Snooze or Lose: The Dangers of Poor Sleep & Learning Simple Solutions for Improvements

EP77-Snooze or Lose

Erin: [00:00:00] Hey listener, welcome back to After the Tones Drop, the podcast where we dive deep into the real life mental health challenges faced by our first responders, and most importantly, how we can rise above them together. I'm your host, Erin, and today I am excited to hand the mic over to my amazing co host Cinnamon for a solo episode that's going to hit home for so many of you.

Today, Cinnamon's taking the reins to talk about something that might seem simple on the surface, but is actually a huge issue for first responders. Sleep. We all know how critical sleep is, but what happens when your schedule, your job, and the stress of life in the service make it feel impossible to get enough of it?

Cinnamon's diving into how the unique sleep challenges you face as a first responder go far beyond just feeling tired. She's going to unpack how poor sleep quality can have serious effects on your mental health, your relationships, and your [00:01:00] ability to cope with trauma and stress on the job. Plus, she'll give you some real world tips on how to protect your sleep, even with all the chaos of shift work and the middle of the night call outs.

Before we jump into Cinnamon's episode, make sure to subscribe and share this podcast with anyone you think could benefit from these conversations. See We want to reach as many first responders as possible and help break the silence around mental health. So, hit that subscribe button and help spread the word.

And don't forget to check out our new program, Copper Warrior. It's a 12 week intensive coaching program designed to help first responders take charge of their mental health, build resilience, and create lasting change. You can learn more at CopperWarrior. com. Alright, I'm going to step aside now. And let Cinnamon take it from here.

Let's talk about sleep and why it's so much more important than just catching some [00:02:00] Zs. 

Cinnamon: Hey friends, it's Cinnamon and I am so excited to be with you today to talk about our topic. And I am alone today. Erin is getting the day off from recording, just like she's given me so many days off and handled the recording on her own.

 And so today I get to talk about one of the things that comes up a lot for us in session and with our clients. And ironically, this is one of those things that Erin oftentimes defers to me on simply because it is something that. I find very interesting, and I've got my own systems that I have figured out how to make the most out of.

So today, we're actually going to be talking about sleep, which I don't know. Maybe, maybe it does sound exciting. Maybe it doesn't, but in the spirit of things, [00:03:00] I have shut off my overhead light. So it kind of looks like that we are recording at night. Ironically, it's not because of that. It's because my light is shining very weirdly onto the camera.

So, I just shut that off in hopes that it would not disrupt me. and that we could have a fun talk about this today. I actually really like talking about sleep because It's something that when we're going through a difficult time, we want to work with somebody who can have some relationship with our experience, right?

So maybe they can't say, I understand, or I went through that exact same thing. But sleep is one of those things that when you are struggling to get good quality sleep, it's hard to help somebody understand what that really means in terms of how it's impairing you and how it's causing stress and difficulty in your life on the day to day.

But if you are talking to somebody who has [00:04:00] had difficulty with sleep, they get it. Right. They, know what it's like to wake up at three o'clock in the morning and be awake either the rest of the night and then have to get up and go to work or they are up for an hour or two. And this past year, I feel like I had been a good sleeper and this past year, my sleep has just been off the hook and I don't understand it.

It's not super predictable. It. will be for a period of time, but I'm also noticing more recently when I wake up in the middle of the night, I can look over and my husband's already awake. So, I have a feeling that there's something about the age that I'm getting to, we're getting to, that it has something to do with it.

 It's almost like, when my sleep is good, I need to do things to make sure that it stays good or that aren't necessarily counterproductive. But when my sleep is bad or not so [00:05:00] good, it means I can't screw around. I have to be even more vigilant about making sure I'm doing the things That I need to be doing to ensure that I get sleep because as you can imagine with most anybody I don't operate very well if I don't have a good night's sleep.

so with all that being said, I wanted to talk about how it relates to our clients and even more importantly, it does truly relate to our mental health either on the front end or the back end. Sleep is actually one of the most important things. To maintain good mental health. If you are not sleeping, you are working at a deficit.

