Optimizing Sleep for Lasting Weight Loss
Developing good sleep habits and a good sleep routine will help you in many ways - including losing weight and keeping it off!
Some of this weeks episode highlights are:
6:28 We have natural bio rhythms that are correlated with cycles of light and dark. When we disturb this rhythm with artificial light, not just the light in your home, but the light from screens, it puts a lot of stress on the body that results in increased cortisol secretion. Cortisol is a stress hormone. It's causes our bodies to make glucose - blood sugar out of muscle protein. That's going to increase our insulin, which increases our fat, and that reduces our lean muscle mass. That's exactly the opposite of what we want to have happen.
12:33 What exactly happens if you don't get enough sleep? Sleep deprivation causes a lot more than just feeling tired during the day. Research shows it will impair your memory and judgment. Life can feel really and chaotic, you perform poorly on the job and make mistakes. When you're driving, your reaction times slow down and at higher risk for car accidents. People become irritable and depressed. They're at higher risk for obesity, higher risk for diabetes, higher risk for heart disease.
16:00 For weight loss, in my opinion, sleep is the number one thing to focus on. And then nutrition is number two.
--- Full Raw Transcription of Podcast Below ---
Dr. Angela Zechmann (00:00):
You are listening to the, keep the weight off podcast with Dr. Angela episode number 27.
Introduction (00:07):
Welcome to The Keep The Weight Off podcast, where we bust all the dieting myths and discover not just how to lose weight, but more importantly, how to keep it off. We go way beyond the food and we use science and psychology to give you strategies that work. And now your host, Dr. Angela Zechmann.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (00:27):
So welcome to today's podcast everyone. Today, I wanted to talk about the importance of sleep and mostly because, and I kind of have a little confession to make here, I have been getting very lax on my own sleep routine, so I decided to get refocused. So it's kind of been on the top of my mind. And so I went back and reviewed some of what I teach in the journey beyond weight loss course in membership about sleep. And I looked up some of the new research and I just really want everyone to know, like we're learning more and more about sleep and obesity all the time. But before I go into that, I just want you to know if you are considering joining us in jJourney Beyond Weight Loss, we're going to be opening up the membership again in September. And so while you're waiting for it to open, you can get started by downloading the free course, and we'll leave a link there for you to easily access that.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (01:36):
It's at https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/freecourse, and also be sure to join the Facebook group Sugar and Flour Busters Society, if you're not already a member there. So again, we'll we'll put a link there for you as well. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/579145685949255).
Dr. Angela Zechmann (01:52):
So and then also what you can do if you're enjoying this podcast is don't forget to rate and review it on iTunes. This really helps get all of this information out to others who are also looking for good information. There's a lot of crap weight loss advice out there on the internet. And I really hope that you're enjoying hearing some honest and scientific advice from a qualified medical doctor. You can help others find this information and advice by giving us a review on iTunes. And I want to thank you in advance for doing that. Okay.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (02:35):
So we talk a lot about the science around here, but we also try to keep it real. And, we try to give you actionable steps that you can take to apply the science. And I have to say that a good sleep routine is one of the most important things you can do to make sure that you're healthy and that you stay healthy because without good sleep, you really can't make good decisions. And you certainly aren't going to be making good eating decisions. And the science backs me up on that. So today we're going to talk about the symptoms of inadequate sleep, and we're going to talk about the stages of sleep and what happens in each stage. And we're going to talk a little bit about sleep apnea, and I'm going to give you some tips for setting up daily habits and a nightly routine that will result in high quality restful sleep. So let's get started.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (03:40):
The first thing I want you to know is that nearly 100 million Americans are not getting enough asleep. That's nearly 30% of us. I actually think that that number is higher. Just based on my own experience, because I know that I'm not getting enough sleep!
Dr. Angela Zechmann (04:00):
Marchelle. How about you?
Marchelle (04:01):
So I'm, I'm maybe a little bit different than... Well, hi everybody, by the way!
Marchelle (04:11):
Yeah. So I was one of those people for many years that struggled. I don't know. I think I hit my forties or something and my sleep patterns because I would wake up all through the night and I just didn't even know why I was doing that. I'm just wake up and then I couldn't get back to sleep. And I thought it was my husband's snoring, but I guess not.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (04:29):
Could be.
