Sleep Yourself Productive | Better Sleep Well Rested Days

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25mg of CBD and 25mg CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. You're a pillow talk away from better sleep, well-rested days. And that's a pun, total pun. But until you tune into this episode, you won't realize just how much. If you're listening, you care about better sleep and well-rested days, whether you're struggling with it or you're grateful you don't. Sleep is king and queen of recovery and all things functioning well. But this episode goes far beyond our usual layer of sleep. Look, it's not the first time we've talked about sleep because it's crucial for you to get the fitness, the reward from strength training, doing high-intensity interval training, going for walks, getting outdoors, eating quality food. You have to sleep. That's sealing the deal, literally. But this episode is gonna drop some very specific tips you may never have heard. If this is a topic you know and don't love, this is for you. Be sure you visit the show notes today too, where you'll get a link for 10% off the specific pillow designed to support your neck in ways that we address today. And once you hear why, my guess is you'll want to, if not for yourself, for someone you love. As a student for more than 40 years of health, of fitness, sleep, hormonal health. This episode was an eye-opener even to me. Got lower back issues, balance issues, IBS, and then there's way more? It could be the tech neck that you've got going on. Sinus problems? Maybe it's time to tune in. If I haven't got your attention yet, I'm guessing You know somebody who needs this. Please share it. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your top struggles and your concerns, and I share what to eat, how to move, and how to change your mindset so you can have the energy and the vitality that you want, need, and deserve in the second and better half. Okay, look, this would not be the first time that we're talking about the need for realigning, for realigning with the head and the spine and rebalancing, getting the curves back into the spine, not flattening them out. But we've never talked about it like this. I can't wait for you to hear this episode. My guest is Dr. Peter Martone, who distinctly has a Bostonian accent. He's an educator and patient care practitioner who's been focused on improving patients' biomechanics for over 23 years during his private practice as a chiropractor. Dr. Martone always believed that the structure of your spine affects the function of the central nervous system, and this principle is the cornerstone of his practice. Dr. Martone's core belief is that the central nervous system controls every function, the human body, and in order to be able to express true health, you have to keep your nervous system healthy. When your spine falls out of alignment due to poor spinal mechanics, it interferes with the proper function of the nervous system and thus throws your body out of balance. Dr. Peter's mission is to help as many people as possible achieve optimal health, function, and performance so they can reach their full potential in life. During its 23 years of practice, Dr. Martone found it harder and harder to keep his patients aligned due to the stress of the modern-day lifestyle on their posture. Hello, tech neck, right? His patients were coming in with the same problems, which inspired him to come up with an innovative solution to help correct patients' spines while they sleep. Yeah, while they sleep. He worked with designers and engineers to create the Neck Nest, his newest product that helps correct patients' spines while they sleep. Dr. Martone's revolutionary concepts are designed to restore proper biomechanics of the spine by adopting a neutral sleeping position, helping you sleep better, live longer, and be healthier. His techniques have been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox News, Dave Asprey's Upgraded Conference, and over 50 podcasts as he travels the world teaching people how to regain their health by mastering the art of sleeping. And I think we can probably all agree. Again, don't forget, come over to the show notes because we've got a special link for you. You don't have to put any code in, but there is 10% off if the neck nest sounds like it might help you or somebody that you know. Let's get started. Dr. Peter Martone, thank you so much for joining me.

Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

This is a topic near and dear to every listener's heart, and in some ways probably something that is— she's finding more elusive than she ever has before in her life, looking for a solution. So midlife menopause, it can be a roller coaster ride and it can be different. And at 59, when you buy a puppy, you realize, why, why did I do this? Um, we're coming through the other end at my house. But I would love to first of all hear why sleep— how does sleep become so important to you as a healthcare practitioner How did that come about?