 And part of that is. Because of why sleep is so important. If you've worked with me, you're going to know that I have this book that I go by or I talk a lot about the, the body clock or the organ clock, which is a concept developed in traditional Chinese medicine. [00:06:00] And that's where I first started learning about the things that I was missing.

If I wasn't getting to sleep and that became disturbing. And I'll talk to you a little bit about that later, but when it comes to why sleep is so important, it has a huge role in both our physical and mental recovery from each and every day. So when we talk about some of the symptoms of PTS, these are three of the big key factors that we Say play a role in how PTS shows up.

And we've also seen it show up with ADHD too. So we've got memory consolidation. So how we are organizing and storing information that we're gathering throughout the day, So our deep sleep cycle, that REM cycle is where our brain is consolidating those short term memories into long term storage.

And for some of us, we may not be [00:07:00] getting into that deep, deep sleep, especially like on. shift nights where you're up a few times a night on runs, or if you're working midnights and then you're only sleeping, you know, maybe from seven to 11 a. m. And then you get up and try to function like the rest of the world and get your errands done.

you're not going to necessarily be able to find that deep sleep that's helping. Your memories consolidate in a way that's healthy. so when we see folks with post traumatic stress, that's one of those things that we see them struggle with, is remembering things. I can go all day about how ADHD and PTS, when it comes to the cognitive functioning, the executive functioning part, they overlap.

But if you are one of those folks who has said, either to me or to Erin or just in general, Yeah, I think I have ADHD, or I think I should have been diagnosed when I was a kid, or I was [00:08:00] diagnosed, or I have been diagnosed as an adult. It is even more crucial to make sure that you are getting the sleep, because again, we're already sitting in the hole, right?

So memory consolidation is the first one. The second one, surprise, surprise, emotion regulation. If you think about a child who needs a nap, Who's adamant that they don't need a nap, right? How do we know that they need a nap? They start crying and they start whining and they're no longer a savvy at regulating their emotions.

 They start to take things more personally. They tend to, and I'm talking about them like they're adults, but. I think you know what I'm talking about. They're more sensitive. Things are more easily distressing. And what is actually happening is they're just unable to regulate their emotions.

 So what do we do? We say, baby needs a nap, right? And so why would we not make that same connection for ourselves when we are having a difficult time regulating our [00:09:00] emotions? Is it possible that we just maybe need a nap or we need to look at our sleep patterns and see what's happening there? the third big important thing when it comes to mental recovery is that cognitive functioning.

 So how we think and then From that, our decision making, especially as first responders, like your decision making has to be like on point all the time. if we don't have all of our faculty, it's because we're not sleeping well. It starts to show up in our decision making. I hate those moments where people are like, why did you do that?

And you're like, dude, I don't even know. Like now out of that moment, I'm so clear that that was not the right choice. I don't know what happened in that moment. So those are the three big things when it comes to your mental recovery after just like one day. The memory consolidation, emotion regulation, and cognitive functioning and decision [00:10:00] making.

 Now we go look at the physical recovery. When we're talking about the physical recovery. What is so sad to me is when I watch these shift workers, when I watch people who are working nights or work 20 fours or 40 eights, I've even seen, I'll go home for 12 hours, then I go back for another 24 and oh my God, the hours are insane, but here's what we're losing when.

 It comes to our physical recovery. when 

We are not getting that sleep One thing I hear a lot from, my 30 somethings is I don't know why I'm not bouncing back. And here's the reality you're getting older, right? When you are 20 something, just like the way we used to party, like I could party all night, eat a Cholito at 2am, sleep for three hours and get up for my 8am breakfast shift.

we had that kind of stamina and that kind of rebound ability. But now, if I go to bed at [00:11:00] nine, I still may not wake up feeling great. And I may have been like, how did I injure myself in the middle of the night? So God forbid I was still drinking and I had to recover from that. So of course, our bodies are not 20 something anymore.

