Pursuit of Wellness - Expert Sleep Advice: Napping, Jet Lag, Alarm Clocks, Ozempic & Bedroom Hacks w/ Todd Anderson (Pt 2)

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Ep. #115 On today’s episode of Pursuit of Wellness, Todd Anderson is back for part two! Former NFL conditioning coach and sleep optimization expert, the Dream Recovery founder and I had a lot more to discuss. Last time we spoke about the critical nature of quality sleep for our overall health, and today we delve even further into those specific aspects. Todd shares some of his favorite products in the bedroom for optimal sleep, insights on cortisol control, the long-term effects of Ozempic, and effective jet lag management strategies.Today’s episode is a must listen for anyone looking to enhance their sleep quality!   Dream Recovery is giving POW listeners 20% off their purchase at https://dreamrecovery.io/ Leave Me a Message - click here! For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Todd's Instagram click here! For Eight Sleep Pod click here! For POW Brand Promo Codes click here! Sponsored By:  Dream Recovery is giving POW listeners 20% off their purchase at https://dreamrecovery.io/ Visit BetterHelp.com/POW today to get 10% off your first month. Go to Blissy.com/POWPOD and use code POWPOD to get an additional 30% off! Your skin and hair will thank you! Visit Carawayhome.com/PURSUIT to take advantage of this limited-time offer for 10% off your next purchase. This deal is exclusive for our listeners, so visit Carawayhome.com/PURSUIT or use code PURSUIT at checkout Show Links: Hatch Alarm Clock Eightsleep Pod Momentous EP. 74 – Why Women Should Eat More Protein & Focus On Building Muscle With Dr. Gabrielle Lyon EP. 96 - The Secret To Better Sleep: Tips To Optimize Your Routine w/ Todd Anderson  Topics Discussed 04:04 - Setting ourselves up for optimal sleep 05:15 - The negative side of counting sheep 06:36 - Clocks in the bedroom 08:05 - Controlled temperature during sleep 14:23 - Tools and product recommendations 16:58 - Red light bulbs and motion activated lights 18:30 - Sauna and sweating 19:55 -  Intimidations and benefits of mouth taping 23:53 - Supplements for sleep 27:04 - Thoughts on Ashwagandha and cortisol control 31:19 - Sleep Apnea and thick necks 35:29 - Effects of Ozempic 40:43- Sleep’s effect on hormone health 42:40 - Going to bed angry and the importance of morning routines 45:09 - Recommendations for new parents 48:40 - Sleep patterns and being intentional about night time routines 51:40 - Bedtime routine when Greg travels 53:42 - Mouth breathing and sleep issues 54:55 - Napping 57:21 - Managing jet lag 59:55 - Wake up times and professional athletes 01:03:31 - Todd’s new podcast

I mean, sleep is the foundation of health and wellness. There should be two things that are done in bed, right? Sleeping and then another thing. That's probably a whole different podcast that I'm not... We can talk about sex. This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. Guys, I'm so excited for today's episode.

We are bringing back Todd Anderson for part two, all things sleep. Todd is a sleep expert. I can't wait for you guys to hear this episode. It's so much more information. Before we do, I have some announcements. It is Bloom's biggest sale ever right now for Prime Day, July 16th through 17th. You don't want to miss it. The greens are over 35% off on Amazon for Prime Day. If you're struggling with bloat or poor gut health, highly recommend you go grab them while you can. They sell out fast. So run, go try the colostrum for some added gut health benefits, and you don't want to miss it. So without further ado, today I'm talking to Todd Anderson for part two. He's a former NFL conditioning coach and a sleep optimization

expert and the dream recovery founder. I had so much more to discuss with Todd today. We talk sleep and performance optimization. We talk about his eye masks, his mouth tape, and so much more. Some of the topics we're going to discuss are the negative side of counting sheep, how to set yourself up for optimal sleep, clocks in the bedroom, controlled temperature during sleep, tools and product recommendations, red light bulbs, sauna and sweating, his suggestion for sleep tools like mouth tape and eye masks, supplements for sleep, thoughts on ashwagandha and cortisol control, sleep apnea, the effects of ozempic on sleep, sleep's effect on hormone health, going to bed angry and the importance of morning routines, recommendations for new parents with babies, sleep patterns and being intentional about sleeping routines,

mouth breathing and sleep issues, napping, is napping good for us, managing jet lag, wake up times and professional athletes, and so much more. I know you guys are going to absolutely love this episode. Todd is such a wealth of knowledge and sleep really is the foundation of all things health. It benefits us in so many different ways. So I really hope you enjoy this episode. Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review. And if you enjoyed it, please, please, please share with a friend. I think we could all benefit from some more sleep knowledge. Okay, guys, welcome back to the show. Today I am joined by Todd anderson for part two if you missed part one todd is a sleep and performance optimization expert and the founder of dream recovery which is

a sleep focused brand with eye masks mouth tape and more i am a big fan of the eye masks greg loves a nose strip as you know today we are going to dig even deeper into all things sleep and recovery. So Todd, welcome back. Thanks for having me back. New city. Yeah, new city. We were in Nashville last. I feel like we just spoke, what, a month ago? We also spoke like 12 hours ago. Yeah, you were at my house. Yeah. We had a great time. So guys, Todd worked out with my husband, Greg. He was a beast. You were down there for two hours. Yeah, my chest is very sore today. Unwell.

Yeah, we did a totally out of the norm workout too. The gym was covered in sweat. I was like, wow, this is going to hard down here. So really glad we got to catch up. And I'd love to just pick up kind of where we left off because we spoke about sleep, kind of like the basics. We talked about HRV, recovery. Your HRV.

My amazing HRV. Cold plunging. We talked about weight loss. So definitely go back if you guys want to hear that. I'd love to start by talking about how we can create the ideal environment for sleep. So how can we set up the bedroom in a way that's going to optimize our sleep? Yeah, I think that bedroom optimization is really easy because it doesn't really take any action beyond doing it once.

So I think that anytime you can set something up that has long-term benefits and not much effort, that's a huge win. And I think a lot of times with the bedroom, the biggest change or setup of the bedroom is a mentality shift, which is surprising. I think that a lot of times people want to talk about devices and blackout shades and stats and all this stuff, but I think the biggest thing is creating a space

that's restful and meant for rest. And what I mean by that, specifically the bed. You don't want to hang out. There should be two things that are done in bed, right? Sleeping and then another thing. That's probably a whole different podcast. We can talk about sex. We can go into that, but no details.

You weren't going to say eating, right? Yeah, totally. Don't eat. No one wants to eat in bed. I feel like that's a big no-no. Sleep and sex. Yes, that's it. And I think that you want to create a space of restfulness.

