223: Dr. Alexis Cowan, Princeton-Trained PhD, Circadian, & Metabolism Scientist: The Missing Link Between Metabolism, Light, and Deep Sleep

 Welcome to the Sleep As a Skill podcast. My name is Mollie Eastman, and 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.

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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.

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Welcome to the Sleepless Skill Podcast. My guest today is amazing. Dr. Alexis Coen is a Princeton trained PhD whose interests and specialties lie at the intersection of circadian and photobiology metabolism and the microbiome. After completing her doctoral research in one of the top metabolism labs in the world, she started her private practice where she works with athletes and highly motivated individuals looking to optimize their health and performance, as well as health coaches and professionals looking to expand the repertoire of tools in their toolkits.

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Now, she is a vast. Amount of information to share and yet really fascinating work in the area of circadian health and beyond, and how this all ripples into our sleep results. I think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation, so we're gonna jump right into it. But first, a few words from our sponsors.

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And welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. Every podcast I basically say, I am so excited for this guest, but I'm really so excited for this guest. Just a brilliant mind, really disrupting the health and wellness space in my estimation, in just such a needed and positive way with just such, with smart, and just really bringing a refreshing approach to overall health and wellbeing.

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And we're gonna discuss how that could look in terms of sleep. So Alexis, thank you for taking the time to be here. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it's my pleasure. I know I like rescheduled quite

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a few times, and I'm glad we're finally doing this and we're gonna be done and that we can finally chat about these topics that I'm so, so passionate about.

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Oh, please. Well, the pleasure is all mine, and I know you've been juggling all kinds of things and for good reason. A lot of people wanna hear your opinions on different areas of health and wellbeing, and I'm certainly excited to hear your thoughts on this big topic of sleep. So maybe we can begin with how you found yourself as such a figurehead in this arena and how we can bridge that conversation into the world of sleep.

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Yeah, so I mean, honestly I was initially in culinary school after high school and uh, I had a very powerful psychedelic experience that changed my trajectory and made me really inquisitive and curious about the nature of reality, let's say, which I feel like science is a natural outlet to explore those types of concepts.

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And so I ended up transferring to Ian College, which is a small school in the Lehigh Valley near Lehigh University. And I studied biochemistry and minored in math there. I mean, as a brief aside, I was always somebody who like math did not come easily to, but I always. Wanted to be good at it and, and just in general, I'm a super stubborn person, so if I'm not good at something, like I want to be great at it.

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Yes. And so I took the math minor so that I could really begin to integrate these things and it ended up working out well because after graduating I took a gap year, I was working in industry, and then I went back to school at Princeton and joined the Rabinowitz lab, which is a top metabolism research lab in the world.

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And we integrate a lot of modeling and differential equations. Some basic calculus there. So it was really good to have that math foundation. And actually, funny story, Josh, when I joined the lab, he put me head to head with another student in my cohort and made us do math equations on the board. Like basically kind of like racing each other, like quizzing us on the spot.

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We had no idea what was gonna happen. Oh, pressure. We were shook. We were shook. Yeah, sure. But it ended up going well. We both got accepted into the lab. When I was at Princeton, my primary focus was studying how different dietary inputs, fasting versus feeding, ketogenic diet versus high carbohydrate diet.

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How these affected the metabolism of organs and organ systems and how organs are communicating with each other through metabolites. And so that's my main focus as Dr. Jack Cruz would say. I was really quite a, a food guru at the time. Yeah. Really focused on diet and exercise as these pillars of health.

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And kind of as an aside to that, when I was in my later years in high school, I lost a hundred pounds through diet and exercise. Um, so going to the gym every day for like almost two hours a day. Hmm. Being like 1500 calories a day, I was around 270 pounds starting weight. So I came down to around 170 pounds over the course of, around a year.

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And that was kind of my foray into even being interested in health to begin with. Sure. And then I didn't, for whatever reason, didn't think about going into a career in that area, but in the back of my mind, there was always this interest in, you know, if I can help myself more, maybe I can help other people as well.

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Um, also worth noting that during the beginning of grad school and in undergrad, I had a, a lot of issues with IBS, irritable Bowel syndrome with like blood and mucus in my stool. Terrible bloating, like couldn't tolerate eating any foods basically. And I found for me at that time, removing dairy from my diet was this incredible, uh, provided this incredible alleviation in my symptoms like overnight.

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Hmm.

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And so that was kind of my initial inkling into like what I'm putting in my mouth matters. It's not just a calories issue, it's also like the specific things coming in, like let's say the quality, like a quality issue. And so, um, that was probably my initial fore into thinking about health a little bit more holistically, though even in that case I was not exposed to, um, you know, circadian or quantum biology or light biology at any point outside of basic, um, narratives within the space.

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So like satin panda's work was definitely on my radar throughout graduate school. And so it was definitely in my, um, in my atmosphere. But for whatever reason, it wasn't presented in a way where I was like, this is the most important thing I need to dedicate my life to studying. Yeah. Instead it was like this, oh, this is more interesting.

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But I feel like it's not that important for whatever reason, because. I mean, as time passed, I finished up at Princeton. I did a postdoc at UPenn in Christophe TE's lab, uh, who studies basically how the environment shapes health and disease. Hmm. Um, and during that time in 2023 is when I fell down the rabbit hole on Dr.

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Jack Cruz's work. Hmm. Um, when he did the interview with Andrew Huberman, Rick Rubin on Tetra Tetragrammaton, Rick Rubin's podcast, somebody, like, some random person sent it to me on Instagram and was like, let me know what you think about this. And then like, my entire worldview just basically shattered overnight.

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Totally. Yes. Yeah. And I was like, but in a really positive way, of course, because I've always been somebody who's extremely curious and like just wants to know things. Like I'm not wedded to my belief systems or to what I think is true. Yeah. I'm always looking to see like where I might have holes in what I'm, what my understanding is.

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And so when I found Jack's work, it was just like a, a new portal opening up into another dimension. Kind of same. Yeah. That's way to describe it. Yeah. So. That began in April of 2023. And so since then, it's been almost two years now. I've basically studied, I don't even know, eight, 10 hours a day. Like just been voraciously consuming.

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Yeah.

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Published literature. Jack's blogs, waxing poetic, and trying to just think conceptually about things, because for me, when I first heard his information, it was very easy to plug it into the set of information that I already curated over the 10 years Sure. I spent in academia.

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Yeah.

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And so I very quickly picked up on like, oh, this actually makes a ton of sense.

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This resonates as true. This makes sense given all these other concepts that I'm aware of within biology and within biophysics, for example. Um, and so I kind of really hit the ground running. And so over the course of these years, uh, I've really just curated an, an immense amount of passion and interest into building out my own lab, the light lab, which I'm in the process of getting planned and funded.

