Episode 3 – Full Transcript
First episode with video. Hey, everyone. My name is Michelle. And you’re listening to nurse verse
Michelle: Hey, everyone. My name is Michelle.
Lindsay: And I’m Lindsey. And you’re listening to nurse verse.
Michelle: First episode with video.
Lindsay: And we came wearing our vest.
Valerie True talks about working night shift and how food affected her sleep
Michelle: All right, so today we would like to talk about sleep. sleep as it pertains to our experience, as nurses having to work night shift and feeling what it’s like to do the complete opposite of good or healthy or beneficial sleep, and then our journey back to normalcy or back to equilibrium. And what worked for us, what didn’t work, and I just knowing that if you’re a shift worker, you can turn.
Lindsay: It around, you can.
Michelle: You can go back, get back to normal.
Lindsay: Okay, so let’s jump right in. Let’s tell you, Val, how crazy it was for us to do night shift. So we would do twelve hour shifts, and we would start doing them, like, back to back, like, three in a row if we could. We loved to stack our schedule. so the first night, we would stay up until 02:00 a.m. and then sleep until 02:00 p.m. we would wear, like, blackout. Like, eye masks, like words. And then we would also use blackout curtains.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: In our. In our room.
Michelle: Yeah. Basically trick our bodies.
Lindsay: Yeah. So what would we do when we woke up?
Michelle: And then we wake up, and I think we just, like, eat, try to have somewhat of a small day before. We then had to be at work at, like, 630. And then the shift was, like, 07:00 a.m. m to 07:00 p.m. get off of work at, like, 730 ish. You said 07:00 a.m. 07:00 p.m. to 07:00 a.m. yeah, there you go. 07:00 p.m. m to 07:00 a.m. get off work at, like, 07:30 a.m. come home, eat again, and go straight to sleep.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: There was, like, a lot of eating and going straight to sleep like a sumo wrestler. And it’s no wonder. I gained, like, 27 pounds.
Lindsay: Yeah. And then can we just talk about how we would try to work out after waking up at, like, 02:00 p.m. it was. We were, like, in a fog, in a daze. Almost like jet lag, but times ten. It was so hard.
Michelle: It was really rough. You just feel so out of it all the time. You’re so tired, moody, and,
Lindsay: And every little task seems like a big to do.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. When you’re at work, it’s like you’re actively trying to conserve your energy. You were like, oh, my gosh. Okay. Like. Like, what is the least amount of, like, motion or movement I can do to just, like, stay awake for the next 12 hours?
Lindsay: I remember somebody would be like, oh, room so and so needs another pillow. Lindsey, can you help find that? Find that? And I’d be like, ugh. why? But, okay. In my head, I’d be like, why? And then they’re like, oh, so and so needs a motrin. I’m like, ugh. Why? It was just every little ask was such a huge, like, mountain for me. But that’s only because my sleep was messed up.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. And the way we would eat, too, we would eat, like, hours that a human being is not supposed to be eating, and we would eat foods that you definitely should not be eating.
Lindsay: Like, cafeteria fries at 04:00 a.m. is not a good idea.
Michelle: Chocolate, tons of candy. I had so much candy, I just, like, needed sugar to stay awake. And, of course, your patients. Patients always knew that, like, a way to a nurse’s heart is through food. And most of the times, like, the food was one. Some level of comfort for the amount of discomfort that we were going through.
Lindsay: True.
Michelle: And also energy. It’s like you’re so tired, and when you’re so exhausted, your body’s like, all right, I need more food because I need to produce more energy to try to keep you awake. And they were always bringing in, like, donuts and candy and so much junk food. But, I mean, there were patients, too, that, like, brought in other, like, healthy food and lunches and stuff, too, which was really awesome.
Lindsay: Actual dinners.
Michelle: Yeah. Which was really, really nice. But all in all, it was so messed up. It was not fun.
Most nurses have to start off on night shift before they graduate to day shift
I have so much respect for people who have been working night shift for, like, 25 years.
