In 2008, Ben Azadi was an obese man who went through a personal health transformation of releasing 80 pounds of extra weight, and getting metabolically healthy. Ever since, Ben Azadi, FDN-P, has been on a mission to help 1 billion people live a healthier lifestyle. Ben has a 10 year mission to help over 1 million people naturally reverse their diabetes. Ben, the founder of Keto Kamp, has over 17 years of experience in the health industry, and he's the author of four best-selling books, including his latest Keto Flex. Ben is the author of the upcoming book Metabolic Freedom, published with Hay House. Ben has been the go-to source for intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet since 2013. He is known as 'The Health Detective' because he investigates dysfunction, and he educates, not medicates, to bring the body back to normal function. Ben is the founder of Keto Kamp; a global brand bringing awareness to ancient healing strategies such as the keto diet and fasting. Ben is the host of a top 15 podcast, The Metabolic Freedom Podcast which won Keto Podcast of The Year (2022) by The Metabolic Health Summit. Ben has the fast growing Ben Azadi YouTube channel with over 400,000 subscribers and 25 million video views, and TikTok channel with over 330,000 subscribers and over 50 million video views. Ben is a keynote speaker who delivered a keynote lecture for Ketocon 2022, 2023, and Hack Your Health 2024; and he's been featured in Forbes, Tampa’s NBC WFLA, LA Weekly, Disrupt Magazine, NY Times Mag, LA Entertainment Weekly and other publications.
In 2008, Ben Azadi was an obese man who went through a personal health transformation of releasing 80 pounds of extra weight, and getting metabolically healthy. Ever since, Ben Azadi, FDN-P, has been on a mission to help 1 billion people live a healthier lifestyle. Ben has a 10 year mission to help over 1 million people naturally reverse their diabetes. Ben, the founder of Keto Kamp, has over 17 years of experience in the health industry, and he's the author of four best-selling books, including his latest Keto Flex. Ben is the author of the upcoming book Metabolic Freedom, published with Hay House. Ben has been the go-to source for intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet since 2013. He is known as 'The Health Detective' because he investigates dysfunction, and he educates, not medicates, to bring the body back to normal function. Ben is the founder of Keto Kamp; a global brand bringing awareness to ancient healing strategies such as the keto diet and fasting.
Ben is the host of a top 15 podcast, The Metabolic Freedom Podcast which won Keto Podcast of The Year (2022) by The Metabolic Health Summit. Ben has the fast growing Ben Azadi YouTube channel with over 400,000 subscribers and 25 million video views, and TikTok channel with over 330,000 subscribers and over 50 million video views.
Ben is a keynote speaker who delivered a keynote lecture for Ketocon 2022, 2023, and Hack Your Health 2024; and he's been featured in Forbes, Tampa’s NBC WFLA, LA Weekly, Disrupt Magazine, NY Times Mag, LA Entertainment Weekly and other publications.
SHOWNOTES:
😴 What do 93% of Americans have in common—and how it impacts sleep
😴 Can poor sleep cause metabolic disease?
😴 Why is sleep the ‘Swiss Army knife’ of your metabolism?
😴 A deep dive into late-night eating, 3 AM glucose crashes, and how meal timing impacts recovery.
😴 Learn about “Vitamin G”
😴 Does your self-image determine your sleep quality?
😴 Is your wearable making you anxious? —and how to use it for insights, not identity.
😴 What does a metabolic health expert actually do at night? –Ben walks us through his full routine.
😴 Mouth taping: Biohacking gimmick or real game changer?
😴 Why your bedtime might matter less than your wake-up time
😴 The best morning habits to set your sleep up for success
🎁 BONUS for Sleep Is a Skill listeners:
Buy Ben’s new book, Metabolic Freedom, and get free access to his full metabolism course featuring exclusive expert interviews.
👉 metabolicfreedombook.com
😴 And many more!
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GUEST LINKS:
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DISCLAIMER:
The information contained in this podcast, our website, newsletter, and the resources available for download are not intended to be medical or health advice and shall not be understood or construed as such. The information contained on these platforms is not a substitute for medical or health advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.
Welcome to the Sleep As a Skill podcast. My name is Mollie Eastman. I am the founder of Sleep as A Skill, a company that optimizes sleep through technology, accountability, and behavioral change. As an ex sleep sufferer turned sleep course creator, I am on a mission to transform the way the world. Thinks about sleep.
Each week I'll be interviewing world-class experts, ranging from researchers, doctors, innovators, and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper. Ultimately, I believe that living a circadian aligned lifestyle is going to be one of the biggest trends in wellness.
And I'm committed to keeping you up to date on all the things that you can do today to transform your circadian health and by extension, allowing you to sleep and live better than ever before.
Welcome to Sleep as a Skill Podcast. This week I'm joined by my good friend, Ben Azadi, founder of Keto Camp and host of the Metabolic Freedom Podcast, and author of Metabolic Freedom, which just published with Hay House. In this powerful episode, we explore the connection between sleep and metabolic health and why sleep might be the missing piece in your energy, weight, and recovery goals.
So we cover. One, why 93% of Americans may be metabolically unhealthy and how sleep plays a role. The hidden dangers of eating too close to bedtime, the power of breath work, self-image, and vitamin GAKA gratitude mouth taping wearables and bends full nighttime routine. This one is packed with practical tools and major mindset shifts, so absolutely stay tuned for the entire episode.
Lots of gems throughout, and I'm actually actively reading some of the book recommendations that Ben gave, really diving into this mindset conversation since it is. So huge in our results, not only with our sleep, but with our health and our experience of life as a whole. So I think you're gonna really enjoy this episode, and Ben is just such a wonderful human being.
I've, you know, known him for many years and he truly walks his talk. He is. Just as delightful when cameras are rolling, as when they're not rolling, you know? So I think you're gonna really enjoy hearing more from him. So, without further ado, let's jump into the podcast. But first a few words from our sponsors, and please do check them out.
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You are not just investing in a blackout shade, you're investing in your health, wellbeing, and quality of life. So again, go to U Blockout, spelled the letter U Blockout, and use code sleep as a skill for a discount. If you're listening to this podcast, you're likely looking to improve your sleep, and one of the first questions people ask me about sleep is what supplement they can take.
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Pleasantly surprised by the results. And welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. We have a returning guest and a just wonderful human being with some exciting new news of a new book. One of you know many endeavors and projects that our guest is up to to make a difference in the world, and that includes in the world of sleep.
So Ben, Ben Ti, thank you so much for taking the time to be here.
Oh, Molly, it is my absolute honor and pleasure. I love the work you're doing. Your podcast is crushing it, and I'm excited to have a. Amazing life-changing conversation today. We're not gonna put anybody to sleep during this conversation, but we will give you the tools to get great sleep starting tonight.
