← The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
The Thyroid (and Hormone) Fixer Podcast: Thyropause, Menopause, Metabolism and How to Fix It
BONUS. Why You’re Tired Even After 8 Hours of Sleep
00:45:54
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- [00:01]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
We wanna look at other ways to improve your sleep, because guess what? If you eat healthy, you're gonna sleep better. If you're physically fit and you work on fitness, you are going to sleep better. So I like to think of these pillars as synergistic with each other, rather than it being like sleep is the foundation.
- [00:20]
Dr. Amy Myers
Welcome to the new and completely reimagined Thyroid Fixer podcast, a podcast that refuses to sound like every other health show out there. We're here to disrupt this entire space, and now you are part of that disruption. If you're listening right now, it's because something inside you finally said, I'm done being ignored. And I'm here to tell you. Good. Because this is where everything changes for you. This is where you say, no more. No more being dismissed by your doctor. No more being told your labs are normal. No more recycled medical advice. No more recycled biohacking advice. No more being told to accept and what you know isn't right here. You'll get truth. You'll get clarity. You'll get information you can actually use, tools, strategy, and guidance you can apply right now to take back your energy, your hormones, your metabolism, and your life. Every episode will give you something real, something that moves you forward, something that reminds you that you were never the problem, the system was. This is the Thyroid Fixer podcast. This is your turning point. This is where you rise. Get ready. We're about to disrupt everything you thought you knew about thyroid and hormone health. Let's go. If you are exhausted, gaining weight, you have brain fog, you just feel off, and you're tired of doctor hopping and wasting money, then listen closely. So many women bounce from provider to provider, trying supplements, protocols, and then functional approaches that never truly address the thyroid. Months turn into years and you're still stuck feeling like garbage, wasting your precious life. So this is why we offer a thyroid and hormone solution call. It's not a lab review. It's not treatment. It's clarity and strategy to determine whether you're a good fit for working with our clinic.
- [02:20]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
We.
- [02:20]
Dr. Amy Myers
We specialize in thyroid optimization and hormone optimization together. Because they go hand in hand. You can't do one without the other. You have to do them both. We prescribe in all 50 states, and if you become a patient, we take care of you from start to finish. Testing, treatment, optimization, and ongoing support. You don't have months or years to waste feeling this way. And you shouldn't have to keep throwing money at people who don't truly understand the thyroid and hormones. So if you're ready for real help, go to doctorami.com that's D R A M I E dot com and click book a call in the top right corner to schedule your thyroid and hormone solution. Call and just let us help you get your life back and be that badass human that you are meant to be, that you deserve to be. So as many of you know, sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your body. Whether we're talking about optimizing your thyroid, optimizing your hormones, losing weight, decreasing stress, whatever your reason is for optimizing your health, sleep really is the cornerstone. And sometimes that sounds so cliche. I've been asked on different podcasts, you know, what's your one thing that you can give people that they can do right now to improve their health? And, and it's always sleep. Because we know if we don't sleep, our entire endocrine system gets thrown off, our hormones get thrown off. You're more hungry the next day. I mean, I know I am when I get four or five hours of sleep or it's interrupted because I'm in a hotel, I'm traveling, there's noise, my husband's snoring, dogs are barking. Whatever it is, the next day I am famished. I always joke that I'm on the seafood diet. If I see it, I eat it. We know that sleep dysregulates our glucose and our insulin as well. So that's how it's tied into the ability to lose weight or the ability to gain weight. It significantly increases your ability to gain weight when you don't get enough high quality restorative sleep. So that's why I love when I can bring experts on to unpack sleep and help us understand it at such a deeper level. So my, my guest today, Dr. Meredith Broadrick. She is a triple board certified sleep expert. She attended medical school at the Ohio State University. Ah, Meredith, competitor to Penn State. We got to circle back to that. Completed a neurology residency at Case Western Reserve University and a sleep medicine and behavioral sleep medicine fellowship at Stanford. Now she is coming on podcasts like mine to really unpack the science of sleep and give you the listener tips, tricks and some information that you need to just kind of embed in your head and, and let it live there on the importance of sleep and what you can do to improve yours. So Dr. Broderick, thank you so much for coming on the show.
- [05:27]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Thank you for inviting me.
- [05:29]
Dr. Amy Myers
Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, so like I said, sleep, ah, like basically the key, the Cornerstone to all things health. But this is your area, so I'm going to hand it over to you. Can you just start off by kind of laying the groundwork of. And expand on what I just said of how sleep is so important to our hormonal system, our weight, all of those symptoms that women experience in midlife can be tied back to good or bad sleep.
