The Livy Method Podcast - Why You're Wide Awake at 3 AM (And What to Do About It)

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

You fall asleep fine. Then 3 AM hits and suddenly you're staring at the ceiling, counting down how many hours you have left. Sound familiar? Sleep expert Alanna McGinn joins Gina to get to the bottom of one of midlife's most common and most frustrating experiences. They unpack why our sleep shifts during times of stress and hormonal change, why "quieting your mind" is the wrong goal entirely, and what's actually happening in your body during those middle-of-the-night wake-ups. Alanna breaks down the real culprits of blood sugar, body temperature, your bedtime and your emotional relationship with sleep. She offers a refreshingly honest take on how to stop making 3 AM the enemy. Where to Find AlannaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/alanna.mcginn/Website: https://alannamcginn.com/BONUSA free 6-day email course to help you reclaim your nights.https://goodnightsleepsite.thrivecart.com/stop-3am-wakings-course/This episode aligns with day 46 of our Spring 2026 maintenance program. You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulnessTo learn more about The Livy Method and our Maintenance & Mindfulness group, visit livymethod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm going to be honest with you, this podcast is unapologetically a hot mess because that is what midlife feels like sometimes. Why, though? And how do we make it better? Do we all just need facelifts and g-lp-1s? I mean, let's talk about it. No bullshit, no wellness wangery here because we're trying to make real change and change is hard. But we're in this together. Welcome to the Livy Method podcast.

Good morning. So whether it's a good morning or not, if you slept well or not, it is a good morning. because Atlanta McGinn is here to help us solve all of our sleep problems in 30 minutes. Hi. This is people know you, Atlanta, because they have come from the weight loss group. But for those that don't know you, want to you just give a quick intro for yourself? Because we have members in maintenance that have lost their weight on other methods that are here for the first time trying to maintain.

So let's say hello and tell us who you were. Amazing. Thank you. So let's start with the Gina Levy method. I became a Libby loser in 2021. And I think in 2022, became one of her sleep experts in the Levy Method program. I have been working with babies, toddlers, teens, adults. I specialize in midlife women. I specialize in divorce women in focusing on sleeping well and stressing less.

So my business is goodnight, sleepsafe.com that I have been running for almost 20 years, which is crazy. and then Atlanta McGinn.com. AlannaMagan.com is more for my midlife women, my divorce space, and all of that. So that's what I do. So I like that you brought that up right away. So midlife, divorce, big things going on,

seasonal change, trauma, you know, stressful situations. This can all impact your sleep. And I know that there's so much we want to talk about today. And we have all these fantastic notes. But let's talk about that for a minute. Like going through these changes, going through these stressful situations, you know, you could be sleeping really well, right? And then all of a sudden something like this happens and your sleep is taken away.

Your sleep goes away. What's going on there? What happens with that? Is it your mind that's just racing? Is it, you know, other things going on? Like, why do we have good sleep? And then all of a sudden it's gone when something gets shaken up. Well, the reason why I really started focusing.

focusing in that midlife space. And I know I mentioned divorce, but divorce is just one major life transition that women can go through in that time, right? I'm in that midlife space. So it's near and dear to my heart. And a lot of my clients are. And the reason why our sleep gets affected for the big part of it is learning different stress management tools and coping tools. And the reason why that's so important and why it's so closely related to our sleep health on whether we're sleeping well or not is because in that midlife space, we are going through different life changes, right? We're going through perimenopause and menopause. So of course, our hormonal shifts, what's going on inside of our body absolutely is going to affect our sleep. But there's also

so much more that's happening in that stage, in that age and stage of life. We are possibly changing careers, going back to work, leaving work. Our kids are leaving in the house. Our kids are coming back into the house. We're caregiving. We're going through relationships. relationship changes like divorce, that's going to increase our stress. So how stress and sleep is so closely tied is we have our stress hormone. This is cortisol that runs throughout her body in the higher levels throughout the day. And then we have our sleep hormone, which is melatonin, which is released at night. This is what helps prepare our body and mind to sleep. So what happens is when we're going through a higher than usual, when we're experiencing higher than usual stress levels,

maybe we're going through a certain stressful period in our life, our cortisol levels are higher than usual, and that's going to carry with us throughout the day, and that's going to affect how our melatonin is released at night. So for heading into that bedtime stage with higher than usual cortisol levels, our melatonin isn't going to be able to be released as it should, which is going to affect the quality of sleep or the inability to sleep throughout the night. So when we hear your terms like quieting the mind, I know that is a big conversation to be. had, I almost don't like that term because it's impossible to completely shut down your mind. You're always, if you're awake, you're going to have thoughts. Your brain is going to be working.

