Here is the archive recording and transcript of the SYB Webinar from September 17, 2020, hosted by R Blank with special speaker Cathy Cooke on how to create a Sleep Sanctuary for optimal sleep, rest and health.
Webinar Recording
Webinar Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
sleep, home, bedroom, mattress, building, mold, emf exposure, air, chemicals, important, people, emf, biology, indoor air, temperature, area, realize, cleaned, create, night
SPEAKERS
Cathy Cooke, R Blank
R Blank 0:02
Everyone, thank you so much for for joining us on today’s very special webinar creating a sleeping sanctuary. Or how to improve your health by improving your bedroom. We know you have a lot of things going on in your life. And so I really appreciate the time you’ve set aside to spend with us today. So very quickly what we’re going to cover today, there’ll be intros, which will be very quick, then the main content will be about 35 minutes, then we’ll have a special giveaway offer as well as a special coupon and then the we’ll get into q&a. So very quickly about me, I’m the host today, but I’m not actually going to be the speaker, but I run shield your body, formerly taught on the faculty of the University of Southern California iturbi School of Engineering. Along with my father, Dr. Martin Blanc, I was co author of overpowered and si beat my work with si p follows a 20 year career in software engineering.
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So
I forgot to advance the slides. My apologies like I got too excited everyone. So today’s webinar is going to be a little bit different than what you’ve been seeing for me all year long. Because we’re going to branch out a little bit from our normal topic of emf and talk about one of the most important topics there is, which is sleep. Specifically, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know to create the best possible environment in your bedroom, so that you can achieve the quality sleep that you deserve. When you sleep well, your body will be better able to handle the EMF that you’re exposed to during the day, so boosts your resilience. This is a very important topic. And while we here at si B help you minimize your EMF exposure, nothing will beat the impact of a good night’s sleep. For those of you who know me, you know my area of expertise is in developing and selling products that shield your body from EMF, creating a healthy sleep environment goes way beyond just mitigating EMF. So for today’s webinar, I’ve asked building by a certified building biologist Cathy cook to share her expertise on the subject. And I’m really grateful that she was able to join us today and share her knowledge with us. So with that, I’m going to hand things over to Kathy and I’ll be back in a little bit. Thank you very much. Hi, Cathy.
Cathy Cooke 2:28
Hi, thank you so much are is really a pleasure to be here with all of you today and share what I know on this topic that I’m extremely passionate about. I just want to mention, I was really hoping to do this webinar in my own sleeping sanctuary. But I’m actually working on the road right now. So I had to jump into my friend’s office here. So I wish you could see my sleeping sanctuary in the background. But that’ll be for another time. So like our said, my name is Cathy cook and I’m a board certified holistic nutritionist and a certified building biology environmental consultant, and a certified electromagnetic radiation specialist with the building biology Institute. So in my practice, as a building biologist, I assess buildings or homes for anything that may be causing health problems. This includes things like indoor air quality, mold, chemical off gassing ventilation, combustible gas products, and of course, EMF exposure. So I’ve combined holistic nutrition and building biology to address both the body and the environment to help clients achieve optimal health. I’m also the founder for of Idahoans for safe technology, which is an advocacy and awareness group for the safer use of modern day communications. So I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and I currently live in Boise, Idaho. If you want to learn more about my work at all, you can visit my website here which is whole home and body health.com. So let’s take a second to identify exactly what building biology is because the term may be new to some of you. The mission of the building biology Institute is to help create healthy homes, schools and workplaces free of toxic indoor air tap water pollutants and hazards posed by electromagnetic radiation. So basically, we want your home to be as healthy as possible so that it supports you and your family’s health. Too many people become ill from poor indoor air quality, mold exposure, chemical off gassing, excessive emfs, poor quality water and other environmental exposures. The story of how building biology began is actually pretty interesting. It started in Germany A few years after World War Two. In Germany like in US soldiers were promised homes upon their return and with an abundance of caution leftover from the war, they were put into building materials so they could build numerous houses quickly and cheaply. Prior to this natural building materials like stone, wood, clays and other earthen materials were what buildings were made of. After the war, chemically based products became the norm. And it is actually what we still use today. So a few years after the war, health care providers began seeing an increase in illnesses associated with chemical exposures. Sadly, these Germans shoulders became ill because they were basically living inside of a box made of chemicals. So this inspired some German activists to create a field of study dedicated to addressing the health impact of the built environment. And so the field of building biology was born. In the late 1980s, an architect started an arm of building biology in the United States. Since then, the additional study of electromagnetic fields has been added to the curriculum with an increases an increasing emphasis due to the quickly growing exposure all across the world. If you’d like to learn more about the building biology Institute, I encourage you to visit their website at building biology institute.org, which is on the slide here and take a look at their 25 building biology principles which covers everything from air quality, to EMF to sustainable design, light, color, noise, community impact, and much more. To really fab this organization, and I promise you’ll learn a lot just by visiting their website. So in the field of building biology, our primary focus is the bedroom. Of course, we want the entire building to be as healthy as possible. But of all the places in your home, we want the bedroom to be as pristine as possible. Of course, this is because the bedroom is where we sleep. So good quality sleep is the foundation for health. I’m sure all of you know what it feels like to have a poor night’s sleep, and how miserable the next day can be. Sleep is when we heal, rejuvenate, detox the brain, prepare for the next day. If we don’t sleep well, we don’t feel well, and our quality of life as well as our health can greatly suffer.
So this is actually the reason why I became a building biologist because I suffered from severe insomnia. For well over a decade, I had seen dozens of health care providers, I spent thousands of dollars on protocols, supplements, detoxes, gadgets, pharmaceuticals, shaman, you name it, I tried it. And nothing I did helped. In my research on sleep, the topic of emf kept coming up. But honestly, I kept dismissing it because the whole idea was just way over my head. And it just wasn’t something I could grasp. But finally, after becoming so desperate from lack of sleep, I decided to try an experiment where I turned off my phone and I unplugged my Wi Fi for a week. So I bet you can guess what happened next, my sleep began to get better and better. And I mean, within a week really, it was nothing short of life changing. I knew then that I had to know everything there was to know about emfs. And so I started to study at the building biology Institute. And my studies, I learned that there was a whole lot more to a healthy home than just EMF exposure. And I was happy to learn that the emphasis really is on the bedroom. After a dozen years of struggling to sleep. This resonated with me fiercely. So creating a bedroom sanctuary is critical for allowing great sleep. In today’s world, it’s more important than ever, due to our increasing electrosmog environment. And of course, great sleep helps us to tolerate more EMF exposure during the day, so that we can still live our lives and go out into the world.
Sadly, I’m certainly not the only one that has experienced the destruction that poor quality sleep can have. It goes much deeper than just being tired and unproductive. When you’re consistently sleeping for less time than you need, you put yourself at risk for serious health problems like heart disease and stroke or Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline. Type Two Diabetes lowered immunity, hormone dysregulation, increased anxiety, depression, impaired brain function, decrease tissue repair, weight management issues, decreased endurance and exercise. I mean really, we could talk about this forever. The list goes on and on. And there’s just no part of your health that poor sleep doesn’t impact. It’s actually estimated that between 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from insomnia or sleep related disturbances. Personally, I think this number is drastically underreported. In my experience of working with people in all parts of the world, this number is likely much higher. About 100 years ago, Americans were sleeping nine hours per night on average, compared to the 6.8 we get today. And sadly, this trend is getting less of getting less and less sleep is actually seen across the globe. So it’s not just Americans, it’s pretty much everywhere, we’re starting to get less and less sleep. So the big question is, why does so many people have sleeping issues? What is going on in our modern world that causes more and more sleepless nights for more and more people? I’ve done a tremendous amount of research in this field, and I’ve come up with the most common sleep stealers, as I call them, you’ll see that most of these are symptoms of living in an ultra fast, high paced, high tech modern world. They include things like unbalanced light, exposure, stress, of course, physical fitness, or lack thereof, food and beverage intake, blood sugar and hormone balance, infections, indoor air quality and temperature, EMF exposure, of course, an increasingly narrow palate that causes breathing issues, which is a whole nother topic, which is very interesting, and a few other more complicated issues like neurotransmitter status, trauma, and socio economic status. However, the most overlooked of these sleep stealers is the physical environment.
So that’s what we’re going to focus on for the rest of this webinar.
Okay, so how do we create a sleeping sanctuary?
When you’re uncomfortable,
or when you’re in an uncomfortable, stressful, noisy, noisy or otherwise unhealthy environment, of course, you’re not going to sleep well. So in the next few minutes, I’m going to lay out some often overlooked areas that you can address in your bedroom, to help you create a much more conducive environment for sleep. This is such a big topic, however, that we’re bringing it to you in two parts, we want to make sure we cover as much of each topic as possible, so that you can start to make meaningful changes as soon as you can. Today, we’re going to talk about air quality, comfort, aesthetics, and noise. And a more thorough discussion of emf mitigation will be covered in part two, which will be in October.
