#184: The Sleep-Weight Loss Link (+ Game-Changing Sleep Tips!) with Sleep Expert, Olivia Arezzolo

Hey, I'm Beck Miller, massive foodie and qualified nutritionist who went from being a yo-yo dieter hungry all the time and bloated with chronic gut issues to being one that hardly bloats and can maintain her weight with zero hunger and far more ease. Now, I'm obsessed with helping other women do the same, with my business that changed the lives of thousands of women worldwide health with Beck. I created body bites with Beck to give you simple, actionable and practical advice so that you can decode and explore the multiple different pieces of the puzzle for healthy weight balance so that you can feel the way that you deserve because it's certainly not only about calories in, calories out. So if you're a health conscious woman, yet feel totally stuck despite trying it all and a desperate for answers to stop the yo-yo dieting and find the balance that you deserve, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hello, Liv and welcome to Body Bites with Beck. Thank you so much. This has been so long in planning and I'm so excited to be here. I know. So I've just booked a very last minute trip to Melbourne to meet some of my team members and catch up with a few of my friends over here. And yeah, Liv was in Melbourne at the same time as well and she's been, I've been meaning to get her on the podcast. So the time was just right. All aligned. Also aligned but so excited to talk to you about all things sleep. So before we get into it, would you mind just introducing everyone to who you are? Sure, sure. So I am Livy Arasolo, a really easy sleep expert. I have nine years of academics behind me, psychology, sleep psychology, nutrition and fitness. So everything that I recommend is based on science. What my aim is to simplify the science into actionable advice that we can implement immediately to fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, wake up less through the night and feel I absolutely best. Amazing. I know how much my listeners love scientific advice but that's broken down into a human level that we can all understand. So okay, I would love to first of all start by talking about the connection between sleep and your general health but in particular, weight loss because I know a lot of women listen to me for weight loss tips and I would love to hear from you in your words what the connection is there. Okay, so sleep and weight loss there is such a deep connection and I'm sure that all of your women who are trying to trim down, trying to lose weight, they want to leverage all of the different ways. Sleep is one of the most effective things you can do to manage and lose weight. So this is loopback predominantly to two hormones that I'm going to speak about human growth hormone and cortisol. So human growth hormone, 70% is produced in slow way sleep. Human growth hormone is the key catalyst for cellular repair and metabolism and lean muscle mass development. Yeah. So we need our metabolism to be high in order to maintain our weight loss to know that 70% of what your metabolism will operate on is potentially tied to your sleep is huge. The other hormone that we are going to chat about a lot today is cortisol. Yes. So we're all very familiar with that. Yes. So stress hormone cortisol when we do not sleep enough, this can increase by 37%. Now this leaves us in a state of anxiety, this leaves us feeling wired but tired and specifically to do with our weight. It has a huge impact. So when cortisol levels are high, the body catabolises our lean muscle mass for energy. Now that in layman's terms, it eats away at muscle. So when you're stressed out, you can be training at the gym, but then your body is not going to retain that lean muscle mass because cortisol is simply attacking it. And with the growth hormone disruption, if you're not getting out of that enough of that in your sleep, that's correct. Also not helping you gain your lean muscle as well. Correct. Correct. So cortisol is really problematic to lean muscle mass, but then it also impacts the brain. So when cortisol levels are high, there's been research that's found, we are more likely to make impulsive decisions based on short term gains rather than long term ones. Now losing weight can be a long term, that's a long term vision. And so if your women are finding that's when not sleeping at all, that they just lean into the chocolate and the chips and I'll train, I'll train later, later, later and then I can't be bothered training. This is cortisol overriding and focusing on what is the highest priority to make me feel good right now, right? So impulsive decisions. Then you can loop back into how when we're stressed out cortisol levels are high from lack of sleep, you are more likely to make decisions to relieve that stress. Now when you were an infant, when you were a kid, you were stressed out, have a lollipop. Here, have a snack, right? So we have this wide into our biology. When we feel stressed, we eat. Yes. So this is another layer on