MRP Q & A with Dipa - The Healing Power of Sleep and Light [Jan 31, 2025]

Good afternoon. Welcome, Shelly. Welcome, Dan. Great to see you all. Welcome, welcome. We're just gonna wait for a few minutes for the rest of our friends to join, but in the meantime, I'd love if you could share in the chat. What is your. What are you grateful for today? Let me know what you're grateful for today in the chat. We're just going to put a quick reminder that we've started. Sa, Sam. Hey. Welcome, Adrian. Welcome, Christina. Welcome, Sanu. As you're tuning in, let me know in the chat what you're grateful for today. So Dan says, I'm grateful for having a loving relationship and family life that helps me thrive in my business. That's amazing. So important. Shelly says I'm grateful for my coach, Alice. We had a wonderful session together yesterday. Awesome. Yeah, Alice is amazing. And if you could turn your cameras on, that would be great. So I could see your lovely faces. I know some of you drive or, you know, in meetings or on lunch while you're joining this meeting, but if you can turn your camera on, that would be great. Adrian says, I'm grateful it's Friday and for the nourishing food that I've prepared for today. Awesome. Glad to hear that, Adrian. Thank you, Sa. Okay, so we are going to talk a little bit about the healing power of sleep and light today. And then once we do that, we will have a general Q A for any of you that have questions. Okay, so let me go ahead and pause the music because there is a lot to cover. Typically, I do, you know, start the session with gratitude and then some breath work. But I do have a lot to cover today. So if we have time at the end, maybe we'll do some breathing and breath work. But we're going to jump right into the presentation today, and then we'll do the Q and A. And then, like I said, if we have time at the end, we'll do the breath. Okay, give me a second. I'm going to share my screen, And if you have questions as I'm sharing this, then feel free to put them in the chat and then we can take questions after as well. Okay. Okay. Can everyone see my screen? Yep. Okay, awesome. So today we're going to be talking about the healing power of sleep and light. And you know, how it's such an important part of your healing journey, especially for your body, your mind, your soul. It really is integral to good health. Okay. So don't want you to take sleep lightly and also light lightly. Really want you to as you're going through this Program. I know we talk a lot about nutrition, but also want you to really heavily focus on your sleep and some of those other aspects of your lifestyle as well. So firstly, you know, we're just going to briefly cover why sleep is so important to your health. So you spend about a third of your life sleeping. Not sure if you knew that or not, but that's qu. A bit of time. Right? So we spend quite a bit of time, you know, sleeping. Like I said, a third of our life. When we're sleeping, it's a time when our bodies restore themselves. Okay. It's a time for repair, regeneration, restoration. When you're sleeping, your brain undergoes some deep detoxification. So really, you know, there's a, there's something called the glymphatic system. And the glymphatic system is located in the brain and that's where your brain gets rid of a lot of toxins, specifically while you're sleeping. Okay. It also, you know, when you get a good night's sleep, you're going to have better mental focus and function as well. Okay. As I said, brain gets rid of a lot of toxic byproducts while sleeping. So, you know, we really want to make sure we're prioritizing good quality sleep. Sleep also helps with weight loss and metabolism, which we'll talk about in the coming slides. And sleep also keeps your immune system strong. Right. You might notice sometimes during the holidays when there's late nights you're not getting as good sleep, you might find that you are more prone to getting some sort of illness. Right? Right. So sleep is very, very important for immune system as well. And it also helps keep your hormones balanced. Okay. So a lot of the times when it comes to hormonal imbalances or even brain function, or even weight and metabolism, sleep really is one of those key pillars in terms of optimizing all of those areas. Okay, so objectives for today, we're going to cover why sleep is, is essential. So the, the, we're going to cover the four pillars of sleep. We're going to identify common sleep disruptors. We're going to talk about how you can implement natural sleep enhancing strategies, how you can use light to support your circadian rhythm, how you can modify your environment for optimal sleep. And we'll talk a little bit about sleep tracking, some apps that you can use, and perhaps even in some cases supplements for some of you to optimize your slee as well. So once again, you know, sleep is super essential because it restores your body, boosts brain Function regulates emotions, right? You might notice that there might be times where you may not have gotten enough sleep and you might be a little more irritable, right? You might be more snappy with your kids or your spouse. So it's really important with regulating your emotions, helping you feel calm and centered, help support growth and development, help support healthy metabolism and weight, as I mentioned, and it also improves long term health as well. Okay, so sleep, lack of sleep is really a key contributor to chronic diseases. So we really want to make sure that we're providing, providing ourselves with the right quality of sleep. So when we're sleeping, it allows the body to repair and regenerate our cells, our tissues, our muscles, helps maintain physical, help support immune health and overall well being. Sleep enhances cognitive function. So memory is going to be better when you get adequate amount of sleep and quality of sleep, concentration, problem solving and decision making is going to be