Stressed Out; Not Sleeping? Nutritional Solutions To the Rescue

October 5, 2020

As we all know, this is a very stressful and high anxiety time for all of us, often showing up as some serious sleep problems. Listen in as two nutritionists share their professional knowledge and personal successes on how to finally get restful, rejuvenating sleep. Spoiler alert, it starts with what you put on the end of your fork. Listen in!

 

Transcript:

KARA: Today's show is brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. We have a really important topic to discuss with you this morning, if you're listening live. As we all know, it's a very stressful and high anxiety time for all of us. Currently, we're in our 10th month of this worldwide pandemic. And from all reports, you know, this could continue to be the situation for the next few months, maybe the next year. We just don't know. Some of you are living in areas or locations where the coronavirus infection rates are increasing. And we know that's causing a lot of stress and our stress comes from different places and for different reasons. One example is I'm sure many of you are experiencing this, or at least know someone who is, it's business. Both old businesses, new businesses, they're shutting down. So many people are out of work. Rent and mortgage payments are due. In addition to that, a lot of us are worried about our family or friends or loved ones getting COVID-19. Some of you might be frontline workers and worried about your own health. You know, this Corona virus anxiety can often show up as people having a lot of serious sleep problems. So that is a little teaser about what our topic is today.

JOANN: Yes, definitely. And I want to talk about sleep problems for a minute. Do you have ongoing problems, either falling asleep or staying asleep? Lack of sleep, which means not getting at least seven and a half to nine hours of sleep most nights, can affect your coping skills and your anxiety level will just continue to climb. So does that sound like you? Last week, I promised you that Kara and I would come back to the studio today to dig deeper into the connection of anxiety and sleep problems. And we got some questions from listeners and we will get to those questions.

KARA: Great, yeah, because last week JoAnn gave her email and that's right. And she did get some questions. So it's going to be interesting. Now, some of you, if you're tuning in to Dishing Up Nutrition for the first time, we want to just make sure we RE-introduce ourselves, if you are a longtime listener. I'm Kara Carper and my background, I'm a certified nutrition specialist. I have a masters degree in holistic health. I'm licensed by the state of Minnesota. I've actually been a nutritionist for 13 years. The reason that I believe I was asked to be on this show today, and maybe you're listening to it as a podcast, is because I have a history of having a lot of restless nights, lying awake, staring at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come. And if you can relate to that, you know how stressful that is to not be able to fall asleep or to be waking up in the middle of the night or too early in the morning and not be able to get back to sleep. So today I really want to share my personal and professional knowledge and successes and things that have helped me. And I am excited to be back in the studio with JoAnn today. Cause we were just here last week together.

JOANN: We were! It's good to be back here with you today, Kara. So good morning everyone. My name is JoAnn Ridout and I've been a registered and licensed dietitian for a very long time, many years. And I am fortunate to have worked at Nutritional Weight & Wellness for the past seven and a half years. I always tell people it was kind of my blessing in disguise. I had gotten laid off from a job and this was a great opportunity to learn a new version of nutrition from the one I used to practice. And I'm loving it. I spend my time working with clients individually or teaching a number of classes, including our popular Menopause Survival Seminar. So due to all of the COVID-19 restrictions, all of my client appointments are done either by phone or zoom. And you heard why Kara was chosen to be on today's Dishing Up Nutrition. And some of you may be wondering why I was picked to cohost this radio show and podcast about sleep. And I also have firsthand knowledge of this topic, both professionally and personally, and I want to share some sleep solutions also that have worked well for me and my clients.

KARA: Yeah, that's another great point. We'll be sharing clients' stories because that's where we get a lot of our knowledge, right?

JOANN: We do!

KARA: During this really trying time, it's critically important to take care of your body and to take care of your brain. There are at least three habits. I'm sure there are more, but we're going to talk about three habits to take care of your body and brain. And we'll kind of do like the top three that come to mind with our topic of sleep and stress. So sleeping at least seven and a half to nine hours most nights, eating real food, and moving your body. So we want to just keep this simple and keep focus on the things you can control. There's so many things out of our control right now, but most people have some control over sleep, food, and movement. JoAnn and I wrote down some habits and I think we both really try to live by these as much as possible to manage stress and anxiety, especially during this pandemic. So we'll share these habits. You might want to be jotting these down, just get a little post-it. You can put it on your refrigerator. It's going to be three tips.