the human putting. There's so many layers, right? Right. Then it doesn't stop there. Also, when cortisol levels are high, the body and energy levels are low. The body has a preference for sugar because that gives us the quickest burst of energy. So much so there's been researchers who have found when we do not sleep enough, our cravings for sugary carbohydrates increase by 45% each stat, but also because of the dysfunction in your hunger hormones due to lack of sleep, you also have a 28% increase in a hunger hormone called grellen and a 18% decrease in a satiety hormone called leptin. So what does that mean for you? It means that your craving sugar, like no other, you simply can't get satisfied and you just need to, you just are constantly hungry. Yeah. Right. So think about how all of that plays into your efforts to eat well and train well. No, yeah, not only that, it's your hunger, your hunger goes up, your craving sugary carbohydrates, which we all know only actually make you hungry when you eat them, right? And give you an energy crash. And when you're sleep deprived, your motivation to get to the gym is lower because you don't have enough energy. Correct. So it's a whole whirlwind of things that go on. Yeah. So whole constellation, and I think, you know, one of the best studies to analyze the impact of leap loss and weight loss. There was a study that had one group of participants sleep 8.5 hours for two weeks. They were on a calorie control diet and they were tracking their movement with an actigraph so they knew how much they were moving, right? So they did this for two weeks. They had them sleep at 8.5 hours. Then they had a wash out period. Then they had the exact same participants eat the exact same diet, move the exact same amounts, but they slept for 5.5 hours. Now when they were sleeping, 5.5 hours, their body, fat, loss, declined by 55%. So when they had the individual sleep at 8.5 hours, rather than 5.5 hours, they lost 55% more body fat. The thing is that both groups lost weight because they were on a calorie control diet. But when you were not sleeping enough, you lost muscle rather than body fat because of what we shared before about the cortisol and the cortisol. Exactly right. So you've got a loss of your lean muscle mass, which then long term will just lead to weight gain. Lots of my listeners will be familiar with my passion for the importance of strength training and how important that is to get into your routine. Definitely don't focus on cardio only when you're in a calorie deficit. Making sure you get lots of protein, geodiret, because when the more muscle you have, the more calories you can burn throughout the day. It increases your metabolism. It's really interesting to really explain that whole side of things that when you're sleeping, that's one of your most important times to actually make sure that your muscles are growing correct because you're sort of damaging throughout, damaging them when you're exercising your core, causing all these micro-tares. And then when you sleep, it's about repairing and growing the muscle. Yes, well, growth hormone helps with so correct. Just another thing guys, too, remember. You know, I think we all know about the importance of sleep, but when you really start to actually understand it even more on a very bodily function and, you know, scientific level, it inspires you. It does for me anyway. It inspires you to try even harder to get better sleep. I never said that. Sometimes what it does for me is it does the opposite. And I'm like, oh God, I know. It's so important that Jesus, like I need to get good sleep and then sometimes I don't sleep well because I stress about it too much. Oh, yes. It's about caring about your sleep and doing all that you can, but not getting too stressed either. Absolutely. You know, if you're laying there anxious about you're perfecting your bedtime routine, that is not going to be conducive to getting deep, slow way of sleep. Yes. an orientation of what you need to do, but like anything, if you become obsessive and anxious about it, this is really going to make it difficult for you to actually attain sleep. And I think another thing I want to touch on is the impact of sleep on gut health as well. There's been a lot of research which has found when you're not sleeping enough, you have a lower diversity, you have a lower probiotic count collectively. So basically you experience a lot of gut dysfunction and inflammation and intolerances when you're not sleeping enough. If you look at the impact on the brain, there's increased levels of beta amyloid, which is a neurotoxin to contribute to brain fog and memory loss when terms of our cognitive function sleep restores the frontal load, which is responsible for decision making, judgment, rational thinking. So much so that when you have been awake for 17 hours, your cognitive skills are the same as somebody who has a blood alcohol level of 0.05. Whoa, that's not even kidding. Not even kidding. Yeah. And then you make silly decisions like me yesterday I arrived in