And the 20 somethings. enjoy it while it lasts because it is short lived. And when you start these bad habits in this field, you're going to be one of my 30 or 40 year olds who are saying things like. I don't know what's wrong with me. I used to be able to handle this. Well, what's wrong with you is nothing.

 You just happen to keep living and you got older and your body is aging and this is part of the process. So when it comes to physical recovery, the key things are going to be your cellular repair and regeneration. So if you are not sleeping, especially if you're not getting into Those deep states of sleep, not necessarily REM, but just deep sleep, then your body isn't going to have that opportunity to repair and regenerate [00:12:00] your tissues, including your muscle and your bone.

And because you all are doing such demanding work, such physically demanding work, it is so important that you are able to restore and repair. I mean, I think about the injuries that happen, and It feels like it's never hardly a broken bone. Broken bones are few and far between. In my experience, it comes down to the soft tissues.

And if they're not having the opportunity to reset every day and repair themselves, then you're going into your next shift compromised. And what does that lead to? It's going to look like a higher rate of injury and it's going to be a slower recovery. And those are two separate issues, unless you're looking at, it's a slower recovery for an injury.

So the next thing is going to be detoxification and your metabolic balance. [00:13:00] that's, Like, we're trying to like, flush stuff out, the things that we're consuming, and that could be the McDonald's Diet Coke that you're getting through the drive thru, or it could be tobacco, or it could be coffee, or it could just be stress that we need to detox out.

And when we have poor sleep, it's going to disrupt this process. Like, in crucial ways. So we end up with cognitive fog, and that is gonna increase our likelihood of, you know, burnout and more serious mental health issues. So whenever we are not detoxing the way that we need to, it's going to compromise our mental clarity and our long term brain health.

 I recently read a handful of articles on concussions and I'll tell you it was frightening. my first response was we have no idea [00:14:00] like we are out here walking around not fully understanding what a concussion can do both in the moment of the injury as well as years and years after. Like new injuries from an old concussion can happen on the regular years after the concussion has actually happened.

So the idea that we are compromising our sleep when our body is recovering is gonna increase the likelihood of death. Us not fully recovering from those concussions. It's frightening. You guys do all of this work, whether it's, you know, some ceiling fell down on my head or whatever without getting into people's stories.

I've heard so many versions of how people have resulted in having a concussion. And now that I know how big of a deal it is and how dangerous it is and what it can do to us. And not just those that end up with CTE, but like even just on the day to day, how it can impact us.

It's, [00:15:00] it's frightening. And maybe one day Erin and I'll do an episode on concussions. So, so far we have cellular repair and regeneration. Detoxification and metabolic balance, and next we have hormonal balance. So our hormones are what's going to regulate our stress, our hunger, our overall mood, and it's also what gets balanced during our sleep.

 So if we're in constant sleep deprivation, then we're not having that re regulation of our stress hormones like cortisol, which is going to come out when we're stressed out. So it leads to the increase in having stress hormones like cortisol and disrupts our hunger hormones, which can contribute to weight gain, irritability.

That's a big thing that I see a lot is just like the irritability and it can even just be like low key grumbling. And I don't think a lot of folks recognize how just a little bit of a [00:16:00] grumble in their voice can be triggering for their families because Grumbling is oftentimes like step one of like a five step increase in irritability in that anger scale.

you might even be triggering your family just because you're hangry and to, you know, to be aware of that. So it disrupts our hunger hormones, it can contribute to weight gain, irritability and long term health complications. So when you have the combination of stress. The sleep deprivation and not always being a healthy eater, then you're going to be looking at weight gain, irritability, emotional exhaustion, the physical decline, it's going to accelerate burnout on the job.

 So that's what we're missing out on when we're not getting good sleep. But here's what happens when we actually have poor sleep quality. It has effects on our body and brain. And, I thought about [00:17:00] this in a way that. Maybe it would mean something. Whenever we do wellness checks and we talk to the whole agency at a time, what we hear is my sleep is no worse than my buddy's sleep.

