Sleep educator Julie Wright explains how quality sleep boosts productivity and creativity, citing $411 billion in annual U.S. losses from sleep deprivation. She shares practical strategies: finding your chronotype, the 4-7-8 breathing technique, and sound therapies like binaural beats and ASMR.
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Hello, hello, hello! I'm back here, I promise. I just forgot to hit the button, so here I am. Welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. Yeah, I'm producing this thing all myself, and I did get enough sleep last night, I promise. I'm actually a really good sleeper, but we're gonna dig into making sleep your superpower because the more sleep you have, the more efficient you are, the more productive you are, and you know, you can make the best use of your time. That is not wasted time while you're getting some shut-eye. It's actually really, really great. And we're going to talk to a new author, Julie Wright. She'll be joining me in just a moment to talk about her new book, The Natural Sleeper. And, uh, you know, I, I'm always interested in ways to get better sleep, how to, uh, you know, optimize the hours that we're using in our day, even if some of those are with our eyes closed. So we'll be digging into that. And I do have a freebie for you if you're into lists. I'm your girl. Go to paularizzo.com/list. I do have a checklist there for you. It's a starter kit, um, that you can check out to be able to get more done and be more efficient and organized with your time. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor, and, uh, this is actually super cool. A bunch of my courses are now on Delta flights and also on JetBlue. Someone just told me today that this course is on JetBlue, and that's where she saw me. But if you go to PaulaRizzo.com/LinkedIn, you'll be able to take all of my classes on list-making, note-taking, how to have a better remote office, how to set boundaries. There's so many there. And it's been a pleasure to work with LinkedIn to create those. So absolutely, you know, check those out. I'm psyched about that. And throughout the broadcast, at any point, if you have questions, leave them below. Share this with your friends or, you know, whoever it is that you think needs some sleep. Uh, who are the people who are complaining that they don't get enough sleep? A whole bunch of people are saying hi, welcome, uh, glad to see you all here. So absolutely, if you're watching the live broadcast, ask your questions live. And if you're watching the replay, put questions below too because we're going to answer them as well. So absolutely do that for us. So I'm going to bring on my guest right now to say hello and talk all about sleep being your superpower. How are you? Nice to see you.
Hi, Paula Rizzo. Great to be here. Hi, everyone. Good to meet you.
I love that you're here. Yes, I actually don't even know how I found you. I think I found you on social media, but I was thrilled to see you, Julie, and your new book, The Natural Sleeper. So why don't you give us a little background? How did you become this sleep guru?
Okay, I'm not going to call myself a guru, if that's okay. I like to call myself a sleep ambassador, a sleep educator. A purveyor of sleep solutions. I'm really here to make the link between people who struggle with sleep issues and people who can help them. And sometimes it's even me who can help them. But really, there are so many solutions and options available. I mean, you have to start with the basics when it comes to basic sleep tips. And I'm sure we'll talk about that a little later. But it's worth exploring everything that's available and see what works for you because I really believe that your journey is a, it's a, it's, you know, it's a personal journey. And I think you have to flock towards what makes sense to you, what feels natural to you. And that's how I came about to writing The Natural Sleeper. I just want to grab the book just because I want to show it.
Sure.
Of course. I'm not sure if it's reading. I think it's in the right, you know.
Yes, it looks good.
Yeah. So it's illustrated. Um, you know, there's lots of options. It's a couple hundred pages with ideas on how to sleep naturally and support your natural sleep-wake process.
But how did you come to be a sleep expert?
This is the original question. Yeah, totally. Let me put this down. Yeah. So, I mean, I really come from a place of personal knowledge on sleep deprivation and issues because I was the best sleeper you could imagine. And one day, I stopped sleeping well. And not only that, it just continued on and on for years and years. And after a while, I thought, really, I need to do something about it because I saw it impact my life at work, in relationships, in terms of my physical performance, my motivation. And I could really see that I was not the same person. And it even impacted my mental health. You know, I just didn't feel as good, you know. So of course, I ran to the doctor and got my, you know, my prescription for sleeping pills, which I wasn't too happy about that. I'm like, all right, let me try it. And, and unfortunately, I had adverse reactions. It just didn't work for me. Either some would make me feel too groggy, and others would just have the opposite effect of making me super hyper. And it was awful. Like, it was just a really bad experience. So I started exploring a number of options. And really, this is how I came to write— writing the book.
