Say goodbye to your sleeping pills and hello to these new recommendations for sleep. There are many experts out there and a lot of “quick fixes” for sleep, but there is only one Lindsey Elmore. She helps people with every aspect of their health journey and creates the ultimate roadmap for their health. In this episode of Sleep is A Skill, Lindsey walks us through one of her own roadmaps for sleep and overall wellness. From herbal remedies to essential oils and even genetics, we cover A LOT! Tune in to hear how you can start to dramatically change your own self-awareness and improve your circadian rhythm tonight.
BIO:
There are a lot of pharmacists out there. There are numerous natural wellness experts, yoga teachers, business coaches, and social media influencers, but there is only one Lindsey Elmore. She helps people to take full ownership of their health and wellness, every single aspect of it. From wellness in the physical body to mental health stability to the robustness of spirit to freedom in finances, Lindsey works with her clients to discover their ultimate roadmap to health.
SHOW NOTES:
🌿 From pharmacy to different pathways of medicine
🌿 Physical pain, injuries and the effects on sleep
🌿 Homeopathic and natural ways to look at health and healing
🌿 Energy shifting and sleep
🌿 Traditional Indigenous Herbs Supplements and medicines
🌿 Bookends to your health routine
🌿 The most common Nutrient deficiencies affecting your sleep
🌿 Building awareness and fighting for trust in Alternative medicine
🌿 How to effectively train your circadian rhythm
🌿 Biohacking and genetics affecting your chances at a good night sleep
🌿 How sleep deprivation affects memory
🌿 Vitamins breakdown and the benefits they have on sleep.
🌿 Debunking essential oils and making connections to different emotions
🌿 Ditch your caffeine for these invigorating responses
🌿 Menstrual cycles and their relation to the sleep cycle
🌿 How to create the perfect sleep set up
Unknown Speaker 0:04
Welcome to the sleep as a skilled podcast. My name is Mollie McGlocklin. And I own a company that optimizes sleep through technology accountability and behavioral change. Each week I'll be interviewing world class experts ranging from doctors, innovators and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper. Let's jump into your dose of practical sleep training. Welcome to the sleep as a skill podcast. My guest today is Dr. Lindsay Elmore. And not only does she bring a ton of wisdom around the topic of sleep and sleep optimization, but she also is a good friend of mine who herself struggled with insomnia. So we had a lot of relatability. And we actually had recorded this episode a few months back, so I'm very eager to finally get out to you all. So you can hear a lot of her insights and things that she has done to make a difference with not only her sleep, but for the sleep of others. Now a little bit about her background, Dr. Lindsay Elmore, aims to make science and business understandable. Now for herself she struggled with insomnia and through a few strokes of luck, she ended up at an acupuncturist who opened her eyes to the way that medicine is practiced in the United States and how it doesn't necessarily line up with how it is practiced in other countries. Some of her background is that she was raised by a nurse and has a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a Doctorate of pharmacy and completed two years of postdoctoral education in internal medicine and family medicine. She did go on to become a pharmacist highly studied herbs, supplements and food as medicine. And one who actually then went further to understand about teachings from shamans, healers, other natural health practices, including yoga and meditation and has since host retreats all over the world. To date, she's spoken to audiences on five continents in more than 30 countries. She's written a book about essential oils and supplements called essential oils, 75 answers to common questions about essential oils and supplements. And she's built a huge social media presence with more than 20 million minutes of education watched on line. Now we're going to jump in and learn a lot more about what she has created both professionally but as well as on a level of her own results with her own sleep and with her clients too. So let's without further ado, Hop on. And now before we get into the podcast, I do want to take a quick minute to give a shout out to our sponsor better help or as I like to call it a therapist in your pocket. It's the exact app that I use when I was going through my really challenging period of insomnia while traveling overseas. And the ability to maintain a consistent therapist in real life was just really not an option for me since we were jumping around from country to country. So the ability to with using my phone have video calls weekly with my therapist that was paired with it. For me, actually, I connected with a great therapist right off the bat. But I do know other people who have been able to kind of shop around with some other therapists on that app until they find a great fit for them. And in between those calls, one of the things that I found was really helpful is that you can also send voice notes, text messages, images in between that you no longer weekly video call, so that you do have this really very real ongoing connection and support that I certainly at least in my experience hadn't felt with real life therapists that I'd used in the past. And also the pricing structure is much more competitive than a lot of the real life therapists that you can come into contact with. So I found it to be a lot of benefits. I recommend it to a lot of people that are just kind of going through struggles in their life or just simply want to be able to uplevel and get bringing that level of reflection and awareness into their life, about what's both working and not working. And you can certainly cancel at any time and for our sleepy community. The betterhelp company has hooked us up with 10% off if you go to better help calm forward slash sleep is a skill again, better help calm forward slash sleep is a skill. And welcome to the sleepest skill podcast. Lindsay, I'm so excited to have you here today.
