#010 Women reclaim your sleep. With Laura Kanadel

00:00:00: Also, especially for us as being females, it's also in our deep sleep that we regulate our hormones.

00:00:07: So something that a lot of females are interested in is obviously whether or not we gain weight.

00:00:13: And to regulate our appetite and our blood sugar, we really need to get that deep sleep in.

00:00:19: We know from research that when we don't get enough sleep and when we don't get enough deep sleep,

00:00:25: we increase our calorie consumption with about 30%.

00:00:28: Welcome to HealthWise, the health and longevity podcast brought to you by Sunday Natural.

00:00:33: I'm Nils Berens and in this podcast we explore what it truly means to be healthy.

00:00:39: Together we will dive into topics such as medicine, exercise, nutrition and emotional well-being,

00:00:45: always with a wise perspective on what generally benefits us.

00:00:49: Differences between man and woman manifest in various aspects of life and sleep is so no exception.

00:00:58: Woman's sleep patterns and needs are influenced by unique psychological and hormal factors.

00:01:05: Understanding these differences is crucial for promoting better sleep health for everyone.

00:01:10: Laura Kanadel is a certified sleep counselor with master degrees in international business and politics,

00:01:16: specialized in training and development.

00:01:18: Laura is founder of the Sleep Institute in Copenhagen and has shared her expertise on sleep

00:01:24: through numerous lectures, courses and media appearance, including national TV and radio.

00:01:30: Her clients, including major international companies like Ikea, NovoSigns and Matas,

00:01:36: and she also offers sleep consulting for private clients with various sleep problems

00:01:41: and I say a warm welcome to Laura Kanadel.

00:01:45: Thank you so much Nils, thank you for having me. It's really a pleasure.

00:01:49: Laura, it's my pleasure, it's our first English podcast and my question is always a kind of same question.

00:01:55: I'm asking about Sundays and my question is what does your typical Sunday look like?

00:02:01: So speaking of the topic today, it's interesting because I do one thing on Sundays, which I don't do on any other day.

00:02:10: So now I'm really excited.

00:02:11: Right. I basically do exactly the same thing every single day.

00:02:16: I never really change my routines too much unless I have a party or an event that I go to.

00:02:22: Usually my weekdays and my weekends are usually very similar.

00:02:27: I always get up between 6 and 6 30 a.m.

00:02:31: I make breakfast for my three kids.

00:02:34: I get them ready for their day.

00:02:36: I sit down with them.

00:02:39: We talk about our day, what our plans are.

00:02:42: We usually do something fun as well.

00:02:45: And then we always plan our week ahead.

00:02:48: So for us in our house, Sundays are for planning the week ahead.

00:02:54: And I think it's a good reminder for me particularly to think about if I dread, if I have that Sunday dread,

00:03:04: meaning I'm really not excited about the following Monday, I know I need to change something.

00:03:09: So for me, Sundays are really for me to check in.

00:03:12: Am I happy where I am in my life right now?

00:03:14: Do I dread the Mondays?

00:03:16: Usually I'm happy and I'm excited.

00:03:18: I'm really excited to get on with the week.

00:03:20: But if I have those Sunday dreads, that's usually a bad sign.

00:03:24: So that's number one.

00:03:25: Number two, I have a very decadent thing that I do only on Sundays and that's my Sunday nap.

00:03:32: So speaking of the topic today, being asleep,

00:03:35: it's interesting that you ask me about my routine on Sundays because

00:03:39: only on Sundays do I do that nap because I don't have time to do it otherwise.

00:03:43: So for me, Sunday is like any other day except my Sunday nap.

00:03:48: Oh, it's a Sunday nap day.

00:03:49: It's a Sunday nap day.

00:03:50: I love it.

00:03:51: I love it.

00:03:51: So then let's go directly into it.

00:03:54: How become you interested during the topic of sleep?

00:03:58: So sleep is is an interesting topic because it's something that we all do, right?

00:04:04: And it's definitely we should we should and we are we are biologically destined to sleep.

00:04:10: All of us.

00:04:12: But for some reason, we're not very aware of this thing that we do for about a third part of our life.

00:04:18: And for me, the topic of sleep really became very relevant when my kids that start sleeping.

00:04:26: So during Corona, he started having trouble sleeping.

00:04:30: We didn't know what to do.

00:04:31: It was it was terrible for him.

00:04:33: Really, we tried to get help.

00:04:35: We went to doctors.

00:04:36: We tried to get information online, but there was really no solution for him.

00:04:40: The doctors just wanted to give him medicine, but we knew that that was not really going to solve the problem.

00:04:45: Right.

00:04:45: So we started investigating sleep on our own and found ways of helping him really.

00:04:54: And it became a bit of an obsession for me.

00:04:56: So like when some people become obsessed with training or exercise or marathons, sleep really became an obsession of mine because I realized that with very simple hacks, you can substantially not just change your sleep or really change your life.

00:05:10: So sleep became interesting to me when we started having problems in our family.

00:05:19: So that was the initial motivation that then led to me taking a degree.

00:05:25: I became a certified sleep counselor and then I started.

00:05:29: I studied Institute.

00:05:31: I started to sleep Institute.

00:05:32: Right.

00:05:33: And very briefly, I'm just going to tell you because the sleep Institute.

00:05:37: I'm very often asked, what does the sleep Institute do?

00:05:39: It sounds strange.

00:05:41: What is that even at the sleep Institute?

00:05:43: We do three things.

00:05:45: Number one, we do one on one sleep counseling.

00:05:47: So if you have a sleep problem, you come to us and you get on one of our sleep programs based on your problem.

00:05:54: Number two, we do a lot of training and development for companies.

00:05:59: Oh, interesting.

00:06:00: But who you're training?

00:06:02: We are employees or the trainers in the company.

00:06:06: So we are really doing two things with companies.

00:06:10: It is both an internal thing.

00:06:12: So it's internally for staff.

00:06:14: It could be for shift workers understanding how do you sleep?

00:06:17: How is your daily rhythm when you are a shift worker?

00:06:20: It could also be to externally for customers.

00:06:24: So some companies like for instance, Sundays might have a particular interest in taking on the responsibility of sharing information on sleep

00:06:33: because sleep and sleep problems are very much linked to education.

00:06:37: If you're not educated, well aware of which mechanisms are improving your sleep.

00:06:44: It's really, really a problem for you.

00:06:45: So sleep is bad sleep, especially lack of sleep education.

00:06:51: So we help companies understand sleep.

00:06:53: And then three, I do a lot of what I'm doing now.

00:06:56: So that is speaking podcast, radio, TV, just to create awareness about sleep

00:07:00: because we really need to reeducate ourselves.

00:07:04: Sleep is like food and exercise has been for the past 50 years.

00:07:09: We've had to reeducate ourselves.

00:07:11: We understand our understandings and beliefs regarding food and exercise and movement.

00:07:18: My projection is that's also going to be the way that we look at sleep for the next 10, 20 years, really.

00:07:25: Yeah, I'm definitely from a different generation than you.

00:07:28: In my generation, it was more sleep is something for a loser.

00:07:31: And so my mindset has changed, luckily.

00:07:36: But I would say in the younger generation, they are aware that sleep is important,

00:07:42: but nevertheless, they have problems.

00:07:43: So, but maybe maybe to convince the generation of myself, why is sleep so important?

00:07:55: You're completely right for gen zedders and millennials.

00:07:59: When you ask them in large in like in questionnaires and when you ask them about their health

00:08:07: and what they're mostly concerned about, sleep is always in top three.

00:08:12: That does not apply for the next generations before.

00:08:15: So you're completely right for the younger generations.

00:08:18: Sleep is something that they're increasingly aware of and increasingly interested in as well.

