How to Improve Sleep

Transcript:

Britni: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. Each week we talk about practical real food solutions for your everyday health concerns, and today we're digging into one of the main foundations of health and definitely one of the most common concerns we hear from our clients: trouble sleeping. Whether you can't get your brain to quiet down at night, or maybe you're waking up and not being able to get back to sleep, or you're just waking up and not feeling rested even after spending a full night in bed, we want you to know you are definitely not alone.

Brandy: Yep.

Britni: There are a lot of individuals that struggle with sleep, but that does not mean that you have to live with sleep struggles. And we're going to provide a lot of solutions today. But before we dive into it more, I am Britni Vincent, a Registered and Licensed Dietitian.

Brandy: And I'm Brandy Buro, a Licensed and Registered Dietitian.

Britni: Well, I'm happy to be here with you today, Brandy.

Brandy: Yeah, likewise.

Statistics on sleep issues & downsides to sleep medications

Britni: And yeah, I've been there. Laying awake at night, not being able to fall asleep or laying awake for hours. It's frustrating. Well, I want to provide some statistics to show just how common sleep issues are. The percentage of people using sleeping medications in the United States have actually doubled since 2010.

Brandy: Wow.

Britni: And this is according to a new study from the National Center for Health Statistics. And these days, one in 10 women reports using sleeping medication most nights versus about 7% of men. And this makes sense given that according to the National Sleep Foundation, women typically report poor sleep quality and more disrupted sleep across various life stages than men do.

And I know that when you're desperate, sleeping medication can be helpful in the short term, say in the case of an intense period of stress in your life. But they are not an ideal solution for good quality sleep long term. And they definitely come with some side effects. And a lot of those sleeping medications work as a sedative.

Brandy: Right. But that doesn't mean you're getting quality sleep.

Britni: Exactly. Yeah. So there's a big difference to that. You might be staying in bed all night and actually sleeping, but yeah, that quality.

Brandy: Do you wake up feeling rested? If not, they're not really doing you a ton of good.

Britni: Yeah. So if you resonate with that, you might want to try some of these other ideas that we're going to provide for you today. We're going to walk you through how your food choices affect your sleep, maybe what lifestyle habits you have that could be getting in the way, and some simple strategies you could start doing today to help you finally get a good night's sleep.

Brandy: Well, I'm excited.

Britni: Yeah, me too.

Brandy: I would say it's pretty rare if I ever encounter anybody, one of my clients that doesn't have a sleep issue. But it's one of the most empowering things to have a good night's rest.

Britni: I agree.

Why is sleep so important?

Brandy: And I think maybe that's a good place to start. Like, why do we even care about sleep?

Britni: Yep.

Brandy: Here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we often say a good night's sleep is not optional. It is foundational.

Britni: Mm. I like that.

Brandy: Yeah. So it is a cornerstone of so many aspects of our health. Basically every function in your body is impacted by sleep, and I think we can all relate that if you have a bad night's sleep, the next day is just going to be harder. You know, that's not difficult to see why that would be. You know, you don't have the best focus, you don't have great energy, but your digestion is also impacted.

You might experience more cravings; you may be a little crankier. Your immune system is even impacted. Even your metabolism is impacted by poor sleep. And that might be a new thought for some of our listeners that lack of sleep can negatively impact your metabolism and maybe even cause weight gain regardless of how well you're eating, regardless of how much you're exercising.

Sleep is part of that equation, and when we're talking about sleep, this is a topic that I like to pull in some. research from neuroscientist and sleep expert, Dr. Matthew Walker. He wrote one of my favorite books, Why We Sleep; a lot of great information in there. And one of the quotes from his book that I just love: “There does not seem to be one major organ within the body or process within the brain that is not optimally enhanced by sleep and detrimentally impaired when we don't get enough sleep.” He even goes as far to say that the shorter you sleep, the shorter your lifespan.

Britni: Yeah. That's powerful.

Brandy: Right?

Britni: Yeah. So even though we're sleeping, our body's pretty busy while we're sleeping: restoring, repairing, like you said, focusing on every, every little area of our body.

Brandy: Exactly. So the less you sleep, the less time you have to live.

How much sleep is adequate for health?

