The Evening Routine Women Over 40 Need For Maximum Recovery

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Terms at aka.ms/collegepc. The secret to better sleep starts before your head hits the pillow. You don't just fall into great sleep. It's actually something you build hours and hours before you actually go to bed. And if you're over 40 and you're feeling tired, wired, or waking up achy, your evenings may need a total makeover. Hey, it's JJ Virgin here. I'm a nutrition expert, fitness expert, Fitness Hall of Famer, and a warrior for women who want to age powerfully. And I wanna talk about something that's essential for your metabolism, muscle recovery, your hormones, and even your mood. It's deep restorative sleep. Now I'm gonna break down the science behind why your evening routine actually matters. There's all this yakking about morning routines, but what about the nighttime? I'm also gonna share my personal nighttime rituals that prep me for max recovery and next day energy and give you some simple upgrades you can start tonight. And by the way, you can do these anywhere because I literally travel at least half the time. Sleep is the Swiss Army knife of health. When sleep is deficient, there is sickness and disease, and when sleep is abundant, there is vitality and wellness. This is a quote from the king of sleep, and that's Dr. Matthew Walker from Why We Sleep. So let's talk first about sleep myths, and these are sleep myths that could be sabotaging your recovery and your all-day energy. First one: Well, you can just catch up on sleep later. Here's the reality: sleep debt is a real thing. You can't just fix a week's worth of poor sleep with a weekend nap fest. Your body needs the rhythm of regular sleep, not just this random rest. Myth number 2: You can power through with caffeine. But here's the reality: Stimulants disrupt your adrenals, and they can also mess with your melatonin, especially when you do them after noon, right? So that 4 o'clock latte, well, that could be totally stealing your nighttime rest. But I do have a hack for that. Chia tea is amazing when you a little bit of sleep deprivation. That's my Creatine HCL with taurine and magnesium. So we know that creatine can really help the brain if it's a little sleep deprived. So try that instead. Myth number 3: Your sleep is fine if you've been in bed 8 hours. Here's the reality: it's quality over quantity. Recovery happens in deep and REM sleep, not just being horizontal. So here's a little personal mini story. I used to totally crash hard after a long workday, and I used to think, okay, I crashed, it's good, right? And I started tracking my sleep and finding out that my deep sleep really thunk. And so I became obsessive about my evening routine and my evening routine and becoming really hardcore about it at first. Now it's just habit, right? Wherever I am has changed everything for me and can do the same for you. So what's going on with your body at night? What's really happening? A lot of really important things. Number one, you're getting muscle repair, you're getting hormone regulation, especially your growth hormone and your cortisol. You're consolidating your memories. But here's the problem. You probably noticed this. If you're a woman 40+, we have disrupted sleep patterns. Perimenopause really takes a toll on sleep, especially as progesterone goes down, estrogen goes all over the place causing hot flashes. And then add in stress, blood sugar imbalances, and bad evening habits, right? So let's talk about what happens before bed. So what should happen and what is actually happening are probably two very, very different things. What should be happening is in the later in the afternoon, your cortisol starts to come down. Like, if you look at your cortisol rhythm— and it does have a rhythm— and I highly recommend, if you haven't done this yet, to do an adrenal salivary index and watch your cortisol throughout the day. It comes up early morning to wake you up and to put that melatonin back to sleep, right? And to wake up your pancreas to get your insulin back online. So it's waking up, and then in the afternoon it starts to really go down and go down more in the evening so that melatonin can come up. You're starting— the, the lights are getting dark, your pineal gland's getting that, that melatonin released. That's what should be happening. However, what happens when either you have some caffeine later in the day, or you got the lights cranking, or you're looking at the blue lights of your computer? You're basically inhibiting your body's ability to trigger that melatonin release. You're making it a big, big mess. And so what really needs to happen here is we've got to get into a great schedule of what you do. And so I've created some sleep rituals that really are my non-negotiables. And again, I do these wherever I am. And really, your evening routine starts with the morning. So it starts with the morning because in the morning, or earlier in the day, a great workout and getting well hydrated with electrolytes can be an amazing thing