Crunchy Stewardship

Sleep is Healing Time: Reclaiming Your Rest

• Katie Jones • Season 2 • Episode 35

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0:00 | 1:14:13

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship! In this episode, Katie and Chrissy brave the winter weather (and the broken windshield wipers) to talk about one of the most underrated pillars of health: Sleep.

But first, Katie shares a "Random Revelation" from her holistic dentist about why snacking all day might be ruining your teeth—and your gut. Then, the ladies dive deep into the science of sleep. They discuss the scary reality of what happens when you don't get enough rest (did you know lack of sleep can mimic diabetes?), and why we need to shift our mindset from "bedtime" to "healing time."

From Scandinavian sleeping tricks to the debate over sound machines, they cover the practical, natural, and biblical ways to steward your rest.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • The 2-Hour Rule: Why spacing out your meals is crucial for your dental and gut microbiome.
  • The Diabetes Connection: How getting only 6 hours of sleep can lead to insulin resistance.
  • Habit Stacking: Practical ways to signal to your body that it's time to wind down (like taking out your contacts!).
  • Sleep Sanctuary: Tips for setting the perfect temperature, lighting, and air quality in your bedroom.
  • Natural Sleep Aids: Why we love Magnesium (and are cautious about Melatonin), plus a list of foods that naturally boost your sleep hormones.

Resources mentioned:

Chapters: 

00:00 Introduction to Crunchy Stewardship
03:13 Random Revelation: Meal Spacing Benefits
10:51 Fasting and Its Benefits
13:53 The Importance of Sleep
15:34 Personal Sleep Experiences
19:19 Sleep Schedules for Kids
24:12 The Struggles of Sleep Deprivation
31:10 Sleep Is "Healing Time"
36:25 Being Overtired
38:07 The Risks of Poor Sleep
42:04 Lifestyle Changes for Better Sleep
47:03 Habit Stacking for Better Sleep
52:38 Setting the Perfect Sleep Ambiance
01:04:27 Natural Sleep Aids and Nutrition
01:10:59 Foods That Boost Melatonin Production


Remember, whether you eat or drink (or sleep!), do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

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FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Rombach. And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We are cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically. From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live. So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship.

Chrissy

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship. Everybody. Good to see you guys today, or I guess good to talk to you guys today since I can't really actually see you. Um, yeah, today Katie and I are recording. It is very, very cold outside. Um, we're, the entire nation is currently prepping for a winter storm. Uh, I think it's kind of funny here in Durham'cause we don't really do snow very well in North Carolina. And earlier this week they were predicting it is Friday, or it's Thursday now, but on Monday this week they were predicting 14 inches of snow. Then on Tuesday they said five inches of snow. Wednesday they said three inches of snow and now they're just saying freezing rain and ice. With maybe a flurry. So, uh, we'll see how this weekend goes. I'm not looking forward to it because let me tell you, I would much rather have five inches of snow than freezing rain and ice. What about you, Katie?

Katie

Yeah, from someone who has experienced both of those in the last couple weeks, I would agree. The freezing rain is awful and both of my windshield wipers broke this past week because it was so cold and they stuck to my car and we had to get new winds and

Chrissy

Oh no,

Katie

yeah, it was not good. And it's, it is like super, super duper cold here. The high tomorrow is going to be What did I say? It was negative four or something.

Chrissy

think you said negative four. Yeah.

Katie

low is gonna be like negative 11, so, it's cold. The schools are closed

Chrissy

Wait, what's the wind? Chill.

Katie

Oh gosh. I'm sure it feels like 50 or so. You know, it's just like something crazy

Chrissy

Oh.

Katie

Um, I mean right now it's currently nine degrees and feels like negative six, so tomorrow I'm sure it's gonna be feeling like negative of degrees. And I, I guess I do have somewhere to go. I was gonna say, I'm glad I don't have anywhere to go, but I kind of do, but not very far, which is nice. But I don't wanna be outside

Chrissy

Yeah, that sounds miserable. Well, anyways, enough about our weather. That just sounds like a, a fun way to kind of start the episode sometimes. Like

Katie

giving

Chrissy

what's it like right now? Weather update on the nines.

Katie

Uh, come join us on crunchy stewardship to get your weather updates, everybody.

Chrissy

Well weather update a month late because we are recording these a month in advance. Anyways, well, to actually start off today's episode, Katie, what's your random revelation for today?

Katie

yeah, so my random revelation today is more of a tip for anyone who is looking to. Reduce their chances of tooth decay and getting cavities and such things. I learned from our kind of natural holistic dentists that we have that one of the ways that you can help prevent cavities and tooth decay is to simply space out meals and drinks by a minimum of two hours. So your mouth, similar to your gut, has a microbiome. And in order to protect the microbiome in your mouth, you need to give your mouth time to all of the acidic ness in it, I guess, because when you eat or drink anything that is not water, becomes more acidic, which then if it stays acidic, will lead to tooth decay. So. What they recommended, what my dentist had recommended was to space out all of your food and drinks that are not water by at least two to two and a half hours minimum. So then, you know, obviously longer time is better even. And by doing that, it allows the microbiome to kind of recalibrate in a sense. So that includes things like fizzy drinks. So even if you're just doing like bubbly waters or coffee or tea and any snacks. So snacking throughout the day or drinking coffee throughout the day is actually really bad for the microbiome in your mouth, which is something that I learned.'cause I. Typically have the bad habit of just sipping on a cup of tea or coffee or something like that, especially a warm drink throughout the day. And so they mentioned that because I have really good dental care. But that's the one thing where they're like, it would probably be better if you spaced everything out and gave it at least two hours between drinking something or eating something. So she said if you're gonna have dessert, eat dessert like with dinner, like have like eat your dinner and eat dessert at the same time and it will help to make sure that you do not like your microbiome of your mouth like all in disarray. So yeah, I have been trying to do that as much as I can. It's hard because I do really like drinking tea and coffee throughout the day and I currently do have my peppermint tea with me, so sorry dentist, but that one's a hard habit to kick for me.

Chrissy

That's interesting. I mean, it makes a lot of sense'cause even like holistic providers, you know, Josh acts, Casey means people like this, like they all say, to space out your meals by at least four or five hours to allow your body to fully digest everything that you ate in your previous meal. And to prevent additional, like maintaining a higher insulin level if you space'em out. It also decreases your, uh, baseline insulin or your, your fasting insulin level in your body and helps with a boatload of things like, um, brain fog, helps with metabolism, helps with. Energy levels helps prevent Alzheimer's, things like that. So I think all in all eating constantly throughout the day is just not the move at all whatsoever. It's

Katie

interesting to me is I do remember some health professionals that I had listened to or read books on or something many, many years ago had recommended, like one of the healthy things to do is instead of having large meals, like a breakfast, lunch and dinner, rather to have small meals throughout the day, which at this point I'm like, I don't think that that is really a good thing to just be like eating every couple hours or so, and that's what they had recommended and

Chrissy

the

Katie

that.

