Learn about sleep hygiene, hormones that affect sleep, and homeopathic remedies for sleep.
Arsenicum album
Coffea cruda
Ignatia
Kali phos
Mag phos
Calc carb
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sleep, night, wake, good, light, caffeine, remedies, bed, baby, kali phos, bri, homeopathy, night terrors, bright lights, 6x, shining, body, people, long, artificial light
SPEAKERS
Bri Hurlburt, Melissa Crenshaw
Bri Hurlburt 00:00
Hey everybody, Happy Monday. This is Bri here, and welcome to the Homeopathy at Home Podcast with Melissa. I wanted to let you guys know before we start today, we have a really good episode about, again, something all of us can use or know somebody who will benefit from it. I also wanted to do a little plug for our classes. Melissa leads study groups and has classes of her own and all kinds of resources on her website, melissacrenshaw.com. You can go on there anytime - new classes are always being posted. You can register there or contact us for more information. To jump right into today's episode, we usually start with some kind of baby step and then end with remedies. So today, Melissa, what is our topic and what is your baby step for us?
Melissa Crenshaw 01:00
Thank you, Bri. I'm excited today to talk about sleep. We all need it. We all want it, right? How are we going to get it? You wouldn't believe how many people that I work with that aren't sleeping. Remember in Episode 8 where I talked about earthing?
Bri Hurlburt 01:24
Yes, that was a great episode. I loved that one.
Melissa Crenshaw 01:28
Remember we kind of touched on sleep and said we're going to talk about that again later. So here we are! We're going to actually pick up where we kind of left off there. Earthing is one thing that you can do to help your sleep. Grounding yourself can contribute to better and deeper sleep by reducing inflammation. Being outside, especially in the morning, causes your body to make cortisol, which is your "get up and go" hormone. Having your face to the sun in the morning will give you that extra boost of energy that you need to get going each day. At night, though, we really need to be having all these bright lights in our in our homes turned down or off, because Melatonin is your sleepy hormone. You can't start making melatonin while you have bright lights on in the house.
Bri Hurlburt 02:29
What time is considered night or evening? Is there a certain amount of time before you go to bed that lights should be dimmed or turned off?
Melissa Crenshaw 02:36
Think about before we had artificial lights. All they had was candlelight at night. So, we need lots of outside light during the day and gradually decrease these lights inside at night in order to make melatonin because it's very hard on our bodies to have all the bright lights on and then suddenly go to dark. That's not natural. Remember, before we had artificial light, it just slowly got dark. Let me tell you a funny story about my baby chicks that I'm so enjoying right now. They had the heat lamp on them which produced light, and me and the kids were in the room with the light on just playing with them. Then when we were all done, we walked out and turned the light off and they freaked out. They were like they were chirping because they really did not like that. When I walked out and I closed the door, I heard them and I was like "What's wrong?" I really had no idea! So I walked back in there and they were frozen right where they were standing. As soon as I turned the light back on, they started moving around and happily chirping again. I had to stay in there with the lights on until they put themselves to bed. Then I could turn them off and they were okay.
Bri Hurlburt
Yeah oh it's like they're like little toddlers! They went to sleep in the light?
Melissa Crenshaw
They did go to sleep in a light, but see that's so unnatural. For us to go from bright lights to dark is not good for our bodies, and even animals know this! They're usually outside in the natural light. If you have bright lights on until you go to bed and then a screen in front of your face in the bed, then you're not going to make melatonin which is necessary for healthy sleep. Our eyes were not meant to have light shone into them. We're supposed to use light to see. What do screens do? They shine right into your eyes. I don't think I knew that there's a difference in our bodies using light to see things versus shining a light at our face. The surrounding light, though still needs to be gradually decreased as well as the light shining in our face? That's right, yeah. We really shouldn't have these screens shining in our eyes as many hours a day as we do, but then especially not at night.
Bri Hurlburt 05:20
You might be getting to this, so you can tell me if you want me to wait. I have read in a few places about different light colors that can be better or worse, like you mentioned a heat lamp for your chicks. Those are usually red. What about blue light or other colors? Do you know anything about that?
Melissa Crenshaw 05:41
I don't know about that. I do think that there are certain colors that are easier for the eyes. The only thing I know about colors and screens and that kind of stuff is that there are blue light glasses, you know, that can block the light from the from the screens. I know right now you guys on this podcast, you can't see me and Bri, but we can see each other right now. You can see, Bri, the purple and the blue on my glasses. Can you see it?
Bri Hurlburt 06:13
Yes I can. Mine are supposed to be blue light and mine don't show that.
Melissa Crenshaw 06:16
Really? Oh, well that's interesting.
Bri Hurlburt 06:21
Mine are also from Amazon. So that might be the issue. Haha!
Melissa Crenshaw 06:27
Yeah, mine are from the eye doctor, and I specifically asked for the blue light blocking or whatever. You can always see the purplish bluish shine on my glasses.
Bri Hurlburt 06:40
My blue light is probably shining right through. This is a scam!
Melissa Crenshaw 06:43
Oh, Amazon.
Bri Hurlburt 06:45
They're kind of also an accessory to hide the giant bags under my eyes. Because guess what, we're talking about sleep and I don't get any!
Melissa Crenshaw 06:54
They're cute! We're gonna get to that about Mamas. We're gonna talk about that in a minute.
Bri Hurlburt 06:58
Great! I cannot wait.
Melissa Crenshaw 07:01
Another thing we can do is turn the WiFi off in your house at night. UNPLUG IT. Collect all the phones and tablets and computers and put them in the kitchen or the living room, unplug the routers, no TVs in the bedrooms. Some of you right now are freaking out like, "my kids are not going to go for this!" Trust me, I have been there. My family freaked out and were like, you are crazy lady. You're turning off the WiFi, how are we going to go to sleep?
Bri Hurlburt 07:32
You're starting to wear your tinfoil hat around the house?
Melissa Crenshaw 07:34
Yeah! I did start turning of WiFi a long time ago. All of these EMFs emitting devices can disrupt your sleep. What's more, we develop strong sleep associations early in life - very early. Think about the newborn who needs to nurse himself to sleep. With 50 to 70 million US adults having sleep disorders, there needs to be truth in education and medicine. We have work to do to improve our own sleep, and it's called sleep hygiene. This is your responsibility to move towards better sleep. These are things that you actively do to help yourself sleep better.
Bri Hurlburt 08:24
I have never heard of a thing called sleep hygiene. You're teaching me all kinds of new things. Okay, so how do you know all of this stuff about sleep?
Melissa Crenshaw 08:35
I used to type sleep medicine for a sleep clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina where I was born and raised. That was medical transcription, and, like Hahnemann used to transcribe medical texts, I transcribed doctor's notes and learned a ton about sleep.
Bri Hurlburt 08:56
I have to interrupt and ask, though... How have you done all of these things? Was this in between you running a whole daycare center and becoming a homeopath and lactation consultant? And by the way, you were a sleep transcriber. How did you do all of these things?!
Melissa Crenshaw 09:13
Okay, so people who know me in real life know that that's just who I am. I do a million things, and I love to do a lot of things. I typed sleep medicine when I had my full time cake business.
Bri Hurlburt 09:29
Oh, of course! Are you kidding me?! Do you want to know what I've done? One or two things. Worked at Starbucks. Taught piano.
Melissa Crenshaw 09:41
Haha! I had a thriving, large pound cake business in Charlotte, North Carolina years ago. The only reason I gave it up is because we moved to Concord. It was too far to drive. I had a newborn, a toddler, a teenager. It got to be way too much. Actually, I was delivering cakes to the sleep clinic, and that's how I met them and became friends with them. Then they were like, Hey, have you ever done transcription? I was like, Yes, I used to be a legal transcriptionist.
Bri Hurlburt 10:23
Oh, my word. This is crazy, I can't believe it!
Melissa Crenshaw 10:28
This is so funny. This is what I do.
Bri Hurlburt 10:29
Okay, so back to your sleep transcribing.
Melissa Crenshaw 10:35
Hahnemann, when he left his medical career, was translating medical texts and that's where he got the idea for homeopathy. So anyway, I learned all about sleep and I'm happy to pass that knowledge on to all of you, because sleep hygiene is your bedtime routine. That's really all it means. So many people don't have bedtime routines anymore, and it's so important. This produces a sleep association. When you have a bedtime routine, you'll become sleepier at the right time, because your mind will associate those actions with sleep. What do most people do? They either take a bath, which is wonderful if you're doing that, brush your teeth, you should have some sort of routine that you do right before you go to bed. Then you'll start associating that routine with sleep and you're going to get into bed and go to sleep. We should all be able to lie down on a mattress and fall asleep within minutes without having to play video games on our phones, or check emails, or any of that.
Bri Hurlburt 11:41
I think I have made my sleep association snacks. I like to just sit and have popcorn. In all seriousness, though, what about caffeine? I don't do that right before bed, but I really do love a good cup of coffee. I usually have my lull in the afternoon, so I like caffeine in the afternoon. Even tea. I like hot tea. I like coffee, and I know I am not the only one. So how does that play into sleep later in our evening?
Melissa Crenshaw 12:19
Caffeine... you know, I wonder. People say you shouldn't eat before you go to bed, but I don't have trouble with that.
Bri Hurlburt 12:27
It doesn’t really do anything to me. Well, except maybe gain weight but doesn't keep me up.
Melissa Crenshaw 12:34
Yeah, I do that especially when I work. Okay, here I go again. I'm a lactation consultant at the hospital right now, also, but I won't be there for long. When I get home after being gone from the house for 15 hours, I come home and snack before I go to bed. But that's never bothered me. Caffeine, for sure. We can not be having caffeine, especially after 3pm. That's just the recommended time. You know, it could be later for some but really, that's what I do in my family. They'll look at the time before they ask me if they could have some caffeine.
Bri Hurlburt 13:19
I just noticed actually, three o'clock seems to be a good cut off time for me. I didn't know that was a thing though.
Melissa Crenshaw 13:25
Yeah, that's what I recommend. Your body needs time to process and eliminate the caffeine so that it's not affecting your sleep that night.
Bri Hurlburt 13:34
Okay, now maybe a total shift in gears, but the reason I like my afternoon caffeine is because I usually do not get a lot of sleep. I have three little kids and one of them is a baby. I know that it's normal for them to wake up throughout the night. I know that, but a lot of people are really rushing to get their kids to sleep through the night really early because it's hard to have our sleep disrupted for so long. I don't know that I really have a question, but can you speak to that?
Melissa Crenshaw 14:08
Yeah, it is hard. I mean, that's just what it is. It's a hard thing to talk to new moms or new parents about that and to tell them they're just not going to get sleep. New babies, whether you're breastfeeding or bottle feeding, need to wake up. They need those calories every couple or few hours for their brain growth and development. If you're trying to keep your baby asleep through the night, it's not good for their growth and development to do that. I know how hard it is. I mean, of course I've been there. I've got three and you know, all three times. I did breastfeed, and breastfed babies tend to wake up more often than bottle fed babies, but even the bottle-fed baby needs to be waken up because they need the calories. It's like a hard thing to say, but if you're going to be a parent, you need to expect for those first two years to be pretty much the hardest. Especially when it comes to sleep in, you're just not going to be able to sleep like you did before.
Bri Hurlburt 15:25
I wonder too, if there's some biological benefit even for the mom. Even though we are told all the time that we're giving our baby the gift of sleep (I remember reading that in a sleep training book), and that you can't be your best without X amount of sleep, you know. I had to retrain my mind. I remember with my first, I started praying for God to give me however much sleep I needed for that night. I'd wake up in the morning and think, "that much must have been how much sleep I need for today." If it was two hours, if it was eight hours, is enough for me to do my day. And that didn't mean I didn't have a nap or anything or give up sleep totally, but I just had to shift my perspective to think God didn't accidentally make babies wake up a lot or didn't do it in a way that would destroy moms for right years and years and years.
Melissa Crenshaw 16:21
Okay, so are we supposed to be having our babies in a whole different room? Oops, can't talk about that, right?
Bri Hurlburt 16:31
It's sad, I know.
Melissa Crenshaw 16:34
That's the thing! We're trying to make babies fit into our lifestyle and that's not how it works. Yes, God didn't make a mistake when he made babies to wake up every few hours - they're supposed to. It is hard, and that's just one of the many hard things of being a parent.
Bri Hurlburt 16:57
Right?! It's difficult right off the bat.
Melissa Crenshaw 17:11
Yeah, it is. I remember when I had Chandler, I didn't know that I wasn't gonna get to sleep anymore. First of all, I was young and I slept all the time. I don't know, eight hours or whatever. Then, when I had him, I had no idea wasn't gonna be sleeping anymore and I thought I was gonna die. I thought, I can't do this!
Bri Hurlburt 17:39
I know, I totally feel that! That's partly why we didn't want a third. I knew I could give two years to a couple of babies, and I did it. I could push through, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I thought I cannot do this for another baby. Lo and behold, we are here with a third baby and I'm doing it.
Melissa Crenshaw 18:02
Yep. God gives, moms especially, all these things - these instincts and energy. I really, really believe moms have more of an energy for that. That we can be okay, even though it's hard because we that's just what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to take care of our baby.
Bri Hurlburt 18:27
Don't you think half of the stress anyway comes from feeling like you're doing something wrong?
Melissa Crenshaw 18:31
Okay, that. I'm glad you said that because I meant to come back to this. I love what you just said about praying and asking God how much sleep you needed. Then if it was two hours that night, you're like, Okay, that must be all that I needed. That mentality right there is what can get you through the day. Whether you're a new mom or not, if you focus on how much sleep you didn't get - if you if you wake up in the morning or you look at that clock all night long and you're counting how many hours you got, you're causing yourself more stress. Whenever I did have trouble sleeping in the past, which has been a long time, I would do that. I would wake up and look at the time all the time, because I was counting. "Oh, no, I've only got this much. Oh, no, I've only got this much." That adds to the stress and the anxiety and it causes more trouble for you mentally. What you did, you just said, "Okay, I was only supposed to get two hours." Maybe you did take a nap that day. Maybe you slept really hard the next night, whatever it was, you didn't drag yourself through the mud all day. "I only got two hours of sleep," repeating it all day long, focusing on it. Just like what I'm always talking about, it's what you're focused on. What you focus on is going to be magnified, so you're magnifying the problem. You don't have to do that. It doesn't have to be that way.
Bri Hurlburt 20:06
Right? That's so good. Okay, so for some remedies that we can use to help us sleep... I feel like there have to be a lot. I've heard you mention a lot in classes. You just mentioned stress, so maybe stress or anxiety about sleep or about other things? What are good remedies for that?
Melissa Crenshaw 20:38
Whenever there's anxiety about sleep, I think Arsenicum. Arsenicum album 200 could be really useful, especially if someone is sleepless until 3am. If they're twitching, trembling, disturbed, anxious. Arsenicum has a lot of anxiety. If you're talking about sleep or not, when there's anxiety, Arsenicum is big there. A person who talks in their sleep. I don't know if you've ever done this, or if you've heard of people doing this, but that violent start in your sleep. You wake up startled, and your whole body jumps or whatever. That's Arsenicum.
Bri Hurlburt 21:30
Do you recommend these for chronic use?
Melissa Crenshaw 21:35
Yeah, if it's a chronic issue, then you could take Arsenicum album 200 every night before bed. If it's an acute issue, then when these things are happening, you could get up and take it. You know, my next thought was going to be that if you lay down in the bed, your mind is racing, and you just can't shut your mind off. That's Coffea. I like to start with Coffea 200 just at night before you go to bed. That's where I usually start people. If the Coffea has the opposite effect on you and causes you to be more restless or awake, then just go down to Coffea 30 at night before you go to bed. If you are feeling like, you know, that worked and did something but didn't work really well, then you could do Coffea twice a day, in the morning and at night.
Bri Hurlburt 22:45
How long do you think they should give it before you switch potencies? Like a week?
Melissa Crenshaw 22:53
To switch potencies you would notice that first night that it caused the opposite effect. It made you more awake. It's almost like a proving - you'd feel like you had drank coffee before you went to bed.
Bri Hurlburt 23:06
Okay, and you told me, too, that that one's a good one for if you maybe fall asleep well, but wake up in the middle of the night with your mind racing.
Melissa Crenshaw 23:13
Yep, that's what I usually do.
Bri Hurlburt 23:16
That is a good one. I'm going to start trying that.
Melissa Crenshaw 23:19
Coffea also has nervousness, restlessness, no sleeping after 3am. This is where you wake up at 3am and you can't go back to sleep.
Bri Hurlburt 23:31
Okay. I haven't heard a lot about Ignatia specifically with sleep, but I have heard you talk about it in relation to stress. Do you think that's a good one to take for sleep, too?
Melissa Crenshaw 23:46
Yeah, well, especially when there's worry. I always think of ignatia when someone is worried. If you have insomnia from a grief. Let's say you had bad news, or sudden death in the family or a tragedy that happened, and you've got grief, then Ignatia would be a good one to help you cope with the grief and to help you sleep. It's also great to help you sleep when there's depression. Jealousy, this person could have highly changeable moods, or also horrid repetitive dreams, waking up crying from these dreams - that can indicate Ignatia.
Bri Hurlburt 24:29
Okay, so I have one little boy who used to have bad night terrors. We used Stramonium, which seemed to work pretty well for the violent part, but I did hear you mention Kali Phos, too, that you said worked really well for you.
Melissa Crenshaw 24:47
Man. I love Kali Phos 6x. This is a sleeplessness from worry again, kind of like Ignatia. Kali Phos 6x is great for night terrors. Night terrors usually happen at around five to seven years old, as far as I can remember. But anyway, no matter what age you are, the sleeplessness without a cause - you just don't know why you can't sleep. You can take it an hour before you go to bed because it works on the central nervous system. It is a beautiful sleep medicine for me.
Bri Hurlburt 25:25
That one you usually take 6x because it's a cell salt?
Melissa Crenshaw 25:28
Uh, huh. Yep.
Bri Hurlburt 25:30
Okay, another cell thought this reminded me of is Mag Phos that I have also heard used a lot for sleep.
Melissa Crenshaw 25:39
Yes. Mag Phos would be a good one. It is a cell salt so you would probably use a 6x, but you could use a 30 or 200. This is when you're exhausted. You're constantly yawning. If you get sleepy when you're attempting to study, then that would be 6x.
Bri Hurlburt 26:05
That was me all the time in high school!
Melissa Crenshaw 26:08
I know, right? So this is what's interesting to remember about homeopathy. Notice what I just said - Mag Phos can help you go to sleep if you're exhausted, constantly yawning, AND it can also help you stay awake if you're too sleepy when you're attempting to study. That's what homeopathy does! It brings homeostasis. Whatever you need in your body, it's going to bring. It's not like allopathic medicine where you take a sleep medication when you want to sleep and a stimulant when you need to stay awake. It's the same remedy that can go either way, whatever it is that you're needing in your body.
Bri Hurlburt 26:47
It really is amazing that it works in that way. I know we're getting short on time, but I just had one more question. Maybe for some moms since I know we're talking to a lot of women, but growing pains or sore muscles for teenagers playing sports and stuff. Mag Phos made me think of it. What would maybe be a good remedy for that?
Melissa Crenshaw 27:13
Yes. Calc Carb. Calcarea Carbonica is a great remedy for growing pains. It can also be good when there's lots of nightmares. This person also might wake at 3am and can't go back to sleep. Usually children, of course, might have a fear of monsters. That would be a good Calc Carb indication. Children who scream after midnight and can't be pacified - that really sounds like night terrors, right? If you've never experienced a night terror, it's awful. You go in, your child's in there screaming and it wakes you up, but you can't snap them out of it. You can't wake them up. It's terrible. I used to hate it. Calc Carb seems like maybe another good one then.
Bri Hurlburt 28:07
Calc Carb is amazing. It's so useful for adults, but I feel like I've used it a lot with my kids.
Melissa Crenshaw 28:15
Yeah, t's a big remedy that has a lot of stuff to it.
Bri Hurlburt 28:21
Okay, well, I know there are probably a lot more because I feel like homeopathy is a black hole that way - you start somewhere that leads to tons of stuff. Thank you so much. I feel like I left with a lot of good remedies to consider, but I know there are probably more. There are a lot of resources on your website, other podcasts or other blogs that you've written, if you want to know more and you're listening. Any last words about sleep, Melissa?
Melissa Crenshaw 28:54
Sleep is the time when your body rejuvenates and repairs, so we really, we really need to be sleeping. If you get your good sleep hygiene and take some good remedies, you should be able to get into a pattern of sleeping well, every night. We need to be sleeping well every night so that our bodies can heal from whatever damage or whatever has been happening during the day or days or weeks or months. If you need more help, if these remedies aren't working, there could be a deeper issue - it could be a hormone imbalance that's causing you not to be able to sleep, that's highly likely, or it could be a gut issue. If you need to dig deeper and you need help, then get on my website, schedule a consult, and let's get to the bottom of it so that you can sleep. I'm so thankful for you, Bri, for coming and doing this with me. These are much more interesting, I think, when we get on here and have a conversation and laugh together. I love it. Yeah, this is much better than those first few or by myself talking!
Bri Hurlburt 30:06
I am super happy to be here and I learn a lot every time. Thank you.
Melissa Crenshaw 30:11
I hope you guys have a great day! This is going to come out in May, but we're recording right before Easter, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say Happy Easter.
Bri Hurlburt 30:21
Happy Easter!