for you to do. And I say earlier in the day, and I still think back to when I lived in Japan in my early 20s and I was teaching aerobics. First off, I'm one of those people, I'm a natural morning person. There are night owls and there are early birds. Genetically, I'm an early bird, always have been. I'm living in Japan and I have to teach an aerobics class at 8:00 PM and I teach this aerobics class at 8:00 PM and I get back to my apartment and I am wired, wide awake, and it takes me hours to bring it back down again. And I remember working with, I worked with a couple big rock stars and also some New York stage actresses and they would you know, finish their night at 11 o'clock at night, but after doing really stimulating stuff, and it was a nightmare for them to try to go to sleep. So hopefully you have control of your schedule and you can do the really big stimulating activities earlier in the day and then not do them at night. And so one of those would be doing that great workout. So work out earlier in the day. Ideally, have an early dinner. There is one exception to this rule, but I'll give you a hack for it. Ideally, you're eating 2 to 3 hours before bed, maybe even 4 hours before bed. I find if you do much more than that though, then you're hungry and then you won't sleep, right? And now here's what's really important, and I call it hitting the hormonal winner. I teach people to eat protein plus fiber, and I like the protein-fat-fiber trifecta because it really helps with good blood sugar control, keeps you fuller longer. Those 3 things together, we know the protein and fiber together are great, are like You know, that's how you raise GLP-1. Fat has its own triggers to neuropeptides to tell your brain you're full. So I like that little combo, and it really is hitting that hormonal winner. Like, if you had a big carb hit at dinner and really not much protein or fat, and it was a, you know, processed food one, you probably will find that you're hungry before bed. Most of the time, by the way, we're not hungry before bed. We think we're hungry. We've just trained ourselves. So early dinner, because when we're sleeping, we should not be focusing on digestion, right? And hit a hormonal winner here. Now I said there was an exception. If you are an athlete, I used to work with a lot of professional athletes and they would need a little protein hit before bed, or sometimes they'd have to do that workout at like after dinner, which killed me. What I would do now with that is, if that's you or you're really trying to overcome low muscle mass, is have a hit of Essential Amino Acids, my amino acid powder. Then an evening walk after dinner. This is such a good one. When you do an evening walk after dinner, you're going to get that blood sugar into your muscles. You're get some lymph flow going. It tells your body, we're kind of just digesting and cooling down. And what I like to do after dinner— I don't do this when I'm traveling because I haven't figured out how to hack this with, you know, airplane weight limits. I guess I could put it in my carry-on, but I like to throw on a rucking vest and I just do 10 pounds. So 10 pounds after dinner, a 20 to 30 minute walk, total winner. Another one that you can do is to get into the sauna or to get into a hot bath. Anything that you can do that heats your body up, then your body comes out and starts to cool and you've already lowered the, the room temperature because at least an hour before bed you wanna start doing what my buddy Dr. Michael Breus calls the power down hour. And one of the things is cooling down the room and the ideal temperature is really 65 to 67 degrees. It helps your core body temperature drop naturally, but so does that hot bath or the, um, sauna. So those are other things that you can do that are fantastic. Plus my sunlight and sauna has red lights in it, so it's perfect. The other thing you wanna do, speaking of lights, is lose use the big bright lighting. Overhead lights are off. My husband put in Philips Hue, these amazing lights that you can control with an app on your phone. So in the morning we can say sunlight, daylight, and in the evening we say nighttime, and it all goes to red, right, warmer amber. So we start bringing all the lights down. You want the blue lights off. These are melatonin killers, right? So take off the overhead lights, get off the blue lights. If you are somewhere where you can't control this, then get those biohacking glasses, but get good quality ones like TruRest from my buddy Dave Asprey, because they have to actually work. Don't get some cheap old things on Amazon and think you're good. So we're, we're doing things here now. We're now into the power down. This is the other one, and this requires some discipline. However, every time I break my promise to myself on this one, I am reminded as to why you must do this. Do not read your email before bed. I am sure that you have had the same situation where I did, where you get an email that you can do nothing about till the morning, and now you're going to be ruminating on it