Original subtitles

Hi, I'm Jessica Cording. I'm

a registered dietitian health coach and author today. We're

going to talk about sleep hygiene. And one of my pet peeves

is to see somebody to say to get seven hours

of uninterrupted sleep every night, but then offer

zero Insight on how to actually do that.

So I wanted to speak today about some of the basics of

sleep hygiene because we know that sleep is essential

to overall health and well-being. It's important for

immune system function.

Disease risk reduction weight maintenance Stress

Management energy brain function and more.

So practicing proper sleep

hygiene is going to help you get the shut eye that you

need you want to keep the room cool dark and quiet.

Research has shown that optimal temperatures for

sleep is somewhere around 64 to

69 degrees. Depending what study you read if

that sounds totally Arctic to

you, maybe start with something like 70 and work your

way down or you know, bring some bring some blankets or

if you're like, well, I already keep it that temperature and I'm

still hot consider using a fan if having a

higher air conditioning is not an approachable

solution, but when we get overheated, it's really

hard to sleep.

Also in terms of Darkness. This one is so important,

you know, we live in a world

today where we are surrounded by artificial light all

day every day and well into the evening hours.

So darkness is important because melatonin which

is a hormone that regulates our sleep cycle.

Sometimes you'll see that called circadian rhythm for in

order to formula toll and levels to rise that

need there needs to be Darkness. If we

are exposed to bright light at night time that

can actually suppress melatonin levels making it harder

for you to fall asleep and stay asleep.

This is a big reason why limiting screens is P for

proper sleep. So what I'm

talking about limiting screens, I'm talking things like phones laptops tablets

TVs because even you

watches for example, all those those screens

with their bright blue lights that can really disrupt melatonin

levels.

Also wait to think about what we're looking at on those screens.

If you're looking at the news or social

media, these can trigger really unpleasant feelings

of anxiety stress, you know

Doom scrolling is definitely a thing for a lot of

people. So I went back to men put the

phone down. If you're gonna be reading on an electronic device,

I wouldn't encourage an e-reader that does not

admit light.

Keeping the television viewing outside of the bedroom. That's

another huge one. If you're listening to this and you're

like no limiting screens at night is just not happening for me one workaround,

you know, it's not a perfect solution, but

you can try blue light blocking glasses or if

you already wear glasses to bed. For

example, you could get clip-on Amber lenses

that go over your glasses. The amber light can actually help

mitigate the effects of that blue light. So the effect

on will be a little bit less pronounced. You can

also shift your electronics into night mode again, not a

perfect solution, but it definitely can help in terms

of keeping it quiet in the sleeping environment.

So some people need it to be completely silent to

get restful sleep others need some kind of noise in

the background. You're the expert on you, you know,

if you need it to be super quiet then maybe you

invest in earplugs or where noise canceling headphones

to bed if that makes more sense for you or if

you need some noise. Try a fan a white noise machine something

to add some kind of background noise to

make it easier for you to fall asleep and stay asleep. I sleep

bucks Works recommend having a consistent sleep time

and wake up time. So this is really important

for training your brain and your

body to recognize when it's time to power down and sleep

and then when it's time to wake up,

If you are someone who has a sleep schedule, that

is all over the place.

You know, it does not have to be going from you know

going to bed at 2 am one day and then going to bed at

10 pm the next day, you know, maybe you start slow with

small changes, you know, maybe you start going to bed at 1:30 consistently

for a week, or maybe you start going to bed at midnight

you think about what your ideal wake up time is

and work backwards from there.

Seven to eight hours is recommended as the optimal amount

of sleep. Again. You are the expert on you and

how you function with different levels of sleep, but I

wouldn't surprise if you notice that once you start sleeping

enough, you will be surprised that you ever functioned on

so much less sleep to help with getting to that.

It's really important to give yourself. Some wine down

time experts will recommend at least 30 minutes

before bed where you turn down the lights in

your home, you put the electronics away. If you

can sleep with your phone away from your bed, I would highly recommend

that with today's technology where we

have you know, blue tooth and other ways of

keeping Electronics connected, you know, you can have an alarm

clock in your bedroom, but your phone can be

in a totally different room. So you have lots of options or just get an

old fashioned alarm clock if that works better for you.

Turning down the lights at night having some kind of consistent bedtime

routine. Maybe you do, you know your your face

routine your skincare taking a warm shower

or bath is also recommended.

