The Livy Method Podcast - Let's Talk Sleep Habits with Sleep Expert Alanna McGinn - Winter 2024

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

In this episode, Gina chats with Alanna McGinn, Sleep Expert and founder of Good Night Sleep Site. Along with her trusted team, Alanna has successfully helped thousands of families overcome their sleep challenges and establish healthy nighttime habits so they can get the sleep they need. Gina and Alanna discuss good sleep habits, why sleep is important and how to get better quality sleep in your daily life.You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2024Topics covered:Introducing Alanna McGinn, sharing some tips and tricks to help you get the sleep you needUnderstanding your personal sleep needs and what works for youAcute versus chronic insomnia versus sleep deprivationWhat does a good night's sleep look like? Quantity and qualityStages of sleep and sleep architectureWhat time should you go to bed in the evening?Are you waking up at 2 or 3 am? Should you go to bed later?The importance of your morning routine and the impact of hitting the snooze buttonThe importance of keeping consistent sleep patternsDo we need less sleep as we get older?Stress and menopause and how they affect your sleepSleep environment associations and setting up your space andTechnology and all the gadgets that monitor your sleepWaking up in the middle of the night, is that normal?Shifting your perspective on getting a good night's sleepStimulus control in the middle of the night, do a quiet activityIt is never too late to start creating new habits around sleepWhen should you check in with your healthcare providerShift Workers and what do you need to know?Pillars of health and the importance of connection and communicationFill your sleep tank throughout the whole day to help you sleep better at nightTo learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on Acast, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple,

and Amazon Music. You're going to have this ability to now reframe. Allow yourself time throughout the day to stress the fuck out. The thoughts and the feelings and the behavior cycle can start changing. That is stress and how does sleep and stress factor into your weight loss journey? That's the conversation this week. Yesterday, we had the privilege of talking to Dr. Beverly, who's a psychologist. She talked a lot about the psychology behind sleep. So we know how it affects your brain and we know how it affects your body. Today, we are joined by Alana McGinn.

I have learned so much from this amazing woman, honestly, game changer when it comes to sleep. So now that we know why it's so important that we get the sleep that we need, you are here today to share with us some tips and tricks and techniques and hopefully help us actually get the sleep that we need. Welcome to the show. Alana McGinn, hi. Hi, Gina. I mean, you know that I always love talking to you guys because I'm also a Libby loser. So yeah, let's let's chat. Where do we start? We do we start with like, okay, we all know that we need to get better sleep, but it is like an epidemic. No one is whether like whether it's stress or maybe menopause or shift work, or I don't know, you're a new mom. It seems like from the comments,

nobody is getting any sleep. So So where do we start with that? Is it sleep hygiene? Is it where do we start? I think it's just I think a great place to start is just understanding your own personal sleep needs. So yeah, I mean, sleep is definitely always taking a hit. It's always kind of the conversation of what do I need to do better? So understanding, you know, what works for you and the steps that you need to take, whether that be working on sleep hygiene, whether that be working on stress management, whether that be working on taking it another level. You know, if you're really suffering from sleep loss, chronic, perhaps chronic insomnia, do you have a sleep disorder? Do you need to take the path of like, you know, therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia?

I mean, there's so many different paths you can take. So just understanding, you know, what your needs are and what you need to do. Because it could be something as simple as just focusing on a better environment and focusing on better sleep patterns, but it could be something more. Okay. And then how do we figure that out? Well, just how you're sleeping. So how long you've been sleeping. So when we talk about insomnia, insomnia is kind of a word that gets thrown around a lot. So if we break insomnia down into its two categories, we're looking at acute versus chronic. Acute insomnia is something that we've all suffered from. Myself included, yourself included, probably Gina. It just, you know, you're not sleeping well for whatever reason. Maybe you're

going through a more stressful period in your life. Maybe you're not feeling well. We women go through different hormonal shifts throughout the month. A few nights of the month, we're not sleeping well. It's common. It's normal. It happens. Not a big deal. The problem with acute insomnia is that it can turn into chronic insomnia.