Yeah.
And eventually, I wanted to share that knowledge. So I started organizing workshops, you know, on the topic of sleep improvement. And, and then slowly businesses and corporations started noticing what I was doing and wanted to bring us in to educate employees about sleep and about how to improve it because they saw the impact that sleep deprivation had practically in the office, you know, in the place, in the workplace, on their performance and productivity, which is what we're here to talk about today.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it is really important to note that a lot of times people don't realize what is happening when they're sleep deprived because they're so used to operating at that level, right? That you go through your day sort of half— not half asleep, I mean, you're still doing things, but you don't realize you're not tapped into yourself enough to notice the difference between the days you have a real quality sleep and the days that you don't. What are you able to do? What are you not able to do? So I invite the people who are watching this right now to just watch yourself, to really notice and see what is the difference, what can I feel? Because I notice it. I am, you know, I'm a pretty good sleeper, but on the days that I don't sleep, I know, I mean, my brain is not functioning at the same, you know, the same caliber as it usually is. So talk to us a little bit about that, about productivity specifically, efficiency, and what lack of sleep will do or not do.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you talked about something that was pretty interesting, is it is that you are at work and you are working and you're there. But what you are is just present. You're not giving your best self, you're not giving your best work. And it's called presenteeism, which is something that HR departments and a lot of companies are working really hard at combating because presenteeism impacts productivity because people are just not working as fast and they're struggling to concentrate in meetings. They're struggling with coming up with creative solutions, strategizing, memorizing, learning even. And that's a big issue. And this is sort of anecdotally, you know that, and you've even noticed this, you know, within yourself, but actually, it's been studied. So there's a particular— there's a report that I really like, and I always refer to that one. It was done by a business school in the UK called the Hult Business School. It's the Ashridge Vicky Coppen Report. And basically, they took about 1,000 professionals and looked at the impact of sleep deprivation on these these professionals. They were all levels, you know, all industries, they sort of looked at it on a wide basis. And then they started, they did a survey and looked at really in hard numbers how this was impacting people. And I have like this tip sheet right here, because I don't remember all the stats. But I'll tell you, you know, you're looking at between 65% to 70% of the 1,000 people surveyed would have issues with being frustrated, struggling, focusing in meetings, struggling to focus on on their, their objectives. They would take longer to complete tasks, finding it harder to even collaborate with colleagues and, you know, just being a bit grumpy and moody.
Sure.
And just didn't feel motivated overall. And they would also find it more difficult to learn and to, to generate new ideas. I talked about creativity earlier, and even understand concepts quickly. So someone might be talking to you at work, but you know, they have to repeat because you just, you just can't really get what they're saying.
Yeah.
And, and also other things like motivating others, you know, being leaders, standing up and trying to motivate the troops is also much harder. That's, that's what was found for the senior, you know, lead leaders and senior executives. So it was really impacting on all areas of work, really. And this has a cost, you know, and this cost both in terms of mental health, but even in productivity has been, you know, it's been looked at specifically in the context of sleep. So there's Rand— Rand did a big piece of research, and they found that sleep deprivation in the US costs every year over $400 billion. And in the UK, over $50 billion. That's what it's costing the economy, because people turn up at work or don't turn up at all, because a lot of absenteeism and sick days. And also people who feel so poorly that after a while they just give up, you know, their job, or they might be made redundant because they haven't given out their best work as a result of sleep deprivation. So that's the lack of productivity.
$400 billion, is that what you said?
Yes, actually, I'll be, I'll be more specific. $411 billion is what was evaluated. That's insane.
I'm writing it down. Yeah, $411 billion. That is— just take that in for a second. That's more money than I can That's a huge amount of money. That's incredible. And one of the things too, yes, it affects everything you mentioned, right? But it's interesting because since I started working for myself as a— I was a TV producer for many years. Now I work for myself as a media trainer and an author and a speaker. And the first change I did was sleeping later when I started working for myself. I said, "You know what? I used to get up at 6:00 or 6:30 so that I could do my yoga and I could meditate and I could do all these things before I'd have to leave to go to work. As soon as I started working for myself, I said, nope, I'm working and I'm, I'm getting rid of the alarm clock and I'm gonna sleep until I wake up. Let's see what happens, you know. So I end up waking up around 7:30, 8 o'clock every day, which, you know, people think is so indulgent. It's the best because I feel so much better. Now I realize not everyone can do that, so what are some ways that people can get more sleep to be able to not rely on, you know, some of the, the pills that people turn to right away? What are some of those ways that we can get a little bit more quality sleep?