Britni: Yeah. And so what is adequate sleep?

Brandy: Well, adequate sleep, and this is what research is finding, is that most humans thrive if they're getting seven and a half to nine hours of sleep most nights out of the week. So when I lay that fact down for a lot of my clients, they say that's just not possible for me.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: You know, it's just not realistic for a number of reasons and that, you know, that's why today we're going to be focusing more on how to improve the quality of your sleep wherever you are with, you know, how long you have to sleep. The least we can do is at least make whatever sleep you are getting better quality sleep. So I think there's room for improvement for most people.

How sleep affects different areas of health (#1: the digestive perspective)

Britni: Well, let's dive a little deeper into how sleep really affects the different areas of our health. So let's start with a digestive perspective. Think about how you feel when you wake up after a poor night sleep. Do you ever feel like nauseous? Or just you don't want to eat because your whole body feels kind of out of whack?

Well, there is a biological reason behind this. Sleep deprivation stresses your nervous system, particularly that flight or flight system. So this is going to increase cortisol and adrenaline. In turn, slowing your digestion by reducing that rest and digest part of your nervous system. So waking up in fight or flight mode, because you're sleep deprived can cause GI discomfort like nausea, bloating, lack of appetite. I mean, think about prehistoric times. If you're awoken by a predator trying to prey on you and you had to run to safety, your body would not want to focus on eating and digesting food.

Brandy: Right.

Britni: Makes a whole lot of sense.

Brandy: Not the time to sit down for breakfast.

Britni: No, and although we are so far past all of that, our bodies have not necessarily adapted to modern times in a lot of ways, so we are still programmed to function that way. And it's the same way when we're jolted awake from a loud alarm clock during a deep sleep. Our body is not ready for food right away when we're in that state of stress.

Brandy: Yeah. And I think that's a big reason why so many, well, a lot of people might skip breakfast because they just physically don't feel like they can handle food at that time.

Britni: Yes, I hear that a lot from people.

Brandy: Just already feeling frantic and stressed. It makes total sense.

Britni: Yep. And then, you know, sleep deprivation can also affect your GI motility. So you might notice constipation or diarrhea after a poor night's sleep, especially long term. And I think the biggest piece here is a lot of people are just chronically sleep deprived. So you're not necessarily going to make these connections. Because that's your reality every day.

Brandy: Exactly.

Britni: And you don't necessarily know how much better you could be feeling.

Brandy: Really good point. Yeah if this is your routine day in and day out, you're not going to see how things could be different for you.

Britni: Yeah.

Blood sugar regulation is compromised with lack of sleep

Brandy: And something else I want to bring up with sleep deprivation, I notice this quite a bit because you know when I don't get a good night's rest, I have pretty significant sugar cravings the next day. And that is a consequence of sleep deprivation. You're probably going to crave some kind of a sugar or a caffeine boost. And you know, this is because when you lack adequate sleep, your body has a more difficult time regulating your blood sugar. So blood sugar imbalances can set you up for more cravings, specifically for sugar and more simple processed carbohydrates.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Brandy: And this might even start right away in the morning. You know, if you do get up and you, you have the gusto to have some breakfast, you're probably going to be reaching for something that's a little more high carb like a bagel or a muffin or a big bowl of cereal, or maybe it's just driving through the coffee shop and getting like a sugary mocha latte.

But those sugary breakfasts, they really set you up for more cravings throughout the day as your blood sugar will spike immediately. It might give you a temporary boost of energy, but very shortly after that you crash. You feel sluggish. You feel even more tired than you did when you woke up, and then you want more sugar or another caffeine blast. So then you're just kind of waffling between those extremes all day long, never really catching up, never really feeling balanced or level.

Britni: Yeah, it's a, it's really hard a cycle.

Brandy: It is a cycle, and your body has a really hard time regulating blood sugar when you're sleep deprived, so it's kind of insult to injury there.

Britni: Mm. And then you know that blood sugar dysregulation throughout the day makes it more likely you have another poor night's sleep.

Brandy: Exactly.

Britni: I had a client and she noticed wearing a continuous glucose monitor that after a poor night's sleep, her blood sugar was 10 points higher in the morning than if she had a good night's sleep. Which is pretty significant.

