Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sa.
Welcome to Vital Signs. I'm your host, Jen Godet, and we're here to talk about our greatest asset, our health.
Most of us think we're just tired, but what if your sleep patterns are quietly sabotaging your energy immunity, your mood, your productivity, and even your heart health without you realizing it? You're in luck because today we're going to dive deep into that thing that affects everything we do, even though we still tend to treat it like a luxury. So sleep. We're going to dive deep into sleep with Kristy Plain, executive vice president of Sleep solutions at Dedicated Sleep. With decades of clinical experience in sleep lab management, pap compliance programs, pediatric sleep certification and clinical operations leadership, Kristi brings both hands on insight and also a systems level understanding of sleep conditions like sleep apnea and how treatment works. Kristy, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. Let's dive in, shall we? Let's go. Sleep isn't just rest sleep's performance, it's repair, it's recovery. It's real regulation.
And we really need to start normalizing sleep evaluation like any other health vital sign.
So a lot of times people say they just don't sleep well, but it's a part of normal aging.
Is that the truth?
[00:01:50] Speaker B: It's not.
Yes, your patterns will change some. As we age, we go through different circadian rhythms. We'll go through different how much we have to have or when we want to go to sleep and when we want to wake up. But the truth of the matter is while you're asleep, the process is still the same. You still go through cycles. You still need to have the repair time, the cleanup time for your body. And that part is the quality of sleep sleep. And we don't really need that changing just because when we want to go to bed and when we want to get up might change.
So it's not just an aging factor.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: And so while we're talking about sleep cycles and the difference between when we choose to go to sleep, does going to sleep at different times of the evening alter our quality of sleep?
[00:02:38] Speaker B: It can if your circadian rhythm is kind of set in one pattern or you have gotten your body into a really good sleep pattern pattern where you try to get yourself to bed every night at the same time and get up every morning at the same time. When you alter that, it is going to alter the effect of how you're sleeping that night. You may have a better night's sleep if you got a little bit more, but you may have a worse night when you've shortened it or you've changed the time zone of when you went to bed. A lot of people deal with that with jet lag and travel. Right. So it's going to be the same thing if you're altering your normal patterns at home as well. So you want to stay up that party night, you're going to feel the effects the next day.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Oh, I definitely can understand that. So let me ask you the next question, because so many times I'm a high performer, I work with high performers. I've worked with high performers my entire career and life. And so many times sleep is treated as optional even in health discussions with providers, especially for those of us who might be single moms or busy adults. We're running a business, we're doing all the things in life as well.
Why is it treated as optional and how should we be thinking about it?
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Most people figure out that they can give up sleep the fastest and get more done. They aren't thinking about what it's going to do to their body later.
I know that I've heard people say, I'll sleep when I'm dead. You will, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to do it while you're alive too. The other thing that you'll hear a lot of times is in moms, we do it all the time. They come home last minute, I need cookies for tomorrow. You didn't know it. So what are you going to do? You're going to stay up late, you're going to get it done. You're still going to get up early in the morning and do what you have to do. It's where we will give up the fastest. We will fight harder to keep our exercise for the day than we will to keep our eight hours of sleep for the day. And that's unfortunate because the sleep will affect so many parameters of your day, but it's going to have a longer term effect as well on your body, on your heart, your liver, your, you know, your whole internal organs are going to be affected more by that lack of sleep.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Absolutely. So can, can we talk a little bit about how that impacts, for example, you gave, you gave the example that we won't give up our workout, but we will cut the sleep. But if we don't sleep a full night and we don't get that rest and recovery, it impacts our workout. So can you kind of shed some light on what some of those changes might look like? Because if we're skipping sleep and now we're not as functional in the Gym, for example, then we may not be achieving the goals we're hoping to achieve.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Well, you're going to have more muscle fatigue, right? You're going to have more exhaustion. You may not be able to last as long while you're in there. The oxygen you're bringing in during that time is great for while you're awake. But then when you go back to bed tonight, if that oxygen you're not giving your body enough time to be in bed to sleep and repair, it's not able to repair those muscles as well that you went and worked out. So then tomorrow you're at a more risk when you go back in to have more injury. So you do want to give your body that good restorative, restful sleep at night to do the repair not just of the body muscles that you went and worked out, but of your brain and of your internal organs at the same time.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. So talk to me about the people who are getting their seven or eight hours of sleep every night. They're really good about it because. But they're still waking up exhausted even though they've spent the time in bed.
