3 Things You Didn't Know About Sleep Deprivation

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This week we're tackling one of the biggest challenges for parents and grandparents sleep. Join us as we welcome Allison Ejidi, a certified pediatric sleep coach and host of How Long Till Bedtime Podcast.

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Allison shares her personal journey from sleep deprived parent to expert, revealing how she helps countless families solve their child's sleep struggles from infancy through elementary school, discover practical strategies so both kids and caregivers can finally get the restorative sleep they need.

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Welcome to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Nurturing Through Adversity. In this podcast, we will delve deep into the challenges and triumphs of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren as we navigate the complexities of legal, financial and emotional support. I invite you to join us on a journey of exploring thoughts, feelings and beliefs surrounding this growing segment of our society. Drawing from real stories and expert advice, we will explore the nuances of child rearing for children who have experienced trauma and offer valuable resources to guide you through the intricate journey of kinship care.

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We'll discuss how we can change the course of history by rewriting our grandchildren's future, all within a supportive community that understands the unique joys and struggles. This podcast was made especially for you.

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Welcome to a community where your voice is heard, your experience experiences are valued, and your journey is honored.

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When kids don't sleep, you don't sleep, right? I could go 24 hours without sleep when I was in my 30s and 40s, but now forget it. So everything I can learn about helping these kids sleep better and wake up feel feeling more prepared and positive for their day, the better. So listen in because you'll really learn a lot from Alison and what she has to say. Welcome to the show. Alison. I'm so excited to talk to you about a subject that we all need more of, which is sleep. And I told you today I'm a little sleep deprived because I have two young children who didn't sleep well through the thunderstorms last night. So at 6, 68 years old, I'm doing this podcast and doing the things I have to do to keep my household together. And then I know this afternoon I have to have a nap before the kids come home or I won't make it through homework and two rowdy special needs kids that get off the bus and want mom's full attention. So I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Yes, sounds timely and I'm happy to be here. You've shared that your daughter's sleep struggles were very humbling for you and that's what inspired you to become a sleep coach. So tell us what Was your breaking point what inspired you to do the show and get help with your sleep struggles you were having? Absolutely. So I am a planner and I think I'm a high achiever and I hold myself to high standards. And so I thought, you know, I'll read the books. How hard can this parenting thing, thing be? And it's funny how you judge people even though you don't think you're judging people until you're in their situation and then you realize like, oh wow, what I didn't know.

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So that's really what happened with parenting in general, but specifically with sleep. I had read a book that had worked really well for some of my friends and so I was sure I was just going to implement this to a T because I'm very good at following instructions and my daughter would sleep and that's not really what happened.

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And that just began a two year journey where I was going to the pediatrician and I was asking for help and I knew I was struggling. I often think of the four month appointment where I went asking for help, got blown off by that pediatrician.

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But on the way out I couldn't find my keys and it turned out I had left the car running in the parking lot because I was so sleep deprived.

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So been there. That just kind of summed up where I was and fast forward to to. She was about to turn two. At this point I had had another baby who luckily I had done things differently with sleep and I had sleepy through the night at 8 weeks but my toddler still wasn't sleeping and I knew I was struggling. I knew I didn't feel like I was thriving at work. I did not feel like I was the mom I had planned to be. And I was really struggling. But I did not realize at the time that I was struggling with postpartum anxiety and and probably had been in that state for about two years because I had my children so closely together and I had not fully recovered from the first.

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So it was we're doing the opposite. We're going through senior anxiety.

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Sure. Post parenting anxiety, which is a real thing.

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And so I was at my parents house on Christmas and my 2 year old had woken up again and my husband was up trying to get her back to sleep and was sitting at the table just with my parents and my dad, who's not an overly touchy feely guy, he's an attorney, he said, we're really worried about you. We can tell that something's not right. We don't know what's not right. But you're not well. And I think to hear that from my father, of all people, really kind of brought me to attention. And he said, you need to remember that you're a capable person with resources, and it's time to get help. And that was very motivating to me. So he, again, he said, I don't know what help you need, but it's time to start moving in that direction. So I came home with that thought in mind, and I stumbled upon a sleep coach. And I thought, I don't know exactly what all my problems are, but what I do know is this child doesn't sleep. And it feels like it's killing me slowly. So I hired this sleep coach without really doing much research. I just saw some people posting on her Facebook page, and 11 days later, we were all sleeping. And I was blown away that I had tried everything under the sun for two years, and this woman fixed it in 11 days.