00:08:23: We know from simple Google searches that there's a 200 percent a year over year search on sleep.

00:08:28: And what I found even more exciting is that when you look at the categories,

00:08:33: what is the most popular music on Spotify?

00:08:37: You know what it is? Sleep music.

00:08:39: It's no surprise to me, really.

00:08:41: I found it so interesting.

00:08:43: It's something that is imagine.

00:08:44: Imagine we get to know each other in a bar and I'm asking yourself, what kind of music do you like?

00:08:51: Show me your Spotify and then sleep.

00:08:53: Right. Right. Right. Right.

00:08:56: But it is interesting and that is because there are so many wonderful things about sleep.

00:09:02: Sleep is really our underutilized superpower.

00:09:05: We if we want to perform better at work or in sports, we need to sleep better.

00:09:11: We need to make sure we get our deep sleep.

00:09:13: If we want to be bright and crisp and really understand something intellectually challenging,

00:09:20: we need to get enough REM sleep.

00:09:23: So as we sleep, we enter very briefly.

00:09:26: I'm just going to go through this very briefly.

00:09:28: As we sleep, we enter different sleep stages.

00:09:33: Each stage is about 90 minutes.

00:09:36: To simplify, in the beginning of our sleep, we get more deep sleep.

00:09:42: And in this deep sleep, we restore ourselves physically.

00:09:49: So our growth hormones go up to make sure that any DNA damage occurring in our bodies, we restore that.

00:09:56: And we basically go in there with small little cells and rebuild ourselves.

00:10:02: So the deep sleep is very, very important to have that physical restoration.

00:10:06: That's why our grandmas always said that the early sleep between noon is the most important one.

00:10:13: Because see, in this time, we have this maximum deep sleep.

00:10:17: Exactly right. It's so true.

00:10:19: Grandma was always right.

00:10:21: Our grandmothers were always right.

00:10:22: And I will say also, there are some sayings out there.

00:10:26: Any sleep you get before 12 counts double.

00:10:30: It's not really true, but there's some truth to the fact that we generally need to have that sleep before 12 o'clock.

00:10:36: Also, especially for us as being females, it's also in our deep sleep that we regulate our hormones.

00:10:44: So something that a lot of females are interested in is obviously whether or not we gain weight.

00:10:49: And to regulate our appetite and our blood sugar, we really need to get that deep sleep in.

00:10:56: We know from research that when we don't get enough sleep and when we don't get enough deep sleep,

00:11:01: we increase our calorie consumption with about 30%.

00:11:05: So we're sure 30% 30% 30% more calories.

00:11:09: Just want to put it out there. Anybody who goes through our sleep programs magically start losing weight.

00:11:15: And why is that?

00:11:17: That is because when we start sleeping, our blood sugar gets regulated and we're able to regulate our appetite more.

00:11:23: So we simply consume less calories.

00:11:26: So that deep stage is very important for that.

00:11:28: So maybe we should claim this episode not only as a sleep podcast, it's also a kind of weight loss podcast.

00:11:34: I'm just saying that that is what we see. We do see that without even trying, our clients do start losing weight.

00:11:40: Right?

00:11:41: And then to simplify again, we also in the last part of the night, we have our REM sleep.

00:11:48: In the REM stage, we do a lot of things for our memory.

00:11:53: That's where we store information in our memory.

00:11:56: It's also where we regulate ourselves emotionally.

00:11:59: So we don't know why we dream, which is very interesting.

00:12:03: We do this weird thing, sleeping for a third part of our life.

00:12:07: And we dream also, which is this sort of very wild concept, right?

00:12:13: We lay down, we close our eyes and we enter a different world.

00:12:17: So we don't know enough about why we actually dream, but we do have certain hypothesis.

00:12:22: And that is that maybe we dream because it's a part of our emotional regulation.

00:12:27: It's a way for us to understand the world when we're awake.

00:12:31: It's a way for us to interpret what's going on.

00:12:34: And it actually helps us to regulate our mood.

00:12:37: So if we have, if we feel like we're in a poor mood and we suffer a bit mentally,

00:12:43: make sure you get that REM sleep in because it actually regulates our mood.

00:12:47: And as a last sort of important little quote in regards to female sleep,

00:12:52: we know for females that females are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety,

00:12:56: twice as likely to self-report depression.

00:13:00: So for especially females, REM sleep is incredibly important.

00:13:06: So there's a deep sleep, there's a REM sleep and the light sleep.

00:13:10: And then you have the light sleep in between and this is even more wild.

00:13:14: So we have these light stages.

00:13:16: Some research suggests that there might be 12 different types of light stages.

00:13:22: So 12, so it's incredibly sophisticated.

00:13:26: So going in the night to the toilet, is this also a kind of light sleep?

00:13:30: But it's actually a really good question, right?

00:13:33: So what do you define as a light sleep?

00:13:36: There's many, many, many different stages of light sleep.

00:13:40: Some light stages just basically bridge the different cycles.

00:13:43: Some of them are between being awake and asleep.

00:13:47: There's so many, if you go into a granular level,

00:13:50: you could almost see light sleep as us sort of going further and further and further

00:13:56: and further down into deep, deep sleep.

00:13:59: And it's also light sleep is also bridging cycles.

00:14:02: So there's so many different types of light sleep, but we don't really know.

00:14:07: And we don't really know what the function of these sort of lighter sleep stages are

00:14:12: except that it actually bridges the other stages.

00:14:15: So it's sleep is incredibly sophisticated, incredibly complicated

00:14:20: and we don't know enough about it yet simply.

00:14:23: Which is interesting, yeah?

00:14:24: Before we start to talk about the difference between male and female sleep,

00:14:28: I have one quote from you in our pre-discussion

00:14:33: and I really would like to speak about this.

00:14:36: You said that we are in one of the biggest health crisis of our time.

00:14:40: It's a lack of good quality sleep.

00:14:42: So can you elaborate a little bit more on that?

00:14:46: Right.

00:14:48: So sleep is a biological necessity, right?

00:14:55: But it has been increasingly compromised in our modern society.

00:15:00: In our part of the world, about 50% of us self-report

00:15:04: getting poorly or not enough sleep during the week.

00:15:08: And almost a third of us actually get six hours or less of sleep every single night.

00:15:14: So at the Sleep Institute, we define having a sleep problem like one of three things

00:15:20: or all three, number one, lack of good quality sleep but also quantity.

00:15:26: What that means is do you get enough sleep for males

00:15:29: that is having at least seven hours of sleep every single night?

00:15:34: For women that's having at least seven and a half hours.

00:15:38: Oh, even more.

00:15:39: So the interesting thing about this and I think that is

00:15:42: if there's one take from today's podcast, I hope this is going to be it.

00:15:47: Women fundamentally need more sleep than men, right?

00:15:50: Women, we need 20 to 30 minutes more sleep than men,

00:15:54: depending on where we are in our cycle, where we are in our life cycle,

00:16:00: where we are, whether we're hitting menopause, whether we're pregnant.

00:16:04: Women go through so many bodily changes

00:16:08: and our sleep really needs to change based on where we're at.

00:16:11: And I find that we don't talk enough about this

00:16:14: and I really want this information to come out.

00:16:17: Women need more sleep fundamentally as a ground principle.

00:16:21: If you get up at seven o'clock in the morning,

00:16:24: your wife or partner, if she's female, needs to get up at seven thirty.

00:16:28: So my wife is always standing up much later than me

00:16:32: but she's also going to bed much later than me.

00:16:34: Oh right, so her chronotype might be B then.

00:16:37: I don't know.

00:16:38: Definitely B first.

00:16:39: So that's the number one problem.

