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Oh, hello. Wake up. Oh, hello. Oh, hey. Hey, I'm Adam. Hey, Caitlin. Sorry, I've been nodding off just at different times of the day, you know, even when I'm supposed to be doing stuff because I'm not sleeping great. So I thought today on the Jan Arden show, we would talk about sleeping. And it's kind of ironic. I spent last night doing everything I shouldn't be doing.

in order to secure a good night's sleep. And I'm sure you guys feel the same way. There's a lot going on in the world that causes us to lay in bed at night and count the wood nut holes in the ceiling. Yeah, when I get insomnia, I say that I'm a ceiling inspector. And so that is the perfect description. Well, and I sleep alone, so I have that going for me because one of the things that I was looking up was...

just the benefits of sleeping with someone and the benefits of sleeping not with someone and which both, which I've done, you guys are both married. I'm not married. Uh, my dog, I know wants to start sleeping with me, but he's going to pee on everything still. Cause he's four and a half months old and he's not sleeping on my bed. So, uh,

Um, there's a thing that's been going on called sleep divorce since, since the pandemic. And I'm pretty sure it's been going on a lot longer than that. I know a lot of married couples and you guys chime in anytime that have been sleeping apart this past couple of years in another bedroom that started out on the couch just because snoring or moving around too much. Um,

I had a girlfriend of mine that just said, you know, I love him, but I just would grab a pillow and go sleep on the couch. And finally, what they did six months ago is that he went down the hallway into one of the spare bedrooms. And she said, we are getting along better. We are sleeping better. He's sleeping better. He's like, wow, I just didn't realize how much, you know, I was moving or, you know, being stirred up by your movie. I don't know.

I think that stuff all happens. Like I noticed that with our sleep that both my husband and I are light sleepers. So when one of us rolls around or gets up to go to the bathroom or have some water or something, we will wake the other person up. At home in Toronto, I would say we have a pretty solid sleep setup. Like our bed is quite big.

dark room, like blackout curtains, we turn on a white noisemaker. And I think that helps a lot. Yeah, it does. I don't think I, it depends on what stage you're at in your relationship. I think like my husband's parents sleep in the same bed, but also are open to doing the guest bedroom thing because of their different sleep schedules and just his mom has insomnia sometimes. But that's like, that was as they got older. Cause I think she said that she hit menopause and insomnia became this like serious issue.

And so I feel like you get to a certain point in your relationship where you're like, I don't mind not sleeping in the same bed. And like, we've changed. We've been together for so many years that maybe someone has started snoring. Maybe someone has started staying up later. Like, who knows? But right now I sleep so terribly when I don't.

share a bed with my husband it's crazy like I it's true it's like I'm not trying to even sound sappy it's just like a scientific fact if I go away for a weekend without him and I'm like at a hotel by myself I toss and turn all night I just feel weird like I don't it doesn't work for me yet well my parents were married almost 60 years and my mom said I can't remember I

being apart from dad. You know, when he was working once in a while, he'd go out east to do something. And she said, I just, I hated it. I just hated it. And then my dad, of course, would be like, Jesus Christ, your mother puts her GD feet on my legs every GD night she has for 50 years. Well, Daryl, your legs are like,

They're like hot pokers. And so mom would have her ice little cold feet. And I can't tell you how many times I heard that conversation because

Well, your mother, I was sound asleep and then I had those cold feet up against my thigh. And I'm thinking that probably would be pretty uncomfortable. But she said, well, he always puts up with it. He used to always put up with it. 35% of American people were, of course, surveyed. I don't know who does all these surveys. In 2020, so at the beginning of all this. And they were, the survey was just basically that

you know, a third of Americans were super, super considering buying a bigger bed. Caitlin, as you mentioned, going from a double from a queen to a, to a King, which apparently makes a big difference or having a separate bedroom altogether. So I'm just curious, you know, if you, Adam, I want, I want you to weigh in here. I want you to know, I want to know what you guys have been doing and, and,

You know, you don't have to be honest. You can lie because people are still going to listen to us. No, I'm going to be honest and probably divulge a lot of information on this episode. Okay. We have a king-size bed, and I need a king-size bed. I cannot sleep in a double. It ain't happening. I won't sleep well. Even a queen, uh-uh, not big enough. I need a king.

