June 19, 2024 • 40 mins
Do you get good, quality sleep every night? Did you know that the island paradise of Hawaii is ranked as number one, at 46%, of sleep deprived Americans? Just how important is restful sleep to your brain health? Our Brain Lady Julie drops some knowledge based on the latest in neuroscience on just how vital good sleep is to us. How much sleep does your teenager need? How do you improve your sleep quality? Brain Lady has the answers, and she shares her top tips to help us get that often elusive serene slumber.
Connect with Brain Lady Julie
Do you have a great question or topic you'd like Brain Lady Julie to cover? Think you'd be a great guest? Message our producer Kelli@BrainLadySpeaker.com and let us know.
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this podcast is not at any time and for any reason meant to replace the guidance and/or treatment of any health professional. Whether it be a medical doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or anyone in the medical field. If you are under the care of such a health professional, remember this is an “added value” and not designed to replace any care you are currently under.
Connect with Brain Lady Julie
Do you have a great question or topic you'd like Brain Lady Julie to cover? Think you'd be a great guest? Message our producer Kelli@BrainLadySpeaker.com and let us know.
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this podcast is not at any time and for any reason meant to replace the guidance and/or treatment of any health professional. Whether it be a medical doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or anyone in the medical field. If you are under the care of such a health professional, remember this is an “added value” and not designed to replace any care you are currently under.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to this episode of the BrainLady Speaks Show. We are here talking
all things brain and success. Really, how all of this complicated neuroscience and
neuropsychology that we take and we funneldown here on the Brain Lady Speak Show
into usable information to improve your life, your business, your career, and
(00:31):
your relationships. So I am excitedto be bringing kind of a new new
feel to the Brain Lady Speaks aswe move forward into twenty twenty four and
bring in some really great, reallypractical application. We're going to be talking
how all of this brain stuff affectsevery aspect of your life and how to
(00:55):
allow it to or use it toimprove it. Especially, we're going to
be doing some corporate focus, careerfocus, some women in success focus,
not just the fun stuff that neurosciencehas taught me, but over the last
several years, as I've increased mystudies in neuroscience, so we're going to
be talking about some things like neuralmarketing and neuroscience of leadership and just the
(01:19):
neuroscience of success. And that's oneof the things we're going to talk about
today. But we're going to talkabout it with one specific thing in mind,
and that is sleep. So howdoes sleep effect or stall out or
slow down the amount of success thatyou are achieving in life? And why
is sleep so incredibly important? Sostick with me as we go through this
(01:42):
entire brain Lady speaks show welcome andthank you for being here with me.
As we okay, sleep sleep,how many of you are tired? Like
if I asked you right now didyou get enough sleep last night? What
would be your answer? Yes orno? If I asked you, if
I said okay, if you saidyes, I feel like I got enough
(02:05):
sleep. I'm going to ask youdid you get enough quality sleep last night?
Because there's a difference between getting eighthours of sleep or eight hours when
you're laying in the bed versus eighthours of quality sleep. So let's talk
about that. I did some Iwanted to know what the current research is.
I have some studies that were doneprior to twenty twenty, but I
(02:27):
wanted to know in preparing for thisshow, I wanted to know what are
the current statistics in the US andeven throughout the world, because it's interesting
obviously in certain countries that are fullof a lot of stress or I should
say civil unrest or areas where there'swar. Obviously these figures are much higher,
(02:50):
right, They're much more sleep deprived, and when they are getting sleep,
they aren't getting good quality sleep becauseof the anxiety and the angst that
is going on in the life.But if we're just looking at the US,
for example, we have some stistics. I was super excited or super
excited, sorry, not excited football. Super interesting to find out that in
(03:14):
the United States the top three stateswith the highest they were the most sleep
deprived was Hawaii, Hawaii, WestVirginia, and Alabama. Isn't that interesting?
Hawaii came in at forty six percentof the population being sleep deprived.
There's something, there's a story there. I need to dig into that some
(03:36):
more because that was very interesting tome. West Virginia came in a little
under forty three percent, Alabama atabout forty one and a half percent,
and then working its way down toan average in twenty twenty two that of
sleep deprivation across the United States beingat an average of thirty six point eight
(04:01):
percent. So over two thirds ofthe US population as of twenty twenty two
are considered sleep deprived, and thatis a huge jump prior to twenty twenty.
Prior to twenty twenty, the averagewas only twenty six percent, but
(04:23):
now it is up to twenty twentytwo, it is up to thirty six
point eight percent, almost thirty sevenpercent, so two thirds, and that's
pretty significant. Like that's that's apretty big significant drop. And we could
get into all of the potential reasonsfor that. Obviously, it's a higher
level of anxiety that people are feeling, and I believe it is a higher
(04:44):
addiction to tetta these little things.Yes, for those of you who are
just listening, I just held itmy cell phone, So lots of very
interesting. How many individuals are sleepdeprived in the country and in the world
world right now? Two thirds onaverage. That's significant because there are so
(05:05):
many negative effects, Like being sleepdeprived is huge, the negative effects that
it has on the body and oncognition. All right, So first let's
talk about how much sleep on averagea person needs. Now, it's different
(05:26):
throughout the life, right Obviously,a baby sleeps much more than an adult
for obvious reasons. The brain andbody are growing massive amounts, right,
so it needs a lot of thatsleep. Interestingly, enough, children and
teens need about the same amount ofsleep. A lot of times we think
(05:47):
that teenagers don't need as much sleepas children, and yet from a neuroscience
point of view, they really do. They need somewhere between nine to ten
hours of sleep a night. Isn'tthat interesting. Now, you may have
waves, you may get pre pubertywhere don't need quite as much sleep for
two or three years. However,once you go into the teen years,
(06:11):
teenagers actually need more sleep than preteens. Right, they need just as much
sleep as younger children. Their brainsand their bodies are going through such massive
changes during this period of time.That is, it's just incredible what's happening
and the reasons why they need thisadditional sleep, so we can get into
(06:35):
the developing brain on a different brainLady speaks show. But it is important
to understand that they need a lotof sleep, and they need their sleep
cycles because that circadian rhythm is alittle bit different during this massive body change
time of teen years, that theirbetter quality sleep is actually from midnight to
(06:56):
nine am. So, hint,hint, school should never start before nine
am. That would be best fora teenager. We know that's not what
goes on, but technically that's what'sbest for the brain, and as adults,
we actually need between seven to ninehours of sleep. So if you
are an adult and you I'm oneof those that I eight to nine hours
(07:17):
of sleep and I will crank itduring the day, I am just on
you bump me down to seven toeight hours of sleep. I'm like,
I'm just not performing as well.My exercise isn't as deep and as intense,
my cognitive abilities are not as good. So now again there is a
range. Everybody is a little bitdifferent. However, I'm really going to
(07:39):
challenge anybody who says that they onlysleep seep six hours a night as an
adult, that those that those nightsthat they're they're pushing through, they're asking
more of their body than they reallyshould. Their body might be waking up.
I've talked to a lot of peoplewho say, well, I wake
up at four thirty five am inthe morning, just fine, and I
go to at you know, tento eleven o'clock and I just function find
(08:03):
during the day, I'm wondering whatyour body's going to do, how quickly
your body might wind up crashing.Because I'm not saying there aren't exceptions to
these to these standards that I'm saying, but in general, you might be
an overachiever. I might want toask you are you're a firstborn or first
of gender. I'm just saying,just saying, might have something to do
(08:26):
with it, because sleep is soimportant, and enough of that sleep is
so important, right, if you'renot getting enough sleep when you are,
Really what happens during sleep is yourbrain is going your brain and body are
going through some massive internal work,right, So your body physically is being
(08:50):
restored. Your body releases the HGHor the human growth hormone during sleep,
and so this is one of thosetimes when the brain is sending out those
white blood cells. It's attacking theall of the you know, negative things
going on in the body. It'sdoing repair work. It's doing, you
(09:11):
know, helping to build the musclesand increase bone density, regulate your metabolism.