Chrissy

well, so. Modern medicine still recommends that actually, um, we say that specifically for people who are frequently nauseous. So if you're hospitalized, super nauseous or have a condition where you're super nauseous or pregnant. Ladies, this applies to them too. We say eat frequent small meals, which I fully agree with that. If you are nauseous, eating a large meal makes it more, makes nausea worse, and getting hungry makes nausea worse. And so like,

Katie

preventing

Chrissy

yourself from getting hungry makes sense for preventing nausea.

Katie

I

Chrissy

I also say that recommend for people. To eat small frequent meals throughout the day if they need to increase their appetite,

Katie

They have

Chrissy

they have a low appetite

Katie

and they

Chrissy

they find themselves eating very little for breakfast, very little for lunch, very little for dinner early.

Katie

If

Chrissy

If they're struggling with early satiation, so like they're feeling satisfied before their body has like finished getting all the nutrients in,

Katie

that's

Chrissy

that's when I would tell them to eat frequently throughout the day so that they're actually getting enough nutrients in because at that point we're more concerned about getting enough nutrients rather than the insulin resistance part of things. Um, but for the vast majority of people, like if you're pretty healthy or even if you have most chronic diseases, honestly, if you're not really that healthy and if you are really healthy, pretty much, if you're anything except pregnant or nauseous or have a low appetite, then I would say eating. Fewer larger meals is better than eating frequent smaller meals just in terms of metabolism and mitochondrial health and energy levels and insulin levels and blood sugar levels and all of the things kind of, they all go together. So allow yourself to be hungry. Being hungry is okay. It is not okay to be hungry all day long unless you are intentionally fasting for religious purposes or something like that. But being hungry a little bit before each meal is good and necessary, because ultimately, if your body is like healthy, you're going to become hungry at about the same time every day. Like for me, it hits 12, 12 30 and I'm like. About ready to fall over. But if I'm looking at a meal at 1145, I am not hungry at all whatsoever. Come 12 o'clock though. You betcha. I'm ready to eat. So that's just a good way to kind of think about, okay, am I actually healthy? Like, is my microbiome in my mouth? Am my gut in a healthy place right now? Am I getting hungry around the same time every day? Am I eating, um, low glycemic index foods? Am I focusing on my protein and my fats? And those things are really gonna be beneficial for our health in the long run.

Katie

Have you gotten

Chrissy

I feel like I kind of just,

Katie

what?

Chrissy

I feel like I kind of just took over. Your random revelation

Katie

No, it's great. I mean, I think adding onto it even more so makes it, I was gonna say more random, but that doesn't, that doesn't even make sense. It doesn't make it more random.

Chrissy

just makes it better.

Katie

yes, it makes it better. You made it so much better. Especially because I was like, what should I share today for my random revelation? And I was like, oh, I'll just share this. Because it was kind of on my mind because I've been trying to practice that better because it's so hard for me, especially in the winter. But yeah, it's, it was just on my mind and I was like, there you go. So God had a purpose for it and he wanted you to expand on it, but I was going to ask you, in the Biblio diet book, have you gotten to the part yet where they talk about fasting?

Chrissy

That's like the first chapter.

Katie

I couldn't re, I could not remember off the top of my head. That is so funny because you've said now that you're like a third of the way through the book, so clearly you've read it. Okay.

Chrissy

Yes.

Katie

will tie into our topic today, I promise. But it's interesting to me. So we've kind of mentioned fasting now, and simply just the idea of waiting to eat instead of, you know, eating constantly. I've been hearing this more from other professionals that fasting actually can make you healthier in a sense. It can help boost different of your body to better. actually, so now I am currently listening to the book, good Energy by Casey means Casey, Callie. Callie means, Casey means Casey means not Kelly. they.

Chrissy

I think it's Casey,

Katie

Uh, Callie is also kind of a girl name too, but Callie is her brother, and so I, and they're, they did technically coauthor it, I think, anyway, not wrong.

Chrissy

I think Casey's more of the boy name, honestly.

Katie

Yeah,

Chrissy

But Ka Casey's the girl.

Katie

Yeah. That is kind of

Chrissy

It's backwards.

Katie

Funny.

Chrissy

Maybe I could have a conversation with their mom when we get to heaven someday,

Katie

You, I think you need to, but like, what were you thinking?

Chrissy

or maybe not.

Katie

Anyway, whoever wrote the book, one of the means, children who wrote this book, and they're adults, they're not

Chrissy

They're not children. They're full grown adults.

Katie

Okay. I need to get to my point. She actually, so today I also listened to the part of her book where she talked about this idea of fasting. So having a smaller eating window throughout the day. And they talk about that in the Biblio diet where you stop eating at a certain time and then you don't eat in the morning until a certain time. And obviously the parts that you are not eating is considered the fasting, which typically is overnight now. She mentions this in her book, they mention it in the Biblio Diet book, and I also a tip or not read a tip. I listened to a tip on a summit that I had watched the, the Maha Summit. They kind of talked about this same thing for tips for better sleep is to stop eating for hours before bedtime. So that kind of coincides with this whole fasting idea that if you're going to stop eating, you know, so far in advance from sleeping and then not start eating until a certain time in the morning. And it also you sleep better. So there's a lot of benefits to this idea of fasting and using your internal clock to help you with your timing and all those things. And it's like, you know, it's like God had. Planned it all perfectly to begin with that we should be in tuned with what our body is telling us when it comes to sleeping and eating and all these things, does eventually now lead us to our actual topic for the day, which is about sleep. And so we're gonna talk more in depth about each of these things, why we need sleep, what you know, bad sleep does to us. We'll talk about how much sleep we should be getting in the night and how to get better sleep if we're not sleeping well. kind of some of the other ideas as far as like what to do if we need to try to get better sleep. Like if we're kind of already doing a lot of these lifestyle changes, like what things can we also add to ourselves? like take things like that, like some sort of sleep aid or sleep assistance. Like we will discuss the different ones out there and which ones we should avoid and which ones are more safe and natural. All the things, all the things about sleep. There's honestly a lot to say about this topic, so we will try and compact it into this episode as best as we can. But if you have questions or thoughts or ideas further on this topic of sleep or anything crunchy stewardship related, please come and join us over on our Facebook group, crunchy Christian Mamas on a budget, and we'd love to discuss and you know, keep the conversation going and talk about it more. So with that, Chrissy, do you feel like you wanna kick us off on, well, actually here, I have a good question for you, and then you can go into whatever you want next. How much did you sleep last night,

Chrissy

Great. Honestly, my sleep last night was rough.

Katie

Ooh.