- [06:01]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes, sleep is the main restorative process of the body. And I think something that's really important to know is not all animals sleep at night. And some animals, you know, sleep with half their brain at a time. We just happen to have adapted to our environment in conjunction with this light dark system, the solar cycle or the rise and fall of the sun. And because of that there's a timing or these circadian rhythms we talk about that govern the homeostasis or kind of the optimal functioning of our body that relies on things like the sleep wake cycle. And tied into that is hormonal regulation, temperature regulation, immune function, mental health, learning, memory, all of that. So they're really one and the same. And it's hard to really separate sleep from any body system because it is just like this total restorative process.
- [07:01]
Dr. Amy Myers
Am I correct in what I was saying earlier? That when we don't sleep well, Because I know a lot of people will say, oh, why sleep? You know, I only need four or five hours and I'm good. So when we get either interrupted sleep because of noise or we get. Which we're going to talk about more or we just don't get enough sleep, Maybe we had trouble falling asleep because of whatever racing mind, noise, whatever snoring husband. And what actually is occurring in the body that makes us more hungry because like I said, I experience it every single time.
- [07:33]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
I would say the sleep deprivation. So not getting as much sleep as we optimally need. It's a stressor on the body. And when we're under stress, the body is going to perceive that, so we are more insulin resistant. We do cut off some of the restorative processes that happen just by not being in that restorative state. As long as. And as a neurologist, I love to talk about this brain cleansing system, the glymphatic system, where we're removing waste products from the brain, which is important for brain health. But those restorative processes happen everywhere in the body. You know, so one thing I always talk about is a lot of people are snacking and eating late. Well, your gut can't really rest and restore if you're eating that many Hours a day and it really needs that time as well. And then we know there's this gut brain connection, you know, know everything's connected.
- [08:29]
Dr. Amy Myers
It absolutely is. So there was a study, I'm going to say on the insulin resistant piece real quick. There was a study that maybe you're familiar with. I am remembering it and I always reference it, but for the life of me I cannot find it anywhere. Pub, bed, nowhere that I heard this is years ago that they took twins. So identical twins, you know, same DNA makeup, the whole deal. Puts them in a sleep lab and you know, controls for food, environment, exercise, all of that stimulation. What they did to the one twin is they just brought him out of REM sleep and they didn't fully wake him up. They just, they stimulated his brain enough to bring him out of REM sleep and it was something like five to seven days of just disrupted REM cause him to basically be insulin resistant, slash type 2 diabetic. They saw that much dysregulation in his blood sugar and insulin after only five days of disrupt, they didn't fully wake him up. It's not like he was wandering around the sleep lab going, okay, great, it's 2am now, what am I going to do? No, they just brought him out of that REM sleep.
- [09:40]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
I think it's a both and situation where there is the insulin resistance and then also because the body is perceiving it's under stress, then there is a craving for high carbohydrate, fatty foods. And so it impacts the behavior as well. And then it's also gonna impact how we feel during the day. So when people don't sleep well, you know, they don't feel like working out, they don't feel like doing things that would help. And so it's kind of a both and you get it from more than one mechanism where you get that sleep deprivation.
- [10:15]
Dr. Amy Myers
No, absolutely. And I mean you always say sleep is the foundation of health and that's kind of how we started the, the show. Well, no, you actually say why sleep is the foundation of health isn't your preferred framing. So what is your perspective as on that? Because I basically said, okay, it's the cornerstone. Do you have a, a counter argument to that?
- [10:35]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
I'm not disagreeing. A lot of people say sleep is the foundation of health and I do really appreciate that. But a really interesting thing is happening in what I see in the sleep clinic, which is that I'm now seeing a lot of people that are almost worried about sleep to the extent that the Worrying about sleep is the issue.
- [10:55]
Dr. Amy Myers
Okay.
- [10:56]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
And so when we see the foundation, I feel like it gives an all or none type of feeling about it. There was a survey posted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, I want to say, a week ago, and it had work concerns, finances, AI, politics, losing sleep. And the number two reason above all those for why people are having trouble sleeping is they're concerned about sleep, with the way things have changed with trackers and the sleep hacking. And so my perspective is to really look at sleep as being synergistic. So if I have someone that's doing night shift work or they are working two jobs and they have kids and they're a single mom, I don't want to burden them with. That's our only option. We want to look at other ways to improve your sleep because guess what? If you eat healthy, you're going to sleep better. If you're physically fit and you work on fitness, you are going to sleep better. So I like to think of these pillars as synergistic with each other rather than it being like, sleep is the foundation and if you don't have that, you can't work on the other thing. So it just, in my mind, that's more how I think about it. But I do understand people are just trying to say sleep is extremely important. And I think I agree with that too.
