The Sleep Is A Skill Podcast

224: Zora Benhamou, Gerontologist, Health Coach & Biohacker: What Doctors Don’t Tell You About Preparing for Surgery… And How It Can Wreck Recovery

Episode Summary

Zora Benhamou is a gerontologist passionate about aging and longevity. She is on a mission to disrupt ageist stereotypes in social media and is host of the Hack My Age podcast focusing on biohacking for women in menopause. Zora is a 52 year old digital nomad, traveled to over 50 countries, lived in 8, and speaks 6 languages. She founded the website HackMyAge.com, the Hack My Age podcast, and is the author of the Longevity Master Plan and cookbook Eating For Longevity. Her social media and podcast following reaches over 100,000 people and is growing quickly. She is also a member of the Gerontological Society of America and the Aging Society of America. Zora received a Masters of Gerontology at the prestigious University of Southern California. She is a certified sports nutrition coach and an Oxygen Advantage Advanced Breathwork Instructor.

Episode Notes

BIO:
Zora Benhamou is a gerontologist passionate about aging and longevity. She is on a mission to disrupt ageist stereotypes in social media and is host of the Hack My Age podcast focusing on biohacking for women in menopause.

Zora is a 52 year old digital nomad, traveled to over 50 countries, lived in 8, and speaks 6 languages. She founded the website HackMyAge.com, the Hack My Age podcast, and is the author of the Longevity Master Plan and cookbook Eating For Longevity. Her social media and podcast following reaches over 100,000 people and is growing quickly. She is also a member of the Gerontological Society of America and the Aging Society of America.

Zora received a Masters of Gerontology at the prestigious University of Southern California. She is a certified sports nutrition coach and an Oxygen Advantage Advanced Breathwork Instructor.

 

SHOWNOTES:

😴  How can surgery completely disrupt your sleep, and what can you do about it?

😴  What mindset shift helped Zora face not one but two hip replacements with calm and resilience?

😴  How did biohacking play a role in preparing for surgery and speeding up recovery?

😴  Which supplements, peptides, and protocols supported healing, reduced inflammation, and protected sleep?

😴  Can tools like NuCalm, meditation, or breathwork really lower anxiety before surgery?

😴  Why protein, muscle mass, and even blood flow restriction training can make or break recovery

😴  What does Zora’s current sleep routine look like after two surgeries, and what practices still make the biggest difference?

😴  And so much more!
 

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LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/zora-benhamou-37167017/

 


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Episode Transcription

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 the Sleep As Skill podcast. Our guest today is Zora Benhamou, and she is a gerontologist who's passionate about aging and longevity. She is on a mission to disrupt. Ages stereotypes in social media and is the host of the Hack My Age podcast focusing on biohacking for women in menopause. Zoa is a 52-year-old digital nomad, traveled to over 50 countries, lived in eight and speaks six languages.

 

She founded the website hack my age.com, the Hack My Age podcast, and is the author of the Longevity Master Plan and Cookbook Eating for Longevity. Her social media and podcast following reaches over a hundred thousand people and is growing quickly. She's also a member of the Gerontological Society of America and The Aging Society of America.

 

Zuora received a master's of gerontology at the prestigious University of Southern California. She is a certified sports nutrition coach and an Oxygen Advantage advanced breathwork instructor. Now, we spoke about a ton of things on today's episode, but namely, we really looked at ways that you can prepare for things like surgery and know that while often sleep can get disrupted at times when we are navigating.

 

Surgery even for some of us in the lead up, maybe anticipatory anxiety about it or dealing with some of the pain thereafter or what have you, there are so many things that we can do about it, and that is really our intention with today's episode is to empower you and provide you with tools to navigate just these moments in life.

 

So I think you're gonna enjoy this, but first, uh, a few words from our sponsors, but please take a listen to them. They really do keep this podcast alive and running. Important question. Can you see the hand in front of your face, in your bedroom? If so, you need to hear about our sponsor who is revolutionizing the blackout shade space, and finally making it easy and affordable to get a truly blacked out bedroom.

 

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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. One supplement I've consistently taken for ages is magnesium, specifically by optimizers Magnesium breakthrough.

 

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Welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. Uh, this guest is just a delight and a good friend, and her and I always struggle to be able to keep our conversations to whatever allotted amount of time we have because there's just never enough time with this one. Uh, I know you're gonna be fascinated by just her energy and zest for life.

 

She lives, you know, what she preaches. So, Zora, thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

 

Thanks for having me. I'm super excited. I love your podcast and your newsletter and every, I've been following you forever and yeah, so it's, it's so fun to actually. In your world now? Yes.

 

Oh, well, the feeling is mutual.

 

I feel like you're just doing such important work to kinda redefine what's possible for these different seasons of our lives. I was sharing with you that after just turning 40, I'm really reflecting on these different seasons of life, but I think it's so important for us to have. Some of these pioneers in a, each region of these times that we're gonna cross through to show us what's possible.

 

And you are showing us what is available and energy beyond our wildest dreams more than a lot of 20 year olds. Um, and so it's just incredible. And I know there's so many areas that we can kind of hop around that could be supportive for overall wellbeing and of course sleep. But one of the things that we were chatting about discussing was around surgery and sleep, which I'm really excited to give more of a conservative kind of content around this because I've seen so many people struggle in this area.

 

And then also would show up in things like their wearables. So objective data when they're really struggling, either in anticipatory anxiety and the lead up to surgeries during like, well of course after thereafter when the hit that. That might show up on things like their nervous system, HRV, heart rate, et cetera.

 

Fragmentation of their sleep, maybe pain as their healing, uh, through that inflammation, potential complications, all the things. So really wanna have a deep dive. And then of course, if there's anything else that we didn't hit on that can support people with their sleep, please have at it. But yeah, maybe a little bit about how this area came up in your world.

 

Yeah, we need three hours for this. Yeah, we did. We do. That's true. I'll try to make it short, but yeah, my, my GM is biohacking menopause, and of course I love working with women in perimenopause. We deal with a lot of sleep issues. It was great to have you on my podcast as well for this, but I dove into the world of surgeries and recovery because shock or surprise, I had two total hip replacements at the age of 54, and I had them done within three months of each other.

