Snooze or Lose: A Nurse Practitioner's Guide to Better Sleep

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Could your sleep habits be sabotaging your weight loss efforts? Nurse practitioners Nicole Baldwin and Kelli White tackle the critical yet often overlooked connection between sleep quality and overall health in this eye-opening discussion.

Kelli shares a compelling case study that challenges conventional wisdom about weight loss. Her patient maintains a strict calorie deficit while working two full-time jobs and parenting, yet cannot lose weight. The culprit? Severe sleep deprivation has thrown her body into survival mode, making weight loss physiologically impossible despite doing "everything right" with her diet.

This episode dives deep into the science of cortisol—your body's primary stress hormone—which follows a natural 12-hour rhythm peaking at approximately 4 AM and 4 PM. When sleep suffers, this delicate hormonal balance collapses, triggering a domino effect that impacts metabolism, mood regulation, and even perimenopause symptoms. The hosts differentiate between merely lying in bed versus achieving truly restorative sleep, highlighting how interruptions from bathroom trips, pets, or a snoring partner can significantly diminish sleep benefits.

From a functional medicine perspective, achieving 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep isn't just a luxury—it's a non-negotiable foundation for hormone balance, effective weight management, and overall wellness. Whether you're struggling with unexplained weight gain, perimenopausal symptoms, or general fatigue, this episode offers valuable insights into why addressing your sleep hygiene might be the missing piece in your health puzzle. Ready to transform your health through better sleep? This conversation is your wake-up call to make sleep a priority.

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Episode Transcript

Nicole (00:02):
Hi everyone, welcome to Tattoos and Telehealth another
episode.
And I'm Nicole Baldwin and thisis my great friend and
colleague, Kelli White, and weare nurse practitioners, as you
know, if you've seen ourprevious episodes.
Today I want to talk to youreally quick about sleep hygiene
and what that means and how toenhance your quality of sleep

(00:25):
overall.
So I'll let Kelli start offwith just some tips and we'll
take it from there.

Kelli (00:33):
So a couple of things that I want to start out with is
why is sleep so important?
It's important for a lot ofreasons, nicole.
One of the big things that Ithink I kind of soapbox and harp
on right now is you know, I'mperimenopausal.
I haven't made that a secret.
It's a big deal for women thatare perimenopausal.
It's a big deal for anyonethat's trying to lose weight.

(00:56):
I'll use this as a case study,just as a quick example.
I have a patient that is workingtwo count them two full-time
jobs.
So she works eight hours, getsa three-hour break so she can go
pick up her kiddos becauseshe's also a full-time mom and
then works another eight hours.
I don't know where this womangets any sleep, like I think she
grabs 30 minutes here and there, does meals, does kids, grabs a

(01:17):
few like.
I truly don't know where shesleeps.
She's morbidly obese.
She is struggling to loseweight.
She tries to eat right, likeshe's literally in a starvation
mode.
She cuts calories, she's in acalorie deficit.
She cannot lose weight.
So us in also, you know, takingcare of patients that are
struggling to lose weight.
You know you and I, nicole,tell patients that a calorie

(01:39):
deficit is how you lose weight.
This lady is not going to loseweight in a calorie deficit.
Her body is in starvation modebecause she's not sleeping.
So sleep is crucial for so manythings weight loss, hormone
balance.
One of the big, huge hormonesthat your body produces that is

(02:00):
critical for natural balance iscortisol.
Your body has a naturalcortisol rhythm that occurs
twice a day.
For most of it it's 4 am 4 pm.
I don't care whether you livecentral time, eastern time, I
don't care, it's somewherearound there.
It's a 4 am 4 pm rhythm.
Okay, it's about an every12-hour rhythm.
If your body is not able to getgood enough sleep where you have

(02:24):
that natural cortisol rhythm toproduce good, effective stress
balance Because, remember,cortisol is your stress hormone
You're not going to lose weight,you're not going to feel good,
the rest of your hormones aregoing to be out of balance and
everything else in life is justgoing to suck Like nothing else
is going to feel good.
So that's why sleep is such asoapbox for me.

(02:46):
If and when you come see me,we're going to talk about your
sleep Like that's one of the bigthings of functional medicine.
That's my question to you howmuch do you sleep?
Do you have a regular bedschedule.
Do you get seven to nine hoursof uninterrupted sleep.
You may go to bed at nineo'clock.
Do you go to sleep at nineo'clock?
Do you stay in bed or do youget up and go pee a few times in

(03:06):
the night?
Does your dog wake you up?
Does your cat wake you up?
Does your spouse snoring wakeyou up?
Like are you getting that gooduninterrupted?
No-transcript.