Marchelle (04:32):
So so I've started taking, you know, over the counter sleep aids, melatonin, you know, all that Unisom and all that kind of stuff. Then that stuff quit working. I take I take a prescription sleeping pill every night.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (04:53):
You know? I was just gonna say so many of our patients are on prescription sleep aids, so yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marchelle (05:03):
I'm sure there, I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of people on, you know, sleep medication. So I kind of have more control over my sleep now, but I'm not sure what kind of sleep I'm getting and how that does affect my cortisol levels or any of that. So so that's, that's my sleep experience.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (05:22):
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just, it's hard for a lot of us to get the right sleep. So that's why I wanted to do this podcast because what we want to do is to help you to do everything you can to maximize your sleep quality and your sleep time so that you can keep the weight off. That's what we're all about here. You know, it's interesting because a national sleep foundation poll found that adults ages 18 to 54 report getting 6.4 hours of sleep on weekdays and then 7.7 hours of sleep on weekends. Isn't that interesting? It's like we are all sleep deprived all week long.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (06:00):
And then we sort of catch up on the weekends. These days people are actually sleeping less than we used to in previous decades. And so a lot of it is because we're on the internet at night or we're bringing work home from the office. It's like we have access to our work 24 7, and it never really shuts off. I know I have that problem. And then we also have access to video entertainment 24 7. So I mean, like I'm old enough to remember the days when we had three TV channels. Did we have three TV channels when you were a kid? I think you're, I think you're a little younger than me.
Marchelle (06:40):
I have a little bit more, but I, I do remember yeah. When it would turn off at midnight and then you'd get the snow...
Dr. Angela Zechmann (06:48):
Okay. You remember that too? Okay. Yeah. Those were the days like you couldn't watch TV after midnight, like there was nothing on. And so now we've got hundreds of channels, 24 7 access. And like, you can just sit there and binge watch a show all night long and not get any sleep at all. So how many of us do that? You know, it's like, oh, that's really, you know, Ugh, no, anyway, this becomes a real problem. And there are a few different reasons for that. So the first thing is this really wreaks havoc with our circadian rhythm. So we're designed to have natural bio rhythms that are correlated with cycles of light and dark. So when we disturbed this rhythm with artificial light, so not just the light in your home, but the light from screens, which we'll talk about in a minute. This puts a lot of stress on the body and that results in increased cortisol secretion.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (07:46):
So cortisol is a stress hormone, and it's going to cause our bodies to make glucose, blood sugar out of muscle protein. So, and that's going to increase our insulin, which increases our fat and that reduces our lean muscle mass. And so that's exactly the opposite of what we want to have happen. So these crazy sleep cycles are really sort of doing us all a disservice. The next thing that happens is that the blue light from our devices has been shown in research to reduce melatonin. Now you had talked about taking supplemental melatonin, right? So this is the sleep hormone. So melatonin helps your body move through the stages of sleep, which I'm going to just tell you about in a minute, but just know that if your melatonin is reduced, that you're not going to get good quality sleep. And then I just learned about this a few years ago.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (08:46):
So interesting. It's it's, what's called social jet lag. So this is when we have different sleep schedules on weekdays and weekend days. So for example, let's say that on weekdays, I get up at five o'clock in the morning and I go to bed at 10 o'clock that's seven hours of sleep. So I was from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM, seven hours of sleep. But on the weekends, I go to bed at midnight and I wake up at 7:00 AM. So I'm still getting seven hours of sleep, but it's as if I crossed a couple of times zones during the weekend and that's really, really hard on the body. So that's what I mean when I say social jet lag. And if you think about it, you know, if on Friday night you stay up until midnight and then get up at seven o'clock in the morning on Saturday.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (09:40):
And then Saturday night you stay up until midnight and then get up at seven o'clock on Sunday morning. Then by Sunday night, you're like, you can't sleep at 10 o'clock you're up until midnight. And then you have to get up at 5:00 AM on Monday morning. And like, is it any wonder that Mondays feel so hard? It was just, it's crazy on our bodies. So that's what we mean by social jet lag. Okay.
Marchelle (10:04):
It was really true. I have to say, because when we got back from vacation and then we took that week off, you know, to, to stay in the house, you know, in quarantine, after we got back from Mexico. Yeah. We've got so far off track with our schedules that when I got back to work for a week, I could not get in the groove of things. Like I was exhausted.