What's that about? What's the difference between quantity and sleep quality? And what should we be doing to track this or how can we measure this?
[00:06:18] Speaker B: So quantity and quality is going to be pretty much something you want to look at at anything in life. Having eight hours of sleep is beautiful and wonderful and great as long as it's healthy sleep. If it's not healthy sleep, then you didn't really get eight hours of restorative sleep. So when you go to bed at night, if you have these apneic events, if it is going to cause issues that will cause micro arousals, little mini arousals, you won't know that you've woke up a hundred times last night necessarily. But your body does know it. It knows that you're having these little arousals and it's kicking you out of your sleep cycle and you're having to restart it. It knows that the oxygen levels aren't staying consistent for your body to do its job and it's doing its fight or flight, saying, hey, wake up long enough to, to breathe where you should breathe. Every time we do that, we lose a little bit more of our good restorative REM sleep. So that quality is what you're really after and the way to kind of monitor some of those qualities. There's so many wearables nowadays. I really see a lot of the sleep studies coming out more as wearable devices. Your Ring devices, little finger probe devices.
Sleep study has become very much a technology that has changed dramatically in the 20 years I've been in it. And we do a lot of home sleep testing and a lot of doing that easily and monitoring those so much more easily. People with their Apple watches, they're seeing those things and they really need to say, okay, it's showing that I have something going on. Maybe I should talk to my physician about that.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: And so let me ask you about this, because we're in a day and age where we are in data overload. We're constantly looking at this and when is it time for us to go, oh, this is just an anomaly, or this is just a stressful time this week. Maybe you have a project to get out. And so it's causing the impact versus this is a deeper problem that I really ought to ask my doctor about, my physician about, my practitioner about, and look into. Like, what is that line? And how do we. Because I have a wearable, and someday it always tells me I'm in great sleep.
And. And then some days I wake up twice, and some days I wake up, you know, seven times. So, like, what, what is that? Like, red flag. Hey, if this happens for this length of time, you need to look at it a little bit more deeply.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: I say when you're looking at your wearables, when it's consistent more than a week, that you're having issues, but really go with your gut feeling too. How are you feeling? Just because the watch said you sleep well, do you feel like you slept well? Um, are you having to drink more caffeine that day to stay awake? Are you having to get up and walk around to make sure you're awake? Um, are you noticing that you're clenching and grinding your teeth more in the evenings? Is your partner complaining more about snoring or breathing through your mouth or making weird noises in your sleep? Are you waking up the next morning and realizing your bed looks like you've demolished it in your sleep and that's not your norm? Those are things that we look at, um, when, when we go to our dentist. It's funny because we go to our doctors maybe once a year, unless something comes up. But we go to our dentist twice a year. Our dental practitioners are really looking at this more now too. They're looking at your airway, they're looking at the back of your throat, they're looking at what's there, what's not. How big is your tongue? Does it have a nice cute little ruffle around the edges saying that it's really too big for your mouth. So they're looking at these things and they're kind of triggering as well. You might want to go get this checked out. Or we can help you get this checked out. And it's not a skill scam. It's not something more that they could sell. It really is part of their job now to assess that airway along with your medical practitioners. So those little things in there, that tells you, you know, I'm just not quite feeling my norm. It's not usually just age. Go get it checked out.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's fabulous advice. So, folks, I just want to kind of wrap this up before we do have to take a break. And if you're not tracking your sleep metrics and you've got an Apple watch, wear it. And look at what time am I falling asleep? How many times am I waking up? How do I feel in the morning? Am I noticing that I'm sleeping seven, eight hours and I'm not feeling rested? If that is a chronic situation and it's ongoing, then it's really time to maybe consider talking to somebody about this.
So if you're watching, a really good thing to do is to start tracking if you haven't and start paying attention to how you feel when you wake up. That's your immediate action item from and my biggest takeaway from this it's, you know, we have all the wearables, we have all the information at our hands. If a provider suggests we look into this deeper, definitely take that seriously. And if your morning energy levels are low, it might be time to think about sleep and get that checked out. Because sleep is not just rest, it's a foundation of your health. If sleep is fragile, everything else is fragile. Your metabolism, your immunity, your mood, your resilience. And it will impact reaching your goals.
Up next, sleep apnea, the common condition most people miss. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages.
