131. Reduce Stress for Hormone and Sleep Optimization with Dr. Farah Sultan

Dr. Farah Sultan 0:05

cortisol and melatonin have an opposite relationship. Anytime cortisol goes up you know melatonin is in the tank

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:16

Welcome to the your longevity blueprint podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life. You're about to hear from Dr. Farah Sultan who will share how we can optimize our sleep balance our hormones and better manage stress. Let's get started. Thanks for joining me for another episode of The your longevity blueprint podcast. today. My guest is Dr. Ferris Alton, who's a medical doctor and double board certified in family medicine and functional and regenerative medicine. She has trained and worked in three continents in India, UK and the US. She's a medical director and CEO of Vitalogy wellness and med spa and as a founder of the Mandela method. She's an international award winning speaker and expert in sleep and hormone balance and has helped 1000s of women regain their sleep, energy and youthfulness without the use of addictive prescription medications. She lives with her husband of 23 years and three children in Birmingham, Alabama and loves to travel, read garden cook and is into biohacking. Welcome to the show. Dr. Sultan.

Dr. Farah Sultan 1:21

Thank you, Stephanie. So great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 1:24

Well, tell us your story. So how did you become so passionate about optimizing sleep and managing stress and then go on to really speak about that?

Dr. Farah Sultan 1:31

Yes. So I think most of us have gone through our own stories. And then we are able to help others to recoup rest rate of sleep. So when I was going through my residency, it was a very stressful time, I was up all night, and then had to work all day, the next day, to the point that one day, I was actually pregnant with my first child and driving home and I fell asleep on the wheel. And someone just honked at me when I just woke up before hitting the side of the highway. And so that was such a wake up call for me. And it was really a matter of prioritizing my sleep because it was crazy the hours that we work in our training and residency as doctors, and we don't do enough of self care to take care of the others that were helping. And then I had another health crisis straight after my delivery of my first baby where I had an emergency C section. And that was some really fearful moments for me because everything was crashing, my heart rate, my blood pressure, my oxygen saturation, and so was my babies and we were rushed to the emergency C section ended up in the neonatal ICU. And then after several days, we made it back home. And then I found that my body was just not right, it was not functioning normally. I had upset tummy, I had weight gain, I had a fatigue and insomnia. Fast forward, I found out I had Hashimotos I had IBS I had underlying gut infections, food sensitivities. And despite numerous attempts with all my medical training, I couldn't find the answers and the help I needed until I had to figure it out, get extra training, which I'm sure you've been through something similar. And that's when I decided that this was going to be my life's purpose and passion is to help others restore and recover their health, their sleep their hormones, to make them live a fulfilled life. And if I could do it so good

Dr. Stephanie Gray 3:50

others as money on on this show, the last question I asked that I prepped you for is to always ask my guests their top longevity tip. And typically, I would say the most common answer is sleep to really optimize sleep. It's just very important. And it's the most common answer and it's okay if that's your institute. But why do you think that is? So why is sleep such a game changer when it comes to longevity.

Dr. Farah Sultan 4:14

So if you imagine sleep is 1/3 of our lives are spent sleeping. And it is where all the restoration functions happen. And that is really the game changer when it comes to longevity but also not just living longer, but improving the quality of life. So whether it comes to your metabolism and weight loss, whether it comes to brain and cognitive function, or building lean muscle mass, so you're strong and lean throughout life and even in old age, as well as prevention of heart disease, strokes, cancers, dementia, so sleep is really your hidden superpower. And if you are not sleeping, you are really missing out. So imagine if there was this super wonder drug that was able to turn back the clock for you. It really and it's absolutely free it is sleep, because sleep can help you to do all these respirator functions. It is really like cleaning your system out and giving yourself a reboot. Whether you're stressed out whether you're exposed to toxins, if you're not sleeping, you really are losing out. It's almost like being a smoker or a diabetic to begin with.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 5:41

What should we shoot for? For those of us who track our sleep, like I'm wearing an aura ring a lot of my guests have, and YouTube probably has a biohacker, as your bio alluded to, what should we shoot for in regards to deep sleep and REM sleep? And can you speak to some of that? Sure.

