188: Kristin Weitzel, Founder SHERPA Breath & Cold WELLPOWER: Chill Your Way to Better Sleep: Breathwork and Cold Therapy!

Welcome to the sleep as a skill podcast. My name is Mollie Eastman. I am the founder of sleep as a skill, a company that optimizes sleep through technology, accountability, and behavioral change. As an ex sleep sufferer turned sleep course creator, I am on a mission to transform the way the world thinks about sleep.

Each week I'll be interviewing world class experts ranging from researchers, doctors, innovators and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper. Ultimately, I believe that living a circadian aligned lifestyle is going to be one of the biggest trends in wellness.

‍

And I'm committed to keeping you up to date on all the things that you can do today to transform your circadian health and by extension, allowing you to sleep and live better than ever before.

‍

Welcome to today's episode of the Sleep with Steele podcast. I'm excited to dive into the transformative practices of breath work and cold exposure with a personal close friend of mine, Kristen Weitzel. Fun fact, we are actually going to be neighbors very, very shortly. And she is also a health and high performance expert, nutrition specialist, and founder of the Sherpa Breath and Cold Instructor Training.

‍

Kristen has trained over 175 coaches across North America and the Caribbean, helping bring these powerful practices to life. Today, Kristen will share how breath and cold exposure can profoundly impact someone's sleep and provide practical tips to incorporate these techniques for better rest and recovery as the host of the well power podcast and a leader in female biohacking.

‍

Kristen inspires others to unlock their full potential with wit wisdom and actionable insights. So let's jump in. But first a few words from our sponsors.  We all know that temperature regulation is key to getting those deep restorative stages of sleep. But how many times have you woken up in the middle of the night tossing and turning because you're too hot?

‍

Thanks to your subpar bedding materials. I know I've certainly been there. And now this is where coop sleep goods comes in. They've designed a line of cooling products, including sheets and pillows that are specifically crafted to help you stay cool all night long. So Coop sleep goods products are made with breathable moisture, wicking materials that ensure you maintain an optimal sleep temperature.

‍

So you can rest easy. Literally. What I love most about coop sleep goods is their attention to detail. They're cooling pillows, for example, aren't just about the fabric. They also feature adjustable fills, allowing you to customize the firmness and loft to your liking. Remember side sleeping tends to be the position of choice from a sleep optimization perspective with back sleeping, potentially putting you at risk for blocked airway, increased mouth breathing, et cetera.

‍

Additionally, coop sleep goods has award winning cooling sheets that are silky smooth, incredibly soft and designed to keep you cool without sacrificing comfort. Even my husband likes them and he is a complete picky baby when it comes to fabrics and usually thinks everything is uncomfortable. So whether you're a hot sleeper or just someone who wants to optimize every aspect of your sleep environment, Coop Sleeps Goods has you covered.

‍

I personally use their products myself and because they are durable and easy to care for,  There'll be a staple in your sleep routine for years to come. So if you're ready to upgrade your sleep experience, head on over to coop sleep goods. com forward slash sleep is a skill. So it's spelled C O O P S L E E P G O O D S dot com forward slash sleep is a skill and check out their range of cooling products.

‍

Important question. Can you see the hand in front of your face in your bedroom? If so, you need to hear about our next sponsor who is revolutionizing the blackout shade space and finally making it easy and affordable to get a truly blacked out bedroom. So challenging in the past, right? So introducing you block out the ultimate solution for creating the perfect sleep environment, ensuring total darkness, comfort, and control.

‍

So why you block out in particular? Well, a hundred percent blackout guarantee comes with this product provides temperature comfort all year round. So you keep your room warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. You block out helps in enhancing your sleep quality by maintaining a comfortable temperature, regardless of the season.

‍

Okay. Acoustic noise reduction. Enjoy a quieter sleeping environment with uBlockout Shades designed to minimize external sounds that can disrupt your peace. Ideal for urban dwellers or anyone looking to reduce noise pollution. Customizable and easy to install. Tailored to fit your space with a simple 30 minute installation process, uBlockout makes it hassle free to achieve the perfect sleep setting, ensuring your bedroom is a Sanctuary for sleep.

‍

And for listeners of the sleep as a skill podcast, use the code sleep as a skill for exclusive 10 percent off and embark on the journey to unparalleled sleep quality. Remember, light is the number one external factor affecting our sleep with you. Blockout. You're not just investing in a blackout shade.

‍

You're investing in your health, wellbeing, and quality of life. So again, go to you. Blockout spelled the letter U blockout. Blockout. and use code sleep as a skill for a discount  and welcome to the sleep is a skill a podcast. I could not be more thrilled to bring on my friend and amazing expert in the areas of breath and cold and so much more.

‍

Kristen Whitesell. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

‍

So, yeah, um, so anytime with you is time well spent. That's for real.

‍

Oh, so, so grateful for you in my life. And before we hit record, I was sharing that I truly feel like of the many episodes on this podcast to date, I don't think, and not even just on this podcast, even in our programs and some of our interactions with our, with our viewers.

‍

The people that we work with one on one, etc. I think I really, really want to do a lot more in the areas of nervous system regulation than I'm currently doing. You know, we talk a lot about these things around circadian management and just crucial things that can make a difference for your sleep results, but this Huge concept of nervous system regulation is one that is so complex and takes so much and you have really narrowed in so beautifully into this domain of breath and cold.

‍

So I'm wondering if you can just kind of begin to share how have you become this kind of guiding light in those two domains and how might they impact sleep?

‍

Yeah, big good question.

‍

It's a big one, I know.

‍

My background is, is a lot in, uh, I always tell the story how I grew up a dancer and got real curious through nutrition because I wanted to be able to eat food and fit in my costumes.

‍

And I saw all this, you know, body dysmorphia and things like that going on in the world of dance with other women, other girls at the time.  And that just sparked curiosity that lasted really  from the age of eight or nine through where I am right now.  Um, biohacking was a, along that journey, right? Really following Mark Sisson in the early days of paleoprimal, a guy named Younger who wrote a book called Clean, which I think you know about this book.

‍

And, um, that really changed my life in so many ways. So food was sort of the entree, pun intended, into some of the health world. And then more and more, I started to realize that I could be doing other things to shift my state. And, um, a lot of that in the early days was like technology and yoga and fitness and things that are like what some of my podcast guests are like biohacking what the heck is that like we've been biohacking and calling it health optimization or calling it strength and conditioning for years that's all we do biohacking is a term I use it's a term that's coined by Dave Asprey of course but it's not uh something that's unfamiliar right it's like finding the ancient practices for me was like  An interesting turn of  fate in my trajectory, and I always have included some form of breath in a deep way because I was a yoga teacher for eight years and really well practiced and studied and understanding  the breath practices that came from that culture, uh, And so all of that wove into the work that I'm doing now and the cold, which is like another ancient practice.