Marchelle (10:26):
I couldn't figure out why, because I was, you know, I was getting sleep at night. Like I said, to take my sleep aids. So I was getting just, something was, was going on in my mind that just, I just could not get back on track. I just felt like I was, you know, always two steps behind. I kind of like, I was walking through mud and it took me a week. So, so this is a real thing like this. Yeah, yeah. This is the three. Yeah. This does that does bent havoc on my schedules.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (10:52):
So, yeah. And if I remember correctly, you were over, you know, you were a three hour time zone away too, when you were on your vacation. So basically you were experiencing, you were experiencing jet lag and then social jet lag afterwards. So yeah. And it's, it's, it just goes to show you like, the body is not good with this.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (11:13):
The body really needs. And so many people, you know, like one day they're going to bed at one time. It's like this sort of like this crapshoot, like, what time am I going to go to bed tonight? Well, you know, I've got this to catch up on and then this to read, and then you end up staying up late, watching this TV show. And then the next night you go to bed early and then night after that, you might go to bed at 10 and then the night that you might go to bed at midnight. And then the next night you're like, oh my God, I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed at eight. And like, our bodies are just so confused. We have no idea.
Marchelle (11:39):
Well, another thing that, that kind of came up in my mind was we have a lot of patients that are nurses that work the graveyard shift.
Marchelle (11:49):
And when they come in, I see them struggle weight loss. And when they tell me or tell you that they work the graveyard shift, it makes a whole lot of sense now. Yeah. They might struggle more just because their sleep patterns are...
Dr. Angela Zechmann (12:10):
It's so disruptive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like they're typically working 12 hour shifts, three days a week. And usually they try to get scheduled. So that it's three days in a row that they're working these overnight graveyard shifts, 12 hour shifts, but then they have to go, then they have to go back to normal for four days. And then they're going back to the graveyard for three days. And it's just like this back and forth. It's just this constant shifting of the circadian rhythms. And that's just really, really hard on the body. And, and a lot of times, you know, like when they're trying to stay awake at night, you get hungrier.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (12:46):
So I'll talk about that too. You actually do get hungrier. So just like what exactly happens if you don't get enough sleep? Well, sleep deprivation causes a lot more than just feeling tired during the day. Like the research shows it will impair your memory. It will impair your judgment. And it becomes really hard to make decisions. Life can feel really confusing and really chaotic people perform poorly on the job. They make mistakes. When you're driving your reaction times slow down and people are higher risk for car accidents. People become irritable, they become depressed. They're at higher risk for obesity, higher risk for diabetes, higher risk for heart disease. In short, if you're not getting enough, sleep, life is miserable. And I've really been experiencing this a lot lately with my erratic sleep schedule. I feel irritable and crabby. Everything feels really hard to do, and I'm not nearly the creative thinker that I am when I'm sleeping more regularly.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (14:01):
So I just want to say, you know, now that I'm really starting to focus more on going to bed at the same time every night, getting up at the same time in the morning, you know, I already feel 10 times better. It's amazing. So cool. Okay. Did you have anything you wanted to add in there at all Marchelle?
Marchelle (14:22):
Well, I was thinking about our poor nurses. I know working these, these shifts in the night. Yeah. And then they come in and they're really struggling and they tell us, you know, they're doing everything right. And they just don't understand.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (14:36):
And it's like, why wait, coming off? Well, so, so here's some of what's happening. There are hormone changes that occur in our body when we don't get enough sleep. So for example, I kind of already talked about how cortisol levels rise, and this is the stress hormone that causes our insulin levels to rise.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (14:56):
And that leads to fat gain. We've also learned that Ghrelin levels... Now Ghrelin is the hunger hormone. And so if you're sleep deprived, your Ghrelin level goes higher. So you're actually hungrier. And usually what you're hungry for is junk food. Something that's gonna, that's going to bring your blood sugar up. It's not like you're craving broccoli, right? You're craving chips or cupcakes or cookies or whatever. And then there's another hormone called Leptin. This hormone signals satiety, or a sense of fullness. So I'm done eating and that hormone goes down when you don't get enough sleep. So again, like you don't feel full. So you feel hungrier. You don't feel full as quickly. You've got cortisol and insulin levels running higher, and this is all happening because we're not getting enough sleep. And so I can't emphasize enough how important good sleep is in your journey to lasting health.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (16:00):
As a matter of fact, what I tell my patients a lot, like a lot of times people are going through periods of stress and they will be losing sleep because they're stressed out or, you know, like they're in school and they're getting ready for exams or something like that. I always say, this is the time to make absolutely sure that you're focusing more so on your sleep, on your nutrition, but sleep first because without good sleep, you can't make good nutrition choices. So in my opinion, sleep is the number one thing to focus on. And then nutrition is number two. Okay. So if you're struggling with your weight, getting that sleep cycle figured out is the number one thing. In my opinion, now I don't know that everybody would agree with me on that. I'm just kind of explaining based on my own personal experience and based on what I know about the importance of sleep.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (17:05):
So there are four stages of sleep. So there's stage one, two and three. I'll talk about each of those. And those are what's called non REM sleep. And then the fourth stage is actually REM sleep. So I'll talk about each one of those. So stage one, basically, you're just kind of drowsy. Okay. You just drowsy, you can wake up easily, your muscle tone, relaxes a little bit, your brainwaves start to slow down. And that's just sort of the early part of heading off into Lala land.