Dr. Farah Sultan 5:55

So one of the things is there isn't a magic number. And yes, it varies, but anywhere between six to eight hours is great. If you're sleeping less than six hours, you probably are not performing at your mind 100%. And maybe in your 20s, you were able to get by with just four hours of sleep. But as we get older, even in our late 30s, it's just a matter of prioritizing sleep. And also studies have shown that sleeping excessively greater than nine to 10 hours a day on a long term basis is also counter beneficial and can increase mortality rates. And that's why do you know what your sweet spot is? Yes, these devices are the thing of the future, where we will even just like we have Alexa, we will have thermostats tell us when our body temperature and our room temperature can be synced. So we can sync it with asleep time and fall asleep easily and even sync our darkness in our rooms with the curtains and blinds and things like that. So we will have technology we can be as you know, good and bad. And devices have really played havoc with our sleep. But they can also be used to our advantage to help us sleep better.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 7:25

Let me go back though I want to go back I want your opinion on the deep in the room. Because honestly, I can speak to this. I've had you know nights where I sleep eight hours, but I get really crappy sleep. Or maybe I only get seven but I get really good sleep. So yes, we can say six to eight. But I feel like there's more to that we got to dig deeper. So what's your opinion on the deep in the REM hours we should be looking for. As you

Dr. Farah Sultan 7:47

know, we go through these cycles of 90 minutes where you go through the deeper and the lighter sleep stages, which can be anywhere from four to six such cycles in a night. And so what the studies show is that both the REM sleep, where we actually dream is really key, especially when it comes to relieving stress, being creative, retaining our memories and learning process, as well as really things like trauma and emotions, that we can really get a leg up if you're in that REM sleep. And REM sleep occurs usually later in the night. And you can have as little as 45 minutes to an hour and still wake up restfully remember your dreams. And then the non REM sleep, which is the deeper sleep but not associated with the REM movements is also key and which occurs in the initial phase of sleep, which is really important for memory to be made. So the superficial brain centers then transfer memory to the deeper cortical areas during that initial phase of non REM sleep. And so if you sleep, say 90 minutes, and then you're wide awake, that could be working against you. So we and that has to do with your cortisol, your insulin, the environment, all these toxins, all of that if those are in balance, you can sleep restfully through the night with out the use of prescription addictive medications.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 9:33

For sure. I want to go back to dreams. We in a in a moment. I've had past guests that I've kind of asked the same question that I just asked you like how much deep in REM sleep should we get? And the common answer that I get is combined we can get upwards of three hours which for some patients is really hard. I can hit that not all the time but but I have patients who come to me and they're getting 15 minutes of deep sleep and 30 minutes of REM and they're showing me and i That's why I like the data because the when they say I wake up, not feeling fully rested, I can say, well, I know why she literally, even if you're in bed for 10 hours, if you're only getting, you know, 45 minutes combined deep in REM that's just not enough. And I think that's where supplements that medications with supplements can help and changing the environment, lifestyle and whatnot. But would you agree that maybe three hours of combined deep in REM would be amazing? If able to a minimum? Yes, yeah, yep. Let's go back to dreams. You said something about remembering dreams? Do we want to be able to remember our dreams? Or what's your opinion on it?

Dr. Farah Sultan 10:31

Maybe not nightmares and night terrors. But yes. So dreaming historically, as you know, are associated with creation and memories. So the periodic table was dreamed up the formula for the benzene ring, and songs by the Beatles. And the doors were literally in the stages of deep REM sleep and dreaming that it occurred, especially that time just before waking up early in the morning. And so really, if you have something that is unresolved, or even some emotions that happened during the day, or something that you've been thinking about, dreaming is really that stage because people say why dream? What is the purpose of dreaming. And so because literally, you could be totally psychotic, right, and your dreams, during unimaginable things, or places, and so, and hallucinating and delusional bed, and then you're totally back to reality. So why even dream. But the key to dreaming is that it does play this key role in our emotions, to really kind of help with things like trauma, anxiety, depression, stress, but it also helps us make memories and to be creative. So if we didn't dream, we wouldn't be half as creative as we are. And that's one reason why alcohol can really impair things like deep sleep, as well as memory and creativity, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 12:19

So what about patients who say I never dream? I never dream? Is it possible that they're just not getting deep in REM sleep, and that's why they're not dreaming.