Unknown Speaker 4:30
Oh, I'm so excited to be here. It's gonna be so much fun talking with you.
Unknown Speaker 4:35
I know this is very cool for us. So this is almost like our part to having the opportunity to be on your podcast and now to have you on here and can't wait to dive in with all the resources that you have at the ready. And it was so cool to kind of have the prep to this conversation to hear more about your relationship to sleep. So I think that's a great place to begin is tell us a bit about your origin story. And as it went Of course, your business and how that connects with your journey with sleep.
Unknown Speaker 5:04
So way back in the day when I was in pharmacy school, I tore my ACL. And when you tear your ACL, they put you in a leg brace that locks your leg out straight, so your knee doesn't bend like it's used to. Well, that means that as you walk, you hike your hip up every single time you walk. So I was studying one day, and I realized I could not sit on my bum anymore, I couldn't sit squarely on both of my sit bones. And so I was way over to my right side. And I thought, well, that's not normal. That is not how I used to be. So I end up in a chiropractor's office, and she gets my hips back in alignment. And I go to her a couple more times. And I happen to mention, Hey, Doc, I have not slept in like a month. And I feel like I may die. And I was I was in the middle of my first year of pharmacy school. So a very high stress, very intensive brain focused operation. And I just said, I have to do something. And she said, Oh, you should go to the acupuncturist. So I ended up in the acupuncturists office. And within a couple of visits, I realized my entire perspective had changed, I realized that there was a completely different way to look at health, because all of the advice that she gave me about how to manage this insomnia, and how to treat and how to overcome, it was so dramatically different from what I had been taught in western medicine. So in Chinese medicine, the way that you work with insomnia is to balance out the Yin and Yang. It's balancing out of that dark, Yin inward energy and that hot, fiery outgoing energy. So the first thing she had me do was take a nap every day for 75 days. And I thought, how is this helping with my insomnia, and she explained it to me, she said, there's lots of time that we as humans are awake when it is dark outside, but we are very rarely asleep, while it is the mid brightest, hottest time of the day. So what you're aiming to do is balance all that out. So I started there, I started with other small steps, such as drinking a little bit of apple cider vinegar, working on my liver Qi stagnation. And one of the things I realized that was actually keeping me up all night was I had a brain training game that I loved, and I loved to play it. And I realized that I was trying to play it at bedtime every night. And so with just having that moment of awareness, I realized I am doing this thing that is activating my brain right at the evening when I am trying to calm down. And that's what's keeping me up all night. So it was just a series of small steps that helped me to reclaim my life and to reclaim my sleep. And Fast Forward 1012 years where I am now. I have just delved in as deep as I could into all kinds of traditional medicines, herbal medicine, shamanic medicines, indigenous medicines, I have learned as much as I can about essential oils and herbs and supplements. And I'm just now beginning a really deep functional medicine journey. I've been in the plant based cooking world for a long time in the gluten free cooking world. But I want to find a way to tie that all together. Because I am a pharmacist, I know a lot about medications, and I tried the medications to treat insomnia. And you know that feeling when you take the medications for insomnia and you somehow even though you slept all night, you still wake up feeling like completely exhausted and like zombified the next day. So you know, I can teach people about all those medications and how they work. But pulling in the Chinese medicine perspective of like, maybe it's a magnesium deficiency that's keeping you up at night, bringing in my own consciousness of, hey, maybe you just need to put away your phone at night and realizing that when you prioritize sleep, that you can book in your day with greatness, you can wake up and do that morning routine with a bang. And then if you take a moment to structure your bedtime routine, where maybe you're listening to some bio neural beats or listening to a meditation, you can book in your day with really healthy routines. And I'm not perfect, but I do try every day. And now I'm to the point where I with ease sleep through the night. And that is a huge blessing.
