Design Your Well Life
Intentionally design a lifestyle that promotes healthy and clean choices.
Learn what it means to truly design a well life - a life that nurtures your Body, Environment, Mind, Spirit, and Relationships.
Whether you're curious about reducing your toxic burden, creating a home that heals, or finding balance in your everyday routines, this podcast is for you. I'll share design recommendations, personal insights, and inspiring interviews with experts and real people on their own healing journeys.
Design Your Well Life
The Healing Power of Sleep: Why Rest is Your Superpower
Welcome back to Design Your Well Life. I am so glad that you're here with me today because we're talking about something that affects every single one of us every single day. It's sleep. And if you're anything like I was for years, you might not be getting enough of it. Or at least not the right kind of it. I want you to take a second and think about the last few nights of sleep. Did you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go for the day? Or did you hit the snooze button six times, feel groggy, and rely on caffeine just to get you through the morning? If that second scenario sounds familiar, you're not alone. The CDC has called insufficient sleep a public health epidemic. And for good reason. Sleep impacts absolutely everything. Our brain, our hormones, our immune system, our ability to focus, and even our ability to heal. Today we're taking a deep dive into why sleep is so important for our bodies to heal, how our bodies decline without proper rest, and how the spaces we live in can either support or sabotage this essential process. And because you know I love understanding how we can be intentional in designing our lives, we're going to discuss how you can design your home and lifestyle to optimize your sleep for better healing, better energy, and better overall health. So grab your cozy blanket, maybe a cup of herbal tea, and let's talk about why sleep is one of the most powerful, natural healers, that we have. So what happens to our bodies without enough sleep? Imagine your body as a bustling city. We used this analogy back in the detox episode when we were talking about the lymph system. So continue with that mindset. During the day there's constant activity. People moving, traffic flowing, businesses operating. But what happens at night? The city doesn't shut down entirely. Instead, it shifts into maintenance mode. Street sweepers clean up. Repairs are made. And systems are checked to ensure everything runs smoothly the next day. Well, in an ideal city. And that's exactly what happens inside your body when you sleep. Your cells repair themselves. Your brain processes and files your memories. And your hormones rebalance. Yet in our fast paced world, sleep is often sacrificed as if it's optional. And, spoiler alert, it's not. We live in a culture that glorifies busyness. How often do we hear people say, I'll sleep when I'm dead, or sleep is overrated? As if it's some kind of badge of honor to just run on fumes. But here's the thing, our bodies don't see it that way. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, weakened immunity, and even cognitive decline. Dr. Matthew Walker is a sleep scientist, and he's the author of a book called Why We Sleep. And he explains that sleep is the foundation of our health, not just another pillar. It's not just about feeling tired, poor sleep literally changes the way that our bodies function at a cellular level. Now, studies have shown that just one night of sleep deprivation can impair blood sugar regulation, increase stress hormones like cortisol, and even lead to cognitive impairment similar to being drunk. Now, I've experimented with blood sugar regulation personally. I love experimenting and getting data on my own body back. I do this so that I know what I can do that helps or hurts all of my healing goals. I have chosen to wear a continuous glucose monitor for exactly this reason. I don't have diabetes, but I really wanted to know what external factors and foods I eat were affecting the steadiness and the resilience of my body's blood sugar regulation. And sleep actually ended up being a huge factor. Most mornings I wake up with a blood sugar level of about 85 to 90. But I noticed that when I didn't get a good night's sleep, I would start out over 100 and it would stay high for most of the day and have an increase of more than 30 points when I would eat almost any food. This really helped me realize how vital sleep was for multiple systems running in my body. Now, one landmark study found that adults who sleep fewer than six hours per night are four times. Four times more likely to catch a cold than those who get at least seven hours. Let that sink in for a minute. By sleeping at least seven hours, you could potentially use your PTO for actual vacation instead of sick days. Now, your immune system is directly tied to how well you sleep. And in another study that was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, it found that adults who sleep less than six hours a night also have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. And a study from the National Institute of Health links poor sleep to a weakened immune response, which makes it harder for the body to fight off infections. Now, what about inflammation? Let's talk about that for a minute. We've talked about chronic inflammation in previous episodes, that's what I suffered from in the beginning, and how it's the root of so many diseases. Well, guess what? When we don't sleep well, our bodies cannot only take care of the things that cause inflammation that we've interacted with during the day to lower it, but it actually makes inflammatory markers increase, making