Because if now you're starting to hyper focus on the negative effects that sleep loss does for you, meaning I'm going to feel terrible tomorrow. Why can't I sleep well? We start hyper focusing on sleep. Or there's maybe a bigger issue that perhaps could be going on with insomnia, think three chronic insomnia, think three and three is three nights or more per week for three months or longer. That's when it might be worth perhaps talking to your doctor to see if maybe there's a bigger issue like a sleep apnea or or, you know, a diagnosed insomnia. The problem with insomnia,

when I say we kind of throw that word around, is there is a difference between sleep deprivation and insomnia. And when we don't, when we feel that we're not getting proper sleep, we right away categorize ourselves as having insomnia, when that's likely not the case. What's likely happening

is you're probably just sleep deprived. You know, maybe you haven't been focusing on your sleep. Sleep deprivation is just someone who hasn't been getting the right quality and quantity of sleep for whatever reason, but they're not super focused on it. It's not really a concern of theirs. They're just sleep deprived. Or maybe it is, and they're just really not putting any effort to better it, right? Insomnia is when you are unable to fall asleep when you want to, whether that be at bedtime, whether that be in the middle of the night, and you're super hyper-focused on it. It is your goal. It is your mission to sleep, and it's really frustrating and discouraging when you can't.

Yeah. So what is a good night's... Let's start with what is a good night's sleep? What's the bar that we're aiming for? What's the expectation or what are we measuring mean, on average, that's the amount of sleep that a relatively healthy individual should be trying to obtain throughout the night of sleep. But I like to broaden that because I like to say more six to nine because there are some people who can function fine on six hours. I'm one of those people. Six and a half to seven, I'm good. I feel well rested the next day. That just works for me.

If I get seven, amazing. If I get eight, even better. But I'm okay on six and a half to seven, I'm good. I feel well rested the next day. That just works for me. If I get seven, amazing. If I get eight, even better, but I'm okay on six and a half hours. Whereas some people might need nine. If you are someone who feels that you function fine on say four to five hours of sleep, what tends to happen is the more often we deprive ourselves of sleep, the more our body begins to feel that it's okay on that amount of sleep, but likely what's going on, you know, inside is telling you a different story. So focusing on the right quantity of sleep in terms of quality of sleep, we cycle, we have about four to six cycles, full cycles of sleep throughout the night. So if we look at sleep architecture, four to six cycles of sleep throughout the night, throughout each cycle, we're going through

different stages of sleep. As each stage continues throughout the night, those stages either get bigger or smaller. So what I mean by that is if we look at one stage of sleep, we're looking at four different categories. Three are non-REM, with the last one being REM sleep. That third stage of sleep, we're looking at four different categories. Three are non-REM with the last one being REM sleep. That third stage of sleep, that non-REM sleep is the deepest sleep that we can get. But as the night progresses, that stage of sleep gets smaller and smaller and our REM sleep gets bigger and bigger. This is when we have, you know, more vivid dreams. Our brain is quite active during this stage of sleep. It's that last stage of sleep within that cycle. But we really want to focus on that third non-REM stage of sleep. That's the most restorative sleep that we're going to be getting.

So this is where it's difficult because I want to tell you all to go to bed earlier because we get long that stage of sleep longer in the earlier stages of night. Yeah. But I also don't want to tell you to go to bed too early when you're not tired enough to fall asleep. And now you're tossing and turning or scrolling on TikTok for hours on end and sleep because that's also not good. So this is where you need to see, okay, start logging your sleep for maybe a week or two. You know, how long is it taking? What is your sleep onset? How long is it taking you to fall asleep once you get into bed?

Not if you're like sitting there scrolling on your phone, but if you're actively getting into bed and trying to actively fall asleep, how long is it taking you? If it's taking you an hour, even more than 15 or 20 minutes each night, you might want to start inching your bedtime back a little bit. So a good night of sleep is focusing on quantity and quality at least 80% of the time. That was a good answer to your question. No, I love that. Well, you know what? It actually made me feel better because so many of us talk about how, okay, we get to sleep and then we sleep and then we're awake two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. So maybe I can at least press it. At least I'm getting that, that first round of the

big bulk of the deeper sleep earlier in my night. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, that waking that three to 4 AM waking is quite common and it could be for a number of different reasons. One of the reasons could be that you, are actually going to bed too early, a lot of clients that I talked to, will complain about that time. And I'll say, well, what time are you going to bed at? And they're like, well, I go to bed at like 930 or 10. Well, if you do the math, that's a big stretch of sleep that you're getting. And that could just be your body's natural wake time of in terms of that quantity. So maybe we actually need to push that bedtime out. A lot of people think I'm going to tell you to go to bed earlier. But a lot of times I'm actually telling you to go to bed later to redistribute that sleep. Let's talk about that,

