you can't get outside- And, and without sunglasses as well? Yes. Without sunglasses. I can't go outside without ... Like my eyes, I feel like I've gotten so trained, or I don't know if it's the age of them or what. It is really hard for me in the middle of the day just to go without sunglasses. Yeah. Well, if you, if you can't do it in the middle of the day, that's okay. You know, it's mainly, um, in the morning, you wanna try to get that sunlight and then the evening, um, outside when it's, um, sunset. But, you know, I've heard that pushback a little bit too about the sunglasses and, you know, we don't want people to be so, like, dead set against sunglasses that they're hurting their eyes or that they feel unsafe when they're driving because you bet your bottom dollar, if I'm driving and the s- sun is glaring at me, I'm gonna put my sunglasses on no matter what, because I, you know, I wanna be safe in the car. Yeah, if you can get that sunlight in the day for walks, awesome. If you can work facing a window, that's also great too. They did a study showing that folks who had their desk set up in front of a bright light in, in, in a window setting, um, had some more sleep during the night. So it's, that's, that's always a good thing. And then as far as what happens in the evening, we want to kind of be mindful about light in our home. So we, if we have, like, those overhead LED lights that emit blue light, we really want to turn those off in the evening and maybe turn on a dimmer light like a table lamp. There's also lots of light bulbs you can buy online that, um, are more, um, appropriate for the evening that emit more of a, a, a A warm orange or reddish hue versus the blue light. So just be mindful of kind of just a few hours before bed, just dimming the lights. I mean, candlelight, that's romantic, you know? Anything like that. I also, um, really like to use blue blocking glasses in the evening, um, because those have ... I mean, there's, there's, there's evidence showing that it does help, but there's also evidence contrary to that. So that's, there doesn't seem to be like a general consensus, but I personally err on the side of caution and just put them on anyway. And I find that like if I'm wearing my darkest lenses, my red lenses, and I'm watching TV before bed, I find myself getting sleepy Because, becau- and I don't know if it's just me, but I like, I really do rely on those a lot. And it could be just a placebo effect, but, but blue light blocking glasses are such an easy intervention and they're so accessible that why not wear them if it's, if you can? So, um, yeah, that's, those are just some, you know, basics on how to, to manipulate light to get better sleep. Okay. That's good stuff. So just to recap, for in the morning, you said within one or two hours of waking, that's when you wanna get outside without sunglasses for 15 minutes. Yes. Okay. So I walk my dog a lot in the morning and I'm just, I'm gonna try to go without sunglasses and see. I, actually, I sleep pretty well most of the time, but you can I will try that. I will try that because you told me. Now, I do have a question. One thing I have noticed is when I sit outside at desk, when the sun is setting, that seems to really help my sleep quality as well. Do you have any insight on that? Yes. Thank you for that. That's one thing that I forgot to mention. That actually is, um, a key element in helping you fall asleep. So when you think back to ancestral times, when they had just, they had fire, we're kind of wired to become more sleepy when we're in, in front of those red and orange hues that are looking like a fire. So like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Just thinking about like thinking about- Yeah, that is plumbing. I had never thought about that. Yeah. We're, we're kind of biologically wired to do that. I mean, it was only until the Industrial Revolution that we did have electricity and we did have these artificial lights on at night. So we are, if we can kind of like think back to, um, going back to our biology, and that includes, you know, looking at the sun when it's setting, like people did many, many years ago, it does actually help. So if you can get in that like evening walk around sunset when the sun is like, you can really see it lowering, that's just incredible, an incredible time to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I have definitely noticed a, um, a, a change in, in me when I, when I'm just sitting outside. Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes that means it's with a glass of wine, but not on the weekends at least. It counteracts each other. We're human. We're human. Yeah. Okay. So I do have, like I mentioned, I have a lot of women in this, um, perimenopause, menopause state. And I tell you what, I hear so often just the frustration and the pain that women are going through at 3:00 in the morning and they're like, "I've tried everything. I don't know what else to do. " And I'm, I'm sure it's hormonal related, but do you have any suggestions on dealing with that 3:00 AM insomnia in, um, in, you know, women in that stage, life stage or age stage? Yeah. Sure. Well, going back to my tip about balancing blood sugar, I think that's a key thing is trying to make sure your bl- blood sugars balance throughout the day so that you don't have that 3:00 AM wa- awakening. Um, it actually is normal to wake up once during the night. You know, it's, it's not abnormal. We actually wake up briefly between each sleep cycle and we don't even realize it. It's really when, when those awakenings become, you know, two, three, four times a night, and then we, we stay awake for a long time is the problem. Um, so a couple suggestions, if you are up at night at 3:00 AM and you're like, "Uh-oh, I don't like this. I wanna get back to bed," there's something called 4-7-8 breathing, and it's actually a breathing technique that's designed to help you get back to sleep, uh, designed by Dr. Andrew Weil, and it's very simple. You basically inhale through your nose for a count of four, hold that breath for seven, and then exhale through your mouth for eight, kind of making a whoosh sound, do that for about six rounds. Um, you could do it in bed. Sometimes I do that before bed, it helps as well, but it's a nice relaxing breath to calm, to calm your nervous system. If you are, um, the kind of person who is particularly prone to the worries and the ruminating thoughts when you wake up, there is an exercise that I suggest called the constructive worry exercise or designated worry time is another way to, is another word for it. And basically, it is when you, in the evening, I would say probably dinnertime is a good time to do it. Just not, I would probably suggest not doing it right before bed, but if you can just take a piece of paper, draw a line down the center on the left-hand side, have all of the things you're worried about, anything that's on your mind, then on the right-hand side of the page, have the next step. So it's basically your worry and your next step. And let's just say that the thing that you're worried about is something you really cannot do anything about. You just, you just acknowledge that on paper, cannot do anything about this now. We'll revisit later. If you do that for a couple weeks, it actually does help alleviate your anxiety and your brain is actually kind of training itself to do the exercise on its own without the writing down. So it re- it's very, it's been very, very, very helpful for a lot of my clients because it's just getting those things out before you go to bed. It's getting them out on paper so that if you do wake up at 3:00 AM, you can say to yourself, "I've dealt with these worries. I did them a while ago. I'll do this again tomorrow evening. I'm going to sleep now." You are not invited. You are not invited to this. We'll wait now. Yeah. Um, so those, you know, those are some, um, those are some strategies. Also, if you are in bed awake like 3:00 AM and it seems like 20 minutes, 30 minutes has, have passed and you're starting to get frustrated, I suggest getting out of bed, going to another room and doing something relaxing and dyn light until you become sleepy again and then getting back into bed. That's, that's a strategy. My husband and I call that a change of environment. We'll do that every now and then. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. And it does help because the last thing you wanna do is associate your bed with anxiety. You wanna break that connection, and that's a great way to do it. Okay, that's good to know. Okay. Now let's talk about ... We talked some about light in the morning. Do you have any other suggestions for a, a good morning routine, um, as, and, and how it can impact your sleep? Yes. I am a big believer in the morning routine. In fact, I think that the morning routine could potentially be more important than the evening routine because you are setting yourself up for the entire day. So, um, we've mentioned getting outside in the morning, that's critical. And then another thing that a lot of people I don't think are aware of is the importance of having a wake up time that's consistent throughout the entire week, even weekends. I know a lot of people like to sleep in, you know, I used to do this too. I would sleep in until 9:00 on the weekend, but my normal wake up time would be 6:00 on the weekday and what ended up happening is I got social jet lag. So that, that differentiation between the wake up times between morning, between, um, weekday and weekday does create the social jet lag phenomenon. And we've all experienced jet lag. It's basically jet lag, but you're not traveling anywhere. And what ends up happening often is that you have a hard time falling asleep on Sunday and then you're tired on Monday and you begin to recover midweek only to repeat the same process over and over again on an ongoing basis. So I definitely recommend