December 25, 2024 • 33 mins
Description:
If you're tired of lying awake with racing thoughts or waking up feeling unrefreshed, this episode reveals why relying on sleeping pills isn't the answer.
Discover how modern lifestyles disrupt your body's natural sleep cycles and learn scientifically-proven strategies to restore healthy sleep patterns. Understand the powerful connection between sleep, hormone balance, and your immune system's ability to protect you from illness.
Get specific recommendations for creating the ideal sleep environment, including the exact temperature range for optimal rest. Master natural techniques for calming your mind and preparing your body for deep, rejuvenating sleep.
Time Stamps:
03:05 - theological perspectives on sleep
05:29 - four stages of sleep
10:45 - benefits of a good night's sleep
15:57 - lifestyle habits for better sleep
17:47 - get access to natural alternatives to sleeping pills
23:23 - blue/green blocker glasses
24:37 - create a sleep sanctuary
Links:
Blue/Green blocker sleep glasses
Episode 97: Ethan's Organic Energy Shots
Episode 28: Dr. Katie Nall Emotional Freedom Technique EFT
Episode 62: Dr. David Shirazi - Do I need a sleep study?
More episodes: Podcast Hompage
For a Copy of David’s Book: The Christian’s Guide to Holistic Health
Ask David a question to be answered on an upcoming episode: Ask Me Anything
Would you like to be on the Show? Schedule a Lifestyle Audit
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
When you wake up in the morning,do you feel drowsy or
unrefreshed? Do you have troubleconcentrating during the day, or
do you have a lack of focus? Doyou have memory problems? Do you
have trouble remembering things?Do you have cravings for sweets
or unhealthy foods? Has your getup and go, got up and gone by
(00:20):
three in the afternoon. If anyof that applies to you, you may
have some problems with yoursleep. In this episode, I'm
going to be talking all thingssleep, so stick around. I've got
some recommendations that youmay find very useful.
Welcome to the Christian HealthyLifestyle podcast where I help
(00:43):
Christians over 40 maximizetheir health potential so they
can age gracefully and liveabundantly. I'm your host, David
Sandstrom, naturopathic doctorand biblical health coach, and
this is episode number 164,well, this is the final episode
in my series on the nine pillarsof health, and we're going to be
talking about sleep here. I wantto explain why sleep is so
(01:05):
important, and then I'm going toshift gears and we're going to
talk about how to get a betternight's sleep.
Now, before we get started here,I'd like to talk about your
podcast listening platform. Now,everybody has their favorite. I
like to use overcast. Been usingthat for quite some time, but
I'm going to encourage everybodyto switch over to Spotify. Now,
there's a reason why Spotifypassed Apple as the number one
(01:28):
podcast listening platform.Apple was king of the hill for
quite some time, and nobody, noone, ever thought that anybody
could knock them off that numberone position. But Spotify has
done exactly that, becausethey've been very innovative,
very scrappy and coming up withnew features. And I really think
that that listening platform isexcellent. A couple of reasons
why I believe that is that theyhave not only audio on there,
(01:50):
but video as well. Now, I spenta lot of time producing the
videos on these episodes, and Iput a lot of work into that, and
it's a shame that most of thelisteners are listening to the
audio version only. Now I getit. Podcasting is a great medium
for listening on the go, whenyou're driving or in the gym,
mowing the lawn, those kinds ofthings. It's great for that. But
if you have an opportunity, youmight want to check out the
(02:11):
video version, and you can dothat right on Spotify. Another
feature they put in there is youhave chapters, and you can look
at the time stamps and movedirectly to that portion of that
episode. So if there's somethingyou want to go back and review
or listen to later, you can justskip right to that portion of
the other podcast. And that's apretty good feature as well. And
(02:31):
here's another cool feature, youcan leave a comment there, and
if you do, I promise I'll replyto it. So we have a little bit
of an interaction there. Youhave a chance to be more of a
community environment there. Thenatural nation here has very
little opportunity to give mefeedback, and you can do that
right there on the Spotify app.I'm pretty sure. Right now, as
(02:53):
of this recording, the only wayyou can leave a comment is to be
using the mobile app, not thedesktop version, but that's
probably going to change thenear future. So anyway, I
encourage everyone listening toswitch over to Spotify. It's a
great platform.
The National Sleep Foundationsays that adults between the
ages of 18 and 65 should get atleast seven hours of sleep per
(03:14):
night. Now, you know, there's alot of people out there that are
just workaholics, sleepers forlosers, and I'll sleep when I'm
dead. You know, you've probablyheard those types of comments.
Well, if that's your motto, youmight be dead sooner than you
think, because sleep is vital toour health and well being. Psalm
127, verse two says, in vain,you rise early and stay up late,
(03:37):
toiling for food to eat for Hegrants sleep to those he loves.
So quality sleep is a gift fromGod, and we shouldn't disrespect
that. We should treat sleep asthe gift that it is, and we
should respect that gift thatGod's given us. So why is sleep
so important? Well, God hasestablished a rhythm to
(04:02):
creation. We see this right backin the very beginning of the
Bible, in Genesis, chapter two,verse two, by the seventh day,
God had finished the work he'dbeen doing. So on the seventh
day he rested from all His work.And we know that God doesn't
need sleep. He wasn't tired. Sowhy did he rest on the seventh
day? Well, part of the reason ishe gave us an example to follow,
(04:24):
but God's not showing us how tobe good little boys and girls
and follow the rules as good ashe does. That's not the point.
He's operating in harmony withhis design principles for
creation, and that is thatthere's to be an ebb and a flow
to our work in our rest, andhe's just simply operating in
(04:44):
harmony with that. That'swouldn't it make sense that God
would do that? He's not going tooperate in a way that's outside
of his design principles,Ecclesiastes, chapter three,
verse one, says, There is anappointed time for everything,
and there is a time for everyevent. Went under heaven. So
there's a time for wakefulnessand getting work done, and
(05:04):
there's a time for rest andsleep and slumber. The sun
rises, the sun sets. There's anebb and a flow to creation, and
we do well to embrace that. Youknow, I often say in the show,
we maximize our health potentialby aligning our lives more fully
with God's natural design forspirit, mind and body, and this
(05:25):
ebb and flow to our activity ispart of his natural design.
Most of us go through six orseven 90-minute sleep cycles
throughout the night. Now, sleephas four stages to it. When
we're awake, we experience brainwaves that are a higher
frequency anda lower amplitude.Now, as we move toward deeper
(05:47):
sleep, those brain wavesdecrease in their frequency, but
the increase in the amplitudethe height we experience those
those electrical signals comingout of the brain in stage one,
we call that light sleep, andthis is the transition between
wakefulness and sleep. Itgenerally lasts about three to
five minutes. And during thisstage, our muscles begin to
(06:11):
relax, our heart rate and ourbreathing slow down, and you may
experience muscle twitching.That's That's a normal part of
this first stage to sleep. Now,you know, one of the things that
I want to point out here is thatyou might be aware of your
surroundings, but producingbrain waves that are consistent
with one of these stages ofsleep. So sometimes we may think
(06:34):
we're not getting rest, but weactually are, and that's been
proven out in sleep studies. Nowin this first stage of sleep,
the alpha brain waves start todecrease in frequency, but the
increase in amplitude the brainwaves start to slow from the
alert daytime pattern, and theymove toward the unconscious
(06:54):
sleep, nighttime restorativepattern. Now this stage of sleep
is important because it helpsour bodies and minds gradually
disconnect from the day'sactivities. We're preparing
ourselves to get more benefitout of the more restorative
stages of sleep that are ahead.The better job we do here, the
(07:15):
more restful sleep we'llexperience later in the evening.
