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Hey, it's J.J. here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating, and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order. Hey, JJ here. Can you believe how fast the holidays are knocking at the door this year? One minute it's pumpkin spice season, the next you're getting your guest room ready and wondering where their wrapping paper went. And that's when I turned to Wayfair. From bedding and towels to holiday decor and last minute stocking stuffers, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home and holidays together fast. And for way less. With Wayfair, I know I can refresh my guest room in no time. Maybe I'll add a soft new comforter or a few holiday throw pillows. With Wayfair, it's so easy and everything arrives super fast. Plus, there's free shipping for any order over $35 easy and total peace of mind. So whether you're hosting, gifting, or just adding those final festive touches, Wayfair has your back. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style, every home that's W a y f a I r.com@sierra Discover Top workout gear at incredible prices, which might lead to another discovery. Your headphones haven't been connected this whole time. Awkward. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra let's get moving. I'm JJ Virgin PhD dropout. Sorry, mom turned four time New York Times bestselling author. I'm a certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness hall of Famer, and I speak at health conferences and trainings around the globe. But I'm driven most of all by my insatiable curiosity and love of science and to keep asking questions, digging for answers, and sharing the information that I uncover with as many people as I can. And that's where you come in. That's why I created the well beyond 40 podcasts to synthesize and simplify the science of health into actionable strategies to help you thrive. In each episode, we'll talk about what's working in the world of wellness, from personalized nutrition and healing, your metabolism to to powerful aging and prescriptive fitness. Join me on the journey to better health so you can love how you look and feel right now and have the energy to play full out at 100. Don't miss an episode. Subscribe now@subscribetoj.com to start unlocking your healthiest, most energetic self. Want to listen to the show ad free? Head over to subscribetoj. Com. Start your ad free experience today. Hey, it's JJ here. Now, let's be honest. The holidays are basically a financial ambush. Travel, hosting gifts, surprise holiday school things. Suddenly you're wondering how December turned into a spending spree. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. What really grabbed my attention is how fast those little holiday expenses pile up with Monarch. Seeing everything in one place makes it a lot harder to accidentally overspend. And honestly, I appreciate anything that keeps me from starting January with a money hangover. You'll love exploring the holiday spending category. Imagine how good it will feel to actually see what's happening before your credit card statement does that whole dramatic reveal thing. Monarch basically shows you exactly where the money is going in real time, and that level of clarity could change everything, right? Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virgin@monarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with code Virgin. This episode is brought to you by Diet Coke. You know that moment when you just.

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Always refreshing, still the same great taste. Diet Coke make time for you time. Newsflash, you don't need less sleep as you age. Now you might feel like you do or you're getting away with it. Maybe you've found that now you're waking up in the middle of night to go to the bathroom or you just can't fall asleep. We got to get a handle on that. Because just one poor night of sleep can undermine so many areas of your life from your ability to burn fat, your ability to work out hard, your ability to just make it through the day. So, good news, we can fix it. I've got some simple sleep strategies that I've been using for years with myself, my family and my community. And I'm going to share them with you. Stay tuned. All right. Why are we sleeping anyway? Well, this is when all the repair happens. If you've been listening to this channel, likely you are going and working out at the gym. Yay for you. But you know when you really build muscle, when you're sleeping, this is when we're healing, we're recovering. It's so critical. And you've probably seen that just one poor night of sleep and you just feel a little off the next day. And then it starts to compound itself because you have one poor night of sleep. Maybe you get a little more coffee under your belt to help you through the day. Maybe even get a little sugar in there. I hope not. And then at night, you're going. I'm not leaving anything to chance. So you have a glass of wine or two, which then sets up the whole bad cycle. Again, now you're not sleeping well. And when you're not sleeping well, you're actually hungrier. We've all noticed it. And you're more insulin resistant. That is a very bad combination because when