Foreign.
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But now we're going to dive right back into the topic du jour. We are talking all things sleep. If you feel tired all day. If you snore regularly or if you wake up, gasping is not a sign, a side effect of normal aging. It could be a sleep disorder that's silently undermining your health.
Here with Christy Plain, executive vice president of Sleep Solutions at Dedicated Sleep, to dive deeper into what is sleep apnea and why does it matter for general health? Christy, Hello.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Thanks.
So sleep apnea is going to be something that a lot of people hear about. They may not understand it completely, but apnea is basically a cessation of breath. It's some event causing your body to to not get that oxygen from the outside in consistently correctly.
One event has to last at least 10 seconds for it to count. Usually you're going to have oxygen desaturation or lower along with it. So for instance, if your oxygen was running 94 and now it drops to 89 and it did that for a 10 second period, we can count that as one event. And we monitor those events throughout the night and then we accrue them and go base by hour.
So when the doctor is looking at it, they're going to look to see how many events per hour are you having.
So what would be considered normal is less than five events per hour through the night.
We're going to range it up to mild, moderate, and severe. And then we're going to look at that to help with treatment. So when you're looking at the apneic events, what your partners may hear or what people may say you sound like is that you're snoring really loudly. They could hear you from other rooms.
It sounds like you've stopped breathing in your sleep or you were breathing and then all of a sudden you weren't. Then you were just making weird noises, gasping.
They may not know exactly how to describe it, but they will tell you that you sound weird in your sleep a lot of times or that you're really bad if you get on your back and they're hitting you and telling you to turn over. If you've been hit and told to turn over, you really need to go get checked out.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Okay, that is noted.
I'm going to talk to my spouse because I am always hitting him and making him turn over. Yeah, I call it sawing logs, folks. If your partner saw logs and raising the roof with every breath, it might be time to look into this. So talk to me, Christy, about what are the hidden health consequences if we leave this untreated?
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. So a lot of patients with untreated sleep apnea, their doctors will talk to them about their High blood pressure, hypertension. And they'll talk to them about their diabetic issues. You know, the A1C numbers. They may talk to you about anxiety and depression. And they may forget to tell you that every one of those things are made worse by untreated sleep apnea. And every one of those things are helped by having your apnea treated well so that your body can mend and repair at night. So one of the examples I always give is your heart. Your heart has the same job at night as it does during the day. It pumps oxygenated blood through the body.
If you're not giving it oxygen to do its job, it has to work harder at night to do that job.
That's the time it's supposed to get to relax and repair. And you're making it work harder. You're going to wear it out faster. You're going to increase those risks of cardiovascular issues, of strokes. You have more trauma, of stroke from the 4am to 6am because that's your longest REM cycle. That's where your heart's having to work harder because your body's supposed to relax and, and you're not giving its oxygen. We get more ER calls during that time for those reasons.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: So let me ask you the question that I know everybody's thinking, and that's, well, if I have blood pressure issues and I'm taking medication and I'm, you know, I have fatigue, but. Or maybe I have diabetes, maybe I have some of these other issues, but I haven't even heard about sleep apnea. And maybe I live alone, so I can't ask a partner, what is the trigger if I'm already being treated for some of these things? For me to ask my physician, well, could this be a contributing factor?
[00:16:46] Speaker B: If your physician hasn't already asked you about it, you need to be your own advocate. Ask them physicians anymore. It used to be you went to the family doctor and you were seen by the family doctor for everything. And when you walked in, they asked you about everything.
Nowadays you're going in for one item and you're going to talk about that one item and then you're kind of gone or you're going to be sent to the next person for the next item. And I want people to remember that this is your body and your health. Be your advocate. If you have these issues, ask them about getting a sleep study to see if that will help. Especially if you are doing everything you're supposed to do and your numbers aren't getting better, you're not feeling better what else could be going on that's underlying that we can help? And apnea is usually one of the biggest things going on. That is an easy fix.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: And let me ask you another question, because we've been on a lot of questions lately about hormonal health. We've had a lot of experts on about hormonal changes, especially at midlife. Is this something that can be exacerbated or positively impacted when we're going through those stages of life?
