Wake Up Eager Starts the Night Before with Dr. Nicole Williams

Speaker A: Good sleep is about performance and how it trickles down into every area of your life. I know we mentioned executive performance a lot, but that should not be your whole life. You want to be able to perform as a, uh, partner, a parent, a caregiver, whatever it might be. A lot of people go on vacation, they're like, I'll just sleep on vacation. But you were meant to live and thrive. And at the core, healthy, good quality sleep is going to have a trickle down effect into so many other areas.

Speaker B: Hi everyone and welcome back to the Wake Up Eager podcast. I'm, um, Susie Price and today we're talking about something that is absolutely connected to Waking Up Eager sleep. We're not going to wake up eager if we're exhausted and tired. Uh, so I'm excited about this episode. My guest is Dr. Nicole Williams, founder of Health Fix and our Wake Up Eager resident wellness expert. This year, Nicole helps high performing professionals get to the root of fatigue, stress, hormone changes, body composition, challenges and long term health. And today she is helping us look at sleep as one of the most important foundations for energy, focus, resilience and leadership. This is episode 151 and the title is Wake Up Eager starts the night before and yes it does. It is full of practical ideas that you can use right away. I learned some new things from Nicole and new ways to think about sleep and actions to take. Very practical, very helpful. She's just such a good representative of these ideas and how to put them in our lives in a way that works. It's not overwhelming. We're going to talk about why sleep gets overlooked, how poor sleep affects performance and mood, what it means to be tired, but wired. But many of us have experienced that and how simple habits like hydration, light management, caffeine timing, journaling and even downshifting can help restore better sleep. So I want you to have better sleep. I want you to experience Nicole. I have known her for probably almost 10 years now, but she is amazing. So, so glad that she's here. I'm so glad for this topic. You can find the show notes and all the resources that we talk about@wakeupeakerworkforce.com sleep. Now let's jump into my conversation with Dr. Nicole Williams.

Speaker C: So, Nicole, it's great to have you back. Thank you for being our resident expert at Wake Up Eager this year and bringing all your tools and resources and wonderful self to our community. Appreciate you.

Speaker A: Thank you for having me. It's always a good time.

Speaker C: Yes, you're wonderful. And we're talking about an Important topic. Since we're Wake Up Eager, we definitely have to have a topic about, um, sleep. And, and I love the title of this, which is I made up the title. So maybe it's not fair that I say I love it, but I do love it. Wake Up Eager starts the night before. So let's talk about sleep. And you were just telling me you just did a corporate presentation to a group, uh, just last week about this.

Speaker A: Yes, yes. It was a lot of fun. And I'm glad you're bringing this topic to light because there's just so much that people don't know and there's simple things that people can do to enhance their performance pretty easily by making little tweaks in their daily lifestyle. And it makes a big difference.

Speaker C: Yay. Yeah. So we want to do that today. So we're going to talk a little bit about, you know, I noticed that. And it may be less now because people do talk about sleep more I think than years ago. But sometimes people either think that they're just stuck with being not resting well or it's a badge of on or oh, I only did four hours of sleep because I'm a high performer and I don't need much sleep. And um, most people do need sleep. So why is it overlooked? Because it's come to my attention and I'm aware of it for myself that it's in everything we do. If I don't sleep good, my mood's affected, my energy's affected, what I eat is affected my focus. So talk a little bit about why it gets undercounted or under realized by folks and your thoughts on that?

Speaker A: Yeah, to your point, it's really worn, uh, like a badge of honor. Like if you're not sleeping, I'm tired all the time. There's this urgency to have multiple meetings and have a full calendar. I find a lot of people take pride in having. Sometimes they'll even show it to me. Their calendar is fully booked out and they're just so proud. Look at all the stuff that I have going on. And unfortunately sleep is the one thing that suffers and you can do that for a little while. But when it becomes a consistent long term deprivation of sleep, it has a trickle down effect into so many other systems within the body and brain function is one of them.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So you know, by optimizing sleep you optimize performance because your capacity to do more on a well rested brain and body is so much greater.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So it's not about, I would say it's about the Quality of what we're doing, not necessarily the quantity of what we're doing. So changing that shift in kind of corporate culture is interesting because we gotta kind of change the way everybody thinks about sleep. It's not that, you know, I can get by in four hours. Um, there's a very, very, very small percentage of people that can master their sleep effectiveness and recovery in that short amount of time. Like a very small percentage of people.

Speaker C: Very small, yes.

Speaker A: So it's not a badge of honor. And I think we're guilty by association too. If your environment is working with these high achievers and everybody's doing the same thing, you think you have to keep, keep up with that. And that's kind of how it doesn't really become a, um, issue that's brought to the forefront until some of the other systems start falling behind. Things like, we know, weight gain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and those sorts of things that can be influenced by poor sleep.