you're hungrier, and I always say you're not hungrier for salmon, right? You're hungrier for those carbs. And now you're more insulin resistant. That means you're better at storing those carbs as fat. So again, you don't need less sleep as you age. It is just as important, I'd say argue even more important, because this is when we're really working on all of that recovering, rebuilding. We don't want to be breaking down more than we're building up. So focus on prioritizing your sleep. That's step one. All right, let's talk about all of the components that go into having you have a great night's sleep. And by the way, don't get overwhelmed with these. A lot of these are the same components that are going to just make you age powerfully too. So it's a total win win because one of them is making sure that you get enough activity all throughout the day. If you've been listening to my channel, you know that I'm a big proponent of getting that activity and getting those steps in getting that at least 8,000 steps a day, ideally more throughout the day, and then getting in something hard every day, lifting heavy weights, doing some high intensity interval training. So physical activity is super important. Now what I found is that you really want to do the more intense work earlier in the day. It was interesting. I lived in Japan back when I was in my 20s and helped bring aerobics to Japan. And one of the things they had me do was teach an aerobics class at 8 o' clock at night. And no joke, I started going to bed at midnight because I was so keyed up, fired up after that little class that I had to teach. Took a lot of energy and a lot of focus and it was, you know, a lot of, a lot of high vibe. Now, I'm not saying don't do something at night. I'm going to contrast that with don't do some high intensity interval training at night. But what would be fabulous for you to do at night is take a walk after dinner. Because when you take a walk after dinner, you're going to lower the blood sugar response to the meal, but you're also just going to help aid digestion and help prepare your body for sleep. So that's one of the big ones, is physical activity. Next up, beyond physical activity, I want you to think about all the habits that you do throughout the day. I had a friend who you say, you know, your habits dictate your hormones and that's going to really impact your sleep. So let's talk first about caffeine. Because the first thing with caffeine is, remember caffeine. Caffeine can help you, help wake you up, but then it can also keep you up. So what we have to figure out is at what point do you need to cut your caffeine intake off for the day? Generally, you want to think about a 12 hour window between your last cup of coffee and when you're going to bed. So that might mean that at 9am you've had your last cup of coffee. If you are a fast caffeine metabolizer, you can get away with doing it, pushing it a little bit later. I happen to be one of those lucky humans who's a fast caffeine metabolizer and I've tested this now with my Oura ring I can get away with noon. Sometimes I'll even push it to three. Anything after that my sleep is messed up. So learn your body. You can also look at your genetics to see if you're fast caffeine metabolizer. But without that information, assume you're not right and start with cutting it off at 9am and then you can play around and watch with your sleep patterns to see how you do similarly. We've got to think about food. And this is why I'm a big breakfast proponent, because I'd rather see you eat the majority of your calories within the daylight. So, so about two hours after you wake up and stopping eating two to four hours before bed. If you're eating later, remember what's happening is we're getting ready for bed and we're going to facilitate this happening even more. But cortisol comes up in the morning to wake you up and then it's coming down, especially dropping the late afternoon and evening so that melatonin can come up and help you go to sleep. When that is happening, your body's also preparing for sleep as well. Your pancreas is like, oh, I don't really need to be pushing out insulin anymore. So you go eat a big bolus of food before bed now. Now you don't have what you need in order for you to really process that. What you'll find is you wake up in the morning, your sleep was not good and you've got higher fasting blood sugar. So let's make sure we're eating during the daylight hours and not having some big food right before bed. Really make that a rule now? Stop eating two hours before bed. Four hours is better. And add an evening walk in if at all possible. All right, let's address the big elephant in the room and that would be alcohol. I have tested this theory more times than you want to know just to make absolutely sure that alcohol does in fact really mess up sleep. So here's the reality with alcohol is that alcohol is going to interrupt your REM sleep. You'll see it right away, which is then going to impact your ability to get into deep sleep. You'll find that with alcohol you are tired. It's kind of the worst case scenario, right? You're tired, but then you can't really sleep well. You're resting, your heart rate's going to be higher, your body heat's going to be higher