Lindsay: Yeah. The night shift lifers, like, bless your heart. Yeah. built different stomachs, minds, everything. Just bless all of it.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. So we realized very quickly that it was taking years off of our life, for sure. and we wanted to get back to normal, and so we knew we had to do our time on night shift. Most nurses have to, like, start off on night shift, and it’s kind of like, What’s the word I’m looking for? Initiation. It’s like, if you can go through this, if you can stay up for 12 hours in the middle of the night, endure crazy levels of high acuity, stress, you know, having somebody’s life in.
Lindsay: Your hands with minimal staff.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: No administration.
Michelle: Yeah. And, you make it so.
Lindsay: And you make it then you’re good, and only then you can graduate to day shift.
Michelle: Yeah. Now you can go to day shift, and you can have a somewhat of a normal life.
Lindsay: Yeah. You got to go to day shift before me. Yeah, I think I did for. I think it was a three month gap.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: I had to wait.
Michelle: Yeah. We were like ships passing in the night.
Lindsay: Yeah. It was not ideal.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, definitely not. And then it took a very long. Even when we went to day shift, my initial thought was that, okay, we’re gonna go to day shift. Everything’s gonna go back to normal. Like, I’m gonna lose the weight. I’m gonna have a regular sleep rhythm. I’m, gonna feel good again. And that wasn’t necessarily the case. And a big part of that, too, is we didn’t just take into consideration the effects on how it almost, like, retrained our bodies. Like, we were. We did night shift for three years.
Lindsay: Three, almost four years before.
Michelle: And it really, after you do it for a period of time, it, like, really retrains your body and your hormones are all backwards and upside down, and so you have to be, like, a bit more active about retraining your body back to equilibrium. And so this kind of, like, took us years to figure out and get ahold of.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: and also, we were still working shift work. So you had, still 312 hours shifts or more. I mean, sometimes you’re there for, like, 16 hours, and a lot of times when you’re working those shifts, you are just so exhausted. I just personally believe that not all of us are built to work that duration of time. Like, it’s fine. You get used to it, and then it’s not a big deal. But then when you’re nothing on shift, you are, oh, my gosh, I really hope Noli’s not messing with all the buttons. Noli is in the basket with all.
Lindsay: Of the noli to settle.
Michelle: So, yeah, so if you’re, when you’re working those, like, three very long and intense, exhausting shifts, even though you have four days off of those four days, two of them, you’re recovering or preparing to go back to work. So then you still really only have, like, two days off. To actually get something done is at least what it felt like. Like, we would always be like, oh, we’re gonna get this done and do this and do this and do this. And most of the time, we were either, like, traveling to visit family and then just becoming even more exhausted or just trying to relax and rest and catch up on sleep, which we’ll go over was not an ideal thing to do. m and then we would just start all the way back over again. And so our bodies could never really, like, get into a routine or appropriately be retrained. but through a lot of trial and error, we did get there. And we also, fortunately, did not have to spend a lot of money to do it. We didn’t have to make, like, two crazy changes or buy, like, a super fancy mattress or anything like that for a fancy eye mask. So we just want to talk about those different things that we did, those simple changes that we made. And a lot of them bear in mind, like, we made one change at a time, and we got used to that one change, and then we added another one. We waited for that change to become a habit. And then you don’t even have to think about it anymore. You’re just naturally it. And now let’s add on the next behavioral change or the next adjustment. so of, those at least, like, topics, we’ll narrow it down to today that we want to talk about. That was super helpful for us. we have six of them that we want to go over today, and they were consistency. Preparing your body for bed, how you set your alarm routines, morning sunlight viewing, and some other small considerations.
Okay, so I’ll start off real quick with consistency. This was probably the most important thing that we needed to do
Okay, so I’ll start off real quick with consistency. This was probably the most important thing that we needed to do and the thing that I was the worst at. Ah. Or the least disciplined at. Lindsey’s always been very good, about being pretty consistent. She’s a very consistent person. so going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time. And then ideally, if you go to bed at the same time, you wake up at the same time, you’re gonna get the same amount of hours of sleep every single night. but for me personally, I could not fall asleep early enough to then get up early enough. So it was just like this constant, vicious cycle of, I’d be, like, mentally wired at night, toss and turn in bed or watch tv or be on my phone. And Lindsay is always just, like, so tired that she could fall asleep anywhere. Anytime.
Lindsay: Yeah, any place. My mom likes to say, as soon as your head hits the pillow, you are out like a light, literally. So there’s that.
