 I am James Swannick and today we're talking about all things sleep. It is very early morning where I am in the world. It's seven a.m. in Brisbane, Australia. And it's late afternoon in Jackson, Wyoming for our guest today, Martha Lewis, who is a sleep consultant to the to the health conscious, to high achievers who want to sleep but can't. So if you're watching right now, you're listening and you're finding sleep challenging. You are in the right place. Please do go ahead and type in the comments down below if you're watching on YouTube where you are watching from. If you're on Facebook, go ahead and just type where you're watching from. If you're watching on the replay, you can still do that, of course. And please do send through your questions about anything and everything to do with sleep. I'm somewhat of a sleep expert in that I've interviewed all the sleep experts. But I think our guest today has got a little bit more experience than I have on sleep. Martha Lewis, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here. Thanks for having me, James. Yeah, and you have well, I know that you have multiple sleep certifications and you're an expert in holistic nutrition, which is something I'm particularly interested in. And more importantly, I know we're going to talk about this today. You're an expert on gut health. And so you combine those sleep foundations and those stress relieving techniques and also the science world, I guess, of lab testing to get to the root cause of people's sleep issues. And you were featured in Thrive Global and you've been on our blog, the Swannick Sleep and various podcasts around the world. And I know that you're a passionate speaker on sleep. So it's great to have you here, Martha. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about. Yeah, give some insight. My sleep has been great lately. Tell us about it. Tell us about your sleep routine. What do you do to prepare for a great night's sleep? And then what do you do first thing and first thing in the morning? Well, funny, I was going to start with that because really what you do during throughout the day prepares you for sleep at night or determines how well you're going to sleep at night. So I think it's actually important to how you wake up to start your day kind of slowly and not spike your cortisol levels immediately. So having some sort of morning routine for me is really key. I get up and wash my face and then I meditate and then do some journaling and write down what I'm grateful for. And and then luckily, I get to do all that before my son wakes up. And so then I kind of start my day with him and get ready for the rest of the day. But that really just puts me in a good place of starting at a lower stress level instead of waking up to waking up to an alarm clock, which is stressful in itself and then just going all day long. So that's really key. And then before bed, it definitely like to wind down, taking at least an hour to relax, prepare for bed is great. Sometimes I do honestly watch TV and I wear my night swannies for that. But I tried to. Yeah, exactly. There you go. But for that, for that, yeah, it's for people who've never tried it before, it seems like, whoa. But like when you put them on, it's actually like you get used to it within about 10 seconds and it's so relaxing to the mind, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. I love it for sure. It's made a huge difference in me being able to watch TV because before I couldn't before bed, I would definitely notice it. It would wake me up. So, yeah, but I still like to have a little bit of watching Martha. That's what everyone wants to know. What TV show or movies are you watching? Right now I'm watching the Good Wife series. OK, the Good Wife series. Nice. I just finished Ozark on nice. Yeah, please continue. Yeah, but I do try to to give at least 30 minutes after watching TV to then still be away from screens before I go to bed. So I go to bed around 10 every night. So I try by 9 30 to be done with my show and then do some reading and relaxing until I'm sleepy and then I easily fall asleep, which is great. Yeah, just to say hello to a few people who are watching. We've got Mia in Falls Church, Virginia. We've got Vani in Daly City, California. Got Mel in Manila in the Philippines. Bonnie says Bonnie in Tasmania, Australia. Great to have you guys here. If you're just watching, go ahead and just type out where you're watching from on Facebook or on YouTube. And if you have a specific sleep question, please do ask it to Martha and myself right now. Bonnie actually says in the comments here, Martha, chronic migrainer. And I'm assuming that that affects Bonnie's sleep. Any any thoughts or insight into that? Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it could be a mineral in balance, like lack of magnesium is one thing that comes to mind. But what I think a lot of people don't know is that you need a lot of different co-factors to absorb magnesium and you need a healthy gut. So kind of looking at that from a comprehensive view is really important of seeing, you know, what your mineral status is. That's one of the five lab tests I do with my clients to get into the root calls of why they aren't sleeping. So but it's cool because usually people I'm working with, they have other symptoms too, right? Like it's not just insomnia. There are migraines, there's anxiety. There are sometimes digestive issues, so there's more than just insomnia going on. But we're figuring out the root calls to all of that. So that's something I would suggest is looking into doing some of those tests. Or you can at least start with doing a topical magnesium or soaking in epsom salts, we tend to absorb magnesium a lot better topically like that. So that's one thing to try. So when you're saying people are you saying people naturally have a lack of magnesium in their body, which obviously helps people relax and helps them fall asleep and sleep deeper. So you're saying actually go out there and get a specific test from your doctor for your magnesium levels. Well, magnesium is very hard to test. So because it's not in the blood, so a basic blood test isn't going to work. What I do is a hair tissue mineral analysis test. So you're taking three inches of your hair closest to your scalp and sending that in. And they're analyzing your mineral status in your hair. So you're getting your status over the past three month period instead of just this quick snapshot in time like some other tests do. But yeah, again, like because minerals all interact in really complicated ways with