MilesFromHerView
MilesFromHerView
57- Restful Resilience: Achieve More with Quality Sleep an Interview with Keri
In this episode of MilesFromHerView, host Kat welcomes Keri Cooper, owner of Sleep Solutions by Keri, a virtual adult sleep coaching program. They discuss the pivotal role of sleep in mental health and overall well-being, especially for busy women and moms. Keri shares her expertise as a psychotherapist and certified sleep science coach, offering practical advice for improving sleep quality, establishing healthy routines, and prioritizing sleep. They also address common sleep disruptors, the effects of stress, and the significance of modeling good sleep habits for children.
Contact Keri:
https://sleepsolutionsbykeri.com/ https://www.instagram.com/sleepsolutionsbykeri/
00:00 Welcome to MilesFromHerView
00:48 Meet Keri Cooper: Sleep Solutions Expert
02:47 The Importance of Sleep for Mental Health
06:28 Common Sleep Struggles and Solutions
12:36 Creating Healthy Sleep Habits
20:23 The Impact of Sleep Deprivation
20:58 Relying on Sleep Aids
21:50 The Role of Hormones in Sleep
22:35 Benefits of Quality Sleep
23:25 Improving Sleep Habits
25:06 Addressing Sleep Issues
25:24 Sleep and Life Stages
26:28 The Importance of Consistent Sleep
30:15 Napping: Pros and Cons
32:55 Creating a Sleep-Friendly Environment
37:13 Final Thoughts on Sleep
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Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. I am here with Keri Cooper, who is the owner of Sleep Solutions by Keri, a virtual adult sleep coaching program as a psychotherapist for over 25 years, she realized the importance of sleep when it came to mental health. Keri then became a certified sleep science coach, and now focuses on coaching adults to get the sleep they need for overall health and Wellbeing Care's approach integrates the. Proven principles of sleep, science and insights gained through decades of counseling. Sleep Solutions by Keri offers simple, practical solutions to help people not only fall asleep, but enjoy restful restorative sleep. Keri also gives corporate talks. In order to help improve employee performance, along with being a speaker, Keri is an author of two books, mental Health Uncensored, 10 Foundations Every Parent Needs To Know and Mental Health Uncensored Teen Workbook. 10 Foundations. Every Teen Needs to Know An entire chapter in each book is de dedicated to the importance of sleep. And practical ways to improve it. Keri holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania as well as many certifications in the field of therapy. Her background en enables her to identify lifestyle factors hindering sleep, and find the best solutions to help her clients. Fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Welcome, welcome. I'm so excited to go over sleep. And who doesn't love sleep? Doesn't love sleep, right? Unless you're fighting against it every night. Exactly. Exciting to have you on because I know a lot of my clients struggle with sleep, not only as a product of their young ones not sleeping, or they have just never had great sleep patterns or sleep habits. I'm sure those listening may have struggled at sleep at some point or may be currently struggling. So hopefully you can glean some good information and. As always, Keri's information will be in the show notes and we'll mention it at the end as well. So you've been a psychotherapist for over 25 years, can you talk about how you first found out the connection between mental health and sleep and how that really, really influenced your decision?
Keri Cooper:Absolutely. Yeah. It so it sounds crazy every time someone's, like, it's been like over 25 years that you've been at the Yes, it's been over 25 years I've been a therapist. Mm-hmm. My population I always worked with was really kids. So with kids comes parents, so I always have, worked a lot with the parents and. Really throughout my travels, throughout my journey as being a therapist, I really started integrating a more holistic approach because it's more than just the symptoms of mental health. Mm-hmm. I really always ask the kids and the teens I work with, how are you eating? How are you sleeping? And definitely something that I started noticing and really a lot during COD. Was that the worst? They were sleeping. I knew they were going downhill with their mental health. It was like the best predictor. Whenever I, I said, you know, how are you sleeping? The moment they started saying, I'm not falling asleep till two or three in the morning, I went, Ugh, we're gonna go downhill. And it was without fail. That's what was happening. Mental health wise. Another thing happened, which was, you know, as I talked to parents about how to work better with their teens, especially, a lot of parents would come into my office. They were just so tired and they were like, Keri I want to be the parent that, you know, I know I can be, and I want to implement all of these skills and tools and techniques. I'm so tired. I'm so tired, I don't have patience. And then we would get into a conversation, I'm like, well, like how are you sleeping? Right? And I was amazed with how poorly these people, especially moms have been sleeping. Yeah. And then even in my personal life, you know, just talking to friends who they're not sleeping, I'm like, this is a huge problem. Huge. Yes. So, you know, out of all the foundations I talk about when it comes to mental health, sleep is really the number one key because even when we talk about exercise or food, you're not gonna. Make healthy food choices and we can go into all that later. Mm-hmm. If you're sleep deprived, you're not gonna have the energy to exercise if you're sleep deprived. So really sleep is the absolute number one thing that you need to fix. So I actually went back into school. I got a sleep science coaching certificate, and I opened up a whole second business, which is just sleep coaching for adults.