Oh my gosh, I love it. You are amazing. And talk about crushing it. I feel like your podcast, your keto camp as you call it, and just the community that you're creating, so much energy and momentum seems to be happening in that world. So you've just been a natural kinda leader in that arena. So what had you create this new book to serve your people?
Thank you. And it's fun, as you know, to build community and get the message out there. What inspired me to write the book, metabolic Freedom. The book is written for the masses. It's not a niche book. I've written a keto book and a fasting book and yeah, there are some principles to that in the book,
yes, but it's,
it's written for the 93% of Americans that are metabolically unhealthy, and that is unfortunately what the studies show.
93% that, and I think sometimes, Molly, when we share these statistics, for some people, it just kind of goes over their head. So the way that I explained that is this, if you were walking down your street and you saw a hundred people in your street, 93 of those people have metabolic dysfunction. It's like almost everybody.
It's crazy. And numerous studies come out just confirming how unhealthy we are and yet. In the United States, we spend $4.6 trillion on healthcare every single year, which would be the fourth largest GDP in the world. If it was a GDP. But we're sicker than ever before and pharmaceutical companies are richer than ever before.
And what's really interesting about what we spend on, on healthcare, we still rank around 37 in the world in terms of health in, in, in the world, in different countries, which is insane because countries that are not as well off as we are, are doing better than us in terms of health. And one out of every $4 spent on healthcare is spent on diabetes, primarily Type two.
That's a metabolic disease. So is pre-diabetes of course. So is cancer, heart disease. So I knew there was a big problem out there, and I've been in the space now for 17 years. I've had my own pain to purpose journey of being obese, physically and mentally metabolically unhealthy, and I transformed my health.
And of course I've taken it to thousands of people all across the world. So I wanted to write a book that shares my story, my findings, and put it together in, in a resource that not only gives people information, but gives them the actionable steps, the actionable steps to apply that information that, so that's what inspired me to write the book.
I want to get this out to the masses.
So incredible. So I so applaud you for taking action on that. And I love the way you kind of help us visualize just how much of an epidemic this is now for anyone that's like, did I tune into the wrong podcast? How does this relate to sleep? Can you help us bridge this conversation of metabolic health and our sleep?
Yeah, absolutely. So I know that you were excited when I told you that chapter six in the book is all about. How poor sleep, a circadian mis mismatch leads to metabolic disease, metabolic dysfunction. It's that important that I had to put in the book because what you teach Molly, and what I've learned from you is, is, is critical.
Uh, sleep. I call it the, the Swiss Army knife of the metabolism. Mm-hmm. It does. It does so many things to upgrade your metabolism, but when it's poor and you lack quality sleep. Everything downgrades. That means yes. I don't care how much keto you do or fasting or carnivore, how many supplements you take.
And I know I'm preaching to the choir here with you. Yes. Uh,
yeah.
But nothing is going to, you're not gonna get the results you want if you don't fix your sleep. So chapter six, the first half of the book talks about the main causes to metabolic disease, and an entire chapter is dedicated to poor sleep.
Because I've seen this for myself. I could eat like crap. Uh yep. I could be sedentary. Yeah, I wouldn't feel good, but if I just got one bad night of sleep, that impacts me more than eating like crap and being sedentary.
Yes, absolutely.
So I believe sleep quality sleep is more important than exercise and nutrition combined when it comes to achieving metabolic health.
Preach. Yes. Now
with that being said, we still want to eat clean food and we want to exercise, but. Sleep is foundational, and if you don't take care of your, your foundation of a house, the walls will come down, um, wall by wall, the house will come down, wall by wall. So when I, when, when I started getting into some of the research studies on sleep, which you've outlined so brilliantly on your podcast mm-hmm.
It, it shows in, in healthy men that are not diabetic, that are not necessarily metabolically dysfunctional, just sleep depriving them By giving them five hours of sleep or less for a week, they start to have low testosterone levels. Mm, high blood sugar levels that mimic prediabetes in just a single week in healthy.
Men, and we know that we have this incredible circadian rhythm that is designed to be in sync with our hormones. And when you live your lifestyle in alignment with the way that our circadian rhythm is, o is supposed to operate, we're just firing in all cylinders. We, we burn fat, our metabolism takes food, turns it into energy, and we burn the excess as fat.
Our brain fires on all cylinders, but unfortunately. We don't live like that. And, and that's why your podcast is so important. And unfortunately we don't go outside. We're behind these artificial lights like I am right now. Yes. All day long. Yeah. We eat right before bed and we could get into a few of these things We eat right before bed.
We watch these scary stimulating movies right before bed. We're filling our subconscious mind with craziness. So a couple things. I know I'm all over the place here.
No, I love it. Yeah, that's sleep too, because it's like there's so many things that will impact it. So you're hitting on all of it.
And there's one thing that I talk about in the book that not only ages you faster.
Mm Causes weight loss resistance, but also creates poor sleep. And that one thing is eating right before bedtime.
It's so huge. I always say to people too, 'cause we have so many people using wearables that next to one of those common things next to alcohol, you know, alcohol being so clear on all of our wearable data, you know, when you had even a.
One drink, but one of the next things is just eating late. And the way that that impacts your resting heart rate. Oh my gosh. Your HRV, your respiratory rate is so akin. It's like one of those next common problems. So yeah. Okay. Go ahead.
That impacts me more than anything else. I hate late dinners, Molly. I hate 'em.
Me too,
me too. Can we make this like a movement? Peter and Tia famously said some quote of, he said something to the effect of, if I was the czar of everything, I think he said, then I would mandate everything gets moved up earlier. And I think he was saying including eat it like dinners and all of it just goes earlier, you know?
Yes. I
was just chatting with my fiance, NAIA, and we love going to concerts like Lady Gaga coming here in um, September, and she's a huge Lady Gaga fan. So fun. She doesn't come on stage until 9:00 PM It doesn't end until, and like, and I, I said, why aren't these concerts during the day? Like, why can't they have a concert start like at 4:00 PM and we're done by like 7:00 PM Why do they do it at night?
Okay. And then of course my brain goes to this. I dunno if you saw some of the, I. More recent news reports of Lady Gaga sharing about the period of psychosis that she went through and mental health issues. Wow. And so, of course my brain goes to, well, I mean, not to say this is not overly reductionistic, but it couldn't hurt to have her lifestyle more circadian aligned for even mental health, you know?
Mm-hmm. So, granted, anyway, I'll leave that b.
That would benefit her too. And all of the people that perform on stage. Exactly. Exactly. But back to eating before bed, I know that when I eat before bed and I look at my stats, I see, like you said, my, my resting heart rate is above average. My HRV plummets my deep sleep in REM sleep.