- [12:16]
Dr. Amy Myers
Well, now that you've explained it, I totally see where you're coming from because that's one of the reasons why I won't wear a wearable, is I don't want to see it and then have that even affect my day. So if I feel like I am well rested and got a good night's sleep, I don't want my little device to say, no, you didn't. You got a terrible night's sleep. I'm like, wait, oh, am I supposed to feel horrible today then because my, my little tracker said so? I, I see that pressure. I see exactly what you're talking about now. Okay, so for the person that, let's say here's this message and they know, they know that sleep is important and they really do want to improve it, let's unpack the biggest disruptors of sleep. I mean, I can tell you mine, obviously, but let's unpack all of them first being. Well, let's do a racing mind because I'm going to say that's probably at the top. Yes. In addition to what you just mentioned about actually worrying about sleep, because some people will lay there and go, oh my gosh, I Got to get to sleep. I got to get to sleep.
- [13:15]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Wait, it's 10:30.
- [13:16]
Dr. Amy Myers
Wait, no, now it's 11. I got to get to sleep. Wait, now it's midnight. I got to get to sleep. But what about just that racing mind? Of all the things like kids, finances, work, all of this, relationships, how do we calm it down?
- [13:28]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
I think at the root of that and many times is people not allotting enough downtime in their day and just taking on all the things and then something that's closely tied into that is not having a wind down or not having sort of this dimmer rather than saying, okay, I'm on my work, doing email and now it's time to go to bed switch. Why can't I just fall asleep? So I think downtime because people don't realize. But the brain needs time to ruminate, both in sleep, when we're unconscious and when we're just daydreaming, as you might call it. Our brain is actually doing work. So think of it. Have you ever been taking a shower or have you ever woken up and said, aha, I just remembered where something is, or I just came up with an idea. The reason is because even when you're not goal oriented, working on something, your brain is still working and solving problems. And so the brain actually needs to do that before sleep. And if you are occupied every second of your day scheduled down to five minutes, your brain never has the chance to perform that function. We have a name for it in neuroscience, it's called the default mode network. And it was an incidental discovery. And so that mind racing, which is just your brain kind of organizing how to file things and how to sort it and how to scan through it during sleep, it's going to do it when you're alone with your thoughts at night, because that's the only time you had to, quote, unquote, daydream. And I think it's gotten even more intense now that even when we're waiting in line, we're looking at our phones, even when we're in the bathroom, we're looking at our phones. There's simply never a moment that we're alone with our thoughts. And that is an essential function.
- [15:14]
Dr. Amy Myers
Wow. Yeah. That reality that you just gave us just kind of punched me in the face because I was nodding. I'm like, yep, that is me. And what is happening, that's a whole other podcast, is what, what is happening to us that we're on our phones all the time. But okay, so I can better understand it too. Even if we just take a pause, and I want you to tell us also how long of a pause we need to take to do that brain cleaning. The downtime for our brains to flush out and recycle thoughts and process before we go to sleep. Let's say we do that. It really does have to be no electronics. So that's not even like my Netflix. Time before bed is still not a mindless task. It really has to be like reading, like, no electronics, no blue light. Am I right there?
- [16:04]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
So the idea is that you're not tasked. You're not trying to complete a goal. So one thing I will tell my patients is I want you to go for a walk without your phone, without listening to anything, without talking to anyone. I don't need to check your email. I just want you to go for a walk. So you can be walking. I mean, you can be tasked for going through the walk, but the main feature is that your brain is allowed to ruminate and daydream.
- [16:31]
Dr. Amy Myers
So even if we do that during the day, that improves our sleep at night?
- [16:35]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes.
- [16:36]
Dr. Amy Myers
Okay.
- [16:37]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Psychologists have studied this, and it's stress reducing, and then it's also providing sort of a release for this rumination that occurs at night. And so one tactic we do is we tell people to schedule worry time or to schedule time for a walk. And when you provide the brain time to do that daydreaming, it has a less intense need to do it at night. You also need to dim down. I mean, I just attended a really great presentation on childhood insomnia this morning, and this wonderful expert, Melissa Moore, was talking about how you don't go from wakefulness to sleep. You know, there's an in between. Right. You get drowsy, and then you're relaxed. And so there also needs to be this transition. We sleep experts, we call it a buffer zone, because sleep is really more like a dimmer than a switch.
- [17:32]
Dr. Amy Myers
True. So you need that transition time. I'm kind of thinking of the time that I'm laying in bed as my thoughts start to wind down. I mean, sometimes it's indetectable. Boom. That's where you hear people say, my head hit the pillow and I was asleep. But I would say most people do have that time where they're laying there ruminating, and that's where the racing mind can come in and unfortunately take over. And then Dr. Meredith, is. Is it also true? I'm just kind of thinking through this, that we're lying there in that getting drowsy transition state. And then there's noise I just picture that as almost bringing you out of that drowsy state. It's like it brings you back into alert and awake state to where you have to start the whole process over again. I want to kind of unpack sound and noise and all of that as well.