00:16:41: Lack of quantity, so enough hours spent.

00:16:45: The second way we can define having a sleep problem

00:16:48: is our inability to actually fall asleep easily.

00:16:51: So if we lay in our beds and we toss and turn and toss and turn

00:16:55: and we have a hard time falling asleep, our thumb rule of thumb is

00:17:00: are you tossing and turning for more than 15 to 20 minutes?

00:17:04: That's a symptom of having a sleep problem, right?

00:17:07: You should never spend more than 15 to 20 minutes falling asleep.

00:17:10: 20 minutes.

00:17:12: I would say 15 to 20 minutes.

00:17:13: Never spend more than that.

00:17:14: If you do that, you need to address that as a sleep problem

00:17:17: because that's too long spent in bed, right?

00:17:19: All right.

00:17:20: So I normally take less than five minutes and then...

00:17:23: You were awesome.

00:17:24: Yeah, but my ring is always complaining then it says that I'm maybe too exhausted.

00:17:29: This is why I'm...

00:17:30: Right, that's the sleep efficiency, right?

00:17:31: Right, right, right, right.

00:17:32: That's a more granular level for people who are really interested in sleep

00:17:37: and for people who track their sleep like you do.

00:17:42: Sometimes our tracking devices can remind us that we are actually falling asleep too quickly,

00:17:48: which could be a symptom of us being over-exhausted.

00:17:52: Yeah.

00:17:54: That's one way of looking at it.

00:17:55: I have certain different perspectives, but the last part about how to define you having a sleep problem

00:18:02: is if you have a hard time having sleep continuity,

00:18:06: meaning if you get up at night, we all get up five to seven times at night.

00:18:11: That's very normal.

00:18:12: Get up or wake up?

00:18:13: We wake up.

00:18:14: So we wake up five to seven times during the night.

00:18:16: However, if you wake up and you start remembering that you get up or you're awake for several hours,

00:18:21: that is also a sleep problem and that's something you really need to address.

00:18:25: So we all wake up at night.

00:18:27: If you don't remember, that's a good sign.

00:18:29: If you remember, that's a rule of thumb.

00:18:30: That's a bad sign.

00:18:31: So you need to address that.

00:18:33: Yeah, it's quite interesting to define when you really remember this.

00:18:36: So in my time when I was training for marathons, sometimes I was getting up early in the morning

00:18:43: and I had everything prepared in the corridor.

00:18:46: And so I put on my clothes.

00:18:48: I was really totally asleep and I really had the feeling after one kilometer,

00:18:51: I was really just waked up.

00:18:54: But this is a different story.

00:18:55: So let's go into the difference between male and female sleep.

00:19:00: So you said already women need more time.

00:19:04: So what are the other differences?

00:19:08: So as we now know and understand sleep is a very important part of our overall health.

00:19:16: However, there are differences between men and women and we don't talk enough about this.

00:19:22: I'm really excited that we're due today.

00:19:24: They're due to a combination of differences in our biology, right?

00:19:29: Our hormonal makeup, but also social factors.

00:19:32: So I'm going to see if we can try to address all three areas.

00:19:35: First, we need to recognize that women need more sleep.

00:19:39: We just understood this women need and we say this again,

00:19:44: 20 to 30 minutes more sleep than men every single night as a rule of thumb.

00:19:50: Sorry to jump into this.

00:19:52: When you look at the percentage of deep sleep, REM sleep and light sleep,

00:19:57: they're normally recommendations.

00:19:59: So I personally from my experience have the feeling that women have more light sleep.

00:20:04: Why do I saying that?

00:20:05: Because it's pretty hard to wake someone up in the REM or deep sleep phases.

00:20:10: And when I have obviously feeling that just a single noise,

00:20:15: I don't know, not an intense noise is enough to wake up my wife.

00:20:19: When I compare it, you can my parents still making jokes about it that they,

00:20:27: how do you say it?

00:20:28: They say a tree was falling on our ground and not even this wake me up.

00:20:36: So it's pretty hard to wake me up in general.

00:20:38: So is it true that women have more light sleep?

00:20:41: And this is maybe also the reason why they need more sleep.

00:20:46: So this is a very interesting discussion.

00:20:49: So as women, as we age, right, we hit perimenopause, menopause as well.

00:20:55: And when we hit this stage of life, our in general, our hormonal makeup looks different.

00:21:01: And one of the things that is very different is that our cortisol levels go up.

00:21:07: And what that means for our sleep is that we generally have more cortisol,

00:21:11: more stress hormone in our bodies, which mean we wake up very easily.

00:21:15: So if you look at melatonin being the sleep hormone, which makes us fall asleep.

00:21:21: Cortisol is our stressor that makes us stay alert, stay awake, wakes us up.

00:21:26: It's very important to have both, right?

00:21:28: But if you have too much cortisol, you are generally closer to the woken stage.

00:21:35: Typically your cortisol increases in the late part of your sleep just before you wake up.

00:21:41: So typically somewhere between two and four, your cortisol level starts rising.

00:21:46: So for many women, they find that when they hit menopause, they often wake up

00:21:52: between two and four and they have a hard time going back to sleep.

00:21:55: That's primarily due to the fact that their cortisol levels are just simply higher.

00:22:00: So it's interesting for women, and we're going to talk about this a bit later.

00:22:03: It's very, very important for women specifically as we hit menopause to start implementing

00:22:11: de-stressing rituals and practices in our lives simply because we simply have too much cortisol.

00:22:19: So your wife--

00:22:20: So you would say that normally when you speak with sleep coaches,

00:22:24: it's obviously the same that rituals are quite important.

00:22:27: And you would say that for women, even more important due to the fact

00:22:33: to de-stress at the end of the day.

00:22:35: Completely right.

00:22:36: So we have-- and we're going to talk a bit more about that later--

00:22:39: but we have two differences, I would say, in sleep problems.

00:22:44: Sleep problems relate to men and sleep problems related to women.

00:22:48: Very often, for most of our clients, being female when they come and see us,

00:22:52: it's usually due to problems related to stress.

00:22:56: That's, I would say, overall is the number one issue.

00:23:00: For men, it's actually lack of movement.

00:23:04: So their lifestyle is typically--

00:23:07: so most of our clients are men above 40, and 70% of men above 40 are overweight, as an example.

00:23:15: Many of them are having suffering from sleep apnea.

00:23:18: They generally have a poor lifestyle.

00:23:20: So for men, it's typically very much lifestyle related.

00:23:22: So very physical.

00:23:24: We often put them on a regime where they have to move, not just move more,

00:23:29: but move a lot more.

00:23:31: Men are built to simply move and exercise much more so than women.

00:23:35: For women, it's completely different.

00:23:37: For women, it's a lot more about de-stressing, creating rituals for themselves

00:23:42: where they can balance themselves and their hormones,

00:23:44: especially as we hit perimenopause and menopause.

00:23:48: Right?

00:23:48: OK.

00:23:49: So I interrupted you.

00:23:50: Sorry.

00:23:50: So you're-- sorry for that, but--

00:23:52: That's OK.

00:23:52: I'm so curious.

00:23:53: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so interesting.

00:23:57: So one issue that we need to look into when we look at female sleep is our hormonal fluctuations.

00:24:04: So women experience hormonal changes throughout their lives.

00:24:09: It's their menstrual cycle.

00:24:11: It's their cycle of life, right?

00:24:14: As you have perimenopause, pregnancy, breastfeeding,

00:24:16: there's so many different female body, let's say stages or seasons.

00:24:22: And each season has its own set of hormonal makeup.

00:24:26: And that has a huge impact on our sleep.

00:24:30: And vice versa, the hormones affect the sleep.

00:24:33: But even more so, sleep affect the hormones.