Dr. Farah Sultan 12:27

And I've had people say they had stopped dreaming. And when they were able to restore their sleep, they were able to start dreaming again. And they were so pleasantly surprised. They were like I haven't dreamed in years. And now I'm dreaming again. And so yes, you should be dreaming, and you should be remembering your dreams, ideally. And, you know, dreams can be linked, as you can imagine, to the day's events or things that have been on your mind. They may be in a different realm in the dream, but they kind of make sense and are correlated.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:02

I've been told at one point, I haven't thought about dreaming in a while until this interview. But I've been told at one point that dreaming is where you convert some short term memory into long term memory, is that correct? That's right. And the reason why we may have some really weird dreams, like maybe let's say you found out, I'm making this up, your aunt had lung cancer, the same day, your son gave you a sticker of a purple elephant, you may have a dream of your aunt writing a purple elephant. Your body is kind of connecting the dots from the day trying to convert short for long term memory. But you may end up with these really weird dreams. Is that an accurate?

Dr. Farah Sultan 13:37

Not at all? It's it's totally true. And so I've found that exact same scenario happened that I've connected some things in a vague, weird manner, but it's so interesting.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:51

So how is hormone balance connected to sleep? I have my own opinion on this. But let me hear, let me hear your answer to that. It is

Dr. Farah Sultan 14:01

most definitely related to hormonal balance. And so when we think of hormones, usually we think of sex hormones or female hormones. And yes, they do play a huge role. Because it's complex. It's not hormones by themselves, but it's this interplay between our brain our the whole hypothalamic pituitary adrenal, gonadal axis, but also our insulin and cortisol, all Interplay along with our gut health. So these two systems are always in crosstalk. And that's why especially in women who undergo such dramatic changes in their hormones, whether it's in puberty, whether it's their childbearing years, whether it's perimenopause or menopause. So with these changes in the hormonal levels, it can certainly impact sleep, especially risks. all sleep, but also mood memory, brain fog, all of those things. And so anytime there's a shift in any of these hormones, especially hormones that are so protective of the brain, then it will impact sleep in more ways than one. And so that's why it's important to know that to measure that, to balance that, and you don't have to take a hormone as a prescription to do that, although I do help women and men with bioidenticals. But there are many things even prior to that that can help. And more importantly, it's not enough to just say, measure hormones and give someone hormones but really the interplay between the immune system, the gut, the friendly gut bacteria, as well as the stress and the insulin, so your blood sugar balance, all that plays a role in your ability to sleep through the night and stay asleep and wake up rested and falling asleep as well.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:09

Yes, yes, I'm gonna reshape kind of how you answer that question. That's a good answer. But many times I tell patients that having low progesterone, you know, may contribute to problems falling asleep, and then low estrogen could contribute to problems staying asleep if they're waking up with hot flashes, and those vasomotor symptoms, night sweats, whatnot, that as you were kind of mentioning high cortisol, or given low glucose, patient's blood glucose is dropped in the middle the night those reasons are those can be explanations for why patients are waking up in the middle of the night. I want to I want to go multiple directions. But let's stay on the topic of cortisol, high cortisol for a minute here because stress being in that fight or flight mode can really raise cortisol, which can impact our ability to sleep. I guess you tell us maybe I just answered the question I'm gonna ask you tell me why you think stress is the biggest wrecking ball for our hormones that are asleep?

Dr. Farah Sultan 17:03

Yes. So we really don't attribute enough as to how much of a role cortisol can play in terms of our sleep. So as cortisol buries through the day, where it normally should be up in the day and down at night, a lot of us especially with changes in our lifestyle, with devices with the light and really literally with the flick of a switch that has interfered not only with our circadian rhythm and our melatonin secretion, so cortisol and melatonin have an opposite relationship. And anytime cortisol goes up, you know, melatonin is in the tank, and whereas it should be the other way around. And so anytime you have a spike in cortisol, and whether it's in the beginning of the night, or towards the middle of the night, it will make you wired, and you're wide awake. So whether you're a night owl or a morning lark, you may still experience a real trouble either going to sleep and staying asleep. So cortisol can literally wreak havoc with even the other hormones, even if they're in perfect harmony and balance. If the cortisol isn't where it needs to be. It can totally put everything else in disarray and prevent one from sleeping. But luckily, we can measure it. And we can do things about it without again having to use drugs.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 18:33