better. You're going to be able to consolidate your memories better. Especially when you're able to clear out those toxins from your brain and help keep it sharp. Getting enough sleep helps maintain emotional balance. Lack of sleep can lead to irritability, mood swings, increase stress levels. And while proper sleep, you know, really helps stabilize our emotions and keep us more resilient in terms of growth and development, especially for children, adolescents, sleep is super important for growth and development. During sleep, our body releases growth hormones which aids in the physical development and tissue repair as well. As I said, sleep supports healthy metabolism and weight because it regulates hunger and appetite hormones. It improves insulin sensitivity, supports energy balance, helps with fat burning, promotes muscle repair as well. Okay. And we know that chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to various health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, diabetes, obesity, weakened immune function as well. Okay. So we really want to make sure that we're getting adequate sleep to prevent these types of conditions. So when it comes to sleep, there really are four main pillars that we want to focus on. We want to focus on quantity, quality, consistency and timing. So quantity of, you know, pretty self explanatory. How many hours of sleep are you getting? Most people need seven to nine hours of sleep each day. If we don't get the right amount of sleep, as I said, our hunger and appetite hormones are going to be dysregulated. We're going to end up eating more food, approximately 350more calories per day if we don't get enough sleep. And of course, you know, that's going to, we're going to end up gravitating towards eating more carbs and processed Foods, we're going to feel less satiated, more hungry, when we don't get enough quantity as well. Okay. And it's also the, the research has also shown that the shorter your sleep, the shorter your lifespan. Okay. In terms of quality, quality is really dependent on how many times are you awake throughout the night. Okay. Of course we're going to have some nights where we might be tossing and turning. Maybe we have something in our mind, maybe we have some stressor that's come up. But it's really determined around what we call sleep efficiency. Okay. So we want the total time that you're sleeping versus the amount of time in your bed to be greater than 80%. So if you have an aura ring, when you go to the sleep tab, in your aura ring there is a measurement for sleep efficiency. And so we, like I said, you want to see that greater than 80%. Ideally I would say 85 to 90%. Okay. Next is regularity or consistency. So you want to keep your wake time and sleep time as consistent as possible, plus or minus 30 minutes. Okay. I know obviously there are times where you might have a social engagement or social event that may not keep it consistent for that one night. But even on weekends, if you're not going out anywhere, you want to try to still keep that sleep time as consistent as possible. Okay. Regularity really helps decrease your risk of mortality. Okay. So it is very important to focus on regularity and consistency along with the quantity. Right. So you might be getting seven to nine hours, but if you're going to bed at, you know, some days 10pm and some days 12 and some days 11 and some days 1. Like it doesn't, you know, all four of these pillars have to be in place. Okay. And lastly is timing. So there is something called a chronotype. And I'm not going to get too much into detail in this. If you do have a aura ring, once again, if you've been wearing it for a while, then it is going to kind of give you what your chronotype is. So when you go to, at the very bottom, you see today, vitals, My health. When you go to my health, it should tell you what your, if you scroll down, it'll tell you what your chronotype is. So for me, for example, I'm a late morning type. So you know, early morning type would be someone who gets up at like 5 or 6 later. Morning type is someone who gets up maybe around 7ish. Okay. So basically, you know, there's, there's morning types, there's night Types, there's neutral types, there's early morning types and. But generally speaking, I would say that ideal bedtime is anywhere from about 10 a 10pm to 6am okay. And I'll talk about that a little later because yes, there may be different chronotypes, but we also want to keep the sun and the light. Right. Part of this talk is sleep and light into consideration. Right. We biologically are circadian beings, which means that our body clock is aligned with the sun. So we want to try to stick to something similar to that as possible in terms of when the sun sets and rises. Okay. So there are some people that are going to be tend to wake up a little earlier. There are some people that are going to be more like night types. Right. It's hard, harder for them to fall asleep a bit earlier. But as, as I said, we don't want to veer too far off of that ten to six time frame. Okay. Our body does the most healing and repair when we get to bed by 10. And I'll talk a little bit about that as well in the coming slides. Okay, so try to reflect on, out of these four pillars, which one do you need to focus on the most? Right. Maybe you need to focus on all four, but choose one and then move on to the next. Right. Maybe you're not getting enough quantity, so focus on that first. Maybe you're not getting enough consistency in terms of your bedtime and wake time. Right. Maybe you might work on that second. So try to think of one area where you need to focus on the most. So in terms of some of the effects of sleep deprivation, we're going to see cognitive impairment, weakened immune system, increased mental health issues, increased risk of chronic health conditions and pain, hormonal imbalances, increased risk of accidents because, you know, it affects our