00:24:36: And I think that's something that we really need to understand here.

00:24:40: For instance, I give you PMS pre-minstrel syndrome being the seven to 10 days before women get their period.

00:24:49: Many women-- and this is a great example-- experienced that they are tired.

00:24:54: Being tired is the number one symptoms of PMS.

00:24:58: OK.

00:24:59: Right?

00:24:59: I thought it was something much more painful, but OK.

00:25:02: So being tired.

00:25:03: But the interesting thing here is-- and there's a large study being done in the US where they looked at PMS symptoms and sleep.

00:25:12: And there's a correlation between women sleeping less or having trouble sleeping before they get their period-- meaning during PMS.

00:25:20: So is PMS and being tired a sign of PMS or is it a sign of lack of sleep?

00:25:27: What we need to understand here is that women before their cycle need more sleep.

00:25:32: So they need more sleep, but they--

00:25:33: They need more sleep.

00:25:34: Don't get--

00:25:35: But they don't because we don't fully understand this.

00:25:38: So we don't fully understand the fundamental principle of women before their periods and during their periods that we need more sleep.

00:25:46: So are we tired because we're PMS and we have our period?

00:25:50: Or are we tired because we simply don't get enough sleep?

00:25:53: OK.

00:25:54: When you normally be a woman and normally you can need seven and a half hours of sleep, that means in the PMS phase you normally need maybe eight hours.

00:26:06: So this is something which is the complicated part about sleep.

00:26:10: And I guess also sleep research and specifically sleep related to women and their cycle.

00:26:15: When it comes to sleep specifically, it's very individual.

00:26:20: There are very clear recommendations for pregnant women.

00:26:22: Pregnant women is maybe a better because with PMS it's still completely under researched.

00:26:28: But with pregnant women, I think it's maybe easier to understand.

00:26:31: For pregnant women, one of the symptoms of--

00:26:34: Let's say symptoms of pregnancy is that many women feel incredibly tired.

00:26:38: Are they very tired because they're pregnant or are they very tired because they don't get enough sleep?

00:26:43: The recommendations for pregnant women is between eight to 10 hours.

00:26:48: Although most pregnant women don't get that, they sleep the same amount as they did before they got pregnant.

00:26:53: Do you understand the difference?

00:26:54: Totally.

00:26:55: Right.

00:26:55: So we need to fundamentally understand one thing and that is that female bodies change over a lifetime.

00:27:03: And over this lifetime, we enter different seasons.

00:27:06: And during these different seasons, we have different needs of sleep.

00:27:11: And I will say this is a good rule of thumb. You need to just generally sleep more as much as you can.

00:27:19: And as a minimum, half an hour more than your partner.

00:27:23: If you do that, you're at least halfway of solving the problem, especially when it comes to you feeling tired and lethargic,

00:27:30: which is a sign that a symptom many women self-report when they're in their period during PMS,

00:27:36: when they're pregnant, when they're breastfeeding, in menopause, and so forth.

00:27:40: So in general, females just need more sleep.

00:27:42: Okay.

00:27:44: So this is number one was the biologic aspect.

00:27:49: Number two is the hormone aspect.

00:27:51: And number three is the societal aspect.

00:27:54: And I think this is very interesting.

00:27:58: But it's interesting because the way that we've structured societies are in such way that we most women have professional careers.

00:28:09: Most women study at university to the same degree as men.

00:28:13: In fact, in some studies now more women are going to university compared to men.

00:28:18: So there's a lot of societal changes right now.

00:28:21: But when it comes to household work and what we call the mental load,

00:28:27: women still work far more in the home than men do.

00:28:31: So on average, women work 10 to 15 hours of unpaid work in the home, more so than men.

00:28:40: Simultaneously, women also self-report 60% of women who suffer from stress,

00:28:48: for instance, say that their stress comes from problems in the home.

00:28:52: Men are less than half of that.

00:28:54: So women do work a lot more in homes.

00:28:57: They have a lot more mental load, which have an impact under sleep.

00:29:03: So when we look at studies on what stresses them, what they think about just before they fall asleep,

00:29:09: mental load, stuff in the home is a huge part of that.

00:29:13: So a way for women to actually sleep a bit better and feel less stress

00:29:19: is by men actually participating a bit more in the work at home.

00:29:24: So sorry, guys.

00:29:25: Yeah, yeah. So I totally understand what you mean.

00:29:29: So in my case, I can say I was always responsible for the kitchen.

00:29:33: So that means I would say this is already a big relief.

00:29:38: And in general, I don't see so I'm not overweight.

00:29:42: I'm not moving not enough.

00:29:44: So I would say I'm not in your statistics.

00:29:46: You're not in my statistics.

00:29:47: You're just good.

00:29:48: And I will say one thing, which is always a fun fact.

00:29:50: And I always bring this up because it is fun.

00:29:53: For every hour that a woman sleeps more, the likelihood of her having sex the following day goes up by 14%.

00:30:01: So maybe this is a new thing.

00:30:03: It's a women should spread.

00:30:05: So this is something that I think that we really need to talk about.

00:30:08: Everything is interlinked.

00:30:10: But even sex drive for women, when we sleep, we feel like having sex and we will have sex when we sleep.

00:30:17: So I think let your wife, your sister, let them sleep.

00:30:22: It's good for everybody basically.

00:30:25: Happy wife, happy life.

00:30:26: It is what it is.

00:30:27: So but it's really fascinating for me to understand how different it is.

00:30:32: And so I would really like to go a little bit more into that.

00:30:36: So that means when we when we speak about the problems we've seen here right now.

00:30:42: So someone is coming to your institute and then what are the solutions you are providing for them?

00:30:49: So.

00:30:50: Is it that you invited the couple or what are you doing normally?

00:30:56: What are the normal steps when you have a consultation with some female clients?

00:31:01: So when they come at the Sleep Institute, they're put on a sleep program based on,

00:31:08: I can tell you very briefly how the program works, but then I've actually brought 10 micro habits.

00:31:15: Oh, I love micro habits.

00:31:17: Micro habits, which are really easy to implement that I would love.

00:31:21: Are they only for women or can I also learn something?

00:31:23: They're also for men, but I have brought some habits, which I will give some examples for women,

00:31:29: but they're also very much, they're also implementable for guys, but there are some

00:31:33: specific things that are more important for men compared to women, but I'll come back to that.

00:31:38: So very quickly, just what happens when they come to the Sleep Institute,

00:31:43: they solve a questionnaire and based on that questionnaire, we define what their problem is.

00:31:49: Is it a falling asleep problem?

00:31:50: Is it I get up at night problem?

00:31:52: Is it I don't sleep enough problem?

00:31:54: What is the problem exactly?

00:31:55: And based on that, we create solutions.

00:31:57: So we completely do a 180 on their daily lives and for a month,

00:32:02: they have to follow a relatively rigid program that goes for when they get up,

00:32:07: when they go to sleep, when they eat, when they exercise, when they get daylight,

00:32:10: how much they move, how little they move, when to get light, when to get darkness.

00:32:15: So it's, it's fairly rigid and that is because we are fundamentally a biological clock

00:32:21: and we sleep is very much input based.

00:32:24: So what we do during the day has significant importance for how we,

00:32:28: how well we sleep at night.

00:32:30: So really it's a lifestyle change.

00:32:32: And that's the very inconvenient truth here.

00:32:34: Unfortunately, it's much easier to take sleep medication, but the, it's so tough.

00:32:40: We can actually improve our sleep just by changing our lifestyle.

00:32:43: It's just very hard to do, right?

00:32:45: Because you have to change almost everything, especially if you have an unhealthy lifestyle.

00:32:49: So could imagine.