Do you touch feet? Are you guys spooners or do you have to have complete separation? No, none of that. Correct. None of that. There's a wall of pillows between us. And I have a weighted blanket, but it's not the weighted blanket for the bed. It's my weighted blanket. So I have my own little...

heavy weighted cocoon of warmth. And this is a game changer. I didn't order it, but I'm glad my wife did. She bought us a heating pad, but it's a dual zone heating pad. So she can control the temperature of her side of the bed and I can control the temperature of my side of the bed. And it is amazing. So every night I crawl into a warm, cozy, toasty bed. It's amazing. Yeah. I mean, that sounds really great. When I, when I go to the UK to visit my pal, Nigel, who I've talked about a lot on this show,

The sweetheart of a guy. If he wasn't gay, we'd be married. Like we would just be married by now because he's definitely my soul sister, brother, whatever it is. But he does a heating, a water bottle for me, which I guess is kind of a UK thing, but I...

I do love having that warmth at my feet. Like I just remember as a kid spending an inordinate amount of time swishing my feet back and forth to warm my feet up and trying to find the warm spot and

And that kept me awake just having, but I do like a cool bedroom. Caitlin, do you like like a cold bedroom? I'm a vampire. I was just saying, you guys have outlined my personal hell. If I got into a bed. Well, just on your feet though, just on your feet. Get it away from my bed. I want to sleep in a tomb. And so, um,

So, yeah, my husband and I are both the same way. And I've shared bedrooms with girlfriends like at a bachelorette weekend. And eventually I just had to tell everybody like you really don't want to share a room with me because I set the thermostat to 17 degrees. Okay. And it's pitch black and there's a white noise machine going. Like it's very severe. Yeah.

But I do like the cold. Yeah. I love it. Freezing cold bedroom. I'm all about the cold temperature, but warm toasty bed. But then you're going to sweat the bed. I don't. I want coolness on my pillow, and I want coolness where my arms are. And I love having a cool sheet come up around my neck. Caitlin, you could probably agree with me there. But I do like the warmth on my feet. And I've only started doing that since, like when I come back from the UK, I'm like,

I need to take the time. I don't do a hot water bottle. I do one of those bead things. Oh, the heaty bags. Yeah. And I just microwave it for, it's gotta be three minutes and 40 seconds. It's gotta be because anything less, it just doesn't work right. So three minutes and 40 seconds. And it looks like an owl. So when I'm, when I'm stuffing the owl into my bed,

And the dog is on to me now too. Cause when I carry this thing down to put it in the microwave at night, he is boing, boing, boing right beside me going, what is that? Is that, is it a toy? And his little head, I mean, he four and a half months old, he's kind of like, why are you putting that thing in there? Oh my God, you're going to kill it.

And he wants up, he wants up on that bed and he wants to, and then it's warm on top of it. So I'm like, this dog thinks I'm a serial owl killer because the warmth would, would obviously make it seem like it's alive. Anyway, I have to say our friend, Julie van Rosendahl, friend of the show has, has weighed in on sleeping. I asked Twitter this morning, what do you guys do to fall asleep?

And Julie, God love her, she goes, I imagine myself out in a kayak with my dog or skating while pushing a shovel to clear a snow-covered frozen lake under a starry sky. I think the shovel is to hold myself up. I can't skate in real life without a big shovel or chair. Also, it would take forever to shovel a lake. Thank you, Julie. That's a good one. That is good. It's really beautiful.

Yeah. Visualization is actually really helpful. If you can find the one that works for you, clearly she has. That's a really good one. I like cooking things. Like I will watch Ina Garten videos. I find her voice very relaxing. I'll read recipes because they don't really take a lot of mental energy. And then there's just good old-fashioned Zoppa clone, which I...

highly recommend if you're having sleep issues. What is it? It's the, the brand name is Lunesta, but it's a sleeping, it's called Zopaclone. Um,

And over the counter, you can get something called Unisom as well. That's pretty good. But that one's a prescription drug because I have had insomnia. Like I work mornings because I'm in morning radio. Oh, yeah. I was going to say. I'm up at 430. So like I cannot tell you how much of my life has been spent devoted to trying to tinker with sleep and talking about sleep. And like the co-hosts on the show I'm on, like we all just talk about sleep so much. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, it's interesting about Ina Garten because I think you and Kyle having the white noise machine going and stuff like that, a lot of people do find the sounds of fans helpful or oceans crashing into a wave. And of course, on your phone, you can go on YouTube and get any assortment of noises that could possibly dull your mind. Yeah.