Michelle: so you were pretty good. You were pretty good. You knew we need to go to bed earlier. And we would, like, we worked our way. We would. Instead of going to bed at midnight, then we would go to bed at 1130, then eleven, then 1030. We, like, slowly pushed it back and slowly got up earlier and earlier. Lindsay was much faster to this than I was and I’ll talk about how I finally later on how I finally actually got to the point where I.
Lindsay: Could fall asleep how you made the adjustments.
Michelle: Oh and one other thing about consistency too is trying not to stray from those like your bedtime your your schedule because another thing that we did that was so terrible for us is that we would get up early and or go to bed early get up early during the week but then on the weekends we’d be like oh let’s sleep in and sleep for like 12 hours which was terrible because we just did all of this work to set our rhythm and set our routine throughout the week and then just destroy it on the weekend by completely messing up that cycle again and then our body’s like wait you slept in until twelve so obviously I’m not gonna be tired at 930 at night.
Lindsay: Yeah it made Monday so much harder correct?
Michelle: Yeah yeah so if you can like we normally try to go to bed at 930 wake up at five anytime between five and six and then on the weekends we still try to go to bed early. I would say 1030 of course like we’re totally not perfect with this like fall off the horse all the time but this is like where we majority of the time I would say land and then on the weekends try not to sleep in past what 730?
Lindsay: Yeah 830 usually yeah we don’t really go past 830.
Michelle: Yeah which is still is not perfection like obviously I think you want to keep it within 30 minutes to like 2 hours is like the max difference you want to have your bedtime or wake time but we’re still a work in progress too so.
Lindsay: Yeah because again we don’t like making Mondays harder than they have to be.
Michelle: Yeah yeah but it’s like when we go to travel when we go to visit our nieces like if there’s a time difference or whatever it is we.
Lindsay: Just do the best we can with what we have on the day at the time whatever.
Next topic is preparing your body for bed
Yeah so our next topic is preparing your body for bed so this could look a little different for everybody but for us we like to stay away from blue light so I mean we’re still on our phones sometimes so for that we have special glasses or you could just add it into your regular glasses blue light blockers. So we like to do that. We love to dim the lights even if it’s not near bedtime we just love a dimmed light.
Michelle: Yeah no bright lighting.
Lindsay: Like, mood lighting. We love that. and then we like to relax before bed. So for me, that looks like sitting on the couch in my sweatpants with noly on my lap.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: And maybe with a book.
Michelle: yeah. That’s, like, ideal scenario. It’s like an hour before you have to go to bed. We’re in our pajamas on the couch, cats in the LAPD, tea in hand, book in hand, because then there’s no blue light. We still are wearing our blue light blockers because, like, the light from overhead or from the lamps still has some blue light in it. and we are doing something that is physically relaxing us. And, also, reading a book works super well for me because it gets my brain to slow down. Like, if I can focus and just read the sentence in front of me.
Lindsay: Then you’ll be asleep in 2 seconds. Like, that’s how she works.
Michelle: Yeah. Literally. It is cool because almost like. Because I always read at night before bed now it’s like a train to me to get sleepy.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: so I went from last year. I met my goal of I wanted to just be able to read ten books in the year or whatever. I know it’s not a lot of people. I’m a really slow reader. Okay.
Lindsay: Fact she is.
Michelle: But, I mean, keep in mind it’s beautiful because when I.
Lindsay: You’ve, trained yourself to go to sleep when you read.
Michelle: Exactly. So it’s like, it doesn’t matter. It’s like pavlovian. It’s like I open a book, I start reading, and I immediately start falling asleep. So I’m like, dang it. Now I’ve literally trained my body to fall asleep as soon as I start reading.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: I haven’t been able to get a book done.
Lindsay: It’s okay. I haven’t gotten through one either, in a long time.
Why is the couch so much more comfortable than your bed
But also, can we talk just really quickly about how. Why is the couch so much more comfortable than your bed? Sometimes, like, you quickly fall asleep on the couch.
Michelle: Yeah. The couches are. I think it’s just our couch.
Lindsay: No, it happens to other people. I’ve asked people.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: All right.