because I think that's so huge, because we've been taught, you need a good night's sleep, get to bed early, make sure you're getting enough sleep, when you're lying there wide awake, and then you can't sleep that creates other issues so let's talk about that a little bit more so you don't necessarily need to start going to bed earlier and if you are going to bed earlier and trying to get that good night's sleep and you keep waking up four o'clock three o'clock four o'clock in the morning it could be that you just don't need that much sleep is Is that correct? Or you just your body's gotten enough. So maybe we need to now push that bedtime back. So this is actually a form of CBT is called stimulus control, where we're actually pushing our bedtime, sorry, sleep restriction, where we're

actually pushing our bedtime later, even though you're tired, I would prefer you to go to bed more when you're sleepy than just when you think you need to go to bed. A lot of people think 930 10 is like an appropriate bedtime. And it could be for you. This isn't me saying don't go to bed more when you're sleepy than just when you think you need to go to bed. A lot of people think 9.30, 10 is like an appropriate bedtime. And it could be for you. This isn't me saying don't go to bed at that time. If it works for you, who am I to tell you to change it? But if you're going to bed just because you feel like that's an appropriate bedtime, but then either staying awake longer than 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep, and now you're tossing and turning and clock watching and doing all the things and creating a negative association between sleep and your bed because now you're constantly awake and then your brain starts moving. Or if you're going to bed and you're

waking up at that three or 4am consistently, again, it could be for different reasons, but that could be one of them. We want to shift our bedtime later. Maybe 11 o'clock is more of your bedtime. This is really interesting because so I'm getting up early in the morning and then so I'm looking to go to bed. So last night I go to bed at 930. I wake up at four or something and I'm like, why do we? I feel like I could like literally just get up and go. And then what happens is I go back to bed and then I get another hour and a bit sleep

and then I wake up and I feel like I'm exhausted and tired. And I'm like, why didn't I just wake up when I felt awake? Because I'm thinking I shouldn't be awake at four 30 in the morning because I need all this sleep. But reality is if I go to bed at nine 30, I could be well rested. Yeah. I could be rested at four o'clock in the morning and ready to get up. 100%. And what tends to happen, and this is why I always tell people like, you know, the morning routine is such an important, sometimes more important than our bedtime routine. Often when we're talking about sleeping while we're focusing on the bedtime routine and what happens at night, right. But what we do, and I talk about this a lot with you guys, what we do in the morning is, is, is super important to how well or not well we're going to sleep at night.

So that snooze button or what you did, waking up, feeling relatively well rested, but thinking I can't be up at four, so I'm going to go back to sleep. And then you wake up and you feel like garbage. It's the same thing when you hit that snooze button. When that alarm first goes off, what you're doing is you're forcing yourself. Then when you fall asleep and you hit snooze or you fall back asleep, you're forcing your body to go into another cycle of sleep, another cycle of perhaps deeper sleep. And now you're waking up in the middle of that cycle after that nine minutes of the snooze button going off. And it's called sleep inertia. So this is where now we feel like

groggy and foggy and worse than when we initially went to bed or woke up. And it actually takes four hours for your body to shake off that sleep inertia. So when you wake up and you feel groggy, foggy, exhausted, it's not necessarily because of how you slept throughout the night. It's because you tricked your brain and body by falling back asleep and then waking up and falling back asleep and waking up. Okay. So how long is that sleep cycle then? So like, say I wake up at five, like, unless I have another three hours to go back and complete that cycle of sleep, should I just get up for example? So how, how much time is that sleep cycle where it's worth going back to sleep or we should just, should we just stay awake? how much time is that sleep cycle where it's worth going back to sleep,

or we should just, should we just stay awake? Well, I mean, this is where we look at the quantity. Like if you went to bed at nine 30 and then woke up at five, I mean, that's, I'm not going to do quick math right now, but that's a, that's a good night of sleep. Don't ask me to do that, but that's a good night of sleep. So, I mean, listen, I know it's not ideal for everyone to get up at five. Um, but that's what I would recommend you do is getting up at five. Now, this is where it's really important to keep as consistent. And this is, you know, the first step of sleep hygiene is keeping those consistent sleep patterns. So if you don't want to wake up at five every morning, maybe and I know that one night you went to bed at 930 because maybe you were tired and you just had a day and we all do it. But if you're starting to make that a regular thing,