cognitive health and how energized we feel the next day and then dysregulated hunger and appetite. So this here is showing what happens when you get enough sleep, which is, as I said, categorized as seven or more hours versus when you don't get enough sleep, which is less than seven hours. So when you don't get enough sleep, you're, as I said, hunger and appetite hormones are going to be dysregulated. So there's a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is going to increase and when ghrelin increases, it's going to make you feel hungry all the time, no matter what you've eaten. Okay. And when you don't get enough sleep, leptin decrease, decreases and Leptin is our hormone which helps us feel satiated. So if you have low leptin, you're not going to feel satisfied even after eating. Okay. And this can happen with just one night of sleep. Okay? So if out of, you know, those four pillars, I would say if you're not getting enough quantity, then really make sure you're focusing on that first. Okay? So in terms of sleep planning, you know, as I said, plan for, I would say seven to nine hours of sleep. Our ancestors used to sleep nine to 10 hours because there was no modern technology, right? It would get dark outside, there was no tv, there was no phones, and they had really nothing else to do. They would maybe sit around a fire and gather in community and then go to sleep, right? But now with TVs, we can stay up for hours and hours and hours, right? Especially with apps like Netflix, right, Where you can just binge watch TV shows, right? We always tell our son that, like when we watch TV series, like, can we watch the next episode? I'm like, no, because when we were younger, we would have to wait a whole week until the next episode came out, right? So, you know, we gotta restore that delayed gratification as well, right? Once again, keeping sleep time and wake time consistent. You really want to avoid getting to bed after midnight, and I'll talk about that in a little bit here. You want to avoid late afternoon or evening naps as much as possible at some time. You know, sometimes an afternoon or evening nap may be warranted. I know, you know, in Europe, there's, in other parts of the world, there are a lot of countries where, you know, people do nap in the evening or afternoon. But if you are going to do that, you want it to be earlier, right? If it's too late, then it is going to disrupt your sleep, right? So if you are going to take a nap, try to do that around 1, 2 or no later than 3pm I would say you want to finish all your eating three hours before bedtime. So if you eat too close to bedtime, then your body is going to be focused on digesting that food rather than restoring and regenerating, rather than detoxifying your brain. So you might notice that if you eat too close to bed, you might experience some brain fog. Whereas when you don't eat too close to bed, your brain functions better, right? So really make sure you're trying to finish all your eating earlier on. Avoid drinking no more than 4 to 8 ounces of fluid before bed. So if you drink too much fluid before bedtime, Then you know your bladder is going to be full. And for many of you, you may already have issues with waking up frequently to go to go use the bathroom. So really try to limit the fluids. And we'll talk about a few strategies that you can use to decrease nighttime awakenings due to urination. You also want to create a sleep routine, right? So maybe taking a hot bath before bedtime, maybe, you know, reading instead of watching tv, maybe playing a board game with, you know, some low or dim lighting with your kids or your family members, right? So try to create a sleep routine that is going to help you calm down and relax before bed and help you fall asleep more easily. Okay? So this here is, you know, really showing the nature of the circadian rhythms. Okay? And this is just showing two hormones. So in red you can see this is kind of showing us the rhythm of cortisol. So cortisol is, you know, going to peak about 30 to 60 minutes after we wake up, and then it's going to gradually decrease as the night goes on, and then it's going to going to start peaking again as the next day starts. Okay? Melatonin. So these have an inverse relationship. So melatonin, we want it to be low throughout the day and then it's going to start peaking once the sun sets. Okay? And so when we look at this graph here, we can see that from 6pm to 9pm we really want to wind down and start dimming lights. Okay. And time of year is going to matter as well. So of course, in the summertime, the sun sets a lot later, so we might want start dimming lights a little later in the summer. Right. Whereas in the winter, the sun sets a lot earlier. So we want to really make sure we dim lights a lot earlier. And then from 10pm to 2pm is when our body does the most physical repair. So if you're going to bed at midnight, you're missing out on 50% of that physical repair. And then from 2am to 6am our body does the most psychological repair. Okay? So this is why timing is very important. Okay? So if you are going to bed around midnight or even later, one thing that I usually recommend to clients is to shift the bedtime back by about 15 minutes every week or so. So it doesn't feel like such a drastic change to our body, number one. And number two is really focus on getting morning sunlight, which we'll talk a little bit about as we move on here. So, you know, keep shifting that bedtime back 15 minutes every week or so until you get to, you know, around that 10pm range and what you'll find is you're going to be more productive. Right. Many of you might say, well, I have so much to do. Right. But if you get good quality sleep, you're going to be able to function more efficiently the next day and you're still going to be able to get most things done. Right. A lot of the things that we're doing late into the night can wait. Right. Or maybe it's