all night long. So when you're doing your power down hour, you're powering down. I like to read a good, not great book. That's what I always say, cuz a great book, I'm gonna stay up. Just do calming types of activities. An hour before bed, I'm taking my Sleep Candy. That's my product with, um, 5-HTP and melatonin and theanine because it takes a little while to kick in. And I'm taking magnesium. Sometimes I'll take an Epsom salts bath, sometimes I'll do a sauna, or I walk. I do one of those things, but that's another one that I love to do. So that, and then I have been working on taking a little bit of Essential Aminos before bed. I'm just testing that out to see if it has any, any impact on my skeletal muscle mass. So there's a good one there. And then again, a good but not great book. And what I find there is I can't even read like I can't read a business book. I can't even read a personal development book. It gets me all fired up again thinking about what I wanna do. So I literally read like rom-coms. I admit it. Okay, now let's talk about your bedroom. I will full disclosure tell you I do break one of these rules, but I don't know how to not break it. However, I'm gone half the time, so then I'm fine. So first of all, I always travel with earplugs and an eye mask. Now recently I got turned onto something called Oslo Earplugs. I didn't even know where they came from. They showed up at my house and I'm like, I'm like, what are these? And they're the most amazing white noise earphones. So we'll put the info on the show notes. I'm just exploring those now, but I travel with those all the time so that I don't get into a situation in a hotel room where there's noises. So I always use my earplugs when I travel. Like I'm going to New York tomorrow, you better believe I'm using 'em. And I also travel with an eye mask and I like the Manta, I think it's Mantra eye mask. We'll put that in the show notes too because it's got cups so it doesn't flatten out your eyelashes. But it also is total blackout. Quite often I'll use that at home as well, just depends what's going on. And then I also travel with my pillow. I never thought I'd be the person that traveled with their pillow. I can't believe I'm actually the person that travels with their pillow. However, I got turned on to this Omnia Sleep and Glow pillow, and I've been obsessed with it ever since. And so much so that I have one for travel, one for home, and I even left the travel one in a hotel room and miraculously they couldn't find it. I'm like, yeah, right. It's just, you love the pillow. But it's this amazing pillow that keeps you from making weird creasy faces. And it also puts you in the right spinal position. So I'm kind of obsessed with that and I travel with it. So that's what I've been traveling with is my Oslo earbuds, my eye mask, my Omnia pillow. And at home I have my Omnia pillow too. So at home we start an hour before. I take my magnesium, I take my sleep candy, and then we've got all the lights turned down. We've got the air turned down. And I get in bed somewhere between 9 and 9:30. I always want to be asleep by 10, but generally I'm even happier if I'm asleep by 9:30 because I like to wake up naturally without an alarm. That's one of the signs, you know, you stay asleep throughout the night. If you get up, you get up only once to pee. That's one thing I've had to really have a harsh conversation with myself with because I like a lot of fluids and I was drinking too much right before bed. One glass of water can shut down evening hunger pangs. More than that, you're probably going to get up and So don't do that. When I get in bed, and I do this first thing in the morning as well, so the thing I do before I go fall asleep, and I learned this from Dr. Joe Dispenza on one of his videos, is just this kind of mental check-in of, I am, you know, I am enough. I create my own reality. Everything is perfect. So just think of your own things that you would love to do. Another one is, you know, I am unlimited potential. What are some things that you would love to just reinforce, reinforce, reinforce? So at night before bed, the things you're grateful for. I always love the 3 things you're grateful for, and then those 4 things that you're thinking of that you just want to lock in. Maybe one thing that you're excited about for the, the next day, because I always like to visualize what I know, what I'm thinking about for the next day and what's going to happen. Now, if you're one of those people, and you can find this from adrenal salivary index, that has elevated evening cortisol, I call it the New York effect. What I discovered when I used to see a lot of people one-on-one is that my New York clients seem to have a cortisol curve where they're all of a sudden their cortisol was lower in the morning and higher in the evening and they were tired and wired and couldn't fall asleep. There are some things that can help there like vitamin C and DHEA, but the things that I like the most are either some breathwork, some calming breathwork, not like Wim Hof, um, but like