00:32:51: Yes.

00:32:51: Well, you're a good example.

00:32:53: You're not a part of the group.

00:32:54: No, no, I would say in general.

00:32:58: So for example, so I would say, especially when you are in an industry like I am,

00:33:05: you have to go out also in the evening.

00:33:07: And then especially when you look at having late dinner, having maybe also alcohol.

00:33:13: So I'm really trying as good as possible to avoid it now, but, but especially during the week.

00:33:18: But nevertheless, there are occasions where you have to drink something,

00:33:24: we have to go back, go not at your regular time into bed and things like that.

00:33:29: So, and everybody have situations like this.

00:33:33: Some people have it more often, some people less often,

00:33:36: but especially when I'm then going to bed after midnight,

00:33:39: I'm normally not having my alarm clock at the same time to go to the gym early in the morning.

00:33:44: So, so, but nevertheless, it is when you start to skipping the gym,

00:33:49: then you're starting to skip the exercise and, and, and, and so I couldn't totally understand.

00:33:54: So I'm really excited now to hear the 10 habits.

00:33:57: Yes.

00:33:58: So first, before I start with the 10 micro habits,

00:34:01: I just want to mention that obviously this is very rigid and may come across as very rigid system.

00:34:07: However, it's something that I really encourage everybody to follow if they have a sleep problem.

00:34:14: If there is no problem, if you are very good at balancing things out,

00:34:18: if you sometimes go out, but you can very quickly get back to your regular schedule,

00:34:23: there is no problem, right?

00:34:24: But if you start sleeping poorly and that interferes with your life,

00:34:28: your lifestyle choices, your exercise, food, the amount of sleep you get,

00:34:34: and it is something that goes on for a long period of time,

00:34:37: I strongly suggest to implement some of these habits because it can get you back on track.

00:34:43: So it's a little bit like, I often say it's a little bit like gaining weight.

00:34:47: If I weigh five kilos too much, I need to, for a period of time to get back on track,

00:34:54: I need to consume less calories and exercise more.

00:34:58: I cannot have an ice cream once in a while.

00:35:01: When I'm back on track and I kind of feel like, okay, I'm where I'm at, I am where I should be,

00:35:06: I can start having an ice cream once in a while, having some dessert.

00:35:09: So it's the 80/20 rule, right?

00:35:11: 80% of the time, let's try to follow some sort of routine, some sort of plan.

00:35:16: 20% of the time, let's live a little.

00:35:18: If you're in a period of your life where things are sort of

00:35:23: a bit hectic and stressful, then maybe it's a good idea to implement some of these habits.

00:35:28: Okay? Okay, I'm ready.

00:35:29: Let's start.

00:35:30: So the first one is what you basically mentioned is to set a regular sleep schedule,

00:35:35: which includes seven or seven and a half hours to about nine hours of sleep every single day.

00:35:41: The interesting thing about that is, I think one of the biggest mistakes I have experienced is

00:35:47: that the people saying, okay, I'm going to bed at 10 and I'm stand up at 6am.

00:35:53: So eight hours sleep.

00:35:55: Yeah, well, and that's complicated because sleep efficiency is something that we don't talk enough

00:36:02: about and that is time spent in bed does not necessarily mean actually sleep.

00:36:06: Exactly.

00:36:07: Right? And it's a very fine balance, like with everything when it comes to sleep,

00:36:13: it is very individual, you need to experiment with your own body and yourself to figure out

00:36:19: what is my optimal time in bed compared to my optimal sleep efficiency.

00:36:25: Meaning if you spend too much time in bed, your efficiency goes down.

00:36:28: You might get poor quality sleep.

00:36:30: You might actually just sit there and you start getting rituals of just laying in bed and tossing

00:36:35: and turning and not actually sleeping.

00:36:37: And the other hand, if you spend too short time in bed and you don't spend enough time there,

00:36:42: you don't get enough quantity.

00:36:44: So like with everything, it's really balanced and you need to sort of trial and error

00:36:49: and make sure that you figure out where your body is at.

00:36:52: So it is an individual trial.

00:36:54: Unfortunately, it's very hard to say something sort of as a standard.

00:36:57: But a good rule of thumb is try to go to bed and get up at exactly the same time every single

00:37:06: day that also goes for the weekends.

00:37:08: The reason why this is important is because there's a term called social jet lag,

00:37:13: which means you get up, go to bed at different times all the time.

00:37:17: Your body understands that as an irregular daily rhythm.

00:37:21: And that really that increase our heart rate, it makes us more stressed.

00:37:27: There's even trials and research based on shift workers, specifically female shift workers.

00:37:34: And female shift workers have a 30% increased risk of breast cancer by going to bed and getting

00:37:40: up at different times.

00:37:42: So it's really, really bad for our health to live in this constant social jet lag,

00:37:47: especially if it can be prevented.

00:37:49: If you have a work that requires you to do so like a nurse or doctor, that's a different thing.

00:37:53: But if it's just because you're a bit lazy and you don't just watch a bit of Netflix,

00:37:57: it's not very good for your health.

00:37:59: So that's number one.

00:38:00: Number one.

00:38:01: So I have on my iPhone a certain time when it goes from the regular mode to the sleep mode.

00:38:06: So it's always in the week, it's always at the same time on the weekend, not.

00:38:11: But now I have to change it also on the weekend, same time.

00:38:16: It is the same time, man.

00:38:17: And it's very hard.

00:38:20: But I will say again, going back to the 80/20, if you feel like you are well balanced,

00:38:25: you don't feel tired, you get enough sleep, there's not really a problem to address here.

00:38:29: It's only when you find that you're exhausted, you're tired, you don't get enough sleep,

00:38:33: not good quality, then you maybe need to do some micro changes in your life to improve

00:38:38: what you can improve.

00:38:39: Okay.

00:38:40: Okay.

00:38:40: Number one.

00:38:41: Number one.

00:38:41: Check.

00:38:41: Number two.

00:38:43: And this might be a bit controversial, but I strongly recommend melatonin.

00:38:49: So melatonin is a miracle hormone.

00:38:53: And we simply don't talk enough about melatonin.

00:38:57: And I encourage all our clients to take it.

00:39:00: We produce it ourselves and it is released in our bodies in darkness.

00:39:06: Unfortunately, as many things in modern societies, we don't get enough darkness.

00:39:11: So our bodies don't release enough melatonin for us to be able to get the good quality

00:39:18: rest that we need to do.

00:39:19: So melatonin is number two.

00:39:22: I really encourage everybody to take it.

00:39:24: How much?

00:39:25: So I take a bit.

00:39:28: I recommend at least 0.5 to 1 milligrams.

00:39:32: I think 1 milligram is the maximum, which is officially allowed to take in Germany.

00:39:38: So officially, so that means it's, what does it mean?

00:39:42: It means when you have, for example, a capsule and it says this capsule contains 1 milligram.

00:39:48: So the police won't come in the moment when you take two or three capsules, correct?

00:39:54: Right.

00:39:55: That's exactly right.

00:39:56: I take a bit more, but obviously I follow the official recommendations and I will not

00:40:02: recommend officially for anybody to take more than 1 milligrams, but I do take a bit more myself.

00:40:08: Okay.

00:40:08: Yeah.

00:40:08: Melatonin.

00:40:10: Melatonin.

00:40:10: Melatonin.

00:40:11: Three, honor your 24 other.

00:40:16: So maybe Justin, because I know what kind of questions are coming now to the melatonin.

00:40:23: Is there something which is important to know about melatonin or can I buy any melatonin I can,

00:40:28: which is available?

00:40:30: That's really a very good question.

00:40:32: I prefer the sprays.

