KC Craichy, best-selling author of The Super Health Diet: The Last Diet You Will Ever Need! and Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality, talks about the importance of sleep for Super Health.

Audio Transcription

Wendie: Hi, this is Wendie Pett, Director of Sales and Marketing for Bronze Bow Publishing. I am here with KC Craichy. How are you today?

KC: I’m doing great, Wendie. How are you doing?

Wendie: Good. I’m so glad you could come out to Minneapolis and join us for this interview. We, as Americans, fall short on this, and we’ve talked about it as far as it causing stress and things like that, but sleep. It is a major problem. I have a four-year-old, and I used to sleep so sound at night before I had children. Then all of a sudden, I catch myself just hearing one little crick in the house or what have you because I’m just constantly wanting to make sure he’s OK. I’m not doing it on purpose, but I just think that’s what we do as parents. How can we eliminate this sleep deprivation problem?

KC: Well, it is a problem. My wife discovered ear plugs some time ago because she can hear the grass grow. With kids, four kids now, she’s just always in tune. Once she discovered ear plugs, she was able to sleep better, and as far as her concern about not being able to hear the kids or something, I can hear the kids and I prefer to be woken up. There are some things you can do. I talk about making a sleep sanctuary. Your room ought to be a sleep sanctuary. You ought to be able to get the sleep you need to power you to go because the lack of sleep causes all kinds of problems. In fact, sleep deprivation was a wartime torture. They would keep people awake for long periods of time, and they would go wacko.

Wendie: Very true.

KC: The reality of it is, if you’ve ever stayed up for a couple days straight, you know what it means. You can’t drive. In fact, sleep deprivation is oftentimes worse than driving while intoxicated or the same exact as driving while intoxicated.

Wendie: People fall asleep at the wheel all the time.

KC: All the time. But even those who aren’t asleep at the wheel are technically asleep at the wheel because their reaction time is low enough to where they are really a hazard on the highway. So, the reality of it is sleep is important for every single thing in your life.

Wendie: How can you make your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary?

KC: Well, it’s a number of things. Number one: You need to avoid… You need to go back to the nutrition pillar before we go to the sanctuary. Poor nutrition can mess up your sleep. Lack of exercise can mess up your sleep. All these things can mess up your sleep. Repetitive stress can mess up your sleep, so let’s talk about stress for a moment, things that are on your mind and you can’t get away from when you go to bed. Get a journal and put it by your bed, or a microphone and speak into it or write in your journal the things which are open loops in your mind, things that are causing you continued concern and worry. Put it there and forget about it. If you think you’re going to forget something in the middle of the night, get up, write it down or speak it into your microphone. Hopefully, that’s not the middle of the night. Hopefully, that’s before you go to bed. When you go to sleep, make sure that your room… First of all, don’t sit in front of the computer just before you go to bed.

Wendie: But you have that last minute report to get done and…

KC: Check your email one more time. Put some more things in your head that you don’t want to think about while you’re not sleeping.

Wendie: Right. We do it all the time.

KC: The eye-stimulating of TV and computer and those things just before you go to bed will wreck your sleep cycles. And also, having caffeine and stimulants after noon during the day can have a profound effect on your sleep cycles when you go to bed. Or even having alcohol at all can mess up your sleep. People think they’re sleeping good when they have alcohol but the reality is…

Wendie: Yeah, they think, one glass of wine, oh, it relaxes me, I’ll have a good night’s sleep. That’s wrong.

KC: That messes up your sleep. So, the other piece is before you go to bed, within two hours, don’t drink liquids or have a little bit of water. I know that you’ve got to have a lot of liquids throughout the day. We talk about hydration. You need a lot of water, a lot of clean, fresh water, not all these other kinds of drinks.

Wendie: If you’re a pregnant woman, I disagree.

KC: What? That you don’t need a lot of water?

Wendie: No, that you do need a lot of water.

KC: Oh, absolutely.

Wendie: It’s hard to stop right before you go to bed.

KC: It’s hard, but your sleep is critical. When you’re pregnant, your body’s getting ready. As a matter of fact, when you’re pregnant, God has worked a way out to wake you up anyway because you’re going to be waking up a lot when your baby’s born.

Wendie: That’s right.

KC: I think that’s a different scenario.

Wendie: You’re right.

KC: The typical person who drinks water or drinks particularly dehydrators, like tea and coffee and those sorts of things, just before they go to bed or within a couple of hours of going to bed, they’re going to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. This may seem like a little thing, but that waking up can blow your sleep cycle for the night. Particularly if you turn a light on when you go to the bathroom, it can block your melatonin production and your secretion of growth hormone and all these things that you need when you go to sleep. This, chronically, over a long period of time, getting up to walk the dog or whatever you’re doing at night, can really be a big health problem.

Wendie: If you take a melatonin pill before you go to bed, would that help you?

KC: It’s extraordinary. That’s thought of as an anti-aging supplement for sure. Melatonin, an hour before you want your bedtime to be is really a good thing. Maybe, not every night, but it’s a good thing to keep you on your sleep cycle.

Wendie: It sure beats Tylenol PM, doesn’t it?

KC: Exactly. That’s not going to help you sleep well.

Wendie: No, it’s not.

KC: You’re going to sleep, but you’re not going to have good sleep.

Wendie: Right.

KC: Keeping your room dark is critically important because melatonin isn’t produced where there’s light. That includes a clock glaring off of your night table into your eyes or a window open. Incidentally, night lights for children: We know now that night lights for children can cause, and has many times caused, nearsightedness in the child later in life.

Wendie: Is that right?

KC: You need melatonin production, and you need darkness to sleep. And temperature, keeping the room at about 70 has been shown to be a very good sleep environment. Also, warm feet, deep sleep – putting socks on to go to sleep. Things along those lines can really make a difference, a profound difference in your health and your attitude during the day and so many other things.

Wendie: Maybe, even wearing a little eye mask would be good.

KC: It’s a great idea.

Wendie: Thank you, KC.