Brandy: That is significant. Yeah. That's so interesting. And I, the woman I met today, she said she's made the connection between more sugar before she goes to bed results in more restless sleep at night. And then, you know, that just sets her up for another day of sugar cravings.

Britni: Yes.

Brandy: Pretty tough cycle to break.

Britni: Well, that's great that she made the connection though. Once you make those connections, it's easier to…

Brandy: Do something about it.

Lack of sleep affects hunger & satiety hormones

Britni: Yep. Have a solution. The other piece here with those cravings is lack of sleep increases the hormone that makes you hungry, called ghrelin, while decreasing another hormone, which signals your brain that you're full and satisfied.

And that hormone is called leptin. Renowned sleep researcher named Dr. Eve Van Cauter from the University of Chicago has conducted extensive research on sleep and metabolism, and she found through her studies that just one week of lack of sleep caused her study participants to have increased hunger hormones and decreased satiety hormones.

Brandy: Wow.

Britni: So just one week.

Brandy: And they're just like basically reversed.

Britni: Yes.

Brandy: You know, they're doing the opposite.

Britni: Yep; as what we want them to do.

Brandy: Yeah.

Britni: Yeah. And again, like imagining those chronically sleep deprived people. Those hormones are going to be imbalanced every single day. Which then makes it really hard to get your cravings under control and see weight loss if that's a goal for you.

Brandy: Exactly. Yeah. And over time, I mean, this is where we might see some weight gain that you can't really explain.

Britni: Yes. Yeah, that's a really good point.

Brandy: So not necessarily from a lack of exercise or not eating the right things, but you could be overeating.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Brandy: You know, and not even realize it, because you feel hungry. You're just kind of listening to your body.

Britni: For sure.

Brandy: And you know, if you've been listening to Dishing Up Nutrition for a while now, you know, the topic of blood sugar regulation has definitely come up. And we've talked about another hormone called insulin.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Insulin & cortisol can become imbalanced from lack of sleep

Brandy: And how big spikes in blood sugar may be as a result of overeating or gravitating towards more sugary foods, high carb foods, that's going to lead to high insulin levels and something called insulin resistance. So that can certainly contribute to the weight gain we might see with sleep deprivation.

Something else that can happen is your cortisol levels can get out of whack when you're sleep deprived. Lack of sleep will increase your stress hormone, cortisol. And you kind of tapped into that already. But high cortisol levels can also contribute to insulin resistance. So we're seeing sleep deprivation leads to a lot of dysregulation with all of these hormones. And like Britni mentioned earlier, when you wake up unrested your cortisol is going to kick in, it's going to be really elevated.

It's going to trigger that fight or flight response. So now not only do you have high cortisol, and high insulin working against you, that's going to eventually lead to weight gain.

Consider a sleep study in some cases/rule out sleep apnea

Britni: If you are somebody that is really struggling with your sleep or somebody that is getting, you know, an adequate amount of sleep, but not feeling rested in the morning, I would ask if you have a partner that you share a bed with, ask if you ever snore or, or record yourself.

And if you do snore or hear yourself or your partner hears you can actually stopping breathing, definitely talk to your doctor about getting a sleep study. I think that those that can be really beneficial for a lot of people and worth exploring if you are somebody that is just waking up not feeling well at all.

Brandy: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's night and day for a lot of people that I know that get the treatment for sleep apnea.

Britni: Yes, it really is. And I mean, it improves your entire health.

Caffeine consumption can affect sleep quality

Brandy: Mm-hmm. One other factor I want to bring up as far as something that can disturb the quality of sleep you're getting, even if you feel like you maybe are sleeping is caffeine. Even if you don't consider yourself, you know, a heavy coffee drinker, or you don't feel like you're drinking a ton of caffeine, I think caffeine sticks around in our body a lot longer than most people realize.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: So the half-life of caffeine is four to six hours, which means you know, the cup of coffee that you have in the morning, half of it is still in your system around lunchtime or early afternoon, and that's when I think a lot of people might think, I need another little cup of coffee, a little pick me up. And then that caffeine will be in your system for another, well, half of it will still be in your system come dinner time.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: You know, even around the time that you're going to bed. So it really adds up and it, it sticks around, I think in total, probably around 21 hours.