Marchelle (17:38):
Ya know - that's me about six o'clock every evening.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (17:41):
Ah, that's me sometimes when I'm driving home from work, it's like, wait a minute here.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (17:50):
Stage two is the next stage is a deeper stage. And this is where things really start to slow down your heart rate slows down your body temperature decreases. And it's actually harder to wake up from stage two sleep. And then you've got stage three, which is the deepest of the non REM sleep. So this is the most restorative time of sleep. It's really hard to wake up from stage three sleep. It's also a time when people can sleep walk or sleep talk. And during this stage, the pituitary gland, which is a gland in your brain, is releasing human growth hormone or HGH and human growth hormone is awesome because that's what allows for cellular repair and brain regeneration. And without enough of a stage three sleep, you're not going to get enough HGH production. So those of us who are like wakening constantly during the night, like if we're awake before for missing out on stage three sleep, we're not going to get that restorative production of HGH and we're not going to have the cellular repair and all of those wonderful processes that occur during deep sleep, then there's stage four sleep, which is REM.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (19:11):
So REM stands for rapid eye movement. I think most people have heard about this by now. And this is when dreams occur and usually REM sleep is associated with muscle paralysis. So we can't move during REM sleep. Okay. And that's felt to be of advantage so that we don't go acting out our dreams. Okay. So REM sleep super, super important, but that's where you have dreams occurring. Okay. Now I have had patients tell me patients who have undiagnosed sleep apnea, that they don't have dreams. And that's because they're never reaching stage four or REM the REM sleep cycle. So if you're somebody who doesn't remember dreaming, that might be a clue. And we'll talk about some more, I'll talk more about sleep apnea in a minute, but that might be a clue that you might not be getting into these restorative sleep sleep stages.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (20:15):
So a complete cycle going from one through four takes about 90 to 110 minutes, or basically about one and a half to two hours. Each stage will last five to 15 minutes. And it's interesting because as the night goes on the periods of REM sleep get longer while the periods of deep sleep shorten. So as you can see, it's really important to make sure that you're getting enough sleep and that you're going through all of these stages of sleep in, in sequence. Most adults do best on seven and a half to eight hours. The range is usually somewhere between seven to nine hours. Although there is individual variability, some people need less and some people need more to feel their best. Okay. Now, many people who struggle with the disease of obesity also struggle with a condition called obstructive sleep apnea. So I want to talk about that for a minute.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (21:20):
This is actually much more common than people realize, and I'm always on the lookout for it - always! And it occurs because when the neck musculature relaxes during sleep, it can close off the throat and the windpipe. And essentially like, it's like, you're getting strangled all night long. So you somebody with, let's say you have obstructive sleep apnea and you don't know it, you have no idea that you're actually getting strangled all night long, but your partner, if you have a partner that you're sleeping with will hear you snore, and they may notice that you stop breathing and then suddenly choke or gasp for air. And that's really scary for the partner. Sometimes the choking and gasping will wake you up, but not always. And the interesting thing is that these episodes of strangling caused the oxygen levels to drop in the bloodstream. And that leads to a release of stress hormones that are going to cause an increase in blood pressure.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (22:31):
So hypertension is 'maybe' associated with sleep apnea, okay? And the stress on the body makes it really difficult for the body to be willing, to let go of fat. The cortisol levels are high people with untreated sleep apnea are just miserable because they're not getting adequate rest. They're tired, they're irritable and they're depressed. They sometimes will wake up with headaches. So I want you to remember, we don't give medical advice on this podcast, but we do educate people. And I would just suggest that if you have any of these symptoms, it might be worth asking your doctor to refer you for testing. So many people have told me just how amazing it was for them to get their sleep apnea, diagnosed and treated. And they feel like they have a new lease on life. So again, you know, if you, if you have like just lots and lots of fatigue, there's lots of things that can cause fatigue and just obesity in and of itself can cause a lot of fatigue.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (23:44):