JOANN: Habit number one is sleep seven and a half to nine hours most nights, excuse me, to help you restore your body and your brain health, which in turn will help you reduce your anxiety and stress. So some people say, "well, how in the world am I going to sleep that many hours?" And you may have to schedule your sleep. You may have to go to bed earlier. You may have to skip the 10 o'clock news and watch the nine o'clock news or whatever your routine is. Allow enough time to go before, before going to your bedroom area and bathroom that you've got the time to get ready for bed and then actually get into sleep still at a decent hour. For me, I really shoot for 10 o'clock.

KARA: That's a big one. And I like what you shared with me last week, how you are trying to get yourself ready at about nine to get to bed for 10 o'clock sleep.

JOANN: Right.

KARA: Because we can't, it's almost like we can't start early enough. Right? We have to realize that it takes most people 30 to 60 minutes. So. Our habit number two: drink eight to 10 glasses of filtered water. Every day. A hydrated brain will help you cope with stress and anxiety and people that are successful with drinking water will usually just have a water bottle with them all the time. I like to fill up my favorite water bottle. And when it's empty, I actually have like a checklist and fill it right back up again. Sometimes I'll even bring like two bottles with me, especially with the pandemic, a lot of drinking fountains are not available. So you want to make sure, like I've been bringing two bottles of water wherever I go.

JOANN: That's a great idea.

KARA: And get to that eight to 10 glasses per day. And I just wanted to put in a plug for, there are some really good water tracking apps. I know a lot of people are using their phones for tracking... you know, calendars, even food. So if you would like to track your water, you can just Google... there's a lot of variety of water tracking apps.

JOANN: Just a few days ago, a client told me that whenever she wants to change a behavior, she writes it down on a little note card or maybe some people are using a journal. You could write a goal in your journal or an app. That'd be a great, another great way to use that tool. And when she completes the positive behavior she gives herself a little star. So my client was able to get off sugar by using this simple reward technique, but we were talking about water. And so every time you drink a glass of water, you can give yourself a star. That's another goal you can have in process.

KARA: And habit number three is eat real food several times per day, at least four times per day. And here's a good example of a real food breakfast. I will frequently make patties. And you know, you can use turkey, you can use ground turkey, ground chicken, ground pork. Sometimes I use a combination of two of those. Mix them together. You can buy it seasoned or you can season it yourself and shape it into patties. And you want to have about three to four ounces per patty. Saute some onions, veggies. You can do any veggies: carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes are some options. It's a great tasting breakfast that will balance your blood sugar for several hours. And it's just kind of a nice switch from always having eggs in the morning. So that's why I wanted to bring up that breakfast patty and it is time for our first break. So we'll talk a little bit more about real food several times a day when we come back. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. This month at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we're offering 15% off of a lot of our calcium products. Clients often take magnesium glycinate at bedtime to reduce leg cramps, muscle cramps, and to help with sleep. And that's a great recommendation, but unfortunately calcium is often forgotten. Having sufficient calcium is really important for sleep as well. And for a lot of clients, I would suggest taking Key Osteo Plus for bone strength and for sleep. And the great thing about that, it has 400 milligrams of magnesium glycinate and a thousand milligrams of calcium all in very absorbable forms. And I like it because it's measured out in packets. They're capsules and it's super easy to take. So it's important to know that not all calcium is the same though, there's a lot of poorly absorbed calcium products like at the drug stores. So this Key Osteo Plus has all the right correct forms that your body can utilize. So we will be right back.

JOANN: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I want to share something with you about a very important habit for weight loss and no, it's not cutting your calories! Like everyone always talks about, right? It is sleeping eight and a half to nine hours most nights. So try, well, you will probably have to schedule your sleep and bedtime earlier, if you are a person who wakes up early. So our bodies generally wake up with the sun, so it may take curtains if you're trying to sleep longer. And we actually had a question from Gina about this topic. She wakes up at five o'clock every day, but she would like to sleep till six. Well, maybe it has to do, right now, I think it's not really quite light out, but you know, that varies with time of year. So blackout curtains might be helpful, but the other thing Gina said is she takes two magnesium glycinate before bed. And for me, I know I need more than that. So maybe she could try three or four tablets, you know, some people need up to six, so you just have to experiment with that and see if you can get a longer night's sleep, but try these suggestions for just six weeks and let us know your success. Sleep is truly that magical potion for weight loss.

KARA: Those are great tips and we don't know the whole situation. It's hard when someone just has that question via email, but I like your suggestion about the blackout curtains. Another tip that I have blackout curtains and I also have an eye mask. Kind of has Velcro and goes around my head so that IF it is the time of year when the sun would wake you up and you aren't ready to get up, you might be able to sleep a little bit longer with those blackout curtains and an eye mask.

