Are you looking to transform your sleep? Check out these 4 sleep influencers to try today.
Transform your sleep: 4 Sleep Influencers to try today
Dawn (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Gastric Health Show. My name is Dawn Boxell and this week we are just continuing that conversation on sleep, but digging into how to improve it. So this week’s topic title is Transform Your Sleep for Sleep Influencers to Try Today. These are actionable things that you can start implementing in your life immediately and start reaping the benefits. So there’s no magic or hocus pocus to getting great sleep. It’s different for all of us and you just have to find what works.
Dawn (00:45):
It’s just an important aspect of life that you can’t ignore and that everyone has to optimize and it just is going to look different for each of us. So I mean, some of you have C-PAP and BiPAP machines that are doing that for you because you have anatomy changes or anatomy issues that contribute to your inability to sleep well. So again, always check with a practitioner before starting anything new. But these are pretty easy things to implement all evidence-based and have really just help you lay a great foundation to having good quality sleep because as we talked about last week, quality sleep or deep sleep is really kind of the important thing that you can’t lack.
Dawn (01:41):
They’re all important, all four stages of sleep, but that deep sleep is so important that if you are lacking that you need strategies, you need ways to improve this deep sleep number. So hopefully you guys started tracking, you whipped out your Apple Watch, made sure it was fully charged before you went to bed and started wearing it and then tracking it on your app because that is a great way or a Fitbit. Additionally, that’s another great resource. And again, there are other, I’m sure, other viable options that I am fully unaware of.
Dawn (02:24):
I know the aura ring I discussed last week, and that is totally an option, but it is a pricier option when most everybody has a smartphone. Utilizing some aspect of that seems to be a simple first step. So let’s move into transforming your sleep and really understanding these four sleep influencers that can improve how well you rest. So sleep is vital to our daily routine, yet many of us neglect its importance. And a recent study showed that one in three adults in the United States does not get enough sleep, not a surprise.
Dawn (03:09):
And these lead to negative health outcomes including decreased productivity, increased accident risks, and a weakened immune system. However, the quality of sleep is just as important as the quantity. Our health and wellbeing rely heavily on the four stages of sleep that we discussed last week, the awake or dozing off stage or stage one. Then stage two is the light or core sleep. Stage three is deep sleep and stage four is REM or rapid eye movement sleep. And each stage is responsible for different functions in the body for repairing tissues to consolidating memories.
#1 The Importance of Light and Darkness on Sleep
Dawn (03:54):
And the quality of your sleep can be improved by understanding the optimal amount of each stage of sleep and the factors that influence it. So again, that’s what we’re, we’re just trying to give you options because if you really feel like, or you’ve been able to track and you feel like, okay, sleep is an issue, then I’ve got, I’ve have to put some effort towards fixing this, but what do I do? How do I fix this? And that’s what we’re going to dig into. So the first one, the importance of light and darkness for sleep, and I’ve alluded to this a few different times, but this morning sunlight is so important to get in your eyeballs every single morning to improve your ability to fall asleep in the evening.
The Role of Bright Sunlight
Dawn (04:55):
So it seems weird or it seems like how could morning sunlight do this? And it’s really all about your circadian rhythm and it’s all about those hormones that really help influence that sleep wake cycle . These are things like cortisol and melatonin, and these are what help regulate that sleep wake cycle. And in the morning your cortisol should spike and in the evening your cortisol should be lower and your melatonin should rise.
Dawn (05:33):
But we disrupt this with life and with our behaviors and our routines and some of it is, you know, go through seasons when you may or may not have control over it. And that’s just the season you’re end and all you can do is do the best you can and hope that you can at least get some sleep. But again, you have to step back and look at the big picture. Is this the time to focus on this? If you’re in the middle of say, a divorce, if you’re in the middle of a health scare or you’ve had to take a family member or your child has been really sick or you lost a job, these may not be the times to start adopting these lifestyle behaviors.