 

And so I'll explain to you why, but. I would love to share that. Like I've learned a lot in this process, even though it sucked to go through it. But there are worse things in life. Of course, we have to change mindset and perspective, but I was able to biohack and test, measure and assess two different surgeries and uh, and that gave me a lot of data, a lot of information.

 

And so in order to prepare for this surgery, I tapped into our amazing resources of our guests on the epi of the podcast. And we have regenerative medicine doctors and experts and, and surgeries and, uh, orthopedics. And it was so great to use them and they all gave me some protocols and I put them all together.

 

And of course I recovered really well and I. I cannot help but hold, you know, I can't hold back this information. So even though menopause in my jam, this is just too juicy and too good to not share. And I think every doctor should be sharing some of these protocols with their patients to prepare them as a preoperative, uh, techniques so that they have the best recovery or the best chances of, of having a successful surgery.

 

To go into my explanation, why did I have these total hip replacements? And it's because I was told I have osteoarthritis, which is different than osteoporosis. 'cause a lot of people think it's the same thing. Osteoporosis is the loss of your bone density, your bone strength, and your fragile bones. This happens, especially at a rapid rate.

 

As soon as we get through menopause, and it's a big concern, but my bones are strong, my bones are great. It's the the joints, it's the osteoarthritis, right? Osteo meaning the bone. Itis meaning the inflammation. It's an inflammation of the joints. So you can have hip. Osteoarthritis knee osteoarthritis, your shoulders, and, but it's mostly common in your knees and it's mostly common in women.

 

And this is when the cartilage starts to wear off and there's this degeneration. And that's, and then you have this sort of bone on bone feeling, and it's painful and you cannot, so you have pain, you have swelling, you have limited range of motion. And life just sucks after that because you cannot eat. I got to a point where I couldn't get on a bicycle.

 

I couldn't go out for a walk with my friends. You can't have intimacy with your partner and you can't do day activities of daily living. Even just if something fell on the floor, I'd go, oh, no. And I think about it like, how am I gonna go pick it up? I'm, it's, it's not normal, right? So I was really stuck and I tried to biohack my way out of it and it, and the biohacks worked really well for years and I was even clueless in, I don't even wanna care what No.

 

Dive into deeper what is osteoarthritis, because I would biohack get some kind of injections and PRPs and therapies and massage in my rehab. And, and it all worked great and bounced right back until they stopped working. Mm. And. That's when it just got worse and worse. And then it plays a real trick on your mind and your mindset.

 

'cause the thoughts in your head are not helping because you're wondering why this is happening to you. Yeah. People around me who know me know I, I walk the talk. I, I practice what I preach. I'm living as healthily as I possibly can, as I understand, and this still can happen. And so I'm, I'm, I'm glad you allowed me to speak about this because when I was first told that, Hey, you need surgery, I, I, I was, I couldn't understand.

 

I thought, well, that's some for somebody who's in their seventies, like, why are you telling me this? And. You feel alone, you feel really alone and you feel, you feel old and you feel like it's not your time. And, and so I I, with the moment I really started talking more and more about this on social media, I had so many women reach out to me say that I, me too, I'm also your age or younger and I've had a surgery or I'm told I need surgery or I have osteoarthritis.

 

And, and it was so nice to see that there is a whole world out there and I'm, I'm glad I can support women who are going through that because if you do a Google search on osteoarthritis and what you can do to help alleviate some of the symptoms, it's lose weight. And that's not my case. I'm very athletic.

 

Right. So you think, well, okay, yes, there are people, if you lose some weight, that will help. But, but there's the athletic camp and you think, well. It's not the solution. There's gotta be something else. And it's not just, oh, stop exercising. And, um, and so, so anyways, I'm glad I, I got the chance to bring this in the open.

 

There are plenty of women who are doing this, and it's okay once you've accepted this and you're like, I'm gonna jump in, we're gonna do this surgery. I completely shifted the mindset because there got to a point, and I'm sure anyone who's listening now is kind of in that space. You, you maybe try to avoid the surgery as much as you can, because who wants somebody to cut your bone off and, you know, and repl put an implant in there, nobody.

 

And, um, and so you resist and resist. And then, uh, when your mind starts to go down a really negative pathway, you, you feel literally the cortisol running through you. Yeah. Your mind and your autonomic nervous system is always on high alert. Even though you are used to the pain, you just get on with your life.

 

Your body is every single step you take or move you make, your body is on a very high alert, searching for that pain. And I thought, you know. This is the benefits versus the risks are going to, you know, benefits are far outweigh the risks. Yeah. Getting a surgery, because I think it's more risky to live in this negative mindset.

 

Yeah. 'cause

 

we know the mind body connection. Yeah. Rather than getting a surgery and just getting my life back. Does that make sense?

 

Oh, a hundred percent, yes. And we see that so often too with sleep of getting into kind of these vicious cycles. You know, especially when we talk about things like insomnia, and you can just get caught in some of these loops and can be so challenging.

 

And yet if we're talking about some of those mindset shifts and behavioral patterns and what have you, but when we're talking about pain, it just can feel like just you're up against a rock in a hard place. So sometimes you have to make some of these choices. So was there a lot of, I presume even more fear coming up when you chose to say yes to this.

 

Well, yes and no. Yeah. I think one thing I didn't even mention, which is huge, is your sleep is disrupted when you're living with chronic pain. Exactly. A hundred percent. And when you Yeah, we don't have the sleep, then you don't have the benefits of sleep. And so how long are you gonna go through this?

 

Right, exactly. So I think it's really important to, that's a pretty big, big chunk. So when I made the decision, and I think I've spoken to a lot of women who've gotten who had the surgery, I, it, it's very much, I can't wait for it to come. Okay. I cannot wait to get the surgery because, you know, it's so much better on the other side and you just wanna get it over with because you're also anxious Yeah.

 

About this. And so for, for days before my surgery, I was, I started to wake up with anxiety and I never have anxiety. I just recognize this, this pressure in my chest. Yeah. And. Waking up at 2:00 AM wondering if my body is gonna be able to handle this, if I'm going to wake up in the middle of the surgery, or if they're gonna, is it gonna hurt?