Chrissy

It was, I got so tired of, well, hmm, backstory, my sleep the past few nights has been kind of rough. I think Max has been having a hard time sleeping and when he wakes up a lot, he tosses and turns a lot, which then wakes me up a lot. And so hard to tell if it's actually me having a hard time sleeping or if it's him having a hard time sleeping that's making me have a hard time sleeping. But all in all, neither of us have had gotten very good sleep the past few days. And last night even I was so exhausted at eight o'clock I said, peace out, I'm going to bed. And so I did. I went to bed at eight o'clock and I, I think I actually fell asleep if I didn't. I was really close. Um, but. As soon as I was laying down, I asked Max, I was like, Hey, you wanna work out in the morning? And he was like, no, remember you have your appointment tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM And I said, oh, I literally scheduled my patients at 9:00 AM and the appointment is an hour away from where my patients are and the appointment is not going to last five minutes. And so of course that got me all stressed out about my schedule today, right before falling asleep. And I could do nothing about it because it was bedtime and I couldn't reschedule my patients. It's way too late for that not professional. And so I just had to pray and I was like, Lord, you are in control. You know the timing of this appointment and of my patients and if I have to take the toll road tomorrow, it will be okay. Um. And all in all, I ended up taking the toll road when I was only 15 minutes late for my first patient. And then the rest of the day I was on time. So,

Katie

Nice.

Chrissy

with that being said, uh, to answer your question, in a nutshell, sleep last night was rough. How was yours? Hmm.

Katie

My sleep's been all right-ish when I am sleeping. It's been pretty good. We've been sleeping pretty hard and we, I mentioned, I think on the last episode that we started potty training. Malachi, we have gone. The method that we have taken is going all in, so that means He's sleeping like commando, or I guess he's sleeping in some like trainer undies for bedtime. And so when he wets himself at night, he wakes up and he cries and he's usually like a super excellent sleeper. Malachi, we have been super blessed by his sleeping habits because since about three months old, he's been pretty much sleeping through the night and. Very rare occasions does he wake up in the middle of the night. So hence we typically get good sleep, um, or he, he is not the cause of bad sleep for us typically, but right now, while potty training, unfortunately just because of the, the method that we are choosing to do with potty training, he has woken nights around between like 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM and it's kind of a bummer. But we know that it's only for a time being a parent, it, it really is hard to get good sleep. Even, even if your child is a good sleeper, you are woken up by a kiddo for some, you know, when they're sick, they come to you, they cry in the middle of the night, you have to help them. And oftentimes lots of kids are not good sleepers and so parents are often awake lots of hours of the night. And it's kind of one of those. You know, little challenges that you have to face as a parent and you just remind yourself, like, kids are a blessing and I love you, but I really love my sleep too. But, uh, other than that, typically my sleep is pretty good and I get about hours per night. which, know, if we wanna talk about like the recommended hours, most people kind of know generally that they should be getting somewhere between seven to nine hours of sleep per night. And I, uh, I think. I think it's in her book. Does, does she talk about it in good energy? I think she talks about the ranges for sleep.

Chrissy

I think so.

Katie

I, I feel like I did hear

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

Infants, obviously, they, they need tons of sleep. And when babies are first born, they sleep for more than half of the day. And I miss those days. They were so cute, where like a baby would just fall asleep on you and Malachi would just be doing something and all of a sudden it's like his batteries would die and he would just be like, know, and you'd just fall asleep wherever, whenever. And that was crazy. And it's also really adorable, but you grow, you need a little bit less sleep. And so you're toddlers, you need about like, I think 11 to 14. And then when you get to the older preschool ages, it's a little bit less than that. I think like 10 to 13 ish hours. And then think teenagers though, I, I feel like it, it's like, it's something where the, it's almost like a. U curve where you, you start getting less, but then teenagers need more. Is that right? Does that sound right?

Chrissy

Teenagers need more and their natural circadian rhythms become later. That's why like the stereotypical teenager wakes up at two o'clock in the afternoon and is still in their PJs all day. Well, that is appropriate. Well, maybe not two o'clock in the afternoon, but a teenager's natural circadian rhythm does get later in the day. So more like a midnight to 10:00 AM rather than a 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM or whatever, eight to six, you know. Um, yeah, they require a teeny bit more and it's later.

Katie

And I've, I've heard a lot of use this argument to advocate for different hours for high school, because it's almost like backwards when you're in. Preschool and then elementary, you start later and then high school. I remember starting, I feel like it was like 7:00 AM or something. And so you have to wake up

Chrissy

And

Katie

early.

Chrissy

kids wake up and preschool kids naturally wake up at like 6:00 AM you know?

Katie

seems so

Chrissy

Yeah,

Katie

So I, I know that I've heard a lot of different parents using that as an argument to change school hours.

Chrissy

Yeah. My school in high school started at 7 35, and then we had Hurricane Harvey and Miss two weeks of school, so they changed the start time to 7 25. In order to make up that extra time, they spread out the two weeks over 10 minutes a day for every day for the rest of the year.

Katie

That seems

Chrissy

Then I think they just kept it. Well, you know, this is what happens when you put MBAs in charge of things.

Katie

extra a day gonna do

Chrissy

Yes.

Katie

Like 10 extra? Like, okay, we're gonna do two extra math problems or So like.

Chrissy

they added like one minute to every class, or like a minute and 15 seconds to every class period or something like that. It was wild.

Katie

Again, it just

Chrissy

I don't know why they did it.

Katie

silly, but that's besides

Chrissy

But anyways, they did. And you know, being in high school, I have to say I did appreciate it because I liked getting to bed around 10 o'clock. And so yes. Was I still waking up at like five to go to school? Yes. Was I getting enough sleep? No. But with school starting that early, that meant after school activities could start around four or five. And so I could actually be home by nine o'clock instead of after school. If you start school at 9:00 PM or 9:00 AM then after school, ex activities can't start until six or seven and lord knows when you have three volleyball games after school, it's going to go five hours. You know?

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

So it, it's just, I don't think it's nice to

Katie

I think that's why they do the

Chrissy

probably.

Katie

is so that you have time for all of the sports and different afterschool activities for kids. But just

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

wild. Especially like I was not super involved in high school, like after school activities as much as like Jenny was my sister, and

Chrissy

Mm-hmm.

Katie

Just, I mean, I got a job, which was good, so I would, I worked. But anyway. Let's get back to sleep. Why don't we talk about what happens if we get, we, if we don't hit that recommended seven to nine hours of sleep every day. I know, Chrissy, you have a really interesting fact that you wanted to share with us when you get really little sleep. Why don't you start us off with that?

Chrissy

Yeah. Yeah. So one thing I learned when I read the Good Energy book by Casey means she said, getting only six. This is not quoted specific. Well, is it quoted specifically?

Katie

I dunno, I, I think it's pretty

Chrissy

We're we're gonna say. Ish quote ish, getting only six hours of sleep in J for just one week. So six hours of sleep a night for seven nights in a row, which is something that a lot of us have done and do frequently, can lead to a state of significant insulin resistance, essentially making a person appear to be pre-diabetic in their lab markers. So that essentially says if you are not getting enough sleep at night, your fasting insulin and fasting glucose levels are going to be significantly higher in your lab values and you have a higher likelihood of actually being diagnosed as pre-diabetic if you're not getting enough sleep because, um, decreased sleep, sleep increases our cortisol levels and cortisol increases blood sugar. And so that is just a wild thing. I read that, well, I didn't read it. I listened to it and I said, hang on a minute, let's back it up And listened to that again. What all the more reason for me to want to make sure I get enough sleep.