it harder for our bodies to repair tissues, fight off infections, and recover from daily stressors. So when you don't get enough sleep, you're already starting off in an inflamed position in your body, and then you're just adding more inflammation throughout the day. We need to make sleep something that can reset and help us be able to stabilize and keep that inflammation down for the rest of the day. Now, you know my story from the first episode, that after several years of having health issues that we just couldn't find out what the cause was, I was finally diagnosed with five autoimmune diseases, and during that time, my inflammatory markers were off the charts. I remember one doctor telling me they were so high that the lab actually stopped measuring and he didn't know if they could get any higher. Sleep was a big part of my healing process that I had to become okay with. I lived a very busy life, taking care of kids, working more than full time, and volunteering in my church and community. I did wear my busyness and accomplishments as a badge of honor, and if I felt like I wanted to fit in exercise or even a fun evening at the movies, it was my sleep that ended up being sacrificed. I had to change my mindset about this and make sure that sleep was my first priority. I needed to give my body time to heal, and I couldn't keep stealing that time away. I had to start setting specific bedtimes for myself and letting my family know that I loved them, but in order for me to heal, I needed to go to bed. They could choose to stay up, and many times I was the first one asleep in the evenings. But I couldn't keep up with doing everything anymore. And it was okay to scale back and take the much needed time to sleep and heal. Getting better sleep actually became just as big of a factor in lowering my inflammation as changing my diet did. This is why getting constant quality sleep isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. So how much sleep do we actually need? What is this magic number? The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours per night for most adults. And that's a recommendation that if you look in a lot of the studies, seven to nine hours really is a great number. But here's the catch. It's not just about the quantity of sleep, it's about the quality of sleep. If you're tossing and turning all night and waking up frequently, or sleeping in a disruptive environment, you might be spending 8 hours in bed, but really only getting 5 hours of restorative sleep. So, did you know that each of us has our own natural sleeping rhythm? There is a quiz called M. E. Q. And it stands for Morningness to Eveningness Questionnaire. It helps determine when your natural circadian peak is for the day, which is a really important factor in the quality of sleep. Now, for some of you, if you don't know what circadian means, it's the natural rhythm that our body goes through of being awake and being asleep and key points during the day when our system naturally starts doing different functions. You've probably experienced being forced to change your sleep schedule for work or school and found that it left you depleted or even more exhausted. For me, I've found that sleep timing is really important in the quality of sleep that I get. Whenever I stay up past the natural time that my body is ready to sleep, Even if I get 8 or 9 hours and I sleep in the next day, I'm generally more groggy and need an additional nap during that day. If you're interested in finding your score, you can google MEQ. There's a lot of different questionnaires out there. And fill the questionnaire out. It's about 20 questions. And it will help you determine what your natural circadian sleep time is. So for me, personally, I'm a moderate morning. And with testing myself with different sleep trackers, I find that my ideal number is about eight and a half hours of sleep each night. Now, back to Dr. Walker, the sleep scientist. He emphasizes that deep sleep and REM sleep are where the magic happens. And it's crucial for memory consolidation, hormone regulation, muscle growth, emotional processing, and cellular repair. So if there's any of these things that you're wanting to work on, sleep is really necessary. It's not just about sleeping more, it's about creating an environment that allows you to sleep better. Now, there are so many hidden disruptors in your home. Let's talk about some of these biggest disruptors to sleep and things that we don't even realize are actually affecting us. So the first we're going to touch on is light. Light is the enemy of deep sleep. It is one of the most powerful signals that regulates our circadian rhythm. Did you know that exposure to artificial light at night can suppress natural melatonin production by up to 50%? 50%. Melatonin is a sleep hormone, and it regulates our circadian rhythm and tells our body when it's time to wind down. Our bodies actually make this naturally, and we don't need to be taking the extra added melatonin supplements. The key is in the light. And getting the right light at the right times of the day. So when you wake up in the morning, it's the perfect opportunity to set your natural melatonin production by getting morning sunlight on your eyes. Now, don't stare at the sun. You don't need to have the sun actually getting in your eyes, but just having them open outside in the environment will signal to the receptors in your eyes, that the melatonin production is over and it's time to pick it up at a later time that evening. Now, when you're outside, try and do it without glasses and without contacts. And even if the sun isn't up yet, but you're still getting just that natural light as it's starting to get brighter in the morning, that's the