That's what those are, all thingsthat HGH does. And if you're
not getting adequate sleep, for sleepactually inhibits the production of this in the
brain, and therefore the body doesn'tgive the ability, it doesn't get the
ability to repair as many damage,as much damage tissue. Right, So
(09:33):
physically the body needs that time torepair, it needs that time to detox.
Right throughout the day, your yourcells are actually creating its own toxins,
right, because your your body ismoving and all of these chemical reactions
are taking place in your body throughdigestion, through cardiovascular right through breathing,
(09:56):
and all of that accumulates in yourbody. And it's during the night time,
during sleep that the act of thebrain actually activates the glymphatic system right
and starts moving all of that andclearing away all those toxins out. If
you're not getting enough sleep, thisprocess is not functioning to its peak,
(10:20):
right. And this is this allof these negative like the beta amyloid proteins
that are bad that are linked toAlzheimer's disease. Guess what this is when
it gets cleaned out. It's duringgood sleep. So if you're not getting
good sleep, then you've got toomuch of this built up in your brain.
So you've got to detoxify your brainand body. And it's not just
(10:41):
a matter of drinking a you know, a particular detox t or something,
right. It literally means sleep iscritical for these functions. Okay. It's
also one of my favorite things thatit does is it does this memory consolidate,
so I will get as a brainhealth professional. Right, people will
(11:03):
ask me a lot of times,what do you what what what a dreams
mean? You know what is thatwhen sleep comes up under that topic?
You know what about dreams? Whatdo they mean? You know? Is
there a secondary memory or secondary thoughtto a dream as you are is it?
Is it something metaphysical? Not reallylike literally, dreams are just your
memories consolidating. So during the night, when your brain is going through these
(11:26):
deep sleeps, right, the rapideye movement, the rim sleep. When
it's going through this sleep, it'srunning through all of this massive amounts of
data that your brain took in duringthe day, and then it it kind
of connects it to past memories orto things that it has already learned.
(11:48):
So the brain may have, youknow, seen a face of someone or
E said of the name of someonethat you haven't seen in a while,
and then all of a sudden youhave this dream about them. Well,
it's because the brain is connecting thatconversation that you had during the day to
those memories that you had of thatperson. Now it's mixing that those two
(12:13):
facts of that person with perhaps somethingyou experienced during the day, maybe you
ate out at a great restaurant,so now your dream is about seeing that
person at a really good restaurant,you know, and then you did laundry
during the day, and so youdreamt that you saw this person at a
(12:33):
great restaurant and they were carrying laundry. Right, That's what your brain's doing.
It's sorting through all of the differentthings that happened during the day,
and it's deciding is this information thatI need to keep. Are these facts
and details that I need to fileinto my memory banks, or are these
(12:54):
things like temperature of the air thatyour brain registered it it logged that during
the day, but it may say, oh, that's not really necessary,
I don't need to remember that.So that's with this randomie movements. This
rim sleep is when these types ofthings happen and run into and go to
(13:15):
work. So very very very importantfor the memory retrieval. And one of
the things that people begin to complainabout, either when they're under a lot
of stress or as they get olderis I can't remember things like I forget
the simplest things like something that Idid yesterday, I can't even remember today.
(13:41):
It could have to do with poorsleep quality. It could. That's
one of the things that I willalways I get. I often get asked,
Okay, Julie, what are yourthree top tips, the three most
important things for the brain. AndI'm always going to start with sleep for
brain health. To me, itis the most important because if you're not
(14:05):
getting enough sleep, it's affecting everythingelse in your life, everything else in
your life. So if somebody saysto me, I've got some memory issues,
what's a really good supplement, thefirst thing I'm going to ask them
is, look before we supplement.I mean, there's great supplements out there.
I tail take Delta E, whichis my Impacts if you want to
(14:26):
know about it, it's elthy andeen. It's got some real great B
vitamins in it. Right. Soit's not that I'm against taking supplements at
all, It is that the firstthing I want to know is are you
sleep deprived? Because I can giveyou as many supplements, I can suggest
supplements for you, but if you'renot getting enough sleep, those supplements are
not going to be effective nearly aseffective, if they're going to be effective
(14:50):
at all. So we got tolook at your sleep. You got to
really stop and understand how incredibly importantsleep is. Studies have actually shown that
and this there was an interesting studythat I've read recently. Pull it up
here. The National Heart and Lungand Blood Institute published an article that was
(15:16):
very very interesting. So it talksabout how sleep helps your brain work properly
during the day, right, Andit says studies and this is a direct
quote from that article. You canlook it up. It's nhi I at
NIH dot gov. And it says, studies also show that sleep sleep deficiency
(15:37):
changes activity in some parts of thebrain. If you are sleep deficient,
you may have trouble making decisions,solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior,
and coping with change. Sleep deficiencyhas also been linked to depression,
suicide, and risk taking behaviors.Wow, that's important, Like that's big.
(16:00):
And the reason why is because ifyou're not getting enough sleep, you're
not the brain is not going tofunction as well the next day, which
means the PFC you've heard me talkabout this before, the prefrontal cortex of
the brain is going to drop out, and it's not going to work as
efficiently or as effectively as it should. The aim in clinics that I have
(16:29):
my brain health certification through he hassome wonderful, wonderful brain scans like that's
what he that's the power of somuch of his research and why I stepped
into taking his certification program is becauseso much of it, you know me,
I like the science, right,I like the neuroscience. I'd like
to see the proof. And whathe has been able to do is scan
(16:51):
hundreds of thousands of brains, andin those studies, he has scanned individuals
who are sleep deprived. An individualwho are sleep deprived show low, low
activity in the prefrontal cortex of thebrain. It actually, if you are
not getting enough sleep, or ifyou are getting poor sleep due to things
(17:12):
I should say, especially if youare getting poor sleep due to things like
sleep apnea, snoring, not beingable to breathe while during the night,
you're actually suffering from anoxia, whichis oxygen deprivation to the brain, which
kills brain cells. So I'm tellingyou, if you have those challenges,
(17:36):
by all means, please seek outhelp from a sleep center or your doctor.
It's not just a matter of takinga supplement like melatonin or something else
that calms your brain. Which thereare some great natural supplements out there.
It's not just a matter of doingthat or even you know, taking pharmaceuticals.
(17:59):
If you need to take pharmaceuticals,I'm not saying don't take them.
By the way, anything that Italk about on the Brain Lady Speaks show
remember always always, this is informationalpurposes only. Always always check with your
doctors first. But it's those typesof things may not they may just mask
another issue. Right, They cancause you to sleep deeper, but that
(18:22):
doesn't mean they're going to solve anoxygen deprivation problem. So if you have
an oxygen deprivation problem through breathing issues, then you're going to want to address
those, right, You're going towant to seek help for those because it's
important. You don't want to losepart of your brain cells and you're literally
sleep deprivations. An oxya not gettingenough oxygen into your brain while you are
(18:48):
sleeping, actually shows up on abrain scan very similar to a toxic brain,
a brain that has been exposed totoxic metals or toxic substances, toxic
chemicals. Right, it looks verysimilar. So you have to be really
really this is really super super important, and when it drops out that prefrontal
(19:11):
cortex. Well, we know thatthe PFC that's responsible for higher thinking,
for inhibition of your remote or ofbehavior, right, keeping you from doing
stupid things. That's what the PFCdoes. It helps you to understand consequences
of your actions, right, tobe able to problem solve, make decisions.
(19:33):
Right. So all of these thingsare affected if you're not getting good
quality sleep and enough of it.So you've got to really, really really
give some thought to sleep, reallygive some thought to sleep. Okay,
so I think I hit on thatenough. You guys understand the brain effect
(19:53):
and the body effect of not gettingenough sleep. And I talked about how
much sleep a person. The averageperson needs between seven to nine hours.
