Fix Your Circadian Rhythm: Women & Baby Edition | Heidi Sime

Summary

Episode Summary:

Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark
Episode: Fix Your Circadian Rhythm: Women & Baby Edition | Heidi Sime
Air Date: May 5, 2026
Guest: Heidi Sime (Circadian rhythm expert, mom of 4, co-founder of Dreamwalkers)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives deep into how light—specifically our exposure to natural and artificial light—impacts women’s health, beauty, hormones, sleep, and infant development. Heidi Sime uncovers why restoring healthy circadian rhythms is crucial for moms and babies, and provides step-by-step, actionable tips for overhauling your "light diet" at home. The conversation ranges from the science of melatonin and morning routines to high-stakes parenting choices at night, emphasizing how even simple tweaks, like switching light bulbs or ditching tech at night, can change the game.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Light Directly Impacts Health

• Light Isn’t Neutral: Light is a powerful hormonal signal. Our bodies, like fish in a fishbowl, rely on the environment for wellbeing. If the 'bowl' is polluted by artificial light, everything else—diet, supplements, wellness protocols—has diminished returns. ([03:28])
• Morning Sunlight Sets Your Clock: Exposing your eyes and skin to early morning sunlight (within 30 minutes of sunrise) programs your body for optimal hormone production, including melatonin, 14-16 hours later.
  • "Getting out in morning sunlight sets your hormones for the entire day. This is the missing piece most women aren't connecting." – Heidi ([04:27])
• Melatonin as the Master Hormone: Not just for sleep, melatonin is also a “beauty hormone,” anti-aging, anti-cancer, and an antioxidant. Bright lights at night—especially overhead—destroy melatonin production. ([23:52], [25:01])

2. Beauty, Skin, and Light Exposure

• Blue Light = Beauty Nemesis: Artificial blue light from LEDs, screens, and even some beauty products accelerates skin aging, disrupts hormones, and depletes sleep quality.
  • "Blue light at night is actually jacking your cortisol and making it so you are depleting melatonin and therefore getting crappier sleep. So 100%, blue light is basically the beauty nemesis." – Heidi ([02:44])
• Red Light Heals: Morning and sunset sunlight are rich with red and infrared frequencies, which help skin repair and prevent sunburn by building a “solar callus”. Red light therapy devices mimic this, but the sun is free. ([33:23], [47:24])
• Aging Faster Under Artificial Light: Women exposed to blue light, especially in office settings, may age faster. Some optometrists even prescribe algae-based skin care to reflect blue light. ([07:48])

3. Circadian Rhythms for Women & Babies

• Breastfeeding & Night Milk: Melatonin rich “night milk” is only produced if moms aren’t blasting themselves with blue light while feeding. Phones or overhead lights at night create a shot of cortisol, which is passed to the baby via milk.
  • "You're giving yourself a shot of cortisol. Now it's going to go into your milk, and you're going to give your baby a shot of cortisol." – Heidi ([00:13], [40:16])
• Baby’s Light Training: Infants begin developing their own circadian rhythm at 3-4 months. You can train them by nature—or by artificial light. Regular, gentle sunlight exposure in the morning is critical. Use blackout curtains only at night, not for daytime naps after 3-4 months. ([45:57], [46:07])
• Oxytocin vs. Distraction: Screens during breastfeeding disrupt not only hormones but crucial bonding moments.
  • "You're not connecting with the baby...you need oxytocin to produce breast milk, and you're actually giving your baby oxytocin, too." – Heidi ([40:16])

4. Creating a “Light-Smart” Home

• Ditch Overhead and Blue Lights After Sunset: Overhead lights signal “solar noon” to the brain, killing nighttime melatonin output. Use lamps at low levels or switch to red or amber bulbs after sundown. ([25:10], [58:42])
• Bedroom First: Prioritize red or amber bulbs and total darkness in bedrooms and bathrooms. Even small blinking electronics disrupt sleep. ([62:51])
• Blue-Light Blocking Glasses: Wear after sunset to mimic ancestral firelight. Place them where you need them around the home (kitchen, bedside, etc.). Instant calming effect reported. ([29:09], [57:03])
• Tech Rules for the Family: No phones or other screens in the bedroom. Use Faraday bags or airplane mode, but beware—some iPhones may still emit signals unless toggled off in settings. ([18:47], [21:15])
• For Working Parents: Yellow-tinted daytime blue-light blockers if you’re on screens often. ([54:47])
• Circadian-Friendly Nightlights: For nurseries/kids’ rooms, use motion-sensing red lights, not nightlights, so as not to train out fear of darkness or disrupt rhythms. ([48:38])

5. Broader Cultural & Societal Implications

• Infertility and Light: Poor light hygiene is likely a major, overlooked driver of hormonal and fertility struggles. Even animal husbandry recognizes the importance of light for reproductive cycles. ([48:44])
  • "Infertility... probably has everything to do with it." – Heidi ([48:52])
• Schools, Prisons, Hospitals: Built environments with fluorescent lighting, no windows, and high EMF create behavioral and health disasters for kids (and adults).
  • "If you put a house plant in this environment—that we're putting our children in in America—the house plant would die." – Alex ([69:15])
• ** “Mama Duck” Effect:** The mother establishes the home’s culture. Setting the tone for non-negotiable habits (morning sun, evening lights, real food) ripples to the kids and family dynamic. ([72:09])

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Step-by-Step Circadian Rhythm Reset (for Moms & Babies)

1. Morning Exposure: Go outside (ideally within 30 min of sunrise), expose as much skin as feasible—even 5-10 minutes helps. ([04:27], [50:53])
2. Throughout Day: Frequent outdoor breaks; babies/toddlers barefoot in grass (avoid pesticides/sprayed turf).
3. Avoid Blue Light After Sunset: Lamps over overhead lights, red/amber bulbs, blue-light-blocking glasses. Phones away after 7 p.m. ([57:03], [58:42])
4. Bedroom/Bathroom Red Lights: Red nightlights, absolutely dark sleep environment, no screens or TV. ([62:51])
5. Tech Detox: No screens during night feeds; remove tech from bedroom; if needed, use airplane mode + further shutoff in settings/Faraday pouches. ([18:47], [21:11])
6. No Eating After Sunset: Supports digestion/hormones aligned with circadian rhythm. ([57:46])
7. Build Micro Habits: Place blue-light-blocking glasses around the home; small swaps (e.g., lamp bulbs) lead to massive cumulative wins. ([29:09], [64:00])
8. “Mama Duck”: Instill these practices as non-negotiable family culture. Model, don’t just instruct. ([72:09])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Blue light at night is actually jacking your cortisol and making it so that you are depleting melatonin and therefore getting crappier sleep. So 100% blue light is basically the beauty nemesis."
  – Heidi ([02:44])
• "Getting out in morning sunlight sets your hormones for the entire day. This is the missing piece that most women aren't connecting."
  – Heidi ([04:27])
• "You're giving yourself a shot of cortisol. Now it's going to go into your milk, and you're going to give your baby a shot of cortisol."
  – Heidi ([00:13])
• "We will never miss another sunrise for the rest of our lives. And we go to bed together. This is how we live, and this is what we show our children."
  – Heidi ([13:28])
• "If you put a house plant in this environment—that we're putting our children in in America—the house plant would die."
  – Alex ([69:15])
• "It’s not realistic. Living this way is taking away so much stress. I get better sleep. I have more energy. I'm more relaxed. And it's because of making these conscious, small, micro health and wellness decisions throughout the day."
  – Alex ([28:42])
• "You create your own culture. Like you are the mama duck. You are the creator of the culture of your home, starting with, with you."
  – Heidi ([79:46])

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Timestamps by Topic

| Topic | Timestamps | |-------|------------| | Intro to light, breastfeeding, and melatonin | 00:00-03:16 | | Light as hormonal driver, fishbowl analogy | 03:16-04:23 | | Light and hormones in women/morning sunlight | 04:23-07:00 | | Aging, beauty products, blue light | 07:44-10:13 | | Sunglasses, "solar callus," sunburn | 09:05-10:56 | | Circadian rhythms for babies, lighting hacks | 11:13-13:28 | | Building a light-smart home affordably | 13:38-14:03 | | Phones/tech in the bedroom, Faraday pouches | 18:47-21:35 | | Melatonin: "beauty hormone," overhead lights | 23:52-26:30 | | Red light therapy, 'night milk', breastfeeding stories | 33:23-37:30 | | Parenting & tech: physical & emotional disconnection | 40:10-44:46 | | Babies' circadian development, training via nature | 45:57-48:38 | | Infertility, thyroid & light exposure | 48:44-50:35 | | Step-by-step circadian reset for moms & kids | 50:50-54:47 | | Lighting swaps: rooms, bulbs, where to start | 62:51-68:27 | | Schools/hospitals/prisons as anti-biological environments | 68:27-71:28 | | The "Mama Duck" effect, family culture | 72:09-76:01 | | Immediate benefits, resources, tools | 76:24-78:48 | | Final prescription for healing culture | 79:46-80:59 |

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Practical Takeaways

• Prioritize daylight exposure: Go outside for morning sun with your kids as soon as feasible.
• Upgrade your home’s lighting: Red/amber lamps and nightlights for evenings, blackout for bedrooms.
• Tech discipline: Phones out of the bedroom, off after sunset, and never during night feeds.
• Small changes > big splurges: Don’t overhaul everything at once. Switch key bulbs, wear glasses, build habits room by room.
• Mama Duck leads: Model habits for the family; even young kids catch on quickly.

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Resources Mentioned

• Dreamwalkers (with a Z): circadian-friendly lighting, glasses, and tools ([67:34])
• Primal Hacker (YouTube): Deep dives by Thaddeus Owen ([76:44])

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Episode’s Tone & Language

Warm, rigorous, and highly practical. Heidi and Alex blend scientific explanation with real-life anecdotes and hands-on advice, often looping back to the broader theme: healing and restoring family and cultural health by returning to nature and our evolutionary basics.

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This summary is intended as a comprehensive, accessible resource for listeners and non-listeners alike. It skips all advertisements and focuses strictly on the episode’s core, actionable content.

Transcript

[Heidi Sime]

If you're a breastfeeding mom and you're looking at your phone at night, I really want you to hear this. You're destroying the melatonin in your breast milk.

[Alex Clark]

She's scrolling social media while the baby is breastfeeding. What is that doing to baby and mom?