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

Um, they also apparently have done a bunch of studies on rats and things like that in regards to sleep. And if I remember correctly, it was they. Subjected a group of rats to total sleep deprivation, and within 11 to 32 days, all of them died or got to a place of imminent death, at which point the scientists put them down. But that's just wild to think about. 11 days and with no sleep and you're done dead canceled over it.

Katie

Well, I know that in many places around the world when they're trying to get information from war criminals and captives, that one of the forms of torture is keeping people awake for long periods of time by shining really bright lights and playing really loud music. And I mean, all of us have experienced sleep deprivation, and I could literally not imagine staying up for so long. I mean, even the days, there are days where I stay awake. For extended periods of time. Obviously something like New Year's typically tends to be one of those where you wake up and then you stay up way later than usual. And the days after, I just, ugh. It's not fun. I mean, there's, there's just the small side effects from less is enough for me to want to get more sleep. But then obviously just those things like brain fog or being just totally exhausted and having and different small things like that. Like that's enough for me to wanna sleep. But there's way more. And what she's saying in this book is that it literally can lead towards diabetes essentially. So it's crazy.

Chrissy

Do you get nauseous when you don't sleep enough?

Katie

No, I don't. I don't necessarily get nauseous. I get like extreme brain fog, like I get these headaches

Chrissy

Hmm.

Katie

eyes like, and eyebrows. It always feels like I have to like push my eyebrows. Like that's what I feel like helps me. I don't, I mean, no, I don't think I've ever used nausea from lack of sleep myself, but maybe.

Chrissy

Um, definitely one that gets pretty bad. Nausea, I felt it a lot with, um, when I worked night shift, I actually, uh, wasn't hospitalized but went to the ER for night shift nausea because I was so incredibly sleep deprived with switching days and nights and my body couldn't figure out what was wrong or what was up from down. So I had it then. And then anytime I get up for like a really early flight, or if I have to take somebody to the airport at like three o'clock in the morning, I am all always so incredibly nauseous for like

Katie

Weird.

Chrissy

entire time that I'm awake if I go back to sleep. Then I'll be fine for the day, but if I stay awake from like 3:00 AM to the rest of the day, I'll just have like an underlying level of nausea all day long or, and that happens when I stay up too late. If I stay up past midnight or something like that, I will just immediately get just an underlying level of nausea that, yeah, it's, I don't know which one I'd prefer, a headache or nausea.

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

I think I'd prefer the headache.

Katie

I actually, a couple weeks ago had like a, like a stomach bug for 24 hours and was just nauseous. It was actually, I don't know if I mentioned this, it was while my parents were visiting a couple weeks ago and of course it was like the one day that we were going to kind of hang out and do stuff and I was nauseous and like didn't wanna get up off the couch because I just was feeling so terrible. And so I was, I, I can deal with a headache throughout the day. It's obviously annoying. It does depend on the severity. There are times where if I have something more like a migraine and it is debilitating, then I'm not doing much. But grade headaches I can kind of just deal with and I think that is probably not a good thing that like we as a society just feel like headaches are normal because everything I feel like can give us headaches. But sleep is definitely one of those. And I mentioned, I don't, yeah, I think it was two episodes ago that. O obviously sleep. Also impairs or lack of sleep impairs our immune function and so when we get less sleep, our immune system is not as strong as it could be. And so for me, when I get less sleep, I end up getting sick. And so that's also another reason why I'm like, I gotta get my sleep'cause I just don't want to get another cold or whatever. So.

Chrissy

You know what's great is I listened to an episode by Josh Ax today. I can't remember if it was Josh or the guy that he had on his episode, but instead of saying, you know, it's time to go to bed, or It's time to go to sleep, he says, it's healing time. And he calls his sleep healing time. And I thought that that's just so profound, but so simple of like, if you switch your mindset into thinking, okay, my sleep is healing time, then it kind of makes me want more. I'm like, oh yes, my body gets to heal from everything that attacked it today.

Katie

I feel like that's a really good mindset shift because I feel like we see sleep as like not productive, right? It's like, okay

Chrissy

Sometimes it's like, oh, this is necessary.

Katie

Yeah. Like, okay, I would like to stay up to be able to do X, Y, and Z. Get stuff done around the house, get more work done, hang out with friends, talk to people. There's a lot that we could be doing during the day, but if we see sleep as like something that is productive that we, we get to do or that is a benefit to us, which it is, and I, and I do see that, I feel that, but just to have that mindset shift of we have to sleep to, I get to sleep and it is this time of healing and rejuvenation. I, I really like that. And even just like changing that. verbiage when talking to Malachi, instead of being like, Hey, it's bedtime. Be like, Hey, it's healing time. Let's go rejuvenate and get into our sleep pods.

Chrissy

I love that. I just sleep is also really, really good for memory consolidation and memory solidification. And so it's funny, when I was in high school, I took that fact to the extreme. I would go over to my friend's house and we would study, and as soon as we were done studying, I say, hang on, I need a nap now. And I would just sleep on her floor,

Katie

You could

Chrissy

like the floor of her bedroom. Yes. I was incredibly sleep deprived in high school and only got maybe five or six hours of sleep every single night, so I had a chronic stuffy nose. All the time, the entire senior year, I always had a cold and I could never remember anything, and I didn't understand why my friend was so good at memorizing things, and she is naturally gifted it, memorizing things, and I'm naturally not gifted at memorizing things. But nonetheless, I took the, the sleep thing to the extreme when I was tired at 3:00 PM and said, oh, time to just take a nap on your bedroom floor. And, but then I would still stay up until like midnight studying of course, and then wake up again at 5, 5 30 in the morning to go to school, because I was that kid. My mom had to come in and say, Chrissy, stop studying. It's time for bed.

Katie

That's crazy.

Chrissy

I know.

Katie

I have heard

Chrissy

I, I wouldn't recommend it.

Katie

I have heard that if you are someone who falls asleep when you hit your pillow at night, it is a sign of sleep deprivation. I don't know if we talked about that or if I was talking to about that with someone else recently, but basically idea is if you, you should have a moment of time where you're kind of sitting there and relaxing your body versus hitting the pillow and passing out, because it is a sign that your body is just overworked and overtired. So, yeah.

Chrissy

No, that makes complete sense. I remember back, uh, before COVID hit, I was the kind of person I hit my pillow, boom out like a light, and next thing I knew it was nine hours later time to wake up. Um, and then during COVID, actually I got. Just very consistent with my sleep. I would be in bed by 10 and I'd wake up around seven or eight every morning. It got to the point where I was waking up a few minutes before my alarm clock every morning.

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

was feeling good. Now, granted, I still got tired at 3:00 PM and needed my cup of coffee. This was pre crunchy days, so I didn't know how much of that was probably related to the bowl of cereal that I had for breakfast. But all in all, I did realize during COVID when I was getting consistent, like really, really good quality, consistent sleep, I would wake up before my alarm and um, I just lost my train of thought. I felt rejuvenated and it came time for bed and I was ready for bed. What did you say before that? Led me into that.