00:40:34: So I like melatonin sprays because it's easier for me to dose the amount that I think is necessary.

00:40:41: And also the absorption is quicker because you basically spray it in.

00:40:45: It doesn't have to go through silicone, doesn't have to go through complicated capsules.

00:40:51: You just spray it in and it absorbs a lot quicker.

00:40:54: That's just because I'm the type of person who, if I have to do it one hour before,

00:40:59: it's just my own personal ritual, I might forget.

00:41:01: So for me, I like to do it just before bed.

00:41:04: Usually when you take capsules, the recommendation is 40 to 60 minutes before going to bed.

00:41:10: I do it almost just before I go to bed.

00:41:14: So that's why I prefer the spray.

00:41:16: So it's really depending on how your evening ritual is.

00:41:20: If you're very structured, then by all means, please take the capsules.

00:41:25: Just make sure you take them 40 to 60 minutes before going to bed.

00:41:28: The interesting thing about the capsule, I think it's not available on sprays,

00:41:33: but maybe I'm wrong, is that the slow release melatonin is only available in capsules.

00:41:39: So and slow release means the spray is like said immediately in your body.

00:41:44: The capsule slow release could mean that the melatonin level is in a more constant way

00:41:50: in your body.

00:41:52: Right. That's exactly right. You are right.

00:41:55: I look forward to the sprays being able to do that.

00:41:57: Having the slow release and the fast release in one spray, but you are actually right.

00:42:02: Ideally, maybe you should combine it.

00:42:04: Maybe, maybe, maybe.

00:42:05: That's actually not a bad idea.

00:42:06: So the slow release and the quick release in one capsule is really preferred.

00:42:14: I like the quick ones, but that's sort of a personal preference.

00:42:17: All right. Number three.

00:42:19: So number three is a little bit in regards to melatonin as well.

00:42:27: To make sure that we get enough melatonin in our bodies naturally,

00:42:32: we need to get enough daylight and enough darkness.

00:42:35: So that is to honor this 24 hour daily cycle of light and darkness.

00:42:42: And here it means make sure to get enough daylight in the morning

00:42:47: and make sure to get enough darkness in the evening.

00:42:49: You told me something very interesting about your home at home.

00:42:53: That is that you have red lights.

00:42:55: Is that correctly understood?

00:42:56: Yeah.

00:42:56: And I think that's a very resourceful thing to do.

00:43:01: So actually, no, okay, I get too much light in my house.

00:43:05: Red lights are a really good choice because obviously you don't want to be sitting in

00:43:09: darkness completely at home and looking into the wall.

00:43:11: So having red lights is a really good way of going about that.

00:43:15: And I think what is also important to say when you say start your day with daylight,

00:43:20: so especially in Copenhagen, even worse than in Berlin,

00:43:25: that when you're in the wintertime and you stand up six o'clock in the morning,

00:43:30: says for sure no sunlight.

00:43:31: So that means.

00:43:33: Yeah, I use light lamps actually.

00:43:37: So light lamps are a great tool.

00:43:40: So light lamps doesn't mean, okay, the lights in my bathroom are pretty bright.

00:43:46: So they're not bright enough.

00:43:47: We need really daylight.

00:43:48: It's specific.

00:43:49: You can get, you can Google this and you can buy them on Amazon.

00:43:52: I have no relationship with any of these companies.

00:43:55: But I should say quite affordable.

00:43:56: They're quite affordable.

00:43:57: They're very cheap.

00:43:58: 50 euros, something like that.

00:44:00: Even less, yeah.

00:44:01: So and they make a huge difference.

00:44:03: What's important here, and I had this is a funny story.

00:44:05: So we've had not just one, but many clients come back to us and say, Laura,

00:44:11: I sit there and I have, I'm looking in this light and it's so painful.

00:44:15: And I realize that for many people, they think having these light lamps stand around,

00:44:20: means that they have to look straight into the, into the white light.

00:44:23: Basically having a light lamp is have them in different locations in your home,

00:44:27: have them when you're standing there making breakfast.

00:44:30: Just the fact that you get that into your eye,

00:44:32: you don't have to look into it even.

00:44:34: You just have to have them around you in your space

00:44:37: within the first hour that you wake up.

00:44:39: So you don't have to look into it.

00:44:42: Just have them around while you're eating breakfast, cooking breakfast,

00:44:45: making lunches for your kids, brushing your teeth.

00:44:47: I have them everywhere in the house.

00:44:49: Good idea.

00:44:51: Next one.

00:44:51: For exercise, as we all know, exercise is very important, of course.

00:44:57: But what we need to talk more about is when we exercise.

00:45:01: Exercise, we cannot be exercising in the evening just before bedtime.

00:45:05: What happens when you exercise is obviously the adrenaline goes up,

00:45:10: the cortisol goes up, and also our body temperature goes up.

00:45:15: So there's this thing, this famous afterburn that we sort of talk about on a conceptual level.

00:45:21: But what that really means is that our body temperatures have increased

00:45:24: and we need to lower it.

00:45:27: So for us to actually be able to fall asleep,

00:45:29: our body temperature needs to go down a bit.

00:45:31: Otherwise, we can't fall asleep.

00:45:32: So if we've done really strenuous, hard exercise just before bedtime,

00:45:37: our bodies have a hard time going to sleep simply.

00:45:40: Drenaline is pumping.

00:45:42: We have a hot body.

00:45:43: That's the opposite of what we want.

00:45:45: So I really recommend to get your exercise in,

00:45:49: hard, strenuous exercise before 12 o'clock.

00:45:51: Before 12 o'clock.

00:45:52: Before 12 o'clock.

00:45:53: That's pretty hard.

00:45:54: So I'm doing sometimes exercise in the lunch break.

00:45:58: Instead of having lunch.

00:45:59: I mean, so, but then I'm finished around, let's say two.

00:46:05: Yeah, two is fine.

00:46:07: The reason why I'm saying 12 o'clock is because we don't know what our half time

00:46:12: for this afterburn actually is.

00:46:14: It's very individual, like with caffeine, alcohol.

00:46:18: We don't know how quickly our bodies lower temperature.

00:46:22: So it could be anything from two hours to eight hours.

00:46:26: We really don't know.

00:46:27: So if you're somebody who has a high afterburn and goes on for many, many hours,

00:46:32: it might actually affect your sleep even when you go to bed at 10 p.m.

00:46:35: So I explained already in the German podcast that I made the experience

00:46:41: that I went to have yoga every Monday evening late.

00:46:44: I think that means at 8 p.m.

00:46:47: So and for me, it was so nice and relaxing,

00:46:51: especially the situation afterwards and everything.

00:46:56: And then I've tracked my sleep and I've seen that every Monday night,

00:47:01: I had really poor sleep.

00:47:02: So that means even something like yoga, not intense yoga,

00:47:06: but just the exercise itself was enough to harm my sleep.

00:47:11: Right. So if you get your heart rate up, that's a bad sign.

00:47:14: So I would say anything more strenuous than taking a walk,

00:47:18: even a brisk walk is a bad idea.

00:47:21: For me, also, I can see it on my o-ring straight away.

00:47:24: The second I do intense workout, for me, also even yoga,

00:47:28: it affects my sleep right away.

00:47:29: And it is because of this increased body temperature that adrenaline is pumping.

00:47:33: You mustn't forget, and that's something that we,

00:47:36: I think, fundamentally have forgotten just a little bit.

00:47:38: We are biological creatures, right?

00:47:41: So back in the days, we would go out, we would hunt,

00:47:44: we would need this adrenaline, this cortisol to go out and find food.

00:47:48: We would do that when we would wake up.

00:47:49: The testosterone was pumping.