Michelle: We should maybe do a poll on this.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: And understand the psychology. Maybe it’s because when you’re on the couch, you’re not telling yourself you have to go to sleep.
Lindsay: So you fall asleep because you’re relaxed and not thinking about it.
Michelle: Yeah. Versus when you get in bed, you’re like, oh, my gosh, I have to fall asleep.
Lindsay: Yeah. Your mattress is, like, whispering, you have to fall asleep. You have to fall asleep.
Michelle: And then you’re like, now I can’t fall asleep because I’m thinking about trying to fall asleep.
Lindsay: Yeah, maybe it’s that, but, other things that we like to do is spraying our feet with magnesium oil.
Michelle: Yeah. I have no idea if this is placebo effect, but, like.
Lindsay: But shout out to Instagram. It really found out through that. Through Instagram for that one. Yeah, it really does help.
Michelle: Yeah. Because we tried for a long time before we did the, like, spraying the magnesium oil on your feet. We did magnesium supplements. And I think for you, it caused, like, a little bit more, like, gi distress than anything, but also could be the type of magnesium that you were taking.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: M. And for me, I felt like it didn’t do anything at all. And so I would also do an epsom salt bath, which. Epsom salt baths work miraculously for me. Like, oh, my gosh. Immediately makes me sleepy. Also helps with my muscle recovery and relaxation, during my sleep. But since, like, doing a whole bath and the epsom, salt every single night is not, like, that practical, I feel that we’ve both been getting greater, like, muscle relaxation, deep sleep with the magnesium spray. Maybe it’s placebo. Who knows? But whatever. It’s working.
Lindsay: It works for us, and we’re gonna continue to use it.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Also, we’ve been putting tape on our mouths.
Michelle: Yes. And we talked about this in the reading episode.
Lindsay: Yeah. We won’t bore you to tears for that one.
Michelle: Yeah. But huge difference. Huge difference in deep sleep, when the tape is over, our mouth versus not.
Lindsay: yeah, yeah.
Michelle: And just, like, waking up refreshed.
Lindsay: But also, I’ll be honest, the last few days, I’ve been waking up with a tape, like, over here or, like, over here or on my shirt.
Michelle: Also, the new tape we got has, like, a hole in the middle.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: And last night, I definitely noticed I was, like, pursed lipped, breathing through that hole. So I think I need to, like, step up the game a little bit. Something without the hole.
Lindsay: We need a new tape.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Something without holes.
Michelle: Yep. Yeah.
Michelle is struggling as an adult to get up when her alarm goes off
and, okay, next up, we want to talk about how you set your alarm. So this is really big for me. Again, Lindsey’s way better at this than I am. She’s much more disciplined. but I don’t know about anybody else, but I am. Was. I was the master of convincing myself that I needed to sleep for five more minutes, and then the alarm would go off again. Five more minutes. Again. Five more minutes. Again. Five more minutes.
Lindsay: You know why I get up like, this.
Michelle: Why?
Lindsay: Because my dad used to come into our room when we were, like, in elementary school. He’d come in to our room with a plastic bat, and at the end of the bed, he’d be like, chop chop. Get up. And we would be up like that. Cause that plastic bat was so close to our bodies. He never hit us. He never hit us. I will repeat that. He never hit us. But it would be enough to get you, like, shot out of that bed.
Michelle: I think he did. You guys had great service.
Lindsay: He did.
Michelle: He really did, trained you to not snooze.
Lindsay: Yeah. I’ve never snoozed my alarm.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Never had.
Michelle: Yeah, it’s like. It’s very impressive. Like, the alarm goes off, and she just gets up, and I’m like, wow, I’ve been better, though.
Lindsay: You have better.
Michelle: I’ve been much better at it.
Lindsay: So kudos to you.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. So what I have to do, because I don’t have that visceral response. Cause my mother, instead, would come in the room and be like, michelle, it’s uppie time. I’d be like, no, mom. I love you, mom.
Lindsay: It’s like that scene in freaky Friday.
Michelle: But so it’s like, pros and cons.
Lindsay: Pros.