as your body's trying to metabolize the toxins from alcohol. So if you are struggling with sleep, alcohol is not your friend. It's not going to make it better. In fact, it's going to make it worse. You will tend to wake up around two in the morning from this. You know, first you'll drink alcohol raises gaba. You're tired, you fall asleep, but you don't get into that deep sleep. You get a little bit of a hypoglycemic kick that will wake you up in the middle of the night. Now you're hot, your heart rate's up and you can't fall back asleep. Then you wake up in the morning, you had a poor night's sleep, you have more coffee than you should. And then that night you're like, I need to fall asleep, I'll just have some wine. And you start this really bad cycle. So my advice on the alcohol front is to do it just like what I've taught in the virgin diet, where you'd pull it out for three to four weeks and then, and watch your sleep because your sleep won't improve overnight necessarily. If you've been drinking a glass or two every night, it might take a little bit of time, but then pull it out and go and have a glass of wine and track your sleep and see what happens. I think you're going to be amazed by that one. So alcohol can be a big issue here. If you are going to drink, drink it earlier rather than later. Let's talk about your actual sleep routine because this really matters. And the first, first thing I'm going to say about this is that you have to actually prioritize sleep and make time for it. What I find for a lot of people is they don't plan, you know, fail to plan, plan to fail. It's the same with sleep. So if you know that you want to be asleep at 10pm, that does not mean you are sliding into bed at 10pm that means that you're starting to prepare for sleep at least an hour before and getting into bed 30 minutes before you want to fall asleep. Now, ideally you're falling asleep sooner than that, like five to 10 minutes after you get in bed. But give yourself that time, that little treasure trove of time. So here's what you want to be doing in the evening. Heat can be amazing. So one of the things that I love to do is either take a hot Epsom salts bath or take a sauna. This can be fabulous because what you're going to be doing is you're going to heat yourself up and then your body is going to jump in and start to work to cool you down. And that actually is assigned your body that we're getting ready for sleep. Alongside that, you want to take the temperature in your room and put it somewhere between 65 and 66, 7 degrees, because then you're going to slide into those cool sheets and get yourself some really great high thread count natural sheets. You're going to slide into those cool sheets. Now, a couple important things in that hour that power down hours, my buddy, the sleep doctor Michael Bruce calls it, you have gotten rid of technology. I don't know about you, but any email that I read after in that power down hour always seems to be the email that I can't do anything about till the morning. And now it's going to keep me up. So no tech. And you've changed the lighting, you've dropped it into more of a red hue. My hack for this is something called a Phillips hue light. We've got those light bulbs in all of our bedroom lights and we can with our iPhone just program it so that in the evening everything goes to red. We dim all the lights in the in the other rooms and then we make our bedroom is now red lights. We've cooled it down dramatically. If you do want to have something, it could be like some sleepy time, you know, some chamomile, some caffeine free tea. If you're hungry, you can have a glass of water. Shuts down your hunger pangs, but you're really doing the things to help prepare you for sleep and you're getting a routine down. I travel all the time. My sleep routine is the same wherever I am because that helps keep me consistent. I take my sleep Candy, which has got five HTP and B6 and L theanine and melatonin. I take it about an hour before I want to go to bed. And that's what I would suggest with melatonin is taking it an hour or more before you want to go to bed because you're really trying to bolster up that melatonin, which means you also need to get the cortisol down. If you're in that wired Stage something like doing a great guided evening meditation or some tapping can be super helpful too. The other thing that I do is I sleep with a sleep mask. Now, I used to only do this when I traveled if I was in a place where there was more lights on, you know, the blinky lights they have in hotel rooms. But now I do it everywhere because it just gives me complete blackout. And that really is important for helping you asleep. I travel with my earplugs too, because you just never know. So I always have those handy. But again, I'm taking a melatonin based supplement, that's what I have in my sleep candy along with inositol, B6L theanine and 5 HTP to help get my body prepared for sleep. I also take extra magnesium in the evening. I take a little in the morning, but I take my biggest dose of magnesium at night because it's very calming. And that's where an Epsom salts bath, which is rich in magnesium, can be super helpful as well. So again, it's really important to have this great sleep routine. I