JOANN: Good suggestion.

KARA: So before break, JoAnn and I were giving those three tips and sleeping seven and a half to nine hours, drinking eight to 10 glasses of water, and then I had mentioned eating real food three to at least three to four times per day. Some people really do better if they're eating five or six, but it's individual. But the important part about eating real food is: in balance. And that is so that we balance our blood sugar levels and how we balance our blood sugar during the day has everything to do with how well we're going to sleep at night. And it also reduces stress and anxiety. So, I had shared I might have like a breakfast patty, like a meat patty with some sauteed veggies. And it's important to have that healthy fat as well. I can use butter or olive oil for the sautéing. Butter is actually one of my favorites, mostly because it just tastes so wonderful, right?

JOANN: Yup, it does. So another habit... habit number four is limiting your sugar and processed carbs in your diet to support good brain health, to help you cope, AND to help you sleep. So Kara just mentioned this, you know, what you eat during the day has everything to do with how well you're going to sleep and how calm you can be. But eating an excess sugar amount is a leading cause of stress and anxiety. And I know that from personal experience. I've had times where I've had too much sugar during the day or possibly during the evening and go, "Whoa, this is going to affect my sleep." So reducing the amount of sugar you eat will help calm your brain to deal with these anxiety filled times and then lead to better sleep. So I've also noticed kind of the flip of that statement. And I've also noticed when I don't get enough sleep, I crave sugar more. So it sounds like a vicious cycle and it absolutely is because you need to get... you need to avoid the sugar to calm yourself enough to sleep, but you also need to get enough sleep to avoid the sugar cravings.

KARA: Yeah. It can be a tough cycle. I mean, some people might need to make an appointment to get out of that cycle.

JOANN: Absolutely.

KARA: But just even just having like a good balanced breakfast is kind of the key to starting out that day on a positive note. The fifth thing that we...the fifth habit we'd like to talk about is limit, or better yet just kind of get rid of all of the refined oils in your diet. And that's for better brain health, as well as just overall health and metabolism. So the oils that we're talking about to avoid are soybean oil, corn oil, even canola oil, and cotton seed oil, and just switch to those real healthy oils and fats. Like I had talked about butter or coconut oil, avocado oil, and olive oil are other good ones. You know, the brain is made up of 60% fat. And so the oils and fats that we consume are going to either support or hinder our brain function. And we suggest including six to seven tablespoons of these natural healing fats. And that's going to just reduce stress, it's going to help with your sleep, and weight loss. So we suggest putting a good habit, this good habit list on your bathroom mirror, maybe a refrigerator, in your car. You want to remember these simple habits that are going to support your sleep and reduce that stress and anxiety. And if you want more good habit ideas, JoAnn and I would suggest taking a class that we have, it's called *Good Food for Good Moods*. And you can find that on our website, weightandwellness.com. It's a really good class.

JOANN: That is a really good class. And so just changing these simple food habits that Kara and I have just shared will help you to manage anxiety, will help you have more energy, and will help you reduce your sugar cravings and your sleep problems.

KARA: And just one quick last habit that JoAnn and I both practice most days, as much as possible, is just moving our bodies. And even walking for 30 minutes. Or if you're not currently exercising, start with 15 minutes. 15... work up to 20. Eventually it'd be great to do 30 minutes of walking per day or more. But every little bit counts.

JOANN: It does. And it all adds up. So I recently read that the root cause of most sleep problems is anxiety. Isn't that interesting? So the root cause, I want to repeat that, the root cause of most sleep problems is anxiety. And so for good sleep, we need to manage our anxiety and it all starts with eating real food and it is time for break.

KARA: All right, well, you're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. We're in a time of massive upheaval right now with the pandemic, the riots, fires. I mean, now we have debates. The fact that most of us are unable to spend memorable times with our family and friends. I know a lot of people are missing seeing their family members and their loved ones. We recommend that you do try to focus on the things that you can control with so much being out of our control. For the most part, you should be able to control the food that you eat and the amount of sleep that you get. You might need help with either one of those or maybe both of those stress relieving habits. The good news is that a real food eating plan and quality sleep will support your immune system, when that's something that we're all concerned about right now. If you need help, we have a couple of nutritional counseling packages that are available at a reduced rate. So after break, JoAnn's going to go over the Personal Wellness package.