The Importance of Darkness
Dawn (06:23):
You need to transition through some of those big life events before you tackle this type of behavior because again, this is although you will struggle with having appropriate sleep during these phases. So although it is important, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to have the time and the mental awareness and really just the mental ability to focus your thoughts on things that you can do to help yourself. So if you’re in those life events, lost a job, lost a spouse, lost a family member, sick family taking care of family, and this is a short season, you kind of know it’s a short season, then maybe pause and wait and bring this podcast or YouTube video out later so that you can tackle that at a better time.
Dawn (07:33):
But if you maybe are in this season of life and you see that this is going to be a long event, then this is where you have to be super intentional about asking for help and getting the resources that you need so that you can take care of yourself. So I hope that makes sense and I have no idea who that was for, but apparently I needed to say that to someone. There you go, I hope it sunk in. So anyway, so when you need to sleep, you need your cortisol to be lower and your melatonin to be elevated.
blBehaviors that kind of transformed over time into things that disrupt our sleep
Dawn (08:12):
And what can happen when we have normal life things occur and our behaviors that kind of transformed over time into things that disrupt our sleep, that’s where we get off task. That’s where our sleep wake cycle gets out of rhythm and is disrupted. So you optimally you want to have those hormones in check for morning and evening to have the best type of sleep. So the role of the bright sunlight, so bright sunlight within the first 30 to 60 minutes of
Dawn (08:54):
Waking can trigger your cortisol spike, which really helps kind of optimize your circadian rhythm for that cortisol and melatonin release. Now cortisol is tricky because you want it to spike in the morning but not too high. So you can have an elevated cortisol and it can be too elevated. So this is where I encourage you to talk to your practitioner about just getting a fasting morning cortisol. And this needs to be before 10:00 AM and any provider can draw this.
Dawn (09:34):
Now I’m going to tell you not many people, I don’t want to say not many, but not everyone will look at this indicator because it’s a snapshot. It could be that morning the timing that you went, there were other factors that contributed to that. So there are other ways of testing with saliva and urine that are a little bit more accurate and they do it throughout the day. So that would be ideal. But it can give you, to me, this blood serum fasting, cortisol can give you information, it’s feedback, is this a problem for me or not?
Dawn (10:15):
And it can start that conversation, just say, Hey, I want to check this and I want to know if this is something that is a problem for me. And then if your practitioner wants to do the urine or saliva metabolites, awesome, even better so that you get the full picture. But again, it is still giving. It doesn’t mean that if it’s elevated in the morning that it’s inaccurate or if it’s low in the morning that it’s inaccurate, it again, it’s information and following that trend over time can easily provide feedback at a very affordable price. And it’s not something that’s going to be super expensive to check and may even be covered by your insurance.
Dawn (11:01):
So again, having that conversation and just saying, Hey, I want a fasting cortisol and let’s monitor this every three months for the next year and let’s see what information it tells me if this cortisol is an issue in the morning. You wanted to be elevated but not high. So that lab range will tell you that and then that will help tell melatonin to be suppressed. When that cortisol is spiking in the morning, it’s telling melatonin to, it doesn’t need to be producing because it’s morning time. And so why sunlight?
The Impact of Blue Light
Dawn (11:40):
Because why couldn’t you just get your phone or your lights in your house or just a bright light and you can do that. But what the studies show is sunlight is the only thing that truly gives you that full reaction at the level that you need. So if you can’t get sunlight, the first thing when you wake up or say you have to get up at 5:00 AM the sun doesn’t rise until a few hours later and you’re like, okay, how am I going to get sun when I’m already at work?
Dawn (12:20):
Well then you have to just make it a point to get outside sometime during the day to get that sunlight or sunlight in the morning. You preferably need to step outside in the morning, five minutes on a sunny day, 10 minutes on an overcast day and 20 to 30 minutes on a cloudy rainy day, which makes it kind of hard. But you can also just open your window to let the sun raise come in. So if you’re sitting at a window in the morning that has sunlight coming through, then you could easily just try to crack that window.