Melbourne and got a checked in to the hotel here and then put my robe on. It was Sunday afternoon and Sundays for me, like a huge boundary that I set is. Making no plans and I went no matter where I am in the world. Of course, sometimes I stray from it, but normally Sunday from three o'clock onwards, I just, it's a back day. I watch Netflix, I rest, I make no plans and yesterday, especially after like having such a hectic wake and also quite a busy weekend, I just needed to rest and just recoup. Anyway, put my robe on, order myself some food and then realize I left my laptop on the plane. And then I actually like go to actually airport, find it like early, they found it otherwise it would have put work back today. And that's an example of me being tired and making a mistake and forgetting my bloody laptop on the plane. Because I used to do that. Like I used, I've got this, I had this weird trait when I was younger, sort of in my early 20s and I would always lose my phone on nights out. I'd always lose my phone. And it just shows, I guess, obviously some sun was alcohol induced, but sun was definitely sleeping juice too from just the more partying when I was younger. Yeah, yeah. And to have done that and I think eight years since I've lost a laptop or a phone. I'm very proud of you. You've felt a long way. I want a good skin. But yes, okay. So, and I actually had Dr. B, he's a leading gastroenterologist in America, come on the podcast and talk about the link between sleep and gut health. So if you guys haven't listened to that yet, definitely make sure you go back. It's about four or five episodes back. I'll put it in the show notes this episode. But now we're going to definitely get into things that you can do to help your sleep. So that we can, you know, all achieve our healthy, weight, feel good, not have brain fog, optimize our gut health to another thing that's linked to weight loss. And yeah, really everything works in a circle. So let's start with what do you reckon we should start with here? Supplements, wind down routine, sleep tips, you can choose. I would say starting with why we wake at 3am and how to manage that because if there's one problem that I hear time and time again, especially from moms, yeah, it's that. Yeah, okay, let's do that because there's lots of them on the podcast. So 3am, weight kings, why do we wake up at 3am and how can we manage it? Okay, so first off, to know that why we wake up at 3am, this is primarily driven by high levels of cortisol. And there are many reasons why cortisol may be high, high stressful life, a lot of blue light exposure before bed, from screens, TVs, laptops, kindles, this increases cortisol levels, also high levels of sugar in your diet increase cortisol, lack of sleep increases cortisol. So you've got all these driving factors that increase cortisol, but why 3am? Around this time, there is a natural rise in cortisol in order to prepare our bodies to be alert and awake the next morning. And so if you're baseline levels of cortisol are too high, you will not stay in sleep, but you will wake up. Wow. And you may find that you're waking up regularly throughout the night because your baseline levels are super, super high. So whenever you go into a lighter stage of sleep, it's so light that you literally wake up. That is so. That makes sense. Yeah, it totally makes sense and I'm sure everyone will be able to relate to that. My parents, for instance, always wake up at 3am and I'm always trying to give them advice and help, but that's something that's not definitely something that I want to tell them more about. And because I'm very aware of the blue light exposure, you know, first of all, their sugar free, really healthy, all of that, but it's just, there's little things like blue light exposure that I think a lot of people would be doing before bed unaware that they actually braids their cortisol and that's making them wake it wake up 3. Let's start there. One thing that I do on my iPhone is I turn on night shift in settings. So if you guys have an iPhone, you go to settings, display and brightness, night shift, and then you can schedule your schedule. I like to do it from sunrise to sunset because that's your natural, you know, sleep, wake cycle. Well, that's what it should be to regulate your melatonin levels. So what that does is it turns the light on your phone from blue to yellow. Yeah, makes it a warmer. Yeah. Which is more conducive. We sleep and going into that rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system and just feeling more relaxed and sleepy. But there was a study that found when your you use night shift versus not, it's a really marginal difference. So it was only a 4% difference in the amount of melatonin that was produced or suppressed. So it's yeah. But if you think about it, why would Apple make a function that helps you get off your phone? True. Why would they do that? That makes no sense. Actually, so what do I do after I do this glasses? The glasses are amazing. Okay. So tell everyone about what the glasses are