each other, there's not just one simple magnesium test to get. But looking into that hair tissue mineral analysis is something I would recommend. What would someone like me who obviously has a thick flowing mane of hairdo in that sense, Martha? Well, head hair is ideal, but armpit hair and other hairs will work as well. I see. OK, interesting. Yeah. So is that something that you might send to a holistic or a naturopath or someone or will your local GP in the US understand that and be willing to take your strand of hair tissue or armpit hair and analyze it for you? I don't think they're going to know about that. You need to find someone more holistic. I mean, what I'm kind of doing is in the functional medicine vein. Obviously, I'm not a doctor, but I'm doing similar tests to what they do and kind of putting them all together. So yeah, I would say someone more holistic, natural, functional medicine. Yeah, what you want to look for. You actually mentioned Epsom salt. So soak in Epsom salt. So is that as simple as running a hot bath, pouring some Epsom salts in and just sitting in the bath? Yeah, exactly. And what does that actually do? Like, just explain that because I keep all the women in my life are like, oh, soak in a bath of Epsom salts. I'm like, what are you talking about? Can you explain that? Why that's beneficial? Yeah, well, Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate. So you're literally sitting in a bath of magnesium that is going to absorb into your skin and into your body. If you don't want to take a bath and, you know, not everyone wants to do that every night, you can also do a foot bath and absorb it through your feet as well. Got it. OK. So is that a short term injection of magnesium, if you like, of relaxation? Is that something that you would only do if you're wanting to go to sleep before sleep? Is it something that you might do in the middle of the day? Like under what circumstances would you do that? You could do it any time, but it's definitely nice to do it before sleep because magnesium does help relax your muscles. So it's not going to make you fall asleep in the middle of the day. But doing it before bed is a nice time to help prepare for sleep, for sure. Got it. We have a few questions here. Bonnie asks, how do how do I get deeper sleep? Any thoughts on Pharma, Gabba? Well, I found that there isn't one magic pill that works for everything, right? Like magnesium isn't the magic pill. Gabba isn't the magic pill. CBD isn't the magic pill. Like these things will work if that's the nutrient that you're missing. So Gabba could work for you if that's actually what you need. If, you know, if your insomnia is from something else like a gut infection or blood sugar imbalance or hormone imbalance, that Gabba isn't necessarily enough to fix what's going on with you. So, you know, as far as deeper sleep, I think it's definitely pain, attention to light. You know, James, I know you talk about this a lot with some people don't notice that, say, you do watch TV until bedtime and you have the lights on bright and they don't know that it affects their sleep, but it does affect the quality of their sleep. And so even if you're not waking up, you still aren't necessarily getting as deep sleep as you need. So pain, attention to light is huge. And I mean, there's so many factors that affect sleep. It would be hard to get into all of them today because exercise, you know, is key and managing stress and looking at your diet. And all of these things affect sleep. So kind of have to be looking at it from this holistic view and looking at everything to get deeper sleep. Yeah. I've got a question here from Vanny who says, James, how has your sleep changed since you've changed your head? I'm not entirely sure whether that has actually changed my sleep. My head definitely felt like a wind tunnel in the first few days after I shaved it. It was like, wow, it's so cold right through here. You just forget how much of a natural blanket hair is. And then when I removed it, it was like, oh, it's so cold in here. But whether or not it's affected my sleep or not, I couldn't say. Is there any science on that, Martha? I don't know anything about length of hair and sleep. No. So you would we mentioned a couple of times here about gut health. So tell us a little bit about that. How can how gut health affect the sleep quality? Yeah. Well, kind of before I get into that, we need to talk about the main hormone that sabotages your sleep. And that would be cortisol. Yeah, you're probably familiar with cortisol as one of our stress hormones. And it's an important hormone that wakes us up in the morning and keeps us alert throughout the day. And it is part of that stress response. So if you're I live in the mountains, so I like to say if a bear is chasing you while you're hiking in the mountains, your body's going to release cortisol and adrenaline and other hormones to help you run from or fight that bear. But our bodies don't know the difference between being chased by a bear and, you know, constantly rushing around and being stuck in traffic and getting to fight with your spouse. Like it still releases those same hormones, even though you don't need to run from or fight something. So how that relates to gut health is if you have, say, a gut infection and a common thing that people have is a parasite, which I know gross as a lot of people out, but supposedly 85 percent of Americans, for example, have a parasite, so it's this very common thing. But when you have that, first of all, those creatures are nocturnal. And so it's at night that they are eating and excreting and releasing toxins and causing inflammation. And whenever there's inflammation, cortisol comes to the rescue because it's also an anti-inflammatory hormone. And so that's a big reason I see that people wake up at that three and four hour and just wake up wired, right? Like you don't know why you're just totally awake and not able to go back to sleep. And that's because your body is releasing cortisol because of that inflammation and it's keeping you awake. Yeah. And so cortisol can be can be created by having a parasite. Just explain what a parasite is, because I imagine it being little worms crawling around inside of your intestines. Is that what exactly what it is? Yeah, exactly. Like something like a tapeworm, like Giardia, like blastocytus hominus. They're, you know, they're creatures. A lot of times you get them from contaminated food and water, but they're kind of various to which species you get from where. But yeah, so it's just it's not a