Sleep plummet, and then I wake up feeling, feeling off. Yeah. Uh, and of course there are exceptions. You know, when we go to these events that I've seen you at, yes, there are some late dinners and those are the exceptions. But for me, uh, I feel really good if I. Finished eating five hours before bed. Yeah. If I, if my, the kitchen is, let's say I go to bed nine 30 usually at night, so around 4 35 I'm done eating.
And when I do that, all of my metrics look good. I feel good. I get quality sleep. Uh, when we eat right before bed, I. A couple things happen. Number one, we're giving the metabolism energy and then we're not using that energy. We're lying down, we're going to bed. Yeah. So by doing that, number one, it could lead to acid reflux, gerd, bloating.
'cause you're lying down after eating food. Uh, you're, you're horizontal, not vertical, so you're not gonna digest it as efficiently. And then your body's gonna be storing fat because you're not moving, walking around, you're not using that energy. So more insulin that's produced to clear that glucose, meaning you're storing more fat.
It raises your body temperature, which as you know Molly, it's the opposite of what you want. When you go to bed, you want it to drop, and all of a sudden you might wake up maybe at 3:00 AM because of the glucose spike, and now you're wired and tired at 3:00 AM So that's a good thing, a good rule of thumb to follow three or five hours before bed.
Kitchen is closed, and that's one of the things I talk about in chapter six.
Now, what do you think about, can there be too much of a good thing? And I ask you this because I appreciate to a certain extent that Brian Johnson has started to get this message out, right? For better or for worse betting on all of our opinions.
But one thing that he's famously shared is for one, his whoop data and some favorable scores for long stretch of the time. Two reports of him stopping his last bit of food around like 11:00 AM or so, quite early, and he just shared some of his recommendations for people to work towards eight hours before bed, having your last bit of food, or at least to experiment with that and seeing what your results are.
Do you feel, and now this is kind of, we don't have enough research too in this area, which we. So need more of, but in what you've seen or any speculation, do you feel like there can ever be problems of going too early or any thoughts there?
Yeah, it's interesting. I have heard him talk about that. I think 11:00 AM he finishes eating.
Yeah.
Uh, and yeah, I admire his discipline and his, you know, he, he doesn't want to die, which is interesting. Yes. But there's also a social component, right. We also have family and, and obligations to other, not to other people, but to, yeah. Social responsibilities. Sure. Um. I think that when we are so regimented that way mm-hmm.
We're, we're also not, we're becoming too fragile. Mm-hmm. Meaning there's also like, when I eat late, 'cause it is rare, I tell myself it's hormesis. Like it's, it's, it's, I love, that's a stress that my body will adapt to. It's, it's not the, uh, common thing that I do. It's an exception and it's a way for me to apply a stress and adapt to it.
So hormesis, that's what hormesis is. So I think when you're too regiment like that, um, and you're just. Avoiding all of these stressors Yes. Could become too fragile, and that is not actually healthy. We want to apply stress and adapt to it. So sometimes a, a, a drink of alcohol before bed or eating before bed, yeah, it's not ideal, but it could be a hormetic stress and your body adapts to it, and you're not becoming fragile.
Um, I have some thoughts on the eating in the morning, but I want to hear if you have anything you wanted to add. No, I love
that you said that because especially if sleep is interesting, 'cause often there can be kind of two buckets. Uh, it was more than that, but it just, in the psychology of sleep, there can often be two buckets of the people that maybe haven't been prioritizing their sleep.
So we need to almost like provide all the evidence as to why it's. So important to prioritize. But then there's the insomniacs who are having difficulty falling asleep and they might even be verging into like sleep anxiety. And so they might be trying to do everything to get that sleep and they're doing 9 million things and almost can, because we see that a signature of.
People who are dealing with insomnia at different points can often have kind of perfectionistic tendencies, almost like that type A neuroticism. I mean, I know I certainly ticked the boxes on a lot of those personally recovering, but you know what I would say is I really appreciate you saying that because sometimes it can backfire on us.
When people are saying, okay, I've heard sleep's so important, so I'm gonna do everything. But then they start to become a slave to some of these things and then feel as if they can't step outta line or have resentment for all these things that they have to do just to get a good night of sleep. So I appreciate you bringing that in because I think that's an important piece for a mindset here.
That's a good point. Yeah. There needs to be some flexibility there. Yeah. Now with, with having your calories earlier in the day versus later on there, there is actually some interesting research on that. Sure. Um, for many years I used to tell people breakfast is the dumbest meal of the day. Yes. Skip it.
Practice fast thing. I used to be like that too. Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
And I have a different thought around that these days. I actually think, um, it's better. So for the intermittent fast out there, I talk about this in the book, a lot of people who practice fasting tend to skip breakfast, have lunch and dinner.
Which I, I know makes sense for most people's schedule. But if you were to flip that and have breakfast and lunch and skip dinner, actually research shows not only does it help with sleep, it helps with, uh, metabolic health. There's a study from the University of Alabama Birmingham. Dr. Courtney Peterson conducted the study and everything was controlled in the lab.
And what they did is they actually measured autophagy through, uh, lc three a protein. Autophagy is this cellular cleanup process that we want to get from time to time, and they measured sirtuin gene as well, and the two groups, uh, they controlled all the calories. The calories were the same. Everything was the same.
The only difference in the two groups is that one group had breakfast and lunch, skipped dinner. The other group had lunch and dinner, skipped breakfast. Mm. So the same calories, also two meals, same food, just one group was having breakfast, the other group was having dinner instead, and after four days, it showed that the group who had breakfast and lunch and skipped dinner after just four days, they had.
10% more of their sirtuins activated and 22% more autophagy by having breakfast and skipping dinner. So that's super coolly. So absolutely, ideally, if you can do that, that is beneficial. But Molly, I know this study, I know it's beneficial and still I tend to have lunch and dinner just 'cause it works better for my schedule.
Yes, I fully understand. That's so great. Okay, so. In your chapter where you speak to the importance of sleep. So certainly looking at this concept of meal timing being so crucial, were there other things that you hit on to help support metabolic health and sleep?
Yeah, actually, apple cider vinegar right before bed has been a game changer for a lot of my experie experie.
I wanna hear about
this. Yeah. What are your thoughts there?
So it doesn't break a fast. Mm-hmm. Which is great. So it's keeping you in a fasted state. It supports digestion, especially if your dinner was like a really heavy protein fatty meal, it could help you digest it better. The, uh, acetic acid and some of the other things in, in apple cider vinegar will help you process it better.
It also helps balance your blood sugar levels, so taking one to two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar diluted with water. About 30 minutes before bed, I've seen actually make a big difference in, in those, um, getting quality better sleep. Hmm. Um, especially with those who wake up at 3:00 AM because of a blood sugar spike.