Please do not feel guilty if youneed nine. Like I said, I
do better between eight and nine hoursof good quality sleep at night. Some
people will get less. But ifyou're getting however, I will say,
(20:15):
if you're getting less than that sevenhour mark, you may want to really
double check, double check yourself.Double check if you are really really really
getting really really getting enough good qualitysleep. Double check your activity during the
day, your concentration during the day. Now you can nap during the day
(20:37):
there's actually some fascinating we'll talk aboutnaps on a brain Bit show in the
future, but there's some really interestingstudies coming out about napping, short naps,
fifteen minute naps, power naps,you know in the later part of
the after in the mid part ofthe afternoon, when you're circadian rhythm kind
of does that dip thing. Itactually is very healthy for the brain.
(21:02):
I personally have tried it. Idon't do well with short naps. That's
just me. So it's not foreverybody. But if you are one of
those people, I should say,and if you're one of those people that
don't get much sleep at night,then maybe maybe slipping in that power nap
is something that is really really importantto do. So what do you do?
(21:22):
What do you do to enhance yoursleep? Because one of the things,
there's a few things that I getpeople that tell me all the time,
I can't fall asleep because my brainis racing is one of the challenges.
I wake up during the middle ofthe night and can't stop my brain
from racing. Is another one ofthose challenges. Different different things of you
(21:44):
know, waking up too early,waking up to get up and use the
bathroom. Right, different things thatdisturb your sleep cycle. How do you
how do you improve that sleep cycle? Well, the first thing that I
always suggest is you want a yourbedroom to be all about the s's which
means your bedroom is only for thesleep in the sex. I'm telling you,
(22:06):
you just want it for that.Do not have a television in there.
Do not have your work desk inthere. What you are doing when
you are doing something like that isyou are actually confusing the brain. You
are confusing the brain. The braingoes in there at night and if it
knows there's work on a desk.This was a big problem during lockdown,
(22:27):
right, because a lot of peoplehad limited space in their home and they
were working in their bedroom. No, no, no, no, no
no no no no no no.You have an office for working, you
have a dedicated workspace. Make yourdedicated workspace not in your bedroom. Your
bedroom needs to be sleep. Youalso don't want a television in your bedroom.
(22:48):
Now you may say, well,watching TV helps me fall asleep.
My husband says that all the timebecause he always fallows asleep on the couch
while he's watching TV, which isprecisely why the why it's not in our
bedroom, because then he'd fall asleepand I'd lay there awake. No,
that's one of the reasons. Butthe main reason is you don't want any
distractions at night, and you don'twant your brain to be thinking about something
(23:11):
other than shutting down, because thisis when you want the prefrontal cortex to
kind of slow down. You wantyour brain to just function on its automated
systems and shut down your thought process, your heavy thought process. So what
you want that room to be allabout sleep. You want everything in that
(23:32):
room to say this is the mostcomfortable sanctuary to sleep in. So make
it look that way, right,You have have the room be a physically
comfortable and an emotionally comfortable place foryou. Now, I'm gonna put a
little a little piece in here thatif you are someone who suffers from PTSD
(23:56):
or CPTSD, we're going to doa completely different brain Lady speaks on that
topic and talk about sleep. Sleep. For a lot of individuals who have
experienced trauma, especially especially if thattrauma came from a bedroom, sleep is
very very difficult for them. Soa lot of the things that I'm talking
(24:18):
about on here may or may notwork for you. If that is something
you suffer from. You need togo through extra steps to encourage your brain
to shut down, because in trauma, it doesn't want to shut down.
Very very interesting studies that have beendone on that. So point being this
(24:41):
is for in general, right,So in general, you want that bedroom
to be comfortable. You want yourbed to be comfortable. If you are
going to spend money on any pieceof furniture in your home, you want
this to be what you spend goodmoney on. Right, Get a good
bed, Get a good bed,and if you suffer from snoring issues or
(25:04):
breathing issues, I suggest you geta bed that elevates the head a little
bit because that's going to help inyour breathing. So it's going to reduce
the snoring, reduce the breathing difficulty, and help you to sleep better.
So make it comfortable, make itphysically or make it visually comfortable. This
(25:26):
is really important. They've done someinteresting psychological studies on color and colors affect
the subconscious in different ways. Redyour very strong bright colors, especially red
red specifically raises has been shown toraise your blood pressure, raise your heart
rate, increase your appetite. Sothese are things you don't want in the
(25:49):
bedroom. You don't want things moreactive, you want things more calm.
So your more earth tones, right, your blues, your greens, your
after natural colors are going to actuallysubconsciously communicate to your brain. Oh,
it's time to relax. So thinkabout making just a really comfortable, comfortable
(26:15):
place. And it could be eventhe sheets. You know, if you're
a kinesthetic person. When I talkabout the brain personality connection, I talk
about how thirty at least thirty percentof the population are kinesthetics, which means
they process in coming data most efficientlyand effectively based on what they feel,
and they process through every surface oftheir skin. So for them, you
know, comfortable sheets, comfortable clothesare so important in improving that sleep cycle.
(26:41):
Right, pardon me, So thinkabout comfort making everything in their physically
and visually comfortable. You also wantto keep the temperature lower if you can
handle it under sixty degrees. Nowsome people can't. Some people are like,
oh, my goodness, that's justway too cold for me to sleep.
(27:03):
Studies have shown on average, betweenfifty five and sixty degrees is where
the brain slips into that deeper sleepfaster better. The brain almost goes into
a hibernation or the body kind ofgoes into a little bit of a similar
to a hibernation thing, which meansyou need it cool. So you might
want to think about you don't alwayswant that artificial air, perhaps just fans
(27:27):
bringing in the outside air. Ifwhere you sleep is cooler at night,
even during the summer, those areall very positive, positive things. But
drop the temperature into that range.Don't want it super cold because then you're
you're disturbed by the cold. ButI'd rather have it cold and you have
that extra blanket than warm, becauseyour body has a hard time sleeping when
(27:48):
it's over seventy degrees or when it'sin the room. So get that temperature
down as dark as possible. Ifyou live in climates where during the summer,
wherever your summer is at, ifyou live in climates where are portions
of the earth where you have longerdays and so it's not dark, then
I would suggest getting some block blockoutcurtains right, making it as dark as
(28:12):
possible. Now for those individuals whoit doesn't get dark until late, or
who say I go to bed ateleven and wake up at five and I'm
just fine here's where I would reallychallenge you to go to bed earlier.
Again. Studies have shown that thatchunk of time between like nine pm and
(28:33):
midnight are some of your best highquality sleep hours, and so making it
dark, even if it's still lightoutside, is going to help your brain
shut off. The pineal gland,which is the right between It sits right
here in the for those of youwho are just listening. It sits right
(28:53):
between your eyes back kind of behindyour nosebridge. That is, when the
unlight starts to dim, it beginsto secrete melatonin. And this is one
of the reasons why you need yourroom so dark, because the darker it
is than the brain is produced healthyin a healthy way, producing melatonin naturally.
(29:17):
And when the light starts to comeup in the morning, that pineal
gland goes, oh, hey,the sun is coming up, and so
I am going to stop secreting melatoninand then you start to wake up.
Here's where this is the reason whyyou need your room so dark, And
here leads right into the reason whythese are bad, these being technology.
(29:44):
If you watch television before you goto bed, I'm not going to tell
you not to do that. Makesure that it is in a different room,
and that it is far away fromyour face. You we used to
be told. I even remember Iwas told, can't sit that close O
cross eyed? Is it that you'dgo crosside or you damage your eyesight?