‍

Um, and even somebody look at sauna, sauna, right? It's like, that is an ancient practice. People have been using this for thousands of years. They, they probably weren't wrong. I mean, they probably had some validity, right? Because so many people were getting benefits from it. And so, Uh, for the last six, seven years, I've been weaving it into my coaching practice, working one on one with females as a biohacking coach, health optimization coach, you know, whatever people call me, I'm sort of like, cool, just don't call me late to dinner.

‍

That, that sort of seated me in a place where I was really loving cold. I was just talking yesterday on a show about  How I did like 34 days straight of cold plunging, just about  like five and a half years ago now, just about six years ago now, and  there was no traction. It wasn't sticky. People were just like, what's wrong with you?

‍

Right? Right. It wasn't like I got a million followers on Instagram from it. It wasn't. It was like people asked some questions. They thought it was kind of crazy. They didn't Yeah. Yeah. Fully understand and I was like every day out there like doing it for the gram doing it. I was experimenting with my body to see what 30 days straight would feel like and  all of that work and the work with the women.

‍

I think there's over the last few years with the popularization of breathwork and cold exposure through covid through quarantine through people really hopefully leveling up their their curiosity around how to stay well.  That really became,  uh, it rose to the surface. Like the cream of that rose to the top.

‍

And I started, I think also because I'm a female in the space, um, it's not about men or women. It's just, I look a little different in a different body than, um, Brian McKenzie or Patrick McKeown or, Um, you know, Laird Hamilton and although Gabby's a woman, you know, like there's just a different energy that I get to bring.

‍

And I think that that resonated with some people, especially when you look at the Wim Hof community. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Wim practicing these things for 25 years and popularizing them because he's, you know, a wild and crazy guy. And, you know, I think that there's a, a notion and some of that masculine energy that these practices potentially were risky or scary or intimidating or intense and um, and so I really value, especially as someone who is always an alpha female for so long, trying to bring some of the softer side, it's helped me open and evolve as a person.

‍

Um, I still do sports performance, breathing and cold and all the crazy shit, you know, but. bringing a female perspective to it or an energetics that's just different than, than some of what else is out there. Uh, and I've studied with all those people, you know, I've studied with, with a whim only online never, um, became a Wim Hof certified instructor, but I've studied with Laird and Gabby and Patrick McEwen and most recently Martin McPhillamy, who's a wizard of breath science.

‍

So really getting into like even more nerdy literature. And he also talks cold. So, so  getting curious since I was young gave me this trajectory of wanting to dig in more and more and more and understand the why people might have been doing these ancient practices for so long. And now I've, I've so fallen in love with them and the transformation that I see in people that I recognize deeply.

‍

The universe has provided me like, this is your peak expression. This is the vertical in the world of wellness that I belong. I belong in

‍

amazing. Well, I'm happy that you are kind of leading the charge in this area. And I like how you broke that down of I think that can be really powerful to your point of being a different and unique spokesperson on this because we have seen that of kind of questions of is this is for instance cold just for the men or is there an application for women?

‍

And then bringing all of your past training as well from that nervous system management side of things for breath and how they can be married so beautifully together. I know I've had the privilege and honor of having you guide me in cold therapy and I still continue to have your voice in my mind every time I get into the cold, even when you're not there.

‍

of, you know, just the reminding of how I remember vividly you saying something to the effect of once we get into the cold, like all of us forget instantaneously of the need to breathe quite often. So needing to really drill this in and yeah, you just bring a beautiful way of kind of bringing these things together and then the grace and humanity that we're all going to, it's going to look all kinds of different ways, but over time we can use this to help support our nervous systems.

‍

So when we talk about all that. And it's relationship to sleep. I'm curious your thoughts on how these might kind of overlap, how we might be able to use these as many of our tools in our toolkit to support our sleep results. And then just that classic sort of runway, if you will, of the timeline of downregulation in the evening to help support drifting off to sleep.

‍

But then moreover, when we're waking up in the middle of the night and all these things, how can we in those stressful situations be able to yield and pull in some of these practices? If you can just sort of start guiding us at 101 of how we could even just work these into our lives, because that's one of the things we see with many of the people we work with is they'll be struggling with their sleep and then they'll say, Oh my gosh, I have to do so many things.

‍

I got to get the light. I kind of work out. I got to. come on, how can I practically bring these things in? So how do you see that happen both on the breath and cold side of things?

‍

Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. Those these tools are super applicable to navigating better sleep practices. And personally, you know, There's a lot of ways to slice it and like any good answer.

‍

It depends on the context of the person. This is something that I, I really lean into a lot in Sherpa Breath and Cold, which is like the instructor training and the platform that I use to train lots of people on cold and on breath and even on contrast therapy. So I just got my sauna, my master sauna master certification.

‍

Yeah. Something about the way that these tools can spark our physiology to support sleep. I think that the, the, the key, if we're going to talk about breath, I'll talk about breath first, breath and sleep.  Mostly we're running hot. Like, let's just be clear globally, we're running hot, and I don't just mean temperature wise.

‍

We're like, our alpha energy is out there. There's the, the notion of the grind. There's not enough time in nature happening. There's not enough time of us down regulating and sitting in stillness. We got TVs and phones and bells and whistles and all of that. And so I always think of, you know, when my mom used to try to put me to sleep as a kid and I never wanted to go to bed, that I still have some of that energy.

‍

I still have some of that, um,  you know, that childlike excitement for life. And that's beautiful. And also many times we need to energetically kind of take ourselves by the shoulder and.  put ourselves, set ourselves up for sleep, right? Get ourselves up for rest. The more adult, the more pressure, the more responsibility, the more phone time, all of that.

‍

It makes us, uh, our nervous system dysregulated. And so breath for me before sleep is just a game changing practice. And the challenge for everyone listening is when I say to people, what kind of breath work are you applying before nighttime or around meals or to downregulate?  People are like, Well, I'm breathing like I'm already breathing.

‍

I kind of don't need coaching breathing, right? But the real question is, what is the practice you're doing to calm your nervous system and let it know it's safe for a number of reasons, safe enough to digest your food early enough before sleep, safe enough so that you can stop ruminating. I don't know about you, Molly, but I'm a big ruminator.

