Our country is suffering from major sleep problems. We don't get enough sleep, and we get low quality sleep. In this episode we cover sleep quality and quantity, for men and women, including routines and supplements that can help.
Jessica Golding is a certified health coach with certification from Villanova University. She has bee on the show previously, episode 53, make sure and check that out as well.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Our country is suffering from major sleep problems. We don't get enough sleep, and we get low quality sleep. In this episode we cover sleep quality and quantity, for men and women, including routines and supplements that can help.
Jessica Golding is a certified health coach with certification from Villanova University. She has bee on the show previously, episode 53, make sure and check that out as well.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Welcome to the Dirobi health show covering the world of fitness nutrition and supplementation with world class guests the latest clinical research and plenty of tips you can use right away to boost your health and wellness. Here's your house. Dave Sherwen.
Dave Sherwin:Hello everybody welcome back to the Dirobi health show and today we've got a repeat offender. Well that's not really a great way to put it but we have someone who's been on the show before episode 53. Jessica Golding she's a certified health coach with certification from Villanova University and did a wonderful job at episode 53 and recently I reached out to some of my favorite guests who I knew had expertise in different topics and told them some of the upcoming topics and invited them to come in and speak on them. And Jessica responded very quickly saying hed really like to talk about sleep. So that was one of the episodes I really wanted to dive into. It was one that she really wanted to cover and so this is wonderful to get her back. Jessica Golding Jessica thank you so much for being on the show again.
Jessica Golding:Yeah thank you. Yes I'm totally excited. Really thank you Dave for having me.
Dave Sherwin:Yes thank you. And I could tell from your response when I put out that e-mail asking for you know certain topics that you respond about this one that you really had some ideas and that this is something kind of close to your heart. Is this something where you've had some clients recently that are really struggling with sleep or is it something you or your husband or your loved ones have struggled with. Tell me why this subject jumped out at you when you saw it.
Jessica Golding:Yes I actually do have clients who started this sleep and my husband has in the past but I had to really start going to sleep. And so it's actually part of my story and my journey and I focus on the habit of sleep intentionally because it has affected my life in the past and now I see the difference. And you know having a couple of things changing a few habits how it's helped my sleep patterns and me feel better in general.
Dave Sherwin:Sounds great. And let's start with the importance of sleep. You've discovered that in your own life you know what it's like to discover with bad night's sleep. I understand that as well I actually had a few years of my life where I really struggled to sleep sometimes not sleeping all night and it was really awful. I mean the next day or two I was just not on my game that affected my work and sports and family everything I was doing. So I have a feel for how miserable it is to have sleep problems and so talk about the let's start with the importance of sleep. There's a lot of research on it lately. People are learning more and more about it we're also learning that at least here in the United States we're kind of a sleep deprived society. How important is it for us to get that good night's rest.
Jessica Golding:It is one of the best product that you can actually work on to have you be calm your healthy self. Because there's a epidemic of sleep deprivation. You know I'm actually surprised when people say that they get seven to eight hours of sleep because most people don't they really really don't. And so if you're getting five to six and you're not really functional you know at your awesome home delivery during the day and having the energy that you need it could come back to haunt you later. You know there are some things that we can go over but the importance is there your DNA actually repairing that cell while you're sleeping. So if you're not getting enough sleep like you said in your story again it does continue to affect you. If it's not sleep again not enough sleep again your body is trying to play catch up. And I don't know when that time frame for you if you just felt like you couldn't catch up on sleep or you wake up. You know I just I'm so tired I can't catch up on sleep. That's the reason why your body is trying to get back because of the overlap of not getting enough. Your body isn't able to function at its full height.
Dave Sherwin:Yeah. And what are some of the symptoms of lack of sleep. I mean I know people personally that almost pride themselves on shortening how much sleep they get. I've seen a movement recently you know on Instagram that was the Fort 415 crowd who pride themselves on being out of bed at 415 and getting more done in a day but effectively depriving themselves of two hours of sleep or so and I'm not sure how I feel about that. So you know any any thoughts on that. It seems like we're in a society that's driven and it's all go go go and. And you know we tend to kind of worship those people that are real high achievers but sometimes we find out the story behind the story is that you know their personal lives are kind of a wreck.