Katie

was so

Chrissy

Oh, oh, the, the waiting a minute to fall asleep. Yes. I also realized during that time that I would lay down at 10:00 PM and it would take a minute before I fell asleep.

Katie

I was watching you as

Chrissy

gracious.

Katie

and I honestly thought you froze because you kind of had your hands in the air and I was like, oh no, she's frozen. And then you were like, I don't even know. I lost my train of thought.

Chrissy

Nope. My brain just kind of stopped. This is evidence. I did not get a good night's sleep last night.

Katie

Now it is interesting on the flip side, sometimes when I am overtired I have this like insane amount of, what is it, adrenaline that is just

Chrissy

Mm-hmm.

Katie

And I'm like, you know, twitchy And you're just like little, and it is

Chrissy

Do you ever get.

Katie

badly. And it is so funny when Malachi hits his sleep wall but then doesn't go to sleep, and then all of a sudden he's awake and he's like, and you know he's got this like little twitch in his eye kind of a thing. And you're like, whoa.

Chrissy

Do you ever get a second wind late at night?

Katie

Yeah, I used to a lot in college. That was my sleep deprivation era was definitely during college and I had a lot going on. And I would, yeah, I would hit these walls and I'm like, I really, I just gotta get this one last thing done, one last thing done. And I would stay up and then all of a sudden it would be like, okay, okay, I can go. And, but then those nights I always had a really hard time getting to sleep afterwards. It was like my brain then would not shut off. It was like someone had turned the generator on, you know, it's like the actual power to my body was turned off, but then someone turned, plugged in the generator, but now the generator's stuck and you can't turn it off. And so I'd just be like, my mind is just racing before I try and go to bed. And it would, yeah, it was always such a bad situation.

Chrissy

Yeah, I get that. I try my absolute darnedest to be asleep before I get my second wind, so I usually get that around like 10 30, 11 o'clock at night. And so I try really hard to be asleep before that happens because if I get that energy boost at like 10 30 or 11 o'clock, we're done canceled for the night.

Katie

Yep.

Chrissy

It's not happening. Yep.

Katie

let me, so just so that people are aware, I mean, a lot of us know that there are lots of risks to not sleeping, but specifically besides just like the fatigue and the headaches and irritability, some of the larger. Challenges or problems, things that we can deal with if we consistently get poor sleep for children, first off, they can have, uh, growth and development problems, which obviously isn't good. Um, it can also lead to things like a lack of fo focus, um, such as like having a DD or A DHD. Um, and then a lot, like there's hard, like much higher risks for different chronic illnesses. Um, even like chronic stress in children, which is like a very interesting thing. Or like even you think about like chronic anxiety and um, or even depression. mentioned the impaired memory. Um, and we also, I mean, this is an easy one that many of us see when we are tired, is that there is a decreased ability to socialize. And honestly, I almost just feel like it comes alongside of the irritability because you just don't who wants to people when you're really tired. Right. I'm like, I don't wanna people when I'm tired.

Chrissy

You know, I remember when I worked night shift, I only did night shift for about a month because I really just could not handle it. I couldn't formulate sentences. I would go to Bible study or small group, or even just talking to Max and I would start a sentence and just completely forget what I was going to say. The sentence was gone very different from what just happened about five minutes ago, where I was able to remember what I was saying. This was just, I had no sent no words, there was nothing there. If there was a conversation happening around me, I was only like. Halfway engaged, but not really. Mostly just standing there and hearing the words, but not processing any of them. They would just go right over my head and Max would say, do you have any opinions about this? Nope. There's no thoughts. None of it.

Katie

empty in there.

Chrissy

Yes, completely.

Katie

Yeah. So decreased, obviously ability to socialize and be a human and talk to people. Um, I also found this one interesting that having poor sleep can lead to lower pain tolerance, which is kind of interesting. Um, it obviously does lead to an increase in hunger, which then leads to a higher chance of obesity. And then, like we said, diabetes, um, and all of those. uh, illnesses. Um, it also, so sleep is our body's chance to like heal and rejuvenate. And it's a time where our body is doing a lot of detoxing. And so if we have less sleep, our body isn't able to get rid of the toxins as efficiently and as properly as it's supposed to. So it does lead to a heavier toxin load because our body hasn't had that full chance to, detox basically throughout the night. And so. And this all then can lead to higher risks of heart disease and stroke and diabetes. Chrissy mentioned the impaired memory, um, ob and also hormone imbalances, uh, for both men and women, which, you know, you think about again, like things like infertility, and you can add that to the list of problems that might be leading to infertility is sleep and hormone balance, um, that comes along with it. So yeah, there's, there's a lot of, a lot of things that come, like a lot of risks that come from lack of sleep. And so now we want to talk more about how to get good sleep and what we have learned from other professionals who have, uh. Uh, educated us, who have graced us with, with their wisdom on getting good sleep because it is so important for our health. And I don't think it's talked about quite as often as it probably needs to be, except for the fact that we're like, we just need good sleep. But we're like, how can we do that? What, what can we do? So Chrissy, do you want to kick us off into talking about maybe some of the lifestyle changes that we can

Chrissy

Yes.

Katie

or take or do to start to get better sleep?

Chrissy

Indeed, for sure. So as Katie mentioned earlier in the episode, if you finish eating four hours before bedtime, then you have a higher likelihood of being able to fall asleep easier. I'm gonna be honest, that one is really hard for me because we tend to eat dinner around six or seven and we start winding down for bed around nine or nine 30, and so that window really does end up being two to three hours for me. Mostly. I think the bigger focus is don't eat right before bed, because eating right before bed means you're putting fresh food into your digestive system and then you're going into full rest mode and it's just gonna sit there kind of all night and not do much. Um, which fun fact I learned through the world of Instagram landia that. Um, if you go to s go to sleep with a full stomach, or if you eat right before bed, it can make your farts smell worse and makes your breath smell worse. So keep that in mind. Yes,

Katie

that's a good

Chrissy

important things to know. So if you're self-conscious about both of those, maybe don't eat right before going to bed. Um, some other things you could do is limit screen time one hour or more before bedtime. I think recommended best practice is actually to limit screen time. For no screens after the sun goes down.

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

our screens emit, um, blue light back to our eyes, which is kind of just artificial. It's very, it is present in some sunlight. Um, but it really just tricks our eyes into tricks, our brains into thinking it's still daytime, even though it's nighttime and it prevents the production of melatonin because our brains still think it's daytime. So limiting screens is a big one. Um, one thing I've also learned is if you can't limit the screen then to wear blue light glasses after dark, um, even if you're looking at a screen or not, I know some people they're like, oh, LED lights are around me. I will be wearing blue light glasses. And I think that's a lot to think of. So I just. Don't really go on my phone much at night. It's, I much prefer to read a book or something like that, like a physical book. Um, another thing that they recommend is to have a wind down routine. So just as it is with kids, you know, growing up my mom would say, dinner, bath book, brush bed. And that was our, our wind down routine. Katie, did she ever say that to you?