[Heidi Sime]

So you're giving yourself a shot of cortisol. Now it's going to go into your milk and you're going to give your baby a shot of cortisol. You're actually exposing the baby's crown to that blue light.

[Alex Clark]

Wow.

[Heidi Sime]

At the same time, when does a

[Alex Clark]

baby circadian rhythm actually develop?

[Heidi Sime]

Around three to four months is when they start being trained by mom their rhythm. And so you're either going to train them, Alex, by blue light tech overhead lights, or you're going to train them by nature.

[Alex Clark]

You are accidentally making yourself uglier, more anxious and completely exhausted just by flipping on the lights in your own home. One of the biggest hormone disruptors in your life isn't your diet, your stress or your skincare routine, but your light bulbs. Today's guest says your light diet might matter more than what you eat and it could be the missing link behind your sleep, your skin, your hormones and even your baby's development. Joining me today is Heidi Sein, circadian rhythm expert, mom of four and co founder of Dreamwalkers with her husband Thaddeus Owen. You may remember Thaddeus from my first circadian rhythm episode that I did in spring of 2025 which was hugely popular. Heidi focuses on restoring sleep hormones and overall well being through light based solutions specifically for women and babies. With a background in ecological architecture. She helps women redesign their homes and their habits to work with their biology, not against it. We're also diving into the stuff that nobody else is talking about, like what happens when moms scroll their phones during midnight feedings, how to create an ideal circadian rhythm for your bab baby, and how to create a low tox sleep supportive environment without going off the deep end financially. This episode might completely change the way you think about light and what it's doing to your body every single night. Pause right now and leave a five star review sharing what episode of this podcast significantly changed your life? Put your blue light blocker glasses on and watch this episode on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel or culture Apothecary on Spotify. Keep the discussion going in the Cute Servatives Facebook group. Please welcome co founder of Dreamwalkers and circadian rhythm expert Heidi Sime to Culture Apothecary. Are we accidentally making ourselves uglier, more anxious, and also just more exhausted because we're turning on the big lights in our house.

[Heidi Sime]

Oh, my God, Alex, you are spot on. Blue light is so toxic to our biology. It's one of the beauty, like mechanisms that most women forget about or don't even know about. So, yes, beauty sleep is number one. Blue light at night is actually jacking your cortisol and making it so that you are depleting melatonin and therefore getting crappier sleep. So 100% blue light is basically the beauty nemesis.

[Alex Clark]

We think of light as neutral. I don't even think most people think about light. The problem with that is you say that that's actually one of the most powerful hormonal signals in the body is. Is light around us. Can you explain that?

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to give you an example. So think about a fish in a fishbowl. So, so this is the fishbowl example, and you're the little fish swimming around, and you're in a light environment, right? So this is your, your atmosphere, and it's everything around you. The fish is like, oh, I've got a little, a little fin that needs fixing, right? Or maybe you're giving it really good food. But if you're in a polluted fishbowl, keep giving the fish all this beautiful food. You're fixing the little finger, but you're in a polluted light bulb. So, like, you can keep doing that over and over. That's kind of like the basis of insanity, right? But changing your atmosphere, changing your environment would be a much better solution, and it makes everything work better. So really, it's the foundation. Your skin care will look better, your, your, your makeup will look better, your sleep will be better. It really is like the foundation of everything else in your life.

[Alex Clark]

What can you tell us about light and the female body?

[Heidi Sime]

Light in the female body is really based on hormones, right? So if you get up in the morning and go out and get morning sunlight, this is like the number one hack that we recommend as circadian rhythm experts. Getting out in morning sunlight sets your hormones for the entire day. This is the missing piece that most, most people and most women aren't. Aren't connecting. So it's a little bit elusive, too. It's like, it sounds kind of like a little too good to be true, right? And it's like. And it's free, but it is the reset button for your melatonin. And your melatonin actually is almost like a, A precursor to all 10 other hormones, including ghrelin, leptin, oxytocin, estrogen, like all testosterone, we have testosterone. And if you get out in the morning sunlight, that is how your body is being programmed, actually, with the melatonin. 14 to 16 hours later in the day, your eyes are reading the light in the morning, and it's just like dawn. So it's like early morning. Within a half an hour of sunrise, your eyes are being set up for that 14 to 16 hours later of melatonin. It's called the suprachiasmetic nucleus, so the scn. And your body is made of all these clocks. So that is the master clock. It sits behind the eyes and it's reading the light. So when we get up in the morning, we take our baby out. Hopefully, if you have a newborn baby, that's like a really beautiful little hack to get baby in sync with their circadian rhythm to your circadian rhythm, actually. So getting out in that morning sunlight is the best thing that you can do for your hormones. I've had women, and actually a lot of people in your audience, because we've. We've been on before. My husband Thaddeus, and they email me, they write me letters. They're like. They're so awesome. And they're like, we've been doing the morning sunlight thing. I've had a woman, she's like. Like, I've been doing it for a week straight. And she goes, I lost five pounds already.

[Alex Clark]

So cool.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. And another woman, she was like, okay, so I'm in the age group a little bit older than you, but perimenopause, menopausal. Right. And these women are having just, like, horrible hot flashes. I've never had one hot flash. And I've been practicing this, let's see, what, eight years, I think eight years straight and never had one hot flash. I don't have any symptoms of menopause, and I'm definitely in the. In the perimenopause. But this woman was like, everything has been eliminated by going out in the morning sunlight.

[Alex Clark]

How does something as simple as just going outside for a walk as the sun is coming up help you lose weight?

[Heidi Sime]

So it helps curb your appetite. So like I said, the ghrelin and the leptin, like, those two factors, it actually programs your hormones so that it curbs your appetite, and it makes you feel like when you're hungry, you actually are hungry to eat food, not just, like, emotional eating, right? So there's a lot of. There's like, a lot of different factors in that. But she's like, I dialed in my morning sunlight. And she paired that with wearing the blue light blocking glasses at night. So she's not jacking her cortisol nor was she eating. So being a circadian rhythm, like person and living that lifestyle also means that you do not. We don't eat after dark and we live in the north and that's pretty early in the winter.

[Alex Clark]

Are women aging faster because of artificial light?

[Heidi Sime]

Definitely. I mean, the blue light is not good for your skin. There's actually beauty care products out there with, made with algae. Have you heard of those?

[Alex Clark]

No.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, like women who work on like computer screens. You can get like this lg, like gel or cream or whatever and put it on because it'll reflect like the glasses I'm wearing. It's reflecting the blue light, like coming from the set and it'll reflect the computer screen. So that blue light is actually aging your skin. It's not the sun, it's the blue light. Like we've got all that stuff wrong, in my opinion. I've asked, you know, we have a friend who's like a holistic optometrist and we're like, where did you learn that the sun is like super damaging to the skin? And she was like, I don't even know. She's like, I just learned that in. In medical school.

[Alex Clark]

Probably the sunscreen company, right? Probably.

[Heidi Sime]

It's crazy. I went to the optometrist about a year ago and I was like looking around the room and I saw this poster. And it was. Poster with copper. It was a copper tone, like, ad advertisement. The person in the, in the ad was wearing sunglasses. And at the bottom I was like, thaddeus. I was like, look at that. It's sponsored by Coppertone. I was like, oh, they're like all in cahoots together, right? The sunscreen and the sunglasses. I know we've talked about sunglasses before.

[Alex Clark]

I know you're very anti sunglasses. I haven't fully given up on sunglasses because I just love them for a few fashion reasons. But after I interviewed your husband, I did start making a conscious effort when I'm laying out.

[Heidi Sime]

Really?

[Alex Clark]

And trying to tan is not wearing sunglasses.

[Heidi Sime]

That's great.

[Alex Clark]

When I do my first morning walk, which is usually around 6:30 or 7am Okay. I don't wear sunglasses.

[Heidi Sime]

Perfect. That's great. That, that's the key one. But if you're going to wear your sunglasses while you're suntanning, you could. You're likely to get more burnt if You're. If you're not getting out.

[Alex Clark]

And that's what I learned. Yeah. In that interview with Thaddeus that I did last year. And so that's been like such a game changer for me. Yeah. And I don't ever burn.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

I mean, something's working.

[Heidi Sime]

Well, you create a solar callus. I don't know if he got into that at all. But when you go in the morning sunlight, ideally you should be exposing 70% of your skin to the light. And then you build up over time a solar callus. And it actually makes it so we don't. We can't get sunburn. Like, I can't. I have such a thick solar callus. The way our bodies biologically work with the sun is like so intelligent and we just, we have no idea.

[Alex Clark]

So do your morning walk in a sports bra and shorts. Totally expose your tummy, your thighs.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. As much as you can. We do that in the winter.

[Alex Clark]

How?

[Heidi Sime]

We're cold adapted. We live in the North. It's really cold. And you don't, like, you don't have choice. Right. Like, I gotta go outside and get to my car. And when I met Thaddeus, he taught me how to cold adapt. And so I'd go, I go for a walk with a sports bra on.

[Alex Clark]

And when you were doing those walks and it's really cold living in the North.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

I mean, because you guys are in Wisconsin. How long are those walks?

[Heidi Sime]

I mean, I would go out and I do some like, filming. I don't know, 10 minutes. And it's like negative 10.

[Alex Clark]

And you're in a sports bra. That is absolutely wild.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

Okay, I, I mean, I hear what you're saying, but.

[Heidi Sime]

But yeah, it's actually kind of fun.

[Alex Clark]

I like, it's interesting to me because I think sometimes listeners hear this stuff and they're like, well, who's doing this? Whatever. It's like, I mean, the people that I'm interviewing, like, you guys are walking the walk. You know, I don't have anybody on that. Like a fraud. I mean, you guys really believe this and it's worked for you and you teach other people how to do it. It's. It's very fascinating stuff.

[Heidi Sime]

And we teach our kids and you teach your kids. Yeah, that's the part that is so important.

[Alex Clark]

And you're a mom of four kids.

[Heidi Sime]

I have four of my own and then I have two stepsons, so we're like Brady Bunch. Tons of kids. They're all different ages, from 30 to 14.

[Alex Clark]

Okay. So I think it's important to talk about that because you have a lot to say about how women in particular can fix their circadian rhythm, but also their babies.