bacteria. Exactly. It's a different, a different creature that lives in your intestines. Exactly. OK. And so you said 85 percent of Americans have have worms. They're not all worms, I don't think. But yeah, yeah, I like visually, they're like parasites. I want to get that worm out of me. Right. So is that so 85 percent of Americans have parasites? Why is this not something that's spoken about more publicly? I get I mean, look, I because of the circles that I move in, I hear this a lot, I'm interested in health and well-being. But like everything in the net now is the coronavirus or cancer or dementia or Parkinson's or etc. Like all of those kind of things or obesity, diabetes, stress, but nowhere am I not nowhere, but in very few places am I hearing parasites, worms? So why is that? I think that a lot of I mean, medical doctors, first of all, don't know about. I don't, you know, they don't know about that as much. And a lot of times they think that they're not causing symptoms, but they haven't connected the fact that parasites can cause insomnia. So and they're probably causing other symptoms, too. But just, yeah, or, you know, Western medicine hasn't really connected that, I would say. So I think that's why it's not talked about as much. Yeah. So really, the only way you're going to you're going to get to the root of that is by studying holistic methods and having a natural path or having something like that, right, like a more of a holistic doctor, because your general American GP or a strange EP is not going to be either well versed in this or give it much much weight, I guess, or much, much authority. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they learn different things in school, you know, like like everything, we're all you all concentrate on something different. And so, yeah, I just don't think they're aware of it. What's the biggest creator of these parasites or these worms? Like, how does someone get it? Well, like I said, a lot of it's from contaminated food or water. So, I mean, you know, like I found out that I had a parasite that I probably got 12 years ago when I was traveling in Nepal and India. And I knew that I got really sick. I thought I had Giardia. I took a antibiotic, you know, while I was there. But I imagine that that that's where I got my parasite. But there's Giardia in the, you know, in the water in America. So and I imagine where you are, too, I'm not sure. But yeah, so these things are kind of everywhere. And I think it's like anything like we can tolerate these things up to a certain point, but once your body becomes, you know, once it's too much because we have environmental toxins everywhere and we have stress and we don't always eat the best. And so it all comes together and adds up to more than your body can handle. And so if you're perfectly healthy, a parasite might not be a big deal. But combined with everything else, it just pushed you over the edge. Martha, you have a book, I believe, on Amazon. What's what's your know? No, I don't have a book yet. Good. You're about to rock and roll. We're creating the foundation of one right here as we go. Exactly. So Martha is the founder of Complete Sleep Solutions. And we've got a free ebook we're going to put out today, actually. Five little known reasons high achievers can't sleep. At the complete sleep solution dot com. So, yeah, if you go to the website, the complete sleep solution dot com by Martha Lewis and yeah, Martha is a sleep consultant to health conscious high achievers who want to sleep but can't. And if you're just watching on YouTube or Facebook, keep your questions coming for Martha as we keep doing this Facebook live and YouTube live. Let's have a look at one of these questions here. I've tried B3 niacin a few times a day and I'm definitely awake at 3 a.m. A few times like lately. What could be going on there, Martha? Well, B vitamins are pretty stimulating. They give us energy. So I think usually the recommendation is to take them in the morning and not toward bedtime, so that could be something to tweak there and see if that helps. Got it. A solution supplement called colloidal minerals. Do you know what that's about, Martha? I don't. Yeah, I think there are minerals that are really easily absorbed in this. Yeah, I think they can help because we tend to not have enough minerals in general. These days our soils are depleted in minerals and, you know, especially eating processed foods and things like that don't have all the nutrients we need. So definitely a multi mineral like that can help. But again, like getting, you know, finding out what minerals you're deficient in and getting that balance back is really key to. Yeah, Betty Bradley on YouTube says hi from Western North Carolina. We've got some people from all around the world, which is pretty pretty amazing. Bianca on Facebook asks, I just found out I snore. Any way to fix that without using any silly devices? Well, snoring is the number one sign of sleep apnea. Now, I don't diagnose or treat sleep disorders at all, but I do know that. So it's interesting if it just started recently, for sure. Sometimes that can be attributed to weight gain and, you know, there's a physical blockage that could be causing that. So, yeah, that's that's a tough one, especially if it's something new. I would consider what has changed recently for you. And and that's probably the culprit. We've put Martha's ebook link in the comments down below. You can click on that. We've also included Martha's Facebook page there that we you can like. And we've also included her complete sleep solution ebook there in the YouTube comments as well. So I was mentioning just before we went live that my sleep had been somewhat challenged in the last couple of weeks. I I know that with work recently, because I'm in Australia, but my time zone is all out in the sense that I do a lot of work with Americans in America. And if I am not working by and sometimes six thirty seven I am in the morning, I miss a lot of meetings or I just I don't catch people because six thirty seven in the morning is excuse me, in Australia is, you know, towards the later part of the afternoon in America. And so because of that, I've been still trying to get to sleep around 10, but I've noticed that I've been thinking about work and thinking about what time I've got to wake up and making sure that I'm up and prepared, for example, this call right here with you, Martha. But we started this at seven a.m. local time, but just knowing that I was to be up at this time and making sure I got up. I was thinking about it during the