and regularly now waking up at five and a 5am waking doesn't work for you. That's when now you want to push out that 930 bedtime, even if you're tired. This is why it's called sleep restriction, because it's it's we have to push through that tiredness to hit that better bedtime. So even if you're exhausted at 930, you might have to, you know, I tell it to my parents all the time when we're working with sleep training, it's like, we have to push them into more of an overtired zone to get them out of that overtired zone. Right. So you gotta kind of push through and make that bedtime a bit later. Okay. So this is, this is, um, now I'm thinking sort of like, you know, people who are stressed out,

you know, and their adrenals are all out of whack. So they're getting that energy hit before they're tired all day. I get that energy hit before they go to bed or menopause, for example. Um, is this a situation where, well, first of all, do we need less sleep as we get older? And then, so is this a situation? I know this is like, this is like a 10 part question where then what you're saying is if we are wired and awake, then we just stay up later. And then if we stay up later, like, for example, for menopause, does that mean that we need less sleep? Yeah, as we get older, I mean, our body does need less.

It's not that our body needs less sleep. The sleep just gets kind of redistributed. So if we're looking at like senior sleep, you'll notice probably less sleep at night. And it has a lot to do with age, it has a lot to do with perhaps medications that they're on. But you'll see more like perhaps more napping throughout the day, and then less quantity of sleep at night. So it's not necessarily that you need less sleep overall in a 24 hour period. It's likely just kind of redistributed when we're going through things like perimenopause,

hello, um, or menopause. Um, you know, your sleep is affected through many different reasons. I mean, one,

if we just look at hormonally, right, just hormonal shifts and losses and all of that stuff. Sleep environment is a big one. Hot flashes, irritability, mood, stress, all of those things. So learning proper stress management tools can definitely help you throughout that process. Setting up the best sleep environment for you. Like, ladies, this is the time of your life where you need to be a little bit more selfish with your sleep and your environment. And if the blanket you're using,

isn't working, if the bedding you're using, isn't working, if the temperature you're using, isn't working, change it. You know, what, what works for go from here? Sleep hygiene? How do you environment? Sleep environment is a big one. Um, this is one that I'm putting a lot of focus on now because there's still so many people that are now still working from home, whether it be hybrid or remote or full-time, whatever. Um, our bedroom unfortunately has become the room in which we're doing everything but sleeping well in. And logistically, that has to happen. Maybe your room is the only place for you to have your home office.

But it's becoming our home office. It's becoming our gym. It's becoming our laundry room. And we're doing so many other things. And what happens is when you're doing something in a room that isn't what you should be doing, you're weakening that association. Like we want to be walking into our bedroom and having that instant connection to sleep, to relaxation and to calmness.

So if you are checking emails, if you are scrolling on TikTok, if you are, listen, you know, I can go on and on about tech. It is the number one sleep buster in our home, in our lives, in our room, 100%. But I also understand that tech can also bring us joy. It can bring us comfort. It can bring us relaxation and calmness. It's important that we set those boundaries to allow that to happen and not use it as a buster, a sleep buster that is commonly in our room. So creating that sleep environment and really protecting it for sleep and sex only, that should be the only thing you're doing in your bedroom, is important. But you've got to take those steps.

A lot of sleep hygiene are just simple lifestyle changes. Their habit changes. Um, but it takes time to change a habit. It takes 21. We know this takes 21 days to change a habit, right? So you have to really commit to it like you would your Gina Levy plan, like you would your exercise plan, any other kind of wellness plan that you incorporate into your life. Your sleep plan is the same thing. So really setting that environment up. I always say focus on your five senses. What do you need to see, hear, taste, touch, smell? I'm sure I'm forgetting one. To really kind of evoke that feeling of calmness and relaxation and sleep. Looking at your bed, my bed is for sleep. not to check my emails, finish work projects, do my kids homework, fold laundry, scroll mindlessly on TikTok.