Because I know people are going to ask.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Absolutely. We tend to. Well enough. Tends to be where most women will start to reach out and have a conversation about their sleep. And that's when we find our diagnose sleep apnea. A lot more with women is when we start reaching the age of the hormonal changes and night sweats and not sleeping well and everything just gets linked to. Well, it's just hormonal, but it could also be apnea. You could have both things happening at the same time. They can both still be true.
Every time you wake up, the body is triggering these hormones to kick back in.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Right?
[00:18:37] Speaker B: You're awake, you need to do this. And then you fall back asleep. And they're supposed to be mellowing out. So stop and think about that. Every time this little extra trigger is happening, it's causing these hormones to not stay stable throughout the night. And then you're having more issues with them throughout the day as well. It is something to consider if you are still struggling to. You've gone through speaking with your doctor, they've given you the different replacements that they want you to try or, you know, this I want you to try. If it's not feeling right, it's not seeming to help.
Ask about the sleep study.
Our musculature does change. And so as we age a little bit, those things can be changing in our airway, causing us to have more apnea events that we might not have had younger than because the muscles were strong enough to kind of keep it from happening.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: I mean, it's perfect sense. So now tell me the other side of things. Why aren't most people getting diagnosed even when they have the symptoms? What's keeping that diagnosis from happening?
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Fear of the treatment is my opinion. People hear horrible stories about a CPAP machine or. Or, you know, they've got to put this mask on and the mask isn't sexy. And I have actually had patients say, I will not take that for date night. So what else you got for me? Right? So I totally understand that it is something that if you find out you have this, well then you've got to make a decision about what do I do about this? And what I want people to remember is even CPAP machines are so much better today than they were 20 years ago. And the stories that your uncles may have told you back then aren't going to be necessarily the same as today. The masks are a lot more comfortable. There are still people that absolutely don't tolerate it or don't want to do a cpap. But we also still have other treatment options that most people even today don't realize. We do a lot of oral device for sleep apnea. It's custom made. We, we don't recommend any of the boiling bites that aren't monitored. There's no way to know are you getting what you need. But if you're going to a true dental professional that knows dental sleep medicine and they're making a device custom for you and titrating custom to you and what your needs and their following it between your dental practitioner and your medical practitioners together, that is a great treatment option. I actually use that myself and my husband is very happy when I remember it on trips and don't accidentally leave it in the wrong case at home because he will let me know if I did. But you have all of these different things.
Some patients are a great candidate for the inspire, which is a surgical decision.
That's not my first decision ever because again, it's a surgical and once it's in, it's a surgical decision to remove. But that doesn't mean it's not an option for people that are true candidates for it. So don't let the treatment be what keeps you from going to find out do you have this problem? There are so many ways for us to help you get through that treatment and make it easy to be compliant with it. And it's your health, it's something worth doing.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Absolutely. And let's just talk about prevention. If we have this, preventing a bigger event saves time, money, sometimes disability and more.
If it can prevent, if we can treat this and prevent cardiovascular disease from progressing or metabolic disease from progressing, you're actually saving yourself a whole lot of headache later on.
Sleep apnea is not just loud breathing. It's oxygen deprivation, folks. It's. It's altering your nervous system. It gives you risks of heart disease, metabolic disease, diabetes, brain health issues. If it sounds familiar, it's worth investigating. And if you're not sure or you want to learn more, how can people reach out to you, Christy?
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Sure. The fastest way is to go right to our website. You're going to be able to reach out to us by email or phone there. Our website is dedicatedsleep.net that gets right to our clinical team. It doesn't cost anybody anything to ask questions.
Let us help you. Everybody that answers the calls boarded in sleep.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: That's fantastic. Thank you so much. We do have to take a brief break, folks, but if you're watching this and you're like, okay, this might be me or some of this sounds familiar, definitely get it checked out. It's well worth the prevention. And we know that early detection and treatment always is the optimal way to maximize our health. Coming up next, from diagnosis to real sleep reservation, what works? Stay with us. We will be right back. Sa.
Foreign.
Welcome back to Vital Signs. I'm Jen Gode here with Christy Plain and we're diving deep into sleep. Getting a sleep study isn't the goal, folks. Restoring rest is. Let's clock through all the confusion about devices, therapies and learn what really helps you wake up energized. Christy, when somebody tests positive for a sleep disorder, what does an effective treatment plan actually look like?