I tell patients cortisol is our biggest hormone hijacker, it'll rob us of that calming progesterone. So getting cortisol in check seems to be the key here. So tell us how can we do this without hormones we can get to hormones, but what are some of your favorite lifestyle tips and for keeping cortisol down in an effort to balance our hormones, right and keep us asleep? What are some top tips there?

Dr. Farah Sultan 18:54

Again, there are so many things we can do just with meditation, being mindful, deep breathing, anything we can do to have our parasympathetic system to be the more dominant system rather than the sympathetic system, which is the tired and wired compared to the rest and digest system will really be a game changer. And for that you can do so many non pharmacological and non supplemental things too. So I do believe in the journaling, the meditation, the deep breathing, that just the mindfulness, all those things. And then even during the day, exposure to sunlight, our rhythm that is our natural clock is in sync with the sun. So getting out in the sun, making sure the room is dark and cool and noise free can make such a big difference. And in terms of the cortisol, then yes, the next step would Be the supplements, there are many adaptogens that can really have been around for centuries that can make such a big difference in helping with the sleep and balance that cortisol.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:13

Can you mentioned some of those, what are your favorite top adaptogenic herbs.

Dr. Farah Sultan 20:16

So I love the Yunnan because it has absolutely no side effects. And it especially for staying asleep. And all it does is calm the brain, it's a green tea extract with no caffeine. So that's one of my favorites. And then ashwaganda Rhodiola and Magnolia extracts are and Phosphatidyl serine would be my other favorite ones along with magnesium itself that can really really impact the quality of the sleep as well. So not just in terms of falling asleep, but staying asleep.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:52

Agreed I love the onion, it's probably one of my favorite supplements. And the downside is it has a very short half life. So for many patients that have to use it multiple times a day, or if they take some if asleep and then they wake up they may need to take more to get back to sleep, which is fine, doesn't interact with anything. It's even safe for pregnant ladies. So that's one of my go to have frightened patients to with insomnia, yes, and children. So huge fan of that tell us let's I guess let's go to another way to balance our hormones. So we just kind of talked about keeping stress down lifestyle practices for helping and supplements that can help manage stress and cortisol. But what are some other tips for balancing our hormones before we get to hormone replacement therapy.

Dr. Farah Sultan 21:31

So definitely food first, and nutrition. So avoiding foods that are laden with toxins because they can interfere with our hormones. So Xeno estrogens that come from outside the body can have a big role in causing more estrogen dominance. And that further suppresses progesterone, which is the one that helps with sleep and brain function in the foods itself. The timing of eating matters, too. So if you eat especially a heavy meal, at least two to three hours prior to sleep, that will then help you sleep better. Because your insulin, your cortisol, your immune system is not working over time. And if you have hypoglycemia, you're diabetic and have a small snack at that time. That may be okay. But yes, intermittent fasting has multiple benefits, including for sleep and for balancing hormones. Other things that one can do is exercise. So exercising itself can help us balance our hormones better. And we can do make sure our gut health is going. So if you don't have a bowel movement, that's normal every single day. Again, that can interfere with your hormone balance, especially between estrogen and progesterone. And you're recirculating these estrogens that are then causing a ton of problems including hormonal imbalance, leading to weight gain and irritability, moody as and even eventually risk of breast cancer. And then there are natural supplements that can also help. For example, I love Chasteberry and vytex. And even the B vitamins, fish oil, vitamin D zinc, that can really help us and the cruciferous vegetables, balanced our hormones, which in turn can help us balance asleep better. And then we can always measure our adrenal hormones. I love DHEA pregnenolone. But again, not in everyone and not long term. So always the right amount, right, the Goldilocks phenomena and not too much, not too little just right and monitoring it. Here's it, go forward, and that'd be it. No, you gotta keep an eye on pins.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 23:57