Speaker C: Ah. Uh, it impacts our health, but on top of that, it impacts our mood. And I think the badge of honor thing is just, uh, thinking or somehow there's that message that if you're not worn out, you haven't worked.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker C: I like the ease of flow better. I like when I have more flow days, you know, and then I'm still getting a life done, but not in some kind of angst and pressure and, you know, barely coming, sliding in, you know, out of breath. I'm, um, here, you know, like, being right, be calm. Maybe that's me getting older, but, yeah, that's a real stigma.

Speaker A: I agree with you on that. I think that's the way it should be. You have your things that you need to get done. Do them well. If you can get them done in a shorter time because your brain is functioning better, even better, you've got more time to do other things for, you know, your health and wellness, longevity, family, community, whatever it might be.

Speaker C: Yeah, you know, that's the wake up eager work, wake up eager life. You know, so I wake up, and even if I'm pressed, sometimes the pressure too actually gets people to take action. So that might be some of it too. But that pressure, you wake up with dread as opposed to I'm ready for the day.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker C: You know, squeezing it all in.

Speaker B: So sometimes, um, you know, I've had

Speaker C: seasons of not sleeping well, and I don't have it perfected. And I think it could be genetic too. I wonder. Because my father, I've always been an early riser, always in college and My roommates would be like, oh, you're up. And it's 5am I'm like, I get up early. But my dad always did too. So when he started having sleep trouble, then I started having it. And then he passed away, uh, during COVID with Parkinson's and dementia. It really caught my eye. Cause it's like, okay, if we're alike genetically, we have a lot of similarities. You know, I need to take care of this. So talk a little bit about that and how it affects our health and some of the things you've already started to mention.

Speaker A: You know, at 5am it's not a bad thing. I think everybody's different, right? If everybody woke up at the same time of day and went to bed at the same time of day, it'd be kind of boring, Right? But I think part of it has to do. Maybe not genetically, but maybe like where you grew up and the lifestyle you were exposed to. For example, if you grew up in a house where, you know, farming was a thing, you're definitely going to be getting up earlier where it's not. Right. So it's about sleep quality, not quantity. So when we look at the sleep cycle, you should be getting roughly 3 to 4 would be optimal sleep cycles. And a sleep cycle is roughly 90 minutes. In the earlier part of the night, we get into deeper sleep. In the later part of our sleep cycle, we're getting into, um, what we call the REM sleep. Deep sleep is great for body recovery. REM sleep is great for brain recovery. And so if we're cutting our sleep too short, we're not necessarily getting the longer periods of brain recovery because that REM sleep extends with each cycle throughout the night. So from a brain perspective, that can affect how your brain is functioning. Things like, you know, mental fog can come into play. It also affects our, uh, hormone regulation, it can affect heart function. And that's where we start to see the trickle down effect in long term dysregulated sleep, that it trickles down into various health conditions, things like the weight gain, high cholesterol, diabetes, and those sorts of things. So I think if you can optimize your sleep sleep patterns, and this is the foundation of where we start pretty much with everybody when they come in. My first question is, how do you sleep?

Speaker C: That's your first question? You always ask that? Yeah, everybody. Okay. It just shows you they're right there because everybody comes in to see you for multiple reasons. But that's the first question you asked. That's interesting.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So someone's struggling with weight gain. I'm like, okay, the weight gain is a side effect of something else going on. Number one, how are you sleeping?

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker A: And they'll be like, I'm in the bed for nine hours. I know. How are you actually sleeping? Right. It's not how long you're in the bed, but what is the quality of your sleep? Because it does have that trickle down effect on all the other systems. So oftentimes, if you correct that as the foundation, some of the other things that people may be experiencing kind of fall off to the wayside. And then it's like, okay, the core problem starts to narrow down.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Not always.

Speaker C: Okay, uh, that's smart.

Speaker A: Not always sleep. But even with hormones as well, a lot of our hormones are produced at night. So if your hormones are off or we could talk about menopause perimenopause later, maybe that that's going to affect those fluctuations that you have. And so sleep restoration is number one.

Speaker C: Yeah, I love that. I love the term sleep restoration. Okay, so let's talk about sleep restoration. How do we restore our sleep patterns?

Speaker A: So there's tons of stuff out there. I often get people come in with their bag of supplements that they're taking and say nothing works. At the foundation, we want to restore our sleep pattern. And to your point of waking up eager, your good night's sleep actually starts with how you wake up.

Speaker C: Ah, uh, yeah, okay.