night and I didn't sleep as well. Do you have any tips for someone like me in those those kind of circumstances? Yeah, well, it's definitely when you're having trouble sleeping is even more important to make sure you're following all the sleep rules, I call them. So taking that time to wind down before bed is key. Even journaling can help, you know, journaling everything that's on your mind so that then it's on paper and that really releases it from your brain worrying about it. Meditating is really helpful to kind of get those thoughts all out of your head and get to this calm and relaxed space. And you know a lot about dimming the lights and all that those things. So I don't have to tell you about that. But yeah, just being really strict about it for a while until you get into that routine and did you just come back two weeks ago? No, I've been here a while, but the work and things have started to come come forward a little bit in the time. So the hours that when the daylight saving changed in America, the clocks went forward and here in Australia, most of the time they went back. And so kind of everything moved about two hours earlier from here. So I wouldn't say it's been a sudden shift. It's been more of a gradual shift. But my perfect scenario is when I'm on a, you know, probably an East Coast time zone in the US. Even like the UK, the UK time zone, New York time zone to a lesser extent, Californian time zone, although that can also be OK. But the Australian time zone, when you're doing work with America, you got to really get it done in the first few hours when you wake up. So when I was living in the US, I would have a whole morning routine. I would wake up, I would write 20 things that I'm grateful for very calmly. I would put on some exercise clothes. I'd go to the gym, I'd exercise, I'd come back. I might do a little bit of meditation and then I would begin my day. Whereas now in Australia, I go to sleep. And as soon as I wake up, bang, I'm into work mode. And so everything gets pushed back and including exercise at times, including meditation, including the daily, daily gratitude. Because, you know, if I'm working from seven in the morning through eleven in the morning for that four hour block, which is in its just constant cause, it's going from one meeting to another meeting, to an interview, to to to education and different subject matters. By the time eleven a.m. rolls around, I'm I feel fried many mornings. And then so so that's kind of what's what's been going on. And then, of course, it's try to play catch up, try to do exercise and then do some work and do some creative work at the end of the day, which is challenging after you've just been like thrown into it. I eat pretty well, I drink lots of water. I do wear the Swannies glasses, but certainly as I go to sleep at night, I'm thinking about, oh, I've got to be up again. It's six, six thirty and I've got to be right into it. I think that's probably causing me my mind to be be going through the night. What do you think? Yeah, definitely. And have you always been go to bed at ten o'clock, wake up at six thirty person? Or I mean, it's I usually go to I'm usually in bed around ten and I'm usually falling asleep anywhere between ten and eleven. OK, yeah. But would you say that you're most productive in the morning or most alert in the morning? Well, I feel most productive in the morning now out of being forced to be most productive in the morning. So I get I do get the most done, but I also find it the most mentally draining and taxing time. Yeah. That's what I would say. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just thinking about chronotypes and, you know, whether you're a night owl or an early bird or something in between, like those are genetically predetermined. And so it's something that's very hard to change. So for someone who is a night owl, when you're trying to adapt and and go to bed early and wake up early, it's really hard. And and society, you know, revolves around more of the middle of the road or even the early bird and and night owls just don't fit in there, even though there's nothing they can do about that. So I would say, yeah, I mean, do whatever you can to manage stress during the day and before bed so that you're not worried about what's happening the next day. And again, I think journaling, writing down your schedule, writing down everything you have to do. And getting it out of your head can really help. And, you know, hopefully then sleep better. And, you know, I don't know. I don't know if you can wake up earlier and start your day in a more relaxed way, even just for 15 minutes or 30 minutes and and then get into your day. And if that would help, too. Yeah, I don't want to sound like I'm a little like complain or something, but it's actually it's the middle of winter here as well in Australia. Not the Australia gets super cold, but it's very dark in the mornings as well. So it's actually like it's cold and dark. So the idea of getting up earlier than what I do is like, oh, yeah, totally. Yeah. Well, you could use a light as well. You know, you can buy lamps that are 10,000 lux and they're pretty inexpensive these days and have that turned on first thing in the morning and get your body, you know, help set your body clock that way by doing that first thing in the morning and then again at noon for about 20 to 30 minutes. And that can help wake you up and make you more alert. Yeah. What's the what's the name of one of those wake up lights that you're referring to if there's so many they're called. They're also called a happy lamp or a light therapy lamp. There are hundreds of brands on like Amazon, I would say. So I can't think of a specific brand. But yeah. OK. OK, great. And we've got another question here. We have how does one find out if they have a parasite? How do you do a parasite test? Yeah, good question. It's a really fun stool test where you literally take send in a sample of your stool and I do a test called the gastrointestinal map or that's the one I use. I don't say I do it. But yeah, that's the one that I use with my clients and it tells you all kinds of things that are in your gut. So it's showing whether you have a parasite is also showing your bacteria, good and bad, showing fungus. If that's there, showing if you have H. Pylori, which is another bacteria, it shows if you have leaky gut. So it's a really cool test. It tests for about 50 different things in your gut. And that's the best way to find out. Got it. And then if indeed someone does have one of those things, bacteria, fungus, H. P. Lory, leaky