Exhausted Beyond Belief

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March 10, 2020 - Episode #9 - Exhausted Beyond Belief - Tips to get the Sleep you need!
Hey Mama! Are you absolutely worn out? Tired? Sleepy?  Sick of dealing  with insomnia every night?  Exhausted beyond belief?  Only 35% of all adults get the daily recommended amount of sleep. Most of us are walking around drained because we aren't getting good sleep.  Did you know that it's close to impossible to lose weight when you are not sleeping? Or that your poor sleep could be responsible for the bad food decisions that you are making? In honor of National Sleep Awareness Week, we discuss the value of good sleep to best achieve your health and life goals. Doesn't matter if that goal is managing your busy family schedule, having mental clarity for work, energy to keep up with your kids,  losing weight, slowing down aging or disease prevention...good sleep will help you meet those goals   Today's podcast looks at the role that sleep plays, what happens when we don't get enough sleep, and three ways to beat exhaustion and get the sleep that you desperately need. Sleep is our body's primary chance to rest, reset and restore.  Aren't you ready to sleep well and wake up feeling energized and refreshed?  Keep listening so you can learn to get the sleep of your dreams!

So often the changes that we need to make for our health seem overwhelming.  Do you find yourself knowing you need to do something but honestly not knowing where to start?  Friend, that is what a Health Coach is for!  With my clients, I take a holistic, whole body, whole life approach.  I'm finding that when clients incorporate better sleep strategies and improved stress management is when their health truly transforms!!  Consider booking a virtual, one hour, coaching session for a personalized plan that fits your life.  https://www.inspirehealthyharmony.com/coaching.html#/

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March 10, 2020 - Episode #9 - Exhausted Beyond Belief - Tips to get the Sleep you need!

• Our schedules are hectic, our lives are busy, we feel like we're constantly striving to just keep up only to fall further behind. We are exhausted beyond belief. What are we missing? Sleep! That's right, sleep is the missing link and that is what we are tackling today on Healthy Harmony.

 

• Welcome to Healthy Harmony where we help you clarify and discuss health tactics to harmonize your life. I am your host and health coach Jennifer Pickett and today, we are discussing sleep. Yes, this topic is near and dear to my heart because I confess for most of my adult life, I have been a poor sleeper. It has been a thorn in my side and as I have continued to grow and learn as a dietitian and a health coach, I am shocked at the vital role that sleep plays in our overall health. Let's face it, if getting healthy was as simple as what to eat and what to avoid, then honestly, most of us would be more fit. As we learn more about the incredible science of the human body and why so many of us struggle with our health, we're starting to look at what's missing, what are those missing puzzle pieces.

 

• One of those huge missing puzzle pieces is sleep, or more accurately, lack thereof. You've heard me talk about before numerous health experts that I really like to listen to and learn from. One of those is Dr. Mark Hyman, a functional medicine doctor. In listening to one of his recent lectures on this crucial topic of sleep, he started talking about a study that was done on Army sharp shooters. Wouldn't you agree that Army sharp shooters, let's face it, they are well trained, they are physically fit, they are like finely tuned instruments. The question is, can a lack of sleep affect their performance, more accurately, can a lack of sleep affect their accuracy? Let's look at those stats. When an Army sharp shooter got eight hours of sleep, their accuracy was 99%. Pretty impressive. When the sleep was decreased to six hours, we see the accuracy declining to 79%. What about when the sleep was decreased even more? Five hours of sleep, the accuracy of those Army sharp shooters, the accuracy declined to a shocking 35%. That is shocking. It's very eye opening, isn't it? In fact, Dr. Mark Hyman went on to say that a lack of sleep is very similar to driving drunk.

 

• Guys, this needs to be an eye opening moment for all of us. Today, we're gonna really look at the role that sleep plays, what happens when we don't get enough sleep, and three ways to beat exhaustion and get the sleep that you need. Sleep is our body's primary chance to rest, reset and restore. What happens to the body when we don't get adequate sleep? First and most obvious is we don't have any energy the next day. Don't you see a big difference when you don't get good sleep at night, the next day, man, it's just you are struggling with the energy, but here's what I think is interesting too. When you don't get good sleep at night, the next day, it affects what you eat. That's right. From a science perspective, we know that poor sleep is correlated to your dopamine and your serotonin, that feel good hormone, being lowered. Also, ghrelin, your hunger hormone, is increased. This means that you are hungrier. Not only are you feeling down and you're hungrier, you're craving something. No, you're not craving good for you foods, you're craving sweets. Yes, a poor night's sleep is correlated to what you eat the next day. Something else that's interesting is that a lack of sleep is really attributed to poor gut health.