[00:24:06] Speaker B: It's going to be different for everybody. It depends on how bad they are. Mild, moderate or severe. Depends on what they're going to be able to tolerate. It depends on are they positional or non positional. So we're going to look at each patient as an individual person and we're going to talk to them, you know, what is your goal? What is your why? Why are you doing this? And then when they know what their why is, it helps us to get them to that good compliant piece of it.
We have Pap therapy. We have it where a patient can reach out to us at any time with struggles.
You are not sure of this or that. We can change out a mask when need be. We have oral device treatment. We are in all states so that we can help with this. We work with medical insurance so that it is easy to get to that point. Right. You can get your treatment. We work with dental offices, we work with medical offices.
Don't let it be an excuse of I don't think I'm going to like the treatment as you said, you know, go find out. What can we do? How do we make it to where you can sleep? Talk to us. If you're on treatment and you're struggling with something, reach out to the provider, reach out to us even if you're not ours. We'll talk you through and give you tips. There's so many things that we can tell you from the years of experience that helps you be able to do the treatment that you were given and, and get you that sleep that you need.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: Can we dive a little bit deeper here? Because we've already kind of talked about people being aware of the old school CPAP machines, and it's come a little ways since the original guys.
But when we're undergoing this or when we're looking at treatment planning, how do we know it's time to contact the person who's working us through this treatment? Like if we've got a device, obviously we have to adjust to. There's an adjustment period to anything new. Whether it's an oral appliance, a cpap, it doesn't matter. There's. It's going to be different.
So what's the difference between this is different, I need to get accustomed to it versus, yeah, this is really not going to work for me.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: So if you are struggling to put, let's say you're doing a CPAP and you just, you can't make yourself put that mask on your face today, you're going to need to reach out and talk to somebody. We need to know that that's not something you can tolerate and we need to find you the next step. What else can we do for you? There are patients that truly cannot put that on their face and keep it there. And I understand that that's not a failure. That is just reality. What do we do next? And then there are patients that they're doing it, but they can't quite get the mask adjusted right. And it's just irritating all day. You know, we can give tips on how to adjust. Maybe we look at a different type of mask or a different material of mask. Don't put it off more than a couple of days of. If you just are straight up irritated for three days with it, you can't reach out and let. Let your person kind of walk you through. Give you some tips. Try those tips. If you're finding that you're putting the equipment on and you wake up three hours in with it off your face, don't be upset with yourself that that's happened. Pick it up, put it back on, you will get there where you're able to do it all night. If you've gone 30 days, 60 days, and you're still not to the point of keeping it on all night, have that conversation with the team, see what else we can do. Maybe it's a different type of mask. Maybe you're feeling like you're Just not getting enough air and we need to make adjustments to the pressure. All of these things are things that can be done.
They're easy to do. Your provider knows these answers, but you have to use your voice to tell them there's a problem. If they don't hear from you, you, they assume you're good.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: And, and you know, it's so funny because so many times we're going through these challenges as a patient and we don't want to bother our provider. But folks, our provider doesn't know. They're not mind readers. Exactly what we're there for bother health care for 20 years. Like, if you don't tell us, we don't know, we're not going to magically know that you're struggling. So if you're watching this and it doesn't matter whether it's a sleep treatment or any, any other kind of treatment, like if you' able to tolerate something or you're having challenges, Today's the day. That's an excellent action step to just interrupt with Today's the day to communicate with your providers. Because the truth is, providers are not mind readers. We don't know unless you let us know that there is a problem.
And so, you know, I wanted to ask you because I'm just really curious, how does ongoing support change the outcomes compared to trying to go it alone? Because, you know, a lot of us, I, I'm, I'm hailing in Houston, Texas. We got cowboy attitude out here, like, I don't need anybody. I can do this on my own. Like, how important is that ongoing support in regards to our outcomes?
[00:29:05] Speaker B: It becomes so very important. We work with a lot of truck drivers and they are salt of the earth best patients. We love working with them and talking to them, but we have gotten them to understand that we're here for you. And if you reach out to us when you're struggling, we can get you where you need to be. Versus I can't do this and I may lose my job. Over is so important to have somebody to turn to. It isn't any different than your kids coming in saying, hey, mom, I need you to help me get this shoe right.
Just think of it like everybody needs help once in a while.
Don't look at yourself as having failed or struggled because of it. It is a goal to be able to use that extra help.
Our team is very good at it and they love it because it's that patient interaction. We're a completely virtual company and literally last week we had one of our team Members facetime through the grocery store with the driver to get the right water for his machine.