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So I went back to the pediatrician and I said, how did this happen? How did I go to multiple pediatricians and no one could help me? And she said, well, the truth is, we are not trained in sleep. On average, pediatricians receive three hours or less on sleep education.

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So unless they sought additional education, which some have, they are. It's like asking the mom at the park, you know, how should I get my child to sleep? And that really just stuck with me. And as time went by, I thought, this isn't good, and I need to at least learn enough to help my own child, who clearly was going to have some sleep challenges. And so I got certified as a sleep coach, not knowing what I would do with it, just knowing it would at least help me with my own child. And then slowly, it just started to become, I guess, what they call, a side hustle. People were asking me for help. They knew I had this training. And it grew to the point where I then had two jobs and I needed to decide which one to take. So I went full time into my sleep coaching.

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What kind of training did you have to get to be a sleep coach? I got certified through the Family Sleep Institute. And then I also, at the time, worked at the university, which was at the University of Virginia.

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It was really helpful because I had full access to the university library, the online library, where I could actually read the research versus just reading the articles that most of us can access online. I could go into all the research, which is how I helped my second daughter sleep better, by just understanding about how sleep develops in children.

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Sounds like you came about it the Right way. Yeah. And it helps that I'm a nerd. I really like to geek out on things that interest me. You and me both. So what's some of the most unhelpful advice that you think you got, either as a mom or as a beginning coach? What are some of the misconceptions that you think that those of us have out there dealing with? Well, I think one thing is that children can get a lot more sleep than I think most of us realize. When I was growing up, it was a little bit of the concept of, well, we'll sleep when we're dead and go, go, go. And I think over the last decade, we've come to realize that's not the answer and that sleep is impactful for your health and my health, but also for our children's development. And so some of the advice that I hear people give is like, well, have them stay up later or cut their nap. And basically it's trying to push children to the point of crashing to make sleep easier. And that can backfire. It can actually make sleep more challenging. But also you're just keeping your child in a sleep deficit, which is hugely impactful for overall health, brain development, learning.

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And so I think that recommendations sometimes of practice, pushing kids, wearing them out, getting them super tired, pushing their bedtime later, dropping a nap is generally counterproductive. That's a great point. I never would have thought of that. Although I know that when we got our grandchildren, their parents had not put in place a lot of boundaries and sleep was one of them. So if they stayed up late till 2 in the morning, the kids stayed up late, and we had a really difficult time changing that. Talk about physiologically what the impact of sleep deprivation does both for the kids development and for us as parents or grandparents. Yeah, I think three areas when it comes to children. So if we just start with toddlers on into elementary, middle school, high school, and this is probably all true for adults as well, but three areas that always come to mind and come up in a lot of studies are that lack of sleep impacts emotional reg.

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So that can be tantrums, attitudes, think about us when we're kind of dysregulated. So emotional regulation, impulse control, which is huge. So that's classroom behavior that's making good choices as children get older. For little kids, it's, you know, we don't hit our friend when they take our toy. So any of those kind of impulsive reactions are impacted by lack of sleep and learning retention.

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And so when we think about children's learning. And this has kind of been a soapbox I've been on the last year is you can make school so much easier for your children if you get them more sleep. So I have children who are 11 and 12. And of course, from all my study, I knew this was the case just because I'd read about it. But then when you see it in practice, it's really interesting. So I prioritize my children's sleep. And I knew they were thriving in school. They were doing very well. They go to a very rigorous school and they were not studying.

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And I would go to birthday parties and people would say, we're hiring these tutors and we're doing this and they're staying up late. And I thought, that's so interesting.

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I mean, I like to think my children are bright, but is it really the sleep? What is it? And then I did a little unintentional experiment experiment with my daughter when she was 9. And I decided, sure, we can go to some of the nighttime UVA basketball games. I've prioritized sleep for a decade. I'd love to go to the basketball games. What's two nights a week we were going to men's and women's games. And about two weeks into that, she dropped from having 95 to 100 on every assignment down to a B. Initially, I didn't think much of it because I thought, well, she's in third grade, it's a B. Who cares? It's third grade. But as that trend continued over a couple week period, I got curious.