[Heidi Sime]

Heck, yeah. If I would have known this. This is why. This is why we started a company together. This is why I'm on this podcast. I wish I would have known this information. And my kids were, like, a little bit kind of preteen when I met Thaddeus and really started doing the circadian rhythm stuff. But, I mean, getting your baby to sync up to your sleeping schedule, why. Why wouldn't you do that? And now we have all this, like, circadian lighting, which we'll get into. I. Maybe you might not know what that means, but actually is like, blue light free lighting that you can put in your nursery so that you're not waking the baby up to breastfeed, or when, you know, somebody has to go in and check on baby, you're not turning on overhead lights. And then waking up everybody. And what that does is, like, it jacks your cortisol. It's a really interesting road to go down. But being a mom is stressful enough. And, I mean, then you're like, oh, then I gotta do all this stuff, and I gotta have, you know, linen crib sheets, and I got to have all the wool carpet and low VOC paint and, you know, like, all of it. Remember I talked about the fishbowl, Right? Like, you have all this healthy stuff. Like, you're. But you're missing the light piece. Like, that's a big deal. So we started this company, and we're helping moms get baby to sync up. So getting baby out. And this is the number one thing, same with women, getting out in the morning sunlight because there's no UV in the atmosphere at that time. Okay. So it's super safe. And your baby, like, as. As little clothes as possible. Same. Same with mom. And it doesn't have to be for very long. And even in the winter, like, that can be a little hard. You can just, like, step outside. Like, sometimes in the. In the morning. In the winter, even, we're like, it's so cold. Right. But we. We have a pact, my husband and I, that it was actually part of our wedding. And Hilda married us, by the way.

[Alex Clark]

Really?

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

Hilda lebron Gore married you?

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

I didn't know she was ordained.

[Heidi Sime]

She got ordained for our wedding. Cute. Funny. Yeah, I thought you'd like that. We will never miss another sunrise for the rest of our lives. And the second half of that is that we go to bed Together. This is how we live, and this is what we do, and this is what we show our children. And it's so important for them to see that. And we have kids and they. They go to bed at like, normal hours. Like, and they're like pre. They're, well, not that pre teens, but they're like pre adult. And one's like 23, but they have normal sleeping patterns. Like, it's really cool to see that

[Alex Clark]

I. To say something, because I see this in my DMs every single day. Alex. I want to get my health together, but I just don't know where to start or I'll do it later when I have more money. You know, I've heard every version of this, and I get it. The system is confusing on purpose. You go to a doctor, they check like five things, they tell you you're fine, they send you home. Meanwhile, you're still feeling exhausted, inflamed, just off. So then you do nothing. You wait. And waiting becomes your health plan. This is why I'm really excited about what Jev just did. They launched a completely free tier, not a trial free. You go to go upload blood work that you already have from any lab, and they give you a personalized longevity blueprint that analyzes over 90 biomarkers and actually shows you what's going on. When I saw my blueprint, I didn't just want to know. I mean, I saw all that info and I wanted to fix it. 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Join Crowd Health to get started today for 99. For your first three months using code culture. Join CrowdHealth.com that's JoinCrowdHealth.com code culture. Crowd health is not insurance. This is how we win. So what is the biggest mistake that women are making with their bedtime routines?

[Heidi Sime]

Well, number one would be being on your phone, right? Like doom scrolling and having any type of tech in the bedroom. Like if you're, if you're really looking to dial in your health and be optimal, not just. And that's like what us people in the biohacking world, like this is the world we come from is biohacking. We wanna be optimal, we don't wanna just be healthy. Right. And nor getting all your tech out of your bedroom is crucial to your health. I mean think about it like your mental well being, your emotional well being, your relationship. So we've got some new products actually coming to our store of like storing your cell phone in a little case and putting it outside and just like tools to create better habits so that you can get a better sleep and create more of like a sleep sanctuary. That's what I always tell women's like create a really cool dark, has to be like pitch dark. You have a little blinky light in your bedroom. It's actually going to disturb your sleep.

[Alex Clark]

Anytime I'm in a hotel, I have to turn that alarm clock and like face the wall because I that I can't stand the light from an alarm clock. But yeah, I am always blackout curtains, you know, the whole shebang. If you are somebody that has to sleep with the TV on, you're dead to me. Like I can't have that around me. I hate that. Yeah. So yeah, I'm pretty good about that. However, I definitely have the habit of scrolling on my phone as I'm falling asleep. And then I set, starting to feel my eyes get heavy. I set my phone down.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. I mean so it's a habit, right. And probably not a great sleep habit to perpetuate. So. And I don't, I don't like to shame people. Right. It's just like build it, build a better habit and maybe just go okay, you know what, after a certain time of night, like it's seven o', clock, I don't have like my non negotiable set that. My non negotiable is. I don't, I'm not on test after seven. Right. And that, I mean, that one little thing could be you getting so much better. Deep quality deep sleep. Remember when Dave Asprey was talking about, like, you only have sleep for six hours, but as long as it's deep sleep.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

Your deep sleep is key because it's brainwashing you. Right. It's giving you that glymphatic wash and then, then you go into REM sleep and you want the biggest banks. Like that's beauty sleep sleep. Those two things are literally. That was called beauty sleep because it's, it's, it's rejuvenating your body. I would say work towards moving that, you know that number. We don't bring phones into our bedroom. If we do, we put them in a Faraday pouch.

[Alex Clark]

What's that?

[Heidi Sime]

It's like a little silver line pouch, like a Faraday bag. And so you put the phone in that, it does not let any signals come from your phone or to your phone.

[Alex Clark]

See, what I do is I always put my phone on airplane mode. Mode. So then it turns off WI fi and Bluetooth and all that. Right.

[Heidi Sime]

I mean, do you have an iPhone? Yeah, you'd have to check. They're tricky.

[Alex Clark]

Like with an EMF reader, you mean?

[Heidi Sime]

I mean you can. But I, we just switched over to iPhones and I go to turn my phone on airplane and then I go into the settings and it's still toggled on. So I wouldn't trust that I would go into the settings and make sure they're toggled off.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. I mean, so putting in a Faraday pouch would be really helpful. But it's. You're not going to get a phone call, you're not going to get a text message. And you can still use your alarm

[Alex Clark]

clock, though, if somebody is exhausted and wired and not sleeping. Is light really the missing piece?

[Heidi Sime]

Definitely. Think about the dark and light cycles of our ancestors. So they would have only seen fire light at night. It was like Industrial Revolution brought in, you know, the Edison light bulb when 18, 1876 or something. And, and we illuminated the night. And so that's a circadian mismatch. And so you're actually telling your brain, you're giving your brain a shot of cortisol at night and you're supposed to be building Melatonin. And that's what all of history think about it. Like this one little blip, right, of like present day to like back to industrial revolution. And it's been slowly getting worse and worse because we keep more lights, more lights, lights. Now they're, now they went from incandescent to led and oh, you're gonna save energy. Has anybody ever saved any energy? I mean, I've never heard of anybody be like, yeah, I changed my LED light bulbs and ice and I, you know, my energy bill has gone down like this. It's not even a, it's like not even a thing. It's directly correlated, I, I believe between the light environment and when we electrified the earth, right. And, and now we have radio waves. We have brought in the TV and then wireless, right? Like all these things create this EMF all around us. So the pollution really is junk light and EMF pollution. And so those two things. So you're sitting on your phone doom scrolling at night, you're looking at the blue light and there's a big spike. If you take a spectrometer, you put the tool up to the phone and it shows you a big spike of blue light. And that is what is creating the cortisol and depleting all your melatonin for the night.

[Alex Clark]

So let's talk about melatonin. Do you call melatonin a beauty hormone?

[Heidi Sime]

Because melatonin is like the master antioxidant hormone. It's a hormone. Let's just get that straight, okay? So a lot of people are like, oh, I take melatonin and we don't really know what it is. It, it's actually fascinating. There's people out there that are like, it's just the beginning of another cascade of. There's other chemicals we don't even know because it's pineal. It's released in the pineal gland again. And the pineal is sensitive to light. So even, even if your brain is sensing an overhead light, the pineal is sensing that light with, even without your eyes. Like, it's just fascinating. So it's releasing melatonin into your bloodstream. Okay, so melatonin is anti cancer, it's anti aging, it's ant. It's like the master antioxidant that's supposed to be flowing through your body all night long. And if you are exposed to bright lights, if you got overhead lights on at night, like, this is one hack for like moms across the board. Like, do not turn on overhead lights at night because your, your brain, their pineal is registering that as noon, as solar noon, because that's where the sun is, that position, our bodies are that intelligent.

[Alex Clark]

That is so cool. That's probably one of the neatest things I've ever learned on this show. When you put it that way, then I think that's really good motivation to not be turning on the big light.

[Heidi Sime]

Seriously.

[Alex Clark]

And, and you know what's funny is Gen Z hates the big light. I don't know if you've seen these trends on social media, but Gen Z cannot stand turning the big light on. They'll even work in the dark, like in an office space. A lot of my co workers, Gen Z, they do not want lights on. And so I guess what is your opinion then on overhead lighting versus lamps after sunset?

[Heidi Sime]

Overhead lighting is fine during the day because it's doing the same thing as, you know, the position as the sun and your brain and your eyes. That super cosmetic nucleus, that SCN that I was talking about, that's registering the position of the sun. So the position of the light. All day long our brains are calibrating all the light around us. How can it not affect us? Right? That's what circadian rhythm means. Circa dia. So 24 hour cycle a day. So it's a 24 hour cycle clock, supposed to have certain amount of light and you have to have certain amount of dark and absolute darkness. So if you put lamps on at night, your brain is now registering like our ancestors would have seen a low fire at night. Like say they're in the caves, you know, or whatever. Like go back that far. That's why Dave invented the blue blocking glasses to mimic firelight. So that's why we have our company that we have blight blocking glasses that are pretty for women.