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Um, which is super exciting, hoping to get that huge rolling within the next year or so. Congrat and, uh, yeah. Yeah. So I'm really, I think it's, so it's gonna be a decentralized lab. Yeah. Uh, meaning that I'm not going to be relying on centralized funding mechanisms in order to fund research going on in the lab.

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Which it's kind of like the linchpin or the major issue with centralized science is that the funding bodies dictate what kind of research gets done. And if it's not within the incentive structure set by those, basically set by big pharma, then those studies are really gonna get taken on the back burner essentially.

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And I was even talking to a PI at Princeton this morning that I told you before we got started Yeah. Who's working in the quantum biology space. And he even said like, it's very hard to get funding in these areas because it's not even seen, it's seen more as like an outlandish topic and not something that's serious hard science just yet.

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But it is picking up a lot of momentum as our technology improves and as more people start to think about these issues and concepts and, uh, so I think it's a really. Uh, it's the beginning of a renaissance for this field of study and so it's really excited to be able to ride that wave to a certain extent and privately fund the lab so that I can really just focus on doing good science and doing the research studies that I believe need to be done, not what I can get funded per se.

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Ugh, huge. Yeah. So I'm really excited about that. And, uh, just a note for the listeners, blue Sky Research was the status quo up through the early 1950s. What Blue Sky Sky Research was, was basically the government would fund mines. So they would say, you know, you look like a really bright upcoming mind.

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We're gonna give you money to explore whatever you want to explore. Now, funding is very project based. Yeah. So it's like, we want you to work on, you know, treatments for cancer on this specific pathway and we're gonna give you funding for that. Um, and now also with the current funding model, it's like.

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Scientists, you know, big pr uh, principal investigators at big institutions like Princeton, they spend 80% of their time or more writing grants to get more money. And it's like this hamster wheel where now they're detached from what's going on in their lab. They're not be able to be as present with their students.

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They're not able to have as much time and breathing room to think about things in a really open way and to start to have like creative ideas about new potential solutions or projects. Instead, they're constantly just focused on getting more money and it puts you on this hamster wheel of really not getting out of the centralized paradigm, being able to come up with new solutions to old problems.

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Ugh. So well said. Well, number one, huge congratulations. That's so exciting. All these developments and what you're aiming, how this can help you put things out into the world that would make such a difference for people. And maybe you can help us then from this place of a broken system currently, and we're looking to, you know, kind of dismantle this, but as of right now, in your estimation, what do you see is missing in the conversation around sleep and all those pillars that you were speaking to, and certainly light biology, circadian biology, quantum biology and beyond metabolism, et cetera.

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What is missing, do you think, when you see people saying, I'm struggling with my sleep, insomnia, you know, difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep, what are they not getting?

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Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I mean, a lot of people will consider, I don't know if maybe a lot is a lot to say, but some experts in the space would say that the brain is the OGs, quantum supercomputer, essentially.

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Yeah. And we're, we're trying to build these quantum computers in. You know, our world, but nature already innovated this, you know, 300,000 years ago, plus when, when our species homo sapiens emerged. And so I think the most important thing to think about with regards to the brain sleep, the light environment is really starting the conversation around the schematic nucleus, the SCN.

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It's a group of about 10,000 neurons that lives in the hypothalamus within the brain. The hypothalamus is like the thermostat for the entire body. It controls energy expenditure, it controls appetite, it controls temperature. Um, and it's. Directly synced by the light environment. So the back of the eye, the retina is directly connected to the SCN via the RHT or the retinal hypothalamic tract.

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And the retina is scanning the environment for light, so brightness of light, but also blueness of light. So color, temperature, as well as total luxe or brightness. And blue light is a primary stimulus for establishing the circadian rhythm. So midday sun is about 25% blue light, about 50% red and infrared light, and less than 10% UV light.

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So that blue light is associated, it's highest proportion is around midday. So when the eyes and the brain see a lot of blue light in the environment. That is a signal to the SCN to set that master clock. The SCN is often called the master clock of the body, because I just made a post about this yesterday about, um, all clocks are flow meters for entropy and how this clock in our heads, it generates an, an oscillation in response to light from the environment, in particular blue light.

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And that oscillation then informs every organ system within the body about what time of day it is. And that's really important because there are different functions that organs have at different times of day. For example, daytime activities within the tissues, from a metabolic perspective, from a hormonal perspective, are more associated with, um, digestion, nutrient assimilation, cognition, movement.

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These are types of activities that are supported from a daytime stimulus, which would, which would be signaled by bright light and blue light. Conversely, nighttime is associated with dark darkness and you know, the evolutionary ancestral environment. The only light you're getting at night is from Moonlight Starlight.

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That's about it. Maybe firelight as well, which was innovated, you know, not in the beginning of our species, but it came over time. One might argue that firelight can even be somewhat disruptive, but much less so than our modern LED and fluorescent two bulbs, which are highly enriched in blue light and completely devoid of red infrared light as a side note.

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But anyway, so at nighttime that dark darkness signals to the body and the brain that it's time to. Not digest anymore. It's time to, uh, rest, recover cellular turnover. It's about, uh, cleaning the body, engaging autophagy and, and, um, um, autophagy, which are these processes by which damaged or broken down mitochondria can be removed from cells and purifying that colony also autophagy, basically breaking down cellular debris.

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It's like those garbage men come in and can take out anything that has been damaged or isn't need needed anymore, and could be repurposed for other, uh, building blocks essentially. So if we're never getting into that resting recovery regenerative state and nighttime, because we're not getting the dark darkness as a signal to our bodies to engage in these processes.

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Then of course we're going to be having issues with our sleep quality and sleep duration, being able to fall asleep, et cetera. Uh, in addition to that blue light specifically inhibits the release of melatonin and the pineal gland, and also stimulates the production of cortisol via the production of, um, Palm c parochial melanocortin in the pituitary gland specifically, which can then get, then get cleaved into a CTH, which is the hormone that signals to the adrenals to make cortisol.

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And so cortisol and melatonin are circadian biosensors. Cortisol is supposed to be the, the hormone of daytime and melatonin is supposed to be the hormone of nighttime. But if our light environments are suboptimal and we're getting a lot of bright blue light at night, and we're not getting enough bright blue light full spectrum during the day.

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Then we're setting ourselves up for having poor sleep, poor hormonal health, uh, cellular decay. Essentially, we're gonna be accumulating gunk within cells. We're gonna be accumulating, damaged mitochondria, which then create a bunch of oxidative of stress within tissues and ultimately can lead to a, basically, the way I described it in the post that I made yesterday was about you increase the entropy of the system when that circadian clock, that master clock, the SCN is not functioning properly, and entropy being randomness or chaos or disorder within the body, which is essentially what the aging process is.

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So you accelerate aging. The more that these oscillations within the SCN are chaotic and not, not synchronized to the right light sources and the, the, the darkness that we need at night as well.

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So well said. Okay. So, and certainly on this podcast we're talking a lot about that light dark piece. I'm so glad you went more in depth on that.

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And so if someone's coming your way and they're struggling with sleep, so certainly beginning with light dark, and we can spend, you could technically spend entire multiple podcasts on what that really looks like and how that breaks down. And I'm curious if. Say people are starting to get on board with this.

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Maybe they're getting connected to certain apps, the circadian life, my circadian, all these things are starting to live this lifestyle. What do you see for people that are part of the prescription, if you will? I know that's really ridiculous because there's so many reasons that people might be struggling with sleep, but kind of that top down thing that you would make sure that they would be taking action on to start restoring that over time.

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Yeah, so I mean, Jack Cruise often says, never miss a sunrise and be like the sphinx. So facing east and all four extremities on the earth grounded. Um, so that sunrise piece is really important because when you wake up, assuming you're eating in a circadian fashion as well, which would be bigger breakfast, moderate lunch, very low carb, small dinner, which allows you to get into a good fat burning state overnight.

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Yeah. When you wake up in the morning, then let's say for sunrise, you're in this low grade state of ketosis, combine that with the red and infrared light of the sun. That dramatically amplifies the amount of autophagy that your body can engage in. So it's really a time for purification of the body at a cellular level.

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And we're really missing that opportunity if we're, let's say, eating a lot of carbs before bed, which some people will actually recommend. I know Huberman on his podcast said, yes, I know eating carbs before bed increasing. You know, melatonin making me feel sleepy, blah blah, blah. And then Jack's pushback on that was like, well, that means you're blue light toxic.

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'cause you shouldn't need those carbs in order to make you feel sleepy. Your melatonin should naturally be rising. That helps you fall asleep and stay asleep and get, get that good quality sleep. So combining that low carb small dinner that's like three to four hours before bedtime, allowing you to get into that good fasted state overnight, combine that with that sunrise, and then the next piece there would be.

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If possible, staying out through the UVA rise as well, which right this time of year I'm in New Jersey, it's about an hour and 15 minutes after sunrise is UVA rise. That's when the UVA light part of the solar spectrum comes into play because UV light is shorter wavelength, there is very little of it when the sun is at a low angle, and as the sun approaches high noon, the amount of short wavelength light in the spectrum increases because there's less atmosphere for it to travel through.

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Um, and so that UVA light plays another important role in circadian biology, which is it stimulates, uh, receptors on the skin in the eyes called nissin. It's a specifically a UVA light detecting receptor. And when it's stimulated, it helps to synchronize the clocks in the eye and the skin with the brain, essentially with that master clock, and helps to anchor the circadian rhythm in at a tissue level.

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And what we're learning now is like the physics and the biology of what happens on the surfaces of an organism is really what dictates the health of the internal organ systems as well. And so when we're thinking about surfaces, it's really. You know, your skin and eyes are directly receiving this light throughout the day, or the absence of light at night and making sure that the quality of that light is good is absolutely critical when it comes to health in general, but circadian health specifically, so getting out in that sunrise and shift into UVA rise is, you know, great if you can do that.

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Um, even if that means, you know, going out for sunrise for maybe 15 minutes and coming, going back inside, getting some stuff done, and then going back out for UVA rise even for another five, 10 minutes. And I even tell people, if you can't do that long, even just two minutes is better than doing nothing at all.

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Uh, we really want that natural light in your eyes as soon as possible after waking up. Ideally, you know, people may lay in bed and like blast themselves with their phone screens before getting outta bed. Yeah. And it's like dark room phone screen, like that's the worst possible scenario. Either, you know, when you wake up or before bed as well.

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Um, so just getting outta bed, getting that natural light in your eyes as soon as possible to start your day to kick on your metabolism, to turn on fatty acid beta oxidation, ramp up mitochondrial function and metabolism is absolutely a great way to start stimulating yourself hormonally as well, because that red infrared light at sunrise can stimulate the production of pregnenolone and the pituitary gland, which is this precursor to basically all of our sex hormones.

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So from a hormonal perspective, it's really important from mitochondrial perspective, it's really important. And then, you know, outside of that, getting enough bright light during the day. So this is something that most people don't get right if you're living a mostly indoor environment. Typically max, you're experiencing around a thousand lux of light in, uh, you know, a well lit room inside.

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Compare that to going outside in a sunny day, that's over a hundred thousand lux.

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Yes.

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And so that bright light is really important for stimulating the production of serotonin in the brain and by the pen gland. And later in the day that serotonin can be converted into melatonin if we're getting that dark darkness in the evening.

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So we really need that bright light during the day, full spectrum and dark darkness at night in order to optimize the circadian system. One is not more important than the other. They're both equally important. And so as it relates to that starting around sunset, if you can catch the sunset again, uh, like you did sunrise, that would be incredible.

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It's another big bolus of red and infrared light. And then starting around that time, you wanna be very diligent about removing blue light from your environment, whether that means getting some red incandescent bulbs to put in lamps that you turn on if you need light. Lighting, some candles, a fire, um, or if you can't control your light environment popping on a pair of good quality blue blocking glasses, if you're gonna be exposed to things like, um, bright white light or unfiltered phone screens.

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But what I always tell people is filtering at the source is the number one ideal choice because mm-hmm our skin actually also detects light to a very great degree. So there are blue light detectors on our skin. There's UV light detectors on our skin. Um, even though they're non-visual, they're not, we're not using that light to, you know, be able to see reality, but our body is still sensing it.

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So, filtering at the source by using light bulbs that are red or amber in the evening and very dim, uh, or filtering our, you know, device screens using, um, endogenous filters or programs like Efflux or Iris can be extremely supportive in the evening when we wanna really remove that blue light from the environment.

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Wow, so good. And you had mentioned on the food type as we align that with, from a circadian perspective, so appreciate you saying the carb call out. 'cause yeah, we hear that so often. And so do you recommend more keto leaning or no. Having it just kind of dynamic depending on the person? How do you think about that piece?

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Yeah, so for food in general, what I recommend from like a circadian perspective is the 24 hour cycle. But we also have, you know, year long cycles that are adhering more so to the season. So for example, if you're somewhere that has winter and summer, then in the summertime our bodies are expecting to receive, you know, full spectrum, high quality sunlight that has high UV index, warmer temperatures, and also more carbohydrate rich foods, like different plant foods are available in the environment because they're able to grow in that season.

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And so as it turns out, there was a study by Glenn Jeffries that came out about a year ago. He showed that just. 15 minutes of deep red light exposure, um, was able to reduce the blood glucose response to an oral glucose tolerance test by 30%. Mm-hmm. And so if we're getting, you know, plenty of natural light, uh, high intensity sunlight during the summertime, we're able to clear carbohydrates from our bloodstream more effectively.

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And so it should make sense that we're then able to tolerate eating more of those carbohydrates as well. Um, in addition to that, plant foods are higher in deuterium, which is the heavy form of hydrogen. Um, and also as it turns out in the summertime, we're able to get rid of that deuterium more easily from our system through sweating and also through a process that's been, uh, coined as, uh, human photosynthesis whereby melanin in the skin and other places can split water molecules into molecular hydrogen.

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Molecular oxygen and free electrons. And when it does that, it can also reform water. And when it reforms the water, it excludes deuterium. So in essence, when you're engaging with, you know, high quality sunlight striking the melanin in your skin, that water is split. Now you're able to remove deuterium from water that may have been present there.

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And that's majorly beneficial because mitochondria hate, deuterium, mitochondrial function is much improved if the cellular environment is depleted in deuterium. That's also why people may have heard of like deuterium depleted water, for example, um, as like a, a hack, let's say within the health space. And, uh, that's not to demonize deuterium, though.

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It's really important to have healthy levels of deuterium in the bloodstream, um, from a quantum biologic perspective. But at the cellular level, deuterium is supposed to be kept at a low degree in order for mitochondria to work efficiently. So summer foods, like, you know, the, the animal foods are present year round, so we won't talk about them for just this moment, but the plant foods, any roots and fruits and starches, they're all enriched in deuterium.

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Butter bodies can deplete that through the human photosynthesis, through sweating, um, and that allows us to tolerate eating those foods. So in essence, nature is yaking. You know, our diets to our bodies, depending on what season it is, there's different food availability. So the animal foods, animal fats and proteins are the lowest in deuterium.

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So in the wintertime when sun quality is poor and days are really short and temperatures are cold, we're not able to remove that deuterium as well. So the diet that we're meant to eat, you know, as nature would, if we didn't have the global food supply chain, this wouldn't even be an issue to talk about because we'd only be able to eat what's available to us.

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Not local environment, but eating in a more ancestral way or a a more, let's say, a way in alignment with these biological principles would be eating a more keto ish, carnivore ish diet in the wintertime, maybe some root vegetables, maybe some ferments, maybe some berries. But by and large, most of the calories will come from fat.

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Uh, meat seafood perhaps, and that's about it. Also noteworthy is that the higher fat and protein diet helps to put you in a, uh, low state of ketosis, at the very least, or you could get into deeper ketosis. And as it turns out. Ketosis helps to activate brown fat in the body. So brown fat are the fat depots that help you make heat in response to cold exposure.

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Um, and most people, I I, I think it's less than 10% of people of adults now are walking around with any detectable brown fat whatsoever.

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Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because

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we're all living in temperature controlled environments year round, we never get that targeted cold exposure to activate and expand that brown fat.

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And so when you're getting to ketosis, you couple that with the wintertime when it's cold, now you're better able to make metabolic heat to, uh, maintain your core body temperature. And so nature doesn't make mistakes. It makes sense that if you're eating that way and it's somewhere cold, it's gonna help bolster you against the, the, the harshness of the environment, let's say.

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And so from a circadian eating perspective, it's really about meal size and timing. I would say, you know, breakfast sometime within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up and it's larger, allocating more carbs to that meal as well, because we're most insulin sensitive in the morning. Lunch can be some sort of a moderate if, or if you're not hungry, you don't necessarily even need to eat lunch.

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I don't believe in like force feeding. I mean, of course some people can have goals, like if they need to put on a ton of muscle for a competition of some sort, then of course there can be outliers. But for the average person, I really believe in like, you know, cleaning up the diet, adhering to these principles, and then allowing your body to inform you when it wants, what it wants.

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So drinking when you're thirsty, eating when you're hungry. Um, and noteworthy as well is if you get super hungry throughout the day, especially in the summertime, it means you're not getting enough UV light because that UV light directly works to suppress appetite at the level of the hypothalamus and increase energy expenditure.

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So if you're getting a ton of sun, most people when they go to the beach, for example, in the summer, they don't necessarily feel hungry. And oftentimes, you know, you may even skip lunch or, you know, have a small light dinner that would be completely normal. Um, and that's an indicative of the, you're getting the right dose of light for your body during that time.

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Um, and so. Meal timing and size really important, uh, from a circadian perspective, but from the year long perspective, the annual perspective, we're really thinking about eating with the seasons, supporting local farmers, eating what grows around you, and that will not only support your biology and yolks it to your environment, but also helps support the local economy, reduces pollution by not eating foods that were flown halfway across the world to reach you.

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And so I think it's just a win-win for all parties involved.

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

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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.

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Sleep is a skill, all one word at checkout for a discount. Are your daily rituals supporting your sleep or sabotaging it? I study sleep for a living, and one of the most underappreciated disruptors I see is too much caffeine, too late in the day. That innocent second cup can keep your nervous system wired, make it harder to produce melatonin at night and ultimately wreck your deep sleep.

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That's why I am a fan of mud water, so spelled WTR. It's a coffee alternative made with mushrooms and adaptens that give you focus and steady energy without the crash, jitters, or poor sleep. I love it for morning rituals because it's got a fraction of the caffeine so you can get that cozy alert feeling without.

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Overloading your system, and they also have an evening blend that I use as part of my wind down ritual. It helps your body downshift into a more relaxed state so you can transition from go, go, go mode to real rest naturally. Now their starter kit includes both blends and a free thro. You know that like thro, 15% off and even 45 days of access to their meditation app.

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So you can start building sleep friendly rituals from morning to night. Now you can just head on over to www.mudwaterspelledwt.com/sleep is a skill to grab your starter kit and start supporting your energy and your sleep. You can also check out in the show notes for that same link as well. You mentioned you hit on cold exposure and I'm curious if, when thinking about people for sleep optimization, if you think and go to deliberate cold exposure and what that might look like for people.

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And on the flip side of that heat exposure, if you think about those two things for people looking to improve their sleep or dealing with insomnia or other issues.

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Yeah, totally. So there's a couple things here. I mean, I would say from a sleep perspective, just, uh, like a baseline, you want your room to be on the cooler side.

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Yeah. Um, dropping temperature. Also it relates to the biophysics because when you drop the temperature of the body, it decreases the amount of entropy or disorder and chaos within the system. So it actually helps your body to work better and to recover better. If you're at that cooler temperature, it also helps you just get better, like sleep metrics, deep sleep, et cetera.

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Yeah. So people will generally sleep better if their room is cooler, maybe around 68 degrees or even a little bit lower depending on the individual. Fahrenheit that is, yeah. Um, and when it comes to timing of cold and heat, deliberate, uh, cold and heat exposure from the cold perspective, I would say ideally, cold plunging during the daytime would be prudent because as it turns out, when you expose yourself to cold, especially cold water immersion, it really stimulates the production of, of bio photons within mitochondria.

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So mitochondria don't only make energy and water, they also make a ton of light, um, in the form of infrared and UV bio photons. And when you stimulate mitochondria, they make a ton more light. And as we discussed earlier, there is a period of, you know, lightness in the day and darkness, and we really want to cultivate darkness at night.