So going beyond that is being awake in bed. And so I think a big mistake people make is when they can't sleep, they just sit there and they wrestle with it and they toss and turn and think about it. And then they start thinking about how they can't sleep and then you really can't fall asleep. And the more you think about sleep, the less you're actually going to be able to. Like they did studies on counting sheep and you actually fall asleep slower by counting sheep because it brings awareness to the fact you can't sleep. I have a hard time with this because I have a very obsessive personality and I get locked

on to thinking about things and I will get obsessed with the this because I have a very obsessive personality and I get locked on to thinking about things and I will get obsessed with the fact that I'm not sleeping but it doesn't happen to me that often like it happens to me when I have too much caffeine or if I have like a mushroom chocolate that day I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about that but I just do I feel like it's so common nowadays. But yeah, the best thing you can do is get up and get out of that space

because that should be sacred. So think about any time you get in your bed, you want to feel like you're ready to fall asleep and super chill and relaxed and almost like all your stresses are wiped away. And the more you do that and more intentional you're with that, the faster and faster you'll fall asleep. And the less you'll probably be able to not fall asleep in the middle of the night or go back to sleep because it's amazing how good our brain is

at connecting spaces and subconsciously connecting them and associating behavior. Are you a fan of having a visible clock with the time that you could see? No. Really? Well, one, actually, a small amount of light like that can mess up your sleep slightly.

And that's one of the first questions people will say, I wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning every day and I can't fall back asleep. And then my first question is, how do you know it's 4 o'clock in the morning? Because that means you're waking up, either you have a bright alarm clock

or you're waking up and instantly checking your phone, which is usually the case. And so really the best way to go about it is you don't really want to know what time it is until you wake up. And that creates this, at first it's a little anxiety thriving because you're kind of uncertain and you think you need to know, but when you really think about it, if it's before you want to wake up,

it's always beneficial to get more sleep. And it's not going to change how you approach that. So there really is no benefit in knowing that. And so it's really freeing to just treat it the same and go back to sleep because everyone's going to get up and go to the bathroom or something, but limiting that is super useful. Okay, it kind that is super useful. It kind of gives me anxiety. I have a Hatch alarm clock. I don't actually use it for the alarm always,

but I use it for the rain noise and I can see the number. I'm kind of a control freak so I want to see what time it is. In terms of the bedroom setup, like a little more detailed. With the alarm clock, the new Pod 4 Ultra by Hsleep is perfect for solving. Okay. Do you have the new one? No, because we've had the same one for two years. Okay, so I just got the brand new,

like they just revamped the whole thing. I thought they were backordered. Did you get a special delivery? I got it so early that the app wasn't even released yet. Why, because you're a sleep expert? Well, maybe, yeah. And also we started working with them the same week. so early that the app wasn't even released yet. Why? Because you're a sleep expert? Maybe, yeah. And also we started working with them the same week.

So I got it and I tried to set it up and they were like, oh, it doesn't update until tomorrow. So I had to wait. But yeah, so the coolest part is on the side of it, there is this big button. And so you can control the height of the bed. It goes up and down, the temperature. Everything's controlled by how many times you tap the side of the bed. Oh, no way.

And it also has a vibrating and thermal alarm. So we talked about it a little before but to fall asleep you have to drop your core body temperature, you have to cool yourself down. But then gradually throughout the night you actually do warm up, your temperature goes up gradually and then right before you wake up your cortisol goes up and your body heats up. and what it does is it it you know it analyzes your body and you can set the temperature cool at night it gradually warms up and then it has a thermal alarm so it can detect what change in temperature meaning getting warmer will actually wake you up

and it can get warmer right when you need to wake up and then it also vibrates so there's no need to have your phone. That's great if you have a partner too because my husband wakes up at 5 in the morning. It's amazing. And he can get up without bothering me. That's such a game changer for people. There's a lot of stuff out there. A lot of people are doing sleep divorce.

It's becoming very popular where people sleep in different rooms. Yeah, that famous podcast duo Abby Abby and Matt, sleep separately. And I get it from a logical perspective. I guess I'm a little old school in the fact that I think that sleeping in the same bed means more. It stands for something as far as relationship goes. And there's so many things you can do to attack these different issues. Whatever's causing, like this is a prime example. If someone wakes up a lot earlier,

something like a vibrating alarm or a memory foam mattress that doesn't transfer force and move you around if the other person moves, I would explore every one of those options before I slept in a different room. I could never do that. I would be so upset. I'm such a physical touch person.

I need that. And there's some great hormones produced just a physical touch person, I need that. And there's some great hormones produced just from physical touch of the skin that actually help you relax. And so I do think that there's benefits and I think that logically, from a pure physiological perspective, you can see how people argue it's a good thing, but at the end of the day relationships are the most important thing to our health. So I could easily argue the other direction of why you shouldn't do that.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Therapy has been such a key tool for me with emotional regulation. I've been through so much in my life with, you know, various stresses, big, small life changes. And I think therapy has been the thing that's really gotten me through it all. Even now, when I feel like my life is going well, I like to have this touch base where I get an unbiased opinion. I can really just get things off my chest. And it really is the number one tool I recommend if you're going through something. I think talking and sorting through your own thoughts is so healthy and so beneficial. It also has really helped me with setting boundaries, figuring out what relationships are best for me in my life, and just overall enhancing my self-love and improving my life.

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I no longer wake up with lines on my face. My hair is in place. I feel like my skin is much happier on this silky material. And I highly recommend you guys try it. You can set yourself up for better sleep with Blissie's award-winning 100% mulberry silk pillowcases. It is the best for your hair and skin. It reduces frizz, tangles, and prevents breakage. It keeps the moisture in your hair and skin. It reduces frizz, tangles, and prevents breakage. It keeps the moisture in your hair and keeps skincare products and natural moisture on your skin while cotton will literally absorb it off your face. And I'm using, you know, skincare to help me heal

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in getting better sleep and waking up feeling ready for the day. Plus, it's super washable and hypoallergenic and naturally cooling. If you've listened to my Sleep Expert episodes, you know sleeping in a cool environment is going to improve your HRV and overall sleep in general. It really is the best night's sleep ever, and I feel so much better about the way I'm taking care of my hair and skin while I sleep. Everybody loves them. There are a ton of different prints and colors and they make great gifts because there's an option for literally everyone. Men love them too. They have over 1 million raving fans and you could be next. Try nowL-I-S-S-Y.com slash powpod and use code POWPOD, P-O-W-P-O-D,

to get an additional 30% off. Your skin and hair will thank you. Fi, can you make sure I get that new eight sleep thing? Yes. I'm jealous. It's crazy. It's really... We're waiting for a replacement of the...

What is it? Like the... Like the generator? Yeah, something broke. And Greg's like super upset about it. And it's backordered. He's like devastated. Oh, that makes sense.

That's good for them. It's backordered. But that sucks for you guys. Yeah, it does. No, but it sucks for you guys. Yeah, it does. So you work with them? I do, but unbiasedly I would 100% have that even if I didn't work with them. Yeah, I had it for two years prior to working with them, obsessed. So let's talk about more tools you can use in the bedroom.

For example, I know this whole conversation sounds like... Yeah, go ahead. Like blackout shades, for example. I have red light bulbs in my lamp. That's great. Which you saw in my house, my bedroom is gloss. Yeah, that's tough to manage. Yeah, it's tough.