Kat:I love what you said right there, and I fullheartedly agree. If you are not getting quality sleep, you're not going to make good food choices. You know what to eat. But what happens is, is when you're worn down and you don't have that sleep backing, you're, there's no willpower or motivation that's gonna change that. And then with working out, you can be doing the best workout program. Ever. But if you don't have sleep backing it, you're not gonna get the adaptations from that workout. Because sleep is where we restore ourselves. Sleep is
Keri Cooper:where you repair. Yeah. Yeah. Sleep is also where, your hormones are really made. So when we're talking about those, those hormones that tell us, I'm hungry, I'm full. All that stuff is happening
Kat:when we're sleeping at night. Exactly, exactly. What I hear is, well, I'm a certain age, of course I'm not supposed to sleep well. I shouldn't be able to sleep well. And it's like, no, you should be able to sleep well. And you, you need to sleep well
Keri Cooper:it has become so socially acceptable. Yes. Well, you're correct. And everyone, especially women around menopause are like, that's why I don't sleep. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, no, no, no. You can still be sleeping and you should still be sleeping. There may be additional challenges, but especially when your hormones are making these huge changes, you need to be sleeping.
Kat:Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly. What are. Common patterns that may, be hindering people's sleep,
Keri Cooper:there's a few different ones.'Cause everyone has a very different reason kind of as to why they're not sleeping or why their sleep isn't working for'em. And one of them, which I think is overlooked a lot when we talk about sleep issues, is your relationship with sleep. When you look at your bed, are you anxious about, am I gonna sleep tonight? Mm-hmm. Am I gonna have another bad night of sleep? Is that what's happening in your head? Because if it is, you're setting yourself up for failure, essentially. Yeah. So that is actually a huge issue that people aren't even realizing is happening. But if you're going into bedtime with this anxiety of, I have to sleep tonight, I ha, and it's like this battling, you know, right. Idea of like, I have to battle my sleep. I have to win. You are gonna have so much anxiety about getting to sleep that you are going to prevent yourself from getting to sleep. So actually one of the reasons why sleep coaching is so effective is because it takes a very cognitive behavioral therapy approach because you can't go in with that type of attitude. And that's why side note, I can't stand all of these apps that track your sleep because it's like. Oh yes, I did well last night. Oh no, I didn't do well last night. Like, stop. It creates so much more anxiety and again, it creates this this relationship with sleep that it's something to battle and to overcome. So I think, and a lot of people don't even recognize that they have this thought process, but think about when you're about to jump into bed. Are you like, oh, now I have to go to sleep tonight. I wonder if it's gonna work. I wonder if it's if I'm gonna get a good night's sleep, or are you just like jumping into bed like, you know, excited to go to bed? Yeah. What's your relationship
Kat:with sleep? Yeah, that is what I would've never thought about. I knew for me, I'm like, I'm excited to go to sleep. But that makes perfect sense because you know, you're kind of. Putting that thought out there and then your body reacts to it. The brain is gonna react to that and prevent you. And I also agree with you on a lot of the trackers out there, I get a little annoyed with data. Too much data is a bad thing and, and my watch tracks my sleep and I love it. But before I look at my watch, if I remember, it's not like a habitual a thing every morning. Focus on how I feel and knowing that it does take me a little bit to wake up and to get myself going. I, and definitely correct me if I'm wrong, I always tell clients the idea of just springing out of bed and feeling fully rested is not really how it works. Everyone comes out of a sleep state a little bit differently. But again, you're gonna come out of that sleep state better if you're more rested. So taking the fact that Alarm goes off and magically be awake. You're going to be a little groggy the first few steps to the bathroom or whatever your morning routine is. Let yourself fully wake up to really see, did you sleep well before looking at any data? And it's the same thing I tell'em with workouts. Data doesn't know. And the more you're connected on how you feel, the better it's going to be. Like data's great, but it's not the end all be all. Yeah.
