Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you
Speaker 1: better understand what's going on inside your body so that
Speaker 1: you can take the targeted action needed. With a functional
Speaker 1: health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to
Speaker 1: uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed up
Speaker 1: with Doctyesmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will
Speaker 1: help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like
Speaker 1: why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my stubborn weight?
Speaker 1: Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe missing key nutrients?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand your body better, you can transform
Speaker 1: your health. Visit v three sixty dot health or check
Speaker 1: out the show notes for more. This is Healthy Her
Speaker 1: with Amelia Phillips and welcome to one of my Mini
Speaker 1: motivation episodes, which are shorter, bite sized conversations where we
Speaker 1: really focus on a specific topic so that you can
Speaker 1: feel armed and motivated to make the positive changes to
Speaker 1: your health and ultimately your happiness as well. Today we
Speaker 1: are drilling down into one of the most powerful levers
Speaker 1: we can pull when it comes to our health and
Speaker 1: our mood, and that is sleep.
Speaker 2: Ah yes, sleep, gosh, what a topic.
Speaker 1: So today we're going to focus on one specific sleep struggle,
Speaker 1: and that is insomnia.
Speaker 2: Caused by stress.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're going through a stressful time right now and
Speaker 1: your sleep is being disrupted, or maybe you've got a
Speaker 1: busy period coming up and you want to be armed
Speaker 1: with the tools and the strategies needed. I've just come
Speaker 1: off the back of such a busy period with my
Speaker 1: business partner, Doc Diesmina in Sydney, and gosh, my.
Speaker 2: Sleep was so disrupted that week.
Speaker 1: But luckily I knew that it was only going to
Speaker 1: be this short one week period, and so I was
Speaker 1: kind of able to cope and manage and there was
Speaker 1: an end in sight. But what happens if your stress
Speaker 1: is chronic? If there is no end in sight. Maybe
Speaker 1: you've got a horrible boss or a really challenging work situation,
Speaker 1: or you're going through a big life upheaval, trouble with
Speaker 1: the kids or partner or finances. Oh my gosh, the
Speaker 1: stress list is absolutely endless. I posed this challenge and
Speaker 1: this issue of stress insomnia to a sleep expert recently,
Speaker 1: Lisa Moltman. Now she's the founder of the Sleep Connection.
Speaker 1: She's a keynote speaker, facilitator, sleep educator, works with adults.
Speaker 1: She works with teenagers and children who really want to
Speaker 1: improve the quality of their sleep and understand their sleep better.
Speaker 1: So here's what Lisa had to say about insomnia caused
Speaker 1: by stress. You suffered from chronic insomnia due to a
Speaker 1: period of heightened work, stress and some personal challenges. So you,
Speaker 1: of all people, Lisa knows what it feels like to
Speaker 1: be at that rock bottom moment, desperate for relief, and
Speaker 1: you understand how much of an impact poor sleep can
Speaker 1: have on mental health relationships, just our overall wellbeing.
Speaker 3: Do you mind sharing your story.
Speaker 1: And I guess a message of hope for any of
Speaker 1: my listeners who might be going through this insomnia period
Speaker 1: due to the stress in their life.
Speaker 4: My story was just having a very stressful work situation
Speaker 4: and stage where every member of the work group that
Speaker 4: I worked with, all the other employees, had some form
Speaker 4: of stress happening, and you know, one was reflex. Sometimes
Speaker 4: give me your reflex because I'd rather that than this insomnia,
Speaker 4: and then that combined with very intense situations on the
Speaker 4: home front with my father with dementia and looking after
Speaker 4: a neighbor who was very much a life and death situation.
Speaker 5: So I was just totally off the wall.
Speaker 3: How long was that stressful period going on for?
Speaker 4: I must say I have had bouts of insomnia off
Speaker 4: and on quite a few times.
Speaker 5: That was a good six months.
Speaker 4: Back then, I didn't really understand the whole parisympathetic nervous
Speaker 4: system side of things, so I didn't understand why my
Speaker 4: GP was telling me to go to yoga instead of
Speaker 4: go jogging at night.
Speaker 1: Tell me what was your insomnia symptoms? How did it
Speaker 1: express itself in you? Was it not being able to
Speaker 1: get to sleep? Was it crashing out and then waking
Speaker 1: up and not being able to fall back asleep?
