Kaely McDevitt is a Registered Dietitian specializing in nutrition for women's health. She owns a virtual private practice where she and her team help their clients reclaim their energy, optimize fertility and overcome hormone symptoms through personalized nutrition. Having experienced the pitfalls of a conventional approach to women's health first hand, Kaely is passionate about empowering women to build health from a place of connection: to self, to nature and to community.
BIO:
Kaely McDevitt is a Registered Dietitian specializing in nutrition for women's health. She owns a virtual private practice where she and her team help their clients reclaim their energy, optimize fertility and overcome hormone symptoms through personalized nutrition. Having experienced the pitfalls of a conventional approach to women's health first hand, Kaely is passionate about empowering women to build health from a place of connection: to self, to nature and to community.
SHOWNOTES:
😴 How do hormones, ovulation, and fertility connect with sleep?
😴 What personal health struggles led our guest to pivot into women’s hormone health?
😴 Why is sleep often the first “tell” when stress and hormones are out of balance?
😴 What role does circadian rhythm play in fertility and hormone balance?
😴 How can lifestyle “low-hanging fruit” like light, caffeine, and routines improve sleep?
😴 Why are minerals like magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium unsung heroes for sleep?
😴 How does under-eating or blood sugar instability sabotage sleep and hormones?
😴 How does cycle syncing help optimize nutrition, workouts, and even sleep quality?
😴 Why is progesterone called the “sleep hormone,” and what happens when it’s low?
😴 What morning and evening routines support better sleep for women (and moms!)?
😴 What was Kaely’s biggest “aha” moment for healing sleep and hormones?
😴 And so much more!
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GUEST LINKS:
Website: www.kaelyrd.com
Instagram: @kaelyrd
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 out to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. If you've ever struggled with anxiety, hormone challenges or fertility concerns, and notice how they inevitably show up in your sleep, today's episode is going to be a powerful one. I'm joined by Kaylee McDevin, a registered dietician who specializes in women's health and nutrition.
Through her virtual private practice, her and her team have helped women reclaim their energy, balance their hormones, and optimize fertility. And what makes her work so unique is that she's been in the trenches herself. She has dealt with her own hormone issues, anxiety, and yes, sleepless nights while studying to become a dietician, that lived experience fuels her passion for helping women connect the dots.
Between food, hormones, minerals, and the quality of their sleep. In our conversation, we dive deep into why sleep is often the very first tell, quote unquote, that hormones and stress are off track. How blood sugar, mineral deficiencies, and even under eating can sabotage your. And the overlooked role of ovulation and progesterone in getting the deep restorative sleep.
We all crave practical strategies from cycle sinking to mineral support that you can apply right now to transform your nights and your days. This one is packed with insights for women in their reproductive years, those trying to conceive or anyone curious about how nutrition and hormones are woven into the story of their sleep.
We're gonna jump right into this episode, but first, a few words from our sponsors. Please do check them out. They really do keep this podcast alive and running, and we only endorse things that we truly, truly love and know can make a difference in your sleep. Important question, can you see the hand in front of your face in your bedroom?
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Blockout, your not just investing in a blackout shade, you're investing in your health, wellbeing, and quality of life. So again, go to you Blockouts. 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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Welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. We've got two Texas locals here to discuss. Have you always been in Texas? I didn't ask you that part. No, no. Um, about five years. How about you? Yeah, exactly. I'm about three years or so. Okay. So yeah. Still always surreal to like be a Texan suddenly, right. What's going on there?
But thank you so much for taking the time to be here. Really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for having me.
Amazing. Well, we were able to chat a little before we hit record some of the different directions that we're interested in going in to share with the listener of different ways that they can be supporting their sleep.
And so I think we're gonna really double down on some of these topics of hormones and ovulation and fertility and how all these things intersect with sleep. So we'll get there. But first, how did you find yourself an expert in this area?
Yeah, I, by accident, which I feel like is probably all of our stories, you know?
Same. Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I, um, had no, no real aspirations of being in the women's health space as a dietician until I was dealing with a ton of hormone health issues when I was in school. Um, and, you know, for me, that presented as a lot of anxiety and a lot of sleep issues actually. Um, sleep is generally my first tell when things are wonky for me, hormone and stress wise.
Anxiety and sleep. That's my nemesis. Brutal. I nemesis. I shouldn't say like that because it's been such a gift and a teacher, but it True in check. Yeah. Yeah.
