3479: Sleep by Becca Shern of Minimal Wellness on Better Sleep

[00:00:00] Did you know Lululemon's iconic Flow Y Bra also comes in tank top styles and even a dress? Now in new fun summer colors, Flow Y brings a racer back shape to streamline styles you can wear anywhere. Our buttery soft Nulu fabric feels nearly weightless with sweat wicking four way stretch for comfort you'll want to keep on after practice. Flow freely on and off the mat with light support and refined design. Shop Flow Y now at lululemon.com.

[00:00:28] Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep? That's the idea behind our new podcast, Good Sleep. Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships Daily, is here to help ease you into a peaceful night's rest with some positive affirmations. And these affirmations aren't just comforting, they can help ease anxiety and nurture positive thoughts, setting you up for true good sleep.

[00:00:53] So, press play on good sleep tonight because a good tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Health Daily. Sleep by Becca Schoen of MinimalWellness.com and I'm Dr. Neal Malik.

[00:01:15] Hey there, happy Sunday and welcome back to the show where I act as your very own personal narrator and read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online. Now, I'm going to spare you from a nice long intro, so I'm going to get right to today's article and start optimizing your life. Sleep by Becca Schoen of MinimalWellness.com

[00:01:40] The three cornerstones of optimal health are diet, physical activity, and sleep. Yes, sleep. Although Americans are very good at minimizing the importance of sleep, it is critical to vitality. Because we pretend we're superhuman, needing far less rest than we actually do, and we try to minimize non-productive time, sleep, a time when we are resting and not producing something of tangible value, is dramatically undervalued.

[00:02:07] But viewing sleep as a time of unnecessary rest and of non-productivity is faulty logic. Sleep is important physical rest, but it's also very productive. Sleep is a time of mental and physical assimilation. The brain processes information taken in during the day, hormones and neurotransmitters are regulated, muscles are repaired, the immune system recharges, and the gastrointestinal system rests. This is a very personal topic for me.

[00:02:37] Even as a kid, sleep never came easily. I needed complete darkness and white noise, and sharing a bed with a sibling or friend was out of the question. In adulthood, these trends continued, and with the added stress of an incompatible marriage, a toxic work environment, and graduate school, my sleep problems worsened. Even though I took some recommended steps to mitigate my sleep issues, I still struggled. In my late 20s and early 30s, I took over-the-counter sleep aids every night

[00:03:06] to try and get 5 to 6 hours of fragmented sleep. Then, an epically colicky infant was added to the mix. Sleep deprivation caused by stress was slowly, stealthily destroying my health. Many of us are very good at downplaying, or ignoring completely, the difficult and overemphasizing the good parts of our lives. In many ways, focusing on the positive is a very healthy thing to do, especially for mental health.

[00:03:34] Having a positive mental attitude is incredibly valuable, but not if it means ignoring things in our lives that need to be corrected. Enormous sources of stress, like unrealistic workloads, debt, overcommitment, bad relationships, aren't problems that will correct themselves, and their emotional weight increases exhaustion and worsens sleep. When we're sleep-deprived, it's more difficult to make any type of decision or exercise willpower. We're depleted, irritable,

[00:04:03] and less affected than we should be. Consequently, we struggle at work, we struggle at home, and we struggle with diet and lifestyle. People who are exhausted often turn to stimulants like caffeine and turn to depressants like alcohol or sleep aids to cope. Unfortunately, reliance on stimulants and depressants make the situation worse. It's a pernicious cycle that easily turns into a long-term problem. Not only does sleep deprivation leave you functioning at a fraction of your capacity,

[00:04:32] just a few nights of poor sleep negatively impacts regulation of several hormones involved in the stress response, weight management, and appetite control, including cortisol, ghrelin, leptin, and thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH. Insulin sensitivity is also impaired. Chronic suboptimal sleep is linked to many disease states, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, depression, and anxiety. Our national sleep disorder is a problem

[00:05:02] with tremendous social, medical, and personal costs, and we shouldn't ignore or accept it as part of modern life. In the new book, The Sleep Revolution, Arianna Huffington calls for a cultural shift regarding sleep and its place in society. She reports that 40% of Americans are sleep-deprived, and two-thirds of U.S. adults don't get sufficient sleep during the work week. I was once one of the 40%, but over the past year, I've worked diligently to correct my sleep issues. I'm still a finicky sleeper,

[00:05:31] but I now routinely get adequate sleep, and the impact on my overall health has been tremendous. I'm about to outline the steps I took to address my sleep challenges, and I hope you find some of them helpful. Step number one, reduce stress. At the beginning, I listed several significant sources of stress in my life. When possible, I corrected them, like my relationships or my work life, and learned coping skills for others, like parenting. Tip number two,