00:47:51: We would come home, we would eat,

00:47:53: we would digest, rest, go to sleep.

00:47:56: That would be our cycle, right?

00:47:58: And we would follow the light of the sun and the darkness when the sun would go down.

00:48:03: Now we have the privilege, let's say,

00:48:05: of being able to do what we want at all times,

00:48:08: because we have light, we have all these services available to us.

00:48:12: So it's, we have to kind of think back on how we are originally sort of built.

00:48:18: That's how we should be acting.

00:48:19: Okay, number five?

00:48:21: Yes, our sleep environment.

00:48:23: And this is something that people think is a very sort of generic statement,

00:48:29: but it is a hugely powerful tool.

00:48:32: So sleep environment matters.

00:48:35: What that means is in your bed, you're allowed to do two things.

00:48:37: You're allowed to sleep and have sex, nothing else.

00:48:39: That means no phones, no screens.

00:48:43: That means no food.

00:48:44: We have clients who eat in their bed.

00:48:46: No entertainment because we are...

00:48:48: Reading?

00:48:48: I would even say not to read.

00:48:52: Okay.

00:48:53: I recommend people to ideally not read in bed.

00:48:55: You can do, as a rule of thumb, two things, sleep and have sex, nothing else.

00:49:00: Okay?

00:49:00: Ideally your sleep environment should be dark to have this optimal release of melatonin.

00:49:06: Two, it needs to be cool about 18 degrees.

00:49:09: And it needs to be somewhat quiet.

00:49:12: So make sure there's not sharp sounds coming in because it might wake you up.

00:49:15: And when I talk about this, I say,

00:49:20: look at the rituals that we are habitual ritual people and creatures.

00:49:26: Imagine trying to fall asleep on your dining table.

00:49:28: They'll be incredibly awkward to you.

00:49:30: It almost seemed impossible, right?

00:49:31: The same goes for our beds.

00:49:34: Our beds should be a place of resting, relaxing, maybe having sex.

00:49:39: That's basically what we should be doing there.

00:49:41: Not doing all kinds of different things.

00:49:43: So sleep environment really matters.

00:49:44: It's a hugely powerful tool.

00:49:46: Okay?

00:49:47: Six, caffeine.

00:49:49: Caffeine.

00:49:50: Caffeine.

00:49:50: Okay, let's have one caffeine.

00:49:52: Caffeine.

00:49:52: We have a few more things to go.

00:49:53: So I'll try to hurry up a bit.

00:49:56: In terms of caffeine, caffeine's halftime is very individual.

00:50:01: A little bit like the afterburn.

00:50:02: You either burn half it in two hours or 12 hours.

00:50:06: I have a very, very slow caffeine burn.

00:50:08: So for me, if I drink coffee after 2 p.m., it really affects my sleep.

00:50:13: 2 p.m. is my deadline.

00:50:14: So we're very similar there.

00:50:16: What I usually say to clients is try to experiment with this on your body.

00:50:20: Try having your last cup of coffee at 9.

00:50:22: Try having your last cup of coffee at 12.

00:50:24: And try having it at 3 p.m.

00:50:26: And see what happens because caffeine halftime is very individual, especially,

00:50:30: and I will say this for women, as you hit menopause, cortisol goes up.

00:50:35: And what caffeine basically is, is it's a cortisol spike.

00:50:39: It gives you that body's extra punch.

00:50:42: So if you are women going into menopause, you really need to look into caffeine

00:50:47: because caffeine increases cortisol.

00:50:50: Okay.

00:50:51: Quite important.

00:50:51: And I really want to say, especially all the people who are having espresso after the dinner,

00:50:56: for me, it is really totally ridiculous.

00:50:59: And then the argumentationists always say that they're saying,

00:51:02: "I have no problems with that."

00:51:04: So, but define problems.

00:51:06: Falling asleep or that you're sleeping all the way through,

00:51:09: or having a good sleep quality.

00:51:12: And I'm pretty sure that most of them are not tracking their sleep.

00:51:14: And if they would track, they would see that it is not a good idea.

00:51:18: Which brings me to seven, which is alcohol.

00:51:21: If we knew how bad alcohol was for our sleep, we would stop drinking simply.

00:51:27: We know from science that it reduces sleep quality with up to 40%.

00:51:33: Let's say that again.

00:51:34: Alcohol reduces sleep quality with up to 40%.

00:51:37: For me, when I track my sleep, it goes down 20 basis points.

00:51:41: So it is really impacting, especially for women again,

00:51:45: women and men are different.

00:51:46: For women specifically, alcohol is extra bad,

00:51:50: especially as we hit perimenopause and menopause.

00:51:53: We might actually think it's good for us because it helps us with sleep.

00:51:57: Exactly.

00:51:57: With sleep onset, meaning we fall asleep.

00:52:00: But if we measured and tracked our sleep, we could see how bad it was for our quality.

00:52:04: I make an experience by myself.

00:52:05: Right.

00:52:06: When everyone started to drink during Corona, I stopped.

00:52:09: So totally.

00:52:10: Right.

00:52:10: So that means I hadn't had any alcohol for two months.

00:52:14: Then it was the birth of my wife and we had a glass of champagne.

00:52:18: I think it was maybe two glasses, but not more.

00:52:20: And then due to the fact that the ordering is looking what is your regular condition,

00:52:27: it really, like you said, my readiness, my day condition drops by 50%.

00:52:34: Exactly.

00:52:35: Just because of these two glasses of champagne.

00:52:38: Yeah.

00:52:38: And I think this is incredibly confrontational.

00:52:42: So we really need to know this.

00:52:44: Alcohol is not good.

00:52:45: It does not help you fall asleep.

00:52:47: It makes you pass out, but it actually reduces your quality.

00:52:50: So alcohol is really counterproductive.

00:52:53: I would say anything between, I would say four to six hours before going to bed,

00:52:56: you should not be having alcohol.

00:52:57: Day drinking.

00:52:58: Let's go back to day drinking.

00:52:59: I've been quoted for that saying, let's start day drinking.

00:53:02: And then eight, this goes back to the whole discussion of women and cortisol.

00:53:07: Stop always be working.

00:53:09: What that means is women are working professionally and we also work at home.

00:53:15: And which is fine in principle.

00:53:17: If you don't have a problem with that, there is no problem.

00:53:20: However, we mustn't forget that as we age for women, our cortisol levels, they do go up.

00:53:26: So we need to be incredibly mindful of our cortisol because cortisol is counterproductive

00:53:32: for our sleep.

00:53:33: It really destroys our sleep.

00:53:34: So women need to start implementing alternative rituals before bedtime

00:53:39: to help them with their always be working mindset.

00:53:43: The most powerful tool, which is backed by science, which seems incredibly generic and silly is

00:53:50: journaling.

00:53:51: So journaling is incredibly powerful because it makes our thoughts,

00:53:55: it helps us to take our thoughts and put them down on a piece of paper.

00:53:59: And this very simple act of thoughts on piece of paper really helps us with de-stressing.

00:54:06: So all these things that we're thinking about just before going to bed,

00:54:10: just by the act of writing them down is tremendously helpful.

00:54:15: So regular journaling, not a gratitude journaling or something like that really?

00:54:19: It is whatever stresses you.

00:54:21: So if you're a type of person who lays there and thinks mental load,

00:54:24: oh, I need to remember cake for birthday on Saturday.

00:54:26: Oh, I need to remember my husband.

00:54:28: He has this event on Thursday.

00:54:29: Oh, I need to remember to write that email.

00:54:31: If it's a, if your thoughts are more like a to-do list,

00:54:35: your journaling should be a to-do list.

00:54:37: Write down Saturday.

00:54:38: It gives you peace and quiet just by actually writing things down.