We've talked about ASMR videos on the show as well. Yes. Where you have someone reading you Cinderella in a voice like this and just talking to you about Cinderella and her shoes.

I mean, that might work. Donna MacArthur, another of our Twitter followers. I watch the same movie over and over again so that I don't need to pay attention. And she goes, it works every time. So thank you for that, Donna. I also highly recommend old episodes of the sitcom Frasier.

Because it's a relaxing setting. Kelsey Grammer's voice is so relaxing. The setting is like calm, sleepy Seattle. And it's just very, it's a very calming show. So I highly recommend that one. In addition to an old movie. Don't go away. We'll be right back. You're listening to The Jan Arden Show.

We are so excited to welcome another new sponsor, our friends at Cove Soda. Have I pestered Cove enough to come and join us here at the Jan Arden Podcast? I love them so much. They are Canadian, first of all. They are a natural, certified organic, zero sugar soda, which includes, get this, one big

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And I know it's a conversation that is on everybody's mind is how do you sleep at a time when the world seems to be upside down? I feel like the world is always upside down, but maybe this, it's just me. I don't, I don't remember a time in my 60 years on the planet where there hasn't been some kind of a war going on and, uh, you know, uh, or something happening that's

That causes us to lose sleep. So the worst thing you can do, guys, is look at your phone. I think everyone knows that. We've been told that. The blue screen, a lot of optical companies are now going so far as to put like a blue filter that helps keep those kinds of light, the light that comes off of your iPad or your computer or your iPhone, your Galaxy 9000, that really steals your sleep away. So...

And plus what you're looking at, what you're scrolling, the ever ending scrolling thing that you do and there's no end to it. So you don't come to an end of the scrolling. Right. You're going, it's, it's an, it's an eternity wheel. And I'm guilty of that. I'm totally guilty of the late night scrolling. I, I, I do that every night. Yeah. My therapist has been encouraging me to not even bring my phone into our bedroom because

like get an actual old school alarm clock to wake you up and just leave your phone outside of the bedroom. It's so hard though, because it is like breaking an addiction. But I will say like, I have tried to, ever since the combat really kicked off in Ukraine, I've been trying to reduce the amount of news that I take in when the sun goes down, because that's when we're at our most emotionally vulnerable. Like it's hardwired into our brains.

So that's the time to make that shift and start watching happier stuff and just calming like things that don't take up. Like that's why I watch cooking stuff and recipes or honestly watch some organizational videos like towel folding or whatever, because the news is it's bad and now it's everywhere.

It's in your house all the time. It used to be that people would watch the news or they would sit down and read the newspaper. But now it's just being funneled into your skull every day because of your phone. So and also, if you can find a social media platform that you don't

interact with news sites on like Instagram for me, I really don't do a lot of news stuff. A lot of current events. I try to keep that algorithm towards the animals and interior design and travel and food. So like, at least if I want to scroll through something at night, I'll just take it to Instagram and I won't look at Twitter. W J Volk says touch and smell, use a scent on your body that invokes memories or pleasant thoughts. Um,

For me, it's not for me, for WJ. For me, it's cedarwood and lavender. Then stretch and feel every muscle in your body. Touch soft things. Light back rubs. A calm mind produces a restful brain. I'm not going to disagree there, but I guess the problem is how to keep your mind calm and

I was saying on the break to you guys that, I mean, I'm on a wheel a lot of times, that 3 o'clock in the morning thing where it's so random, so abstract.