But if we haven't taken the opportunity, you know that the biggest conversation that I have, whether it's with you or whether it's with Gina in the other program, is we need to, so much of what we do throughout the day and in the morning helps us sleep better at night. If we don't learn the proper tools to reduce those stress levels, guess when it will guess when all those thoughts and all those worries and all those concerns are going to come. Well, they're going to come at night when the distraction's gone, right? When those are quiet and dark. That is when our brain is going to get super busy.

Yeah. And, you know, we've, we talked about this. It's connecting the sleep part here with a busy brain. We talked about this a while ago about grief. You know, like you can, you can ignore grief. You can push it aside, but it's going to wait for you and come and still be there when, you know, you're, you don't have anything else distracting you. And maybe it's like the same as.

sleep. So those stressors that you have during the day, you're not managing that stress. You're not looking for those positive, joyful moments. And all of a sudden, you come and you get into bed. And yeah, and the stress comes for you. It'll wait for you. So really it is about setting yourself up all day to be able to have that sleep at night, recognizing what could be, you know, going through your mind. You're right, fighting your mind. I mean, your mind is never quiet. It's not. It's not. And, you know, I'm also not that person to say, don't stress, don't have worries, don't have concerns. Of course we are. We're human.

We're going to go through different stages of life where those are more than other times, right? So during those higher levels of stress and those higher levels of anxiety and worry, where we need to incorporate certain tools that, of course, we can talk about today to help in order to help us be better. Sleep is very finicky. This is a conversation I happen all the time. If anything is kind of off in your life, the first thing that gets affected is going to be your sleep. Absolutely. Yeah. Why? Is that just because of what's going on? Like just, you know, yes, we have racing thoughts. Yes, we can't quiet our mind. But why asleep the number, the first thing that goes? Is it because it's tied to so many things? It's because it's tied to our physiological functions in our body. It's tied to let's talk about why we wake up in the middle of the night, right?

Yeah. That is a huge, Atlanta. That is a huge topic. These 3 a.m. waking, I'm getting up. I'm whether it's to go pee. or just, I'm just waking up spontaneously. Why is that happening? What's going on? And then not being able to get back to sleep when that happens. Yeah. So, I mean, the witching hour, right, that 3 to 4 a.m. It's its common struggle.

It's something that I work with my clients on all the time. To give you a little like throwback, a real big throwback in, in, I think I ever written down the year because I always forget at 1535. The Catholic Church deemed the witching hour. That's where the term came from. because that's when, you know, the witches tended to do all their, all their magic and all their sorcery, right? But the biggest reason why we do tend to wake up more at that 3 a.m. mark is when we look at our stages of sleep, we have about five to six cycles of sleep per night. Each cycle

of sleep is about 90 minutes. Throughout each cycle, we go through different stages of sleep. So from about four to four and a half hours after you fall asleep, you're typically done your deepest stages of sleep. This is why the sleep that you get before midnight is so important versus the sleep you get after midnight, because this is where you're getting that deep mentally restorative sleep. So around that 3 a.m. mark, we tend to cycle into lighter stages of sleep. So prior to that, right, before 3 a.m., you might kind of partially wake up and not even realizing you're waking up. The term sleeping through the night, I mean, I work with babies to adults, right? So the term sleeping through the night always drives me crazy too because we don't, none of us sleep through the night.

