Mat Lock
Filipa, welcome back to the podcast. It's great to have you with us today. I'm really excited to dive into today's conversation. It's a subject that you and I have talked about before. And I know it's one that relates to you and I both personally, but I suspect anyone listening to this will be able to relate to it as well. But before we start, I mean, you are without question, one of Australia's leading functional medicine practitioners, which is why we're very, very lucky to have you with us today. But for those who are not familiar familiar with functional medicine, could you maybe just tell us a little bit about that, so that we can have a baseline before we move on to talk about sleep?
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, cool. So functional medicine is it sits in the natural therapies. And it's about rather than treating symptoms, we want to treat the root cause of health issues. So it's different to say a GP GPS, medical specialists, amazing testing, which is great and needed, but they're really testing for diseases and like nasty conditions, rather than functional medicine side of things is looking for those functional imbalances in the body systems, and preventing from things like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, all that sort of stuff before there's niggly little symptoms get worse.
Mat Lock
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So so very much adopting a much more preventative, and holistic approach to wellness.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, so we do use, like we do use medicines, natural medicines, not pharmaceuticals. But really like the root cause of people's health issues, goes far beyond just taking a bunch of supplements to restore the body, you then need to look at sleep, nutrition, lifestyle, relationships, the way that you think and feel and behave. So that is, like the ultimate of functional medicine, looking at all those areas.
Mat Lock
Absolutely, you are speaking my language. Now, amongst the amongst the sort of the three headlines under which we operate, and that's mind and the Center for assets, anything to do with the head basically. And that could be talking about the self determination theory, from the world of positive psychology of reframing, negative self talk, you know, the whole intrinsic motivation, people out peace, a purpose, you know, are why we then have certainly maintenance, which absolutely relates to a lot of what you're talking about maintaining sort of all aspects of fundamental lifestyle, lifestyle topics. And, you know, she said, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and so on. And then of course, movement. From our perspective, super important. But the purpose of today, and I know that we could talk about a number of those topics in great detail, and I would love to do so. But for today, the idea of Stuart to really take a deep dive into something that eludes many people, myself included, and has all sorts of ripple effects for basically every aspect of our life. And, of course, what I'm talking about is sleep. Which is something does it or should do it. Well, that's right. Some states we do do it. But we should probably do more of it most of us and, and have a higher level of quality. Sleep for sure. But I think it's really interesting to start with. And I know we're gonna dive into how some tips, tricks and techniques that you have for how to sleep better. And that's really important. But it's probably better to start with, I think, why it's so important that we improve our sleep.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, yes, sorry. From a functional medicine sort of healing perspective, our body repairs when we're asleep. So if you're not sleeping, and sleeping, the amount that your body needs, then issues are going to happen so your body can start breaking down, your immune system becomes suppressed. Your neurotransmitters like your brain literally start becomes damaged when you're not sleeping. Then you've got things like your stress, hormones can go out of whack, your circadian rhythm will go out of whack. And that can affect other things throughout the day. So your metabolism, your mood is just so like it's important. It's so important. It's what and that is why we are programmed to sleep so that we can function when we're awake.
Mat Lock
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've got some big ticket items in there, right? Yeah, yeah.
Filipa Bellette
Oh, sorry. I was just going to add to it. I don't know maybe this might be a question that You're going to ask later, like, how long should you wait. But, um, it theoretically, between 10pm to 2am is when physical repair happens. And then 2am to 6am is when psychological mental repair happens. So kind of goes along with my point just there that both of those things are going to be worked upon repaired upon when we're asleep. If we're not, if we're going to bed too late, but it will start breaking down. If you're waking up in the early hours of the morning, or maybe waking up really early, because you've got an action packed laughing, then that's where mental health can actually start suffering to.
Mat Lock
Sure, sure, I understood. So you named it again, you name some big ticket items there from why we sleep. So let's just think about the implications. Therefore, if we break those down, you mean, you mentioned hormones, for example, as one? So what are the ramifications therefore, of not sleeping adequately not getting the sleep we need? Let's sort of dive into each of those subjects from a hormonal perspective, what are the actual implications? Because it I can understand, of course, you know, we could lead to hormone hormone imbalance, for example, but I don't know what that looks like. How would that present itself? What are the implications of that? Why does that matter? For example,
Filipa Bellette
yeah, so just a little bit, I try not to do too much science, my husband, Chris, who is my business partner, also. So it's like too much science..