Britni: Wow. That's a long time.

Brandy: So the later you have caffeine, the more caffeine you have throughout the day, it's really going to impair your sleep. So if you're having trouble sleeping, something that I do encourage you to think about is reevaluating, like, how much caffeine are you having in the afternoon?

How much are you having total? And try to reduce, some people even have to eliminate it to get the best sleep that they can. One of my clients, you know, she was only having two modest cups of coffee in the morning. We're talking like in total, maybe, maybe 20 ounces, like two, two decent sized mugs. The game changer for her was when she got rid of that second cup of coffee in the morning.

Britni: Oh, wow.

Brandy: It's like night and day. She was able to finally get to sleep, stay asleep.

Britni: Oh, that's great. So worth it.

Brandy: So worth it. And she just substituted that second cup of coffee for a cup of herbal tea. So she still kind of had the ritual, but she was getting rid of the excess caffeine.

Britni: Yeah. Good. Well, it is already time to take our break and we will be right back.

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More on the blood sugar connection to sleep

Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I am here with Brandy, and we are talking about how to improve sleep today. And Brandy, you were just talking about caffeine. I want to talk a little bit more about blood sugar because from a dietitian's perspective, this is really the main focus when I'm working with a client on improving sleep. Right off the gate, if they're eating more processed foods, we focus on blood sugar balance because eating high sugar or refined carbohydrates like lots of bread, pasta, bagels, cereal, baked goods, all that stuff, it's going to put you on a blood sugar rollercoaster.

And you mentioned that earlier, Brandy talking about like if you were to start your day with a sugary or high carb breakfast, and what that can do is cause some sleep disruptions in the middle of the night. So when your blood sugar could actually be dipping from this pattern while you're sleeping, that's going to wake you up.

Brandy: Yes.

Britni: And you might not actually be hungry at that time. But that can just be tied back to what you ate the rest of the day. Popcorn I think is such a common snack before bed. Well, that's going to spike your blood sugar and could really lead to a dip in the middle of the night. Or again, maybe it's just from the entire day of eating higher carbohydrates. So once we balance blood sugar, people can sleep.

And I had a client that I saw that had chronic sleep issues. I mean, she was getting maybe like four to five hours laying awake for hours before she could fall asleep.

Brandy: Oh, that’s rough.

Britni: And had she would need to set multiple alarms to get herself to get out of bed. And we just focused on the basics of getting your blood sugar balanced throughout the day, eating more real food, eating more consistently throughout the day, and her sleep, and then we added a key supplement, which we'll talk about a little later: magnesium.

But her sleep dramatically improved. I mean, she was then getting seven to eight hours and waking up feeling rested in the morning. I mean, it was really life changing for her. So starting with the basics can really go a long way, and the basics are just combining that protein, real carbohydrates, healthy fats, eating consistently. For most people, that's every three to four hours.

Brandy: Yep. Yeah. A lot of things start to fall into place when you eat in a way that stabilizes your blood sugar. Yeah. I, you know, in your example, who knew that eating differently could lead to such dramatic improvements in sleep. Whereas like some people might end up signing on to some sleep medications. You know?

Britni: Well, she tried that.

Brandy: When it could have been more of like a lifestyle change.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: And another benefit that I've seen, which is kind of connected to sleep, is how often women experience fewer hot flashes or just better like temperature control throughout the evening. So you know, if you're in that phase of life, perimenopause or menopause in your waking up in the middle of the night, like drenched in your own sweat, having to get up and change your pajamas where you just like randomly have hot flashes throughout the night and then you can't get back to sleep once you're up.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: You know? I have seen such dramatic improvements with fewer episodes like that just sleeping better throughout the night as a result of balancing blood sugar better. Because every time your blood sugar either spikes or crashes, that sometimes could trigger a hot flash for some women. So better sleep then, you know, follows through into the next day. Better focus, energy. It's life-changing.

Alcohol can trigger hot flashes & disrupt sleep quality

Britni: Yeah, it really is. I too have had a lot of clients that have noticed that connection and another piece connected to hot flashes and waking up in the middle of the night is alcohol.