Jessica Golding:Comments on that yes. OK. So let me give you my sleep. There's a slippery slope of sleeplessness there that by my right. And the reason why is I will help. Certified help coach sleep and weight gain is actually a thing. There was a study done in England Warwick School of Medicine. They studied 20000 adults and 15000 children and found that getting less sleep almost doubled the risk of obesity even in children as young as five years old. And so when you're sleep deprived your body actually secretes excess Ghrelin. It's a hormone that increases appetite and less than a substance that tells you to stop eating. So isn't that interesting. Those are things that literally happened to our own bodies. If we're not getting enough sleep it creates a secrete Sacramone that makes us eat more. Basically the whole thing. And on top of that there are some of the other side effects of not getting enough sleep. Your immune system needs sleep like I said to return so and so when you're skimping on your sleep you're not you're more susceptible to disease. And many of my clients actually have what's called a sleep inflammation. And researchers are discovering that there are that lack of sleep can actually raise your blood levels of inflammatory activators. And. It. Is how I can explain it is that the risk of cardiovascular disease actually goes before your your health status. So you need you know having that sleep is so valuable to our personal health. If that's one thing that you are willing to change and work on I highly recommend it.
Dave Sherwin:OK. No. There's two ways to be sleep deprived and one of them is to not get. You don't have enough time or sleep. And the other is lack of sleep quality. Can you speak to that. And the difference between time in bed sleeping and the quality and deepness of the Sleep hey.
Jessica Golding:So it's our bodies. There are different stages of sleep. You know. If you aren't getting the artery and which stands for evil eye it just is REM. If you're not getting that we are seeing signs of siphonophores signs that is this that stage is same thing that's INSIGHT or help restoration. So we typically experience four to six cycles a night and you really want to hit the Arrium cycle as many times. So if you're not hitting that cycle you will feel less. It won't be as quality as sleep and something else is interesting is that in general the consensus is that women require six to seven hours of sleep each night and men seven to eight for optimal health for both of us with men and women. And so pay attention to that wherever you're aiming and making sure that you are hitting those hours you know so your that you don't include the rotation of those several healthy cycles of RBM and Aryan's status.
Dave Sherwin:OK. Of course there's no hard and fast rules for every single person. There's general guidelines and there is quite a bit of research on on hours of total sleep. And you're saying it's different for men than women. And so again for those of you listening you want to experiment with this right. Like just because you know women generally can do can six to seven doesn't mean you might not do better on eight or that you might even do fine on five and a half I suppose. But generally speaking women need about an hour less than men. Is that what you're saying.
Jessica Golding:Yes. That's what I'm saying interestingly enough that's just I mean I actually don't know the reason why that's just the general consensus that's required. It is an interesting fact.
Dave Sherwin:Now one other thing I want you to comment on I heard this years ago and it's from a source that's probably been mostly discredited and will never be invited to give another TED talk. It's Deepak Chopra. And so some people might be just rolling their eyes right now but I read one of his books years ago and when I wasn't so scientifically minded as I am now and there was a really great point he made about sleep. He said that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight and I found that to be true at least for myself. I found that there is a huge difference in whether I got to bed at 10:00 versus 11:00 versus midnight or later. What are your thoughts on that that sleep before midnight is more valuable than sleep after midnight.
Jessica Golding:I think it's because you definitely get into that deeper sleep where you're going to hit that Aryan cycle. But also because it's dark like it's important to actually have that dark room to help prepare you. Know there are some people doing the work for makeshift so it's important to prepare your room so that you can have that darkness. And the reason being is there is actually a like the blue light actually. Your occipital nerve in your eye is triggered when you're looking at your screen you're having screen time before bed or just watching TV or whatever if you fall asleep with the TV. It's not good you are not going to be having as deep and as restful sleep as you could versus turning on the TV or putting your phone away 30 minutes to an hour before you go to bed. So it's the you you want your body's officers to work in favor for you and do it.
Dave Sherwin:Turning off that blue light is in for goal Yeah absolutely and I've mentioned this before and it's probably going to be repeated over and over. But the blue blocking glasses are something that when I started using them I now find myself using them all day long. I bought blue blocking sunglasses not sunglasses but for indoor use a very light yellow Lance and I bought them because I'm on I'm looking at screens all day long and then I heard how important it is what you just said about getting rid of the blue light before you go to bed. Unfortunately we often like to crash at the end of the day and watch a little bit of YouTube or Netflix show a movie that's kind of how we often end our day. And and so I was putting on the blue blockers so that wasn't getting that blue light a few hours before I went to get went to bed. But I found I just use them all day. I have a big monitor right here. I'm recording this from my home office today. Got a fairly big monitor in front of me with my laptop beside me. And at work I have a large computer screen and that light is just intense and sometimes you don't know you have a health problem until it goes away. That was the case with me and eyestrain. I did not realize how much eyestrain I had until I got the blue blocking glasses and started removing it and all of a sudden I found this relief from something that I was just used to and so I found that what you're saying is absolutely true that blocking out the blue light the best way of course is to not be looking at the screen right. But if it's an important part of your lifestyle you know at least use the blue blockers. What's your thoughts on that.