Dawn (12:56):
So the sunrise, the sun rays come through, and that would be one simple way to kind of fit it into your normal life routine to get that morning cortisol spike in that suppression of the melatonin hormone efficiently. Additionally, when you wake up, flip on all the lights, turn everything on and don’t keep it dimming dark for the first 30, 60 minutes of waking light up the house.
Dawn (13:24):
And that will at least start the process. And then as you can get outside maybe a few hours later that will help improve that signaling and that response that your body is understanding that, okay, we’re awake. This is when we’re supposed to be up and wide awake. So again, it’s doing things that can help support that sleep wake cycle. And then also you can think about those lights, those happy lights they call them, and it gives you the right UVA, UVB lights that you get from the sun.
Dawn (14:02):
So this is another thing you can buy online for about 50 bucks and you can easily put that while you’re in your bathroom while you’re getting ready in the morning. You can put it while you’re where you’re having maybe your breakfast or wherever, even at the office, depending on how your routine is, you could get one of these lights that is like the sun and that would give you an option.
Light, Darkness and Quality Sleep: Tips to Optimize Your Sleep
Dawn (14:31):
So there are ways, and it’s important that if you are really struggling with your sleep, this may be a great solution to help retrain your body in that sleep wake cycle so that it gets in a better place. Because I want to talk about how in a little bit I’ll talk about how the lights in the evening interfere and cause problems with that. But next I want to talk about darkness and why the darkness is so important.
Dawn (15:04):
So light is important in the morning and dark is super important at bedtime. So you really want to have your lights dimmed in the evening because again, we’re wanting melatonin to start kicking up. We want our melatonin to be on a nice incline as the evening kind of as the sunsets. So think about sunrise and sunset and you want your cortisol rising with sunrise and you want melatonin, melatonin rising with sunset.
Dawn (15:39):
So cortisol, sunrise, melatonin, sunset. You want those progressing appropriately so your body naturally will release melatonin when it’s dark out. So in the evening, that’s where you want to have more dim lights and not bright lights. You turn the lights off as opposed to the morning when you want to flip everything on, you want to turn everything off and keep it dim and as dark as possible and then that will help support the optimal per production of melatonin and making it easier for you to fall asleep. Now let’s talk about blue light.
Dawn (16:23):
So studies show that blue light emit emitted by electronic devices can suppress melatonin production and this will delay the onset of sleep, reduce your sleep quality. So those are super important things to consider if you are struggling with your sleep. And blue light comes from any electronics. So you think about laptops, you think about phones, iPads, kindles, all of those things that we use in the evening or all day kind of we’re getting all these blue lights, that’s where it disrupts and suppresses the melatonin from being released and elevated.
Dawn (17:14):
So that’s where creating behaviors that you can optimize your melatonin production. So finding ways to get yourself off of the electronics. And I would say a lot of my patients struggle with this. I struggle with this. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t struggle with this, making sure that you get off of your electronics earlier in the evening. And I’m pretty real. I don’t believe in perfection and I don’t believe anybody’s going to do this perfect routine their entire life regardless, I think start simple.
Dawn (17:59):
If you can put your phone and your laptops and your iPads away for 15 minutes before going to bed progress, you started the ball rolling work towards 30 minutes, maybe even work towards an hour, set some boundaries on your phone where the brightness goes down in the evening. I think at least apple phones, they have that kind of set in where it will actually that the brightness will dim as the evening progresses.
Dawn (18:35):
So set some of those things up so that it does it automatically and then you’re not having to remember to do it. You’re staying on task with having tools that are utilizing as many resources as possible to optimize your sleep in the evening. You definitely got to get away from the blue lights as much as possible by minimizing it and just be realistic. And I can tell you that personally myself, it takes me time to one, be ready to change something like that.