And when the red light bulbs are on, it looks like a weird situation is going down. That seems to keep coming up, so maybe it is. You have pretty much the hardest setup to control. Well, that's why I do love the sleep mask. It's not really the actual mask, it's just so easy to control the situation. A sleep mask is great too, because if you get accustomed to it in your bed, you can then travel with it.

So Greg falls asleep the second he hits the plane seat, like the second, because he puts his eye mask on. Yeah, and that's similar to creating that space of the bed being a place of rest. The sleep mask is another psychological trigger. And so when they do studies on sleep masks, they don't always come out amazing. There's some great studies on them in the hospital setting specifically because there's so much going on in the ER or the ICU.

But if you just have someone wear a sleep mask one day and not the other day, it doesn't work great. But it's more about when people get really used to it, it becomes part of their routine, it's a trigger and it instantly happens. And the other thing I love is scents. So we'll eventually come out with a pillow spray because scent is so closely linked to memory. It's the most impactful.

So if you can also create a scent of the bedroom specific to the bedroom, not your whole house, that will also create a restful space. That's a good idea. And you guys already have the silk pillowcases. There's already some out there. We're developing. The scents are hard because it's like,

it's polarizing, people love it or hate it, but it can be very subtle. It can just be like a lavender oil or something, but something that's unique to your bedroom and that will also help trigger that. What do you think about my red light bulbs? Like, is that crazy? No, that's great.

I mean, the best is is if you're doing to go all out optimizing the best would be to really have light bulbs that change color and then gradually have your whole house taper to red throughout the evening just like the sun going down like that's the best of both worlds but yeah red is the least invigorating for your brain so you can get away with you with still being able to see, but also being very low impact. There's another great thing in some hotels, like the Equinox Hotel has these in New York City,

is having motion activated lights under your bed and red ones. So like when your foot hits the ground, the lights turn on and it's pointed at the ground. So there's almost no light entering your eyes, just enough to see to the bathroom and that can be, I mean that's awesome. And they're actually like, you can buy those on Amazon for like $30. That hotel also has separate duvets for each side of the bed.

That hotel, I mean, they crushed it. I love it there. You hit the sleep button and everything just shuts down. Yeah. And the hotel is similar. And the blackout shades. And you can't really hear anything from the street, which in New York is crazy. They actually soundproof the rooms.

Wow. Okay, so you frequent that hotel. Yes. Because I do too. Yes. Obsessed. It's amazing. I mean, the coolest part is the glass in the bathroom.

Yeah, and they have all the supplements in the cabinet. I know. And they work out clothes. And the gym. Yeah, and they have all the supplements in the cabinet. And the gym. The gym is huge. That's like my favorite gym with the saunas outside on the balcony. I have yet to use the sauna because last time I went there, it was Christmas. So it wasn't really sauna weather.

That's when they're out there. They're only out there in the winter. Now that I'm thinking about it, it was actually perfect for that. But it just felt weird. They're really not out there in the winter. Now that I'm thinking about it, it was actually perfect for that. But it just felt weird. Like they're really not out there in the summer. Really? No. Because it's too hot? Yeah. I actually went in the sauna last night and it was really hot here yesterday and it kind of felt weird. I mean, it's hot here. You probably like, so you know how you worked out in the garage and it was really hot down there and you sweat a ton? To you, is that the same thing as the sauna?

It depends on how hot it gets. And it's hard to tell. So you produce these heat shock proteins in the sauna. That's like the thing that's creating all these longevity effects, which in our brain, those proteins basically don't allow plaque to build up. So you think about Alzheimer's and dementia, a lot of that is from plaque forming. But it's hard to tell if that's happening.

I would say most of the time, no. Usually most of the studies it's like over 175 degrees for 20 minutes. But it was pretty hot in there. I think you'd have to really be working hard. But if you went for like an extended run or something in that Austin heat, But it was pretty hot in there. You'd have to really be working hard. But if you went for an extended run or something in that Austin heat, I bet it would have a similar effect. The DeChicos will do that.

They definitely will. They're crazy. All of them. So what else from Dream Recovery would you recommend for people who are looking for tools to easily optimize sleep? So I'm most excited for our new mouth tape. It's called Dream Tape Plus. And one of our complaints, not one of our complaints, but one of the downsides of mouth tape is it's tape and for your skin,

some people have dry skin or they want to have a nighttime routine. And so what we did was basically combine everything that was the healthiest for your skin. So collagen, biotin, CoQ10, what else? Vitamin B, D vitamins. We put that all in the mouth tape, combined it with our adhesive, and kind of created this perfect combination of moisturizing and things that support the health of your skin with the adhesive.

So it's almost like a lip skin treatment while you sleep, anti-aging type thing, which is the best of both worlds. Because that is a downfall. If you have a big skincare routine and oils and stuff, the tape doesn't quite stick as well. So that was our solution. We've been working on it for a while. I think a lot of women listening will be excited about that.

Yeah, I mean my wife, so we've been testing it for probably like three months and my wife is obsessed. I mean she's like, when are we getting more prototypes? So we've been testing it for probably like three months and my wife is obsessed. I mean she's like, when are we getting more prototypes? I'm like, it will come, I promise. It's funny though because she was the one that I could not get to try any mouth taping. It took months and months. We were selling it before she even tried it once.

Mouth taping is a bit intimidating because it almost feels like, oh am I going to be able to breathe? But I think once you get the hang of it, and truthfully, like I'm such a fan of the eye mask. I love the silk pillowcase, but I feel like I'm such a nose breather as it is. Yeah, you could be. Yeah, I don't really open my mouth when I'm sleeping. It's. Would it still benefit me though?

It's one of those things where it's not probably going to benefit you, but it's not going to hurt. And you'll probably realize it relatively quickly. But the other thing is, at night a lot of people don't breathe through their nose, just unintentionally just sitting there. So a lot of people find they fall asleep faster because it just makes them control their breathing, which our breath is like the steering wheel to our nervous system.

So if you control your breath, slow your breath down, long exhales, breathing through your nose, your nervous system is going to really relax, which is great. It's like life-changing for so many people, my husband included because he has issues breathing through his nose and his mouth is like wide open and he tapes every night and it makes the biggest difference for him. Yeah, and a lot of times people, they have a lot of congestion and that's a big fear.

So we always recommend trying it when you're sitting on the couch. Well, now with the new mouth tape, you can almost think of it as doing a lip treatment. But just sit there and allow yourself to calm down and breathe and relax. And oftentimes the congestion alleviates because when you're breathing out of your mouth chronically, your brain is interpreting that as like, I need to breathe out of my mouth. So it will often create congestion to almost block that.