Jessica Golding:Also I mean if you are watching TV then you go like you know put the lights on a dimmer and set it up at the lowest sitting you know avoid fluorescent light bulb. So there are some specific things you can do. Like you said and are fine as long as you remember to pull them out before you got to bed before you get to sleepy sleepy. You know once the lights are out. Make sure your beliefs are just making some of those specific things to help you and create that better environment for sleep. Know even even as far as choosing a color that suits you and seriously like the paint on your watch the video or the colors in your room. You know they actually contribute to that too good color would be soft pastels like light blue green pink lavender yellow something like that because they're coming. You know ivory coming colors when you're having dark rich colors and dark green. Those though don't look get you interesting is not like how we can be affected just by the nervous just in our environment.
Dave Sherwin:Yeah absolutely and it leads us nicely into another topic we want to talk about and that is developing a sleep routine. And I'm sure that many people listening have heard ideas on sleep routines maybe they already have a sleep routine but I think it's something that a lot of people probably don't have yet or if they do there's probably good ideas there. You know yet to implement or they're like me I can be inconsistent where I start to do a sleep routine but then I get out of the habit. And so you know ideally having a sleep routine we know from research would help us to get to sleep faster sleep deeper. So let's jump into that. Give us your thoughts on on sleep routines and some ideas that we can use to either improve the sleep or tune routine we have or develop one if we if we don't have a sleep protein at all.
Jessica Golding:Yeah sure I would love to. So preparing your bed your bedroom. You. So to make your bedroom as visually calming mentioned that already you know so that it's mentally relaxing and stress free as possible in that time frame. Also a good idea that means like your hat if you have any children and anything else around you know make sure that they're also in their proper place for beds too. Like I always put my dogs to bed too. Before I go to bed I put them in there and that's one they're kind of the one on us and put them to bed and then put my kids to bed and I have to repeat them us to really help that situation because you'll you'll be helping them out and increasing your chances of a good night's sleep as well. So that's number one. Number two you know that's preparing your son in the bathroom you know wash your face. BLOCK And watch your speed. If you're going to take a shower take one. If you have time to take one I suggest a hot bath or shower because research indicates that your temperature comes down your body gets sleepy so kind of interesting that that that helps you to calm down as well. Having loose fitting pajamas also is a good idea. Maybe cotton you know something that breeds. Number three just getting into bed once you're in bed and ready to get to sleep. Keep things calm. You know some people like to meditate do some breathing exercises or even a little bit of yoga before you hop into bed. You know to really get you in that relaxed state. Maybe if you get your partner you want to have them if you feel like you have some AIDS or can't have them massage your neck or your shoulders or do that for your partner or you know a massage or something like that and just make sure you have the lights turned off. Lugar my three kids you know just being specific about having a bedtime routine in the first place with my clients. I actually helped teach them to start their routine 30 minutes or an hour before they go to bed. So at least 30 minutes we know that blue light TV. And then starting that routine of putting kids and animals to that excellent.
Dave Sherwin:And for me the most important aspect of my sleep routine is reading. And I don't know if this would be true for everybody but I'll tell you what when when I end my my day and the very last thing I do when I lay down a bed is read that that just tends to you know get rid of a lot of the maybe anxious thoughts or worries or things are coming up the next day. All that stuff and especially when I read the right stuff I don't read like novels or things like that I usually read fiction and men. It just works wonders for me as a matter of fact if I read until I get dozy until I'm really not paying attention to the book anymore. I put it down. I'm out now I don't know if that's true for everybody and and I'm not saying that that's a magic solution but I wonder if there is kind of a really big thing for each person whether it's reading or one particular activity that they could find that would really just make them dozy and then they fall asleep right.
Jessica Golding:I love that no doubt is a fantastic idea. I still do that too. I always read something and I love your suggestion. Also on reading something that is actually going to help you I read the Iran statements positive affirmations things that are going to list to me because I like to know that my subconscious is going to be working while I'm sleeping also and it's going to be helping my brain. So we hope our body and our brains but our thoughts also help our brains to be healthier you know and having some of those healthy postures. Another key element in health is with love that you read things that are helpful for you because that's what I do.