Mat Lock
Well, if you're happy to
Filipa Bellette
do I will contextualize that a little bit. So when you so when the sun goes down, you have a hormone, melatonin starts accreting and then at the same time, your stress hormone cortisol should start dropping as well. So it's almost like cortisol and melatonin. And it's always doing this balancing act. So sun goes down, cortisol drops, melatonin rises, you then go to sleep, and that melatonin stays up, boy, it's accreting throughout the night, until you know, it starts to deplete after 12. Midnight to I am slowly starts to come down. Sun rises, cortisol also rises, melatonin drops, then you wake up. And so from a hormonal perspective. Now, we'll probably get into this a little bit later that like, you know, what causes for sleep and how can you fix it. But basically, if you're staying up too late, on screens, not getting enough sunlight throughout the day, that's going to affect your ability to produce melatonin, which is then going to cause your body to be really stressed out, which will cause cortisol to rise and also to if you've just you have a really stressful life or lifestyle, then that's going to suppress your ability to produce melatonin. So then, I guess there's this imbalance between your sleepy home learn and your stress home and then often the stress hormone
Mat Lock
when Thank you for coming again for me.
Filipa Bellette
And so when I talk about hormonal imbalances, I mean, there's so many different types of hormones that probably from a stress point of view, your adrenal glands that secrete your stress hormones will start acting dysfunctionally. And so symptoms or common symptoms, you want me to talk about symptoms
Mat Lock
can absolutely
Filipa Bellette
clock. Okay. So it would look like if someone's having stress hormone imbalance issues, I often see people who are exhausted or just energy isn't as good as what it used to be very meant to help a lot of things too. So you might feel anxious or full blown anxiety, depression, or just moody like, I used to call myself the dragon mom because I had a lot of these issues. And sometimes my kids like joke around or they're being serious mommy turning into a dragon mom, again, it's like that irritability, snappiness. So you don't necessarily need to have like a diagnose anxiety or depression disorder, it literally could show up that you're just a bit of an angry person or a bit of a moody person. Some other things too. So the further these hormonal imbalances, become, that's why you can actually start having like proper insomnia so it's not no longer just about not going to bed on time. It's literally that when you put your head on the pillow, you can't go to sleep or you might fall asleep because you're so exhausted, but you're waking up throughout the day, throughout the night sorry, and not being able to fall back to sleep or having like a restless sleep. There's so many different symptoms that show up so female or like male sex hormone issues, low libido, women, PMS, infertility, even metabolism can become disrupted. So people who are not sleeping very well or really stressed often find that they carry a lot of fat around the belly. So what I call like the stress that And you know, no matter what they do, they used to do their diets or change their exercise regime. And those things don't work anymore to shift fat because the metabolism is just kind of like shut down.
Mat Lock
You know, it's funny, you mentioned that. Even when I was at my most lean, and I'm, I'm conscious, I'm not fat in there. But I, when I was really doing the ultra endurance stuff, I was really lean, really lean, and but I always had, I always had just a little bit of fat retained around my tummy. And I remember a neutral sports nutritionist saying to me at the time she had actually I think it's you sleep? I think it's this elevated cortisol levels and so on to torture, I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Because it's not your diet. It's not you're clearly not your training, if none of those things. And it made a lot of sense. Yeah. But understanding the science from from what you're saying, for example, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, that's very real, isn't it? I mean, everything, everything you're saying is tangible and real. And I would imagine, people are just sort of gone through sort of cherry picking the guy. Yeah, that's me from what you said, Oh, yeah, that to me, would that mean, I guess some of them are hard to pick on there. Because they can be based, or they can be founded in other issues as well. So it might, but nonetheless, these are all very real and very relatable subjects. And I say that as someone who I would suggest them and I, it sounds so much more serious when you say I'm a chronic poor sleeper, but I am, because it's been for years. And so technically, it's chronic. But I yeah, I mean, certainly in the modern world that we live in with all of the I guess there's so many inputs, so many touch points in our lives, so many different forms of communication. And sure that the devices, the phones that send me things, pinging, pinging, vibrating and doing all those things that they do, and for sure, I think it seems to me that sleep is, you know, a growing issue, a growing challenge, and certainly a lot, thankfully, lots of businesses are starting to focus more on that. And there's a lot like mental health as a far greater awareness around it.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, I found that it was. So pre kids, I would, I had no issues with like, really at all. And then I started having babies. And of course, you know, babies will disrupt your sleep anyway. But I just it was more than it was affecting my stress hormones. Being a mom, I had a lot of issues, I had a really traumatic birth, lots of internal, like physical trauma, lots of antibiotics that just ruined my gut health, then adding a baby that screams unless she was asleep, not feeding properly, and trying to be a new mom and work and build a business and all that sort of stuff and have a no my husband was beautiful, actually that I was not like dragon mom and dragon wife. And so then like that big snowball effect really started affecting my sleep. I even found like if I had to get up once in the night to feed my baby that next like that whole next day, it was just a Wipeout for me. So it was clear to me that I like I might have been sleeping, like in terms of hours, but I just wasn't getting restful sleep. And my body wasn't able to repair properly.