So you're just expelling a ton of oxygen and breathing through your mouth. So a lot of times people are worried about congestion, but they sit there with mouth tape on and control their breathing, which they never probably do, and all of a sudden the congestion starts to alleviate. And then the other part you can do is we have the small strips, which are unique, no one else has those, which is the best of both worlds because it makes you breathe out of your nose,

they're secure, but it's not as scary. You can talk with them on, you can pull one end up and talk. We have a lot of moms that use those because if they're breastfeeding, they'll get up, they'll just pull the bottom off, they can talk, do whatever, and then just pop it back down when they're done. Oh, smart. Yeah, Greg will try to speak to me with the full tape on and I'm like, babe, what if a murderer comes in?

I won't be able to communicate with you. I have a feeling, well, you'll be able to. He just won't be able to. He'll take action. a feeling, well you'll be able to. He just won't be able to. He'll take action knowing him, he'll take action, he'll be fine. He's going to be like blind with his mouth open. Yeah, he'll just start swinging. What about supplements for sleep? Supplements are, it's such a mixed bag.

I mean there's so much information out there. I work with Momentous. They have like a sleep pack that's super basic. And I think that's the biggest thing is there's so many gummies and different powders and stuff like that. But you want to stick to things that support your natural sleep cycles. They don't sedate you. And I would honestly venture to say, and I don't have, this is completely off know off the cuff

there's no research backing this but I think there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff out there some of the gummies I've tried a lot of the stuff and they they'll knock you out but a lot of times you know if you look at all the the different substances people have used for sleep if it's sedating you it has that sedating feeling a lot of times it affects your sleep cycles it affects that rhythm so I'd venture to say as some of this stuff gets looked at further and further, it might have a similar impact on your sleep. Do you like magnesium? Love magnesium.

There's a bunch of different forms. I use magnesium threonate, which was designed by a neuroscientist to actually cross the blood-brain barrier. So it was kind of intended for that purpose, really impactful for sleep and specifically your brain. But all forms of magnesium can be great um what about melatonin yeah did we talk about that last time we did a little bit i mean melatonin you know melatonin it's interesting it's like there's a melatonin does a ton of great stuff in the body you know it's a powerful antioxidant there's been

some anti-cancer research but on the side, it's something your body produces naturally. And it's produced from the absence of light. So when you create these bedtime routines and do things the right way and control the light like you're talking about, a lot of times everything falls into place. Your body is, most people are able to produce more than enough melatonin in order to function properly. And it's more about controlling that light and not doing things that push back the production of melatonin in order to function properly. And it's more about controlling that light

and not doing things that push back the production of melatonin. I think that's people's lifestyle, like the stresses, the light, the activity, the stimulus from different social media and things like that. All that stuff suppresses the production and pushes it back further. So when you take it, it's just kind of like, there's a reason you're not producing it naturally. And a lot of times it's working because you're not doing all the right things

to lead up and create that routine where it's useful. And the other thing is melatonin supplements are all over the place. They did some studies, European, they did a study out of Europe and they looked at US melatonin because in Europe it's a controlled substance. You have to have a prescription in most places, most countries. Because it's a hormone. Even though our body naturally produces it, it's a hormone and it can affect a lot of things other than sleep.

And they looked at US melatonin and I think the range of the dosage listed was like 450%, so like four and a half times down to negative 85%. So it only had 15% of what was listed. So it's a real roll of the dice and there doesn't seem to be a lot of negatives, but I think anytime you can create a natural pattern with your hormone production and control the environment, that's always a much healthier holistic route.

I'm curious what you think about ashwagandha. Because I had Dr. Sarah Gottfried on the show and she recommended this cortisol manager for me because I have horrible stress patterns. And I tried it and I didn't realize it had ashwagandha in it and it was putting me out and I felt weird the next day even. And then my husband told me it's sort of comparable to an SSRI. Yeah, the research on it is a little all over the place

and people have different reactions. I don't think it's something you can across the board be like, it's great for everybody. And for a lot of people it's sedating and it's thrown into a lot of things because it's like a lot of people sedating and thrown into a lot of things because it's like a trendy ingredient. But I guess I'm curious, like when you say you're very stressed, right? So like when you say like cortisol control, what led you to believe you needed to control your cortisol?

I think we were... Not to put you on the spot. No, no, it's a good question. I definitely am a little bit addicted to stress and work and kind of keeping myself going 24-7 and staying busy. Like a free gap in my schedule is not my favorite thing. I think I've gotten a ton better recently. Like in LA, my life was just full work 24-7.

But I think my cortisol patterns are actually okay and I sleep pretty well so I'm not really sure that I needed it. Well that was that was why I asked that is because first off you know cortisol is a hormone that's really useful right like it should be high in the morning it's one of the things that wakes us up and it just should taper off throughout the day and in areas of high stress, meaning like also exercise, like good stresses. You want it to come up and down. So it's more about is it chronically elevated and is it impacting your day-to-day and how you feel.

And so a lot of times like a cortisol saliva test is a great test. They're $60 and you test different times throughout the day. There's different tests. But the biggest thing is how is it rising and falling? Is it high at the right times, low at the right times? You can also feel stressed I think psychologically but not have like a physiological response like that which means you're probably managing it well. I think that was me. Which is totally, totally fair. So just to jump into

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Yeah, I think cortisol is like a really trendy word right now. And it's easy to think that you might have a cortisol issue. You'd be shocked too. So many people I run into, especially athletes, their cortisol is actually very low. Like they're tired in the morning and they can't wake up and they'll get blood work done or do a saliva test and it's rock bottom in the morning,

which is just as much of an issue as having it be too high. So I think it's trendy and people try to attack it and they just assume if they feel like the feeling of stress that that's going to be high, but that's not always the case. It could be the opposite. It could just be how things are flowing throughout the day. So I think it's always good to get a baseline. And that's like with sleep too.

I really think that sleep studies should be the new blood work. Because it's kind of like blood work. Let's say you felt great your whole life and then you're 40 years old and you don't feel very good. Well if you go get blood work, you can compare that to the norms of the population, but you don't really know what you were at before when you felt good, so it's not that useful. Same with a sleep study, it's like get one done when you're younger,

make sure everything's okay, see where you're at, see if there's any breathing disturbances, because the impact of sleep apnea long term is horrible and it goes wildly underdiagnosed because people just don't prescribe that. People don't do that. It's not the first step people take into assessing their health. And it really, I mean, sleep is the foundation of health and wellness. I don't really understand sleep apnea.

Like how do you know when you have it? I mean, that's the hard part is a lot of times people don't find out until they have symptoms from chronic disruption in sleep. It's not actually like you don't wake up necessarily, you might feel fine. And then because maybe there's weight gain or there's hormone issues or a whole bunch of things can happen in your life, maybe it's mental health issues, then things start to point to sleep apnea and you start peeling back the layers.

But for me, for example, I was an athlete, slept well my whole life, always prioritized sleep, don't snore, I really don't have any issues. I broke my nose a couple of times, if there's a head on camera you'll be able to see it goes that way. But I don't have any deviated septum, I can breathe fine. So I thought I was great, no problem. And then when we started doing the mouth taping, I've been mouth taping for about four years,

I was like, I feel so much better. And so dream recovery started and I'm like, I want to really dive into like why do I feel so much better? I know it's working, I know it's so impactful because it's night and day difference. And so I did two sleep studies, one without the tape, one with the tape. And when I did it without the tape, I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. I had no idea.