We all wake up, whether it's fully, whether it's partially, we might not even realize that we do. But the reason why it's harder to fall back asleep at that 3M mark is because we're in a lighter state of sleep. We're no longer in that deeper state of sleep. So it's not uncommon to wake up at 3 a.m. Where the struggle comes in is when you're unable to fall back asleep when you wake up at 3am. And that can be for different reasons. Yeah, I think, you know, I love what you just said there because we, none of us sleep through the night. That's so true. You know, I think we get into this mindset of like, I'm here at 3 a.m. I'm awake again. And

that is going to bring more stress. That is going to make it harder to fall back asleep. So I think just that small thing that you just said, none of us sleeps through the night. We all are waking up. And maybe our ancestors segmented sleep back in the day, right? Back in the day, they would sleep. They would have the first stage of sleep. Then they would wake up, do whatever they need to do and then go back to sleep. But then, you know, the oil lamps came in and then the iPhones came in and then we consolidate all that sleep to just the evening or just the nighttime. So it's not uncommon to have that segmented sleep. So what do we do? So we wake up at 3 a.m. whether it's to go pee, whether it's to, you know, deal with those thoughts that are in our head, whatever it might be.

What do we do? So here I am laying at 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm mad because I'm awake. maybe not anymore because you just told me it's normal. So you're at 3 o'clock in the morning. What do I do? How do I get back to sleep? Well, let's look at some of the different reasons why we may wake up at 3.m. I explain, you know, the stages of sleep and why it tends to happen that time of night is more common. But it could be your blood sugar levels, right? Hypolycemia is a reason why you might tend to wake up at that point because as our blood sugar levels drop, cortisol is released, right? And that's going to suppress that melatonin. So if you're having dinner at, say, 5 o'clock at night and then not eating again until the morning and you struggle with stabilizing your blood sugar levels, that's maybe when you want to incorporate maybe a small snack before you go to bed. Focus on protein, focus on fiber, not a huge meal by any means. When we're sleeping, we want our body solely focused on restorative sleep.

We don't want it busy metabolizing our food. We don't want it busy regulating our temperatures. Another reason why we may fully wake up at 3 a.m. is because of body temperature, right? We're in that season where that happens. Sometimes the air conditioning doesn't get as high as it needs to get into the bedrooms. So do we need to change out our winter bedding for summer bedding? Do we need to layer accordingly? I always say if you share a bed, your side of the bed should be customized to you.

Obviously, the mattress is going to be agreed upon, but you don't have to use the same blank. I've saved many marriages just by telling couples that they can use. separate blankets. Yeah, I'm going to attest to this. Yeah, I mean, my husband is a hot, hot sleeper. And I like to be warm, but I don't like to be hot. So I find, you know, I have to move away from him or I have to have less blankets on

my side because I'm getting the heat from him. So our size of the bed are different. We've even sometimes in some seasons just put a twin size blanket. Yeah. So because we have to have those different temperatures. I agree. I think that it needs to be customized to you and how you sleep. Your pillow, you're bedding, what you're wearing to bed.

A lot of times, you know, we think if we sleep naked, that's like the cooler way of sleeping. But if you're a nice, if you're hot sleeper, if you're a night sweater like myself, you're going to sweat regardless, especially obviously in that midnights in that midlife space. So now you're kind of sleeping in like pools of sweat and everything's damp and wet, which isn't enjoyable. Yeah. Looking fabrics make a big difference. It really does. A lot of pajamas are actually now being made with like performance fleece material, right?

That's going to help hold that perspiration. So temperature, blood sugar levels, you mentioned having to go to the bathroom, right? Do we need to limit our liquids before we go to sleep? If you do have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, don't turn on the lights. Try and navigate without doing that. It only takes seven minutes of being exposed to light. to start suppressing that melatonin. So as little stimulation as possible, don't start checking your phone.

Whether you get up to go pee or you just wake up in the middle of the night, because then what do we start doing? Right? We get to scourge. Oh, my God, it's only 3 o'clock in the morning. I can't sleep. And now you're doing that clock watch in your, or that clock countdown clock in your head, right? If I go to sleep now, I'll get four hours.

If I go to sleep now, I'll get three hours. I'm going to feel terrible tomorrow. You're just heightening your stress. So trust your alarm is that. you don't need to know what time it is, go pee, get back to bed and try to go to sleep again. A big reason, though, also why we, before we get into the stress component, a big reason also why a lot of my clients that I work with tend to wake up at the 3M is what time are you going to bed at? A lot of times we think going to bed early is the key to solve everything.

Because we do that with our kids, right? When I'm working with parents and I'm working with their children, early bedtime's rule. I'm a huge early bedtime pusher. But for adults sometimes, if we're going to bed at say 9 or 10 p.m. Because we think that that is, you know, that sounds like a good bedtime. I'm going to go to bed at 9 or 10. That's when people go to bed. But your morning wait time is say like 6 or 7.