Speaker A: It starts very, very early in the day. So the number one thing people can do is have a consistent wake up time and a consistent sleep time like our preparation for bedtime, because that helps to reset that internal clock, our biological clock. And that includes weekends as well, which is where a lot of people tend to kind of fall off, you know, maybe staying up much later on the weekend to do different things, parties or whatever it might be, social events and gatherings. And then figure they'll just sleep in and catch up on the weekend. You know, number one is having that consistent wake up time for sure daily to help kind of anchor your routine. And then another big thing people don't know about is, uh, the role that caffeine plays in this. So caffeine, not totally bad, but when you wake up, you should be getting up easily on your own. And if you need a little caffeine boost to give you a little energy or you like the way it tastes early in the morning, fine. But caffeine has a half life of five hours. So what that means is have the caffeine at 9:00 clock by 2:00pm Half of that amount of caffeine is still floating around in your system and then it tapers off throughout the day totally fine. But if you're a person who's having that 3pm coffee to get yourself through the afternoon, then when you're trying to wind down for sleep, you still have quite a bit of caffeine in the system. So my rule of, um, thumb is, you know, hydrate before you caffeinate.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: And that can definitely give you more energy as you go throughout the day. But having a cutoff time, I say the latest would be noon for caffeine. Wow. Yeah. And then you're taking walks after meals. So like lunch especially getting out of your office and getting some sunshine can just help with regulating your nervous system so that you're not kind of stuck in fight and flight. And then towards the end of the evening, you need periods where you've given your body permission for the nervous system to kind of downshift throughout the day so that when it comes time for bed, you're not fired and wired, where your body may be tired and you're ready to go to bed, but your brain is just in this overdrive, like it's still working. And then of course, having a bedtime routine where, uh, there's many different things you can do. But some examples would be dimming the lights so that you're allowing that natural production of melatonin to happen. Maybe taking a warm, uh, bath or hot shower using essential oils. And that kind of signals the body to get into that parasympathetic state, which is the calm down state that allows your body to know that, okay, I'm supposed to sleep. Sleep is good for me. And it's time to sleep. It's not time to work anymore.

Speaker C: Yes, those are great. Okay, so I'm going to recap then.

Speaker B: Consistent wake and sleep time check.

Speaker C: We do that. Caffeine I did get off of all coffee. I found out that that's too hard on me and I wasn't drinking a lot of it. But I think the way I made no coffee, I do, uh, some green tea. But then first in the morning, that's it. And I really liked the day. I woke up and it's like I didn't want any caffeine.

Speaker B: I liked that feeling.

Speaker C: I felt clear. But that's a recent thing.

Speaker B: Okay, so caffeine walks after meals. That's really good.

Speaker C: I always do that with my dogs. And then in the evening, that's probably most important or really important. And then I love the routine. I Could do a little better at that.

Speaker A: Yeah. I like that you stopped coffee when the little hack that I use occasionally, I'll have it if it's, you know, I want the taste or feel like having something warm. I'd really switch to like a matcha green tea, but is to put lemon, like a whole lemon. Squeeze the juice of a whole lemon in your water, maybe with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. And if you can handle spice, like a quarter teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or. Sorry. Of, um, cayenne pepper. Sorry. And, uh, kind of like the Master Klein's type thing.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: But do a full glass of that in the morning. The pepper gets your liver enzymes going as well as the lemon. And then it's also good for your metabolism. So when we are looking at caffeine as a way to get our body stimulated and working that natural option, doing the lemon mixture, it does the same thing, if not even better. So we do a little corporate challenge where we ask people to do that for seven days in a row, wait an hour, and if you still want the coffee, fine, have it. But it's interesting. Like by day four, people are like, my energy is actually better. So that's just like a simple, simple swap that people can do to help wean caffeine tendencies.

Speaker C: You know what another big one is, I think? Alcohol.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Because everybody likes to drink the wine. And, uh, when I quit alcohol, that was the thing too. That really. And that's been, you know, good handful of years. But that actually helped as well.

Speaker A: The alcohol at night, the later you have it. I always said, if you want to have it, like, have it with dinner, fine, but not closer to bedtime because it is a, uh, disruptor of your hormones. It can be a stress to your system as well. So the thing is, with cortisol being activated at night, we want cortisol to be low at night and melatonin to be high for us to get into our deep sleep.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So if cortisol is high by things like stress, caffeine, alcohol, you've had some maybe late meetings in your work schedule, then it interrupts the melatonin production, which is what puts us to sleep. So, you know, as much as you can control and eliminate, the better your sleep should get, which you've obviously found

Speaker C: out, I'm doing better at it. It's taken a little bit of commitment. Cause the culture doesn't really support it. Everybody's high on coffee and having lots of drinks before they go to be eating it.

Speaker A: I Feel like it's changed quite a bit. Uh, it's changing. Let's say that there's a lot of, like, mocktails and stuff like that, but you just got to be careful of not switching, uh, alcohol for sugar. Like, you know, a lot of these alcohol free drinks are just a sugar storm.

Speaker C: Yeah. So you get a sugar stimulant. How do you increase melatonin?

Speaker A: So keeping the room dark. Typically melatonin, it peaks around midnight. So say having an evening downshift routine where you're preparing your body for sleep, getting it into that parasympathetic state. So let's say, you know, you have dinner, you're done everything by seven. You want your evening to be as calm as possible. So avoiding screen time. Any sort of screen, like blue light from the screens, interrupts melatonin production. So if you are watching tv, having your phone in your face, looking at social media, even if you're laying in bed doing it and the room is dark, you have that light up in your face.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Melatonin, it's not gonna peak at midnight.