finding a time that you can realistically wake up every morning and setting your alarm for that time. And what most people find is that after they've set their alarm and, and used that for a couple weeks, that they start to wake up naturally at that time of day. So, um, that's pretty important. And then as far as a routine goes, something that I like to recommend is a morning routine called the three Ms. And it's not Ms because my name is Morgan. The M stand for something. So, um, if you have an hour to devote to this, that's ideal, but I totally acknowledge the fact that not everybody has an hour in the morning, especially if people have kids, they're trying to get off to school, but it, no matter what timeframe you have to devote to this, there's like three separate segments that you should pay attention to and you could divide them up equally. But the first one is mindfulness and that would be something like reading a positive book, you know, a self-development book, journaling or affirmations. The second is movement. Now you could get your movement done when you take your walk outside, that counts. Or if you don't wanna go outside if it's raining or whatever, you could just do some stretching. And then the third component in the 3Ms is mindset. So that would be, um, meditation, breath work or silence. So that, that- Okay. ... that's like a really generic morning routine. When I'm working with my clients, um, in my one-to-one program, we really delve into this on a very specific level and, and look at exactly what they wanna do and make it a real designed routine for them. But this is sort of a generic type of routine that anyone can follow. I love that. You know, it's funny, one of the things that I did when I was releasing the book for kind of like a pre-sale type thing is I had a five-minute wake up and warmup. Mm-hmm. So it was like designed to roll out of your bed in your pajamas, just, just kind of gently move through your body in five minutes. And I have found that, boy, I mean, I don't even do it all the time, but when I do, it, I just feel so much better because I get, I definitely, I typically exercise in the mornings, but just to have something gentle to kind of w- warm my body up has really, um, I don't know, you just kind of feel more balanced and centered for your day- Yes. when you do that. Yes. For sure. And I know that looks different for everybody. Now, what about an evening wind down routine? Yeah. Um, evening wind down routine is, is very important because sleep is not an on/off switch. It's more like a gradual dummer. And if you think about, um, if anyone who's out there think about their kids when they, their kids were younger and toddlers, they would have a very specific and predictable routine for their toddler, you know, bath time, reading a story. What sometimes happens is that the parents do not observe their own wind down routines, and we actually need that. We need that ourselves. So I really urge everyone to consider some kind of evening wind down routine, ideally an hour, but again, if you don't have an hour to devote to that, at least a half an hour, and sometimes it's helpful to set an alarm for that so that you know, "Hey, it's time to like put, put my work away, get off the screen or whatever." And I have, um, something called the power down hour. And again, it's an hour, but you can, can ratchet it back if you don't have an hour. So 20 minutes of that would be preparing for the next day, like laying your clothes out, packing lunches, taking out the trash. The second part is, of the 20 minutes is personal hygiene, so brushing your teeth, your skincare routine, and then this, the last 20 minute segment would be a relaxing activity, whatever you consider relaxing. That could be journaling, you know, meditation, breath work, anything that you find relaxing, that's like a totally personal preference. And, um, again, that's generic. I work with my clients to really like hone in on very specific routines like that. Yeah, I love that. I actually wrote that down. And you've probably seen me taking, I've taken a ton of notes here. Sleep is not an on off switch, it's more like a dimmer. And that's a really great reminder too, because we do, boy, with our kids, we are so intentional about making sure that they know when calming down and doing the little massages- Yes. ... you know, all of this. And if, and for many of us, it's go, go, go, go, go down. Right, exactly. And there's, yeah, there's no transition, there's no transition. Okay, so I know you have a one-on-one sleep coach- coaching package, and just to kind of circle back up to the top of our conversation, I think it's really important to remember when, one of the things that you talked about, which was the accountability that you offer in this coaching program. And I know you, you have a lot more of that as well in lifestyle accommodations and behavior, but, you know, what I think about it in the world of, of