Well, by 3 or 4 a.m., you're getting those, that your body is getting those 6 to 7 hours of sleep. And that might be your body's way of naturally just waking up on its own being like, I'm good. I've had enough sleep. So this is where when I'm working with clients, we're normally actually pushing out their bedtime, especially to clients who are maybe going to bed at 9 or 10 p.m. and struggling to fall asleep. And these aren't the clients or people who are getting to bed at 9 or 10 and then like surfing on TikTok for two hours, right? Or watching TV for two hours. These are people who are going to bed at that time and actively trying to go to sleep and you're tossing and you're turning and you're clock watching.

This is where we start logging our sleep for about a week, two weeks if you can do it and start to log when you're going to bed and when your body actually falls asleep. And if your body is consistently, if you're going to bed at nine or 10 and your body's consistently not falling asleep till say 11 or 12, 11 or 12 might be the bedtime that you need to help push out that 3 a.m. wake time, if that makes sense. Yeah, that totally makes sense. And I think that's the messages we've heard is go to bed, you know, go to bed early. You want to get eight hours of sleep. Well, how do you do that if you have to wake up at 6 a.m? we have to go to bed at 8 p.m. And it's true. Then you lay there and you're like, well, I'm not

tired, but I think I should fall asleep. And now I'm stressing because I'm not falling asleep. So pushing out your bedtime could be the answer for you. Absolutely. And like I said before, so it's funny. The irony is not lost on me. I'm a pretty good sleeper. I mean, I work on my sleep. Sleep is always obviously a focus in my house and in myself personally and with my kids. But yesterday, my dog decided to throw up sleeps in our bed at like 2 o'clock in the the morning. It was fun. So, you know, then I'm up. I'm dealing with that. And then I can't fall back asleep. And I'm up until like 3.30 or four. And, you know, I'm thinking my head how hilarious that I'm actually getting on with Odette tomorrow and talking about this very thing,

which doesn't normally happen to me. But in that moment, I'm like, okay, I'm up. I'm struggling. I can't fall back asleep because then I'm like, I'm white awake. My brain is going about what I have to do tomorrow, what I have to do 10 years from now, all of the things, right? And, instead of stressing about that, I accepted the fact that tonight's not going to be a great night of sleep, and that's okay. I know I'm going to fall asleep at some point and likely have to get up in an hour when my alarm goes off. So, you know, instead of my morning walk that I was planning on getting up at 6 a.m. 4 turned off my alarm and said, it's okay today if I sleep until 7 and not go for that morning walk. I'll adjust my day accordingly because I'm going to have probably not as great

as a day because I didn't get a great night of sleep. So, you know, obviously if it's happening consistently and it's, you know, chronic insomnia is three or three. So three nights or more per week for three months or longer. That's when you need to look at some tools and maybe something like cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia to really tackle what's going on. But if you do wake up, we all have acute insomnia. Sometimes we just don't sleep as well for situations like what happened to me yesterday or you're just not feeling well. Or as women, we go through different hormonal shifts throughout the month where, you know, some nights out of the month we're just not sleeping great. Accept it.

It's okay that we wake up at 3 a.m. or not get a great night of sleep. It doesn't mean it's going to be a forever thing. Yeah. You know what? I'm loving this conversation because we talk so much about mindset, right? And I think, Atlanta, you could come on here and you could give all these tips and all these strategies and try this and do that.

And we've had the sleep hygiene talk and we've had to start your routine early talk. But I think when we, what you're, what I'm. hearing from you is this mindset. It's like let's shift the way we think about these 3 a.m. wakings. Let's shift the way we think about, you know, not having a great night sleep. How can we adjust instead of, you know, trying to always, you know, fix it even before it becomes an issue. When it is an issue, how can we wrap our head around just that acceptance piece, that awareness piece, and be able to just soften that the way that we feel around, you know, not getting a great night's sleep? I love that this, this, this,

Yeah. Piece is coming out. You know, and this is why I always struggle with these conversations because here I am, like, like you said, I'm throwing all these tips. I'm telling you to focus on sleep. Sleep is a pillar of health. We look at exercise. We look at nutrition.