Michelle: You know, I wasn’t traumatized to get up on bed when the alarm went off, but now I’m struggling as an adult to get up when the alarm goes off. Catch 22 here. but so what works for me or what has helped me switch that, like, programming, that programming that’s in my body? Because when you wake up, you’re, like, you’re not really fully there yet. You’re in this, like, theta brainwave. You’re, like, in a still almost, like, dreamy state. You’re, like, not fully conscious. And it’s so amazing. Your subconscious is really still, like, in control in that moment in time. So you have to now figure out a way to retrain your body, retrain your subconscious, that it’s sit. Like, when. When the alarm goes up, you’re getting up. Like, there’s no questions to ask. Like, this is just what we’re doing. And so in order for me to do that, there’s a couple things I have to. One, put my phone far away, ideally in another room. But right now, our bathroom is still under construction, so we just put it on the other side of the room. And, this will then force me to physically get up and physically turn my phone off. That is the only way that, like, once I’m physically up now, like, okay, all right, here I am.
Michelle Thomas says setting your alarm can change your mood of waking up
Michelle is back, and let’s get the day started. another thing, too, is setting only one alarm. When you set more than one alarm, you’re already told yourself that you’re not going to get up with the first one. Subconsciously, you’re like, I need to set 37 alarms because I’m going to snooze the first 36 of them. And when you do that, you’re just a self fulfilling prophecy. You’re already. Whether or not you decide you’re gonna get up or you’re gonna set a million alarms, it’s just like my coach, KP, used to say, whether you think you’re gonna win or think you’re gonna lose, either way, you’re right. And same thing when you set your alarm. If you tell yourself, I’m setting one alarm because I’m getting up at that time, then you’re gonna get up at that time. also, just snoozing is the worst thing that you can do for your sleep. If you’re gonna snooze now for another hour, hour and a half, you just. You’re getting terrible sleep. You’re just getting just, like, woken up every five minutes or 15 minutes. You’re not getting a full other cycle of rem or deep sleep in. So you might as well, like, if you are really tired and you need that extra hour and you can set your alarm hour later, then just set it an hour later so you actually get the rem and deep sleep that you need, and then get up and be productive with your day. Because snoozing is, at least for me, it just was not, like, a productive thing whatsoever. It was just a waste of time, essentially, for me. and lastly, for the setting your alarm, another thing that really helps me is that I need to set a. Ah. Very intentional alarm sound.
Lindsay: Oh, my gosh, you guys. She set her alarm to, like, this motivational speaker, Eric Thompson.
Michelle: Thomas.
Lindsay: Eric Thomas. Sorry, excuse me. And he is just yelling, yelling, talking. And, I’m like, isn’t he very motivational? The f. Who the f is yelling at, like, 530 in the morning? Why is that your alarm?
Michelle: But, like, that’ll get you up.
Lindsay: Like, yeah, sure did.
Michelle: Also another sound that I love. And actually, it’s been more of my staple lately. I’ve gone a little bit away from the yelling because. Yeah, this jarring pond for.
Lindsay: Thank you.
Michelle: but I love. I love whoever created this playlist on Spotify that’s called classical bangers. You’re amazing. Thank you so much for doing that. I have really thoroughly enjoyed that playlist. And my favorite song to wake up to is morning mood by Pier Ghent. I, like, ten out of ten recommends, like, nothing gets me to wake up in a better mood than that song.
Lindsay: Yeah. I’ve shared that with some people I work with, and they’re like, I’m not even sure I hear that.
Michelle: Well, it’s because it slowly wakes you up.
Lindsay: That’s true.
Michelle: It’s gentle at first. It’s just like, the sound of morning mist and birds chirping, and then it, like, gets super intense, and it’s like, I’m gonna have a great day.
Lindsay: Like, you have no choice. The song is already set. Yeah, actually, yeah. Like, your alarm can totally change your mood of upon waking up.
Michelle: Yes.
Lindsay: Why choose an annoying one or, like, an old school telephone one as your alarm to get up?
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: You’re, like, immediately traumatic.
Michelle: Yeah. And then you’re, like, already in a bad mood, and you literally just started your day.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: Start your day in a great mood.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: And a lot of people think that they don’t want to play a song because turning it into their alarm clock is going to ruin the song for them. That, to me, is all mindset. Like, if you think it’s gonna ruin it, it’s gonna ruin it. You instead flip your thinking and you have to say, no, no, no. This is gonna get me up in a great mood, and I am gonna start off my day, like, singing the lyrics to this song.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: And we’ll go back to the mindset thing in our later episode. I’m so excited to talk about mindset later on, but, yeah.