Keri Cooper:So a few different thoughts about just that, that we covered. Yeah. Is, you know, yes. One, the best predictor well, the best tracker of whether or not you're sleeping well is how do you feel? Right. Do you feel well rested when you wake up? Do you feel like you can complete an entire day without needing a nap or you know that you're dragging? That's really the best way to tell, regardless of the apps and what they're telling you, right? And yes, some people, absolutely, it takes'em a little bit longer to come back out of their sleep. 100%. Everyone is different and that's, there's no problem with that. But also. If you're in a really good sleep cycle and sleep routine and your body really has its rhythm going, you shouldn't necessarily need an alarm. Yeah. Your body just kind of knows like, this is my time to fall asleep. This is my time to wake up. Sometimes people will report, like I wake up right before my alarm every day. Yeah. Because your body knows this is time to wake up. And then people get annoyed. They're like, oh, but on weekends I still wake up at that time. Right, because your body knows this is what time you should be waking up. And also just talk about weekend sleep. You cannot make up for sleep. You cannot be sleep deprived all week long and then think you're going to catch up on sleep over the weekend. It's not the way it works every night. Your body needs to detox. It needs to, you know, do everything with its hormones, like it needs to reset, it needs to reprocess so you can't catch up. Now, I will say I do always let teenagers have a little bit more wiggle room on the weekend, because as a society we make them wake up way too early for school. Yeah. It's not normal, it's not natural. They shouldn't be up that early. So if they're sleeping in a little bit on the weekends, I always say like, don't wake up. Your teenagers don't be like, no, you need to be up at like, you know, seven o'clock still. Again, they shouldn't be sleeping until like one in the afternoon. There's, you know, that's an extreme, but I always give them definitely a little bit more wiggle room.
Kat:Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned that. I have a, I have a teenager and we always allow him to sleep a little bit later and we've always been you go to bed at the same time within reason. Yeah. This year it's been a little tricky with some sports, but you need sleep. It's where you're gonna make your gains not only academically, sport wise, health wise, all of that. And then on the weekends it's like we're a little bit more liberal. But I'm like, you've gotta get up by 11, to get the day started. He always gets a little annoyed when he wakes up by nine. He's like, oh, I didn't want, I need more sleep. And I'm like, but your body said it's time. So if your body wakes you up and you weren't waking up, then it's fine.
Keri Cooper:Big. And that's also something to remember as well with your kids. Like when they are growing, when or when they're sick. We know when they're sick, they're supposed to be like napping and getting more sleep. Mm-hmm. But it's the same if they're like going through like a big growth period or something like that's happening. So don't be alarmed all of a sudden if your kids are napping and they're like. Quote unquote out of the nap stage.
Kat:Yeah.
Keri Cooper:Sometimes that's really necessary. Yeah.
Kat:Oh yeah, absolutely. I'd love to kind of go into a little bit more of how do you break down kind of the important sleep concepts for people?'cause I feel like. It probably could be some abstract barriers to kind of overcome for people like, okay, I need to sleep. How do I actually get the sleep? And how, I don't wanna say how long does it take to see the sleep benefits, but you know, kind of getting that general idea around it. Yeah. So
Keri Cooper:that also kind of leads back into, I'm sorry, we kind of like jumped off topic. You said, like what are some of the typical things that block people from, you know, sleeping? And I said one was the mentality, right? But the other thing is just making it a priority.
Kat:Mm-hmm.
Keri Cooper:Some people unfortunately are doing, doing, doing, doing, and they're not setting like, okay, sleep is actually important and I'm going to make sure that I stop my day and I go to bed. That's another really big thing. And once they get the information and the education about really why sleep is so important and like. I, I mean, I could list a million reasons why sleep is so important. It truly does impact every single physical feature, physical, issue in your body and mental health. And your productivity and you know, whether or not you're gonna just show up happy in the world, it all comes back to sleep. Mm-hmm. So once I start getting the education, once I'm able to start identifying the issue, is it that, they're battling their sleep? Is it that they're not making it a priority? Is it that they're not doing enough during the day?
Kat:Mm-hmm. Make sure
Keri Cooper:they're tired at night, like what is going on with their daily habits? And we could jump all into that too. But those are really normally the common. Paths that we go down to figure out why is somebody not sleeping, and when they work with me, they have a very, very long questionnaire before they even meet with me because I need to know all this information. That way we know where to start from.
Kat:Yeah. And I love how you said like if you're not using your energy during the day, you're not going to sleep at night.