Yes. Or they feel bloated and indige, uh, they have indigestion, maybe even acid reflux from their food, their dinner. Um, that's a game changer. That's a little biohack that I would recommend we throw into the mix. Uh, I personally don't like the taste of apple cider vinegar. I don't know if you do. Really?
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Do you like the taste of it? I do
like the taste, especially if I can put into like some sort of like. Sparkling water, something, it can make like a whole little concoction, maybe a little lemon. Sounds disgusting to me. Yeah, I guess it's a really a binary approach. Yeah, I think so. So I take
the capsules, but either option's fine.
Yeah. I just take high quality capsules, but that, that's a game changer. You know? I think that'll help a lot of people who are struggling with some of those issues I mentioned.
Amazing. Okay. And so you said you, uh, wrote this for the masses too, so, and I know of course you have your keto camp, so this is not just applying to people that are keto or super low carb.
You are speaking to all different types of diets in general, or do you. Purport for people to kind of subscribe to a certain type of diet to improve their metabolic health, any call outs there and how that could lead to better sleep.
So I, uh, inflammation is the name of the game. Yeah. Meaning lower lowering inflammation, which is gonna help with sleep.
Your body's not gonna be inflamed. It's only going to help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and get quality sleep. Um, so I outline the foods that cause inflammation, the foods that lower inflammation. I address the problem with being a sugar burner, which does affect sleep. Mm. And I'll explain that. When your metabolism is only burning sugar and glucose and you're what, what I call a sugar burner, um, you are relying on food to sustain energy level.
So what typically happens with sugar burners is they'll eat a, let's say a dinner at like 9:00 PM typically. Heavy with the carbs, they'll get a big glucose spike and they might actually assist with falling asleep possibly because it could produce serotonin, melatonin and different things there, but then they'll get a crash in that blood sugar.
Yeah. Around, I'm sure you've seen this, looking at so much data.
Absolutely. Around
2:00 AM 3:00 AM and then their body needs to produce cortisol for gluconeogenesis to get the sugars back up. Then the person wakes up and they're wired and tired, they might go and they might pee, and now they're laying in their bed thinking about their problems or thinking about whatever it is.
So yes, um, being a sugar burner is an issue here, but when you teach your metabolism to burn fat and sugar, not just burn fat and do keto forever, I'm not saying that, but to go back and forth, that'll help with that metabolic flexibility. So you don't get that huge glucose spike. Your blood sugar stays stabilized, so you're not waking up in the middle of the night feeling wired and tired.
Oh, absolutely. Okay. Yeah, 'cause I appreciate that because currently, you know, so many people in the sleep community will speak to the Mediterranean diet as having some of the most evidence at the moment for its benefits to sleep. And my take often with that being just that we simply don't seem to have enough research directed from.
Different types of dietary kind of restrictions or approaches and how they directly impact sleep. So often just what's cited is the ones that have the longest lasting studies and right now Mediterranean diet, but I often kind of speculate that the why for that I. Could be some of those things that also can lend themselves to low carb to keto with some of those healthy fat emphasis that we seem to see with the Mediterranean diet.
So again, just extrapolating, but do you suggest for people to start bringing in things like CGMs and testing these for their sleep or even for short term? Or is that an approach you have people take?
Absolutely. Molly. A-C-G-M-A continuous glucose monitor is a, is a. Fantastic idea. I've, I've worn them myself.
You've worn 'em as well, Molly? Yes.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yes.
Super cool. Great data. You know, you combine your, your blood sugar levels with your, your trackable, your wearable, whatever it is that you're using, give you some good data. You could see if that dinner that you had really spiked your blood sugar levels, if you saw it go over one 40 milligrams per deciliter, like that was not good.
You don't wanna see your blood sugar go over one 40 after a meal. You know, if that happens, you're gonna get that, that spike, the crash and you're probably gonna wake up in the middle of the night. But here's what I would say about the CGM, because I would wear it every night, of course, 'cause you wear it for 14 days.
But when I woke up in the morning and looked at my cg, my glucose readings throughout the night. I noticed most nights that my glucose would drop to it would show that it dropped to 32 42, which of course is dangerously low.
Right.
And here's what I found out. 'cause I was doing some investigation here. I was laying on the CGM and applying pressure and it gave me a false reading.
Yes. So for just
know that if you're wearing a CGM at night and you see a drop. Doesn't necessarily mean it went that low. Sometimes when you apply pressure to it, like when you lay on it,
yes. That
could cause a false reading. Did you see that as well? Have you seen that before? Oh, totally. Yeah. And it was
such a problem too for some of the newer ones that have the alarms and so people are getting woken up.
Yes. And like, ah, my God, such a thing. So now often we're having people have to turn off. Their phones at night if they have the newer ones. I dunno if you have a better workaround that you've been able to find, but so far we've had to have just a lot of people, if they do have those newer ones, turn their phone completely off to minimize those alarms going just like ongoingly.
You can't seem to change the setting. So weird.
Yeah. It is annoying when that happens. And you should be turning your phone off either way by the way.
Exactly. Thank you. Exactly. Getting outta the
bedroom. My phone's in the kitchen
right at night. Exactly. I know. And so even on top of that, what was happening for some of our people was, you know, they might have whatever it's in their bathroom or it's, you know, out of reach or, and yet still that alarm would be so screeching they hear it.
Yeah. So then they'd still to get it. So warning,
blood sugar, danger. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. So, wow. Okay. Did you kind of note other things maybe? Was that part of it too, kind of those kind of sleep hygiene approach or were there other callouts in that chapter?
There's a few more. So I talk about a supplement that I recommend you take, uh, right before bed.
This supplement. It's not melatonin by the way, but this supplement is, uh, anti-inflammatory. It helps with brain fog, it assists with deep sleep, REM sleep, all the stages of sleep you want to hit. Yes, helps with HRV. Cortisol, uh, buffering cortisol raising, oxytocin. Um, chapter 10 goes deep into the supplement.
It's called vitamin G. But it relates to chapter six, which is sleep. So vitamin G has been shown uc. Davis has shown studies that those who take vitamin G have healthier blood pressure levels, healthier blood sugar levels. Uh, Dr. Joe Dispenza has done these workshops on participants. Yes. Taking Vitamin G.
He's has seen cortisol drop and the immune system get activated. There's a study I put in the book, I don't know if you've seen this 'cause it's a new study.
Okay.
That is the, it's the, it was the most comprehensive study ever done on vitamin G. Harvard published this study in JAMA last year and I found it just in time before I submitted the manuscript.
So I got in the book. Yes. And it had 49,275 nurses in the study and it showed the nurses who took vitamin G every day. Had a 9% reduction in dying from all cause mortality, and a 15% reduction in dying from a cardiovascular disease versus the nurses who didn't take vitamin G. Another study before I reveal what it is.
I know. You know what it is. Yes. Another study from uh, PubMed showed that caregivers, caregivers live a stressful life.
Oh, absolutely.
They, they, their sleep is, is is stru. It's a struggle.
Yeah.
But it, it measured their mitochondria through something called the MHI, the Mitochondrial Health Index. Super cool.
And it showed that the nurses that took vitamin G at night before bed. Had healthier mitochondrial levels that following morning. What? Super, super cool. So Vitamin G is not a sponsor of Sleep as a skill podcast. We don't have an affiliate link or a coupon. We do not because vitamin G is the feeling of gratitude.
Now notice I said feeling and not practice.
I love that.
Uh, I used to say practice gratitude before bed, but I've. Come to find that gratitude is not, uh, an intellectual practice. Mm-hmm. It's an emotional practice. And right before bed when you're laying there, yeah. Your subconscious mind is most impressionable, which is why you don't want to be on your phone.
You don't wanna watch something scary or, or too, um, stimulating. You wanna be in your head feeling gratitude in your heart. Yes. Feeling gratitude. And what I do, Molly, uh, my nighttime routine as I lay in bed. And mouth, tape and sleep mask and eat all this stuff.
Yeah,
I, I rewind my day and I go backwards and I extract gratitude off of everything I did that day.
So you're gonna be in my gratitude tonight. I'm gonna think about this conversation. And that's one way to do it. You could also write down what you're grateful for. Yeah. But I'm telling you, it's, it's a game changer for all the things I mentioned, but also deep sleep, parasympathetic activity, like all the things we want comes from the feeling of gratitude.
I, I say it's, uh, strength training for your soul. It's what I say in the book.
Oh, it's so good. I love that. And I love how you frame that too. It's so, it gets the gears turning for people of, well, what can this be? I've never heard of vitamin D. 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.
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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And for those of you who struggle with snoring eight, sleep has an anti snore feature that adjusts your sleep environment in real time to help reduce snoring and improve overall sleep quality. So this is truly a game changer for anyone serious about optimizing their sleep. So if you're ready to take your sleep to the next level.
Head on over to eight. Sleep and use the code. Sleep is a skill, all one word at checkout for a discount. So one of the longest streaks that I ever held in my life was for 2,500 days doing a daily gratitude practice, which is why I really appreciate you saying the feeling. Yeah, because one of the things I saw for myself was that there were different periods throughout the time that I was doing that every day.
So I was sending it as an email form to kind of keep me accountable. To friends and family. It's just like a small little group, but it made it so great. 'cause then I would number in. You wouldn't wanna break the streak, but I absolutely saw different points. There would be times when I was relating to it, like, oh, I gotta do this email.
You know, like it's like a have to do. And yet, so certainly that's not what you're speaking to of the. Feeling of that. But then there would be other times when I would really just get into that state of feeling, oh my God, so many things happened today. Wow. Wow. Talk to Ben and da, da da da. And you know, you actually do get present to all of those great gifts that are in your life.
But the distinction that you just pointed to is so big because you absolutely do have this physiological response when you really do go through the process of feeling that. So that's beautiful.
Yeah. And that, and it happens instantaneously and Yeah. And it's free, you know, there's not an upper limit.
There's no toxicity limit to vitamin G. So if, you know left brains have a hard time with, uh, gratitude 'cause they're all about analytics. Check checkbox, you know, they'll write down 10 things they're grateful for and they're done. Yes. But that, there's value to that, don't get me wrong, but feeling it. So instead of choosing 10 things you're grateful for,
yeah.
Choose
one thing and live there for a couple minutes.
Mm. Like, feel
all the things you could feel. It could be what I do, or I just rewind my day. Yeah. Or you could relive a memory. Think about somebody that has passed on and think about that person and the memories you have with them, how, however you want to do it.
But the feeling is the secret. It's, it's not the practice, it's the feeling of it. Uh, and right before bed is one of the best times to do it. And also, I believe, right when you wake up in the morning, those are the two best times to get the vitamin G.
Yes. I love that. I've really been getting into some of these oldie timey books lately around the power of the subconscious mind.
Ooh,
like who? Who are you reading?
Well, so this one is literally the book, the Power of the Subconscious Mind. Um, Dr. Jeff Joseph
Murphy.
Yes, thank you. Yeah, I love that book. Thank you. Yes. I don't know how I'm so late to this party because like this is so good. It's so good. And then he has another book that I just got literally yesterday.
There's something to about the, the miracle of the mind some, another one of his. It seems like he has a few, so I'm excited to delve more into all of that. But you are good, right? So if you have any must reads in that domain, please let me know 'cause I'm now getting very excited about this area. Yeah,
I would say add Neville Goddard.
The feeling is the secret, the feeling is the secret. Neville Goddard. It's a short little read, but uh, read it over and over. Several times.
I mean, 'cause I felt a little like, oh, that's me. The, the people when you're like, you know, the people that are the check. Yeah. And the checking and the not feeling, you know?
So that's absolutely something that I'm working on for myself is more of that kind of physiological effect. So thank you. I will definitely read that.
I do that as well. And, and can I add to the conversation here, um, if you don't mind. Yes. Please. With, uh, the subconscious mind, how it relates to sleep. And I think this is gonna be valuable for your audience, so,
yeah.
Chapter 10 in the book is not about sleep, but it's my favorite chapter in the book. Sorry, it's not the sleep chapter, although I love that chapter. Then. No, my next book's probably gonna be all about chapter 10. So Chapter Ten's all about how your thoughts influence health or disease, and I can't wait for you to read that chapter 'cause I get into the subconscious mind.
But one of the things I talk about, which is I think is valuable for your audience is. The self image. Mm-hmm. The way you view yourself. And I'm gonna explain what that means and I'm gonna tie it into the sleep part especially. Yeah. Please. For those Struggling with sleep, there was a book that came out in the 1960s called Psycho-Cybernetics.
Have you heard of it?
Yes, I have heard of that, but I haven't read it. But tell, I'll give you the synopsis.
You don't have to read it, but it was a great book. Uh, yeah. Maxwell Maltz wrote it. He was a, a plastic surgeon and he would, uh, work with patients that had these really. Wicked severe facial disfigurements.
Mm. And and these
patients were, were unhappy. They were very self-conscious. They were depressed. They, they were just miserable because they, they were just so self-conscious about the way they looked.
Yeah.
And that their self-image was like identifying with the way they looked. So they, they would, the patients would hire Maxwell Maltz to perform plastic surgery 'cause he was one of the best in the world.
And he would get rid of all their facial disfigurements and. Yeah, the doctor noticed that even though after the surgery was done and they looked a lot better,
yeah,
they were still unhappy, they were still depressed and they, they were still self-conscious. They would literally look in the mirror and still see the facial disfigurement because their self-image identified with that.
Wow. And.