If have headaches that you, you know, especially upon awakening, if you've got high blood pressure that may be due to the obesity and the hormone changes that occur, but it may also be due to sleep apnea. And what my approach is when I have somebody come in for the first time and I'm suspicious that they might have undiagnosed sleep apnea. What I do is I watch carefully and I wait and see how their fat loss is now. Remember, you can't tell if you're losing fat by getting on your scale, you have to get a body composition to know if you're actually losing fat. But if I notice that their fat loss is slow, that's one of the things that I am suspicious of is undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea. Sometimes people with undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea, lose fat and the sleep apnea goes away on its own.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (24:42):
So it's not always necessary to go through all of that testing it's way easier than it used to be, by the way. They do home sleep testing now. So at least in the beginning to sort of the screen for it and rule it out. But so sometimes you know, the body is willing to let go of fat and the sleep apnea will cure itself, but there are people for whom it's preventing fat loss. And so I think it's important to at least have that in your mind as a possibility sleep apnea is actually a silent killer because that those low oxygen levels can cause heart rhythm abnormalities. So you don't really want to mess around with sleep apnea. Okay. Does that make sense? That makes sense, Marchelle?
Marchelle (25:35):
Yes, it does.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (25:37):
We see a lot of it, don't we?
Marchelle (25:38):
Yes we do! I know when I first started working for you and you know, there was this model head, you know, with, with the sleep apnea CPAP.. You know, the new, the latest C-PAP and I could not figure out why that was in our clinic and I couldn't put it together. And so I I've learned so much since then. And I just remember like back then wondering, you know, why is that in this clinic? It doesn't make sense to me. What does sleep have to do with obesity?
Dr. Angela Zechmann (26:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Marchelle (26:07):
Now it makes so much more sense.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (26:09):
And so you get your beauty sleep. It is, it sure is a beauty sleep.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (26:18):
All right. So short of just making sure that you're getting a diagnosis and treatment for sleep apnea, if you have it, what are some of the things that you can do to make sure that you're getting the sleep that you need? Okay. So here we go, here is my best advice. First and foremost, super important, make sure that you go to sleep at the same time every and get up at the same time every day, regardless of whether it's a weekday or a weekend. Okay. So, and I talked about this and why it's so important. You want to keep your circadian rhythm steady and you want to avoid social jet lag. And I have to admit that this is something that is very difficult for me, because I love to get up early and meditate and exercise before I go to work. And I start my workdays at 7:30 in the morning.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (27:15):
So I get up at about 4:30 in the morning, try, but trying to get me to go to sleep before 10:30 is not easy. So if I go to sleep at 10:30 and then get up at 4:30, that's six hours of sleep, that's not nearly enough. Okay. And then on the weekends, you know, it's like, oh, okay. I get to sleep in. So I have this whole, I have this whole thing going on in my head that says that I, I, what I need to do, I think is to find a happy medium in there somewhere. So so all of you podcast listeners who are similar to me, let's work on this together. Maybe we can do a 9:30 to 5:30, you know sleep thing that we're doing or, or something along those lines, let's see 9:30 to 5:30 that's... Is that nine hours?
Dr. Angela Zechmann (28:02):
That's nine hours of sleep. So we could do 10:30 to 5:30, 10:00 to 6 something along those lines so that we get the sleep that we need. And we are not like staying up super late on the weekends. Okay. I once heard a lecture by a sleep specialist and he said that if you can wake up at the same time every day without an alarm, you're getting enough sleep. And I'm just like, yeah. Right. Okay, sure. I could never get up at 4:30 in the morning without an alarm. So I guess this is just something I'm going to have to work on. All right. So the next thing to do is to just make sure that you stop the blue light devices an hour before you want to go to sleep. Now, what do I mean by blue light devices? This means no cell phone, no computer, no TV for that last hour of the day, because remember that prevents the secretion of melatonin, which is your, I would call it your sleep ambassador hormone.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (29:07):
It's helping you move through those stages of sleep. And it's really, really important. Okay. and this is another thing that's really hard for me because I don't know why. I just feel like I need to check my email and my last bit of Facebook before I go to sleep. But apparently if you have an iPhone, you can turn it to night shift setting, and that's going to remove the blue light wavelengths for you. And that might be a solution if you can't imagine life without your phone, but I would encourage you to consider putting your phone in another room and an alarm some other way. Cause my alarm is on my phone. Right. So I don't know. It's just hard. Do you have any trouble with this Marchelle? Are you like addicted to your phone? The way I am? It's crazy.