Unknown Speaker 10:04
Wow, such a journey and clearly a real reverence for sleep and its power on our health and our life. But I love some of the things that you touched on too of how multifaceted this approach can be versus one, the I'm so grateful that the doctor that you did go to then recommended you down this path, because there's been many clients, I've spoken to that versus that path. They were prescribed Xanax, or, you know, some sort of alternative route that leads you in a different direction. So really great. And then I loved the nuances around, oh, my goodness, then I saw that this layered in I'm doing this brain training app, and all of these things are so layer and compound into a place where then your results aren't working. But until you peel back all of that, then there's a lack of power. So
Unknown Speaker 10:56
well, that's that's the way health works. Everybody is looking for the one shot, and there's not one, you know, if we if we as humans had figured out, how do we eat whatever we want drink as much caffeine and alcohol as we want never sleep, and still live to be 100 and be joyful and slim and fit. If there was a pill that did that, we would all know about it. Yeah, but it's not. It's, you know, success and health is about what you're willing to do every single day. And it's a series of the most mundane and banal things.
Unknown Speaker 11:40
Yes,
Unknown Speaker 11:40
you just say, You're like, Hey, guys, I'm not cool. But I'm in my bed reading at 930 10 o'clock at night, you know, and that is where true health comes from is being able to commit to something on the regular not to be able to find that silver bullet because it doesn't exist.
Unknown Speaker 11:58
Oh my god, I love that you're saying that. So I'll have so many people that will come to sleep as a skill and they're, you know, intrigued by the the technology aspect and love the idea of like, okay, on the red lay, and then the red light will help with the sleep. And then what other gadgets can we add in which, you know, maybe there's a time and a place for that optimization element of things. But the real meat of it is so much exactly what you're saying it's the less the unsexy, the book ends of the bedtime. And I consistently do that and prioritize that I leave a little bit early from the thing that I'm out doing at night to get back to maintain some sort of equilibrium and balance. All of those things are much more, it's a different type of conversation to go into that approach. So I love that you're talking about that. The other thing I wanted to check in with you about too, is that you had mentioned this kind of process, I'm just going through running through testing with each person that you're dealing with, is it magnesium deficiency? You know, is it some element of the herbs, herbal approach the essential oils? Is there a particular approach that you bring about to kind of go through each person? Or do you suggest like a lot of testing? How do you approach each person as they are dealing with this particular area around sleep?
Unknown Speaker 13:15
Well, I think the first thing even before you start looking at nutrient deficiencies, and this and that, it's about an awareness, you know, can we craft an awareness? And, you know, I mean, I was just working with a patient last week, and she works two jobs. And she has to rise every morning at 3am. And I just told her, okay, well, you know, if you don't make yourself a priority, the rest of everything is never going to be a priority. So you have really young kids that are going to bed at 730 at night, you're probably going to need to be going to bed at like eight right after them because you've got to have that sleep. Because it matters how much sleep that you get it It matters, the quality of the sleep that you get. So the awareness is part of it. And if someone is unwilling to make those sacrifices and Come on, you know, it's like your grandmother told you nothing good happens after midnight, you might as well just come home and go to bed. You know, when you're negotiating for like, I need a 2am curfew mom and dad like, what are you doing at 2am? Because it ain't good stuff. So, you know, it's one of those things where you have to have that self awareness and you have to be motivated enough to know that my tomorrow is better because of the decision that I'm making today. Of course, if we want to look at what types of nutrients can impact our sleep, vitamin D, you know most of us think about vitamin D for bone Help, but it's critical for regulating moods supporting our immune function and helping to govern our inflammation. And vitamin D also affects not only how much sleep we can get, but how well, we sleep. And so vitamin D is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies that is tested for. And so you may consider asking like, Hey, can I get tested for this and one of the things about allopathic medicine within the United States, is I think that there is a sometimes a lack of respect for sub clinical deficiencies. And so you may come out