Dawn (19:14):
You get kind of in a funk and you find that I like this. I like what I’m doing in the evening, and maybe you’re scrolling for two or three hours or more in the evening and you’re like, I don’t mind this. But if you find yourself wide awake all night or waking up several times or you just can’t even fall asleep. It’s time to pause and have a check-in with yourself and. Ask if it’s worth it to continue having this type of behavior that is kind of compromising your rest.
Sleep optimization depends on exposing to sunlight during the day , and artificial light at night
Dawn (19:55):
Because we all know that sleep impacts so many aspects of our life that it truly does matter when it comes to your health. So if you are really struggling with your health in any way, I would encourage you to tackle this and not ignore this blue light issue as a cause. Now, light, darkness and quality sleep. So tips to optimize your sleep. Sleep optimization depends on exposing yourself to bright sunlight during the day and minimizing the artificial light at night, the artificial and blue light at night.
Dawn (20:34):
And you can achieve this by using room darkening blinds or shades and avoiding the electronic devices that emit the blue light in the evening that all disrupt your sleep. So again, as many things as you can do to make the evening dark and dim and even there are some blue light blocking glasses, that could be an option two where you wear those in the evening, but then you also shut it off completely.
Dawn (21:06):
But maybe your first baby step is you buy blue light blocking glasses and that’s step one, and that at least gives you some relief your body and it allow that melatonin to be produced as instead of being suppressed. Now number two, we’re going to work walk into the importance of temperature for sleep quality. So you would think you would want to be all nice and warm and cozy in your bedroom. You would want the temperature to be nice and warm, but really it’s the opposite.
#2 The Importance of Temperature for Sleep Quality
Dawn (21:44):
The circadian rhythm regulates your body temperature and it controls various physiological processes such as your sleep wake cycles. So we know that having your circadian rhythm in check is important if you want your health to be in check. So as you approach bedtime, your body temperature naturally starts to drop signaling the brain that it’s time to sleep so your body is cooling down to go to sleep.
Dawn (22:18):
And research has shown that a cooler bedroom temperature can help promote better sleep for most people. So in a study published in the Journal of Sleep Medicine reviews, the authors found that the ideal temperature for sleep is around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. And this is for most people, 65 degrees for most people is what your bedroom should be set up. And this temperature range encourages the body’s natural cooling process, therefore promoting deeper and more restorative sleep and can increase the amount of sleep time available.
Tips to Optimize Your Bedroom Temperature for Sleep
Dawn (22:57):
So again, that temperature is a key piece in making sure that you sleep well. And next you can use a fan. So some people already have ceiling fans in their room I know. And for our family, this is a huge thing. We all love our fans for sleep and find that if we’re traveling, we miss having our ceiling fan. So if you have a ceiling fan, make sure it’s turned on to help kind of regulate the temperature in the room and we’ll create kind of a nice little breeze. If you don’t have the option for a ceiling fan, maybe get a small fan or a standing fan that you can put in the room that will allow you to regulate the temperature a little bit better and keep it cool.
Dawn (23:45):
So it’s just simple things to think about that can make a huge difference on how well your sleep. Next is invest in breathable bedding material. So think about having the right type of bedding for good sleep. And these are things like cotton, bamboo, or linen are all good breathable material that can help regulate your body temperature and kind of keep you comfortable throughout the night. Again, avoiding those synthetic materials like polyester as they kind of trap the heat and moisture and can make you feel hot and sweaty.
Dawn (24:28):
So you have to think about these breathable bedding options and they even have cooling mattress pads and pillows and all of those are great options, especially if you’re transitioning into menopause. You may find that these are kind of necessary to really help your temp body temperature get better regulated. Another thing that can influence your body temperature is your thyroid.