I have discovered that you can never outperform your self-image. Mm. So in the context of this book, I talk about weight loss, and if you're overweight, like I was, I was obese, my self-image was, I'm a, I'm, I'm an overweight person. Yes. I'm an obese person. Sure. So we make a conscious decision to change.
Maybe it's joining a program, reading a book, taking action. But in the subconscious mind is where that self-image is. Mm. And if you don't change the self-image with a new self-image, you will find a way to sabotage yourself to match the self-image. Yes. And I think a lot of people will do that in, in, in their sleep.
If they're identifying I'm an insomniac, or IO always wake up at 3:00 AM and they're, they've impressed that whether they say it verbally or they've thought it so many times now that's their self image. So they'll. I don't know. Do the things where they don't eat before bed. Take the supplements, follow all the tips.
Yes. But they'll find a way to sabotage themselves to match that self-image. We need to change that self-image. So there are only two ways to change it. Okay. The first way is an emotional impact. Mm.
It's
not ideal because usually nine times out of 10 it's a negative experience. So I'll give you an example of what I mean by an emotional impact.
A near death experience would be an emotional impact, like a severe car accident changes the way you think, changes the way you live your life.
Yes.
Uh, a cancer diagnosis, losing somebody you love. These are emotional impacts that change your paradigm, change your self image. They're unpredictable and they're usually negative.
So ideally we don't want to use that. Yeah. The second way. This is what I think is gonna be valuable for your audience.
Yes.
The way your self-image was built is the way you could change it. It's the constant space. Repetition, meaning you literally, and I talk about this in the book, you literally write down on an index card like I'm holding here.
Okay?
That new self-image, and you read it and impress it into your subconscious mind. Enough times where it replaces the old self-image. I'll give you an example. If it's sleep, you're dealing with sleep issues. The self-image that I would implant would start with, I'm so happy and grateful now that, so you say it in the present tense.
You use gratitude. I'm getting perfect sleep every night. Mm. I'm healthy. I'm happy, I'm thriving. The perfect health I seek is now seeking me. I remove any blockages between us. You literally write, literally write that down and read it and oppress it into your subconscious mind. Do that for 30 days and it'll replace the old idea.
And you'll stop sabotaging yourself. You could do that for weight loss, you could do it for finances. I do it with every area in my life to this day, this is my current self image that I want to live into, that I read every single day. I.
I love that. No, I think that is so huge. I really work with people ongoingly about this label of being a bad sleeper, being an insomniac.
I love it being a night owl. It's in my jeans. I'll sleep when I'm dead. All these, right? All of these ways of being that become these self-fulfilling prophecies for ourselves, and especially when people start identifying it's having sleep anxiety, and now they're fixated on this. And they can't stop with this, uh, vicious cycle that they're in is how they feel.
There's this opportunity to really ship that, and that's so beautiful and it gives us agency to change the game. So beautiful, Ben. It does. Yeah. Thank you. It's a game changer.
Yeah. Chapter 10. I can't wait for you to read that. I am
very excited for this. No, because I feel like I shared with you that last year I went through my own period of burnout and it's very like a humbling stretch of time given that I, you know, work with people on sleep and balance and all the things, and here I am.
Yeah. Traveling and this, that and the other, and then experiencing this moment for myself of I've gotta really make some changes. And so now for me, I'm starting to really shift how I'm thinking about even the information that I'm getting out for people. 'cause I do see in our. Field in this area of health and wellbeing and biohacking, that it does feel like sometimes it can get into kind of fear mongering and everything's, you know, gonna kill you when everything is bad for you and you can't breathe, you can't drink water, you can't wanna, the air is
toxic, the water is toxic, the vegetables are killing you.
Like, you know, and you go on social media, you spend a little bit of time fucking that you know, thumb and it's. Like a stressful experience. So I'm so happy that there are people like you that are committed to helping to support the mindset piece of this. 'cause I think that this has just been so underrated, and I think that was this last year for me was like this wake up call, no pun intended, of just how much that is important to keep building mastery over.
And I'm excited for that to be your next book. So yay. It'll
be called Mental Freedom. That's what I'm thinking of. Ooh, that's beautiful.
I'm definitely gonna be reading that one as well. So, yes. Well, Ben, we ask every person four questions about their own sleep. And I know of course we had you on quite some time ago, so excited to hear, you know, how things might have evolved or with all your travel.
The first question is, what does your nightly sleep routine look like Right now?
My nightly sleep routine is, I'm really consistent with it. Um, yeah, because I am also on the go, like you just said, you were doing, uh, yeah. I've done 65 podcast interviews in the last 60 days. Like that is on people's podcast, not counting the 2030 that I did for my, oh my gosh.
I'm traveling, I'm speaking
amazing.
I, I say all that because if I did not prioritize my sleep and recovery as you know, I would not be able to do that. So I'm really disciplined. So my nighttime routine looks like this. Usually done eating by 5:30 PM Okay. Today I have dinner with my mom at 6:00 PM so there's an exception there again.
Sure. Social capital. Yeah. Social capital. Yep. Um. I try not to, oh, I tend not to drink too much at night 'cause I don't want to drink too much and wake up at. 3:00 AM to go pee.
Yes. I You just all liquids basically?
Uh, all liquids. All liquids. I mean, I have a lid of water when I take my supplements at night, but I try not to drink as much at night.
Yep. I
get my liquids, you know, usually before like 7:00 PM most of it. Um, my blue light blocking glasses go on when the sun sets. The orange ones. The red ones. Excuse me. Uh. I will not watch anything scary, anything that's gonna stimulate my heart rate and put things in my subconscious mind that I don't want right before bed.
So I'll watch maybe basketball. I'm a big basketball fan. Mm. I'll watch, um, something funny with my fiance, but nothing scary or stimulating at night. Love it.
Yes.
Uh, and then I start to, um. Cool. My, my pad, my bed with the chili pad that I use. It's 55 degrees by the way. 55.
Perfect. Love it. I set the thermostat to, I like that too.
Yeah, I love that temperature. I set the thermostat to 67. Uh, I put the blackout curtains down and then when I get into bed, usually around nine 30, 10:00 PM I, um, mouth tape. And then I put my, um, I have my Jasper machine cranked at high, so I like the white nose noise machine with that.
Yep.
I put my earplugs in and then I put a, uh, sleep mask on, not because it's, there's light, the room's dark, but I'm putting the sleep mask on to stimulate some light pressure to activate parasympathetic tone and feel relaxed.
So I work for that. Then, yeah, and then I do my gratitude and fall asleep. That's usually my routine.
That is beautiful. I love that. And what you led with too, the consistency factor of all this, because I think sometimes people can hear all this, okay, yes, I gotta do this, that and the other. Let me note this.