So first off, let’s talk about air quality. Have you ever considered the quality of air inside your home? And whether or not it’s impacting your quality of sleep? For most of us, the answer would be no. But you might be surprised to learn how what your breathing is affecting how you’re sleeping. So I’m going to ask you a question. And I want you to take a moment to think about it. Which is better the air inside your home or the air outside your home. Now, I have to say that I put these slides together, oh, maybe a month or so ago before the influx of numerous wildfires that’s happening in the us right now. So ironically, you know, usually the air inside our homes is much dirtier, much more polluted than the air outside of our homes. However, we are going to talk about the wired wildfires a little bit because I know that that’s impacting many of us on a profound level. So generally in you know, non wildfire season, most people think that the air inside their home is cleaner than the air outside mostly because of things like traffic pollution, chemical plants and these kinds of things. But actually, your indoor air is almost always more contaminated than outdoor air. So the reason for this is because your in your indoor air is the outside outside air, plus all of the chemicals in your home, from carpet, synthetic materials on furniture, paints, glues, plastics, formaldehyde, electronics, cleaning supplies, and other petroleum or chemical based products. We bring so many toxic things into our home and we don’t even realize it. And what you breathe affects every part of your body. So think about someone who suffers from seasonal allergies. They cough C’s get congested, blocked sinuses and have compromised breathing. Obviously, this can make for a miserable night of sleep. So you can see that when you have allergens or irritants in your air that affects your breathing and oxygenation, it can directly affect your sleep quality. In addition to a compromised airway, allergens can also cause a histamine response. So histamine is is an amino acid that is released in response to a foreign particle in the body. It’s what causes the watery eyes and the puffy eyes, the itchy throat congestion and other miserable symptoms. histamine is also stimulating. So even if you don’t have the respiratory issues, it can still wake you up in the middle of the night due to its stimulating properties. Also, if you have a toxic load that is more than your body can handle, then your detoxification capacity becomes compromised. According to Chinese medicine, your liver is more active between the hours of one to 3am. So if you’re constantly waking up somewhere in this timeframe, you may want to consider your liver function. I’ve actually worked with many people who had this issue. And when we began supporting their liver and elimination pathways, as well as cleaning up their indoor air, we saw direct correlation with improved sleep.
In addition to liver function,
the brain can become inflamed in response to a chemical overload. Clearly this can cause disturbed sleep. So right about now, you may be thinking, well, I live in a house with carpet and pay and synthetic building materials and everything around, you know everything else that I just mentioned.
So what am I supposed to do?
Well, thankfully, there’s a very simple and effective thing you can do right now to improve your indoor air quality. And that would be to open your windows. Yes, I know it might be hot or cold outside. But you really should not fear this discomfort. human bodies are not supposed to be perfectly comfortable all the time. exposures to extreme temperatures, both hot and cold, are actually quite good for the body and help train your circadian rhythm. It’s okay to be a little cold or a little hot some of the time, it’s very important to get fresh air into your living space as much as possible to dilute your indoor air. This is simple, free and available to all of us. Now with that said, I realized that some people have severe allergies to pollen or other outdoor molecules. And in some places, you may be dealing with those wildfires or extreme outdoor pollution. In these specific situations, I recommend a good quality air filter. There are numerous different ones on the market that will effectively clean up your indoor air quality. Some of the brands that I like include Austin air, air, Dr. IQ Air and Air oasis. In fact, I really think that every home should have a good quality air filter, especially as we, you know have more and more wildfires every year. It’s something that you know, I am beginning to recommend with more frequency really all of our homes need a good quality air filter. So another important tip that almost no one does, is to have their ducks cleaned regularly. They should be thoroughly cleaned by a professional at least every two to three years. You would be amazed at the buildup of dust, debris, mold spores and bacteria inside your
ductwork.
Clean Air is imperative for overall health. So don’t forget, don’t forget to clean this hidden space in your house regularly. This is extra important because all that buildup is being blown right down into your breathing space for most of the year. I recommend finding a company that uses a flexible brush system and knows how to use them properly so they don’t damage your ductwork. I have a company that I use in Boise that uses a natural sicher spray to disinfect the ductwork after the cleaning to sanitize. You know this is a really great option. Just make sure that the company you choose isn’t using any toxic chemicals in your ductwork. Okay, so of course no discussion on air indoor air quality would be complete without talking about mold. A chronic mold exposure can cause severe health challenges for many people. Interestingly, not everyone reacts in the same way. I’ve worked with numerous families where one or two family members become ill after living in a moldy home, while the other family members do not. However, I have worked with families where everyone in the house gets sick, including pets. symptoms can include headaches, fatigue, irritability, cognitive decline, depression, anxiety, anger, insomnia, muscle weakness, chronic chronic sinus infections, got issues and again, the list can go on and on. mold is not something you want to mess with. If you think you’ve got a mold issue in your home, I highly recommend you consult with a building biologist or other professional for guidance. In order to prevent mold from becoming an issue in your home. The number one thing you need to think about his moisture, mold must have water in order to grow. If you can keep the water out of your home you can prevent microbial growth. This means the home is well sealed so you have no cracks or penetrations in the walls or foundation. You have good caulking around your windows, there are no holes in the roof etc. You also want to make sure that you have good ventilation. Remember, open those windows so that you don’t trap moisture inside. always run bathroom fans when bathing. Use the hood when cooking. And always crack a window if the moisture gets too high inside your home. In fact, I want you to open a window anytime you’re running an exhaust fan. This is important so that you’re not bringing in old stale and musty air from your crawlspace where mold can often hide. cracking a window when a fan is on will help to eliminate the stack effect from that positive pressure. A humidity level of around 40 to 60% is is our target. Once you get over that you run the risk of condensation and moisture buildup and that is what can cause microbial growth. So make sure to keep your home well ventilated, well sealed, dry and maintain a moderate humidity level. In some areas like say Portland or Seattle where it rains a lot, you may need to add a dehumidifier. The same thing goes for humid places where their basements like in the Midwest and the East Coast overall. Keep your home dry.
Another important tip to prevent mold is to manage the dust
inside your home. Household dust is the perfect food for mold and dust mites can be highly allergenic for many people. So make sure to dust and vacuum often and please don’t forget under the bed, you would be amazed by the amount of dust mites, dust mite feces, pet dander pet hair, that skin cells and mold spores that accumulate under the bed and in the box springs. As this is often the most neglected area of the house. Right? You guys can probably relate with me. Don’t forget to clean Yes, don’t forget to clean these areas. But also don’t forget to wash things like stuffed animals curtains and throw rugs regularly. As dust loves to accumulate in these plush areas. stuffed animals can be especially contaminated as they go everywhere with your child, and usually are never washed in their entire lifespan. There are different ways that you can washed up the animals and you can just do a quick search online to find a method that works for you. Just make sure you’re not using harsh chemicals stick to things like baking soda and mild soaps like Dr. Bronner’s or soaps that you can find at a health food store. Okay, now let’s talk about how comfortable or not your bedroom may be. This may seem like an obvious thing, but there are many pieces to this topic that are often overlooked. First of all, consider your mattress. Did you know that your mattress is supposed to be replaced once every seven years? How many of us actually do that? The act of getting in and out of bed your body weight kids jumping up and down on the bed etc. can deform the mattress over time. Add to that the dust mites, skin cells, dander and mold spores your mattress and box springs collect over the years and you’ve got yourself an uncomfortable allergen producing items you’re spending a third of your life on. If it’s time for you to consider a new mattress. I strongly suggest investing in a toxic free product. Matches typically have dozens of harmful chemicals like flame retardants, foams, formaldehyde and other petrochemicals. None of us should be putting our faces right next to these chemicals for hours at a time. Instead, look for a wool latex organic cotton mattress. I’m a big fan of White Lotus mattresses and I have one of the cotton the wool and latex actually my home. Note that if you purchase a bed like this without a flame retardant, and I strongly recommend that you do, you will need a doctor’s prescription. Believe it or not, it’s actually illegal for mattresses to be sold without flame retardants in the US. So you need a doctor’s note stating that it would adversely affect your health. Any naturally focused doctor will do this for you. I didn’t have any problem getting a note from my doctor. I also I would recommend getting a bed set up that does not involve a Bach springs, because of its propensity for dust and mold grow and go with a wooden frame if possible, because metal frames can act like an antenna for EMF, which we’ll talk more about in part two. Lastly, don’t ever put a mattress directly on the floor or a solid surface. bed frames have slots for a reason. You perspire all night long, and that moisture needs a way to escape the mattress. If it’s on the ground directly, or a solid surface, you can have significant mold growth. I actually learned this the hard way. A few years before I became a building biologist, I had this exact thing happened to me, I had a futon that I placed directly on the ground. And within two months, I had an entire labs worth of mold on the underside of the futon and on the floor. And sadly I’ve been suffering with sinus issues ever since. So please do not do this. If you don’t have another option at the moment, just make sure to lift up the mattress and lay it on its side during the day so that it can air out. Along with the mattress Don’t forget about your pillows which should be replaced every two years for these same reasons.