[Alex Clark]

That's right. Yeah, they are really cute. What happens to skin and hormones and metabolism when melatonin is low, you probably

[Heidi Sime]

will have like dull skin, you know, your own skin, right? Like you look in the mirror and you're like, my skin looks dull. I don't feel well rested. I think it's more of like an internal feeling, but that reflects to the outside 100%. Right. And every woman knows that feeling and can see that in like poor sleep. It's really just, you know, paying attention and it's also cumulative. So the more well rested you are, the, the better night's sleep you have consecutively. Like you're just going to feel better and better, you're going to feel more positive and that positivity, the mindset of that is going to make you feel better and look better. I know people that talk about, like, somebody, you know, like they were working on. On their inner self, right? And their whole skin changed just based on changing their inner world to a positive mindset, right? So it's. I think it goes back to like all of those things combined. But how do you have a positive mindset and you're optimistic and joyful and happy? Like Hilda, right? That little ball of sunshine. Like, how do you. How do you manage that if you're not sleeping well? Right? She's huge on sleep. She actually taught me, you know, like how. How to age so gracefully. Like, she's just this incredible human and she has such a positive mindset. She's so committed to her sleep. Like. Like we are. I don't. Like, we know a lot of people in the biohacking world, and I don't know anybody else that honestly is that committed to wearing blood blocking glasses at night to create the firelight, right?

[Alex Clark]

Oh, has Hilda.

[Heidi Sime]

Oh, yeah, I know. Like, she's. She's right up there with us. And I tell you what, Thaddeus sent me a pair of blue light blocking glasses eight years ago. It was eight years fe story. I have not missed one night in eight years of wearing them. Like, it's non negotiable. Like, I know, it's like when you know too much, right? Like, you can't unknow that. And now it's. It's just like, it's that habit. And I know that I'm gonna not have melatonin that night or it's gonna be lower and I'm gonna have crappier sleep. And then the next day, it's not worth it.

[Alex Clark]

That's how it is for me with a lot of this health stuff is people are just like, you know, this isn't. This isn't realistic. There's no way you actually do this stuff. I'm like, look, what I'm telling you is the more I learn, the easier it is. They're like, living this way is stressful.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

I'm like, no, you are completely misunderstanding. Living this way is taking away so much stress. I get better sleep. I have more energy. I'm more relaxed. I'm more calm. And it's because of making these conscious, small, micro health and wellness decisions throughout the day, like getting sunlight in the morning, eating real food and being committed to it. So it's not a chore to commit to these things. It's just, it's. It's natural. We don't even Flinch.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, well, and, and you can feel like when I put the glasses on, like I feel instantly just more calm. And us women, like, I, I mean, honestly, we're more empathic obviously, but we're more sensitive to light. And I've seen that. I used to be an interior designer and I used to be a welder before that, but interior designer and I would work with clients and the woman would be like, have this horrible, like dining room light full of these like nasty compact fluorescent like balls bulbs and that. She'd be like, I don't know why I'm getting migraines. I'm like, are you kidding me? This is before I even met Thaddeus. And, and then the man would be like, I need to see, you know, like, I can't, I have to have them. I'm like, but your wife is like almost in tears sitting here telling you, like, she's getting migraines from these crazy lights. It's like, I'd work with them trying to find a compromise in the lighting more than designing their light can.

[Alex Clark]

Curating the ideal light diet, as I like to call it, you know, getting the right amount of red, near imperative red rays throughout the day, can that actually make your skin care work better?

[Heidi Sime]

If you're getting the right light environment throughout the day and at night, you can't exclude the night with the day because they go hand in hand. You know what I mean? Like, it's one full cycle. So if you're getting outside, everything's going to work better. I know women spend. I actually did some research on this. $3,000 at least a year on skin care, on beauty care products, some way more than that. And everything that you do is only just like topical and skin deep, but the light is actually from within, so it comes out from the other side, right? Like you're gonna get your sleep dialed in. You're gonna feel better. Anytime I have somebody that writes in and they're like, I have depression, I have seasonal sleep disorder, blah, blah, blah. I actually bring the question to Thaddeus and I say, Thaddeus, what would you say to know to these people? And, and he says, get outside, get outside. Everything is about us connecting back to the sun. We are controlled by the sun and the moon. Us women, we're on a 28 day cycle connecting to the moon, which is so beautiful. And then we're on a 24 hour cycle connecting to the sun. How can that not be helpful? We've been told a pack of lies about the sun and it's Been so demonized. All by design, in my opinion. And I think. I think that anytime you're connecting back to something in nature. We had a friend who completely reversed all kinds of, like, horrible diseases just by going out in nature one night a week. He would sleep out in the forest.

[Alex Clark]

But see that. Now, that is totally unrealistic for most people.

[Heidi Sime]

That's crazy.

[Alex Clark]

But that is wild.

[Heidi Sime]

He. He reversed it and he. And he swam the Willamette River. Like, he did all this, like, crazy cold swimming. I mean, but he reversed, like, all these crazy autoimmune diseases. So, I mean, nature is always, always the answer. And melatonin works with our body biologically, intrinsically. And if you're avoiding the sun and you're not able to, like, get outside, you guys think just. I mean, just common sense. Like, kind of think about that. Sitting indoors under artificial light. What happens to, like, zoo animals? What happens to. You know what I mean? Like, I get so sad when I see animals. Like, they're. I don't know that they're paying attention to their light environment. They might create, like, an environment around them that mimics nature. But are they really giving them the right lighting at that juncture, too? You know, I. I don't. I don't know about that with the animals, but I do know, like, animals in the home, like, we don't think about that. We think about the candles we're burning, or we think about, like, all the, you know, all the other stuff that's going on in our house. But our animals need to go outside. My dog goes outside. Outside. Like, you love your dog as much as I love my dog? Like, he's my. He's my number one baby in the whole world. And he goes outside with me every morning and Thaddeus. And gets morning sunlight.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, I've been trying to make sure that I do that, too.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

We want results that work quickly when it comes to skin and beauty and all of that. As women. So tell me, why, as even just a beauty junkie, if I'm not sold for any other reason on getting out to get morning sun and then walking at sunset as a beauty junkie, why should that be a priority in my life?

[Heidi Sime]

Okay, well, Alex, have you heard of red light therapy?

[Alex Clark]

Yes.

[Heidi Sime]

Okay, so that therapy actually helps speed up wounds and wound healing by 50%. Fine lines and wrinkles, photo aging, all these things. Right. That were sold in devices which work, by the way. But you can also get that from the sun for free. For free. Morning sun, sunlight, sunset light. That's when you have the most red and infrared light in the atmosphere. And that's why the colors of the. Of the sunrise are. They're not as dark and, like, red and. And pink Right. As sunset, because they're giving you different signals. But there's still a ton of infrared and red frequencies in the atmosphere at. At dawn, during the morning sunlight, and then at sunset, if you get sunburned. If you do get sunburned, burnt, maybe because you're wearing sunglasses, you can expose your skin to sunset light because of that red and infrared, it'll. It'll heal your skin with coconut oil. It's like a really good little combo.

[Alex Clark]

Melatonin is in breast milk.

[Heidi Sime]

Yes.

[Alex Clark]

Why is that important for women to know?

[Heidi Sime]

Oh, my God, Alex. This is, like, one of the most important things that any woman who is going to have a baby should know or who is lactating. It's actually called nighttime milk, and a lot of people maybe haven't heard of this. And you have different milk during the day than you do at night. Isn't that crazy? Like, they did this study, and they found that breast milk at night is rich in melatonin. And if we think about that, we're like, yeah, that makes sense. Right? Does formula have melatonin in it? No. I mean, how could it? Right. So your baby, if you're breastfeeding. Like, we're huge fans of breastfeeding, obviously. And. And I'm sure your. Your. Your audiences, too. And your audience is the best, by the way. Like, they're. They're the coolest. Yeah, I'm, like, actually so proud of your audience, I have to say that. Yeah. Like, they're really cool. I mean, I said so many people reach out to us, and they're just really neat people.

[Alex Clark]

They're eager to learn. I know they're eager to learn. There's a few people that, you know, complain.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

And then I'm just. I'm like, okay, that's fine. But for the most part, they're all very, very awesome.

[Heidi Sime]

They are. Are so thinking about, you know, like, breastfeeding versus giving your child formula. Not only the formula is full of GMOs, it's full of glyphosate. Do you remember the Forever Dog book?

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, I've interviewed her. Dr. Karen Becker.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. Yeah. So I. I actually looked into that, and I love that book. I love the recipe book, too. The formula. It has just as much crappy glyphosate in it as the dog food. I mean, people sick.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

I mean, people in so many additives. It's. It's bad stuff. Like, do not give your child that. If you have some issue that you can't, you know, breastfeed. There's breast milk banks out there that you can. You can get supplemental breast milk. Here's a crazy story. So when I was born, my mom. My mom tells me this story that back in the 1970s, she was, like, committed to breastfeeding, which is like, duh, why wouldn't you? Like, we know that, right? And. And the doctor came in, she had an IV because I guess I came really fast. I was born within, like, two hours. And they wanted to give her some IV or whatever. And the doctor came in with the syringe, and she looked at him. Thank God she was awake. Thank God she was, like, alert and knowing, right? Because you're such an invulnerable state in post, you know, birthing. And she asked him, she said, what is that for? And he said, it's to dry up your milk. And my mom was like, what? Why would I want to do that? He shamed her. And he was like, like, why would you want to breastfeed? He's like, you're not going to breastfeed, are you? Because he was really trying to push formula. It's crazy. So thank God she was awake, alert, and was like, I'm breastfeeding my daughter. But can you imagine, like, there's other. And that just makes me think, like, that vulnerable position of mom in the hospital, like, giving birth. Like, there's not time to make decisions. That's why you need a partner there, right?