- [18:26]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Right. Sound is very important. People don't realize that that environmental noise is a social determinant of health. And in these modern days, where we're living in cities and urban environments, where there's light pollution and sound pollution and, you know, pollution, pollution, all these things are really important when we're asleep, our auditory system, so our hearing, it stays online. I think of it as the night watchman, right. It's paying attention for us while our visual fields go offline, but it's still listening. So even if you play little sounds while someone's asleep and you look at their brainwaves, even if they don't open their eyes or remember waking up, their brain is having microarousals and it's listening. And so for something like a motorcycle went by or all of a sudden my bed partner made a loud snore or my kid cried out for me, yes, people are going to wake up and some people are going to perceive a diminished quality in their sleep or have trouble going back to sleep where it becomes an insomnia situation.
- [19:32]
Dr. Amy Myers
And then not all sound is created equal. You have those startling sounds. But you've actually looked at the science of sound and how certain sounds, like we always hear about white noise and brown noise, and people have a white noise machine that's. And it sounds like a fan or an airplane or whatever, that those noises can actually promote sleep. It can signal our brain to decrease stress and get into that drowsy place to then lead to sleep.
- [20:05]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes, it's very obvious when you're dealing with children or babies that singing to them, lullabies, even a lot of parents will use white noise as a soothing signal because anything that is consistent will train the person as a safety signal. This is safe. And they will come to associate that with sleep. Just like a teddy bear, just like my favorite pillow, just like my favorite pajamas. Right. So any behavioral cue, whether it's sound or something else, can be a sleep assist. But we really want those sounds to have a certain quality to them. For instance, we do want them to be, you know, low volume. And we do want them to be very consistent, meaning we don't want there to be a spike in volume or the, the nature of the sound, because then that would be alerting. Like you were talking about earlier.
- [20:56]
Dr. Amy Myers
Exactly. Yeah. I never understood how people can sleep to thunderstorms because, like you said, it's not steady. It's not consistent. It's kind of up and down to where a loud thunderclap would wake you up. But white noise, fan noise, that's just a consistent frequency. And quite frankly, and I'd love to know your thoughts on this, I can't sleep in silence. Like, silence is actually more annoying to me and disruptive to my sleep than if I have a steady sound. Why is that?
- [21:25]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
It may be that you were conditioned to it at some point, or there might have been some point where you were listening to silence and there were different noises and your brain was just paying attention to them and that bothered you. They didn't even have to be that loud. But it could be someone stepped on a creaky floor or you just heard them close the door, but you're just very attuned to that. And so having the white noise, where it basically drowns it out, it like, blends it into the background. When you have a white noise or a brown noise, it blends in those other little things that we might be very attuned to, it blends it in so that it's just more relaxing because we're also not anticipating hearing every little thing. If we have some kind of sound masking, does that make sense?
- [22:08]
Dr. Amy Myers
Oh, totally. Yeah, Absolutely. Now, are there any studies done that show that using things like a white noise, a brown noise, consistent noise, actually improves the quality of sleep?
- [22:20]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Here's where it becomes difficult is it really depends on the sound. And it really depends on, is it white noise, is it brown noise? Like, how loud is it? What are you actually trying to improve? But what I can tell you is that overwhelmingly people report it. You know, almost like saying, well, do you have proof that the sky is blue? Like, I don't need proof. People tell me it is. So I mean, that. That's just how I think of it, is I don't think of it as a blanket person that everyone should use. And there's research showing that even if you don't think you need it, you should use it. It's not that kind of thing. You know, it's not like everyone should measure their blood pressure. It's if you're having trouble sleeping and there is environmental noise, this is a solution we know helps. And I know it helps because people tell me it helps.