I had 86 disturbances throughout the night so I stopped breathing. My sleep cycles were all over the place, my heart rate was up and down and then I did it with the mouth tape and it alleviated the entire thing. My sleep was perfect. Okay, I have a question. Based on that, you're pretty muscular and large. Yep.

As is my husband. I was talking to Dr. Gabrielle Lyon and she was like, your husband might have sleep apnea. Yeah, the bigger your neck is, the higher the chance. Okay, is it to do with the neck thickness? Yeah, over 17 inches. If anyone has a neck over 17 inches, the chances are pretty high.

Greg is 18. That's a big neck. Yeah, I mean, just statistically. Now, most people with an 18-inch neck aren't as good a shape of him. But yeah, so I mean, your airway is collapsing, right? So a lot of times just the weight and the size of someone's neck when you're laying down, it more easily can collapse and that happens. So something to really be aware of. the bigger your neck is the more prevalent.

And that's why also people who are significantly overweight, the rates of sleep apnea are much, much higher. And oftentimes they lose weight and then it alleviates the sleep apnea. That's why Ozempic is now being associated with treating sleep apnea. There's a bunch of articles coming out because it helps people lose weight and then that can alleviate the apnea. It's having such an impact across the board. It's wild.

People are getting pregnant on it. I feel like every day there's a different bucket that they're talking about. It's so funny though, the whole thing is like, people who take it and lose all this weight, they're losing all their muscle mass and everybody's freaking out about that. And I'm like, that's literally always been the case. If you go into a huge caloric deficit, don't do strength training and don't have high protein, you've always lost all your muscle mass.

But it's just rare that someone... Prioritizes that. Yeah, it's rare someone could restrict their calories that much and not dedicate anything to training. I feel like the whole Ozempic craze in marketing is really making the lack of knowledge very prevalent. Does that make sense? Of course people are sleeping better, getting pregnant,

because overall... It's like a cheat code for a healthy lifestyle in a weird way. It's like the cheat code for a healthy lifestyle and it's in like a weird way. It's like the same thing if you lost weight and got healthier, the benefits that come from that. I mean, sure, maybe there's like an insulin aspect to it. Yeah, for sure. That's having an impact, but it is really interesting to see

like people's response to it. Yeah, it's also interesting to see since the United States is one of the only countries that allows pharmaceuticals to advertise how much it's absolutely exploded. My dad thinks it's insane. I mean, I think it's insane. I mean, you shouldn't be walking in, I don't think, I mean, you shouldn't be in charge of your health care from a prescription perspective. I don't know, I just. It's wild.

It feels weird, but I think it's, I think it, but I do think, you know, we both talked about our weight loss journey. It's like. Would you have done it if you had access to it? That's a tough question. Like get in that mindset that you were in. Yeah, I would have done anything to get out of that space for sure. But I think when like I made that mentality shift, I don't know if I would have because I was like once I saw that picture we talked about I was so dialed in like there was nothing that was going to derail me because I couldn't live with that yeah and so at that point

no but before I bet I would have and and that's the thing is I have a friend that is taking it and and we've had a lot of talks about it. And she's telling me about before she's went out, how she feels getting dressed and stuff. And I'm like, I don't care. Nothing is worth that feeling. That feeling you're having, and there's more to be learned, and sure there's side effects,

but there's a time and place for some of this stuff. And if someone's feeling that bad, I really don't see a problem with it. I think that is, and they're trying stuff and they're working hard and they're trying to do the right things. Sometimes you need a little boost to get the ball rolling. Yeah, because that level of negativity in your mind is also unhealthy. And yeah, life is short. You don't know how long you're going to be here.

So living one more day, if it's bringing you that low, nothing's worth that. Yeah, agreed. And you need a jumpstart. Like my jumpstart was a picture being posted and me going to the doctor. But everyone's is different and sometimes that moment doesn't happen.

So if you can create momentum and start to build a healthy lifestyle around it, I mean, I can see why that has a really good use case. I'm grateful I didn't have it because it changed my life, what I had to learn. And I'm not saying that dropping weight on Ozempic is easy. I think there's still some effort that has to be made. But the level of dedication I had to have back then

without help, I don't know if I'd be here right now. Yeah, and that's the other thing is I can also see both sides of the argument where it's like a lot of people out there, and that's why we're seeing some of the negative side effects is they're not accompanying taking it with the lifestyle changes. They're eating tiny amounts of what they were eating before. And you were forced, and same with me, we were forced to make these lifestyle changes

and they became habits because it had to be to sustain it for long enough to actually have the outcome we had. To make a massive change and lose a ton of weight and have a transformation, it has to become a habit because it just takes such a long time. So I think on the flip side, I think that's why we're going to see a lot of like the, you know, it'll be interesting when people have lost the weight and they didn't create the

lifestyle around it. And then, you know, four or five, you know, 10 years down the road, how the loss of like the muscle mass and everything affects the long-term outcomes. That's the part I like worry about. I am curious. And I have so many experts on the show bring different opinions that it's kind of tricky to sort through. I've had someone on the show who said it causes stomach paralysis and someone who says it's a great tool and then it really just depends. I think it just goes back to where the person's at mentally, what's worth it, what they're willing to do and whatever's going to make you happy.

You know, whatever's going to put you on the right path. I think everyone's journey is different. I'm sure that from the outside there could be two people that have the exact same goals and biometrics and I'd probably say it was great for one person and not for the other. I think it just really depends. Yeah, agreed. How is sleep impacting hormone health?

We talk a ton about fertility, PCOS. What's funny, this is an easy segue, is a lot of the things that happen during sleep are the reason why those drugs like Ozempic work well. Your hunger regulation happens when you sleep and your blood glucose control is regulated when you sleep. Those two things, you know, when you are underslept, you wake up the next day, you're craving fattier foods, saltier foods.

You're going to consume significantly more calories on average, 300, 400 calories more. And then your blood sugar. Like your body has to work harder the next day. You're more resistant to insulin to maintain the same blood sugar. If you eat the exact same things the night after only sleeping five hours as opposed to sleeping eight, you're going to produce about 25% more insulin just to maintain the same level of blood sugar.

Wow. Which is very similar, like obviously it's much different, but like those are a couple of... Sleep is ozempic. Right, in a way. I mean, it really is like our natural version of resetting those hormones. Yeah. And along with that, like, you know, majority of our, you know,

HGH is produced during sleep, testosterone, a lot of our regulation of our sex hormones, cortisol, like I said, like the flow of cortisol throughout the night. So it truly is like the great reset button for the body and the mind. You know, not only that, like our neurotransmitters, mental health, everything kind of gets a do-over and we get to start back in square one. And when you think about it, it really is how it feels after a great night's sleep.