And I'm lying there full well going, why are you thinking bizarre things? Yeah, I do that. None of this stuff is ever going to, why are you going down this path? I've been doing a lot of advocacy for, you know, the draft horses being flown to Japan. And it's awful bearing witness to, you know, what happens to animals in any situation, but

That has just been a predominant theme in my mind going to sleep because I worry. I worry about them going out, what happens to them. I hate the fact that someone's eating them and just all that stuff. But your mind really ramps it up when it's dark, when it's 3 o'clock in the morning. So I started doing these breathing exercises. And just scrolling through Twitter, it looks like a lot of you guys are doing that type of thing as well. And I actually found...

of an actual physician that does these, these, these breathing tricks. And it does make sense. I don't do exactly what, what this guy is suggesting, but I do something very similar. And I,

He called it a numbered system. He calls it the 4-7-8 breathing technique. I've done that before. It works. Yeah. I know that one. I didn't know what it was called. I do an 8. So I breathe in 1, 2, 3, 4. I exhale 5, 6, 7, 8.

I stay clear. I don't breathe in one, two, three, four. Then I breathe in five, six, seven, eight. It's my own weird system, but he does the four, seven, eight. So it's touch the roof of your mouth with your tongue. Keep it there throughout the exercise. I've never done that. Exhale forcefully to the point where you make a sound similar to a whoosh. So I would imagine.

Close your mouth, then inhale softly through your nose. And that is important. I do do the nose thing at home. So when I'm counting quietly to myself, I think what happens is I'm counting so I can't, my brain has a hard time compartmentalizing the horses and me thinking about the horses or Ukraine or COVID or divorcing or someone not liking you or work things, like whatever it is that is your three o'clock in the morning issue.

um, I think the actual counting in your head and being forced to go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, you know, and doing that kind of stuff. Anyway, you close your mouth, inhale softly through your nose, hold your breath and count to seven. So a lot of, a lot of us would never be like one, two, three, five, six. It's a, it seems like an eternity to hold your breath.

And then you do it, you repeat it three times. And this guy is saying, it will make you go to sleep. And he said, if it doesn't work, then just do it again. Just repeat it again. So do you guys do anything like that?

I have before. I have totally done that technique. I haven't done it for a while. What I do, and this is probably not the healthiest thing, I sit on the couch on the main floor scrolling through my phone. I try to keep it light. I try not to dark news stories and what's going on in the world. And I literally do that. You've got to stay away from that. Yeah. I try to keep it light. Instagram for me, my algorithm is pretty light. It's mostly food and music.

That's it. I like it. And funny people posting funny reels and stuff. And I literally scroll until I can't see straight and I go upstairs and I pretty much pass out. That's it. I notice a huge difference from scrolling to reading my book. Huge. Night and day. Yeah. If I read my book, I have a good sleep. And if I'm scrolling for whatever reason, I don't. Same.

Yeah, that's why I try to have a book that I can engage with, or at least just like sometimes it'll be good with have like a nonfiction that I can pick up and put down and pick up and put down fiction. I tend to try to plow through where I'll stay awake reading like it almost activates my mind if it's like a cool story.

But, yeah, and I found that a lot of the stuff that that Mr. Falk was, was that his name? Falk? Yeah, the stuff that he's outlining. And a lot of the stuff is just a practice that is in like therapy called grounding. So if you have anxiety and you're trying to ward off an anxiety attack, you use grounding techniques where you name certain things you see. You feel like the ground under your feet or the bed under your back. And then the smell thing is huge. I love that.

a good like scent memory. So, you know, cedar and lavender, he's hitting two of my faves. I have a lavender essential oil in my bedside table that I really like. Yeah, it does help. It does help. And we talked about this before. Vicks Vaporub. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's a go-to for me, a little Vicks Vapor Rub. I have no idea why, but it's a very childhood comforting. Someone is looking after me. Yeah, it's really visceral. I like it. It keeps my nose clear. That's the thing. It's clean. It smells clean. I feel like when I breathe it in really deeply and you get that kind of tingly sensation, I trick myself into thinking that it's cleaning out my brain. It feels like a little inside wash. So I'm into it.

And I do a lot of that. I like to smell stuff.