 

• Our gut is at the very core of our physical, mental and emotional health. That's right, your gut, your gastrointestinal system. We know that lack of sleep really decreases that good, healthy bacteria. Think of that good, healthy bacteria like those soldiers that just fight for you. They are fighting for your good health. Why does good healthy bacteria matter? One of the reasons that it matters is that that good healthy bacteria is related to your immune function. 75% to 80% of your immune function comes from your gut. Yes, if you're not sleeping, you are increasing the likelihood of getting sick because it dramatically affects your immune function. It doesn't just affect the gut, it also affects the brain. Lack of sleep, poor sleep dramatically affects your brain health in a myriad of ways, but we know that it really increases inflammation, which is a disaster when it comes to brain health, but also a disaster when it comes to our body. This is something you notice from a physical perspective, from a mental and emotional perspective. When you don't get that sleep the night before, the next day, your creativity is impacted, your productivity is decreased. This is why it's so important for our brain health to get good sleep.

 

• What about your weight? Many of us are on a weight loss journey. We know that sleep dramatically impacts your metabolism and contributes to weight gain. That's right, if you're not sleeping, you're probably not gonna be able to lose the weight. You can see why this subject is so very, very important. What we wanna look at is for good health restoring sleep, we need to look at both sleep quantity and sleep quality. Research shows adults need seven to nine hours of sleep at night, and teenagers, they need even more, eight to 10 hours. I think I just heard you gasp when I said seven to nine hours of sleep for us as adults. Yes, most of us aren't getting anywhere close to the amount of sleep that we need. We've become accustomed to kind of burning the candle at both ends and expecting our body to still function without this crucial element of sleep. It's not just about quantity of sleep, the amount of sleep, it's also about quality. The quality of sleep is absolutely crucial. We know the body must go through all the sleep cycles to really reset and restore. There's a lot of restoration that happens while we sleep. If you get enough hours of sleep for instance, but you wake up absolutely exhausted, that might be an indication that you aren't getting the quality sleep that you need.

 

• Let's look at three key areas to beat exhaustion and take control of your sleep. Number one, examine sleep disruptors. There are some common things that we do that really mess and interfere with our sleep. First, we're just not preparing ourselves for success when it comes to sleep. Doesn't that sound crazy? Do we need to prepare ourselves for success when it comes to sleep? You better believe it because our body functions great on rhythm and routine. We wanna send signals to the body to prepare itself for restoration, to prepare itself for sleep. What most of us do, myself included, is we have a lot of stress, we've got all this business, and then we hop in our bed, our mind racing with everything we have tried to get done, but didn't get done, everything we need to get done the next day, and we hop in bed and we say sleep. Our body literally says you've gotta be kidding me. Why don't we do something different? Recognize that our need for sleep is not lazy, it's smart and strategic.

 

• Speaking of strategy, what about eating? Yes, eating too close to bedtime has a huge impact on the quality of sleep. Why? Simply put, the body is focused more on digesting, not resting and restoring. A study in Brazil recently found that eating heavily at night and too close to bedtime was associated with sleep deterioration on several aspects of sleep quality. That's eating, what about drinking? It can be pretty common to have a glass of wine or an alcoholic beverage to relax and unwind and although it may help you fall asleep, it will not help you stay asleep and causes many disturbances to your sleep quality that night. I have certainly been guilty of this, having a glass of wine to relax and unwind and realizing by listening to my body that man, I did not sleep good last night and the next day, I'm a little bit of a disaster. It truly impacts productivity and how you feel the next day. Just being aware of your body and how you respond to things is so very important.

 

• Speaking of drinking, what about drinking caffeine? Yes, drinking caffeine late in the day can have a big impact on your health. Granted, there are some people who are more sensitive to caffeine than others. However, we all need to get really good at listening to our body. When you have caffeine late in the day, do you find it hard to fall asleep? That might be an indication. A really short story, I'll change the name of this client, I will call her Betty, highly successful business owner that required several late evening business transactions. She would commonly rely on energy drinks just for those six o'clock meetings as she was showing houses. She would rely on the energy drink just to keep her going and keep that energy up. As we were delving into her health and looking at all aspects and we started talking about sleep, she indicated she had really poor sleep and as she was talking through things that could be interfering with her sleep, she asked a question about energy drinks. My suggestion to her was to cut back, do a little test and see if it improved her sleep at night. Let me tell you, she took the bull by the horns and she quit that energy drink cold turkey. I was so proud of her, but she came to this conclusion on her own, which was very empowering and she quit cold turkey. Guess what has improved? Yup, you better believe it, her sleep. I tell you that just so we can really look at the fact that drinking caffeine can dramatically affect our sleep.

 

• Another thing that really disrupts our sleep is electronics. I know, I know, you were kind of worried I was gonna say this and it's a tough message for all of us to hear, but staying on electronics before bed really interferes with our sleep cycles. It's recommended that we stay off electronics 30 minutes to an hour before bed. This is tough, right? But it's important to recognize how the artificial bluelight from our electronics affects our sleep. It delays that internal clock, those circadian rhythms, and it suppresses the release of the sleep-inducing hormone called melatonin. We're increasing our alertness when we should be sending signals to the body that it's time to wind down. That's number one, examine sleep disruptors.