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So that means cold plunging at night is basically like turning on the little suns inside of your body. Yeah. We don't necessarily wanna do that, so, yeah. Cold exposure anytime during the daytime is fine. I typically recommend it at least after one full meal because I find, at least personally, and I've heard from other people as well, that when they do their cold plunging facet, it's much harder to get into that state of thermogenesis where you're able to withstand longer periods of time.

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Mm-hmm. In the plunge. And that's largely because there's not a lot of substrate available for the brown fat to soak up to be able to use to make heat. For example, brown fat takes up a bunch of glucose as well. So if you had, you know, more carbs in your breakfast meal, doing the plunge sometime after that could be a good idea.

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Or after lunch for, for example as well, as long as there's substrate available, fat and carbs, that's what the brown fat really needs to be able to supercharge its heat production capacity. Um, so that's on the cold side of things, on the heat side of things when it comes to sauna, things like that. I think you can get away with sauna within a couple hours of bedtime, even if it's nighttime, for example.

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Uh, I wouldn't do it right before because it can be, you know, you can get a little bit dehydrated, it can be hard to rehydrate in time to go to sleep. And then if you do, you might have to get up and go to the bathroom multiple times during the night, for example. So I always typically, at least for myself and for clients who struggle with sleep, I recommend cutting off fluid intake around, you know, 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime to have to avoid, uh, to able to be able to avoid having to get up in the middle of the night.

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Um, but the sauna does have the benefit of, of expanding your blood vessels and vasodilation and then that's what creates the sweating, your ability to sweat essentially. And so when you get out of there, your body is dumping a ton of heat. Um, and so that's one way to help lower your core body temperature.

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Paradoxically. Um, and that will help you get into, you know, get to sleep and get better deep sleep in particular. So you can do that. You can do a hot shower, you can even put your feet in some hot water. Mm. It helps open up those blood vessels and dump some heat out of, of the feet, which have a ton of, uh, actually it has a really incredible ability to modulate foot temperature in order to optimize the core body temperature.

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The forehead and the back and the neck are another good spot for that. That's why if you have a fever, oftentimes you'll put a cloth on your cold cloth in your head at the back of your neck. Same with the feet. And so of oftentimes also people will sleep with their feet out of their covers. That helps them to keep their body temperature low as they're sleeping.

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So it totally makes sense with what people do naturally as well. So I think you can get away with sauna almost at any time of day. I would just cut it off around a couple hours before bedtime, um, personally, but I think there's some flexibility there. If people have schedules and they can't really, you know, make that happen, that, you know, doing it is probably better than not doing it.

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And with regards to which type of SA. I use an infrared sauna. I think Swedish saunas are also great. Uh, it depends on, you know, what you have a budget for, what you have access to. But I think they both work to get you sweating, which is a major mechanism of deuterium depletion, of removing heavy metals and other, you know, exposures that we have throughout the day.

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Pesticides, other things that can come out through the sweat that were in the bloodstream. So it's great to do that. And I think personally for me, and what I recommend to people is sweating at least every other day, if not every day. I think it's really, really important. Um, and just, you know, if it's an infrared sauna too, infrared light is very supportive to mitochondrial function and helps to increase your overall dose of infrared light that you receive throughout the day.

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In nature, we're meant to be receiving infrared light all day long, especially near infrared light. Even if you're sitting in the shade outside, plants reflect a ton of near infrared light, so you're receiving that onto your skin and into your body. It can penetrate quite deeply into the body. And that's directly stimulating mitochondrial function.

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But today in our indoor environments, they're mostly completely devoid of infrared light and of the near infrared variety because we have our energy efficient technology, our, you know, our energy efficient LEDs and fluorescent bulbs, our device screens, they all have zero infrared light, um, which is also known as heat.

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So it's thermal. That's why it's avoided within the, um, energy efficient space because it's seen as a waste product when in reality it's an essential nutrient for the body. But yes, that's a little bit of an aside. And then, you know, window glass, um, filters or flex rather, almost all near infrared light. A hundred percent of UVB light, 30% of UVA light in effect concentrating the blue light of the, of the solar spectrum.

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So yeah, even if you're sitting inside with beautiful window glass around you, it's not actually natural light because it's being filtered by the type of glass that we use. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm dealing

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with that now. I'm like eager to, for our moves to be able to have less of this sort of window. Totally sense.

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I hear you. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. But even just like cracking a window is extremely beneficial to

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help balance that out if people totally have that going on. Um, but anyway, adding near infrared light back into the indoor environment is crucial. That's why incandescent bulbs are really great. They have a full spectrum of light.

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They even have a small amount of UV light, a ton of infrared light, including near infrared light. Um, so adding those back in is great for an indoor environment and you can even get enhanced, uh, incandescent bulbs now that are brighter. Yeah. Uh, which again, is important because we want that bright light during the day.

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Yes. I'm also using something called the Sky Portal right now. Yes. So good. So yeah, from Croma it's like a full spectrum and stimulating light that changes. You can change the brightness and the redness as well. So it's really good from a circadian perspective to have options on hand so that you are able to best support your circadian health, not only for yourself, but your family, your pets, et cetera.

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Everybody's benefiting from this, um, and it's relatively cheap, uh, and quite easy to implement.

‍

So well said. Before we get to questions on how you're managing your own sleep, just curious if you have any kind of closing thoughts on the big topic of EMFs and sleep EMFs in your sleep environment. Kinda any guidelines or ways to think about that.

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Totally. So what people should understand about non native MFS is, as the name implies, electromagnetic frequencies, EMFs are of light. They're in the radio frequency range, they're non-visible, so we can't see them, but our bodies and our cells can still detect 'em. So, like I mentioned earlier, dark darkness at night is absolutely crucial, which means that that's all forms of light that we should be considering when we're curating that dark environment, which means that ideally you can put your wifi router on a timer so that it goes off during the majority of your sleeping window, and then your cells aren't gonna be encountering those frequencies.

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It means putting your phone on airplane mode, uh, not having a device charging especially near your head, but ideally nowhere near your bed in general. Um, those would be some like practical tips to reduce your EMF exposure. And of course, during the daytime, you know, not using the phone up to your ear, not using a laptop on your lap.

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You know, use speaker phone, keep the laptop on a desk, or you know, figure out little ways to not have the devices actually touching you because there's something called the inverse square law. Which basically states in physics that the closer you are to an emitter of these EMFs, the higher the dose you receive.

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So any space that you can inject between yourself and the device that's emitting the EMF is gonna be hugely beneficial. Also, not spending a ton of time in a room where your router is as well, because again, if you're closer to that router, you're getting more of a dose of those, of that radiation. So those would be some tips I'd have on that.