because we have some bad habits where we're watching TV or whatever it might be. Right. So really trying to change those habits is going to be important. And I'm going to share a video in the Facebook group about habit change as well to help many of you with that as well. Okay. Because it is. It is a huge mindset shift. Okay? So let's shift to some sleep disruptors. So some common stimul. Common stimulants are going to be alcohol. So alcohol, of course, in the release phase of this program, you're not drinking any alcohol. If you do drink alcohol, I ideally would recommend avoiding it completely if you can. You know, many people feel like alcohol helps them sleep, but if you have an aura ring, you'll see that it might help you fall asleep because it can cause, you know, some drowsiness at times. But you'll see that REM sleep is compromised, deep sleep is compromised as a result. And so you're not really getting good quality quality sleep. Okay. So if you are going to enjoy a glass of wine, maybe, you know, you only drink at social events, then try to have it a little earlier. I know social events, of course, are in the evening, so it's, you know, a little difficult. But try your best to have it as earlier, early on in the night as possible so it doesn't disrupt your sleep as much. Okay. But like I said, ideally we want to avoid it completely. Okay. You want to avoid caffeine after 2pm so if you drink caffeine after 2pm There are some genetic variances here. So some people are fast metabolizers of caffeine, so they can drink like a cup of coffee right before bedtime. And they, you know, may state that it doesn't really impact their sleep. Some people, they'll drink one cup of coffee and they're wired the whole day. But for most people, general rule of thumb, whether you're fast or slow metabolizer of caffeine, I would say avoid it to after 2pm Some medications and supplements are stimulating, right? So if you are taking for example, B vitamins, you want to take those earlier in the day because B vitamins can be a little stimulating, whereas something like magnesium you can take at nighttime because magnesium has a very calming effect on the body. Okay. And then if you're on any medications, just make sure you talk to your doctor or pharmacist in terms of timing for some of those medications as well. And then another stimulant can be exercise. So I recently got a walking pad and if I don't hit my steps, then, you know, I'm on that walking pad at maybe like 8:00pm, 9:00pm at night. And I've noticed that when I use it too late that it takes a longer time for my resting heart rate on my Oura ring to drop. Okay. So try to complete. And I know it's just, you know, generally speaking it's pretty. I try to walk faster so I can get more steps. So if you're gonna do some walking at later at night, make sure it's a little slower. Okay. But try your best to complete most of your exercise, I would say by like 6pm, especially if it's more intense exercise like resistance training or, you know, more intense cardiovascular training. Another thing that can disrupt sleep is nighttime tension. Right. So anxiety provoking activities. Avoid watching the news before bedtime. Avoid reading stimulating material like newspapers or maybe, you know, you're into like horror novels. Avoid those at nighttime if you feel like it disrupts your sleep. Avoid paying bills at nighttime and try to avoid heated conversations before bedtime. Right. If you do have something to bring up with a family member, maybe, you know, address that earlier on in the day. Okay. So if you do have any troubles with sleep, whether it's falling asleep or staying asleep, we're going to talk a lot about strategies in terms of what you can do to help with troubles with sleep. But you know, a couple of things that you can do is avoid screens. Right. We'll go into that in a little more detail. So read a good neutral book with some red lighting. We'll talk about the lighting in a bit here too. If you are having trouble falling asleep, don't stay in your bed more than 20 to 30 minutes trying to fall asleep because you don't want to create a negative association with your bed and falling asleep. So if it is taking you a long time to fall asleep and this is a pattern that you're noticing that's happening quite frequently, get up and go to a different room. Okay. And then when you do feel tired, maybe you go to a different room. You read for a bit when you start feeling sleepy, then go back to your room. If you awaken early because of light, perhaps you don't have blackout blackout shades. Wear an eye mask. You know, even a little bit of light into the room can really decrease melatonin production. Okay, so make sure you're wearing an eye mask if you don't have blackout shades. For some of you, you have a very busy mind, right? Thoughts are constantly on your mind. You have a hard time shutting down your mind. So what I recommend is a brain dump. So grab a journal and basically keep it by your nightstand and just write down all the things that are coming up for you when it comes to your thoughts. Maybe things that you have to do the next day, get it all out on paper so you're not taking that with you to bed. And then lastly is mouth tape. So mouth tape, you know, we've talked about this before with, with many of you can be very helpful with improving REM sleep, improving deep sleep. So for some of you, if you are in the longevity or legacy program, you would have received a roll of mouth tape. You just have to rip off a small piece, about 2 inches or so, and you just put it vertically over the middle of your mouth like this picture is showing here. So it's not obtrusive in any way. You can still talk, you can still breathe. And basically what the mouth tape is going to do is it's going to decrease nighttime urine awakenings due to urination because it increases a hormone called vasopressin, which is antidiuretic. And as I said, it is going