some box breathing, tapping. My buddy Nick Ortner from The Tapping Solution showed me the research that tapping can lower cortisol 27%. Uh, Dr. Joe Dispenza's got a great evening meditation. You find what works for you, but something in the evening there, if you are one of those people who's like, bing, I'm wired, try one of those. I think they're hugely helpful. Now, I do love using my sleep tracker. I did a podcast with Dr. Andy Galpin, who I think is fabulous, and I think he also talked about this on his Perform podcast about sleep trackers and being careful with them. Because I did find that with a sleep tracker, I'd wake up feeling great and my sleep tracker told me I didn't have a good night's sleep. Then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, maybe I don't feel Like, right? So, you know, use them to see what's working, what's not working, but don't let them dictate your day, right? So I think they can be super helpful, but also be careful. Proceed with caution. The other thing to really track is alcohol. This is what made me have to break up with wine. I went from, full disclosure, drinking like 2 glasses of wine a night to going, okay, this is not working, and taking it down to maybe a glass of wine a week, which I found a glass of wine doesn't crush my sleep. But anything over that totally does, which is really, really sad for me. But also, when you look at all the stuff around alcohol and health now, there's really no denying that alcohol is not a health food. We used to make that justification. That's definitely one I've changed my mind on. So I think you're better off without or with very limited— I don't think there's a problem with, you know, a glass or two a week, but I think the glass or two a day, yes. And especially if it impacts your sleep, but it also impacts other things as well. So couple important things here. Your really great evening routine actually starts in the morning, right? Um, so think about the things you need to do throughout the day, like eating well, exercising early, being well hydrated, that are going to really help you in the evening. And then in the evening, think about your food timing, think about doing some light exercise or some heat therapy. And then the biggest thing that I've seen over the years that has been an issue is that people don't prioritize sleep. I've heard it so many times, I'm sure you have too. I'll sleep when I die. I'm like, well, you'll die sooner. Just one poor night's sleep and you are more insulin resistant, you're hungrier, and it's definitely not for salmon, and you're not going to be able to work out as hard. So yes, you will die sooner. So you can either get your great quality sleep, which I think is the most important possible thing we could do for our health— if I had to pick one thing, it would be sleep— or you can have a bunch of health problems. So let's get good sleep. Super duper important. I can't emphasize this If you've got a friend who's telling you that they'll sleep when they die, maybe you could forward this to them. I will tell you, when I met my husband Tim, he was a 5 to 6 hour night sleeper. I'm like, that ain't gonna work. You will hear the myth out there that you only need 6 hours or 6.5 hours, or that I'm a short sleeper. There's 1% of the population that's a short sleeper. It's probably not you. It's definitely not me. And this idea we can sleep 6 hours a night has been refuted over and over and over. Get that quality sleep. Challenge yourself for even a week to do it and see the change that it makes. And then of course, share with your, share with your, uh, your spouse, your partner, or your buddy who's like kind of blown off to sleep, and let's get them sleeping better too. And remember to subscribe if you haven't yet, and I'll see you in the next show. Be sure to join me next time for more tools, tips, and techniques you can use to look and feel your best and on Be Built to Last. Would you prefer an ad-free experience? Join my VIP podcast at subscribe2jj.com for just $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year to unlock uninterrupted ad-free access to all the episodes and insights you love. Also, I'd love to connect with you and hear your thoughts on the podcast. Here's how. First, subscribe to the podcast and leave an honest review. Second, take a screenshot of your review. And third, text it to 813-565-2627. That's 813-565-2627. When you do, I'll reply using my brand new Virtual JJ Virgin. It's my on-demand virtual self built from my books, talks, and years of experience so I can interact with you directly. You'll make my day, and I can't wait to hear from you. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll catch you on the next episode. 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 on the show is solely at your own risk. Struggling with weight loss? Prolon's 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet is a clinically developed nutrition program designed to promote fat loss while protecting lean body mass. 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