Remember, you’re putting your head and face next to this item for eight or, you know hopefully eight at least or so hours every single night. After a while that appealed that pillow accumulates your sweat oils from your hair and skin, your saliva your dead skin cells, dander and bacteria from your pets and a whole lot of dust mites in their feces. You may wash your pillowcases often, but that doesn’t really offer enough protection from these items that may cause mold, mildew and other allergens or irritants. I know it’s pretty gross, but better to know and manage it so you can maintain as healthy a bedroom as possible. And finally, make sure that you are in love with your sheets. This is one area that you want to spend a little bit more money on. You want your sheets to be just heavenly to you. You want to feel so good in your bed that you can’t wait to go to sleep every night. Of course, I recommend organic cotton sheets. If you’re going to get cotton definitely organic because cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed agricultural items in the US. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to put my face right next to a conventional cotton product so that I breathe in those chemicals all night long. You may be eating organic foods, but what goes on your body is just as important is what your body is surrounded in, in what you you know the clothes that you put on your body and the hygiene products that you put on your body. So please choose organic whenever you can. I’m also a big fan of the White Lotus organic sheets as well. They’re among the most softest that I’ve ever felt in all of the White Lotus home products are made right here in the US. Another consideration that is frequently overlooked is the temperature in your bedroom. It should be just cool enough for you without making you cold. There’s quite a bit of research showing that optimal sleep happens in slightly cool temperatures. This is generally somewhere around 60 to 68 degrees, but of course it’s going to vary with each person. If there are multiple people in the house and you all like different temperature, you can consider something like chilli pad. These work by sending water through a thin pad that you put under your sheets. You set the temperature to whatever setting you like. So if the ambient temperature is too warm for you, you can set the chili pad to be cooler and if it’s too cool for you, you can set the chili pad to be warmer. This is a great option for people that share a bed yet have vastly different temperature preferences and another way to manage temperature throughout the house is to open windows and specific rooms, which I always recommend anyway, and close or open vents and other rooms that have different ambient temperatures. So for example, if it’s too hot for you and your room during the winter, but say your kids like a warmer, you can simply set the temperature to be comfortable for your kids, and then close the vent in your bedroom and you can crack open a window and that way everybody stays comfortable.
Okay, so now let’s talk about the ambience of your bedroom. You want to consider how aesthetically pleasing your bedroom is. Again, this may seem so simple on the surface, but I find that most of my clients don’t do that great of a job on this one. One of the biggest offenders I see in bedrooms is clutter. These days people have so much stuff, they don’t have a place to put it all. It’s very common to find piles of boxes, dirty clothes, stacks of books and other things just thrown around the room.
The reality is that a cluttered bedroom equals
a cluttered mind.
You may not realize it, but subconsciously, this clutter can make you irritable and prevent you from fulfilling and for really kind of letting go at night right? Along those same lines, having a computer phone, textbook, work documents, a file cabinet or anything work related in your bedroom is a huge No no. You should not ever bring work into your bedroom. Even that quick check of an email type of thing that you’re doing the last minute before you go to bed. Once you associate your sleeping area with work, guess what happens? That’s right, you can’t sleep because you’re thinking about work. The bedroom is for sleep and sex only, and should be free of all other distractions and clutter. So you want your room to be very visually pleasing. You want to choose calm and relaxing colors on your walls or in your bedding. good choices include colors like grays, light blues, some people like greens like green or off white. However, stimulating colors like red, bright yellows and pinks should be avoided. Now this topic is very individual and a color that might be pleasing to you. Maybe too stimulating for someone else. So what color you choose is going to be very unique to you. Another great thing to do in the bedroom is to bring in nature, things like flowers, plants, sunlight, very, very important, even essential oils. So let sun in in the morning, you can have fresh cut flowers on the dresser, hanging air purifying plants throughout the room. And using essential oil diffuser for a calming and relaxing sense. All of these very simple things can really transform your bedroom from a place of blah and dreary to a place that you just really love to be. Now on that topic, let’s talk about light for a second. while you’re sleeping, you want to minimize
all light exposure.
This means no electronics or any type of light infiltration from the outside. If you have light penetration in your room, even after using curtains or shades, then you should consider getting some blackout curtains. If it’s not possible to keep the room totally dark, then invest in a nice comfortable eyemask. I also suggest earplugs while you’re at it, you may not realize it but subtle noises in the middle of the night can be arousing to your nervous system, you may not fully wake up, but you may come out of a deep sleep into a more shallow sleep. So white noise can be helpful for some, but that generally means that you’re using some time, some type of electronic. And for EMF purposes, we don’t want any electronics in the bedroom. So it’s best if you get used to silence, I know that this can take a little getting used to but once you do it, it can be really heavenly to just tune out the world. Okay, so I realize that that was a whole lot of information in a very short amount of time. So I just want to do a quick recap of what we’ve talked about before we get to some other announcements in the QA. So number one, if you take away anything from this webinar today, it should be to understand how important it is to improve your air quality. I really want you to open those windows. You know I’m actually in Colorado right now and there’s a huge wildfire very close to where I am. So You know, again, if if we can’t open our windows right now, it may be time to invest in a good quality air filter. And I realized that you know, air filters are kind of expensive. But this is worth the investment, especially if you live in a Rocky Mountain State or places where there are a lot of wildfires, because it’s just going to, you know, it’s going to be increasing in significance every year. So, air filtration, very, very important. Okay, the next thing I want you to do is have your ducks cleaned every two to three years. If I asked you right now, when was the last time you had your ducks cleaned in, you don’t know, it’s probably time to have your ducks cleaned. So this is a very, very, very good important investment for your home and for your family. Next, don’t forget about getting all that dust off of the surfaces in your home, especially your bedroom. This will reduce your allergen potential and help to prevent mold at the same time. Also consider non toxic cleaning supplies. If it’s time to change your cleaning supplies to something less toxic, please do so. Any health food store will have plenty of options to choose from, or you can make your own very simply, you can search for recipes online, the goal is basically to stop bringing more toxic chemicals into the home. Okay, if you have an opportunity to build new or you’re bringing new products into your home, try and go for naturally based products like wool carpet, solid wood furniture, woven throw rugs, natural bedding, etc. We want to again stop bringing those chemicals into inside our homes. Alright, next we talked about our mattress. So don’t forget about getting the most comfortable and toxin free mattress that you can. I also want you to get yourself the most luxurious sheets you can find. Again, I love those organic sheets from White Lotus, they’re super soft, you know, you could do silk, you could do Lenin, just you know, whatever naturally based product you can get that is hopefully organic. If possible, I want you to change your pillows every two years, you really would be amazed at the amount of dust mites and skin cells in your pillow. After all, they never get washed. So choose natural materials for pillows like down cotton, wool, Kpop, natural latex or buckwheat. Those are all good options. And we want you to keep the temperature cool. Remember to set that thermostat to a nice cool temperature or open your windows or invest in something like a chilli pad if you need to. Okay, creating a calm and soothing ambience is very important. Remember, this is the most important room in your entire house. This is where you want the majority of your resources to go. So if you’re redecorating, or you know you’re you’re trying to upgrade your home, the bedroom really should be the place to do that first.