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And so I said to her, we're going to do a little experiment. I'm curious, since you're telling me nothing has changed at school and nothing feels harder or different, what would happen if we stop going to those games and we change nothing else. You don't have to study more and what will happen? Within 10 days, she was back up into the A's. And so I think when you look at education, it could take a child who's really struggling to a level where they feel like, okay, it's doable. Or for parents who think, I have this child who should be performing better and they're just performing okay, it could be that difference maker. And so lots of sleep can help with education, which is just so critical.

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What do you do if you have kids that are involved in sports? Well, great question. My kids play travel sports and even this past winter. Another good example, that same daughter who's now 11, she played AAU basketball and I didn't know what I was signing up for, for.

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And so it came out. She had a 7 to 9pm practice at a location that was 30 minutes from our house.

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30. But she really wanted to do it. She was so honored to make this team. So I said, okay, we're going to give it a go and if it's not going well, we're going to drop off the team. Because of this experience we'd had two years earlier, she did great, but the process was we prioritized her bedtime on all the other nights.

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So she always went to these things kind of well rested.

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She did her homework before we took her pajamas in the car and I had a snack. So she ate dinner before we had the pajamas in the car.

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So she learned how to change in her pajamas while in her seatbelt. On her drive home she ate her snack and it was like, you're getting right out of the car, we're brushing your teeth and you're going to bed. That is the agreement. If you want to do basketball. And it went well. And you know, they do soccer sometimes we don't get home till 7. My 12 year old has a practice that ends at 8 one night a week and we just try to have a plan. So sometimes that means we're eating dinner in the car. And so it doesn't have to be perfect. I'm really glad you asked this question because it's not always about being perfect, particularly as your kids get older. It's one thing with a toddler, great, we can be consistent. They don't have a lot of activities, but these activities are important extracurricular activities. I feel strongly about that.

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And it's about having a plan on those days, but then also remembering even if you can't be perfect two, three nights a week, it doesn't mean you can't be pretty spot on the other night. That sets your child up to be able to be a little more flexible. When you have those, I guess I'll call them off nights. And is it okay to hold that carrot out there, Say, if you're going to do sports, this is the agreement we have to have. You're going to be prepared to go to sleep soon when you come home. And if it takes too much of a toll on your grades, then we're going to have to choose between.

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You're going to choose grades over sports most of the time.

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This is where I have to say, yeah, we have to know our kids. So for my kids who really want to do Sports, that is a motivator. But if you're dealing with a child who you really think what they need is kind of this life skill of being on a team and, or being in a play which you're working, you know, whatever. I think there's so many life skills from a lot of these extracurricular activities. And so I'm always careful what I kind of threaten kids with if I think, oh, if they take me up on this, it's doing them more harm than good.

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Right, right. And so, yes, I would cut things to prioritize my children's sleep. Mainly what I would take it down from is right now they're doing two or three sports a season of which I'd say if this is impacting your ability to sleep, we're cutting down to one. And so we have to be dedicated on the timing of our homework and all of that. But if that's not your child, I would switch to what you had mentioned about the importance of holding structure limits. And it may mean we don't have screens during the week and just doing things that set them up and not over scheduling them like I have with my own children. By letting them do multiple sports, you can have a much more reasonable setup for them where they have one or two evenings a week, but we aren't doing it four or five nights a week. And let them perhaps be involved in. The choice making totally on what activity. So when my kids were little, it was, you have to do something. But I didn't have a strong, like, I don't make my kids specialize in a sport. They love a lot of things. I don't care.

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They're not going to play college sports. And so early on it was, you have to do something. The only thing that's backfired is they love a lot of things. But I think one powerful way to give a child a choice is to say we have to do some activity. We can look at the schedule and see what times are ideal.

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Different organizations will have different timing. But I love the idea of having kids helping to choose an activity that is motivating to them and filling their cup and then also incorporating sleep as a priority.