[Alex Clark]

Or a doula.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, a doula. Or a directive. Give. Yeah, like, there's all those things. But honestly, like, that's. That's absolutely so horrifying to me. And I can imagine all the moms that were just like, yeah. Or didn't know

[Alex Clark]

if you've ever tried to take a family that's been living on ultra processed food and suddenly go full. You know, we only eat real food now. It's chaos, right? It's rebellion. It's like you've started a small civil war in your kitchen. And what I've learned from doing the show and talking to all these health people is you don't go cold turkey overnight. You start with familiar things. Things. You don't take away the burger. You just make it at home with better ingredients. You don't totally eliminate chicken nuggets, you just upgrade them. And the easiest swap of all, breakfast cereal. No cooking, no fight. Just swap it because most cereals are a disaster. Even the healthy ones, I'm saying that in quotes. Even the healthy ones sometimes can have refined sugar, synthetic pesticides. You've got the typical conventional cereals, they have weird dyes, stuff made in a lab so that big food could make money while your kid is basically eating a science experiment. Lovebird is different. Lovebird was started when my friend Parker, who's a dad, left big food to make a cereal with actual real ingredients for his daughter. I love the cinnamon protein cereal. There's no fake stuff, no pesticide, so grains, no refined sugar. It's made with organic whole food ingredients like cassava and lightly sweetened with honey. It's third party tested. It actually tastes good and they give 20% of profits to fight childhood cancer. This is how you do it. You don't shock the system, right? You don't freak the kids out. You just quietly upgrade what your family already loves. They will even help you transition the cereal in your child's school for free if you email them and get an okay from their school. Go to lovebirdfoods.com use code alex20 for 20 off. That's lovebirdfoods.com code alex20 for 20 off. Let me tell you something nobody wants to hear. If your immune system is weak, your face is going to snitch on you. You can buy every serum on the Internet, you can ice roll your face like a lunatic, but if your immune system is getting wrecked every day, you're gonna look older than you are. We're out here nuking our homes with bleach and lysol like it's a chemical war zone. You're basically carpet bombing your own immune system, breathing it in, touching it, living in it. That stuff doesn't just clean the home, it disrupts your body. It irritates. And over time, yeah, it can wear you down. That's why I switch to Branch Basics. It's non toxic, plant and mineral based and it actually cleans. Without turning your house into a science experiment. You dilute one concentrate and use it for everything. Counters, floors, laundry, even glass. It's simple, it works. And it's not slowly sabotaging your health while you're just trying to wipe down a countertop. If you care about looking more youthful and vibrant and not like a Victorian ghost, stop poisoning your environment. Go to Branch Basics and make the switch. Your immune system and your face are going to show the difference. Go to branchbasics.com use code ALEX15 for 15 off. The premium starter kit, that's branch basics.com code ALEX15 for 15 off the premium starter kit. When a breastfeeding mom is waking up in the middle of the night to night feed.

[Heidi Sime]

Yes.

[Alex Clark]

And she's scrolling social media while the baby is breastfeeding, what is that doing to baby and mom?

[Heidi Sime]

It's bad on so many levels. Levels. You're basically giving the baby a shot of cortisol because you're looking at. Remember that. That spike of blue light? So you're putting that light. Now it's that mixed signal. Remember, that signal is daytime, and that is equal to cortisol. So you're giving yourself a shot of cortisol. Now it's going to go into your milk, and you're going to give your baby a shot of cortisol. Right? And I think this is actually even more important. And you're not connecting with the baby. Like, it just. It actually pains my heart because, like, why. I didn't have a cell phone at that time, so I had the luxury of, like, not having to deal with that. But I remember so many moments of that time of my life. Connecting with your baby and, like, nursing your baby is so unlike any experience that you'll ever have. It's like childbirth, right? Like, it's. It's so interesting and beautiful. But in order to even produce breast milk, you need oxytocin. When you're breastfeeding, you're actually giving your baby oxytocin, too. You guys are both creating it. And we're creating oxytocin right here. Us two women talking. Creating oxytocin. When women work with their hands and do small things like pick berries or, like, do gardening or whatever, you're actually creating oxytocin. That's why it feels so good. So when you're feeling sad, call up a girlfriend who's positive, who's a positive person, and you'll create some oxytocin and you'll instantly feel better. Like, we all know that, how that feels, right? Like, I just had some girl time with the hair and makeup girls. And I was like, you guys, I'm like, we're making oxytocin right now, all three of us. And they're like, what? Like, that's so cool. So, like, don't miss out on that time with your baby. And, like, I remember so many, so many times that. And with each child, because I had four, like, this is a lot. But each time I was, like, nursing baby, and I would. I would have, like, a little rocking chair in a room separate from, you know, our Main bedroom. And it was just like, this is our time. Do you remember that movie, the Goonies? Like, remember? He's like, this is our time down here. It's like that. It's like, this is our time. It's not time with dad, it's not time with other children. It's like, this is the bonding time. And oxytocin, is that bonding, that beautiful. So you're actually stealing that time from bonding and, and developing your baby. Because your awareness, like, think about your awareness and your attention. Like where attention goes, that's, that's where everything flows. Energy flows, right? So you're holding your baby and you're now over here looking at a phone or you're distracted. No, like, that's not how God made us and put us on this planet to raise our babies. Like, you're looking at babies, baby, you're giving baby full attention. It's like when you see a mom in a coffee shop and she's like this, and there's a three year old sitting there going, like, pay attention to your children. Like, your attention is so special. And you're gonna miss all those years and those times, those special times with your kids. Tech is really stealing those times.

[Alex Clark]

I was actually just telling someone earlier this morning, I was like, you know, I have this idea, like a parenting rule idea I want to do. And they were like, okay, tell me. And I was like, I think, think I want to make a rule where there is a certain area of, like the kitchen, for example, which is where we put our phones. When the children are awake, we're spending time with them. We don't have the phone in our hand, like a pacifier. And then, you know, you go back and you want to use your phone, you can check it, that's fine. But you have to stand in one spot to check the phone.

[Heidi Sime]

That's a good idea.

[Alex Clark]

Kind of like what we used to do with home phones, right? If you wanted to use it, then you got to go to the one spot to use it. And that's like the phone area. And then otherwise, like, you're just engaging with family time or whatever. And then once they're in bed, then fine, they're in bed. You can be on your phone. But I don't know, I just, I was thinking about that, just picturing how so many parents are literally like playing with their kids, but their kid is almost never looking at their face that are looking at the back of your phone.

[Heidi Sime]

Totally.

[Alex Clark]

And I don't know, that is very depressing. But what you are bringing up with the breastfeeding stuff is interesting to me because I guess when I was thinking about, like, why is she going to talk? Because I knew you wanted to talk about why being on your phone during breastfeeding is bad. And I was thinking that you were going to say the blue light from the phone getting in their eyes. And I was just like, well, is it really in their eyes? Because, because they're like, their eyes are closed. Usually they're like nuzzled against the boob. But you're saying it actually creates a cortisol spike in the mother and that's going into the breast milk in real time.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. And, and remember I said about the pineal gland, you're actually exposing the baby's crown to that blue light.

[Alex Clark]

Wow.

[Heidi Sime]

At the same time. And like, let's add, let's add one more like, negative thing. You're microwaving baby. Like that's, that's that equally as bad as blue light. Now you're giving, you're literally giving that baby radio frequency like this. And it's going into your hand like it's, you're, you're microwaving everything. You wouldn't put breast milk in a microwave, right? Like, we all kind of know that, like any women who've had children, like you've been told by your ancestors that you never put breast milk in a microwave. Have you heard that?

[Alex Clark]

No.

[Heidi Sime]

Oh, yeah.

[Alex Clark]

But I also don't have kids yet.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, so you probably would. But like that, that's insane because it, it destroys everything that's beautiful in that, that breast milk. So your microwave is a radio frequency and it's the same frequency, 2.45 GHz as your Wi fi router. Think about that. And your phone is a mini cell tower. Your baby monitor is a mini cell tower. You are microwaving your baby when you have a, any wireless tech in the baby's nursery.

[Alex Clark]

When does a baby circadian rhythm actually develop?

[Heidi Sime]

Between three and four months.

[Alex Clark]

So they should be on a regular circadian rhythm type of sleeping schedule in that around three, four months.

[Heidi Sime]

I learned about this after I had kids, right? So my kids were a little bit older. But what I know and what we've studied and what we've looked into is that around three to four months is when they start being trained by mom their rhythm rhythm and whether it, maybe it, it's not circadian. And so you're either going to train them, Alex, by blue light tech light, right. Overhead lights, or you're going to train them by Nature. And I would say like a better idea would be train them by nature. So take them outside with you if you're going to commit to your health and your longevity. Getting that morning sunlight, taking them out, you know, around three months is ideal deal. And just have them come outside with you. Like it's not, it's not even that big a deal. Like we need to get back outside. And if you're going to train your child to like sleep through the night getting, remember we said the morning sunlight creates the melatonin 14 to 16 hours later. That is so important to start that at that age. But before that, when they're infants, like they just sleep all the time, right? Like when they're newborns, like you don't have to worry about it, but don't give them a nap and pull the, pull the dark out shades, you know, either at three to four months, like make sure the shades are open and they're taking like little naps here and there during the day. Only at night, train them to have the blackout curtain.

[Alex Clark]

Okay. That's important.

[Heidi Sime]

I think super important. And what it also does. I know Thaddeus talks about this the way he trained his kids to not be afraid of the dark. So you can actually help them be sleep independent. Because I know a lot of parents are struggling with kids that come in. I was one of those kids. I was, was like terrified of the dark. And my, my parents let us watch like stupid Rambo movies and whatever when back in the 80s or whatever. And they didn't, they didn't have any monitors on that. Right. Like there was no, we could just watch whatever and I would just be terrified to go to sleep and my bedroom was like way down and blah blah. And I was too old to like be afraid of the dark and I'd go up to sleep on my mom's floor. So you can train your child to not be afraid of the dark by having them be in the dark dark. That doesn't mean putting a nightlight on at night in the nursery. That's training them to not be in the dark. So the solution to that is to get a little motion sensing night light. Because you're going to want to see if you have to go in there and they're crying or whatever. Somebody has to walk in the room and you're gonna be like, oh well I need to see something. Can't just be pitch black, right? Get emotion sensing red light, circadian friendly blue light free flicker free red nightlight.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

And then you'll walk in it won't disturb your circadian rhythm, nor the babies.

[Alex Clark]

Do you think that a lot of the infertility issues that we're seeing across the country have something to do with a poor light diet?

[Heidi Sime]

Oh, my God, Alex. It probably has everything to do with it. Like, that's. It's so. It's so baffling to me. Like, the doctors don't take that into consideration. Like, they don't. They don't talk about nutrition, right? Like. Like this. Everything's so inverted in this. In this crazy culture that.

[Alex Clark]

Well, I don't know.

[Heidi Sime]

Culture. We live in society, but we actually got a horse. My mom used to raise Arabian horses, and we couldn't get this mare pregnant. And one of the. One of the vets was like, well, I know how to get pregnant. Change the light. And my mom was like, what? She's like, yeah. She's like, we'll just set up some lights in her stall. There's this thing about horses where you want them to have babies at a certain time, then they have a better chance of whatever and some edge you have in show horses. And so my mom was like, okay, well, let's try it. She got her pregnant, like, changing the light, giving her more light, because it was winter. Animals don't mate in the winter, right? Like, they mate in the springtime, and they have babies in the summer, and then they prepare for winter. But we got her pregnant in the winter by. By giving her more light in the evening. If you're having infertility issues, getting out in that morning sunlight to regulate your hormones. One other thing, too. Thyroid can be a problem with that. And a lot of women are sitting in bed. Doom. Scrolling right?