So Don't, don't underestimatehow important this first stage
of sleep is, this transitionstage,
So stage two is deeper lightsleep typically lasts between 20
and 30 minutes. Here, our bodytemperature drops and our heart
rate and breathing continue toslow, and we experience theta
(07:38):
brain waves. The brain producesspindles or spikes of higher
frequency brain waves duringthis stage,and this stage is
crucial for memory consolidationand learning. That's why we're
taught in Joshua one eight, tomeditate on God's word day and
night. And in Deuteronomy, 6:7we're told to meditate on the
(08:00):
Word of God when we lie down andwhen we wake up, by meditating
on the Word of God before wefall asleep and reminding
ourselves of those truths whenwe wake up, we're cooperating
with our design and comingalongside our brain's capacity
to consolidate the things thatwe've learned into a long term
memory. Take it from short termmemory and move it towards long
(08:22):
term memory. That's an importantpart of this stage of sleep.
The next stage of sleep, stagethree is deep sleep. It's also
known as slow wave sleep, andthis is where true restoration
occurs. Our blood pressuredrops, tissue growth and repair
take place. Immune systemstrengthening occurs. Growth
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hormone is released. Ourmemories are embedded deeper
into the long term memory. Weexperience Delta brain waves,
which are the lowest infrequency and the highest in
amplitude. This is the mostrestorative part of our night's
sleep, and thisstage is vitalfor physical and mental
emotional renewal.
(09:04):
Now the final stage of sleep isREM sleep, or rapid eye
movement. REM sleep first occursabout 90 minutes after we fall
asleep, and brain activityincreases slightly, and this is
where most of our dreamingoccurs. In our eyes move
rapidly, back and forth, but ourmuscles are very relaxed and
almost paralyzed. We're notmoving much, our bodies aren't
(09:27):
moving much, but our eyes moveback and forth. It's very
interesting. Now here memoryconsolidation occurs at the
deepest level, and REM sleep isessential for emotional
processing, creativity andproblem solving.
So after REM sleep, we start thewhole process all over again
with light sleep, and we go backto another cycle. So this sleep
(09:51):
cycling takes place, as I said,about six or seven times
throughout the night, and thecycle will last, usually about
90 minutes, but it can go up toabout. 120 minutes. So we go
through several of these sleepcycles per night, where we start
off in light sleep, we progressthrough to REM sleep, and then
we start to cycle all overagain. Now the early cycles have
(10:12):
more deep sleep in them than thelater cycles do in the evening.
So the first part of our sleepis actually more important in
terms of restoration and renewalthan the later stages of sleep
that have more light sleep inthem, the cycling pattern shows
how complex God's design is forour rest and our renewal. We
(10:33):
truly are fearfully andwonderfully made. Psalm 139:14,
I will give thanks to you, for Iam fearfully and wonderfully
made. Wonderful are Your works,and my soul knows it very well.
So what are the benefits to goodnight's sleep? Well, one of the
big benefits is our organsdetoxify themselves. In the last
episode, episode 163 I talkedabout the glymphatic system,
(10:57):
where our brains actually detoxthemselves using a cerebral
spinal fluid. If you havelistened to that episode, check
out Episode 163, now this braindetoxification system, the
glymphatic system, it helpsclear a protein called amyloid
beta. And amyloid beta has beenassociated with cognitive issues
like Alzheimer's and age relateddementia. So if you're concerned
(11:20):
about cognitive decline withaging, a good night's sleep is a
must. Another one of the moreimportant things that goes on
during sleep is hormonebalancing. We produce. Our
bodies produce growth hormonewhen we sleep, and growth
hormone is important for musclegrowth and muscle retention.
It's also important for bonetissue integrity. Ourbodies
(11:41):
produce melatonin at night.Melatonin obviously promotes
relaxation and better sleep.Another one of the hormones that
gets balanced and producedduring sleep is cortisol. Now,
cortisolis a stress hormone andhas a little bit of a bad rap
these days. Everyone wants to,everyone seems to want to reduce
their cortisol levels, and thatis true if your cortisol is too
(12:01):
high, but cortisol serves a veryimportant role. It helps us wake
up in the morning. It gives usthe alertness that we need
throughout the day, and it's animportant part of our body's
stress response. So we want tomake sure our body is producing
adequate amounts of cortisol,and we need good sleep to do
that, another important hormonethat gets produced and balanced
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during sleep is leptin. Leptinis a satiety hormone. It tells
us when we're full, and theother side of that coin is
ghrelin. Is the hormone thatstimulates hunger. So we want to
have proper leptin to ghrelinratios so that we don't have
unhealthy sweet cravings, as Imentioned the top of the
episode, that's one of thesymptoms as one of the telltale
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signs that you're not sleepingwell is that you have excessive
sweet cravings, or cravings forunhealthy foods. It could be due
to an imbalance between yourleptin and your ghrelin
hormones. So that's a reallyimportant part of what our
bodies are doing when we sleepis to balance our hormones and
regulate our blood sugarmetabolism. If we have blood
(13:05):
sugar issues, we experience moreof a roller coaster ride in our
blood glucose levels going upand down throughout the day, and
that can produce sweet cravings.
Another super important bodilyfunction that goes on during
sleep is we enhance our immunefunction. Our bodies are
constantly fighting offpathogens in the form of
(13:26):
undesirable, microscopicorganisms like viruses,
bacteria, fungi, parasites. Soan important part of our
adaptive immune system is ourability to fight off those
invaders. Our bodies use killerT cells to do that. Now, in
order for our T cells to dotheir jobs, they've got to
(13:46):
adhere to the infected cell. Nowthere's a cell adhesion molecule
called integrins, and thatmolecule is a cell adhesion
protein that causes the T cellsto stick to that viral infected
cell, and that process has totake place in order for the T
cells to kill, T cells to dotheir jobs and eliminate those
(14:08):
pathogens. So more sleep helpsour bodies become more of a
hostile environment forpathogens.
Good Sleep also promotesapoptosis and autophagy. So
apoptosis is programmed celldeath. So you may be saying,
Well, Dave, why would I want mycells to die? I'm trying to be
more healthy. Well, there comesa time where a cell needs to be
(14:31):
discarded and replaced with newones. So remember, cancer is
uncontrolled cell growth. Sosometimes our bodies want to
eliminate unhealthy cells, so itdoes that through apoptosis,
also through autophagy. Some ofour cells are not ready to be
completely discarded, and theycan be rebuilt. That's where
(14:52):
autophagy comes in. So autophagyis our body's cellular recycling
system. It allows our cells. Todisassemble themselves and
discard the parts they don'tneed and reuse the salvageable
bits and pieces to make newhealthier cells. Now this design
is just absolutely exquisite.It's a super cool process, and
(15:16):
it speaks to the idea that weare fearfully and wonderfully
made. And the fool says in hisheart, there is no God.
We can't outsmart God's designwith biohacking. We can only
come alongside and support ourGod given natural design. That's
my approach to health. That'swhat naturopathy teaches, and
(15:37):
that's what the Bible teaches,that we just get the obstacles
out of the way and lean on thatGod given built in wisdom that
our bodies have and allow themto heal themselves and to
thrive. We've just got to getthe obstacles out of the way.