Mat Lock
Right? Doesn't sound like a bunch of fun. Well, so Alright, so we've established why we need to sleep and why humans do sleep, in fact, why it's so important. We I mean, it's an obvious question to ask. at a very basic level, I understand but in terms of what should we be aiming for in a perfect world in terms of regular quality sleep each night? What was the target? Always get this question? I think it's I mean, I think I know the answer. But But I think a lot of people a lot of people don't and think ya know what I get by in five hours, five and a half, six hours, you know, no problem I can perform absolutely at my peak with just six hours sleep because I'm superhuman, another robot. However, I think you're about to break burst that little bubble. And you
Filipa Bellette
know, I think it's really individual for each person, the way that you're made up, like based on science and research, you want to aim for between seven to nine hours. Yep. And when that happens, again, it's kind of personal, too. But what I said before that physical repair happens between 10pm and 2am. And then that mental emotional psychological repair between 12 and 6am. So you want to try and get that seven to nine hours somewhere between that timeframe. But then there's ways that you can, I guess work out your how much sleep you need, and also your ideal pattern. So you mentioned before apps and gadgets, I don't know if you're referring to the like sleep ones.
Mat Lock
Well, I was asked Just talking about the distracting, the whole blue light thing. But nonetheless, screens and having emails pop in and messages and they're just you know, they're constantly the brains keep spinning because it's been engaged with all these different things we know for sure we can talk about some of the apps that are very useful other than they stay on your phone or iPad or something.
Filipa Bellette
That's what I Oh, that's like my, my husband, Chris loves his sleep up. I'm a, I'm a bit of a back in the 1800s type girl. I'm not very good with technology. So I don't less apps for me to better for my sanity, I think for me to help. But he loves his app. And so and there's How much time does he use pillow pillow out? But there's a few different ones. You can get ones connected to your so you I don't even know these words. Yeah, no, they're
Mat Lock
allowed me but I think some of the main ones calm i think is one of the biggest ones. Yeah, yeah. So heard something that was 84 million users or something?
Filipa Bellette
Yeah. Okay. So super popular. So there's. So there's different apps that you can use that will record how long you sleep, when you get deep sleep, when you get the REM sleep, light sleep. And then over the course of a few months, it can then scientifically or like from that data, work out how much sleep your ideal sleep is in, like the timeframe that you get the best sleep. The old school way would be go to bed, don't set your alarm and see what time you just naturally wake up. Now if you have sleep issues, and you're kind of waking up all night anyway, I mean, that's not necessarily going to be the best way for you to work that out. But if you're someone who can afford a sleep, and you're not waking up a lot during the nighttime, just say like you're setting your alarm too early in the day. In the morning, do you need more sleep?
Mat Lock
I think take it to the baseline that would require you go to bed at the same time every night.
Filipa Bellette
Yep, exactly. Yep. So you want to go to bed at the same time every night. And then don't set your alarm. So you might have to do it on the weekend. If you're setting your alarm to get up for work or something, then that's not necessarily going to work.
Filipa Bellette
I'm two hours late because I needed to sleep. But t hat's how I mean that's how I, I sleep. I just I wake up when my body tells me it's time to wake up. And in the winter. It's really interesting. So seasonal as well. The way that our bodies are programmed is that we actually do need an one mostly during the winter times when it's a bit colder and darker. As opposed to in the summer. A lot of people if they're like living on their natural rhythm, they would generally wake up earlier and maybe even go to bed later. So I'm gonna say like, sometimes it's 730 or 745. And I'm like, Oh, it's Oh, Holy smokes. I gotta get the kids ready for school have itself ready for my console.
Mat Lock
But you feel great, because you're well rested.
Filipa Bellette
I feel good. I have the best day like my energy is very balanced. I don't know, maybe you need to ask my kids and have you out that line. But I wouldn't feel I would feel much more balanced throughout the day if I don't set an alarm.
Mat Lock
Sure.Yeah. No, absolutely. I am. No, I gotta be honest, I find this there's something psychological about not setting alarm anyway. I I'm one of those who will often wake up 10 minutes before the alarm. And I know my life says something somewhere in my subconscious is there's a little clock ticking away. And it knows that it's going to be about time the alarm goes off. And I personally would rather I don't like waking up to an alarm because yeah, you kind of waking up with a jolt. So I think that's my way of waking up and be able to turn the alarm off before the alarm actually goes off. But the fact it's so consistent, that being just a few minutes before, which suggests there's something going on in the brain somewhere that's well aware of what time it is. And you have to wonder whether that that in itself is a distraction for the quality of sleep you're getting
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, that's interesting. It's like who is that your body clock waking you up at the time? Or is it more than like oh the fear of the alarm clock of like if you don't set an alarm like say to yourself before you go to bed my alarm is not set and see if you same time be interesting.