[Alex Clark]

Oh, yeah, it's going right on your thyroid, Alex.

[Heidi Sime]

It. The thyroid sits 3 millimeters. It's the closest organ to your skin. So cover that up. Wear a scarf. Do something. When I first met Thaddeus, I would come in the house, and he would be. At night, he would be up working late on computer, and he would be wearing my scarf. And I was like, what is happening right now? And he's like, it's my thyroid. Like, he knows. He knew that light is hitting that.

[Alex Clark]

I've never even considered that. And I have thyroid issues. So that's really important for me to know.

[Heidi Sime]

Yes, definitely.

[Alex Clark]

Your wakeup call to moms who have babies that are sleeping terribly is that they need to be fixing their circadian rhythm. So how do moms fix their circadian rhythm? Step by step. Especially if they're breastfeeding currently.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

Cuz that adds this element of waking up in the middle of the night.

[Heidi Sime]

Absolutely. I'll just go back to morning sunlight. That's number one. That is the number one reset. Getting out at dawn. If you are getting out at dawn during any time of the year, it means that you're preparing your body to sleep. I know I have people ask me this question, I'm like, they're like, well how am I going to get to sleep earlier? I'm like by getting up at dawn. It's a cycle, right? So like the more you get up at dawn, the more you're going to sleep. Go to sleep earlier.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah you do.

[Heidi Sime]

And we all know going to sleep earlier. How do you feel? Oh, so much better.

[Alex Clark]

It's so much better. And also I don't need an alarm. I naturally will wake up at, at, I don't know, anytime. Anytime between 5:30 and 6:30 is when I naturally wake up and I feel well rested. I go outside and then yeah, I'm getting tired between 9 and 10pm I mean if I am out to eat, if I'm with friends, I could be having the most fun time ever. I could be at a Morgan Wallen concert. And as soon as that clock hits 9 to 10pm I feel I'm like shutting down. It's like, okay, it's bedtime and it's very, very natural and it's not hard to do. So you know, we've talked about this on the show before but I just think people that are night owls, it's a myth.

[Heidi Sime]

It is. It's not a thing.

[Alex Clark]

It's not a thing.

[Heidi Sime]

We're not nocturnal.

[Alex Clark]

It is so easy to reverse that.

[Heidi Sime]

It is. But you have to, you have to like get into your mind too. Like that's something you want to do and something you're committed to do. Right. And then you make it a non negotiable. So like you being out with your friends, that's, that's perfectly normal. That your body is just like, hey, I already, you know. Already. You were out in the morning sunlight. You programmed me, right? Hey buddy, you programmed me 14 to 16 hours earlier. Now you're shutting down, it's time to go to bed. Like are you going to listen or not?

[Alex Clark]

So first step is getting out of the morning. Morning sunlight to revamp your circadian rhythm.

[Heidi Sime]

Yep. And then it depends on like what you're doing during the day. So stay at home, moms. I would say get outside as much as possible with your kiddos. Get them barefoot on the ground. Grounding barefoot foot sunlight. Like that's why people feel so good when you go to the beach.

[Alex Clark]

Even babies crawling on grass.

[Heidi Sime]

Yes. Don't spray with pesticides.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

I mean that's the thing. Like if you live in hoa. I don't know. I mean that here's the thing, like we all make decisions, right. And if you live in a HOA or if you live in places like that, like what's important to you, we wouldn't live there. I would never live in a HOA that has sprayed grass.

[Alex Clark]

Oh, I wouldn't either.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, there's no way. But there's, but there's people that make that right choice. And you know, I think like as we heal as a culture, like these are things that, conveniences that I think we need to really take a look at and go, is that worth it? For my dog and my kid. And it just pains me when I walk by a lawn and it's like keep kids and dogs off this lawn and it's for the school next door. And I'm like, are you kidding me?

[Alex Clark]

Like, you know what else has been that I've opened my eyes to that I, I really didn't think about till recently is turf. So I live in Arizona. Hardly anyone has grass. It's very hard to find grass here. And so what everybody does is they have either pebbles or rock or they do fake plastic turf grass. Now it never even occurred to me, I didn't even really think about it till recently. That that turf plastic grass that people have in their yard is just completely forever chemicals and baking in 120 degrees in Arizona sun. And then your pets and your kids and stuff are walking barefoot and playing on that absolutely nasty stuff that is, that is so toxic. So I mean for me living in Arizona, you know, when I have a home one day and have a yard, I. That's like non negotiable for me. We are having grass. I do not care. We're having grass. Like I don't care what the water bill is. Right. Like it's, it's happening because I will not walk on that.

[Heidi Sime]

Well, you can't ground on that.

[Alex Clark]

No, it doesn't work.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah. If you're stay at mom getting outside as much as possible. Getting kiddos outside. If you're working inside and you have a day job, putting on glasses that are yellow, yellow tint, not the clear ones like the yellow tinted glasses. If you're on a computer will help save your eyes from stress, save your brain from stress. Save your brain from Brain fog. At the end of the day, I went from a job where I was working as a welder and I was working in this welding, like, studio, like art studio. Studio. And I like walked away from that job and I started a desk job at a flooring store. So I learned to do like more interior design stuff. And I came home and I was on the computer like all day and I hadn't been at all before. Like, I was in the studio and I was like, what is happening in my brain? Like, this is before I met Thaddeus. And I was like, what? Like, what is wrong with me? Like, I thought something was wrong with me. And then I was like, okay, what have I been doing? I just kind of like sat back and like reflected for a moment. I'm like, okay, I changed my environment. Environment, right? And I went from working in a shop with daylight, with windows and open windows a lot in three, like probably nine months out of the year. And now I'm inside all day working on a computer. And so I went to the optometrist and they put the blue tech in my glasses. I got my glasses. I noticed instantly that day I started wearing the glasses. I did not, I did not go home with brain fog and a headache. I would go home every night with a headache. So wearing the blue light blocking glasses during the day, if you're on, on computers or if you're on tech. And I have moms that reach out and they're like, hey, I'm on my phone a lot. You talk about computers or iPads, right? Like any, any tech that's got the blue backlit, blue light. And I'm like, okay, well how? She's like, do I need, you know, this is, this is one of the moms. They're like, do I need the yellow glasses if I'm on my phone? And I say, well, how often are you on your phone? Like the duration. And, and they're like, oh, a lot. Like all day. And I'm like, oh boy. I would, I would definitely get daytime glasses then. Like if you're on for hours, you're going to want to protect your eyes. You're protecting your brain, you're protecting your skin, you're protecting everything. And then the next step would be wear like wearing blue light blocking glasses after sunset. So that's the, the glasses that are the orange color and they're mimicking firelight.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

So everything is calmer. That's that thing. It's like non negotiable in our house. And I have a Little hack for that too. I was actually teach a friend of mine this before, before we came. And I was like, put your glasses wherever you're going to be at sunset. So for us, it's in our kitchen and I've got a little drawer, it's like the Heidi drawer. And I put them in there. I always know that my glasses are in that drawer around sunset. So we go outside, we always take a sunset walk. For us is different because we're so far away from the equator. So whenever sunset is, it's very, it's much more extreme. So at summer it's like 10 o'. Clock. In the winter it's like 4:30. It's like, it's crazy, right? But we don't eat after sunset. So we're always. It's somewhere in the kitchen preparing food around that time.

[Alex Clark]

Why don't you eat after sunset?

[Heidi Sime]

Because in your, like think about your body working with that light and dark cycle. If you're preparing your body for sleep and it's digesting, you're not gonna like, fully get the rejuvenation and regeneration that your cells need. Need to like, actually go into like a really good deep sleep and get that glymphatic like washing of your brain and wake up feeling refreshed. Your body's going to be like, oh, I got to digest. I got to do all this other work. It's not supposed to be working, it's supposed to be resting. And that's another like the circadian rhythm thing is like you eat with, you rise with the sun, you eat with the sun and then you fall with this. With the sun. Right. Like it's just. And it. Doesn't that make sense?

[Alex Clark]

Yes.

[Heidi Sime]

Like when you hear, when I heard Thaddeus first teach that to, to me, my inner tuning fork was like, yes. Right. Like that just absolutely made sense to me. I'm like that. I. I get it.

[Alex Clark]

And so would the last step be something having to do with the lighting in your home?

[Heidi Sime]

Oh yeah. So don't turn on overhead lights after.

[Alex Clark]

When?

[Heidi Sime]

After sunset.

[Alex Clark]

Because why?

[Heidi Sime]

Because remember, it's giving you the wrong signal. So avoid, avoid turning on any overhead lights. And like, we got to talk about like, what lights too? Because like we have Edison light bulbs in our kitchen. Kitchen. And that's a different type of light. There's, there's infrared light that's coming out of that light bulb and red light.

[Alex Clark]

So Edison light bulbs, they actually are really good. They're not just aesthetic.

[Heidi Sime]

They're both.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, yeah. No, they're healthy because they're a full spectrum, okay? And they're paired. That blue light, there's still a little bit of spike of that blue light and it will deplete your melatonin. So like our kids know that you don't come into our kitchen and turn on the overhead light. Like, you'll get in trouble. More for that than like sneaking out.