Totally keeps you in check. But yeah, so, you know, I'm in school to become a dietician. I was thinking I'd be in the sports nutrition space 'cause that's what I was really interested in.
And I'm like avidly applying everything I'm being taught. But my health is getting worse and worse as those years go on. So I finish all this schooling with, you know, a credential behind my name and I have never felt worse and I do not feel equipped. To help anybody feel better. And so I just had essentially like a personal crisis where I realized I needed to unlearn some of the stuff I was being taught to do things differently.
And um, I think the biggest realization is that I could spend seven years of higher education in the health space and know very little about the female menstrual cycle and hormones and how that impacts our health. Um, so I did like a complete 180 with what I was doing. Came off birth control, learned a lot about hormones, learned about how food.
Influences hormones. And then I watched things like sleep and anxiety improve and really got back to feeling like myself. So pivoted my work toward women's health. 'cause I realized there were a lot of other women looking for that kind of info and um, have been here for like the last 10 years.
Wow, that's so inspiring and thank you so much for sharing your story.
I think it makes such a difference for the listeners to know that we're all not alone on some of these struggles, and yet there's a light at the end of the tunnel available. So maybe we can begin kind of with the ABCs of how you, when you think about sleep, how you're thinking about that uniquely as it relates to some of the areas of your expertise.
Sure. Yeah. And I think that this gets overlooked a lot in the hormone health space. And when I'm speaking to this, I'm, I'm largely speaking to reproductive years, so regular periods, potentially even trying to conceive, those are most of the clients that come to see us. Sure. And when we're working up a client, we're looking at the different stressors.
That are on, in their constellation of stress, which is unique to each person and one bucket of stress. That is a huge impact on the health of our hormones, our fertility, our ovulation, um, that doesn't get a lot of airtime is actually sleep and your circadian rhythm. And if those pieces are not in place, it is really hard to compensate for that stress.
And I'd honestly argue it's impossible to. So, um, while, you know, being a dietician doesn't make me someone that's like a sleep expert off the bat. It's something we talk about with every single client. Sleep has to be of the highest quality that we can attain in that life season in order to help our hormones come into balance.
Oh, absolutely. And what do you do then with someone's coming to you and they're like, they wanna sleep, it sounds like potentially, maybe that's what you might have been dealing with. What I was dealing with. So how do we address that, that kind of inability or experience of inability to calm sleep or stay asleep?
Yeah, so we do a big audit of lifestyle and kind of day in the life. So we'd have someone walk us through their day, how, how are we starting it? What's going on during the day, how are we ending the day? And we're gonna look for low hanging fruit there. Like, have we seen the sun today? Are we limiting blue light?
Um, what's our nutrition looking like? What's our caffeine intake looking like? What's our. Exercise looking like. And then our routines too. Are we having consistent sleep in wake times? Do we have a great environment for sleep that's cold, dark, and quiet? Um, we generally are asking about like nose versus mouth breathing as well and having people do a little mouth taping experiment if they haven't done that before.
Um, and so we'll start there and a lot of times there's some really simple tweaks people can make. I know that that is like the type of information that you provide on your podcast too, where someone can workshop their sleep in that way. Um, if we're coming up against really significant issues or we think that there might be like a sleep apnea situation or something that needs a deeper dive, then we can provide as dieticians, of course we're gonna have them go see somebody in person for that and maybe do a sleep study.
Um, but beyond those low hanging fruit, then we're gonna start to look at the constellation of their other symptoms too. Are their hormone imbalances present that could be contributing to this? Sleep issue. Are there mineral deficiencies that are part of the sleep issue? And then that's really where our work begins is, okay, can we use food, lifestyle and supplementation to get hormones, imbalance, replete deficiencies, and create an environment where they can sleep?
Sound late?
Ugh. Beautiful. Okay. And so maybe walk us through that piece of it. So. Hormones, minerals, their diet beyond. Sure.
So I think a good lens to view our work through is, you know, we're trying to create as much safety in the body as possible. Because what's so different for female physiology versus male physiology is how sensitive we are to changes of stress, to perceived threats, and to nutrient availability.
So if we've got the ability to have great nourishment, we're eating enough. We're eating consistently, we're keeping blood sugar balanced. That's a strong safety signal to the body. And our brain is always deciding is or is it not safe to procreate even if that's not our goal?