Yeah, this was a game changer for me when I took your advice on this, because I had, I mean, I still do have a TV in my room. But I had my office in my bedroom. And I was like, not getting great sleep. So I had you on. I'm like, okay, maybe I should do something about it. But I really was stubborn about it. I thought, no, I'm fine. This isn't affecting me. Once I did move it to where it is now. Yeah. I noticed that when I walked into my room, it was almost immediate how I felt different because I was being triggered by what I was seeing. Like you think, oh, my office in my room means I'm going to go work. I'm going to whatever. No, it's about what that space

represents in your brain. And we know this. And so my brain was just, I'd see my work stuff and I immediately triggers me thinking about my work stuff. So this was a huge, massive game changer for me. I mean, my space looks beautiful now. It didn't, I moved it down into the, you know, the basement and, you know, over time I made it look nice, but game changer for me, game changer. Um, you mentioned tech. So then what about the, the watches and the phones and the sleep apps and the stuff that we're using? Where, how does that fit in there? You know, technology, while it's, you know, I mean, every week we get some new gadget and new advancements with technology. It's not quite there yet, in my opinion, in terms of properly monitoring your sleep, your breathing saturation, like all of that. What I love about these things like Apple Watches and Fitbits and things like that is it is really putting a focus to the individual on their sleep

health, on, you know, other health and wellness areas as well, but sleep particularly. And it's starting those conversations of how did you sleep last night? How did I sleep? Because we're checking and we're monitoring, which I think is amazing. On the flip side, we have to be careful with that too. Because again, when we start hyper focusing on our sleep and start really, you know, and now it's, it's, oh, I didn't sleep well last night. Now the wheels start turning and why aren't I sleeping well, that can lead into that chronic insomnia that we want to avoid, right? It's also likely not giving you the most accurate information. If you want your sleep properly studied, you need to actually have a sleep study done. And that's an EEG where

they're monitoring brainwaves, breathing, movement, everything. And that's where you're going for like a sleep study at a sleep lab or a sleep clinic. That is going to give you the most accurate information. So if you're monitoring your sleep by, you know, these devices, it's probably like we're not there yet. I think one day we will be there. But tech wise, we're not there yet to give you 100% accurate information. Yeah. And then I'm just thinking about what you just said about it's really about your own individual needs. Some people need more sleep.

Some people need less. Some people wake up more often than others. And so it's really important if you individual needs. Some people need more sleep. Some people need less. Some people wake up more often than others. And so it's really important if you are going to use those. I think that you are kind of educating yourself on sleep in general. Like, for example, it's normal. Yeah. To wake up in the middle of the night. Like I thought that a good night's sleep before I started talking to you was like, I sleep

all night and don't wake up. When the reality is normal for us to be waking up. We all wake up throughout the night. So when I was talking about those four to six cycles of sleep, as we're transitioning into each cycle, we're we're all waking up. I mean, maybe not fully. And that's why that three to 4am can happen as well, because it's at that stage of the night where you might wake up more when you're transitioning into the next cycle of sleep. So if you haven't taken time throughout the day to build a strong drive for sleep or kind of manage your stress, that's when your brain can kind of start going right. But we all wake up throughout the night. So I tell this to parents

all the time, because you know, it's like, is your baby sleeping through the night? No one sleeps through the night. So the key is to learn how to transition into each cycle of sleep independently and without fully waking up and for adults as well. It's okay. Like this is a conversation that I've been having a lot lately. It's okay to not sleep well. Like it's okay if you have a bad night of sleep. You know, there's experts like myself and so much information out there that's like sleep, sleep, sleep, you need to sleep through the night, you need to have this amazing sleep. And so we kind of think that, oh, my God, if I have a bad night of sleep, like,

there goes my health, there goes, you know, this is so awful for me. But it's, you know, I have a friend right now who's really struggling with sleep and struggling with that three to four waking and, you know, for a different reason. And I'm just like, embrace that time, you know, don't, don't think negatively of that time. Use that time now to maybe get stuff done that you can't do throughout the day or because it won't last forever. You will start sleeping through, like it will happen. Oh, I love that. Because again, if you are like, you are measuring yourself up against this, like sleeping all night, or you're looking at your sleep watch or app in the morning,