 Everybody sleeps like I do. I'm not any worse off than anybody else and I've been on nights for so long that my body is just Adjusted and I'm like, well, I think what you're doing oftentimes is you're normalizing sleep deprivation and you've just gotten used to operating Exhausted all the time, but I hear all this like it's not a big deal and The thing that I thought to parallel it with was having a baby People have babies every day.

Families introduce a new family member every minute of the day, every single day. And it's pretty common. a lot of people have babies. And sometimes you and your friends can be having babies at the same time. That's how common it is. [00:18:00] But when it's you and it's your baby, it's a big freaking deal. Like it doesn't matter how common it is.

It's just a big deal. That's kind of how I was thinking about sleep, like, yeah, maybe everybody in your department is all getting crappy sleep. It's still a big deal and it doesn't mean that it doesn't have a huge impact. It just means that you're all getting that impact. And I think when we're all having it happen, we minimize what it actually means, the severity of it, the importance of it, all of that.

So when we're talking about what we're missing out on or what we're not getting when we don't get good sleep and now we're talking about this is what happens to our body when we just have poor sleep. So the first thing affects on your brain. These are things that when you are operating typically off of [00:19:00] sleep deprivation, whether that be because of your work shift or let's say that you are a.

8 a. m. to 4 p. m. or a 6 a. m. to 2 p. m. kind of person. Like that's your shift and so there's no reason that your sleep should be disrupted. The reality is is that we just don't sleep well as first responders. We have stress, we have things that race through our mind, we have things that we're worrying about, and we don't always get to sleep right away.

we lay there a lot thinking about What we need to do, what we haven't done, what's coming up, all that good stuff. So effects on the brain, it slows our cognitive function. It leads to poor decision making and we have a difficult time focusing and that is really detrimental during those high stakes moments, which is why our hormones spike.

 But after a while, even that isn't sufficient. We also have the effects on the body. So chronic fatigue is going to lead to a higher risk of injury, a [00:20:00] slower physical recovery. And it compromises our immune function. when you're dealing with sick people in the community, it's not a great thing. You don't want to go in with a compromised immune system.

Another way that poor sleep quality affects the body is increased risk of cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure and heart disease. I mean, I can name ten first responders off the top of my head right now that I know are on high blood pressure medication. That is just such a common thing that we see.

And you've got to think about who's getting red face, who's getting worked up, who's taking a pill. for it. And then when we talk about heart disease, I've been in a firehouse. I've been in a police department. I know what those big goods are that people drop off wanting to pay their respects and say thank you with a pie or cupcakes or cookies.

[00:21:00] there's a little department that I walk into all the time and I'm always amazed by what the new thing they have is and none of it's bad. Right. It all tastes good. So everyone's a little bit of it. And that is doing nothing for building up that defense against heart disease. It also is going to take an emotional toll on your relationships.

So with irritability and mood swings, it's going to affect not only the people that you live with, which. If you're cranky with the people that you live with, here's the thing. they don't have to take a directive from you. And I have recently found out that kids actually are ruling the world.

 I thought that my parents were the ones that decided what I could do and when I could do it. And to some extent that was true. But I've also seen parenting from this different angle, where like, kids can make you miserable. If you can't get them on board to whatever you're trying to get them on board with.

So we know it's going to affect your relationships. [00:22:00] It's going to affect your relationships at home. It's going to affect your relationships at work. It's going to affect how you communicate with people. So when you have people that are under your supervision, when we expect them to do something, how we communicate is a big deal.

 So you want to make sure that you're thinking clearly and you're able to communicate effectively and that the people that you're talking to that no matter what's going on that you're staying respectful with and it can be hard. Especially when you just want somebody to say, yes, sir, or yes, ma'am, and go do the thing.