Yes.
And if the answer is no, it's not safe to then we're either going to have really delayed or irregular ovulation or non-existent ovulation, which means we don't make progesterone.
We are not. Able to conceive in that cycle. And then we're likely to have a lot of the typical symptoms that are really normalized today, like PMS, heavy, painful periods, mood swings, really not feeling like ourself half the month. Um, so we like to view our recommendations through that lens of how can we create safety in the body through the way that we nourish the way that we live our lives.
And then we need to create enough. Energy in the cells as well, because anything the body's trying to do requires energy. Whether that's producing hormones, supporting life or healing. And that largely comes back on mineral status. Um, so minerals are like little spark plugs in our cells that kick off enzyme reactions that enable us to make hormones, which is how we interact with our environment.
And we do a lot of, um, hair mineral analysis, testing with our clients. And one thing that's really common in a woman that's having either. Irregular symptomatic cycles or struggling to conceive is either. Blatant deficiencies or imbalances among mineral relationships. Um, and so we work on that through, again, diet, lifestyle supplementation, to get enough minerals in the systems that we can create energy to perform these important tasks that ourselves do.
And if people are tuning in and saying minerals, like, I might consider that. Yeah. Or my sleep. Maybe help enlighten us of Sure. Why it's so important. And then if they're already thinking like, okay, well can I just buy some, like a mineral pack or something? Yeah. Like, yeah. Help understand what that looks like.
Yes. Yeah. I don't, I don't think minerals get a lot of airtime either. I feel like it's more of vitamins that get the spotlight.
Yeah. Minerals
are like the other counterpart of the non-nutritive or non caloric, um, not non-nutritive, non caloric aspects of foods. They're not contributing to calories, but they're providing.
Necessary raw materials for, for optimal function and specific to sleep. We think about magnesium, which I'm sure is not new to your audience, but magnesium is like nature's anti-stress, nature's sleep support. It interacts with GABA receptors in the brain and really helps us just wind down. Um, it can prevent things like restless leg syndrome and so that can mess with sleep.
It influences our melatonin production. Um, it is used heavily during times of stress. So again, I think probably any modern human listening to this podcast is dealing with some stress in their life. And the unfortunate reality with minerals is that our soil is so much more depleted today than it was even 50 or a hundred years ago.
So unless we are making a concerted effort to get minerals in addition to what we're eating in our diet, it's really hard to stay on top of that because as stress has gone up, mineral content of food has gone down. So we've got this. Vicious cycle. Um, so we'd be thinking about magnesium and that can be done in, um, like oral or topical waste.
So you could take a magnesium supplement or you could use a topical magnesium lotion or spray or soak in a, um, magnesium bath and absorb it transdermally that way. We think about calcium with sleep as well. So calcium, similar to magnesium is like a downshift type mineral. It's not energizing, it's more sedating, it's more calming.
Um, it can be supportive for our circadian rhythm, and it helps. The brain actually used tryptophan, so it's um, kinda an unsung sleep hero too. And if that's deficient, then we're gonna see some issues with falling and staying asleep. And then I would also point out sodium and potassium as well. So coming back to this idea that we've all got stress going on, we're probably not getting a ton of minerals from our food, even if we're trying really hard to, um, we lose.
Sodium and potassium in response to stress as well. And then that starts to influence how well we can actually hydrate and hold fluid in the cells. So I don't know if this lands for you since we have similar like anxiety, sleep issues, but in that season of my life, I was just peeing constantly, like I was waking up at night peeing multiple times.
Was that the same for you?
Totally. A hundred percent.
So getting a little more sodium and potassium in our day helps calm that stress response and then stops us from just peeing constantly so that we can actually stay asleep through the night. Um, so I would say adding some good quality, unrefined salt to your meals, maybe a pinch of it to your water, and then focusing on good potassium rich foods, which is, you know, fruit and root vegetables largely.
Um, there are tons of electrolyte or mineral products on the market now too. Some are better than others. I think that they can be a convenient way to access additional minerals, but it is possible through, um, strategic food choices as well.
So good, so helpful. And we've had different people ask if they can like, overdo it with the amount of minerals that they're putting in, say like they might be, every time they fill up their water bottle or something, they're putting these kind of electrolyte packets and mineral, you know, all the things in there.