There should also be nothing in your bedroom that signals work to you. The only thing that we want in your room are the few things that you need and the things that bring you joy. The bedroom is never a place for electronics or anything work related. And finally, reduce any artificial light and extraneous noise. We’ll be discussing blue light a little bit more in part two, along with the emfs you know in much, much greater depth. Now I realize that you may not be able to accomplish all of these things right away, but just try to tackle the ones that you can now and over time you can work on creating the best sleeping environment that you can. Even some of these small steps can make a big difference. Remember, sleep is the foundation of our health. If you can create a sanctuary for yourself which will support amazing sleep, you can then experience more energy, better cognitive function, blood sugar balance, better work and athletic performance, more patients better parenting skills, weight management hormone balance and just have a more awesome life. Who doesn’t want that? So you know sleep is everything folks, and it all begins in the bedroom. Okay, so I know that we got some questions coming in and as promised we’ll be doing a q&a session here in a moment. But before we get to that I know that our has a few things that he would like to discuss. So back to you on
R Blank 40:01
Thank you very much, Kathy. So as Kathy just said, we’ll be getting to QA if, if you have any questions you can I see some are starting to come in. That’s great. You can just scroll down on the page and post your question we’ll be getting to those. Before we do very quickly, I want to remind everyone about the well for us pretty massive giveaway that we’re running this month here at SYB. We have over $3,000 in prizes to help you convert your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary. They’re going to be 16 winners, they’re 16 Prize packages. So there’s going to be 16 winners selected. And I just want to take a moment to highlight a few of the prizes. The first is the sob bed canopy. And this is my first product that can shield your body from all sources of emf and it can protect you all night long. As Kathy was just explaining sleep is an incredibly important part of our life. It’s not only a third of our life, but at the time when your body is supposed to rest recuperate, and to rejuvenate for the next day. And EMF disrupts our sleep it makes it harder to fall asleep. It makes it harder to stay asleep. And that’s why I made the swipey bed canopy to protect your entire body all night long from EMF radiation. And it even works against 5g. I’ll just say we actually sold out of our bed canopies. So you can’t even buy this from us right now. But we did allocate one for the for the contest, so you do have a chance to win. Next, another one of our prizes is from from Kathy. The sleep easy method is an eight week online program created by today’s host, and it teaches you everything you need to know to get amazing sleep every night. quality sleep is the foundation of your health. You can have the best diet and exercise program in the world. But if you’re not getting amazing sleep, then your efforts are wasted. When sleep is compromised, your whole body suffers. If your sleep is anything less than amazing, then you need to check out the sleepeezee method. Next we have the weighted lap pad and mask for Magic weighted blanket. Magic weighted blanket was started in 1998 when their founder Keith invented and began selling weighted blankets. There were a big hit, especially with individuals with autism or sensory processing disorders because it was designed to mold the body to mold to the body creating perfect hugging sensation. This hugging sensation is a form of deep pressure therapy, which has been scientifically proven to ease anxiety. The Magic weight weighted lap pad and magic weighted iCloud use the same concept as the blanket but tailored to more specific areas of your body. Next, we have the squishy Deluxe full body pillow. The squishy Deluxe brand represents a line of comfort products using premium microbeads. Since its founding their number one goal has been to bring high quality comfort products and superb customer service to families at affordable prices. Squishy Deluxe hand picks and carefully selects each item and they personally visit and research each supplier before adding it to their line of products. Enjoy personalized support from head to toe with your new squishy Deluxe micro bead pillow with removable and washable cover. Next we have the original Queen pillow from Co Op home goods. People sleep in different positions and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Yet for decades pillows all came in one size. The truth is companies produce one size fits all products to increase their profits disregarding the individuality of their customers. Co Op Home Goods designs their products in house in Los Angeles with the philosophy of embracing people’s unique body types and sleep positions. Through their customizable sleep products. You can minimize your comfort and achieve spinal alignment for the best rest of your life. And the final prize and this isn’t all the prizes just the ones I’m highlighting very quickly in today’s webinar is a set of three Reed diffusers from a Roma retail aroma retail offer sensing solutions for your space using famous resort fragrances. The winner will receive a set of three Reed diffusers a silent no EMF, no maintenance scenting solution for bedrooms, bathrooms and desks that can improve your sleep concentration and your overall mood. So there you have just some of the prizes that we’re giving away this month at the sleep sanctuary giveaway. entry is free if you haven’t already just enter at shield your body comm slash sleep.
And
before sir, before we move on, I owe this isn’t a sales webinar. But I always like giving a gift to people who show up and take time out of their schedule to attend. So we have a special offer. It’s tonight only so this expires at midnight tonight pacific time but with the just Count code, sleep 15, just enter that checkout. And you’ll say 15% on any order from shield your body calm. So with that we have the sleep giveaway, and the special offer. So those are both those special giveaway, you still have time to enter, it’s shield your body calm slash sleep, the special offer is just for today, it’s only for those of you attending live, if you’re watching the archive of this, the discount code will have expired. And thank you very much. And now it’s time to return to QA. Kathy, there, as you as I told you before, um, I whenever we run a webinar, we have people submit some questions in advance, I see there’s some down below. And before we get to those, there were there were a couple here that that were submitted in advance one, I just thought I’ve asked on behalf of the attendee and and it just caught my eye. How can you create a sleep sanctuary? When the bedroom was my husband’s bedroom? First, in his style? First sleep sanctuary does not match mine?
Cathy Cooke 46:09
Wow, that is a fantastic question. And I’m not a marriage counselor. So I’ll do my best on this one. But, well, first of all, I you know, I want to mention that it’s not uncommon for people to for couples to sleep in separate bedrooms. And, you know, there is a little bit of a stigma around that, which I’m not sure why that is. But you’d be really surprised at how many couples do actually sleep in separate bedroom. And I actually encourage that if it means that you’re going to sleep better, you know, we’re not really it’s, it’s difficult to get an amazing night of sleep, if we’ve got a partner next to us that’s tossing and turning or an all night or snores or whatever it is. So if it means you’re going to sleep better by sleeping in a different room, I am all for that in, you really would be surprised how many people do that for some reason, it’s like this topic that people don’t want to discuss. So that’s one option. But I know that a lot of people don’t want to do that. And they really do want to sleep with their partners, of course, totally understandable. So you know, the the temperature that I mentioned, the chili pad or similar options, if it’s a temperature issue, I find those can be really, really great for people, for couples that sleep in the same bed. Because you can have two different ones. So or just one person can have one so that you can regulate the temperature for yourself. And keep yourself comfortable when your partner you know, can choose to do that or not.
So if it went,
R Blank 47:45
yeah, sorry. Yeah. I’ve never heard of that product is that how does that work? Is that powered? Or how does that work?
Cathy Cooke 47:50
It’s a device. It’s it’s got a electric bass that you plug in. And then you know, of course, for EMF reasons. I’d like to keep that away from the bad but then it has a to where it sends the water through the tube without electrical components. So that it it heats or cools the water.
R Blank 48:13
Oh, interesting.
Cathy Cooke 48:14
Pretty cool. Now I will say as a caveat, I’ve tested several of those. On some of them, I do see a little bit of an elevated electric field and on other times I don’t so it kind of depends on the house dynamics. But if someone is EMF sensitive, you know, that may not be the best option.
But But yeah, thanks. Yeah, it’s it’s sorry, your
R Blank 48:38
first webinar with that with another presenter? I apologize, sir. First, I was gonna just turn another question here from that were pre submitted. And I don’t know if there’s a sort of a universal answer to this. But maybe you can give some insight and how to have a person can proceed to answer it, which is how far away from walls should beds be?
Cathy Cooke 48:59
Great question. Um,
so that’s gonna vary a lot. As a general rule, I will say two, I mean, gosh, you know, my bed is about two feet away from my wall. Because I have electric fields in my environment that I can’t get completely under control because of outside power lines. Generally, when I’m doing EMF assessments, I will find the lowest reading right in the middle of the room. However, that’s not always the case. Because let’s say we’ve got lights below us. So say the kitchen is below us. And we’ve got lights running all through the ceiling or the floor. In that case, that may throw off those readings a little bit. So as a general rule, I say if you can move your your bed out of foot from your wall, you’re going to do yourself a lot of benefit because your highest electric field is almost always next to the wall because that’s where your wires are. So if you can move it out of focus If you can move it out two feet great. And again, as a general rule, because all situations are different, a foot to two would be really great for people to do. And I do that when I’m in a hotel always.
R Blank 50:14
Okay, great. Thank you. Now, we do have some more questions that were pre submitted, but we have a good queue here in the room. So maybe if you want to scroll down and and are picking,
Cathy Cooke 50:27
yeah, excellent. Okay. So Tana 10, I hope that’s how you say your pronounce your name. I’m sorry, if I’m saying that wrong. A does a white noise machine that is plugged into the wall. Okay, is a white noise machine plugged in the wall? Okay, well, so this depends. I’ve tested, you know, numerous white noise machines. And the problem is that some of them give off very, very high magnetic fields. In fact, I recently did an assessment of home where it was a grandparents home. And there, they had three different bedrooms for their grandchildren, and they had white noise rooms for different bedrooms, they had white noise rooms in every bedroom. And there was one device, the same device, and three, the bedrooms, and the magnetic fields were off the charts from this white noise machine. And that there was it was encompassing the entire bedroom, and, and they were placed underneath the crib. So of course, you know, I did not want them to use this white noise machine. However, in the fourth bedroom, they had a different model, for some reason, it gave off no magnetic fields at all. And I hardly got any electric fields from it. So it’s really device dependent. So there are some that you can get if it’s plugged into the wall, you know, and it’s on the other side of your room. For a lot of them not going to be a big deal, but some of them will give off elevated electric or magnetic fields. So you know, unfortunately, we just kind of have to test to know which ones are going to be good and which ones aren’t. But if you use one and you have to use one at the you know, in the immediate timeframe, just make sure it’s as far away from you as possible as far away from the bed as possible.
Okey dokey
Marin. Any suggestion for a long time ABA tricks who used to fly some 40 sevens and 770 sevens around the world on 15 hour in height flights and obviously was trained to the nines to keep their passengers and crew like safe at all times. Yeah, flew people out of war zones and the like, Eg show that the neurons keep firing so much despite implementing Yes. Tough Marin. Okay, so, you know, the first thing that comes to my mind is antioxidants. Because in this stressful situation, you’re burning through antioxidants, you have very elevated EMF. And just, this could almost be equated to like a post traumatic stress disorder, right? Because they’re on constant alert. And I’m assuming that’s kind of what you’re, you know, alluding to that they are just like a mother, you know, who’s trying to protect her newborn child constantly, constantly, always in that sympathetic nervous system. Antioxidants are going to be great. And then really focusing on nourishing that parasympathetic nervous system. So this you know, things like yoga, meditation, I’m sure that you’ve heard this before. But it’s very overlooked in addressing that parasympathetic nervous system and nourishing that so that the body will soon learn how to step away from that fight or flight method. Or sorry that the constant fight or flight mode, I suggest looking into Wim Hof breathing, I find Wim Hof breathing to be it’s very simple, it’s quick and I find it to be one of the most effective ways of really toning down that you know, hyper cortisol, hyper adrenal sympathetic dominance. And the other thing men that I would suggest is looking into some of these the some of the methods like by Annie Hopper, some of the neuro retraining methods like biofeedback, there’s plenty of different techniques on the market today that will kind of it teaches you how to rewire your brain so that you get out of those, you know, solid connections, it’s like, you know, you make these really solid structures in your brain and that’s how the brain always wants to fire. So if you can rewire that, and you can let go of those paths, that can be really helpful to you know, if you want I can give you some more solid suggestions later if you can, you know, contact our and he can contact me and I can give you definitive products that I have used and that have been effective. Okay, moving on to Gabriel, or Gabrielle, timber that is sorry if I’m saying your names wrong. So my Fung Shui teacher said to keep plants and even cut flowers out of the bedroom. Unless someone is sick and needs extra TCE, the plants are too stimulating for a bedroom. Yeah, so I understand that.