 

What's it gonna feel like? And as positive as I am, and as much as I work on my sleep,

 

yeah,

 

I, I, the, the anxiety like took over. So

 

mindset takes over. I know. I plan to do so much more content on this topic because we can do all the things, we can get all the sunlight and we can, you know, take the magnesium or whatever.

 

And yet if we are dealing with some of these major life events and the stress that it can cause on the body and mind, it's just, it's gonna show up in the sleep. So I hear you a hundred percent.

 

So, you know what I did? I just, a few days before the surgery, when the stress started happening, I was very worried about waking up in the middle of tree.

 

It was like, oh my gosh, if that happens, will I be traumatized? I'll need therapy for the rest of my life. Like, I just don't want that. So I, I was thinking maybe I could listen to something while this surgery is happening. 'cause I know they're sedating you and I, I use NuCalm. I don't know if you know you, you know NuCalm?

 

Sure, yeah. NewCom is neuro acoustic software you wear, listen to this, and it's, and it brings your mind into a meditative state. And I've always been using it just for more for meditation, but I thought, aha. I heard a lot of my clients and people in my community who use NewCom when they have anxiety. So I said, okay.

 

I called the comp and I said, can I, what should I do? And they said, just do the rescue journey. There's this one track that they have that i I love. That was my favorite one anyways. Yeah. Do it every day, like three times a day. And so I started doing that. And then the day of my surgery, I had the best sleep of my night.

 

My life, I, it didn't wake up. I felt refreshed, I felt calm. I was shocked. That's amazing. I, I, I didn't expect that. It was kinda like, oh wow. Is that everybody's talking about, and now it actually happened to me and I got my own little story here. Yeah. But it was. It was amazing how it works. So now I, I have a lot of understanding and empathy for people who do use this for those things.

 

And I, I kept listening, you know, on the way to the, the surgery and they didn't allow me to wear it during the surgery, but I did. It started to doing right after, but was interesting. I was so relaxed that day. I mean, it was the morning I was so chilled. And then when you go into a surgery and you see those big old doors opening up and yet table looks like a scene from Frankenstein and you're like, oh, that's for me.

 

And you have all these, these instruments. I mean, it's impressive. And I was absolutely calm. I was like, bring it on. This is the day I've been waiting for and. I, I, that is not me. That was not what took over partly probably 'cause you just shift the mindset and partly has to do with NuCalm and, and of, I was doing some deep breathing and everything.

 

So I went in there and I shockingly did wake up in the middle of the surgery. Really? Yeah. I, I, I heard a saw and I was like, oh, I think they're gonna cut off the bone now. And then I was completely relaxed. I was so sedated. Like you said, you are in a different planet, you kind of in and out. And then suddenly I heard this, like pounding and then I felt my leg move with each pound.

 

And I said, I think they're putting the implant in, you know? And it was so freaky. They finally saw that I was awake and then put me right out. And I woke up and, you know, after that and the surgeon said, yeah, you woke up. We just put you right out. And I was not traumatized. Nothing bad happened. I actually thought it was kind of cool and.

 

But I kept doing NuCalm, just kept doing it. And when you have a surgery, you are, they've in a lot of pain. So bring on the painkillers. It wasn't the time to try to be super healthy and I just said I'll detox later. I needed to sleep because sleep is repair and recovery and I wanted to make sure I get that.

 

They gave me a pill. I didn't even ask what it was. I know later on it was sometimes it was a sleep. Sleep, uh, medication. Yes. And I just took whatever, because I really knew that sleep is medicine and that was really, really important to me. So just kind of going back to the new calm, um, or whatever it is, technique.

 

I mean, some people's yoga, other people will be breath work. Yeah. Maybe there's some meditation out there. For me it was, it was awesome how well that worked. And I was so happy because when you go into a surgery, you really do wanna be in a calm, relaxed state and you wanna try to get in sleep. But I completely understand it is, it is hard to feel calm and relaxed and sleep well right before surgery, but we can do things at least you try.

 

At least you try. And it sounds like in your case, you were surprised and delighted by your results and being able to sleep through the night and even. And it's not, 'cause some people might hear this and be like, oh, well you know, it's easy for some people. But as you were pointing to, you were struggling for a little stretch of time beforehand.

 

So you had some interventions that were able to help make that difference. And then even if we still struggle and the night before, which some people will, and many of us will. So we have some of these tools to help support that nervous system like NuCalm. To your point, other people might be breath work, meditation, et cetera.

 

But getting ourselves like that whole toolkit available to make that difference with how our physiology is responding. And so one, and it's so interesting that. You had feared that waking up and yet it turns out not even to be that, you know, maybe it wasn't your favorite thing or something, I don't know.

 

But it sounds like you were able to, to not only navigate it, actually find some kind of the coolness in it and then it worked out okay. From the sounds of it. Yeah.

 

Yeah, exactly. My, my biggest nightmare came true and nothing bad happened. So, um, I don't know if this will happen for everybody, but I did not expect that.

 

And I guess the drugs that they give you in the hospital are, are sedatives and also to forget things. Yeah. Right. But I wanted to remember 'cause the second time it happened. Um, I, second surgery, I woke up again and I really resisted, I was actually telling them, I, I don't remember this exactly, but they told me, I was saying, I'm fine, I'm fine.

 

I don't give, don't put me out. I kind of wanna watch the whole thing, which again is just not my character, but Oh my turn loopy when you're on drugs. Right?

 

Right. Exactly. Wait, okay, so the first one then it worked out well and you were able to then keep using NuCalm. What did you see with your sleep thereafter?

 

And then when did this next surgery come into play kind of timeline there and any other additional kind of biohacks or things that people might not be thinking of, food, diet, et cetera, et cetera.

 

Yes. Okay. So what was interesting, I think you'll like it and anyone who's listening to you who has sleep tracking devices, I had my aura ring on and.

 

Aura with the two surgeries. Picked it up right away. It was something's wrong. Red alert. And I have another ring that I use that, that looks for inflammation. And same thing. It was like, boom, it picked up inflammation. Yeah, so those, that was really interesting to see. It worked for me both times. And then, um, before your surgery, there's a couple of things, right?

 

And, and, uh, some people have months before their surgeries and to prepare and some people have a few days or a week or, you know, if it's an emergency, probably not at all. So if you are in the camp, you can prepare. Please, exercise. I know if you have a knee or a hip. Issue. It's hard. Or even your arms, your joints, and your shoulders.