Mat Lock
Well, it's irritating me when i don't i mean i tend I do sit down but I rarely wake up to the alarm Let me tell you and I yeah, I normally wake up at four 430 in the morning. Yeah which irritates me but I feel good. irritates me because I'm conscious that I know very well. I haven't got my seven to nine hours sleep and that there are implications to that. But I you know, I don't drink caffeine. We go to bed at 10 o'clock pretty much every night. It's this novena late nights in there and when I go to sleep instantly no probably no. I don't fall asleep on the couch. I you know I go to bed I fall asleep. It's perfect. But I'd Yeah, I just seem to be the six hour guy but it frustrates me, but I'm not alone. So if I If I wanted to say, Man, I, you know, I don't drink caffeine anymore. I haven't drank caffeine for five years to try and sleep better, and so on and so on and so on. I rarely drink alcohol Really? I should have dropped into the hole heaps normal the alcohol free beer. delicious pizza the Brennan's be Yeah, yeah, no, fantastic. So, yeah, alcohol is not a thing. Such an A train a lot. I'm physically active, and I get outdoors and I get my sunlight. And I do all of those things. It's really frustrating. And I'm not alone. I know there's other people who, you know, they go to bed with the best intentions then just to kind of wake up early, and then that done once their awake, their awake.
Filipa Bellette
So that's why I said it's individual to if you're going to bed, like at a decent time, you're sleeping as solid as what you know that you are anyway. Not necessary. Like it might not necessarily end if you feeling good. Sure through, like throughout the day, then maybe maybe that's your thing.
Mat Lock
Maybe that's but it's crumbling. I might just feel like I do. And I might think, yeah, I feel okay, cuz that's how I feel. But actually, if I was to consistently get better sleep for a week, maybe I'd feel amazing.
Filipa Bellette
I would, I would probably as turning into a bit of a consultation between the EU, I would probably suggest, and you might have already done it already, is just try going to bed an hour earlier than what you usually do. As long as you can fall asleep then and see. So that what push it out to seven hours or something. Yeah, yeah, we'll see how you feel. Like if you can fall asleep at nine o'clock, true to four, then try to do that little test in the reverse. It's like, okay, so you're waking up, bang, it's four o'clock. try and do it so that you're going to bed earlier, maybe like coffee? Actually, I'd usually recommend 20 minutes earlier. Right? Maybe not like a big jump over an hour, I just go 20 minutes. Now that 20 minutes show, like build it up like that.
Mat Lock
Yeah, I appreciate that. It is almost a cancel. But actually, I think there's a learning in that. It's interesting that we would hear the kinds of questions you would ask the starting point, what the starting point typically is, I think that's important for the listeners of this episode, cut that off, because I think so many people can relate to this as being one of the challenges in their life. And I know some people, you know, I don't do it anymore. I used to, but I used to be that if I'm awake, I'll look at my phone and engage myself. And I'm strict on that. Now I don't. Because I know that once I do, I'm done to bring wheezing and I'm away. But I'm so I mean, in terms of the kinds of questions you do ask when you're talking to a new? Let's say you want a consult consultation? And what are the kinds of questions just generally speaking that you would ask around to give people a hint as to things they might think about as though they were being asked those questions. Yeah,
Filipa Bellette
so what I would usually do inside initial consultation, client building a really big health, form, health history, form listing medical issues, things like charting the past symptoms, all that sort of stuff. And so what I really want to figure out first is yes, we need to work on sleep, hygiene, lifestyle, all that sort of stuff, anything that will affect sleep, but I'm also really like I'm a bit of an AMA detective, I want to find out is there anything else happening inside your body that could be affecting your ability to go to sleep stay asleep or the quality of your sleep. And so some of those body systems that I would think about would be like your neurotransmitters. So serotonin is an amazing neurotransmitter for really good mood throughout the day, but also really important to sleep. And so sometimes whether it's because they've got issues or chronic stress, or it's been a snowball effect of not sleeping, and then serotonin gets worse and then you get insomnia. So figuring out and this is all done via different types of like saliva, pee poo or spit testing to uncover those imbalances. Other thing other areas I think about it the hormones again, so you just producing way too much cortisol and suppressing melatonin. female hormones I find like cyclical women often if they have trouble sleeping, it will get worse or it's more noticeable during PMS period time and that come back to like an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone. detoxification is a big one. So your day your liver works the hardest or it really switches on ramps up between around three to 4am. So if you're waking up at around that time, there may be a hidden functional issue with your detox pathways where you're getting blockages when you're trying to clear toxins or your livers very sluggish and trying to work harder because it's not working very well. There could be nutritional deficiencies which are affecting your ability to detoxify And I find people who have nightmares as well, like really bad nightmares. They're waking up at around that time, almost all of them when we've done testing, so we look at detox pathways by urine. Almost all of them have really impaired detox pathways. It's just, it's crazy.
Mat Lock
Yeah. Fascinating, isn't it? It's fascinating. And so many people just live with it. They live with poor sleep, and just go well, you know, I'm busy. It's what it is. I'll try. But, yeah, I mean, the long term health implications are very real, and very, very real.