Don't sit that close to the TV. I was told in the seventies,
don't sit that close to the TV. Your damage your eyesight or whatever it
(30:07):
was. Well, literally, Idon't want you sitting that close to the
TV. I want you to befar away. I want you to be
several feet away from the television ifyou watch TV before you go to bed,
because you don't want direct light hittingthat pineal glen. It's going to
slow the ability of your brain toproduce melatonin. The same thing with with
(30:30):
tablets and even e readers. Yesthey have blue light, you know,
blockers on them or whatever, doesn'tmatter. It's still light that is too
close to your eyes and it's preventingyour brain from going through its natural sleep
cycle. So what do I suggest. I can't believe I don't have a
book right in front of me.Pick up a book, actually read the
(30:55):
book. If you like reading beforeyou go to bed, if that's part
of what helps your brain shut down. That's fine. Stay away from the
e readers, right, Go actuallyhold a book in your hand, use
your e reader for daytime reading.Hold the book in your hand and actually
read, because then what you're goingto do is the light's more than likely
coming from behind you pointing onto thepage as opposed to being directed at your
(31:22):
face, which is what you isgoing to happen with a tablet or an
e reader. A lot of peopleI was reading, and I wish I
should have looked up the statistic beforeI started this show recording this show.
But a lot of people go tobed with their with their actually feel that
they use their phone to you know, scrolling through their phone to help them
go to sleep. That's that's reallynot healthy for your brain, even though
(31:45):
you may think it is, it'snot. Uh, there's all kinds of
things that this will do. Itwill get your brain thinking about things that
maybe you don't you shouldn't be thinkingabout, Like Sally got five hundred thousand
likes on hers hers and I didn'tget tent like you get that kind of
that, you know, that impostersent like it just gets your brain going
(32:06):
where you don't need to go.So staying away from technology, keeping that
away. Those are all things thatyou can do to enhance your sleep.
Now, if you struggle with fallingasleep at night because your brain is racing,
then you want to do things likerelaxation, right, do things that
(32:27):
are going to release the stress,lower the stress in the body, and
actually calm the brain. Right,So you want to if you're too stressed
out, it actually decreases the timethat you're spent in that very critical rem
sleep, So you can do deepbreathing. I suggest bookending your day with
meditation, with mindful meditation. Right, So you're starting your morning with mindful
(32:52):
meditation, you're ending your evening.So right before you go to bed is
a really, really good time tojust reflect on the positives, take some
time, decompress, feel your entirebody. We'll do a brain Lady Speak
show on how to do all thismindfulness work and just reflect on the three
top wonderful things that happen during theday. And maybe the biggest wonderful thing
(33:16):
was that the sun came up.But focus on that. Whatever you focus
on when you go to sleep atnight is what your brain's going to focus
on during the night and what you'regoing to wake up focusing on. So
A you want it to be positiveand B you want it to be things
that are calming for the brain,not things that are challenging for the brain.
Right, you don't want to goto bed thinking about this business problem,
(33:37):
this career problem, this relationship problemthat you have and what are you
going to do about it? Becauseif you do that, then that's what
your brain like. There's a techniqueto doing that a couple of hours before
you go to bed, but youdon't want to do it immediately before you
go to bed, because then yourbrain's going to be racing. Something else
that can help to keep your brainfrom racing is actually reducing the caffeine that
(34:02):
you intake, the caffeine and thealcohol. Right, if you're drinking anything
any of that too close to goingto sleep at night, then it's going
to keep your brain going, right. It's and you may think, well,
I fall asleep just fine, andI have coffee or have a glass
of wine. It actually, youknow, the wine or the alcohol actually
(34:23):
relaxes me. Well, it's notgood for not only is it not healthy
for the brain to drink that closeto bed, but it also causes blood
sugar changes that dramatic blood sugar changesthat you don't want, so limiting those
those substances and not consuming them rightbefore you go to bed. Trying to
(34:45):
be consistent with your sleep schedule,like try to be if ten o'clock's your
bedtime, try to keep that nomatter what work, not letting it be
varied. Don't eat a lot beforeyou go to bed. Reduce the evening
snacks like don't sit and watch theyou know, watch a movie and eat
popcorn. Your body then is directingits extra energy to digesting the food instead
(35:14):
of to going into its deep sleepit's deep sleep cycle. If always try
to eat your food three to fourhours before bedtime and then go for a
walk, do something for ten tofifteen minutes that it gets your heart breat
up and kind of helps with thatdigestion. That will also just a little
(35:37):
bit of exercise. It doesn't haveto be I do my bigger exercise in
the morning, but doing just alittle bit ten to fifteen minutes in the
evening after your dinner time is goingto help with digestion, and it's also
going to help kind of start tostart telling your it's just weird. It
(35:57):
helps. Okay, it helps withyour sleep, but you need to do
that. You don't want to doan exercise immediately before bed. The challenge
with that is is that it raisesyour endorphins too much and it might keep
you awake. So exercising, doinga mild exercise two to three hours before
you go to sleep can actually enhanceyour sleep as well. Okay, let
(36:19):
me see, I think I hiteverything that I wanted to cover on sleep.
We talked about the importance of sleep. We talked about the sleep deprivation
in the US anyways, knowing thatit is a chronic problem around the world,
and we talked about a lot oftips, a lot of tips so
improve your sleep. When you doyour cognition, the next day is going
(36:43):
to be better. And this isthe reason why I always tell people this
is your number one. If Ihad to narrow down one thing that you
needed to do to improve your brainhealth, to improve your success in life,
relationships, on and so on,I would say get adequate sleep.
(37:05):
Because if you're not getting adequate sleep, your prefrontal cortex is not going to
run right the next day, whichmeans you're not going to have the ability
to think clearly, so you're gonnamake poor decisions. You probably aren't going
to eat right, you're probably gonnabe low on energy, and you're not
gonna you're not going to exercise likeyou're supposed to. Like, there's this
whole cavalcade of things that can happen. So sleep is number one. Put
(37:27):
that is number one on your listof things that you need to do to
improve your brain health. All right, I'm going to wrap up the Brain
Lady Speaks show. I was actuallygoing to do a combination show. When
I first was planning this, I'mlike, I'm going to talk about the
first the top three tips, andthen I realized, no, I can't
do that because sleep is going totake enough time for just one show.
(37:49):
Actually, each of my top threetips are going to take enough time for
one show. But that is thoseare my tips. That's what I want
you to really think about. Ihave a really cool download that talks about
out the top ways to manage stressand sleep is in there. If you
want that download, be sure tosend us your information or comment on this
on this particular show. And ifyou think there's other people out there,
(38:13):
I'm going to ask a favor ofyou that could you that could hear this
show and benefit from the information sharedon it, then I'm gonna say please
do please share it, give usa thumbs up, give us a positive
review, because all of that helpsyou know, that silly little social media,
that silly little you know algorithm helpseverything to be seen more and spreads
(38:35):
the good information out there. Soplease do that thumbs up, give us
a good review, maybe share it, give us a little social media love.
All right. If you have topicsor thoughts or ideas that you would
like to see covered on the BrainLady Speaks Show, then please let me
know. Send us a send usa an email at info at brainlady speaker
(38:58):
dot com and put in there podcastidea. Maybe it's a book you've read
that you'd like, if it's aneuroscience book, I am all I am
all for it. I am allfor it. We're going to be doing
some book reviews here on the BrainLady Speak Show as we move forward.
So if you have a book thatyou'd like to see us cover, I
would love to love to have thatinformation, all right. Or if you
(39:20):
have an expert that you were like, oh I heard this person Talk.
She'd be a perfect guest for theBrain Lady go ahead and send that.
Follow us on all of the majorsocial media outlets, and I am either
brain Lady Julie or on x Iam just brain Lady. LinkedIn, I'm
brain Lady Julie, Facebook, brainLady Julie, Instagram, brain Lady Julie,
Brain Lady Julie. On TikTok,we sure we've gotten really good traction
(39:43):
on TikTok and how will put outa lot of great just clips, educational
clips of some of the presentations thatI've done over the years, and it's
really worth spreading the word. Soanyways, thank you very much. I'm
honored that you spent this last thirtyto forty five minutes with me how much.