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Right, True. I know that there are some children that have signs of sleep deprivation that might not be as obvious as others. Have you seen that with any of your patients? Is there anything to look out for? Yeah, I think, you know, I will have schools send parents my way when they have a child who's struggling with classroom behavior. We kind of touched on the academics. If you think your child's underperforming what they're capable of, or they're really struggling to behave in the classroom once we get into elementary, but definitely middle school and high school. Mental health struggles. Sleep is so impactful in all of those areas. A lot of children get ADHD diagnosis, and the symptoms are very similar to sleep deprivation.

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And so sometimes I'll work with a family who wants to go through that testing, which I am in total support of, but they will say, we want to clean up sleep hygiene first to ensure that we're getting accurate results on the ADHD testing.

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So that is kind of an area that sometimes catches people off guard to realize that some of those symptoms overlap. What do you think about using sleep aids like melatonin or magnesium when we're.

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Great question. My two grandchildren happen to be adhd, so it's really tough to take the tablet away long before bedtime. What are your thoughts about that? To be honest, I put it in the controversial category, but I will happily share what my thoughts are.

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I work with a lot of children who have adhd, and very common for them to struggle with transitions.

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And so transitioning off a screen, transitioning to a bedtime routine, those can be much tougher. And screens in general, I think they're much more drawn to screens. And so, for example, in early elementary school, in my own household, where we have some of these struggles, I had to make the rule specifically for to benefit one of my children that we would not have screens during the week because that pain point was so intense. And then the struggle to move on from it felt intense. It was a scary transition. To be quite honest, it took me weeks to talk myself into it. You know, sometimes, you know the right thing to do and you still don't want to do it. And it was about five days of painful resistance. And then it was absolutely a game changer in our house. And so one thing with children with ADHD is I always recommend protecting. Well, this is true for all children, but I think especially true for children with adhd, protecting that hour before bedtime, not doing things that are further stimulating the brain. Screens kind of fall into that category. So screens, exercise. And when I say exercise for young kids, that could be playing chase, it could be jumping on the bed, it could be tickling, it could be wrestling.

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I mean, anything that's really kind of sending the signals to their body that it's time to go, like, let's get going. We really want to limit those. And, you know, on the melatonin front, every Child's different.

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So you always need to consult with your pediatrician. And I do believe there are some children who have medical conditions that negatively impact their body's natural ability to produce melatonin. I also think melatonin is not well studied in children. I say for my age group, we. You didn't have melatonin either. We were not given melatonin as children. So my children, this current children group, they are the experiment when it comes to long term use of melatonin. We don't know just yet what's going to happen if children take melatonin for years. We're starting to learn more. There now are children who've been on melatonin for years. And here's an example of one of the concerns they have is it impacts puberty. So when a child goes through puberty, their body, the timing of when melatonin is produced changes because their circadian rhythm shifts and the amount of melatonin they produce changes. Well, when we're artificially giving the melatonin, it can impact how your child goes through puberty. And so that's one of the kind of, in more recent years, it's like, oh, maybe we should be a little concerned about children who've been on melatonin long term. So I generally advocate for doing everything you can to help your child produce natural melatonin and to set them up for sleep success, which means really protecting to the best of your ability. We just talked about the sports and all that stuff, but protecting the hour before bedtime. And so in my house when we're home, it is once we sit down for dinner, ideally, particularly when they were younger. No more screens, no more running, jumping. We're kind of prepping. So that works really well. I'd say kind of early elementary down when they get older.

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My middle schooler has a computer for homework and there are some other things, but really trying to limit screens that aren't required for school can be hugely impactful for melatonin production. And then, you know, chill activities, reading, even if it's you reading to your children, if they're not super into reading themselves, can start to prep them.

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I wish I'd had all this advice early on. Of course, I did not, which is why I have a podcast for grandparents raising grandchildren.

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Now, I didn't have a problem with the kids not sleeping when I had my own children and now having a problem with her producing her own melatonin on her own because there was no way she could sleep when we first got her. The nightmares and everything. It was all we could do short of giving her hard medication. So we did that and now we have to do it as we've gradually been able to wean her off that and give her it only in desperately needed cases. But that's why I really am so thankful to give this information to families that are dealing with this with younger age children. Thank you. I can say that melatonin can be helpful. There's one child that can take it and one can't. It works totally the opposite. It triggers issues. It makes him more hyper.