Filipa Bellette
I'm a I'm a clinical nutritionist also. So I initially got into this work as a nutritional clinical nutritionist. So I love food. But I would choose if I had to choose between, like really good food, which I love, like, I love good, healthy Whole Foods, or really good sleep, I would always choose the sleep. Because I know if I haven't slept, I feel way worse than if I had a day of eating like McDonald's or something. Not that I've done that for a really long time. But
Mat Lock
when you drag the Golden Arches into this conversation, we're talking about the major sponsor of the Olympics. Oh, that's great. But now I understand. I mean, I think that's a valid point, especially someone like yourself, who has both the personal experience, of course of eating and sleeping, but also understanding from a, you know, professional level, the implications and impact on of both of those that you choose sleep. Exactly. Well, we can last much longer without food than we can without sleep. Yeah. That's very clear. And certainly, there's a number of scientific studies out there that show our impaired ability to perform even the most basic task with not that much reduced sleep, like, literally, I want one night of poor sleep, will have a bearing on your performance in the following day or day, then get that restricted sleep.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, that was a research article, actually, when we were putting a couple he actually was last year putting together a Big Sleep Sleep module for our clients. And so I was madly going through all the scientific research articles, but there was one about that they tested. What was a, I think they tested a bunch of participants who hadn't slept that night at all, in comparison to a group of participants who over three nights only got five hours sleep, I think it was four or five hours sleep. And they're like, their cognition. impairment was exactly the same, if not worse, with people who've got sleep, but not much sleep.
Mat Lock
Yeah, sure. It's interesting. I was talking to Yeah, fascinating subject, I was talking to one of the Australian Defence officer training training team recently, and they were saying, you know, obviously a lot often on their basic training, it's, I think, in America is called hell week, that kind of thing, where you're just there, them making sure that recruits are exhausted physically and mentally and then are expecting them to post before they are Yeah, there's a, I understand the logic of why they do that they're breaking people down so that they can build them back up and all of those things, but actually, when they're talking about officer training, but actually, there's a huge educational component to that. And there's a sort of dichotomy really, of expecting people to absorb and learn and embed that learning whilst they're in a fatigued and sleep deprived, deprived state. doesn't really make sense. So I know that the the certainly some studies going into that to see if that's really optimal, from getting the best learning outcomes from the Office of training. It's really a fascinating subject. But even as much as one night bad sleep, I mean, it has an impact. Yeah. And then, and then give these guys guns as well, like, guns and drones and all sorts of stuff. Lots of big toys. But yeah, I mean, that that's the right that's the reality isn't expecting people to perform at their peak, and in some cases really make important decisions, whilst cognitively impaired doesn't make a lot of sense in the cold light of day, not to detract from the training or the work they're doing Not at all. But for most of us in civvy Street. Yeah, that that decline in cognitive performance so rapidly. And if someone like me imagine, just imagine if I didn't sleep so badly for the last X number of years. Yeah, I mean, I think about what would my output be? What would my performance level be compared to equities today? So yeah, I mean, it's a question we've been all asked ourselves, so I'm conscious of time that he said, of course, we are going to get to the good stuff, which as in the actionable steps, I should They're not the good stuff. The good stuff is science. It's all it's all good stuff. I mean, yeah, the actionable stuff. So, like, it would feel cliche for me to roll off the, you know, well, if you want to sleep better, you know, I've read a lot about it. I've listened to a lot of podcasts. I've spoken to you. I've spoken to other subject matter experts. And I think I know a lot of the answers, but I don't tend to do them. Which is ridiculous. But for those who perhaps, haven't dug into the subject, what's the general advice that you would give if you want to people to start giving themselves a fighting chance of sleeping better and getting this quality restaurant and sleep?
Filipa Bellette
Yeah. Okay. So I would say sun, the sun is super powerful, and it's free, and it's readily available. So, um, like, I we do, not always, but we do test melatonin levels. And if it is suppressed, you know, people always like, oh, get me on the melatonin tablets or whatever. And, and like, Nananana, no, we're gonna use sun to rectify this, because it's just as like, it's just as effective. And so. So what you would want to do is as soon as you wake up, now, if it's at four o'clock and the sun studio, that's a bit tricky. When sun comes up,
Mat Lock
we've got three hours to wait until the sun comes up twiddling your thumbs.
Filipa Bellette
So you want to try and get outside 10 minutes. Now I know that that's and this is probably why, you know, it's like, Oh, that's so simple. So why don't I do it. And I know, it's kind of hard, because you know, you're trying to get ready for work or your day or getting kids ready and having a brekkie. If you can get outside and even just eat your breakfast for 10 minutes, that's going to help just to reset it's kind of it sounds a bit upside down. But getting outside as soon as you wake up will help to increase your cortisol, which by nightfall will help to increase your melatonin production. If you can't get outside, or it's just freezing, because you leaving somewhere where there's snow, then
Mat Lock
well, Tasmania or somewhere like that.