I don't know how long it's been. I've been watching the clock.
Yea. Thank you for being herewith us. Thank you for sharing your
(40:07):
time on the brain Lady Speaks.Hopefully this has been educational for you.
Stay in contact, Stay in contact, reach out if you have any questions
or thoughts. All right, andas I like to close out all of
my podcast, I want everybody totake a nice deep breath then let it
out roll your shoulders back, goout there, and simply enjoy every moment
(40:35):
until next time.
Welcome to this episode of the BrainLady Speaks Show. We are here talking
all things brain and success. Really, how all of this complicated neuroscience and
neuropsychology that we take and we funneldown here on the Brain Lady Speak Show
into usable information to improve your life, your business, your career, and
(00:31):
your relationships. So I am excitedto be bringing kind of a new new
feel to the Brain Lady Speaks aswe move forward into twenty twenty four and
bring in some really great, reallypractical application. We're going to be talking
how all of this brain stuff affectsevery aspect of your life and how to
(00:55):
allow it to or use it toimprove it. Especially, we're going to
be doing some corporate focus, careerfocus, some women in success focus,
not just the fun stuff that neurosciencehas taught me, but over the last
several years, as I've increased mystudies in neuroscience, so we're going to
be talking about some things like neuralmarketing and neuroscience of leadership and just the
(01:19):
neuroscience of success. And that's oneof the things we're going to talk about
today. But we're going to talkabout it with one specific thing in mind,
and that is sleep. So howdoes sleep effect or stall out or
slow down the amount of success thatyou are achieving in life? And why
is sleep so incredibly important? Sostick with me as we go through this
(01:42):
entire brain Lady speaks show welcome andthank you for being here with me.
As we okay, sleep sleep,how many of you are tired? Like
if I asked you right now didyou get enough sleep last night? What
would be your answer? Yes orno? If I asked you, if
I said okay, if you saidyes, I feel like I got enough
(02:05):
sleep. I'm going to ask youdid you get enough quality sleep last night?
Because there's a difference between getting eighthours of sleep or eight hours when
you're laying in the bed versus eighthours of quality sleep. So let's talk
about that. I did some Iwanted to know what the current research is.
I have some studies that were doneprior to twenty twenty, but I
(02:27):
wanted to know in preparing for thisshow, I wanted to know what are
the current statistics in the US andeven throughout the world, because it's interesting
obviously in certain countries that are fullof a lot of stress or I should
say civil unrest or areas where there'swar. Obviously these figures are much higher,
(02:50):
right, They're much more sleep deprived, and when they are getting sleep,
they aren't getting good quality sleep becauseof the anxiety and the angst that
is going on in the life.But if we're just looking at the US,
for example, we have some stistics. I was super excited or super
excited, sorry, not excited football. Super interesting to find out that in
(03:14):
the United States the top three stateswith the highest they were the most sleep
deprived was Hawaii, Hawaii, WestVirginia, and Alabama. Isn't that interesting?
Hawaii came in at forty six percentof the population being sleep deprived.
There's something, there's a story there. I need to dig into that some
(03:36):
more because that was very interesting tome. West Virginia came in a little
under forty three percent, Alabama atabout forty one and a half percent,
and then working its way down toan average in twenty twenty two that of
sleep deprivation across the United States beingat an average of thirty six point eight
(04:01):
percent. So over two thirds ofthe US population as of twenty twenty two
are considered sleep deprived, and thatis a huge jump prior to twenty twenty.
Prior to twenty twenty, the averagewas only twenty six percent, but
(04:23):
now it is up to twenty twentytwo, it is up to thirty six
point eight percent, almost thirty sevenpercent, so two thirds, and that's
pretty significant. Like that's that's apretty big significant drop. And we could
get into all of the potential reasonsfor that. Obviously, it's a higher
level of anxiety that people are feeling, and I believe it is a higher
(04:44):
addiction to tetta these little things.Yes, for those of you who are
just listening, I just held itmy cell phone, So lots of very
interesting. How many individuals are sleepdeprived in the country and in the world
world right now? Two thirds onaverage. That's significant because there are so
(05:05):
many negative effects, Like being sleepdeprived is huge, the negative effects that
it has on the body and oncognition. All right, So first let's
talk about how much sleep on averagea person needs. Now, it's different
(05:26):
throughout the life, right Obviously,a baby sleeps much more than an adult
for obvious reasons. The brain andbody are growing massive amounts, right,
so it needs a lot of thatsleep. Interestingly, enough, children and
teens need about the same amount ofsleep. A lot of times we think
(05:47):
that teenagers don't need as much sleepas children, and yet from a neuroscience
point of view, they really do. They need somewhere between nine to ten
hours of sleep a night. Isn'tthat interesting. Now, you may have
waves, you may get pre pubertywhere don't need quite as much sleep for
two or three years. However,once you go into the teen years,
(06:11):
teenagers actually need more sleep than preteens. Right, they need just as much
sleep as younger children. Their brainsand their bodies are going through such massive
changes during this period of time.That is, it's just incredible what's happening
and the reasons why they need thisadditional sleep, so we can get into
(06:35):
the developing brain on a different brainLady speaks show. But it is important
to understand that they need a lotof sleep, and they need their sleep
cycles because that circadian rhythm is alittle bit different during this massive body change
time of teen years, that theirbetter quality sleep is actually from midnight to
(06:56):
nine am. So, hint,hint, school should never start before nine
am. That would be best fora teenager. We know that's not what
goes on, but technically that's what'sbest for the brain, and as adults,
we actually need between seven to ninehours of sleep. So if you
are an adult and you I'm oneof those that I eight to nine hours
(07:17):
of sleep and I will crank itduring the day, I am just on
you bump me down to seven toeight hours of sleep. I'm like,
I'm just not performing as well.My exercise isn't as deep and as intense,
my cognitive abilities are not as good. So now again there is a
range. Everybody is a little bitdifferent. However, I'm really going to
(07:39):
challenge anybody who says that they onlysleep seep six hours a night as an
adult, that those that those nightsthat they're they're pushing through, they're asking
more of their body than they reallyshould. Their body might be waking up.
I've talked to a lot of peoplewho say, well, I wake
up at four thirty five am inthe morning, just fine, and I
go to at you know, tento eleven o'clock and I just function find
(08:03):
during the day, I'm wondering whatyour body's going to do, how quickly
your body might wind up crashing.Because I'm not saying there aren't exceptions to
these to these standards that I'm saying, but in general, you might be
an overachiever. I might want toask you are you're a firstborn or first
of gender. I'm just saying,just saying, might have something to do
(08:26):
with it, because sleep is soimportant, and enough of that sleep is
so important, right, if you'renot getting enough sleep when you are,
Really what happens during sleep is yourbrain is going your brain and body are
going through some massive internal work,right, So your body physically is being
(08:50):
restored. Your body releases the HGHor the human growth hormone during sleep,
and so this is one of thosetimes when the brain is sending out those
white blood cells. It's attacking theall of the you know, negative things
going on in the body. It'sdoing repair work. It's doing, you
(09:11):
know, helping to build the musclesand increase bone density, regulate your metabolism.
That's what those are, all thingsthat HGH does. And if you're
not getting adequate sleep, for sleepactually inhibits the production of this in the
brain, and therefore the body doesn'tgive the ability, it doesn't get the
ability to repair as many damage,as much damage tissue. Right, So
(09:33):
physically the body needs that time torepair, it needs that time to detox.