[Alex Clark]

I saw this story about a guy who got married, beautiful wedding, everything's perfect, vows, family crying. And then like two weeks in, he realizes his wife only eats gummy Krabby Patties and Fruit Roll ups. And he's sitting there like, who have I married? Couldn't be us that listen to this show, right? Because at some point you realize that food is either building you or it's slowly killing you. And for years we've been told meat is the problem. Avoid it, fear it. Meanwhile, people are living on ultra processed nonsense and wondering why they feel terrible. That is the meat that is bad. Okay? Ultr. Processed meat, fast food meat is bad. Conventional farm meat, not grass fed steak. Wild Pastures flips this completely. This is who I get. My meat delivered from Wild Pastures is regeneratively farmed. 100% grass fed, pasture raised meat from American family farms. And regenerative farming actually restores the soil, improves the land and produces more nutrient dense food. It's not just better for you, it's better for the entire country, the world. These animals are raised the way they're supposed to to be. Rotational grazing, no antibiotics, no no hormones, no factory farms, real food raised right. And I'm telling you, Wild Pastures chicken wings that are pasture raised are unreal. And the grass fed grass finished ribeyes are completely different level. You taste it immediately. Also, their wild pastures plus subscription gets you 20% off for life. Free shipping for life, a $15 bonus, flexible delivery. So if you haven't eaten all the meat yet and you don't want it to automatically come, it won't. Exclusive discounts and you no hidden fees. It's the Wild Pastures plus subscription. So you can eat like a functioning adult without needing also a second mortgage. Because look, you can keep eating like a kid at a gas station or you can eat real food that actual fuels you. Don't be the Gummy Burger household. Go to wildpastures.com that's wild pastures.com. what if a bear was president? Just think about it. A £900 animal smashing through the briefing room like we're going to bed for the one winter. That's the policy approval ratings through the roof and the bear would probably be healthier than most of us because it's not living on energy drinks and ultra processed snacks. It's just doing the basics. Eating real food, living in alignment sunlight. Meanwhile we're in a drive through at 11pm like oh, why do I feel so bad? That's kind of how I've been thinking about health lately. Not just doing some insane overhaul, just back to the basics. And that's why I like Utsy Naturals for supplements. They're a conservative family owned supplement company. They literally have a 100 acre herb farm in Wisconsin in it's not some random lab in a strip mall. They grow and source ingredients the way it used to be done. Real ingredients, no filler. Everything is made in the US and packaged in glass bottles instead of plastic. There's no trendy strange things in there, right? It's just clean foundational supplements that actually support your body. So if you don't know where to start, a good B complex for energy and stress is great. A real multivitamin. You can find multivitamins on there that I trust. They also have what's called youmune. It's a immune support when you're traveling or run down. Because you don't need to become a biohacking influencer. Okay. You just need to stop living like a raccoon and maybe take care of yourself like a responsible bear president. Go to utsy.com use code Alex to save. That's utsy.com use code Alex for any supplement that you've been needing from glutathione to vitamin C and magnesium. Where in the home should you start replacing lighting first?

[Heidi Sime]

Your bedroom. Definitely get the bedroom light, right? It depends on your partner too. Like there's so many nuances to it. If your partner is like hopefully they don't have a TV in the bedroom. Like that would be a non negotiable for me too and for Thaddus. So we're definitely be aligned on that. And if you're not like I don't know, I got maybe get some counseling or something, I'm not sure. But getting a red light bulb in your bedroom. Cuz sometimes you want to come in and like see what's, see where your pajamas are or whatever. You don't want to just walk into a dark, completely dark room. But you also don't want to like turn on an overhead light and have it be a big bright light bulb or Edison bulb because remember it'll, it'll signal the pineal and your eyes and it'll give you a little shock of cortisol. And that's not what you want to get before bed. So get the red light. It's not going to disrupt your circadian rhythm. So red light bulb. Or you can use an amber light bulb. And I always tell people like, take it slowly. Small steps are huge wins. Because if I've had people like order a bunch of red light bulbs right off the bat and they just go from like LED lights to like switching out their entire home with like red lights.

[Alex Clark]

Oh yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

And then they email me back and they're like, can I return these? And I'm like, why would. Don't do that.

[Alex Clark]

So what sort of lighting are we doing? We're doing. We're doing red.

[Heidi Sime]

Red light bulbs in the bedroom.

[Alex Clark]

In the bedroom?

[Heidi Sime]

In the bedroom. In the bathroom. So if you got to get up and go to the bathroom, get a little red nightlight. Since motion sensing. Right. Put it in the kids nurseries. Put it in your kids rooms. I have a lamp. Cuz sometimes I just like to go hang out, you know, in my, in my bed. And I have. It's a red light bulb and I have a reading light that's red and amber. So it's like a little clicky thing and you can click it between the red and amber.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

Y. So there's no blue light in our bedroom. There's no, there's no phone light. And if, if for some reason I do have to like text one of my kids or something at night and it's in the bedroom before I go to sleep, I will put the blood blocking. Make sure I have blood blocking glasses on before I look at the phone. I know it sounds like really like, I don't know, like really disciplined. Right. But once you feel good and you feel rested, right. And you're like living your best life and you're like feeling really positive and you're making a really good impact in the world as you are. I mean, it's hard to go back on that stuff. Right?

[Alex Clark]

Right.

[Heidi Sime]

So like the more you know, the more you know and the more you can teach your kids. And one little funny thing too. Like we have, we just have. We're pretty extreme. This is like biohacker extreme. Right? I'm sure Dave has all red lights in his house too.

[Alex Clark]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

But you can start with incandescent and then move to the amber lights and then move to red. But red in the bedroom, red in your bathroom. Now we have a, we have a really interesting light. It's like this new technology. You click it on once, it comes goes red, click it on again, it goes amber and click it on again. It's full spectrum. So, like I can get ready in the morning with a full spectrum light. I just flip it three times.

[Alex Clark]

So is there any LED lights in your home?

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, those are LEDs. LED doesn't mean it's bad.

[Alex Clark]

It doesn't?

[Heidi Sime]

No.

[Alex Clark]

What do you mean?

[Heidi Sime]

Because, okay, so an LED is just like, it's, it's the way that there's like a little chip inside, right. Like that's emitting the light. The incandescent is a tungsten in filament. So they, there's just, there's, and there's, and there's also halogen lighting. There's all different kinds of light bulbs. So LED just means that it's not giving up red and infrared heat. It's not heating anything. There's no heating element.

[Alex Clark]

Okay, but I thought we were supposed to be switching all of the light bulbs in our home to incandescent.

[Heidi Sime]

I mean, that's one of those nuance things. Like incandescent is great. And if you're into aesthetics, then like in our kitchen, I want to see our food. You don't want a red light bulb in your kitchen.

[Alex Clark]

No, I don't either.

[Heidi Sime]

I do have one over my sink so I can toggle between the two. So if I come down in the morning and I'm like, I need to see. Right. I'm not going to. I know better. I'm not going to flip on that overhead Edison because there's still a lot of blue light in that. I'm going to go flip on the red light over the sink first.

[Alex Clark]

But if we're giving directives to people because they're going to be too confused with the nuance. So they're like, what do I buy? So, yes, a few lamps that are red.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

And then otherwise though, would you say yes, look for incandescent bulbs.

[Heidi Sime]

Incandescent bulbs, yes. In the kitchen. Incandescent in your living room. It's kind of like what is your family going to tolerate? Because if you're going to put on incandescent bulb in the kitchen or the living room and it's after sunset, you still have to wear blight blocking glasses to block that because there's quite a bit of blue light in there.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

It's going to suppress 40. I think it's like 40% of your melatonin.

[Alex Clark]

Okay.

[Heidi Sime]

You don't want that. You want your melatonin. You be Melatonin rich.

[Alex Clark]

One thing they always ask is where do you buy incandescent bulbs?

[Heidi Sime]

We sell them on our website.

[Alex Clark]

You sell them on your website, which is what?

[Heidi Sime]

Dreamwalkers AI with a Z. Dreamwalkers with

[Alex Clark]

a Z. AI and you. I mean I've bought incandescent bulbs just at a hardware store.

[Heidi Sime]

Right.

[Alex Clark]

So I just walk in, I'm just like, can you show where the incandescent bulbs are? Here they are. I mean it's, it's not like, like it's really that simple.

[Heidi Sime]

Right. I mean there's, there's different intensities too. There's different nuances to them. Some have like we have this amber coating on ours. So they're really pretty and they're really vintage looking like they're really like steampunk cool. I did order a regular 100 watt incandescent bulb. I just wanted to see what it looked like in this lamp. Cuz I'm always experimenting and testing stuff out. And it came and it was a white coated lamp light and I measured it with our spectrometer and it, it had a lot more blue light in it than our vintage bulb.

[Alex Clark]

When you've got kids that are over stimulated, how much of that do you think is due to lack of proper light exposure?

[Heidi Sime]

I mean there's videos I've seen with kids that are under those crazy fluorescent lights in school. Right? Have you seen those videos?

[Alex Clark]

Yes.

[Heidi Sime]

And the kids are bopping around, they're out of control. Like you want to talk about behavior issues like turn the lights off. Like that's crazy. Those fluorescent lights are so anti our biology. Yeah, there's, I mean, if anything, that's

[Alex Clark]

a great way to put it. The entire environment in a, in a school setting in America is totally anti biology. It's from what we feed the children, which is not even food, to lack of real light at all, or fresh air breathing in all of the chemicals that the schools are being cleaned with all day long. Then you've got terrible water usually in schools that is not filtered.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

And then we're like wondering why they're having all these behavioral issues. And then we want to medicate them. I mean if you put a house plant in this environment that we're putting our children in in America, the house plant would die.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

And we are like, well what could be causing this? I don't understand. Why is my child acting like this? Nobody thinks that humans were never supposed to be in an environment like that for so long, for that many days a week.

[Heidi Sime]

And you forgot the emf environment.

[Alex Clark]

That's right.

[Heidi Sime]

I used to be a substitute teacher in middle school. I loved it. Middle school kids are the best. And being a sub and that is, like, batshit crazy.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

I was in a classroom one time, and there was no windows. I'm like, are we in prison?

[Alex Clark]

Terrible.

[Heidi Sime]

Horrifying. And the. The router. I actually brought our little microwave radiation meter with us that day because it was like science class. So I was like, hey, guys, let's. Let's see what, you know, science says here. Every single kid in that classroom had a phone on in their pocket, and there was a WI fi router in the middle of the room. No windows. And they're just literally, Alex being so gray.

[Alex Clark]

They're.

[Heidi Sime]

They're microwaving, and they've got mini cell towers. That's what a phone is. It's a pocket computer. It's like a mini cell tower in. In their pocket. I was like, in this horrifying, like, soup of emf. It was. It was so bad. I was like, you guys, I was like, I'm going to show you this. So I took out the. It's, like, called an acousticom. So I took the meter out and I put it next to the WI fi router. It was off the charts. My. My meter couldn't even read it. It was off the charts. And I was like, give me your cell phone. So we did the cell phone, we did the AirPods. That's another thing. Y. AirPods. You guys, do not put those in your brain. Like, get wired headphones. And then I told the kids. I'm like, you guys, like, you're just sitting here in this, like, concrete block, like, let's go outside. And they're like, yeah, like, blah, blah. They're like, you're the best. And I got fired for taking the kids outside.