Katie

don't remember, but your, I was laughing too, because I feel like your mom has a lot of these little like catchphrases. One of my favorite ones was the in out, wham bam when she would talk about like

Chrissy

Yes.

Katie

or showers. She'd be like in out wham bam. Like, it's like the idea of like, we're just gonna make it really quick and speedy and efficient. And I just,

Chrissy

Yep.

Katie

said that. And the same thing with the, see you love you. Bye. So whenever someone says that, I think of your mom too. And anyway, yeah, you just, she has all these little catchphrases, so it's really

Chrissy

See you, love you. Bye. In, out wham bam. But that's not the same as. Wham. Bam. Thank you ma'am. That's different. Mom never said that.

Katie

She's like, I don't remember that

Chrissy

Have you ever? No, she never said that one. I really don't like that one. But in, out wham, bam. And then dinner, bath book, brush bed. That was always our,

Katie

Yeah,

Chrissy

uh, our nighttime routine. Yep. But we didn't actually do it in that order. We did it more dinner, bath, brush, book bed.

Katie

Yeah,

Chrissy

But it worked. It sounds better the other way. Anyways, get yourself a nighttime routine, because if you do the same thing every night before going to bed, than it pretty much prepares your body for sleep. You know, if every night it's like, okay, I'm gonna take a shower, and then I'm gonna brush my teeth and I'm gonna brush my hair and I'm gonna take out my contacts and I'm gonna lay down and read one chapter and go to sleep. Then your body is fully prepared and ready. Yes. Katie, you're raising your hand.

Katie

My Hand? Hello? Call on Me. Teacher.

Chrissy

Hello.

Katie

Um, have you read the book Atomic Habits before?

Chrissy

I have and Max has listened to it, gosh, I think like three or four times. It's a great book. I love it.

Katie

of like habit stacking and it kind of like triggers your brain to do certain things. And so one of his examples in the book is like exercise. So if you really want to exercise every single morning, you habit stack. And so the first thing you do when you wake up is get your athletic wear on and then you get your water bottle and, and you like, you habit stack these and it starts to put your body into this mode of like, okay, I'm preparing and I'm getting ready and thus I will do it and I'm excited to. And so when I think about bedtime routines, like having kind of like a wind down routine, sort of what I think about is if we stack all these habits together, it kind of triggers this idea of like, okay, my body is ready to sleep and it's ready to actually. Go to bed and stop. So, yeah.

Chrissy

One of the triggers for me that is the strongest that I've actually been trying to break lately. Was taking my contacts out with my contacts in my body was like, oh, time to be awake. And then as soon as I would take my contacts out, I would immediately get super tired. And so now that I've been trying to wear my glasses a little bit more frequently to allow the natural sunlight to actually hit my eyeballs, I have been kind of fighting my body's natural tendency to be super tired when I don't have my glasses in. So that is a habit stack that I had formed and am trying to break for the sake of my ability to stay awake during the day. Um, another one, another lifestyle change that is really great for helping sleep is to finish drinking your caffeine by noon. And honestly, even earlier is better. Caffeine stays in your system for eight to 10 hours. And so if, like, it takes that long to metabolize. And so if you're having a cup of coffee at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, even if you don't quote unquote feel the caffeine working, it's still in your system and it's still disrupting your natural sleep patterns. So that's an important one. Um, exercise is really, really great, but it says not to do it, uh, closer than four hours before bed. So essentially the four hours before you go to sleep, you're supposed to be Jay chilling. Um, but yeah, exercise is super, super great for using up a lot of energy during the day, giving yourself an energy boost during the day, which it kind of does both. It like uses a bunch of energy, but then gives you a bunch of energy once you've gotten into the habit of it. At first, working out just drains you, but once you've gotten into the habit of working out. It gives you an energy boost, uses a lot of energy during the day, and then also helps with your sleep at night and helps with recovery because your body has a lot more physical things to recover when you're working out. And then one thing that, um, is also really great, it kind of goes back to the no screens one hour before bedtime is to use red or amber light or even, um, not LEDs. What is it? Uh, I feel like it starts with a c

Katie

Dunno,

Chrissy

uh, nope. Incandescent, that's the word.

Katie

yes.

Chrissy

incandescent lights, which fun fact are not sold in California. Just like gas stoves aren't sold, aren't sold in California. Yeah. Yeah. You can't find them there.

Katie

in California.

Chrissy

I, I don't know if they don't sell'em, but I think they implemented our law or talked about getting a law that you weren't allowed to have gas stoves

Katie

Whoa,

Chrissy

to be electric because of the effect of gas on the environment.

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

Don't quote me on that. That might not be true, but

Katie

Well, it's, it is

Chrissy

I feel like it's kind of funny. If you look at the bottom of a chair or something and there's a warning sticker, it's like may cause cancer in California,

Katie

Yes,

Chrissy

but nowhere else.

Katie

like, oh, good thing

Chrissy

Anyways,

Katie

I won't get cancer from this Now.

Chrissy

good thing. Anyways though, red light, amber light incandescent lights, those are really great for, they don't have blue light in them and so they do not inhibit your melatonin production. Now granted, if you are someone who just doesn't have that or you wanna do something that's free, you don't wanna go buy any new light bulbs. You can also just use dim light during, um, during the evening times, we have lamps in every room. And honestly, I prefer lamp light than overhead light anyways. Um, and we just use lamps in the evenings instead of the overhead light, and it works great. Even in our bathroom, we don't use the big light above the mirror. We just use a lamp in the evening and we shower. My showers are dim and it's great, and I love it. It makes me very tired. So those are some great lifestyle changes that you can make that, um, can greatly impact your sleep for the better. Um, another thing, it's not really a, a. Um, it's not really a lifestyle change, but it's really great to set the ambiance of the room. It kind of goes into that, um, nighttime routine. Yeah. Katie,

Katie

I just wanted to add a couple extra things that I was thinking about. One, you actually kind of mentioned this earlier, but I wanted to talk about it that, uh, going kind of along the lines of like the no screens before bedtime, um, is the idea of like not allowing stress or anxious thoughts or things to happen to you. Kind of that like during that wind down period. And so one of the,

Chrissy

IE don't let your husband tell you that you have an 8:00 AM doctor's appointment the next day at the same time that you scheduled for work.

