Episode 24: The Most Underrated Health Hack: Sleep

You can eat clean, train hard, take all the supplements…
 but if your sleep is off, your body is fighting an uphill battle.

In this episode, we’re breaking down the real science behind sleep—why it’s not just “rest,” but the foundation of fat loss, hormone balance, muscle recovery, and brain health.

We’re talking about:
 • what actually happens in your body while you sleep
 • why poor sleep can stall fat loss and wreck your hormones
 • how sleep impacts women differently (cycles, pregnancy, aging)
 • why your workouts might not be working without it
 • natural ways to improve sleep (that actually work)
 • and even the role of peptides in recovery and deep sleep

If you’ve ever felt exhausted, wired at night, struggling with cravings, or just not seeing results… this episode might explain why.

Because the truth is—
 sleep isn’t optional. It’s everything.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, I wanted to start off by saying I have a funky voice this week. I did last week too, and that's why I didn't put an episode out, but it's time I need to talk to you guys. But today we're gonna be talking about what I believe is the most powerful health hack that I didn't realize how much it actually did for you till I realized I wasn't doing it correctly, and that's sleep. So we're gonna really dive into today the importance of sleep, what it means to get good sleep, what it means to get bad sleep, why you have to sleep in order to lose weight, why you have to sleep in order to recover from those workouts, why you need it for your mental health, all the things, your heart, your digestive system, all the things. It comes down to sleep. So we're gonna dive into that today. And like I said, I didn't even realize how how much this affected until I started getting some good sleep. So we're gonna talk about that too, how how I did that. So let's dive into it, guys. I hope you enjoy this episode. Hey friends, and welcome to the Fit Nerd Podcast. This is the podcast where faith, fitness, and science all collide. I'm Abby, and I'm here to help you work with the body that God gave you so that you can feel stronger, you can feel healthier, and you can feel happier in your everyday life. Around here, we geek out on all the good stuff. I'm talking genetics, nutrition, training, hormones, biohacking, even the spiritual side of health. Because you are fearfully and wonderfully made, understanding how your body works is one of the best ways that we can honor that design. For me, this isn't just about looking good today. It's about feeling good as I age. I want to be fit when I'm old, and I want to enjoy life to the absolute fullest, which means feeling my best. And I want that for you too. So whether you're lifting, running, meal prepping, momming, or just listening on your drive, let's dig into the current fads in fitness, the truth in science, and the hope that we can find in faith so you can make the best choices for the amazing body that God gave you. This is the Fit Nerd Podcast. Let's get started. So if you would have asked me even just like six months ago, if I had to choose between the perfect diet for my body, the perfect workout program for my body, or good perfect sleep, I would not have chosen sleep. I probably would have chosen the other two until recently, until realizing essentially that I haven't been getting good sleep for probably years. So the reason why sleep is the correct answer there is because without sleep, none of the others work properly. So your hormones get messed up, your metabolism slows down, your brain fog increases, and your workouts stop producing results if you aren't getting good sleep. Sleep is the foundation of health. Yet in modern culture, we tend to wear sleep deprivation like a badge of honor. And if you are in the ranching community, you know that that's even more so true. My husband absolutely looks at sleep deprivation and exhaustion as a badge of honor. You're running on four hours of sleep. Oh man, you must be grinding, you must be hustling, right? Well, meanwhile, your body is quietly screaming. I literally cannot repair anything if you don't let me get good sleep. So today I just want to talk to you guys a little bit about what sleep actually does biologically, why it's critical for workout recovery, how sleep affects your hormones, especially in women, what happens during pregnancy that can kind of change your sleep forever, how sleeping changes as we age. Let's talk about some natural ways to improve your sleep. And yes, let's even talk about some peptides, because as we all know, that's my favorite conversation right now. So by the end of this episode, I hope that um you guys will also be convinced, like it took years of convincing for me, that the most powerful health intervention on earth is proper sleep. So this has been a topic recently for me with a lot of things. I realized, number one, with myself, that while I was getting a good amount of sleep every night, some nights, most nights, it was not good proper sleep. And what I mean by that is I'll get into this a little more, but I wasn't sleeping deep recovery sleep. I was kind of sleeping a very light sleep the whole time. I think a lot of that came from having kits in with having a lot of high stress after she was born and a lot of worries there. I think I didn't sleep for months after she was born because of her heart. But then lots of other things that go into that, you know, having a special needs kid with two teenagers, you just worry a lot about are they okay? Is everything okay? You know, um, it was a big life change for us. So I do, and then I think hormones, pregnancy at a late age, all those things can also affect your sleep. So I don't even know if I realized how exhausted I was for years until my doctor kind of brought it to my attention. What type of sleep are you getting? Are you getting enough sleep? And then kind of doing some research on all these crazy workouts I do every day, me, you know, pinpointing every single, every single macronutrient that enters