And for some of us, the obstacleis inadequate or poor sleep.
Which leads me right into how dowe get a better night's sleep?
(16:01):
Well, the first thing we want todo is we want to avoid sleeping
pills. Now, sleeping pills arehighly addictive, and they're
toxic to our bodies, and theycome with all kinds of side
effects. According to theCleveland Clinic, approximately
8 out of 10 people experience ahangover effect. The day after
(16:22):
taking sleeping pills, they feeldrowsy, they have muddled
thinking, and they experiencedizziness and balance problems,
not the kind of thing we want toencourage when we're aging right
other side effects includeconstipation, diarrhea, dry
mouth, headaches, muscleweakness, digestive issues like
gas, bloating, heartburn,nausea, most sleeping pills are
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antihistamines. Now, histaminesare part of our body's innate
immune response, so by blockinghistamines with antihistamines
drugs, we weaken our immunesystems. Here's a study I found,
published in the journalinternational archives of
Allergy andImmunology. It'sentitled, effects of
(17:06):
antihistamines on innate immuneresponse to severe bacterial
infection in mice. Now, this wasdone in mice, but I think it's
very applicable here. Theseresearchers concluded this. Our
findings indicate that sedatingfirst generation h1r
antihistamines and h2r blockersmight impair innate immune
(17:27):
response to bacteria, and thatthese drugs should be used with
caution in patients with severebacterial infections. So this
study was done on mice, but itmakes perfect sense to me that
blocking a natural part of ourimmune defenses is not a good
idea, not in the long haulanyway, the short term, maybe.
(17:47):
Now I'm about to share with yousome lifestyle modifications
that will absolutely help withsleep. You should start there.
We're going to get to those injust a moment. But there are
natural alternatives to sleepingpills. If you're looking for
some natural sleep aids, I havea sleep protocol on my
fullscript supplementdispensary. Now, all my
(18:08):
protocols there haveprofessional quality, medical
grade naturalproducts onlyavailable through healthcare
practitioners such as myself,and they're from my listeners,
the natural nation only on mysleep protocol. I've got
magnesium on there that promotesrelaxation. I've got lavender
essential oil that's been provenin hundreds of studies to
(18:29):
promote relaxation and sleep.I've got some Homeopathics on
there that are completely nontoxic and they don't have any
addictive properties at all. Iuse these products from certain
time myself. You know, when Iwas an airline pilot, there was
times when I need a little helpgetting some rest, because I had
to wake up refreshed and readyto go. So I personally have
found these products to be very,very useful in helping promote
(18:52):
good sleep. Now, if you'vealready created an account on my
fullscript dispensary, using mylink, you can log in and
navigate to the multi patientplans, and you'll see all my
protocols there. If you haven'tcreated a fullscript account
yet, go to my website, Christianhealthy lifestyle.com/protocols,
click on the sleep SupportProtocol, and you can create an
(19:13):
account, and you'll get instantaccess to the protocol, and
you'll lock in a 10% discountfor life and free shipping on
orders over $50. You'll also besupporting the show when you do
that, because I get a smallcommission. When you make a
purchase, you don't pay anymore.In fact, you get a discount.
It's a no brainer. You have mypermission to pause this episode
(19:36):
and go create your free accountright now. I promise I'll be
waiting here for you when youget back.
So what kind of lifestylemodifications can we make to get
a better night's sleep? Well,first and foremost is we want to
respect our circadian rhythm.God has designed our bodies to
be awake during the daylighthours and drowsy and sleepy at
(19:57):
night. Now I recommend as. Muchas possible, going to bed and
getting up the same time everyday, even on the weekends.
Ideally, we want to wake upwithout an alarm clock. If
you've got to wake up with analarm clock, you're probably not
going to bed early enough. Now,personally, I like to go to bed
around 10 and get up at six.That works pretty well for me.
(20:18):
It doesn't always happen. A lotof times I'm waking up earlier
than that, but I am. That's whatI'm shooting for. So somewhere
between 10 and six and I don'tneed an alarm clock, I get up
that time every day. It's not aproblem.
Another important thing toremember is our adrenal glands
recharge themselves between 11pmand 1am so that's a good reason
(20:40):
for getting to bed beforemidnight. We also get more deep
sleep before midnight. So youwant to get to bed before
midnight, you can't just go tobed at three and get up at 10 or
11 and expect it to be the sametype of restorative sleep that
you get when you go into bedbefore midnight. It just doesn't
work that way.
Now, exercise helps, but youdon't want to exercise within
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two hours of retiring, becausethat will stimulate your system.
You'll produce cortisol, otherstress hormones, and that could
interfere with you fallingasleep. Another thing I
recommend is don't eat any foodwithin three hours of going to
sleep, because digestion is hardwork. Our bodies are hard at
work adjusting their food. Theyhave to, they have to process
the food that we send downthere. And we don't want our
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bodies too busy doing that kindof thing when we when we're
wanting to rest. So we want tostop eating at least three hours
before going to bed.
Now we want to prepare for goodnight's sleep during the day,
one of the best things you cando is, when you wake up in the
morning, if it's light out, gofor a walk in the morning and
face the sun. There's a pinealgland, which is right here on
(21:47):
your forehead, in between youreyebrows, and that helps to
regulate your melatoninproduction. And the sunlight on
in your eyes and on your face,will help to stimulate cortisol,
help you wake up in the morning,and it'll it'll get your
circadian rhythm in sync withthe Earth, the natural rhythm of
the planet. So this is veryimportant to wake up well in the
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morning, because that will helpprepare you for a better night's
sleep.
Another thing we want to do islimit alcohol consumption.
Alcohol may help us fall asleep,but it makes it more difficult
to stay asleep and spend moretime in that deep sleep that we
want. So Alcohol is a depressantfor many people. It's a
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stimulant for some but it doesact as a depressant and it will
interfere with the quality ofour sleep. So limit or avoid
alcohol, if you can, especiallylater in the day.
We also should try to avoidcaffeine after lunchtime. Now, I
know I like my caffeine. I likemy Ethan's Energy Shots. In
fact, I interviewed Ethanhimself on episode 97 it was a
(22:54):
great conversation. You cancheck that out episode 97 I'll
put a link in the show notes,but we should consume caffeine
before lunch. Anytime afterlunch, we should try to avoid
caffeine if we're having anytrouble, any difficulty at all
sleeping.
Another thing if you're havingdifficulty sleeping is try not
to nap during the day. Naps aregreat. I do them once in a
while, but if you're havingtrouble sleeping, especially
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lengthy naps, longer than 20minutes, could interfere with
your nighttime rest.
Another thing that interfereswith nighttime rest is blue
light from electronics or evenlight bulbs. Oneof the things we
can do to fight back there is wecan put our phones and our
computers on nighttime mode, andthey will reduce the amount of
(23:37):
blue light they put out, andthat will help us to relax in
the night. The ideal light inthe evening would be candle
light. This research coming outthat shows that it's not just
blue light that stimulates us inthe evening, but green light as
well. I use a pair of green andblue blocker glasses. I put my
glasses on about 30 minutes toan hour before going to bed, and
(24:00):
I'll start to feel drowsy afterabout a half hour on these
glasses, no matter what I'mdoing, even if I'm on the
computer or watching TV, theseglasses will still help me feel
drowsy and prepare my body forsleep. Now they they block out a
lot of light, so don't use theseif you're if you're doing
operating any machinery,especially driving a car,
because all you're going to getis red light throughso red,
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green and blue make up all thecolors of the spectrum. So if
you block out the red, if youblock out the green and the
blue, all you have left isvarying shades of red. So things
will look kind ofstrange tothese glasses. But man, they
really help with sleep.