Filipa Bellette
exactly, exactly,say, Oh, I'm not doing this at the moment, because but you do you inside, even if it's inside, try and find the sunniest spot in your house and kind of just be there. 10 minutes, eat your breakfast, write in your journal, whatever. And then you want to try and match that to within the afternoon being outside, again, like ideally two hours before the sunset gets down. And I know like we live in a technological world where a lot of people work inside. So that can also be a challenge. But honestly, if someone has really bad sleep issues, and you're Insomniac and you have no melatonin being produced, prioritize doing that and see what happens.
Mat Lock
Sorry, it's interesting when you were saying that so too. But as you're saying, I think in your in the morning making that it's about making it a routine, isn't it? It's about making it a habit, because to say, you bet I'm too busy. Because I've got to get the kids ready, I've got to do that. Right, you're missing the point. We're talking here about your long term, your short and long term health, about the quality of sleep and rest of the effect that has on your body. I think it's just important to come back to that we're not trying to say well, just you know, create these new habits because they're a good idea. I mean, they are but the health benefits are significant. And be too busy. I think it was Tony Robbins and said if you can't find 10 minutes in your day, you haven't got a life. And I think he's right. That's why I remembered he sort of stuck with me. And it could be if you've got kids, take the kids for a walk around the block for 10 minutes. Get the dog around the block and stand in the center. 10 minutes. It's not that bigger ask. Think about the days practicing gratitude for those minutes, whatever it is find a way to build it into your routine. Because Yeah.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, 10 minutes. Exactly. And yeah, we love creating or helping clients create morning and evening routines as well. And so I find that that is so like that is the secret ingredient to success is write it out, stick it up on your fridge or wherever you see daily and just tick it off every day. It's like I've done that I've done that I've done that and scheduling those most important things either in the morning or in your evening routine. Because sometimes to people like it's, it's prioritization, it's what's most important to you, but sometimes you've just like they literally just forget
Mat Lock
Sure.
Filipa Bellette
their having like a visual reminder of go outside in the sun for 10 minutes when I wake up, maybe like right next to your bed. You know, it's just that thing that it's like, oh, yeah, that's what I do.
Mat Lock
And it doesn't take too long. It becomes a habit. It's a habit. It's important. That's joy. Yeah, for sure. But you didn't mention lunchtime by the way. We're just getting it. Just going to eat back from a microphone somewhere. This is one of the mics. I'm not sure why neither of us have moved. Gotta love technology but you didn't mention lunchtime I'm personally a great standard. Get out of the office go for a wander at lunchtime, eat less eat my lunch outside if I can. Is there a reason why you didn't mention it?
Filipa Bellette
Um, so this is base now I cannot remember the researcher or the like, the sleep guru who? There was research like there was actual research to show if you do it, like first thing in the morning, two hours before before the sun goes down, will just help with that circadian rhythm
Mat Lock
a pure soul. So he was really talking about sleep. Yeah,
Filipa Bellette
really specific. Yeah. But then the more sun and the more like real light that you can get throughout the day, the better. So anytime you can get out for a break from work, get up off your desk, go outside for a walk. Have your lunch outside. I'm a big fan of having lunch outside more. So for my vitamin D, and just for like, my sanity and mental health. It helps me unwind.
Mat Lock
Yeah. 100%.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah. So talking about like, two, I got my funky little glasses here. I don't know if you've heard of like the blue light blocker gadgets?
Mat Lock
I have. Um, I mean, I have to say this, they can be controversial, depending on who you talk to, as to whether they actually do anything or not. There's a lot to be said for. There's no downside to using them.
Filipa Bellette
There's no downside. Look, I think these were $80 I bought them from a company called earthing was. So I did look around and like, okay, I don't want to spend $500 on something that may or may not work.
I don't want to spend that you hear don't say get like $5 wants from a band. I'm like, Well, I'm not gonna get really crappy cheap ones that probably aren't gonna do anything. So anyway, I think I was now I'm not an affiliate with them that I should be because I talk about them all the time. A company, I feel like they are trustworthy. I wear them like honestly, not not all day. I mean, these are things that you can use when you're on the computer all day. But if I choose to watch a Netflix or a movie or something at night, this is like my non negotiable I have to wear my like, pink dresses. And I do find that. Look, it's it's a combination of like, if I have a lot going on, and there's more stresses, that's where sleep can start becoming a bit off. And then like I back off on watching things at night or being on my computer, but I feel like they help. I have had clients who they really feel like they help with headaches, not so much sleep but headaches. Like when they use these regularly. They're not getting headaches from the blue light and the MS. Ms and stuff coming from computer Good luck, even if it's a placebo effect. It's an effect. Exactly. Oh, yeah. I mean, and that's the thing. There's no harm to them, besides maybe just like a few dollars that look kind of cool. No, absolutely. Um,
Mat Lock
you mentioned you use the term sleep hygiene. And for me, as soon as I hear that, I started to think about the devices and yeah, the blue light and all of that I heard a great show. It was who I heard state recently, but it was great. He talked about, you know, people tend to reach for their mobile phone the second day, wake up, and they're checking emails, and they're doing this no sleep quality. aside, almost, he said that if you're checking your phone, before you're saying good morning to your loved one is lying next to you. You really have to ask yourself, what's going on with that. And it really stuck with me, that really stuck with me. And then he said, worst case is that if your partner is asleep, and slept longer, you do not let them sleep because that's important. But try not to look at your phone or checking messages or emails until after you've had breakfast. I like that. And I never do that. But it was really a habit break. Like I had to think about it. I would instinctively reach out to go No, no, no, no. Have breakfast first. And actually, it's a really nice routine that I've never introduced. I was grateful for that device but sleep hygiene. What How would you how do you? How would you describe that to someone?