A routine is just sticking to your bedtime ritual
but, Lindsay, do you wanna talk about routines?
Lindsay: Oh, I love a routine. So a routine is just sticking to your bedtime ritual? Like, for me, I love. I love a tea. I do. I was saying to you, michelle, that 2024 is the year of the tea.
Michelle: Yeah. She does love tea.
Lindsay: I do love tea.
Michelle: A huge collection of teas.
Lindsay: We’ve got, like, five different sleepy time teas. Yes. So my bedtime routine looks like making tea, getting that set tea, sitting on the couch with. Drinking the tea with Noli on my lap, and hanging out with you before I go to bed. That’s what mine looks like. Sometimes I have a book. Sometimes it might be a little too late for a book, but I love doing that. And then m morning routine. And then my morning routine, I get up at, like, 515. Between 515 and 530. And then I. I love to look in the mirror when I’m like all, I’ve got sleep all over my face with my contacts not in yet, and say, I love you. And then I go downstairs, make more tea, and then write in my journal, like my gratitude journal. And then sometimes if I have time in the morning to meditate, I will for ten minutes and then get ready for work. And then, get a work.
Michelle: And you’re off.
Lindsay: And I’m off to see the wizard.
Michelle: And I think having a routine as you’re. Was it your patient?
Lindsay: No, not my patient. It was my, 40 year old Starbucks customer. She said, lindsey, when you get to your forties, you will love a routine.
Michelle: Or you’ll live for the routine.
Lindsay: You’ll live for the routine. That’s what it is. Yeah.
Michelle: And we are doing that in our thirties. So, whoever you are, you were right.
Lindsay: Her name is Susan.
Michelle: Susan. You were just off.
Lindsay: She got a grande nonfat latin.
Michelle: But it’s true. Like, you really do live for the routine. But I think it’s just because our bodies crave and our minds crave predictability. They just, like, that’s what is security almost. It’s just like they want to know, okay, we’re gonna get up, we’re gonna do this, and then we’re gonna do this, and then we’re gonna. And. Which is, which is a good thing in a sense. And it’s also, we’ll talk about later with, like, mindset and energy and things like that. is also something that we don’t want to get too content in our routines and to set in our ways, but, is beneficial for retraining your body. Just as if you were to, like, train your dog. Like, when you’re training a puppy, they’re gonna get up a certain amount of time. They’re gonna go to the bathroom, they’re gonna go poopies, and then they come back inside, and then you’re gonna do this. And then at this time, 12:00 they could go back outside again. It’s like, you have to be consistent with your timing and your routine for that to be ingrained and trained. And then once it’s ingrained and trained, they’re just going to do it automatically. And we’re not that different as human beings. And, the more you create a routine, then the easier it is to be consistent, and then the less effort you don’t feel like you’re making an effort. Like, now it’s just a before. Oh, my gosh. If you told me that I’d get up in the 05:00 hour, I would have laughed in your face, but now I’m like, man, I think I gotta start getting up in the 04:00 hour because I just, I got more stuff I gotta do. And it’s, it’s like, it’s so much easier than you think it’s gonna be. It’s just training, training yourself.
Lindsay says morning sunlight viewing helped him fall asleep early
and I wanted, I would love to talk about morning sunlight viewing next because this, for me, was the single most impactful thing that I did to, to actually get sleepy at 09:00 930 at night and actually fall asleep early. Because for the longest time, even when I was a kid, I was like a night owl. I was wired at night. I wanted to stay up late and sleep in. And so as an adult, obviously that’s not ideal and very unproductive and not beneficial for my well being. So, it might work for some people, might work for some people, but I didn’t feel it was great for me. and so I had listened to, of course, Andrew Huberman podcast, and also a jack cruise podcast. They were both talking about morning sunlight viewing and the importance it has on the impact of setting your circadian rhythm. So I know we talked about this briefly in the pillars of health, but I just want to go over it one more time because, because I still am blown away, about how much of a difference it made for me. but you basically just want to go outside. You want to expose your naked eyes. So if you wear glasses, take your glasses off. If you wear contacts, don’t wear your contacts. and just go outside and look in the direction of the sun. Obviously, you don’t want to look directly at the sun. You’re not trying to blind yourself or anything like that. but you just want to allow your eyes to absorb the light of the sun rising. So when the sun is in a different position in the sky, as the day goes on, there are different wavelengths of light coming off of the sun. And those wavelengths are communicating different things to your brain through your eye, your eyes absorbing that light, and it’s telling your brain, hey, it’s morning time right now, and you’re gonna get up. you’re gonna be awake for 16 hours, and in 16 hours, you’re gonna start to get sleepy. And doing that, I was like, how could it be that simple? There’s no way. And so I was like, you know what? For ha ha’s, let me just give it a try. And so three mornings in a row, I got up, like right before the sun was gonna rise. Made myself my coffee, sat in our backyard. And we have a backyard that is like, perfectly facing the sunrise. It’s amazing. It just was very convenient for us. So I would take my glasses off, enjoy my coffee, and watch as the sun was coming up. First of all, it was just so peaceful and enjoyable. Like, I love our backyard. It’s our oasis.
Lindsay: It’s so gorgeous.
Michelle: And then within three days of doing this, was I not falling asleep at like 09:00 930 at night on the couch?
Lindsay: Yes. Yes, you were. And again, why is couch m sleep so much better than regular sleep?
Michelle: Yes. Yes. I was falling asleep on the couch. But I had never done that before. Like, you were always so good at just zonking out. And for me, it was like the later it got, the more wired I would get. And this just like, boom. three days. And that just broke that habit. It was incredible. So I still very, very actively try to do that every morning that I can. Of course, when we travel, it’s different when we’re with family and, you know, life happens, but the most, the majority of time I try to do that. and lastly, some other considerations. Lindsay, you want to talk about?
Lindsay: Yes. Some other considerations are everybody’s amount of sleep depends on the person. So I was using different ways to measure my sleep and get a sleep score and see all that. so I was using garmin for the first. The first time I was using, like, when I tried to track my sleep, I was using garmin. and then I got a Samsung watch. And those metrics vary so much. So according to one watch, it said I got like 41 minutes of deep sleep and on the same night because I’m a weirdo and wore both watches just to test them out to see how they compare. Deep sleep on the other one said I was in deep sleep for like 2 hours and 22 minutes. So 41 minutes, 2 hours, 22 minutes. I’m like, I don’t know what’s what, but super biased.
Michelle: Garmin wins.
Lindsay: Yeah. Garmin versus samsung.
Michelle: yeah. Garmin is way more.
Lindsay: Yeah. So I’ve been sticking to my garmin since then. I do still like my samsung because it gave me like a sleep score and it told me I was asleep. Lion.
Michelle: You just like the little picture of the lion.
Lindsay: I know I do.
Michelle: So, garmin, could you please incorporate a little animal? Like what type of animal?
Lindsay: Can you tell me where you are? That was really cool. I don’t know. so I actually do really well with 6 hours of sleep.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Like 8 hours or greater.
Michelle: You’re like, over tired.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: So.
Michelle: And for me, I’m closer to that. 8 hours. Like 6 hours. I’m fine. But that’s my limit. That is, like, the minimum I can have.
Lindsay: True.
Your sleep also depends on who you share a bed with
Michelle: So usually, like, I think I. I feel like we get seven and a half.
Lindsay: Yeah. Seven and a half has been, like, our, like, routine.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: But if something happens and I get six, like, I’m still fine.
Michelle: Exactly.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: if we get eight, it’s amazing.
Lindsay: Yeah, that’s true. and then sleep. Your sleep also depends on, like, who are you sharing a bed with? Are you sharing a bed with, somebody who snores? Sorry, babe. Sorry.
Michelle: It doesn’t even impact me.
Lindsay: Are you sleeping in the same room with a snoring dog? Are you sharing a bed with your dog? Your cat? Like.
Michelle: Yeah. Does your cat wake you up every hour?
Lindsay: Because.
Michelle: Because she wants to get underneath the covers.