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 4: And it was mostly sometimes it was not being able
Speaker 4: to fall asleep. Mostly it was waking up the good
Speaker 4: old three o'clock in the morning and just waking up
Speaker 4: way too early in the morning and just immedia wake up.
Speaker 4: You just tend towards the negative, you know, because that's
Speaker 4: what lack of sleep does.
Speaker 3: Three am doomers and you wake up.
Speaker 5: And go, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: For me, I actually had to change jobs, so I
Speaker 4: had to make something significant changes.
Speaker 5: I know that not everybody could do that.
Speaker 1: Did you have a rock bottom moment where you're like,
Speaker 1: this has to change and it's the job that I
Speaker 1: think is going to change that. Or had you been
Speaker 1: sort of trying to fix your sleep for a while.
Speaker 4: I'd been trying to fix it for a while, and
Speaker 4: I think if people are helping you fix insomnia, I
Speaker 4: would say, make sure you research a little bit yourself,
Speaker 4: so get some understanding about insomnia and before you go
Speaker 4: and see someone. Because I still didn't understand that whole
Speaker 4: sleep restriction. Yeah, I'm not sure that it was described
Speaker 4: as well as it is now, So that was probably
Speaker 4: ten plus years ago.
Speaker 1: I want to put us in the shoes of my
Speaker 1: beautiful listeners who might be sitting here going that is me.
Speaker 1: I suffer from insomnia, and I am going through a
Speaker 1: stressful period of my life. Short of buying a caravan
Speaker 1: and escaping, which I'm sure many of us have dreamed
Speaker 1: about doing. Where do we start, Lisa, what's your advice
Speaker 1: to us that either can't fall asleep because of stress
Speaker 1: or waking up with the.
Speaker 3: Three M Doomers.
Speaker 1: I'm reticent to ask out already stressed listeners to go
Speaker 1: and do lots of hard stuff. But tell me, because
Speaker 1: sleep is so important, what we should be doing.
Speaker 4: I think it's personally understanding the relationship of friends, stress,
Speaker 4: and sleep, so that you can acknowledge that and address
Speaker 4: what you can. So there are some things we can't change,
Speaker 4: it's the wisdom prayer, change what you can and what
Speaker 4: you can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's actually quite powerful. I just want to
Speaker 1: sit on that for a second. Can you just say
Speaker 1: that again.
Speaker 5: So it's the wisdom prayer.
Speaker 4: Whatever your faith is or not, it's still saying, God,
Speaker 4: grant me the wisdom to change what I can, to
Speaker 4: accept what I can't, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Speaker 4: So that might be every one of your members is
Speaker 4: going to be completely different.
Speaker 1: You know that.
Speaker 4: Again, you don't know what it's like to have a
Speaker 4: child with a disability, or this or that or the other.
Speaker 5: It's what you can.
Speaker 1: Change, for example, alcohol, and it might not be becoming
Speaker 1: a teetotaler, but it might be halving the amount of
Speaker 1: alcohol intake or doubling your amount of alcohol free nights
Speaker 1: what can you change today to help?
Speaker 3: And that's you know, the sleep hygiene check this and
Speaker 3: all of that.
Speaker 4: Dropping things out so you which is more your area,
Speaker 4: but you know, giving yourself that moment because often the
Speaker 4: alcohol or the scene with the coffee or the whatever,
Speaker 4: it might be hung er, it might be just on
Speaker 4: a moment. So what is that moment for you? And
Speaker 4: just cutting yourself some slack in the evening go It's
Speaker 4: okay to stop, It's okay, you don't need.
Speaker 5: To be keeping on doing things.
Speaker 4: So actually the acknowledging the relationship between stress, the being
Speaker 4: kind to yourself and sharing with your family what.
Speaker 5: The situation is.
Speaker 4: I remember when I had crazy menopause systems over at
Speaker 4: an article to them that someone else has written and
Speaker 4: had also at the table. One daughter got into the practical,
Speaker 4: the other got into the YEA was very interesting anyway.
Speaker 4: So it's actually just describing that to whatever leman you
Speaker 4: know your family can understand. And then it's getting help.
Speaker 4: It could be the coaching. There's insomnia coaching out of
Speaker 4: say you're in Sydney, the.