Any thoughts on that? So I
think anything is possible to be overdone, and this is where testing can be really helpful to know what you actually need. But um, I will say minerals are pretty self-correcting. You generally notice if you're doing too much here and what typically comes up is there's a bowel tolerance issue.
You might notice, like loose or more frequent bowel movements, which would be a good sign that we've pushed that too far and we can back off. Um, if you notice. Sometimes there's some fluid retention or puffiness, especially as some of these higher sodium electrolyte products have hit the market. Yeah. Um, and if you're going from a very low sodium intake to like, I don't know, a thousand milligrams in a single packet, we can feel some, some swelling from that.
Your rings might fit tight and that would be another clue. Hey, let me back off. Maybe I'll use half the dose next time and just see how I feel. So if we are not using testing to guide this intervention, I would just say pay close attention to how you feel during and after, and just adjust things accordingly.
Just because someone on Instagram is using a certain product and loving it, doesn't mean you have to push through it if it's not making you feel good. And it's pretty easy to adjust these things.
Oh, absolutely. So you're working with someone, they're coming your way, they're struggling with sleep, and yet they have these goals to get healthier or their fertility goals, et cetera.
What are some of the next things that you dive into more deeply?
Yeah, so again, with that concept of safety in the body, we would make sure that we are eating enough. And this is something that I'd say like, 'cause we're looking at millennial women largely as our, uh, like population of reproductive age, women that we serve.
Yeah. Like this generation, me being a part of that too, grew up with some really bad nutrition advice. Mm-hmm. Like I feel like there was some kinda weird diet. Starting in the eighties until now, like every other year there was something new. Yes. Um, I always like to call out that Special K diet where they literally convince us to just eat special K cereal for meals.
Right, exactly.
Crazy, crazy. Talk about regulation.
We grew up with some really weird advice, and I think this was also the time where like for some reason, 1200 calories was like always the recommendation. Yeah. That's right. For weight loss efforts. I think the aesthetic for most of our life was like as thin as possible.
Yes. Equated to healthy. So most of the women that we serve are coming in either knowingly or unknowingly, not eating enough. And we can't create that safety in the body for consistent ovulation in an undernourished state. It requires energy to ovulate, to support life, if that's the goal. So that's really where we would start, is we would look at how much we are eating across the span of the day and look for opportunities to improve that nourishment.
Uh, and that might be in total amounts of food, or it might be the way that it's spread out during the day, and really avoiding long stretches of time without nourishment for the sake of blood sugar stability. Um, and I know you've had guests dive into that topic before, but I can't state enough how important it is for your sleep that blood sugar is stable through the night.
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You could also check out in the show notes for that same link as well. And so if someone's listening and they're like. Well, you know, I hadn't really considered how much I've been eating any kinda rules of thumb. I know it's mm-hmm. Absolutely gonna be bio individual and full of longer conversation, but kind of general thoughts there.
Sure. I think the most. Broad recommendations I could make there would be providing minimums for our macronutrients that we would start with clients. I think the total amount obviously is gonna vary based on a number of factors for each individual, but we wanna make sure that we're getting no less than a hundred grams of protein for your average adult female.
Yes.
Um, that of all the macronutrients, carbs, proteins, and fats is always underrepresented. Um, unless. We're being intentional about it, and I think it's because proteins typically require a little more effort. We're usually having to cook something. It's um, I don't know, a less fun food than. A carb fat snack.
Um, so at least a hundred grams of protein, oftentimes quite a bit more than that, depending on, again, a number of factors for carbohydrates. We don't like to see that below about 125 grams a day for women working on hormone health issues. Um, with one caveat, if we're looking at like insulin resistant PCOS as a.
Somebody or a condition, someone's coming in with me. We may use some therapeutic lower carb for short periods of time, but in general, we wanna make sure that we're getting a consistent amount of carb throughout the day to provide that glucose for our body to use so we don't have to use our stress hormone cortisol to keep blood sugar up in place.
And then for fat, we wanna see that no less than about 60 grams in a day. The reason there is that we manufacture our sex hormones out of fats. So if we're not getting enough of that in our diet, we lack the raw materials. So, um, I'd say on average for an adult female that's relatively active, we're very often not looking less than about 2000 calories in a day, which can be a huge jump from our mindset of, you know, 12 to 1500 calories, which is.
You know the caloric need of like a child, which is crazy.