Right throughout the day, your yourcells are actually creating its own toxins,
right, because your your body ismoving and all of these chemical reactions
are taking place in your body throughdigestion, through cardiovascular right through breathing,
(09:56):
and all of that accumulates in yourbody. And it's during the night time,
during sleep that the act of thebrain actually activates the glymphatic system right
and starts moving all of that andclearing away all those toxins out. If
you're not getting enough sleep, thisprocess is not functioning to its peak,
(10:20):
right. And this is this allof these negative like the beta amyloid proteins
that are bad that are linked toAlzheimer's disease. Guess what this is when
it gets cleaned out. It's duringgood sleep. So if you're not getting
good sleep, then you've got toomuch of this built up in your brain.
So you've got to detoxify your brainand body. And it's not just
(10:41):
a matter of drinking a you know, a particular detox t or something,
right. It literally means sleep iscritical for these functions. Okay. It's
also one of my favorite things thatit does is it does this memory consolidate,
so I will get as a brainhealth professional. Right, people will
(11:03):
ask me a lot of times,what do you what what what a dreams
mean? You know what is thatwhen sleep comes up under that topic?
You know what about dreams? Whatdo they mean? You know? Is
there a secondary memory or secondary thoughtto a dream as you are is it?
Is it something metaphysical? Not reallylike literally, dreams are just your
memories consolidating. So during the night, when your brain is going through these
(11:26):
deep sleeps, right, the rapideye movement, the rim sleep. When
it's going through this sleep, it'srunning through all of this massive amounts of
data that your brain took in duringthe day, and then it it kind
of connects it to past memories orto things that it has already learned.
(11:48):
So the brain may have, youknow, seen a face of someone or
E said of the name of someonethat you haven't seen in a while,
and then all of a sudden youhave this dream about them. Well,
it's because the brain is connecting thatconversation that you had during the day to
those memories that you had of thatperson. Now it's mixing that those two
(12:13):
facts of that person with perhaps somethingyou experienced during the day, maybe you
ate out at a great restaurant,so now your dream is about seeing that
person at a really good restaurant,you know, and then you did laundry
during the day, and so youdreamt that you saw this person at a
(12:33):
great restaurant and they were carrying laundry. Right, That's what your brain's doing.
It's sorting through all of the differentthings that happened during the day,
and it's deciding is this information thatI need to keep. Are these facts
and details that I need to fileinto my memory banks, or are these
(12:54):
things like temperature of the air thatyour brain registered it it logged that during
the day, but it may say, oh, that's not really necessary,
I don't need to remember that.So that's with this randomie movements. This
rim sleep is when these types ofthings happen and run into and go to
(13:15):
work. So very very very importantfor the memory retrieval. And one of
the things that people begin to complainabout, either when they're under a lot
of stress or as they get olderis I can't remember things like I forget
the simplest things like something that Idid yesterday, I can't even remember today.
(13:41):
It could have to do with poorsleep quality. It could. That's
one of the things that I willalways I get. I often get asked,
Okay, Julie, what are yourthree top tips, the three most
important things for the brain. AndI'm always going to start with sleep for
brain health. To me, itis the most important because if you're not
(14:05):
getting enough sleep, it's affecting everythingelse in your life, everything else in
your life. So if somebody saysto me, I've got some memory issues,
what's a really good supplement, thefirst thing I'm going to ask them
is, look before we supplement.I mean, there's great supplements out there.
I tail take Delta E, whichis my Impacts if you want to
(14:26):
know about it, it's elthy andeen. It's got some real great B
vitamins in it. Right. Soit's not that I'm against taking supplements at
all, It is that the firstthing I want to know is are you
sleep deprived? Because I can giveyou as many supplements, I can suggest
supplements for you, but if you'renot getting enough sleep, those supplements are
not going to be effective nearly aseffective, if they're going to be effective
(14:50):
at all. So we got tolook at your sleep. You got to
really stop and understand how incredibly importantsleep is. Studies have actually shown that
and this there was an interesting studythat I've read recently. Pull it up
here. The National Heart and Lungand Blood Institute published an article that was
(15:16):
very very interesting. So it talksabout how sleep helps your brain work properly
during the day, right, Andit says studies and this is a direct
quote from that article. You canlook it up. It's nhi I at
NIH dot gov. And it says, studies also show that sleep sleep deficiency
(15:37):
changes activity in some parts of thebrain. If you are sleep deficient,
you may have trouble making decisions,solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior,
and coping with change. Sleep deficiencyhas also been linked to depression,
suicide, and risk taking behaviors.Wow, that's important, Like that's big.
(16:00):
And the reason why is because ifyou're not getting enough sleep, you're
not the brain is not going tofunction as well the next day, which
means the PFC you've heard me talkabout this before, the prefrontal cortex of
the brain is going to drop out, and it's not going to work as
efficiently or as effectively as it should. The aim in clinics that I have
(16:29):
my brain health certification through he hassome wonderful, wonderful brain scans like that's
what he that's the power of somuch of his research and why I stepped
into taking his certification program is becauseso much of it, you know me,
I like the science, right,I like the neuroscience. I'd like
to see the proof. And whathe has been able to do is scan
(16:51):
hundreds of thousands of brains, andin those studies, he has scanned individuals
who are sleep deprived. An individualwho are sleep deprived show low, low
activity in the prefrontal cortex of thebrain. It actually, if you are
not getting enough sleep, or ifyou are getting poor sleep due to things
(17:12):
I should say, especially if youare getting poor sleep due to things like
sleep apnea, snoring, not beingable to breathe while during the night,
you're actually suffering from anoxia, whichis oxygen deprivation to the brain, which
kills brain cells. So I'm tellingyou, if you have those challenges,
(17:36):
by all means, please seek outhelp from a sleep center or your doctor.
It's not just a matter of takinga supplement like melatonin or something else
that calms your brain. Which thereare some great natural supplements out there.
It's not just a matter of doingthat or even you know, taking pharmaceuticals.
(17:59):
If you need to take pharmaceuticals,I'm not saying don't take them.
By the way, anything that Italk about on the Brain Lady Speaks show
remember always always, this is informationalpurposes only. Always always check with your
doctors first. But it's those typesof things may not they may just mask
another issue. Right, They cancause you to sleep deeper, but that
(18:22):
doesn't mean they're going to solve anoxygen deprivation problem. So if you have
an oxygen deprivation problem through breathing issues, then you're going to want to address
those, right, You're going towant to seek help for those because it's
important. You don't want to losepart of your brain cells and you're literally
sleep deprivations. An oxya not gettingenough oxygen into your brain while you are
(18:48):
sleeping, actually shows up on abrain scan very similar to a toxic brain,
a brain that has been exposed totoxic metals or toxic substances, toxic
chemicals. Right, it looks verysimilar. So you have to be really
really this is really super super important, and when it drops out that prefrontal
(19:11):
cortex. Well, we know thatthe PFC that's responsible for higher thinking,
for inhibition of your remote or ofbehavior, right, keeping you from doing
stupid things. That's what the PFCdoes. It helps you to understand consequences
of your actions, right, tobe able to problem solve, make decisions.
(19:33):
Right. So all of these thingsare affected if you're not getting good
quality sleep and enough of it.So you've got to really, really really
give some thought to sleep, reallygive some thought to sleep. Okay,
so I think I hit on thatenough. You guys understand the brain effect
(19:53):
and the body effect of not gettingenough sleep. And I talked about how
much sleep a person. The averageperson needs between seven to nine hours.
Please do not feel guilty if youneed nine. Like I said, I
do better between eight and nine hoursof good quality sleep at night. Some
people will get less. But ifyou're getting however, I will say,
(20:15):
if you're getting less than that sevenhour mark, you may want to really
double check, double check yourself.Double check if you are really really really
getting really really getting enough good qualitysleep. Double check your activity during the
day, your concentration during the day. Now you can nap during the day
(20:37):
there's actually some fascinating we'll talk aboutnaps on a brain Bit show in the
future, but there's some really interestingstudies coming out about napping, short naps,
fifteen minute naps, power naps,you know in the later part of
the after in the mid part ofthe afternoon, when you're circadian rhythm kind
of does that dip thing. Itactually is very healthy for the brain.