 

I highly, highly recommend you to keep building muscle, to keep working on that. 'cause the more muscle you have pre-surgery, the faster the recovery will be. So you have workarounds. Even I, as limited as I was in my mobility, I had very simple exercises that I could still do and that has saved me. Also, I increased my protein and that is super important.

 

I've al is as sedentary as I was for the last couple of years. I was still keeping my protein really high. My total calories kind of went down because I wasn't as active anymore, so I wasn't as hungry and that's, my body was just signaling. Okay. So, but I, even if I just didn't feel like eating a whole lot, pri priority was to get the protein in, whether it's real food or if it's a.

 

Protein shake. Just had to get it in. And so that I would, and then as I led up to the surgery, you wanna increase as, as you, as you get closer, and then after as well. Especially after, because your tissue, your ligaments, your muscle, things have been cut and you need to regenerate. And the only way to regenerate is through proteins.

 

And if you don't give it, it'll take it from another part of your body. And that's not so good. It's just get it in. So again, try to double your protein. I know it sounds like a lot, it's hard enough to get, let's say one gram of protein per pound of body weight. That's like the simple calculation. But try to do a closer to 200.

 

If you're a 100, for example, not that you're a hundred pounds, that would be pretty, pretty thin, but just to make the math easy. Yeah. Um, so, so, so you need to get the protein in, you need to keep exercising. This is gold for you. And if you have a hard time, which I did, you wanna. That's when you bring in the protein powders, that's when you bring in the essential amino acid powders or supplements.

 

This will, this is broken down for you, easy to digest, and it gets like the straight highway getting your protein in. So that is really important. And then creatine, things like ex creatine, monohydrate, other good things, collagen, right? This is helping your tissue as well. Bring those supplements in. Now's a really good time, but before you go into the surgery, you may wanna stop your omegas, um, because those are more blood thinners.

 

So. You know, some doctors didn't tell me this and, and yeah, I had the other, my, my podcast host guests, guests podcast guests told me this, but the actual surgeon didn't. And I think it's really, really important.

 

Yeah, I know. I feel like we need like these master documents at least, you know, like prep, uh, what to do to prep.

 

I was sharing with you that my mom's about to, we're looking at having her go through surgery and I keep asking like, are they giving you anything to prepare? And, oh, nothing like, just what? It's wild and real quick, I love that you mentioned the exercise and to your point, it can be challenging depending on what people are dealing with, how much they can move.

 

But I remember you mentioning, and I'm not sure where you're at on this now, but I believe kind of some blood flow restriction, any callouts there?

 

That has been a life saver. And I think everyone who's getting a surgery of the, well, any, your limbs in particular, but even if you had, say, a facelift or you, you, again, you need blood flow.

 

And though you said blood flow restriction, it's actually partial restriction and it's a occlusion. Some, some of them, uh, targeted compression, whatever word you wanna use. But this is when you have a band wrapped around your arms or your legs, and some of them have a, a constant pressure and can only, it's.

 

It's pretty tight. So you leave that on just for maybe 10 minutes max and other ones have this cyclical nature and then that is much easier to use. So I was using, for the last two years, bands called Katsu and that is a, it was the cyclical one. And that is in believable because not only did I preserve my muscle mass from the day I was told you cannot do impact exercise anymore.

 

Uh, but I also built muscle. So, and this is the re if you go into the research PubMed, whatever you wanna do, just go Google blood flow restriction and you're gonna find thousands and thousands of supportive studies. There's a lot of research on this, especially with people who've had injuries or surgeries.

 

And you cannot move. I'm not saying you should replace your exercise Exactly, but when you cannot, it's a lifesaver. So that is a huge add-on and, and you can find. Everything under the sun in terms of price and, and types. But I would definitely get instruction on how to use these because if you go and buy something off of Amazon, you could be doing more harm than good.

 

So I think it's, you know, if you buy something from a company or if you go to Kasu, or Suji is another one that I love that I've been using, has just started going with those. Um, you can always get guidance from the company and say, look, I'm, I'm having a surgery and how do you recommend to use this? And, and usually these companies are pretty good at guiding you or sending you videos or, or, or something like that.

 

But don't just like buy this stuff and, and, you know, just wrap it on and hurt yourself. Right.

 

Exactly. Oh, you're inspiring me because I, I actually haven't gotten into the blood flow restriction training myself, and I need to, where have I been? I feel like I need to, there's been a number of times, I don't know if it was with you or you and other people, but different people have been like, oh, you gotta interview Katsu and at some point and get more.

 

So this is a good reminder. I need to do that.

 

Yes. Yes. Because I think, I'm trying to think that it, there is the res, there is re they'll pull out research at least, uh, they should at least some of the bigger companies will pull out research in how it helps sleep. I'm sure of it they'll have it. Some, there's just so much research.

 

There's gotta be some connection. Usually it's for building muscle, bringing blood flow, and it's also very good for arterial elasticity. So your arteries and your veins will become more elastic, which is great. So it's wonderful for cardiovascular health, uh, good for your skin, good for your collagen. It activates growth hormone.

 

Uh, I would be surprised if there's something, you know, I would be if there wasn't anything on sleep, but, but there there's gotta be some kind of a connection.

 

Absolutely. I know, I mean, I got my DEXA scan a little bit ago and now I'm like major on operation, upgrade more of my muscle mass. You know, especially I'm going into this 40th chapter and ensuring that.

 

Setting up for success. So I really wanna start bringing in more modalities talking about that and how that helps our hormonal health and by virtue our ability to manage our stress and our sleep. And it's just kind of this, kind of like a garden. You can't just like extract one thing, it's the whole world of it to make it all workable and that certainly includes that muscle mass.

 

So really I'm so glad you touched on that.

 

Another great supplement I didn't mention that I tested out, like just in time for the surgeries was lyin a and I was taking Medipure and this was, it kind of came in right when I got this just a, I think a few weeks before the surgery. And then I got the second surgery and I.

 

I felt the second surgery was more supercharged. I did a couple of different things, but I'm wondering if perhaps, 'cause Eli A is great for muscle strength. Yeah. And it also good for the immune system and inflammation, so I just continued with that. So I thought that was really good. And then there's a bunch of supplements that I, I would recommend for after the surgery as well.

 

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So you can start building sleep friendly rituals from morning to night. Now you can just head on over to www.mudwaterspelledwt.com/sleep is a skill to grab your starter kit and start supporting your energy and your sleep. You can also check out in the show notes for that same link as well. So maybe we can walk through this because as you pointed to, so we went in depth on the the first surgery and everything that kind of happened there.

 

Maybe we can get into a little bit more about some of the after and then when you realize you need to go in again and then any kind of additional callouts, whether it's supplements, peptides, anything else that we left out. Red light, you know, whatever you see. Cell mine.

 

Yeah. Yeah, it brought them all in.

 

But one thing before you go your surgery, you're probably gonna get an x-ray of some kind. And or an MRI. So there's two different hacks that I have to offset radiation from an x-ray or to offset gadolinium, which is that contrast dye if you need an MRI with the contrast dye. And that is super cool to have because if you're, and you can use these things for mammograms or, or anywhere.

 

Some people use it for travel, for, you know, whatever you're exposed to some kind of radiation. And I got this from Dr. Jen Simmons and she's a breast oncologist, uh, like holistic oncologist, breast surgeon. And so dealing with a lot of women who get mammograms and things like that. Sure. So she, she gave me this really cool protocol that I've been using it like.

 

All the time for all kinds of stuff. Even my daughter just got a tooth x-ray and, um, put her on it. And so what it is, I can get your paper and pen out now and if not, I've got, I've got the list on my website if you wanna go get it.

 

Oh, good call. Well, we can link to that. That would be great. Yeah.

 

Yes. So it's two to four grams of liposomal vitamin C and you take this one hour before the x-ray and you take it for three days after.

 

And then on top of that, you take a hundred milligrams of melatonin one hour before and three days after. So like those two, same thing. I mean, I know it sounds like a lot of melatonin 'cause Right. Some people are, what is it, 0.3 to three milligrams? Yeah. That people get that. Yeah. And I, I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna pass it out.

 

But Dr. Jen, she said no. This is an antioxidant. You take it before 3:00 PM you're gonna be fine. Um, you shouldn't feel anything. And so it's exactly what happened. I felt nothing. I was shocked. I was like, I actually forgot it until I went to bed. And I was like, oh yeah, I took a hundred milligrams of melatonin today and I.

 

It was running on all cylinders. Um, so, but if you are worried about it, you can try it the day before or something like that during the day just to reassure yourself, you'll be fine.

 

Yeah. And I think that is so important because, and we heard different reports around the use of high dose melatonin during the days of COVID and then in other acute situations.

 

So cancers, so bringing in melatonin can be a surprise for some people by day. And I think it underscores the importance of the understanding of this hormone as being unique. So instead of like, how we might think of it as kind of like ambient, like you, you know, pop it back to then to hopefully knock us out.

 

Whereas it doesn't quite work like that. It's really more usually when used around sleep, this preparatory hormone. So helping to prepare to calm the body, lower heart rate, kind of drop body temperature, all of these things. But then when used in the day, then you get to benefit from some of these changes in our circadian rhythm when the body is not ready for any of that.

 

And so when you use that during the day, you get some of these other benefits. So love that. And you said we can link to my spot on your website too to for people to get that?

 

Yeah. Yeah, I've got a link to that. Or you can also go to Dr. Jen Simmons website. She has it there too. Uh, I'll give you both 'cause it's not my.

 

Content, right?

 

Yes, sure. No, and I appreciate you sharing because like you said, unfortunately we're just not getting this information in prep for these surgeries and you can make all the difference. And to your point around, you know, even just going into your dental exam and things that when you know you're gonna be exposed to this.

 

Okay, great. Anything else that we missed from kind of a supplemental stack or how it's there?

 

So yes, there's always so much, so much stuff, but I try to keep it short. Um, so the, um, the gadolinium hack as well is, uh, so if you have to get an MRI, that one is zeolites is the key. Mm-hmm. Um, and Zeolites, the one that was recommended by Dr.

 

Elizabeth Yu from Boulder Longevity Institute. That's right. Fabulous medicine doctor. She said. Um, 15 drops a day for one week. NACN acetyl N-acetylcysteine. Um. Oh my gosh, I can't remember the, the milligrams. Um, I can't remember, so I don't wanna say it. No worries. I have it on my website. Perfect. Send the link and hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

 

Because what the glin does, it goes through the kidneys and you just wanna swoop it out as much as you can. So you just make sure you drink a lot. Well, not too much before if you're sitting in an MRI for an hour, 45 minutes. Right. It's an hour. But certainly after. And for days after, you wanna just flush this out.

 

And of course, if you have kidney issues, you're. Probably won't get an an MRI with contrast, because, um, those people shouldn't be doing that anyways. But yeah, so that's the, those are the two hacks, like that just thought were so cool. And then, um, the day of the operation, uh, you know, you, you of course you wanna take some of those, those hacks, if you, uh, the, all the hacks that I talked about before, your supplements and prepare, get calm.

 

You gotta sleep, you gotta rest. You work on your stress, like there's no tomorrow. Like now is the time to do it. Yeah. And you'll be really ha once it's over, you'll be really happy. Um, in fact, when I got the surgery I was like, oh my God, that was so easy. I can do it tomorrow again. Like it's just, you're knocked out and it's okay.

 

It's, but the after is then the pain settles in because the painkillers wear off and you an anesthesia wears off. And so that's when I personally think it's not the time to be a hero and, and, uh, and decline the, an the, um, the anti the pain medication. Yeah. We can always detox and that's your job after the surgery, when you're ready, uh, start to detox and that, and my first step into the detox was using chlorella, uh, for, for just, you know, all with all the medication I was taking.

 

These little things called energy bits. They're easy to pop in my mouth. Right. They've got, they come in these little tiny sachets I was pumping. Oh gosh. I took, I took tons of them. 'cause that's, uh, what was recommended. Yeah. And uh. It's easy 'cause you're not really hungry. So I had the spirulina, had a lot of nutrients in there and after the surgery, you're not, you're not really hungry.