It feels like the day kind of ramps up and anxiety does ramp up throughout the day. That's kind of how our brain works. And you wake up and there's clarity and you kind of have optimism and things just all come together and that's because everything does reset yeah it um it's it's just it's cool like when people really change that in their life because it it their their entire life gets better that i always argue like you know how you know like the um the phrase like people always argue like don't go to bed angry. That's a big thing in relationships.

But I always argue, you absolutely should go to bed angry. Because throughout the night, we consolidate memories. And that's how we remember things and learn. But the thing that actually doesn't get stored is the emotion as much. We're not great at storing the emotion and how we feel. So a lot of times if you're in an argument with your partner, you wake up and you have clarity. You remember exactly how the argument went, but you're actually able to disassociate the emotion. You don't

actually remember how emotional you were about it. And you're probably able to have a productive conversation the next morning. That's super true. So just throw some mouth tape on, it ends any argument and there's no more talking and you'll probably be able to have a much more productive conversation because you know how it is. I mean, everyone's probably been there with a partner. It's like things can kind of ramp up and you get emotional and then the next day you're like, why do we get so upset about that? Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. I mean, Greg and I kind of have that rule that we don't go to bed angry. And I think it's happened potentially once in our whole relationship, but really sleeping does change the perspective. And I also find that I tend to have my most

like weird, dark thoughts at night. I don't know why that is, but it just like happens to me in the evening. And I feel like when I sleep, like that's to me why the morning routine is so crucial. Because if I don't set the tone right away, it will set me off on a weird path. Like I'll listen to positive affirmations or do things that put positivity in my mind right away. Because I feel like when you wake up, your mind's kind of ready for it. Yeah, it's like primed. Yeah. Yeah, well, and those thoughts, like if you have like a negative thought or like I said, anxiety, it does like, you know, when they look at people, when they do self-assessments,

it does ramp up throughout the day. So like the negative feelings you have, like it could start as something small throughout the morning. And if you fixate on that, it actually will ramp up and your anxiety ramps up. And our sleep is the only time we can reset that. So that's like not abnormal at all. And a lot of people who are diagnosed with clinical anxiety, majority of people will say at night is the worst, which then leads to them not being able to sleep,

which then leads to this whole cycle of just they can't sleep so then they're not able to have that reset and then they start figuring able to have that reset. And then they start, you know, figuring out a way to sleep. Maybe they take something, it becomes this vicious circle. What do you recommend for women who have just had a baby? Or even actually the man too, like a new parent? I think that's the most challenging situation there is.

I have two very close friends. Actually, one of my partners, Jake, in Dream Recovery, just had a child two weeks ago. And I think just as a parent, I think having the expectation that the first few weeks, the first month's going to be really bad. But I think a couple tools, it's like, one, I think having conversations up front about how things are going to go, responsibilities,

just getting on the same page is always a great asset. And then I think it's about really dialing in the quality. You know the quantity is going to take a hit. So how do I really optimize, really think about these things, like the light and the sound and our schedule and even the vibrating alarm. Like if you're going to alternate who gets up, like those things, earplugs can be useful. Like thinking through those things and figuring out, okay, if I only am going to get four hours of sleep, like I

have to make this sleep the best sleep possible. Yeah. As opposed to, I think a lot of times with parents, what they do is they'll kind of just like get it when they can. And again, for anyone out there, I'm not a parent yet working on it, but, and I'm not saying I can relate to this, but I've, I've, I've seen a lot and read a lot is a lot of times people just, you know, get sleep where they can. They'll just like crash on the couch for an hour while the baby's sleeping, things like that. So instead of that, being super intentional and sleeping when the baby is sleeping. If you have the ability to sleep when the baby is sleeping

and actually get in bed, sleep mask, real sleep, not where you're just on a chair, not actually getting some real sleep. You can combat, that'll make a big difference. 90 minutes of sleep where before you were kind of in and out of sleep, that's a huge difference, cumulatively over a month, two months, three months. So I think that's really useful. And then I think, you know, at a young age, like creating, we talk about these relationships with the bedroom for us, kids are like a sponge in creating good habits surrounding the bedroom and lights and TVs and screens

and just making their bedroom, as they grow and they're able to sleep in their own bed, making their bedroom a place of rest and applying these same tools. Because when you're a kid and you're doing all this stuff, nobody was talking about this when we were growing up, but a lot of kids who have great sleep patterns, by chance they did a lot of this stuff.

Maybe their parents didn't have a TV in the room or they had certain bedtime routines. I always had a strict bedtime, which is probably the biggest gift my parents ever gave me. It was always 9 o'clock and I think that creative routine, I think it made me really appreciate and prioritize sleep. And I continue to do that in college probably more than other people because they set that pattern. So I think being intentional with your sleep, making the most of it, but also thinking about as our child progresses,

how do we have them have a really healthy relationship with sleep and set this up? Because it's almost like a blank slate. You can make it perfect, you can make the routine what we all try to strive for just the normal day to day which is an amazing gift you could give your kid. I feel like reading was a big part of my routine. I would read like Harry Potter, I still read now if I can't sleep,

I'll read for like five minutes and it kind of puts you out. Yeah, I mean before you go to bed you're saying? Yeah. Or in the middle of the night? No, I'm never up in the middle of the night. Like latest I fall asleep is 10. But like let's say Greg falls asleep before me, I'll read for 10 minutes and I feel like it makes me more.

Is that okay? Oh yeah, for sure. No screens, no light, relaxing. But you know how you spoke about what the content is, is more important? I feel like if the book, for example, I'm reading Demon Copperhead right now. I was just going to say this, yeah.

Are you reading that? No, no, no, no. I don't even know what that is. Well, it got a little crazy last night. Like the chapter I'm on is kind of dark and wild and it put me in a weird headspace. Did you have a hard time sleeping? It just threw me off, yeah.

Yeah, so that's what I was going to say. I tend to read pretty nerdy stuff and non-fiction stuff, but it could be similar to content. Yeah, if you're emotional about it, and that's what we're finding out, there are some studies done about light and blue light blocking glass and all this stuff and everyone just got on board with the impact

that blue light has on sleep. But then some other stuff is coming out and it seems to be the content you're consuming is more impactful. And then also things like some background noise or some people have a TV on and they always have and they associate that with relaxation and bedtime and so it's a little more gray than previously.

I would assume that with a book it's like if you had something that was really intense like you're reading a murder mystery or something and you're really engulfed in this book I'm sure it would have a negative impact. So just be aware of what you interpret as relaxing and what kind of just gives you the feeling of disconnecting and kind of chilling out.

Because going to sleep scared isn't really a good fit. Especially in your bedroom with all the glass. You could really talk yourself into some bad stuff. I know. When it's light inside and dark. It's funny, when we moved into our Nashville house, we've always lived in high-rises. We lived in New York, Chicago, Miami.