‍

I lay down at night.  Taxes are coming and yeah,  like I just I lost one of the instructors, uh, at the Sherpa instructors is just was a dear friend who lives here in Austin who just passed from cancer and it's like lay down at night and you're, you have that in your system. If you're not downregulated and processing that, it's just so hard to sleep with some of that, those thoughts of sadness or grief or whatnot.

‍

And so for anyone who's dealing with anxiety or grief or rumination or sleeplessness, I have to stress how simple the tool is, and I know that it isn't always believable that it will always work. And maybe it's only going to work 90 percent of the time because  You're so hyped up, but breath work in and a lot of what like Huberman will talk about and SDR non sleep deep rest, which is sort of his variant or the language he put around a few styles of down regulating breath work.

‍

If you will, he's mostly referring to yoga, Nidra, which is yoga sleep.  cultural yogic practice, not religious at all. It really talks about like the 61 points of breathing into each sort of limb and finger and into parts of your body that help you get really interoceptive, feeling your heartbeat, thinking of lightness, and all, all of this that can help you unwind, right?

‍

And it's usually a guided track and super beautiful. Um, there's so much yoga nidra you can find out there. Of course, Huberman has his own, but there's also a couple of people. Um, like Jason Stevenson is a really, uh, wonderful,  uh, I think he's New, uh, New Zealand, maybe an Aussie guy, but he, I listened to his Nidra.

‍

I have some tracks and more to come. And also I'm not going to listen to myself at night.  Um, so Jason Stevenson is like Jason Stevenson. And he's so wonderful to listen to for an unwind. And there's so much free content you can find out there, both on my website and on YouTube and all the places we look.

‍

Um, Othership is an app. I've done some recordings on Othership  and you can find Nedra there. Meditation is another an SDR style. So doing a guided meditation where someone is sort of giving you a visualization and taking you out of  the typical thoughts you're having before you, you know, maybe there's anxiety or things washing over you and letting it sort of pass over like clouds in the sky, giving you permission to recognize what's coming up  while good meditation or visualization is going to take you on a little journey that hopefully helps you drift off to sleep.

‍

And then the last thing is progressive muscle relaxation. I think it's the thing people speak about the least, but it's really creating sections of the body where you're doing like a little mini squeeze of that specific session. There may be like your knees to your feet, and then your knees to your waist, and then your waist to your neck, and then your neck to your top of your head.

‍

And you're just doing like a momentary a big inhale, a momentary five or 10 second hold and squeeze, make a funny face, squeeze that one body part. And then on the exhale, you just relax, right? It's really what it sounds like. And all of these things have breathwork components to them. And all of these things can really work to help lull us off to sleep.

‍

Um,  the last thing I'll say in breath is that  there's a hundred different protocols and no one alive today, or there's thousands of them, there's no one alive today that has like developed their own real specific protocol that probably hasn't been done by some human in time, but If you're wondering like all of this stuff sounds like too much work and I'm just lying in bed and I'm not going to get up and look at my computer and Google stuff and get on my phone, then it's as simple as a practice of 2X breathing.

‍

So you choose to inhale and exhale nasally. You pick a number that feels comfortable. I like three six. So an inhale for three and the 2X part is you just double the length of the exhale. Because when we exhale long and slow and easy through the nose, no forcing it, our heart rate naturally slows, our nervous system naturally calms.

‍

And so just five minutes of that style breathing can be the win, where you're like, I never, I don't remember getting to minute four, right? And so settling yourself in in that way, I think can be really helpful.

‍

So good. And I love the simplicity of that. because one of the things that people will say when they come our way is, how do I improve my HRV?

‍

How do I lower my heart rate at night? All these metric driven things, which very, I think, worthwhile the game to explore over time. But we might underestimate that. One of the things we've heard on this podcast many times over is one of the most direct and clear measurable ways to impact heart rate and HRV in the moment is of course changing your breathing not to diminish all these other things that you might be doing to improve HRV of course but in the actual heat and throws of all that's going on and as you said many of us running hot with all the stress and hustle culture and all of this this can be a direct thing for free you that you can do and I love that kind of 2x component of it so just pick your number and then double that and the extending of those exhales presumably helping to lower that heart rate and just get you to chill and I'm guessing that interrupting that rumination pattern and that stress response and and all that so how long do you suggest that people at least bare minimum do that or do you not like to put kind of I think it's like

‍

I think five minutes is a nice time to  Breath.

‍

I also will say that all the other things I talk about with visualization are like, I do have a due diligence at some part of my week or month where I find the tracks that I like for all of those other things. And in order to support sleep, I think it's important to be able, they just did a whole petition about not putting ads at the end of meditations on YouTube because people fall asleep and then the ad wakes them up.

‍

Yes. I download them. on like one of these free downloaders that I'm sure I'm not supposed to be using. And I save them to a file in my Google Drive in my phone that is offline saved. Meaning, yes, there is some work to put that stuff together and find the things you like, find the people you like to help guide you.

‍

Because I do think we can use five minutes of 2x breathing in our own bodies and guiding ourselves. But there are moments when I feel too much of a heightened state and I want someone to talk me down, right? I want. And choosing the voice that feels soothing for you and it's going to be different for everyone.

‍

And then downloading it and like just taking a few moments of your month or an hour in your month to pick some stuff and put it in. My phone is still eight feet from my bed. I have it on. I have it set. I have all of the airplane mode things on. So I've managed some of the other variables out. I'm not looking at a screen because the YouTube videos are not going to, I don't need to see someone.

‍

I just need to hear them. So it's like setting ourselves up for success does require a little bit of work, but the ability to guide yourself down is a self soothing technique. And the more that you practice it, even if you're not falling asleep, the more you are in training your nervous system to understand what it's like to down regulate.

‍

So it's never wasted, right? It's even if you're like, Oh, I just got served the divorce papers and I can't, ah, and I'm doing the breath work and I still can't sleep and I'm feeling low or sad or heartbroken, whatever. You, you, it's not wasted. It's a continuation of you soothing your nervous system, which is really what this is all about, right?

‍

There's, there's also a, you know, you could theorize it's a chicken or egg scenario. Molly, it's like which came first. Yeah, we, our emotions are driven by our breath. or our breath is driven by our emotional state. We'd say a lot that our emotional state is going to, is going to drive what the breath is doing.

‍

But how we breathe is how we feel and how we feel is what we think about ourselves. And so like you could get as nerdy and deep as you want about it, but if we want to feel better about ourselves and we breathing into a space where we feel.  Rested and aware and in more of a flow state versus like a heightened state, the better we can feel about ourselves, the more we can breathe ourselves into like the space of reality of what's really going on and not, and I'm speaking to myself when I say this for all the people out there in the world who are like me, we have a story we many of us, most of us have constructs.

‍

All of us have constructs. Many of us have stories about the people that we are. And space from those stories, i. e. giving yourself some breath work to down regulate your nervous system can actually give you a better perspective on what the reality of the situation is. Like what's really going on versus what a lot of us do, which is sell ourselves short on the people that we really are.

‍

So like the breath in that space is so, so important. And. I'd love to just touch on cold because I think there's two optimal times for circadian rhythm,  maybe entrainment or just two optimal times to do cold. And I think this is a bit personal choice and a bit on what you see in your end of one. So for anyone who's listening, who says, Hey, I tried the one thing Kristen said, but that didn't work for me.

‍

Then try the other. Right. So expect to see what you like. And of course, lifestyle. We don't always have like the perfect, Oh, the sun's out and I ice bath is right four feet for me and what have you, whatever cold you're using. I think the two best times to use cold to be able to bolster your sleep. And I see this in sleep scores with myself and clients are  in the first morning hours.

‍

So the sun's coming up, you're getting sun. You know, there's people on Instagram who are always like, I'm in my ice bath with no sunglasses on and the sunrise is happening. And it's like, we don't always have that environment.  But that's pretty, pretty darn perfect. And that's a great way to kind of give your, your body, cause you're going to get out.

‍

There's going to be temperature shifts. You're, uh, you're not going to really have a cortisol spike in the cold, but your body's already doing that work to get you up. It's, it's aligning with the like wake,  Good morning. I'm awake. Here's the light. Here's cold. I'm feeling refreshed, energized, mood boosted for my day.

‍

Amazing. And to go through your whole day then and feel just like you can conquer the world. I think that's, that's part a or option one and option two, which is the option that I choose a lot. And, and that predominantly right now has to do with also the fact that don't have an ice bath at my house anymore since I moved back to Austin.

‍

Um, Is to do it around the sunset hours,  people will say, well, this is kind of crazy, a cold shower or sticking my face in cold or a cold walk or an ice bath up to my neck or a cold river swim right before, like at night is not going to keep me awake and the answer is, is the answer is no, because you're not doing it five minutes before you go to bed number one.

‍

And number two, there's an alignment with our circadian cycle, the sun begins to set, we want to unwind around that time, we're getting into the cold, which is yes, going to give our body a sympathetic charge. But like If you think about even that progressive muscle relaxer where you're like holding and then you let go, your nervous system is doing that in the cold because we're not staying in the cold for like 25 minutes when they're for like minutes,  going in around sunset, you're getting the jolt of cold, you are boosting your metabolism 300 percent for the next 36 hours, you're going to come off it a little hungry, you can like, then spend the last 45 minutes of light Right.

‍

Listen to what Molly says, eat before the sun goes down, the last 45 minutes of light, like making a delicious, healthy meal, getting satiated by that. And then in the midst of the cold plunge and getting out of the cold plunge, the big thing, besides the mood boosting, besides all the benefits of cold plunging, the big thing for sleep is when you get out of the cold plunge, Physiologically, your body has a response.

‍

That's like we survived. This is amazing. Let's drop into parasympathetic. We call it a parasympathetic rebound. Let's be elated. Let's feel joyful. Let's just  Be social. If you watch people doing ice baths, they get out of the ice tub and it's like the peanut gallery. Everyone's running. Everyone's like, let's be social.

‍

Let's like, it's rest, digest, socialize, have sex. And so some people will even say I get out of the ice bath and I'm all like  feisty, you know, but it's time that we are down regulating that we are in parasympathetic rebound. And so we're like, can cook a beautiful meal and I'll make some food and I'll just feel really good.

‍

And I'll eat that. It's a signal to the body to unwind, to unwind all of the pieces. And so I really love the like either or of that too, right? Based on your lifestyle, based on your options to be able to unwind and the nights that I'd say like  two to three hours before bed is like  the last time you'd be wanting to do it.

‍

I would keep your cold plunge away like two hours away from sleep,  but I did all of that. You're going to have that, that rebound. That's just going to set you up for amazing sleep. I get consistently over 40 minutes more deep sleep when I ice plunge at sunset.  So for me,  that's a big win. That's a really, really big win.

‍

Um, and the other thing to mention is, uh,  you know, if you have a sauna, if you're lucky enough to have a sauna, don't cheat the system. You got to do cold too. But if you have a sauna or if you have cold, you know, we go into both of these things and we are burning ATP because it's cold and we have a shiver afterwards.

‍

And that's a micro movements of the muscles to be able to warm us up. But we're utilizing ATP, our energy Curtis currency. And when we're in a sauna, we're utilizing ATP, our energy currency, right. To be able to like keep our body temperature cool and thermo regulate. And so  That's adenosine that's in there.

‍

When we burn ATP, we have adenosine come out and that is a,  that is a bolstering tool for sleep,  right? That, that adenosine is, is going to help us get sleepy, get drowsy, get so like utilizing tools like sauna or using tools like cold, plus the parasympathetic rebound that you get when you get out of an ice bath.

‍

is going to really set us up neurochemically, right, for sleeping better. So that to me is like, that's like, there's so many wins in doing that at night. Not to say the morning is, is, is worse or bad. It's not. It's just figuring out where it fits into your day and utilizing the tools. They're short, they're short tools, you know, sure.

‍

That's not a, it's not like an hour long thing that you have to do.

‍

No, good. This is so helpful. And I'm sure people were kind of on the edge of their seat with that comment about the deep sleep improvements. And I've certainly seen that with many clients and myself of when we layer in these extremes with heat therapy, cold therapy, and how they can have some surprising effects on both our nervous system.

‍

And of course, some of what we're measuring with our sleep, If you've tuned into the show or followed any of our content here at Sleep is a Skill, you may have heard that everyone that we work with wears the Oura Ring. And as a result, we have amassed a very large database of Oura Ring users and get to see what really moves the needle for people when it comes to their sleep measurably.

‍

Now, because we have so much data around sleep optimization, many ask what they can do to improve their sleep quality. And for years, my answer has been that one of the few things I've seen make such an overnight difference is the use of a quality cooling mattress topper. Not just any ordinary topper that claims to be cooling with like gels or what have you, but an actual cooling topper that uses water and can be dynamically adjusted to suit your unique needs and preferences.

‍

Now, this is why I am so excited to announce that 8 Sleep is now an official sponsor of the podcast. I have tested various cooling mattress toppers and fan systems over the years, and none of them have come close to the innovative and customizable seamless nature of the eight sleep system. Not only does it have an autopilot feature to intelligently adjust the temperature of the topper to work in alignment with your body's needs, but it also has additional features that truly set it apart.