Speaker C: Oh, uh, that is such a hard habit to break. What can you do in place of it?

Speaker A: So you could read and they have these reading lights. I always suggest reading something that's, you know, not like an action novel or a thriller or something like that, but reading something. I don't know, maybe a romance doll or something. I don't know. But where your brain gets a chance to kind of signal winding down, but using a reading light that has a blue light blocker in it. Ah. Uh, so like that really soft yellow light.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: Helps to allow melatonin to increase. And keeping the room dark, of course, dim. Um, lights.

Speaker C: How far in advance?

Speaker A: Ideally.

Speaker C: I know it's important, but I'm not doing it.

Speaker A: Yeah, Ideally, you know, 60 to 90 minutes. Ideally. Which.

Speaker C: Okay, 60 minutes. I could do probably 60 minutes.

Speaker A: Yeah. I always tell people, if you can get 30 minutes, great.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Quiet is another one I like to journal.

Speaker C: Would that help?

Speaker A: Yeah, journaling's good. I always recommend doing like a brain dump.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Before bed. A lot of people don't do it. That's something I've gotten more into doing. So that whatever's on your mind from meetings or whatever, it could be conversations, relationships, whatever it might be, leave it on the paper and that way you're not laying in the bed. I call it tired but wired.

Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's it. Tired but wired. That's a good phrase. Yep.

Speaker A: Cycling it all through your brain. And then before you Know it, it's like 2:00am um, yeah. So the other thing too is like melatonin, it peaks and then it kind of the graph, it starts to come down. Suck that around your wake up time. Melatonin is low and then cortisol should peak to jump you up out of your bed. So you're waking up eager.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And so another big thing people do is if they wake up in the night to use the restroom is they turn on a light.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Any sort of light noise, as I call it, like light noise from if you have your alarm by your bed or your phone is by your bed and you flip it over to look at the time. I used to be horrible at this to see how much more sleep do I have.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: Well, you just interrupted your melatonin pattern and it's hard to get back into that REM state where you're getting that brain performance. So the more you wake up in the night and use light exposure, the less your melatonin production is going to be and then the less brain restorative sleep you're going to get. Does that make sense?

Speaker C: Yes. Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, it's also the habit of it too. Like you don't correct your hormones in one night. It's about, uh, consistency. Yeah, consistency over time.

Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So for the brain dump thing, I just want to mention a couple of things and I'll put links to it. Is Getting things done is a bestseller. And it's the whole idea of your mind is not meant to be a filing cabinet. M Or you know, it's not meant to hold everything. So you need somewhere that holds all that for you, captures all your ideas. It's kind of an inbox type system. So it's a whole system that has saved my bacon so much. And then out of that, every night before I end the day, I have a list of six. I know what the six things are that are most important. The next day I might do a hundred, but there's six that have to happen and those are the things that are going to keep me up. So it's called the list of six. But the getting things done, there's an app called the Nirvana app that has the getting things done system in it. And I have a very, very busy mind and ideas that haunt me, that don't haunt me anymore. So I think that's been helpful. But I definitely got to get off my devices and I have to, uh, let melatonin rise.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. I mean there's timers you can put on devices to at least at a minimum, block the blue light at evening light or dim light on the phone. But yeah, in a perfect world you put it away and not have to think about it. Which you know, may not be realistic for everybody.

Speaker C: But it's just because it's a habit, right?

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker C: I like anything emergencies happening. It's just I like looking at things and thinking about them. It's just a habit.

Speaker D: Let's pause for a quick wake up, eager resource. At Priceless Professional Development, we help leaders build high commitment, low drama workplaces by understanding people more clearly. How they think, what drives them, how they communicate, and what they need to do their best work. One of the tools we use is trimetrics, which brings together behaviors, motivators, personal skills and acumen so leaders can make better hiring, coaching, onboarding and team development decisions. Whether you are trying to hire the right person, coach a valued team member, or help your leaders work together with more clarity and less drama, we can help you create practical tools and conversations that make the workplace better. You can learn more@prelessprofessional.com now back to Susie's conversation with Dr. Nicole Williams on how to restore sleep and wake up eager.

Speaker B: I love everything that you shared.

Speaker C: Let's go back to why this matters so much. So, so many people. Again, we talked about it being a badge. Um, we talk about people being overwhelmed, we talk about people. Everywhere I go I'll hear people say I'm not sleeping good, I'm not sleeping good. A lot of people are not sleeping good. Let's revisit how it impacts us. Health wise, emotion wise, business wise. It stops us from accomplishing our goals or at least slows them down.