Yeah, absolutely. Wow. So you had that generalized rule of thumb. What about. When you called out the low carb for maybe PCOS or resistant women, we have had conversations for mental health and depression, anxiety, et cetera, and you know, kind of like Dr.
Chris Palmer's work or other individuals pointing to low carb or keto for that mental health issues. Yeah. Um, curious if you have any thoughts there, if you've seen any of that or.
Yeah. Um, I wouldn't consider that my wheelhouse, but we do, of course, have clients with, you know, depression, anxiety, and other mental health struggles too.
Um, but the women that we are working with are trying to correct some kind of a hormone or metabolic issue, and we find that. Female physiology of reproductive years does not do well with sustained low carb intake, which is why I said, you know, short duration therapeutic use. Sure. And it comes back to that energy availability and safety signal.
Mm-hmm. Um, we see oftentimes, initially they might feel great, really low carb or feel great with intermittent fasting, and then we hit a point where that becomes too stressful for the system and now it is no longer helpful. Hmm. Um, so we are a big fan of the very unsexy like moderation. With carbohydrates.
Okay. Yeah, absolutely. And so do you bring in any of that cycle syncing if you are working with those individuals that you're kind of using some of that low carb for a short period of time, or kind of case by case?
Yeah, case by case. I would consider cycle sinking, like cherry on top of the foundations.
If we're not hitting that consistent nourishment, good blood sugar stability throughout the month, I wouldn't go there first 'cause I just think, you know, let's not make this more complicated. But for those that are hitting the basics, they're like, cool, I'm nourished. I generally feel good. Um, I'm getting some good minerals in.
I'm, I'm aware of where I am in my cycle, which is not super common knowledge that. Body literacy of of cycle tracking, then we can get a little bit more specific there and actually change our macronutrient ratios based on where we are in our cycle based on the influence of hormones on really blood sugar stability.
Yeah, so for example, what we would do is in the follicular phase, which is the first two weeks, so from day one of our period periods of ovulation, we've got more estrogen on board, which makes us more insulin sensitive so we can tolerate. A little bit more carbohydrate. We can push the intensity with exercise more in that season as well.
Um, kind of peaking at ovulation. And then after ovulation, we enter the luteal phase, which is from ovulation to the start of the next period. And this is, um, predominated by progesterone in this window of time. So we are less insulin sensitive, so we'll go a little bit lower carb, a little higher fat in this.
Timeframe and then less intensity with our workouts. So we might switch to lower intensity modalities. Maybe this is where we bring in things like Pilates or yoga or, um, more just like long walks, hikes in nature. Yeah. Um. Funny enough though, in that luteal phase, because we have the action of progesterone, our sleep is likely to be the deepest in that window of time.
Um, progesterone is a hormone that I love to talk about because I just think that it is like the key to really feeling and functioning well as. As a female, and again, thinking about our, our generation and the nutrition info we grew up with. Yes. Um, something that I like to say often and do on Instagram is that we were a generation deprived of progesterone because of the influence of nutrition, because of, you know, widespread birth control use.
We just shut off that progesterone production and it is so essential for sleep. So something we definitely have to talk about.
Yeah. Do you see a lot of women then utilizing the, in the form of hormone replacement therapies or what do you think there?
Yeah, so we do, um, especially as we're getting closer to like menopause seasons, like in that perimenopause timeframe, one of the top symptoms that happens in that transition is sleep quality just plummets.
And one of the theories there is that we've got declining progesterone levels. Um, estrogen tends to be a little bit erratic going into menopause, but progesterone just has a downward. Trajectory. And so providing some exogenous progesterone is a way to preserve that sleep quality and, and provide a lot of the benefits that progesterone gives us.
Um, so the clients that we serve that are in more of that perimenopause season, hormone replacement therapy is more common, um, for. Reproductive age clients, sometimes they're using that, especially if they've been dealing with infertility and working with a reproductive endocrinologists that maybe has them on progesterone cyclically or, um, during the first trimester of their pregnancy.
It's typically not something we're putting somebody on. We'd rather help their endogenous production of that as best as we can. Yeah. But it's not uncommon.
Okay. Got it. Alright, so then you're working with people with their sleep. Is there anything else that we didn't touch on that you like to make sure you're discussing or supporting them around?
Or did we hit the major pillars?