perfect time to signal to your body that morning is here and night is over. Doing this will literally set an internal clock for you. Now, what are things that can interfere with this? Well, it's blue light. Blue light from screens, phones, tablets, TVs. It tricks our brain into thinking that it's still daytime. Now, if you notice, in the morning when you wake up, the earth has a lot of blue light naturally. And that's great! Blue light in the daytime Is perfectly okay. We don't need to be wearing the light filtering glasses or anything like that, probably before noon, because that's the natural light that your body needs to receive and say, Hey, it's daytime. I should be awake. But, at night as the sun, starts going down, this is where we need to be really considerate of this factor. Even just one hour of screen time before bed can delay melatonin production and trick our brains into thinking that it's still daytime. So, for an ideal scenario, stop using any screens, TVs, phones, etc. Any of it. A couple of hours before bed so that you can wind down and really prep your body. Now, a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism shows that even dim light exposure at night can disrupt your circadian rhythm and increase the risk of metabolic disorders. There are so many electronics in our rooms these days. From alarm clocks to fans. And they all have some type of light on it, indicating that it's either on or off. Now, a lot of these are blue, green, or red LED lights, and that can disrupt our sleep as well. So what can we do about it? Try using warm, dimmable lighting in the evening. Swap out your harsh LED light bulbs for warmer tones. And these are going to range in 2, 700 to 3, 000 for the ideal warm tone. So when you go to Home Depot and you're looking for light bulbs, And you're looking on the package, you're going to see these numbers and wondering, you know, what does Kelvin mean? It's a measurement of light, and you're looking for 2,700 3,000, Anything over 3, 000 is going to be really bright, like daylight outside, and that is not going to give us that wind down of the warm light in the evening. You also must get electronics out of your room. Try and pull anything out that you don't need and keep your bedroom a sanctuary away from any electronics. I even went so far as to get an actual alarm clock that winds up, old fashioned, and that rings when the little hammer hits the bell. So that I did not have the extra light from my phone or from an alarm clock. If you must have electronics in your room, try to get rid of the light. Unplug them if you can, at night. But if you can't, the cheap, easy, although not the most aesthetically pleasing way to do this is take a piece of black tape and put it over all of those glowing indicator lights. I've actually become so used to this complete darkness now that I find myself having to unplug and put pillows to block all of these glowing lights when I'm in a hotel room. Now, temperature. Let's talk about that for a little bit. You've probably heard of European sleeping or sleeping cool, and why does that actually matter? So, the ideal sleep temperature is between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Our body temperature naturally drops at night, and that's a signal to our brain that it's time to sleep. Our body also naturally heats up when it's time to wake up. So, if your room is too warm, Then you'll toss, turn, and struggle to actually get into a deep sleep. A study published in Sleep Medicine Reviews found that cooler temperatures improve sleep quality and reduce the likelihood of insomnia. So, if you're having trouble sleeping, I would suggest heat yourself up right before bed. This will allow your core body temperature to cool really quickly and put you in the perfect state to fall asleep in a cool room. How I like to do this is I personally take a warm Epsom salt bath right before bed. The Epsom salts have magnesium in them, which soak into your skin and help relax you, and then I crawl right into my cool sheets and sleep deeply. So what are some other tricks that you can use? to prep your room. Try and use breathable, non toxic bedding with several layers that you can adjust. Look for organic cotton, linen, or bamboo fabrics that will wick moisture away. I like to use three layers of bedding, a sheet, a coverlet, and a duvet. I'll go into details on all of my favorite bedding in the future, but this gives you great diversity to adjust your temperature throughout the night. I like to fold either the coverlet or the duvet into thirds at the end of the bed. And that way, if you need an extra layer in the night, you can really simply pull it up or push it away without disrupting sleep. Now let's talk about mattresses and bedding. These can actually be pretty toxic. Most conventional mattresses are full of flame retardants. Formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds, or what's known as VOCs. Now these things off gas while we sleep. Now think about that. If you're spending 8 to 9 hours with your face next to the mattress, breathing these things in, we are only adding to our toxic burden. Now, these chemicals have been linked to a lot of different things, like respiratory issues, hormone disruption, and even neurological effects. So, mattress is one really big area where I think it's worth saving and then investing in a really high quality organic mattress, that is free from all of the synthetic foams and all the toxic glues in one of our next healthy home highlights I'm going to talk about mattresses and how to go about choosing a really great one that has natural latex, Wool, or cotton options in them. Now blackout curtains. Are they helping or are they hurting? This is actually a hot topic in