271-SYNCPodcast_BetterSleepPeri

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today we’re diving into my top tips for improving sleep and perimenopause. Oftentimes sleep trouble tends to be one of the most common complaints among women aged 35 to 50 and often accompanies things like brain fog, anxiety, and even moodiness.

[00:01:16] Jenny Swisher: I bet you, it’s all connected to the fact that we aren’t sleeping well. In my Sync Digital course, I teach the five fundamentals of hormone balance with the first and most important being sleep. When I partnered with Dr. Paige Gutile to offer virtual telehealth consults for women, I’ll never forget her telling me that the importance of sleep is a hill she will die on, and she has made it a focal point of every consult we’ve had.

[00:01:39] Jenny Swisher: You see, without proper sleep, and I don’t just mean quantity but also quality, our hormones can suffer. The HPA axis, which is our hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis in the brain, is directly impacted by our deep sleep. Interestingly, I know I’ve found that many women in my life around my age like to tote the whole early morning risings to get more done and often they’re burning the candle at both ends as they care for their kids, their spouses, maybe even their parents and everyone else.

[00:02:07] Jenny Swisher: When our sleep suffers, we suffer, but yet just last week I overheard a young mom in her 30s say to another mom, well, we’ll just sleep when we’re dead. We do not have to suffer from sleep deprivation or low quality of sleep and there are plenty of things that we can do about it.

[00:02:23] Jenny Swisher: If you’re someone suffering in this area, please take note. What I’m about to share with you could really help. So let’s start with the basics so that anyone new to the show might understand the perimenopause as a decade or more leading up to menopause. Menopause is simply a moment in time when our periods have ceased for 365 days.

[00:02:42] Jenny Swisher: From there on you are post menopausal. But for the years leading up to that point, you’re considered perimenopausal. Women as young as 35, or in my case, even younger, will start to experience perimenopause and often the symptoms that come with it. So let’s talk about what’s happening during this period of time, which will lead us to our most obvious first tip for today’s podcast.

[00:03:04] Jenny Swisher: You see, what happens in this decade is a gradual decline in progesterone. Estrogen remains as is until the final couple of years of perimenopause when we start to see it decline too. But for the first several years, we tend to become more estrogen dominant, meaning that the ratio between our progesterone and estrogen is quite off.

[00:03:23] Jenny Swisher: Progesterone is our uterine lining protection hormone, and it plays many other vital roles in the body, but it is most known for its calming, anti anxiety, sleep boosting benefits. So as you can imagine, its perimenopause certainly doesn’t help us in the sleep arena. Which leads me to my first tip of the show.

[00:03:42] Jenny Swisher: Consider a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy guided, of course, by a knowledgeable functional medicine practitioner. It can be absolutely game changing. Bioidentical is different from synthetic and actually I will link up an episode of the podcast where I interview Dr.

[00:03:56] Jenny Swisher: Page on this very topic so that you could hear it from her, but I’m here to tell you it’s been a game changer for me and literally hundreds of other women. Supporting your hormones as they decline isn’t often discussed, especially in a traditional OBGYN or primary care practitioner setting. But as I heard a knowledgeable doctor say recently, we replace every other hormone in the body upon decline.

[00:04:17] Jenny Swisher: We should absolutely replace sex hormones. Moving on, let’s talk about the simple aspects of sleep that are within our control. I’ve covered this in detail on the show before, so I’ll glaze over these a bit more quickly, and I’ll link that episode up for you to dive deeper with. But the basics of setting yourself up for sleep success can make all the difference.

[00:04:35] Jenny Swisher: Things like unwinding before bed, low lights, no screens, maybe blue light blocking glasses if you do use screens, reading, a warm bath, just down regulating the nervous system. Keeping a cool temperature in the bedroom with cool sheets and even cool pajamas. Keeping the bedroom pitch black. Recently my husband and I invested in some blackout blinds and it has made all the difference in our sleep.

[00:05:00] Jenny Swisher: And finally, stop all meals or snacks two hours before bedtime. Hopefully these are all things that you’re doing, but of course I had to mention them as the very basics before we dive into some more interesting things to try. If you take nothing else from this episode, inquiring with your functional doctor about progesterone, a sleep routine, turning the temperature and lights down in your bedroom, and avoiding large meals two hours before bedtime should be your better sleep plan.

[00:05:25] Jenny Swisher: But for those of you who are doing these things already, but you’re still struggling, I have some insight for you. Number one, listen to my podcast episode with Dr. Jorgensen and the other episode that I did with Dr. Dasani on airway and breathing. My friend, it is very possible that a small airway has perhaps been something that you’ve always had, but issues are exacerbated during perimenopause.