 

And I, and there's two camps to this, some people say, oh, you, you know, you definitely don't eat, let your body fast. It doesn't wanna, you know, if you, you want that fine. Eventually, probably after 24 hours or so, you're gonna start to get a little hunger and that's when you really wanna get that protein in.

 

And, and that's, that's why I brought to me, I had four days in the hospital. Not every, I think in the US uh, and Canada probably, no, I'm not sure about Canada, but definitely in the US you, you are in and out the same day. So you, you don't, so make sure whether you probably have this at home or have it, have it prepared, but get your spirulina, your chlorella, your essential amino acids because that's so easy to top take as a supplement or as a powder.

 

And that is, um. You know, you're probably thirsty anyways. Easy to drink, these kinds of things. And then I would also bring, um, or prepare bone broth. And bone broth is great for your gut. You've probably had a big hit with all the antibiotics and you wanna start repairing and rebuilding. Um, probiotics would be a good thing to bring in now as well.

 

Um, so again, talk to, talk to your doctor or figure out which one I think just get, get hi probiotics of some kind. I think. Well, I was taking something called MegaSpore. It's the sort of spore based, and that was just kind of covers all bases. That was the one that was recommended to me. Um, and then, um, you, so when you, when you are, if you are gonna be in a hospital for a few days, I would definitely bring those things, but also bring an eye mask, earplugs, all the things that you do that, that you've learned, um, from Mollie.

 

You bring that to the hospital. That's yes. And, um, and I had my NewCom. Maybe you wanna bring a journal or something and, and, and, and just release, because your job really is to sleep as much as you can to recover. And some people who have, so it depends on the surgery you have. You may be like, I'm feeling great.

 

You're so happy it's over and, and you feel like bouncing off the walls and going, doing things. But even though you feel good, it's your body's still taking a huge hit. And I really think it's important to calm yourself down and relax and sleep. And this is what people who know me, I'm like one of those.

 

Yeah, Energizer bunnies. And I feel like, oh great, you know, I go and they kept reeling me in. Like, you may feel good, but your body is not ready even though you feel so much better. So I highly recommend people just again, great time to work on your sleep, cancel, you know, all your meetings or if as much as you can, um, and, and just work on, on sleep.

 

And, and again, if it's painkillers or, um, whatever techniques you've learned from Mollie, that is, that is key because that's gonna repair and rebuild.

 

So good. And for anyone listening, if you're actively going through a period of insomnia. So certainly sometimes when I've been there myself, when you know you're at a apex period of your insomnia, and then maybe you do have to still have these surgeries or what have you, there can be a flare up.

 

I really wanna sleep, but I can't seem to make myself, and I'm so amped up and, you know, the, the, the stress because so much of this fixation sometimes on sleep. So if we can also just take on this concept of what Zora's pointing to, that this can be a time for us to really practice some of this stress management.

 

And even if we're. Sting, even if we're, you know, kind of in that relaxed state, that there's benefits to the body too. So in case it's the weird paradox when we're dealing with insomnia. 'cause sometimes like if you, it's like the Chinese finger trap, you know, I think I've mentioned the to you of like the harder we try, the more stuck we are.

 

We can release the pressure for yourself, but set the scene for kind of relaxation and sleep then, and then you never know. Then sometimes these things can surprise us, but over time we can train for this and it can and will happen eventually that we're able to have a breakthrough in this area. But in the interim, even if you just set yourself in the scene of relaxation, the new calm, all of those things will still be really beneficial to the body.

 

So love everything you're saying, Zora. And we do ask everyone that comes on the podcast for questions. But before we do that, any kind of, I know this is a huge topic, I'm clear. I know you and there's 9 million other things that we could discuss. But is there any kind of like bow on this topic that we wanna put on?

 

I do, but I have two important things to tell you, please about. The bio. These are the advanced biohacks that I think if everybody's right, we already talked about those foundation, but peptides, two peptides definitely look into are BPC 1 57 body protective compound, right? Mm-hmm. And if you're getting a big surgery like me, it's probably gonna be injectable.

 

And then TB 500, also known as Thymosin beta four. Yeah, those were game changers. I literally felt an uptick when I added the TB 500. I took the, the BPC with both surgeries. I wanted to protect my gut. I wanted to, um, induce angio angiogenesis, you know, get more and get more blood flow, get more repair, get more regeneration, rebuilding, repairing, all that stuff.

 

BPC 1 57 does that 'cause it's known for the gut and the gut stuff. Yeah, but I don't have gut issues, but I knew that, hey, I'm taking a bunch of antibiotics. I got a lot of medication, my gut's probably taking a hit, but plus I needed all the repair and regeneration and oftentimes these peptides are sold together.

 

So definitely look into those. And I, and I, when I added the TB 500 again, that was like huge uptick. And um, so those are two peptides. Another, um. Thing that you wanna look at I couldn't get ahold of, but certainly would've done it if I could, is nandrolone. Um, decant and rol Decant is a steroid. It's an anabolic steroid.

 

It helps build muscle. It's gotten a bad rap from the build bodybuilding community, but. If you're using it in low dose, in very short period of time as prescribed by a professional, not mean you don't go buy the stuff online, neither the peptides get some guidance. Um, you can get some really great benefits and I can totally understand how this works.

 

So look into that. And the other thing I tried was methylene blue. And that helps, um, with its antiviral. Antimicrobial, Hey, I'm in a hospital. Why, why not? You know, I can probably benefit from that helps with mitochondria and, and, um, optimizing your mitochondria and the energy. So you need energy to repair your cells and, and do all these things.

 

So, um, yeah, those are the little advanced biohacks and there's plenty more, but we won't talk about all of them in no more time. But I thought that was really cool. But to wrap things in a bow, um. I, I think don't ignore the foundation, which is your sleep, your stress, your movement, and your, the food that you eat.

 

These are so key. If you, if you wanna heal faster now, you probably heal anyway you want, whatever, it's, the doctor is you. But if you wanna supercharge it and you wanna protect yourself and see the benefits, I would recommend getting all of these things in. And if you can do some of the supplements, that's great.

 

Another uptick. And if you can do the peptide, just like another uptick, you know, how far you wanna go, it depends on your budget and depends on, on how much you're willing to do some of these things. But if you have any questions, honestly, I'd be so happy to answer anyone privately. You can send me an email, you can contact me on any of my social media.