‍

So with eight sleep, you can enjoy advanced sleep tracking, Allowing you to monitor key metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability, and sleep stages, all integrated seamlessly into the app. It also has a dual zone temperature control, which means that you and your partner can each set your own ideal sleep temperature.

‍

Plus, the Gentle Rise Wake Up technology uses temperature and vibration to wake you up gently and naturally, avoiding the jarring sound of an alarm. But it doesn't stop there. There's more, more, more. So the system even includes a smart alarm feature that wakes you up during your lightest sleep phase. I know a lot of people have asked me about this, and this is included in here within a customizable time limit.

‍

window, ensuring you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to start your day. And for those of you who struggle with snoring, eight sleep has an anti snore feature that adjusts your sleep environment in real time to help reduce snoring and improve overall sleep quality. So this is truly a game changer for anyone serious about optimizing their sleep.

‍

So if you're ready to take your sleep to the next level, head on over to eight sleep and use the code sleep as a skill, all one word at checkout for a discount.  Today, I want to talk to you about something that often flies under the radar, but is absolutely crucial for great sleep minerals. Now you've heard me talk about circadian rhythms, light exposure, temperature control, and more, but let's dive into the foundational elements that fuel our body's ability to sleep deeply and restoratively specifically minerals.

‍

Our modern lifestyle with its processed foods and environmental stressors can leave us depleted of essential minerals. This depletion can mess with our sleep quality, leading to issues like restless legs, poor sleep initiation, and waking up in the middle of the night. Enter beam minerals. Beam minerals are designed to replenish your body's essential minerals.

‍

essential mineral levels, providing the building blocks your body needs for optimal health. And this includes better sleep. What I love about beam is that they use a hundred percent bioavailable liquid minerals, which means your body can actually absorb and utilize them instantly without any fillers or additives.

‍

Magnesium, for example, is known as nature's relaxant, helping to calm the nervous system, support muscle relaxation, and some argue by extension can promote deep restful sleep. Beam's magnesium is sourced in a way that ensures maximum absorption and effectiveness, making it a key part of my sleep routine.

‍

But Beam doesn't stop there. They've created a comprehensive blend that includes other vital minerals like potassium, calcium, and trace minerals that work synergistically to support your overall health. And of course your sleep. The result you wake up feeling more refreshed, more balanced and ready to take on the day.

‍

So if you've been struggling with sleep and feel like you've tried everything, it might be time to look at what's happening on a cellular level. B minerals can help fill in those gaps. and give your body the support it needs for truly restorative sleep. So head on over to beam minerals spelled B E a M today and use the code sleep as a skill, all one word at checkout to get a special discount on your order, your body and your sleep will thank you.

‍

And I wonder if you, it's so great you being a woman in this space because literally yesterday I was on a podcast with a female expert in the area of nervous system regulation and I pointed to cold therapy and her immediate response was around and Well, for my women, I don't like to have them go anywhere near a cold therapy, and I'm curious how you think about that, how maybe there's room for a more nuance in that kind of blanket statement.

‍

What do you think there?

‍

Yeah, I think, um, There's a beautiful understanding and some beautiful confusion in the world of Chinese medicine, of which I'm not an expert on. But I will say that quite often people will read something or see it on social, read an article that traditional Chinese medicine says, no cold, not good for us.

‍

No cold water drinking, no this, no that. And  What really kind of is at the depth of and I just had a woman on, uh, with all the sharper breath and cold instructors talking about this, the depths of that is really understanding where you're putting cold in your life and in your body at what specific points and in conjunction with other things, uh, including like drinking water, cold, cool water with food and things like that.

‍

It is not correlated to putting yourself up to your neck in cold water. It's not, we're talking about like a three minute period of time that's targeted for. health optimization as opposed to the way things are mixed in or, or targeting, mis targeting using cold in, in your system. So it is a both end, right?

‍

There's traditional Chinese medicine techniques and those are fine, but blanketed, sometimes you'll have a TCM person come online and say, no colds, no cold for women even more, um, because of the cold womb thing, right? Which is like certain times of the month, they're like, don't get in the cold because of the cold womb.

‍

That is absolutely an understandable piece when women could make a decision to not plunge on their period for that period. reason, let's say. And I don't see in a lot of the literature and other research that we, again, this is like written research done in labs, like we don't see a lot of, Oh my God, it's super harmful for you.

‍

I will say that I am conservative, just like on fasting for females. I don't think we do best plunging every day. And in a world where we have all configured ourselves to go hard and have a little bit more of this masculine doing energy when our natural feminine energy is to be being  this push to layer stress on stress and our allostatic load is so you know we're filled with like kids and work and all the things there might be a night when your stress bucket is so fucking full that you just need a hot bath or you just need like a book you know what I mean yes like it in a good book that's not to say that cold is bad for women.

‍

It's just to say, know thyself, know where it's going to work for you and, and understand how it can support your female physiology. You know, I've, I have clients that are pregnant, menopausal and menopausal, and they'll say to you, cold is everything for me before bed because it's helping. manage some of the thermoregulation in the body.

‍

It's teaching your body how to adapt better to thermoregulation shift,  thermoregulated shift, like regulated the shifts that are flashes. And so it's like, how do we, how do we like nail that, right? The only way we nail that for a population is to continue to say to people, it's really about specificity.

‍

And I'm sure that the woman is who's on saying nervous system regulation wise on your podcast is is thinking in that regard right that that I'm saying there's more nuance but she's probably also seeing that the general female in the world again I'm generalizing is just like hot out of the gate every morning not doing enough self care talking like shit to themselves in the mirror exacerbating their nervous system all day long and so like an ice plunge is probably not going to be optimal.

‍

in those moments or maybe even in that era of that woman's life. And I think you need to be considerate of that with your own self when you are making those decisions. But like,  yeah, there's, there's, there's women plunging pregnant. There are women, there are people doing all different things and it's, it's okay.

‍

It's, it's, it, I'm not here to advocate for pregnant plunging. It's been a controversy online a little bit, but if women have a cold plunge practice, And they feel safe before they get pregnant and it helps them  they're not doing 20 minute Joe Rogan style cold plunges are doing like three minutes or whatever and postpartum and all of that like there, there is a case to be made that there are times that these practices can be right for you.

‍

Again, everyone should do what is approved by their physician and what they believe is safe and good for their own bodies like I'm a big believer in that.