Marchelle (29:55):
No, I'm actually not. I'm not that person that leaves my phone all over the place and nobody can get ahold of me. I mean, I use it like when I want to blank out on Facebook or, you know, call, call my mom or something, but no, I'm really not. I don't use it for a calendar. I don't use it for you for alarms or anything like that.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (30:15):
Oh, good for you. I'm impressed. Good for you.
Marchelle (30:19):
I just am too lazy to deal with all the technology of, you know, setting it all up. So I just write some down on a calendar.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (30:29):
So my next piece of advice is to avoid caffeine after noon. And I would also try to minimize it. I always feel better if I avoid caffeine, but in my experience, caffeine is one of those things that will just jack you up. And so a lot of people, because they're so tired because they're not sleeping well, they drink caffeine all day and then they can't go to sleep and they don't sleep well. And so they drink more caffeine. It kind of ends up being a vicious cycle.
Marchelle (30:54):
Oh my gosh, I've done that so much.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (30:57):
Oh yeah, for sure. I think we all have so, so you can cut back on caffeine by just switching to decaf for half of your half of your half of your coffee intake, just switch it to decaf and then just switch it. And then once you've done that for a few days, then cut it in half again until you're off of it.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (31:17):
So it's actually not too hard to get off caffeine. If you just cut your doses in half and your brain will kind of get used to it. Also be careful with alcohol. So what a lot of people do is they'll drink a glass or two of wine that will calm them down, but it really affects sleep quality. It will help you go to sleep, but it doesn't help you stay asleep. So I found that as I've gotten older, I'm way more sensitive to the effects of alcohol. And I just do not sleep well. If I've had some wine or whatever it might be, I wake up more frequently. I don't feel as well rested. So that's another thing is to just be super, super careful with alcohol. You want to be careful with your nutrition as well. Some people will have a bowl of cereal or a bowl of ice cream before bed, or maybe some chips that kind of thing - or popcorn.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (32:16):
So these foods are going to Jack up your blood sugar. They're going to give you a little sugar high. They're going to make it more difficult to go to sleep. And then later you end up having a blood sugar crash and sometimes this can wake you up. So one of the things that almost all of my patients marvel about once they get off sugar and flour is how much better they sleep. We, we usually hear that like on the first month back, it's pretty crazy. Just how well people say they're sleeping. So in order to get the sleep that you need, you want to set yourself up with a really good bedtime routine. And I would start about an hour before you actually want to go to sleep. Our brains love routines. And so each thing that you do is like a signal to your brain to quiet down for rest.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (33:11):
So for example, maybe you wash your face, you brush your teeth, you put on your pajamas, maybe you lay out your clothes for the next day. By the way, before I do any of that, I always get my food ready for the next day too. That's one of my brain signals that it's time to start settling down. And then once I'm in bed, I will write in my five-year journal. Just a few lines about what happened that day. It's always fun to look back and see what was going on in previous years. It's kind of like those Facebook memories that you get, you know, like here's what you were doing last year on this day. And so it's kind of fun to look back and see how far I've come. Some people like to light - to light candles or use calming oils.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (34:00):
Lavender is one that kind of is associated with sleep to signal the brain that it's time to start producing some melatonin and go to sleep. Okay. So you don't have to use my routine, use your own routine, but the goal here is to get your brain cycles ready. You know, the when we were children, when our mothers gave us a hot bath and then read us a story like that was signaling our brains, that it was time to get ready for sleep. And then you want to make your bedroom conducive to sleep. You really need to make sure you have a good mattress and you want your room to be several degrees cooler at night. Remember that we evolved out kind of outdoors in caves and at nighttime, it got cooler. So our brains, like a cooler crisper air at night, I wouldn't eat or watch TV or work or check email in the bedroom.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (35:03):
You want your brain to associate the bedroom with sleep and not with work. Okay. Is that making sense?