into my body, none of that matters if I'm not sleeping and if I'm not recovering correctly. I can get my hormones on track according to my labs, but they're not actually gonna work beneficial for my body if I'm not sleeping well. So I've talked to a lot of people lately about sleep, a lot of people wondering about it, talking about how they don't sleep. And I do think it's important to get this information out there because I've been diving deep into it for myself. Okay, so number one, let's talk about what happens when you sleep, the science behind it. So sleep is not a passive thing. That's not like your body shutting off. It's actually when your body's doing massive repair work. So during sleep, your body is repairing muscle tissue, consolidating your memories, detoxifying your brain, balancing your hormones, regulating your metabolism, and strengthening your immune function. And one of the most defect, the one of the most fascinating discoveries in sleep science is the lymphatic system. So during deep sleep, the brain literally flushes itself with cerebral final cerebral spinal fluid, clearing out toxins and metabolic waste. This includes beta-amyloid, and that's the protein that's linked to Alzheimer's disease. So researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center discovered that the brain cleaning system is 10 times more active during sleep. So that means that poor sleep means your brain garbage kind of piles up in there. It's not recycling and flushing the way that it's supposed to in order to clear out the waste. That's a big deal, especially if you're somebody like me. I carry the Alzheimer's gene according to my genetics. So that means sleep is even more important for somebody like me. So the second part of this is your sleep cycles. Why deep sleep actually does matter is because sleep occurs in 90-minute cycles. So each cycle contains light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. Deep sleep is where your muscle repair occurs. Of course, I care about this, right? Growth hormone is released there. Immune function gets strengthened. REM sleep is where your emotional processing occurs, memories consolidate, your creativity increases. Athletes and highly active people need more deep sleep than people who are not as active. And this is why this is where growth hormone spikes. So the hormone that's responsible for your muscle repair, your fat metabolism, and your tissue regeneration is your growth hormone. The majority of natural growth hormone release occurs in the first few hours of sleep, which means that staying up until 1 a.m. scrolling is not doing your workout any favors. This is what was key for me. I didn't realize how important all of this was. I wasn't seeing the results in my workouts that I wanted. For years, I haven't been able to see that. And it's because I was getting essentially no deep sleep and no REM sleep. I was living my whole life of sleep in a light sleep. So I wasn't recovering and having those repair mechanisms occur the way that they're supposed to. So if you lift weights or you train hard but you don't sleep enough, you're literally wasting part of your effort. So sleep deprivation causes reduced muscle protein synthesis, increased cortisol, reduced testosterone, and slower glycogen replenishment. So studies from Stanford Sleep Disorder Clinic found that athletes who increased sleep to 10 hours per night experienced faster sprint times, improved reaction times, better accuracy, and improved endurance. So sleep is essentially like legal performance enhancement. In fact, elite sports teams now hire sleep coaches for this reason. Isn't that cool? So even like the Seattle Seahawks, I read that they famously built a sleep program to improve their player recovery. And I think that's so cool. So another part of this is the fat loss part of it. So this is where it gets kind of wild. Sleep deprivation can change your hunger hormones. So two major ones that we've talked about before are your ghrelin and your leptin. So ghrelin is the hunger hormone and leptin is that fullness hormone. So when you sleep poorly, your ghrelin is gonna increase and your leptin increases. And a lot of that is because your brain recognizes like, hey, we don't have enough energy. We're gonna need energy in the forms of carbohydrates and sugar in order to have that glucose, quick active energy because we didn't get enough sleep last night. So we need those things. So if you find yourself not getting enough sleep, waking up and craving things like pancakes or donuts or, you know, real sugary items, it's because your body is recognizing that you need those items for more energy because you didn't get enough sleep. So you're gonna feel hungrier, but you're also gonna feel less satisfied. So there was a study that was done at the University of Chicago and they found that sleep deprivation caused people to eat 300 to 500 more calories per day. And here's the kicker when dieting with poor sleep, people lost more muscle and less fat than if you're dieting and getting proper sleep. So that should be huge motivation right there. If you're somebody, if you're still running on these New Year's goals, you know, like I am, I'm running on some serious health goals right now. And so sleep is at the forefront because none of the rest I could be killing myself every single day in every department, but if I'm not recovering, I'm gonna have my whole body working against me. And I'm gonna be having worse cravings and more sugar cravings. And I don't need any of that. I already love sugar enough as it is. So, but another piece that we need to talk about here is sleep and dealing with women's hormones. So women's hormones are extremely sensitive to sleep. And women require more sleep than men. It's scientific, it's a fact. I love that I found this because I feel like my husband can just function on very little sleep, and he prides himself in that. He tells me constantly that sleeping is a habit. You can train yourself to not sleep very much. And I have always felt like I needed more sleep. And I felt guilty about