Katie

It's a good example, but another good example is, I don't know about you, but I feel like I just have a higher level of anxiety when I'm scrolling through social media, just when I see things on the news or things I should be doing or should be avoiding, or things I should be doing better. Or you see somebody and you get jealous about something and you know, just all these inputs that are coming at you right before bed just lead to more anxiety and then keep us more awake. And so I know that for me that has been really important because one of the stupid habits that I had for a long time was like looking at some of my emails before bed just to see if I had missed something. And that was so dumb because if I had an email that. Was important, but I knew I couldn't respond to in that moment. Like as I'm literally getting ready for bed because it required looking at something else on my computer or searching something or whatever, then I'd be like laying there in bed being like, oh my gosh, I have to get back to this email. And it's really important. And it was just like the dumbest thing that I would do that. And it's like, it was no point because most of them I was not going to respond to anyway, but then I'd be sitting there thinking about them. So to limit your exposure to anything that will cause any sort of anxiety. And so for me, typically it's anything on my phone. Um, I did want to, before we get into the ambiance of the room, to talk about just the impact of nutrition on our li or on our sleep and just the fact that Better Nutrition does lead to. Better sleep. And so there's my, uh, shout out for food once again because food impacts every area of our lives, guys. And, um, if you know me, I will always talk about food and nutrition and I needed to tell you that you need to be eating better and not just, not four hours before bedtime, but just good foods in general because if you're eating crap during the day, is going to lead to poor sleep in general. So that is all I'm gonna say about that. But let's talk about setting the ambiance of our bedrooms for bed. And this can be kind of like part of the wind down routine slash should be like some like things that you should set up kind of like in advance to make your room better. But yeah. Chrissy, did you wanna go through

Chrissy

Like mood lighting for going to bed.

Katie

setting the mood.

Chrissy

Get yourself in the mood. Um, yeah, so ambience of, of the room matters. And I have to say I am so thankful for my husband for this one because pre Chrissy, he splurged on a bed. And I think if he had attempted to splurge on this bed after we had gotten married, I would've shot him down so hard and it would not have worked out. Um. The, the bed part wouldn't have worked out. We would've worked out just fine. The bed wouldn't have worked out, but he splurged and let me tell you, his bed. Well, our bed is so comfortable and so that is one thing that I would recommend. If you have the ability to splurge on a great mattress, do it. You spend a third of your life in bed, you recover in bed, you heal in bed. You solidify your memories in bed. A lot of things happen while you're sleeping, so make it good, make it productive. Make it worth your time, guys. Anyways, that's my spiel. In addition to that, get great pillows, get great sheets. Personally, I cannot wait until the moment that I. I give myself the ability to buy bamboo sheets. I really want to get them. My sister got bamboo sheets and she loves them and I really want bamboo sheets now, but we do have silk pillowcases, which is good for your hair. I don't know how good it is for your skin, but it's good for your hair. So, and I've actually seen changes in my hair since we got silk pillowcases. So yeah, highly recommend higher quality silk, not, not the cheapy stuff,'cause the cheapy stuff just gets pilly, so maybe you have to spend an extra dime on that, but that's important. Temperature matters. Sleeping hot leads to not great sleep. So definitely important to have a cooler room while you're sleeping. I don't know if anyone has seen like, um, I don't know if they're old wives tales or just common things that they do in, um. The Scandinavian countries is they will open a window right before bed and put warm water bottles underneath the covers so that it's super warm inside the bed, but the room is like freezing cold because it's Scandinavia and it's always cold there. And so then when you get into bed, your body's all nice and toasty warm, but you're breathing in cold air and apparently that like hot cold combo is really great for your sleep. You know, maybe Eastern Medicine has something up their sleeve when they talk about hot and cold.

Katie

I,

Chrissy

a thing.

Katie

actually hear someone, it might've been on a podcast episode, someone recommended recently to sleep with your window, cracked open every night of the year no matter what the weather's like. And I was like, wow, that's so crazy.'cause it is like negative 11 degrees at night here. But the idea is the chilliness, but also the air quality is better because you're allowing like the circulation of the air and just the fresh air in general. So I found that kind of interesting. It's not something that we do, but,

Chrissy

I think that is subject to be arguable because air quality, it really depends where you are. If you're in New York City and you have an air filter in your bedroom, I'd be willing to bet. Opening the window does not help with your air quality. Um, personally, our apartment is maybe about a hundred yards from the highway. I don't think we have the greatest air quality right outside our apartment. If we had an air filter in our room, I think our bedroom would have greater air quality. Which leads me to my next thing is air quality is actually really, really good for your sleep. Because if you have dirty air, it can lead to snoring, it can lead to sleep apnea, it can lead to swelling of your tonsils, it can lead to coughing, sneezing, congestion. All of those things impact your sleep and interrupt your sleep. And so air quality, super, super important. And some people even recommend to get an air scrubber as opposed to an air purifier because it does even more to the air than an air purifier does. Um, granted though air scrubbers are a pretty penny, so keep that in mind. But I. Nonetheless, an air filter is fantastic for sleep and benefiting your sleep.

Katie

Yeah, we have a Jasper like air filter. It's like one of the fancy ones. Um, and yeah, they talk about how air quality is. Typically worse indoors than it is outdoors primarily. Obviously there's pollution and things in the air, but the difference between being outside versus inside is the air is like stagnant inside. So it just all stays here and you don't get that flow and the circulation versus like outside. Yes, there might be stuff in the air, but at least it is sort of cleansing itself by circulating, obviously if you like live directly next to something that is awful, maybe that would be different. But, um, what basically what we bring inside stays inside if we're not getting that air flow. And so an air filter can help with that. Or even just obviously opening your windows. thing that I've learned recently is that sound machines might not be a good thing when we sleep. Um, I can't remember exactly what the reasons were, but basically. It was talking about like why maybe we shouldn't put our kids to sleep with sound machines, which is pretty much the norm today is like every kid has a sound machine and Malachi uses a sound machine. Our foster daughters use a sound machine. We don't, per se, have an actual sound machine, but we do use a standing fan as white noise, and it is very hard for Wes and I to sleep when we don't have any kind of white noise. So, maybe that, I don't really remember much about it, so you'll all have to go do your own research about it. But, um, to look up

Chrissy

That's so funny.

Katie

sleep

Chrissy

I think I actually personally have a hard time falling asleep with any sort of white noise.

Katie

Oh,

Chrissy

I can't even sleep if the fan is on above me because the sound of it bothers me and wake me up at night. Maybe I'm just becoming a really light sleeper. I'm not quite sure, but, um, I've always. I mean, I haven't done any research on sound machines because I don't use one, and I just didn't really think of doing research because I don't use one. Um, but it seems to me that people who use sound machines become dependent on them, and then they can't fall asleep without the sound machine, which is concerning to me,

Katie

post that I saw about it, and it was someone I think on Instagram that mentioned something about the, I'm not even gonna remember the word right, decibels. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like the sound?

Chrissy

the loudness of it.

Katie

yeah. Whatever the measurement of sound is.

Chrissy

Mm-hmm.

Katie

at a certain level it like brain function or hinders the. Healing process of the brain at night or something along those lines. I honestly don't remember. Actually, you know what, it was something that my mother sent me. I totally remember this because she sends me all these ones that are like, be careful. Don't let your kids fall asleep in car seats. Or Don't let your kids have sound machines or don't let them ever eat popcorn or don't let them. Literally, these are all posts that she sent me. Um, and one of them was sound machines and, uh, yeah,

Chrissy

That's some really great motherly encouragement from mother to daughter. Don't accidentally kill your kid.

Katie

like, okay. Working on that.

Chrissy

Thanks.