Speaker A: So there is a part of the brain, it's called the amygdala, which is where our executive functioning part of the brain works. When we are sleep deprived, that's the first part of the brain that gets affected. So that has a trickle down effect into, I call it emotional resilience and stability. So as a leader and uh, when it comes to executive functioning, if you're not sleeping well, you're going to have a shorter fuse. When it comes to certain things, whether it's meetings or employees, your focus is not going to be as sharp as it should be. Meetings can become more stressful and then when that happens, you get stuck in this, what we call the sympathetic nervous system, which is uh, what we call our fight and flight nervous system. Fight or flight, it does have an important role. It's, you know, if you're being Chased by a lion. You want that sympathetic nervous system to kick in, but you don't want to stay there long term. When you stay there long term all day, your body doesn't get a chance to go into the parasympathetic, which is what we call the rest and digest nervous system, where repair happens and cognitive function gets improved. That's where sleep really has an impact on how the executive is gonna perform.

Speaker C: Yeah. I think I remember you taking a cortisol test on me years ago. And so people can actually test and see where their cortisol is. I don't remember how it worked, but somehow I was able to see when it was spiking and when it was where it was supposed to be and where it was off and whether it was on. Do you still use that or something like that to help people? Sometimes, yeah.

Speaker A: So that we did the four point saliva test, which is the gold standard, which I usually recommend, that if people are able to do it, you do have to collect your saliva at four points during the day.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And what it does is give you. Because cortisol is a pattern. Right. It fluctuates throughout the day. So we want to see what your pattern is. So for example, if somebody were in the morning, where we're supposed to get that spike, if their cortisol is flat in the morning, then we can look at how much of a supplement we need and what time of day we need to add it in to kind of help you restore your normal pattern. Now if that's not doable for everybody, sometimes there's compliance issues with that is to have a cortisol blood test. This is something everyone can request from their physician when they're getting their annual exam done, is to have a blood test done. And that should be done within an hour of waking up. Because what we want to do is catch that spike. Yeah. And make sure that you are getting that spike early in the morning. And then from there we have a good baseline to work with. And then people can use different lifestyle changes, different foods, downshifting throughout the day to help regulate that. I will say this about cortisol. It doesn't just go crazy overnight.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker A: And out of pattern, it needs consistent insult.

Speaker C: So whatever we're seeing now, whatever the pattern is, we've been doing it for a while.

Speaker A: Do it for a while.

Speaker C: Yes. Yes.

Speaker A: So it's a thing if it's not perfect, like in the right pattern. And this is, you, uh, know, I would say 99% of people don't sleep well.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: It's a really, really big problem in North America at least.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And like I said, goes back to that high performing mindset or having to do more and not doing enough and that constant pressure. But that would be another thing that we could look at and then use different lifestyle modifications, supplements and those sort of things to help correct it.

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker A: But it's a consistent thing. And correction of cortisol, uh, usually takes roughly about a year of consistent habits, especially if you've had it for a very long time. Yeah.

Speaker C: So let me ask about this. So some of the things that I know, I mean I definitely don't have it figured out because I still go up and down. But it's way better than it used to be. So that's the first thing. So. And I think of the alcohol and the caffeine, I think I'm a real clean diet. I think I'm just particularly sensitive. I think. I don't know. Because Jeff is sound asleep. My husband is sound asleep. We have a very set time. He's out and he's up the same time. And he's, you know, never tosses and turns ever. So some of it is built into us. I think he would be one of the ones that has a really good sleep number because he never says, I didn't sleep well ever and I'm not sleeping well. When I look over, he's out like a light.

Speaker A: Interestingly, men and women, if you're around the same age, because women have the more of a hormonal fluctuation in consideration.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And those hormonal fluctuations can have a pretty big impact on sleep and they're affected by all other things we talked about like alcohol, caffeine, diet, exercise, you can help affect some of that pattern. But when estrogen and progesterone start to fall off during perimenopause and menopause, usually one of the first things women complain about is, um, sleep issues and hot flashes. So you know if you're hot and sweating in the night, you're not going to be sleeping well.

Speaker C: Yeah, I'm never hot and sweating. Just good. But I hear that from other women. I don't have that. And it's, it's better. But the waking up thing is, is a thing. The other thing, diet, Talk a little bit about that. I've been real clean with my diet almost 100% for many years now. But when I first met you, I was not. Even though I knew what to do, I wasn't doing it because I've always been a fitness nut. Uh, so you helped me kind of get back on track, but talk a little bit about some of the diet things that make a difference.

Speaker A: So when it comes to diet and sleep, it's one of the things where the dietary recommendations affect, uh, everything. And partially that goes back to the foundation of sleep being the core for a lot of health issues. But definitely sugar, refined sugars. Cutting those out of the diet, if you do need to have them earlier in the day, the better. But not having too much saturated fats as well. Yeah. Refined carbohydrates, things like your breads, rice, pasta. Limiting the amount of all of that.