- [23:09]
Dr. Amy Myers
Right, Exactly. Exactly. I need to talk to every woman who's been told that your labs are normal while your body is screaming at you and rebelling against you. Fatigue, brain fog, the weight that will not come off, mood swings, hair loss, feeling dismissed, frustrated and confused. I get it. And that is exactly why I wrote my new book the Thyroid Fix. The no nonsense guide to Fix Fatigue, Fogginess and fat that won't budge. That just says it all and it is now available for pre sale. So I need your help to spread the message. I am giving you an ask as my listener and a promise at the same time. If you pre order the thyroid fix, my promise to you is to continue delivering all kinds of free advice, information, content, education, empowerment. Because that's what I love to do. Whether it's here in the just fix your thyroid Facebook group or I'm on live. I will give you everything I possibly can if you do me one favor which will be a favor for yourself as well and pre order the thyroid Fix. Now this book is not another list of supplements, vague advice. It's not a diet plan. It's not filled with recipes. It is a clear, honest guide. It is the Thyroid Bible. It is the last thyroid book that you will ever need because it teaches you how to read your own labs. No other book has done that. It teaches you what medication and dose you need. No other book has ever done that. It will help you to understand why you are being misdiagnosed, why you're being under treated and why you can't talk about hormones, weight loss or menopause without talking about the thyroid. I called it Thyroid Bible because like I said, this is going to be the thyroid book of the next few decades. When you pre order, you're not just supporting me, you're telling the publisher. This message matters and it needs to get out to the world and it needs to get into the hands of women who have been ignored for far too long. So will you go to thyroid fixbook.com and pre order a copy of yours today? It'll be shipped to you on May 12th and you will get free entry to our all day live event where I will be there answering your questions live, teaching live and bringing in amazing guests for you to also connect with and ask your questions too. So thyroid fixbook.com pre order yours today. Now some people will use noise cancellation as opposed to noise masking. What's the difference there? And why is noise masking better than actually canceling out all noise?
- [26:16]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
So for something like a traffic noise or a noisy neighbor snoring, something that's intermittent, it's much more difficult to cancel that out. Canceling noise is technically much more difficult, requires different technology, and it's easier to mask it, kind of blend it into the background and. And it's also more effective in terms of not waking the person up. And it probably ties into, like, what you said, that sleeping in silence bothers you more than sleeping with the white noise. Right.
- [26:51]
Dr. Amy Myers
Yep, it absolutely does. It. It just does. Well, I even think of. So there have been times that my husband is snoring so loudly that my normal, like, little pink earplugs just aren't cutting it right. So in the past, I would go and get my Apple earbuds, which, you know, I don't want to use these all night because there's emf, there is WI fi, we know that. And then I don't want it pulsing into my brain all night. But sometimes that's all you have. And I would use these, either the noise cancellation feature with them, or I would put on something with, you know, a fan or white noise. But still now I have my wireless earbuds in my ear, so I'm going to transition this to something I found that, you know about, obviously, Oslo, the Oslo earbuds. So I can play sound. It's not noise canceling. There is that white noise that I get to play, which I do prefer. And then we're going to talk about the emf, too. But just having that ability, to your point, not cancel it out, because I would still hear. I would absolutely still hear my husband snoring through the earbuds that are supposed to cancel noise. I don't even care. If I had a pair of bows on my head, I would hear him through the bows. Like, nothing is going to totally, to your point, cancel out all noise, but when you have that block, when you have the. What do I want to call almost like a buffer, like a sound buffer in your ear, it's actually blocking his snoring better than noise canceling.
- [28:27]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yeah. The Oslo sleepbuds, they are earplugs as well, so that they're. In some ways, they're just physically creating a barrier as well. They're also designed to be more comfortable than the AirPods. They're specifically designed for sleep. And as you know, the battery life of the AirPods, they won't really last all night. Like, they'll make that sound and wake you up also. Painful. Yes. Yeah, it just. You can't really cancel out the type of noises that you want to cancel. That's why the noise masking is a better tactic, is it's more the blending in rather than trying to eliminate it. It's very hard to cancel noise. I mean, if we could cancel noise, it would probably be quiet on an airplane now because, you know, it's so loud on an airplane. But it's hard to cancel that out. But I think the sleepbuds are great for. For things like snoring, traffic, garbage trucks, neighbors. And they work better, not only because of the sound masking, but just the way they're designed to be more comfortable for sleeping and to last all night.
- [29:36]
Dr. Amy Myers
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I wore them on a flight, now that you mentioned that I wore them on a flight to Europe and thank God. Like, thank God I had them. So first I started off just by using them as earplugs, like you said, because they're very, very comfortable, they fit in your ear. But that wasn't quite enough because you're on an airplane and you have all kinds of different sounds. Some people are awake, some people aren't. So that's when I just put on the like, crimson, crimson rose, crimson. It's just a beautiful white noise in the background. Nice and consistent. And I actually got sleep on an airplane. So that was that. That's huge. That's huge. Like canceling out my husband's snoring and then sleeping when I'm traveling. Those are the two times that, you know, I posted this. I. I cannot travel without my Oslo. Now that I found them, it's like, no, they need to be charged and they need to be with me all the time because of exactly what you said. They, they fit in your ear, they block noise. But you can also have something playing in the background that as you stated earlier, gives us better sleep.