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, so well before bed. like going back to the evening routine. So anything like phones, laptops, TVs, ideally, you don't want to have all of that stuff on at least two hours before you go to bed to sleep.
Mat Lock
I'm looking at you know, I know they work or not they feel like my conscience feels better. But what would we do if we're not watching Netflix or looking at?
Filipa Bellette
Well, this was the amazing thing. So I'm a Christian. I am I My husband and I created it's called the three day detox. athlete detox. Sorry. And it's where like for three nights or three days, as soon as the sun goes down, we switched off everything minus the fridge. So we turned off every PowerPoint, we turned on computers, phones,
Mat Lock
modem, modem,
Filipa Bellette
modem, Wi Fi is a big one. So why are talking about Wi Fi in a city, and we just live by candlelight, and gas. And so you know, we'd be cooking dinner, because last time, it was wintertime, so it gets quite dark here in tezi in wintertime. And so you know, we just use candle lights to cook dinner. It was it was amazing. It was like all four we have two daughters or four of us notice massive improvements, both we getting sleepy early, like by 830. I'm like I'm ready to go to bed broken like, what am I my oldest daughter, we've actually always struggled with her, which is probably why I'm also passionate about sleep that struggle with her getting her to bed, like at a normal child time. Sometimes, you know, it was like 1011 o'clock, and she'd still be like, doing this sleep detox was just an amazing insight into the fact that our poor little girl was just overstimulated by lights and things flashing. I mean, we turn off the TV and everything after like before dinnertime. But it was just the lights. And the moment we put on those candles, she was in bed and asleep by seven o'clock. And that had never happened ever in her whole life. Even as a baby, she'd be like 10 o'clock.
And so then, you know, that's quite dramatic. I've had other parents to do it with kids. I feel like just because kids are so sensitive to what's going on that it's more noticeable when people do detox. But for me and Chris to have grown a bit earlier, it was nicer for the family, because it's like, well, we can't you know, we're forced not to do work. Like, what can we do? Let's play a card game or let's talk to each other. Let's read books with the kids for two hours, because there's nothing else to do. But it was really good. It was wonderful. And then I noticed too, that in the morning and throughout that day. Now again, like if I get a good night's sleep, which is pretty regular these days, because I prioritize it. But I just noticed like I just up leveled, not so much energy, but just mental clarity. It was almost like, it was just like, Oh, I feel so bright.
Mat Lock
Absolutely. Well, I mean, I think you've hit the nail on the head here in terms of making it a priority. That's the point, isn't it? Yeah. We started with why it's so important to try and just help people understand why it's not optimal to rally around when I don't sleep very well. It's just what it is. Or I can get by on five hours. You know, that's good. I'm a super trooper. Yeah. And yeah, that's why we started where we did when the certainly the three day sleep detox and fascinating. And I was actually thinking about the the rounded thinking, how would that play out in our heads? It sounds wonderful. That we should have some? Yeah, I think fairly normal habits in place. But that doesn't mean healthy habits in terms of watching Netflix and you know, checking checking messages or emails later at night, that kind of thing. So why am I committed to you here?
Filipa Bellette
You know, what I found really hard is just looking at my phone to look at the time, because that's why we don't have a clock in our house. And I couldn't do that because my phone was switched off. And so I didn't actually even know what the time was. I think my daughter, I'm like, how did I know? Well, my daughter has a watch on her wrist. But even that, like even that before you go to bed, well what's the time or it's 1015 I better go to sleep. You've already you've already exposed yourself to an artificial light, suppress melatonin and increased cortisol. Um,
Mat Lock
well, I use my phone as my alarm clock. Yeah, I put it in flight mode at night in that regard, but um, but yeah, yes, I'm sure you're right. The last thing I look at is my phone because I would set the alarm on a machine. All of them pretty much the first thing I lean forward to turn it off or to feel I'm going off.