Another thing we should do tohelp us with sleep is to create
a sanctuary environment in ourin our bedrooms, I recommend
(24:45):
that you don't have a desk witha computer or an exercise
machine in your room. We shouldbe treating our bedrooms as a
sleep sanctuary. Okay? So assoon as we walk in, we start to
feel that sleep environment. Wedon't want to be working and
stimulating ourselves in ourbedrooms. So I recommend, if you
(25:06):
have a TV in there, don't watchTV before going to bed. If you
canjust take the TV out. It'sreally not useful. If you do
have a TV in your room, don'twatch the news before going to
bed. Those people are experts ingetting us wound up. That's the
worst thing you can do is watchthe news before you go to bed.
Another thing you can do tocreate a sleep sanctuary in the
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bedroom is put some house plantsin there. Good house plants are
peace lilies, philodendrons andferns. They'll help, help filter
the air, produce more oxygen andbeautify the environment. It's
it's nice to have.
Another thing we should do iscool the room down. Research has
shown that temperature between65 and 70 degrees is probably
(25:50):
ideal for most people to sleep.Our bodies have to lower our
core body temperature in orderto sleep well. So if the room is
too warm, our bodies struggle todo that. You can also use some
soft music. Another thing youmight want to use is white
noise, you know, a sound devicethat produces rain, or maybe
water flowing through a stream,that could be quite relaxing and
(26:13):
help you help induce a betternight's sleep. It doesn't have
to be going all night. You canjust put it on a timer, let it
go off after 30 minutes, orsomething like that.
So remember, our natural designis to be awake during the
daylight hours and drowsy andsleeping at night. So one of the
best things you can do to createa sleep sanctuary in your
bedroom is get some blackoutcurtains. Now you don't have to
spend a fortune. I use somecurtains called nice
(26:36):
towncurtains that I bought onAmazon. I'll put a link in the
show notes. They're really goodquality. They'reinexpensive,
easy to install. Make sure, ifyou buy these curtains, you get
the curtain rod that wrapsaround towards the wall, because
you can have to block that lightout as well. But they're really
good. You want your room to bedark where it's designed to
sleep in darkness. Ideally, youwant the room so dark that you
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can't see your hand in front ofyour face. That would be the
ideal sleeping environment. SoI'll put a link to those nice
town curtains in the show notesas well.
Another thing we can do is usesome essential oils. I have a
lavender essential oil on mysleep protocol on Fullscript,
you'll need some type ofessential oil diffuser. They're
pretty inexpensive. You can findthem everywhere. So essential
(27:20):
oils can be useful. If I'm goingto use essential oils, I'll rub
them on my palms, put a fewdrops on my palms, rub my hands
together and take a nice deepinhale. You can also do the same
thing to the soles of your feet.Very effective way of getting
those essential oils into yoursystem.
Another thing we can do is takea warm bath an hour or so before
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you're going to bed, whathappens in a warm bath is our
bodies are trying to coolthemselves so the blood flow
will go to the extremities andaway from the internal organs.
So when we when we get out andour body recovers from that,
it's our bodies are set up todrop their body temperature, as
we need to do during sleep. So awarm bath can help. One of the
(28:02):
reasons why a lot of people havetrouble falling asleep and
staying asleep is racingthoughts, but thinking about the
events of the day, or thinkingabout the things we have to get
done tomorrow, there's ways tofight back against that. One of
the things I would suggest thereis journaling, if you write
those things down on a piece ofpaper or in some type of a
(28:22):
binder, you're giving yourselfpermission to let that go until
tomorrow, so we can just clearour minds and and not worry
about that right now. Of course,prayer is going to help with
this, right? If we pray beforegoing to bed, I recommend
focusing on surrenderingeverything to God, everyone and
(28:43):
everything to God. We need torecognize that we're not in
control. God is and we should dosomething about the things we
can change and leave everythingelse up to God. But again,
writing those things down in ajournal gives us permission to
let them go for the moment.
Another thing we can do toinduce restfulness is some deep
(29:04):
breathing exercises. So by doingdeep breathing, we can stimulate
our parasympathetic nervoussystem, which is our rest and
digest side. So what you want todo is take a deep breath,
diaphragmatic breathing throughthe diaphragm, fill your lungs
and then hold that for a momentor two, then exhale, and as you
exhale, you focus on relaxingthe muscles that you're holding
(29:26):
tension with. So the importantthing here is you want to exhale
longer than you're inhaling. Therelaxation takes place during
the exhale. It's very difficultto relax your muscles when
you're holding your breath orwhen you're inhaling. So the
important part of deep breathingfor relaxation is to exhale
longer than the inhale, maybeinhale for five seconds, exhale
(29:50):
for 10 something like that.
Another thing you can do iscombine that deep breathing with
visualization. So if. If you'rethinking about your troubles and
you've already journaled and yougave them yourself permission to
let it go, part of that lettinggo process could be
visualization where you say,okay, my problems are like the
(30:11):
water that's spinning down thedrain in the tub and it's just
flowing down the drain, and thenI'm just going to let them go.
Or you might want to visualize achampagne glass with bubbles
flowing up and just disappearingup to the top of the glass, and
your troubles are justdisappearing like the bubbles in
a champagne glass. Those typesof things can be quite useful as
well.
Now, another thing I recommendthat will really help with
(30:34):
promoting relaxation isemotional freedom technique. And
way back in episode number 28 Italked with Dr Katie Nall, and
she's an expert in emotionalfreedom technique, and it's a
series of tapping on acupuncturepoints, and you do an emotional
release during this tapping. Andit's super, super useful. It
(30:56):
looks a little silly, butdon'tlet that fool you. It's a
very effective way to let go ofstressful emotions.
Another thing that we need toreduce in our bedrooms to create
a sleep sanctuary is considerelectromagnetic frequencies, or
the electrical smog that's inour homes. You may have more
(31:17):
wires in one wall than theother. So you'd like to move
your bed away from the wiring inthe walls. If you can, you'll
definitely want to turn downyour Wi Fi at night. Wi Fi is
electromagnetic frequencies thatare flowing through the air. I
understand how convenient Wi Fiis during the day, but at least
(31:38):
turn your router off at night.You don't need it when you're
sleeping, that can help withsleep a great deal.
Another thing that you mightwant to consider is an organic
mattress. The toxins that webreathe in from the synthetic
mattresses that we buy at thestore can also interfere with
our rest you can also buy someearthing sheets. These sheets
(32:00):
will plug into the groundingportion of your power
receptacleand actually connectyou to the earth, and that can
also do a great deal towardspromoting good night's sleep.
Another thing you might want toconsider is, if you snore, have
a sleep study done, because youmight have sleep apnea and not
(32:20):
know it. It's a big problem fora lot of people. A high
percentage of people actuallyexperience sleep apnea and are
not even aware of it. I talkedabout this in great detail on
episode number 62 with Dr DavidShirazi. I'll put a link to that
episode in the show notes aswell.