JOANN: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I have noticed a shift in people's approach to life today because of the worldwide stress, so many people are getting serious about their health. So new reports are constantly telling us that if you have preexisting health conditions, you are at a higher risk for getting the COVID-19 virus. And it could very likely have a poor outcome if you do contract it and we want to help you achieve better health in all areas. So as Kara said earlier, focus on what we CAN control. You can control your sleep and you can control your food. And to do that, we suggest getting direction, support, and encouragement from a Nutritional Weight & Wellness, dietitian or nutritionist. We are offering the Personal Wellness Package that includes a two hour initial consultation and two, one hour follow up consultations with a dietitian or nutritionist. It is only $350 for this life saving information and support. $135 savings. So let us help you focus on the things you can control.

KARA: Right. I mean, some people really do need assistance putting together a plan for food and/or sleep.

JOANN: That's right.

KARA: Now, we had asked listeners to send in their questions or struggles with either getting to sleep or staying asleep. So we're going to start with Gail's struggles. Gail said, "I have no trouble falling asleep. I sleep for a couple of hours and then I wake up constantly the rest of the night. I generally wake up and then fall asleep again quickly, but I am never able to stay asleep. So I don't ever feel rested." That's a really common scenario.

JOANN: That is a really common scenario. And I want to give you my thoughts about what I call surface sleep or waking up often throughout the night. Gail didn't say how old she was, but I did get a question that was similar from Linda, who is in her fifties, and waking up often throughout the night is a common problem for women in perimenopause and menopause. And when women no longer ovulate, they no longer produce a sufficient amount of the hormone progesterone, which is very important for sleep. And progesterone also is a very calming and relaxing hormone. So it helps women sleep, whether your body makes or if you have to add progestrone through a natural progesterone cream supplement. It's both...it's effective either way. And when the level of the hormone progesterone is low, a common problem women experience is anxiety and poor sleep. So you just need a quarter teaspoon of this natural progesterone cream called Progest on your wrist or over your throat area. That might be enough comfort for sleeping through the night. And sometimes I notice that if I do that, if I forget to put it on, and then I put it on in the middle of the night, when I wake up, I will much more easily go back to sleep.

KARA: Oh, okay. Good tip.

JOANN: Even if I forgot I can add it then. So our Menopause Survival Seminar explains all about the hormonal sleep problems and I'm pleased to announce that we are currently updating the Menopause Survival Seminar so we can offer it to you online. And we hope to have the Menopause Survival Seminar available to you online in mid November.

KARA: Great. And we talked about that last week, too. How there's five or six of you really working around the clock on the new series.

JOANN: It's a big project.

KARA: Low progesterone levels certainly happen during perimenopause and menopause, but can also happen when women are taking oral contraceptives and that's because oral contraceptives, while they're doing their job, they're stopping ovulation. And we often find that women who have taken oral contraceptives or birth control pills for many years, have trouble sleeping and are sometimes plagued with anxiety. For women who are taking birth control and having anxiety and sleep problems, we would recommend a couple of standard supplements. One of them is magnesium glycinate. You've maybe heard JoAnn mention that one already and an absorbable form of calcium. And then also an amino acid called GABA. But for many women using natural progesterone cream at bedtime can also be very beneficial. You know, it have to be just during perimenopause or menopause. And so just like you said, a quarter teaspoon. It's really simple, a natural cream that you can just put on your wrists or your throat area, your stomach even.

JOANN: That's right. So this next listener's struggles reminds me of myself before I changed my eating habits and I started getting more sleep. Kimberly had a question, "I have ALL of the sleep problems. I think the main reason is because my chronic stiffness and low grade pain. My muscles get so stiff when I stay in one position all night. So I have to shift after a few hours and I can't get comfortable to fall back asleep." She also said, "I've tried magnesium glycinate, Omega-3, and 5-HTP, but I still struggle." So Kimberly, I can totally relate to you and your struggles. Before I started working at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, I had lots of aches and pains and also that body stiffness. And even to this day, if I cheat even a little on my food plan, my body feels stiff and achy. And I definitely can tell when I've had some food that isn't quite right. I mean a little too. It might be a couple small bites of a cookie or a half a slice of bread or one or two small bites of a slice of pizza. And I've discovered through the years here that I am very sensitive to both sugar AND gluten. And we know that almost all treat type foods have flour and sugar that almost instantly inflames my body and the aches and pains interfere with my sleep. I've also noticed a big one for me is corn.

KARA: Oh, okay.

JOANN: So that's a definitely gonna cause pain.

KARA: So it's going to vary from person to person.