Brandy: Yes, definitely. It's a big one.

Britni: So yeah, and it can be tricky to, to reduce for some people, but drinking alcohol before bed may help you to fall asleep faster, but it significantly disrupts your quality of sleep. So most people I work with notice a huge difference in sleep when they cut out the alcohol.

And then also if you are a person that is drinking alcohol before bed and waking up with hot flashes it most likely will significantly reduce those hot flashes or night sweats in the middle of the night, allowing you to get that more restful sleep.

And the reality is drinking even one alcoholic beverage makes you more likely to wake up more groggy, dehydrated, not feeling rested, and affecting your mood the next day. Which can contribute to cravings that next day for many people. So for my clients who are struggling with sleep and drinking alcohol on a regular basis, we really have to look at that and try to cut back. Or if you're feeling really motivated, eliminate it for a couple weeks. See how you feel.

Brandy: And many of my clients made this discovery during dry January. You know, it's like they didn't really think that they had a “problem” with alcohol. Like they might have one or two glasses of wine with dinner, you know, a few times a week. Nothing excessive. But when they cut it out completely for four weeks, they realized how much better they were sleeping.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: And then, you know, reintroducing it, the connection was so clear. Many of my clients are just motivated to skip alcohol altogether. It's just not worth it to them.

Britni: Yeah. I have a lot of clients that have gotten to that point as well.

Brandy: Totally. So what else can we do? We talked about, you know, scaling back on caffeine, cutting out alcohol, balancing blood sugar with the right foods. Of course here at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we're always thinking about food first. So I wanted to share some more interesting information from a study that just came out this June from the Journal of the National Sleep Foundation.

Higher intake of fruit & vegetables correlated with better sleep quality

The article was titled, “Higher Daytime Intake of Fruits and Vegetables Predicts Less Disrupted Nighttime Sleep in Younger Adults”. So this new study was looking at the connection between dietary choices and objectively measured sleep quality that same night. So these participants in the study were reporting what they ate throughout the day using an app, and then they wore a wrist monitor that tracked, you know, the objective, quality of their sleep patterns.

It was a pretty interesting study and they found that participants who did eat five cups of fruits and vegetables throughout the day had a 16% improvement in sleep quality compared to those who didn't eat any fruits or vegetables at all. So that, I think that's pretty powerful.

Britni: Yeah, I think so.

Brandy: And the conclusion, from the director of the University of Chicago Sleep Center, he quoted “Dietary modifications could be a new natural and cost-effective approach to achieving better sleep.”

Britni: We would definitely agree with that.

Brandy: And it's nice to have some research to back that up.

Britni: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. At Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we've always seen that strong connection between diet and sleep. And not only, we not only focus on fruits and vegetables, but how, again, balancing the blood sugar makes such a big difference, and that's probably what was happening with those participants.

Eating more fruits and vegetables, their blood sugar was more balanced throughout the day. And again, that means eating the protein, healthy fats, some real food carbohydrates, especially from vegetables that's keeping your blood sugar steady throughout the day and your body calm.

Brandy: Yeah, we're not on that blood sugar rollercoaster when we eat enough protein, high fiber carbs, good, healthy fats.

Don’t go to bed hungry (consider a balanced bedtime snack) & eat enough throughout the entire day

Britni: Yeah. And then another piece is don't go to bed hungry. Because that can disrupt your sleep too. So that may mean making sure you're getting enough food throughout the day. That's really important. If you eat an early dinner, maybe you need to have a little snack before bed.

Something that's not going to create that blood sugar spike. If that's berries and heavy whipping cream, a small apple and peanut butter, veggies and dip. Those types of things could work if you are somebody that is going to bed hungry before bed.

Brandy: Yeah right. Yeah. So, just swapping out those snacks for something that's a little like real food, a little bit of carbohydrate and a little bit of healthy fat is a great combination.

Britni: Yeah. And you know, because what I've seen like with clients wearing continuous glucose monitors, if you are eating those higher carb snacks before bed, it has even more of an impact on your blood sugar at night.

Brandy: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Britni: So really, yeah, trying to, trying to switch those snacks around. We have some ideas on our website too: weightandwellness.com, so you could check that out.

