Sleep Better, Live Better: The Rest Reset You Need

Dr. Christine Li [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Christine Lee, and this is episode 293. If you are curious why your productivity efforts are extending themselves, they're going way longer than they need to, and you're not getting the results that you need, there may be something missing. And that missing piece might just be how you are resting and sleeping. And I do believe that this topic topic is something that deserves our attention because we oftentimes neglect ourselves, we neglect our sleep, and then we are basically shortchanging ourselves in all different directions. In this episode, I really give you some reasons to consider revamping how you look at sleep in general, because sleep is really that important. So let's go listen to this episode together now.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:03]:
Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped thousands of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they could begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body, and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:30]:
When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy and how you can create success on demand.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:40]:
Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:45]:
I talk a lot about productivity on this podcast, but I want to focus today on something that we might be Paying a little too little attention to. It's the topic of how we're resting and how we are sleeping. Sleep and rest, I think of as 2 slightly different concepts that actually really overlap because, of course, we get our best rest typically while we're sleeping. But I do believe rest deserves its own category because we can rest Throughout the day and really give our nervous systems a chance at really supporting us at the highest level. So let's just explore these topics today together. Whether you are having trouble with sleeping too much, or if you are feeling like you're always running on too little sleep, it does not matter. Your relationship with rest and sleep really deserves Some examination and a closer look because sleep is not just downtime. It's oftentimes the missing piece between where you are and where you want to be.

Dr. Christine Li [00:03:05]:
If your sleep is locked in, that generally means that you are locked in. So let's take an honest look at what is your rest picture. And some things that are involved in sleep, and then what you can do to improve your overall picture of rest and sleep. But first, I want to talk about something I call the exhaustion trap. When we're exhausted, we oftentimes feel like we need to push even harder instead of pulling back and resting. I know I have been there. I spent many, probably decades of my life.

Dr. Christine Li [00:03:45]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:03:46]:
feeling that way, being in the burnout zone or very close to it, and then staying up later and later and later thinking that I was doing myself and the universe some good. But what was happening was I was driving myself deeper into exhaustion and really not doing my best work when I look back on that period of time. And for you, it might be something different. You might be adding a couple more cups of coffee. You might be adding even more hours than I was. You might be even grinding harder than I was back in my 20s, 30s, and early 40s. So if you are exhausted and you feel like you have to pile it on, this episode is your permission slip to pull back, to stop pushing so hard, and to start to create a new cycle.

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:44]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:45]:
Where your rest is really a core component of how you do things, how you get things done, how you take care of yourself and your responsibilities. When we are constantly pushing, grinding through exhaustion, then we have to work more to catch up and just be at minimum functioning. And then we make ourselves more tired. Then we feel more stressed. We feel more—

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:11]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:12]:
out of sorts, and then we feel like we're destined to repeat this pattern the next week. So let's get out of this fatigue, exhaustion, overwhelm, overwork cycle. I think that is probably one of the best success tips that I could ever provide you. And really, exhaustion tricks you into thinking that you're not doing enough. It makes you think, oh, this must Not be enough, when it's really the body's signal to you to stop, to really check what you're doing, to see if there might be an easier, simpler, faster way, or whether you could just put this off until tomorrow in a healthy way. Not procrastinating, not avoiding, but saying, I'm being realistic now. I need to get myself some rest. Now I wanna do a whole segment On what sleep actually does for you.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:09]:
I have to say that I, for many years, had no concept of how important sleep was to me and to everyone else. And I had no idea about the actual details. So I'm going to give you a quick list of what sleep is actually doing for you and your body. The first thing is really important. Your brain takes out the trash, clearing the waste and the toxins that build up during the day, whether it be from food or your environment. Your brain is just like the janitor that is working double overtime, making sure everything is working well, nice and orderly, nice and clean. So we don't want to deprive the brain of that time of doing that clearing out of the trash. We really want Our brain optimized.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:03]:
The second thing that sleep does for you is that it starts to sort and lock in your memories. We all know that there are lots of things in life that we don't recall, that we don't need to recall, but there's some things that we do want to remember. Perhaps it is the lesson from your class this past week or from the day. Or some beautiful emotion-laden memory. Let's say you got proposed to for engagement today. You don't wanna be so tired that you forget details of that moment, I'm gonna guess. So what you learn today gets filed away for tomorrow. Your brain makes the decisions.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:47]:
What is stored? How is it kept? Long-term, short-term. It is managing your memories. The third thing that sleep actually does for you Is it repairs your muscle tissue and cells, literally rebuilding itself and its strength while you are sleeping. And we all know, oh, it's important to get to the gym, but are we emphasizing it's just as important to let your body build those muscles, fix those injuries, prepare yourself for the next day?

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:23]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:23]:
Physically with every single atom in your body, sleep is required. The 4th thing that sleep actually does for you is it helps your immune system to get stronger. So when you're sleeping and you're sleeping enough hours and you're sleeping well, your immune system strengthens, and with your healthy immune system, you will be able to fight off illness before it starts. It's really maintaining your general high level of wellbeing. So forget being sick because you've got this vitality that sleep is feeding into. The next thing that sleep does for you is your stress hormones reset. So you get to wake up feeling like you've reset, for, for lack of a better way of saying it. It's just saying everything, all the ups and downs, all the drama of yesterday, it's yesterday.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:24]:
Now we get to start over at our baseline. We can wake up and prepare ourselves for a good solid day from a steady emotional baseline. If we fail to get a lot of sleep, the sleep that we need, then we're gonna wake up feeling off already. We all have been there.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:44]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:44]:
Everyone on this planet has had an off morning, but let's give our body the chance to really set us up for success from the moment we get out of bed and wake up. The last thing that I wanna mention about what sleep does to your brain and your body is that your brain will restock your energy and focus for the next day's decisions. This is concepts like willpower, where in the morning you probably realize that you have perhaps more energy, more focus, more ability to do things like make the bed and do the laundry. And then when you're ready for bed, you have a lot less of that. That is because your brain is restocking the energy While you are sleeping. So that was a quick tutorial about the giantly important things, the humongous life-changing work that the brain and body do when you give it good sleep. So from this point on, we are not going to neglect our sleep. We're not going to downplay the importance of sleep.