Dave Sherwin:OK. Excellent. Any other tips or ideas thoughts on sleep routine.
Jessica Golding:Yeah I want to have one thing I know it's not directly correlated to sleep but I also want to suggest when you wake up when you wake up after your sleep like get out of bed. Once you wake up you get up when you're in bed activities to sleeping and other activities. So with that boys you you avoid sending the wrong signal to your brain that you're sleepy so if you pump out of bed like within five seconds or something like that like like you're fat you get out of bed. You will find that your day is so much better your morning is so much better. Rather than getting into another one of those kind of sleep patterns. So if you're awake but it does correlate to how you feel during the day if that makes sense to you.
Dave Sherwin:Well it really does and let me throw out another one that we haven't mentioned but this really works for me. Part of my sleep routine is after I have used the bathroom brush my teeth et cetera. The next thing I do before I get in bed is I plan out my next day's workout and then I take. And I set out all the clothes that I'm going to need. I get up before my wife so my wife is going to be asleep and I don't like to turn on the light or you know wake her up or anything like that. And so I get everything ready that I need for the gym including my gym bag my jacket. You know the whatever clothes I need to wear at the gym the right shoes for my that activity I set it all in the bathroom the next day I even prepare my pre workout drink and my face and mix some and put them in the bathroom. So the minute the alarm goes off. I'm I'm I'm ready to go. I typically have a class I found that that's just really works for me with this cross fit or class at the recreation center or whatever. That's just the type of thing that I'm liking group exercise right now I'm doing a lot more yoga. I'm doing more crossfade I'm doing more cross type training in class environments and so there's a time that I got to be at the gym and so that just works really well for me. I set my alarm to go off half an hour before that class starts. And that part of my sleep routine of getting everything ready. I think it actually helps me sleep better. I'm not worried about I'm not thinking oh in the morning I got to remember to do this. I got to find this. I'm not having to go to the laundry room to find you know shorts if there is none. You know what I'm talking about. It's all sorted out the night before. So that's another thing that's been really good for me.
Jessica Golding:Planning for success getting out those things in your mind. So I have a lot of people who write in their journals before that because they get it out. They do sleep better because we have some emotions or stresses during the day that need to be processed and so getting it out on paper that's another good suggestion but shutting it out and planning for your next day so you don't find that anxiety is looming in the background. It is awesome. I love that you do that. Yes I agree.
Dave Sherwin:OK. Now this is kind of on the fly thing I don't usually do this but I've got some supplements and some research on supplements that I never cover as a supplemental exper episode on this or I can just jump into them and you can comment on them and give us your thoughts on them as I go. Which which would you rather do to just you know this has been an excellent episode. Tons of great ideas and we could just end here and I could do another whole episode just on the research on what supplements aid with sleep or would you like to just hang in and I'll just go through those and you just add your comments.
Jessica Golding:Sure. I mean either way works for me.
Dave Sherwin:Let's just do that. A lot of these are quite common and I think you'll have already some you know good information on them solicit jump in and go over them instead of doing another episode so there's just excellent research done by examined dotcom I've mentioned this company before. They're an unbiased supplement. Oh I've lost the word there. Researchers they don't accept any money from supplement companies only from those who pay for their subscription and they won't accept any advertising dollars or anything from a supplement company so they can do unbiased research. They also don't represent any brands. They only cover the ingredients and so I love their stuff. I subscribe to it and they sent one out recently on six supplements that aid and sleep quality and the number one is luckily a very simple inexpensive one and one that you likely don't even need to supplement with. And it's magnesium. And Jessica I know you know all about magnesium. So let me run through this little bit about it and then we'll bring you back in for your comments. Magnesium is critical to sleep. The problem is it's a difficult thing to supplement because first of all it upsets the stomach. Secondly there's three different types of magnesium a lot of people don't know that. And the cheapest form just really doesn't even do anything for you anyway because your body can't absorb it. So by far when I say a supplement with magnesium you don't actually want to use it as a supplement. What you want to do is get it from your diet and the best way to get it from your diet is with I don't want to forget anything. So let me go through my list here. OK. Sorry. Hang with me. Fish nuts beans and green leafy vegetables so most people who get enough fish nuts and green leafy vegetables and beans don't need to supplement with magnesium. So the main point here with magnesium as supplement number one is first of all rule out a magnesium deficiency if you're not magnesium deficient then this is not the cause of sleep problems so Jessica this was the number one in examined outcomes research that people who are magnesium deficient that the best thing they can possibly do is take magnesium. What's your thoughts on that one.