As when our body is exposed

to that hot water in the evening. It sends

a signal our brain says the signal to our the rest of our body

that it's time to wind down. So that helps you drift off

much better. So definitely would encourage doesn't

have to be like washing your hair or like a long bath long shower,

but just getting some exposure to

that warm water can be really helpful before bedtime to soothe yourself

into sleep. You'll also want to limit alcohol

caffeine and heavy meals before bed a few

different reasons. So alcohol can be

very disruptive to our sleep cycle, you know, we might

feel drowsy right after drinking but then

we and maybe you've experienced this you

wake up in the middle of the night. Your mind is raised and

your heart is racing you are wide awake and that has a

lot to do with the way that our body processes alcohol and it kind

of causes the lack of a better explanation. It causes us

to get the head a little bit in our sleep cycle and

wake up feeling very disrupted. It's also

a

Hydrating and being dehydrated can actually

impact sleep a lot. I mean it's hard to

want it's hard to drift off right if your throat is scratchy or

your eyes are dry. Your nose is dry.

So definitely want to make sure that you're hydrated but

not not overly hydrated to the point where you're running to

the restroom every every few minutes.

Caffeine is this is a known this one a lot of people are

aware of, you know, having too much caffeine too close to bed can definitely

mess with your sleep cycle because it is a stimulant with

caffeine.

You know, there's different recommendations out there generally speaking.

It's recommended to cap your intake at about 400

milligrams per day less than that. If you're sensitive

and some people do best without any caffeine, but

also to stop drinking caffeine, you

know, some people will say three o'clock two o'clock.

I told my patients noon is a good a good

cutoff Point again. You're the expert on you and how you

react to caffeine but definitely don't

recommend having a regular espresso at

dessert, you know, right before you go to bed in

terms of why we should limit heavy meals

right before bed. That's because of our body

is working really hard to digest a heavy meal that can

disrupt sleep as well that said it's

definitely okay. If you need a bedtime snack to eat something like

before bed.

But I would recommend giving yourself at

least an hour between your last seating occasion and lying down

just to help prevent any potential reflux or

discomfort in the process.

There are actually certain foods that can benefit sleep.

So that's a whole other area to

explore. So definitely, you know looking at foods that are

going to be easily digested and provide nutrients that support restful sleep

can be helpful for you.

And sometimes I'll get questions about supplements before

bed. You know, what's okay to take with not okay to

take so for people who are on who are

already taking a calcium supplement, you know bedtime might

be a great time to take that because calcium does have a calming

effect on the nervous system and magnesium. This

is another great one for Sleep, especially if

you suffer from Nighttime anxiety, or you get kind

of tense at night clenching your

jaw that kind of stuff magnesium is in a sense

Nature's muscle relaxer. So if you are taking

a magnesium supplement for whatever reason a great

time to take it would be bedtime right before bed. So that's another

one that we do have some good research on magnesium for restful

sleep again, that's just scratching the surface. I would

say if you want to talk more about supplementation and nutrition

for promoting sleep definitely talk

to your health care provider about that.

But let's speak for a few moments about what to do

if you can't sleep because I hear this from patients and

clients all the time, which is you know, they they can

fall asleep easily but staying asleep is the hard

part. So if that's you you are not alone, so it's

a very common issue. So there's a

few things to explore like what might be behind the

reason that you have a hard time getting back to sleep. You

know, are you in physical pain or you uncomfortable? So

the room too hot or if they're noise that things like you up

is there light or you have a lot on your mind? These are

all examples of things that can disrupt our sleep.

Most Sleep Experts will recommend that if

you're having trouble sleeping get out of bed after about 15

to 20 minutes and go do something soothing in another

room. So that might be you know, reading a book

doing a puzzle. I don't know

organizing a drawer, you know calming soothing activities. No

daytime stuff not like watching TV you're

doing your taxes or you know working on things that

are going to be simulating the brain.

And this different schools of thought on this many sleepeth Brooks

were recommend avoiding eating if you're up during the night because that is

going to kick the body into working hard

to digest what you're eating. But if you

are lying awake and your stomach is growling so much that you

are having a hard time falling asleep than yes, then you should

eat something. So let your body be your guy with that

one. And if you find that you have a lot on your mind in the

middle of the night, this is very common. It's

Pretty frustrating how thoughts that won't even register at

say 3pm come 3 AM. They are loud.

It's like your head is lit up like a like a house, you

know, and I think that if you've got a lot on your

mind doing some journaling can be incredibly helpful

you could do that before bed. If you

want to do it just a brain dump get all the stuff on the page and put

it aside before you lay down at night or if

you wake up at night and you're having racing thoughts

again writing that down can be incredibly soothing

and disrupt that anxiety Loop. So to

speak that our thinking tends to get on in the middle of the night. And lastly

if you're struggling talk to your doctor, you know, there are

sleep specialists with training and expertise to

really help you understand the root causes of sleep

disturbance and help you come up with a plan that works

for you again. I'm just recording register dietitian health

coach and author. Have a wonderful day.