will say one thing too. On the sleep routine, there's two other things that I love. I don't get to do this all the time because sometimes it gets just. It's just too warm in Florida with this, even with the cool air on. But I have a weighted sleep blanket that I love and my dogs love it too. It's from Sunday Citizen and. And it's this crystal weighted blanket. It's amazing. I don't travel with that, obviously because it would take up too much weight in my luggage. But the thing I do travel with is something called an Omnia Glow pillow because I'm obsessed with it. I've actually, I'm on to my third one and keep one at home and I travel with one and of course forgot it the hotel room. But this one helps you not get creases in your skin. So it keeps me in position so that I'm actually able to sleep better and not get kind of funky with my neck. So I love my Omnia Glow sleep pillow. So there's, there's a big plug for Omnia. Literally, I travel with it everywhere I go. So those are some easy things that you can incorporate in. I know they might seem overwhelming as you're hearing about them for the first time, but the reality is these really are simple little things. Pick one at a time and just start to make it your process that you do. Okay, let's bust some myths now. I already said you don't need less sleep as you age. And in fact, what I would argue is we're really working hard here, right? When you want to age powerfully, you're hitting it with your workouts and you need that sleep to recover. That's when you rebuild. So don't think that you can steal from sleep now along the stealing from sleep part of this. And you've heard people say, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I'm like, well, you will be dead sooner if you're not sleeping well. And that's pretty clear what we know with people who don't sleep well. Higher risk of all cause mortality, higher risk of obesity, higher risk of diabetes. So yes, you will be sleeping when you're dead and it will be sooner. So don't do that. You can't steal from sleep. I know we all did this in college and didn't work then, and it's not going to work now either. Where you would like, you know, stay up late studying and think, I'll just catch up on the weekend. But you never really catch up. You're also not one of those short sleepers. I have been doing this 40 plus years and literally in 40 plus years I've met two short sleepers. These are people that can get by with four to five hours a night. Well, like optimal, like that's their optimal. It's something like 1/2% of the entire population. So the reality is it's not me and it's likely not you either. You would have known because this would have been traveled with you your whole entire life. So that means we actually need these seven to nine hours of quality sleep. You know what, you can't hack that. And I hear this all the time, oh, I'm going to hack my sleep. I only need six hours. That's not true. And the long term devastating effects on your health and metabolism are clear on this one. So don't steal from sleep. Don't try to say you'll sleep when you're dead. You've got to set that time aside. And I would argue that you set nine hours aside so that you have time to get in bed and let yourself fall asleep. Here's the goal. The goal is that you get in bed and you fall asleep like five or 10 minutes after getting in bed, right? And that your bed is reserved for sleeping and sex and nothing else. This is not where you are now, watching TV and all the other things. So you get in bed. I always read a good, not great book. That's my rule. Like if I read a great book, I stay up all night. So read a good book, not a great book. One that kind of will put you to sleep. So nothing that's going to invigorate your brain. You should wake up without an alarm clock feeling rested, right? And you really shouldn't have to get up throughout the night. Maybe once you should be able to fall right back asleep. So those are the key things to think about with your sleep. But again, I think the biggest thing is making it a priority, realizing that in the realm of aging powerfully, there are three pillars for a reason. Obviously, nutrition and fuel, critical, movement, critical. But the third critical one is sleep. So make it a priority. All right, so here are a couple common problems and one of them is just this misalignment with your circadian rhythm. Back in the day, I used to work with a lot of rock stars, Broadway artists and then news anchors completely whacked sleep patterns. Think about the rock stars. They would finish a show at around 11 o' clock at night, totally amped up. And literally I had one guy who went to bed at 4 every morning because he'd done that his whole rock star career. I had a Broadway theater actress. They would get done at like 10 o', clock, 11 o' clock from a show and then they'd all go out to dinner. So same thing they'd like all up till 4 in the morning. I also find creative seemed to be doing that. They get up in the morning and then conversely, my anchor people would get up at three in the morning because they had to be on Air at 5 or 5:30 and then they had to go in and prep. And then their body gets used to doing these things. But that does not mean it's optimal. One of the things I