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Yes. Active also. Good point. Is really strange. It can also trigger nightmares and night terrors and different night wakings. But where I do think melatonin could be helpful. So you mentioned they were up till two in the morning if you have to really reset a rhythm. So it's like how people use it for jet lag. If their circadian rhythm is so thrown off and you need a quick jump start to help them, I think it could be helpful for short term use. And then the other very, very powerful tool for grandparents who are looking to really shift a sleep schedule, it starts with the morning.

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So if you have, let's say a 10 year old who's been going to bed at midnight, but then they're wanting, this probably isn't the case in the school year, but let's say on the weekends, then they want to sleep in till 9, 10 in the morning, don't let them. So you have to wake them up and then I take them outside. So one of the best ways to shift a circadian rhythm is forcing the appropriate morning wake up time and then getting light exposure so that the brain is registering where the sun is, like, oh, this is when we should shift what hormones we're producing. And so that can be another way, even in conjunction with a short term melatonin use to help on the front end is to make sure you work on that morning wake up time as well. That's very good advice.

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When we have young children, what are some of the pitfalls or mistakes that families commonly make when trying to improve sleep with a very young child? Sure.

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So I think with infants, and I'm curious, it's so all the rage right now with the new moms. And I'm curious if this is language that grandparents are talking about, but are grandparents talking about wake windows at all? I've never heard that term. Okay.

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It might benefit all of you. So it's all new, I think to many of us. Well, the trendy thing right now that I do not agree with whatsoever is the concept of infants on wake windows.

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Meaning you should have them awake for a very specific time. Let's say two hours between nap one and nap two and nap two and nap three.

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These very prescribed wake windows they're called and they are not supported by science. And so I'll. I'm thrilled if you all have not gotten into that hype. So that is the most common kind of pitfall I see with infants. And so what I do recommend is after a baby has a more mature circadian rhythm, which is really kind of in the 18 to 20 week range where I see them most capable of sleeping on a schedule, is working towards a consistent schedule. So what's the best time for Nap1? About a 15

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45

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00am is our ideal put down window. Same thing for nap two. What's that kind of 15 minute start window and for nap three and then having a bedtime that's not too late. So early bedtimes are incredibly powerful. You can speaking to me as well as a hundred percent an infant while. It'S so true with the consistent sleep schedule. Yes. So I don't know. Yeah. So I, I hear a lot of varying thoughts on how people feel with the cat naps. But I do think if they work for you, you should use them. But it is true for adults. They say to optimize our own sleep, you want to go to bed within about 15 minutes, you know, every night. And same thing for your morning wake up. That's how you encourage your body to send melatonin at the right times and, and to sleep soundly. So in infants I would say avoiding that whole wake window concept. So if you're not familiar with it, don't even look into it and try to find a set schedule that works well. And then for toddlers I would say resist the urge to drop the nap.

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I like to see kids napping until at least the age of three.

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Some kids can benefit from a nap all the way to kindergarten. And naps help with that emotional regulation, impulse control and learning retention. And quite a few studies have shown that for that preschool group. And so try not to force the nap and then resist that urge of thinking. They're older, they need a later bedtime. They can still go to bed at 7 o' clock just like the infants. They may need less daytime sleep obviously than they did when they were infants. But that group I still like to see getting 10 and a half to 12 hours of sleep at night, whereas an infant I look for 11 to 12. So it's actually not that much different for that toddler group. So resist the urge to drop the nap. You might cap it, but resist the urge to drop it and resist the urge to push to a later bedtime. And I would say the same thing for elementary age children is if they are struggling, look for putting them to bed earlier. And one thing you can also look for is that second window. So if you miss their kind of ideal bedtime window where they have a sleep wave, they're going to move into second wind category. And it's what happens to me when

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45, suddenly I'm up and I'll have a harder time falling asleep. I'll be more likely to

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30

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45, I can sleep soundly through. And so this happens to young kids. So I'll give you the example of my 11 year old who has high sleep needs more so than her 12 year old sister. But she really petitioned at the beginning of the school year for an 8pm bedtime which was still going to be earlier than all of her friends at school and could she go to bed at 8? And I said great, let's give it a try, let's see how it goes. So we did the 8pm and about two weeks in she said this isn't working for me. I said, I noticed, I was waiting for you to notice. She said, it's taken me forever to fall asleep.