Speaker 5: Walcock Institute, so that's group coaching.
Speaker 4: There's one on one coaching, and I will put in
Speaker 4: the show notes. There's a whole lot of DBT or
Speaker 4: DBT CBTI which is online and starting to research and
Speaker 4: understand that yourself, and you'll start to understand the relationship.
Speaker 5: Between relaxation I just didn't know about.
Speaker 4: You know, sounds really basic, but deepbreathing to bring that
Speaker 4: sympathetic parasit sympathetic nervous system down.
Speaker 1: Tell me at what point should we seek extra help?
Speaker 1: How long do you think we should be suffering with
Speaker 1: insomnia before we go? You know what, I need a
Speaker 1: helping hand here, and I'm going to go into the
Speaker 1: Wallcock Institute, for example, and do a group program or
Speaker 1: a one on one session.
Speaker 4: Often they say it's you know, three months a week
Speaker 4: or three months kind of thing. But given that there
Speaker 4: are all these resources, literally very new resources online, I
Speaker 4: would look into it straight away. And also doing a
Speaker 4: group one can often make you feel less alone and
Speaker 4: go oh okay and.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent, and it's usually more affordable as well.
Speaker 4: It's like doing your course Amelia Vitality three sixty. It's
Speaker 4: like making a good thing better, So don't wait to
Speaker 4: you feeling really bad.
Speaker 5: It's like, let's nip it in the butt now.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health. If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three point sixty to help
Speaker 1: you better understand what's going on inside your body so
Speaker 1: that you can take the targeted action needed. With a
Speaker 1: functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork
Speaker 1: to uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed
Speaker 1: up with doctor Asmina, an incredible integrative GP. Together we
Speaker 1: will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions
Speaker 1: like why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my
Speaker 1: stubborn weight? Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant?
Speaker 3: Or maybe missing key nutrients?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand your body better, you can transform
Speaker 1: your health. Visit v three sixty dot health or check.
Speaker 3: Out the show notes for more.
Speaker 1: I can almost feel a collective gasp from my listeners
Speaker 1: who are like insomnia three nights a week for three months.
Speaker 1: I'd say there'd be a lot of listeners that are like, honey,
Speaker 1: I've been like that for three years, not three months.
Speaker 4: And it's stopping accepting it that it's normalized because we
Speaker 4: we normalize too many things and it's like we don't
Speaker 4: have to be that way. So for me, obviously, the
Speaker 4: second bat of insomnia for menopause. So obviously getting onto
Speaker 4: menopause systems was helpful.
Speaker 1: That's a big one, menopause and the symptoms insomnia through menopause.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you that exercise and really dialing
Speaker 1: up nutrient quality, particularly around those cruciferous vegetables which contain
Speaker 1: a lot of nutrients to help you metabolize your hormones better,
Speaker 1: can really help with symptom management.
Speaker 3: But it's a real thing.
Speaker 1: I see women that have been beautiful sleep as their
Speaker 1: whole life suddenly just so frustrated, staring at the ceiling
Speaker 1: at three am.
Speaker 4: So I think getting the help because I can give
Speaker 4: you the you know we've talked about in the previous
Speaker 4: session of sleep respection, the studious control, but I think
Speaker 4: actually feeling like you're doing it as a process because
Speaker 4: it can be very challenging. So it can be a
Speaker 4: processed online or can approp the a process for a
Speaker 4: group of people to go, oh, okay, I'm only sleeping
Speaker 4: six hours, I'm in bed for that length of time.
Speaker 4: So I should just bring it back by half an hour,
Speaker 4: So just having it as a helpful process rather than
Speaker 4: kind of grabbing.
Speaker 5: At different straws. Yeah, and one.
Speaker 4: Hundred percent the alcohol and the exercise, as in having
Speaker 4: the exercise.
Speaker 5: Exercise is one of the best things you can do
Speaker 5: for deep quality sleep.
Speaker 4: And often everything goes the opposite. Oh, I'm too tired
Speaker 4: to exercise.
Speaker 5: That's a mean no matter what. Even you know, I'll.
Speaker 4: Often, even when it's it's back in the winter, I'll
Speaker 4: go for a walk because I actually find it really
Speaker 4: calming where there's not all this stimulus around.
