Words of Wellness with Shelly

Unlocking the Secrets of Restorative Sleep for Total Health

• Shelly Jefferis • Season 2 • Episode 74

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Quality sleep might be the missing puzzle piece in your wellness journey. Even those who are getting the recommended seven to nine hours each night may still wake up feeling unrested if their sleep quality is poor. So what's the secret to truly restorative sleep?

Your body's natural circadian rhythm holds the key. Starting your day with morning sunlight exposure sends powerful signals to your brain that regulate energy and hormone levels throughout the day. As evening approaches, intentionally dimming lights and engaging in calming activities prepares your body for rest. Many of us sabotage our sleep by suddenly tackling energizing tasks right before bed, throwing our natural sleep-wake cycle into confusion.

Beyond these basics, nutrition, exercise, and environmental toxins all significantly impact sleep quality. Regular physical activity promotes deeper sleep, though timing matters—some find evening workouts energizing rather than relaxing. Nutritional supplements like magnesium and adaptogens can address deficiencies that disrupt sleep, while reducing your body's toxic burden through practices like intermittent fasting may improve sleep quality. Sleep is when your body repairs itself at the cellular level; without adequate rest, this essential maintenance simply doesn't happen.

Whether you're struggling with occasional sleeplessness or chronic sleep issues, small adjustments to your daily routine can transform your nights and, consequently, your days. If severe problems like sleep apnea are keeping you awake, don't hesitate to seek medical help. Your sleep quality directly affects every aspect of wellness—from energy and mental clarity to emotional balance and physical health.

Have you considered how your sleep might be affecting your overall wellness journey? Try implementing one new sleep habit this week and notice the difference. Share your experience or reach out through the contact information in our show notes to learn more about the specific sleep protocol and supplements mentioned in this episode.

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless!
And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!

In Health,
Shelly Jefferis

Speaker 1:

The other part of the equation is even if we're sleeping for those many hours, are we having and getting quality sleep? And that's many times a part of the missing puzzle when it comes to our sleep health. Do you get confused by all of the information that bombard us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today.

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, and welcome to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I am your host, and welcome back to those of you who have been listening to our episodes and, if you are new, I want to welcome you here today. I want to jump in and expand on a topic, a topic that is very important when it comes to our overall wellness, and I spoke about it a little bit on a recent episode where I was sharing some tips that can help us stay on track with our health and wellness while we are traveling, and one of the topics that I briefly touched upon was sleep. I want to talk a little bit more about that right now, because it's such an important part of our wellness routine and it can affect, and does affect, all different aspects of our lives, not just our physical health, how we're feeling physically, but our mental and our emotional health.

Speaker 1:

I don't know about any of you, but when I don't get enough sleep or I have a very disrupted night of sleep which thankfully that is extremely rare but when it happens I feel like I'm worthless. Does anybody else relate? I just feel like I can't function and I'll never forget. A couple years ago probably maybe three years ago now, it was a Monday morning and I was going to be going down to teach and I slept, for whatever reason, so horribly that I said you know what? It's not even safe for me to be on the road driving. Has anyone ever had that experience?

Speaker 1:

So it's just such an important aspect of our wellness, and so I wanted to kind of talk about it a little bit and curious how many hours of sleep all of you get each night. Now, I know it's not always going to be consistent. I personally, my goal and my intention is to get at least seven hours. I usually try for about eight hours of sleep a night, and the other part of the equation is even if we're sleeping for those many hours, are we having and getting quality sleep? And that's many times a part of the missing puzzle when it comes to our sleep health, right? So a couple of things I wanted to share to help with that, and I wanted to share a little bit about what I do and also some things that can help us when it comes to our sleep patterns.

Speaker 1:

And I want to talk a little bit about our circadian rhythm. So, when it comes to our circadian rhythm, it has to do with matching up the time of day, so you know, originally, when we have our nighttime and our daytime hours, that is really supposed to match when we are awake and when we're sleeping, right? So it's that circadian rhythm that sometimes we don't always master and really what it means is that when it's light out and it's daytime, we want to get outside as much as we can, but even better is when you first wake up in the morning. Better is when you first wake up in the morning, walk outside, get some fresh air, get some sunlight, and it really helps with your energy, your cortisol levels. It's just a really great way to start the day and it really helps with that circadian rhythm.

Speaker 1:

So you want to be outside as much as you can and I think with our culture and our society nowadays we don't always do that as much as you can. And I think, with our culture and our society nowadays, we don't always do that as much as we can. And of course there are some states and some areas where we can't. You can't because it's too cold or it's snowing or whatever is going on with the weather. But as much as you can, you want to get outdoors, and then it's just the opposite. You know, when it starts to get dark, we want to start to kind of tone down our day, we want to start to dim the lights and we want to start to get in that rest kind of that resting mode so that we can fall asleep at night at a reasonable time. And we want to really focus on that.

Speaker 1:

And when it is starting to get dark even though I know it's starting to get dark now around our neck of the woods around eight o'clock and most of us aren't going to sleep at eight o'clock but the point is that we start to prepare for our sleep. So what does that look like? It looks like calming the lights, maybe having just kind of some quiet, quiet sounds on, maybe taking a bath, maybe listening to some relaxing music whatever works for you. I know my husband always goes up and will read. His nightly routine is he will always read for about a half an hour and that's really huge. So whatever it helps you to relax. But again, these are some tried and true and scientifically proven things that we probably should be doing, if we're not already doing so.