gut, what is usually the preferred way of treating that? Well, I prefer to prefer to treat it from the holistic view. So using different supplements, herbs, things like that to get rid of. First of all, I always start with the parasite. So get rid of that parasite, then get rid of the bacteria. And then if there's spungle overgrowth, which a lot of times there is, if you are if you have a parasitic gut infection. So addressing all of those, but you can do it all pretty naturally with herbs and with diet. Got it. Yeah, there's we've actually got a swanic bulb, light bulb that's that's just come out, which is more for nighttime. So it takes out all that artificial blue light and we're going to be coming out with a morning one as well, which is exciting. The we have a comment here from someone on Facebook who says, I work at a call center and it has messed up my sleep. Is that a common affliction that you find, Martha? Yeah, definitely. The lights at a lot of office spaces are really horrible. They're that fluorescent light that just is very stimulating, keeps you releasing cortisol. So it's really important to get natural light during the day and then to have dim lights at night. But yeah, that's not surprising. It affects your sleep. So getting some daytime swanis could really help with that. And especially if you're in front of a computer a lot as well, that will help. Yeah. What's another big contributing factor to poor sleep or disturbed sleep that you've come across? We've talked about exposure to light at night time. We talked about high stress, you know, maybe not regular exercise, talk about parasites. What are the contributing factors have you seen to disrupting people's sleep? Another one is food sensitivities. So if you're eating foods you're sensitive to, now that's different than allergy where like you think of kids with peanut allergies going into anaphylaxis shock, but a sensitivity is harder to detect. But your body's producing antibodies against certain foods that it's not liking and that causes inflammation too. So like I had a client who was eating broccoli, which we all think of as a very healthy food, but it turns out he was sensitive to broccoli. And so it's causing inflammation. And again, when there's inflammation, your body releases cortisol day and night. And so that can also keep people awake at night. Like for me, I found out I can't eat gluten and my only symptom is that I wake up at three and four and can't go back to sleep. So like I've given it up many times before and never really noticed a difference. And as I've gotten older, I guess, or whatever it is. Like recently, a few months ago, I actually wasn't sleeping that well. And I decided to give up gluten and now I've been sleeping great ever since. So it makes a big impact if you're eating foods you're sensitive to. How does one do a food sensitivity test? Yes. Well, there are two options. So you can do what's called an elimination diet where you eliminate many allergenic foods like gluten, dairy, soy, corn and do that for 30 days. And then you add those foods back in one at a time every few days and record your results. So it's very it's very hard to do and stick with it, I found. But that is one way to to figure it out is going to take a few months. Or there are, you know, I do a food sensitivity test with my client. So you're finding out very quickly and they're testing like 80 different foods to see if you have antibodies against those. So that's the quicker and easier way to find out if you're sensitive to certain foods. And how does one do a sensitivity test? Is it saliva blood or is it stool? What is it? It's blood spot, the one I do. Yep. Blood spot, is it? OK. Yeah. Got it. So you can do a food sensitivity test. I've heard people say that there are sensitive to tomatoes, which is interesting because I always thought tomatoes are being very healthy. But I'm told that some people don't react particularly well to those. Yeah, tomatoes are a nightshade vegetable and some people really don't like those. So it's also peppers and onions and eggplant and tomatoes. Are there nightshade vegetables? Yeah, some people they cause a lot of inflammation and so they do better without them. So it's possible that some people could be just living their life, eating these foods, thinking that they're healthy, having all these problems, just can't get to the bottom of it. And it's literally they're eating what we all consider to be healthy foods, obviously, nutritious foods, but that could be the issue. Is that correct? Yeah, exactly. Better to go to your GP and just pop a pill, right? Yeah, that's how you want to do it. Sure. Yeah, so I can tell from from our conversation that you you'd like to take a more holistic approach to things. And so what are your I guess, what are your criticisms of Western medicine and what are your where where do you support Western medicine? And then let me ask you what what would be your criticisms of Eastern medicine and what would be your support of Eastern Eastern medicine? So if we're on a debating team or we're having a debating conversation, I'm going to ask you to to debate for each side of the of the coin here. OK, well, I think with Western medicine, it's the focus is on treating symptoms and sickness. So once people are sick, then that's when you intervene. And so you're not like, you know, you joke about popping a pill and that's not getting to the root cause of what's going on, right? Like it's treating that symptom, but it's not it's not actually making you healthy or fixing the problem. So I think that's the tricky part with Western medicine. It definitely has its place, especially for emergency medicine. And, you know, like my son's life was saved in a hospital. So I'm very appreciative of Western medicine for sure. And I even use it, you know, by doing this lab testing, like that's Western medicine as well by using science to figure out what's going on. So, you know, it definitely has its place and and its advantages. And so I like to use that as well. Eastern medicine, I mean, I'm not I'm no expert in Eastern medicine at all. I know, you know, that is part of holistic healing for sure. But I love I love anything that's trying to get to the root cause and fix a problem instead of just a pill for the symptom that's then causing another symptom. And then you take another pill for that. And it's, you know, it's just not it's not actually fixing the problem. It got it. And why is why is the US health care system more in the Western medicine of treating sickness? Why? I mean, if the