[Alex Clark]

What was the reasoning?

[Heidi Sime]

Because I wasn't following the rules. I wasn't teaching them the curriculum is what I was told.

[Alex Clark]

This is the problem. This is the problem.

[Heidi Sime]

This is what they said. They're like, Ms. Sime. And I'm like, no, it's Heidi. They're like, we learned more from you in this day than I have from this teacher all year.

[Alex Clark]

That's so sad.

[Heidi Sime]

Isn't that sad?

[Alex Clark]

Yeah. Homeschool your kids, please.

[Heidi Sime]

And, Alex, not only school schools, but think about prisons. Think about nursing homes, hospitals. All those institutions have that same exact setup. And these are healing well.

[Alex Clark]

We know for a fact. I mean, they've done studies on. On prisoners. When you switch out the food to real Food and you put them on, on an actual real food diet instead of the crap that usually they're eating. And I mean, yeah, they're prisoners. It's not like we want to go above and beyond. However, when you do that though, they do notice behavioral issues and violence going down tremendously in prisons. So I mean that when you apply it to kids in a classroom as well. If somebody only fixes one thing in regards to their circadian rhythm, what should it be?

[Heidi Sime]

It's two. You need two because it's a light and dark cycle. Okay, so you, you need more morning sunlight. And I just feel like a broken record. Like, you need morning sunlight. You're a testament to that. And then you need to put blue light blocking glasses on at night. And it will save your melatonin, it'll save your sleep and get your kids in the same mindset. So this is one of those mama duck moments. Have you heard of that? Kind of like mama duck theory? So Dr. Jack Cruz talks about this and that's why I learned it from. He's a neuro, A famous, well, it's famous slash infamous neurosurgeon. And he talks a lot about circadian rhythm and EMF and all the things but. And a lot more like controversial stuff. But he taught me about mama duck. Like you are the person in your house, mom, that is setting the tone for the home. And whatever you're creating in your home like that now is. Is what your children are going to bring forth. And so setting that non negotiable. Like we don't turn lights on after sunset in our house. Like our kids just know that I have friends that have littles. They have got little toddlers. Their non negotiable is that there's no tech after 3pm like, they just. Nobody gets to be on tech, including parents. So like you and, and you know, your husband, your partner, like you figure out what works for your family. Family and then. But usually the mama duck is the one that little ducklings will follow. And if your partner isn't on board, whatever mama duck does, like, usually the family unit will start to follow that. So like, my kids know, like we had a really interesting time like with our, my teenagers at the house. We had a red light in the living room, so they would go to bed early. They'd be like, why am I getting tired? Like, they didn't know Thaddeus, you know, brought the red light and we're like kind of tricking their brains into getting tired. Right. If you're around red Light or fire light? We all know that. When you're camping, what do you do? Like, you go to bed with the fire light because you get really sleepy. I see your melatonin kicking in. But Mama Duck is like that person that's making these decisions, hopefully with your partner. Like, reasonable, right? And this is all stuff that's like, you're, you're telling your kids, like, this is contraband in our house. My kids would bring in like some junk food from a friend because we don't have that in our house. Like this. We, we don't buy crazy junk food. And they would bring it in the house and I'd be like, get that out of my house. This, it's contraband, literally. And they'd be like, wait a minute, let me get this straight. I can sneak out at night and you're kind of like, turn the other eye and, and like, you know, act like it's not that big of a deal. But I bring this like, ho ho or whatever crap, you know, junk food in the house. And you're going to get that mad. And I'm like, this is not what we do. Right? And they even know that. And guess what? My kids have really good eating habits. Once in a while, like, they'll bring some junky stuff home. But even my 19 year old daughter, she's like, I just, I'll have a, you know, I'll have an apple or I'll have whatever. I'll eat a salad or I'll not. That salad's like the healthiest thing. But she'll make, she'll make such good eating choices. I'm like, who? Like, I taught you that.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, right? And it's like a proud moment.

[Heidi Sime]

It is a proud mama moment. And I just feel like also telling your kids that you're proud of them and being the squeakiest wheel in the house is so important. Like, that's one of the things. I actually, I wrote a book and it's, it's not published or anything. It's just like for me. But it really talked about how telling your kids you're proud of them instills that confidence in them without like, but while still being humble, you know, and like telling them, being like, you know what, you made some really good eating choices today. I'm so proud of you. And even now that they're, that they're gonna say, teenagers, they're in their 20s, but I, I'll text them at least twice a week and I'll say, I'm so proud of you guys.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah.

[Heidi Sime]

And you know what they say back to me now? They're like, we're so proud of you, mom.

[Alex Clark]

Oh.

[Heidi Sime]

And I'm like, oh my God. Like, I taught them that if a

[Alex Clark]

mom to a baby starts implementing all of these things, she, she's waking up with the sunlight. She's. She's not scrolling on her phone. A few hours before bed. She's wearing blue light blockers at night. Night. She's making sure she's switching to warm incandescent or red light bulbs at night, no overhead lights. If all of these things are implemented, how soon is she going to start seeing a change in her circadian rhythm? And the babies, oh my God.

[Heidi Sime]

Immediately, like the minute you put the glasses on, you feel, you feel calmer. I've had so many people. Like when we're at a conference, I have people come up to me and they're like, everybody's walking around with like these cool yellow glasses. And I'm like, we'll try them on. They put them on, they're like, oh my God. Like I. You instantly feel calmer. You've had them on. Like, you know what they feel like.

[Alex Clark]

So where can people go to learn more about this?

[Heidi Sime]

You can go to our website. So on our website, we've got some information there that people can learn more. But honestly, Primal Hacker on YouTube is Thaddeus's old channel. There's a, a whole litany of videos that he's made throughout the years. And so it's, it's like an anthology. Circadian rhythm. It's actually really cool. So you can find like those cool red, motion sensing, circadian night lights for your kids nurseries at our website. It's called Dreamwalkers with the Z AI. You guys, this is why actually we started this company because I wanted to educate women and help them live health, healthier, happier lives with their kids in this modern world. Right. And so I'm combining my creative background and with Thaddeus's expert knowledge. We built this company with like really beautiful lights. All our lights are, they're just like really aesthetically pleasing. He has given, I called a Thaddeus thumbs up. So he's the expert, right? And so it, it's this kind of like beautiful pairing of like, I'm bringing the aesthetics, he's bringing the knowledge and the science. And we've got beautiful daytime glasses. We have readers. These are readers. So like they're magnified and we've got nighttime glasses is. And I actually have some neat tools coming up. They're like A little cell phone bag that you hang on your door, on your doorknob. So like you put your phone in there and you know like you're not going to bring it into your bedroom. It's just like a little tool, right. And then maybe like. And people be like, well, my cell phone is my alarm clock. I got you covered because we've got these cute little minimalist white alarm clocks. They don't make noise, they don't glow.

[Alex Clark]

What do you think about the hatch clocks?

[Heidi Sime]

I don't know a ton about them, but I do know enough that I would have to measure it. And they have Bluetooth. Yeah, no, don't put that in your bedroom.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, that's what's disappointing to me.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah, I know. Anything, anything with Bluetooth or emf, you really don't want it in your bedroom.

[Alex Clark]

So you have just some battery operated.

[Heidi Sime]

I have a dummy phone. I don't, I don't use an alarm clock. So anytime you're plugging something in. That's actually one of the things I was going to tell you too. Like when you're traveling in your hotels and Airbnbs, just unplug the alarm. Alarm clock go. And that's the first thing we do is go and plug and unplug the tv. Number one source of huge EMF field, like huge magnetic fields coming off. Even if it's off.

[Alex Clark]

Really?

[Heidi Sime]

Oh, you should see it. Even like your microwave, your router, like all those things you guys like, they're giving off magnetic fields and EMF fields. So getting a building biologist to come to your home would be a really good idea so that you can find out like what's really causing, you know, like the biggest EMF and the biggest problem. Problems turning off your WI Fi. Building biologist. A building biologist.

[Alex Clark]

That's cool.

[Heidi Sime]

We're friends with the, the number one Brian Hoyer in the world and like that's where we learn all this stuff from. He does all the stars, he does everybody. That's like in the biohacking world.

[Alex Clark]

If you could offer one remedy to heal AIT culture, physically, emotionally or spiritually, what would it be?

[Heidi Sime]

You create your own culture. Like you are like mama duck thing. You are the creator of the culture of your home. Starting with, with you. So taking full responsibility for your health. Because if you're not healthy, how are you going to take care of somebody else? Right? So not neglecting yourself, taking your self care very seriously, your relationship. I think a lot of times we, you know, we forget about that. We're like, oh, we got to get all these other things right, we forget about our relationship that's so important in the family unit. And kind of getting back to like what Hilda talks about is raising free range kids, homeschooling, schooling and, and really creating a home where mom is melatonin rich and she's oxytocin rich. Like we want to be oxytocin rich. There's a really cool quote from Bob Marley. It's kind of like bizarre, but he says some people are so poor, all they have is money, right? And, and thinking about like how are we rich in other ways? Like you're rich in your family life and your life in your connection to nature. So going back to nature, taking these steps to improve the quality of your life, it's so important.

[Alex Clark]

I love that. Obsessed with that.

[Heidi Sime]

Yeah.

[Alex Clark]

Heidi, thank you for coming on Culture Apothecary.

[Heidi Sime]

Thank you so much Alex. This has been so fun.

[Alex Clark]

So you might not need a new skincare routine. You might just need to change your light bulbs. If this episode did anything, I hope it made you question how something as normal as flipping on a light switch could be quietly messing with with your sleep, your hormones, your mood and even your kids development. The good news? This isn't complicated. You don't have to move off the grid or live by candlelight. A few intentional shifts morning sunlight, dimmer nights, less blue light can completely change how you feel and how you sleep. Don't forget to check the show notes for anything mentioned in this episode that you might need. New episodes come out every Monday and Thursday at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. Anywhere you get your podcast, please leave us a five star review on Apple or Spotify. If it's been a while while or you never have, just let me know which episode is the first that you send people when you want to introduce them to this show. It takes two seconds to do it. It immensely helps the show. Simon, our editor, really appreciates it. He's single, by the way. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.