(21:02):
I personally have tried it. Idon't do well with short naps. That's
just me. So it's not foreverybody. But if you are one of
those people, I should say,and if you're one of those people that
don't get much sleep at night,then maybe maybe slipping in that power nap
is something that is really really importantto do. So what do you do?
(21:22):
What do you do to enhance yoursleep? Because one of the things,
there's a few things that I getpeople that tell me all the time,
I can't fall asleep because my brainis racing is one of the challenges.
I wake up during the middle ofthe night and can't stop my brain
from racing. Is another one ofthose challenges. Different different things of you
(21:44):
know, waking up too early,waking up to get up and use the
bathroom. Right, different things thatdisturb your sleep cycle. How do you
how do you improve that sleep cycle? Well, the first thing that I
always suggest is you want a yourbedroom to be all about the s's which
means your bedroom is only for thesleep in the sex. I'm telling you,
(22:06):
you just want it for that.Do not have a television in there.
Do not have your work desk inthere. What you are doing when
you are doing something like that isyou are actually confusing the brain. You
are confusing the brain. The braingoes in there at night and if it
knows there's work on a desk.This was a big problem during lockdown,
(22:27):
right, because a lot of peoplehad limited space in their home and they
were working in their bedroom. No, no, no, no, no
no no no no no no.You have an office for working, you
have a dedicated workspace. Make yourdedicated workspace not in your bedroom. Your
bedroom needs to be sleep. Youalso don't want a television in your bedroom.
(22:48):
Now you may say, well,watching TV helps me fall asleep.
My husband says that all the timebecause he always fallows asleep on the couch
while he's watching TV, which isprecisely why the why it's not in our
bedroom, because then he'd fall asleepand I'd lay there awake. No,
that's one of the reasons. Butthe main reason is you don't want any
distractions at night, and you don'twant your brain to be thinking about something
(23:11):
other than shutting down, because thisis when you want the prefrontal cortex to
kind of slow down. You wantyour brain to just function on its automated
systems and shut down your thought process, your heavy thought process. So what
you want that room to be allabout sleep. You want everything in that
(23:32):
room to say this is the mostcomfortable sanctuary to sleep in. So make
it look that way, right,You have have the room be a physically
comfortable and an emotionally comfortable place foryou. Now, I'm gonna put a
little a little piece in here thatif you are someone who suffers from PTSD
(23:56):
or CPTSD, we're going to doa completely different brain Lady speaks on that
topic and talk about sleep. Sleep. For a lot of individuals who have
experienced trauma, especially especially if thattrauma came from a bedroom, sleep is
very very difficult for them. Soa lot of the things that I'm talking
(24:18):
about on here may or may notwork for you. If that is something
you suffer from. You need togo through extra steps to encourage your brain
to shut down, because in trauma, it doesn't want to shut down.
Very very interesting studies that have beendone on that. So point being this
(24:41):
is for in general, right,So in general, you want that bedroom
to be comfortable. You want yourbed to be comfortable. If you are
going to spend money on any pieceof furniture in your home, you want
this to be what you spend goodmoney on. Right, Get a good
bed, Get a good bed,and if you suffer from snoring issues or
(25:04):
breathing issues, I suggest you geta bed that elevates the head a little
bit because that's going to help inyour breathing. So it's going to reduce
the snoring, reduce the breathing difficulty, and help you to sleep better.
So make it comfortable, make itphysically or make it visually comfortable. This
(25:26):
is really important. They've done someinteresting psychological studies on color and colors affect
the subconscious in different ways. Redyour very strong bright colors, especially red
red specifically raises has been shown toraise your blood pressure, raise your heart
rate, increase your appetite. Sothese are things you don't want in the
(25:49):
bedroom. You don't want things moreactive, you want things more calm.
So your more earth tones, right, your blues, your greens, your
after natural colors are going to actuallysubconsciously communicate to your brain. Oh,
it's time to relax. So thinkabout making just a really comfortable, comfortable
(26:15):
place. And it could be eventhe sheets. You know, if you're
a kinesthetic person. When I talkabout the brain personality connection, I talk
about how thirty at least thirty percentof the population are kinesthetics, which means
they process in coming data most efficientlyand effectively based on what they feel,
and they process through every surface oftheir skin. So for them, you
know, comfortable sheets, comfortable clothesare so important in improving that sleep cycle.
(26:41):
Right, pardon me, So thinkabout comfort making everything in their physically
and visually comfortable. You also wantto keep the temperature lower if you can
handle it under sixty degrees. Nowsome people can't. Some people are like,
oh, my goodness, that's justway too cold for me to sleep.
(27:03):
Studies have shown on average, betweenfifty five and sixty degrees is where
the brain slips into that deeper sleepfaster better. The brain almost goes into
a hibernation or the body kind ofgoes into a little bit of a similar
to a hibernation thing, which meansyou need it cool. So you might
want to think about you don't alwayswant that artificial air, perhaps just fans
(27:27):
bringing in the outside air. Ifwhere you sleep is cooler at night,
even during the summer, those areall very positive, positive things. But
drop the temperature into that range.Don't want it super cold because then you're
you're disturbed by the cold. ButI'd rather have it cold and you have
that extra blanket than warm, becauseyour body has a hard time sleeping when
(27:48):
it's over seventy degrees or when it'sin the room. So get that temperature
down as dark as possible. Ifyou live in climates where during the summer,
wherever your summer is at, ifyou live in climates where are portions
of the earth where you have longerdays and so it's not dark, then
I would suggest getting some block blockoutcurtains right, making it as dark as
(28:12):
possible. Now for those individuals whoit doesn't get dark until late, or
who say I go to bed ateleven and wake up at five and I'm
just fine here's where I would reallychallenge you to go to bed earlier.
Again. Studies have shown that thatchunk of time between like nine pm and
(28:33):
midnight are some of your best highquality sleep hours, and so making it
dark, even if it's still lightoutside, is going to help your brain
shut off. The pineal gland,which is the right between It sits right
here in the for those of youwho are just listening. It sits right
(28:53):
between your eyes back kind of behindyour nosebridge. That is, when the
unlight starts to dim, it beginsto secrete melatonin. And this is one
of the reasons why you need yourroom so dark, because the darker it
is than the brain is produced healthyin a healthy way, producing melatonin naturally.
(29:17):
And when the light starts to comeup in the morning, that pineal
gland goes, oh, hey,the sun is coming up, and so
I am going to stop secreting melatoninand then you start to wake up.
Here's where this is the reason whyyou need your room so dark, And
here leads right into the reason whythese are bad, these being technology.
(29:44):
If you watch television before you goto bed, I'm not going to tell
you not to do that. Makesure that it is in a different room,
and that it is far away fromyour face. You we used to
be told. I even remember Iwas told, can't sit that close O
cross eyed? Is it that you'dgo crosside or you damage your eyesight?
Don't sit that close to the TV. I was told in the seventies,
don't sit that close to the TV. Your damage your eyesight or whatever it
(30:07):
was. Well, literally, Idon't want you sitting that close to the
TV. I want you to befar away. I want you to be
several feet away from the television ifyou watch TV before you go to bed,
because you don't want direct light hittingthat pineal glen. It's going to
slow the ability of your brain toproduce melatonin. The same thing with with
(30:30):
tablets and even e readers. Yesthey have blue light, you know,
blockers on them or whatever, doesn'tmatter. It's still light that is too
close to your eyes and it's preventingyour brain from going through its natural sleep
cycle. So what do I suggest. I can't believe I don't have a
book right in front of me.Pick up a book, actually read the
(30:55):
book. If you like reading beforeyou go to bed, if that's part
of what helps your brain shut down. That's fine. Stay away from the
e readers, right, Go actuallyhold a book in your hand, use
your e reader for daytime reading.Hold the book in your hand and actually
read, because then what you're goingto do is the light's more than likely
coming from behind you pointing onto thepage as opposed to being directed at your
(31:22):
face, which is what you isgoing to happen with a tablet or an
e reader. A lot of peopleI was reading, and I wish I
should have looked up the statistic beforeI started this show recording this show.