Speaker C: A lot of that is sugar, by the way. People don't think about it. It's like cake bread, some white bread, you're eating some cake bread sugar.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And if not, it goes right through the system, increases your blood sugar and pretty quickly. And then you want to make sure if you are having protein that it's lean sources and high quality. And then we could go into the whole organic route as well. Because a lot of, you know, non organic sources do have levels of pesticides and hormones as well in the meat do get absorbed into the body. Now if you're able to go plant based, I know you're a nutritarian. That's amazing.

Speaker C: Yeah. Um, total plant based. It's made a huge difference in my energy level. I have energy all day, every day. I have a lot of energy. And it's not caffeine related.

Speaker A: Yeah, you're fueling your body. Right. So you're getting a lot of nutrients from your food. I know you eat a ton and ton, ton, ton of vegetables and um, get a lot of your vitamins that way, which is great. And then most people are not that disciplined. So I always recommend supplementing with some high density nutrients in the form of either supplements or powders. But of course it does matter what you're taking to keep your body fueled. You know, our cells, if I like to think of ourselves as a light bulb and you know, the string and the light bulb is all the processes going on inside. And that is fueled by vitamins, minerals that we call them co factors. So if you're not getting that from your diet directly, or if you're eating foods that are hard to metabolize, which require a lot more energy, that's gonna get zapped from your system. So you're not eating for energy at all. You're eating for the temporary satisfaction of what it may taste like. So fueling your body is really important. Another big, big one. Is water intake. And it's amazing how many people just don't drink water. When I hear it, I'm like, what are you drinking? Diet sodas. And those sorts of things don't count. I say, can a fish swim in it and live in it? That's water.

Speaker C: Yeah. That's good. That's good. You've got all these good things.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, you're coaching a lot of people, trying to break through the patterns of the habits.

Speaker A: Yeah. Sometimes, you know, when you kind of simplify it, some people drink a lot of tap water. A fish cannot live in tap water. It has to be treated because there's chemicals in the water.

Speaker C: Well, there we go. Good point.

Speaker A: Yes. So, you know, high quality water, like whether reverse osmosis or ph balance water, those sorts of things where the water can actually get into your cells and hydrate you because the cell, again will not function if it's not hydrated. It won't function optimally.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So the recommendation is half your body weight in ounces. And if you're systematic about how you do it, it's actually not that difficult. Let's just say, like for argument's sake, 80 ounces of water a day. If you do wake up, you hydrate before you caffeinate. So you're doing 20 ounces of water there. Hydrate before lunch. The more hydrated you are, the less you'll eat.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Mid afternoon, when you want that coffee, Hydrate before you caffeinate, and then again before dinner, your 80 ounces is done. So it's just about being strategic because things like caffeine, coffee, they actually dehydrate you.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: And then you feel tired and sluggish and, uh, it becomes a trickle down effect where you want sugar or you want some carbs. Mid afternoon, just trying to prop yourself up.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: The crash.

Speaker C: We've all done it.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: We've all been there. Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah. And don't forget the drink that you talked about earlier, which is take a lemon, some cayenne pepper, and what was the other thing?

Speaker A: Apple cider vinegar. Just a teaspoon of it.

Speaker C: Teaspoon of it. And that, that's really refreshing. And that could give you, uh, the hydration, like make your water interesting too, to you if you're feeling not used to it.

Speaker A: Yeah. It's funny when we look at, like changing corporate culture, so many of these places that I've gone into have candy stations, coffee stations. So, you know, one of the last wellness corporate talks that I did, they were like, you know, what kind of stations you want? I'm like, could we do like green juice or some ginger shots to get the day going? And they did it. No problem.

Speaker C: Oh, there we go. Yeah.

Speaker A: Our local grocery store, Publix, you can buy these shots by the tray.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker A: And bring them into a meeting. And people are like, oh, this is really good. There was no coffee and people stayed awake. Right?

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. You know, if you want to change a pattern, find something to replace it with. If your pattern is in meetings, you always have a treat. Find another treat.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. The food is kind of a draw to get people to the meeting. Or like if they're providing lunch, I'll say, okay, well in staying in alignment with what we're talking about, can we order from here?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: It's always, of course, it's just a matter of breaking the patterns.

Speaker C: Yeah. Making the pattern, the awareness and then step by step breaking the pattern so that you're doing something that makes you feel good. You know what I always think too is everybody wants to feel good. Everybody does. But there's things we have to do to create that environment and it's all there. And you just do a little bit at a time, you know, 1% a day. And in 70 days you're twice improved.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: Little efforts add up. So just a little bit, try something that you're drawn to and try some of these tips. And just a little bit, before you know it, you'll be seen as a health nut. Right?

Speaker A: Yeah. I say be a leader in your group. That's it. When it comes to corporate meetings and that sort of thing, I feel like there should be a leadership ambassador. Well, it's leadership ambassador for the groups and core meetings that doesn't allow meetings to go over the time. And let's protect the last five minutes of the meeting where we can downshift our nervous system before we go into the next one. And some of the examples that we've had is the productivity has actually gone up and people come up sharp for the next meeting because they've had that little five minute break in between. Yeah.