movement, right? Like, we all know we need to move, but I have clients who are like, they can do it on their own, but they want me because they want the accountability, they want someone to be in their corner, they want someone rooting them on. And so I love that you kind of made that analogy for us because that is what you are offering to us for our sleep, whether it's six or seven or eight or nine hours, so you're really getting quite a bang for your buck. Yeah. Because it's a 30 per day. Yeah. But tell us, tell us what that sleep coaching program looks like and what people might expect if they were to work with you. So it's a six week program, and it's called My Sleep Makeover, and we work for six sessions virtually through Zoom, and we begin our coaching with a pretty in- depth medical, you know, history and, um, sleep history so that we can kind of ... I ca- I'm sort of like a sleep detective, but I need, you know, I need a fair amount of information about your medical history to, to work with. And then we kind of figure out what the issue is and come up with a strategy. And the strategy is extremely customized. It could, it could be dealing with, you know, um, lifestyle things like health, excuse me, like diet and exercise. Um, what I'm really interested in right now is looking at people's chronotype, helping them figure out their chronotype and then developing, um, routines that match their proonotype so they're working within their own circadian biology because you've got to work with what you have. You can't make an early bird a night owl. You just can't. We have to just learn to, to work within our own chronotype. And- Is that what you mean? I, I, I've never heard of that term. What is a chronotype? Yeah. Yeah. It's basically like, um, s- sort of like circadian rhythm, but according to your own personal biology. Okay. So, um, chronotype would be like, are you a night owl or are you a early bird? So that, that's your chronotype. Okay. Okay. And it is, yeah, it's definitely related to the circadian biology. What I am finding in my coaching is that so many women are really, really struggling with anxiety and that is contributed, contributing to their insomnia. So I'm able to teach them a lot of techniques that they can use during the day and, and night to reduce their stress so they can get better sleep. I'm also finding that a lot of women find me because of my s- own story with insomnia and my dependence on sleep meds. A lot of these women come to me and they're like, "I've been on, um, this med for this long." Or they may not be taking a prescription sleep aid, but they're taking like Benadryl every night- Yeah. ... which has some, you know, ramifications health-wise and, or they might, or they're on the verge of breaking down and just taking a pill because they're so desperate to get to sleep. So those women t- tend to find me pretty easily because they can see that I've been through that, been down that road, um, because I really feel, you know, that we do have the ability to sleep, but sometimes we just lose that, we lose our sleep confidence. And my job is to really work with women to get their sleep confidence back so they don't have to rely on outside medications and that kind of thing to sleep. I can really relate when you say you lose your sleep confidence. I sleep great at home and generally I sleep great with my husband, like if we're traveling, but if I'm traveling by myself, that just gave language to what happens. And I have lost my sleep confidence when I travel and I just, it takes me hours, hours to fall asleep when I'm traveling. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, that's, I don't know. So yeah, I have never put all of that together, but that's exactly what is happening. Well, there is something called the first night effect- mm-hmm. which is explains why a lot of people have, uh, trouble falling asleep their first night of a, a, of a vacation. It's, it's actually v- again, going back to that kind of bio- bio- our biology, our ancestry, um, when we were, you know, in those times and we were in a new place, we were like seriously concerned about our safety. Right. You know, a sabertooth tiger could come out because we're not in our normal environment and, you know, you know that you're probably pretty safe in your hotel, but- mm-hmm. ... your body doesn't know that, you know, your- Yeah. ... that kind of basic instinct doesn't know that. So it's very normal to have that first night effect, um, when you're traveling for one night. Okay. I have a couple questions I ask all my guests. One is I love learning about people's tattoos because I have found that, uh, typically when someone has a tattoo, they have put a lot of thought into it and there's maybe a meaning or a story behind it. So I was wondering if you had any tattoos, if you would mind sharing one of them and a meaning behind it. And if you don't, if you had to get one, what would it be and where would it go? Okay. So