When we moved in the first night, I've never actually lived in a house since I was a little kid like this. And we have a lot of glass. And the first night, Katie had to travel. And we have alarm lot of glass, and the first night Katie had to travel, and we have alarm systems, cameras, all this stuff, and just getting used to it. And one o'clock in the morning,

alarm system goes nuts. Get on the cameras, and we have eight cameras, one's just malfunctioning. That's the one that would be the one. And the alarm that was going off and the camera that was off was the one place someone would break into our house.

And so I ran outside of the golf club one morning because I was so freaked out. That has nothing to do with anything, but it was a horrible reintroduction to living in a house. The first week I was looking out in the dark like you would in your bedroom and I was like, I can really go down a bad path as far as thoughts go. I have to have my big dog in the bed with me. I feel like that's really helpful.

Yeah, Greg's actually traveling the next couple of days and it does freak me out. I don't love it. But then I just have to be extra careful about what I'm doing. I'm glad. Be lucky that I don't live in Austin because this would be a great prank to pull. Oh my God. If you came out of the bushes like also at your size I would be like

I'm done. I'm literally dead. Like RIP to me. That'd be like the worst joke though. It would be horrible. Yeah. Greg would probably like

be in on it too like unlock the gate. I feel like he would be I would really freak out because your size I would just be like oh I'm done. The mask

would be freaky. Yeah. Really scary. But luckily I feel like my neighborhood is pretty chill. And I'm friends with all my neighbors. I feel okay. Honestly, after meeting my neighbors,

I felt more safe. Because I was like, oh, I have people around me. Yeah, I think I'm good. And the dog really helps. Apparently, that's one of the best things you can have. Does he jump up if somebody comes? You met both of them, right? The big one, she'll scare someone off, I think.

Because she's part pit bull. Yeah, some dogs just don't react at all. Like my dog. Come on in. I have a Frenchie, so we'll go work out in the morning and she'll just stay in bed. She doesn't even get up. Oh, I've seen you with the Frenchie.

Yeah, she just likes to sleep. I can't imagine you walking a Frenchie. Yeah, she just likes to sleep. I can't imagine you walking a Frenchie. Well, she doesn't walk very far. Like one block and it's like done. We're done. Especially in the summer. She's a mouth breather probably. No, I wish she did sometimes because she'll snore

and she will not breathe out of her mouth no matter what. No animals breathe out of their mouth. Have you noticed that? Is that true? Only like intense, intense, you know, if they need to expel a ton of oxygen. Oh, I guess they're panting, you're right. Think about a horse. Think of how hard an exertion the horse has and it's still breathing out of its nose.

Yeah. Okay, hold on, I have a question for you. With the mouth breathing and nose breathing, like Frenchies and pugs and dogs with inverted noses, do they have more breathing problems and sleep problems than dogs with elongated noses? For sure, but they are so trained to their evolution, just like you breathe through your nose.

That's how all animals are. So even though they can't breathe through their nose, that's why they struggle is they continue to try to breathe through their nose and they can't very well. Oh my God, that's sad. But it's amazing that they don't even try to breathe through their mouth when they sleep or anything just because that's how we were designed. All mammals.

And so it's crazy that 60 to 70% of us now breathe out of our mouth and we've evolved to that point. There's a lot of reasons for that. But in general, like we're the only ones that do that without, you know, something really being wrong. Yeah, now everyone's getting nose jobs. Yeah, yeah. It might be worth it, honestly, for people who can't breathe through their nose.

Definitely. I think they slip in some aesthetics in there, but they're like, yeah, I told you, I might accept them. There's a couple of people that said that, and I'm like, it looks a lot. I told that you have my septum. There's a couple of people that said that. And I'm like, it looks a lot. I think that, I don't know that that was the main driver. You like got a tiny button nose. Yeah. It's like, yeah, I just cleared it out. It's like half the size. I want to ask you what you think of napping. I'm not like, I do not nap. It's not my thing. I'm not a napper either. It makes me feel delusional and i feel like i missed out on my

whole life yeah i feel really weird afterwards yeah what are they okay like is there a way to do it they can be great if you're good at it if you have the time to do it there's actually some um some pretty interesting studies on napping especially with with cardiovascular incidents for people who regularly nap they're substantially lower. Now the reason for that, there's a lot of things you could point to, but in general it can be good if you're good at napping. The times I would shy away from it, a lot of people nap if they have a horrible night of sleep and the best thing you can do if you don't sleep well is to do nothing.

So the day after, if you take a nap and then it spills over into you not being able to fall asleep that night and now we're talking about a multiple day impact. And you're better off just kind of like, we call it putting our face in the fan in football. If you have a fan, it's going to suck. Like push through. Yeah, exactly.

So you're better off just pushing through and then a lot of times you sleep really well that night and then you get right back on track. But naps can be useful if they're done more regularly. If you're somebody that's taking a nap every day for an hour and you fall asleep, it can be good and it seems like there's some long-term data to support reduced incidence of cardiovascular disease and things like that. But if you're going to nap, the ideal nap is actually quite short, like 20 to 30 minutes.

It's more of a psychological reset boost. It can be useful for productivity. Some people do the nappuccino, which is kind of like a cheat code where you take a shot of espresso or it could be an energy drink and you basically try to fall asleep right after. And then caffeine peaks at about 45 minutes, so you do like a 30-minute nap and then the caffeine will slowly wake you up and then you wake up like super energized.

What was it, a nappuccino? A nappuccino, yeah. That's sick. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like wild, but it's actually pretty useful. It's like noon and you're used to it. Usually a 20-30 minute nap isn't going to disrupt your nighttime sleep too much. My problem is I could never fall asleep that fast.

I know some people do it pretty regularly and they wake up and they're super creative. There's some good studies on memory and things like that. That seems like a good jet lag trick. Yeah, I mean jet lag's tough. Yeah, so my mindset with jet lag is if I arrive somewhere tired, I do the push through face in the fan method. And then I just make sure I'm really tired

by my usual bedtime, if that makes sense. But I guess... Usual bedtime that you are going to or you normally are on? Like, let's say I go to the UK and I land in the morning and I'm like, oh, I'm exhausted. I won't nap because I want to make sure I'm asleep by nine, which is my usual bedtime. And that's the fastest way to adjust. Yeah.

And it's also much easier for us to push, like to stay up later than to fall asleep earlier. That's really hard to do because like our hormone production is so regular with that and our meal timing and everything involved, it's tough. But as I'm sure you've experienced, it's not that hard to stay up a couple hours later. Like on the weekend even, you go out and it's easy to stay up later. So I think utilizing that, some people will try to do it the opposite way where they're like, I'm going to land and try to adjust the new time zone

and then go to bed really early and that's really tough to do. Especially going west to east, like if you're going to the UK. That's the harder adjustment for sure. So for every day, so if you're going west to east, like if you're going to the UK, you can pretty much adjust one time zone per day, rule of thumb. So like if you go three time zones, three days. But if you go the opposite direction, if you go east to west,

you can do about two time zones per day. So like New York to LA, a lot of people are pretty back to normal after like two days. Okay. Oh, I see what you're saying. Because it's easier to stay up later. Because you go west, you're actually just pushing and staying up a couple hours later as opposed to trying to go to bed earlier.