So that's my thoughts on sleep.I hope you found this
information useful. If you did,would you consider sharing the
(32:43):
episode with a like mindedfriend? The easiest way to do
that is go tochristianhealthlistyle.com,
forward, slash the episodenumber this is episode number
164, copy that URL and text itto a friend. If you're on
Spotify, there's an easy way toshare there as well. So that
concludes my series on the ninepillars of health. I hope you
(33:05):
enjoyed listening, and make sureyou tune in. Next week, I'm
going to be talking about oliveoil. I have a guest on the show
that's a producer of highquality extra virgin olive oil
over in Greece, and we're goingto be talking about how to find
quality olive oil and what thehealth benefits are. You don't
want to miss that one. That's itfor now. Thank you for
(33:28):
listening. I appreciate you. Goout there and live abundantly.
I'll talk with you next time. Beblessed.
When you wake up in the morning,do you feel drowsy or
unrefreshed? Do you have troubleconcentrating during the day, or
do you have a lack of focus? Doyou have memory problems? Do you
have trouble remembering things?Do you have cravings for sweets
or unhealthy foods? Has your getup and go, got up and gone by
(00:20):
three in the afternoon. If anyof that applies to you, you may
have some problems with yoursleep. In this episode, I'm
going to be talking all thingssleep, so stick around. I've got
some recommendations that youmay find very useful.
Welcome to the Christian HealthyLifestyle podcast where I help
(00:43):
Christians over 40 maximizetheir health potential so they
can age gracefully and liveabundantly. I'm your host, David
Sandstrom, naturopathic doctorand biblical health coach, and
this is episode number 164,well, this is the final episode
in my series on the nine pillarsof health, and we're going to be
talking about sleep here. I wantto explain why sleep is so
(01:05):
important, and then I'm going toshift gears and we're going to
talk about how to get a betternight's sleep.
Now, before we get started here,I'd like to talk about your
podcast listening platform. Now,everybody has their favorite. I
like to use overcast. Been usingthat for quite some time, but
I'm going to encourage everybodyto switch over to Spotify. Now,
there's a reason why Spotifypassed Apple as the number one
(01:28):
podcast listening platform.Apple was king of the hill for
quite some time, and nobody, noone, ever thought that anybody
could knock them off that numberone position. But Spotify has
done exactly that, becausethey've been very innovative,
very scrappy and coming up withnew features. And I really think
that that listening platform isexcellent. A couple of reasons
why I believe that is that theyhave not only audio on there,
(01:50):
but video as well. Now, I spenta lot of time producing the
videos on these episodes, and Iput a lot of work into that, and
it's a shame that most of thelisteners are listening to the
audio version only. Now I getit. Podcasting is a great medium
for listening on the go, whenyou're driving or in the gym,
mowing the lawn, those kinds ofthings. It's great for that. But
if you have an opportunity, youmight want to check out the
(02:11):
video version, and you can dothat right on Spotify. Another
feature they put in there is youhave chapters, and you can look
at the time stamps and movedirectly to that portion of that
episode. So if there's somethingyou want to go back and review
or listen to later, you can justskip right to that portion of
the other podcast. And that's apretty good feature as well. And
(02:31):
here's another cool feature, youcan leave a comment there, and
if you do, I promise I'll replyto it. So we have a little bit
of an interaction there. Youhave a chance to be more of a
community environment there. Thenatural nation here has very
little opportunity to give mefeedback, and you can do that
right there on the Spotify app.I'm pretty sure. Right now, as
(02:53):
of this recording, the only wayyou can leave a comment is to be
using the mobile app, not thedesktop version, but that's
probably going to change thenear future. So anyway, I
encourage everyone listening toswitch over to Spotify. It's a
great platform.
The National Sleep Foundationsays that adults between the
ages of 18 and 65 should get atleast seven hours of sleep per
(03:14):
night. Now, you know, there's alot of people out there that are
just workaholics, sleepers forlosers, and I'll sleep when I'm
dead. You know, you've probablyheard those types of comments.
Well, if that's your motto, youmight be dead sooner than you
think, because sleep is vital toour health and well being. Psalm
127, verse two says, in vain,you rise early and stay up late,
(03:37):
toiling for food to eat for Hegrants sleep to those he loves.
So quality sleep is a gift fromGod, and we shouldn't disrespect
that. We should treat sleep asthe gift that it is, and we
should respect that gift thatGod's given us. So why is sleep
so important? Well, God hasestablished a rhythm to
(04:02):
creation. We see this right backin the very beginning of the
Bible, in Genesis, chapter two,verse two, by the seventh day,
God had finished the work he'dbeen doing. So on the seventh
day he rested from all His work.And we know that God doesn't
need sleep. He wasn't tired. Sowhy did he rest on the seventh
day? Well, part of the reason ishe gave us an example to follow,
(04:24):
but God's not showing us how tobe good little boys and girls
and follow the rules as good ashe does. That's not the point.
He's operating in harmony withhis design principles for
creation, and that is thatthere's to be an ebb and a flow
to our work in our rest, andhe's just simply operating in
(04:44):
harmony with that. That'swouldn't it make sense that God
would do that? He's not going tooperate in a way that's outside
of his design principles,Ecclesiastes, chapter three,
verse one, says, There is anappointed time for everything,
and there is a time for everyevent. Went under heaven. So
there's a time for wakefulnessand getting work done, and
(05:04):
there's a time for rest andsleep and slumber. The sun
rises, the sun sets. There's anebb and a flow to creation, and
we do well to embrace that. Youknow, I often say in the show,
we maximize our health potentialby aligning our lives more fully
with God's natural design forspirit, mind and body, and this
(05:25):
ebb and flow to our activity ispart of his natural design.
Most of us go through six orseven 90-minute sleep cycles
throughout the night. Now, sleephas four stages to it. When
we're awake, we experience brainwaves that are a higher
frequency anda lower amplitude.Now, as we move toward deeper
(05:47):
sleep, those brain wavesdecrease in their frequency, but
the increase in the amplitudethe height we experience those
those electrical signals comingout of the brain in stage one,
we call that light sleep, andthis is the transition between
wakefulness and sleep. Itgenerally lasts about three to
five minutes. And during thisstage, our muscles begin to
(06:11):
relax, our heart rate and ourbreathing slow down, and you may
experience muscle twitching.That's That's a normal part of
this first stage to sleep. Now,you know, one of the things that
I want to point out here is thatyou might be aware of your
surroundings, but producingbrain waves that are consistent
with one of these stages ofsleep. So sometimes we may think
(06:34):
we're not getting rest, but weactually are, and that's been
proven out in sleep studies. Nowin this first stage of sleep,
the alpha brain waves start todecrease in frequency, but the
increase in amplitude the brainwaves start to slow from the
alert daytime pattern, and theymove toward the unconscious
(06:54):
sleep, nighttime restorativepattern. Now this stage of sleep
is important because it helpsour bodies and minds gradually
disconnect from the day'sactivities. We're preparing
ourselves to get more benefitout of the more restorative
stages of sleep that are ahead.The better job we do here, the
(07:15):
more restful sleep we'llexperience later in the evening.
So Don't, don't underestimatehow important this first stage
of sleep is, this transitionstage,
So stage two is deeper lightsleep typically lasts between 20
and 30 minutes. Here, our bodytemperature drops and our heart
rate and breathing continue toslow, and we experience theta
(07:38):
brain waves. The brain producesspindles or spikes of higher
frequency brain waves duringthis stage,and this stage is
crucial for memory consolidationand learning. That's why we're
taught in Joshua one eight, tomeditate on God's word day and
night. And in Deuteronomy, 6:7we're told to meditate on the
(08:00):
Word of God when we lie down andwhen we wake up, by meditating
on the Word of God before wefall asleep and reminding
ourselves of those truths whenwe wake up, we're cooperating
with our design and comingalongside our brain's capacity
to consolidate the things thatwe've learned into a long term
memory. Take it from short termmemory and move it towards long
(08:22):
term memory. That's an importantpart of this stage of sleep.