JOANN: It will very. Yup. Kimberly, the magnesium glycinate and omega-3 are good, but we always say on Dishing Up Nutrition and Nutritional Weight & Wellness: food first. So this means it's important to determine what foods are inflammatory for you and what are you eating that's causing that pain? And sometimes people have to journal to figure that out. And after you do that, you may no longer have those aches and pains. As a result, you will most likely be able to sleep through the night.

KARA: Yeah, for me, it's sugar is probably the biggest one where I actually just, I feel sore the next day. Sugar aches. But also for gluten is another trigger for me and dairy as well. I might be able to have a little dairy, but if I have a lot, I just, I feel kind of just achy all over. Like I had a really intense workout, but maybe I didn't. And I just have that sore feeling everywhere. Well, Amy and Paige had, now these two had similar problems. They both said "My issue is getting back to sleep once it's been interrupted." And so when my clients are unable to go right back to sleep, I typically will suggest taking sublingual melatonin. And you can start with one, two, or three milligrams. You can work up to around five milligrams, but if you haven't taken it before, just maybe start with one or two milligrams and sublingual just it means it goes under the tongue and it absorbs very quickly. And usually people are able to go back to sleep. So there's a couple different ways to take melatonin. Preferably I would say 30 minutes before bed. But you know, if you forget, similar to the progesterone cream, if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can take the sublingual melatonin then and it would still be effective for getting back to sleep. And for clients who are really light sleepers, I also recommend 400 to 600 milligrams of magnesium glycinate. Also there's something called 5-HTP. And the range of dosing on that is a hundred, probably a hundred all the way up to 400 milligrams of 5-HTP. And then GABA. And for GABA, you know, you can take anywhere from 750 to 1500 milligrams. 5-HTP and GABA are both supplements that support the production of brain chemicals, relaxing brain chemicals. So remember though, the food that we eat is really, we can, we can get more calming neurotransmitters from animal protein. But taking these amino acids like 5-HTP and GABA are just kind of extra cause a lot of people are low in those.

JOANN: That's right. And before we go to break, I have one more question that I want to add here that Amanda sent in to me, that was, I thought it was interesting. "My four year old has horrible growing pains that wake him up screaming at night." So she's tried Tylenol and some other things, but she doesn't really want to do that. She wondered if magnesium would help and if is he old enough to take it? So I love magnesium. I definitely would suggest giving that a try. We have a form of magnesium that is called MagneGel. So you can actually rub that on his legs and give that a try or another way to have a... to give magnesium glycinate to a small child would be just like the liquid version that we have. One to two teaspoons of magnesium glycinate instead of the tablespoon or two that is more of an adult dose. So I would try both of those. You actually could move into other minerals if you need to. But magnesium is a very good place to start and often stops that problem. And that problem can be true for adults having restless leg syndrome too.

KARA: Yeah. Magnesium glycinate or the gel. Those are just kind of go tos because three out of four people are thought to be deficient in magnesium. So it's a really great place to start. Chances are you're probably one of those that's low. You're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you want more information about any of the supplements that we've talked about today or if you have questions about our classes or the special pricing on the nutritional counseling package, it's just a phone call away. You might even have a question about something like, "well, who would be the best nutritionist to work with me and my personal needs?" So give a call to our office at (651) 699-3438. You can also send an email and it's a really simple address. It's email@weightandwellness.com. We're a super friendly bunch at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. And our main goal is to provide you with the help and support you need to get through these stressful times. So again, (651) 699-3438 is the number to our office.

JOANN: That's right. And we will be right back.

JOANN: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Next week, please join Britni and Leah as they discuss why it is so hard to lose weight, especially now. They will give suggestions to overcome some of those issues. And if you have that old belief that dietitians and nutritionists are perfect and judgmental, because they could never understand your struggles with sugar sleep or anxiety, well, I'm happy to say that is absolutely not true. And I personally have had sleep problems, aches and pains, sugar cravings, and the list goes on and on. For me, the answer was always food, food, food, and getting the food right. So I encourage you to be brave and set up a time to learn how to use food and key supplements to put your struggles into remission. It is quite possible that your health insurance may even cover the cost. It never hurts to ask. So please call us at (651) 699-3438 or email us email@weightandwellness.com and we will respond.

KARA: Excellent. So I thought we could do a little recap on the supplements that I was talking about before break. Just because this is, you know, food first, always, however, JoAnn and I both were saying during break that without these additional supplements, our sleep just wouldn't be as good. You know, we wouldn't be falling asleep or staying asleep.