Filipa Bellette
so facing more to me a little bit more on sleep hygiene. Yeah, sure. Because I'm a big fan too of just creating the right environment. So create your environment for success basically. And so create your room your your bedroom like a cave. So the caveman used to live in caves or sleeping caves. It was pitch black. So these are a lot of people might may know these. Again, some houses a nice reminder that just like blackout curtains so that you can't see street lights moon or that sort of stuff coming in. Again, like we were talking about I like digital devices for the time. So I do not like, like the digital clocks that have like the red, you know, that's just another exposure to light. There was a study to that showed that it doesn't even matter if we if the light is in our eyes, or if we're exposed to the rest of our body. So they looked at a whole heap of participants, they put a little tiny torch underneath the dinner next to the the participants leg I think it was, and they showed that cortisol was higher, and melatonin was lowered lower, just from that little light underneath the bed. So it wasn't even like, wow, yes. And so that's why light is so important in terms of trying to make your bedroom as dark as possible. Air Quality as well. So stagnant air, moldy air, that's going to stress out your body going to affect your respiratory system, you might actually not even be getting enough oxygen to your brain when you're asleep. So trying to improve air quality. We don't do it because we don't have flyscreens. Although there's no mosquitoes in tazzy, this Dart this time in winter time, but just even opening your window a little bit, just to let some natural air come in, make the world of difference and plants in your bedroom as well. So looks pretty, but it also helps purify the air. Is that it all?
Mat Lock
Perfect. That's all very tangible. I mean, there's no reason why. If not all of that most of that can't be reality quite quickly without spending a bunch of money. Yeah, would probably lead to immediate improvements for a lot of people, I'm guessing.
Filipa Bellette
Yeah, for sure. And kids, I know, it's really hard. Because some parents have kids that travel, we have trouble sleeping, but like no night lights, because that's just gonna affect the child. Like it's gonna make things worse in the end by affecting. Yeah, and then some people have to get up to go to the toilet at nighttime too. So I just always encouraged try to walk there in the dark. And don't turn on any lights, you know, like most of us know our house well enough and like how to get to the toilet, but you can probably just feel your way there. Because the moment you switch on a light again, it's like, oh, it's sunshine. It's morning, I have to get off and that, that hormonal production can go haywire again?
Mat Lock
Sure. Yeah. No, really practical advice. really practical advice. Look, I'm conscious of time for. And we'll probably look to wrap it up there. But if anyone wanted to reach out and find out more about your three day sleep detox program, why would they do so?
Filipa Bellette
Okay, I am going to put that on our website. Um, I will send you the link to get it.
Mat Lock
Okay. That you put in our show notes. Yeah,
Filipa Bellette
I do you have a PDF. So I'm just I'm going to it was on my list of things to do to upload it onto our website. jump onto our website, www.chrisandfilly.fm. But I'll send you a direct link to
Mat Lock
Yeah, no problem. pdf will fully pop that in the show notes. But that's so Chris and Philly, all lowercase one word, as the url.fm for functional medicine. Imagine, yes, there we go. So that's where people could reach out to you. And I know that you do amazing work with your clients, you get all sorts of wonderful results that are ultimately life changing, because the areas that you're helping your clients with that impact their life profoundly. So I appreciate what you and Chris are doing. Appreciate your time with us here today. And is there anything else you'd like to leave us with? before we sign off? Um, thank you so much for having me. And I feel like what we would talk, I feel
Filipa Bellette
like the crux of what we were talking about really is like what is most important to you. Now some, you know, all the stuff we talked about all good and well, but if you're not getting enough sleep, and it's impacting your health, it will get you you get to a point where it's the most important thing. And you don't really want to get to that point because that's when people kind of crumble and they're like falling apart. So look at this as preventative health. And for a lot of people to like just having optimal health and a long and happy life is the most important thing. So try and focus on that as your end goal in terms of making these changes today as opposed to getting completely burnt out. And
Mat Lock
we want to be as happy and healthy as we can be for as long as possible. Right. And that's the big picture. Most important things in life at the end of the day. And for sure to be too busy with work or too busy with any of those other sort of life, distractions, necessities, no doubt, but to prioritize those over your health, it will come back to bite you at some stage I think is what examined, it's just Well, it's like you can't out train a bad diet you. If you if you're chronically sleeping poorly, then it's going to catch up with it. There is a Yeah, at some point, there's going to be a debt to pay. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Well, on that somber note. But on the other side, there's so much that can be done. And you can anyone, anyone can start making improvements today. Right? That's the point. Exactly. Literally, there's so much good stuff that doesn't have to cost any money that can be implemented immediately, one step at a time if needs be, but that's what we've talked about. And certainly that's what we'll make available with the details of your three day sleep detox, which is really, I think, if anyone who's not willing to give a three day sleep, detox or try, then they need to go back to the shoe. So go back to really thinking about what's most important to them. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. I look forward to chatting next time. Okay.