Sleep support supplement options

Brandy: Definitely. Well, now I want to talk about one of my favorite sleep support supplements, because some people do need a little more help beyond just the meal plan alone. My go-to sleep supplement is magnesium. And I think it's yours too.

Britni: Yep.

Brandy: I think you already mentioned that. Magnesium Glycinate is the one that I prefer for sleep support. I find that it has a more, more benefits with, with relaxation. And just getting into a, a deeper sleep. And magnesium on its own has so many other benefits for other functions in the body.

So for me, it's kind of a no-brainer when someone's struggling with sleep just to try it, see how it, yeah, see how it goes, because I think you can get some other benefits from it too, with, you know, blood sugar regulation. For me it helped a lot with muscle cramps at night.

Britni: Same.

Brandy: Which is a good side effect for better sleep anyway. But it can relax the muscles, calm your nervous system, and just help you get into a deeper state of sleep. So I recommend starting out with about 200 milligrams before bed. Some people need more, like 300 to 500. Start on the low end and kind of work your way up to see what works best for you.

Britni: Yeah, that's, that's my approach too. And at our Nutrikey online store and in our Twin Cities offices, we offer many sleep and brain calming supplements. And many times clients and customers will look at our sleep supplements and need help knowing which one to choose, because it's a little overwhelming. But magnesium is also my first go-to.

L-Theanine can really work wonders for a lot of people. It's a calming amino acid that comes from green tea leaves, and it promotes relaxation by kind of calming your brain down. It's not necessarily going to make you drowsy. It's just going to, for those of you that have racing thoughts or you just can't quiet your brain down at night, this can be super helpful. And I would, again, start with one. You could try two as well before bed or I've had clients, if they wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep, they take one. And that can help. And then that one can also be taken as needed. And you'll still see benefits, which is really nice.

Brandy: Definitely. Yeah. And similar to L-Theanine, 5-HTP is another popular one for those that are kind of waking up with the, the hamster wheel brain. Just racing thoughts, can't turn your brain off, just feeling wired. And this is another one you can take kind of in the middle of the night if you were to wake up in the middle of the night feeling this way. It's not going to cause you to feel groggy in the, in the morning. You're not going to have that hangover effect like some sleep supplements may have.

Britni: Well, melatonin is another potential tool to have in your toolbox. And a lot of people are aware of melatonin and it's actually a hormone we produce naturally in our brain when it's time to prepare the body for sleep at the end of the day. It can be especially helpful for resetting your sleep/wake rhythm if you have a hard time falling asleep or if you're traveling across time zones and experiencing jet lag.

Brandy: Yes, I love it for that.

Britni: Yeah, it’s not addictive and you'll be able to sleep even if you stop taking it after long-term use. It's quite variable, the dosage. Mm-hmm. I would recommend maybe just starting with one milligram. And continue going up. If you get too much, you might feel a little groggy the next morning, but then you just back off your dosage. And then we also have a time released version on our Nutrikey website that I have found very effective for a lot of people too.

Brandy: Yeah. That's the one I use.

Britni: So this can especially help you fall asleep and for some people it can help staying asleep too.

The importance of sleep hygiene/routine

Brandy: Yeah. Love melatonin. So beyond food and supplements, I do want to address sleep hygiene. Or your sleep routine.

Britni: This is so important.

Brandy: It's so important and I think it's overlooked a lot. I don't think like sleep hygiene might not even be in a lot of people's vocabulary. But what we're talking about is, you know, your routine, your bedtime routine, and the consistency with routine. And one factor that's part of your sleep hygiene is temperature control. So we fall asleep better if the environment is cooler.

Britni: Yep.

Brandy: So if you have the opportunity to control the temperature of your bedroom, what's best is if you can set the temperature between 65 and 70 degrees, maybe up to 75 degrees the whole year round.

Britni: Mm-hmm.

Brandy: Light is also really important. So try to reduce the light, get it as dark as you can in your bedroom. Blackout curtains for me are a lifesaver.

Britni: Same. They are necessary.

Brandy: And you know, if I'm traveling, I always pack my sleep mask.

Britni: Smart.