 And so God forbid somebody asks you a question and you didn't get enough sleep with, you know, like a clarifying question, like, well, can you tell me like, blah, blah, blah. And then you're like, can you just go do the thing? It also has longterm health consequences. You have a greater risk of developing conditions like diabetes and obesity and even dementia due to prolonged sleep [00:23:00] deprivation.

 we talked about the mental, the mental memory consolidation, emotion regulation, cognitive functioning, and decision making. The physical recovery that we're missing is going to be that cellular repair and regeneration, detoxification and metabolic balance, and our hormone balance.

it's also going to affect our brain, our body, our relationships, and it's going to cause some long term health issues. now what do we do about it? This is where I was talking about earlier, Erin kind of defaults to me because I've worked out some systems both for myself and for my clients. And I want to go back to kind of talk real quick about the body clock.

 I have one book, we'll put it in the show notes so you can be linked to it. But really there's. All kinds of things that you can look up with a Google of the body clock in traditional Chinese medicine or the organ clock or [00:24:00] TCM traditional Chinese medicine body clock. But the idea is that in a 24 hour cycle, your entire body from head to toe has a certain amount of time that is dedicated to just it.

And so There are certain things that are better to be done at certain times. So the reason I don't love to train first thing in the afternoon, like at one o'clock is because not only has everybody mostly just eaten and is like tired, but also on the Oregon clock from one to three is when we are most successfully going to take a nap.

 So I pay attention to those things because I know they matter. When we start talking about the window, my Shiatsu practitioner used to tell me all the time she wanted me asleep by 11. So if that meant I had to be in bed at 10 to ensure that I was asleep by 11, then so be [00:25:00] it. And if that meant that I had to start my routine at 9.

30 or 9, So be it. It was more important for me to be asleep at 11 o'clock than it was anything else when it came to what I needed to be doing for my body. So from 9 to 11 p. m., that's what we call the triple warmer phase. It's is when your body is most relaxed. And this is the, uh, Only period that actually isn't assigned to a particular organ because it is responsible for regulating the warmth in your upper, middle, and lower sections of your body while simultaneously protecting all 11 areas of your body.

So this is when we're getting ready to transition between awake and sleep and you know, these two different worlds. So then we skip over to 11 p. m. to 1 a. m. And this is when I was [00:26:00] always told to be asleep because there are certain things that can happen when you're awake and then certain things you need to be asleep for.

So 11 p. m to 1 a. m is the time of day dedicated to your gallbladder and it's one of those things that you need to be asleep for. And it's going to have all kinds of effects on your body. And again, I'd recommend you Googling it, but I would also put the link of the book that I use into the show notes. I think this is hilarious.

Tell me what you think. But 1am to 3am is the strongest activity for guess what organ? The liver. Isn't it funny that the liver is like, okay. updating during the period of time that the bars are shutting down from 1 to 3 a. m. No one is asleep by 3 a. m. when they've been out drinking until 2. [00:27:00] So, I mean, at a bare minimum, you're still in the Taco Bell line trying to get your Cholito, right?

So, this is when we need to be asleep to be able to support the things that need to happen. When our liver is getting its nightly update. Again, there's all kinds of things that you can go into with that. When it goes into the details of what each means. Um, and then when you're looking at. 3 a. m. to 5 a. m.

That's when your lungs are getting reset. So our lungs are basically what's getting taken care of between 3 a. m. and 5 a. m. And again, you ideally need to be asleep, but we know not everybody gets to be asleep then. But those are the things that we're missing. Knowing all of that and knowing what we know about sleep, here are some practical solutions for improving sleep quality.

When it comes to shift work, create some kind of consistency, even on your days off, which Trust and believe, [00:28:00] I feel the misery of that. Like, when you have to go to bed to be able to get up, to drive wherever you have to drive, to be there for roll call, like, it stinks. You miss out on a lot of things because you need good night's sleep.