Dawn (24:53):
So make sure that your thyroid is optimized so that you are able to regulate your body temperature because if you find that you’re not able to regulate your body temperature, then if your thyroid is off, then you’re going to have a hard time sleeping. And then you also have to think about your iron and B12 levels that can make people extra cold when they are low. So check your iron, check your vitamin B12 and your thyroid. So those are all great labs to really follow and monitor regularly,
#3 The Impact of Exercise on Sleep Quality
Dawn (25:35):
especially having issues with sleep, but especially if you really have issues regulating your body temperature naturally. So the next one is three, the impact of exercise on sleep quality. Does exercise help you sleep or does it make it worse? So let’s dig in. Exercise is another essential sleep influencer. Regular exercise activity contributes to overall health and wellbeing as well as good sleep and exercise can help improve sleep duration and increase the amount of sleep.
Dawn (26:16):
Research has shown that moderate intensity exercise can have a positive impact on sleep quality. And in a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, researchers found that moderate intensity exercise for at least 150 minutes per week correlated with better sleep quality than those who did not exercise. So exercise is a way to get better sleep. They also found the exercise increased the amount of deep sleep, and this is crucial for physical restoration and cognitive function. So we know that deep sleep is that stage three sleep and you need an hour to two hours, 60 minutes to 110 minutes per night per eight hours of sleep.
The Benefits of Deep Sleep
Dawn (27:12):
You need to be getting one to two hours of deep sleep. Exercise can help improve how deep you can get in sleep. So it’s important to move your body to get that deep sleep, but it’s also important to consider the timing, your exercise timing because what can happen is if you exercise too late in the day, that will increase your adrenaline and your cortisol and it’s going to make it harder for you to fall asleep.
Dawn (27:51)
So when that cortisol is elevated in the evening, that is bad, it should be elevated in the morning. If exercise is going to increase your cortisol, you’ve got to time it correctly so that you’re not working out and then coming home and showering and trying to go to bed, that could be why you’re not getting good deep sleep. Again, you have to one, I’m sure there are people out there that is like the magic sleep remedy for them is working out showering and going to bed. So do I think this works perfectly for everyone?
Exercise for Better Sleep: When to Do It
Dawn (28:31):
It’s probably doubtful because I know there are outliers, there are people who they do the opposite. Their body is the total opposite of what research tells us. So I think you have to evaluate yourself and track it. So tracking your with a Apple watch, a Fitbit, an aing, understanding. How well you’re sleeping and if your deep sleep is impacted. Start backing out your behaviors through the day and decide what needs to be changed first because for you, that may not be it.
Dawn (29:07)
It may not be that the exercise impacts it, so you just have to figure it out and work through these different areas that can optimize it. But for most people I’m going to say that exercise too soon before bed is definitely going to interfere with your ability to get good deep sleep. So the next one, number four, is in the influence of food on sleep quality. So are there any special foods that you should be consuming that will help you sleep better?
#4 The Influence of Food on Sleep Quality
Dawn (29:42):
And the answer really is not necessarily food, a food group, but it’s really just coming to how your body is reacting to what you’re consuming. So you have to think more about the timing of your meals, the amount of caffeine and your blood sugar control. So that’s where food matters. It it’s not necessarily a specific food or food group that can help per se for each person.
Timing of Meals and Sleep
Dawn (30:16)
It’s more about the timing of your meal and how much caffeine and the blood sugar. So consuming large meals before bed is what can interfere with good sleep quality. And some studies have shown that they tested a high fat and a high protein meals and both of those had interference with sleep when it was too close to bed. So they recommended in this study that you didn’t eat two hours before going to bed, so at least back it out a couple of hours before going to bed so that you can still get good deep sleep.
Caffeine and Sleep
Dawn (31:02):
Next is the caffeine and caffeine stimulates the body and can affect your sleep quality, especially if you’re consuming it in the afternoon or evening. Caffeine takes eight hours to be fully metabolized. So if you’re having caffeine after two o’clock in the afternoon, it can interfere with your ability to get good deep sleep.