where you're normal, according to the scale. But yet, you may be down to earth, like the very bare basement membrane. You know what, taking a supplement every day, I argue with people that are like, if you don't have an overt deficiency, it's not going to help. But my opinion is, the risk is so much lower than the potential benefit. So maybe you try a six week trial of some vitamin D and just add that in and see how it affects you. We also know that vitamin D. So how does vitamin D work? Well, vitamin D helps to train and to regulate our circadian rhythm. And so vitamin D, so you talked about how some of your listeners are all into biohacking. Like how do we overcome what our genetics say about us. So vitamin D helps to activate to circadian clock genes. And this is what tells us Hey, it's daylight wake up, hey, it's dark, go to bed. And so if you can go outside and get some vitamin D and tell your body like, hey, it's daylight, I'm supposed to be awake. When you come back in and it's dark, this is going to help to regulate that clock. We also see that vitamin D can affect the severity of sleep apnea. So if someone is struggling with sleep apnea, maybe on that verge of going from their inclined pillow to a full blown c pap machine. Number one, the benefit of losing as little as five pounds can be profound on your risk and the severity of your sleep apnea. supplementing with vitamin D can be another way to help offset the severity of your sleep apnea. We also think about vitamin E. So vitamin E is critical as an antioxidant. And it's very important for the function of our brain. And so one of the things that happens with sleep deprivation is we lose our memory. And when we are sleeping, when we go into that slow wave sleep and into that REM sleep, it helps us to process and commit our memories to long term memory. And it also helps with our newly acquired learning. So if you're trying to learn to play the piano or learn how to build something, vitamin E can help to protect the function of the brain, and maybe specifically important for memory impairment. That is a secondary byproduct of sleep loss. We also see that people who have sleep apnea have low levels of vitamin E and vitamin E is great to put in combination with vitamin C. Vitamin E is also critical for the production of testosterone. And so all the men listening if you are feeling like you don't have that get up and go. It may be because you're not sleeping enough because you need sleep to help generate testosterone. When we think about vitamin E, vitamin C goes hand in hand. It's another antioxidant, huge benefits on the function of the immune system in the cardiovascular system. And when we sleep, our immune system kicks into overdrive and it really helps us to amp up our immune response. So we also could think about vitamin B six and vitamin B six helps us to produce melatonin, as well as serotonin. So vitamin B six is the most abundant B vitamin in the body. And it is critical for enzyme function. So it's critical for the production of melatonin and serotonin. And it also when you supplement and have adequate stores of vitamin B six can help you to remember your dreams which for those of you keeping dream journals, you know, how much you can kind of talk to yourself in your dreams and how much you can envision your life. In your drains, you know. And last but not least, we have vitamin B 12. And so vitamin B 12 is a huge sleep and wake regulator. It helps us to wake up in the morning. And it also is critical for our nervous system function. And so if you have inadequate levels of vitamin B 12, it can lead to not only Nervous System dysfunction, but also a full blown anemia, which can make you feel extremely tired throughout the day. So there's a lot of different nutrients that can come into play. But like I said, before you jump into that, just try to go to sleep on your own and see how you do. Oh, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:43
number one, thank you so much, that was just dropping so much knowledge is awesome. And number two, I love what you're speaking to, too, because it's so resonates with my approach on this topic of how much of this behavioral change element can make such a profound difference. And then we can go into whether it be it might be, you know, some of these more nuanced areas or to your point around, sometimes if they're more sufficient or a larger deficiency, then of course, that can make a big difference. But the they go they're not it's not a false binary. It's they work in tandem. Absolutely. Yeah. And then I love how I just wanted to check in because I when you're listing off all the things that you've gone into over the last 12 or so years, this herbal approach essential oils and looking into shamanistic practices. I'm curious if there anything in you know, those different arenas that not every person has gone and take taking the time to dive into? Are there particular things that stood out for you in that area in any of those areas around sleep and things that we can learn from that?