I have heard different, you know, there’s different opinions on that.
plants. The reason why I mentioned plants a lot, or there’s a lot of air purifying plants for, you know, formaldehyde and some of the toxic chemicals in the environment, you do need to be very careful if you keep plants in the bedroom so that they don’t develop mold. So you know, proper care of any potted plant. Obviously, you want to make sure you don’t keep it to voice and have mold growth, and cut flowers. So yeah, I totally understand that point of view, I think it comes down to the individual person. I think Fung Shui has a lot of really great teachings, a lot of great stuff for us to pay attention to, you know, but at the end of the day, I think it comes down to personal preference, if you want to, you know, if you think that’s a concern, obviously keep it out of the room. But that I think it’s just going to be an individual preference thing. But thank you for bringing that up. It’s an important point for somebody that may not be resonating with that recommendation. And you also said that diffusing essential oils is fantastic. Especially lavender. Absolutely. Lavender is one of the best essential oils for calming and getting into that parasympathetic nervous system. I find pines to be really nice, too. And you know, of course, it’s going to all be very individual and what each each person really resonates with.
Okay, so
Carmen is saying no metal beds, question mark. Yeah, actually, Carmen, that’s, that’s a tough one for people because most of us have metal bedframes, right. The metal in the beds, even the springs in the mattress, you know, one of the reasons why I recommend wool or latex, or cotton mattresses because they don’t have this springs in them. So we don’t want any metal on the frame, or in the mattress itself, because that metal can become magnetized over time. And it can actually act as an antenna. So if you’ve got a lot of radio frequency going on in your house, or electric fields, that that metal can be attracting some of that and can increase your static electricity, which is not going to be helpful for sleep. And I’ll give you a really quick tip on how to figure that out. You can buy a compass, like a little $5 compass, it has a string on it, and an arrow and you find where north is and then you put that on your bed and you gently pull the string along the bed. And if you see the compass deviate more than five or 10 degrees, then you know that you’ve got some metal attraction on that bed. You know that that’s an easy way to see if that’s happening in your bed. But you know, and I realized that everyone can go out and buy a brand new bed right away they’re very expensive. So that’s just something to consider long term and if it’s a metal bed frame, you know you can build a nice wooden platform bed for under $50 i’ve i’ve built that myself I just found the you know instruction manual online, went to Home Depot hadn’t cut my wood and I built a nice wooden platform with slots in it for I think it was maybe $45 so relatively inexpensive if you wanted to get rid of the metal frame. Okay, sigh great tips. You say I have many, many windows open in the house to ensure good circulation. And each floor of my house is about 500 square feet. Does it make sense to still have the air purifier on if the circulation is good? I will have it on in the winter while the windows are closed. Yeah, good question. sighs so um, that’s this is pretty much what I do. I sleep with the windows open year round. I used to live in Alaska. I did it there. You know because like I was saying we don’t need to fear the cold. I it kind of depends on what else is going on. If you live in a really well constructed house with hardwood floors, and you know, really solid building materials and you’re not bringing in chemicals and the air quality outside is good. You could probably you’re probably fine. Um, I have not had an air filter in my home until this year. Because in Idaho right now, it’s because of the wildfires. You know, my house currently does have a little bit of carpet, but I put a carpet sealer on on top of the carpet, which is called Safe steel, so that I can kind of lock in some of those chemicals on the carpet. And I thought I was doing pretty okay, I’ve got hardwood floors, I don’t use any toxic chemicals, you know, everything else I bring into the home is naturally based. But because of the wildfires this year, I decided to finally get an air filter. So it kind of depends on where you are in the world, what the outdoor air quality is like and what else is in your home. And if you don’t feel like you’ve got any respiratory issues, you know things you’re relatively healthy, etc, then you might not need it. It’s just gonna, you know, kind of be dependent on on what you what you know what you think about your specific situation. So follow up question, can you share the material used on the carpet? Yes, it’s called Safe seal. There’s many different kinds of safe seal. You can look this up. Andy paste is a fellow building biologist who has his own podcast, and he is a distributor for safe seal products. You can look him up and contact his company can’t remember the name of his company off the top of my head green building, supply green building supply believe, and you can talk to him about the steel. You can probably also get it online. But I like going through a distributor rather than Amazon to support, you know, small businesses. So yeah, Andy pace and green building supply. You can look that up.
Okay, so Tanya, should you sleep with the window open? I find a week of sneezing if I leave it open. Yeah, Tanya. So that’s, you know, that’s kind of what we’re talking about here. If it’s very individually based I ideally we want to sleep with the windows open, so we get that fresh air and throughout the night. But if you are having some kind of irritant response or allergic response, then clearly you know, if you’re waking up sneezing, then that might not be the best option for you. This is where I would suggest keeping the windows open as much as possible during the day. And then I would probably do the air purifier situation. Because you’re you know, you’re probably reacting to something, it would be really cool. If you know you could work with a practitioner to identify maybe what you were reacting to, and see if you could tone down that reaction. Another tip is nettle. stinging nettle is fantastic for this histamine response that people get. You can get stinging nettle as a supplement, what I like to do is I buy it in book. And then I cover about a fourth of a 32 ounce mason jar with stinging nettle, pour boiling water on it, let it steep overnight, and then I drink it during the day. And if you’re having any kind of allergic symptoms, it’s really amazing to help suppress that histamine response. And it’s also really rich in minerals. It’s great for your prostate, even though you probably don’t have a prostate for people that do. So really, really great supplement and mineral, it’s just an herb all the way around. So yeah, if it’s not working for you, then you know, an air purifier, I would suggest. Okay, Jennifer, how can you wash curtains, the backing material gets damaged, and they shrink. Also, a lot of what you’ve been talking about in the building is mysterious to me. Okay, so let me answer this first part, the curtains. Right. So, Jennifer? That’s a great question. So first of all, you don’t necessarily have to put them in to the washing machine. And I should have clarified that as as, as I was going through the slides, one good thing to do is take them out into the sun. Actually, you know, in building biology, we recommend that you actually take your mattress out into the sun a couple times a year to sanitize it with the UV light, you know, realistically is that going to happen are people going to do that probably not if you can excellent. But with curtains, you should be able to do that. So you take them outside, you can hang them up along a closed line or you know, along a fence or whatever you can put them on some chairs, whatever, and let the UV light sanitize them and then you can beat them. So just like you’ve probably seen plenty of old movies where they take a throw rug or carpet and they’re outside beating it. That’s a very effective way to you know, get rid of dust and debris and that sunlight that UV sunlight is very, very much of a disinfectant. Um, so the other thing I would suggest is you know, I’m a fan of having curtains that are of natural materials like a cotton or linen and some sometimes what you can do is you pre wash them so you can wash linen, of course it can shrink or cotton. So you pre wash them and then you have the main difference. Get your space so that you can actually detach them and put them into the washing machine. Because I know a lot of material, you know, a lot of the curtains are polyester or they have backing material, etc. So as a general rule, I’d like to avoid those and use natural, you know, cotton linen, like I said, but if you’ve got the backing material and the ones you have, yeah, I would say take them down, take them outside, beat them, air them out. And that that goes a long way. So on to the next part of your question. I have no idea what duck SAR? Yes, of course, sorry. So the duct work is let’s see, if I’ve got
in this office here. I don’t see the ductwork. So it’s basically in most of the homes in the US, we have this metallic ductwork which is where the vents are. So when you’ve got your your vents on your ceiling, or sometimes it’s on the floor and the air is being forced out. So your heat, or your air conditioner runs through that metallic ductwork all through your house. So the furnace that’s heating up the air or the air conditioner, you know, it will, it will condition that air as it comes out. And then it travels all the way through this metallic ductwork throughout your house like pipes. And they’re often never cleaned. But you can imagine if you know say you never dusted your bedroom, or you never vacuumed you imagine how much dust would build up? Well, that same thing is happening in those metallic pipes as all the air travels through. And as the air travels through, it’s collecting the dust and the mold spores and the bacteria and it’s blowing it into your home. So that’s why we want to have the ducks cleaned. And so you’re saying you don’t think you have them in New Zealand, the walls of most houses are ventilated by open exposure to the top of the Eden outside air movement. Amazing. That’s fantastic. You don’t have an enclosed building envelope. Fantastic. That’s a yes, that’s exactly what we would recommend in a building biology as a building biology guidelines. So that’s great. Also, plants in the bedroom are dangerous, the potting mix mold could be toxic. Yep, absolutely. So I mentioned that earlier, too. If If you don’t care for them properly, they can develop mold. And we don’t want that. So yes, that’s that’s definitely a consideration. If you don’t have a good green thumb or you’re concerned about mold buildup of plants, then you don’t necessarily want them in your home. But at the same time, you know you if you do manage them properly, they can be really great for reducing the toxic air, they also have some EMF balancing properties. So that’s something that you’re going to have to manage by yourself. If you don’t doesn’t resonate with you, obviously, don’t do it. Let’s see and why can’t you wash pillows I do. So you can put pillows in the washing machine. However, it doesn’t necessarily always get rid of all of the debris in the material. That’s a tricky situation. And it also depends on the the fibers or what the pillow is made of. You know, some people will get like an allergen. pillowcase that they can zip over the pillowcase. And it will prevent any material, any microbial organic material from getting into the pillow itself. That can be helpful. But also one of the things about washing pillows, if you’re putting them in the washing machine, what I have found is, especially with people who have, say front loading washing machines, I never recommend front loaders, because they can be a mold issue, they can create a lot of mold around the seals, because they don’t drain the water properly or they create condensation. I have had people wash pillows in their washing machine and actually increase their exposure to mold. So you can wash them if you do it properly. You can also you know put them in a plastic bag with borax or baking soda, things like that. As a general rule, I just don’t recommend it because I don’t find that people do it properly. Sometimes they create bigger issues. And sometimes they just say they’ll do it and they never get around to it. So I feel it’s safer to recommend you know, replacing them every two years. But if you’ve got a good protocol that works for you, great. You know, I just want to make sure that you know over time, it will still create a buildup of things inside the casing that you can’t get rid of. Okay, and you’re also saying there’s no silence in the city. Okay, sure. So sound is yes, sound is an issue. That’s one reason why I recommend earplugs. I think, you know, it’s it’s best to get used to the silence and use earplugs so that you don’t have to rely on an electronic device. But I totally agree Understand that that’s not going to work for everyone. So you use chanting to stop sudden, sound disturbance disturbances. Great.