Lindsay: Because that happens almost, nearly every night. But since we’ve been doing the magnesium on the bottom of our feet, I haven’t woken up for that.
Michelle: I know. You’ve been socked.
Lindsay: Yeah. So that’s been cool. also the comfort of your mattress and pillow.
Michelle: Yeah. We need a new one.
Lindsay: That depends. New one what? Mattress or pillow?
Michelle: Both. All of the above.
Lindsay: I have a chiropractic pillow, so it’s like a donut. it’s not the. It’s not most. The most comfortable, but it was. It’s a prescribed pillow, so I have to use it.
Michelle: Yeah. Because she loves to sleep with, like, her chin to her chest.
Lindsay: Do I love it, or is it just something I happen to do? Something I happen to do?
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. But I feel like the pillow and the mattress is, like, obviously, it’s an expensive thing to change.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: And so I don’t feel it makes or breaks it, but I do think if we changed our mattress and pillow that our sleep would just be that much better. Like, I still feel great even though we have, like, a, average mattress, but, like, man, we got one of those really expensive ones. Like, you need to sedate me. Yeah, I think when I got up, because I’d have so much energy. Oh, yeah.
Lindsay: Lol.
Michelle: Not like to go to sleep.
Lindsay: Gotcha.
Michelle: Okay.
Lindsay: Gotcha.
Michelle: Also, physical activity, too.
Lindsay: Yeah. Like, yesterday. Was it yesterday that you did 3 hours of physical fitness?
Michelle: Yes.
Lindsay: And you needed a little more sleep?
Michelle: It’s pickleball. We got, like, really into it, and I was like, I knew I needed, like, an extra hour after all that.
Lindsay: Yeah. You needed time to recover. So do you feel yeah, 100%.
Michelle: 100%. Yeah, just like adding in that, like, extra hour. Definitely needed it. And I didn’t wake up as sore versus had I only had like six or 7 hours, I would have been like, m m. Nope. I would have been so sore and. Yeah, yeah, true. So,
With metrics one, always stick with the same device to measure
Oh, lastly, just, I know you mentioned the watch already, but with metrics two, whatever, device you use, just try to stay consistent with that same device because like Lindsay mentioned, she went from garmin to Samsung and then the metrics were so different. So it’s really hard to tell what changes you are making if they are making a difference when you’re not using the same metric. So just for consistency’s sake and so you have some comparison, always stick with the same device to measure. and also metrics are really useful in my personal opinion. Like, I love to have, like, numbers. I like to see something that’s like, unbiased. Like, my emotion is no part of this. This is just a number saying, like, okay, this, this. Over the past month, this has been your average amount of time that you’ve been sleeping. This has been your average going to bedtime. This has been your average waking time. And then you could start to see trends and you could see, like, garmin goes in such depth and goes over. You can see graphs of, like, the days of the week, what days of the week are you lacking or doing the worst? Like, are you slipping up on weekends? Are you slipping up on Mondays? Are you actually being true to, like, majority of the time? Are you sticking to what you wanted to be doing or not so much? And then also when you make a change, like, if we weren’t wearing our Garmin watches, then it would be hard for us to say whether or not, like, using the magnesium spray was making a difference. Difference. But when we implemented that magnesium spray, we could clearly see on our watches the increase in the quantity of deep sleep. So having something that it’s like, okay, cool. Like, yeah, I do feel more rested. And now I have, like, an actual number to show me that it’s not just my bias, it is, like, did actually create a positive change. and then, of course, like, the importance of implementing one change at a time. Because, like, let’s say if you did the mouth tape and you did the magnesium and the sleepy tea and an epsom salt bath, you did all of those at for the first time on the same night. You don’t know. And, yeah, you probably get a great night’s sleep. You probably zonk. But you don’t know what was the thing that actually made the impact or the most impact. And so, highly recommend, if you want to know what works for you, try to do one thing at a time and slowly add them in, and that’s pretty much it.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah. Cool.
Lindsay: Yeah. So thank you for listening. That’s what worked for us. And maybe, one of these things can work for you.
Michelle: Yeah. I hope you enjoyed listening, guys.
Cool. Okay, thanks. Bye.
Cool.
Lindsay: Thank you. Bye.
Michelle: Okay, thanks. Bye.