- [30:48]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes. And I think once you develop that warm, calming association to a specific sound, that in and of itself can be good for sleep in a situation like travel. Because it's almost like having a touchstone of bringing your favorite pillow with you. You provide this consistency. Consistency even when you're in a hotel and, you know, regardless of whether there's sound in the hotel. But it's just like the brain says, we're safe. This is consistent. I'm having this signal that's a safety signal every night. That's relaxing.
- [31:21]
Dr. Amy Myers
Yeah, that's true. I never even thought about that. Tie in basically to our nervous system to say, okay, when you hear this particular sound, it's like, it's like any kind of training, you know, when you hear this sound, it's time to wind down and chill out and eventually drift off into sleep.
- [31:40]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yeah. And Going back to your research question, that's what I think makes it difficult to study, because, for instance, there may be a person that grew up in an environment where there were lots of thunderstorms or they lived by the ocean and that reminded them of family vacations. And inherently it's very relaxing and stress relieving, and that would be their thing. Whereas yours might be more the Crimson Cloak. And I like brown, deep brown, you know, so people will have different preferences. And I think those more engineered sounds are probably even better than white noise. So white noise is more. I tell people to think of it like the rainbow. It's all the colors of the rainbow, but for the frequencies that the ear can hear. So basically you're playing all the frequencies that the human ear can detect all at once. That's what white noise is. It's like white light, but for sound. And with Crimson Cloak or the other options or soundscapes that are available on Oslo, it's going to be more personalized to that person's experiences that are harder to explain. You know, scientifically. It might be more something the person tells you. I like the crackling fire because I grew up camping or the rainy tent because that was just a relaxing time. But you can bring that association the person has to make them feel relaxed and at home into their sleep routine. Which I think is. Speaks to my behavioral sleep medicine background that is more about us as humans and the humanistic qualities that we have.
- [33:14]
Dr. Amy Myers
That totally makes sense. Yep. I'm just tying everything that you have said in this interview so far together. And it's just. It's like digging my brain, like, yes, okay, this explains it. Because I suffer with insomnia for like 25 years, could not get to sleep, and now I'm actually tying together the different things that would keep me awake. The racing mind, the not shutting down before bed, pushing work a little bit too close. And then of course, the. The sound. You know, not having that. That perfect white noise sound that dropped me into a relaxation state until now, you know, until I incorporate and, you know, I never really got into the sound machines, Dr. Meredith. I never. I. I don't know if you have any opinion on those, but it's like it's almost too removed. My dad would always use one, and I thought that the sound coming out of there was annoying and grading and maybe because it's out there and not close to me, like in here, like in my head. Why is that? I'm assuming the sound machines work for some people, but it just didn't work for me.
- [34:21]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Absolutely. I do think the sound machines do work for some people. I feel exactly the same as you. I prefer the in ear. I think the reason why the earbuds are so great is because we're all used to wearing our AirPods. We're all used to wearing headphones. That's like wearing a ring or a necklace. It's so familiar. And you can really customize it. So if you have a bed partner, for instance, you're not worried about what they're hearing. You also have that addition of being able to do a customized alarm. That's huge for me. That's one of my favorite features of the sleepbuds is if my kid happened to come in my bed at night, it doesn't wake them up. It doesn't wake up bed partner if you have different wake times. So that's one of my favorite things. As far as personal preference for and in the room versus in the ear, I think you might be able to get a little bit more precision with the sound you're getting. And then also the masking would be my guess. But yeah, I mean, I don't have a specific study where I can compare them to sight to you, but just using kind of my experience from talking to people. Because, you know, if you look at a baby, for instance, you're definitely going to use a sound machine. Right. Because you're not going to put an earbud in it. I mean, it's a choking hazard, among other things. But even if that weren't the case, we just wouldn't want to attach it to the person. So it could be partially our being so familiar with the earbud and then also just being a little bit more precise and customized with it.
- [35:52]
Dr. Amy Myers
Exactly. That makes sense. Okay, now, going to the big elephant in the room that everybody's thinking when we say earbuds, because we're thinking our little Wi Fi Apple earbuds.
- [36:03]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Right.
- [36:04]
Dr. Amy Myers
Can you talk to me about Oslo and emf? Because that is going to be a big concern for people and we need to break that down.