Speaker 1:

Again, dimming the lights, focusing on relaxing and being at rest, and just know that when we sleep, it is rebuilding everything in our bodies, it is giving everything a rest our mind, it is giving everything a rest our mind, our cells, our bodies a rest that is so, absolutely needed so that we can function successfully the following day. And so I want to just encourage all of you to think about your routine. To think about, first of all, how many hours of sleep are you getting? And if it's not at least seven, can you make some adjustments? Can you start to maybe go to bed a little bit earlier? Can you just start to get that process going of sleep a little bit earlier in the evening? And I know one thing that can happen, and I'm guilty of this is my last thing that I do downstairs before I go to bed. I take my vitamins, I take my supplements. I drink an adaptogen elixir which is beneficial for my gut health, but it also has adaptogens, of course, and that helps relax our mind and our body, which helps with our sleep.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes, what I tend to do I'll start to do some different activities and if you start to move around and start to do some laundry or you start to do some activities in the evening, it brings your energy level back up, which can be counterproductive when we're trying to become restful and get ready to sleep. And I catch myself every once in a while and I stop myself and I'm like Shelly, you need to stop, you need to go to bed and get into bed. So just a reminder on that that, as we are doing activities, sometimes it then, just you know, brings that energy level back up and can make it a little bit harder to go to sleep, brings that energy level back up and can make it a little bit harder to go to sleep. So aim for at least seven hours of sleep a night, take time to prepare for sleep, getting to turn the lights down low, start to relax, whatever that works, whatever that is for you, what works for you and, you know, for some people going out for a walk relaxes them. For others it actually energizes them.

Speaker 1:

So I know for me personally I can't work out like later in the evening because then I'm like wired. So you might be the opposite Maybe going for a nice walk or working out in the evening helps you to sleep. Everybody's a little bit different as far as that goes, so really tune in to what works for you and what doesn't. So that's the other thing I wanted to say, and just keep in mind that it's not perfect. You know, sometimes if we think about our sleep too much and we're like not sleeping well and we're not getting enough sleep and we start to stress, that's just going to have the opposite effect on having a restful night's sleep.

Speaker 1:

But I can say, if you can get into the routine of a regular schedule, whether it's whatever time at night nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, whatever it is for you get into a routine of preparing your body, your mind, for sleep, start heading to bed, lights down low, read, take a bath, whatever it might be in preparation for sleep. And, like I mentioned, for me personally I do drink an adaptogen elixir before bed. I also take a couple different supplements, one of which is a magnesium supplement which helps me with my sleep, and I also have an all-natural sleep spray that I will use on occasion. And any of these products that I'm using I'm happy to share with any of you. My listeners share with you what I use, but that's what I do on a regular basis before bed. I avoid caffeine in the afternoon.

Speaker 1:

And also another really important point is exercise. Getting your regular exercise each day or most days of the week really will help you as well, and it just is important to expend that energy, but it's also important for the health benefits. But it also helps with sleep. When you are active, when you are bodies, we are meant to move. We are meant to exercise and move our bodies, and when you do that, it helps also with your sleep patterns, and I just want to emphasize that.

Speaker 1:

Another point to make is our nutrition. I just want to emphasize that Another point to make is our nutrition. If you're lacking proper nutrition, if you are feeling like you're not getting all the vitamins and minerals that you need, our nutrition plays a role in our sleep as well, and another routine that I do every month is I do a, a cellular cleanse. It's an intermittent fasting protocol that's supported with nutrition and that is another tool that I use that really helps with my sleep. So that's another factor to think about is that we are all exposed to toxins every single day and that right there alone can interfere with our sleep and can interfere with us having quality sleep. So I hope that this is valuable for you and I just really hope that you are getting the sleep that your body needs.

Speaker 1:

And, like I say, if you want to know more of some of the supplements that I use, it made such a difference when I started a certain protocol over 10 years ago and I really thought I was sleeping pretty well, but when I started even sleeping better, I realized that I wasn't getting the proper sleep that I really truly probably needed. I wasn't getting the proper sleep that I really truly probably needed. And again, that proper, that high quality nutrition really comes into play when it comes to your quality of sleep. And again, just a reminder, when we sleep, it's when our body gets to repair itself. It's such a critical, critical part of our overall wellness, and so I just wanted to hop in today and share a couple quick tips, a couple quick suggestions, share with you what I personally do and encourage you to strive for at least seven, eight, nine hours of sleep a night.

Speaker 1:

At least seven, eight, nine hours of sleep a night, and you will find that your body will thank you, your mind will thank you, your health will thank you and you know, if it really comes down to some serious issues maybe sleep apnea or some severe snoring that's keeping you up, or maybe you have a spouse that has severe snoring that's when you want to seek some medical advice and medical help. So I hope you find this helpful. I hope that you can, if you're not yet already start to have some more restful, quality sleep each night. And again, feel free to reach out. My contact information is in the show notes. If you would like to know a little bit more of the protocol that I follow that helps me sleep each night, please feel free to reach out and, with that being said, take time for yourself, take time for your own personal wellness, take time to relax in the evening before you are heading to bed, so that it lends itself to a more restful, quality night of sleep.

Speaker 1:

And until next time, have a blessed week everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you next time on. Have a blessed week everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you next time on Words of Wellness.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you.