You know the checking the boxes, but then if we're moving it all around and one night's, 1:00 AM and one night's. 10:00 PM Yeah. It's just the body has to do so much more work. So I appreciate you pointing to that. 'cause that is a big part of the heavy lifting because then suddenly the body is gonna help escort us on this.
You don't have to meditate yourself to sleep or deep breath. Not that there's anything wrong with those things. Yeah. But you don't have to effort as much if you are consistent, so that's beautiful.
Would you recommend if somebody goes to bed later than their routine, let's say. They go to bed at 10:00 PM usually, but one night they go to bed at 11:30 PM
Yes.
Do they still wake up at the same usual time or should they sleep in that extra hour and a half?
This is the best question. Okay. So one of the things that we tend to say for this, and of course there can be a little bit of leeway if it's like an egregiously rough night, but for the most part, which can sound like cruel and unusual punishment, we're still aiming to get up at around the same time.
Now, of course, you can swing it out a little bit. Some of the general kind of swing is thought to be about. Flus or minus around 30 minutes or so. Okay. And the call it around this and Dr. Matthew Walker, of course, who's like the reigning king of sleep at the moment, who's just such great information. One of the things, how he speaks to how you can manage this is to think of it as sort of the do nothing effect.
Well, I don't know if he quite said that, but I've kind of coined it this way. The two nothing effect is then. So after you did have that rough night of sleep, typically what people do, and I've been guilty of this myself, is to overly compensate. So then you start compensating by, you sleep in, maybe you get more coffee than normal, like extra big cup or whatever.
Then you know, if you're in the biohacking space, maybe more nicotine maybe. Yes. Right? Maybe you have like an extra nap, or it's a longer nap, maybe. Then you say, oh my gosh, this was such a rough night. I'm gonna. Or like the last night was so tough. I'm gonna go to bed really early tonight. And all of these things can seem like you're managing your health and wellbeing really well, taking care of yourself at first glance.
But when we start doing too much of that, then it can make it harder for us to kind of get back on track that subsequent night. So that's why we're looking to largely. Do nothing and still maintain most of the same things that you do as much as you possibly can. Of course, you can have a little bit of generosity yourself, take a little nap, but we're not trying to then have a 90 minute nap or what have you.
Mm-hmm. We're not trying to then be all stimulated throughout the course of the day. All of those things can just mess us up more and make it bigger of a problem, kind of snowball.
That's great. That makes a lot of sense. And I, I know a lot of people are in the habit of on the weekends they'll start to sleep in.
You're saying even on the weekends stick to that same wake up time.
Yeah. And so there's actually some big studies that came out around this and one was looking at sleep regularity and sleep regularity seeming to win out for longevity. Kind of all cause mortality as compared to kind of this up and down yo-yo effect of management of sleep and the weekend warriors or what have you.
And so that. Sleeping in tendency. While that can be a coping mechanism for a lot of people, and so when people hear this, it can be quite painful to kind of remove that for a period of time because that's how you, you know, get through this kind of sleep deprivation is to make up for it on the weekends or what have you.
But if you remove that first stretch, it will usually be uncomfortable. And people are not pleased when I tell them this in the beginning, but if you stick with it over time, what. Starts to evolve is kind of what Ben's speaking to, which is just that natural discipline and consistency will start falling into place.
So then you get sleepy at around the same time and you're actually naturally, for the most part, to some greater or lesser extent, starting to wake up at around the same time. So it's kind of becomes automated.
Yeah, that is the best way to do it. I know around nine 30, my body's like. It's time for bed.
Yeah. I do not perform well at nine 30. I'm just, my body's ready to shut down.
It's so true. Oh my gosh. Love it. Okay, so then speaking of consistency, so what does your morning sleep routine look like right now with the idea that how we start our day can impact our sleep?
I do not look at my phone first thing in the morning.
I actually don't look at it for an hour after I wake up.
It's in
the kitchen. I, I'll just look at my, my, um, well technically I do look at my phone, but I only look at my ora ring stats. That's it. Oh yes. I'm not looking at anything else. Some do not disturb, but I go right to the ora ring stats. I put it on the stand and I wanna see my results.
Yeah.
And then you say, yeah,
exactly. I got crown celebrate. Yes. Or damn.
No. Yes. So, uh, I do gratitude and journaling in the morning, so write down my goals. Gratitude in the morning. And then I go outside and get sunshine with my dog. Yeah. I walk my dog right when the sun comes up. I'm getting that morning, sunrise, sunlight, no glasses.
Uh, it was right through the eyes, as you know, right on the skin. I am in Miami, so we get a lot of sun. Yeah. But every morning I walk my dog 15, 20 minutes. I don't have coffee yet. I, I usually have my coffee about an hour and a half after I wake up. Yep. Uh, and then when I get back home from the walk, I am listening to, uh, audiobook Bob Proctor usually is what I'm listening to as I make my coffee, start taking my supplements, do my routine, and.
I'm pretty consistent with that routine. Pretty, pretty damn consistent.
Okay, that's beautiful. Since you are the mindset master, do you have any callouts of when you do look at that ora ring kind of readout and it's not the best, anything that you can share that maybe you've done? Or is this evolving to?
Not fall into that no SIBO effect where people say, Ugh, yeah. You know, now the whole day is gonna look like the zombie. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. No, SIBO effect is powerful. I actually talk about it in chapter 10.
Okay. Gotta read that.
Yeah. You gotta read chapter 10. So yeah, we don't want the ring to tell us, or the device to tell us how to, how to feel that day.
It gives us data. So, um, personally I'm pretty good with that. If I have a bad score, um, I won't feel awful as a result. Okay. Um, but I will look at what I. Did differently the day before. Okay. That caused that maybe. Sure. You know for me, I know when I have too. I have a. Salt sensitivity. Like my genetics, I can't have too much salt.
And when I have a, a meal, like when I go out for dinner, even if it's an early dinner and it has a lot of salt, it raises my body temperature and resting heart rate. And usually that throws off my score. So I'll look back and say, did I have a lot of salt the night before? Um, but I'll just use it as feedback.
And to your point, we don't want to use that device. To determine how we feel. Yeah. Um, the body's so resilient. Even if you get a crappy score, even if it's 60 or 40, like your body is so resilient, you'll do what you need to do and just prioritize that night up ahead and figure out what you messed up with and fix that the next day.
Oh my God. That's so interesting you said that about the salt piece. How do you grapple with that? With keto? 'cause I'm thinking of, you know, the tendons. Oh, electrolytes and all. Like how do you find that balance?
I need to get my potassium up with the sodium and as long as I get the potassium up, like with electrolytes, I find I.
That I need to, like, element is not a good electrolyte for me because it's high sodium. Yes. And it doesn't have enough potassium. That ratio is thrown off. So I need to find the right electrolytes that have a, a good ratio of sodium to potassium personally. 'cause I have a sensitivity.