Brandy: Really inexpensive way just to make sure you've got that dark room.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: Yeah, so, and if you have a partner that for some reason wants sheer curtains, get yourself a sleep mask. You know.

Britni: I mean, those couple things: changing temperature and making the room really dark has made a huge impact for some of my clients.

Brandy: Mm-hmm. Totally.

Britni: So it's, it's worth trying.

Brandy: Yeah. Yeah. Very low investment, low risk.

Britni: Yeah. Another piece with sleep hygiene, which is a harder one to do, but trying to avoid screens for 30 to 60 minutes before bed. That means TV, computer, phone, tablet. It's really best not to have a TV in your bedroom if you have a hard time not watching it right before bed. It's not just the content of what you're watching, although that can definitely be stimulating and make it harder to fall asleep. But it's also the light, that blue light that's emitted from screens actually interferes with your melatonin production.

So, you know, if you have to look at your phone before bed, you can change the setting on your phone to most of them I think it's called nighttime mode or something like that.

Brandy: Yep.

Britni: And you can do that pretty easily in the settings. And that's going to block out that blue light, helping your eyes to relax, allowing that melatonin production to happen efficiently. You can also change the color of your light bulbs in your bedroom. I have this in all of my kids' bedrooms. I have red light bulbs.

Brandy: Nice.

Britni: And they're easy to find. They're inexpensive, and again, that makes that melatonin production much easier.

Brandy: I love that tip. Yeah. Yeah. So lighting is really, really important.

Britni: It is, yeah. Like avoid turning all of the lights on in your house an hour before bed, because even that light can, can reduce the, the production of melatonin.

Brandy: We've even put like kind of a nightlight in the hallway from the bedroom to the bathroom so that we don't have to flip on the light if we need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Britni: That's smart.

Brandy: You know, just don't mess with it. Try to keep the light nice and low. One other thing I want to bring up is consistency, routine. Your body really loves routine, just like. A little kid, you know, they have their regular bedtime. Nothing has changed.

Your body loves a regular bedtime and it likes to get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. Which is more of a challenge, but it's going to make it easier to have, you know, a more consistent sleep schedule during the week if you can stick to a schedule as many days as you can.

The more consistent you are with your bedtime and your wake time, your body's naturally going to get tired at the same time every day, and it's naturally going to want to wake up at the same time every day. So make that a priority. You know, prioritize a regular consistent bedtime. You know, get in the routine of getting your body in bed so your body's used to it and you're going to fall asleep so much faster, consistently.

One other trick that I like to share with my clients to support this routine is when you wake up in the morning, expose your eyeballs to some sunlight, some real sunlight. So get outside, stand outside for five, 10 minutes. That sunlight signals to the brain that it's morning.

Britni: Yeah.

Brandy: And it basically kind of sets your circadian rhythm so that, you know, kind of a clock starts to count backwards from then till it's evening and you're naturally ready for sleep at a particular time. So if maybe you work from home and you're, you're not, you know, used to leaving the house first thing in the morning, maybe try to start a habit of just stepping outside, walking around the block to get that sunlight. Makes a big difference.

Britni: Great suggestion.

Brandy: Yeah, it works.

Britni: And for those of you that just put off bedtime, because I know that's a lot of people and I get it. That's your alone time for the night. Think about, like Brandy said, have that bedtime and maybe I have some clients that set an alarm like an hour before bed just to be like, okay, I need to turn off electronics.

I need to start winding down. Get ready for bed. If you're somebody that's maybe getting six hours, could you try to go to bed 15 minutes, a half an hour earlier and just kind of go back that way. That can make a huge difference. And you know, the trick to getting a good night's sleep does not have to be a mystery. With the right nutrition, lifestyle habits, and support, you can definitely sleep better too.

And better sleep makes everything else easier, your cravings, your energy, your hormones, your mood. And as always, if you need more personalized help, because sleep can be tricky for a lot of people. Reach out and get scheduled with one of our experts.

Schedule Nutrition Counseling

You can call our office at (651) 699-3438. Visit our website, weightandwellness.com. And don't forget to check to see if your insurance would cover your appointments as well.

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So we are always here to help you and thank you so much for tuning in to Dishing Up Nutrition.

Brandy: Thank you.