Keri Cooper:There's so many people that just sit in front of a computer all day for work. Mm-hmm. They don't move, they're in artificial lights. They then, you know, are on their phone at night relaxing with all that blue light. They're not getting fresh air. All of this stuff really, really impacts our sleep. Yeah, your body does not know. It's supposed to be tired at night. It's not tired like it's, and people are like, no, I'm so tired. Like, you're drained. Your thought process is tired, but your physical body is not tired. You haven't used it enough.
Kat:Exactly, exactly that. I see a lot too, and I'm like, energy begets energy we have to work both mental and physical energy. There are two different types and so I hear a lot from clients, so I've worked all day. I'm tired. Well, yes, you could be mentally fatigued and I will not even say, oh no, you're not tired. But that's where moving the body is gonna compliment that mental fatigue and actually release and relax that mind a bit so that you're feeling refreshed and it sounds counterintuitive, but they work together. One of the things is. Especially a lot of my clients have computer ridden jobs or in office spaces and if you have a hard conference call or a hard meeting or a project you're working on, schedule 90 seconds minimally. If you can get outside, that's even more brilliant If you have an office window, especially one that's getting that good daytime sun. Stand by it or walk or get outside and feel that fresh air. You know, I, ideally, I would like them to take four minute breaks, just get up, move around, getting that movement throughout. But the one thing I find is once they start to do that, They're, they get more energy, they are feeling more vibrant, and they sleep. And they're more
Keri Cooper:productive for the rest of their day at work. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's what a lot of people don't realize is that they're always like, I'm so busy. I'm so busy, I can't sleep. But it's like, if you slept. You'd be able to get more done in less time. And that's when I, especially when I do corporate talks, talk about so much you know, you get to be so much more productive. So yes, going outside is so important. Like you take a lunch break, take that time, walk outside and you know, even people who aren't necessarily like in the workforce but are home with kids and everything, it is so important to get outside and take a walk and take your kids with you.
Kat:Yeah, I'm a big believer in that. All movement is moving the body, if you're not in that stage to be able to have a walk with the family and a walk by yourself or,, whatever that extra like movement is for yourself, that becomes. The movement there until that season is passed. But don't discredit getting outside and getting that movement in, because the other aspect is you're setting up that environment for your children to grow up with movement and getting outside as a normal routine. Not saying it'll solely solve the whole, you have to get outside today. I struggle with that even though my kids are more apt to, it's like. It will help condition them that this is a normal way of life. I need to be outside this, isn't a punishment because mom or dad won't let me on screens. It's, this is part of life. I'm so happy you
Keri Cooper:mentioned that because that modeling of that behavior, it goes for sleep too.
Kat:Mm-hmm.
Keri Cooper:Yeah. Your kids know, like kids know they pick things up and especially as they get older. They will know if you're not sleeping. They will know if you're not prioritizing your sleep. Yes, it is so important to set up that good sleep habit. Good sleep routine in your house. You know, my kids know like our phones go in the hallway at including mine. They're gone. Because my sleep is important to me. And you know, it's funny when people have, you know, parties with families or whatever, we're always, we're always the first to leave. And it's like the big joke, like, oh, Coopers are out again. Yeah. We're the first to leave because I wanna go home and go to sleep. Yeah. And my kids see that all the time.
Kat:Yeah. I, I agree with you there. My, my kids know, like, I went through a whole. I don't even remember when it was. It was probably shortly after the pandemic. We'd always been pretty good about sleep, but it wasn't until really, I mean, that upended a lot of people. You know, 2020. It really just jarred a lot of things and so what I realized, I wasn't getting quality sleep. I needed to figure that out. So I started stripping back, to your point about that discipline. I was like, okay, I need cold, hard, cutoff times for certain things. It was, you know, no TV after a certain time, no phone after a certain time. Also, I will say I allowed myself time to fail at this because it wasn't, when I say cold hard cutoff, it wasn't, rip the bandaid off quick and boom, it was healed. And so now, I mean, they were little at that time, so they didn't really see me going through that. Now they know like devices are downstairs charging all devices stay downstairs. They don't come upstairs. They know mom and dad have. Go to bed at between nine 30 and 10 and it's getting to the point where they're, they're going to bed at nine. It's like, Hey, you guys need to get through your bedtime routine'cause mom and dad wanna go to sleep. Like, so it's, they see that and it's like, this is normalized. A bedtime and awake time is, has been normalized for them. And now my older son where. He will go to friends' homes and you know, he feels, he's like, man, I should have gone to bed earlier. This is really hard to function today. And I said, well, good. You are articulating that for yourself. This is why sleep is important. And so he'll be like, I need to go to bed early tonight because I really, I am feeling sleep deprived. You know? And I think. That's huge that he's articulating that for himself.