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It feels I'm in there for a long time and I am really grumpy. When you wake me up, I'm like, yeah, that's right. So we

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30 and she's like, I fell asleep very quickly at

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30. And so looking for that timing can be really helpful with elementary age children particularly. We're talking about like kindergarten and first grade. Those children are adjusting to sitting with very high expectations of sitting still. Remembering what's being taught, that's exhausting. So an 8pm bedtime might have worked great over the summer, but it might not be working when their brain is really put to the test all day long.

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Great point. Well, I never realized I had so many questions about sleep. You are now my new sleep guru.

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I never thought about comparing all of these issues. I think a lot of listeners are going to get some great takeaways. Your company is called Sleep and Wellness Coach.

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Can you give us some examples of how you've helped families with some of these issues and what a difference it's made for them.

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I think what I saw in my own journey and then in the nine years that I've been working with other families, have seen it time and time again, is that it can improve connection between the child and the parent or the grandparent, whoever the caregiver is, because you're each able to get the sleep you need. And when everyone can get the sleep they need, I think it can improve connection, which is of course something everyone cares about. I think it could be incredibly beneficial for marriages. I am not a marriage counselor, but I often hear from clients, when we wrapped up, you may have saved our marriage because it's very stressful when you're tired and who's going to deal with what and how are we doing it? There's a lot of disputes on how best to handle sleep and being overtired makes it harder to make those decisions. And I think it's just really when we think about overall wellness, it's your mental health, it's your immune system, it's your development for us as adults. Sometimes I joke I know too much when I'm not sleeping well because I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I'm going to get Alzheimer's, I need to be sleeping more. And so I just think we can't underestimate the power of sleep for our overall wellness. I was just out of town this past weekend and I had to remind myself yesterday when I was feeling incredibly anxious when we got back. You are anxious because you did not sleep well sharing a bed with your 11 year old who was kicking you all night long. You need to go to bed tonight. You will be fine. I woke up today and I felt fine. But last night going to bed, my head was spinning with all the things that were even I could knew were irrational. And so I think just for our overall well being, sleep is incredibly powerful. I agree.

00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:44.500
One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation was that each one of us has different needs when it comes to sleep. And acknowledging that and supporting that with your children saying, yeah, well Tommy does fine when he goes to sleep at 9 o' clock and gets up at 6, but he takes a nap when he comes home from school and he still does his routine. But for Athena it's very important that she goes

00:34:44.500 --> 00:35:28.190
30. Yes, that is such a great point. So for a lot of people this ship has sailed. But if you have young kids in your house and you have not yet introduced the concept of will you get to stay up later because you're older? Don't do it. And it was one of the best things I ever did with my kids because I had an early riser. My oldest was an early riser, so she had to have a really early bedtime earlier than her younger sister for a long time because her younger sister could sleep in later. The rhythms were just different. So now it's different. The younger one still has very high sleep needs. So now she has to go to bed an hour and a half earlier than her sister, who's only 18 months older. And yes, they've asked occasionally.

00:35:28.190 --> 00:36:00.519
Now she says, why does she get to go to bed later? And I said, her body's needs are different and we have to meet everybody where they are. And when I need to go to bed is different than when your dad needs to go to bed and he wants to get up super early. And if I don't get to bed early, it impacts me. And so I think really helping kids get curious about their own sleep. Now, I say that loosely because my kids roll their eyes at me all the time, but they are listening.

00:36:01.079 --> 00:36:15.809
And so when they were little, when they were three and they had an off night, I might say, I see you're having a really hard time remembering that we do not hit people in this house. I think that's probably because we went to bed too late.

00:36:15.809 --> 00:36:47.380
This happened, or whatever was the sleep department tonight. I'll make sure we get to bed on time. And I bet tomorrow that's going to feel a little bit easier than pointing. That out when it happens. Well, when they're having a great day, I might say, gosh, I love seeing you having such a great day. I think it really helped that we got so much awesome sleep last night. So it's pointing out the struggle. And when we see them thriving with their sleep, kind of how I pointed out with my daughter's grades drop, like, hey, let's just check this out.