Wow. Yeah. So I zigzagged to kind of where I am now. You know, my, I guess you can say expertise is, I guess my framework is, you know, when a person comes to me in my practice, I, you know, when I look at them, I really try to put myself in their shoes. And They, you know, big— I'm a chiropractor, I'm an exercise physiologist, I'm a kinesiologist. So I love the study of human biomechanics. So early on in practice, I was helping people with back pain, and I myself had back pain for the first 15 years of my practice. And, and I'm like, well, you know, I'm just different because I have, you know, I'm a, I'm a competitive mountain biker, I'm really hard on my body, but I can help them. But yeah, I don't really even need to you know, help myself. So it wasn't until I was in a little bit of a mountain bike and had a little bit of an accident, but nothing, nothing big that I hadn't sustained before. And 3 days later, I found myself in an emergency room because I had herniated my disc. And I'm sitting in the emergency room and just can remember, you know, I've always had shoulder pain, I've always had back pain. My neck would be stiff when I would wake up every once in a while. I said, how did it come to this? You know, I'm a chiropractor, I'm in the emergency room, I have a herniated disc. And our subconscious brain, you know, we— when you're intuitive, it's a subconscious brain that's, that's putting in, you know, that recognizes patterns before the conscious brain does. So I started reviewing X-rays, and I got up to about 3,000 X-rays, and I found a pattern. And that pattern is, is I didn't have a back issue all those years. I had forward head posture that, that caused a reactive, what's called psoas major muscle spasm in my lower back. And due to that psoas spasm, it weakens your disc. So then I summarized, I said, well, I'm a side sleeper because of specific reasons, which we'll talk about. But in order to fix this, I can take advantage of the 8 hours I spend in bed and try to start stretching the curve back into my neck. So then, I started to really dive into sleep because going from the position I slept in to now a new position that I sleep in now, which is more corrective, I now have really— I'm all in in the sleep industry and just being able to teach people from a different really fundamental, I guess, doctor or help thyself approach. That's where I am now.

That is sweet. Okay, so I'm dying to know, so is there a best sleeping position where you as a chiropractor are concerned?

Well, yeah, so when you, when you're looking at like this current sleep industry and you, and you look, everything's more support. And, and when, and when you really apply the laws of the body, whenever you support the body, you make it weaker. So, when we think about sleep, people think about, okay, you know, you get better sleep to, you know, repair the body and recharge the mind and recharge your energy. But nobody looks because even in our culture, we don't understand how important it is to maintain the integrity of our spine. So, we don't look at the third aspect, which is alignment. If you're sleeping on your side, your weight is not distributed over your greatest surface area, so you're destroying the structure of your spine. If you sleep on your back and use the pillow the wrong way, you're going to destroy the structure of your spine. If you sleep on your stomach, you're going to destroy it. So there's a very specific way to sleep, and you don't have to stay in that position all night long. You just need to start in that position. And like I tell my patients, if the why is big enough, the what won't matter. So, you know, we have to, we really, especially when I talk to my women, I'm almost 52, but, you know, as we get older, when we get, you know, go further down this age in life, a lot of our old injuries tend to, you know, perch up on us. So it becomes really important to understand why back sleeping is the best position.

Wow. Okay, very cool. I'm going to come back to something you said. This is like a mic drop that you just skimmed right over, but it did not escape me. You said whenever you support the body, you make it weaker. I feel like we could probably spend the hour talking about that. Um, so tell me this. So you have somewhat of an athletic, very active background— weight belts, in the weight room. What do you think about that?

All right, so if you, if you are, let's say, putting the body under load, um, and you're going to support it temporarily to be able to do something, I have no problem with support. Because in that case, if you use a weight belt, basically it's not that, you know, most people think it's the It's the pressure on the back that's supporting the back. It's actually the pressure on the stomach, and then that creates pressure— that creates like an interthoracic pressure of air, and then that stomach is what supports the lower back. But, um, I have no problem if you use a weight belt under load, just doing squats and stuff like that, but not a weight belt the entire time.

Love it. Okay, great distinction. Another one: shoes. Do we rely on shoes too much?

It's a, it's a support. Any time you support, let's, let's not, let's actually put a, uh, so I have this, this, I, you know, I'm actually starting in June. I know, starting in February, I'm starting a, uh, a new protocol certification course in how the body adapts. It's called the NeuroStructural Protocol. And within our NeuroStructural Protocol, What I want to do is I want to, you know, change the lens that health providers use to all talk the same language. And when we talk the same language, what I'm talking about, let's say an MD, a DC, a trainer, a massage therapist, they all look at things different. So we need to come back to our anchors, things that are law in the body that don't change, and then we build a system or a communication network from there. So, when you look at shoes, anytime you support the body over a long period of time, you're going to weaken whatever you're supporting. So, if you put a sneaker on or a shoe on, you're going to atrophy the arch of the foot. If you use more support in a chair and you sit in a chair long-term, you're going to atrophy the lower back. That is a law. That is how the body works.

Wow. Okay. That was, that was probably worth the price of admission, but we got so much more here. You talk about 3 laws of adaptation at play while we're asleep. What are those?

Yeah. So we have, so tissue remolds based on the stresses applied. So, that's a really important one. That's Davis's Law. Basically, and then Wolff's Law is another one. Bone will remold based on the stresses applied. So, let's say in an argument or easy terms, our spine is like clay or our body is like clay. It's moldable. If you want to have a bent arm, right, bone, you just have somebody or you put a device on that bends the arm, you keep it on there for months and months and months and you will have a bent arm. Because the body adapts to stress. And then the last one is called the righting reflex. That simply states is that your body posture adjusts to head position, which means you see everybody is on a phone all day long. Yeah, they're curled up in balls when they sleep. They're on computers. They drive. Our tissue is constantly being remolded to have this forward head syndrome or this forward head posture. Everybody has this type of posture, and that is destroying the integrity of our central nervous system. And ultimately, what we're going to talk about is how it affects our body's ability to grow, function, and thrive as we get older.

So good. Okay. Realignment. Love it. How does the body adapt to support versus talk distraction while you sleep, and how does that affect your structure?

So scientists, what they did is they tried to create a tree, a perfect tree, and they put the tree in this beautiful environment. They gave it the perfect water, they gave it the perfect environment, the perfect light, and as the tree grew tall, They all fell over. And what they realized is that in the absence of the wind, which created resistance, then the roots did not— the tree did not grow deep roots. And what does this mean? This means that our bodies are constantly adapting to stress, right? Whether it's, you know, eustress or distress. Eustress would be staying water, I mean drinking water, staying hydrated, our body adapts in a favorable way. Distress would be if we drink soda, that our body will adapt to that. So, anytime we put something in our body or put our body under stress, our body is going to adapt. So, when you use a pillow and you support your head, which a pillow identify or define is a support for your head, you're weakening the cervical curve and you're destroying the structure of the spine. When you, in contrast to that, let's say you roll up a towel and you put that under your neck and then you allow your neck to hang off the back of that towel, gently causing distraction, what you're going to do if you're able to stay in that position over a period of time, you're going to the body is going to react to that light stretching, that light distraction, by reinforcing the cervical curve in your spine. Wow.

Okay. So of course, you know, our audience members are women, most of them in some phase of perimenopause, maybe menopause transition or postmenopause, since that's till death do us part. How are midlife and older women impacted by sleep differently than men? Because I'm guessing there have to be some gender differences, and so many women in midlife suffer from insomnia when they never did before.

Yeah, so let's really get at the, at the nervous system here when we talk about this. Now, there is something in the body that is called the vagus nerve, okay? The vagus nerve is a nerve that controls— there are two different systems in your body. There are the survive systems, which people understand as, you know, you're reacting to stress, negative stress, right? To stay alive, you run from a tiger. But then there is another set of nervous— another nervous system, a division of that, that are thrive systems. Those are the ones that support our hormones, support our digestion, support our immune system. So, there's no coincidence that when somebody, whether it's a male or female, has an issue, they have an issue of one of the three areas: immune system issues, digestive system issues, or hormonal imbalances. Now, when you damage the structure of the cervical curve, you affect the integrity of the vagus nerve, which suppresses the function of it. So, it's called low vagal tone and you will see symptoms through your whole life with this. You'll see symptoms with this when it comes to digestion, when it comes to skin issues, when it comes to if you had ear infections as a child and then as a female you had difficult periods. Later on in life, what's going to happen when your body's really calling on that vagal tone to balance your hormones because you're going through a change, and you don't have a strong nerve to be able to do that, the nerve is atrophied, it throws the body into imbalance, and then your temperatures are going to start to fluctuate significantly, especially at night, and it's not going to be able to regulate your hormones. And one of the major reasons people get disruptive sleep is because they're too warm, they're running too hot. So hormonal imbalances are amplified by low vagal tone. Which is caused by loss of cervical curve.

Wow. And that is a surprise to most people listening, that their hormones are affected by their sleep in that way. Huge. What, what 3 systems are specifically affected by forward head syndrome? And I want you to say that again, and I also would love for you to say Did you see this 10 years ago or has it gotten worse in an amplified way?