to help improve sleep quality. Okay? So give it a try. If you feel like you have difficulty breathing through your nose, then practice with it throughout the day when you're not on a meeting like this, right? If you're just sitting at your desk or cooking, just try a tiny little piece. Right. For most people, it's more of a mental hurdle that they have to get over. And once you get used to it, you'll find that it's very. You know, I've been mouth taping for over three and a half years, almost four years, and if I don't have my mouth tape, I feel like something's missing. And so. And if you do have a hard time breathing from your nose, then you can use a breathe right strip, which will open up the nasal passages and make it a little easier for you to breathe through your nose while you're sleeping, if you're mouth taping. Okay, so we're going to shift gears a bit and talk about lighting and how it impacts sleep and your health in General. So over 200 years ago, the sun was our main light source. So this was prior to, you know, the invention of the light bulb. You know, mostly our. The sun was our main light source or candlelight. Right. So we, you know, the light bulb is more of a modern invention. Right. Sunlight really keeps our internal clocks in. In sync. So it informs our body of what time of day it is. Okay. So our internal clock is known as our circadian rhythm. Okay. And keeping our body's internal clock in sync with the natural day and night cycle is very important to our health. Okay. Today. So sunlight, what the difference between sunlight and artificial light is that sunlight contains the full spectrum of light. So this includes UV light, it includes infrared light, and it includes the visible light spectrum. Whereas artificial light, such as LEDs and fluorescent bulbs, our phones, our TV screens, disrupt our body's natural biological rhythm. So I'll be showing you a graph later in terms of the difference between natural light versus an LED light bulb or a fluorescent light bulb. So this drastic shift in lighting has impacted our sleep, our metabolism, our mood, and our overall health, including cardiovascular health as well. Okay. So your body has this internal clock. As I said, it's called your circadian rhythm, and it operates on a 24 hour cycle, and it's regulated mainly by light exposure. And so your brain has a master clock. This master clock is called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is located in the hypothalamus. And it receives light signals through the eyes. And this is what determines when we're awake versus when we should be asleep. Okay. Natural sunlight, especially in the morning, the morning light really sets this clock and helps with energy focus, metabolism, and sleep quality. And at night, darkness triggers melatonin. Right. And melatonin is not only important for us to be able to fall asleep and recover from daily stress, but melatonin is our main antioxidant. Okay. It's also known as an anti cancer hormone. So if we don't have enough darkness once the sun sets, we are not going to make adequate melatonin production for sleep and also for antioxidant status. And so super important to really make sure we're trying to have as much darkness as possible. So this is a little visual here. So light, when it comes into the eye, travels to the suprachiasmatic nucleus and it's going to travel to the pineal gland and it's going to inhibit melatonin production, whereas darkness is going to stimulate melatonin production. Okay. So artificial lights, you know, are really going to disrupt sleep. So blue light from screens and LED bulbs, as I said, are going to suppress melatonin, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. Even small amounts of bright light at night, like a phone screen, a night light, or even a TV glow, can disrupt sleep, leading to poor sleep overall, and it's going to increase stress on the body. Okay. We talk a lot about the nervous system as well, right? The parasympathetic versus the sympathetic light is a stressor. Artificial light is a stressor on the body. It is going to drive your body more into the sympathetic state, which is the fight or flight state. So good sleep is, you know, obviously more than just the number of hours of sleep we're getting, but it's also about getting deep, high quality sleep that helps our brain and our body to recover. And light has. Plays a very important role in our ability to get good quality, deep sleep. So this here is showing different light sources. So here we have an LED bulb. So as you can see, an LED bulb has a abnormal amount of blue light in it. Okay. Compact. The compact fluorescent bulbs have these light peaks, right? So I'm going to show you really quickly here. This is what natural daylight exposure looks like in terms of our light, the light spectrum. Right? So warm fluorescent bulbs and even cool fluorescent bulbs are missing out on a lot of these light, this light spectrum, right? They're very isolated peaks of, you know, in. In cool fluorescent bulbs, blue and green, very little orange and red. Okay. Same thing with LEDs. LEDs have more of a complete light spectrum compared to, you know, fluorescent light bulbs, but still are very abnormal in the blue spectrum. Okay. So when we go back here, we can see that an incandescent bulb is a lot more similar to a natural sunset. Right? This is an incandescent bulb. This is a natural sunset. Right. Very similar. So in terms of melatonin suppression, LED bulbs and fluorescent lamps are going to suppress your melatonin by about 80%. Okay. Incandescents are going to be about 40%. And then candle. Candlelight is going to be less than 2%. Okay. So, you know, you really want to be cognizant of the type of light bulbs you have in your home, specifically in the evening and nighttime. Okay. So natural light is full spectrum. It means that it contains all the colors of the rainbow, okay. And it's dynamic, which means that the intensity and the mix of colors changes with the time and day. Okay. So natural light has high Blue content during the day and then high red content in the evenings and even in the morning. Okay. The bright blue rich light signals us to be awake and alert, while soft red rich light tells our bodies it's time to relax and prepare for sleep. So the blue rich bright light of sunny day highlights primary colors. It makes it look very white, very crisp, while the soft light of the sunset accents earth tones and makes our skin glow. Okay. So most artificial light is very static. It's not dynamic. Right. So the intensity of the, that light is, stays the same throughout the day. Right. And it also, the colors don't change. Right. The, the colors are going to be the same throughout the day as well. Okay. So this is why you can see it's very unnatural to our normal or natural light exposure, like being the sun when we are exposed to those type of light bulbs. Okay. So incandescent bulbs are going to be more full spectrum, but you know, they're mostly mimicking the sunset. So incandescents are good for the evening, but they are not necessarily going to make us feel awake and alert. Okay. And the other thing with LEDs is one of the reasons why they save energy is because they flicker. They flicker so quickly that our visual, our eye can't see the flicker, but our nervous system can feel and sense that flickering. And so that flickering is very dysregulating for our nervous system. And it's really going to push us into fight or flight as well. Okay, so this here is just a quick comparison of a CFL LED kind of energy saver bulb. Many people may have these in their homes versus the traditional incandescent bulb. Okay. When one of these breaks, an incandescent bulb, you sweep up the glass, whereas if one of these breaks, there's toxic mercury exposure. You know, you don't want to breathe that in. You want to, you know, remove people and pets from there. You want to shut off any ventilation. You want to wear gloves to remove these bulbs from our home. Right. So they're, they're very toxic. Right. And they really throw off our circadian rhythm just because of the intense amount of blue light. So benefits of natural light exposure. Morning sunlight is key. It helps regulate our hormones, improves our mood and keeps our body's clock running properly. UVB from the sun helps our body produce vitamin D, which is going to support our immune system, bone health and metabolism. And UV A light is going to help lower blood pressure because it helps our body make nitric oxide, which helps dilate the blood vessels and therefore improve circulation as well. And Protect against heart disease. So regular sun exposure throughout the day is going to boost metabolism, regulate appetite, and reduce cravings as well. Okay, so some lighting tips. Limit artificial light. At night, you want to use lamps and not overhead lighting as much as possible in the, in the evening, when we have a lot of overhead lighting, if you think about the sun, the sun during the day shines on us from above. So if we have overhead lighting, our brain thinks that it's daytime, right? When. Whereas when we have lamps, the direction of light shines on our eyes at a different angle. Right. So we want to make sure we're using more lamps and not overhead lighting. You want to use red light bulbs or 2700 Kelvin, ideally incandescent bulbs. So this is what our home looks like in the evening. Everything's red. Okay. My son gets annoyed, but you know, we explain all these benefits to him. And of course there are times where we might need a little bit of non red light. But even then, if it is non red light, we try to keep the light very warm. Okay? That 2700 kelvin is going to be a very warm bulb. Salt lamps and candles are also great alternatives. And as I mentioned, you want to sleep in complete darkness. So sleep with blackout curtains or an eye mask. When it comes to screens, you want to avoid screens one to two hours before bedtime. I would strongly consider getting blue blocking glasses if you are exposed to screens. Who isn't these days? So I think everyone should have a pair of blue blocking glasses. Blue blocking glasses, you know, some of you might have like a blue blocking filter on your regular prescription glasses. That is not a blue blocking, you know, it's not going to block the blue light. Okay. It has to be an orange or a red lens. So as you can see on this graph here, when you wear these orange glasses or these red glasses, rather, it's going to completely eliminate the blue and the green spectrum, which is what decreases the melatonin production. So if you are going to watch TV or be on your phone or a computer, wear the glasses. Okay? You can also download a blue light filter on your computer and phone. So right now, my computer, I have this software, this is the website justgetflux.com and it's completely eliminated the blue light from my screen. Not completely, but it's really softened it. So my screen has a very soft tint to it. Whereas if I have this filter turned off, my screen is very bright. Okay. You can really notice that peak in that blue. And so this is an app that I would highly recommend that you download, it's called the Circadian app and notifies you of the sunrise and sunset and it also notifies you of when UVA rise is peaking and when UVB rise is or UVB is peaking as well. Here in Canada there's, you know, very, there's no UVB this time of, of year because we're so north, it's wintertime. So we don't really, we don't really get any UVB this time of year. And therefore you're not going to be able to produce vitamin D this time of year either. So the key with sun exposure is, you know, you might go to an all inclusive resort like Mexico and you see, you know, someone just bathing in the sun 24 hours a day, right. And the next day they're like a lobster, right. They're completely burnt. So we have to respect the sun, okay. And we have to build what's called a solar callus. Right. So if you are not used to, you know, once again being in Canada in the winter, when it moves into the spring and summer, you have to slowly acclimate to the sun. And one of the best ways to do that is getting UVA light specifically in the morning. So when you get UVA light in the morning, that is going to build your solar callus and make you more tolerant to the sun and then the UVB light, which peaks during the day, specifically around, you know, approximately noonish. So this app will tell you when solar noon is, which means peak uvb, like UVB typically like in the summer here in Canada might be anywhere from like 10 to like let's say three. That's going to be the optimal time for you to produce vitamin D. And so there's another app which I'll talk about in a minute here called D Minder, which is going to allow you to get safe sun exposure to really make sure you're maximizing that vitamin D production. So this Circadian app also looks at the ideal sleep, eating and fasting window, exercise and peak cognition window based on the circadian rhythm. And it's all research based. So if you get the premium version of it, there's, you know, a learning center which goes into each of these things in a lot of detail. Everything's researched and referenced as well. Okay, so the dminder app, so I just took the screenshot today. As you can see, the UV index is only 2. So you know, if this was in the summer, it would have had a little button here that I could press. Especially if it was, you know, when the UVB window was available that says start sun exposure. So let's say on a summer day I go outside at 11am and I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt. So you can, on this Dminder app, you can input your skin tone, right? So there's something called the Fitzpatrick scale, which allows you to determine what your skin tone is and then it allows you to input how much skin is exposed. So if I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt, that would be about 50% of my skin is exposed. And then I would hit start sun exposure and it would tell me how much vitamin D approximately. You know, of course cloud coverage can play a little bit of a role. So based on my skin tone, based on the time of day and based on how much skin is exposed and where I live, it's going to tell me how much vitamin D I'm producing and then it's going to tell me, okay, that's enough. Get some shade, right? Or go inside or wear some protective clothing. Okay, so like I said, we have to respect the sun, right? If we, like I said, go to Mexico and spend all day outside in the sun, that is not safe sun exposure, right? You're actually going to cause you, you know, DNA damage, skin damage. And so you want to make sure you're getting the right amount. And like I said, you have to acclimate to the sun. Okay. Sleep and your environment. So. Okay, one second. I did want to just cover one more thing about, so one other thing about UVA light and UVB light. So UVA is the most abundant type of light and sunlight, it's very protective against early malignancy and it's anti inflammatory, as I said. It also helps with heart protection. And you need to gradually increase sun exposure over time and get red and infrared light to build up a solar callus before you do midday sun exposure, especially if you have light skin. So the lighter your skin, the less melanin there is in your skin and the more, the less amount of time you're going to need in the sun to get your vitamin D. Whereas someone like me, who's a bit darker skin, I'm going to need more time in the sun because I have more melanin, which is protective against the sun. So for me to get vitamin D exposure versus someone who's like a one on the Fitzpatrick scale, I might need double the amount of time. UVA also protects against oxidative stress and it's very medicinal. Okay. The hospitals back in the day, they used to have like a roof where People could go tanning and get sun exposure because, you know, the sun, there's many studies that show that it can help with bacteria and viruses. As I said, it's a potent stimulator of nitric oxide. So a lot of different benefits to getting sun exposure. Okay, so when it comes to sleeping in your environment, noise is something you want to take into consideration. So decreasing irritating noises in your space, you know, earplugs can be great. Or even using a white noise generator. Some people are more sensitive to noise than others. I personally am. You might even consider getting a HEPA air filter, which will create a white noise and also filter your air. And then you also want to turn off any appliances or clocks that make noise. And cell phones, right? Get the cell phones out of the bedroom, okay? Especially if you have notifications turned on. You want to make sure you turn those off so that all that dinging doesn't wake you up. So this is the air filter that we use. It's called an air doctor. It keeps your bedroom air clean. You can even open your window a tiny crack. Even though it's been really cold here, we still open our window a very, very tiny little crack just to get some fresh air in. And also helps cool the room. Right? We'll talk about temperature here in a second. But you want to sleep in a cool temperature. You want to get your vents cleaned every year. Make sure you check for mold. If you are suspecting any mold in your home, especially your bedroom, make sure your nose is not blocked. So the breathe right strips can be really helpful here in terms of getting, you know, proper oxygenation. And you can even add air filtering plants to your bedroom as well. Okay? So when it comes to temperature, you don't want it to be no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Optimal temperature for sleep is between 60 to 68 Fahrenheit. Okay? So if you crack your window open a tiny bit, especially this time of year, it will get pretty