It was that simple. He was stressed over it.
She's like, let's go grocery shopping. Off they went. And he's wearing his equipment now. Very well.
Had he kept stressing over that he may have just stopped wearing it until he could find out, you know, the next time or the next appointment. Heck no. Give us a call.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Okay, so let me ask you the next question. Say we get a device. We'll use CPAP as just an example.
Say I've got a cpap. It was a little struggle for a little bit, but I'm a weekend and I'm able to wear it through the night. But I'm so stressed out about it immediately. Like it's taking me longer to fall asleep or I'm, or maybe I'm going through the full night, but I'm not really feeling rejuvenated in the morning.
What is that like? Should we be reaching out at that point in time and is that an indication that this is that we need something different friends?
[00:30:55] Speaker B: No, that's pretty normal. You didn't, it's kind of like a sleep debt or a bank debt or credit card debt. You didn't get there overnight. You're probably not going to have it all fixed overnight. I usually say about six to eight weeks of really being compliant with care is going to be when you're going to start feeling a little better, feeling a little more comfortable with it, feeling more energized the next day. And a lot of times your family will see, first they'll see you doing better before you'll see you doing better.
It's, it's kind of like walking behind the two year old that didn't get a nap and you're explaining that they're tired today and they're cranky. Could you imagine if somebody did that to us as an adult? She didn't sleep well last night, so she's going to be cranky today. But instead they're going, you know, you just seem like you're really chipper today.
You have more energy and you haven't noticed it probably before they noticed it
[00:31:47] Speaker A: because we live with ourselves. And so it's, it's a micro, it's a micro change. So I just want to reiterate that for the people in the back of the room who didn't follow the last. Or maybe you zoned out. If you're, if you're undergoing a treatment for sleep apnea, for example, whether it's a CPAP or wearable. It takes about six to eight weeks to start noticing a difference. And your family and friends are going to notice first. You're going to be a little less irritable, a little less moody perhaps.
So this is not a magic bullet.
Actually, no treatment is a magic bullet. Honestly. There's always a recovery or a time period to adjust, but it's really important to have realistic expectations going in. And Christy was awesome. She said, listen, once you figure out that this is a challenge, if this is a challenge for you and you get the right treatment and you're tolerating treatment, it still is going to take about six to eight weeks. What other things do we need to consider along that treatment pathway so that if this is us or our loved one, we have, we have the real deal and we know what, what to expect.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Expect that the people setting you up for equipment are going to set you up to succeed with that equipment.
Make sure they tell you what to be expecting, what to be looking for. Let you trial it before you leave. Make sure that you are getting your mask set on your face correctly and ask them to let you try that before you walk out the door. Do it yourself. Be comfortable with it. Make sure you know how to clean the machines and please God, clean the machines every day. Use the distilled water, make sure and use the humidification levels and that you know how to make changes to that because guess what, humidity does change and it will be a comfort setting for you. Don't let them just hand it to you and kind of push you out the door. And even if you were going into an oral device, you have the same thing is something new. You're laying there in the quiet at night. You're noticing everything that's different, right?
Make sure you're giving yourself that time. But you've asked, what should I be looking for? And then when should I be reaching back out?
And then hold your provider kind of accountable a little bit there too, that they've given you the knowledge to make you successful. If they're not, then sometimes we need to look for a different provider.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: That is phenomenal advice, folks. Thank you so much. Christy. We are going to have to take a brief break in a moment, but I just want to reiterate. If your CPAP feels uncomfortable, if your wearable device, your oral device is uncomfortable, then ask your provider, reach out. Is this an option optimized for my body, for my lifestyle? Because sleep treatment is not a one size fits all solution? If we've learned anything in the last 45 minutes. It is that the difference between trying and success is the coordination, the follow up and the personalization of your treatment plan. Be sure to advocate for yourself and to know what it is that you need to know before your provider leaves. And feel free to reach out at any time if things are not working out for you. Our final segments coming up, Better Sleep for Better Living, your blueprint for every night. Stay tuned and we'll have practical tips for every day for every person watching after these messages.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Welcome back to Vital Signs with Jen Goade. Don't miss a second of this show or any of your NOW Media TV favorites, streaming live and on demand wherever and whenever you want. Be sure to download the Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS for access to our bilingual programming for podcasts. So do I Listen anytime at www.nowmedia.tv from business to lifestyle to culture and more, Now Media TV is here 24 7. Ready when you are.