Before we talk about the tips for better sleep, I really— you really touched on something that is so important that I feel companies and leaders of businesses should really look into, which is, it's to do with the time that is the best for you to be asleep and awake. It's called the chronotype. What you realize not even knowing is that by waking up a little bit later, you actually would be more productive and you would do more of the things and you would wake up naturally without an alarm, which is what we all should do. You know, back in the ancestral times, you know, cave people didn't have alarm clocks to wake up. They would wake up with light. And we, as human beings, we are diurnal, which means that we're supposed to be active by day and asleep by night for most of us, you know. But There's a spectrum in terms of people being early morning people. And, you know, so the larks, you know, the early bird is what we call them. And then the owls, which are, you know, night people or extreme night owls, which are people who are more active in the later hours of the evening, you know, and what's important is to figure out what your chronotype is. And there are tests online that are available that can help you define that, you know, it asks a number of questions, and then it tells you what you're likely to be.
And that is a tip. That is a first tip is to figure out what your chronotype is.
So figure out— that's true. Figure out what your chronotype is. Yeah. And then, of course, it's also figuring out the amount of work— not work, actually work too, but the amount of sleep that you require, because it's also— this is also genetically defined, as is the chronotype. We all need different length of sleep duration, in other words. So the range goes from 4 hours to 10. Most people are between 7 and 8 hours. But the best is to figure out what's best you know, in terms of what you need. And ideally, you should be able to go to bed when you feel sleepy and your eyes are just starting to, you know, water and twitch.
Yeah.
And then you should wake up naturally without an alarm and preferably with, you know, morning light. It would be ideal. And then, you know, if you do this on a regular basis, so usually if you have no stimulation like evening television or even bright lights in the evening, A good time to try that is to do this when you're on holiday perhaps, and when you don't have pressure from work or anything specific to do, and just see what happens with your body, how it naturally falls into a cyclical pattern of waking up and falling asleep. So then you'll know your duration and also the best time for you to be asleep. So that's definitely the first thing to identify. Yeah.
And then also— And it makes a difference too where you are in your life. I've noticed that. Yes. At different points of your life, you may need more sleep or less sleep. You may change, maybe you're not going to completely change your chronotype, but you know, you might be a little bit more interested in waking up earlier versus later or whatever it is. So this can change over the course of your life. This is not something that, right, will always stay with you because I know that to be true for myself.
For yourself. So you can adjust, but your chronotype defines those things. And this doesn't change because it's part of your genetic heritage. So it doesn't change. What you can do is adapt and you can shift specifically by using light, you know, as a way to shift your circadian rhythm and your patterns to be able to do that. But honestly, it doesn't really change. Your nature is your nature. You can alter and push yourself in one way or another, but it won't be your sort of natural self, you know, doing that. So it's just— but one thing about age, though, that you said that is important to talk about is the fact that with age, the quality of our sleep becomes worse. But it doesn't mean that we need less sleep. You know, we need just as much sleep in our adult age, whether we're in our 20s or 30s or whether we're in our 80s. It's just that the quality of our sleep becomes worse. And specifically, we spend less time in deep sleep, which is the stage where we grow, regenerate cells. And it's just a very important process to recuperate and sort of repair and heal the body and grow the body as well. So that's something that we we have less of. And as a result, we struggle more as we get older. And therefore, we start relying on naps during the day, which is why often you'll find, you know, the elderly, you know, and people who are more mature age would be, you know, sleeping a lot during the day. But it's not because they need to sleep more or less. It's the same, but the quality of their sleep changes with age.
Yes, I see. Got it. Well, look, you know, I've spent a large part of my career as a, as a health producer. So I produce lots of health and wellness client, uh, you know, um, uh, segments through the years. I've done tons of stuff on sleep, and, you know, I know all the good tips, right? You should be sleeping in a cold, dark room, you know, cool, dark room. You should wear an eye mask. You should have earplugs if you want to. You should have a nighttime turn-down routine. You should read before bed. You shouldn't use your screens. You know, you should drink tea, something like that. You know, these are all things that people are told to do. They don't necessarily do all the time. I do it because I know that it works. But what are some of the more unconventional ways that we can naturally get to sleep that will be able to help us then stay asleep?