You mentioned food first. So let's go back to food just to clarify for the audience. So you're saying some foods can contain Xeno estrogen so which foods are you saying not to eat and then you mentioned some foods to eat like the cruciferous vegetables which would be more like for the listener just to explain broccoli, cauliflower blocboy kohlrabi foods that when you cut them there's a character across there. So like not spinach, but the cruciferous vegetables a kale actually does count. So tell us what foods we should not be eating again for our hormones and which foods specifically like name them If

Dr. Farah Sultan 24:30

so, the foods especially when it comes to proteins, make sure they are organic, grass fed or pasture raised, because when they are being injected, these animals with hormones are being fed corn and soy. It's like we're eating those foods and they are interfering with our hormones. When it comes to soy, especially GMO soy which is abundant even in healthy foods as soil acident it can interfere with a farmer. So it's not like soy is bad, but the kind of soy that most of us are exposed to and obey also avoiding fish that is farm raised instead of sustainably odd because it can be toxic with mercury and other PCBs. And we want to avoid those kinds of foods that are highly sprayed with pesticides because they go into your liver into your fatty tissue in your breast is a fatty tissue. And they can also again occupy the receptors that normally would be occupied by your hormones like estrogens and interfere with hormone balance and the foods that you want to eat more of our herbs, spices, so ginger, garlic, tumeric. I love those onions, as well as carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, that whole family and also you have grapeseed extract, like resveratrol. So all of these foods actually help you and support your liver, which is your biggest organ for detoxing excessive Xeno estrogens from your body naturally. So you're just supporting those pathways by eating these foods.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:17

Totally agree I'm gonna You mentioned me but I'm gonna throw in dairy also, because you were saying how important it is to eat organic proteins like your chicken, right poultry, but also red meat? Well, what comes from cows is not just red meat, but dairy products. And then those dairy products you know, those cows are not just injected with hormones, they eat them old lady and grains, then we get them help from them. That's stored in plastic. I mean, there's layers and layers of endocrine disrupting chemicals with dairy consumption. And yes, organic is better. Yes, optimal organic when you can but but all these little steps can really add up as you're mentioning to improving our hormones and our sleep and whatnot. What are your thoughts on EMFs and sleep disruption?

Dr. Farah Sultan 26:57

Yes, so I definitely am a big proponent of setting your cell phone to airplane mode when you sleep. But even those pesky electronics can emit when you have Wi Fi now you have 5g So EMFs are dirty electricity can also play a role in interfering especially with hormones like cortisol, which can then interfere directly with the quality of sleep

Dr. Stephanie Gray 27:24

Totally agree you can easily get a cheap outlet timer to plug in to the outlet that your router right for your Wi Fi is plugged into and then you can set it we've done this before role art will set it from 11pm to 5am My husband's up really early so he wants the internet at 5am But I don't want him going while we're sleeping. So you can get a very cheap outlet timer or we even then we upgraded to a system where we can just with the click of a button cut the juice to whatever rooms and outlets in the house we want to shut off any sort of dirty electricity yeah shut off the Wi Fi so

Dr. Farah Sultan 27:55

the growing brains of our kids

Dr. Stephanie Gray 27:58

yes and that again with my aura ring I can track my sleep is always better when there's no interference with the EMFs so tell us can you kind of tell us your sleep routine your sleep hygiene like on a daily basis and things that you incorporate? Maybe it's everything you said but don't hold back tell us what you what you do.