But it's so important that you stay consistent with that, even on your days off. And I'm really sorry about that. The second thing, That Erin and I are both pretty faithful about is either using blackout curtains or eye masks to simulate night when you're sleeping during the daytime. So one of the things that I read in a recent article that, you know, I was being nerdy about was the idea that the more sunlight we get in the first thing in the morning, the healthier it is for our sleep later at night.

But If you are trying to sleep during the day, then it's going to be really hard. And as much as I like blackout curtains, I have found that those are not substantial enough for me. So [00:29:00] I use an eye mask and I used it long enough that my husband's sort of borrowing it. And the next thing I know he has his own.

And the thing I love about my eye mask is it's Bluetooth. So I can listen to the things that I want to listen to, uh, while I'm sleeping. And I can use those things to set a timer. And when I set the timer, It goes off on its own and I don't have to worry about it. And then if I wake up, I can always like reset whatever I need to reset.

But I would strongly recommend getting an eye mask and oh, gladly put the link to the one that Erin and I have. I actually, recently for vacation, I bought a Bluetooth headband so I could use it throughout the trip. Um, we were going kayaking and I wanted to have music in my ears and I usually have a headband and holding my hair back.

And so it was just really nice to then be able to pull the headband over my eyes and use that as an eye mask too. It's really important to have a wind down routine. [00:30:00] We're just big humans and kids are little humans and there is no reason that we can be very clear that they need a wind down routine and pretend that we don't.

So whether that's, you know, reading, Meditation, calming music, putting your phone down, which I, I know putting your phone down. We all know we're supposed to do it and rarely do we do it. So here is what I will say, because the blue light does things to our brain that we just really don't want it to do. To do at least get yourself some blue light glasses.

I don't care if they have any other prescription than them. Um, if you're like me, you might need a little 1. 25 reader in addition to your blue light, but like at least protect your eyes from that blue light because it does some crazy things to us that I can't even go into because then it aren't going off on a tangent and there's so many other things that will go into that conversation.

So, [00:31:00] obviously, limit your blue light up to an hour before you go to bed and when you wake up in the middle of the night, if you are someone who wakes up in the middle of the night. Uh, as much as I am guilty of it too. And I know better. Don't pick up your phone or if you're going to pick up your phone, make sure that you're also picking up those glasses.

Um, make sure that if you pick up your phone, it's for a very short period of time, and this is why I think that I'm going to share with you about my little tricks, I think is helpful because to me, it helps distract me from the need to want to look at something. And then, of course, with your wind down routine, we want you to use physical relaxation techniques.

So, some of us are really into meditation, sometimes it's just deep breathing exercises. Maybe it's gonna be, uh, you know, some people are like, I have to take a shower. So, take that warm shower before you go to bed, or a hot bath, whatever it [00:32:00] is. But make it almost like ritualistic, so you're more inclined to do it.

Avoid heavy meals and caffeine before bed. So caffeine, real quick. Y'all need to drink less of it. Monsters. and, and the like are going to be the death of me. Those are probably the hardest things that I see walk into my office and I have to sit with them in the room and people, you know, are like, Oh, well, you know, I worked a double or I, I just got off shift.

And, and it's kind of like the, the thing that's making the problem worse. Uh, but it makes the thing worse. in a way that we've already gotten used to it being bad, but it makes it better in the short term and I am just The energy drinks have got to be done and caffeine, whether you think it's keeping you up or not, it is doing things to [00:33:00] your body that don't need to be happening that late at night, especially when I see like the coffee bots at the firehouse and they're going again after dinner, like they're tasty and all, but maybe we could just try some decaf, um, or half caf.

I'm even okay with half calf. Also, regular exercise, wear yourself out, and I would say put it first thing in the morning, and even if that just looks like a walk around the block, but not too close to bedtime, but definitely get some exercise in where it's wearing your body out, where you're a little more tired to go to bed.

Journaling or having a notepad by your bed when those things that come up. are really important to get them from the churn of your brain down on paper where you know they'll be in the morning so you don't have to worry about them. So making sure that you're decreasing that mental clutter when you go to bed as well.