The next stage of sleep, stagethree is deep sleep. It's also
known as slow wave sleep, andthis is where true restoration
occurs. Our blood pressuredrops, tissue growth and repair
take place. Immune systemstrengthening occurs. Growth
(08:43):
hormone is released. Ourmemories are embedded deeper
into the long term memory. Weexperience Delta brain waves,
which are the lowest infrequency and the highest in
amplitude. This is the mostrestorative part of our night's
sleep, and thisstage is vitalfor physical and mental
emotional renewal.
(09:04):
Now the final stage of sleep isREM sleep, or rapid eye
movement. REM sleep first occursabout 90 minutes after we fall
asleep, and brain activityincreases slightly, and this is
where most of our dreamingoccurs. In our eyes move
rapidly, back and forth, but ourmuscles are very relaxed and
almost paralyzed. We're notmoving much, our bodies aren't
(09:27):
moving much, but our eyes moveback and forth. It's very
interesting. Now here memoryconsolidation occurs at the
deepest level, and REM sleep isessential for emotional
processing, creativity andproblem solving.
So after REM sleep, we start thewhole process all over again
with light sleep, and we go backto another cycle. So this sleep
(09:51):
cycling takes place, as I said,about six or seven times
throughout the night, and thecycle will last, usually about
90 minutes, but it can go up toabout. 120 minutes. So we go
through several of these sleepcycles per night, where we start
off in light sleep, we progressthrough to REM sleep, and then
we start to cycle all overagain. Now the early cycles have
(10:12):
more deep sleep in them than thelater cycles do in the evening.
So the first part of our sleepis actually more important in
terms of restoration and renewalthan the later stages of sleep
that have more light sleep inthem, the cycling pattern shows
how complex God's design is forour rest and our renewal. We
(10:33):
truly are fearfully andwonderfully made. Psalm 139:14,
I will give thanks to you, for Iam fearfully and wonderfully
made. Wonderful are Your works,and my soul knows it very well.
So what are the benefits to goodnight's sleep? Well, one of the
big benefits is our organsdetoxify themselves. In the last
episode, episode 163 I talkedabout the glymphatic system,
(10:57):
where our brains actually detoxthemselves using a cerebral
spinal fluid. If you havelistened to that episode, check
out Episode 163, now this braindetoxification system, the
glymphatic system, it helpsclear a protein called amyloid
beta. And amyloid beta has beenassociated with cognitive issues
like Alzheimer's and age relateddementia. So if you're concerned
(11:20):
about cognitive decline withaging, a good night's sleep is a
must. Another one of the moreimportant things that goes on
during sleep is hormonebalancing. We produce. Our
bodies produce growth hormonewhen we sleep, and growth
hormone is important for musclegrowth and muscle retention.
It's also important for bonetissue integrity. Ourbodies
(11:41):
produce melatonin at night.Melatonin obviously promotes
relaxation and better sleep.Another one of the hormones that
gets balanced and producedduring sleep is cortisol. Now,
cortisolis a stress hormone andhas a little bit of a bad rap
these days. Everyone wants to,everyone seems to want to reduce
their cortisol levels, and thatis true if your cortisol is too
(12:01):
high, but cortisol serves a veryimportant role. It helps us wake
up in the morning. It gives usthe alertness that we need
throughout the day, and it's animportant part of our body's
stress response. So we want tomake sure our body is producing
adequate amounts of cortisol,and we need good sleep to do
that, another important hormonethat gets produced and balanced
(12:23):
during sleep is leptin. Leptinis a satiety hormone. It tells
us when we're full, and theother side of that coin is
ghrelin. Is the hormone thatstimulates hunger. So we want to
have proper leptin to ghrelinratios so that we don't have
unhealthy sweet cravings, as Imentioned the top of the
episode, that's one of thesymptoms as one of the telltale
(12:44):
signs that you're not sleepingwell is that you have excessive
sweet cravings, or cravings forunhealthy foods. It could be due
to an imbalance between yourleptin and your ghrelin
hormones. So that's a reallyimportant part of what our
bodies are doing when we sleepis to balance our hormones and
regulate our blood sugarmetabolism. If we have blood
(13:05):
sugar issues, we experience moreof a roller coaster ride in our
blood glucose levels going upand down throughout the day, and
that can produce sweet cravings.
Another super important bodilyfunction that goes on during
sleep is we enhance our immunefunction. Our bodies are
constantly fighting offpathogens in the form of
(13:26):
undesirable, microscopicorganisms like viruses,
bacteria, fungi, parasites. Soan important part of our
adaptive immune system is ourability to fight off those
invaders. Our bodies use killerT cells to do that. Now, in
order for our T cells to dotheir jobs, they've got to
(13:46):
adhere to the infected cell. Nowthere's a cell adhesion molecule
called integrins, and thatmolecule is a cell adhesion
protein that causes the T cellsto stick to that viral infected
cell, and that process has totake place in order for the T
cells to kill, T cells to dotheir jobs and eliminate those
(14:08):
pathogens. So more sleep helpsour bodies become more of a
hostile environment forpathogens.
Good Sleep also promotesapoptosis and autophagy. So
apoptosis is programmed celldeath. So you may be saying,
Well, Dave, why would I want mycells to die? I'm trying to be
more healthy. Well, there comesa time where a cell needs to be
(14:31):
discarded and replaced with newones. So remember, cancer is
uncontrolled cell growth. Sosometimes our bodies want to
eliminate unhealthy cells, so itdoes that through apoptosis,
also through autophagy. Some ofour cells are not ready to be
completely discarded, and theycan be rebuilt. That's where
(14:52):
autophagy comes in. So autophagyis our body's cellular recycling
system. It allows our cells. Todisassemble themselves and
discard the parts they don'tneed and reuse the salvageable
bits and pieces to make newhealthier cells. Now this design
is just absolutely exquisite.It's a super cool process, and
(15:16):
it speaks to the idea that weare fearfully and wonderfully
made. And the fool says in hisheart, there is no God.
We can't outsmart God's designwith biohacking. We can only
come alongside and support ourGod given natural design. That's
my approach to health. That'swhat naturopathy teaches, and
(15:37):
that's what the Bible teaches,that we just get the obstacles
out of the way and lean on thatGod given built in wisdom that
our bodies have and allow themto heal themselves and to
thrive. We've just got to getthe obstacles out of the way.
And for some of us, the obstacleis inadequate or poor sleep.
Which leads me right into how dowe get a better night's sleep?