Jessica Golding:Yeah mean it's very important if you've got a deficiency it actually can cause high blood pressure and causes migraines osteoporosis Heidi cancer heart arrhythmia and asthma. So interesting. I love that. Yes. So magnesium is important and having those green leafy vegetables some beans nuts as you mentioned are exactly what you can do to help. You know it's you know if you don't have that salt but check it and make sure you do have that first you don't have to incorporating these foods into your daily habits and that will help you.
Dave Sherwin:Yeah. Excellent. And here's a really cool tip if you do want to something with magnesium. The best way is not to ingest it. As I mentioned it can just upset your stomach and ideally as a supplement for sleep you want to take it right before you sleep. So how do you do that if you're not going to ingest it. Well the way you do that is a spray and typically sprayed on your thighs. Now it can be kind of itchy and uncomfortable and so there is one on Amazon that I discovered that advertises a non itch spray. And so the very best and it's not very expensive you guys so those you don't want to try this. It's a great way to do it. Plus if you've worked hard if you know you've had leg day that day and your quads are sore it actually helps to calm down your quads so the way you'd supplement at least for sleep with magnesium is to spread on your quads. Rub it in and it will absorb through your skin so that doesn't upset your stomach. So just kind of an interesting little thing. Yeah. If you're familiar with this aren't you.
Jessica Golding:Yes. It also plays a key role and like nerve conduction so it lessens inflammation as you're telling me. So putting it on your legs like it can also enhance your immune function Soledad. That's awesome that they have that. I didn't know they had. All right. So I'm learning new stuff. Yeah.
Dave Sherwin:Yeah they do. And I use it especially when I was doing a lot of serious triathlon. I was always sore and and I would use it every night I'd spray it on my quads rub it in. And I found it gave me that muscle relief as well as help me sleep. That's a really cool thing. But the first thing I got was a cheap one from my local health food store and it was miserable and it was also kind of sticky. So it was annoying. Stick into my clothes you know so couple little tips to the wise there is you got to get the not the no itch version of the spray. The second one according to the researchers melatonin and the one I'm using right now I just love because it's a spray. It's actually inhaled. I inhale it. And so it goes into the bloodstream within 30 seconds makes me drowsy for those nights when I'm just having trouble falling asleep or I'm lying there if my mind's racing melatonin is the bomb for that. It helps you get drowsy the problem again is if you ingest it it's going to take 20 minutes it's got to go through your whole digestive system has got to go through your liver. And by the time it gets into your bloodstream you know you've been lying there for 20 minutes and so the inhaled one it's a little awkward because if you're not used to inhaling anything like I don't inhale anything else. It took me a couple nights to get used to but I just kept on using it. And the other thing is when you inhale it you only need about four milligrams because it's going directly into your bloodstream versus having a lot of it be lost indigestion. So we'll put a link to that one as well. The product on Amazon. One important thing about melatonin. It does not improve the quality of your sleep. They know that from the research what melatonin does is help you get drowsy and get to sleep. Another reason why I don't like to take a bunch of it. I don't see the point of having hundreds of milligrams in my bloodstream for hours when I only need it for a short period of time to get drowsy so there you have it. Jessica the the latest on melatonin what's your thoughts on that one.
Jessica Golding:I I am familiar with melatonin. I haven't done a lot of research. I just know that caffeine can increase the levels of overweight chemicals and melatonin. There's something called Jama amino Butorac acid called Dabbah and other substances can counteract those. So that's just an interesting right there. But no sign of everything that is said that's that's all true. Exactly what I found.
Dave Sherwin:And by the way melatonin is a hormone you guys shows you listening melatonin is something your body creates anyway. It's just that in our modern society you know and with all of the pollution light pollution the noise you know the bad diets you know none of us has a perfect diet or bodies. It's highly likely we're not producing melatonin at the levels that we ought to. And so a lot of us because of our modern society our hormone production just isn't quite there. And so this might really be a great solution for you if you're troubling to hear if you're having trouble falling asleep your melatonin production could be the problem. So supplementing with melatonin could really do the trick. Yep. Yeah yeah and the next one I'm I don't know a lot about this one I don't know how much you know about this but it's it's lavender now Jessica are you an essential oils person or not really. Where you at with essential oils.
Jessica Golding:I am not actually unfortunately I am allergic to a lot of sense. So that's not something that I personally do. I know that it does help a lot of people. I've found that stories and things that I heard in real life. My husband works at a hospital and so there's only a certain level of work. Those lavender oils think can do. Some people think they can do actually more. And then he takes care of babies and these kids coming in in trouble. So I'm just aware that that's my suggestion for those well I think they're great for cents and some you know putting some in your water like lemon. You know for lemon water but maybe that is helpful because it's calming sense or calming when you're doing yoga and other thing it's a natural coming being. But I don't think that they should be used for higher levels of things that need to be taken care of through nutrition.
Dave Sherwin:If that makes sense to you that really makes sense to me and I'm I'm where you are as a matter of fact. I like oil. Don't get me wrong I've got a few of them in my cupboard. I like them. You know the smell of oils. I do think they can have a calming effect when putting a diffuser that type of thing. So for those of you that are you know the big oil fans and it's part of your religion ever be because some of the people I know that are into oils are really really into oils. The problem is an examined dotcom pointed this out that it's very difficult to study the things that are taken through a scent you know things that we just smell are diffusers. So the research they did was not orally taken lavender because I know when I say lavender most people are thinking about taking it an oil form. But but I'm sorry. As oils maybe some people will swipe the oil across their upper lip so that they're breathing in that scent and they feel that that calms them hey if that works for you make it part of your sleep routine. I'm not saying you know that it's just not working or is not effective. I don't know that. But I do know that the research it was done was on taking it orally and lavender unlike melatonin helps soothe the sleep quality. So the melatonin is more likely to get you to sleep quicker and then not do anything after that. Lavender's the opposite lavender will deepen your sleep quality. So the next morning the subjective response from the the people doing these tests was that they had a better night's sleep. And so they're feeling they felt better they felt more energized. They had more you know energy in their step when they got out of bed. That type of thing. That's what lavender will do for you. There is a little bit of evidence that it can interfere with women's birth control pills. And so you would want to talk to a health professional if you're going to use lavender seriously and take a decent amount of it. The last thing you want to do is be trying to not have a baby and end up having a baby. So there's some research showing that that can happen could have a great calming effect. Yeah yeah. So interesting. But lavender does have a calming effect and helps you have a more deeper quality sleep and it can also be taken orally in a form of select. We'll put a link to that in the show notes as well. The next one is glycine. Now they they say that this one's not as effective as the others so you want to start by all of these I'm presenting an order you'll start with the magnesium and rule out that you don't have a deficiency and then you want to go to the melatonin and so on. So these are listed in order according to the research and the studies have shown that glycine does not actually improve how quickly you get to sleep or how well you sleep. But what they found was it was another subjective thing where a vast majority of participants reported feeling significantly more rested the following morning meaning that even through all the research that they did and through monitoring the sleep patterns of the people in the studies they actually didn't find external evidence that glycine was making a big difference. But the participant the study participants felt like it made a big difference so that's kind of an interesting one. Are you familiar with glycine.
Jessica Golding:Jessica I am not. That's actually one that I'm not familiar with. But that is an interesting Betty. I you know I would love to learn.
Dave Sherwin:Me too. Not familiar with it. Never heard of it before this but the way you take it is three grams of glycine 30 to 60 minutes before sleep it's usually taken without food. But they do say further research is needed but there's enough research to show that the quality of sleep was reported as being better when people did the glycine. So again you would do this after trying the other ones. The next one is Valérian you familiar with Valerian.
Jessica Golding:How do you spell that one. I'm thinking is older than me or a VVA L E R I.
Dave Sherwin:And it's a root. It's another secondary option. And again it's another one where the evidence isn't strong but the subjective. I'll just I'll just read part of the report here it says it seems to improve subjective reports on sleep and mood. So people reported better feeling of well-being and alertness the morning after supplementation so they say that it's not as effective as melatonin but there are some people that melatonin doesn't really work for and so this would be the next thing you jump to so if you try the melatonin for say. And by the way they say to try all of these for at least two weeks before determining if they're effective. Your body doesn't respond immediately to some of these things so the idea is to start with the first supplements we mentioned try them for two weeks and see how well they work and then if not you go to the next one and try it for two weeks and until you find a winner so if melatonin doesn't work for you you you would try this. Yeah. And then that's when it is interesting stuff. I mean some of these things I'd never heard of melatonin I had because I already use it it's quite you know kind of famous I guess already most people know that it's a sleep aid but yeah and the next one is another surprising one it's lemon balm lemon ball lemon balm. B A L M It is a light sedative like lavender. And the key here is like melatonin it reduces the time it takes to fall asleep having that in the air.
Jessica Golding:Again I think there are many things that are coming so I can see how that would be the case.
Dave Sherwin:Yeah. And then the last point they make here is that you can render all of these things less effective by inappropriate caffeine use. You had mentioned that earlier. But talk to us about caffeine caffeine is in a lot of things a lot of people like caffeine in the morning. Some people are intolerant to caffeine so they don't take it anyway. Others live on it. But caffeine can really disrupt your circadian rhythms just the way you talk to us about caffeine and why is caffeine management OK so caffeine is.
Jessica Golding:You know we actually suggest to our clients to only have up to 300 milligram caffeine each day. OK. No more of that. And the reason why is it does it does affect your sleep. We also suggest her clients have cowpeas before three o'clock in the afternoon so that it doesn't affect their sleep patterns. And what it does is it's a stimulant that actually makes your body move faster. That what a stimulant does. Right. So that's exactly what the issue is is that it will actually make you kill more calories will make you move more. It'll help you get more things done. Is there some benefits of this like if you're taking a test you know having a little bit of caffeine before that for mental clarity is a great thing. But it will interrupt you. Keep your brain awake and your mind running if you have it late and you have too much excellent and I don't know how familiar you are.
Dave Sherwin:I'm really putting on the spot here because I didn't tell you we're going to talk about this before so no no problems if you know you don't have an answer on this one. But what I see you know people should manage your caffeine. I like your rules. I think they're excellent. They're a little bit conservative compared to some others so that's wonderful. The FDA says up to 600 milligrams a day Max. The Mayo Clinic says up to 400 milligrams Max. I understand the word on the street is that the FDA is seriously considering changing their standard down to 400. You're saying 300 which is even safer so that's wonderful. But let's give people an idea what that means.
Jessica Golding:For example do you know how many milligrams of caffeine are in a red bull I don't but I know there's a lot. I think everyone there is like a stranger ignore him in one cup of coffee Eric coffee. There's a hundred milligrams of caffeine. So if you're having more than three cups of coffee we we want you because it's also good for your heart. So allow it to not have to be functioning such a high stimulated level. Many of my clients who have heart problems don't even have caffeine anyway. You know. So that right there in itself would be an understanding to let you know the importance of not having too much because it does interfere with your your heart is a muscle and yeah we want to work it but not just by a stimulant. It's important for you to get out and get some healthy emotions. That's the best way to have cardiovascular help.
Dave Sherwin:Absolutely. And yawn the coffee when you say a cup. I think that literally means a cup like eight ounces. It doesn't mean a large Starbucks coffee right.
Jessica Golding:Yeah.
Dave Sherwin:And so yeah it's like people say Well OK let me finish my thought on the red dot so the Red Bull has 200. A monster has 200 most pre workout drinks. Have 200. So if you have a pre workout drink or use an energy drink there's 200 right there if you're trying to stay with Jessica's 300 you're only allowed one cup of coffee for the remainder of the day if you want to go at the Mayo Clinic rule then. OK you could have two cups of coffee on top of your prewired workout your master or your Red Bull. Now a 12 ounce can of Dr. Pepper or coke both have about 40 milligrams of caffeine. But again who drinks 12 ounces anymore. You did I mean you see these people at the 7-Eleven with the monster golpe or whatever it's called. Right. And people are downing like 60 ounces of pop in a big huge cup and sometimes refilling that day with a caffeinated pop. So soda pop. So it's pretty easy to get over 300 milligrams of caffeine.
Jessica Golding:Yes. And this is like you for each of you listening to pay attention to how much caffeine you're having maybe never try the milligrams. You know maybe they haven't ever thought oh how much they are having sleep problems. Well this is a guide to limit the caffeine you know so that they can help these sleep and cutting back on your daily consumption isn't a bad thing. It really honestly isn't. It's OK if you have free workout before you go and buy. And you know is it helping you a little. Well I've said it but just doing it does happen. You probably don't need to do that. You think about it it's not really necessary. If it's something that you are utilizing to keep you awake and it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon you need a nap. That's a sign that says you're not getting enough sleep.
Dave Sherwin:OK excellent. So don't compensate for your lack of sleep with caffeine right.
Jessica Golding:Yes exactly.