and you've woken up a few times, you didn't get enough sleep, you think, Oh, my gosh, like that can mess with your head. And then you think you're not getting a great sleep. In fact, you're maybe you're getting decent sleep. Or if you're not, and you're waking up, okay, let's talk about that. So what do we do when we wake up? If we are awake for like an hour, like, should I start like taking up knitting in the middle of the night? Like, yeah, you should. Okay, so this is another form of CBTI cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. It's called stimulus control. And this is where again, we always want to work on strengthening that positive association between sleep and our

bed. So if we are waking up in the middle of the night, and it's taking longer than 15 or 20 minutes, and now you are tossing and you are turning and you're clock watching and you're doing all the things that is not going to help you fall asleep, right? So this is where I encourage you and I know that it's hard. And I know that no one wants to do this at two, three or four o'clock in the morning. But this is where I encourage you to actually get out of bed. Get out of your bedroom. Don't turn on every light. Don't check your phone.

Leave your phone where it is. Don't turn on the TV, but do a quiet activity. It could be knitting. It could be doing a puzzle. It could be reading a little bit in low light until you feel sleepy enough to try and get. So wait 15 or 20 minutes. When your body starts to feel tired, get into bed and try to fall. Our goal is to shorten that sleep onset.

Our goal is to shorten the time it takes from when we get into bed to when we fall asleep. If it's taking you longer than 15 or 20 minutes again, get out of bed again. So it might be like a yo-yo effect throughout the night for a few nights, maybe a week or so. But the more you're doing it, the more you're training, it's all about shifting that mindset and shifting your brain. The more you're training your brain to know that when you get into bed, you fall asleep and you start falling asleep a lot quicker, but it's hard. It's hard. I know. I was thinking, you know, sleep training with, I mean, you work with families and babies and you work with everybody. So I'm thinking sleep training for kids.

Is there like sleep training for adults? Yeah. Or is that what this is? That's what essentially this is. I mean, with kids, it's a bit different because we're, you know, we're teaching them to sleep big. The big thing is teaching them how to sleep independently, right? If parents are taking that step. But I work with a lot of adults who have

never slept well. It's never too late to learn proper sleep habits. It's just like, you know, working with individuals who have never ate well or never, you know, moved their body. It's never too late to start incorporating these, these wellness activities to better your health. Right. So, um, essentially, yeah, it's listen, sleep hygiene, isn't the, you know, isn't necessarily going to fix everything if you've been struggling with sleep long-term. Um, and this is where it's important. You had a sleep psychologist on yesterday. This is where it's important. I'm not a therapist. So to talk to a sleep therapist or sleep psychologist who can put you into a CBTI program, that is a great program to really kind of, those are, that's those who are really suffering from chronic insomnia. Sleep apnea though, I do want to talk about that a little bit.

It is, you know, insomnia is a leading sleep disorder as is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is often undiagnosed. I know majority of your community is women. It does not discriminate. Often we think of sleep apnea as overweight men. It could be men, women, children, all shapes and sizes, all races. You know, it's important to talk to the person sleeping beside you on how you're sleeping because the person with sleep apnea might not even know.

And get that sleep study done and get the appropriate, um, remedies for that, because it can be really detrimental to your health. It's scary. It's scary to hear someone sleep beside you who has sleep apnea. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I want to get into sort of, like you mentioned sleep clinics, sleep study. Do you go to your doctor like who do you where do you start with that when what's available to your doctor unfortunately it's a very long wait um which is like anything in our health care system right now um but that's the first step is talking to your doctor who would then give you a referral um to have a sleep study done and then it's either done in your local hospital or there there's, you know, sleep, separate sleep clinics that do it. And it's just an overnight stay, where you're all

hooked up. And they're monitoring your sleep. But it's so important. And it's so, so common. And it's unfortunately, so often undiagnosed, and it can really have huge detriments to your health long term. Yeah, well, and as we've learned just in the last couple of days, just like just if you're, if you just aren't sleeping well at all, it can be a real detriment to your health and your wellness, let alone, you know, even your weight loss journey, which obviously we're talking about here, people who are trying to lose weight, but also in doing that, being more aware of where they're at and what's going on with their body and trying to level up their health and wellness at the same time. And I really think people underestimate the importance of getting good sleep and managing their stress. Cognizant of our time here with you today, I do want to address shift workers because I'm thinking, you know, so disruptive, either sleeping during the day,

and they should be sleeping at night, their whole circadian rhythm, the 20 or 24 hour shifts that they're doing thoughts about that the most important thing that people who do shift work, what do they need to know? Yeah, I mean, the problem with shift work, and it is such a growing community that I speak to a lot, it's it all have a 20, a natural biological clock or natural 24 hour clock that does not shift. If we work different hours, if we're, you know, traveling and going through different time zones, it stays within a typical 24 hour schedule. So this is where it's really difficult for those who are sleeping against their natural clock, and they have, they don't have a choice, right? So this is where there are steps that you can take to try and get the best sleep possible.