But a lot of people go tobed with their with their actually feel that
they use their phone to you know, scrolling through their phone to help them
go to sleep. That's that's reallynot healthy for your brain, even though
(31:45):
you may think it is, it'snot. Uh, there's all kinds of
things that this will do. Itwill get your brain thinking about things that
maybe you don't you shouldn't be thinkingabout, Like Sally got five hundred thousand
likes on hers hers and I didn'tget tent like you get that kind of
that, you know, that impostersent like it just gets your brain going
(32:06):
where you don't need to go.So staying away from technology, keeping that
away. Those are all things thatyou can do to enhance your sleep.
Now, if you struggle with fallingasleep at night because your brain is racing,
then you want to do things likerelaxation, right, do things that
(32:27):
are going to release the stress,lower the stress in the body, and
actually calm the brain. Right,So you want to if you're too stressed
out, it actually decreases the timethat you're spent in that very critical rem
sleep, So you can do deepbreathing. I suggest bookending your day with
meditation, with mindful meditation. Right, So you're starting your morning with mindful
(32:52):
meditation, you're ending your evening.So right before you go to bed is
a really, really good time tojust reflect on the positives, take some
time, decompress, feel your entirebody. We'll do a brain Lady Speak
show on how to do all thismindfulness work and just reflect on the three
top wonderful things that happen during theday. And maybe the biggest wonderful thing
(33:16):
was that the sun came up.But focus on that. Whatever you focus
on when you go to sleep atnight is what your brain's going to focus
on during the night and what you'regoing to wake up focusing on. So
A you want it to be positiveand B you want it to be things
that are calming for the brain,not things that are challenging for the brain.
Right, you don't want to goto bed thinking about this business problem,
(33:37):
this career problem, this relationship problemthat you have and what are you
going to do about it? Becauseif you do that, then that's what
your brain like. There's a techniqueto doing that a couple of hours before
you go to bed, but youdon't want to do it immediately before you
go to bed, because then yourbrain's going to be racing. Something else
that can help to keep your brainfrom racing is actually reducing the caffeine that
(34:02):
you intake, the caffeine and thealcohol. Right, if you're drinking anything
any of that too close to goingto sleep at night, then it's going
to keep your brain going, right. It's and you may think, well,
I fall asleep just fine, andI have coffee or have a glass
of wine. It actually, youknow, the wine or the alcohol actually
(34:23):
relaxes me. Well, it's notgood for not only is it not healthy
for the brain to drink that closeto bed, but it also causes blood
sugar changes that dramatic blood sugar changesthat you don't want, so limiting those
those substances and not consuming them rightbefore you go to bed. Trying to
(34:45):
be consistent with your sleep schedule,like try to be if ten o'clock's your
bedtime, try to keep that nomatter what work, not letting it be
varied. Don't eat a lot beforeyou go to bed. Reduce the evening
snacks like don't sit and watch theyou know, watch a movie and eat
popcorn. Your body then is directingits extra energy to digesting the food instead
(35:14):
of to going into its deep sleepit's deep sleep cycle. If always try
to eat your food three to fourhours before bedtime and then go for a
walk, do something for ten tofifteen minutes that it gets your heart breat
up and kind of helps with thatdigestion. That will also just a little
(35:37):
bit of exercise. It doesn't haveto be I do my bigger exercise in
the morning, but doing just alittle bit ten to fifteen minutes in the
evening after your dinner time is goingto help with digestion, and it's also
going to help kind of start tostart telling your it's just weird. It
(35:57):
helps. Okay, it helps withyour sleep, but you need to do
that. You don't want to doan exercise immediately before bed. The challenge
with that is is that it raisesyour endorphins too much and it might keep
you awake. So exercising, doinga mild exercise two to three hours before
you go to sleep can actually enhanceyour sleep as well. Okay, let
(36:19):
me see, I think I hiteverything that I wanted to cover on sleep.
We talked about the importance of sleep. We talked about the sleep deprivation
in the US anyways, knowing thatit is a chronic problem around the world,
and we talked about a lot oftips, a lot of tips so
improve your sleep. When you doyour cognition, the next day is going
(36:43):
to be better. And this isthe reason why I always tell people this
is your number one. If Ihad to narrow down one thing that you
needed to do to improve your brainhealth, to improve your success in life,
relationships, on and so on,I would say get adequate sleep.
(37:05):
Because if you're not getting adequate sleep, your prefrontal cortex is not going to
run right the next day, whichmeans you're not going to have the ability
to think clearly, so you're gonnamake poor decisions. You probably aren't going
to eat right, you're probably gonnabe low on energy, and you're not
gonna you're not going to exercise likeyou're supposed to. Like, there's this
whole cavalcade of things that can happen. So sleep is number one. Put
(37:27):
that is number one on your listof things that you need to do to
improve your brain health. All right, I'm going to wrap up the Brain
Lady Speaks show. I was actuallygoing to do a combination show. When
I first was planning this, I'mlike, I'm going to talk about the
first the top three tips, andthen I realized, no, I can't
do that because sleep is going totake enough time for just one show.
(37:49):
Actually, each of my top threetips are going to take enough time for
one show. But that is thoseare my tips. That's what I want
you to really think about. Ihave a really cool download that talks about
out the top ways to manage stressand sleep is in there. If you
want that download, be sure tosend us your information or comment on this
on this particular show. And ifyou think there's other people out there,
(38:13):
I'm going to ask a favor ofyou that could you that could hear this
show and benefit from the information sharedon it, then I'm gonna say please
do please share it, give usa thumbs up, give us a positive
review, because all of that helpsyou know, that silly little social media,
that silly little you know algorithm helpseverything to be seen more and spreads
(38:35):
the good information out there. Soplease do that thumbs up, give us
a good review, maybe share it, give us a little social media love.
All right. If you have topicsor thoughts or ideas that you would
like to see covered on the BrainLady Speaks Show, then please let me
know. Send us a send usa an email at info at brainlady speaker
(38:58):
dot com and put in there podcastidea. Maybe it's a book you've read
that you'd like, if it's aneuroscience book, I am all I am
all for it. I am allfor it. We're going to be doing
some book reviews here on the BrainLady Speak Show as we move forward.
So if you have a book thatyou'd like to see us cover, I
would love to love to have thatinformation, all right. Or if you
(39:20):
have an expert that you were like, oh I heard this person Talk.
She'd be a perfect guest for theBrain Lady go ahead and send that.
Follow us on all of the majorsocial media outlets, and I am either
brain Lady Julie or on x Iam just brain Lady. LinkedIn, I'm
brain Lady Julie, Facebook, brainLady Julie, Instagram, brain Lady Julie,
Brain Lady Julie. On TikTok,we sure we've gotten really good traction
(39:43):
on TikTok and how will put outa lot of great just clips, educational
clips of some of the presentations thatI've done over the years, and it's
really worth spreading the word. Soanyways, thank you very much. I'm
honored that you spent this last thirtyto forty five minutes with me how much.
I don't know how long it's been. I've been watching the clock.
Yea. Thank you for being herewith us. Thank you for sharing your
(40:07):
time on the brain Lady Speaks.Hopefully this has been educational for you.
Stay in contact, Stay in contact, reach out if you have any questions
or thoughts. All right, andas I like to close out all of
my podcast, I want everybody totake a nice deep breath then let it
out roll your shoulders back, goout there, and simply enjoy every moment
(40:35):
until next time.
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