- [36:13]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes. Well, I'm a neurologist, and this is something that people have been asking me for 20 years is does Bluetooth cause brain tumors? Does my cell phone holding it to my ear cause brain tumors? Right. People want to know, do the sleep buds, are they a problem from the emf, the electromagnetic field? So anything that has electricity has an electromagnetic field. I like to remind that for people that drive electric car, you're sitting on a massive electromagnetic field way bigger than anything with the sleepbuds. So first of all, the sleepbuds use a very low energy Bluetooth. So the amount of energy is so low and that that really is what determines if an EMF causes cancer or not, is the how high the energy is. And this type of energy, like Bluetooth and wi Fi, they don't have enough energy the way like a nuclear radiation would cause a brain tumor. So we all think of that like X rays and just the, the energy is different. So that's important to know. But we also have really, really good data. So there was a huge study done in the UK and in Europe where I think it was like a million people they followed. And the really important point of the study is they actually objectively measured the cell phone usage and rather than asking people to remember. And so you could really see if there was an increase and brain tumor when the emergence of these technologies came on the market. And there is not, and this has been proven in many studies, more than one study like that in many people. I think one of the concerns comes from a study that was done where there was suggested there was some relationship. But when you went back and looked at the design of the study, what they did was they asked people who had brain tumors to recall how much time they use their phone or what their exposure was on which side. And they were able to tell that because of that design flaw people will have a bias of how they remember and that that statistical analysis was really skewed by that bias. And so that may be where a lot of these questions come about is because of that study. It was written about actually in a Pulitzer Prize winning book called the Emperor of All Maladies, which is about cancer. And he talked about how that study was flawed in design and that more recent studies that were designed to instead rely on somebody who was diagnosed with cancer to recall and instead look at objectively how much they use their phone. There is no difference. So I am not worried about that. But even if you are, you can use the Oslo sleepbuds in phone free mode. So they're actually the sounds are stored in the buds and if you are concerned about that, you can use them in phone free mode. But I mean, it's a fair question. I can see why a lot of people are concerned about that. And as a neurologist, that data's really important to me. But not only is there no evidence, but there's pretty really good scientific evidence that there's no connection.
- [39:31]
Dr. Amy Myers
Okay, so I want to kind of summarize this for listeners because as you know, in this whole health and wellness, slash functional integrative medicine, slash biohacking space, it's almost like it gets ingrained in people. It's kind of like, oh, gosh, dare I turn over this rock the seed oil debate. You know, I get it that we don't want to be readily cooking with like vegetable oil like our moms did, but now I see people freaking out over the tiny little speck of grape seed oil that's with their progesterone pill.
- [40:07]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
And I'm like, you know, if you're
- [40:09]
Dr. Amy Myers
going to freak out about that, don't eat at a restaurant ever again for the rest of your life, like, ever, because you're going to get more seed oils from what they put on your steak. So anyways, I'm using that as an example of. It is so ingrained in people that EMFs will kill them and cause brain tumors. So you're even saying that holding your phone up to your ear like nobody does anymore, or even putting these bad boys in, which are notorious. No, I have not switched to the corded ones because they're pain in the ass switching. Even using these, which are notorious for WI fi, no issues. And then we take it one step further. Now if I'm saying anything wrong, you're going to unpack it. We can take it one step further and say, now we have the Oslo sleep buds going to improve your sleep. Lower EMF than this and if you want one extra layer, so we already know that this isn't even going to harm you, but lower EMF than the earbuds one step further. You put it in the basically airplane mode or phone free mode because the sounds are stored in the buds themselves. And now you're at virtually no EMFs. Did I, did I lay that out correctly? I wanted to do the TLDR kind of summary.
- [41:26]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes, you did.
- [41:27]
Dr. Amy Myers
Okay, perfect.
- [41:28]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes.
- [41:29]
Dr. Amy Myers
Okay, beautiful. Because I know that that's on people's minds and I think it's, it's important to first of all calm some fears because I, I love that you just address that. I think we're freaking out a little bit too much. And then also to give another layer of comfort for those who do still want to believe that, you know, you don't want to put your phone up and your EMS and your ears and all that, that they can even put it into sleep mode or into airplane mode. Is that what you're doing? Like, basically you're putting your phone in airplane mode and that disconnects your phone from talking to the Buds, essentially.
- [42:09]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
I mean, that's one way of saying it. Yes.
- [42:12]
Dr. Amy Myers
Okay. And then that reduces the. Be the WI fi then from your phone to the buds.
- [42:18]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Yes. Though the phone and the sleep buds are not connected. So you're just like, you don't have to have your phone right there. They're not communicating. All of the information is stored on the buds and that's one of the most impressive things from an engineering side is it has all that information in the buds and you can, as you know, you can personally select which sounds you want. We can't have an infinite number of sounds because they're so tiny. And then the buds will last all night.
- [42:50]
Dr. Amy Myers
Oh yeah, they do. You don't get that annoying like you do with your apple buds. So you can even have your phone in a different room and the buds will still work because there's a lot of people that plug their phone in, you know, outside of their bedroom.
- [43:04]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Correct. Which is, isn't that genius? I mean, I would like it if that's what people did as their sleep. Dr. Lee, please leave your phone outside. Say goodnight to your sleep phone.