We look at connection. We look at sleep. Sleep is really the foundation of all of those pillars because when we're not sleeping while, we're not moving our body. See, my morning walk got knocked off this morning. We're not making great, possibly not making great nutritional choices. Our body is not able to metabolize our food as well or digest our food as well. We're not lovely to be around people.

You know, luckily my kids are out their dads this week and they're not going to be around me today. Probably a good thing. My boyfriend, poor him. He'll deal with it. But, you know, these things happen. But I also don't want people to super hyper focus on their sleep because that's when things can go from worse, from bad to worse, right? Because now we're hyper focused on our sleep. We're stressing more about our sleep.

we're going into bedtime, feeling discouraged already without even getting into bed. And that's not going to help your, we need to work on the sleep hygiene, the behavioral changes, but we also need to work on our emotional relationship with sleep. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I did not think that that's what we were going to come up with today. I thought it was going to be tips and strategies, but our emotional relationship with sleep, that's a big one.

I think also what you had talked said earlier about the reasons why you're waking up at 3 a.m. Just to go back to that for a second, you know, we talk a lot about getting curious, collecting data, like what are your patterns, what's going on with you? And I think just taking a few minutes too, thinking, okay, am I waking up because I'm hot? Am I waking up because I do have to be? Am I waking up? You know, why am I waking up? And then we can start to make little small adjustments based on that. Like not just, oh, here I am I am and I'm awake. Yeah. You know, this, this sucks. But why? What could be going on? How do I, am I hot? What do I need to help myself? fall back asleep. I think that's a big part of you. That's where logging comes into. Yeah. You can easily make your own log and just start charting, you know, and see, you know, did I, was there something that I ate at night? I know for myself as I get older, you know, alcohol is probably one of the biggest sleepbusters in your home. And, you know, a lot of times we'll think if we have a glass of wine or a drink at dinner, it's going to help us sleep better. And yeah, it will help us initiate sleep. But as that alcohol leaves your body, it's going to cause more fragmented sleep throughout the night, right?

and in that deeper REM state of sleep, especially. So that's where we're getting that mentally restorative sleep. So that's what we don't want to do. Are you having too much caffeine? Some are more sensitive to caffeine or others. Do we need to, you know, up our cutoff of caffeine throughout the day or eliminate it completely as we get older? You know, our intake of caffeine can change too. So there's all those things to consider.

Okay. Well, I think you gave us a lot to think about. I think that's like I said, not emotional relationship is not. where I thought this was going to go, but I'm so glad that it did. I want to get into some member specific questions because, you know, we want to know what our members want to know. We want to talk about what they want to talk about. So I had a question from Margaret. So she says she sometimes has trouble going to sleep despite no screen time for a few hours before, but how does she quiet her mind? I know you've touched on quieting your mind that it won't quiet our mind. But what can we

do? What is this? Is it trying to get curious again, logging? Why maybe you're having trouble going to sleep? Like, what's the first step there? Well, the first step just in that question, I mean, obviously I would need more information, but I would be curious. And this goes back to what time she's going to bed, right? So if she's having trouble going to sleep, this is where logging can come in handy. And she's finding that it's, you know, she's no screen. She's actively trying to go to bed when she goes to sleep and she's tossing and she's turning. What time is she asking? What time is she actually falling asleep, right? So we're looking at her sleep onset. How long does it actually take her to fall asleep? If she's pausing and turning for that hour, well, guess what in that hour? If you're lying in

bed and there's no distractions, there's no screen, there's no nothing. Of course, that's when her mind's going to race with everything. So two things I wanted to look at. One is for a week or two, log what time you're actually falling asleep. That might actually be your new bedtime, right? Two is if you're having difficulty quieting your mind, what are you thinking about? So what I said before is a lot of what we do throughout the day and in the morning is going to help us sleep better, right? So how we start our day. If we're starting our day full of stress, meaning you're not even out of the bed yet, you're reaching your phone, you're logging into work emails, you're logging into the news, you're logging into all this and just your brain is just absorbing all the chaos of the world. You haven't even left

