Episode 88: Natural Ways to Sleep Better with Julie Wright

“Sleep and your life’s dreams will come true”.

Julie Wright is an entrepreneur, sleep ambassador, speaker, and author of “The Natural Sleeper: A Bedside Guide to Complementary and Alternative Solutions for Better Sleep” [Tiller Press / Simon & Schuster] - an introduction to an extensive range of natural, complementary and alternative solutions, therapies, techniques, practices, and tips to help improve our sleep. More information at www.thenaturalsleeper.com

Julie is also the Chief Sleep Orchestrator and founder of WeSleep, a wellbeing provider focused on sleep, providing webinars, workshops, lectures, discussion panels, 1-to-1 consultations, and therapeutic sessions on the topic of sleep deprivation and insomnia to a wide range of organizations and business clients such as start-ups, agencies, media and entertainment companies, banks, festivals, conferences, non-profit, education and government organisations and many more. In addition, Julie is an ambassador for World Sleep Day.

“Having battled with sleep issues for years, I embarked on a journey full of learning, discovery and therapeutic experiments to resolve them. This gave me the idea to help myself and others with the issue of insomnia and poor sleep quality. Re-energizing sleep-deprived individuals by teaching them how to sleep naturally for optimal physical and mental health. With a good night’s sleep, nothing can stop you, and you could achieve your life’s dreams. I believe sleep is one of the answers to becoming a superhuman.”

Julie’s prior business background is in media and entertainment in the US, UK and France, as a former business executive at UKTV (BBC Studios), Paramount Pictures, Jetix (Disney ABC Television), Warner Music Group and, The Box Plus Network (Channel 4).

In this episode, we talked about:

Sleep is an essential part of our biological and physiological processes. Lack of sleep has physical, mental and medical health in the short and long-term
Short-term effects of sleep issues include low energy and mood, issues of concentration and productivity. Greater risk of accidents
In the long-term, lack of sleep is considered to have a greater incidence of Alzheimer’s, certain types of cancer, diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease
Sleep is currently a buzzword in mainstream media
The impact of snoring and sleep apnoea on health
Julie is an ambassador for sleep to help people understand the importance of sleep and learn natural ways to sleep
Julie’s new book ‘The Natural Sleeper’ arose from her personal experiences of sleep deprivation and insomnia. She initially tried sleeping pills, but didn’t have a good experience with the side-effects (such as grogginess). She looked into psychology, sleep tech, behavioural approaches and alternative medicine
We have the right chemicals to sleep in our bodies and can relearn how to sleep. Human beings are diurnal, ie intended to be active by day and rest by night
In ‘The Natural Sleeper’, she has a depiction of the night sky to demonstrate sleep options based on how we operate, e.g. self-care or receiving professional guidance, practical or experimental. There are also chapters about light, exercise and technology for sleep, managing the mind and complementary and alternative solutions
We have control over our sleep, if only we prioritise it and nurture it
What’s worked in the past? People often know intuitively what they need
When you know who you are and how you like to operate, you can follow the steps that are most attuned to you and lower the resistance to change
Routines sound monotonous, whereas the idea of sleep rituals are about honouring and respecting yourself and your health. Rituals can change and evolve with your needs
Clinical sleep studies are relatively new- around 10-15 years
Sleep involves a cleansing process for the brain for the removal of toxins, preventing the build up of a protein that blocks neural circuits
There’s been a long-held narrative that sleep is an inconvenience, in the way of life and accomplishing things. In actual fact, sleep gives us clarity of mind and the energy to live our lives to deliver our best work and be our best selves
Dr Neil Stanley- sleep expert
It’s important to rely on your own experience and tune into how you feel rather than depend on sleep trackers - they aren’t always accurate and don’t take all relevant factors into account.
Contact Julie for the sleep diary
The only true way to track sleep is in a sleep laboratory
‘Beditation’ was created by Laurence Shorter, author of ‘The Lazy Guru’s Guide to Life’. He refers to beditation as the mindlessness of the morning state. Julie considers the term as things you can to do prepare mind and body for sleep, or use on waking in the middle of the night, such as yoga nidra, body scanning and progressive muscle relaxation
The environment impacts sleep. Simple ways of creating a sleep cocoon include keeping the room pitch black, temperature control, keeping sound under 30 decibels (the level of someone whispering), only keeping the bedroom for sleep. Feng shui, colour and bedding materials also help to make the space more restful
Boundaries and better sleep: time, space and lifestyle choices. These are essential for the brain to understand the difference between activity and rest
To produce the sleep hormone melatonin, we need at least 30-60 minutes of daylight exposure each day
Alcohol and sleep quality
Melatonin for jet lag on a temporary basis. However you can produce your own melatonin with daylight exposure and eating the right foods
There are around 80 medical sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, obstructive sleep apnoea, sleepwalking, Shiftwork disorder
Sleep isn’t taught or studied extensively in medical training
There are genetically-determined chronotypes which point to how much sleep we need and when we need to sleep
“Sleep and your life’s dreams will come true”. You can take control of your sleep. When you are refreshed from a good night’s sleep, you are empowered to be your best self
Think about the ‘whys’ related to sleep in all areas of your life
Poor sleep affects relationships with your children, partner and families