Hey, everybody. It is Becky Williams. I am back with another bonus video. And this week I'm talking about Sleep. Everybody has mornings where they just feel like they have not gotten enough sleep. After all, there's 400 billion cups of coffee that are consumed every year. I thought I drank a lot of coffee. That's a lot of coffee.

And I don't think that I drank all 400 billion, but it is possible when you have small kids. Right. If you do wake up early and you still feel tired. Well, okay, you understand probably why you're tired, but if you're regularly waking up feeling you're still tired, or if you're having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep because sometimes you can go to sleep right and you wake up in the middle of the night. Like, what the heck is happening. There might be something else actually happening. It may not just be the quality of your sleep, your bed, your kids, whatever. There may be something else. 

Sleep is so important that actually over one third of Americans do not get enough sleep. I can attest to that. It's important that we find natural ways to make sure that we fall asleep and we stay asleep, and that we wake up rested. Okay, there are certain specific nutrients that you need in your diet to create a good like body environment for you to get restful sleep. So, it's not just that some people are born better sleepers than you. It's possible that they're getting and a lot of these key nutrients that will help your body to relax will help you to reach all those different stages of sleep like your room sleep and your deep sleep and your light sleep. All of those are super important. 

So I'm going to go over a couple of the supplements or nutrients that maybe you're just not having enough of those, adding those back into your diet may help you. Alright, so let's get started. 

The very first one you knew I was going there. It's Magnesium. Magnesium is what your body uses to produce Melatonin. Right. You know, a lot of people having to take melatonin at night. What if they took magnesium instead or did like an Epsom salt bath. Hey, what people don't know is that Magnesium helps to relax your muscles. It also helps to produce GABA, which releases the nervous system, which relaxes the nervous system. Sorry. Both of which will lead to restful sleep. So I know a lot of people are taking GABA in a capsule form and a lot of people are taking magnesium in a capsule form and both of those are good. And I do know that people have to take melatonin, like I talked about, but I'm just curious if you have enough GABA and you have enough magnesium, maybe you would not have to take the melatonin. 

Okay, you can get magnesium through supplements or by eating foods which of course, you know, we are very big on getting supplements and things from foods without having to take something externally like in a pill form. So leafy green vegetables, Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, great, great with magnesium in it. Okay, great sources of magnesium. That's where I'm going. All right. 

The second one is Glycine. Glycine is an amino acid that has been scientifically proven to reduce the symptoms of insomnia, so you’re having trouble getting to sleep. It also helps to promote deeper sleep more easily. So instead of having to work on it or wondering, okay, tonight is tonight going to be the night that I get to sleep or am I going to be staring at the ceiling again? Glycine is most conveniently taken by supplement, but, but, but, but you can find it in fish. You can find it in eggs. You can find it in meat, good quality meat. Remember legumes and also dairy products.

Okay, the third one is B vitamins. Oh man, B vitamins is such a hot topic. Know that all B vitamins are not created equally. Please don't just think that you can buy the cheapest B vitamin and that it's the best for you. For myself, I have MCHFR mutation, which means that I do not methylate B vitamins very well. So in turn, I don't have a lot of energy and I do have some trouble sleeping. Now I have found that if I take supplements that have a B12 vitamin in it, such as cyanocobalamin. I think I'm saying that right. That's how I've always said it might be wrong. But anyway, it starts with a C. That one does not metabolize well in my body. That does not help me. I do not feel energized with that. 

Methylcobalamin is the more natural form that I use that works well in my body. So when I'm looking for a vitamin, like for my prenatals, for my multivitamin, any of that type of stuff, or even if I'm just taking a B12 supplement by itself, I make sure that I get the one with the M on it, which is methylcobalamin. Alright, that's a side note here. It's not in my notes, but I just wanted to let you know there is a difference in quality of vitamins. Okay, so low levels of B12 can cause fatigue, sleep disturbances, since the vitamin helps to regulate sleep cycles. Okay, so you know you're waking, you're sleeping, your body is resetting and starting over all throughout the day. So you need that regulation so that your body knows, okay, the sun's coming up. It's time for me to be awake. The sun's going down. It's time for me to start being ready for sleep. 