Yes. I mean, it's interesting with that because it's true that sleeping, it's a natural process and it's not rocket science, you know, and everything you said makes sense. And it's about recreating a quiet, dark, cool, like you said, you know, just good ventilation, being comfortable in your bed, feeling safe as well. So safety is really important, you know, and also managing any sort of mental health, sort of depression and anxiety will impact on your sleep as well. I mean, this is kind of why I started exploring and finding solutions. So in the book, you know, in The Natural Sleeper, it's a couple of hundred pages of all sorts of things you can explore. What I find for myself is that it's a combination of what you described, which is sleep hygiene, you know, so it's— that's what it's called, which is the, you know, the basic things that you do to recreate or to create a good bedroom or sleep and lifestyle environment that supports good sleep. But I also found that it helped me to explore other things. And as far as I'm concerned, I do the same as what you described, but I add on to these things that work for me. And it might be different for different people. For some people, meditation and mindfulness is really helpful. For other people, breathwork. And for me as well, I mean, I find all the breathing techniques especially around calming the central nervous system, specifically the parasympathetic nervous system, are really efficient. There's a particular technique called the 4-7-8, which consists in breathing in 4, hold for 7, breathe out for 7. I actually teach that, you know, in our workshops and webinars and get people to do it and they feel the instant effect of it because all of a sudden your system, your nervous system switches from active to relaxed. And if you do this while you're in bed, you eventually and fall asleep. So breathwork is becoming much more popular now. Yes, um, for sure.
Let's, let's go through that one time. Yeah, slowly, because you said it real fast and I know it because I also teach it too for people who are trying to feel more comfortable being on camera or right before they're gonna go into, you know, a situation where they're, they're feeling kind of nervous about it. It's a great tool. Uh, I stole it from Dr. Andrew Weil, um, but it works. Is that where— yes. Yes, he definitely is, you know, a good one at this. But walk us through exactly what you mean. So it's 4-7-8, right? Is that what you said?
All right. So it's called controlled— it's also called controlled abdominal breathing. So the difference is breathing with your stomach, your belly versus your chest. So if you put your hand on your chest and the other hand on your belly, you can't see it because of the camera here. And I'm noticing I have the ring light in the camera, so I hope it's not disturbing anyone. Anyway, hand on your chest, other hand on the stomach, and you breathe in pushing your stomach in. So when you breathe in through the nose, and your stomach should inflate but not your chest. So if your chest starts rising, then you're not doing the right thing. It's the belly that should be rising. And then you hold that breath for 7 counts. And then you breathe out slowly for 8 counts, sinking in the stomach towards the spine. So sucking it in like this. So breathe in. 2, 3, 4. Hold for 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And breathe in for 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And you would do this over and over. And you don't have to necessarily keep your hand on your, on your chest. I mean, as long as you have your hand on your stomach and Really, the breath should go straight into the belly, inflate it, and then deflate it. And you do this over and over. That's one, one of the techniques. If you're a yoga practi— not practitioner, but if you practice yoga, you'll be familiar with pranayama also, which is nostril breathing. When you breathe in through a nostril, breathe out through the other, and hold your breath in between. It's a very similar principle. In fact, I think that's where Dr. Well got it from.
I do too.
Yeah. Yes. And so, so that's another one. I'm also a big fan of sound therapy. And I talk— I have a whole chapter in my book about sine sounds, neuroacoustic sounds and psychoacoustic sounds as well. So it's different types of sounds that can help slow down your brainwave and induce relaxation and make you feel calm.
And are there specific sounds that are better than others? Because I know, you know, there's been for years people have like, you know, apps and CDs— CDs, I'm like dating myself— apps that, uh, you know, will give you, you know, the sounds of the, of the rainforest. Or, you know, I really like, um, you know, like white noise. And I, I can't sleep— I'm traveling, I can't— I, I can't go to sleep without it. And, uh, it really is helpful. But are there certain sounds that we should be trying versus others?
I think it's a very personal decision. You know, when I, in the webinars that I give, I do, I expose people to a variety of sounds and ask them to decide what works for them. So white noise is a great noise to mask sound. So if there's a lot of surrounding noise or someone having a party next door, or, you know, say a lot of traffic or, you know, just sudden, you know, sudden noises that are a bit startling, white noise will be really great at covering this up. Other noises like pink noise, which is a variation of white noise, it has just a different— it's just a different— technically speaking, it's different, but it would be a little bit deeper and it's usually, for example, ocean waves crashing on the sand or wind through leaves versus just the rain falling. That would be more like white noise. So nature sounds are— there's a lot of white noise and pink noises within nature. Which is why it works so well. And then you've also got brown noise. So cabin sounds, like who here doesn't fall asleep on a plane? Right? If you wonder why, of course, you've got nothing else to do. But there is something about that cabin sound, which is sort of very deep sounds, which is also sleep-inducing. And this is part of all of this is because either it masks the surrounding noises, or it's got a calming effect. And at times also the brain synchronizes with certain sounds that it hears. It's called brain entrainment and slow down. And the slower your brain waves, the deeper state and relaxed state you are, and eventually you fall asleep. There's also other noises like binaural beats, and you can easily find those by just, uh, you know, typing in Spotify or Google, which are interesting because they sort of supposedly balance your brain, right, by emitting different frequencies and different side of your ears. And that seems to work for some people, but it may not work for others. And so, and there are other sounds, you know, some also ASMR is one that's really popular on the net as well. You probably heard.
I was going to ask you about that, but I literally was just, you totally caught me. I was like Googling it because I couldn't remember what the acronym was. Yes. And so just, could you explain that for people who haven't heard about it?
Yes. I mean, how can I explain that? They're basically, I mean, it's become sort of a phenomenon and it's the idea that certain sounds create such a soothing, almost orgasmic effect to the brain. You know, it's not like a sexual thing, although I think it can be for some people. But it is— it's got— it's, it's, for example, someone whispering. So if someone speaks very slowly or very quietly, you know, like this, and— or crunching certain, uh, maybe soap, or maybe brushing hair, or brushing a piece of fabric. So it makes a certain type of sound that is very soothing for some people, soothing enough that eventually they will fall asleep. And so there is science behind all of it. Mostly, they're just very pleasing, calming sounds for most people. And that's become very popular as well. So my point is just pick what works for you. I'm also a big fan of other, you know, natural therapies like Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, aromatherapy, herbal remedies as well. Like, it's a whole list. And even certain types of exercise I feel are more, you know, supportive of getting a good night's sleep as well. So this is why I did the book, you know, so I could just put it all in there. It's everything I know that I've tried that is worth exploring. I also think technology has a role to play, you know, as long as you don't become addicted to it and dependent on technology. I think that technology can help, you know, and just, just figure out again what works for you. It could be an app, it could be a mattress that can, you know, adjust to your body temperature if you start feeling too hot, you know, in your bed. It might work for you. A lot of people are using trackable, you know, sort of wearable, uh, tracking devices, and those are not 100% accurate, but at least it's not taking a sleeping pill. If it gives you information without you obsessing over that information, I say, sure, do it, but just don't become, uh, competitive about it or upset, you know, if you're not getting the stats that you'd like to see on there, right? You know, it's a good indicator.
The gaming is good until it's bad, right? Because then it's like, it's going to keep you awake, you're going to be nervous about the fact that you didn't get enough points for sleeping last night. Like, that's the opposite of what we want to happen here. Um, one of the things that you said that, that that sparked my interest was about certain types of exercise that promote sleep more than others. And, you know, the reason I ask, it's kind of selfishly. My husband is a terrible sleeper. I am like, I love— I'm— I get my sleep. I wake up in the morning, I'm like, oh, I feel great. And he's been up for like 2 hours, like didn't sleep, you know. Um, are there certain exercises that are better to get you to sleep? Because like yesterday he went and he played golf, and I figured, oh, he's gonna be knocked out.
Nope, that didn't work. Well, you know, sleep is such a complex process that there's many reasons why you might not be sleeping. And it might be you might be doing all the right things. I mean, so many of the chronic insomniacs actually doing all the sleep hygiene tips that, you know, you talked about earlier, right, doing all the right things and still can't sleep. For some people, it has to do with what's on your mind. And there is, you know, there's a number of different approaches you can, you can do to prepare your mind for sleep and manage your mind if you wake up in the middle of the night. But coming back to exercise, though, the idea with exercise is that it shouldn't be too intense too close to bedtime. So meaning, I don't know, I don't know if golf qualifies as an intense workout. You know, I was thinking more of things like spinning or, you know, just running, but fast, you know, sort of competitive running, things like that. So it should be really, you should really stop perhaps 4 or 5 hours before bedtime. Time so your body has a chance to wind down because your cortisol levels, cortisol with an L, which is your stress and alertness and wakeful energetic hormone, is just boosted when you exercise intensely. So it is, if you must, but it's better you exercise than not at all. So if you must exercise and you can only do so in the evening, try to do, have as much, do it as early as possible so that it doesn't run into your evening. And also you might consider things like taking a hot shower and cooling down the temperature because this will help bring down your, your, your body temperature. But also you might consider doing wind-down techniques, whether it be meditation or breathwork or mindfulness or anything that makes you feel relaxed and can switch you off, you know, might be a good idea. Opening windows also to help bring down the temperature. So you want to bring down your body temperature. Because the hotter you feel, the hotter it is in the environment and the higher your body temperature is, the harder it will be to sleep properly or fall asleep. So it's really important. You have to think about it. When it's daylight and the temperature rises because the sun is out, and when it's nighttime, the sun is gone and it feels colder. And as a result, that makes sense. That makes sense that it should be cooler for us because that is essentially a cue, a cue of really almost like a biological cue. It's actually called a Zeitgeber, which is a German term to say it's a marker that lets the brain and the body knows, okay, it's nighttime, it's time to sleep, right? So you want to wind down and give the cues to your body that it is time to sleep. And, you know, the exercises in the evening that I think would be more If you struggle with sleep— if you don't struggle with sleep, keep doing what you're doing. But if you struggle with sleep, I would say things like yoga or Pilates, maybe stretches, um, you know, any sort of anything that involves maybe slow motion, or it's just more relaxing by nature.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's great. I love the idea of like cooling down your body temperature. That's not something that I've really thought through or heard, heard before, so I love that. Um, this has been really very, very helpful, and, uh, lots of good techniques and things in And I encourage everyone to go check out the book, The Natural Sleeper. And if you have questions, leave them in the chat boxes below. We will be sure to get back to those. Even if you're watching the replay, we'll be able to answer those for you. And you have something for us as well that I want to talk about in just one second, but I do want to pop up a few people who have given us a little bit of some comments. There's someone from LinkedIn saying, "My husband works 4 nights a week." Works nights. See, that's another thing. When your time clock is different than everyone else's, when you're used to working nights or you work overnight schedule, he's always tired. He never gets solid sleep. That's tough for shift workers, right?
Yeah. Shift workers. That's something that comes up a lot. In fact, yes. In fact, I'm going to start dedicating some sessions for shift workers. It's very difficult. Because you are working against your nature. If you remember what I said earlier, being awake by day and asleep by night, that's what we're wired and designed for, you know, biologically. So we're working against our nature, except if we are an extreme night owl. So if our chronotype is being awake overnight, and that happens with some people. So ideally, shift workers should be extreme night owls because they would adapt a little bit more easily. Um, they— you can shift your circadian rhythm by using bright lights and also dimming down and going into complete darkness at sort of opposite day and night, you know, and that can help. There's also some napping strategies that can help. Um, I mean, there's a natural dip in melatonin levels in the middle of the night which makes it very difficult to stay awake. I think it's between the hours 2 and 4 AM, naturally. And also you have to think about when you get home is really being able to recreate this quiet space, like all the, all the things we talked about that create a good bedroom environment needs to be recreated in the day, perhaps using white noise or, you know, earplugs and just as really as quiet as possible, blackout curtains, etc. But it will be. And also the difficulty with shift workers is that often they're, they're their shift schedule, the pattern changes too frequently, you know, what's advised—
Oh, right, for them to get used to it.