Dawn (31:31)
So that’s where you need to check in with yourself. How often are you consuming caffeinated beverages, even if it’s just a small amount? For some people who are more caffeine sensitive, and this is the genetic piece, some people genetically metabolize it slower and some people metabolize it faster. So the average is about eight hours. So if you metabolize it slower than eight hours, then you would have to back that up even further than two o’clock.
Dawn (32:03):
So that’s where some people, one, they feel really jittery if they have too much caffeine. But then for some people, if they have more caffeine past breakfast, they’re not going to sleep well. So you need to test that and determine if that’s you don’t have your genetics and you’re unsure if that is you, then test it, do it just at breakfast and have nothing else the rest of the day and see what happens.
Dawn (32:35)
Then test it where you have it at maybe noon or up until two or three o’clock, and see what happens. Because if you’re a fast metabolizer. You’re going to go through that really quickly and it will be shorter than eight hours. So you could maybe even have caffeine at your evening meal and it doesn’t even impact you. Because you metabolize it so quickly. So that’s where it really helps with your genetics . Because you have that information and you can truly make informed decisions. Because sometimes as a dietician I use that information for a patient with caffeine.
Dawn (33:14):
On the genetics side, I can help with their exercise performance or their ability to feel more motivation with caffeine at the right times. So if you are a fast metabolizer, you could use it before an event, before you do a 5K or a marathon. Or if you’re just work regularly working out and you want to utilize caffeine and hey, I’m a fast metabolizer, this is going to help your workout.
Dawn (33:46)
So you are not going to be worried so much about sleep. This is going to be more about performance and really helping you feel your best during your workout and get the most out of your workout. So that more of a side note. But again, having that genetic information really does make a difference on understanding your whole body and truly understanding how late you can have the caffeine. So the next one is blood sugar and sleep.
Dawn (34:15):
So this is where I would say it gets a little tricky because. If you’re fueling your body inadequately during the day with inadequate carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. You’re not fueling enough throughout the day. Then you are definitely going to be at risk for having blood sugar drops in the middle of the night. So this is where it’s important to really make sure that. You are trying to fuel your body and not be on a restrictive diet.
Blood Sugar and Sleep
Dawn (34:48)
Because if you want to really get good sleep, and let’s just back this up a little bit, usually people will come and say, okay, I want to lose weight, or I’ve put on pounds. And if we kind of step back and we look at the big picture and we start tracking things and we start looking at blood work and we look at their food behaviors and we look at their activity and we look at their sleep logs, we can start putting a plan together and start seeing that
Dawn (35:20):
hey, I’m questioning if maybe your blood sugar isn’t dropping in the middle of the night because they’re waking up between two and 4:00 AM every morning or most mornings. So that’s where you have to kind of back it out and say, okay, so what’s happening? Are we having cortisol spikes, we having blood sugar drops? What is driving it?
Dawn (35:46)
And that’s where some people would do better with if they physically, especially after bariatric surgery. You don’t have the capacity stomach capacity to get a huge volume of food in at each meal. So you may find it difficult to eat appropriate amounts to give you adequate sleep. So that’s where you might have to build in some snacks or you might have to do a bedtime snack because if not. You’re going to be waking up and you are going to have difficulty sleeping. Because you need fuel, you need stability through the night.
Food and Sleep: Tips for a Better Night’s Rest
Dawn (36:24):
So something as simple as a string cheese before bed or even like a spoonful of peanut butte or some not butter that you like. Those are ways that you can sustain your blood sugar throughout the night very simply. That it’s not going to disrupt your sleep because you had one string cheese or one spoonful of peanut butter.
Dawn (36:45)
It’s not going to disrupt your sleep. And it’s actually going to help improve your ability to lose weight. Because we’re improving your sleep and we’re preventing cortisol spikes and blood sugar spikes and valleys. So we’re balancing out your metabolic health. We’re balancing out all of your hormones in a better way by providing adequate fuel throughout the day. So that’s why restrictive diets are really not helpful. And are not going to be something that is going to improve your issue with sleep.
