B (23:39)
Of course, if we leave these symptoms unaddressed, they can actually lead to more serious health concerns, including metabolic disorders and mental health issues. Here's what we've actually found. If we disrupt your sleep and keep you out of that deep restorative sleep that we just talked about, what can actually end up happening is that your body turns into this trauma state and within about five days, three to five days, you can literally become insulin resistant and diabetic. There was a very interesting study. I always reference this study because it's so fascinating. They took twins, put them in a sleep lab, controlled for everything, diet, exercise, movement. The only thing they did with one twin is bring him out of REM sleep, just stimulate his brain enough that he comes out of that REM sleep in it was either three or five days. That twin they disrupted his sleep was insulin resistant, diabetic. So when we look at metabolic disorders, when we look at inflammation, can you see how important balancing your circadian rhythm is? And by the way, none of you are night owls. I say this all the time. You're like, well, I'm a night owl. That's not true. That's not true. Because your body isn't built that way. All of our bodies are built to sleep. When it is dark again, going back to the brain, producing melatonin, our ancestors, all of that, our ancestors were not night shift workers. They went to bed, they worked at dawn when the sun came up. Oh my gosh. Night work, night shift work. When we look at night shift workers and study them, we see an increase in all metabolic diseases, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, cholesterol issues, blood pressure problems, cardiovascular issues, mood disorders. Way more antidepressants are prescribed for night shift workers than any other population because our bodies aren't meant to do that. And I, and I get it, many of you, you don't have a choice. You have to work. That's the shift you're put on. And there are many different things there, There are specialists out there, sleep specialists that work with night shift workers. We, we can get into that. Balance your thyroid, balance your hormones, do what you can, sometimes even wearing blue light blocking glasses during your work shift, so that you can then come home and actually go into a sleep that can work as well. But my point is, those of you who have a choice, and you're just staying up until midnight 1:00 clock because you're at quote unquote, night out. That's not true. And you're only damaging your health by choice. By choice. The night shift workers sometimes don't have a choice. You do get your ass to bed earlier and start doing these things to regulate your circadian rhythm. Sometimes doing just relaxation techniques at night. If you're like, well, I can't wind down, maybe you need to get off your phone completely. Not just sit there with blue light blocking glasses on. Maybe you need to put it down. You need to read a book. You need to take out those stimulating scenes, whether it's a movie, whether it's social media. Take that out. Because you can't actually turn your brain down. You can't get, get your GABA working, which is a relaxing neurotransmitter, the calming neurotransmitter gaba. I also put a little GABA in my sleep fixer. You can't get into that deep relaxation state or that meditative state. You can't do deep breathing when you're being constantly stimulated by an action movie or social media posts. You can't do it eating at night. Now this is a huge problem for me as well because I like my Netflix style snack. However, we do know that eating within a couple hours of bed stimulates our digestive juices. They start to flow. That actually disrupts our sleep. Now, do I still do it sometimes? Yeah, I do. I just compensate my. Well, I take my sleep fixer and magnesium progesterone every night. So that helps kind of overcome my choice to eat my Netflix snack. But I also make my Netflix snack protein heavy, protein focused. It's usually my, my power protein fixer. Chocolate. I'll make that into an ice cream. I'll make it into a mousse or a pudding. And that's just enough so I can enjoy my Netflix snack and call it a day. I don't eat a boatload of carbohydrates that are going to send my blood sugar spiking. But I'm going to tell you, if you eat late at night, that blood sugar spikes and then it crashes during the night. And that is what wakes us up. And some people will even have a hard time falling asleep because that elevated blood sugar is stimulating. It's energizing. Remember, like kid in a candy store. Think about that. Kids getting hyperactive because they eat sugar. Well, that's what happens to our bodies and our brain when we consume carbohydrates and sugar. It absolutely does. So eating Late at night is also a no, no. And now let's talk about alcohol and sleep. So are you one of those that pours a glass of wine, pops a beer at the end of the day to wind down? Right. And you're looking forward to the relaxing effects, hoping that it might help you sleep? It turns out half of all adults over the age of 65 report having consumed alcohol in the past year right before bed to help with their sleep. Now, 67% of these people actually say that it helps their sleep, but we know that it doesn't. We know that it doesn't. Here's what actually occurs. So alcohol will provide kind of that relaxation effect, but the problem is it disrupts the sleep cycle. That normal sleep Cycle occurs in four distinct parts. Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, which is Delta Sleep. Stage 4, which is REM sleep. If you're using the Soul Tech device that I interviewed Dr. Dan Cohen on months ago, I've been using it. You can see those four stages and when you are in in each stage. So when you're in the first two stages, you're in just this really light sleep. When you're in the third stage, that delta, you're in deep sleep. And the fourth stage is your vivid dream stage, that REM sleep. Now, every person's sleep cycle varies even with age. But REM is when our brains do some heavy lifting, like processing emotions, combining making sense of memories and knowledge, strengthening neural connections. So getting enough REM sleep is key. Remember I just talked about the twins, that they disrupted the REM sleep long enough to throw the one twin in the type 2 diabetes. So we have to understand how alcohol actually affects the sleep cycle. Here's what happens. Drinking before bedtime delays that REM sleep or shortens the time that you're in it or sometimes prevents you from getting into REM sleep at all, which causes what causes metabolic disturbance, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance. And then alcohol in and of itself can cause type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. So alcohol also disrupts sleep stages in other ways. So it is a sedative, so it can send you into that deep sleep quickly. But then what's not supposed to happen happens. It throws off the first two stages of light sleep. It just throws your body off, makes it really difficult for your body to readjust during the remainder of the night. So, so you get really fragmented sleep, and you never get into that deep REM sleep. The other thing that occurs, if you have ever worn a cgm, this is really interesting. I threw on a cgm. I Was just wearing it to experiment. And I rarely drink alcohol at all. But it was my friend's birthday party. I had a glass of wine and literally days before, she had told me that her blood sugar drops incredibly low when she drinks alcohol. Well, it goes back to what I was saying about blood glucose levels. Where there's a high, there's an equal and opposite low. So we know that alcohol will spike our, our blood glucose. So here's me at her birthday party. CGM on. I have a glass or two of wine. I don't remember what my blood sugar went to, what it spiked to, but in the middle of the night, alarms are going off. My CGM is alerting me that my blood sugar dropped too low. I had no idea what was happening. I'm like looking for the phone, ready to throw it across the room. I didn't know how to turn the alarm off. Sure enough, what happened to her happened to me. And if the alarm didn't go off on my cgm, it would have just disrupted my sleep. So I still would have woken up. Because our bodies do that. They kind of jolt our ourselves out of bed. They jolt us awake. Our bodies jolt us awake when our blood sugar drops. Because our bodies know, hey, low blood sugar is not a, a very safe place to be. Better wake this person up so they can go eat and get out of this low blood sugar state. If you're not actually waking up and realizing you're waking up, you're waking up. Wear an aura ring. Get the Soul Tech device. Actually watch your body when you drink alcohol, you will not get a good night's sleep. You will not rest and repair. Alcohol can also increase snoring and sleep apnea as well. So that's going to throw your sleep off too. Let's not forget about the importance of completely eliminating alcohol. And then there is your sleep environment. Yes, this all ties into wired and tired. Because again, if you're not getting this deep REM sleep, your cortisol will get thrown off. There is nothing more stressful than not getting deep sleep. It doesn't even matter what's going on during the day or what you're dealing with in your life. There is nothing more stressful to the body, more inflammatory to the body than not getting deep sleep. So what is your environment? Like I always say, listen, I keep my house cold. I love my house cold. But it is important for sleep. Sleep is best under 68 degrees. So you want cool, you want dark, you want quiet, you want a noise machine, you want a fan. Get Some earplugs. Whatever you have to do to make your bedroom a sanctuary. And no, don't watch TV before bed. Well, it makes me relax. You're getting that blue light blocking. You're getting the blue light in your eyes. You need the blue light blocking glasses if you're going to do that. But I don't recommend electronics in the bedroom. I'm just saying make your sleep environment cozy. I've talked about the cozy earth sheets. They are the bomb. They're the bomb. Just a shameless plug for cozy earth. I think you can use the code Dr. Amy to get 40% off. You want amazing sleep, you want amazing sheets for your sleep, and you want a cool, dark room. Block out the noise, block out the light. Light blocking shades. Whatever you need to do, make your bedroom a sanctuary. Because that wired and tired feeling that you are feeling comes from that dysregulated cortisol. Now let's pull in two other aspects that I mentioned earlier, but we need to close with these. If you are low in progesterone. Progesterone is our calming hormone. Ladies, when your progesterone levels start to tank, sleep will absolutely be disrupted. It'll be disrupted. Many, many, many women entering perimenopause and menopause have insomnia because their progesterone levels are so low. And by adding in progesterone, oh, my