Speaker C: You know, it's that, uh, getting a handle on your schedule. It's all of these things. But managing your day, that's where the getting things does really helped me. I never am scurrying anymore. If I am, I'm like, what have I done? And I got to correct this right now. But I used to be the scurry queen. Always flying in with my hair on fire, you know. Right. Because that it would be my nature to do that. One other thing is, uh, weightlifting. That's something else that was recommended to me years ago, and I've always worked out. But the more I do heavy weight lifting, like focus for 30 to 45 minutes, the deeper my sleep is, too. My body's tired. What do you think?

Speaker A: Yeah. Making yourself tired. And also, um, heavy weight training is great for hormone production. So just because menopause, perimenopause weight training is actually one of the things that will help to mitigate some of the symptoms associated with it. You can increase testosterone naturally somewhat. Things like estrogen and progesterone. You can get little bits from, um, foods as well. And so the more rested you are, the more your natural hormone production. It won't be as much as when we were 20, but there's little things that you can do to help stabilize your system throughout the day. So. And if you're lifting heavy, you've used your vessel, you've used your body throughout the day, and you're using your brain a lot. Right. We already know that throughout the whole day. But your ability to fall into that deep sleep, which is where muscle recovery happens, and that happens in the earlier phase of your sleep cycle.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: You're able to get into that deep, deep sleep and more likely to stay into those longer periods of REM sleep where your brain recovers.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So lots of good things for people to consider and to do. You probably won't like this because it involves my phone, but it is sleep phones, these little headphones, I've used them for years. And there's a crazy podcast. It's the weirdest podcast ever. This guy, he's so unusual but very likable. And he tells boring stories. Oh, I've heard of that. Millions.

Speaker A: Does it work?

Speaker C: Takes me out every time. And every time, uh, when I first started it, I thought, oh, my gosh, he is so weird. And the next thing I know, it's like 8 o' clock the next morning or whatever, whatever time I get up at 6 o'. Clock. So something about it really works. And he's, you know, it gently distracts my brain.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: But it does involve my phone and sleep phones on my head, which are these little headband that are flat so I can lay down, but it works if I'm still worked up.

Speaker A: And do you fall asleep with it on your head like you sleep with it on?

Speaker C: Yeah, that's probably not good, but yes, I do.

Speaker A: And then does the sound, does the story continue throughout the night?

Speaker C: Uh, he stops at some point and I'm out.

Speaker A: Okay. So you don't know when he stops?

Speaker C: Yeah, because I'm asleep.

Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Hm. Interesting. I'd be awake listening to, but it's so boring.

Speaker C: That's the thing. That's the thing. That's it. He has millions of followers and he's just this odd character that we all can relate to that's so likable. I could totally relate to him and, uh, the stories he tells and.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I'll have you send that to me, if you don't mind.

Speaker C: It's called Sleep With Me.

Speaker A: Sleep With Me.

Speaker C: Which is a funny thing to say. It's helped me for years. I mean, I found it somewhere along the line when I was. Before I started getting a little bit more healthy with my food and my diet and all. And now I just kind of like it. It's almost like my brain says, we gotta listen to that crazy guy before we can go to sleep. And I do, and I'm out. I like that. So what would be a detailed sleep routine?

Speaker A: So, um, when we started talking about a, uh, good night's sleep starts earlier in the day. I won't go through all that part again. But like that downshifting at night is really important as well. So you want to have your cutoff time for food roughly about three hours before your intended sleep time. Just so that your digestive system is not trying to work. It's having a chance to digest the food so that your body can actually rest. Uh, doing something to solidify your routine. It could be having like an evening tea with something calming, like a chamomile or lavender tea will help to just wind the system down, keeping the room dark or dim lights, avoiding any blue lights. So avoiding your screens. But there's also something really interesting called smart light bulbs. I recently discovered these, but they've been around for a while where you can set the timers on the bulbs. So through an app on your phone. And it will block the blue light in your room so that you can still have the light on, but you won't have that blue light on. So if you're unable to have the room totally dark, that would be something that you could consider staying off your phone. Of course. I, uh, mentioned another thing that helps some people if they're having trouble sleeping is to have a teaspoon of some sort of fat.

Speaker C: Oh, like a Brazil nut or something.

Speaker A: Or a Brazil nut. You could do a teaspoon of, like, avocado oil, a nut butter of some sort, and have a little bit of water behind it. Fat helps with hormone production and melatonin is a hormone. And some people too, if their cortisol is really high, especially at night, they wake up in the middle of the night hungry. So having that little bit of fat before bed can be, uh, really beneficial. And then the other big one is keeping the room cold.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker C: How cold? Do they have a temperature or do you have a temperature you like?