Keri Cooper:It is because when we normally have good sleep and we have one night where we don't sleep well, we really feel it. Mm-hmm. Unfortunately, so many people are just so used to being sleep deprived. They actually don't even feel it anymore, and they're like, no, I'm functioning fine. I'm, I'm functioning fine. I'm five hours of sleep. You're not. No, you are just not. No. You know it because you dunno what good sleep is like. But they're in this now pattern of just. Not understanding how they're supposed to function. Yeah. And that's actually very scary. Or there's, you know, another group of people where they don't know how to really fall asleep. So they're really relying on, you know, oftentimes some wine before bed to try to get to sleep or other things. And listen, sleep meds have their place when used properly and when used when they need it to be. But these are not long-term solutions. Right. Especially the wine. And you know, when people are drinking wine a lot before bedtime to go to sleep, what's happening is that your body is now trying to process out all of this sugar, all of this alcohol, your, your body can't do what it needs to do. When it's supposed to be sleeping because it's dealing with processing all that out. And that's the same with people who eat really late at night. Your body is now trying to deal with digestion. Your body shouldn't have to do any of that stuff. It needs to actually do what it's supposed to do
Kat:when it's sleeping. Exactly. Exactly. And that's, that's where it goes back to the hormones. Hormones are not able to fully repair. Cortisol is a big word in social media as well as the inflammation. And during that time when you're sleeping, all of that. Is worked out. Your inflammation decreases. Cortisol goes to its normal state. We need cortisol cortisol should never be at a zero in anybody's body. It helps us function and arguably your cortisol is the highest when you wake up and should decrease as you get ready for sleep. It should not stay high and raised all day. To your point, it makes perfect sense. When you get to a certain point, your body adapts that this is my sleep deprivation is my new normal. Which does not make it right. And when you and I can definitely speak to this, when I started getting that quality of sleep, honestly it was like an amazing dopamine hit. It was like, I want more of this. This feels good. I am able to do more, feel better. And be more emotionally regulated without, snapping at my children and being like, why did I do that? Or having better workouts enjoying so many more things. And the, the whole point, and I wanna be crystal clear, is not to be able to do more. It's if I get great sleep, I'm going to have better deep work time. I'm going to be more productive in the hours I want to be productive so that I can have. The time I want for myself, for my family, you know, unencumbered. So,
Keri Cooper:absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, it's just people need to take a step back and say, wait a second, what does my sleep really look like? And really get honest with themselves and then decide that they are worth it to really try to improve it.
Kat:Mm-hmm.
Keri Cooper:Yeah, because it actually happens pretty quickly. I know you asked that earlier too, right? Normally, on average, people who see me, their sleep looks a lot different within 30 days. And it doesn't take all that long for all of a sudden for you to feel more rested, to be more productive, to feel like, oh, okay, now I'm, I'm living a little bit better.
Kat:Yes. Yes. And, and I think that's huge. I think it's, in the beginning. It's going to feel like a lot of work because it feels unnatural. But this is where that mentality of 21 days to make a habit stick comes in does not mean it's fully integrated. Especially like having a coach for sleep or having a coach for for fitness training, it allows for you to have that sounding board and a space to be curious to help you get to the solution you wanna see. And it does not mean every single month that you're going to have to be reinventing the wheel.'cause that's not the point. It's getting to the root cause, finding that solution specific for you. And then you're gonna feel that health benefit pretty quickly, which is, which is huge. I feel that's not talked a lot about in the mainstream, especially in social media where it's, oh, this jump from program to program jump from solution to solution where it shouldn't be that way.
Keri Cooper:Right. It, you really need to find out what is the root cause.'cause again, everybody has a different root cause as to why they're not sleeping at night. Mm-hmm. Once you identify what's happening, then you're able to really go after it and change it.