like in the aura ring is it shows you like where your natural rhythm and pattern is. I always say go on vacation for a week and let yourself do what you naturally would do. When you start to feel tired that first time, because we've all done it, you're feeling tired, you push through it. Now all of a sudden you've got the second wind. That's not. That is like a big adrenaline wind. That's not a good wind to have, you know. So when you start to feel tired, go to sleep, see what time you wake up and normalize yourself to that circadian rhythm. Now what happens if you're traveling? Because again I mentioned, I travel all the time and quite often I'm flipping time zones. Usually it's in the United States. So it's it's one to three hours. But you know, I'd say a couple times a year I'm going somewhere in Asia or somewhere in Europe and it's now 6 to 12 hours. So what do you do with that? Here's how I handle that. I use a couple tools. One is my chietine creatine HCl product and particularly that form because it crosses the blood brain barrier. We know that creatine helps with sleep deprivation. And so if I notice that I did not have a good night's sleep, like whatever happened, you know, I mean, maybe you're in a hotel and they something happens and you get woken up in the middle of night. If this happens, I double up my creatine the next couple days. That's hugely helpful. And I do the same with jet lag. Now there's research showing that creatine is highly effective with sleep deprivation. The research isn't out yet with jet lag. It was an obvious conclusion that I made. I was like, well, if it can help with sleep deprivation, what's jet lag? And so here's what I do with time zone Adjusting is the minute I get on the plane, I time zone shift my watch so that I'm now operating as if I'm in the new time zone. And I just, that's what it is. So if I'm supposed to be sleeping, I put on my eye mask. If I'm supposed to be awake, I stay awake and I just time zone adjust myself right away to wherever it is. And then when I land, if it's now that I'm supposed to be going to sleep, then I go to sleep. If I'm supposed to be staying awake, I schedule activities that force me to stay awake and I make sure that I'm seeing the sunshine. I use melatonin to help sleep sleep adjust. So if I know I'm getting on a plane, like let's say I'm going to Europe and you know, now it's supposed to be like midnight and I'm getting on the plane, it's 6pm and I need to go to sleep. I'll use some melatonin around five to help. And I'll also watch my caffeine intake earlier that day so that I don't have that issue. And so that is where I will time zone adjust this and be able to start to work through the normal circadian rhythm wherever I am. So wherever you're going, operate as if use sleep candy and use chiatine to help you with that time zone adjusting. And by the way, light is hugely important here as well. We travel with a little Philips hue light so at night in the hotel rooms we can go with it red and change the whole hotel room to red just with one little light. And then during the day I will make sure that I'm seeing the sunlight. So there's easy ways for you to kind of fool your body as you're making the shift. So I'd love to hear from you. Which of these tactics are you using and do you have any that I haven't thought of? Because I'm always looking for great sleep strategies because it's so critical for your health. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips and techniques you can incorporate into everyday life to ensure you look and feel great and are built to last. Check me out on Instagram, Facebook and my website JJ virgin.com and make sure to follow my podcast@subscribetoj.com so you don't miss a single episode. And hey, if you're loving what you hear, don't forget to leave a review. Your reviews make a big difference in helping me reach more incredible women just like you to spread the word about aging powerful after 40. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next episode. Want to listen to the show ad free? Head over to subscribetojay.com and start your ad free experience today. Hey JJ here. And just a reminder that the well Beyond 40 podcast offers health, wellness, fitness and nutritional information that's designed for educational and entertainment purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional. Make sure that you do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your healthcare professional because of something you may have heard on the show or read in our show notes. The use of any information provided or on the show is solely at your own risk. Toyota Thon is on so stop by your local Toyota dealer and test drive a rugged Tacoma or full size Tundra with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers. Visit buy a toyota.com for more Toyota let's go places.

Hello listeners, this is Ann Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I tag all things Books and Reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years, and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And, of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now, wherever you're listening to this podcast, and Visit our website, whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.