Speaker A: Most recent research, and it sounds freezing to me, is 62 to 69 degrees. So the core temperature of the body needs to drop to a certain level to get into deep sleep. I like personally 67, 68, but that doesn't work for everybody else in the house. Yeah. So there are some cool kind of devices that you can implement. One of them is the chili pad that you sleep on it, you set the temperature and it cools down underneath you. So that will help to lower your core temperature.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: There's also one called the eight sleep. I mean there's tons of different ones out there that help to lower your core temperature. So once you have a consistent routine from morning to night, it gives you other little things that you can interject in order to perfect your sleep pattern. I will say to people, don't, you know, throw everything all at once? Yes, we want to start early in the day, correct what we can and be consistent with that. And if you're not getting the results that you want, then we look into adding other things. And you can also get melatonin levels checked. They do start to decline after the age of, you know, roughly 38 to 40, decline naturally. So sometimes a supplement is needed, especially if your body's just not producing enough. You do need a supplement if your hormones, you're finding that they're starting to decline and you're getting a lot of hot flashes or, you know, mental fog and things like that, that will affect sleep too. So maybe you're a candidate for hormone replacement therapy which can drastically improve some people's sleep. So the more data you have, the better without going into overload. But I will say seek guidance on it because you don't want to be stressing yourself out and getting into sympathetic nervous system to try and figure all of this stuff out. But it's a foundation, so you should really focus on having a good night's sleep because it does have a trickle down effect into so many other areas of your life.

Speaker C: I highly recommend you as a coach. You work with people remotely. We have a whole program around that. And they can see your website, uh, for the show notes of this, um, on our website and you'll, you're sharing tips with us on our social media. But I think having a confidant who's educated like you are and can kind of guide people because at the end of the day this is going to affect your life.

Speaker A: It does, yeah. Your life, your performance, your quality of your life.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So thank you for that.

Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So just don't ignore it. And I uh, and for me, the reason I pay so much attention to is because I had such a problem with it. And it does get better. Does get better. Yeah.

Speaker A: Good.

Speaker C: So you know, wake up eager starts the night before is what we were talking about the day before on a regular basis. Right.

Speaker A: Consistency. Consistency, that's my, that's my buzzword.

Speaker C: Yes, your favorite. And I love the term. I had not really thought about it. Like this is sleep restoration.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker C: It's kind of what we're doing here is learning how to do that. So as we close, any other final thoughts?

Speaker A: Good sleep, it's about performance and how it trickles down into every area of your life. I know we mentioned executive performance a lot, but that should not be your whole life. You want to be able to perform as a partner, a parent, a caregiver, whatever it might be. Being able to enjoy your days off and your vacations. A lot of people go on vacation, they're like, I'll just sleep on vacation. But you were meant to live and thrive and at the core, healthy, consistent, good quality sleep is going to have a trickle down effect into so many other areas of your life. And it allow you to show up in the rooms that matter most, whether it's executive boardroom, your home, wherever it might be. If you correct that, you'll see everything else just become more abundant in your life.

Speaker C: Wonderful. Get to the root of it. I uh, love when people come to see you. That's the first question you ask?

Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.

Speaker C: Because it has such a big impact. You're amazing.

Speaker A: Oh, uh, thank you so much for having me. It's always fun.

Speaker B: What I love about this conversation is that Nicole makes sense sleep feel practical and possible. She has a very nice, calming assurance personality with no attachment about what you do. It's just so easy to work with her and I uh, hope you can see that in our conversation and hear that and everything she shares. You know that this is not about doing everything perfectly. It's about noticing what affects your body and choosing one small habit to improve and building consistency over time. It does not have to be overwhelming and just maintaining or, uh, remembering that how I feel matters and how I show up matters and that I care about myself to do these things, to feel better and work better and live better. So maybe for this, for sleep, maybe your next step is hydrating before caffeine. I've been doing some of the lemon water that we talked about. I'm not a big caffeine person anymore, but the lemon water has been a nice wake up, especially when I'm getting up real early to work out. Maybe it's turning off screens 30 minutes earlier. Maybe I'm not getting so good at that. I need to work on that. Maybe it is doing a brain dump before bed, protecting the last five minutes between meetings, or simply treating sleep as part of your performance strategy instead of something you sacrifice. Yes, we all want high performance. We all want to live a great life. And I love that it's part of our performance strategy. So it matters. You can find the show notes, key takeaways and all the resources from this episode@wakeupeagoworkforce.com Sleep and if this episode was helpful, it would be so great if you would follow us at the Wake Up Ego Workforce podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. Or if you see us on LinkedIn. We're very active there and on Facebook. Reach out and like and comment about the episodes. Share them with friends that would find benefit from it. It really helps us get discovered. A ah, quick rating or review or a share like that or subscription helps more people discover these conversations, which I'm so committed to doing and I just love doing so much. We want to help people build high commitment, low drama workplaces. I want more than anything in this world for everyone to have a wake up eager life. A life they can't wait to wake up to. So please share. Thank you for listening and here's to sleeping better, leading better and of course waking up eager.