JOANN: Right.

KARA: As well as we currently are. So just to recap, for issues with falling asleep and staying asleep, the protocol would be taking some sublingual melatonin: two or three milligrams. You can always go up from there to like five milligrams. 400 to 600 milligrams of magnesium glycinate. And usually one or 200 milligrams of 5-HTP is sufficient. Some people will go higher and anywhere from 500 to, I'd say, 1500 milligrams of GABA. And now GABA, I just want to throw in a plug for GABA because we tout that as nature's Valium. Now who doesn't want some of that, right? It's a natural, it's an amino acid, which we do get from eating animal protein. However, you know, if you're struggling with stress and anxiety and sleep, the 5-HTP and the GABA can really help. And JoAnn, we ran out of GABA in my house last week and it was not good because I was like, "How am I gonna get to sleep?" And I ordered it from Nutritional Weight & Wellness to be, they do free shipping. It's super convenient. I did it on the website, but I tell you every morning I was like out at my front step waiting, wondering if the GABA came and it only took like, I think one or two business days, but I was waiting for that GABA. I didn't sleep as well without it.

JOANN: Right. I definitely need GABA to help me sleep. So I definitely need that too. So, we have a question from Laurie and she asks her question was, "I am well past menopause. So why am I experiencing night sweats?" And that's an interesting question. I get that question from women of all ages, but when I'm teaching the Menopause Survival Seminar, I find that many women have the misconception that menopause ends at a certain age. Menopause does not officially end until your life ends. But I have to say, generally those nights sweats will subside once you figure out what's causing them. So what could be causing those nights sweats? Once again, we'll start with food first. I always say when people talk to me about night sweats, there's like, okay, what, where's your sugar intake at? And how about alcohol? Those I think are the top two, but other people might be eating, maybe bagels or crackers, pasta, pizza, maybe desserts could be the root cause of the night sweats. But most often when women avoid the sugar, the wine, and other flour products, the night sweats will go away. And night sweats may also be from a medication you're taking. Sometimes it could be an antidepressant. So if we look at supplements to decrease or eliminate night sweats, my first choice would be either natural progesterone cream. We talked about that earlier, just a quarter teaspoon. And then in addition to detox those excess estrogens, I suggest to clients taking two or three Estro I-3-C. And in addition, you may need three to four Estro Rebalance as well. So night sweats are often caused from an excess of estrogen or estrogen dominance combined with a deficiency of progesterone.

KARA: Oh. And those often go hand in hand. Right?

JOANN: Definitely.

KARA: So you're adding in the natural progesterone cream and you're also helping your body to get rid of and detox the excess estrogens or the, you know, toxic estrogens is what we call those as well.

JOANN: Exactly.

KARA: And, you know, I think those were some great points as far as like what to avoid. So to get those night sweats and hot flashes under control, and I ran into...my daughter just started dance and I ran into a mom that I knew at dance, and she's a Dishing Up Nutrition radio listener. So she said, "oh, what's your topic going to be on?" And so she went into early menopause, I believe at age 45. And she said, "oh, hands down. What keeps my hot flashes and night sweats away, it's if I am not eating too much sugar, avoiding alcohol, and getting enough sleep." I mean, it was just kind of a nice anecdotal reminder that what we're telling you, I mean, this is what works for real people said.

JOANN: It's what we just said. Yup. And it's true.

KARA: It is true. Well, here's a little bit more of a difficult issue. This one that we're going to talk about takes a real desire and a true commitment to retrain the brain into following good sleep habits. So Carol said in her email, "for whatever reason, I don't want to go to bed. I know the routine, I know what I'm supposed to do, but for some reason I'm full of energy at night and it's not from drinking too much caffeine." So Carol, I suspect that the root cause of not wanting to go to bed is an underlying level of anxiety. And you know, when you go to bed in your brain, it needs to shut down and to be calm. And if you have underlying anxiety, it may just be kind of a distraction having that energy and finding one more thing to do so that you don't have to deal with laying in bed and noticing that anxiety. So this is, it's kind of a challenging sleep problem to overcome, to be honest. And this may require regular appointments with a nutritionist or a dietitian to really manage that anxiety and reduce it. It might even take a long time. Some people make appointments regularly for a year until they feel like they've established new routines and habits. And I think due to the pandemic, an increased number of people might be experiencing what Carol was talking about. And so, oh my goodness. We have come to the end of our show. We want to thank you for listening. And our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through real food. So it's a simple, but a powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. Thank you so much for listening. Have a safe and a healthy day.

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