because I know they are, but like I just never want to wear them, but I could change my habits. I could wear them. So blue light blocking glasses, one with really funky orange lenses, they block out blue light because it's not all light that is problematic. It's just blue light. That suppresses melatonin, our key sleepiness hormone. And that hormone we need to fall and stay asleep. Yeah. So blue light blocking glasses have been found to help you fall asleep 78% faster, reduce nighttime waking by 66%. Well, super super effective for anyone who is wired, really awake or just wanting to watch a screen in the evening in the two hours for bed. Which most of us do. Like, let's be honest. We'll just do whether you're on your phone or whether you're watching Netflix or made it first sight. Like me at the moment. Just like quickly, this is the first season I've ever watched my entire life. And I'm obsessed with maths. For me to wind down, I do love watching TV. And you know, I am not going to sit here and say we need to avoid our phones for two hours for bed. And that's the only way you're going to improve sleep. Yeah. Because I don't think that's realistic for anyone. No. I think it's realistic to have a 30 minute tech free time for bed. That's attainable. Mm-hmm. But for hours for for bed, when if you do not block out blue light, you will impair your melatonin production. Mm-hmm. Then okay, how are you going to manage that? Because you're not going to cut out screens. So let's just say it right. I'm going to reduce screen brightness as much as possible. Yeah. I'm going to reduce screen brightness. And I'm going to wear blue light blocking glasses. There are about $150 to improve your sleep quality consistently is a very small investment. Oh God, yeah. And just having to get used to the feeling of wearing glasses like I was saying. When you know how much, you know, how important sleep is for your muscle mass development. If you're strengthening and you're weight loss efforts and your brain focus, if you care about your career, like what you bought to do, it's it's so worth it. But you know how you said that there's blue little blue light blocking glasses that have those weird orange lenses. Because I used to have some of them. I bought them from remember bulletproof. Bull day David asked for it. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I swear they've there's gotten way there's they've gotten more advanced than you. But you can get ones that don't have the orange lenses. Can't you or not? Yes. And this is actually something that discounts your sleep because the ones with clear lenses, they only block out 40 to 50%. Okay. So a lot of people are wearing them or they have prescription lenses that have a blue light filter. And that only blocks out 40 to 50%. Okay. Or blue light. And now I thought it was too good to be true. Because they actually look good. They just look like regular spectacles like fashionable sort of glasses. But yeah, so yeah. Yeah. But I think also it's really important to know that, you know, in terms of priority, what we need to, you know, what makes the biggest difference to our sleep quality. Our primary zytegeba primary factor to control the circadian rhythm control melaton levels. And essentially control how tired you are and how deeply you will sleep is light. Yeah. So you can be cutting out caffeine. You can be taking all the supplements, meditating, you know, doing your yoga, doing your walks. You can be doing all these other things. But if you don't manage light, you will struggle to sleep. Love that so much. It's so good to hear that that is just the most important thing. And then you can trickle in the other things once you've got that sorted. So that's number one. Yeah. Number two is temperature. Can we just call, sorry, but before you move on. - Just a few other quick things online that I wanna throw in there and ask you. I often at night time in my house. My house randomly actually is a very dark house, which I really like. So at night time, there's not heaps of lights that I put on or choose to put on. It's very easy to have minimal lights on. And if they are, they're very dim. Does that help as well? Like, you know, that your overhead lights that you choose in your house. - Yes. - With the brightness of the night time, should people be aware of that as well? - Absolutely. So reducing all light as much as possible for two hours for bed, dim lights, use red night lights, you use them in our kids bedroom, use them everywhere. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And I tell you what, if you're doing that and not using a screen, then you might not need to have as much reliance on the glasses. - Yeah. - Yeah. - This is true. - So dim screen brightness, dim ceiling, light brightness, dim, all lights, dim, light is possible. - And we're glass, and we're glass. - And we're glass. - Yes, yeah, okay. I know we're mainly talking about night time, but I want to quickly touch on the importance of that morning sunlight in your eyes as well, because what I didn't get this morning, and I'm already upset about it, was, you know, I'm in a hotel at the moment, and I'm used to waking up at home, I actually watched the sun rise. It sounds like I'm really pretentious when we're saying that. - But like, it's so nice. - It's true. - I actually watched the sun rise. So I get, my house gets all this light in the morning. So that, I swear since I've lived at this house, my sleep has actually gotten better. Even though I'm struggling a little bit at the moment, and I fall asleep a lot faster in the last year, and I think that's one of the reasons why. - Yeah. - Okay, it is actually a thing. So what regulates your circadian rhythm, as we know is light, but it's not just minimizing light in the evening, it's also the earlier in the day, you are exposed to light, then the earlier in the evening, your body produces melatonin, which helps us fall and stay asleep, which is exactly what you have experienced. - I know, right? So bright sunlight, even if it's 10 minutes in the morning, get it as early as you can. It will suppress melatonin. So you will feel less tired, because you probably then won't need to rely on coffee and sugar so much. And even if it is just 10 minutes, bright sunlight, get outside there. - Yeah. - No, I know. And yeah, so it's important for everyone to know that, 'cause seeing sunlight in the morning, if you can, - Yes. - It's really important to know that, and it's really important to know that, that's why I think it's important to know that, that's why I think it's important to know that, that's why I think it's important to know that, - 20 seconds. - Because it is very important to get that in. - And the thing is that, - I 10 o'clock, it's not as beneficial or as important, because you've got all these other stimulants happening, you've got all these other, there's lots going on. - I know, but it was gray and cloudy this morning. - Yes. - I couldn't, I'm on the 27th floor. - Yeah. - I meant the GMM, I was like, "Okay, I should tomorrow I'm gonna aim to get sunlight on my eyes earlier." - And even if it is cloudy, it's still beneficial to go outside. - Okay. - And if it's cold and rainy and you don't want to go outside, then just sit by a bright window. So for me personally, when I do my morning meditation, I try and find a spot that is close to a window, and I meditate for 10 to 20 minutes. That's my meditation and my sunlight. And then often I go for a walk or a run afterwards. So that helps regulate melatonin production in the morning. So we're not producing melatonin in the morning. So we're not tired. And instead we're producing cortisol, we're awakening hormone that we want to make us feel alert. - Yeah, but not too much of it. But not too much because the sun doesn't just enhance cortisol, it also enhances serotonin, which is another awakening hormone, but it's also known as the happiness hormone. So the sunlight provides us the optimal balance between cortisol and serotonin and a few other hormones. - Yeah. - And this is why you can't just look at like a screen, like your phone. If you just look at your phone, your body will predominantly produce cortisol, not serotonin. So then you start to feel stressed as soon as you start your day. But if you get sunlight, your body will produce serotonin, that happiness hormone that also makes us feel alert alongside cortisol. So it is super, super powerful. - I love that. Thank you for explaining that to everyone, because that's beautiful. - Okay. - I think it was important to detach from that morning. - The morning story, because that's sort of what actually sets you up. - For the night, is that morning light? - It does, absolutely. - Then next, yeah, more sleep tips, throw them at us. - I think I want to circle back on 3am waking, because we shared why they happen. Now I'm gonna share how to manage them. - Okay. - And this is particularly relevant to moms as well, because just by having an infant, you're predispositioned to wake through the night, because your baby has needed you to wake through the night. And so it takes a long time for your brain to be in a calm enough state and to realize that you don't actually need to wake. And so you're very sensitive to high stress levels, and also very sensitive to minor disturbances, that may be your child crying. - Mm-hmm. - So how to manage 3am waking, or 4am waking, right? Okay, if you're awake longer than 20 minutes in bed, get up. - Yeah. - And if you're important, that's your brain understands bed is for sleep only, right? Now it sounds like a strange analogy, but run with me. - Yeah. - Think about when you see a toilet or a toilet sign, you cannot even be thinking about the bathroom. And then all of a sudden your brain goes, "I need to use the bathroom," because you do one thing in there. You need to reserve your bed for sleep and sleep only, because then as soon as your brain sees and is that bed, and as soon as you're in the bed, you're like, "It's time to sleep." And so you start producing the hormones that allow you to sleep like melatonin, right? So