Dr. Christine Li [00:11:03]:
And we're going to do our best to prioritize sleep and maximize sleep and make sure that it's good sleep. So I want you to know now that not only is it important just for your brain and body and all of us, but it's important for you in particular. I think that there is this concept called revenge bedtime procrastination, and that is a relatively modern term that came into existence maybe 5 years ago, I want to say. And it's kind of a hysterical term when you think about it. I'm getting revenge on bedtime. And it came into being because so many people were up later than maybe expected or desired because they wanted to get back at time. They wanted to be able to fit in all the scrolling and all the reading and all the Netflix watching and everything else that they could after work hours, after everyone else was in bed. And they were getting this as their private, joyful revenge.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:20]:
Now, the problem with that is that, of course, it leads to a sleep deficit. And the other problem with that is that we're not seeing that we're also kind of doing something negative to our system because sleep is actually, I will say jokingly, the best revenge. When you can give yourself proper full sleep, you're actually giving yourself the single best free gift that your body can give you.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:51]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:51]:
Can give you. No app on your phone, no Netflix show, no supplement, no exercise routine, product, or achievement is going to beat the value of what sleep can give to you. So decide that you deserve wellness. Decide you deserve a full night's sleep. Decide that whatever you're stressed about right before You're ready to shut your eyes, it's not as important as just setting yourself up for a good night's rest. Choosing rest is not you being lazy. It's you investing in the version of you that shows up beautifully tomorrow. I have a mentor.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:38]:
Her name is Melanie Moore. She taught me how to do emotion freedom Technique or tapping. And we are friends and colleagues, and she long ago published a CD back in the days of CDs, and it was filled with meditations. And on that meditation CD of Melanie's, I learned the phrase, my problems will find their solutions tomorrow. Again, my problems will find their solutions tomorrow. You know, you're gonna wake up and the problem will still be there, but can you decide, I'm going to release my worry as I'm preparing myself for bed? Because then again, you can sleep more soundly. You can trust yourself that when you wake up in the morning, you're gonna be clear and you're gonna be focused on solving that problem.

Dr. Christine Li [00:14:36]:
Yeah.

Dr. Christine Li [00:14:36]:
But you don't have to solve everything in a single day. It's really true. Sleep does not erase your problems, but it certainly sharpens your ability to face them. And we don't have to make midnight the hour that we heal the world. It's just, it does not have to happen at bedtime. So this is your permission slip again to stop all the problem solving and worrying at night. And trust the process of your life. You have a beautiful life ahead of you and sleep guarantees that.

Dr. Christine Li [00:15:11]:
Okay.

Dr. Christine Li [00:15:12]:
Now for what you can do to improve your sleep, some practical tips. I'm gonna start off with the one that I'm planning on doing very soon. The little plug is probably being shipped to me as I record this episode. And it is a smart plug that acts as a timer on my modem. So my plan is to put the plug in, put the modem in, and set the timer to about 1 AM and to have it shut down my modem at 1 AM and to have it reboot at like 7 AM. And the purpose of this Is to just remove the attraction of the phone late at night. It is to help me to just not worry about the wind-down process. I will know that my phone is going to be off, that it won't be very interesting, and it's just going to signal to me that it's time to close shop for today.

Dr. Christine Li [00:16:22]:
And let's get ourselves to bed. And there is the belief that people sleep better when the Wi-Fi signal is not buzzing around your home. So I'm gonna see if that works. I hope it does. And maybe you'd wanna try that out for yourself. Of course, there are other tips for preparing yourself for bed. I have heard that chamomile tea before bed Is a great idea. My clients have mentioned different apps where you can do meditation or calming down right before bed.

Dr. Christine Li [00:16:58]:
Some of them mentioned their love of the Calm app, C-A-L-M. And you may want to develop your own sleep routine. That might start from what's the latest you will drink caffeine or coffee. During the day or tea, you want to make sure it is not interfering with your readiness for sleep at night. You might want to look at when you exercise during the day. You might want to look at how are you problem solving during the day. Make sure you're doing it during the middle of the day rather than leaving things towards the late evening. Then you can leave the late evening for all the wonderful crafts and TVs and messaging you want to do.

Dr. Christine Li [00:17:43]:
Without crossing that boundary into your sleep zone. There are really some simple, joyful ways to say, I'm going to give myself my best gift of my full night's sleep. This is not a small tweak. This might be the biggest lever you're not pulling yet for your success, your productivity, your vitality, and your well-being.

Dr. Christine Li [00:18:09]:
Being.

Dr. Christine Li [00:18:10]:
Let's experiment this week together. I'm gonna plug that timer thing in, and I have a feeling it's gonna be awesome. And if you'd like to experiment with the help of a free download from this episode and based off this episode, I invite you to go to maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/sleep. Again, maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/sleep. sleep. We are all inching our way towards our better lives, and we deserve every improvement, every piece of ease, every ounce of juicy sleep that we can get. So enjoy it. I'll see you next week.

Dr. Christine Li [00:18:52]:
Bye-bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website, maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com, for past episodes, show notes, and all the resources we mention on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name Procrastination Coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to, and let me know any topics that that you might like me to talk about on the show.

Dr. Christine Li [00:19:30]:
I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. Talk to you soon.

Dr. Christine Li [00:19:35]:
Bye.