‍

And would you also suggest for women to do a bit of the cycle syncing for pulled exposure? Or do you think it's just more to the check in, intuitive component?

‍

Yeah, I think intuition is such a beautiful thing in women. And I also have clients that say to me, I was just, I had this intuitive hit. I had to eat the pizza and four bites of I had the intuitive hit. I didn't need to work out that day. That's not to say that those things can't be real. It's just to say, how do we check in with ourselves to be like, is this real?

‍

Is this a story? Is this like, not me being ruthlessly, ruthlessly consistent in my self care? Or is this something that's, that's a true intuition and checking in? I can't tell the answer to that. Only you can about yourself. But there is a,  component, I would suggest that the back half of our cycle, we tend to have more anxiety, less ability to breathe, breathe well, it's really actually the less ability to uptake oxygen and the sort of in the 10 day period towards the back half of our cycle.

‍

And we on average get 45 minutes less sleep, especially that period of time. So if you were going to be like, I'm a new ice plunger, I really want to do this when my, when I feel in my reproductive years, when I feel like ballsy and kind of gutsy, cause I'm nervous, I would say do it in like day seven to day 14, do it during ovulation.

‍

You know, when you're like, hell yeah, let's go. We just have a little more energetic force and power and we got estrogen in us and we're all like extroverted vibes. And that just feels like a. a little bit easier in the beginning when you're cold plunging to go at that part of your cycle.

‍

Totally. So well said.

‍

And before we switch over into hearing about how you're managing your own sleep and your own sleep practices and what we can learn from that is because I know these are huge topics. I completely get that. But is there anything that you want to make sure that we convey in this conversation of breath and cold and sleep?

‍

Yeah, number one, most of these tools, I mean, you may have to go to a place where there's like an ice bath or something, but you have a cold shower most likely and, and breath, they're free.  And I just want to stress  the, the ability of these tools. Like I've done a lot of biohacking and you know me and I've had some in my life, injected the wrong peptide or whatever.

‍

Right. Totally. Right. Out of all the biohacks I've been doing for like pushing 20 years.  What  the modalities that I have,  there's just nothing that I have done that has been hand in glove, like using breath and cold. This is not to say all the other things aren't good. This is to say many people have trouble adhering to health practices.

‍

And there's nothing like breath and cold to make you understand that you are in the driver's seat, that you can control how you downregulate, and that how when you get in cold, you recognize something that is the most important message that anyone can ever give you, which is like your capacity for greatness.

‍

Right now, as you listen to this podcast is  insanely vast. Your capacity and your ability is the biggest miracle that you have and we come into this world with it. Nobody can give it to you, but you get a moment in the cold when you're downregulated where you actually can realize, damn, I'm good. I have so much capacity for greatness and I can change the world if that's what I want to do.

‍

And that notion is not just something I say, it's something I've seen in over 3000 people I've put one and one on the ice and feedback from hundreds of instructors now that I've certified. And so that. These tools which are free and at your fingertips and can shift your state like a cold shower, like breathwork and really have you understand your ability.

‍

They are the gateway drug. They are the gateway drug to getting so many other things on lockdown in your life that you really want, right? Your dreams, the business goal, the relationship you want, the trauma processing, all of that, because people are going to come to these practices from all walks of life.

‍

And so I just want to put that steak in the sand to say,  You can think it's just breathing in a cold shower, but it's so much more than that. So much helps to sleep and really The notion of knowing thyself.

‍

So well said. And I appreciate you also kind of pulling out that it doesn't have to just be that you have it, whatever, 4, 000 fancy cold plunge.

‍

You can bring this in a multitude of ways and it can look lots of different ways that are quite affordable or free and that there might be different ways that we all bring this in. You're have stressed the checking in the intuitive nature to this, but I think it's. really inspiring what you're sharing because what I've seen is often people thinking that you have to look a particular way to do cold therapy, like be some athlete, be whatever.

‍

And yet I've actually seen on the ground some of my clients in their 70s loving cold therapy and the results that they're having with their nervous system and their sleep. Young, old, cross the board, and I'm assuming you have seen the same thing. And surprising things too, like I know we've spoken about.

‍

people with certain conditions that they might have thought now we're not meaning to get into the whole murky world of all that. But there are certain conditions though that we could note on acknowledge that surprisingly can have some really fascinating results. So you know, issues with thyroid, uh, hormonal imbalances, as opposed to some of this notion that, you know, This could be messing with your hormones.

‍

I've certainly also seen the counter evidence of it being supportive in many of these arenas, and not to mention our overall conversation of that balancing of our nervous system, reminding ourselves that we can do hard things and that we're safe. And ultimately we've seen a huge through line with many experts on the podcast pointing to the sense of safety and sleep being so interconnected and at its core, that being one of the takeaways that I'm hearing.

‍

as well from what you're sharing. Fantastic. Okay. Anything else that we missed? No,

‍

but I love that you brought up the part about the 4, 000 ice bath because I just,  I did a foundations workshop with the Sherpa community at a BIPOC center in Colorado. And I'll just say this out loud that it's like, listen, I get it.

‍

You and I are two white women sitting on a podcast and it's a privilege that comes along with that, but I'm a little tired of some of the like perfectly chiseled white men and women athletes that are like, they're 10, 000 tub, yada, yada these.  I, my goal is to make these practices approachable. Um, I do, uh, you know, I do work trade with, with people who have economic challenges.

‍

I try to work with them. people all walks of life. I've had a really beautiful opportunity in working with a professional dance community in the, in the, in the trans segment of the world. And there are just  There's no one who cannot do these practices. Yes, there's most people generally healthy, they can do these practices.

‍

And I really want to stress that. So thank you for bringing that up, because it's important that what we see on Instagram isn't only what it's all about. And it doesn't require, you know, some big bank account and all the things there are ways to do this. I, I for years got ice at the 99 cent store and had 10 friends come over or clients come over and just like, you know, just threw it in a trough or I've done it in people's bathtubs at their home.

‍

If they have a tub in their house, we just get ice. It doesn't have to be fancy and you still get all the benefits. It doesn't matter, you know, how expensive your tub is, just get in the cold in some way. And, and if you're worried about making it more available, I answer my DMS, just, you know, Right me.

‍

Oh, I love that.

‍

And I think, you know, I've shared this many times with you just, you know, part of my background growing up with not a lot of extra funds and a trailer and the whole thing. And part of my commitment is how can we talk about the latest and greatest and it's exciting and technology and all this, but also democratize these things.