(16:01):
Well, the first thing we want todo is we want to avoid sleeping
pills. Now, sleeping pills arehighly addictive, and they're
toxic to our bodies, and theycome with all kinds of side
effects. According to theCleveland Clinic, approximately
8 out of 10 people experience ahangover effect. The day after
(16:22):
taking sleeping pills, they feeldrowsy, they have muddled
thinking, and they experiencedizziness and balance problems,
not the kind of thing we want toencourage when we're aging right
other side effects includeconstipation, diarrhea, dry
mouth, headaches, muscleweakness, digestive issues like
gas, bloating, heartburn,nausea, most sleeping pills are
(16:46):
antihistamines. Now, histaminesare part of our body's innate
immune response, so by blockinghistamines with antihistamines
drugs, we weaken our immunesystems. Here's a study I found,
published in the journalinternational archives of
Allergy andImmunology. It'sentitled, effects of
(17:06):
antihistamines on innate immuneresponse to severe bacterial
infection in mice. Now, this wasdone in mice, but I think it's
very applicable here. Theseresearchers concluded this. Our
findings indicate that sedatingfirst generation h1r
antihistamines and h2r blockersmight impair innate immune
(17:27):
response to bacteria, and thatthese drugs should be used with
caution in patients with severebacterial infections. So this
study was done on mice, but itmakes perfect sense to me that
blocking a natural part of ourimmune defenses is not a good
idea, not in the long haulanyway, the short term, maybe.
(17:47):
Now I'm about to share with yousome lifestyle modifications
that will absolutely help withsleep. You should start there.
We're going to get to those injust a moment. But there are
natural alternatives to sleepingpills. If you're looking for
some natural sleep aids, I havea sleep protocol on my
fullscript supplementdispensary. Now, all my
(18:08):
protocols there haveprofessional quality, medical
grade naturalproducts onlyavailable through healthcare
practitioners such as myself,and they're from my listeners,
the natural nation only on mysleep protocol. I've got
magnesium on there that promotesrelaxation. I've got lavender
essential oil that's been provenin hundreds of studies to
(18:29):
promote relaxation and sleep.I've got some Homeopathics on
there that are completely nontoxic and they don't have any
addictive properties at all. Iuse these products from certain
time myself. You know, when Iwas an airline pilot, there was
times when I need a little helpgetting some rest, because I had
to wake up refreshed and readyto go. So I personally have
found these products to be very,very useful in helping promote
(18:52):
good sleep. Now, if you'vealready created an account on my
fullscript dispensary, using mylink, you can log in and
navigate to the multi patientplans, and you'll see all my
protocols there. If you haven'tcreated a fullscript account
yet, go to my website, Christianhealthy lifestyle.com/protocols,
click on the sleep SupportProtocol, and you can create an
(19:13):
account, and you'll get instantaccess to the protocol, and
you'll lock in a 10% discountfor life and free shipping on
orders over $50. You'll also besupporting the show when you do
that, because I get a smallcommission. When you make a
purchase, you don't pay anymore.In fact, you get a discount.
It's a no brainer. You have mypermission to pause this episode
(19:36):
and go create your free accountright now. I promise I'll be
waiting here for you when youget back.
So what kind of lifestylemodifications can we make to get
a better night's sleep? Well,first and foremost is we want to
respect our circadian rhythm.God has designed our bodies to
be awake during the daylighthours and drowsy and sleepy at
(19:57):
night. Now I recommend as. Muchas possible, going to bed and
getting up the same time everyday, even on the weekends.
Ideally, we want to wake upwithout an alarm clock. If
you've got to wake up with analarm clock, you're probably not
going to bed early enough. Now,personally, I like to go to bed
around 10 and get up at six.That works pretty well for me.
(20:18):
It doesn't always happen. A lotof times I'm waking up earlier
than that, but I am. That's whatI'm shooting for. So somewhere
between 10 and six and I don'tneed an alarm clock, I get up
that time every day. It's not aproblem.
Another important thing toremember is our adrenal glands
recharge themselves between 11pmand 1am so that's a good reason
(20:40):
for getting to bed beforemidnight. We also get more deep
sleep before midnight. So youwant to get to bed before
midnight, you can't just go tobed at three and get up at 10 or
11 and expect it to be the sametype of restorative sleep that
you get when you go into bedbefore midnight. It just doesn't
work that way.
Now, exercise helps, but youdon't want to exercise within
(21:03):
two hours of retiring, becausethat will stimulate your system.
You'll produce cortisol, otherstress hormones, and that could
interfere with you fallingasleep. Another thing I
recommend is don't eat any foodwithin three hours of going to
sleep, because digestion is hardwork. Our bodies are hard at
work adjusting their food. Theyhave to, they have to process
the food that we send downthere. And we don't want our
(21:25):
bodies too busy doing that kindof thing when we when we're
wanting to rest. So we want tostop eating at least three hours
before going to bed.
Now we want to prepare for goodnight's sleep during the day,
one of the best things you cando is, when you wake up in the
morning, if it's light out, gofor a walk in the morning and
face the sun. There's a pinealgland, which is right here on
(21:47):
your forehead, in between youreyebrows, and that helps to
regulate your melatoninproduction. And the sunlight on
in your eyes and on your face,will help to stimulate cortisol,
help you wake up in the morning,and it'll it'll get your
circadian rhythm in sync withthe Earth, the natural rhythm of
the planet. So this is veryimportant to wake up well in the
(22:10):
morning, because that will helpprepare you for a better night's
sleep.
Another thing we want to do islimit alcohol consumption.
Alcohol may help us fall asleep,but it makes it more difficult
to stay asleep and spend moretime in that deep sleep that we
want. So Alcohol is a depressantfor many people. It's a
(22:31):
stimulant for some but it doesact as a depressant and it will
interfere with the quality ofour sleep. So limit or avoid
alcohol, if you can, especiallylater in the day.
We also should try to avoidcaffeine after lunchtime. Now, I
know I like my caffeine. I likemy Ethan's Energy Shots. In
fact, I interviewed Ethanhimself on episode 97 it was a
(22:54):
great conversation. You cancheck that out episode 97 I'll
put a link in the show notes,but we should consume caffeine
before lunch. Anytime afterlunch, we should try to avoid
caffeine if we're having anytrouble, any difficulty at all
sleeping.
Another thing if you're havingdifficulty sleeping is try not
to nap during the day. Naps aregreat. I do them once in a
while, but if you're havingtrouble sleeping, especially
(23:17):
lengthy naps, longer than 20minutes, could interfere with
your nighttime rest.
Another thing that interfereswith nighttime rest is blue
light from electronics or evenlight bulbs. Oneof the things we
can do to fight back there is wecan put our phones and our
computers on nighttime mode, andthey will reduce the amount of
(23:37):
blue light they put out, andthat will help us to relax in
the night. The ideal light inthe evening would be candle
light. This research coming outthat shows that it's not just
blue light that stimulates us inthe evening, but green light as
well. I use a pair of green andblue blocker glasses. I put my
glasses on about 30 minutes toan hour before going to bed, and
(24:00):
I'll start to feel drowsy afterabout a half hour on these
glasses, no matter what I'mdoing, even if I'm on the
computer or watching TV, theseglasses will still help me feel
drowsy and prepare my body forsleep. Now they they block out a
lot of light, so don't use theseif you're if you're doing
operating any machinery,especially driving a car,
because all you're going to getis red light throughso red,
(24:22):
green and blue make up all thecolors of the spectrum. So if
you block out the red, if youblock out the green and the
blue, all you have left isvarying shades of red. So things
will look kind ofstrange tothese glasses. But man, they
really help with sleep.
Another thing we should do tohelp us with sleep is to create
a sanctuary environment in ourin our bedrooms, I recommend
(24:45):
that you don't have a desk witha computer or an exercise
machine in your room. We shouldbe treating our bedrooms as a
sleep sanctuary. Okay? So assoon as we walk in, we start to
feel that sleep environment. Wedon't want to be working and
stimulating ourselves in ourbedrooms. So I recommend, if you
(25:06):
have a TV in there, don't watchTV before going to bed. If you
canjust take the TV out. It'sreally not useful. If you do
have a TV in your room, don'twatch the news before going to
bed. Those people are experts ingetting us wound up. That's the
worst thing you can do is watchthe news before you go to bed.