Well, we are in the final stretch of our show today. What if the key to sharper memory, better weight control, improved mood, longer life wasn't another supplement, but really just longer, higher quality sleeves? Sleep. We've got Christy playing here to talk about how, how that works. So Christy, how does sleep impact our long term health, our longevity beyond just fatigue?
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. So when you're not getting really good sleep, it is going to affect your body internally. It's not just snoring. And I understand that snoring may only bother the spouse. It doesn't bother the person that it's happening to. But those things are signs and symptoms that you need to watch for. It is wearing the heart out faster. It wears out your endocrine system. It causes extra weight gain, hormonal issues, all of those things, anxiety and depression. A lot of times the bad thing about it too is dementia and Alzheimer's are very well linked to poor sleep, the brain not being able to clean itself. There's been so many new findings recently even to kind of push that further. You want to make sure you're giving your body time to get good quality, restful, restorative sleep at night. For the longevity, it's not just mild cognition. You know when you're getting up in the morning and you went from one room to the other and you can't remember what you're going in there for, that's probably going to be a poor night's sleep. And that's actually the first thing I notice when I've had a bad night of sleep. I will lose the little Small things in life that morning. Words on the tip of my tongue that aren't coming where they need to be. We don't want to allow that to get worse and worse and worse because we keep ignoring our sleep.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not just. It's not just aging, folks. It really is the power of restoration. So, Christy, dive into some simple habits that have been proven to improve sleep quality, because I know everybody watching is waiting anxiously for this.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: One of the fastest things to do is set yourself a pattern. Try to get yourself to bed at a normal time every night and waking up at a normal time, you know, every morning. Don't vary it by great amounts of more than 30 minutes or so. Don't try to. To do, you know, the midnight hours of the weekend to stay up and bright and early, you know, so you can keep going.
Try to keep it consistent and not adjusting quite often. Make sure your bedroom is nice and comfortable. You want a good, comfortable bed. That is where you're going to spend a lot of time. And we tend to spend the least amount of money on our beds, you know, than any other furniture in the house. Why? I don't know.
The other thing is the temperature.
68, 69 is the great ideal temperature in a bed, and that's where we tend to keep the sleep labs, because it's nice and cool for you to sleep throughout the night.
Try to always turn the TVs off. You really don't even want to have the TVs on in the bedroom or watching your phones close. You know, that light is triggering your brain to be awake when you're trying to tell your brain you're supposed to be going to sleep. It's a confusion. It's not going to make it easy to get to sleep. It's going to cause more insomnia. So all of these things of, you know, a good, comfortable pillow.
Again, keep the bedroom for sleep. That's going to be one of your big keys. The pattern, the. The what you set up for, for success.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: I love that. And I'm just going to reiterate it because I couldn't agree more, folks, unplug. Unplug at least an hour before your bedtime. Dim the lights, cool down the space. Make sure you invest in a bed. You will not regret it. Make sure you invest, because that's how you get comfortable. And if we're not comfortable, we can't get to sleep. And if we can't get to sleep, then forget staying asleep. So find that routine that helps you wind down, turn out the lights, no screens for about 60 minutes before bed and, and really set yourself for success.
So, Christy, talk to me a little bit about emotional stress and lifestyle choices and the impact that they have on sleep. What can somebody adjust today from either a stress or a lifestyle habit that will immediately show some impact?
[00:40:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. When we try to go lay down stress. So think about it like this. If you go to bed mad at your partner, do you really go to sleep very well? Exactly. It's the same thing with any other stress. If you can't put it down when you go to bed, it might be best to go ahead and write it down, put it somewhere and then know that it is there. You can pick it back up tomorrow.
Maybe getting some soft soothing music for that last 60 minutes. It's not, it's not going to be a light problem, but it can be a soothing problem. Try meditating. The things that you can do to take that stress and set it down on the table, walk away from it to go to bed at night. Because otherwise it's like the oxygen in the airplane. If you don't take care of yourself first, you can't take care of the others. The next step or tomorrow.
[00:40:58] Speaker A: That's a excellent advice, folks. So what is your day? What does your evening routine look like? Brain dump. Anything that you can't seem to let go of, that's, that's just perseverating so that you can train your mind to let go, that you don't need to be thinking of those things.