if you're awake longer than 20 minutes, get up. Keep all the lights off, including your phone. Going on your phone is going to obviously be a massive, stimulant. It's going to further disrupt melatonin production. - Yeah. - It's going to make it harder for you to fall and sleep, even if it is only for a moment. - Yeah, so go find a book or something, or do something different. Because when you stay in bed for longer than 20 minutes, you start to just get stressed about, "I'm not sleeping, I'm not sleeping, I'm not sleeping." And then bed becomes a stressful place rather than a relaxing place. And then quite often you go away, you come back, and you do fall back at the toilet, it just helps me anyway break that pattern of starting to get anxious that I'm not sleeping. - Correct. - And then when I return to bed, it's easier. - So pattern interrupt. - Yeah. - And so what to do when you're waking up at 3 a.m., reading, amazing, this can reduce stress by 68% with the effect starting in just six minutes. You can also journal, a lot of people wake, and they've got a thousand thoughts on their mind. So they're literally just journal it. - Yep. - Right? - That's also been found to reduce stress. You can listen to white noise or calming music, or for me, I listen to Japanese foods on Spotify. - Okay. - It's beautiful. - Yeah. - I feel like I'm having a, like a, in Bali or something. - Yeah. - On ice. - Yeah, it's nice. But this also helps reduce cortisol. It helps us increase levels of gabar, which is a calming hormone, and ultimately helps us feel more relaxed. - Okay. - So those are my really, they might go to strategies when you're awake, not using your phone, read, or meditate, or journal, or listen to calming music. - And I'm assuming that they're gonna be very similarities to the people that struggle to fall asleep. - Correct. - Because that'll be right. - That's what you used to be my major insomnia, trigger is not being able to fall asleep. Yeah, this is about four years ago, and I had chronic insomnia for at least a year. And I know why, 'cause I tried everything, but when I look back and I figured it out, it was just too much overwhelm in work, running a business, and it was until I learned how to outsource and get staff, and feel more balance into my life that I actually started to sleep better. And then I still go through periods where things are too overwhelming, and that's just what happens as a business owner. And I'm sort of in that season at the moment, but what I do do, which is what you just said before with journaling is if I can't get sleep or if I wake up, I will definitely write my thoughts down. - Amazing. - And might happen to me about a week ago, and it was my fault. So one of the things that I do to end the work day, or at least like just before I get to bed, is I refine my sort of to-do list from that day, a plan, at least roughly, for the next day. And I shuffle things around, so I'm like, okay, that's a priority to show tomorrow. And I just have a rough plan in my head, written down. I couldn't get to sleep about a week or two ago, and there was just boom, boom, boom, my brain was going off. It was like, I just had a coffee, and I was like, yeah. Why are you doing this? Some really good ideas popped into my head, and I was like, I haven't thought of that. I haven't done this. Oh, let's do this in the app, and all these different things. So I wrote about 20 things down. - What? - And there was so much to add to my to-do list the next day, but then I thought about it, and I was like, oh my gosh, I actually didn't, I didn't do this as my end of task day, sort of like refine my to-do list, and know what I was doing the next day. So that's something that can really, really help if anyone sort of relating to that sort of thing. - Absolutely. - Yeah. - You need to have, you know, just like you prepare for a work day, you prepare your kids for school, you need to prepare for bed. You need to give physiological and psychological triggers that allow you to produce melatonin, [BLANK_AUDIO] produce less cortisol and to increase your levels of GABA, which is another common hormone. Right. And there are certain things that you can do in your bedtime routine that enable that. Let's go through that now. So it's like a wind down routine for a sleep. Okay. So number one, block out blue light. You want that two hours for bed. Okay. Then one hour for bed, having evening shower. Now there is research that's found a one degree drop in your cold body temperature, which is super helpful because what happens when you move from a warm shower to a cool bathroom, you get cold. And so this is a trigger for melatonin to be produced because melatonin is the hormone that helps us fall in sleep. So blocking out blue light, then you're going to have an evening shower. So that's step one, that's step two, step three, incorporate lavender. Lavender helped activate the parasite. No other system. It's been found in countless clinical studies to reduce anxiety. And it's a really just a beautiful process. You