Yes, to keep the same schedule for as long as possible, you know, not change it every 2 weeks or every month because then the body doesn't have time to adjust. Another tip is also when going home to wear very dark sunglasses, you know, just to start with that. And when getting home, it's obviously you know, blocking any sort of noise. I'm not sure if this person lives with a family and if children are, you know, agitated, or if the TV is running, or if it's a noisy place. That's not going to help either. So you really have to recreate the best conditions for sleep during the day that would be equivalent to being at night. And then for some, if none of this works— and there's a bit more detail into all of that, and I'm not going through all of it, I just gave sort of the top tips And again, bright lights is also an important one. But you can get— there is medication that doctors can prescribe to help, and they're supposed to boost alertness. And this helps, you know, this is sort of in more extreme cases when people really, really can't cope. But I wouldn't recommend necessarily to resort to that. But you can get medication that helps in the case of being a shift worker overnight.
Yeah, it's tough. It's tough working those crazy shifts, you know, in the TV world, we, you know, we do it quite a lot. My husband, as as well. So that is probably why his sleep is not healthy, actually, now that I—
What you can do is just do the best to improve. All the tips, apply them so that you can make the best out of the sleep you get when you get it. So that, yeah, it's worth really all of this and also the time you eat and everything. So I recommend if you do get a chance of reading the book or even research online, if you didn't want to buy the book, just to follow the general advice, you know, and using light as your ally to help with shift work.
Yeah, yeah. But we want you to buy the book. So buy the book. It's The Natural Sleeper. And you have a great freebie for everybody if you go to wesleep.co.uk/insidescoop, and I will link this below. What will they get if they go there? What sort of free thing do you have for them?
Yeah, it's a sleep diary. And it's, it's, you know, it's a tool that I've been thanked for when it's really not rocket science either. But it's a great tool for you to monitor your own sleep. Because I always say sleeping well starts with self-monitoring, you know, and understanding what's happening with your sleep pattern. We track what we eat, we track if we exercise or not, and we track all kinds of things. We might track our sleep, but usually just in terms of using a tracker you know, like a wearable device. But it's not really giving context around what's happened in the day. And to be honest, a week later, we probably forgot what happened on a given night or day.
Yeah.
So this is just a single— it's 2 sheets. It runs for 7 days. And you can do the experiment for 14 to 21 days, if you'd like. And there's a number of questions that ask you what happened during the day. So there's specific Specific questions around your sleep hygiene, but also your mental well-being and any events, what you've eaten, things like that. And the point is for you to start observing what you've been doing during your days that could be impacting your nights. On the flip side is tracking all of your nights. And this is something that you would fill out as soon as you wake up in the morning to explain how your night went, how many times you may have woken up, and what times and any events or anything. So you can start start self-analyzing and understanding what could be causing a poor night's sleep, especially when you already know a lot about sleeping well.
Yeah.
And if not, worst case, having that diary is so helpful to see your doctor if you need more support, or a sleep consultant, you know, because that will give them some information on how to help you better. Um, I just want to add one more thing actually, uh, that we haven't talked about, which is also very common, which is breathing issues. Issues, especially sleep apnea, which is when you snore at night or even gasp for air, you stop breathing for a second or something.
Yeah, pretty terrifying.
Yes. And this is so common, you know, and it could be because of sleeping in certain positions or being overweight or just having, you know, just soft tissues in your throat that are blocking your breath. It could be for— or deviated septum, which which could be an issue as well. But that's also something that you need to go see your doctor for, um, and then might lead you to taking a sleep— go to a sleep clinic to get a sleep study, you know, which is the next level.
Yeah, yeah. And if you have your sleep diary, even better, you'll be able to share that with your doctor and get your solutions much, much sooner. Well, Julie, thank you so much for, for being here. It's been a really wonderful chat. Uh, make sure to check out the book, The Natural Sleeper. And, um, you know, let's, let's show the book one more time. There you go. There you have it. All right, good, good to meet you. Uh, thank you very much. And, uh, you know, for those of you who still have questions, absolutely leave those below. We will, we will get to those, um, in the comments below. Again, if you go to paularizzo.com/list, you can check out my list-making starter kit. That's a little freebie there for you. And if you're interested in learning some more about list-making and productivity and how to do it better, go to paularizzo.com/linkedin. I'm a LinkedIn Learning instructor and I do have a lot of great courses for you there. And also, if you're flying on a Delta flight or a JetBlue flight, you might see me in the air there too, which is super, super exciting. Uh, well, I will see you all next time. Thanks again for watching. See you later.