Yeah, it's, you know, we, I see it often, you know, I see it, you know, in practice when somebody would come in, you know, we would, it was common, but now we can really analyze it so much more effectively. And especially now with children. We're seeing it early. I guess we've always seen it, but we've seen it earlier and earlier and earlier in life because of the demand of what these cell phones and tablets and being on the internet all day long is doing. But, what happens is that the vagus nerve, and I love for people to just Google it and really get an appreciation of the wandering nerve and and really get an appreciation of when most people have issues, it's because they don't have a healthy functioning parasympathetic nervous system, which is what the vagus nerve represents 75% of. And, that's immune system. So, skin issues like psoriasis, eczema, that's immune system issues, autoimmune issues, anything that— allergies, hypersensitivities in the immune system. And then the second one's going to be digestive issues, IBS, leaky gut syndrome, reflux issues. And then the third is hormonal imbalances. So it's immune system, digestive system, and reproductive system are all connected to forward head posture issues.

Oh, okay. I'm about falling off my chair here. So the real question is, how do we fix it? Aside from stopping that text posture, getting your phone up at least even with your eyes or higher, how do we correct it?

Yeah, so it's corrected by two— actually, you gotta do two things. First thing you do is you want to sleep on your back. Doesn't have to be the whole night. With a pillow. We use a neck nest, something we created, underneath your neck with your head off of the back of the pillow so that you're slightly distracting. So, you're gently stretching a curve back into your neck while you sleep. And then, it's always good to then work on balance, for instance, using a wobble board. Because if you use a wobble, what happens is as your head comes forward, you're losing balance. That's why a lot A lot of times you'll get bunions on your toes or you'll get knee issues. It's because your posture is coming too far forward. So, you want to work on your balance using a wobble board so that you're able to bring that posture back into a more upright position. Actually, and then third, I would say go see a good chiropractor because chiropractic is like this, taking hardened clay and you're dipping it in water. You're making that clay remoldable. Then you expose the clay to a different mold at night when you're sleeping by using your pillow and sleeping a different way, and then you reinforce that with balance work during the day.

Wow. Okay. This was gold. All right. How— can I ask you this? Okay. Tell us how to do this. And now we can't all come to Boston to see you. All right. Would love to do that. But how do we know if we have a really good chiropractor or not? Are there questions that we should ask? What are we looking for?

Well, particularly me personally, if I was going to go to a chiropractor, I would want x-rays taken and I would want to see what the structure of my spine looked like and then have a clear outcome. You see, when a person comes into my office and they take an intake, I, you know, and they, in, in there, you're giving me information. I have to understand that that's coming from a distorted perception of reality, right? Because we experience life through our feelings, our emotions. We live life through our senses. The truth lies truly within the neurology and can be observed through movement, posture. And my expertise is listening to what people say, but treating what I see. So a chiropractor that, that looks differently at things, takes an X-ray, has a clear outcome. And you might come in with specific symptomatology but say, listen, this is actually what's going on. It didn't just start today, your hormonal imbalances. Did you have ear infections as a child? They're asking different probing questions and not just say, oh, is it hurt? Let me just bang on that.

Wow. Okay. So it's really very different. And is, is the whole practice, the training of a chiropractor, so very different than, say, 25 or 30 years ago, or is this a unique style of chiropractic that you're talking about, and we still have the old traditional, you know, crack a back where, where I want this pain?

So, you know, it's actually really interesting. The traditional chiropractic is more the way that I'm talking. It was all neurology, which— and the newer chiropractic is more in line with therapy where it's crack a back. So, that's the newer version of it. I'm pretty much more of a— having ADD myself, I'm a thinker. One of my passions is neurology and kinesiology and the study of human biomechanics. So, that's why I'm training doctors in our NeuroStructural Protocol. So hopefully one time you'll be like, are you NSP certified? Yes. Okay, then you're going to look at it a specific way because how you fix it through the adjustment is really straightforward. What's more important is what do you— how do you know what to fix is really what my, you know, I guess what my expertise is in the profession is, is knowing what to adjust, knowing when not to adjust, and in having outcomes based on specific variables that you assess.

Very cool. Okay, come back to this. What— how can a woman evaluate potentially if their hormonal system is affected by their sleep position?

So you can ask yourself a few questions. I can tell you it would be a yes if, A, you had ear infections as a child, or you had IBS or other digestive-related issues through life. Because that's telling you that there's been an issue with that vagus nerve. If your ears ring, if you're prone for allergies or hypersensitivities, if you get sinus infections every year, those different types of things are all signs that there are issues with the immune system and digestive system. Then, it just crosses over to the hormonal system because you can't affect one without affecting the other because they're all being affected at the same time. And one way to evaluate your integrity of your parasympathetic nervous system is a new technology that's out there, or it's been out there for a long time, is HRV. It's called heart rate variability. You can get a heart rate variability monitor and then see where your HRV is, and your goal is to have high HRV readings, which really demonstrate that you have a good balance between the two autonomic systems.