gosh, they sleep like a queen and their mood is balanced out as well. And that helps the next day for that wired and tired feeling. So when we give the body progesterone, we're actually helping to support our adrenal glands. So, no, you don't need a boatload of adrenal supplements necessarily. Sometimes adding in progesterone is enough just to calm the brain and help with insomnia. Adding in pregnenolone because when the body is under stress, when our adrenal glands have been pumping out cortisol and eventually they tire out. So adrenal fatigue. What our adrenal glands will do is steal pregnenolone and progesterone in order to make cortisol. We need cortisol to survive. We just don't want too much of it. We don't want it pumping all day long. So our bodies will steal pregnenolone and progesterone in order to make cortisol. Have you heard of the pregnenolone steel? That is what I'm talking about. It will also deplete our progesterone levels. So by adding in pregnenolone and progesterone that can help support our adrenals and help with better sleep at night. Magnesium vital, vitally important for sleep. I love my magnesium and progesterone and sleep fixer stack. That's what really helps me sleep. Maybe a Delta 8 Gummy too, but definitely progesterone, sleep fixer and magnesium. My quad mag, I love that for a sleep stack. I take pregnenolone during the day to protect my brain, but it also helps support my adrenals. Now if you need a little bit of extra help, let's say you did that four point saliva cortisol pattern and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm seeing my cortisol spike at night. Phosphatidylserine is a beautiful add in to lower that cortisol and bring your brain into just this relaxed state along with your progesterone, along with your magnesium. Phosphatidylserine really helps with that elevated cortisol. Now, if you have a wonky pattern during the day, let's say you're waking up and your cortisol's low and you can't even get going in the day, in the morning and then you spike at night. Something like an adrenal glandular during the day will help. And then you can add on the sleep sack at night along with the phosphatidylserine. Like I mentioned earlier, having a little bit of gaba. Gaba's in my sleep fixer. Or you can take it separately. That is the calming neurotransmitter. So that helps to calm down the brain as well. And ladies, as we age, we tend to lose that gaba, we lose that calming neurotransmitter. Oftentimes we do have to add it in. Now, by balancing your hormones, you do help to balance out your neurotransmitters as well and give your brain support. But sometimes we need just a little bit of extra support, especially if you struggle with sleep. And then finally, I will leave you with this. Doing some trauma work. Occasionally a person can go through everything that I just said, check every single box, and they still cannot get that deep sleep. They still have that tired but wired feeling getting into doing that internal work, that trauma work, that trauma response issues can be in the tissues, they can be embedded in. So if we've lived a long life of really poor sleep habits and poor circadian rhythm habits, we've been starting the day with coffee on our phones and on our computers, and then eating like garbage through the day, throwing off our blood sugar, being under stressful situations, not giving our bodies the support that it needs. With magnesium and proper hormone balance and proper thyroid balance, yeah, we can make our own trauma, but often times it's from past trauma, it's in the tissues and sometimes you need to do a little bit deeper work and get into some trauma work. That's why I've interviewed people like Dr. Amy Opagian who does amazing, amazing trauma work. I have not interviewed Dr. Don Wood, but he is also in a mastermind that I'm in. He's amazing and I'm trying to think. I have. Oh, I've interviewed multiple individuals on the benefits of psilocybin and doing a mushroom journey to get into your trauma. Sometimes that is very, very effective. If that is your cup of tea, whatever you have to do, check those boxes. If you have that tired but wired feeling. There are many different things that we can do. There are supplements that are supportive. I mentioned many of them here today. Magnesium Gaba L theanine is fantastic. A B complex. My B fixer. That's amazing for supporting your adrenals. Sometimes you have to add in an adrenal glandular, sometimes you have to go a step further and get some progesterone on board. Balance out those hormones, get your thyroid optimized. That will help regulate your cortisol. Change your diet, but do the cortisol rhythm, HPA access work so that you yourself can get out of that tired but wired feeling. Don't always reach for a sleeping pill. Don't reach for the caffeine to get you going during the day and a sleeping pill, they get you to sleep at night. Do this work to reset your body because that's going to expand into other areas of your body like blood sugar regulation, metabolic control, cholesterol control, protection of your brain against Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, repair of your body, and ultimately balancing of your thyroid and hormones, which cannot happen with any amount of medication. If you are not sleeping and if you are all this combovulated throughout the day, tired but wired. We don't have to be that way. There are absolutely answers we can implement. There are things we can implement to change that pattern in our bodies.