Dawn (37:26):
So some tips for a better night’s sleep with food, avoid consuming large meals. Especially high fat and high protein meals close to bedtime. Try eating your last meal two to three hours before bed to allow to enough time for digestion, limit your caffeine. Then choose healthy snacks if you need to eat something before bed. So making sure that it’s maybe more like a protein and a fat.
Dawn (37:55)
You can have a carbohydrate, it just needs to be small. You can’t have a large volume of food or it is going to disrupt your sleep. So it needs to be super small and it needs to be nothing by itself if it is all carbs. So I wouldn’t do like an applesauce at bedtime, I would do an applesauce and a string cheese. I think that would be great. You could do, if you did a plain Greek yogurt, not like a flavored one. But a plain Greek yogurt and you put like a spoonful of nut butter in it, that would be fine.
You’re trying to find small snacks that can help provide blood sugar stability
Dawn (38:32):
Again, you’re trying to find small snacks that can help provide blood sugar stability while you sleep. And then alcohol, I haven’t really discussed this, but alcohol will actually crash your blood sugar. So you think kind of the opposite because of the sugar that’s in it.
Dawn (38:54)
And although it may spike it briefly, it will crash it pretty quickly. So you might get a quick rise and a quick fall in your blood sugar. So that’s where sleep quality is really poor with alcohol. You’ve got to be careful about the alcohol content you’re consuming in the evening. So that you can not disrupt your sleep. And really to me, if I’m having alcohol, I am one going to try to support my body. As best as possible so that it can metabolize this because when you have alcohol, it pushes everything else aside.
Dawn (39:36):
So your liver metabolizes this, so it pushes everything else to the side to metabolize alcohol first. So that means that your liver is not going to be processing the excess estrogen that maybe you. It’s going to be kind of pushed back so that it can metabolize your alcohol. And then that’s where all of those problems occur with blood sugar and your hormones because the alcohol is disrupting. How your body needs to properly detoxify this toxin that. You are putting in your body is really what it is.
Dawn (40:21)
So I try to support my liver with some type of liver support and. Then electrolytes because alcohol does dehydrate you. So making sure you have some type of electrolytes when you are having it and then your gut. I think about protecting that gut lining because alcohol can cause increased intestinal permeability. So that’s where you want to be careful with how often you are drinking alcohol. And how much you’re drinking because it’s going to mess with your blood sugars,
Dawn (40:58):
it’s going to mess with your gut lining and it’s going to disrupt your sleep in many, many ways. So those are things that you can do for me. I take sulforaphane for my liver. I take electrolytes, some type of an electrolyte drink or just have some pinch of water in or a pinch of salt in my water for that. And then maybe you have a piece of cheese before you go to bed. Soo you don’t crash your blood sugar.
Conclusion
Dawn (41:28)
And that is one way that you can support yourself if you do have some alcohol. So that you don’t totally wreck your whole night and wake up feeling worse. Let’s wrap this all up. So sleep plays an important role in maintaining optimal health. And wellbeing and improving your sleep quality and duration can have a significant impact on your overall health. We can improve our sleep by prioritizing light, temperature, exercise, and food as the four key sleep influencers. And wearable devices can also help you track your progress and make adjustments as needed.
Dawn (42:12):
So take steps to improve your sleep habits today and reap the benefits of better sleep tomorrow. So I hope you guys got something out of this week’s topic because it is important to have strategies. You have to have options, you have to know what to do. These are foundational principles and you can kind of improvise with using these foundations in what works best for you. Again, we’d love for you to check out the gastric health membership. We would love to work with you and help you improve your sleep.
Dawn (42:52):
This is something that we track in the gastric health membership when you’re working with me. We work on these things, we work on the strategies. And we work on optimizing all of these areas so that you can fuel your best and. Get your body in the best place for the best health. So you guys have a great week and we will see you next time. Bye-bye.
Listen, Learn, Enjoy…
References & Links:
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