Sleep environment is one of them. You know, I mean, obviously, you know, you're going to bed sometimes when the sun's out. So darkening the room as best you can, really focusing on your five senses. How can you really create the best sleep environment for you? And try to be very consistent with that schedule. I know there's so many temptations to stay up and, um, you know, live your life when the rest of the world is living their life. Um, but it's really important to, um, pay close attention to your sleep health and try and get the best sleep possible. And that also starts

with conversations of those around you. So, you know, they also have to be aware of your sleep schedules. And, you know, if you have kids that are walking around in the house and you're trying to sleep, like everyone needs to really focus on you getting the best sleep possible. So focusing on sleep environment, focusing on having those conversations, I do say keep those as consistent sleep patterns as possible and really stick to routine. But there, when I look at like pillars of health, I look at, I focus more on sleep, nutrition and, and exercise and movement, but we can't forget the pillar of connection. Um, we know this in your community. If we realize anything in the past four to five years is how important connection is. So if it means staying up a little bit later,

because you want to chat with a friend who you haven't had a chance to, or you want to connect with your family a little bit, like please do that because that is so important as well, instead of constantly feeling like you're missing out. I also encourage more and more businesses, and this is where I work directly with the business, is to encourage more group conversations with shift workers. Because it can be a very, in the shift workers that I have worked with and speak to, it's a very isolating experience and a very lonely experience. And you feel like no one really understands what you're going through, right? And a typical nine to five worker doesn't, quite honestly. So it's really important to open those conversations within that community in your organization, where they can kind of talk with each other, share tips and

tools that work with them. And just having that feeling of, okay, I'm not alone, people do get it, you know, like, there's something to be said about that. So, yeah. I love that. That's some great advice. Um, you know, as we wrap this up, what, is there anything that you are like, I wish people knew this about sleep or I wish people would, I don't know, like talk about, be aware. Um, I mean, we talked a lot about it already, but I think probably the two, two of the biggest things is one, just understand again, understand your sleep needs, understand what you need, understand that it takes time to make changes. You know, if you're going to walk, I hope you walk away with all my tips, but if you walk away with one or two, don't just think you can apply one and you'll sleep great tonight. Like it does take time to see changes. Um, Oh my God, I had the

other tip and it just like totally left my, left my brain. Right. Focus on a lot of what you do throughout the day. A lot of what you do throughout the day is going to help you sleep better. And again, often we think sleeping well means bedtime routine. It means what's happening at bedtime, but more importantly, what you do throughout the day. So waking up consistently in the morning, start building that drive. Think of your drive for sleep as like that empty gas tank. We wake up, whether we've had a good night of sleep or not, our sleep tank, our sleep drive is on empty. We have to spend that entire day filling that tank nice and full, and that's going to help us fall asleep a lot better and wake and sleep better throughout the night. So ways to do that is consistent wake times in the morning,

immersing yourself in that natural light, open those windows, get outside, move your body. Exercise is so important. Eating well, like all of those components, managing your stress throughout the day. Um, so much of what we do throughout the day is going to help us sleep better at night. Like so much. Oh my goodness. I know we could probably talk for days about, um, where can people follow you? Because if they want to know more about you and, you know, find out more of what you have to offer, where can they find you? You can find me at goodnight, sleep site.com is our website. I'm on Instagram at GN sleep site or alana.mcginn. 2024 is the year of more stress management talk, more perimenopause and menopause talk. We have new programs that are going to be rolling out soon for all of those categories with a focus obviously on sleep.

Stress, menopause and sleep. Please let us know when you are running anything you got going on please let us know because i know our members would love to hear about it uh alana mcginn from a good night sleep site uh thank you so much for joining me today thanks so much for having me bye everyone bye everyone thanks