I think that’s fantastic. If that works for you, you know, this is all about finding what works best for you. And, and using it. So, you know, if you decide that you really need to use a sound machine, whatever that sound machine is, if it’s the chanting or white noise or whatever, I just suggest making sure that you test it so that you know it’s low magnetic field, it’s a low electric field, it doesn’t have any Bluetooth on it, you know, just make sure that you get one that’s gonna support a healthy EMF environment. And I do agree with you that, you know, it’s it’s better to have a little bit of a risk, if it means you’re going to get better sleep. I definitely agree with that. And, you know, some I mean, it depends on where you are in the world, some places will be more noisy than others, but all great points. So thank you for for bringing up all of those points. Okie dokie? Maria asks, If my husband uses c Pap, how can I avoid light from the machine? Yes, great question Ria. So there are a lot of what we call Phantom lights, in bedrooms, things like even, you know, from let’s say, your computer’s plugged in on the other side of the room, which of course, want you to have your computer in your bedroom. But it’s just a good example where the light might be just barely flashing just to tell you that it’s on. Even those really small lights can actually disrupt you, even if you don’t really notice it, but subconsciously, it can, it can disrupt your sleep. So I suggest covering that with something. I know people that use duct tape, just to cover the light, put a little strip of duct tape over the light. There are some people that buy there’s this specific like blue light blue light blocking tape or dots that you can just put over a light like that, that will block the blue light out of that. If in your husband’s case, if he needs to see the P Pap, C Pap, like if it’s got a screen on there that he needs to read, I would suggest actually getting some of this film. So it’s like read film, and you can cut it, and then you can put it over the screen if he needs to see it. So that you can still see the light coming through. But it will block the blue light, which is what’s really disrupting orange and red light is not nearly as disruptive as the blue light. The other thing is, you know, you can just drape something over it like drape something over a towel, a T shirt, you know, something like that, so that it’s not putting so much light out into your space.
Looks like.
Okay, so So yes, Kev suggested using a sleep mask for sure. Sleep masks are great. You know, there is there is some research that shows even when we use a mask, if some of this peripheral light is getting onto our skin, that our skin actually has some light receptors and that can be stimulating to, if you’re under the covers, and you’ve got a sleep mask on, you’re probably pretty fine. But just something else to consider. You know, make sure that your your bodies fully covered. And that will help as well. And Jennifer suggested I put my C pap machine in a cardboard shoe box. Great. I put liftable laps over the screen and have an eye mask. Excellent idea. Thank you, Jennifer. So yeah, so another method of covering it. Yes, put it in the box and perfect. That’s that’s a that’s a great recommendation. Okay, Francis, what do you recommend for best material for window coverings in the bedroom for light blocking, but also allergies. Yes. So this would be this would go back to the curtains that I like to be made out of natural materials. So it is going to be a little bit more difficult to get that really dark light blocking from natural materials. But what a lot of people will do is just kind of double up. So they’ll use you know two layers of cotton or you know, I mean it’s some of the style, you know, is like a you know, you’ve got two different layers, two different curtains completely and it adds you know, whatever the aesthetic look is that you’re going for because while the blackout shades are great, I have yet to find ones that are made of a material that I approve of they tend to be you know, polyester chemically based products that I’m not always a huge fan of. So that’s where I go with kind of doubling up. And you know, cotton can be really great for that or cotton with linen over it, whatever it works and that way you can take them down and Wash them in the, in the washing machine or you can take them outside to the sun. You know, like I mentioned earlier, but, you know, pre wash them, that’s the key. So because they can shrink, so you pre wash the fabric of the materials. And then you you cut them to length for whatever size that you want for your bedroom. Okay, Denise says I can’t leave a window open, I live near an interstate with a lot of construction, the dust and noise. Yes. Right, Denise. So, um, every situation is going to be different. And so, um, earplugs are fantastic. I definitely recommend earplugs. And again, if your plugs don’t work for you, and you just have to have white noise machine, then you got to do what you got to do so but you can’t leave the window open, because of that noise and the dust. So this is a situation where I if you can’t, I don’t know that. I mean, if it’s so much dust that’s happening during the day, that makes it a little bit more tricky. I’m assuming they’re doing the construction during the day and not the night. But I know a lot of places will do their construction at night to you know, maximize traffic flow. So that’s a little bit trickier. If you can have the windows open at the opposite time to get the fresh air coming in. But again, since you’ve got so much dust, I would consider an air filter. And even if you have windows open on the opposite side of the house, that’s great. You know, it’s all about airflow circulation. But you know, again, if it’s not an option, then you just you do your best with an air purifier. And that sometimes that’s just what we have to do, just like with the wildfires going on right now. You know, all of my clients in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado, you know, they’re not opening their windows, and that’s okay. But I am definitely recommending the air purifiers. Unfortunately, you know, Denise, I wish it was I wish it was different. But sometimes we got to, we got to go with what we know works and what we have to do. Okay, Jennifer says my C pap produces ms from the transformer and the transformer can’t be got far away from me. Yeah, Jennifer, this is a really tricky one. I’ve tested a lot of sea paps, I find that most of them have some kind of radio frequency on them, as well as a magnetic and or electric field. And I have so many clients that say, Well, I can’t sleep without it.