Be careful that you are not deficient in B12. This can cause you to get agitated. I will attest to this. B12 can also be taken as a supplement are found in most animal products, though not really in plant based products, not so much, except for maybe like fortified breakfast cereals, which then, you know, that's a whole nother rabbit hole of do you really want to get down the - Do you really want to eat fortified breakfast foods? That's another video. 

Alright, B6 is also important for a whole list of reasons, but it's also important for improving quality sleep. Some great resources of B12 chickpeas, tuna, quality tuna, another video, make sure your tuna is quality. Chicken, make sure it's quality. Potatoes, turkey and bananas all really, really good for B6. 

Also low folic acid, which is B9 is associated with insomnia. But you may also get a B complex supplement for that. The best one is the best source of B9 is liver, which I do not like. So for B9 Which is folic acid for me, I need folate, not folic acid. Folic acid because of the MCHFR mutation does not process well in my body. I need folate for me. 

So once again, looking for those B vitamins, looking for folic acid versus folate. Important if you have any vitamins that make you sick. Like you just not feel good, just kind of nauseated, check to see what type of B vitamins is in it. It could just be that it's not working with your body.

All right, vitamin E. I don't know what number we're on, maybe four. Okay, vitamin E is great for your skin and your nails. It's also great for promoting sleep. Very interesting, right. Vitamin E is especially helpful if you suffer from restless leg syndrome or hot flashes.

A lot of people, whenever they are going on a ketogenic diet will get restless leg syndrome or what they feel like is restless leg syndrome. So maybe we can try the vitamin E for that and see if that helps. I know I do suggest for those people to try magnesium. That is my first go to for restless legs. But, if magnesium is not helping perhaps try a vitamin E regimen as well. Okay, tryptophan, right. Think about Thanksgiving. What happens, everybody eats turkey. There you go. All your uncles and your popos and everybody are asleep on the recliners, right.

Tryptophan is one of those essential amino acids that the body cannot produce on its own. So you're going to have to get it from an external source. So you have to either get it from food, you're gonna have to get it from supplements. However, it is necessary for your body to produce serotonin, which is the happy hormone, right, which is also essential for restful sleep. So if you have someone, let's say that is battling depression and they're not sleeping well. Well, there you go. Their serotonin level is not high, right, because they're feeling depressed. That is suppressed. And so they're not getting restful sleep. So do you see how all these things are starting to be connected? The best food to find tryptophan is eggs, poultry, chia seeds, and sweet potatoes.

All right. L-theanine or L-theanine, however you would like to say it, actually behaves in a different way than the rest of the nutrients in this group. It will help your body to produce alpha brainwaves. Sounds important, right? Sounds like you are the boss if you can produce alpha brainwaves. This will help to reduce anxiety and lead to faster, deeper sleep. Now, in addition to, I know this is another video and I keep going off on a tangent, but if you are having trouble, like, settling your brain down for sleep, I struggled with this so much. Get a journal. I've talked about this, I think, in another video. Get a journal, write down everything that comes to your mind right before you go into bed. Keep it by your bed on your nightstand. Write it down. Here are the things you're thinking about. Here's the list of what to do tomorrow. I don't care what it is. Good, bad, whatever. Write it down. 

And then close that physically. Put that on your nightstand so that you are putting that to sleep, you are putting that to bed, and you are going to be able to rest completely. Okay, so this is actually, this is going to help you with alpha brainwaves. It helps to reduce anxiety. This would be something you want to get from a supplement. Also, there are apps that you can play alpha brainwaves. I didn't know if you knew that. 

Another side note, I'm all over the place, but sleep is so important. I want to tell you any tricks that I have in my bag to help you to sleep, because I know when you don't sleep, man, everything is just really a lot harder, a lot harder for your day. Okay, we're almost done. I have three left. 

So this next one is iron. Iron is so essential to help carry oxygen to your cells and your tissues. It's also very common to cause sleep disorders and restless leg syndrome, again, showing up here again. But iron is in so many foods, so that is a really good thing. Most notably, you're going to find iron in spinach and dark chocolate. I'm going to choose the dark chocolate, just saying. I'm human here. Also, it is best to take it as a liquid supplement for best absorption. So if you don't have the best digestion, you're taking all these amazing vitamins into your body and your body's not getting most of them. So with iron, it's really good to take it into a liquid form. All right, two more. 