your bedroom. That's going to carry with you throughout the day, right? Or is there something going on in your life that you need to work through. What is that problem that is, you know, that to do list, that problem that you know is going to be swimming in your brain at bedtime or when you wake up at 3 a.m. How can I work through that problem or at least start taking steps to work through that problem during the day? So I've talked a lot about this in the Gina Libby community. It's called a personal pause. It's taking time two or three minutes, two to five minutes a day and start working, you know, get a piece of paper, draw a line. One side is the problem. And one side are some solutions. So you don't have to solve it necessarily in that moment, but do I need to

make a phone call? Do I need to source something out? Do I need to have a conversation with something? What needs to happen to start working towards solving that problem? So again, in mindset, you're, when you think about it at bedtime, because you're going to, because we're human, you can say to yourself, I worked on it today. I will work on it tomorrow. Now is not the time to work on it. Right. Put that piece of paper away. Know that you're going to pull it out the next day to continue to work on it. So little coping skills so that when your mind does start racing, say to yourself. And it's not an overnight fix.

It's something that takes time to incorporate, but it can definitely work. Listen, nothing's an overnight fix, right? We'd all be. You could come up with an overnight fix for something. Yeah. That'd be wonderful. Okay. And the next question we had was for Mary.

I think we almost answered this one earlier. Yeah. She, like, she goes to bed late at night, 11.30 to midnight most nights. she sleeps a solid seven hours is this a good sleep pattern i think this question you know could come from that place where we're hearing go to bed early get a good night's sleep so if this pattern is working for mary what do you have to say about that nothing you know what i mean if this pattern's working for you mary and you feel good throughout the day a lot of you know a lot of it is i'm not going to say that we're all going to wake up like snow white with birds chirping right we're going

to wake up feeling groggy foggy, that's normal. If you're showing a lot of excessive daytime sleepiness, and I'm not just talking about low energy, because we all feel that slump in the afternoon or whatever. But if, you know, falling asleep throughout the day, that's a signal that maybe you're not getting enough restored to sleep throughout the night. But if you feel generally good, you're getting a solid to seven hours, it works for you, who am I to tell you to change it? Yeah.

I mean, you know, there are so many things that we can think about when it comes to sleep, like try this, try that. but there's no really set like rules. Like you don't have to stick to to these strict parameters, these strict rules. Of course, there's guidelines that can help you for not having great sleep. But if it's working for you,

it's working for you. Absolutely. Let's keep that pattern going for you, Mary. Okay. And then Kim, so last one from Kim. So she is exhausted by this. I see myself in this one.

So I'm exhausted by 11 p.m. And catch myself nodding off in the couch in front of the TV. Now, before I go on, okay, go on. It's okay. Why is that? When I move upstairs to where it's quick, where it's quiet and dark, I'm no longer tired and have a hard time falling asleep.

So what I want to say to that is, you know, we find ourselves trying to stay up. You know, my me time is at night. This is when I'm going to sit in front of the TV. This is when I'm going to be able to decompress, but I'm exhausted. So, you know, I think a lot of our members can see themselves in this place. Absolutely. Instead of going to bed where it's quiet and dark, I'm going to just, just sit in front of the TV and have this meet time. And I said, that's what's going on with Kim.

And that's why she's using the TV. But why is that? Like, so you're sitting on the couch. You are finding yourself really exhausted. You're nodding off. And then you're like, okay, I'm going to go up to my nice, quiet, dark, cool room that I've set up for perfect sleep. And now I'm not tired anymore. What's going on there? So a couple things. One is we all have a drive for sleep. It's like a gas tank, right? So we wake up in the morning and our sleep tank is whether you've had a good night of sleep or not, your sleep tank is on empty. And we need to do things throughout the day to fill that gas tank so that we fall asleep a lot easier at night. So ways to do that, moving your body, getting in physical activity, waking up at consistent times, immersing yourself in natural light. Those are all gas

fillers, right? Gas removers are when we take a nap throughout the day or if we fall asleep on the couch, right? It's like driving five kilometers, right? You're removing that gas from the tank so that when you do go up to bed, you're going to have a harder time falling asleep because your gas tank, tank is an ass pole. It's common. It's what we call, there was a term a couple years ago. What was it? Bedtime, Revenge, Bedtime, Procrastination, right? It's, or revenge procrastination bedtime. I can't remember which way it went. But it's where those evening hours are gold, right? It's where our work is done for the day. If you have kids, they're sorted out. Your dinner is cleaned up. Your responsibilities of the day are done. And now you have a few hours to yourself where you can do