I did actually put a deposit down on a tattoo when I was 40 and I chickened out. And the, the tattoo was, um, I was a really big, like, hardcore Beachrim yoga person, and I would go to this studio that I loved, like, every day, and I was going to get their logo, which was like a blue swirl, like a simple blue swirl on my, um, lower back. Okay. And I chickened out. I was just like, "Oh no, I just, I, I, I don't want the commitment. Who knows what I'm gonna like in three years?" So that got scrapped. But if I were to get a tattoo, this is probably what I'd get because I saw this, um, on a blog post or Pinterest or somewhere, but it was a, it was a tattoo of an arrow on someone's foot so that if you're looking down at your feet, you see an arrow that's moving forward, right? Because the sym- the symbolism in that is keep moving forward, keep taking steps forward, you're not going backward. And that's kind of my, my mantra in life is keep progressing, keep moving forward despite, you know, adverse circumstances, keep your eyes moving forward and your feet moving forward. So that would, that would be my tattoo if I were to get one. That's great. Well, I do not have any tattoos, but I have heard that doing them on areas like your feet and ankle hurt like mad. Yeah. Because there's a- I can imagine. ... because there's no muscle or fat or anything like that. Yes. It's just really, really thin skin. So, um, for whatever it's worth, that is what I've been told by by guys. I believe it. Okay. And then this is something a new that I am doing in this season instead of me pulling out one simple thing to remind my guests, I would love it if you could leave, um, not my guests, my, my community, one simple thing to remember. It can be really small, it can be s- just a, a, a big thing, whatever it is that you want people to remember, just the one simple thing about this conversation. Hopefully you remember more, but if there's just one, it would be this. Okay. If there's just one thing to remember and to practice, I really would love for people to consider for one week, just as an experiment, going out, getting that bright light exposure within an hour of waking up, and see what happens, see what happens to your mood, see what happens to your energy level, see what happens to your sleep, because I, I have found that with myself and my clients, it seems like such a, a duh, like simple thing, but like sometimes the simplest things are the most impactful, and it's free. Yeah. Free is good. There's no, there's no expense involved. So- Yeah. ... that's what I would, that's what I would just encourage everyone to consider and try and, um, you, who knows, it might become a, a lifelong habit for them. Okay. That's good to know. I love that one simple thing. I do have one clarifying question to that. If you get up before the sun comes up, then how does that work? And I guess a secondary ... So I guess it's kind of two questions. Like, does nice, gentle sunrise light count or does it need to be bright? Okay. So if you w- I'm, I'm in this situation myself. I wake up at five o'clock every morning and I immediately, uh, go and get my face with like 18 inches in front of a, uh, it's called a light box and the, or a happy light. It's, and basically it's a light box that emits 10,000 lux of light and I sit in front of it for about 30 minutes while I meditate and I journal. So I'm like, I'm multitasking there, but it's for a good reason. So definitely if you don't have, um, if you're, you know, if you're waking up before the sun, try that light box, they're 50, $60. I mean, they're, they're not terribly expensive and just put it on your desk or wherever you're sitting in the morning. Another thing that people can do, uh, your question was about, does it have to be bright? Yeah. Or can it be like if you're sitting out and the sun's kind of coming up, you know, just that soft morning line. Yeah. That still, that still helps. It, yeah. Okay. So even on a cloudy day, it's still, I mean, it's not as potent, but you can't control that. It's, it's still going to make an impact because it's natural light. So even if it's a little bit overcast, it still counts and is good to do. Got it. Awesome. Yeah. Okay. I love that. One simple thing, get out for 15 minutes within an hour of waking. Very good. Yeah. Okay, Morgan, thank you so much. You guys, thanks for listening in and that is all for today. Go out there and have a great day. Hey, I'm so glad you've tuned in today. Thank you. A quick note before we go. This podcast has over 400 episodes and is on a journey of growth and evolution, just like all of us. Some episodes before January 2024 may contain references to diet culture or perspectives that don't fully align with our current approach to health and wellness from a weight neutral, intuitive eating perspective. So listen with a discerning ear, take what serves you and leave the rest. Thanks for understanding and for growing with us on this journey.