And the ultimate goal here is for you to get the best sleep possible. If you can’t sleep without it, and you get better sleep with it, then you should probably be using it right. Of course, I’m sure Jennifer that you have addressed all of the issues with your doctor about or your health care provider about why you may be having sleeping issues. You know, that would be I mean, I’m sure you’ve done that. But for those maybe that haven’t, I would always suggest getting into some of the underlying reasons why you’re having trouble breathing at night. Because if you can fix that, and then you don’t have to use a C Pap, then you can avoid this whole issue. So I mentioned briefly earlier about the narrowing palette. And so I’ll just take a quick second to talk about that. So this is a really fascinating area of research, where and you can look up the work of Dr. Weston a price. If you haven’t heard of him, he was a dentist, I believe in the 20s, who travelled around the world looking at people’s dental health. And what he found was people who were still eating their indigenous diets, and we’re not eating any processed westernized foods still had very, very wide jaws and wide facial structures, you know, all of their feet, their teeth fit into their mouth. They still had, you know, their wisdom teeth were not a problem. And they had these very, very wide palettes and beautiful white perfect teeth. But you know, as modern civilization has evolved, we’ve, you know, started to eat grains and, you know, some of these processed foods, we’ve seen over time that our palates have gotten more and more narrow. And this has caused significant amount of oxygenation problems and sleep breathing issues, like maybe you know what some of us are experiencing when we have to use a C pap. So one thing I’ll throw out there is that they, a lot of dentists will recommend a palate expander. So it’s a device kind of like a retainer that you can put in your mouth that actually extends your palate and widens your mouth widens your jaw line a little bit. Sounds kind of painful, but it’s a slow process over time. So it’s really not that bad. And I have learned Any clients that have used this and it’s like, change their lives, it’s been really, really life changing for them because they, they’ve, they start to breathe better. And when you get more oxygenation, you know, your cells can perform better. And it’s a trickle down effect affects every part of your body. So I just throw that out there for anybody that’s maybe dealing with breathing issues, to look into this palette expansion. And of course, you know, there’s allergens, irritants, many reasons why we may be having breathing problems at night. So if you have to use a C pap machine, yes, absolutely. Like Jennifer says, keep it afar as far away from me as possible. I also like to drape it with a shielding cloth. So if you put a little bit of shielding cloth out, you know, between you and the device, you still have to have the hose up to your mouth, of course, but chilly material between you and the device. And that will cut down on any radio frequency, and electric fields, and even maybe some dirty electricity. So you could also get into the settings to try and disable the Bluetooth or the radio frequency setting as well, if that’s a possibility. So there’s a lot of ways to go about this. I would just kind of encourage you to, you know, keep keep digging into the reason. So Jennifer says probably trauma, I’ve had surgery. Yeah, totally. And that, that is definite trauma is always an issue for everything. And you know, there’s a whole line of body work trauma work out there today, that’s I found to be a critical piece for people that are having chronic health issues. You know, your diet is great, you’re you’re reducing your EMF you’re addressing, you know, your infections and everything, you’re getting everything physically dialed in. But there’s still that trauma piece, which often needs to be addressed before we really get to optimal health. So you’re saying you’ve seen your 73? Can your palate be expanded? Absolutely. Yes, your palate can be expanded. I have heard it changes the facial structure just a little bit. I don’t know that it would affect your singing. But honestly, I haven’t asked that question. That would be a good question to pose to a dentist. Chris crecer, if you’re familiar with him had a whole podcast on this palette expansion. It’s a couple years old, but I would dig into his podcast and listen, he gives you a lot of references of how to continue to look for resources on this and, and I’m sure that you can connect with someone that could answer those questions. So you’re doing a lot of trauma work, but it’s very long, slow process. Absolutely. It is.
It is a very long and slow process.
But important and and worth it. and hard work. And you know, Jennifer, I really commend you for doing the hard work because many of us don’t want to. So you know, I think that’s a very honorable that you’re, you’re you’re sharing that experience with us and you’re and you’re you’re stating that you’re doing the work good for you. That’s great. I wish I wish we would all take that step.
Okay, Marin.
also taking gentlemen and super healthy nutrition, gentlemen, super healthy nutrition meditation and spiritual author. Wow, awesome. Good for you. That’s That’s fantastic. Love it. Okay, I read orchids are good for the bedroom as they produce oxygen during the night opposite to most plants. Yeah, I would. I would agree with that. Actually, an orchids need very little water. You know, so, Sandra, Sandra sorry, however you say it’s Sandra AGOA. This is going to be person dependent. I think orchids are great. I think they’re a great plant for the bedroom. You know if you’re thinking about Fung Shui or traditional Chinese medicine, I mean that is a that the orchids are big in TCM and Fung Shui. I think they’re great for the bedroom. But, you know, like several people have mentioned earlier. They’re not big on having any of those plants in the bedroom. So that’s going to be a personal, a personal choice. Okay, Marin says I adapt is the best, according to Robert Gilbert, PhD. So you’re probably talking about the neural retraining, I think. I’m assuming if that is what you’re talking about Marin, so I adapt. Robert Gilbert, PhD, so I think people can see the chat if they want to look into that. Oh, you put the website right there. www. That’s the cane Institute. That’s the best fit institute.org I’m sure you get if you guys can see the chat. vesica institute.org.
R Blank 1:24:53
Yeah, the questions.
Cathy Cooke 1:24:55
Perfect, perfect. Thanks, man for posting that.
Okay, regarding one man says regarding one participants allergy question a top doctor highly recommended you for BM in s by he’ll keeps it sounds like that might be a homeopathic I know he’ll mix homeopathics keeps airways healthy moist helps with breathing not as a homeopathic Yep, better than even sea salt. Sure. So I’m all for homeopathics if that works for you excellent good advice you followed up here this doctor training hundreds daily who think outside the box doesn’t even believe in homeopathy tried and tested hundreds and swears by this one interesting. So sounds like you try to urge you or she tried it and never had allergies again also does antiviral as an added benefit. Great, you know, and homeopathics have no side effects. So I’m all for trying. And you can usually get them fairly inexpensively. So I think that is absolutely worth trying. And you know, I would back to the nettle, the stinging nettle that I mentioned earlier. Um, I think that is a that’s a powerhouse plant for nutrition for the magnesium and the calcium in the other minerals in that so yeah, try homeopathic throw in some metal, I think that can be very helpful. For sure. Thank you. Okay, Francis, is there a brand of clock that you recommend that you can see at night that doesn’t have a bright light? Good question. Um, okay, so here’s the thing with clocks and digital clocks. Specifically, I always test very high magnetic fields on them. So if you have a clock in your bedroom, you definitely want it on the opposite side of the room from you. You never want to have a digital clock, really, I mean, any electronics like on your nightstand, that, you know, that’s what I find most people doing, of course, because it’s what we’ve always done. But they give off really high magnetic fields, and they can have electric fields. So if you have a light, definitely on the other side of the bedroom, a lot of the lights will have red numbers, if it’s digital, and that would be better than anything blue. Again, it’s the blue light that can be very stimulating. So if you have a clock that’s got some red numbers on them, that would be better. You know, a lot of people will use like their phones, which of course, I never want you to have a phone in the bedroom. But like some of my clients often you know will make a compromise if they keep their phone in the bedroom because they use it for an alarm or they have to see the the clock, they keep it in airplane mode with Wi Fi and Bluetooth disabled. Right? That is the key here. If there’s a bed or phone in your bedroom, it’s on airplane mode, Wi Fi is disabled, Bluetooth is disabled, otherwise, no phones in the bedroom. And you can actually put your phone into night mode or you can change the screen to be read. So that you don’t get the blue light penetration. So each phone is different. So I can’t tell you exactly how to do that. Because you know, you’d have to get into your settings, but you can put it on on night mode, so it will dim that blue light. Otherwise, you know, again, you can use these red cling films that will block the blue light from if you need a really bright, you know, clock, just get the red film to put right over it so that you can still see the numbers coming through. It just won’t be it’ll be there’ll be red instead of blue.
R Blank 1:28:52
If I’m just out there, the others I didn’t mean to I didn’t see the file. Anything that’s battery operated as opposed to AC power operated would generally be a lower source. And and to your earlier point about the high level of magnetic emissions. Those those those tend to be that the AC powered ones. They also tend to be the ones with the illuminated displays like especially the red ones I’ve seen are very high. So if you can get an an A battery powered analog clock that is going to have the lowest emissions in general.
Cathy Cooke 1:29:25
Yeah, great, great point. Even the old windup clocks, you can still get them. Yeah. I have kind of seen them. They’re a little bit more difficult to see though. Yeah. which is unfortunate. But yeah, in some of the the LED displays that are battery powered. Sometimes you have to hit the button to get the blue to illuminate. Which we want to avoid that that burst of blue light in the middle of the night. But you can again put maybe tried some of this red clean over it. So this is kind of a tough one. Okay, so can you use a digital one only turn on the blue light to check type two anticipated
R Blank 1:30:06
this question.
Cathy Cooke 1:30:07
Yeah. here’s here’s another thing that you can do. And I do this often I don’t have my, I’ve got like, five different pairs of blue light blocking glasses, because I cannot live without them. So if I have to get up in the middle of the night and look at the clock, I have my a pair of my blue light blocking glasses right next to me, and I’ll put them on. And then I’ll look. And then I know what time it is. And then I just take them off. It’s kind of dorky, but it’s very, you’d be surprised at how helpful that is in helping you to fall right back asleep. Because if you look at that really bright light, your brains just going to think, oh, sun’s coming up, it’s time to wake up and you get a cortisol surge. And it’s hard for you to fall back asleep. So yeah, just throw on a pair of lights before you look at the clock can be simple and helpful. Okay, Kev, I’m having trouble getting back to sleep around 3am due to ringing in my ears. Wow, Kev, you know what this is. I mean, I got into building biology because of sleep and ringing in my ears, actually. So I was having the same problem every single night, I would lay down to sleep for 10 years. And I would have this high pitched ringing in my left ear, not my right just in my left ear. And it was it was infuriating. And I tried everything for over a decade. And it wasn’t until I stopped using a cell phone it was I only used my cell phone on my left side. And you know, that week when I tried did my experiment, and I stopped using my cell phone for a week it went the ringing in my ears went away in about three days. It was so dramatic. Um, however, you know, there’s a lot of other reasons why we may have this issue. So you know, if you’ve had a, you know, you went to a lot of concerts when you were young, you work with power tools, you know, there’s other reasons why we we get some of this ringing in the ears. So how can you tell if it’s from EMF swell? You know, does it go away? Let’s say you go camping, does it go away? When you go camping for a couple days? Does it go away when you’re in a lower EMF environment? I mean, it’s I for me, it was very obvious, it won’t be that obvious necessarily for everyone. But I always like my clients to do just a trial where they go camping for like a week, and see what happens. I’ve had clients say, you know, of course, they sleep so much better. Their headaches went away. The ringing in their ears stopped their skin cleared up. Excuse me, let me stop that. Goodness, we get out of there. So it is a it’s really dramatic. How much of of your body might be affected by these EMF? So you know, I don’t know Kev in maybe you can comment of what your situation is. Are you using a phone? Do you have Wi Fi on in the house? Have you had your your home tested? Are you turning off breakers at night? That kind of stuff? You know, if you’re still in a pretty high EMF environment with all of this stuff, and you’re not really sure, the best way to know is to, you know, remove yourself from from that situation, go camping for a week and see if things get better. So CA is saying what is the best EMF meter to buy? Ooh, in my opinion? Good question. And it sounds like our Oh, great. Oh,
R Blank 1:33:35
yeah. If you if you have a specific recommendation, I I just I I try not to pick one. So I recommend about I think it’s six of them now in that app. But if you have any that you want to highlight, please go ahead.