‍

And even myself, I'm in an apartment, I don't have the space for a cold plunge or what have you. And so when I'm doing any sort of cold in my space, it's often. down a couple blocks away. I'm grabbing the whatever it is, couple dollar, uh, plastic bag device. And it's just really something that can be easy, even though it can land as this like super complicated extra thing.

‍

It does not have to look like that. And so thank you for sharing that. And thank you for making yourself accessible. So important. Okay. So I know that people are going to want to know, how are you managing your sleep given your One, your vulnerability and sharing that for all of us and I can completely relate and I've shared this many times of my own struggles with a very overactive mind rumination all the things and so I appreciate you sharing the humanity of that and how to deal with the evenings and how you set yourself up powerfully, hopefully for success with your sleep.

‍

What might we see for you with your evening routine?

‍

Yeah, yeah. It's been reworked so many times, which is beautiful. I feel like it's not on lockdown yet because I just came out of I was in a van for six months, as you know, and I  would actually say that my sleep and my sleep scores were predominantly better in the van in an interesting way.

‍

And I think a lot of it has to do with and most nights, not every night for various reasons, but mostly in the van, I would park somewhere safe. I am, I have a little bit of like, uh, I'm like more of like an intense, anxious style, personality, very like alpha, very on, very, very like in condition yellow a lot.

‍

And so condition yellow, just meaning like a bit of like, um, um, I'm being a little vigilant about what is going on and services, my medicine. So I'm trying to take in all the energies in the room and the space, et cetera, but in the van, it's like this little capsule. And I had like my blankets and my routine and some red light.

‍

I put the red Twinkie lights around the van and it just I think it felt like a cozy nest where I didn't have a television, which I don't use a lot of TV, but I really just kept my phone up front and Played tracks if I wanted to, it just, there was some separation and some lifestyle pattern changes with the van that made me feel safe, and when it gets dark and you're in a van, it's like big bright lights, turn them off, little red twinkle lights, it's cozy, and it's, it's, it was easier I think for me to nestle up and feel safe.

‍

you know, safe. I think there's a crossover to that. That is like why my nervous system likes a weighted blanket or why on my bedside table, there is a harmonizer, which is this like low level vibration technology that, that plays a little bit of sounds. I love these like Tibetan singing bowls that it plays and you put it on your collarbone because it's like vibrating low level.

‍

And it gives you  vagal activation. So it's like actually helping your vagal tone, like it's just helping you downregulate with that ease. To me, it feels like the same thing that a weighted blanket does. So for my personality, those kinds of things really help. Um, the darkness, the using the red, now that I'm back out of the van and I'm in an apartment, it's like, okay, I have sheets of red lighting gel.

‍

Now I'll allow Molly Eastman to be like, Hey,  hey, Uh, so, so that's really nice. I have one more like last frontier of these weird light bulbs they put in this apartment to figure out how to make them red, but I've gelled everything else. And, um, and I have a definitive time of the night that I put on the blue blockers and I shut the lights off except for those red lights.

‍

That's important to me. And, and yeah, I do some, I do some breath work. I do knee drought or breath work every single night in order to set myself up for down regulation. And, uh,  A little red light therapy sometimes I have, uh, the Sarah. The Sarah. So I like put that on my belly. Flex Beam or the Sarah. Yeah, those are my, I love that.

‍

Same, yes. I love using, I don't have the Sarah, but I do have the Flex Beam and I need to talk about that more often. I'm literally looking at it right now. It just happens to be sitting here and I don't talk about it. I don't know if it's so great, the convenience. I like

‍

use it on my spine or I use it on my belly.

‍

Like, it's like nothing that's really near my face too much. But I, yeah, I like to use it 'cause it's, it's. targeting those areas and with the whole gut brain connection, I find it to be soothing, you know, but I have all the toys now. I have like, you know, the, the ruler, the, the doc pro, I have  things that I feel like I need because temperature is important, keeping the house cool enough.

‍

And I like to use the doc pro because then I save on electric bills from blowing AC in Austin.

‍

Exactly. Oh, I love that way of languaging it too. Cause sometimes that can be a hurdle for people of, you know, The price point, but I like that we can also think of it in that regard of how it, I mean, and that thing can get so cold, so it can really handle even warmer locations and what have you, or some of the older models, maybe not so much.

‍

Amazing. Okay, so that gives us a great sense of your evening routine. What might we see in your morning routine?

‍

My morning routine. I also prefer to like do any of my training in the, in the morning. So in the morning or the, let's just call it the first half of the day, because sometimes I have early calls.

‍

My morning routine is always, always a ritual, a beverage ritual. Um, lately I've been doing like one green drink that has aminos and chlorophyll and things like that, or, uh, chlorella and spirulina, chlorophyll, chlorella  and spirulina. And then, um, one. Uh, I do a hot beverage even in the summer. I don't like an iced coffee or anything and I'm on decaf only.

‍

That's a big one. I would say  getting light in my eyes and, and, and getting outside on the wind days. I'm getting light in my eyes. I told you before we started recording that when I do a proper morning routine where I'm getting actual sunlight in my eyes versus like clouds are just 10 minutes on the balcony where my sun isn't hitting anymore.

‍

Um, and then I get a little bit of, uh, downtime and meditation. My HRB score is like 20 to 25 points higher on those nights. So that's a big deal. Um, But I would say the thing is about a year ago now I switched to decaf and realized that I have plenty of energy, which by the way, everyone always knew that, but I have plenty of energy.

‍

I don't need caffeine to make me like a sweaty, hot mess. What I needed and wanted is a morning ritual. So sometimes it's an herbal chai. Like I'll, I'll buy the Tulsi chai. That's like no caffeine or a decaf coffee or, you want you know, just something that feels like a warm element tea, something that is a hot beverage ritual because it's just nice to have that like cozy vibe as you're like branching into your day.

‍

It's also a sweet reminder to get in the kitchen to do things after I get laid in my eyes that aren't on my phone. Oh, 100%. I know we can all use that reminder. I  pick up the phone in the first 20 minutes. It's like I lose, I can lose the day.

‍

Yeah. Ah, so true. That is the wisdom of the ages. I'm sorry. It's like an old Confucius saying.

‍

So good. Okay, so what might we then see visually in your space on your nightstand or proverbial nightstand? I know you mentioned, of course, the van life and the van life to give more context for people was entirely like on the go. You were a one woman show for almost a year. right? Or like a big month. I did six months because I did six months.

‍

Okay. Sorry. Sorry.

‍

At the five and a half month or so mark, the van had like a freeze and the water pump broke and all these things happen. And I just sort of put  the losses column next to the games column and looked at the fact that I was going to be out. The van was going to be in repair. It's still in their shop right now for almost two months.