 

I'm, I'm really on a mission to, to help people through this, any kind of surgery for that matter. If you need clarification, it's just too good information to keep to myself.

 

Oh, I love that. And so for anyone listening, Zora is her word, and I've really just gotten your passion just even in our own interactions.

 

It really truly is something that, it sounds like it really just made such a difference in your life, so remarkable. And then just the fact that we don't see it and the fact that you weren't offered some of this information. I'm certainly in the midst of it with my mom and her surgeries, and we're not seeing a single lick of any of this sort of information.

 

So thank you for your work in getting that out there on top of all you do for helping to support people in kind of living powerfully at any age. So really beautiful. And then I'm really, I'm excited too to hear the latest and how you're managing your own sleep since you and I are. Always evolving and learning, and so I'm sure there's all kinds of things that you're testing out.

 

So our first question is, what does your nightly sleep routine look like right now?

 

So right now it's not perfect. I, there's

 

for everyone, by the way, myself included. It's never gonna be perfect. So yes,

 

I've been, I've been, I've been pretty perfect with the surgery because I was really prioritizing that and I got into this routine where I was.

 

Because the sleep is so disrupted after a surgery, you're constantly waking up micro awakenings and popping your, you know, pills and all that. Yeah. I just allowed myself to sleep in and I had that privilege and I, 'cause I really blocked out the calendar. I said, look, I'm just gonna focus myself and I would just sleep in and I'm one of these people who can sleep in.

 

So I, I would just take advantage. So for a long time I was just doing my new calm, my journaling, my breath work, spending a lot of time, uh, both on both ends before and after. The, the sleep, you know? So I think that was, I was really good with that. And, um, and, and of course I'm, I'm big fans. I'm a big fan of magnesium.

 

I love the magnesium breakthrough. I love the sleep breakthrough. All the bio optimizers products are awesome. And I add Ascent by routine. Prim INE is a sperm aine that also helps me with sleep. So I was just like taking all the supplements, doing all the, the, the routine Right now it's almost like I'm playing catch up for the work.

 

And so what I would, I'm doing generally now, I, I noticed that once I, I was getting, I was staying up too late trying to catch up with work and I'm just doing these new viral Real Builder masterclass. Yeah. You and I wanna chat about those. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And it works. It's quite amazing. And, um, so I noticed, I started try.

 

I see you see on your sleep trackers, it's going well or not going well. The, the, I would play around with different, different routines, different sleep routines. And so again, usually, usually it's, it's, um, after dinner I brush my teeth and then I get a, i, I relax. I would probably do, um, you know, turn off all the, the lights.

 

I'm really, it's always, the lights are always di I'm either wearing my blue blockers or that never changes. That's always part of my routine and the lights go dim. If anybody flickers a light in the house, I start screaming. Yep. Yep. Walking around with my little jve red light thing panel. Exactly. Yep. And, uh, and so usually I'd be doing, definitely the lights are down, listening to some calm music, you know, having like spa or sleep music in the background.

 

Yeah. And then doing a, a little meditation before bed. And it's really, I'm, I'm really into the Joe dispenser stuff like that just knocks me out. Sure. And, but what I did notice is if I don't have time, if I'm kind of, uh, you rushing around, the one thing that really makes a big difference in my sleep scores are it just like you told me, is to go to bed and wake up at the same time.

 

It's crazy. Yeah. And I could take all the supplements in the world and try to hack it and I'll help a little bit, but it won't be as good as if I just do that. So that's, I know. I put on a little, yeah, my little watch or a little alarm, or you have your, or ring telling you. I'm like, I, I respect that. Yeah.

 

And I just say, look, computer's going down, or everything's shutting down, and I'm just gonna start doing my little bedtime routine.

 

Oh, so good. I love that. Yeah. The consistency piece is so, it's like a good news or a bad news insight depending on how you look at it. You know? It can be a bad news of like, really, like I have to, like, that's the whole key, or like, or not the whole key, but a big portion of it.

 

But then the good news is that, oh my gosh, that is a huge key of it. And so from that perspective then it's free behavioral and then. So impactful when we really do start dialing this in. So I love that you're abiding by that and setting the scene for all that, the spa music and the whole thing. Okay. So then what would we see for your morning, quote unquote sleep routine with the idea that how you start your day could impact your sleep?

 

I think the way you start your day has such a big impact more than the evening routine. If you just focused on only the evening routine. It's really how you start your day. And that's one thing I'm, I'm very consistent with in, in the sense that I do, I I, I'm one of these people, I don't wake up with an alarm.

 

I got too spoiled with the surgeries that I'm like, I'm just gonna wake up whenever. And my body usually wakes up around seven ish. And, um, so I'll, I'll get out, I open the doors of my, of the terrace and I let the light, I like, well, I let the light in, but I actually step out the terrace. I live in Spain, so right now it's like always 24, you know, 24 7 all the time.

 

It's like good weather. It's fine. Yes. And. So I go out, I get the light in my eyeballs, and sometimes I'll journal outside and sometimes I don't sometimes, but I do just go out there, breathe, get the light in my eyeballs, then I'll go and get, fix myself and, and brush my teeth and get ready. But I, I'm, I'm a big fan of walking to the beach, which I can, and watching a sunrise.

 

So I will do that several times a week. Uh, it depends on, you know, things that are going on with the day, but if I have nothing going on, I go outside and I try to catch the sunrise, and that gives me a walk. And I, I drink water before I do that. As soon as, as soon as I wake up, I drink. Yeah. A lot of water.

 

And I, um, yeah, and I'll, I'll just go outside, get the, i, that's just too key for me. And I, and then all throughout the day, I will eat my lunch outside. I'll eat my dinner outside. I eat my breakfast outside and that's, at least I'm getting outside three times a day. Yeah. For meal times.

 

Oh, I love that. So, well said.

 

Such a beautiful imagery. It makes me want to travel to your area. It sounds amazing. Okay. And so then what might we visually see on your nightstand or in your kind of sleep environment?

 

A bottle of water and, and I, not that I'm, I, I don't wake up thirsty 'cause I know that when you wake up thirsty, it's kind of like, oh, you're a mouth breather and you're, but I know that it's forces me to hydrate.