[00:05:47] Jenny Swisher: My interview with Dr. Dasani talks more about that, so again, I’ll link those up for you to listen to. Number two, if you aren’t already taking adaptogens, I would. Things like ashwagandha, licorice root, rhodiola, and other adaptogenic herbs, and other adaptogenic herbs can help your adrenals with the extra work that they’re taking on in perimenopause.

[00:06:07] Jenny Swisher: Remember, your ovaries are slowly waving farewell, and those adrenal glands are being handed the baton, so to speak, when it comes to your sex hormone production. They’re extra taxed and they could use the support. If you’re not sure what adaptogens are, I will link up yet another episode for you that we have on the podcast, all about these powerful herbs.

[00:06:26] Jenny Swisher: Number three, start drinking tart cherry juice every night, an hour or so before bed. It is known to lower core temperature, which prepares you for sleep. And it also boosts natural melatonin production and even aids in muscle recovery. Number four, take magnesium glycinate. Hopefully you’ve heard me harp on this enough here on the podcast, but literally nearly every human is magnesium deficient given the denaturing of our soils over time.

[00:06:51] Jenny Swisher: I’ve had dozens of women message me thanking me for the magnesium suggestion because it single handedly improved their sleep, muscle aches, headaches, and so much more. And here’s a bonus tip for you. My new favorite bedtime 2 p. m. supplement capsules that I take every night and break them apart into my tart cherry juice.

[00:07:10] Jenny Swisher: This way, I’m getting the magnesium and L theanine from the capsules. We know that L theanine actually helps sleep without the drowsiness. And I’m getting the melatonin boost without the melatonin pill, all in one delicious drink. It also squashes that late night sweet tooth craving, which actually can get me sometimes.

[00:07:27] Jenny Swisher: I’ll link up for you in the show notes my favorite PM supplement that I’m talking about. Okay, let’s keep going. Number five, limit the EMF exposure around you. Place your phone at least six feet away from you when you’re sleeping and turn the Wi Fi off. Maybe you set it so that it goes off every night from 11 p.

[00:07:43] Jenny Swisher: m. to 6 a. m. Maybe you place EMF rocks beneath your bed. I’ll now link up an interview I did with EMF rocks creator Justin Franson so that you can hear more about that. But we often don’t realize the magnetic waves that are around us, which definitely impacts our sleep. Number six, change up your nighttime skincare routine to be non endocrine disrupting products.

[00:08:04] Jenny Swisher: The average woman applies 168, yes I said 168, chemicals to her body daily. Through her makeup, body wash, lotions, night creams, all the things. These have a direct impact on our hormone health and they can make you more estrogenic, which of course worsens the estrogen dominance issues that we’ve already discussed.

[00:08:23] Jenny Swisher: Instead, make this a simple swap in your day to day life. I will link up for you my favorite skin care as well. And my final tip, number seven. Consider investing in an Oura Ring to help get your true sleep data. I used to think that I was a good, efficient sleeper until I got an Oura Ring a couple years ago.

[00:08:41] Jenny Swisher: I was appalled by how little deep and REM sleep I was actually getting, despite being in the bed for 7 8 hours a night. Being able to track my sleep and see my data has helped me stay accountable to a bedtime routine, a sleep routine, and actually that can be everything. These are just some ways that can help you, you know, apply these items right now to secure a better night’s sleep.

[00:09:04] Jenny Swisher: I know how frustrating it can be to feel tired or even tired and wired and to feel like you’re lying in bed, but yet you don’t feel rested. I think too many women are suffering from this and we shouldn’t have to. So what is one thing from this podcast that you can implement tonight?

[00:09:19] Jenny Swisher: And what can you work toward? I’d love to hear it. So shout this episode out on your social, tag me and let me know. I will do my best to link up my favorite magnesium, skincare, the podcast episodes I mentioned. I know I mentioned a lot of things here today. I’ll make sure to link those in the show notes for you so that you can simply swipe up to click.

[00:09:36] Jenny Swisher: But as always, I hope this helps you. It’s not fun to live in a state of tired, but we don’t have to just because it’s a normal symptom of perimenopause doesn’t mean we can’t overcome it with the right methods. So I hope you learned something today. Share this out. I’ll talk to you soon and cheers to better sleep, my friends.

[00:09:52] Jenny Swisher: Bye bye.