know, so spray lavender, roll on lavender, just infuse your sleep sanctuary with lavender. Okay. Yep. Then you want to take natural sleep supplement. Body of favorites. I do love magnesium glycerinate. And that is probably the only one that I will recommend across the board, just because everyone has individual needs. And I am not don't want to prescribe anything. So just look for magnesium glycerinate that has the most research into its benefits upon sleep. But there's also a ton of research around natural remedies, other natural remedies like lavender, hops, passion flower. So they can be really beneficial in your sleep supplement as well. Okay. Amazing. And you have a sleep tea. Camomile tea. Oh my god. Camomile has this compound called apiginine. And this acts like a sedative to calm the mind and relax body. Now it's also abused again, a beautiful process. You're having a sleep tea. Yeah. For me, I lay in bed. I listen to my tranquil Japanese flutes. I drift off. But then you want to have 30 minutes of tech free time. There's been researchers found being on your phone in the 30 minutes for bed looking at social media increases cortisol, which then leads to those 3N wakings, which then leads to also having lack of sleep, which then leads to all of the things we've been speaking about before. So by having 30 minutes of tech free time before bed, absolutely essential and quite realistic also. Yeah. It's not it's not asking for too much. You know, and I can I need to improve on that sometimes. But what helps me is that I like to I've got a bit of a skincare routine at night. It's not a 10 step. So yeah, but it might be like three or four steps. Sure. Well, sometimes I'll do like a mask. So at least you're doing something so that it's you're off your phone, but you're still doing something that's relaxing. You can drink your tea, do your skincare. By the time all that's done, maybe 20 or 30 minutes then to bed and yeah, it's doable. And then if you want to add the you know, your tech free activities, reading or meditating or journaling. Yeah. Stuff with your partner. That's fun. Yeah. We shared these science around reading and calming music. But in terms of meditating, long term meditators experience three times the amount of slow-wave sleep compared to non-meditators. Which means that even as we age, if you meditate, you preserve your sleep quality as you were when you're younger because sleep does get more difficult as we increase in age. And really, our melatonin levels started to decrease after the age of 30. And then you couple that with caregiving. You couple that with our reliance on coffee. Having alcohol. Alcohol is a huge disadvantage. For me, especially if it's through the wake when I'm working and I really care about my sleep. If I have any more than one drink, I'll just wake up at two, maybe three, maybe four again, and I just don't sleep well. So for me, if I'm going to have a drink, it'll be just one through the wake if I'm going out to dinner or something and preferably like at least three hours before bed. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And then if I have any more than that, especially if it's like in the three hours before bedtime, I just can't sleep well. Yeah. So alcohol suppresses REM sleep, which are deepest sleep days. It is between the hours of three, four, five, and essentially when we wake up. So we often find that we wake frequently through the night after we've been drinking, often feeling super super hot, sweaty, anxious. Yep. And so alcohol suppresses REM sleep. So we can't get into the deep sleep phases in that later part of the night. But also when this sedative effects of alcohol wear off, we have what is experienced as the rebound effect, which is when our nervous system is trying to rebound from having a depressant effect from alcohol. And so we try and return to homeostasis, you know, our equilibrium, but we overshoot the mark. And so this is why we wake up and we don't just wake up feeling, you know, okay, rested, you wake up and you're sweaty, miss, you're super anxious and you've got the energy of a thousand cents. Yeah. It's the worst. Yeah. But then it's also dehydrates you. Yep. So many things. It's just so fun at the time, but it's not the first late. Yeah. So, all right. So how to manage alcohol because I love an uproaral spritz in Italy, especially just as much as you can. Pary spritz for me. Oh, yeah. It's so good. Okay. So you want to have no alcohol in your system after after 6 p.m. ideally. Oh, well, that's hard to do, but yeah, ideally, ideally. Yeah. So day drinking is better. Day drinking is better, but warning mimosas are actually the best. Yeah. So what about what do you do at night time to manage it a little bit more better? Yeah. So I think now there's lots of different options if you are trying to avoid alcohols. Yeah. So many alcohol-free spirits. So many alcohol-free wines and they're actually quite nice as well. And that's great advice, but if I'm choosing to have a wine, obviously I love the taste, but I'm choosing it