that. I felt guilty that he could function on less sleep than me, and it made me feel like I was being lazy until I ran across all this information. I'm like, okay, nope. Actually, women do literally need more sleep than men for so many reasons. But really, number one is because of our hormones. So sleep is where our estrogen, our progesterone, our cortisol, and our insulin get regulated. So if you get poor sleep, you're gonna have worse PMS, you're gonna have irregularities in your cycle, increased anxiety, and you're gonna have those stronger sugar cravings, like I talked about. Progesterone, especially, is interesting because it acts as this natural calming hormone. So higher progesterone can make you sleep easier. But if your progesterone drops, which can happen with stress or hormonal imbalances, then your sleep quality declines. And this is why many women experience insomnia during perimenopause. So one of the things that I did my blood work recently and found that I was basically producing like zero progesterone, which was interesting because one of the reasons I did my blood work is because I feel exhausted all the time. And so I was a little confused by that because progesterone is the calming hormone. It's like, well, I don't feel like I need that. I feel like I have too much of that. I'm tired all the time. But basically, my body was in a mode of stress because of such low progesterone. That was meaning I wasn't getting the sleep benefits that progesterone produces. It also meant that my estrogen was running a little more rampant, which cause can cause more chaos within the body, increased cortisol levels. It basically was just creating like a little tornado inside my body. So I have been utilizing progesterone through my doctor, and I sleep so much better. It's a huge piece of all of this for me. So progesterone has been a key for me to get good quality sleep because my hormones were imbalanced after having kits in. So that can be true for many women. So that's another reason I encourage you to get some blood work done, figure out where your levels are, and maybe something's off like that for you, like it was for me. But I'll get into a little bit more of ways to help in a little bit. So a piece that ties into this is how your sleep can change during pregnancy. It becomes very complicated when you're pregnant. Of course, men, sorry, guys, if there's guys listening to this, maybe you'll understand your wives a little better or future wives or whatever. So hormones when you're pregnant are different and your progesterone increases dramatically when you're pregnant. Um, it can make women feel very sleepy early in pregnancy. But then as your pregnancy progresses, a little bit more physical discomfort, you sometimes have to wake up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, your body temperature rises. It can make sleeping a little more complicated. So sleep deprivation during pregnancy can also be associated with eventually gestational diabetes, longer labors, and postpartum depression. So if you're not getting good sleep during your pregnancy, you stand a higher chance of having those two those three things happen, which is pretty crazy, right? So prioritizing sleep during pregnancy is protective. It's not just indulgent, but it's also difficult because it's hard sometimes to sleep. I know I would get frustrated when people would tell me, get your sleep now, because once that baby gets here, you're not gonna get good sleep. And you're like, I'm trying, I'm humongous and I don't feel good. How am I supposed to sleep more? But it is important to get some good sleep while you're pregnant in order to help your body heal as it's going through so much during pregnancy. So, but then also as we age, our sleep patterns change too. So estrogen and progesterone both influence the brain sleep centers. Declining estrogen can cause night sweats, insomnia, early waking, fragmented sleep, and melatonin production declines with age. So this is why many women in their 40s and 50s suddenly struggle with sleep, even if they've never had issues before. So the key here is figuring out how to support your body rather than fighting it. But before we talk about supplements or peptides, we need to be talking about foundational habits that can help you sleep better. Number one, the biggest thing that you can do to help your sleep processes is to get morning sunlight. Within 30 minutes of waking up, get sunlight in your eyes. This regulates your circadian rhythm. And I believe this is one of the most powerful sleep tools available. Number two, reduce your blue light at night. So screens emit this blue light, which suppresses your melatonin. Melatonin is that hormones that tell your brain it's time to sleep. So melatonin needs to kick in. And if you're on your phone or on a computer, blue light is gonna delay that signal. So instead use warm lights, blue light glasses, dim lighting after sunlight, and avoid screens before you go to bed. That'd be a huge one. Number three, cool your bedroom. The ideal sleep temperature is around 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. So your body naturally lowers core temperature to fall asleep. So a cooler room is gonna help that process happen. Number four, magnesium. Magnesium helps calm the nervous system, which forms that support sleep. And magnesium glycinate and magnesium three and eight are the two that help with that. Our family, we take magnesium glycinate before we go to bed. It also supports your GABA, which is your brain's calming neurotransmitter. Number five, a consistent sleep schedule. I find this one funny because if anybody is living our crazy life right now, like we are, you know, this ain't gonna happen. You know, we have two crazy kids in sports. We have branding coming up, we have FFA stuff, we have a toddler. We have to live in the middle of nowhere and have to travel everywhere to go to anything. So a consistent sleep schedule is just usually not in the cards for us. But it's important that you try. If you have the ability, if you're blessed to have a consistent life right now, I mean, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm loving this chaos. I'm gonna miss it when I'm gonna have the ability to have consistency. If you are blessed currently with the ability to do that, then make sure that your body is on a rhythm. It likes consistency. So going to sleep and waking up at the same time, it's gonna train your circadian clock. It's gonna help you get more efficient sleep. That's a big one. Now, of course, all those things being said, sometimes we've still kind of messed some things up in our bodies. We've still made it to where our bodies are maybe not listening correctly. If you jumped on that melatonin train a few years ago, I hope you're not still on it. It's not good for you. Taking melatonin makes your body quit producing it, can cause, can cause some major issues, especially for kids. So I do hope if you're on that, let's jump off that train. But there are some things that can support it from a different direction. Now, you guys know I'm all about the peptides right now. I am currently off, but was on CJC1295 plus ipamaralin plus sermarelin for a little bit. And that combination, it stimulates your natural growth hormone release, like I talked about, which peaks during your sleep. So that peptide stack enhances your recovery, your muscle repair, and your sleep quality. I can tell you, hands down, it helped me so much. I'm hoping to get back on in a different direction. What these peptides do is it's not like melatonin, where it doesn't replace what you currently have going on. It stimulates your body to act on its own and it gives it that amino acid little message. So your body utilizes what it already has, just stimulates it to make more and it will help you sleep better, help you recover better. I noticed that when I wake up in the morning after doing taking my peptide the night before, um, I wake up and I feel so much more rested. Workouts feel so much more efficient and easier. My recovery time is better. I'm less sore from day to day, less inflammation. It really was a game changer for me. But I am gonna move into Tessimerella next. That also that one also increases your growth hormone, releases your hormone activity, you can get fat metabolism, improved recovery, and potential sleep improvements from it. There's another peptide called DSIP, which stands for Delta Sleep Inducing Peptide. So this peptide is believed to support your deep sleep cycles through, although some research is still developing on this one, but some people report deeper sleep and improved sleep onset. If you're somebody who's struggling with some insomnia and you've worked out your hormone issues, you've done all those things that I've told you naturally to try to take care of, you're still struggling, peptides would be a good way to help you get some sleep. I do think it's important for you guys to understand you can't catch up on sleep. So if you are in a chronic sleep debt, it's gonna affect your metabolism, your immune system, your mood, your cognition. Improving sleep even slightly can dramatically improve your health. But just a 60 minutes more sleep per night, that's gonna make a huge difference. A huge difference. So, what I mean by that you can't fully catch up on sleep, my husband thinks he can work like all night long one day, and then it's a Sunday the next day, and he takes a nap and he feels like that's gonna that's gonna fix his problem. And it's not. Our bodies need consistency. We need good consistency every single night. Of course, things happen. We can't all sleep that way, but but it's important to try for your circadian rhythms. And I also think it's important to recognize that sleep is not laziness, sleep is biological maintenance. It's when your body does all of those amazing repairing things. It repairs your muscles, resets your hormones, clears your toxins, restores your brains. You can have the best workout plan, the best nutrition, the best supplements. But if your sleep is broken, then everything else suffers. Sleep might be the most powerful health tool that we have, and it's completely free. Now, I know that our lives sometimes offer different situations. If you're currently pregnant or you have a toddler or a little one, a newborn, whatever, obviously you're just not in it right now. You're not gonna be getting good sleep right now. And I know that. I know that that's that's just life. I've been there, I get it. But if you have made it, you know, like our little kids in his three now, her sleep is. Much more consistent, although still not perfect. I feel like I can make so much more of an effort in this area. I'm not a napper. I've never been able to nap. So it's really important for me to be able to sleep at night and to try to get good sleep in, although it's a work in progress, right? So anyways, I hope that this helped you guys. I know it's been such a focus for me right now. Just try to remember that getting a getting a little bit extra sleep in, really focusing on natural ways to help your body sleep better. You're gonna notice a difference in your workouts. You're gonna notice a difference in your energy. You're gonna be a better mom, a better dad, a a sister, brother, whatever. You're gonna be better at all of those things if you're feeling better. If you have more energy, you're gonna be better at your job. So um, I hope this motivates you guys. I hope my voice isn't too bad and annoying. And um and yeah, I'll talk to you guys. I'll talk to you guys later. Thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging out with me today on the Fit Nerd Podcast. I hope that you leave a little encouraged, a little smarter, and ready to honor the amazing body that God designed for you. If you love this episode, would you do me a quick favor? Hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And share this podcast with a friend who's on their own health journey. And remember, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. So stay curious, stay consistent, and keep nerding out on your fitness. Until next time, this is the Fit Nerd.