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If you can turn that wifi off at night while you're sleeping. I have had multiple clients that have, you know, received incredible benefits to their sleep from that, especially if they're electrosensitive, which,

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yeah,

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I really think about electro sensitivity as, um, mitochondrial dysfunction at a core level.

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And the mitochondria that we receive is really coming from our entire maternal line. So for example, um, when, you know the egg that would become you was already present in your mother's ovary when she was in your grandmother's womb, so your grandmother's activities, lifestyle stressors, et cetera, were already affecting you before your mother was even born.

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Yes.

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Um, and so those mitochondria are passed through the eggs lineage, that maternal lineage. And depending on the, you know, the stressors, the traumas, et cetera, I really think a lot about ancestral traumas coming through this mitochondrial germline. Depending on what those experiences were, you're dealt, you know, a good hand, a bad hand at birth, depending, and some tissues may be fine, others may not be.

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This is also how childhood diseases can happen. Like, let's say, you know, your delta badhand mitochondria and while the embryo is developing and the organs are developing, those mitochondria are multiplying and partitioning into different tissues and maybe all your tissues got decent mitochondria, except the brain as it was developing it got some poor mitochondria.

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So when you're born. Maybe your mitochondria already looked like they're 50 year olds when you're just a newborn. So this is also a lot of Dr. Doug Wallace's work at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He really pioneered this, the study of mitochondrial eve and the maternal inheritance of mitochondria and how that relates to childhood diseases.

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And, uh, but having said that, this whole space of mitochondrial medicine is extremely actionable because as I mentioned, when we engage in autophagy, we're selectively depleting damaged mitochondria from our body that's leaving behind good quality mitochondria that can then replicate and make more of themselves.

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So, in essence, when you optimize your circadian principles. And, you know, your light environments, what you're doing is you're purifying your mitochondrial colonies and aging in reverse essentially. So it's a very actionable and empowering, uh, thing to study and to implement in your own life because you really do have the personal responsibility and the capability of implementing these things and improving your health at a very core level.

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So, well said. Any guides for people if they are in high EMF environments for measurements for their bed environment? So meaning like, you know, if they're using whatever, certain meters, any things to think about there or more just generalized, like try to get as low as possible?

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Yeah, so I think, uh, it's a good idea.

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It's something I'm exploring right now 'cause I'm about to make some investments into different meters to do some content with. And just for my own. Yeah. Um, information. So I'll have to let you know on that. Okay. I'm gonna be testing out a few different ones. Yes. And seeing which one I like best. Um, but one thing I guess I will mention briefly on this is like people will use different grounding technologies.

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So like grounding mats, grounding sheets. Yes. Uh, that's a good way to offset some of the negative effects of EMFs is maintaining your connection with the electrical circuit of the earth, which basically allows you to diffuse positive charge and be infused with negative charge, which is what creates health.

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So. The more net negative charge we can hold in our bodies, the more healthy we will be. Mm-hmm. And as that negative charge gets less and less and we start accumulating positive charge, that's what is associated with the disease and also aging. So what I say for grounding products is if you can connect it directly to the earth, that is the number one ideal scenario.

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And so what you can do for that is, depending on how long the cable is for whatever device you have or whatever, you know, pad or sheet you have, is you can run that out a window and plug it directly into the earth. Um, but if that cable isn't long enough, I just ordered actually some today of this, um oh, nice insulated copper wire.

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So you can basically strip the ends of the copper wire. You can coil the copper wire around the probe that you would put into the wall, and then you can run that wire out a window out into a little spot in your yard or out, you know, outside the window. Dig a little hole. Bury the other end of like the stripped cable into the earth, cover it up and now you're directly connected to the earth without having to worry about plugging into an outlet and whether or not there could be jump conduction or dirty electricity coming from that outlet.

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Um, so that's what I would say on that. I, I think grounding technology can be really great in the office space or while you're sleeping, but trying to connect directly to the earth is gonna be prudent to avoid any potential, um, issues that could arise that you may be completely aloof to.

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Totally. Last question on the kind of environment Magnetic Co.

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Are you a fan of bringing that in for people for their bedroom space?

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So I haven't personally used one, but I always recommend them to people who live places like Arizona, Australia, anywhere that's like a desert, essentially, because the magnetic flux in these areas is extremely low. And so the way that's supposed to work from a circadian perspective is electrical flux should be high during the day, and that's because of the bright direct sunlight and its interactions with the SCN and the electrical impulses that are created as a result of that.

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But at nighttime, when the electrical fields go down, the magnetic fields start to rise up. And so if you're living somewhere that's like more like a desert, like an arid zone, then that magnetic flux is really quite low at a baseline level. And so you, you could really benefit from adding some of that back in.

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Um, and the only note I would make on that is that if you are using the magnetic O, you wanna make sure that you're only sleeping on it when it's nighttime. If you're gonna take a nap or something during the day, don't have it on because you want to, you want your body to associate high magnetic flux with nighttime sleep.

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Hmm. Not just any old, you know, nap that you might be taking during the day. So. We want that electrical impulse to be high during the day and the magnetic impulse to be high at night. And keeping that will really help anchor in the circadian rhythm as well. With regards to the EMF environment. So

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well said and really curious around how you're managing your own sleep.

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So we ask every person that comes on the podcast for questions. The first one is, what is your nightly sleep routine looking like right now?

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Yeah. So, um, pretty standard though. I would say. I got a little bit screwed up over the holidays 'cause I was like, I had the flu for, uh, the flu for like a week and a half over Christmas.

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Yes,

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I got sick too. Yeah. Yeah.

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Everybody I know got sick. So I was sick for Christmas and New Year's. Then my partner got sick, never gets sick, and that was over New Year. So I was like sleeping during the day and just like, like lounging around. And so my sleep kind of wonky, but now I'm getting back on track.

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So my typical routine is gonna be eating dinner about three-ish hours before bedtime. Um, then typically, you know, it varies. Maybe I'll do infrared sauna. Maybe I'll use my red light panel on the near infrared mode only. So if you use red light panels, I don't recommend using it on the red light mode at night because it's very bright and both bright light and blue light can inhibit melatonin release.

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Near infrared mode is fine because it's not super bright. It's just like in the non-visible spectrum, so it has like a light red glow, so I may use that. Um, I always, if I'm going to be on any sort of a screen that's not filtered, which is never happening in my house, but yeah. For example, last night I had to go to my stepson's basketball game and there's like terrible stadium lights.

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So I have my blue blockers on yes, if I'm gonna be in any environment like that, grocery store, et cetera. And then usually I'm winding down, um, about an hour, I would say an hour before my intended, like head on pillow, bedtime, reading a book. So for my book club that I started, I'm, we're reading the Body Electric right now by Robert O.

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Becker. Yes. So I may do some reading. I have a bond charge lamp that's like, has a red mode. It's like, it has a white mode, an amber mode, and a red mode. So I'll use that. They also have like clamping book lights too, just for like a little dim light that you can use to read before bed. Um, and then I'm going to sleep.