Unknown Speaker 21:48
Well, one of the things that I think is so important about most shamanic medicine is that there is something emotional that is going on. And I think that that is really plays into my practice, and how I use essential oils. Because, you know, there's a lot of crazy claims about essential oils on the internet. But it is undeniable that the research concludes that you can calm your mind, as well as stimulate your mind, depending on which essential oil that you use. The other thing that I think both shamanic medicine, even some traditional Chinese medicine, as well as just my own understanding of health, is that there's usually an emotional root cause of what's going on, you know, you may be programmed in your genetics, just not to sleep well, you know, there are some people that they just sleep no matter what, and then there are other people that the smallest thing will keep them up all night. So you may if that is your genetics, you may want to understand more about the daily practices that go into it and the daily practices that go into Well, how do I release this anxiety? Where do I feel this anxiety in my body that is a key thought of shamanic medicine. And so the first shaman I ever worked with was right when I tore my ACL. And she asked me a profound question that I've asked myself since then, whenever anything goes wrong in my life, if I can't sleep at night, if I cut myself with a knife while I'm cooking, you know, if I am in a fight with my partner, whatever it is, why did I need this injury? is a great question to just ask ourselves. And this is one way that you know, a lot of people suffer from insomnia because of chronic pain. This is one of the ways that I overcame a chronic pelvic pain. There's nothing worse than going to the doctor and being told, well, there's nothing physically wrong with you, we've scanned you, there's nothing This is nothing that that is an opportunity for you to say, Well, what is going on? If it's not cancer, and it's not assist, and it's not and it's not about what is going on? And so, working with shamans helped me to understand the power of visualization. And so you know, going and yoga also really helped with my power of visualization. And so practicing breathing exercises visualizing, where is this pain in my body? What does it look like? What color is it? Does it have a shape? Does it have a form? I remember back when I was suffering from chronic pelvic pain, I envisioned the pain as this gold ball of thread so every time it started really flaring up and hurting. I would just envision just with gratitude and with love just pulling one of those threads out just one by one. Asking the pain like can you leave my body? Now that may seem ridiculous. If you're suffering from a slipped disc, or if you've had a terrible car accident that's left you with debilitating pain, but we know that the images that we craft in our mind have the power to manifest in our body. And so I have traveled all over the world and have been in some times and places where I have really struggled with not being able to sleep just because I've traveled 18 hours out of my time zone. And there's nothing worse than laying in bed and staring at the ceiling, it is painful, especially when you're so exhausted. And so practicing things like yoga nidra, which is the yoga of sleep, realizing that because of the way I can control my breath, maybe there is a way that I can control my sleep. And there are times that I still struggle with insomnia sometimes. And I find myself waking up, and I'm like, Okay, well, I was asleep for 15 minutes. And I give gratitude for that time that I was asleep. And I just asked, I asked, you know, whatever you call it, God, the universe, the planets, the whatever, you just ask, like, allow me to sleep, please just allow me to sleep and sink into that. You know, for goodness sakes, don't pick up your phone in the middle of the night. I mean, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got about insomnia was don't have a clock next to your bed. Yeah, because if you're waking up every 15 to 20 minutes, and you're like, Oh, it's three? Oh, it's 315 Oh, load, I made it to 345 Oh, goodness, here it is 4am. And you're stressed, you're chronically stressed. Versus, okay, I'm awake. And now I can go back to sleep, and just allowing that space to slide back into it instead of trying to fall asleep, because you're never going to be able to fall asleep.
Unknown Speaker 26:59
That is so wise. And I love what you're pointing to too, because part of what we'll discuss it sleep as a skill is this concept of a sleep tripod. And that psychology, physiology and environment are all so crucial to being able to have that workability and you're pulling from all of those areas. And sometimes it can be some of those small shifts that can make all the difference for many people, because it's just that simple behavior. But within this decision to no longer harp on the what's going to happen if Oh my god, it's 4am count backwards, I'm only going to have three hours. And all the meaning making that goes on there. It's so wise. And I also love what you said about the Why did I need this injury? What was there to learn about that? And that actually makes me think of a few different clients that have come in with a severe endometriosis, or certain things that were just persistent, a monthly experience where they would have that dread and what that would do for their psyche, and particularly around their sleep every single month. Which brings me to a question, I know that you have some expertise as well for the women in the audience or and it for the men listening, the women that they care about to how to help support that management of our cycle when we are, you know menstruating ages and how that impacts our sleep.
Unknown Speaker 28:20
Absolutely. So every single month, women go through dramatic fluctuations in hormone levels. And that's because our body is a very delicate interplay between estrogen progesterone follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, as well as all the serotonin and the dopamine and the testosterone and all the things that go along with it. And so our body is built. Basically, every month, we go through three phases, we build up towards oscillation, we oscillate. And then there is the post of ulation, where our body goes through another set of hormonal changes. And then there's menstruation. So I guess totally there's there's four stages that we go through. So after ovulation, our estrogen levels begin to drop off, and our progesterone levels begin to drop. And so both of these are so progesterone is a very calming hormone. And so many women note that after they oscillate, they start to have these problems with sleeping. Another thing that happens is low progesterone can cause an increase in our body temperature. And I'm sure that many of you know how wonderful it is to sleep in a really, really cold room. Well, when your body temperature rises, this increases the risk of having night sweats and low estrogen also contributes to sleep problems. So estrogen plays A major role in the production of serotonin. And serotonin is responsible for reducing stress and encouraging feelings of well being. And so your brain also uses serotonin to make melatonin. And so your estrogen levels drop right after ovulation. And so this affects our mood, our concentration as well as our stress levels, and our sleep. The other thing that happens is during menstruation is some women experience menstrual cramps, and menstrual cramps can peak during nighttime hours. On top of that, during menstruation, women are more likely to experience migraines and headaches and digestive issues like constipation, bloating, or diarrhea, which can all happen in the middle of the night. So if you're thinking about menstrual cramps, and like, what can you do about it? Well, again, here we come back to magnesium, which is so magnesium is in Chinese medicine, magnesium is the quintessential relaxer, it relaxes our brain, as well as our musculature and our vasculature. So here we end up being able to use magnesium to relax and soothe those PMS cramps. We also know that vitamin B six is powerful for this. eating right, having more vegetables, fewer animal products can help get rid of the menstrual cramps. And then also, you know, there's nothing worse than waking up in a mess when you're on your period. And so having adequate protection that allows you that peace of mind that you can get through the night. I'm a leader for a company called thinks, and they produce these period panties that are absolutely astonishing. And they they work 100% they work. And they have a brand new set of sleep shorts, that holds for tampons worth of blood. And so that can really put you at ease throughout the night that you're not going to be waking up in a mess. And so when you think about what can you do throughout these hormonal fluctuations, avoid things that interfere with sleep, such as your caffeine, your sugar, salt, alcohol, get a little bit more exercise, if you are prone to night sweats. Turn on a fan, you know, take your dubay out of the duvet cover and just sleep with just a smaller amount of covers. Take your vitamin D supplements and then discontinue your screen time. You know, it's basically the same stuff that you're doing the rest of the month. It's just it's even more important that you be a little bit more vigilant around the time of your cycle.
Unknown Speaker 32:59
I love that and yes, I actually it was from you following you on Instagram, everyone should definitely follow you on Instagram. We'll link to that Thank you. But I learned about a new things products as you were sharing about that which I love that company and tickets. They're doing such awesome work and the multiple companies that they have connected very cool stuff. So I love all of that because that is so wise. And I think that's also that was a big breakthrough for me and my journey around my health and continues to be of tending to be more of a masculine approach to life and only operating within that circadian rhythm approach forgetting or unfreedom rhythm or not forgetting but trying to deny just the very real changes that are happening day to day throughout that you know, 28 ish day rhythm. And I think that's really, really great to hear from, you know, a powerful woman that there is that importance to uplevel our kind of self care in whatever form this takes at those different periods of our of our periods. So yeah, very late. Absolutely. Very cool. So right now this topic of sleep is particularly timely for you as you've been going through a move and you've been really setting and designing your environment. So definitely share with us what you are doing to make a difference to ensure that you're getting that great sleep even in a new space new place and figuring out all of ironing out all the kinks
Unknown Speaker 34:22
well whenever you move somewhere new it's always interesting because it's you know, it's one of those things like Fung Shui says that you should face your bed East but if that doesn't meet the needs of your home, and so we sacrifice some we're like okay, the beds gonna face West. Well, what we realized was that the hot Eastern sun coming up behind us, we would wake up it'd be 80 degrees in our in our room and it was miserable. So we ended up getting solar blackout curtains that actually absorb the sunlight across the entire East face of our walls so that we wouldn't be waking up sweating. We also have a ceiling fan, which we verify that our ceiling fan was turning the right way to actually cool off the room instead of heat up the room. And then we experimented with where we placed our fans throughout the room because we had this fan, great fan love it. And then we realized it was in the hottest part of the room. So it was just re circulating hot air. So we flipped our fan situation around and we're sure that we were bringing in the cooler air because where our where our bed is, is actually kind of on a sleeping porch in so it's not as heavily insulated as the rest of the house. But if you put the fans to where the air conditioning is pumping, and it is more insulated, you can save a little bit of money because you're not having to turn the air down to 65 degrees to heat the hottest room in the house. But it also just made a huge difference. We also took the dubay out from our do Bay cover and so we won't bring that back until until this fall. And then the other thing is is we love salt lamps. You know, people love the infrared lamps, we have salt lamps, we have soothing crystals around and we both are fairly disciplined to turn our phones off at night, which not only does it help you not pick up your phone and like oh, what time is it again? But it also just reduces your exposure to the electromagnetic frequencies and the Wi Fi signals, which some people say they're harmful for you. Some people say they're not. But you know, it's always good to take a break from your phone for sure.
Unknown Speaker 36:42
Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. And how about the I know you're quite knowledgeable about essential oils are there key ones that you bring in around relaxing in the evening, anything that are essential for you.
Unknown Speaker 36:56
I mean, there there are so many amazing essential oils out there, you can start with some basics like lavender and frankincense. But you can also think of things like cedar wood, like bedivere valerian root is an amazing oil, around bedtime, even things like Roman kameel. And I also will bring in essential oils like if I know that I'm dealing with some kind of emotional garbage, I will bring in essential oils to help me deal with that before I go to sleep. So applying like Cardamom over my liver, if I'm feeling angry or applying something empowering like a like a spruce essential oil to my kidneys, if I know I'm feeling fear. And so you know, you can bring in all kinds of essential oil, I think that the key really, when it comes to using essential oil is how deep of a breath you're willing to take. And if you can take those deeper as just three, four or 510 times in a row. And let that be a part of your sleep routine. And then you know getting up in the morning and hitting those citrus oils and the and the rosemarys. And really getting awake and invigorated. And using those essential oils is invigorating essential oils instead of caffeine. In the afternoon, you know around that four or five o'clock timeframe where you know, you're not quite ready to leave work. Essential oils can be a great way to kind of supplement without bringing in more caffeine into your day. So honestly just turn on the diffuser at night and just let it go and have fun with essential oils. You know, there's no hard and fast rules every person is individual. So there's a ton of them you could bring into your sleep or attain,
Unknown Speaker 38:50
Oh, I love that I want I like that you brought in that duality of the day and night and then really leaning into the energy of the day and the daylight because it's a big deal for circadian rhythm as we're helping people to bring about that clear on and off notice to to our days, which even just that alone can be really life changing versus this want to make the entire day with such gogogo energy and it just really doesn't work for as far as the workability of our of our body and our sleep. And I also really love that you put in this optionality for people that are looking to minimize caffeine and that's a big area for many people that I'm working with the different points also just around even anxiety and how to manage that. So when you're bringing those options in to still have that energizing effect. I love that you're speaking to something that is not gonna you know, kick you in the butt later on in the evening. So
Unknown Speaker 39:48
absolutely, yeah, I mean, if you are suffering from anxiety, in my opinion, the number one thing you can do is eliminate all caffeine. Yeah, just eliminate all of the caffeine. Because, you know, if you're getting up and you're crushing two cups of coffee, and then all of a sudden in the middle of the afternoon, you're like, I'm going to need some kind of something to calm me down. What if you just didn't give your body that signal to get excited in the first place? It could be really transformative for a lot of people with anxiety to just get rid of the caffeine.
Unknown Speaker 40:23
Such a big deal. Wow, well, okay, you've dropped so much knowledge in this conversation. So what are some of the best ways that people can learn more about you? I know you've got tons of stuff that you're involved in what you offer. So where all the where all the places to be connected with you? Well, you
Unknown Speaker 40:42
can come to my website, Lindsay Amore, calm. I would love to invite you to come and listen to the Lindsay Elmore show. If you want to listen to mine and Molly's episode, it is episode number 10. And then also in Episode Number 15. I talk about yoga nidra. And there is a yoga nidra that you can practice on your own towards the end of the episode and while you're over on Lindsay Omar calm, if you just go to the blog and search for sleep, there are a couple dozen blog posts about everything from the importance of sleep ways that period affects your sleep, there is a CBD sleep bomb, how inflammation impacts your sleep, all the things So come and check it out.
Unknown Speaker 41:22
All the things. Absolutely. And then when you're over on there, too, make sure to follow her on different social media platforms because she's got a lot of stuff that she puts out. And absolutely check out her podcast. Really, really cool stuff there. Ah, well, such a pleasure. I so appreciate you taking the time and looking forward to more things to come with you. Absolutely. Thanks
Unknown Speaker 41:43
for having me. Of course.
Unknown Speaker 41:45
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 41:48
You've been listening to the sleep is a skill podcast, the number one podcast for people who want to take their sleep skills to the next level. Every Monday I send out something that I call Molly's Monday obsessions containing everything that I'm obsessing over in the world of sleep, head on over to sleep as guild comm to sign up