cool, which is going to help decrease your core body temperature, which matches what your body should be doing at nighttime. It should decrease its core body temperature and help you get better sleep as well, especially with that sleep efficiency. If you're very restless, you know, cooling the room down can really help with decreasing that restlessness. Environmental issues, avoid sleeping near electric fields. EMFs can disrupt melatonin production. So really making sure that we keep our phones out of our room. We want to turn off WI Fi when we're sleeping as well. And also if you wear an Apple watch or any type of Tracker, which doesn't allow you to put it in airplane mode. I would say to not wear it at night. You may also want to consider turning the Bluetooth off on your phone so that it's not constantly pinging as well. Bedding and pillows. Use a side sleeper pillow under your neck when sleeping, especially if you're a side sleeper. Or you can even get a knee pillow, which helps keep your spine, back and shoulders aligned. Okay. You want to consider getting organic pillows, organic bed sheets, even your mattress. You know, if you're in the market for a new mattress, you want to consider a organic mattress. Latex mattresses are great. And then sheets. This is a very easy swap. You want to check the material of your sheets. So ideal material is linen. Next I would say is cotton. And definitely you do not want to use synthetic materials like polyester. Polyester can create a lot of positive charge and can create restless leg syndrome. Okay. So you want to make sure that you're using a material. I had a client who had restless legs. I suggested she switch to linen sheets and her restless leg went away. Okay. Supplements can be necessary for some people. Ideally, I always recommend that you dial in the lifestyle aspects first. But if you're really struggling with sleep, you can try supplementation temporarily. Melatonin can help for some people. Magnesium can really be helpful for, you know, calming the brain and relaxation. Calming herbs or calming teas can help. And really establishing an evening routine or nighttime routine can be helpful. So we talked about this a little bit, but just to reiterate, getting sunlight exposure in the morning, right. It's not always all about what we do right before bed during the day is equally as important. Okay. This is going to help regulate your circadian rhythm. And then if you can, noon and afternoon can be really helpful as well. Exercise earlier in the day and try to drink most of your liquids earlier in the day as well. Okay. And then lastly, we have the Oura ring. Some of you have the Oura Ring. It's a great tool for tracking sleep measures, your deep sleep, light sleep, and REM sleep. Sleep measures heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and helps bring more awareness to your sleep schedule. We do have a whole module on the Oura Ring, so if you want more information on it, I would suggest reading, listening to the Oura Ring module. But I think the nice thing about the Oura ring is it's kind of like an accountability partner and it really helps shift behavior change. So that's all I got for you today. So let me know if you guys have questions I'm not sure if anything came in the chat. I know we're kind of at the top of the hour. I told, I did mention I had a lot to cover. But I do want to answer any questions, if any of you have any that are pressing here. So if you have a question, you can unmute yourself. Or you can type it in the chat. Yeah. Many of you may know a lot of this information, but sometimes we forget or we, you know, need just a reminder. Right. Like, oh, that red light bulb, I should maybe take it out of the packaging and use it. Right. So, so if you're not doing some of these things, maybe you've. You're doing a lot of it. And there's, you know, with, with, with health, we always layer things on. Right. And try to habit stack as much as possible. And a lot of these things are quite passive. Okay, so recommendations for specific light bulbs to get that whole. Yeah, so the light bulbs that we recommend are. Put the link in the chat. And this link here that I'm putting also has full spectrum bulbs as well for daytime. So you can use that link. And there's red light bulbs. There's like I said, full spectrum as well. Hey, any other questions? So the. So Tara saying the LED bulbs that you can change color. So those are, those are good as well. The only thing with that is it's still LEDs still flicker. So we do have them in certain places in our home where, you know, you can't always have a red light bulb and it's kind of annoying to switch it out. But these are the ones. Let me just show you. Okay. Should be able to unmute yourselves now. So these here are LEDs. And you can change. Change the light, change the col. Any other questions? Okay, I put red light night, red light night lights in our bathroom so if we wake up to use the restroom, we are not blinded by. Yes. Yeah, that's a great, great little hack. Or even you can even get these. They're kind of cute. We have this, these in one of our bathrooms. There's this like a little salt lamp night light, which can be great in the bathroom too. Christina, you can unmute now. I don't know why it's not allowing you to. Now I can. Yeah. Hi, diva, I'm Chris. How are you? Good, good. Thank you so much. This is my first one here. I've just recently joined. So, yeah, still waiting to. To get started with everything. Amazing. Well, I'm glad you joined. So, yeah, we're super excited to have you on board. Thank you. Yes, you're very welcome. So, yeah, we do these every Friday. This one was a little longer, but typically, you know, we'll. We'll do some, you know, breathing and. And then we'll do some teaching and Q A, so. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Well, have a great rest of the day, everyone, and we'll see you next Friday. Bye, everyone.