00:36:48.019 --> 00:37:02.659
And one of my children is a little more curious on the sleep stuff than the other. It doesn't mean they have to say, I like this idea, but if you're changing it, you can say why we're changing it. And you're saying, we're going to track it and see.

00:37:02.659 --> 00:37:09.929
Let's get curious like a science experiment. Experiment. Let's figure out what helps you sleep, what makes XYZ easier.

00:37:10.650 --> 00:37:21.449
And there will be moments like when my daughter said this, 8pm Bedtime's not working for me. My heart about bursts with joy because I thought, oh, my gosh, 11 years in of this education, she noticed it's working.

00:37:22.650 --> 00:37:33.610
So it's the long game. I love this, just being educational and talking about your own sleep. So I will tell my kids, so I play tennis. For example, when I play nighttime tennis matches, it

00:37:33.610 --> 00:37:40.289
30, and then my sleep is garbage. I wear a sleep tracker. It tells me it's garbage.

00:37:40.849 --> 00:37:44.449
And I will say, I had the worst sleep ever. It's because I exercised.

00:37:44.449 --> 00:38:23.449
It's worth it because I love tennis so much, but I cannot do that more than one night a week because I am a hot mess. And they will crack up. And so when I get a great night of sleep, I'll pull up my app and show them. I'm like, look at this, I crushed it. And you won't believe what I accomplished today. And then I'll rattle off how great my day was. And so I think also pointing out when we sleep well, when we don't sleep well, normalizing that sleep isn't always perfect. I think that's very important to help with sleep anxiety and to help kids get a little more curious about how sleep is impacting them.

00:38:25.449 --> 00:38:32.789
All. Great points. I'm on the same page with you. Where can listeners find out more about your work at Sleep Sleep and Wellness Coach, llc?

00:38:33.510 --> 00:38:48.230
Well, I have my podcast called How Long till Bedtime? You can find it anywhere you're listening to podcasts. And then you can visit sleep and wellness coach.com or find me on Instagram. And the handle is leapandwellnesscoach.

00:38:49.269 --> 00:39:36.690
Great. And we'll put those links in the show notes. Alison, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your invaluable insights today. You taught me a lot. I can't wait to listen to your podcast while I'm riding on my peloton. Well, as you know, I love peloton. So thrilled that you're prioritizing your exercise as well. And it's very important. Just that 20 minutes that I get half an hour. Oftentimes it makes a world of difference. And it can, I say it can really help with your sleep. I recently did a challenge to get 10,000 steps a day, and I noticed I sleep much better on 10,000 steps versus my average of 6,000. It was a noticeable difference. So that's the nerd coming out in you. I know. I am a nerd. That's okay. I own it. I own it. Well, thanks, Allison.

00:39:36.690 --> 00:39:42.610
I've really appreciated your time today. Thanks so much. And thanks for what you do, you're welcome.

00:39:48.860 --> 00:39:51.980
That was an incredibly insightful conversation with Alison.

00:39:52.539 --> 00:40:37.139
I know. I'm going to be going to the store this week to get red light bulbs for my granddaughter's room who cannot sleep without having the light on all night long, and she's just not getting the sleep she needs. So I hope this will help you get on your way to getting the restorative rest you deserve. So now that we've laid that crucial foundation, let's talk about some other things that may be keeping you from getting the sleep you need. Do you find yourself reacting to your grandchild in the same way your parents reacted to you? Well, so many of us promise to break the cycle only to find old patterns rooted in unhealed wounds showing up in our families.

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Next week, we're going to be joined by licensed psychotherapists and generational healing expert Dr. Sasha Raci. We'll explore how to understand your past, release the weight of shame and regret, and get the practical tools you need to create a future of emotional freedom for yourself and for your grandchildren. This is a conversation that will leave you really feeling seen, understood, and truly empowered. Thank you for tuning in to grandparents, raising grandchildren, nurturing through adversity. Remember, you are not alone. Together we can find strength and hope in the face of adversity. Peace be with you. And I pray that you find some time this week to listen to your inner wisdom amongst the noise and the pandemonium of this world.