Speaker 5: It's actual really calming.
Speaker 1: I always remember remember who had young children, and she
Speaker 1: was waking up really early to exercise. It took her
Speaker 1: a while to get into the habit of it, and
Speaker 1: I said, how do you do it when you're so
Speaker 1: sleep deprived and tired? How do you get up early
Speaker 1: to exercise? She wasn't doing it seven days a week,
Speaker 1: but maybe three days a week. She was waking up earlier.
Speaker 1: She said, I say to myself, I'm going to be
Speaker 1: tired no matter what. I would rather be tired having
Speaker 1: exercised than not. And then she would go on to say, ironically,
Speaker 1: the days that I did exercise, Not only was I
Speaker 1: less tired, she said, I slept so much better.
Speaker 3: The night after that. I was like, amen, what a
Speaker 3: great example.
Speaker 1: Okay, So just to wrap up for the ladies that
Speaker 1: maybe are not quite ready to go and see someone,
Speaker 1: but they are suffering these bouts of insomnia, what would
Speaker 1: you recommend that we do if we wake up at
Speaker 1: three am in the morning and our brain goes bing.
Speaker 1: I think you said in our previous session, if you're
Speaker 1: awake for more than twenty minutes, it's probably a good
Speaker 1: idea to get up.
Speaker 3: What do you do and what do you recommend we do?
Speaker 5: Thank Christ?
Speaker 4: The first thing to realize is that every single one
Speaker 4: of us wakes up a couple of times a night.
Speaker 4: So we come into our light sleep and we're rather
Speaker 4: conscious that we've woken up, or we just roll over
Speaker 4: and go.
Speaker 5: Back to sleep.
Speaker 4: So we all come into light sleep and literally coming
Speaker 4: to be awake.
Speaker 5: So it's actually acknowledging that and accepting that. So don't
Speaker 5: once you're awake somebody go, oh, no, I'm awake now.
Speaker 1: So but this is normal, my beautiful sleep cycle. I
Speaker 1: need to pee, yes, excusely me?
Speaker 4: So as so always that wrestle of do I pin
Speaker 4: that wakes me up more if I don't.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, So just.
Speaker 4: Accept it, make you go in toilet, and then maybe
Speaker 4: even just read for five minutes, so rather than going
Speaker 4: wonder if I'm going to go back to sleep and
Speaker 4: you get all these thoughts going through your brain, and
Speaker 4: actually what I do because I read and I fall
Speaker 4: asleep reading, then I will pick up my book if
Speaker 4: I need to, and I've got a little orange clip
Speaker 4: on light and I might just read and then making
Speaker 4: sure it's a really basic book, not something that you
Speaker 4: have to read about the thought.
Speaker 3: That's going to stimulate you.
Speaker 1: And orange light is a conscious choice as opposed to
Speaker 1: just a white light.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's really also just so I don't make
Speaker 5: up my husband, but it might.
Speaker 4: It's just a little clip on light that my end
Speaker 4: gave me, so it's not over stimulating.
Speaker 5: It's just tip it onto the book. It just feels
Speaker 5: more soothing too, So I'll just read.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: Some researchers will say get up and get to another room.
Speaker 4: Some will say just sitting in a chair is enough.
Speaker 4: So basically, if you're awake for longer than twenty minutes,
Speaker 4: don't stay there, do something else, don't be trying to
Speaker 4: go back to sleep. So some people do all sorts
Speaker 4: of things, the must relaxation and all sorts of things.
Speaker 4: I find muscle relaxation annoying because I feel like I'm
Speaker 4: trying to do it, whereas if I'm reading, I'm just
Speaker 4: distracting myself.
Speaker 5: Also, have a pen and paper beside your bed, because
Speaker 5: things will come up into your brain.
Speaker 4: Says you know, even on my arm here, I've written
Speaker 4: something from last night that I haven't completely got off.
Speaker 4: So I'll even try not to put the light on.
Speaker 4: I'll just write something on my hands so that in
Speaker 4: the morning I know what it is, but don't.
Speaker 5: Type it in that.
Speaker 4: To my opinion, though, I always have a piece of
Speaker 4: paper and a pen, and I will Also a session
Speaker 4: little while ago, and one of the guys said one
Speaker 4: of the best tips you gave me, which really surprised me.