Vitamin D. Vitamin D is so important. People who work inside all day long are not getting vitamin D. Me, so I make sure that I get outside every day at least 20 minutes. Also, just a side note, if you are really feeling fatigued and you're taking a million and one vitamin B supplements, they're a quality B supplement and you still feel like garbage from not being able to sleep, you might need your vitamin D because it's going to all work together synergistically to help you in your body for all of them to work together. 

So all of these things will work united in your body to help you with sleep. So just implementing one, you may not see a huge difference, or you might. So just know, sometimes you have to stack these things to really get a good quality reaction for your body. Vitamin D does a lot to make sure that your circadian rhythm, which is helping you to go to sleep and wake up, helps stay regulated and keep you more wakeful during the day.

The easiest way to get vitamin D is free, honey. You just go outside and you just let your little skin soak in the sun. In moderation, of course. Also, you want to eat plenty of fish and eggs and there are plenty of vitamin D supplements again. Of course, you can just buy them. But I mean, I'd much rather lay out in the sun. That sounds way more fun than swallowing a pill. 

So the last one is Calcium. Calcium is also something that affects your sleep in a lot of ways. Calcium deficiency has been shown to disrupt your sleep cycles, your REM sleep, which is your rapid eye movement state. So drink milk. I say do other things besides just drink milk, especially since last week I talked about dairy intolerance. So I don't want you to get discouraged and think, I can't drink milk because I have a dairy intolerance. So there are going to be other ways to get calcium. In fact, if you have a favorite way to get calcium, I would love for you to tell me about that in the Facebook group so that we can all learn from each other.

And of course, you can get it in a supplement too. Okay, but you know I just like whole foods. It's going to be the best way for you to get it in your body and the easiest way because you can just make your meal and have all your vitamins right there. Sitting in the food that you're eating and it's not something extra that you're having to do or think about ordering and make sure you don't run out. 

Alright, so finally, I usually wrap up with a recipe. Today's not going to be a recipe, but I do want to give you a couple snacks that will help you to sleep better. Now, you know that I preach this all the time. I don't want you snacking right before bed. Okay, so I'm going to talk about sitting in the bed, watching Netflix, eating these things, but at least two hours before bed. These are really good to help stimulate your sleep. 

Okay, first one is almonds. It contains melatonin, magnesium, and helps to lower cholesterol. Cholesterol, listen to me, lower cortisol. Alright, turkey. Talked about Thanksgiving, right? Remember the recliner. Tryptophan and melatonin. Chamomile tea. Really good for sleep. Great for right before sleep. There's something called sleepy time tea that I will often drink and that stuff is awesome. 

Alright, kiwi. It helps with serotonin. It's also the best, one of the best foods to eat for sleep. Tart cherry juice. I don't personally like cherries, but if you do, it helps with melatonin. Also fatty fish like salmon, tuna, or mackerel, which has vitamin D and omega-3. Walnuts, love walnuts. Magnesium and melatonin and then passion flower tea, which helps with GABA. So I'm not going to give you a recipe, but let me just look at these real quick. So what you could do, I'm completely making this up. Let's say for dinner, you have a really big salad, which is going to have iron, right, for your one of your supplements. And then on top of that, you could put some almonds, so you can get some melatonin, magnesium, helps to lower your cortisol. You could put either fatty fish, so you can get your omegas and vitamin D, or you could put turkey, which is tryptophan and melatonin. You could put that on top. And then you could sprinkle some walnuts on it if you, really, if you're doing any of the things. 

I think you can, I think everybody can have strawberries. So you could cut up maybe like a fourth a cup of strawberries and put that on top. And then you could drink some passion fruit tea. Boy, that would be killer for getting to sleep. So doing like a big dinner like that, that would be amazing. Two hours before bed, don't forget. 

So if you have something that besides pizza or ice cream that you know is just going to knock you out because you have a sugar coma, what's something healthy that you do before bed that you're like, man, every time that I eat this right before bed, I just feel awesome and I can go right to sleep. If you have a recipe like that, I need it and I want it. Okay, thank you so much. I will be back with you again next week for another bonus video. Sleep well, and I will see you next time.