answer really is, let's look at anything that gets to the root cause of the problem. Like, let's do preventative health rather than, you know, taking care of things. So why is it that way? Like why? Why is it the way that it is? Who knows? I mean, that's, you know, that's where the money is, I would say. That's where it split off however many years ago. And yeah, I'm just curious about that. I'm trying to dig into this a little bit more in my own research. But do you know when that when it split off in the US health care system went down the route that it went, which is more kind of sick cares? I guess it's helping people have got symptoms rather than preventing it. Yeah, I don't know exactly. I mean, I know so much has changed in the past hundred years. You know, with so many things in technology and what we eat. And and I'm assuming medicine too. And, you know, that's when people started getting sicker as well as when our diets changed and all this technology came about. And and so we've really quickly just been getting sicker and sicker. So I would imagine it would be on that same time frame. But I'm definitely not an expert in in the history of Western medicine. It's funny because people will people will say that people are living longer, you know, the average people living longer, even though we also must concede that people are getting sicker. So we're getting sicker and we're being kept alive longer. Exactly. That's the best way to put it. Yeah, so maybe better to just stay alive longer, but be really healthy doing it. Right. Yeah, that sounds good to me. We heard a question here on YouTube. If you get off your sleep cycle, so days and nights are mixed up. Can you reset your circadian rhythm? I heard that staying up an hour later each day until you go around clock. Yeah, that's definitely one way to do it for sure. And I also like to use light therapy as well. So doing it gradually helps. And then using that light first thing in the morning and then again at noon can really help reset as well. Bianca on Facebook asks, Martha, do you use swannies? I do. I have some right here. Oh, look at them on you. Oh, beautiful. There you go. What time of day or night do you put your glasses on? I put them on around eight thirty. Yeah, great. Yeah. And and then is that when you put on your your TV and do a few things? Well, yeah, exactly. And what have you found? What is the effect that you found from doing that? I found I fall asleep really easily, but really I stay asleep. Like it's it's weird to think that watching TV at night can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night, but it totally can because your body isn't producing enough melatonin to stay asleep all night. So I found it helps with with waking up in the night, too. And I mean, just to be clear, too, like we all wake up in the night, right? Like we transition through sleep cycles all night long. And so it's normal to wake up briefly. Maybe remember it, maybe not. But ideally, you just go right back to sleep and and go through those stages of sleep again. So yeah, but I found that it helps me stay asleep as well. Is there any science or any thing to the idea that we should avoid eating food in the last three hours before we go to sleep or the last hour, for example, Martha? Well, one thing we haven't talked about yet is blood sugar and how that affects sleep. So that is that is really important. You don't want to eat a big meal too close to bed because you don't want your body to be digesting when you're trying to go to sleep. But you also don't want to go to bed hungry. So for someone who say each dinner really early and then they get hungry three or four hours later, I think it's fine to eat a small snack. I'm talking 100 or 200 calories at the most. And you don't really want that to be ice cream or anything with a lot of sugar in it that's going to spike your blood sugar. Because if your blood sugar falls too low in the night, then your body is under stress and it releases cortisol. So, you know, having really fluctuating blood sugar levels is also another cause of insomnia. But yeah, a small snack, making sure it has some complex carbohydrates and some protein and fat so that you're not spiking your blood sugar too much is totally appropriate. And again, everyone's different too. Yeah. So what's happening is if you have a big meal or any meal irrespective of whether you have a snack or not, but if you have a big meal on that really gives you a surge of blood sugar level, blood sugar. Let's just say you go to sleep because your blood sugar level is so high, it's going to come back down very quickly. And is it that dramatic drop that releases cortisol? Yeah, it's when it drops really low after it drops high, then it drops low. And yeah, that's when your body releases cortisol. Got it. So what happens if you just if you just ate a small meal, but you ate something with a smaller meal? Does that mean that your blood sugar levels not going to drop as much or is it still going to drop to the same point as what it would if you'd had the bigger meal? Yeah, the size of the meal actually isn't the issue. It's it's more what you're eating. So a really high carbohydrate meal got it spikes your blood sugar levels or eating refined sugar, refined carbohydrates, especially without protein and fat are really going to spike your blood sugar levels. So what you're eating matters. If you just eat pasta before bed, yeah, your blood sugar levels are going to crash four hours later. But if you had that with the meat sauce and some vegetables, then, you know, it's not going to spike as high and then it's not going to crash as low. I'm just thinking about all these restaurants that people go out and eat at, you know, fancy restaurants and the Italian restaurants is like, let's go out and have some spaghetti for dinner and they have big pasta meals and a glass of red wine and they've got some garlic bread and then afterwards they'll have a dessert with some sugar and things. And then they'll feel really good and they go, man, that was amazing. Great night and I'll go home and I'll go to sleep. And and what I guess is happening internally is that their blood sugar levels are like in the night, it's going to drop. Cortisol will be released. Sleep will be compromised. Wake up feeling tired and foggy and sluggish. Yeah, exactly. Doesn't change the smiling assassins. The waiter is going, oh, can I get you some dessert? Get you some. Right. It's so interesting, isn't it? Like everything we when we dig into this and we and we understand the human body, we look around