So good. Okay, so everybody wants immediate gratification. So starting to use something like the pillow, using sleep in a positive way now to support cervical spine and putting that curve back in it, how long does it take to begin to feel better and begin to see differences?

Really depends on, on the age, how much degeneration. But when you— some people first night start to feel a difference, especially with sinus drainage and, and more energy because you're getting deeper sleep. And it's the way that you use your covers. And, and, and so what I would say, if you're just starting to get used to this, right, and I— trust me, I understand one of the reasons we toss and turn is because our body's in pain or our temperature's too warm and that Third one, which is why we are side sleepers and stomach sleepers, is our body craves safety. And curled up in a ball, you know, being tucked into your covers, that's a safe feeling. And when you go to become a back sleeper, it doesn't feel so safe because your body feels a little exposed. So first thing, think about 1 hour a night. Start on your back, pillow underneath your neck, put pressure over your eyes, use a sleep mask if you need. Put pressure on your chest and have your hands and your feet out of the covers so your body can properly temperature regulate.

So you say pressure on your chest. Say more about that.

Use a pillow, like an extra pillow on your chest.

And what, what does that do?

Um, um, gives you a safety feeling. So it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the nervous system, that is integral in sleep and thrive.

So along that line, what are your thoughts on weighted blankets? It's—

they, they, uh, they work well.

Okay, very cool. So speak a little bit into the pillow. So are there different pillows for somebody who is a side sleeper versus a stomach sleeper, or is it the same pillow just used differently?

Yeah. So, I promote— so, what I own and where my expertise is, is the first 10 minutes of how you fall asleep, right? So, I can put you into a position that gives your body the greatest advantage or put yourself to give you the greatest chance to be able to stay in that position and not toss and turn all night long. The only position to do that is on your back with a pillow under your neck. Any other position— the average person tosses and turns 20 to 40 times a night. That's because your body's in pain. And so whether there's a pillow better for your side sleeping, stomach sleeping, my expertise is being able to put you on your back with pillow under your neck in a position that gives your body the greatest chance for success to improve your health. And so I do not promote any other position to sleep in.

Perfect. Yeah, I know that was a great answer. Okay, so before I let you go, I mean, every woman here is like, yes, give me sleep, I'd take sleep, and/or I'd love it if my husband would sleep better because he'd stop waking me up when I am sleeping. What question should I have asked you that I haven't yet? Is there anything we didn't cover?

Um, you know, I think one thing that is really important when you are trying to sleep— and there are different avatars that don't sleep for different reasons, and we have programs that can help you— but is that one of the most important things to do is be able to get out of your own head. Most people can't shut their brains off because they're constantly thinking. You cannot think yourself to sleep. You need to remember yourself to sleep. So what I mean by that is you can remember something that happened yesterday as deeply as you can remember it, and you'll put yourself to sleep. You can't think about what's going to happen tomorrow because you'll stay up all night or you won't be able to go to sleep. And when you do, you wake up a million times a night.

So good, so good. All right, where can listeners learn more about you, learn more about pillows that may come in handy for enhancing their sleep and the health of their vagus nerve?

So I think the best thing to do would be to go to drsleepright.com, drsleepright.com. You— there, when you go to the, the page there's a sleep risk assessment. You can take a quick survey to see how your sleep habits are affecting you. And then down below, you'll see products and then services. Products would be the Neck Nest. That's our sister site. That's the pillow I was talking about, which I designed. And then the services would be just sleep programs that are customized for you to be able to help you take either a 4-week sleep challenge or dive into deeper material if you're more interested in really diving into the fundamentals of sleep. And I think really everything is more about a why than how. I like education first, then the what doesn't matter, right? If the why is big enough, the what doesn't matter. So most people will look at, go to necknest.com or they'll go to that and they'll say, oh, I can't sleep like that. But you don't have to stay like that all night. You're just thinking about the first 10 minutes. And if you fall asleep like that, your body will stay in that position for half an hour, 45 minutes to an hour. Then you'll toss and turn. Don't worry about it. But if you do that consistently over a period of time, it'll be a game changer. Not just your sleep will improve, but your entire health will improve.

So good. Okay, listeners, I know that there was probably one question that I left unanswered or unasked for you. So I'd love to know it, love to hear it. You can correct me at flipping50.com/bettersleepwellresteddays. And what are you waiting for? Let's get a good night's sleep.