 

• Number two, do a review of your sleep environment. Look at your bedroom. Is it cozy, is it conductive to sleep, or is it cluttered? I think sometimes as parents, our bedroom ends up being a catch-all. I know that we have been guilty of this in the past and there's all the clutter in there and it really is disruptive to overall sleep. What about your pillows? When was the last time you got new pillows? It's recommended that you replace pillows every single year. Speaking of, what about your mattress? When was the last time you got that replaced? I know my husband and I, we're really hesitant to replace our mattress because of the cost, but let me tell you, as soon as we replaced that mattress and we started sleeping better at night, we kept saying man, why didn't we do this sooner? I will tell you, it's worth every single penny and it does make a big difference in the support that your body needs to get good sleep.

 

•  Also look at is your room dark enough, are there annoying lights that could be disruptive? What about the temperature? We know that colder temps make for better sleep, anywhere from about 67 to 69 degrees at night. How about sounds? Are there any annoying sounds that are interrupting sleep? A dripping faucet, a beep from electronic? For us, it was a window shade hitting into the window because of the overhead fan, so we had to make some adjustments there to make sure that wouldn't happen. Those little noises that sometimes we get used to could be interfering with your sleep, so you wanna look at all of that.

 

• Finally, in this same category of sleep environment, I'm gonna bring up one more thing because it keeps coming up with my coaching clients, pets. That's right, yes, pets can be hugely beneficial from an emotional health standpoint. Let's face it, they're cute as all get out, but if your pet is sleeping with you, you really want to examine is that interfering with my sleep? Just making some adjustments to our sleep environment can make a world of difference.

 

• Let's move to number three, establish a bedtime routine. I know, you're kind of chuckling here because it makes us think back to if you have kids, when those babies are little and you're trying to give them a really good bedtime routine. You know what, the same thing can be said for us as adults. We need a good bedtime routine because the body functions great on rhythm and routine. We want to work with the body's circadian rhythm, or biorhythms. This is your sleep, wake and eat cycle. It correlates with the sun's natural movement in a 24-hour orbit around the sun. Yes, just like little babies need a good bedtime routine, us adults, we need the same thing just to get back to those natural biorhythms. We need to do something to send signals to the body that it's time to relax, rest and restore. Some things that need to be included in your bedtime routine, consider this, getting off of electronics 30 minutes to an hour before bed, taking a warm, Epsom salt bath, diffusing essential oils, reading a book, writing in a gratitude journal, and here's something that we had to work on, saving difficult conversations for earlier in the day. How many times have we made this mistake as adults? We have a really stressful, difficult conversation right as we're getting in bed? Does it interfere with your sleep? You better believe it. I heard a sleep expert say that setting the body up for sleep success begins in the morning. Kind of interesting, right?

 

• Exposing yourself to natural light and getting in some exercise can make a big difference. Yes, another benefit of exercise is that it leads to a good night's sleep. Finally, one of the most important things is going to bed and getting up in the morning at the same time every day, a bedtime and a wake-up time. I know, I find that really hard on the weekends as well, but if we wanna look at sleep efficiency, we cannot ignore this. Just to recap, if you're like me, learning this info can be a little eye opening. I know the more I've learned about this crucial subject, the more I realized why I had such poor sleep in the past. Let's face it, life is too short to be rushing around exhausted beyond belief. I notice a huge difference in my productivity the next day when I get a good night's sleep. Let's face it, when I'm getting good sleep and I'm well rested, I'm easier to live with.

 

• Just to recap, three areas to beat exhaustion and take control of your sleep. Number one, examine those sleep disruptors, number two, do a review of your sleep environment, and number three, establish a bedtime routine.

 

• I hope that you will be able to easily implement some of these simple sleep tips. Thanks for joining me today. Remember to subscribe to us on your favorite platform of choice, on Facebook or Instagram @inspirehealthyharmony. Join in the sleep discussion on the Facebook page and as always, you can check us out at inspirehealthyharmony.com. Until we meet again, I hope you have a healthy and happy day and get a good night's sleep tonight. Bye y'all.

​So often the changes that we need to make for our health seem overwhelming.  Do you find yourself knowing you need to do something but honestly not knowing where to start?  Friend, that is what a Health Coach is for!  With my clients, I take a holistic, whole body, whole life approach.  I'm finding that when clients incorporate better sleep strategies and improved stress management is when their health truly transforms!!  Consider booking a virtual, one hour, coaching session for a personalized plan that fits your life.  https://www.inspirehealthyharmony.com/coaching.html#/