I use sleep cycle app. Let's be real clear, nobody is like [00:34:00] sponsoring a product here, but I like the apps. That can tell me if you're going to bed at this time and you need to wake up around this time Here's when you need to go to bed. Here's when you need to set your alarm or this is the window We want you to wake up during your lightest cycle of sleep, right?

So we don't want you to wake up wake up in deep sleep because then you're gonna be groggy and you're gonna want to snooze So maybe you're supposed to wake up at 530. Well, what if we wake you up at 530? 523 or 537. Like, it's still in that window, but we're catching you in that light portion of your sleep, uh, rather than while you're in deep sleep, which is gonna be Make it easier for you to get up and get going.

So that's part of why I love that the sleep cycle I also am a big fan of insight timer Insight timer is the app that I have all my clients get and there's a couple of things and that that Erin thinks It's hilarious that I figured these things out, but still it's important. So when [00:35:00] I I'm having trouble falling asleep and my mind is going a million miles an hour.

I can't just listen to music I And you can't give me a meditation that's going to tell me what to do, right? Like take a deep breath and then imagine this and then relax this muscle. Like, no. So where I go for that, I go straight to the bedtime tales. I want to listen to a story that I already know how it ends.

So I don't have to stay up in excitement. Waiting to find out what happens, right? I already know how the Emperor's new clothes end. I've seen, you know, Alice in Wonderland. I've seen Wizard of Oz, like Hansel and Gretel. I'm real clear on how those end. They are the best stories for me to listen to. And they have pretty people that have pretty voices that tell me the stories.

And so it gives me something that I have to listen to. So I can't focus on the narrative in my own head. And then there's going to be some times where I am able to follow instructions [00:36:00] and I just need like, I'm holding a bunch of stress in my body. And so I want to listen to somebody say, make yourself 10 percent more comfortable.

It's like my favorite line of any meditation ever. Just see if you can make your body. 10 percent more comfortable and relaxed. I'm like, hell yeah, I think I will try to see if I can do that. Thank you very much for the invitation. So that's when I actually like can listen to instructions and maybe I'm a little revved up and I just need help from some guided meditation to bring me back down where I can go to sleep.

And then sometimes I'm actually doing okay. And all I want to listen to is like, I am not a big white noise person. Um, I usually go for the guitars or the pianos. That's my jam. But what I've recently kind of gotten into is depending on what I need to focus on or what I want [00:37:00] to focus on or what kind of mood I'm in, I will pick music that is a certain Hertz.

So Hertz shows up as a symbol of capital H, lowercase V, and there are different Hertz levels that are tied to different benefits. And Erin and I were just talking about this the other day and on Friday I tried it and I used it and it was, uh, Actually kind of interesting because it did not put me to sleep.

So I went to acupuncture on Friday and I decided I'm going to try one of these frequencies that we've been talking about. I was having her work on this chronic pain I have in my neck. So I put it on 174 Hertz. How do I do that? I literally type in 174 HZ into my search bar and like a million things pop up.

So it is a way that they're categorized. So removes pain. You know what it didn't do? It's one of the only times that I didn't fall [00:38:00] asleep during the 20 minutes that I'd be there during acupuncture. Like I wasn't. stewing. I wasn't stressed out. I wasn't ruminating. I just didn't fall asleep and my body felt good.

There's also 528 that repairs your DNA or different tones or different frequencies during your meditation can amplify your experience. And there's so many apps out there that can be helpful, but those are my two favorite. Um, I love Insight Timer and I love Sleep Cycle. To kind of wrap things up, we recognize that sleep is really important, but maybe we don't always recognize, like, what happens to us when we're not getting sleep, or what sleep is doing for us other than helping us feel rested.

But of all the people in all the world that have like these physically exhausting jobs, as well as mentally stressful jobs, wouldn't it be the first responders [00:39:00] that then are the least likely to get quality sleep? Right? So it's almost like the more stress that you have, the more physically exhausting your job is, the more likelihood you're going to sleep like shit and it's not going to be set up for you to get great sleep.