Yeah. Once your worries get going, it is really hard to make them stop. So I feel like whatever you have to do to get it done, like that's why I'm also like, if you really aren't sleeping, cause I haven't, I have gone through crazy insomnia. You should honestly talk to your doctor. You don't have to go on like an everyday drug for this necessarily. But if you go through these spells, you can get sleep aids that will kick you right back into a sleep schedule. And then you just go off them again in two weeks. Like there is stuff out there in

Sleep is so close to you. Yeah, you can't leave it. You can't leave insomnia for months on end and years on end, which a lot of people do. Yeah, and they just think, oh, this is normal now. They're so de-energized and not in like, you know what I mean? It's almost like you're not checked into your own life when you're not sleeping properly. Mm-hmm.

Well, it's a form of torture in times of war. Speaking of war, of keeping people up. Anyway, we'll be right back. You're listening to The Jan Arden Show. I'm here with Caitlin and Adam. We're talking about sleep today. Don't go away. Hey there, hi there. It's Jan Arden Podcast Show. Here's a funny one. Pain in the neck on Twitter says, I have a nightly ritual.

I stay up ridiculously late watching TV until I pass out. Then I wake up at 3 a.m. freezing and stumble my way up the stairs to the bedroom. Waking up in the morning regretting last night's failure, I solemnly vow not to do it again. Repeats every night. That's why your neck hurts. That's pain in the neck.

Oh, man. Yeah, sleeping outside is something that obviously people used to do a heck of a lot more of. And I've also read articles about how human beings used to sleep on the ground and they would be closer to the magnetic energy. I've read lots of articles about magnetic beds that are supposed to duplicate being part of the Earth's force, the magnetic force. Right.

But I know for you too, Caitlin, you're an outdoors person and I'm sure that makes a huge difference in your sleeping.

Yeah, when we're in the city and you're just going from, you know, work to home to work to home to the gym and stuff. If I don't get outside time, I do notice that after a few days I get this kind of lingering yucky feeling. And I realize, oh, yeah, we need to go outside. We need to go for a solid walk outdoors for more than an hour. And ideally it would be in a park or in some sort of a more wooded area, not just on sidewalks and on streets.

Brickworks in kind of the east end of Toronto is a favorite of ours now. And right now I'm on vacation in kind of the woods in Quebec. And honestly, the woods are a highly underrated mental health resource. Lots of oxygen too, Caitlin. Yeah. Lots of fresh air.

Like legitimately yesterday, I'm not exaggerating. Clearly these birds are accustomed to being fed, but we were, there were some chickadees around. We were going for a walk and my husband held his hand out and a bird landed on his hand. Diddly dee.

It's like you're just sitting here like, come on, like this is good for you. I don't care what anyone says. This is just this is the way it's supposed to be. I love Zaya Tong because she always posts her little earthling tweets and she's doing it. And she said recently, like, I'm not just doing this to kind of showcase how cute animals are. I'm trying to make people feel more connected to the natural world and realize that we share the planet with some pretty amazing things.

And that's kind of also what you get. It's like an appreciation for the here and now and not just everything that exists on your phone and at work and the office and your friends who are annoying you. Like that's the value of going outside and going for a walk. And now doctors get this. Doctors in Canada, like we've talked about this on the show, I think, are prescribing national park passes. Yeah.

Like there's a reason for it. It's very good for you. And it helps your sleep, really helps my sleep. You have to take time to get outside. It is really, really important. I think one of the good things that has come from COVID and because we were facing so many kind of unknowns in the beginning, a lot of restrictions, a lot of things closed down, people were going outside.

They were walking down the street to a park that they hadn't been at since the five years they moved to that neighborhood. They're like, oh, I didn't know this was here. They were walking around the block. People that do that, they're literally in a car, coming home down a highway, coming from work, getting back into their house, just repeating the same thing without ever actually putting their feet on a piece of grass. And certainly if you do live in an urban downtown setting,

You know, you forget that connection with a tree. And you can laugh at me if you want, but every summer, I bet you I hug trees 25 times. I'll just go up to a tree and I throw my arms around it. That's good. I don't know what it's going to do. And I am laughing at myself while I do it because I'm like, hi, tree.

I am going to give you a hug and hopefully you'll give me a little bit of your good mojo. And if anything, it's making me smile because of the silliness of it. And maybe my desire, maybe it's the 10-year-old me hugging that tree that wants to believe in the magic of our connections.