- [43:17]
Dr. Amy Myers
Definitely. Definitely. Well, they, I can attest, I can attest that the Oslo sleep buds have given me better sleep, especially, especially when I'm traveling. But in addition, being here with my snoring husband, I keep threatening him that I'm going to actually tape him one day with my snoring husband because they, they just block it out. They give me that noise cancellation in a way, but masking at the same time to where I legitimately don't even hear him and just drift off into sleep. So I, I absolutely love them. I love them. And if they're going to help improve my listeners and my patients outcomes, because if we can get people sleeping, going back to what we said at the beginning, it's going to improve everything. Your weight loss efforts, your insulin balancing, your glucose regulation, your hormonal cascade, your entire endocrine system is going to be improved when you sleep better and deeper. Now let me ask you one last question, Dr. Broderick. Sleep science, I mean, you're on the forefront. You're right there in the trenches. What do you see coming about from advancements in sleep based therapies, personalized behavior interventions, different sleep technology, kind of where's the field heading?
- [44:36]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
One thing I'm really excited about, that we talked a lot about around during this episode, is I think that we'll be able to play people different sounds or customize and be able to study their sleep and determine for their environment for their specific personalized situation, which sounds do help them optimize the quality of their sleep. I think that's really excited to be able to give people in real time interventions using this technology. I love how you shared that about how trackers impacted you because that's a huge trend we're seeing and it's a big project problem and it's really exciting for people to be wearing all these wearables to gather all this data, but we need to be able to help them more and be able to understand how do we not do that and help them. That's what I'm excited about, to give these more personalized, customized high tech interventions.
- [45:33]
Dr. Amy Myers
That is exciting. That is exciting. Now you yourself, you are called the sound Sleep Guru, which I love. So we're going to put your link for people to find you and just, you know, look more into what you're doing. Sound sleep guru.com and we'll put your Instagram, all the good stuff. But then we're also going to put down in the show notes the link to the Oslo sleep buds because y' all gave me a fantastic discount to give to my audience as well. So we're gonna put that discount code down below. Usually it's Dr. Amy, but I think for you guys, you set me up with TTF podcast, so we're going to double check that. We'll put that down in the show notes as well so people can save some money. I believe it's 20% off. So that's phenomenal when it comes to investing in good sleep. They're fantastically priced, very, very affordable. And I'm telling you, they will take you to the next level in your sleep. And then going back to what we said in the beginning sleep, is that that keystone? It's the keystone if you're not sleeping. Now, just like Dr. Merida said, I, I don't want to put extra stress on anybody, but if you're not sleeping, look to that and look at different ways that you can improve. If you are getting startled by noises, by sound, if you're not drifting off into sleep, whatever it is, if you're waking up in the middle of night, you want to look to improve that because that's going to have a domino effect on the rest of your body systems and the rest of your health. So I know I said a lot right there, but I'll turn it over to you. To who end us. Dr. Meredith, can you please tell people where they can find more from you, where they can hear more from you? And then of course we'll put it all in the Show Notes.
- [47:15]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
Thank you so much for having me. My website is sound sleep guru.com I have an in person clinic in the Seattle, Washington area. I also have a medical license in California and do telehealth with patients in California and then I'm on instagram @sleep Dr. May.
- [47:30]
Dr. Amy Myers
Amazing. So we'll put all that in the Show Notes along with the Oslo link and the discount code for all y'.
- [47:36]
Dr. Meredith Broadrick
All.
- [47:36]
Dr. Amy Myers
If you have any questions of course hit me up on Instagram or Facebook. I'd be happy to answer them. And then you can also follow Dr. Meredith as well and throw her some sleep questions that you have. Once again, thank you so much for listening to the Thyroid Fixer Podcast and I hope you enjoyed it. Share it if you know somebody with insomnia with sleep issues, this is the episode to share. So thank you for listening. The information shared on the Thyroid Fixer Podcast is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not a substitute substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, treatment or before making changes to your healthcare regimen, including medications, supplements or other therapies. Use of the information provided in this podcast does not establish a doctor, patient or client provider relationship between you and the host or between you and any other healthcare professionals featured on the show. Any medical opinions or statements made by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or affiliated parties. Statements regarding dietary supplements or health related products mentioned in this podcast have not been evaluated by the fda. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Some episodes of the Thyroid Fixer Podcast may include sponsorships or affiliate links. The host may receive compensation for discussing or promoting promoting certain products or services. Any such sponsorships or affiliations will be clearly disclosed during the episode. All opinions expressed are those of the host or guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of any sponsors. The inclusion of a product or service does not imply endorsement by any healthcare professional featured on this podcast.