So between your body and your brain, like what we're having happen when we don't sleep well is such a big deal. And so I just want you to kind of pay attention to the fact that like, when you are feeling tired. You may be one of those folks who's like, yeah, but everybody else is tired. Well, then everybody else needs a nap too.

It doesn't mean that you don't need better rest. It just means that you're all in the same boat, but it doesn't mean that that's an okay thing. Like, it's so important to get your sleep and then when it comes to what's happening when we're not getting good sleep, where it's affecting our brain, it's [00:40:00] slowing us down and it's, you know, kind of making us a little stupid.

And then it's going to have those effects on the body. You're not going to recover as fast. You're not going to move as fast. You have higher risk of injury, slower physical recovery. And ultimately your body is going to give on you. And what, and again, you add lack of sleep, high stress, high physical exertion that can lead to injury.

And then obviously we have that high risk of cardiovascular issues, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. And we become assholes. You know, it affects our relationships and, and that is a huge deal. So practical solutions, we've got those hygiene tips, be consistent with your sleep schedule, even on your days off, use a sleep mask, go for the Bluetooth one, and then use some of those apps that we talked about in your Bluetooth.

Make sure you have a wind down routine, make sure that you are, uh, [00:41:00] doing something consistently, right? So if it's, You take the dog out one last time, you take your medication, you, you know, go read 10 pages of a book in bed, you set your app so you're listening to the right meditation, and your sleep tracking is on, and then put your phone down.

And just let yourself relax. And I had a thought a couple of years ago where I was so busy at night, right? I just thought I needed to like, well, what do we call it? We have a term for it now, the procrastination, doom scrolling. I stopped myself and I was like, so many people want a little bit of my time.

What if I gave myself some of my own time too? And so I just decided to lay there and. meditate and see what thoughts came up rather than like scrolling through my day or scrolling through my to do list for the next day. And it was actually [00:42:00] kind of nice to spend a little time with myself, nutrition, exercise, get your body moving preferably earlier in the day, but it does help you feel more tired when bedtime comes and avoid heavy meals and caffeine and please for the love of all that is holy refrain from the monsters.

Mental relaxation techniques. So if it is something that will help you drift off, whether it's white noise, it's music, it's a guided meditation. Erin and I, we love the warrior meditation that we both learned at Save A Warrior. We do that, you know, morning and night and whatever your jam is, if you want very specific meditations.

An insight timer or you want very specific speakers, the people that speak. Like I have a handful of favorites and my clients have told me some of their favorites and there's just some really good people to listen [00:43:00] to that they have those voices that'll soothe you. And then if you need to write something down, either journal or write it in your phone or voice to text it into your phone so you can let it go.

And it will be there in the morning waiting on you. And then again, if you are asleep at person, like I am, no, I have an Apple watch, but I don't like to wear it to bed. So sleep cycle is great for me because it's still monitoring me without me having to wear that clunky old watch while I'm trying to sleep.

And then insight timer was a godsend. And so my request for you is that just one, just one of the things that I mentioned today, Try it. Whether that's, I'm going to drink less coffee in the evening, if that's I'm not going to buy monsters for a few days, if that is I'm going to set a bedtime routine, whatever it [00:44:00] is, just try one thing, just one thing.

And you may not notice that it makes you feel better. You may not notice at all, but the insides, I promise it's making a difference on the insides. And just because you're not aware of it, doesn't mean that it's not happening. So with that, it's almost 7 30 PM. And so I'm going to go snuggle with my dog and start my own wind down process for the evening.

And hopefully if you're listening to this in the morning, then you will have woke up from a good night's sleep. And if you haven't, then we've got all kinds of tips that can help you. So with that, stay safe. Rest well and please take care of yourselves because we need you out there and we love you so much.

And next time I'll be back with Erin and we will see you all soon.