Yeah. Like some time zone switches are actually helpful because you get tired early. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Oh, way better. I love that.

Yeah. That's why I like going to LA. Especially when I was on the East Coast, it was like you wake up super early, you have more energy. That was actually what started mine and Greg's 5 a.m. wake-up journey was we moved from New York to LA and we were waking up so early. So you were like, let's stay on the strength. Yeah, it was great.

It is nice, I will say. I'm not a super early guy waking up, but it is nice when you're adjusted like that. I just never really stick to it. What time do you wake up? Usually 6.30. Oh, that's when I wake up. It's not super early, but it's manageable

and it's consistent wherever I go. The time zone stuff's crazy. The NFL started, which I know you're a big NFL fan. Huge. Super big sports person. Fourth quarter. Yeah, fourth quarter. The NFL actually, they did a study back in 2012.

They looked at Monday night football. So that's the game on Monday night, but it was a big game, always played at 8pm Eastern Time. So they did this big study and they found that when an East Coast team played a West Coast team on Eastern Time Zone, right, So that's 5 p.m. for the West Coast team. The West Coast team won 75% of the games. Wow. Which is insane. Throw the records out across the board. So it's just showing like how much our circadian rhythm. And when you think about like lack of sleep, it's more to do with like our reaction time and subconscious reactions, things that happen very quickly. Like we don't have control of it. It's not just the sleepiness. It's literally stuff we don't have control of it, it's not just the sleepiness, it's literally stuff we don't have control of. So when you look at a football game, every split second reaction makes a difference

and you do that across the entire game for an entire team, it's very impactful and it's crazy that that stat came out. And then teams really started prioritizing sleep, they started going to games a couple of days prior and making sure they adjust and they have sleep doctors and it's a whole thing now. I always wondered about that especially with ufc fighters because they're on the stage at what like 11 p.m so late so late and then i heard i would venture to say not a lot of those guys really even consider that we work with the ufc fighters you don't think they think about

it not as much as you'd expect. I heard, I think it was Conor McGregor, I might be wrong, but he only trains, oh yeah, he trains at night because that's the time he goes on. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. We actually work with the UFC fighter Sean Brady and he used our mouth tape, he bought it,

no idea, and then he went on Joe Rogan and started talking about it and had no idea. And so now we work with him and it's cool how much it's helped him, but he trains earlier in the day, but it would make sense like prior to the fight, you know, a month out to start training earlier in the day. But on the flip side, it's like, I just think, I'm sure like you're going into like a battle. I'm sure you just have so much, you know, so much energy, but I would do that for sure. That would be a situation too, like a nap would probably help. If you could, I don't know how you could.

At that point you want, like caffeine would be great. Caffeine always just delays when we get tired. If we were recording the podcast at 11pm I would be unwell. I wouldn't remember any of my questions. That would not go well for me. Yeah, no, it would be a mess. Or honestly I think what's worse for me is if I only slept like four hours the night before and it was in the morning.

There's nothing worse than an early flight when you only sleep like four hours. We try to time our flights in a way where we can still get good sleep and have a morning routine. I'm very diligent. Katie flew home for Christmas, going back to my family's, and she also wanted to stop at my aunt has a salon and she wanted to stop and get something done. And we took separate flights. Because I was like, I'm not waking up at 5 a.m.

just to do that. So I'm like, I'll meet you there. And I'm pretty, pretty hardcore with that. Yeah, Greg is too. But also if like we're out with friends, we're having a great time. Like I'm also someone that, you know, Greg is too. But also, if we're out with friends, we're having a great time, I'm also someone that, again, relationships are the most important thing. So I'm not like a psycho.

Yeah, I agree with that. I've kind of switched my mindset. Because in LA, I was so diligent with my routine. And now I'm like, let me have a social life for a second and make some connections. Yeah, balance is very important. And then I think also you just stress about it less. You relax. You realize you're fine. you just stress about it less, you relax,

you realize you're fine. You stay up a little late, you're fine. Everything will be okay. Some days you're not fine, but in a few days I'm not fine. So can you tell us about your new podcast? Do you want to talk about it? Sure, yeah. I'm recording the first episode next week.

I'm not for sure on the launch date of it. It'll probably be around a month from now. But yeah, it's on the launch date of it. Okay. Probably be around a month from now. But yeah, it's in the sauna. It's called, it's called Beat the Heat. And it basically will be like Hot Ones, the wings show sauna version. So we'll start at 170, goes up 10 degrees every five minutes. And then either you make it to 230 for 30 minutes or you don't. And then every five minutes there'll be a trivia question. And if you get it wrong, I put water on the rocks. Insane.

It'll be pretty fun. It'll be crazy. I would love to do it one day. You heard it here. I think you'd be surprised. I'm pretty good. I think you'd do well. I think I'd do okay. I think you'd also be really funny. I think it's going to get really funny when it gets really hot.

Yeah, because 2.30 is... It's a lot, but I have a crazy husband, so I'm kind of like conditioned at this point. Yeah, I mean, you put the reps in, like you're prime. Like I've done 230. But this is the thing that people don't realize is like, even like 170 for 25, 30 minutes, it wears you down. Wait, how long is an episode? 30 minutes.

Okay. So you start, it ramps up. Okay. But it's just, I think that yes, like 230 for 15 minutes is like really hard and doable. But the ramp up wears you down more than you think. Okay. And then I also like can't tap out.

That's one thing I'm like, I have to beat everyone. You're the Chris Evans. Is that his name? Sean Evans. Yeah. That's one thing I'm like, I have to beat everyone. You're the Chris Evans. Is that his name? Sean Evans. Yeah. Like the one eating all the wings. Yeah, he can't like waver.

You need to be chill and know your questions. Yeah, like, I mean, I guess it would be funny if I started breaking down. But I mean, I'm very good at the sauna. I'm confident, but you have good days and bad days. Same with anything else. And so I'm going to do, I got some tricks up my sleeve to make sure I'm ready. Ice packs? No, I won't do that. That's like, I feel like that's cheating. Yeah, that's cheating.

Unless it's for fertility reasons. Yeah, I was going to say Greg does one. Which we are, we are doing. But yeah, there's some tricks. You can do some cold punch of four and like really cool yourself down. Amazing. Well, Todd, thank you for coming on for part two. Thank you. Can you remind everyone where they can find you online? Where can they buy Dream Recovery? Yeah, so just Todd Anderson on Instagram.

I try to message anybody back that has sleep questions. We're on Amazon, but our website's probably the best place to go for subscriptions, just dreamrecovery.io. And yeah, be on the lookout for some cool stuff coming out. Thank you, Todd. Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for

my newsletter to receive my favorites at marilowelland.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This is a Wellness Out Loud production produced by Drake Peterson, Fiona Attucks, and Kelly Kyle. This show is edited by Mike Fry, and our video is recorded by Luis Vargas. You can also watch the full video of each episode on our YouTube channel at Mari Fitness. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical

and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.