So I think you have to be prepared to not feel silly about the outdoors too. And to find the magic in, you know, that little bird landing on Kyle's hand. And, you know, it's,

It really is something, especially living in Canada, we have so much outdoor space, so many beautiful parks. You know, camping season is almost upon us. Not that I'm a big camper. I'm a glamper. I'm happy to go. I'm happy to go in your $600,000 motorhome. Yes. I'll sit out by the fire. I'll sit out by the fire at night with you guys. And then I will go into my motorhome.

I've done camping for years with my friends. We have the annual boys trip and we go every summer to Huntsville, which is a couple hours north of Toronto near Algonquin Park. And I bet it's invigorating. It is. And it is kind of glamping. Like, yes, we have a tent. Yes, we have a coal and stove. And yes, we cook over a fire. But it's pretty glamping. One year we bought a – because it's a powered site, we brought a deep fryer and we made French fries. Yeah.

One year we brought an espresso maker. We're having espressos in the morning by the fire. You'd like it. It's glamping. If it gets you out, there's some people that are 45 years old that have never, ever done one single night outdoors camping. And you really are missing out. Gather up your friends. Find somebody you can borrow money

you know, some stuff from go with somebody who knows what they're doing. Cause Lord knows there, there are things that can go terribly wrong out there. We were pretty good. After 20 years, we got, we had it down pat. And if you see a group of guys, deep frying a Turkey, you'll know that it's Adam and his friends. Show you pictures. Yeah. Yeah. There was also an article that I read and this, I found really interesting you guys. And it was basically about,

the opposite of what I thought about sleeping. And that was that you can get too much sleep and that too much sleep is not good for your circulation. It's not good for your pulmonary system. It's not good for your brain. It's, it's not good for your joints. It's not good for your muscles. And,

And they're even saying now between four and nine is about where you should be. And some people do really well. Martha Stewart comes to mind because I've read many articles about her. She was a four-hour-a-night max person, and she still is. I couldn't do it. I can't function on four hours. But you really need to trust what works for you. I think a lot of people are like, I didn't get eight hours. I'm going to be tired all day. And you kind of have yourself talked into this –

idea of your energy before you even realize that you don't, four or five hours might be your magic number.

Yeah, it really does depend on the person. Like I, I think I'm okay with six or seven. Like, I don't think I'm, I'm not freaking out if I don't get eight, but if I get eight or nine, I feel better longer throughout the day, the next day, like I'm alert longer. I'm a little more engaged. I'm a little perkier, but six or seven, like that's okay for me. That's also because I've had my number chipped away at because of my hours. Um,

So, yeah, I don't know. It depends. And your clock changes, I think, in life as well. Like I used to be able to sleep in. I cannot sleep in anymore. And so that's why I'm like I'm never going to stay up late because it's not like I'm like, oh, I'll stay up late on a Friday or Saturday because I can sleep in until 10 on Saturday, Sunday. Well, no, I can't. I'm getting up at 7 no matter what. So I have to be in bed.

But at the like, I don't I cannot believe anyone stays up later than midnight, like over the age of 35. I just don't get it. I do.

I'm a 1231 o'clock. 1231 o'clock. No, no, I, that's interesting to me. I, but I also think with kids too, it's probably what a lot of parents find those two, three, four hours where their kids are sleeping and they actually have time to themselves. They call that revenge, bedtime procrastination. Yeah.

There's a name for it because parents do it and I get it and I appreciate it. But if I can just suggest that like some of my friends have done, even with their older children, much to their children's dismay, they insist on their kids going into bed at like seven, seven 30. And I would see, I would see people whose kids were again, like up late and

you know, they didn't care. And I was like, you know what? You do whatever works best for your household. But I'm telling you that when your kid is up until 11 o'clock at night, A, they're tired and cranky the next day. And B, when are you spending any time by yourself? Yeah. A fellow by the name of Jason Goodyear is talking about napping and the dangers in

suddenly finding yourself napping all the time. I used to think napping was something really great that a person did to kind of reinvigorate themselves. My dad came home every day when he was working in a concrete company. He was home at 11 o'clock in the morning. Mind you, he was up at five and he slept for an hour on his couch in his office. So this Jason Goodyear saying frequent daytime naps could be an early warning sign for dementia.

And as he's saying, as you get on in years, most of you will find yourselves more and more in need of the odd afternoon nap. But excessive daytime snoozing could be an early indication of cognitive impairment. Wow. It's overwhelming how much information there is on to-dos and not to-dos. Are we at the end of the segment now, Adam? Yes, please. Well, you have 10 seconds. Okay, well, you have time for a nap, and then we'll be right back. You're listening to The Jan Arden Show. ♪

Welcome back. I hope you had time for a nap. Okay, I need to clarify something here. So the article that I was pulling from, from Jason Goodyear, the study involved people that were 80 years old and older. So any of you that have been panicking, including myself, the impairment in cognitive thinking was presumably caused

would increase because of napping. So anyway, just ignore everything I just said. If you're napping and you're 40 years old, you're okay.

But older people, geriatric, 80 years old and plus, if they're napping on a regular basis, you need to go over to them and wake them up if it's your mother or your father. Got it. Just say, hey, do you want a sandwich? I'm not a napper. Well, I'm not a napper yet. It's just not something that A, interests me. Once I'm up, I'm up.

Like I just, and like Caitlin was saying, I can't sleep in. There's no way. And you've been on this weird clock for so many years, Caitlin, that I don't know. I was going to ask you. So this Monday to Friday gig that you have when you're up so early in the morning to do the morning shows. Yeah. So on the weekends, you guys are going out with friends and stuff. Like,

Even if you're, if you guys do have a late evening that you're out and having fun till like midnight, will you still be up at five o'clock in the morning? No, no. So I, so my natural body clock will never wake me up and keep me awake at five unless I have to go to work. And the only way that I function is with coffee.

So coffee, like I don't have an issue with coffee. Like I know people are always like, oh, I need to reduce my coffee. I don't. I don't need to reduce it. I like it. It dusts off my brain. I don't have a million cups a day. I keep it to a certain milligram dosage so it doesn't impact my sleep. And I wouldn't have like an espresso after dinner, which I think is crazy. But yeah, no, I'm not waking up at five normally. So my regular body clock is like seven, eight.

And so that's usually when I wake up on the weekend. Sometimes if I go to bed really early, like if I go to bed at 10, if I'm asleep at 10, I'm usually up at six. And that's about right for me. But morning showers are cruel and punishing. And as a result, I'm crankier during the week, the whole week. I have no patience for any nonsense. And also like 1 p.m., I'm done. Don't talk to me after 1 p.m. Don't talk to me after 1 p.m.

I just am like, I'm done talking. I've talked enough for 10 years, it feels like. So between one and four, I don't really want to talk. I usually will try to go to the gym at like five. So yeah, no, I'm done talking for the day at one o'clock. I know there are people who still, they drive me nuts. Like I've been doing this job for 11 years and they'll call me on the phone to talk at two in the afternoon. I'm like, okay.

No. What is happening? Have you been bit by a rabid raccoon? I'm never answering that call. I just text you. I just, I just, honest to God, it's so seldom that I even call people anymore. And even with you, Caitlin, if you and I have a business call, um,

You will text me and say, are you up for a call? I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that because it gives me an, you know, for one thing, you don't have to call and let it ring and ring and then have to leave a message and say, and then text me and say, I just left you a voicemail. Like you're skipping that step. Yeah.

And I love it when I get the heads up. I just do. Same. And if people, you know what? And honestly, if I miss, if like, I thought if someone calls me and I miss their call, I'll usually text them back and like, let them know like, oh, I was doing this or whatever. But we've had the conversation around phone call etiquette on our morning show a million times. And I'm the outlier of the group where I'm like, I'm,

I'm a texter like I don't really talk on the phone that often because I talk for a living so I'm a bit out of things to say when I'm not working the only person I'll cold call is like my parents and vice versa and I think that's generational like I'm a big texter and I'm at the I'm of the etiquette I will text you can I call you I'll do that

Yeah. Yeah. I remember talking on the phone to boyfriends and stuff back in the day before bed. I don't know if you guys did that, but the sleep thing made me think of it. I'm like, I would stay up so late on the phone with a boyfriend. I was like, what? Something you would never do in your 30s. Like the idea of foregoing sleep for a phone conversation. That is hell now.