‍

And I said,  It's time the universe is like, because it is ironic that I broke down in Austin where I had a car and friends and I felt like, oh, the van supposed to land somewhere else and I have to do a year or I'm a failure. And the reality is I just needed some stability of not doing like couch surfing and renting Airbnbs for two months.

‍

It was like the van or what ended up happening was I found a beautiful place to live here. Yes, universe was driving me towards that. Um, but and so in the van, I had lots of things hanging because it's all like USB ports and everything is charging and I'd be like red light and you know, what have you the red light things up my nose and in my ears for tinnitus and like Just unwinding all of the things going on and I was like, no wonder I'm alone in this van.

‍

It's not very sexy when you're like, I turn the lights out and my face is like glowing.  My bedside table right now, I can see it from here. Like I have a harmonizer in the case. I have a brain tap. I have, uh, I mean, you can't see it, but I have a vibrator in my drawer.  Very helpful down regulation. There's good sound

‍

regulation there.

‍

Totally.

‍

A sleep spray from Newtopia. I have a magnesium breakthrough from Bioptimizers. Cannot live without that. Two of those every night. And, uh, and the Sera, the Sera, I think it's on the floor. I can just see kind of the cord for it. The Sera red light piece. That's what's on my bed. Oh, and my, my filter optics case.

‍

So good.

‍

Okay. So you've got those things at the ready.

‍

Yeah. And then I, even the only light I have in the bedroom that I ever turn on is that night part of the ritual is there's like a red light  led inside of a wicker thing. So it's just like low level red in my bedroom. Nice sleeping and bedrooms are for sex.

‍

Stop hanging your TVs in your bedrooms, people.  

‍

I love it. So good.  Okay, so really thoughtful on the environmental aspect of things and also displaying that, you know, our bedroom can look all kinds of different ways, whether van life, kind of beautiful, inspiring, low lighting, you know, spacey up and now all the things anywhere in between.

‍

So good. And then the last question would be, what would you say thus far has made the biggest change to your sleep game or said another way, a biggest aha moment in managing your own sleep?

‍

I mean, I've had the aura ring forever to track and all of that stuff is good. But the reality is that when I really applied, there's not a night I don't go to sleep without some sort of, I know I'm saying breath work and that's what I do.

‍

But what has made a drastic difference for me, I think is guided. Nidra is got practices  that cross over like it's breath with guidance that is giving you some.  Unwinding negative thoughts, letting the day be what it was, knowing a new day's coming tomorrow, not being hard on yourself when you go to bed that's like, I didn't get everything done because we never do we ever get everything done.

‍

We wanted. Right. So true.  Because there's some research that suggests, you know, we always do this thing where it's like I am I am.  and like a affirmations coming in a pocket of like, I am wise, I am easeful, I am restful. I,  and there's some research that says two or three studies that in the last year I've read that are suggesting that we actually take in information in.

‍

not in the first person, right? So it's when it's like you are. So we ourselves in the mirror, having someone say to you on a recording,  letting your thoughts pass through you, like over you like clouds, releasing negative energy from your space. You can do this. You are everything that you everything you've created in this moment of making you feel like last night, I listened to one where the gentleman says, everything that you've created In this last two minutes, he asks you to create what it would be like if you were looking at yourself in the future in the way exactly you want it to be.

‍

And he's saying everything you've created up until this point in your life right now, you've created in that same way. So if you can create this vision, then you can just be that vision, right? But it's, it's, it's really talking to me. And I, there's something about me falling asleep in the midst of all of the breath work and that guidance that I, I cerebrally feel like it's like, through osmosis into my brain, reminding me brain tap works similarly, right?

‍

This, this neural training that's like, okay, because I always think with brain tap that I'm going to get up in the morning and not remember what Patrick Porter said. And it, because he'll say sometimes when your feet hit the ground in the morning, you will be invigorated and rise remembering how incredible you are.

‍

And I'm always like, okay, jackass, that is not going to happen. And you know what, Molly, my heat, my feet hit the floor in the morning and I'm like,  Okay. I remember the track. I remember an incredible I, and that to me is just like, it's, it feels like the Woo averse, right? It's not as practically thought of, and those.

‍

Guided meditations or guided breath works. They're changing me.

‍

Ah, I love that. So encouraging and so available to all of us. We can all bring this in like tonight. So, so appreciate this. And for anyone that then wants to be in your sphere, learning from you, following you, all the things, what are the best ways to do that?

‍

I have a one on one and a small group training program, uh, with Wellpower. It's like warrior woman mode. That's a beautiful coaching program for people who really want to do an overhaul on all of their wellness. And that's like fitness and food and all of that stuff that I've been studying and working with women with.

‍

high levels of success for years. And what we're really talking today about is breathwork and cold exposure and the way that I use that as a coaching mechanism. So Sherpa Breath and Cold is the, is the business. I work with all different types of people. I work with sports performance athletes. I work with, um, collegiate.

‍

the collegiate sector, university teams, and everyday people that are just struggling with anxiety, restlessness, challenging thoughts, sleep apnea, asthma, all of that. And so they can find me on Sherpa Breath and Cold. They can find me on Instagram biohacking. breath. cold. I answer all my own emails and my DMs.

‍

I really like, I like doing that because then I can really get to the crux of people's issues. Uh, and I'm also happy to send my breath work out to people. I'll give you the link, of course, to it all. But anyone who just wants to write and say, Hey, send me a good track for XYZ. Um, I'm happy to do it. I've been known to sometimes like make a voice note and send it on to someone.

‍

But, but. I'm here. I'm here because I want people to feel better. And these two tools, breathwork and cold exposure, they just, they change the game because we regulate our nervous system and we really can step into the people that we were always meant to be.

‍

Oh, I love that. So beautiful. So well said. And I so appreciate you taking the time today.

‍

And I know we're going to have more kind of partnerships to come in the future. I know you're going to be a part of some of our. programs in our cohorts and just being able to help further guide some people that are really looking to get further support with their sleep. But even aside from sleep, you know, this is just such practical application.

‍

So, so appreciate you taking the time and more to come. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Thanks so much for having me, Molly. Oh, thank you so much as well.  You've been listening to The Sleep Is a Skill podcast, the top podcast for people who wanna take their sleep skills to the next level. Every Monday I send out the Sleep Obsessions newsletter, which aims to be one of the most obsessive newsletters on the planet.

‍

Fun Facts. I've never missed A Monday for over five years and counting and it contains everything that you need to know in the fascinating world of sleep. Head on over to Sleep as a skill.com/newsletter to sign up.