whatever you want to do. And I always, as a woman, especially as a mom, I always feel bad at telling other individuals, women especially, don't watch TV. Don't do anything that brings you joy, right? Focus on, I'm going to bed. And that sucks, right? Because it's just like, come on. That's the only time of day where I can do things. So this isn't me saying, you know, watching your favorite show on the couch isn't something that you should be doing. If it's a show that's going to make you feel a little lighter because you've had a heavy day, please do it. But this is where, I can't remember her name. I think it was, was Kim. Kim. So this is where Kim or anyone going through this situation might want to focus on just incorporating that great bedtime routine, right? And a bedtime routine could be

an hour long. So I call it a slowdown hour. It's where we're breaking up that bedtime routine in three 20 minute increments. So the first 20 minutes are focusing on preparing for the next day. So removing some of those thoughts, some of those to-do lists from your brain, right? It could be something as like writing out your grocery list, writing out your business goals for the next day, your creative goals for the next day, packing a lunch, getting your outfit ready for that, like, whatever you need to do so that it's not swimming in your brain at bedtime or 3 a.m. The next 20 minutes is all about you. So it's the shower, it's the bath. It's the changing of pajamas, the brushing the teeth, all the skincare that we like to do. So, you know, instead of that, you're still focusing on yourself.

you're still giving yourself some me time. And you can do it maybe in front of the TV if you want to do it, right? And you can step the 20 minutes however you want. The last 20 minutes is the really essentially the bedtime routine. So this is where you're choosing a relaxing activity that is going, that works for you. So maybe it's taking a bath. Maybe it's just having a conversation with your partner because let's be honest, days are busy, especially if you have kids.

And that could be the only time that you guys can connect, have a conversation or do whatever you want. or read a little bit or watch an episode of your favorite show. It's okay to do that. I'm the sleep expert that doesn't necessarily say you don't have to get rid of all tech. While tech is a speed tester, monitor set boundaries around the tech that you're incorporating into those evening hours. So maybe just take that hour and just plan it a little bit better so that you're not necessarily falling asleep on the couch.

And if you're consistently falling asleep at a certain time, well, that might just be your bedtime. I think it's that acceptance piece too, right? Like we want to stay up. We want to do things. I want to have a shower and straighten my hair, but it takes two and a half hours. Yeah. Maybe it's that planning.

It's that thinking about it. Like, yeah, those are the things that I want to do. But what is best for me? It's always that little bit of that tug and pull. But if we can have that balance of I am going to give myself some of that time, just in more of a planned manner, more in a planned way, you're going to still be able to do the things that you love and feel good and fill your cup and bring you joy and still be able to get yourself some really good sleep.

That's great. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, I'm so glad you came. I'm so glad you came here. I mean, the sleep conversation, there's so many layers to it. I mean, you talk about it, Beverly talks about it, Dr. Alinka talks about it. There's so much to unpack. And, you know, good sleep is like magic.

And we wish we could all just be these magicians and, you know, just whoop and have our perfect sleep. I think, you know, understanding that sleep is going to come and go, it ebbs and flows. just like everything else. And if we can just, you know, have this, have a better emotional relationship with it, change our mindset around it. But also use these tips and strategies. And I know that you have a,

you're offering a course specifically for the, to stop these 3 a.m. wakings. Because we were, we were emailing back and forth that this is a big topic for our members. So do you want to just talk about that a bit? Yeah, for sure. So you can access it at alannamagan.com. And it's a free.

email course. That's going to help you rid yourself of 3am waking. So a lot of what we talked about today, steps and solutions, you'll get an email in your inbox for six days helping you through it. So you can access it there. I'll also post it in my stories. If you follow me on Instagram at alana.m. Again, I'll post the link there so you can just access it right through there. Yeah. And I'll post it too. I'll post it in the group and I'll also post it on the podcast, the link right to the 3 a.m. waking. So, amazing free they can sign up for it and get all their tips so everybody is having amazing sleep alanna thank you so much thank you'll come back you'll come back in the fall and join us change of

season life happens after the summer change lots is going in the fall so much of it okay alanna thank you and we'll see having me bye bye