Because you have that, do you have one that you found that's really good for you or?
I like the paleo value has their electrolyte, um, powder. Okay. They have a good potassium. Sometimes I'll have a powder that has high salt and not enough potassium, but I'll take. Potassium, a little bit of some potassium supplements with it to combat that. I also do it when I know I'm going out to dinner and they tend to salt the food.
I'll take some potassium with me.
Interesting. Okay. Appreciate that. Okay, and then the third question would be, what might we visually see on your nightstand or in your environment?
I didn't mention this. This is to the question, my morning routine before I walk. My dog, Ziggy, he's right here. I don't know if you see him.
Oh, so before I walk him, I actually come right here into my office and, um, I have three vision boards here. So I have affirmations, I have goals, I have Photoshop. I'll tell you right now, I have, I have an image here, Def several images of, uh, of, so there's an image here of of Joe Rogan interviewing me.
Diary of a CE, let's go, uh, Lewis house, uh, Tom Biu. There's an image of somebody holding up my book in the airport with the Sun, New York Times bestseller. Me holding a gold plaque from YouTube, meaning you hit a million subscriber. So I visualize all of that. It's part of my morning routine. Love it. And that, that cues me to like, you know, keep doing what I'm doing.
That's amazing. That's so great. Blake and I, we do morning walks, so we talk about those things on our walk, but I think we need more. I love, love that. More visuals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's
cool that you do that though. When I, when I walk. That's fun. So NAIA doesn't walk with me in the morning. She what?
She stays in bed on her phone. Okay. I can't give her crap for, meanwhile, her
HRV is like 200 and it
is, but she has a like a genetic Yeah. You remember that, right? I do, of course. Yeah. It was like that.
Yeah, like one
60 is her average. It's crazy, but it's a genetic thing. It's a heart thing with her. It's not necessarily.
Anyways. Yeah, I
hear you. Yeah,
but I walk and I, I do affirmations in my head as I walk, so I think that's cool that you and Blake kind of have those discussions back and forth. I think that's so awesome.
Yeah, it's been one thing that we've really, really been liking, and so we just started in on our own modified 75 hard, so it's not like, you know, as designed, which we've done it as designed in the past, but we did our own kind of version, and so now it's.
Adding in more of an evening walk than we were doing before with some of the things that we have on there. I love it. And it's been great. 'cause then we, yeah, we've been able to then reflect on, did the things that we did today, like move us forward towards those goals or was there something missing? You know?
So it's been a nice process, but I love what you're saying 'cause I think we're both such visual people that I think that would really serve us to be able to look at that too. So Yeah, no, that'll
be great. So there's a book. Called Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. Put that into your notes.
Ooh,
I am Dynamic
Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. It's from the 1970s. Bob Proctor told me about this book. Oh, in that book, she calls it The Wheel of Fortune. It's like a vision board that I have here, but it's, she calls it The Wheel of Fortune, and you separated into four different categories, so family.
Business, recreational and spiritual where you put photos, um, and all those areas with specific affirmations that she gives you. And I look at the photos and I read the affirmations, and that's what I do every single morning. So I think that book, I think you're gonna like that book. And she talks about how to do that.
I. Beautiful. Well, thank you so much. I love that. So many notes and so many things to do. Yeah. Except this is like very exciting for me, the nerdiness that I have
all this. I love it. We always geek out together. I
know. I
love it.
Okay, so I wanna be respectful of your time. So the last question is so far to date, what would you say has made the biggest change to the management of your sleep?
And or said another way. Biggest aha moment in managing your sleep.
I think not eating before bed has made. The biggest difference for me, it's a huge one for me. Yeah, same thing, right? So having a three to five hour window where I'm not eating before bed has made the biggest difference. I'll throw one more.
One something else in there. Yeah. It's actually been the mouth taping, and I know mouth taping has become such a trend these days, TikTok, and it's super popular and it's true. Mouth taping doesn't get to the actual cause of why you're chronically breathing through your mouth. That's something you wanna work on.
However, it helps you kind of get into trains your body to start breathing through your nose. So for years I was a chronic mouth breather. I. I had to wake up, throat was dry, it even affected my face, my teeth, everything. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I've worked on, on with the biological dentist, fixing all that, but also with the mouth tape.
I've noticed like in the past when I forget my mouth tape, for some reason I would see it with my, my oxygen saturation. I would see it with my wake up time. So that's been a big difference. And then one more thing has been infrared sauna has really helped my. RV deep sleep, resting heart rate, body temperature, getting like 15, 20 minutes, uh, consistently each week.
Uh, in my infrared sauna, which I'm blessed to have, has made a huge difference with my sleep.
Oh, that's great. When do you usually use yours? Have you found a sweet spot there?
After my workouts midday, so I usually work out around noon and then I'll do a song right after that. Yeah.
Nice. Okay. That's beautiful.
I love all those. Oh my gosh, Ben, so many words of wisdom here and just fantastic information for people. Absolutely. Ensuring that they get this book, make sure that they're reading, of course, all the chapters, but certainly it sounds like chapter six and chapter 10. Yes. So incredible. So how can they do that?
Where do they buy the book? Where do they follow you? All the things.
Thank you, Molly. It's a pleasure to come back and I think it's been like four or five years since we last, uh, had this, this conversation. Right. Think
it's done so that Yeah, totally.
You've taken off. It's cool to see the podcast grow and all the cool things.
We Oh, you are sky the limit. Yeah. Yeah. All of us. Oliver Ross, let's take off together.
Yes, the book is available. This week published with Hay House, Dr. Mindy Powell is our mutual friend, wrote the Forward. Uh, it has endorsements from Dr. Fung, JJ Virgin, Gary Breca, mark Sisson, amazing people in our space.
And, uh, the book is available on Audible. I narrated the audible myself if you're an Audible listener. And that's a pain in the butt to do that, by the way.
Yes.
But it's my voice and, uh, great. It's available on Kindle and also hardcover. It's available if you go to metabolic freedom book.com. There's different retailers there, Barnes and Nobles.
Books and books. Amazon, um, if you buy it there, we're giving away to your audience an entire course. I built out on the metabolism for free. I. It has 12 lessons on the metabolism, and there are exclusive interviews in that course just for this book, uh, with Dr. Jason Fung, Dr. Daniel Pompa, um, Cynthia Thurlow and Megan Ramo.
So it's metabolic freedom book.com. Go get it. Chapter six, chapter 10, but also the whole book I think is gonna suit you well.
Yes. Uh, exactly. Don't just go to those chapters, please. So, good. Ben, thank you so much for taking the time and for the second time, we're honored and delighted. I can't wait for you to achieve all of those images that you have in front of you.
Yes, we know that that will come to fruition, so congrats in advance.
Thank you. Thank you, Molly. Keep doing your great work. Grateful for you. Oh.
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