Another thing you can do tocreate a sleep sanctuary in the
(25:27):
bedroom is put some house plantsin there. Good house plants are
peace lilies, philodendrons andferns. They'll help, help filter
the air, produce more oxygen andbeautify the environment. It's
it's nice to have.
Another thing we should do iscool the room down. Research has
shown that temperature between65 and 70 degrees is probably
(25:50):
ideal for most people to sleep.Our bodies have to lower our
core body temperature in orderto sleep well. So if the room is
too warm, our bodies struggle todo that. You can also use some
soft music. Another thing youmight want to use is white
noise, you know, a sound devicethat produces rain, or maybe
water flowing through a stream,that could be quite relaxing and
(26:13):
help you help induce a betternight's sleep. It doesn't have
to be going all night. You canjust put it on a timer, let it
go off after 30 minutes, orsomething like that.
So remember, our natural designis to be awake during the
daylight hours and drowsy andsleeping at night. So one of the
best things you can do to createa sleep sanctuary in your
bedroom is get some blackoutcurtains. Now you don't have to
spend a fortune. I use somecurtains called nice
(26:36):
towncurtains that I bought onAmazon. I'll put a link in the
show notes. They're really goodquality. They'reinexpensive,
easy to install. Make sure, ifyou buy these curtains, you get
the curtain rod that wrapsaround towards the wall, because
you can have to block that lightout as well. But they're really
good. You want your room to bedark where it's designed to
sleep in darkness. Ideally, youwant the room so dark that you
(26:58):
can't see your hand in front ofyour face. That would be the
ideal sleeping environment. SoI'll put a link to those nice
town curtains in the show notesas well.
Another thing we can do is usesome essential oils. I have a
lavender essential oil on mysleep protocol on Fullscript,
you'll need some type ofessential oil diffuser. They're
pretty inexpensive. You can findthem everywhere. So essential
(27:20):
oils can be useful. If I'm goingto use essential oils, I'll rub
them on my palms, put a fewdrops on my palms, rub my hands
together and take a nice deepinhale. You can also do the same
thing to the soles of your feet.Very effective way of getting
those essential oils into yoursystem.
Another thing we can do is takea warm bath an hour or so before
(27:41):
you're going to bed, whathappens in a warm bath is our
bodies are trying to coolthemselves so the blood flow
will go to the extremities andaway from the internal organs.
So when we when we get out andour body recovers from that,
it's our bodies are set up todrop their body temperature, as
we need to do during sleep. So awarm bath can help. One of the
(28:02):
reasons why a lot of people havetrouble falling asleep and
staying asleep is racingthoughts, but thinking about the
events of the day, or thinkingabout the things we have to get
done tomorrow, there's ways tofight back against that. One of
the things I would suggest thereis journaling, if you write
those things down on a piece ofpaper or in some type of a
(28:22):
binder, you're giving yourselfpermission to let that go until
tomorrow, so we can just clearour minds and and not worry
about that right now. Of course,prayer is going to help with
this, right? If we pray beforegoing to bed, I recommend
focusing on surrenderingeverything to God, everyone and
(28:43):
everything to God. We need torecognize that we're not in
control. God is and we should dosomething about the things we
can change and leave everythingelse up to God. But again,
writing those things down in ajournal gives us permission to
let them go for the moment.
Another thing we can do toinduce restfulness is some deep
(29:04):
breathing exercises. So by doingdeep breathing, we can stimulate
our parasympathetic nervoussystem, which is our rest and
digest side. So what you want todo is take a deep breath,
diaphragmatic breathing throughthe diaphragm, fill your lungs
and then hold that for a momentor two, then exhale, and as you
exhale, you focus on relaxingthe muscles that you're holding
(29:26):
tension with. So the importantthing here is you want to exhale
longer than you're inhaling. Therelaxation takes place during
the exhale. It's very difficultto relax your muscles when
you're holding your breath orwhen you're inhaling. So the
important part of deep breathingfor relaxation is to exhale
longer than the inhale, maybeinhale for five seconds, exhale
(29:50):
for 10 something like that.
Another thing you can do iscombine that deep breathing with
visualization. So if. If you'rethinking about your troubles and
you've already journaled and yougave them yourself permission to
let it go, part of that lettinggo process could be
visualization where you say,okay, my problems are like the
(30:11):
water that's spinning down thedrain in the tub and it's just
flowing down the drain, and thenI'm just going to let them go.
Or you might want to visualize achampagne glass with bubbles
flowing up and just disappearingup to the top of the glass, and
your troubles are justdisappearing like the bubbles in
a champagne glass. Those typesof things can be quite useful as
well.
Now, another thing I recommendthat will really help with
(30:34):
promoting relaxation isemotional freedom technique. And
way back in episode number 28 Italked with Dr Katie Nall, and
she's an expert in emotionalfreedom technique, and it's a
series of tapping on acupuncturepoints, and you do an emotional
release during this tapping. Andit's super, super useful. It
(30:56):
looks a little silly, butdon'tlet that fool you. It's a
very effective way to let go ofstressful emotions.
Another thing that we need toreduce in our bedrooms to create
a sleep sanctuary is considerelectromagnetic frequencies, or
the electrical smog that's inour homes. You may have more
(31:17):
wires in one wall than theother. So you'd like to move
your bed away from the wiring inthe walls. If you can, you'll
definitely want to turn downyour Wi Fi at night. Wi Fi is
electromagnetic frequencies thatare flowing through the air. I
understand how convenient Wi Fiis during the day, but at least
(31:38):
turn your router off at night.You don't need it when you're
sleeping, that can help withsleep a great deal.
Another thing that you mightwant to consider is an organic
mattress. The toxins that webreathe in from the synthetic
mattresses that we buy at thestore can also interfere with
our rest you can also buy someearthing sheets. These sheets
(32:00):
will plug into the groundingportion of your power
receptacleand actually connectyou to the earth, and that can
also do a great deal towardspromoting good night's sleep.
Another thing you might want toconsider is, if you snore, have
a sleep study done, because youmight have sleep apnea and not
(32:20):
know it. It's a big problem fora lot of people. A high
percentage of people actuallyexperience sleep apnea and are
not even aware of it. I talkedabout this in great detail on
episode number 62 with Dr DavidShirazi. I'll put a link to that
episode in the show notes aswell.
So that's my thoughts on sleep.I hope you found this
information useful. If you did,would you consider sharing the
(32:43):
episode with a like mindedfriend? The easiest way to do
that is go tochristianhealthlistyle.com,
forward, slash the episodenumber this is episode number
164, copy that URL and text itto a friend. If you're on
Spotify, there's an easy way toshare there as well. So that
concludes my series on the ninepillars of health. I hope you
(33:05):
enjoyed listening, and make sureyou tune in. Next week, I'm
going to be talking about oliveoil. I have a guest on the show
that's a producer of highquality extra virgin olive oil
over in Greece, and we're goingto be talking about how to find
quality olive oil and what thehealth benefits are. You don't
want to miss that one. That's itfor now. Thank you for
(33:28):
listening. I appreciate you. Goout there and live abundantly.
I'll talk with you next time. Beblessed.
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