Yeah, so it's the food piece, the mineral piece, blood sugar. Um, we do talk to them about light exposure, which I won't Oh sure. Get into a ton of here. 'cause I know you guys have covered that thoroughly, but that's a big piece too, like are we seeing the sun? Yeah. And I think that speaks to a larger issue of.
Humans that basically live in captivity, we're like inside in front of computers, which is a blessing 'cause we get to connect like this. But we're not out in nature. We're not seeing the sun. We don't have our bare feet on the ground. So it is not uncommon for action items for our clients to be, get outside for, you know, five or 10 minutes today.
Get your feet barefoot on the earth. Look up into that sun. Ideally, we're seeing that sun in the morning and again in the afternoon. Um, but we will take it any way we can get it. Then we will work to limit blue light exposure at night. So ideally, no screens, but realistically using blue light blocking, um, devices, filters, or, or glasses.
So good. Great. I'm so grateful that you're doing that. It's. It's can land as like radical still in certain, right? The sun. Oh my God. You gotta run away from that. So that's really important. Well, every person that we do bring on the podcast, we ask them four questions around how they're managing their own sleep.
And I'm definitely excited to dive in with you on these four questions for how you're doing that after, especially, um, your share of how you were struggling with your sleep in the past. And so it's amazing the difference there. So the first question is, what does your nightly sleep routine look like right now?
So one important caveat
is that I have a seven month old. Oh. So my is very different right now for me.
Yeah. Congrat. Oh yeah.
Thanks. Um, yeah. So, and I was like a self-proclaimed sleep diva prior to becoming a mom, like yes. Big routine. Loved my sleep because it was so bad for so long. I think once it got good, it was like, I'm protecting this at all costs.
Yes.
Um, after having my son seven months ago, obviously sleep's been very different, but I will say a couple of key things have helped maintain that sleep as best as I can in this season. Um, so I definitely utilize magnesium in the evenings. Um, I, I limit screen exposure in the evenings as well. Still just like I did before.
I've got a cold, dark, quiet sleep environment. Quiet when? When he's asleep too. Um, and then getting outside first thing in the morning. And we do that for him as well. And what's been really cool about having a baby is seeing how impactful it is for him to spend more time outside and in the sun, and how much that impacts his sleep the next night, which is something that we know, but to see it on like a fresh baby is pretty cool.
Oh, that's very cool. I love that. And the second question is, what is your morning sleep routine with the idea that mm-hmm. How you start your day could impact your sleep. I know you touched on Yeah. The sun and you know Yes. Getting outside. So any other things that we would see there?
Yeah, so the sun getting outside is.
Big and then so is supporting blood sugar, stability and healthy cortisol levels in the morning. And that is something I accomplish through eating a protein rich breakfast within an hour of waking.
And
for any other moms of of babies that might be listening, it can be really easy to wake up. And just go straight to tending to baby doing stuff that you have to do and forgetting about you.
And you know, you are like, I always say like CEO or Chief Energy Officer of the household. So like you feeling good and protecting your energy influences the way you can show up for everyone around you. And you will notice that your baby sleeps better when, when you're well taken care of. So. We've gotta get use of nourishment within an hour of waking up.
And if you do enjoy coffee or caffeine, having that with or after breakfast, not before. Um, and that's a big staple for me. It was before. And then something that I've really held steady with after.
Yeah. And if people are still in that conversation of like, well, I'm not hungry in the morning, like not of interest, is that still then something that you really help educate on the why?
Yes, and I would say that that's a sign that we need to look at it closer. We should wake up hungry and ready to eat. That's a, a vital sign for our metabolic health. And so we don't have to force like a big, massive, decadent breakfast if we're not feeling hungry. We could start with things like a smoothie or.
Um, you've probably seen recipes for like gut gummies that have some good gelatin in it. Like we've gotten gentle things we can do to start. Mm-hmm. Um, and what you'll typically notice is if you start that way and stay consistent, it's like your metabolic flame kinda catches up with that, and then eventually you'll start noticing that you wake up hungry.
Mm. So good. Okay. And then what might we visually see in your environment? So like on your nightstand or in your sleep space or beyond.
So you would see a magnesium spray on my nightstand. Mm-hmm. Um, because that's the only way I'll remember to use it if it's there. Yes. Um, and then you'll see mouth tape on my nightstand as well.