at our culture and how we choose to live our life. And you just it ends up being like James versus the culture or Martha versus culture or James versus the supermarket or Martha versus supermarket. It's like, how do you because everything is set up to have you do something completely different than what we're suggesting for optimal sleep? Isn't it? Yeah, definitely. It's an uphill battle for sure. Yeah. Martha, Pictorial says, do you recommend not eating after six p.m.? Well, that depends on when you go to bed. Yeah. And again, like everyone's different. So a lot of this is experimenting with what works best for your body and seeing. Like, again, you don't want to be hungry before bed either. So you don't want to eat too early and have be trying to go to bed five hours later and then you're going to be hungry again. So it depends on what time you're going to bed. And it depends on your body and what you're eating and and when. The same question on Facebook. I hear that not eating after six p.m. six p.m. helps keep your weight down. So same answer, I guess. I like to do intermittent fasting. And that's being very good at keeping my weight down and my energy levels up at various times in my life. And what I will do is I will tend to have my last meal around seven and then not eat again until after in the afternoon the following day. So my dinner cut off will be seven p.m. I won't eat anything else. And then I will eat again as soon as the clock hits 12 p.m. After midday and my first meal of the day will be lunch will be a big lunch. And I did that for some time and I that really worked for me. That felt great. I felt great. So that might that that's a good way of keeping weight down. Intermittent fasting. Are you familiar with that, Martha? Yeah, definitely. And I think it can work well for, you know, for a lot of people. I think it's something you want to be doing if you're healthy, like you don't want to be stressing your body more if you're already not healthy or if you already aren't sleeping, you know, like I think that that can make it that that intermittent fasting can actually make it worse. But if you're healthy, I think it's a great it's a great thing to do and try and again, see what works for you. And if it's Patrick on YouTube asks, what's a good snack to have before bed? Yeah, so I'm trying to think like cheese and some whole grain crackers or trying to, you know, combine again, those carbohydrates, fat and protein, peanut butter and apple or peanut butter and a banana, some popcorn with some oil or butter on it. Again, carbohydrate and some protein and fat. So you mentioned popcorn there, popcorn's all right. Again, like it is a carbohydrate, so making sure to have it with fat makes it a lot better. So without the fat, it's so if you're just popping, if you're just having some homemade popcorn, for example, you get some corn kernels, you pop it in a machine, you put some salt on it, you eat the popcorn. And that was it. You didn't put anything else on top of that. That would be troublesome, would you suggest? Yeah, it's just because it's a straight carbohydrate is going to spike your blood sugar. Pretty high as opposed to having some fat to minimize that spike. Got it. So putting on some grass-fed butter on top of it would minimize the spike. Yeah, yeah, exactly. OK. But not grass, not butter that from a movie theater when they give you the popcorn there, I'm assuming. No, that's not real butter. No, I don't know. A bunch of chemicals, yeah. Yeah. Popcorn from a movie theater might be OK without the butter, though, right? Because at the end of the day, it's just it's still just corn kernels or not. Yeah, well, I mean, it's it's how they pop it. It's a salt they use. It's like, you know, I prefer sea salt as opposed to table salt. And so yeah, good point. Yeah, yeah, good quality food out is hard to find, for sure. Yeah, we find we use because we do have a popcorn machine at home where I am. And we have we use Celtic or Celtic, depending on the pronunciation, sea salt. And that's we know that's really good. But I didn't know. I actually didn't know about the ensuring that put some good fat with it. So that's a good little addition. Grass-fed grass-fed butter. Yeah, yeah, or coconut oil. Yeah, coconut oil, that kind of stuff. Got it. Yeah. Teas, what about teas? Are there some people drink coffee? People drink tea? What are your thoughts on caffeine either in the morning or at night time? Teas in the morning or night time? Well, you definitely want to avoid caffeine at night and even in the afternoon. Caffeine has a really long half-life, which means it takes a while for your body to process it. And everyone's different as to how long it takes. Women actually tend to take longer to get all that caffeine out of your out of your body. So caffeine in the morning, if you need it, is great. I find that I do better in general without any caffeine at all. But that's, you know, again, that's my body. And I think teas like herbal teas before bed can be nice. You do want to make sure you aren't drinking too many liquids right before bed so that you don't have to wake up and have to go to the bathroom. Again, that's a personal thing. I have to stop drinking water and liquids at 8 p.m. And I still, you know, get up to go to the bathroom once a night. But luckily, I fall asleep right back after, so it's OK. So yeah, again, like those can be good. It just depends on your body. You know, when in relation to coffee, I didn't drink coffee for the first 35 years of my life. And then all of a sudden I moved to Columbia and started drinking coffee. And then went and then since then the last 10 years, I've gone on again off again. So I've gone years without drinking it. And then I'll go three months where I'll drink it straight and then I'll go off it again. And the last two months, I've been drinking it every morning until three days ago. And I think I well, there's no think, actually. I actually know that coffee doesn't quite agree with me. I actually love the taste and I love the ceremony of having it in the morning. I do love the feeling initially, but I found I find myself being feeling agitated somewhat irritable throughout throughout the day, you know, even eight hours after I've had the coffee. And then when I get go off it after the few after a few days of being off it, I start to feel pretty, pretty good. Like, like I don't feel as agitated or irritated. So is that something? Does that sound like something it could be just my genetic makeup, just like some people don't respond well to nightshade foods? Is it