because I love that the feeling. You know, I'm sure a lot of people do. The feeling that alcohol gives you after wine. Sometimes too. You get a bit relaxed. It's like it's fun to do when you're out for dinner or when you're in date or whatever. So yeah, I mean, I guess for people like me, where you actually do the feeling of what a drink gives you, I guess, are you saying one of the best things to do is just the earliest in the night, the best, the better. Early in the night, the better. There are so many ways that we can help the body feel more relaxed. Yeah. And if we like the effect of alcohol relaxing us, if it's asking ourselves a question, how else can I feel more relaxed? Yeah, of course. I don't know. It's not. Anyway, that makes the same like I need alcohol to run. No, no, no, no. And it's not. I just, I just mean that buzz. I'm sure everyone knows I'm talking about it. So that looks like it's a buzz. It's just, yeah, yeah. I can be relaxed if I still want to have a drink, but I, like I said before, it's, if I'm drinking it might just be once or twice a week. Yeah. So it's like I'm doing it every night and it's just, I try to limit it, you know, Monday to Thursday, when I care about my sleep, the absolute most. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's going to be times where it's just, it's worth it. You're like, I know that I'm not going to feel great tomorrow. Yeah. And this is going to disrupt my sleep. But, you know, there's going to be times where you just like, you know, this is really important to me. And even for me, I try not to drink too much, but I ask myself, is this meaningful and memorable for me? Yeah. If it's something that is really special and it has meaning, then like, okay, cool. I'm going to explore that. But if it's just because, because I'm having dinner, because I'm out for dinner, they have, I think that's a good, better reason. Yeah. So to think very mindful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just think peaky and choosy with that. Because I'm a bit the same. Like, so I, you know, it's always, I love having a good night out and having a couple of drinks. But it's like, okay, what am I doing the next day? Is this really worth it? And it's just asking yourself that question before you pull that second glass of wine or before you order that second drink when you're out. So I think this has been so incredible. There has been so much wisdom given. I hope everyone has loved this chat as much as I have. And, you know, lots of scientific facts, but also just so many easy ways to actually manage your sleep. That's late better. And that is honestly my goal. I'm aware that we all don't have perfect lives, you know, to say, okay, well, let's just reduce stress. You know, let's just, you just decrease your workload. Not possible. Yeah. Two hours before bed. Don't use a screen. Not possible. Yeah. Yeah. You know, okay, let's look at what are the easy wins? What are what is actually realistic to implement? If you are stressed out, busy mom, busy professional, you're traveling a lot because I am this person. So it's like, all right, if I think it's realistic for me, knowing that I have a business to run, I've got traveling, I'm managing a thousand things. If it's realistic for me, then okay, I'm going to recommend it, but like if I couldn't even do it, I'm not going to recommend it. Absolutely. I'm the same with my health advice, the eating advice too. It's not about being perfect. It's about doing what you can with what you've got. So where can everyone find you for way more tips and things? Because I'm sure people want to learn a lot more from you. You can just go ahead and plug yourself where everyone can find you. Oh, thank you. I think the best place to connect is Instagram. And definitely sliding into my DMs and asking any questions and sharing any feedback from this show would be so much appreciated. Instagram so everyone knows my Instagram is my full name which is Olivia Arasolo. Okay and I'll put them in the show and I'll show everyone so that is a huge amount of me out of spell it. And I'm also on line on my website again, OliviaArasolo.com.de.u. And yeah, just I love feedback. I love to know what resonated most and any further questions so like more than welcome to ask. I'm so happy to help however I can. That's beautiful. And my mission is to help everyone feel their best inside and out via sleep. Thank you so much, Olivia. That was incredible and I hope everyone really enjoyed this episode. As always, I will catch you guys every second Wednesday now. I've made a bit of a change in case you've missed it instead of every Wednesday. You can follow me on health with back on Instagram and all the other links to my programs and everything are also in the soy notes as usual. Same with Olivia's and please leave a rating and review if you enjoyed this episode. We would both really, really love to hear from you to hear if you enjoyed this episode. So that would mean the world to me as well. Alright guys, I'll catch you in two weeks time. [Music]