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And typically, you know, we keep, we sleep in a basement and it's like very still grounded, quiet. It's amazing. Mm-hmm. And nice and cool as well. Nice. And so I would say that the sleeping room is probably around 66, 67 degrees. Um, and typically, you know, ever since I started incorporating like block and blue light at night and getting sun during the day and in the morning,

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yeah.

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I

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sleep basically all the way through the night without waking up like even a single time.

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Mm.

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Uh, and so that's been my experiment experience is that I get a good amount of deep sleep. I have a ton of rem, I've always been somebody that has very intense streaming life, like ever since I was little. Yeah.

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Um, and then I just wake up naturally. I don't use an alarm. Uh, I have the flexibility in my schedule at least to not have to, and I just let my body rise when it wants to and that's absolutely wonderful. Um, so yeah, I would say that's my kind of loose bed bedtime routine. I don't really have a ton that I do specifically, but it kind of depends on the situation I suppose.

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Love that. And you kind of hit on some of those, the, the next question, which is, what does your morning sleep routine look like with the idea that how we start our day can impact our sleep? Totally. Yeah. So what I'm getting

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up, I am trying to get outside, even if it's like eight degrees like it was this morning.

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Yes. Trying to get outside or either outside or I just open up my back door and go onto like the little porch, um, that comes out the back door so that I'm not like getting hit with all the wind. So

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yeah, I'll get my

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grounding in on the cement there. 'cause you can ground through cement concrete if it's not coated with anything.

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Yeah. Um, as well as of course grass, dirt, stones, et cetera. So do some grounding. Get natural light in my eyes, depending on how much time I've got. Ideally, I like, especially in like the spring, summer, fall, I'm out there for a good. Hour in the morning and I'll just bring my laptop out there and if I have to start working and I'll just do that.

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And all summer long as well. I work all almost exclusively outside, so I'll be outside like 10 hours a day. Mm. Um, I have like a nice umbrella set up so that I can, you know, do all my work and I can see my computer screen, I'll take my interviews out there and everything like that. So, and I just feel the best.

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My sleep is absolutely like killer during the summertime. It's best ever. Yes. Um, everything is just better. And I'm also very motivated to like, get, get a place down in El Salvador too. I spent time, oh yeah. I spent eight days at Jack's house, um, over Thanksgiving and like. It was just magical. And the magnetic flux there is super high because there's volcanic activity like everywhere in that region.

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Yes. And so anywhere there's volcanic activity, there's also a really good amount of magnetic flux. It's so supportive to mitochondria. I had to sleep like mm-hmm. I slept like an absolute rock there. Like I was comatose basically. I was waking up like 30 minutes before sunrise, and I would go to bed like an hour after sunset, and it was just beautiful.

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So. Perfect. I've never been so dialed in. Yeah. Oh, amazing. Yeah. But for now, my, my morning routine is really getting that natural light in my eyes first thing. And then typically I do a little routine with like, for my skin with ice and, uh, this lizard light bulb that I have. So I'll use ice on my face with my lizard bulb, which has like some UV light as well as full spectrum and infrared as well.

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Um, and I'm grounding while I do that. And then I usually start working, and typically I'll work here. This is like my little office space. I have the chroma sky portal. I pop open that window there, so the natural light's coming in as well. And I take outdoor breaks every once in a while to walk the dog and just, you know, get, get a break.

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Not looking at something close to your face. Yeah. As it turns out, blue light, uh, activates your sympathetic nervous system, but looking at something that's super close to your face and creating convergence in your eyes also activates a sympathetic nervous system. And so if you want to de-stress and feel more regulated at a baseline, it's really important to take breaks where you're looking off into the distance at a horizon instead of constantly fixating, um, on something that's, you know, a, a foot to a couple feet in front of your eyes, whether it's your phone, computer, et cetera.

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It's also a major driver of myopia, which is a big problem like nearsightedness, which is a big problem, not only from a health perspective but from a light perspective, because that means most people are walking around with UV blocking contacts, glasses. On their face. So they're missing a ton of benefit of natural light when you're doing that.

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There are a couple different ways to get around that. So I personally, like I wear contacts, but I go naked eyes in the morning whenever I'm getting my, my natural light. I don't wear my contacts at that point. Um, and there is one brand of contacts called dailies total. One, that that brand is not UV blocking.

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So lets most UV light through with regards to glasses you can request from your optometrist to get CR 39 lenses. Uncoated into your glasses. We just did it at LensCrafters. My, for my partner, he had, there were no issues whatsoever. Those allow about 55% of UV light to get through the lens. So if you're somewhere that you need to wear your glasses outside best to do that, so you're at least getting more of that full spectrum light.

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But of course, if you can pop them off, that's gonna be the best solution. And same with the contacts. If you can't, if you don't wear them, that's gonna be the best choice. Second best would be wearing this brand that's gonna allow most UV light through Anyway. I don't remember why I said that, but No, I love

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it.

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That's so great. 'cause so many people ask those questions. So I love, love that addition. And then the third question would be, what might we visually see on your nightstand or in your sleep environment?

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So I have one of those bond charge lamps that's like a battery charged tapable lamp that has like the, the red mode.

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I have one that's all red, and the other one that's like full spectrum amber, then red. Um, there's definitely a few books lying around. Uh, what else? Uh, uh, water. I like to drink spring water. I al, i, I have also a reverse osmosis system, but. I like to alternate with that in spring water. I feel like my body was just craving spring water for the past couple months, so I've been doing a lot of mountain valley, um, with some minerals that I had myself.

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Um, yeah, so that would be around. Other than that, uh, because we're sleep in the basement, our bed's in a corner. My partner gets the nightstand and I don't have a nightstand. Yes. So I've been there. Oh, I also have my mouth tape, so we didn't talk about that, but yeah, I use medical tape every night to just tape my mouth, like just on the center.

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I don't cover the whole mouth. Sure. Um, and that's been super helpful for me because I had a lot of issues with my dentition, my, my dental health, uh, from starting from a very young age because I have huge tonsils. I had a lot of health issues as a kid. Mm. Which also definitely contributed to me being more decentralized as a thinker because I was burned so many times.

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That's by the centralized medical system from a very young age. And I had chronic recurring strep throat in first grade. My tonsils are huge. They wanted to take 'em out. I didn't have medical insurance at the time, so like we left them in thankfully because. You know, they're an important part of the gut associated lymphoid tissue.

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And people just get them taken out right and left where they're actually serving an important role. So anyway, I have these tonsils, but they're very big. And so depending on, you know, how large they are and the positioning of everything, for me at least my tongue can be pushed forward a bit because they're so large.