the sleep world The pros of blackout curtains is that they help eliminate outside light pollution. So Especially if you live in a city or you work night shifts It really can help block that extra light so that you can get a good night's sleep. Now, the cons to this is they can sometimes interfere with your natural circadian rhythm, especially if you wake up in total darkness and then struggle to get moving. So what should you do? This is going to be a personal choice, but if you use blackout curtains, you need to open them immediately upon waking. That way you can expose yourself to the natural light, even if the sun isn't quite up yet. And as we discussed earlier, the light helps reset your internal clock. So, if it's an option for you, A really great suggestion is to use automated blackout curtains. Now what this does is set a specific time in the morning that it slowly starts to open. So you can get the benefit of the blackout at night, but then when the sun comes up, or is starting to come up, you can trigger your natural circadian rhythm with these curtains opening for you. If you don't live in the city, and you're not surrounded by lights, I actually recommend not to use blackout curtains, and to wake up naturally with the sun if you can. Now, how do you design your bedroom for sleeping success? Your bedroom really should be a sanctuary. A place that your body recognizes as a sleep haven, and not a workplace. Working in bed can condition your brain to associate it with stress rather than relaxation. The more calming you can make your bedroom, the easier it will be to fall asleep when it's time. This is especially true for those who have insomnia or difficulty falling and staying asleep. So here are a few tips for your bedroom. First one, no screens in bed. Try to power down at least one to two hours before bedtime. Declutter. A messy environment can actually increase cortisol, our stress hormone, and make it difficult to feel relaxed enough to fall asleep. Try essential oils like lavender. These can help signal to your body that it's time to relax. And there's actually some really cool data that's associated with certain scents and certain tasks. So If you use one specific fragrance, let's say lavender, for example, it doesn't have to be, it can be any scent of your choice when you go to sleep. Then over time, your body will build a natural response that when it smells that scent, it will respond with wanting to wind down and be ready to sleep. Now, this also works for things like studying and taking tests and performing well at work. So scent association is a really great tool to use for more than just sleep. Dimmable lights help ease into rest mode gradually. This is another great solution If you do this, I recommend setting the timing of the dimmable lights with sunset. So as the sun starts to go down, start turning your lights down lower and lower so your interior space is replicating what the sun is naturally doing outside. Even if you stay up after the sun has completely set, if the lights are on their lowest dimmable setting, it will prepare your body for sleep so much better than having the lights turned on full strength. So you ask, what if I only have overhead lights and they are not dimmable? I suggest get some lamps for your rooms. Look for lamps that are dimmable and add one or two to each room that you spend most of your time in the evenings. Turn off the overhead lights when the sun goes down and turn on the lamps. And this will help gradually bring in that warm light signaling to your body that the sun is going down as well. Now, If you're still a light sleeper and you struggle with noises, you should consider white noise or green noise. Now, we'll cover these a little bit more in future episodes, but that is something that you can start taking a look at. So, final thoughts and takeaways. If you're struggling with sleep, start with one or two changes and then build from there. Set a bedtime routine. Consistency really is the key here. Limit your blue light exposure. Put your phone away at least an hour before bed. Keep your bedroom cool and toxin free. Invest in organic bedding if you can. Make your bedroom a sanctuary. No work. No clutter. Just rest. And expose yourself to morning light. This resets your circadian rhythm each day. Now I challenge you to take a moment today and evaluate your sleep and audit your sleep environment. Whether it's adjusting the room temperature, dimming the lights earlier, or creating a tech free bedtime routine. Think of one small change that you can make tonight that will improve it. If you found this episode helpful, I'd love for you to share it with a friend who could use better sleep. Also, head over to Design Your Well Life Instagram for a free checklist on 10 ways to improve your sleep tonight. I'll also link to studies and resources in the show notes, including Dr. Matthew Walker's book, Why We Sleep. Sleep well, my friends, and until next time, keep designing your well life.
The information provided on Design Your Well Life is for educational and informational purposes only, and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health concerns. The views and opinions expressed by the host or guests on this podcast are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organizations they are affiliated with. While we strive to provide accurate and up to date information, we make no warranties about the completeness, reliability, or accuracy of the content shared. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge and agree that neither the host nor any guests or contributors are responsible for your health decisions or outcomes. Always make choices that are right for you in consultation with trusted professionals.