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You might be blaming your hormones, your medication, or yourself... when the real problem could be your sleep.

Sleep is one of the most overlooked parts of metabolic health. And when it's off, everything feels harder. You feel hungrier. Your cravings get stronger. Your energy drops. Your blood sugar is harder to manage. Progress slows down, even when you feel like you're doing everything right.

Sleep medicine physician Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown recently broke down why sleep matters so much, what could be disrupting yours, and why waking up exhausted is not something you should just accept.

Your Body Does a Lot While You Sleep

Sleep isn't just rest. It's when your brain recovers, your hormones regulate, and your metabolism resets. When you cut it short, or when the quality is poor, those processes get interrupted in ways you feel all day long.

Here's what's happening hormonally when sleep goes wrong:

• Cortisol stays high instead of dipping in the evening, driving inflammation and making weight management harder
• Insulin sensitivity drops, making it harder to process sugar and increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes
• Leptin falls (your "I'm full" hormone), so you never quite feel satisfied
• Ghrelin rises (your hunger hormone), so you feel hungry even when you've eaten enough

Put all of that together and it's no wonder cravings win. As Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown puts it, after a bad night of sleep you're not reaching for carrots… you're reaching for carrot cake.

Why You're Still Struggling (Even After Trying Everything)

Most people who find Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown say the same thing when they walk through her door: I am tired and I have tried everything.

That's because sleep problems are rarely just about habits. Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown uses a three-pronged approach to get to the real root cause:

1. Medical factors – sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, thyroid issues, nutrient deficiencies like low iron, magnesium, or vitamin D, and chronic pain can all play havoc with your sleep
2. Sleep habits – what time you go to bed, what you do before sleep, screen use, alcohol, and caffeine all play a role
3. 24-hour lifestyle factors – conditions like ADHD, anxiety, or depression create a higher baseline predisposition to poor sleep that needs its own attention

When all three are assessed together, very little gets missed.

How Much Sleep Do You Actually Need?

The recommendation for adults is seven to nine hours, but the range is wide for a reason. The real question isn't just how many hours you're getting, it's how you feel when you wake up.

If you're hitting seven hours but still dragging through the day, you might need more. Quality matters just as much as quantity.

And when it comes to wearables like the Apple Watch, Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown warns against obsessing over every number. While watching your overall patterns is helpful, panicking over your deep sleep percentage is not.

Sleep Debt, Naps, and the Banking Myth

You can't store up sleep for later. Sleep is not a bank.

If you're chronically sleep deprived, the math just doesn't work in your favor. The best thing you can do is protect a consistent sleep and wake time as much as possible because your circadian rhythm thrives on rhythm.

As for naps: think of them like a small snack before dinner. Keep them short, keep them early in the day, and don't rely on them if you struggle with insomnia (they'll make it worse).

How to Protect Your Sleep When Traveling

Jet lag throws off your circadian rhythm, but a few simple moves help:

• Start gradually shifting your bedtime before you travel
• Change your watch to the destination time zone as soon as you board
• Get natural light in your eyes when it's daytime at your destination
• Stay hydrated—dehydration makes jet lag significantly worse
• Skip the airplane wine—alcohol and altitude are not a good combination!

Caffeine, Alcohol, and Your Sleep Quality

Many people underestimate the impact of caffeine and alcohol on their sleep.

Caffeine has a half-life of six to eight hours. If you're going to bed at 10pm, your last cup should be by 2pm at the latest (earlier if you're sensitive).

Alcohol feels like it helps you fall asleep, but it suppresses REM sleep and fragments the second half of your night. It also relaxes the muscles in your airway, which can worsen snoring and sleep apnea. That groggy, foggy feeling the next morning? That's the nightcap.

Should You Be Taking Sleep Supplements?

Melatonin, magnesium, ashwagandha… the shelves are full of options. Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown's take: understand why before you grab anything.