We have had some of the funniest Twitter comments on how to fall asleep. And I want to get to a few more of these before we sign off.

Darlene G., who's an avid fan of the show and listens every week. Thank you, Darlene. Hi, Darlene. Yes, I know who she is. Hi, Darlene. I smooth the pillow for the 10th time, turn it over many times. This could be me, Darlene. Toss and turn, get up to pee, check on all these things, open the window, get up to close the window. Done that a million times. Yes.

I close the window because I'm a bit cold. Smooth the pillow again. Fix my pajama top that has wrapped around me. I finally put on a calm sleep story and hope. Which is very funny. All of those things that I do, I'm constantly flipping pillows. Do any of you guys have restless leg syndrome or do you know anyone that has restless leg syndrome? We've had a few people comment about my legs keep me up at night.

That can't be fun. No. Yeah, the old Jimmy legs. The Jimmy legs. So is it just moving your legs around or is it, it must be aching legs. Like restless legs, you just need the, I'm going to look that up, folks. It's one thing that I did not really do much on.

research on? That's a sign of exhaustion to me when I'm usually it happens on a plane. And I know why, because that's like my body's way of saying get up and walk around so you don't get a blood clot probably. But if I'm really tired at the end of the day, this will usually be it'll hit me like a cottage weekend. We'll be with a bunch of friends sitting in the living room by the fire. And I'll be on the couch. And even if I'm stretched out, I just like can't stretch enough. And I realized, oh my god, I need to go to bed. Like I just have to go to bed.

Maybe it's oxygen related because you take in so much more when you're sleeping. I don't know. But I know that feeling and it stinks. And once it sets in, it can offset your sleep by a little while. Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of people are talking about the audio books. A lot of people are talking about the calm apps. A lot of people are talking about having their diffuser by their bed and the sound of the diffuser with like their favorite essential oil kind of just helping the room, which I think is important. Um, some people are talking about exercising late at night, which I find really surprising. Um, Bruce Allen, my manager, um,

He goes to the gym, you know, he's, he's a real gym guy, but he goes at the end of a work day. And I'm like, Oh my God, how? Like I do it before nine o'clock in the morning. Like I'm up, I get up, I have a cup of tea. I kind of,

Shake, give my head a shake and go downstairs and get it done. Yeah. He's like leaving the office after work and going to work out. But he says it really helps him sleep. Yeah. I was just going to say, I was, I was imagining Bruce working out at like 11 o'clock at night, but I also work out post nap at 5 p.m.

During the week, because that's when my husband and I will go to the gym together or we see a trainer and we'll go see him together. So that's just a byproduct of scheduling, really. But it does help me sleep, elevates my mood a little bit. I just feel like I've accomplished something good for myself, which sort of like checks a box in my brain and I enjoy it. Do you find that since you stopped drinking, your sleep has improved?

Oh my gosh, Caitlin, a 1 million percent. And also as we come to the end of it, everyone, even if you have one glass of wine, I think as you get older, people often say, you know, I fell asleep really quickly, but then I woke up three hours later. Another person, and I will mention this really quickly, is a lot of people have talked about gummies. I'm not a huge gummy person, but people swear by getting the right gummies.

a combo of gummies and they take a gummy and they wake up seven or eight hours later, they haven't moved and they feel rested and relaxed. This one woman was saying, you know, she's like 65 years old and discovering gummies and having her kid talk her into the gummies. She said, I cannot believe I didn't do this like 30 years ago. I don't think there was gummies 30 years ago. So you're off the hook.

And one last thing I'm going to tell you the quick hack to know if you're new to gummies, you always want the indica strain for bedtime and think of indica as in the couch. This is the sleep strain. In the couch. Indica. Okay.

You've been listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. I hope you guys have learned something today or I hope this has been helpful. I'm here with Caitlin and Adam as usual every week. We have a new podcast. Hit subscribe so it just pops up on your feed and you don't have to go looking for us. Leave us a review. We appreciate you guys listening more than you could ever possibly know. Look after yourselves. The best is yet to come. Toodle-oo-doo.

This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.