Dr. Farah Sultan 28:16

It's really starts in the morning. I do love grounding like I feel I've missed out if I'm in a hotel and can go barefoot and stand on the grass outside with the sunshine on my face early in the morning. I do like to start with good hydration meditation. And yes I do check my aura ring. I do intermittent fasting. So in the morning, I do love my coffee so I haven't black and I do add some mushrooms and ashwaganda to my coffee and then in the evening routine. I tried to get out in during lunchtime in the sun as well. And then evening as soon as I like to actually one of my favorite things to do is to watch the sunset with my family and then my blue glasses, blue blocker glasses come out and I feel they're a game changer in terms of helping the melatonin rise and Dimming the lights. I am a big fan of turning the intensity of the bright lights down approaching bedtime and then again at bedtime with dinner. Just that sense of leaving work alone because work is always going to be there and spend quality time with my family with my kids having dinner together having a nice conversation. Then I do like to take chamomile tea. I do enjoy that and that's part of the fasting so even you have water or herbal teas accounts with the fasting. I do like to take a warm shower before bedtime. I even do saunas just before the shower with infrared light, which can also help not only release the toxins that help with better sleep. I do have with chili pad on my bed to lower the temperature, my husband and I will use it at different temperatures. So I like mine lower, like you mentioned Stephanie turning out the Wi Fi on my phone and, and trying not to use devices. I prefer reading actual print book. That's like the best. And then I do take my supplements. And so magnesium is along with. And I do take progesterone, bio identical, as well as taking the something like the dnn. I love that. And I'll take it in the evening time too, just to kind of get me in the right mood. I've used mouth taping, which is something we didn't talk about your breathing and your breath and how sleep apnea can also really interfere. So I actually have the opposite problem. I clenched my teeth, so I do use a retainer at night. So I don't have a problem of snoring and opening my mouth at night. But that can be a game changer to use mouth taping, I do like to also use music or meditation while falling asleep. Even if I'm in a hotel room that always works. Even if I'm in a different strange surrounding it helps me drinking filtered water to take out the toxins. All of that, I would say some of the things that I have found to be getting changed.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 31:27

Yeah, thank you for sharing, sharing that walk us through your day. If I ask you a question about the chilli pad, as I was looking into those, and you see biohackers using them, and it'll suddenly they're showing up on your social media and whatnot. I was concerned which may be you know the answer this but I was concerned about like the EMFs from the chilli pad. Do you know if they're emitting much or what the obviously it has to be plugged into something?

Dr. Farah Sultan 31:50

Yes. So the cooler which is the cooler is plugged in. But the actual mattress is really just a series of tubes through which water is running. And the video is whatever, you can control that temperature. So it'll go down in the night and then in the day, in the morning, you don't need an alarm clock to wake you up. It'll just gradually warm up. And then it's when it's an you can set it wakes up so it's connected to an app. And yes, that was my concern too. And so I don't have the latest version, it hasn't come out yet. But they are specifically addressing that in the new version that's coming out happy to hear

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:32

that I would have thought like all these biohackers would know this. So like of course they have to be looking for like a lower EMF version. But with the chilli pad Did you notice like knowing that you were in ordering, did that help your sleep really,

Dr. Farah Sultan 32:45

because you know, now the third generation measures your body temperature. And sometimes I would just find that it's saying that my sleep wasn't as great when my body temperature was up. And so that has really helped so you can objectively track your data in terms of how closely temperature along with heart rate variability. And of course, deep sleep is related to the depth of your sleep and your readiness score. And then of course, your activity. What I didn't mention was the exercise because exercise helps with better sleep at night, but not too close to bedtime.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 33:24

Right? Or that will raise your cortisol Yeah, I'm gonna have to get one of those chilli pads. But I'll wait for the latest and greatest version. Yeah, anything else you want to share about improving sleep reducing stress, a thing that we didn't cover today.

Dr. Farah Sultan 33:35

So one thing is many people try to make up for a sleep deficit, especially on a weekend. But really what you want to do is to have a schedule, whether it's the weekend or not, so you want to try to go to bed the same time and get up at the same time. And if you can get up without an alarm clock and the snooze button awesome, because that's one of the rudest ways that you can wake your body up.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 34:00

You're not saying I can't map you're just saying don't try to like Oh, I'm only gonna get five hours of sleep at all nap three hours tomorrow you're saying that's not how this works three lost hours in the night is not made up by three gained hours you know if you sleep during the day, I think is what your

Dr. Farah Sultan 34:15

are sleeping and later because you've been partying all night on a Friday night. So you actually still lose your memory. And especially if it's laced with alcohol or nicotine at home make it worse. But napping the thing with that is you want to try to do it before 3pm And if you do a power nap for about 20 minutes only not more than 40 minutes so that it is not interfering with your sleep.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 34:42