• Melatonin is best suited for people with circadian rhythm issues or shift workers—not a fix-all for general insomnia
• Magnesium can support relaxation in the right context, but it won't fix an underlying sleep disorder
• Mouth tape is trending, but if you haven't been evaluated for sleep apnea or nasal obstruction, covering your mouth could be dangerous

While supplements can have a place, they're not a substitute for finding the root cause.

Simple Things You Can Start Tonight

Before anything else, get the basics right:

• Set a consistent bedtime and wake time, even on weekends
• Keep your room cool, dark, and quiet
• Put screens away 30–60 minutes before bed
• Limit caffeine and alcohol in the evening
• If your mind races at night, try journaling, meditation, or prayer before bed to process the day

If you've been consistent with all of that for a few weeks and still aren't sleeping well, it's worth speaking to a professional. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the gold standard treatment—and it works.

What About Weight Loss and Sleep Apnea?

If you're on a GLP-1 or have lost significant weight, this one's worth knowing. 

Weight loss can reduce the severity of sleep apnea, sometimes significantly. Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown recommends repeating a sleep study once you've lost around 10–15% of your body weight. 

You might be able to reduce your CPAP settings, switch to a different therapy, or come off it altogether.

The Foundation Everything Else Is Built On

A third of your life is meant to be spent sleeping. When it's working, everything else works better: your metabolism, your mood, your energy, your progress. When it's not, no amount of willpower or medication fully makes up for it.

If you're tired of feeling tired, this is where to start.

Listen to the full episode with Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown for the complete conversation, including her thoughts on sleep trackers, supplements, and how to find the right kind of help.

TRANSCRIPT:

Disclaimer: The transcript below is provided for your convenience and may contain typos, errors, or grammatical inconsistencies, as it has not been professionally edited or proofread. Please enjoy it as-is and read at your own discretion.

Please note: The content shared in this podcast and blog post is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for personalized medical guidance.   

 Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today we're gonna talk about one of the most important, and I think most overlooked pieces of metabolic health, and that's sleep.

Sleep plays a huge role in appetite, regulation, hunger, hormones, cravings, insulin resistance, even how well I see medications like GLP ones work, yet it's often something that we just don't talk about enough. So I'm really excited today. To be joined by Dr. Funke Alabi Brown. I'm sure I probably said that wrong and I apologize in advance.

I'm gonna have you say it, properly, but she is a sleep medicine physician and founder of the Restful Sleep Place where she helps adults and children identify what's truly disrupting their sleep and creates a sustainable evidence-based solution. Can we start out with you introducing yourself when I asked, who do I need to talk to? That's just an expert on sleep. A million physicians said, you are who I need to talk to thank you so much for having me. I'm really thrilled and I'm looking forward to this conversation.

I'm Dr. Funke Afolabi Brown, a sleep medicine physician and the founder of the Restful Sleep Place. We have a, I guess I'll call it a boutique sleep medicine p practice here in Horsham. And I do love to talk about sleep. I love to educate people and I love to talk with a lot of clinicians about the importance of having conversations around sleep with their patients.

Before we even get started, when do people typically come seek you out? What has happened as far as sleep or how they're feeling when they actually take the time to find you. Different ways. Sometimes people, have been told it's, again, hormones or you just need to lose more weight and they've done all the things, but they're still, or you need to practice sleep hygiene, right?

And so they've done all those things and they are still having a hard time where they're waking up unrefreshed and things like that. By the time they come see me, they are tired. And they've tried everything and that's literally what they say. I am tired and I have tried everything. And then sometimes, again, because one of my friends says Sleepies have no moment.

So a lot more people are talking about it. So sometimes I get some doctors who say. I know who exactly or what you need to do about this issue you've been having for a while, and then, that really helps prevent like years or sometimes even decades of sleep deprivation. So yeah, totally.

I think that's amazing because I find that people need to get to this point of desperation often before they'll listen to me on this or go see the specialist that I recommend. So I'm so glad that we're talking more about this because feeling tired and exhausted, it's really just not a way that.

That people wanna feel. Are there things that when someone comes in and they say that they're having trouble with sleep, are there physiologic things that you're looking for?

For example, sleep apnea, what's the kind of, what are some of the things you think about first from a medical context? Oh, that's an excellent question. Really, when patients walk in to see me, or even if it's a curbside consult, we start with almost like a three prong view when it comes to sleep.

I start off with. Medical, like you said. So what are the medical issues? Now, this can range from, many people know, or more people are aware of obstructive sleep apnea or other types of sleep apnea. But then other things like restless leg syndrome, a lot of limb movements during sleep.

All those things, even, all those things can impact your sleep quality. Another piece under that medical umbrella that I often see is sometimes even micronutrients and supplement deficiencies. So I see a lot of women, especially who might have low iron stores, low magnesium, vitamin D, those kind of things.

And then I'm also evaluating for things like thyroid disorders. 'cause sometimes again, they occur, they co-occur. So I'm looking at that finally we are looking at just other disorders that potentially could be playing a role to poor sleep chronic pain, fibromyalgia, those kind of things all are still under that medical umbrella.

Even if I'm suspecting a sleep disorder, I still wanna make sure when I'm missing some of these things. Reflux, all of those things. That's that medical prong. And then the second prong is. More of the habits, right? This is where the sleep hygiene comes in. What are you doing in bed?

What are you eating before bed? Are you consuming technology? All of that. So we cannot look at that because I think that's a very important foundation. And actually some people are still struggling with that, and that might be a big contributor to their sleep issues. And then I call the third prong, my 24 hour factors.

If I have someone who has. Autism or A DHD or anxiety or depression at baseline they already just have a higher predisposition to poor sleep overall. When we do that, it's almost unlikely that we miss what's driving your sleep issues. Oh my gosh, this is so comprehensive. The way you broke it down, and then the 24 hour I have a lot of patients. Half my practice has a DH adhd. Mm-hmm. So it's so fascinating when you're talking about stratifying it in this way, how then something doesn't get missed. I hope everyone listening, if you're struggling with sleep and you're not getting this kind of a workup, that you would find someone as well educated as you on this to get help because.

A lot of people, I don't think that they're getting this workup. And then they're just, again, and again being told it's perimenopause or whatever is Yeah. They just gets hung on one thing, so if, let's say, someone's not feeling great, can we talk about why sleep is so foundational for metabolic health?

Especially for things like appetite regulation and maintaining weight, things like that. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So the way, one of the benefits we know that sleep has, in addition to, the restorative nature of sleep. It's not just about curing your sleepiness, it's really a process that's going on at night, right?

Brain health, brain function, hormone regulation is a big piece. So when we talk about hormone regulation, it's not just like one hormone, it's a whole bunch of hormones because, we have a circadian rhythm and really that's that 24 hour cycle, and they're different. Aspects of the circadian rhythm that are occurring while we're sleeping during the day as well.

You get some, effects of it, but it's regulated by the light dark cycle, but not just regulated by the, light, dark CI cycle. It also regulates a lot of physiologic processes, including metabolism, including hormone regulation. So when we don't get good sleep, we are missing out on those benefits. So let me give you examples of some of those hormones.

Okay. Cortisol, cortisol rises in the morning, right? That's what gives us, gets us ready for the day, and it's supposed to have a natural dip. In the evening when we don't get sleep, we don't get that natural dipping process. And so you may get sustained high cortisol. Now we all know what does high cortisol to our due to our body, right?

Significant inflammation makes it really hard in terms of, our metabolism overall. Really impacts our cravings and our uptide and things. So that's one. And then we also have another very important hormone insulin, right? This is what helps us with, pro processing glucose and all of that, right?

So when you don't get the natural dipping as well, then what happens? We start to develop over, impaired glucose, tolerance. We start to have more just difficulty with processing, sugars and things like that, which is why one of the. Consequences of poor sleep is a higher risk of type two diabetes.

Then we, in addition to that, we have, appetite hormones that are impacted by sleep. So when we, when typically there are two main hormones most people talk about when it comes to appetite regulation, but I wanted to talk about the insulin, the cortisol, 'cause it's not just about those two. So two main hormones you might hear about the leptin and the ghrelin and the way I remember it, the leptin is a satiety hormone.

It's what tells your brain. Dude, your full right. Good when it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be higher. And then you know, if it's low, then you're hungry. And then there's the ghrelin. And I say, girl, 'cause ghrelin is always hungry. So that's your hormone. That makes you more hungry in that sense.

So what happens if we don't sleep well is like, there's almost like a flip of those hormones. So leptin that's supposed to be high. It's low, and so you are hungry all the time. And ghrelin that we ideally want to be low is high. So nothing seems to fill you up. And when you combine that, which is why I talked about, just memory, brain function, brain health, decision making capabilities, executive function is impaired with sleep.

Now imagine dysregulated hormone with poor decision making. That's not a good combination. So think of that situation where you've had a bad night of sleep and you are now just hungry. You are not gonna go to the fridge and grab a bag of carrots, maybe the carrot cake, right? Because of all these things going on.

And so really we can now imagine what that then you are too tired to exercise. Or even when you exercise again, because of this high inflammatory state you are in, you really are finding it hard to lose that weight. Yeah. Let me ask you, is there, are there like a number of hours that you're looking for?

Let's just take 18 and over. That's typically who's listening to this podcast and who I see are there, and I know it can vary, but on average, what kind of sleep number, quality sleep numbers are you looking for someone? Yeah, great question. So really when we look at sleep. We look at restful sleep.

I usually will say the quantity is very important. Seven to nine hours is usually the recommendation in adults, 18 and up. And it's a wide range, so you have to also listen to yourself, pay attention to your, to how you're feeling. Are you, are you waking up in the morning still tired? If for instance you think, oh, no, I'm only, I just need seven hours.

Well, if you're waking up in the morning and you're tired. You are starting to get sleepy during the day, you may need a little bit more so you can play around with it. But in addition to that, you also wanna look at the quality. 'cause I have people who may sleep seven or eight hours and it's crappy sleep.

And no matter how much sleep they get, they're still very unre refreshed. So it's, I usually will say we wanna look at both the quality, ideally 7-9 hours. It's a very wide range as well as the quantity as well as the quality. What's your impression, or do you use at all, like the wearable devices?

You know how, like the Apple watch, right? They're like, Hey, here's your sleep score, and they're doing those kind of things. Mm-hmm. Is there validity to that or is that not something that you use at all? Yeah, actually use it pretty frequently with certain patients, if I have patients who have.

A lot of insomnia where they're very worried about their sleep, they're perseverating, then that would not be a good candidate. But if I have someone who's just looking to optimize their health, they've. They've not prioritized sleep. Now they're really on this mission to improve their sleep overall.

And so looking at trends to say, okay, I made a certain change. Maybe I used to drink alcohol and caffeine all the way to the we hours of the morning and I've stopped it now, and now I wanna see. I feel like that feedback is beautiful to now see, wow, I'm sleeping more consistently. I have less wake ups.

Versus somebody who's like, oh my goodness, my sleep score said, or my deep sleep was this and my REM sleep. Now I'm worried. So I think it's really more about how you use it. I use it to help coach a lot of my patients, especially as they're trying to optimize their sleep habits and their sleep schedule.

Rather than make it the. End or be all. Yeah. And then in terms of the trends it's really looking at, okay, the time you are being awake, the time you are sleeping again, versus all the minutiae details of deep sleep or re sleep. You do wanna be careful with how you use that data. Thank you for giving so much clarity on that, right?

Mm-hmm. I do find sometimes what you were saying, too much data creates so much anxiety. It's like with CGM, it can be really helpful, but if we're using it too much, it really can drive you nuts. A follow up with this, seven to nine hour kind of being the optimal, what we're looking for.

What about this concept of like sleep, debt, recovery? Can you take a nap during the day? Or is that not something where it's just kinda like with time, you have to have a good rhythm? Can you make up sleep that you've missed? Yeah, I previously used to say this, sleep is not a bank.

You can't be like, oh, I'm just gonna bank good sleep and just go partying all night long. If you do the math, it's gonna be really hard to catch up. Especially if you're somebody who is chronically in sleep debt. There will be a time where you'll be. 12 or 13 hours in sleep debt, how are you gonna pay that off?

You're not gonna sleep 24 hours, you just can't do that. So you have to really be careful. But say for instance, I work with a lot of athletes, I work with a lot of people who travel around the world and they say, well, I'm gonna have an intense season where maybe for the next five days my sleep is gonna be like all choppy.

Well maybe now we know ahead of time we could build a schedule whereby where. Quote unquote, banking that sleep so that we can try not to enter that season with so much sleep deficit, and then as soon as we can, we start to try to maybe sleep a little bit longer, as much as you can. But it's not the ideal because again.

In addition to when we talk about restful sleep, I, the third thing I left out was the timing of sleep and the rhythmicity of sleep. Quality sleep, quality of sleep, quantity of sleep, and the rhythmic city and the timing. Really the best thing you can do for your circadian rhythm is to have a consistent sleep time.

And a consistent wake up time as much as you can. Again, depending on who's gonna be listening to this, you may, I don't want you to feel like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna shut everything down because of that. Right. Life is life, you know? So knowing that I will accumulate some sleep there.

How do I know proactively and prepare for that? Well, maybe I'll try to give myself a little grace. I'll try to not. When I can, the thing about naps is you do wanna be careful. I am sure this will resonate well. I look at naps like having a little bit of snack before your dinner, right?

You don't wanna eat this giant like pretzel with a bowl of ice cream, and you are not gonna be hungry, right? The same way if you wanna take a snack or a nap, as I would call it, you make it short, you make it sweet, you make it earlier. A little bit earlier in the day so you can have enough time to build a high enough sleep drive to be able to sleep at night.

But if you do, like again, you've had a rough night or maybe like a mom who just had a kid, and sleep is all over the place, well, yeah, you could take a little bit of enough if you have insomnia, right? Chronic difficulties, falling asleep, staying asleep, all of that. You do wanna stay clear of a nap because that will make your insomnia worse in some situations.

Definitely. I wanna just follow up real quick 'cause I've always wondered about this. When, if you have somebody traveling time zones, whether it be vacation or work, like you were saying. Are there any tips for how people can adjust to the new time zone best?

Yeah, yeah. Jet lag is very common, the important thing is, number one, you wanna figure out where you are traveling to, right? If you're traveling east where you are, losing time versus west where you're tra where you are gaining time. West is actually what we say. We usually say west is best because it's more about just you're gonna stay off for longer.

That's what it is. Yeah. But for east, you are going to bed at an earlier time than you typically would, so the goal is, again, before the ev, before travel, you do wanna know. What the time zone is, how much time you're gonna lose. What the plane ride, what does the plane, the flight look like, and then make sure you're not going in with the deficit.

I think it's important. And then as soon as you get on the plane, you wanna adopt. The, you can start gradually shifting your body clock, even before. So if, for instance, again, if you're going eastward, you may start maybe trying to go to bed a little bit earlier, as much as you can. It's not perfect at all.

And then as soon as you get on the flight, I would always say Change your change. Change your times right away to the destination time zone, and adapt, whatever. What would they be doing? Would they be asleep right now? At the destination, don't. And if that's what you need to do, you're gonna put the sleep mask on and try to take a nap.

And then you know, if it's morning there again, you let the blinds open so that you can get as much light as possible. Meal times you wanna adapt to their mealtimes as well. So if they're trying to serve you like some large dinner, when at that time zone, you know that everybody else is asleep, then you know you wanna avoid that.

Of course you don't wanna be hungry, but just to be aware you wanna stay hydrated. Dehydration makes. Jet lag a hundred times worse. So you wanna try to stay hydrated, avoid the cheap wine that is serving you or offering you on that flight. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. So you really wanna make sure, again, the pressure change it makes how you process alcohol different, it worsens that, dehydration.

So those kind of things. And then when you get to the destination, again, just jump right in. If it's daytime, if it's morning, get rid of those sunglasses no matter how cool they look. Get light into your eyes as much as possible. And then in the evening, as evening approaches, then you, of course you wanna avoid bright light.

So those will be some things. Usually people say it's about an hour per time zone crossed for you to adjust, I'm sorry, an hour a day per time zone crossed. Per hour of time zone cross. But with those tools you can actually move a lot faster. Yes. Okay. Thank you for that. 'cause I know that's something that, that people really struggle with , along those lines, do you have recommendations as far as when people should stop caffeine intake? I would say, the half-life again varies like six to eight hours.

So just rule of thumb, if you are a 10:00 PM bedtime person, you probably wanna be done with your very last cup of coffee by 2:00 PM I would say 2:00 PM at the latest. That way at least you have time to metabolize it and get it out of your system. And if you are notice like oh 2:00 PM I'm still pretty sensitive and I feel like I still have it in my system, then you may need to stop even earlier.

Yeah. Okay. That's good. I've always heard noon and I'm like, but that's so early. I know, right? I struggle with the noon, but two o'clock I can do. Can you explain to us about how alcohol impacts sleep? Alcohol is a sedative. And so it helps fall asleep, it knocks you out. The issue is that it is metabolized by the liver very quickly. What you might notice is maybe the first half of the night. Decent sleep. And then once it starts to get metabolized, you really start to see, and it suppresses REM the first half of the night, you now might get a component of what we call rebound rem.

You might not get enough deep sleep, you might have sleep fragmentation. And so as a result of that, waking up. Feeling tired, what people call the hangover. And then the other thing is that alcohol also relaxes. 'cause it causes your body to relax so it can relax your upper airway muscles. So if you're somebody who has a history of snoring or you have a history of sleep apnea, it can actually worsen sleep apnea.

That's just something to be very careful about. So really we recommend avoiding alcohol before bed. Of course, most people take alcohol in the evening but for what it's worth, I'm not saying go. Completely off if that's not what you prefer, but just being aware of that, the crappiness you feel right now was very because of the nightcap you enjoyed last night.

I'm glad that people hear that because sometimes it, it gives you options of what to work on. Yes. I put it that way, right? Yes. Yes. And I think, so I wanna ask you, there's so much out there about different supplements and things like that. What are your thoughts on, magnesium melatonin? Mouth taping? I feel like I see that 24 7. What are your thoughts on some of those, either the supplements and then like the things like mouth tape? Yeah, so with the supplements, I think as someone who practice more, who has a more of a holistic approach to sleep. Health, I do offer supplements, but I think it's just really important to understand why.

What we typically recommend within the sleep community is more targeted supplements. For instance, rather than just grabbing the stuff off the shelf, try to figure out why, right? Because everybody just goes out of desperation to the stores and grabs the melatonin, magnesium, and ashwaganda, all of that.

Really understanding why you need it, because melatonin can help in terms of. Facilitating sleep onset, but it's usually more used in people who have, maybe like a slight delay in their circadian rhythm. Maybe people who have, shift work who are shift workers or people who have what we call delayed sleep with face syndrome.

There are actual. Indications for these kind of supplements? With magnesium it helps with, reducing tension and promoting relaxation. So in a certain situation it might be helpful. Um, but if you are going there, if you're somebody who has insomnia or you have un refreshing sleep, I would.

I would recommend getting that evaluated so we can figure out the root cause. Because if you have sleep apnea, there's no amount of sleep aids that's gonna help that situation. Yeah. And in fact, if you have insomnia and maybe you have some kind of rhythm, abnormal rhythm problem, melatonin might actually make it worse.

As you use supplements, understand why, many of them just say, safe, benign sleep aid. If you think about a Tylenol pm it's not meant to be used every night because we know that Tylenol to your liver over time is dangerous. So at the end of the day, even though this bandaid gives us a quick fix, it may potentially be causing harm long term.

Yeah, I, I like what you're talking about with the guidance. 'cause I use some supplements as well, but Exactly. It's not, it's, I hate when people are just taking 15 randomly. Yes. And they've had no testing. There's no reason for anything. There's no logic. So a hundred percent to what you said. What about the one with the tape?

Yes, with the mouth tape. This has become like a very popular fad more recently, the way it is is, you know, some people are mouth breathers and so it helps with promoting nasal breathing. Nasal breathing is the number one way we should breathe, is the healthiest way to breathe, and for some reason people are not able to breathe through their nose.

And I would say just like with the supplements, why is that? Why are you not breathing through your nose if the nose is supposed to be the way we're supposed to breathe? There are many reasons. Sometimes you might have an obstruction, sometimes you might have sleep apnea. Sometimes you might have a nasal polyp or a deviated septum so your mouth habitually is open because you couldn't bring it in through your nose.

So just putting a tape over. Can potentially not be the safest thing to do. 'cause you just shut off your only exit, your only means of survival. But on the contrary, if you've, maybe you've had a sleep study, you've seen an ear, nose and throat doctor, you've had an evaluation and all we have now is just relaxation of your jaw, but your noses patent, you could, we know, we can confirm that you can breathe through your nose, then you know, it's fine.

But again, let's figure out why, because we do not want to turn. A terrible or an uncomfortable situation, AKA mild breathing into a disaster. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really glad that you, yeah. They always present things like just buy this one product. Yes. And it's never that easy. So I'm so glad that you brought that up.

If you were to talk to someone, and let's assume that we're talking to someone that here and there is struggling with sleep, right? Maybe like three, four weeks at a time, but it's not like a chronic insomnia for years. Because I feel like that's a. Different treatment compared to, let's say maybe like stress induced or things like that.

What would be some of the top tips you would give that person and just a person in general for do these things so that you maybe have better sleep? I would say, we wanna make sure we cover basics first. Basics is so important, whether it is, having that consistent sleep schedule, having a bedtime routine, making sure that your room is cool, it's dark.

Mm-hmm. It's noise free. Making sure that you're avoiding any nons sleep related activities in the bedroom. Those kind of things. The technology, we are shutting it down about 30 minutes to 60 minutes before bed and things like that. The limiting the alcohol, caffeine.

I think that's very fundamental. That's something you can start tonight and I usually will say, let's start with those basics. Maybe you've done that for a couple of weeks and you're still like, I am tired, I am still not sleeping. My mind is racing. Oh. Another thing I would say is incorporate some.

Self-compassion exercises in your bedtime routine. If you've been busy all day, you've not had time to process any of your thoughts. We may do some guided meditation, we may do prayers, we may do some journaling. Those kind of things can help offset that busy mind. But if you've still been struggling in spite of all of that, it might be worth just speaking to a professional.

And when I say professional, I think usually what we start to do is. Do we need evaluation? Evaluation for sleep disorder, evaluation for insomnia. And then based on that, we can then talk about, cognitive behavioral therapy, especially for someone who's struggling with insomnia. That's really the gold standard, cognitive CBTI.

Of course if you have sleep apnea or other risk factors, then you know that evaluation is also very important. Yeah. Is there something about how someone would be able to tell the difference between just I'm just tired versus this is something that needs more evaluation?

I usually tell people there's a difference between tired and sleepy. Yeah. Okay. And most people. Mix them up. Tired. Could be burnt out. Tired, could be sad. Tired, could be just overwhelmed, tired, could be overworked and in need of vacation. Sleepy is literally, I can't keep my eyes open as I'm talking to you, or I'm driving and I find myself nodding off, or I'm sitting in a public place and I'm just blacking out pretty much. If you are tired, sometimes sleep might help, but many times that may not be the only solution. If you are sleepy, good sleep will always help.

I love, thank you for defining the difference of these 'cause a hundred percent. These are like two different, way different ballparks, so Yeah, and the approach is different. Tired might be depression yeah. But sleepy might be sleep apnea, might be narcolepsy, might be, chronic, insufficient sleep.

And so teasing those out, like what's happening to your eyelids when you're sitting in a room, if you are nodding off, then yeah, you're sleepy. And then we can go back and say quantity, quality, timing, a disorder. Those kind of things. You. I was just thinking about, 'cause I'm seeing obviously all my patients are on some type of a anti-obesity medication and a lot of them will lose a lot of weight.

And I'm wondering what's the chance that they can actually come off of like A-C-P-A-P machine, things like that. Weight loss will reduce the severity of sleep apnea.

Whether it's through, GLP one or diet and exercise, surgery other medications, when we now, what percentage of weight loss will resolve your sleep apnea? We don't know because the mechanism. For obstructive sleep apnea in patients with obesity is multifactorial. It's not just like, oh, it's fat.

You lose fat. Then the sleep apnea goes away, there's a tone issue. There's anatomy. There's a whole lot of things that play a role. But that being said, we do know that. Weight loss will reduce the severity. Whether it's reducing it by 50% or 20%, it's a wide range. Even from the studies in surmount oay with the, Z bound and all of that, we saw that.

So that being said, this is what I usually do and most of our colleagues recommend, is if you've lost significance, when we say significant, at least 10 to 15% of your baseline body weight. It is absolutely helpful. To repeat your sleep study, because one, we could get resolution of your sleep apnea, that's a possibility.

Two, we might get red, reduction in the severity, which now opens you up to various options like, oh, maybe we can win you off CPAP and transition you to a different type of therapy. Or just transition you off completely. It's always helpful. So usually I would say around that 10, 15% de decrease.

Thank you for saying that number. 'cause I was like, when do they need to get reevaluated? So you read my mind on that, right? Yeah. I know we've talked about a lot today. Do you think there's anything that we haven't mentioned that's really important that people should know?

No, I think we've covered a fair amount. I would say, just prioritizing it. I mean, I think. The way our systems are, is built at a third of our lives. That means to be spent sleeping. And if you think about just the power of a good night of sleep and how it impacts again, your metabolism, your brain health, your heart health, your mood, your emotions, every of that, it's like the gifts that keeps giving.

Yeah. I love the way of thinking about that. Because I find people get sucked into, the screens at night and then I really understand it, if you're a mother or something, it's like, that's my me time. Finally, everyone's gone to sleep. I can empathize with all of it, but to your point, a hundred percent, to me, I'm always like, this is the number one thing.

I would rather you do this than any of this other stuff because we really can't work on the other stuff. If you're sleep deprived, there's an empty tank. So thank you so much for coming on today. I know that everyone's gonna have learned so much from everything that you shared.

Can you tell everybody a little bit about where can they find you, either online, your website, the best way to connect in all aspects? Yes. And thanks so much for having me. My website is the Restful Sleep please.com or restful sleep md.com. It's the same. I have a lot of stuff on social media and I also have a YouTube channel where we talk sleep all day, all the time.

You can find me at Restful Sleep MD on YouTube at Restful Sleep MD on Facebook at Restful Sleep MD on LinkedIn. I'm licensed in terms of my clinical practice in. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, and Virginia. I do offer coaching services, so for those states where I'm not licensed, I do offer coaching.

Just really providing guidelines on how you can optimize your sleep from a behavioral standpoint and things like that across all states and our website. You could just hop onto a quick call on our website to learn more. Thank you for sharing this everybody. We're gonna have it linked in the show notes, so if you go to reia clinic.com, you click on podcast.

We will have all of this there. I know that it's really hard, at least for me, it's been very hard to find, good people to send my patients to and also the coaching aspect that you're talking about because oftentimes. The, the CBTI that you're talking about, really hard to find someone that's good at that.

Mm-hmm. And I've seen it change so many people's lives, so I'm so glad that you're sharing all of this with us. Just thanks again and I'd love to have you back in the future 'cause there's, I know there's gonna be so many questions that pop up. Yeah, absolutely. I'm so appreciative. Thank you so much for having me.