 

So I, I tell myself I'm gonna drink 20 sips of water. I drink 20 sips of water. I just. Count because it's there that I have half the bottle down. And, and then I have some supplements on my, my bedside, which right now I'm doing Amy Horman's, um, thyroid Fixer, and I'm testing out the glandular. Okay. And I've got the Quicksilver, um, B12 complex.

 

I'm sorry, sorry, B complex. Yep. And so, 'cause you take that on an empty stomach, so kind of like I just get that out of the way. Yes. And then I've, I'm trying to think what else is, oh, I've got, um, the, uh, forgot. Oh, what are they called? Um. This is brand SYB, um, save, save your body or something. There are these ear, ear, um, phone headphones with the cord.

 

Yeah. And they have the air tubes to offset the radiation. So when I do, uh, um, new calm, which I'm always doing, I prefer to, you have to listen to it on headphones. So I don't use, I try not to, I don't actually, I don't use very often. Those, um, I have them, but I, uh, the what cordless? The Bluetooth? Yeah.

 

Mm-hmm. Ones, I don't even know what this stuff is called because I don't, I know exactly.

 

Yep. I'm right there with you. But

 

I use the cord ones, so that's on my bedside table. And I have, um, I, I think that's, I have a, yeah, a bit of jewelry and that's about it. I don't, I don't think I have anything. I do have also, um, some progesterone cream that's also comes and goes when I'm on my psych.

 

'cause I take it cyclically. So I literally just took it off. That's why I forgot about it. But that's usually on my side table as well.

 

Perfect. Yeah, it's so interesting. We've seen a through line where people that largely relate to their sleep is like no longer an issue for them. It's not a big struggle.

 

There's not a whole lot. That they're kind of reaching for. It's the people that are like, you know, self admitting, ah, you know, sometimes I'm still like, you know, struggling with this area. They've got 9 million gadgets and gizmos and all the things. So, and not to exclusively say that's this case, but it does seem that minimalism and not needing to rely on those things seems to be supportive of that great sleep is you the, your own inner confidence in your ability to sleep.

 

Love that. That's good to hear. Yeah. Say, oh gosh, I don't

 

have that much stuff. Interesting to say. Yeah, no, I think I have all the gadgets and the gizmos. They're there I guess if I need them, but just lately they're not on my table.

 

And how you said, I think that the morning is such a aspect. I think it plays the role there.

 

Like if you've lived your day in such a way that supports balanced, nervous system and the ability to kind of wind down all these things, then sleep just kind of happens. But if we haven't done some of those things or still dealing with certain things and from a stress perspective or otherwise, then we might be.

 

Last minute trying to grasp at things to make sleep come, which isn't always the best situation. So the last question is, what would you say has made the biggest change to your sleep game? Or said another way? Biggest aha moment in managing your sleep.

 

I have to say there was one. Um, so definitely going to be in, in waking up at the same time.

 

Like that's great. But I, you know, I, I kind of knew that, but it's just came into my life again when I needed it. Yeah. But one thing that was really interesting when I had the surgeries, and again, you're just like, I gotta sleep. I gotta sleep, I wanna make sure I sleep well. And, and I always managed to get deep sleep, which is awesome because, well, I, if you sleep enough, I guess it'll eventually come, but I usually get it in the first half of the night and I'm pretty good.

 

And I always wake up and, and refreshed and energized even if I had that disruptive sleep. But when the nights that I didn't, the nights where I woke up and on my mind was just kind of all over the place and I couldn't fall asleep. Um. For me, progesterone doesn't have that effect. I, I know a lot of women, I, and I would highly recommend trying progesterone if you have a racing mind.

 

Okay. But for me, it doesn't work as well. But I was listening to this one particular Joe Dispenza meditation called Restorative Sleep, and that just knocked me out every time It works. Oh my gosh. Every time. Yes. That's amazing. Okay. It's crazy. Yeah, I have that. I can share that with you, please. I have if you need it.

 

Yeah. It's crazy. And there's one other one that I, when I shared this story with a friend of mine, she says, you know, which one worked well for me? And I said, watch, 'cause I only figured this out after Spotify told me the most listened to download is the IKEA catalog.

 

Oh my God. Have you heard that as a sleep hack?

 

Oh, yeah. There's podcasts that are all just dedicated to reading, like manuals of, you know, dishwashers and stuff like Yeah, but it works. Yeah, exactly. Yes. There's a reason they get tons of downloads, like they're killing it. We're, we're in the wrong business. You know, we gotta Creating manuals. Yeah. Who needs our information?

 

Just, yeah, read the boring stuff.

 

So I would have, I would say, suggest those two. Although last night and the night before, I always bring in that sleep breakthrough in my life, in and out. It's not like I religiously use it, but the last two nights I've been using it and no wake up, no micro awakenings. And I'm like, this stuff is pretty good.

 

Like,

 

hey, great. I like that. Another great.

 

Tip. Yeah.

 

Well, amazing. And I, you're so similar to me. I feel like, like we're continually evolving and looking to test out these different things, and so I love that you're actively finding things that are working, not working, shifting. So thank you so much for sharing where you're at now, and then how can people follow you, check out, you know, some of those resources that you shared about, and of course we'll have things in the show notes, but if they wanna check you out right away,

 

hack my age.com and hack my age is on all social media platforms.

 

I just made it simple. And if you cannot remember that Zuora, the Explorer, you'll also find me instead of Dora the Explorer because I travel over the world. And I guess that's, that's somebody named me that one day works.

 

I love it. No, these are very memorable. So no excuse to not check out Zora's work.

 

And Zora, thank you so much for taking the time to share this all with us and just your energy, enthusiasm. And I'm so happy that you came out on the other side of both of those surgeries, stronger and better than ever facing your fears. And you know, it's just really an inspiration. So thank you so much.

 

Oh, thank you for letting me share it all.

 

Yes, absolutely. Well, I'm sure we'll have you back ongoingly 'cause this is just gonna keep evolving. So thanks Sora. Uh, thank you. You've been listening to The Sleep Is a Skill podcast, the top podcast for people who wanna take their sleep skills to the next level.

 

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