00:54:43: Are you a type of person who are more like the word thinker?

00:54:47: My mother, I had this bad conversation with her.

00:54:51: I feel like we're not in a good place.

00:54:53: I'm really sad about it.

00:54:56: It's a different type of journaling.

00:54:57: It's more like what are, what is my emotional being?

00:55:00: Where am I at right now?

00:55:01: That's a different type of journaling.

00:55:03: What your thoughts are like before going to bed?

00:55:06: That is the type of journaling you should be doing.

00:55:08: No, I love it.

00:55:08: I love it.

00:55:09: I'm always doing it when I'm on exciting journeys.

00:55:11: So that's really cool.

00:55:13: It's really cool.

00:55:14: And so for example, when we climb Kilimanjaro,

00:55:17: I had a journaling and then 10 years later,

00:55:21: I made a recording of the journaling and I sent every day

00:55:26: my journal notes to my friends which were with me.

00:55:30: So it was for me and for them a little second journey.

00:55:37: I really like that.

00:55:38: I really like that.

00:55:39: That's a really interesting way of re-experiencing.

00:55:42: So your journaling was more like a re-experience,

00:55:44: a memory or like a memoir.

00:55:46: And I simply love that.

00:55:48: Nine, the little micro-habit, your track, you do it yourself.

00:55:53: I do it, I strongly encourage everybody,

00:55:57: especially if you have a sleep problem,

00:55:59: or even if you just want to improve your sleep

00:56:01: to start tracking your sleep.

00:56:02: The reason for that is when you get the data black and white,

00:56:07: it is so confrontational.

00:56:09: I don't care how you do it,

00:56:10: whether it is analog, you write it down on a piece of paper,

00:56:13: or whether it's an ORA ring or an Apple Watch,

00:56:16: just start tracking.

00:56:18: You are what you measure and you cannot change something

00:56:22: if you cannot see the patterns in your inputs.

00:56:25: So how your lifestyle is during the day,

00:56:28: when you start seeing that that glass of red wine

00:56:30: that you thought was your sleeping pill,

00:56:31: when you see that it's actually destroying your sleep,

00:56:34: you will start changing.

00:56:35: It's very hard to change things

00:56:38: if you don't actually know what's going on.

00:56:40: So start tracking your sleep.

00:56:41: It is such a powerful tool.

00:56:43: And I'm happy that you do.

00:56:44: Right?

00:56:45: And then 10, and that goes back to the whole talk

00:56:50: about sleep and female sleep.

00:56:52: And I call this habit, reclaiming your sleep as a woman.

00:57:00: We really need to be much more self-aware

00:57:04: of the fact that for us as females,

00:57:06: and we need to be empowered here by ourselves,

00:57:10: we need to know that our sleep is different.

00:57:12: So we need to know where we're at in our life cycle,

00:57:15: where we're at in our life season,

00:57:17: where we're at in our period,

00:57:19: and we need to understand what that means for our sleep.

00:57:22: And vice versa, how that sleep impacts

00:57:25: the different life cycles that we're in.

00:57:27: So reclaiming our sleep as females

00:57:30: is something that we really need to start doing.

00:57:33: I mean, I'm, one might say Scandinavian progressive woman,

00:57:38: even in your workplace,

00:57:41: start talking to your colleagues about,

00:57:42: listen, I've slept really poorly,

00:57:45: or I'm hitting menopause, I need more sleep.

00:57:47: When we start opening up about these conversations,

00:57:50: the world will change,

00:57:53: and the world's view on these things will change.

00:57:55: So it is our job as women, stage one,

00:58:00: to reclaiming this and start educating our environments,

00:58:04: our families, our colleagues, our workplaces,

00:58:07: our societies at large.

00:58:09: I love it, I love it.

00:58:10: And this is maybe one of the reasons,

00:58:12: I think one trend, again, coming from the US,

00:58:14: from America,

00:58:16: it sounds a little bit sad,

00:58:18: but it's called sleep divorce.

00:58:20: So that,

00:58:21: Yes, so true.

00:58:22: Oh, God, yes.

00:58:22: That means that the people are,

00:58:24: yeah, speaking about their separate bedrooms.

00:58:31: And I think if it is like you said,

00:58:36: if there's no other way to reclaim your sleep,

00:58:39: then do it.

00:58:40: Yeah.

00:58:41: I mean, I did not sleep with my husband for years.

00:58:43: We did not sleep in the same bedroom.

00:58:46: For me at least, and for him as well,

00:58:48: sleep was number one.

00:58:49: It's very hard to make sound,

00:58:51: healthy choices in your everyday life,

00:58:53: if you don't sleep.

00:58:54: That goes for your mood,

00:58:55: that goes for your productivity,

00:58:57: your performance, your health.

00:58:59: Sleep is number one and should be.

00:59:01: I think we have to come to an end.

00:59:05: We are already much longer than I saw.

00:59:07: I'm so sorry about that.

00:59:08: No, no, no, it was really exciting,

00:59:10: and I've learned a lot,

00:59:11: and I really love your 10 habits.

00:59:14: Nevertheless, when you have now is a final opportunity

00:59:19: to give a last advice to your listeners,

00:59:22: to our listeners, to your customers,

00:59:24: what would it be?

00:59:25: Consistency.

00:59:27: Like with anything being food,

00:59:30: exercise, movement, consistency is key,

00:59:34: meaning find a routine that suits you

00:59:37: and your lifestyle, which improves your sleep.

00:59:40: So whatever works for you,

00:59:43: which helps you to sleep better,

00:59:44: that's the way to go.

00:59:46: So don't try to aim for things

00:59:48: that will never happen,

00:59:49: because they're just simply too hard for you to reach.

00:59:53: I told you about this yesterday.

00:59:54: I have a client who really struggles

00:59:57: in his sleep program,

00:59:58: and we put the goal too high for him.

01:00:01: So we're going to lower our ambitions a little bit.

01:00:03: I wouldn't even say lower the ambitions,

01:00:04: but just individualize it just a little bit more

01:00:07: and look at what is he actually able to do,

01:00:10: which will make him consistent in his sleep habits.

01:00:13: So consistency is key.

01:00:15: Whatever works for you to improve your sleep, do it.

01:00:17: Excellent. I love it.

01:00:20: So if you want to learn a little bit more

01:00:21: about Laura, about your work,

01:00:23: they can have a visit your website.

01:00:25: The address of the website is?

01:00:28: Sleepinstitute.co.

01:00:30: So that means it is not in Danish or is it?

01:00:34: It's in English.

01:00:36: And for everybody, you can go on there.

01:00:38: Everything's in English.

01:00:39: I'm happy to talk or find me on LinkedIn,

01:00:41: Laura Cannadale.

01:00:42: I'm always happy to have a conversation,

01:00:45: especially about sleep.

01:00:46: We will put it in the show notes.

01:00:47: Awesome.

01:00:48: Thank you very much.

01:00:49: It was amazing and yeah, hope to see you again.

01:00:54: Hope to see you soon.

01:00:55: Bye Nils.

01:00:56: Bye bye.

01:00:56: Do we have a favorite supplement?

01:01:01: My favorite supplement speaking of today is melatonin.

01:01:08: I cannot say this enough.

01:01:10: I strongly encourage everybody to start taking melatonin.

01:01:15: If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be thrilled if you could leave a rating on Apple Podcast or Spotify.

01:01:20: To make sure you never miss out, subscribe to our newsletter.

01:01:24: It's not just about these podcasts.

01:01:26: We regularly introduce new products, often with special introductory discounts.

01:01:32: You wouldn't want to miss out on that, wouldn't you?

01:01:34: Subscribe to our newsletter at www.sunday.de/newsletter.