Dave Sherwin:Now along those lines the same place where I get the melatonin inhaler I get a caffeine inhaler. Now this is really funny because inhaled caffeine may sound like absolute DEVIL. Everything we just said right. But in actual fact this is a really interesting thing because when you inhale a supplement like literally breathe that into your lungs you need way way less. For example when you take three deep breaths of inhaled caffeine you're only taking in four to six milligrams of caffeine four to six not 40 to 60. Right. So for example one of the unfortunate uses of caffeine in our society is students both high school students and college students who are cramming for stuff they're cramming for tests or writing a paper. It's last minute. Like most of their papers are done last minute and they take a red bull at 10:00 at night to finish up their homework and now they're not going to have a good sleep for hours and hours. And so this unhealed caffeine again debates sound like the devil. But in actual fact what happens is you inhale the caffeine you get that uptick in energy but it only lasts about 40 minutes. So it goes into your lungs. You fill it in about 30 seconds is increased energy and then it goes away. And so then you're able to go to sleep. So for those of you who are saying yab you know I hear what you're saying about caffeine I know it's not that good for me but I drive late at night. I got to have it to keep awake or I'm a student or I'm a nurse or I'm a firefighter I'm a police officer. This stuff gets me through my nightshift. I'm going to put a link to the inhaled caffeine. Now the one thing you got to do though. I highly recommend that you do anyway is occasionally you got to do a caffeine fast. You ought to you ought to try to be off caffeine one week out of a month. If you if you can. A lot of people have talked about this Ben. Greenfield talks about this on his podcast and what that does is first of all it helps you to not be an addict. Caffeine is actually not technically addictive. It's called habit forming that's a lower thing than a you know if you're if you take caffeine every day you're not actually an addict. But it is habit forming which is meaning you can crave it right. You maybe don't have withdrawal symptoms if you stop but you can develop a craving for it. So if you go off it for a week and then you get one of these inhalers you'll be amazed how much energy you feel in 30 seconds by only taking in a few milligrams of caffeine. So to get through that afternoon lethargy to even as a pre workout late at night if you need a boost but you don't want a red bull or a monster that's going to affect your sleep for hours and hours. This is a good way to kind of keep your fix but not be messing around so much with you know so so much caffeine that it's giving you you know all those negative effects of caffeine. So any thoughts on that.
Jessica Golding:Jessica No I wouldn't be very interesting actually. Something that I personally never tried but I like it doesn't mean you're just some for longer than you really need. So it sounds to me like because of the Alexa Marilyn Miller the ground getting the or her breath or however you described it is going to use the 40 minutes you're going to take that test that was taking it head or that is going to help him get through it. But that is not going to get there. Even even the melatonin that relieves that later on is not going to affect those and the chemicals like a I say that's definitely going to keep your awake chemical high. You know so it's just different things definitely paid attention to your Yearsley and just not numbing yourself to sleep with glasses you know caffeinated beverages or even alcohol you know to help you to sleep. Signs of not getting the right breath that you need if you can't literally fall asleep.
Dave Sherwin:OK excellent. Well you've been a great sport and I've hit you with several things that I didn't prepare you for. It's not normally the way I work I normally have my my notes and provide them all to my guests just so that you know and I don't normally hit them with hey I'm going to talk about this now as well. What do you think. So Jessica you've been a great sport to cover a lot of these things some of which are in this research that neither you or I really familiar with but I hope all of you who are listening found that interesting it is is it is the latest research and supplements for a good night's sleep. But of course they are called supplements for a reason they should supplement all the things Jessica talked about earlier the importance of sleep getting enough sleep getting the right quality of sleep having a sleep routine all of those things are primary and then these other things are supplemental to that. And Jessica you've you've been great. We've gotten some really great ideas here on the show. Is there anything you'd like to add before we sign off about sleep in general that we haven't covered yet.
Jessica Golding:Yes. I want everybody to think about something that you know that you could personally improve on. And that's really what it what it boils down to is working finding one that you want to focus on for the week or for the month and having that goal our daily habits really are what matters. And it's about lifelong transformation. One healthy habit is fine and sleep is one of them. So just find something something specific about what Dave and I talked about today and choose to optimize your health with the sleep habits excellent stuff.
Dave Sherwin:Thanks again so much for being on the show. Jessica I appreciate it.
Jessica Golding:Yes you are very welcome Dave I love it. Thank you for having me.
Dave Sherwin:Thank you again to everyone listening. This is Dave Sherwen wishing you health and success.
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