And I really liked the, the meditation or a breathing practice before it's time to go to sleep. I think that's an excellent thing. One of the things that I do and, and I've been doing this for over a decade is I do, I do a progressive relaxation meditation almost every night. And I will fall asleep. I used to be an insomniac. I couldn't fall asleep. So I do a brain dump. I journal and everything that's in my brain and then I go into a relaxing meditation. Like it's, it works, folks. So you don't have to, you don't have to do exactly that, but find your bedtime routine that's gonna allow you to kind of slowly but surely close the browsers in your brain so that you can actually have some restful sleep.
So let's cover the thing that I know I'm going to get questions about. But Jen, listen, I've got kids. I've got a toddler. I've got a baby, an infant that's waking up in the middle of the night, I've got all of these things. I'm juggling work, family and my health goals.
How do I get a sleep routine for somebody like me?
[00:42:15] Speaker B: You aren't wrong. It is very hard with new babies in the room. There's nothing you can do to change what you have to do for your child.
But what you can do is try to get some extra rest in there. Don't make yourself stay up an extra 30 minutes so you can watch a TV show knowing good and well you're getting up in two hours to feed a baby.
Take that break, take that cut, make that sacrifice. The show can wait until the next day or when you're having to stay setting up.
Really concentrate on what things can you correct so that when you are in your bed and you are able to sleep, it can be the restful restorative. If you are having to give up, get up extra with the baby. Try not to turn the lights bright light to go get the bottle. Try to keep them dim if you can.
It helps to keep from re triggering the brain. Okay, it's daytime, but there again in the mornings when you're first waking up, getting some sunlight helps trigger the body that I'm awake for the for now and get my clock set for that. I should be going to bed later when the sun's down.
You can't get around being a mama, but you can get around what other sacrifice of, of the things I don't have to have can I make changes of?
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Fantastic. So, folks, better sleep doesn't just make you feel better tomorrow. It strengthens your resilience, your focus, your immunity for the life you want to live. We don't have control over everything, but we can take control of the factors that we can. And I'm just going to reiterate a couple of things that you can choose today. I want you to choose just one, not all of them. Because we know that if we're overwhelmed and trying to do all the things, it's not going to help. But choose one of the habits that Christy suggested. Maybe it's first time. First thing in the morning, I'm going to go outside and I'm going to get some sunlight to wake my body up. Maybe it's I'm going to unplug 60 minutes before bedtime. Maybe it's I'm going to sleep when my kiddos are napping because I know I'm not getting the full amount of rest in the middle of the night. Pick the one thing you heard today and let's put it into action because that's how we create forward momentum and improve our health and our longevity. Christy, it has been really amazing. Thank you for making sleep health feel clear and achievable.
How can everyone watching reach out if they'd like to learn more?
[00:44:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. Please go to our website. It's going to be the fastest, easiest way to find out more information about us and take quick assessments. If you want, you can reach directly by phone, you can go in by email. If you don't want to commit just yet, you can ask us for more information.
It never cost anything to speak with any of our clinicians to just kind of answer some questions for you. And when you do reach out, this goes directly to my clinicians to help answer those questions. So the website is dedicated sleep.net
[00:44:56] Speaker A: and I'm going to ask you for very briefly, we've gone through a lot of things today. What's the one thing that you want everyone in the audience to take away from from our conversation?
[00:45:06] Speaker B: Be your best advocate. If something doesn't feel right, ask questions, get your answers. Until you are feeling that right, you are your best advocate. It is your body.
Everybody is different. A number may be different for you than it is for someone else. So advocate for yourself and talk to your provider. They can't read your mind.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: I couldn't have said it better. We don't have mind readers in here, but it is absolutely the fact that we are a team with our healthcare providers and great teamwork requires great communication. Open those lines of communications. Advocate for yourself. Thank you so much, Christy, for being here, for lending us your expertise. I really appreciate you today. Thank you.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
[00:45:52] Speaker A: And you. Yes, you. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, including this show. But remember, you don't have to normalize exhaustion. Your sleep is a vital sign. And when you protect it, when you do some of these simple habits that we discussed today to ensure that you have restorative sleep, you are protecting literally every other aspect of your health so that you can live the healthiest, highest performing life possible.
I'm Jen Dode. This is Vital Signs. We'll be here same time, same station next week, so until then, have an amazing rest of your day.