Katie

Let's quickly just talk about some things that we can do to aid our sleep naturally. Um, and my personal favorite is magnesium. I actually mentioned it in our last week's episode on personal care because I was like, I literally use this like every night, but I have a magnesium cream that I have been literally loving, and I, it has. Made my sleep so much better and I love it and I have not, I need to, I really should look up the impact or if it's okay to be using it like so regularly because I know something like melatonin, which everybody is like, it's natural and blah, blah, blah. There are risks of having like supplementing with melatonin regularly and we should not be doing that regularly, nor probably should we in general. So magnesium is one of those ones that I'm like, I feel I like, I feel like I've heard a lot of really good things about taking magnesium in general and that we're usually very magnesium deficient and it's so in my mind, just based on those things, I feel like it's probably okay, but maybe that's me just being like, it's fine. And I don't know, I don't, I don't know that I'm dependent on it, but I just love. I love the, the sleep that I get when I have my magnesium cream. Um, so I

Chrissy

That makes sense.

Katie

the one that I've been using in the show notes so people can check it out if they're wondering, but it is by the brand earthly. Um, if you wanna go check it out. But yeah, uh,

Chrissy

Great.

Katie

is obviously really good. We've talked about chamomile in our, our tea episode, actually, I think a long time ago. Chamomile and lavender, people usually know that those are two herbs that, or I guess they're flowers, herbs, flowers that, uh, help you relax and just help you get sleepy, especially chamomile like chamomile. Lavender tea is wonderful. Some other ones that I've heard recently, which is super fascinating, um, are Butter and Honey. So butter is, is like one of these ones that I've been hearing lots of moms in the crunchy space, uh, do with their little babies when they're. to sleep is giving them like one to two tablespoons of like just stick butter, like cutting it up and just feeding them some butter before bed. And there's something in butter that first off, like the fats in it help your body feel satiated before bed. Um, there's something in butter that helps your body relax. I guess. I, I don't exactly know a hundred percent. Do you happen to know what that might be?

Chrissy

I don't know what that is, but I wonder if it's similar to drinking a glass of warm milk before bed.

Katie

Probably.

Chrissy

I know like warming up a glass of milk helps your body to produce melatonin more naturally. And so I wonder if the butter has a similar reaction

Katie

That

Chrissy

as the warm milk.

Katie

Yeah, that's a

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

idea. I, I don't know if that's it, but I, I wouldn't doubt it if that were it. Honey is similar that, um, having like a tablespoon or two of honey before bed, I know people who do this every night like that is part of their bedtime routine is having two tablespoons of honey.'cause there's also something inside of honey that helps your body relax and go to sleep and, and things like that. And so it is interesting pairing like butter and honey, like those tips with the idea of not eating before bed. So I wonder, you know, which is more beneficial or not, blah, blah blah. But um, those are tips that I've heard in the crunchy space. They're natural. It's probably not something you wanna be doing, I don't know. But I have heard people say that they do honey literally every night. Um, but I don't know. Anyway.

Chrissy

Personally, if I were to think about how the honey affects

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

your body on like a hormonal level, you know, it doesn't have a zero glycemic index.'cause I think the glycemic index of honey is like 40 to 50 or something like that. And so you're still giving your body a small blood sugar spike right before bed, which means a small insulin spike right before bed, which in my mind would not be beneficial long term.

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

for every now and then, like short term effects is probably not a big deal. Um, but I would think if you did that every single night, it would probably start to cause a little bit of dependency of like making you a little bit more snacky right before bed. I don't know how many people you get a little bit peckish around 10, 11 o'clock at night, feel like you need a snack. And then once you have your snack, you're ready for bed. Well that is a sign of insulin resistance. And so I wonder if that little bit of honey right before bed would potentially contribute to insulin resistance

Katie

that's an

Chrissy

or if it would actually, yeah.

Katie

I

Chrissy

That's just my thought. I would say holding off on the food in general is best and maybe focus more on like the magnesium cream or lavender spray. Real lavender, not the fake stuff, real lavender spray on your pillowcase. Or even just like rubbing a drop in your hands and like breathing deeply

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

your hands is really beneficial. So.

Katie

Yeah. then the only other things I wanted to recommend were when I am getting poor sleep regularly, it's typically because I have been sedentary and staying inside too much. And so if you feel like you are on this cycle of just not getting good sleep, my big thing is making sure I'm getting at least 30 minutes of elevated heart activity, going for a quick jog or doing jumping jacks throughout the day. Like literally. I mean, you could be doing the movement snacks that CIE shared last week of just increasing your heart rate, getting the blood pumping, um, and, and then getting outside to get more fresh air and sunlight. Is that. Almost always does the trick. If I am on like a, a kick of not sleeping well, I can usually pinpoint it to like, oh yeah, I haven't been exercising, I haven't been getting outside, and I need to be doing that. And then it usually fixes it. So it's often more lifestyle than it is anything else? Um,

Chrissy

Yeah. And now before we close out, I'm gonna go really quick through a list of foods that can help increase your melatonin production, um, at night. Here we go. Are we ready?

Katie

Oh

Chrissy

We're gonna quick fire tart cherries and tart cherry juice, corn, asparagus, grapes, olives, pomegranate, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumber, bananas, ginger radishes, rice rolled oats, barley, peanuts, sunflower seeds, walnuts, flaxseed, mustard seed, red wine, really red wine.

Katie

yeah.

Chrissy

pistachios, goji berries and mushrooms.

Katie

Actually, I did hear someone talking about the red wine thing recently because I guess that like it technically does, but also I don't, I don't think I would personally recommend that as like a, yeah, I

Chrissy

Now I have heard if you're going to have any form of alcohol, red wine is the best alcohol to have because it does have a few antioxidants in it.

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

So.

Katie

The thing about melatonin is that there risks. In fact, actually maybe I'll just like link to the resource that I was learning more about melatonin on, because so many people are like, oh yeah, it's natural, blah, blah, blah. But really when it's kind of like separating the. Vitamin like, it's like making synthetic vitamin in a sense. Like want to be getting these vitamins, nutrients, minerals, hormone and stuff. You wanna be getting it all from real food versus like a synthetic form of it. And it's very similar with melatonin in that your body becomes then dependent on needing the supplementation of it. And so you want to be getting it naturally either through foods or by helping your body produce it, because it is something that we actually do produce. Um, and it's, anyway, really far into the episode, so I'm like, I feel like there's still so much I could say about it, but I'm gonna link to the resource instead of gabbing on about it so that way you guys can just look at it yourself and decide for yourself.'cause I do know a lot of parents who use melatonin and. We have used melatonin with our foster kids in the past. Um, so I'm like, I don't know. I always thought it was natural, but it, it, it is ish, but it's also not ish, that makes sense.

Chrissy

Well, how about we can ask our listeners, if you guys want us to have an episode all about melatonin,

Katie

Ooh.

Chrissy

know on. You can either comment or comment on this episode or let us know in our, um, Facebook group, and we will consider making an episode all about melatonin. But until we do that, um, as you go today, remember that whether you eat or sleep or whatever you do, make sure you are doing it all for the glory of God. Have a good one.