Speaker 4: He said, was just spending some time, not anywhere near bedtime,
Speaker 4: but just writing down your thoughts. Might be I'm concerned
Speaker 4: about this, so I'll talk to this person tomorrow or
Speaker 4: I need to do that, because otherwise what you do
Speaker 4: is you hold it in your head and go I
Speaker 4: hope I remember that morning, and it really surprised me
Speaker 4: that he found that helpful. Like often with anxious children
Speaker 4: they might do that and scure it up and put
Speaker 4: it away or do different things, but he found that helpful.
Speaker 4: So making sure they have that moment just five minutes
Speaker 4: in the evening, anything that you're concerned about what your
Speaker 4: next step is, because often what happens is when you're
Speaker 4: awaking them all the night. As I've said before, the
Speaker 4: logical part of your brain is not working, so you
Speaker 4: start to ruminate on it without the help of your
Speaker 4: logical brain, going that'll.
Speaker 5: Be fine tomorrow morning.
Speaker 4: It's like when you start catastrophizing, ruminating. Am I even
Speaker 4: thinking that way? That's literally because your decisive brain is
Speaker 4: not going, oh no, all you do is that tomorrow
Speaker 4: it will be fine.
Speaker 1: There is the most beautiful Lunic cartoon of that. Remember
Speaker 1: that wonderful cartoonist Lunic. Oh, I love it, Yes, the
Speaker 1: Whale of Doom he calls it. And it's this beautiful cartoon.
Speaker 1: I'll put a link to it in the show notes.
Speaker 1: The Whale of Doom. And he goes through this series
Speaker 1: and then you know, at the very end of the cartoon.
Speaker 1: It ends up being his sardine on toast in the
Speaker 1: morning and I love that the three Am Whale of Doom.
Speaker 1: All right, well, just to wrap up, you mentioned the
Speaker 1: Walcock Institute, but I just wanted to double check any
Speaker 1: specific books, podcasts, or programs that you feel could be
Speaker 1: really helpful to our stress insomnia mums listening to this episode.
Speaker 4: I will share some links in Sydney. The Wallcock Institute
Speaker 4: is the key institute for Sydney and that has sleep
Speaker 4: coaching group classes, you can get sleep tests, that sort
Speaker 4: of thing. There's all the online programs that I will
Speaker 4: share with you in the notes, and really it's just
Speaker 4: making sure that you get the help you need for
Speaker 4: yourself and your child, whether that's face to face online
Speaker 4: and just general sleep education so you can start.
Speaker 5: To understand a bit more the why and then it's easier.
Speaker 4: To understand that what you need to do because I
Speaker 4: never understood the sleep restriction.
Speaker 5: Why would I do that?
Speaker 1: And as a reformed survivor of sleep insomnia, can you
Speaker 1: leave us with a message of hope that yes, it
Speaker 1: can be improved and life can return to feeling normal
Speaker 1: and full of energy again.
Speaker 4: Yes, I come one hundred percent say that and going
Speaker 4: through so many cycles.
Speaker 5: I never thought that would happen.
Speaker 4: I remember being on a van trip in New Zealand
Speaker 4: and going, oh my gosh, I've just slept for nine
Speaker 4: hours without getting up.
Speaker 5: So it's amazing.
Speaker 4: People who do sleep like that just totally take it
Speaker 4: for granted, but yes, it can happen for you.
Speaker 3: Tobe, keep working at it.
Speaker 1: Sleep is such an important foundation pillar of health and
Speaker 1: our emotional health as well. Lisa Mulman, thank you so.
Speaker 5: Much, wonderful, thank you for having me, Amelia.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three point sixty to help
Speaker 1: you better understand what's going on inside your body so
Speaker 1: that you can take the targeted action needed. With a
Speaker 1: functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork
Speaker 1: to uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed
Speaker 1: up with doctor Esmina, an incredible integrative GP and together
Speaker 1: we will help you decode your body's signals and answer
Speaker 1: questions like why am I always exhausted. What's really causing
Speaker 1: my stubborn weight? Am I inflamed, insulin resistant, or maybe
Speaker 1: missing key nutrients? Because when you understand your body better,
Speaker 1: you can transform your health. Visit V three six Z
Speaker 1: dot Health or check out the show notes for more