[00:06:01] prioritize exercise. Although I've never been inactive, for several years, I was not as active as I needed to be. When I laid down to go to sleep, my body was simply not physically tired. I've realized that I need to be physically active every day in order to sleep well. My general routine is running or biking and weight training four days a week, taking a daily walk or bike commuting around town, and daily stretching for 10 to 15 minutes. Occasionally, I'll have a day where

[00:06:30] 10 to 15 minutes of movement is all I can manage, but I still make that time a priority. Tip number three, screen time curfew. I stop using any device with a screen at least 30 minutes prior to bed, and my bedroom is essentially screen free. I do have my phone set on airplane mode across the room from my bed for clock and alarm purposes. I love a saying my partner has, our beds are for two things. Neither include late night reruns, or texting,

[00:07:00] or social media, or email. Tip number four, reduce blue light. Although I try to be off my computer by the time the sun sets, occasionally, and especially during the winter months, I work on my laptop in the evening. Screens emit substantial amounts of blue light, a particularly stimulating light wavelength that suppresses melatonin production and throws off our circadian rhythm. To help reduce blue light exposure, I installed an app called Flux on my computer that automatically

[00:07:29] dials back the blue light emitted based on the time of day and my bedtime. Because artificial lighting also emits blue light, I keep indoor lighting dim in the evening. Tip number five, turn off Wi-Fi. This is a relatively new addition to my sleep-promoting environment. I have yet to find the reliable research to support this, but some people in the natural health and functional medicine communities believe that the radio frequencies emitted by smartphones and Wi-Fi can interrupt sleep in sensitive people.

[00:07:58] Since it is so easy to turn off Wi-Fi at night and to set my phone on airplane mode, I decided to give it a try. Anecdotally, it has made a big difference for me, especially for sleep onset. Tip number six, supplements. There may be some supplements that may help you go to sleep or stay asleep. Speak to your doctor about the ones that he or she might recommend for you. Try them out and see if they help. Tip number seven, darkness.

[00:08:27] My bedroom has blackout curtains covering the windows and only one source of other light, the faint red glow from the clock on my phone, which I keep on the other side of the room from my bed. Because the blackout curtains don't keep all light in my room, I also wear a sleep mask. Tip number eight, quiet. I use earplugs to minimize distracting noises that may occur while I'm asleep. If needed, I'll also turn on a fan for white noise. Tip number nine, routine.

[00:08:56] Just like preparing a young child for bed, adults benefit from a pre-bed routine. A routine helps signal to your mind and body that the time to sleep is approaching. My bedtime routine includes putting my devices to sleep, taking my natural supplements, washing my face, flossing, brushing my teeth, and usually reading a physical book or magazine in bed. Tip number ten, sleep. The hormone oxytocin and the endorphins released during sleep have calming, relaxing,

[00:09:26] and sedating effects. You just listened to the post titled Sleep by Becca Schoen of minimalwellness.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Now, it's just me and a small team behind this show, so I get how much the right hire matters. When you need the right person, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed

[00:09:55] are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast.

[00:10:24] Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. Just my thoughts on some of the tips mentioned. When it comes to reducing stress, I know that's easier said than done. Think of stress like this. Imagine you have

[00:10:54] an empty backpack that you're carrying right now and then every little stressor that comes into your life gets put in that backpack that you're wearing. Some stressors aren't that heavy, they're kind of light, they're no big deal, but they still go in the bag. Others are maybe much more intense and so they're heavier. Those still go in the backpack. A minor stressor might be something like you're five minutes late to work. A bigger one might be the debt that you still have that you simply can't pay off. That all goes

[00:11:23] in the backpack. What we're learning about stress is it's additive, meaning, just like this backpack metaphor, the more stress you have, the more that goes into the bag and if you imagine trying to carry that bag for an hour, a day, weeks, months, years, all of your life, it's going to have a physical toll on your body. Well, that's what stress does. If you don't release stress, it takes a physical toll on your body because you're carrying all of that baggage. You're carrying

[00:11:53] all of that weight. You've got to get those things out of the backpack. There are many ways to cope with stress, of course. There's deep breaths, there's yoga, there's getting a massage, there's sleep, of course, but you have to find the method that best suits you and ideally, it shouldn't be just a temporary fix so that you end up removing that stressor from your backpack but then putting it right back in there. We have to find a way to remove it from our backpack and then kick it aside and then we don't think about it anymore.

[00:12:23] That's really what coping with stress is all about and one of the best ways to cope with stress is take that stressor, really think about it and say, what can I control about this situation? If it's nothing, then you have to let it go. If you have no control over it, you've got to find a way to let it go. If you have control or even a little bit of control, try and exert that control. Find a way to take control of that situation and that will help relieve the stress. Okay, that'll do it for today.

[00:12:53] Thank you as always for listening and for being a subscriber of the show and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.