What about one alcohol absolutely impacts sleep. So if you don't have an ordering, you probably already have realized if you break alcohol you may wake up in the middle of night or wake up earlier that you want. So I totally agree and that we can track that with a ring now. But to so I am the type of Napper. Not that this happens commonly that I like to nap until my body wakes up. Because then I feel like I'm in that sleep cycle. Like, I'll get through whatever cycle I need to, and I just want my body wake up. But what if that's more than 40 minutes? What if it's 70 minutes or whatnot? I feel like that's acceptable, because I'm letting my body get the rest of and wake up without an alarm or whatnot. How do you feel about that

Dr. Farah Sultan 35:19

in the morning, that's fine. But if it was, say, an afternoon nap, that kind of a break in the day where you're napping, and probably your body would be waking you up before such a long nap, unless you really had a very short time to sleep in the night. And then yes, maybe you were in deficit, and you were making up for that. But yeah, and you would have seen that with your aura ring that it'll say like, you know, even the time spent in bed matters, not just the duration of the sleep, and that can actually improve your score. So yes, I agree. That is okay, that you listen to your body. And if you have to get up a little later, because maybe you went to bed a little late or had something going on, but trying to stick to a schedule does help, generally, but the thing about napping and talking more about an afternoon nap, then you want to try to do it see after lunch, because many cultures do that in Spain with siesta time. And there's nothing wrong with that. And maybe our ancestors did it too. Maybe there was a lull in the afternoon, when the sun was up and they were in the shade. But then they were up it wasn't for hours, right? Of course. Yeah, for survival too.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 36:39

I am by the time this podcast airs, I don't know how old my son will be. But right now he's three. And so he's just getting out of naps, which is very unfortunate. Find a nice on the weekends, when after lunch, he wants to take a nap. And that's what I'm saying well lay down too. And he may sleep much longer than I do. But I'm just kind of letting my body wake up. And then it's interesting to see how the aura ring picks up that nap and adjust my sleep score. Usually it improves the sleep score, which is just you know, exciting to have that that data but I think the time for naps may be quickly fading.

Dr. Farah Sultan 37:10

And that's a whole another chapter really in that. You know, young moms with young babies and sleep.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 37:18

Yeah, yes, we won't go there yet. But they need more sleep. It's okay. Well, thank you for coming on the show today. I do want to wrap up with a few last questions. Tell us where listeners can find you find out what your website is. And I know you have a free gift as well.

Dr. Farah Sultan 37:31

I'm on Tiktok and Instagram as at Ferris Alton MD and my website is Vitalogy wellness and Med Spa. And as a free gift offering masterclass with stress, Lee peldon hormones,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 37:47

and we'll post that link in the show notes for sure. So last question. You've given us a lot of tips today, but what's your absolute top longevity?

Dr. Farah Sultan 37:54

I would say sunshine and circadian rhythm because that we have lost our circadian rhythm and I see so many people work the graveyard shift and have some of the worst sleeps and cortisol levels and so really sticking to your body's natural clock and syncing it with that of the sun can really help.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:17

Well that sunshine not many people have said that. Well thanks again for coming on the show today and sharing with our listeners how and why they should improve their sleep and reduce stress. You again provided lots of tips today all very much welcome. Thank you so much.

Dr. Farah Sultan 38:29

Thank you. That was amazing. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:37

I truly enjoyed hearing all the habits she incorporates on a daily basis to better her health, reduce stress and improve her sleep. She encouraged me to look back into that chili pad or at least until I get one keep the temperature down in my house at night. I mentioned this on the show before but again as a reminder, if you need help creating an EMF free sleep sanctuary contact EMF hyphen pollution, Ivan solutions.com. This can help you locate EMF producing sources clean up your dirty electricity in the home and reduce your energy usage that can help you install asleep switch to turn off all electricity raising your body voltage while in bed and ultimately reduce your exposure to EMF radiation in your home while you sleep at night with EMF mitigation. That sounds silly but it's made a world of a difference in the sleep of our household. Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time the course is 50% off. Check this offer out at your longevity blueprint.com and click the Course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. Leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I do read all the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics guests and for how you're applying what you learn on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. This podcast is produced by Team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and remember wellness is waiting

the information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority