Read the Episode Transcript:

Hello my friend, and welcome back to another episode of The Live FAB Life Podcast. If this is your first time here, welcome! My name is Naomi Nakamura and I’m delighted that you’ve joined me today!

Last week, in Episode 137, I talked about adrenal fatigue and boy, the response to that episode was enlightening. There was so much interest around that topic and I promise it will continue to be a central topic that we talk about.

And today we’re going to talk about rest because rest is literally the key to adrenal recovery. You cannot recover from adrenal fatigue without rest.

Now, this is easy to say, but not always easy to do, because those of us who typically succumb to adrenal fatigue are ones who resist rest.

We’re ambitious busybodies with big plans, always formulating plans of action, adding things to our to-do lists, and checking them off as we get things done.

Rest is time wasted -- until it’s not.

Am I right?

As I shared in the last episode, as an endurance athlete, I would scoff rest days. Even taking one rest day a week felt like it was too much. Not necessary. Until I got to the point of burnout where I couldn’t even run a single mile without breaking down, let alone function through the day.

Suddenly, I was forced to take extended rest. Complete rest. Where all my days became rest days.

While the catalyst in my story was endurance training, anything can be substituted here.

Working out - endurance training or otherwise, your work, your commitments whether they be volunteer work, church duties, heck, even your family.

Without rest, your drive and ambition will only take you so far. You’ll eventually reach the point of physical, mental, and emotional burnout.

My friend, I don’t want you to get to that point. It’s quite literally the worse.

Of course, what you eat and how you eat plays a critical role in your recovery.

More deeply, your mindset plays an even bigger role in your adrenal recovery. Because you can go through all the motions, but until you release your “need to / have to” drive, you aren’t truly welcoming rest.

Perhaps that’s why so many of us struggle with sleep.

I’ve done a number of past episodes on sleep:

Episode 034 - How to Get A Quality Night's Sleep Episode 077 - The Pros and Cons of Blue Light and How to Get Quality Sleep Episode 078 - Sleep, Stress, and Hormones

And all of the tips shared in those episodes have helped me over the years, but like everything in life, my relationship with sleep goes in ebbs and flows, and shifts from time-to-time, from season-to-season.

Now, it may seem obvious that sleep is good for us, but remember what happens when we sleep:

Our muscles repair itself, which is why sleep is critical for athletes Our liver goes to work between 11 pm and 3 am; this means that is when detoxification happens Our hormones can balance itself And our bodies and brain are in a prolonged, rested and digested state - our parasympathetic system takes over

It is critical for this to happen for adrenal recovery, and if it doesn’t, recovery doesn’t happen, at least not long-lasting or permanently.

And yet, as a society, we have come to devalue rest and sleep.

How many of you get less than 6 hours of sleep per night?

How many of you can’t function in the morning until you have coffee?

How many of you sacrifice sleep to catch up on your tv shows, or get sucked into a Netflix marathon or video games or games on your phone?

How many of you find yourself scrolling through your phone when you could be sleeping?

How many of you can’t sleep because your mind is active, thinking about your worries, your to-do list, what’s on your calendar the next day?

I have had life-long challenges with sleep.

When I was a kid, especially during summer vacations, we spent a lot of time at my grandma’s house. And by default, my mom’s younger siblings, who weren’t that much older than me - aunts, uncles, or older cousins were our babysitters.

And they always made us take naps, I think because it was less time they had to watch us. And I hated it because I could never nap. My sister napped, my cousins who were around the same age napped, but I couldn’t because I wasn’t tired. And I’d get in trouble for it!

Fast forward to adulthood, there was a period where I couldn’t fall asleep. My mind was too active.

So, I did all the typical things we do for insomnia:

I took melatonin - for over 10 years! I took epsom baths before bed I kept a notebook next to my desk to write down thoughts as they came to mind I removed my television from my bedroom I started using a sleep mask to block out light

If you haven’t tried any of these things yet, give them a try! They worked for a while - until they didn’t.

My sleep problems shifted - I no longer had problems falling asleep, but I’d wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep.

So, then, in addition all the things I was already doing, I:

Turned off my devices and tried to keep my phone outside of my bedroom. This worked well until I had a drunk person mistaken my house for theirs and I ended up having to call 911. From then on, my phone returned to my bedroom. I stopped drinking so much water before bed so I wouldn’t have to pee in the middle of the night I started taking melatonin with 5HTP I’d diffuse essential oils in my bedroom I learned that part of the reason I was waking up, especially hungry, was a blood sugar imbalance, so I started eating a very small piece of protein about an hour or so before bed

Again, all of these things helped, until it didn’t.

By this time, I became really obsessed with getting 8 hours of sleep. I tracked my sleep using the Sleep Cycle app, Fitbit or Apple watch.

Because I’m such an early riser, I became stringent about making sure I was in bed 8 hours before I got up, when during the summertime meant that it was still light outside.

This obsession, and compulsive tracking, ultimately made it worse because it was like my brain wouldn’t shut up about it.

So I cut back.

I stopped the sleep tracking. I stopped the melatonin and 5HTP, I stopped diffusing essential oils, I still kept up with the other stuff, but I came to the realization that taking all the supplements, and essential oils and all those things were not going to solve my sleep problems.

By now I’ve figured out that my sleep problems are deeply rooted.

Why?

Because I’ve already cleaned up my diet and eat well. I exercise 5-6 days a week. I have pretty good boundaries to maintain work-life balance.

So I’ve addressed those things and still have sleep challenges?

That tells me that I have to go deeper and unpack a lot of untangible “stuff” to figure out what’s keeping me from resting?

What is holding me back?

Now, this is still an ongoing process for me, but, what I’ve come to realize and accept - because acceptance of this is a huge first step - is to consider and ask myself, Have I been living my life out of alignment which has caused internal tension, which not only affects my psyche and my spirit but that stuff always, ALWAYS, manifests itself physically and is why I’m not able to rest and relax?

Is being out of alignment with who I am, embodying itself by through an intention tension that’s preventing me from having good, quality, consistent sleep?

So then that brings us to - what does alignment look like for me? In what ways am I currently out of alignment? And then, what do I do to bring myself into alignment.

And this is the journey I’m currently on.

One thing that I started a few months ago as part of this journey is to learn about Human Design and embodiment. I won’t go into details on this because I already have in Episodes 130 and 131, so go listen to those two episodes if you haven’t already.

With astrology being one component of Human Design, I got curious about it and wanted to learn more. I know there’s a lot of skepticism about astrology but the way I see it is that its just another energetic system in our universe and I think there’s validity to them. We may not have a full understanding or see it in the context that its intended, but if you really start to learn about it, its about more than just your horoscope.

So a few months ago, I had a natal reading, which is a reading of my birth chart, with Julien Elizabeth, someone who was recommended to me by a friend.

I’ve tried to learn about my birth chart on my own and I wasn’t getting it so I booked a reading with her, more out curiosity than anything.

I’ll have her on as a guest soon, to dive more into natal readings and how it can be valuable tool in your health and wellness, but one thing that she shared from my reading, that has been significant for me is the importance of rest, and how, instead of trying to force myself into routines, which is something I’ve done, really, my entire life, rather than force routines, embrace rituals.

I mean how many times have we heard about the importance of a morning routine, or evening routine. I mean, I’ve advised my own clients to create routines. And it works great for some, and not for others.

I’ve done okay with routines but there has always been a certain level of internal tension around them, that cultivates a “need to / have to” mindset that I’ve been trying to shift.

So when she said embracing rituals versus routines - it was like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and light bulbs with ideas started flashing in my head.

There’s no disrupting that rest is important for me, and has been a lifelong struggle, but it doesn’t have to look the same all the time.

So how can I create a ritual around it?

For me, thus far, the answer has been napping.

One thing I’ve come to know is that not all six hours of sleep looks the same.

Why is it that one some nights, six hours just isn’t enough, and on others, six nights is more than plenty.

What I’ve observed is that on nights when I’m able to get six UNINTERRUPTED hours of sleep, that’s enough for my body to feel good and thrive throughout the day.

But when I get up one, two, sometimes even three times a night, even though it still turns out to be six hours of sleep, I may as well not have slept at all because it was disrupted.

And this is where a ritual around napping has been so pivotal for me lately.

Whether it be a 10-minute power nap, a glorious 2-hour nap, or just lying down and closing my eyes, this is now something that I carve into every afternoon, every day.

I block it out on my calendar.

Somedays I only have time for 10-15 minutes, or my body only allows for 10-15 minutes. On other days, my body doesn’t welcome a nap at all, but I just lie down, close my eyes and rest for however long my schedule allows that day.

And on other days, particularly a Saturday afternoon, it turns into a 2-hour nap-fest!

So even if I’m only able to get 6 hours of disrupted sleep at night, my body can get additional rest and sleep later in the day with a nap.

Less screen time and more rest time. I cannot tell you how impactful this afternoon ritual has become for me.

And by the way, my acupuncturist, and other practitioners on my healthcare team fully endorse this!

Its improved my overall energy, brain function where I don’t feel like I’m in a constant haze, and my overall stress level.

As a result, I have the energy to workout, to be productive, to be social - even distantly during pandemic life, and to start projects of services and offerings I’ve been wanted to bring to you for years.

I think I’m on to something, and its just the beginning.

So now I want to hear from you -

Do you struggle with sleep? What does that look like?

What have you tried? What’s worked and what hasn’t?

What observations have you made about your sleep struggles?

Let’s have a conversation about this! Come on over to the shownotes for this episode, at www.livefablife.com/138 for episode 138 or find me on Instagram at @livefablifewithnaomi.

I always respond there.

Thanks for being here, as we continue to look at adrenal fatigue from many different aspects and explore ways to recover from it!

Until next time, rest well my friends! See you next week - bye!