Um, that was a life changing thing for me many years ago when I stumbled across that. Um, makes a huge difference. Still do it now, even, you know, with, with a newborn in the room too. And I did end up getting, um. It's not called ChiliPad anymore, but an OER years ago as well. Oh yeah. Um, to just keep things cooler.
Um, I ended up having to take that off the bed during like early postpartum timeframe, but it's back now and so Great. You'll see that there too,
right? Doesn't it make such a difference? It's wild. And especially then the only downside is when you travel, it can just. I know. Hot. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. It's like you make this ideal sleep environment and then you ruin every other sleep environment for yourself.
Yes, you do. Exactly. It's so true. So then the last question would be to date, what would you say has made the biggest change to your sleep game? Or put another way, maybe biggest aha moment in managing your own sleep.
Gosh, I feel like there were so many things, like different layers were getting peeled back at different times.
But, um, you know, I think the very first thing that started to influence my sleep was the figuring out that I wasn't eating enough and my blood sugar was just dropping throughout the night. Um, so once I started to eat more, uh, eat more consistently and make sure that blood sugar was stable, I just realized that that was the missing piece for my sleep for so long.
And then therefore it was a missing piece for my hormones as well because. Sleep issues are way too big of a stressor to expect balanced hormones.
Ugh, so true. Interesting. So that looked like for you, was it like adding in like a whole additional meal or snacks or what did that?
Yeah, so it was bulking up the existing meals.
I think they were way too small for that current season of my life. And then I added a snack in the evening too, because it was going way too many hours between bedtime and my dinner.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and it felt like that went in the face of, of typical nutrition advice, where it was like, gosh, you shouldn't be eating after dinner.
You know, you should be going to bed then, and
Right.
Um, I brought in a snack that had some carbohydrate and some protein. I think what I was doing at the time was like. Cottage cheese and a little fruit or something like that. And man, I immediately had improved sleep because I had some fuel in the tank to keep blood sugar steady without calling on the action of cortisol, which would pull you out of sleep.
Um, so I think realizing how impactful that was and giving myself permission that it was okay to not follow these, um, really strict rules that some reason we grew up with around nutrition that disconnected us from knowing when something was or wasn't a good fit.
Right. I know we didn't touch on it, but do you have any, cos you know, so often people say like, are there specific types of foods to help support your sleep?
Any thoughts? Or just maybe think of it with the cottage cheese and fruit piece.
Yeah. Um, I usually like to see at least two macronutrients represented in that last. Meal. So ideally there's some protein and some carbohydrate. So with the goal of keeping blood sugar stable, those amino acids from the protein can be really supportive for our sleep.
And then we will commonly have clients make, um, like a sleep support mineral mocktail. So it might have some magnesium glycinate in it, it might do a splash of tar cherry juice for that, you know, natural source of melatonin. Um, that's a pretty common one that we'll bring into that as well.
That's great.
Okay. Awesome. And you're okay with dairy for the average person then?
Yeah, obviously there are people that don't do well with dairy and quality is a big conversation there too. But for those that do well, obviously it opens up a world of, um, a lot of tasty options for them.
Yeah, absolutely. So good.
Awesome. Do we leave anything out when you think about sleep and this whole world of hormone regulation, blood sugar. Beyond?
No, I don't think so. I think those were all the things I wanted to mention. Um, and I'm just excited to have had the opportunity to bring that to light. So for anybody that's in the thick of hormone health issues or fertility struggles, sleep has to be on the radar and it gets missed so often that it's great to have resources like yours to help someone troubleshoot this on their own.
Aw. Well, so thankful for you taking the time and for sharing your own story. 'cause that's one thing we see all the time is just a sense that people feel like alone or like they're the only person struggling with this. And so to hear these stories is really, really big. So for anyone listening, then it's like, okay, I definitely need to continue to learn more to follow your work.
What are the best ways to do that?
So you can find me on, on Instagram mostly. Um, it's at Kalee Rd and my name is spelled weird. It's K-A-E-L-Y. Okay. Um, so you'll find a lot of free education on Instagram and ways that my team and I can support you there. Um, my website is the same name, kalee r d.com.
Amazing. And a fellow Mick. I used to be Molly McLaughlin, so we got a lot of twin things going on. We really do.
Oh my goodness. Well, this has been just a pleasure and an honor, so thank you. Thank you. And for the work that you're doing to help support women that have been such a overlooked and neglected group as it relates to sleep.
So really appreciate it.
Yeah, likewise, Molly,
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