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And that can create issues with the airway. And so I was mouth breathing probably my entire childhood up through high school, college, et cetera. And I always had a ton of cavities when I went to the dentist. And turns out the saliva and your mouth is really important for maintaining oral pH, which allows the remineralization of the teeth because there's minerals in saliva as well.

‍

And it, and it also keeps the microbiome in the mouth healthy. So if you're doing a lot of mouth breathing, not only is it, uh, impairing your sleep quality, activating your sympathetic nervous system, um, and really like setting you up to be exhausted when you wake up the next day. And not rejuvenated, but it's also very negative for the oral microbiome and dental health as well.

‍

So when I started mouth taping about. Three years ago, I immediately saw a big difference for myself just feeling very rested in the morning. Uh, and then I had my first dental checkup a few months later and no cavities for the first time in my life. Amazing. Yeah. So I was also doing other things. I was also optimizing my UV light and um, like my vitamin D status, which is important for calcium homeostasis relates to bones and teeth.

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Um, I was also starting to get into some light environment type of things. Yeah. So I was, I was doing a few things, but the mouth tape has really been great for me. So that's definitely on my. Uh, in my little corner as well. I, uh, I don't like the standard mouth tapes that are on the market. I feel like a little too restrictive.

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Yeah. So I personally like to just get medical tape and just take a, a small strip and put it on my mouth and it's really cheap, easy. Mm-hmm. And, uh, you know, you can just easily rip it. So you don't need scissors or anything.

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I agree. No, those are some of the best. And like the silicone ones or, or if people are like sensitive and then you can just get the normal ones.

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I completely agree. Exactly. And then the last question would be so far to date, what would you say has made the biggest change to the management of your sleep? Or said another way? Like biggest aha moment in managing your own sleep.

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Definitely the biggest thing was getting rid of bright blue light from my nighttime environment.

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Totally. Because in the past we would've just, you know, we would've been watching TV Yeah. Before bed. Like laying in bed, watching tv. Yeah. Like, and I used to wake up like three times a night at least. Tossing and turning. Can't fall back asleep. Like, yes. Why is this happening to me not realizing that I'm literally doing it to myself.

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Yes. Not watching TV before bed, or if I do watch tv, we would have, we have a filter on our tv. You can go into the advanced settings oftentimes and turn it on red mode. So we have that for our TVs. Right. If we're gonna watch at night, it's in red mode. If not, we're having our blue blockers on, not, you know, sitting on my phone as well.

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Like I keep a filter on my phone all day. Yeah. Amber mode. Um, my computer as well. I try to get off it by, you know, a few hours before bed, but even now, like I have the amber filter on my computer, so I just try to keep all artificial blue light to a minimum. Yes, we have all incandescent bulbs throughout the house or on during the day at nighttime.

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We typically have a, a couple red bulbs on, if anything. And that has definitely been like the biggest hugest improvement for my sleep is when we started implementing these things. And it was literally an overnight change. Like it doesn't take a week to Yes. Again, it's happening immediately. So it was very encouraging and built a lot of momentum to learn more and to implement more, more strategies as well.

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Oh, it's amazing. So well said. And it's like free for people to Yes. Start implementing and bringing in and just can be such a game changer. As we know. This completely transforms your experience of your day and your night when you get this light dark cycling. Right? So much information. So I know people listening are gonna wanna say, Ugh, how do I follow this human?

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How can I be a part of our world and courses and book clubs and just let us know all the things. Yeah. So I do have

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some brain rentals available, so I wasn't seeing one-on-one people for a while, but due to demand, I opened up some slots for like rent my brain basically. So I love that when people need one-on-one support, they can write my brain for an hour.

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Um, I sometimes have to schedule 'em out a couple months because it fills up pretty quickly. But anyways, we can make it happen. Uh, but outside of that, I really like to focus on my group work. So I teach courses. There's one live course that's finishing up called Bootcamp Reboot, which teaches all the basics, uh, and goes deep into the science around quantum biology, circadian biology, light biology.

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Um, and as it relates to fat loss and body composition, exercise, performance cognition, um, circadian lifestyle type situations as well. So we did that. We had some guest speakers come in. It was really great. Um, and I'm also, I recently launched a book club, so we're gonna be reading books related to quantum biology, electro biology, light biology.

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Right now we're started with the Body Electric by Robert O. Becker. The next one we're reading is Cross Currents, also by Becker. And then we're reading Andrew Marino's book, going somewhere. He was a student in Becker's lab. So we're in our little Becker Becker era right now. Yes. And then we're gonna be expanding from there, but we have about around 200 people in it.

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I launched it a couple weeks ago. We have a very lively telegram community. Uh, we're meeting. About, well, we're meeting once a month to discuss the books, and we're meeting about two to three times a month also to do podcast watch parties. So any podcast that people listen to, especially of Uncle Jack's where they're like, this is so interesting, but it's like over my head.

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Yes, we're gonna watch them together. I pause, I give my little injections and interpretations of what he says. I love that. It's been so fun. We do it on Zoom and then we have a little lively discussion at the end, um, when we finish the podcast. So it's been really fun. Cool. And so that's what I'm kinda working on now.

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In addition, of course, I'm trying to build out this late lab in the background, which is happening over the course of the next, you know, year to two years, let's say. But, um, those are the primary ways to work with me right now. I usually launch a new course every, I don't know, at least twice a year, I would say.

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Yeah. So people can stay tuned for that. Uh, if they go to, on my page on Instagram, Dr. Alexis, Jasmine, J-A-Z-M-Y-N, that's primarily where, primarily where I'm active. I'm also active on X to a certain extent as well. Um, very active in stories. I am having my link and bio there, access to all of my different programs, products that I recommend.

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Blogs, mailing lists, et cetera. So that's where you can find me. Um, I'm very responsive. Some, I, I'm almost at a point where I can't answer all my dms, I'm sure, but I'm like, it's, I'm getting there. It usually just, it could take me a little bit to get back to people. But yeah, I've been really trying to be responsive and present and I like connecting with people, so it's fun for me too.

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It just can take me some time now that like volume is building. But anyway, that's where people can find me and I would love to hear people reach out and provide feedback. And if they have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

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Ah, well that's so amazing and I so appreciate you taking the time and so acknowledge all the growth and aiming to still support people throughout all that's going on for you.

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So really, really amazing and just appreciate the wisdom that you're sharing. Especially in the world of sleep, you know, it can just be a really challenging period of time for people when they're struggling with this, you know, crucial area of their life. And to have some of these things that can often be free or environmental or behavioral or maybe low cost or affordable, it can just absolutely change people's lives.

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So thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you for having me. This was really fun. I'm happy to, happy to help and, and to provide some, uh, support and guidance to people. I think it's just such low hanging fruit. There's so much that we can do, like you said, that's free or low cost that we can really use to change our lives, and that's what I'm really focused on.

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Kind of disseminating to the masses.

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Yes. Keep it up. So, great. Thank you. 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.

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Fun fact, 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.

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