possible that coffee just doesn't react well in some human beings? Yeah, I mean, it could be that for sure. I mean, caffeine is a stimulant. So again, like it's definitely going to depend on your body and how well you can handle that and what else is going on in the big picture with what you're taking. It can be hard on the adrenals to process. So for people who aren't having optimal functioning adrenals, it's definitely something to stay away from. It adds to our stress. Again, like all these things can add to it. And at what point are you overflowing? And it's too much is the answer. So yeah, I've tried a dandelion coffee this morning. Have you heard? Are you familiar with dandelion? It's like it's like a coffee substitute. Yeah, did you like it? Yeah, I mean, I didn't I didn't love the taste, but I but I liked it enough that I'm going to keep going with it. And I'm hoping that I'll acquire the taste and etc. So so yeah, it was it was fine. I mean, I would certainly wasn't as tasty as when I have my morning coffee. Right. I hope that changes. Yeah, I haven't found anything good to, you know, that's the same or that replaces it. So I've just gotten out of the habit of having something which takes some time and is hard to adjust to for sure. Have you tried dandelion coffee before? I haven't tried just dandelion. I tried I've tried other like I've tried chicory root and it's OK. And I've tried something called rasa that I really wanted to like because it has adaptogenic herbs and mushrooms in it and I could just taste the mushrooms and it just I couldn't find a way to make it good that I could drink it. Yeah. What was it? What were the what were those two coffees called those two drinks? One's called chicory root. So that's a common coffee alternative. And then rasa coffee, it's called R-A-S-A. Uh-huh. It sounds amazing. Chicory, C-H-I-C-O-R-Y. Chicory root. OK, great. I'll research that. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Give it a try to see if it tastes any better than the dandelion. I'm told reliably that the dandelion coffee is very good for lowering cholesterol levels. So. Yeah, all yeah, all these herbs have good benefits as well. We're talking to Martha Lewis and we've got a few minutes here to go here. We've got a few last questions here. Let's roll through the Pamela King who asks, Martha, what does nightshade foods actually mean? I don't know why they're called that. But like I said, it's the tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant. So, you know, there's something that classifies them all in that family. Some chemical compound, I would say. I'm not sure why they're called nightshades, though. It's a good question. Yeah. We've got a question here from D. Finston on YouTube, night owl issues. Productive even if tired at 9 p.m. But wide awake till 4 a.m. More puzzling if go to bed at four, get rested deep sleep. If I sleep earlier, not feeling rested. Is this all in my mind? Well, it sounds like you have what's called a delayed circadian rhythm. So it's gotten later and later and later to where now your body's programmed to going to bed at that four a.m. Yeah, and it can be hard for night owls to wind down for sure. So that's when it's really important to pick a time that you want to go to bed, keep that consistent, take time to wind down, make sure you're dimming the lights. And then again, using that light therapy in the morning can help, you know, get you back on track. Vanny Sharkey says a nice cool gel mask is good for sleeping. What are your impressions of that, Martha? Well, our body temperature does naturally lower as we fall asleep. That's an important part of the sleep process. So having something cool, you know, keeping your room cool is definitely key. Some people just like that pressure on their face. You know, if it's blocking out the light too, if there's any kind of light going on in your room and that blocks it out, then that's that's great. You know, I think that's a great tool to use if that's what you like. Anything about pillow or sleeping position that can that can help or hinder sleep? That's all pretty personal, you know, comfort, I would say, and you definitely being comfortable is obviously really important. So there is something to be said for having a comfortable pillow, having a comfortable mattress and sheets that you love and and all that. That is definitely key. So as far as sleeping position, I think that that's something that we prefer and it's really hard to change. Like I cannot sleep on my back. I just I can't fall asleep that way. I can't do it. And that was really hard during pregnancy when that seemed like a comfortable way to try to sleep, but I couldn't do it. So so I don't think there's one position that makes you a better sleeper or not. You know, there's all kinds of fun articles out there about what your sleep position means about your personality and and fun things like that. But I think it's just personal preference. Great. Well, Martha, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. So I appreciate you joining us here on the on the show. And thank you so much to all those people who asked us questions on YouTube and on Facebook and if it's Patrick says I've been taking actual Ashwa Ganda for sleep seems to help. Thank you. We've got some other cool comments here that have come through. Any final words of wisdom just on sleep, Martha, that you want to give us just to wrap things up? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think what I haven't said yet is that I think that you're meant to sleep well, like unless you have some kind of rare sleep disorder, most of us, like our bodies need to sleep, our minds need to sleep. And so if you aren't, to me, that means there's something going on that is that is keeping you awake. And the good news is that we can figure it out. So I just I know so many people struggle with sleep. And I just want you to have hope that it doesn't have to be that way. And you can figure out how to get the sleep you need. Yeah, wonderful. Martha Lewis, thank you so much. We so appreciate you being here. Just remember, you can grab Martha's free ebook, five little known reasons high achievers can't sleep and how to fix it. You can go to the complete sleep solution dot com. We've put that comment down a few times during the interview down below. If you're watching on Facebook, if you're watching on YouTube, please do go and check that out. It's at www.TheCompleteSleepSolution.com. Martha, thank you so much for your time. Yeah, thanks for having me. It was fun answering all your questions.