Cathy Cooke 1:33:48
Sure, well, you’re right, there isn’t one perfect one. I often recommend the trifield tf to the latest trifield because it has electric magnetic and radio frequency on it. And it’s under $200. So the value you get for the price is pretty good. However, you know, it’s not as sensitive, as if you had an individual electric field meter, a Gauss meter for magnetic fields and a radio frequency meter. So it kind of depends on the budget. If and it depends on how much learning you want to put into using that meter. So the trifield displays numbers. So you have to know what those numbers mean. And you have to put a little bit of effort into learning how to use it. If you’re willing to do that, then that it can be great. Just you know, keep in mind the numbers might be a little bit higher or lower just because of the sensitivity of the meter. If you’re not willing to figure out what those numbers mean, which a lot of people aren’t. There’s a couple of little handheld devices. One is the what is it? Er Yes, I
gotcha. Figured In the name of it a
couple of talking about Yeah, it’s, um, well actually, there’s another meter that’s similar to that, um, acoustic calm. Well, the acoustic calm, I was actually gonna say safe living technology safe and sound are safe and sound classic are safe and sound Pro. They are only radio frequency however, but I so so the owner of that company safe living technologies is actually one of the building or building biology instructors. And he many of my colleagues use the safe and sound Pro, which is radiofrequency only, but I mean, they, they, they test that against the professional level meters that we use, which are several thousand dollars, and they get really similar results. So I think if you’re gonna put your money into radio frequency meter, and you want to spend a little bit more that safe and sound pro from safe living technologies is fantastic. They also have a little small one that’s a safe and sound classic. And it just has three lights on it. So if you don’t want to deal with the numbers, and you just want to know, am I high, medium or low, that one is very accurate, and it’s easy, it’s about the size of your palm, you turn it on and in, I find that to be good. Like say I’m traveling, or I’m in a hotel room, I want to scope round, where in the room is the best place for me to be because I can’t necessarily change things, although you can use it to kind of hunt down the router, because a lot of hotel rooms will have a Wi Fi router right in the room. You can hunt it down and unplug it. Right. So that’s a great one. Um, and then what else those I mean, those are partial to those really, the trifield since it does have the electric magnetic and radio frequencies is a good value. Um, what others that’s, I don’t any others are that you wanted to mention.
R Blank 1:36:56
Those are the trifield tf two is the one I generally recommend because for most people’s but if they’re interested in this stuff, they can measure reasonably accurately. Like you said, the low frequency electric low frequency magnetic and radio frequency all in one meter. Yep.
Cathy Cooke 1:37:11
Yep. Yeah. And it does it does a pretty good job. Yeah. Awesome. Okay,
R Blank 1:37:19
so, um, let me Oh, I forgot to click start answering on that. My mistake. There was one um, one other question from there was pre submitted. If you haven’t just one more minute I can I can read this one. As a postmenopausal woman, I’ve been experiencing sleep disturbances and night sweats. What are some supplements that can promote and keep you asleep through the night? without feeling sluggish in the morning?
Cathy Cooke 1:37:48
Yes, fantastic question. Um, yeah, there’s a lot of good supplements out there. You know, there’s pharmaceuticals. And there’s naturally based supplements, but even though they’re natural doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to work for you or that they don’t make you feel kind of hungover in the morning. I’ve definitely experienced that quite a bit. So, you know, you mentioned that your post menopausal, which makes me think that you think it’s a hormonal issue, which happens to men and women. So there’s a couple things that I would suggest. And the first one may seem unrelated, but it’s balancing your blood sugar, making sure that you balance your blood sugar very well throughout the day. I find this to be such a hugely important piece to sleep that so many people are just never hear about. I mean, your doctor doesn’t ask you about your blood sugar. When you go in and ask about sleep, right? They just want to give you Lunesta, or Ambien or something. So the reason for this is that when your blood sugar drops too low, let’s say you’ve You know, you’re having a typical American breakfast of cold cereal, skim milk and orange juice. I mean, that’s a big sugar bomb right there. Right, that’s that’s so much sugar in the grains of the cereal and in the skim milk and in the orange juice. So your blood sugar rises very high. And then your pancreas really releases a lot of insulin to take that blood that sugar out of your blood system and put it into yourselves, and then you get this crash. It’s like a rebound crash of blood sugar. And then when your blood sugar drops too low, cortisol is released because cortisol is part of your blood sugar regulation pathway. So cortisol goes to the liver and says, Hey, liver, I need you to release just a little bit of glycogen of stored sugar so that we can come back into homeostasis here. When when that happens in the middle of the night, as it often does, because we haven’t eaten for so long. Or we’re just on this blood sugar rollercoaster all day long. Our body gets used to constantly releasing cortisol. And cortisol of course is very similar. waiting. So you wake up in the middle of the night, and you can’t get back to sleep. So making sure that you’ve got enough fat and enough protein in each meal is very important. So that you can, your your body will over time begin to understand that it’s blood sugar is nice and stable. You know, I’m not against carbohydrates, but I want to make sure that you first have enough fat and protein to create it’s, you know, much slower digesting. So I want you to create this nice stable blood sugar, you should be able to go from meal to meal without needing to snack in between, if you have to snack in between meals, then your blood sugar, your meals are not supporting a healthy blood sugar level. So that’s kind of the first thing that I want you to do is get your blood sugar under control. Because cortisol is a big, big piece in waking up very early in the morning and not being able to go back to sleep. If you have to, you know, I don’t like people to eat in the middle of the night. But if you have to, you can have a little bit of a snack right by your bed, you know, a handful of nuts, a little peanut butter on some rice crackers, little peanut butter on a banana, I like to have, I will do this sometimes, because you know, if I’m going through a really stressful time, or you know, I got a lot on my plate, I noticed that this happens to me. So I’ll take maybe four ounces of orange juice, a good organic orange juice and put a scoop of collagen powder in there, and a little bit of salt. And if I wake up at 3am, and I feel like I’m not getting back to sleep, I’ll drink that really quickly. And almost every time it works great. And I fall right back to sleep for the rest of the night. Um, you know the other thing with hormones, I mean, it’s hard for me to make a recommendation right off the bat, because I don’t know exactly what your situation is and what your hormone levels are looking like. So I honestly would suggest working with a good functional medicine practitioner to get an idea of what your hormone levels are doing. So that you know, you may need a little bit of hormone balancing, but I don’t want to make a recommendation right off the bat.
I will say a lot of people have had a lot of success with flax seeds. You know, I feel like that’s a pretty benign recommendation that you could just try, you know, have grinding up some flax seeds, putting it maybe in a little yogurt or something before bed, they can have a nice estrogen response to the body. I find a lot of people do really well with that, to really suppress hot flashes. And, you know, to bring some some comfort back to that hormone balancing may or may not work for you, but it’s worth a try. And you know, I mean beyond that, really, it’s important for you to work with a good functional medicine practitioner to find out what your hormones are doing, what their status is, so that you can kind of, you know, supplement accordingly. But don’t forget about that blood sugar balance.
I can’t, I can’t hear you are we? Okay?
R Blank 1:43:12
Questions. And we’re just about out of time on the room. So, but this has been great, I really appreciate you donating your time and expertise to the swipey community. And for everyone. Still, because there’s a lot of you still in the room, I see. You’ll be getting a link to the archive of this automatically delivered to your inbox as soon as it’s done, along with a link to a free ebook. And remember, if you haven’t already to enter for the sleep sanctuary, contest it shield your body calm slash sleep. And we’ll be hearing from Cathy again next month. So the next webinar, I hope to have that all posted by tomorrow, but you’ll be hearing from me with the details of that webinar and how to join. So with all that again, Kathy, thank you. This has been fantastic. I really appreciate it.
Cathy Cooke 1:44:03
So fun. Thanks so much for having me Our
R Blank 1:44:05
thanks. Okay, everyone. Thank you for coming out making time in your day and I’ll talk to you all real soon. Thank you