Marchelle (35:12):
Yes. Doing all these things like eating right and getting the right sleep. It's a lot.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (35:18):
It's a lot. I know.
Marchelle (35:20):
Cause you're fighting a whole lot of temptations. I know it was just, I was just getting overwhelmed for a second. Like, you know, the eating right stuff. I was just starting to, you know, get a handle on that. And then I was just thinking about it, like to prepare for sleep and to train your brain. It's just like, it's a whole lot.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (35:37):
It is. It's a lot losing weight and keeping it off is not easy in any of those diet programs that tell you it is they're lying. It's not easy.
Marchelle (35:49):
No, it's simple, but it's not easy.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (35:51):
Right, exactly. Now, one thing I do want to mention is I do have a lot of people tell me, well, what if I have a, a partner who snores or what if I have a pet that needs to go out all the time, those sorts of things.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (36:12):
So, right. So I just want to address that for a minute because you have a right to get the sleep that you need. I mean, this is your birthright is to feel good. And so if your partner is snoring and keeping you up, I would, first of all, try earplugs and I would try a ambient noise. For example, there's a smartphone app called "Rain Rain" that ha has all kinds of different sort of background noises. And so you can use that background noise to help put you to sleep. And I do use, I have a fan in my room that I just, I just use that, but like if I'm, if I'm traveling or something I put on I put on sleep music on my phone or I put on "Rain Rain" and just listened to like one of the brown noise or pink noise or one of those noises that will just sort of give you some background.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (37:18):
And so that, or maybe some earplugs, if your partner's snoring, but I wouldn't hesitate if you have a snoring partner, get them in to get tested for apnea. And if they refuse to do that, I would seriously consider sleeping in a different room because you deserve to get your sleep as far as elderly pets who need to go outside. That's a tough one because I don't know, maybe there's some way to share that duty with your partner or with somebody else who's living with you because you do need to get adequate rest and you cannot be interrupted constantly by pets coming in and out of the bedroom requiring you to get up and get them outside and all of that. I mean, we all have the puppy stage, but I'm talking about as the pets get older and they're needing to go out, I think there's a, you know, I think there's gotta be a better solution than you getting up at night and giving up your REM sleep so that your pet can can get outside when they need to, you know, maybe it's, maybe it's a, some sort of pee pad inside, or maybe it's doggy diapers for overnight, something along those lines so that you don't, you need to make sure that you prioritize your rest.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (38:37):
Yeah, there's a lot to think about here. The other thing is you might consider starting a meditation practice. Now, why do I, I already had a podcast about why I recommend meditation, but I want to say that meditation can also help with sleep. And the reason is because you're training your brain, that you're in charge when you're meditating. So say for example, you're focusing on your breath, you're training your brain when it starts to think about something other than your breath and you bring it back to your breath, you're letting your brain know that you're in charge, not it, because what happens is our brains will just go spin off it to that thousands and thousands and thousands of thoughts. And that can keep us awake, right? It could cause a lot of anxiety and overwhelm and the next thing, you know, like we're not able to sleep.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (39:30):
So that's one of the reasons why people have a harder time sleeping too, is that they're just sort of at the mercy of their brains. And, you know, the unsupervised brain is like a toddler running around in a room in in a room with a bunch of glass. And it can wreak a lot of damage and have it pretty quickly. So you want to learn how to supervise your brain and supervise the thoughts that you allow your brain to think because you have choice over that. And that's what meditation will do for you. And that will definitely help improve your sleep. Does that making sense?
Marchelle (40:04):
Yes. It does.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (40:07):
Okay. So we talked about a lot today. Marchelle, did you have any other points that you wanted to make?
Marchelle (40:15):
No, I was just thinking back on just like how I got into these really bad sleep patterns, you know, like falling asleep to the TV was, oh, I used to do that for a really long time. And then I'd wake me up in the middle of the night and you know, I'd have to get up and turn it off. But I mean, just a lot of, a lot of things. I mean, I didn't realize how much sleep affected. It affects everything. You know, you always think you can, when you're younger, you can just run on, you know, four hours of sleep. And I know, I mean, I worked for a doctor that used to brag about that you only needed four hours of sleep. He never, never needed more sleep than that. And he would always seem so tired at the end of the day. Yeah. so I mean, yes, sleep is important and you just got to put some effort into retraining it. So I'm wondering, so wondering if like the sleeping medications that, you know, I know not everybody's on them, but I'm sure there are people listening that are the same questions.
Marchelle (41:11):
I'm wondering, like, is there a time when you should try to wean yourself off of them and, and see if you could train yourself back to getting good sleep or do you think you're just like, oh, when once you have some kind of sleep disruption that you're just going to be on them forever. Cause I guess I never really questioned, you know, like, am I, should I get off of these or yeah. Well, I mean, did they prevent you from going through that stage of sleep that, you know, is restorative like so many questions about this? Yeah. I want to talk to my doctor because I never asked. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (41:48):
I would suggest, you know first of all, get your nutrition in order. So, and I'm talking, not just you, I'm talking about to, I'm talking to all, all of our podcast listeners, right.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (42:00):
Get off the caffeine. Yeah. Get off the sugar and flour products for the most part and try to see what you can do to minimize your alcohol intake and and put yourself on a sleep routine and give yourself 30 to 60 days of doing this sleep routine really consistently like really work on this. And then once you've done that, you might want to try cutting your sleep medication in half and seeing if you can still go to sleep with your sleep medication cut in half. And if you can great, you know, do that for a week or two and then see if you can do it off the sleep medication. Yeah. That would be awesome. If, if you don't need medication to sleep, you're, you're going to be in much better place, you know?
Marchelle (42:50):
Right. I agree.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (42:52):
And of course, if you are concerned about the possibility of sleep apnea, you want to get a diagnosis and treatment there too.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (42:59):
So yeah, that will mean if that, if that's the reason you're not sleeping well, then, you know, you really need a diagnosis and treatment there.
Marchelle (43:08):
Yeah. I don't know if that's my issue, cause I've never been told that I snore or anything like that. I don't exactly know if it is then I would get it taken care of, but I'm not sure if that's what my issue is. I do. I think that now thinking back on it, I think that I had a lot of really bad habits, like the caffeine in the afternoon. You know, and then drinking, you know, I go to bed, you know, a couple of beers or whatever, to relax, you know, to certain things like all of these bad habits, you know, ice cream for dessert that I guess led me to start taking these, this sleep medication.
Marchelle (43:48):
And then I just stayed on it, thinking that I, I needed it. I haven't really tried to trust, you know, that the program. And so that's something that I'm definitely gonna work on now. And, and I'll get back to you guys on that. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (44:04):
And I'm going to be working on going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time, regardless of what day of the week it is. So we'll see how that goes. As I just, I do feel better when I get better sleep that's for sure.
Marchelle (44:16):
Me too.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (44:17):
So, okay. So I want to summarize quickly everything that we talked about. So the first thing that's important is that most of us aren't getting nearly enough sleep. And personally I blame our screens. I think that we're all just way too much into our screen time and our movie watching and all of that.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (44:36):
And without adequate rest, we're irritable, cranky, miserable, and it's really going to be hard to lose weight. It just is. And it's going to be hard to keep it off. Sleep apnea is a real concern. And if you snore, if you stop breathing, when you sleep, if you get drowsy during the day, if you have high blood pressure, these are all concerns and you would do well to just at least ask your doctor to see about getting some testing. Recommend to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning, regardless of what day of the week it is so that you can avoid social jet lag. You want to give yourself a good bedtime ritual, stop your screens an hour before you want to sleep to avoid the blue light that inhibits the sleep hormone melatonin, and you want to avoid alcohol and junk food before bed. And I would recommend that you stop caffeine at noon. So those are some tips for getting the rest you need and how you can optimize sleep for lasting weight loss. Any other, any last minute thoughts Marchelle?
Marchelle (45:49):
No. I just hope that everybody can get to sleep at the same time and get up at the same time.
Dr. Angela Zechmann (45:56):
All right. That's all for today. And we will see all of you next week. Have a great week everybody. Bye bye.
Closing (46:03):
Hey, if you really want to lose weight and keep it off for good, your next step is to sign up for Dr. Angela's free weight loss course, where you're going to learn everything you need to get started on your weight loss journey, the right way, just head over to JourneyBeyondWeightLoss.com/freecourse to sign up. Also, it would be awesome if you could take a few moments and write a review on iTunes. Thanks. And we'll see you in Journey Beyond Weight Loss.
Free Course: https://www.journeybeyondweightloss.com/freecourse
Sugar and Flour Busters Society: https://www.facebook.com/groups/579145685949255
- Dr. Angela
This episode was produced and marketed by the Get Known Podcast Service