Kat:Yeah. Hopefully eliminate it. I talk with, with clients is we have seasons in our life and with parents who are in that, toddler, baby stage. Yeah, there's gonna be more unpredictable ness, but that's where it's really making sure that. You get those distractions out that you find those pockets of time to have that good sleep hygiene. And then as you know, especially with the perimenopause, yes there are some mo so many uncontrollables, but there's a lot of things you can control during that time, so don't let. What I
Keri Cooper:see is that, especially during the menopause time, is that once we really start working on the sleep, a lot of the issues that they were having at night actually seem to get better. Yeah. And it's like, you know, they both help each other. Yes. Once you start making one positive change and you know, that goes along with weight loss as well. Every January I see everybody on social media posting like, I'm gonna eat better and exercise. And I'm always like, great, but you're, you're forgetting sleeping because neither one of those are gonna happen if you are not
Kat:sleeping. Exactly. Exactly. And that's, I will say in my programs with my clients, I'm always asking about their sleep. How much are you sleeping? And then that's where for me, I look at, okay, well now's not the time to do these intense workouts. If you are coming up on a sleep pattern, maybe you're nervous about work. Maybe a, a child is sick and that's causing interrupted sleep patterns, well, we're gonna adjust for our. Our fitness, we're going to dial it back. Does not mean you can't handle it. It means your body right now is under our. More life stress. And so we could keep all this stress there, but it's not gonna help your healing, your recovery and the adaptations. And therefore we're just doing work for work and I'm not one to be giving work for work. So it's like we wanna be effective with that. And how does that overall impact? And when clients do that, they find that they stop the all or nothing habits that they've had before. They feel better, they maintain and gain more fitness and strength because they're working with their body, they're working with their life, they're working with their energy, and it's like, yes, that's what we want to do.
Keri Cooper:Yes, and I'm so happy you mentioned the all or nothing thinking because you know, sleep is the same way. It's not all or nothing, and there are gonna be those moments where you are not gonna sleep great.
Kat:Mm-hmm.
Keri Cooper:And again, normally those are very short term and that's how they should be. But you know, if you have something really huge happening in your life, I could understand getting a bad night of sleep. You know, that would be pretty normal. And again, if it's just one every once in a while, knowing that that's okay and not to freak out about that, that that's fine. Right.
Kat:That's just life. Exactly. Exactly. It would be amazing if we could just say, oh, every night you're gonna get a great day of sleep. Right. But that's, that's just not, and it's the same thing with like, you're gonna miss workouts. Yeah. And as long as there's more, you're showing up more consistently. The few missed doesn't make a difference. Kind of going to those points of those seasons where there is interrupted sleep, maybe it's a new baby, maybe there is just a lot of stress in your life. How do you help them through that knowing that. There is just that interrupted sleep out of their controls, well
Keri Cooper:stress in their life. If it's something like, you know, someone just died or something that's different than them just saying they have stress in their life, right? If it's just stress in their life, we're actually gonna work on containing that stress through a bunch of different ways. That way they can go to bed still, because that can't be the excuse of why someone's not sleeping. There's always gonna be stress in your life. Right? You know, did something really tragic just happen that's a little bit different. And you're probably gonna be off for a few days.
Kat:Mm-hmm.
Keri Cooper:You know, but then we need to get you back. Right. The infant stage is challenging. Yes. You know, I have four children. I remember it. But again, working on making sure that sleep is a priority is what's really important during that time period, and making sure we look at, you know, their routine and their resources for help as well. And how can we get you sleeping as much as humanly possible. There will definitely be those nights where that baby is just going to cry and you're just gonna be up, but also to remember and to really change the mentality with sleep where. If you have one bad night of sleep, your life is not gonna fall apart. Right? You could still function, you could still do things. It's okay. Mm-hmm. And that's what I find, you know, really kind of messes up people sometimes, is that they get a bad night of sleep and then the next morning they're like, oh, my whole day is gonna be shot. And now they're napping numerous times and now they're gonna bed super, super early and now it's just now you've messed up your whole sleep cycle. You can recover from a night or two about sleep. You can. It's okay.
Kat:I'd love to hear your thoughts on napping.'cause I hear a lot of people are like, oh, it's okay. I was up late. I'll just nap today. And it becomes this chronic, I'm gonna say nap cycle. I know for me, I, I kind of started this thing where it's not, it doesn't happen every Sunday, but some Sundays I'll just lay down for 20 minutes. But I found with my own training and just life and we've had a little bit slower on Sundays, and i'll just rest. Mm-hmm. For me, and this is how I've always been, if I nap in bed. I'm just like done for the rest of the day. Yeah. I cannot come out of this groggy state where it's better for me to kind of be, if I'm sleep deprived or feeling that tiredness to just function with it and go to bed and wake up the next morning refreshed. But with napping, what is your viewpoints on?
Keri Cooper:I wanna know why are they napping?'cause I do have some clients that have some sort of medical conditions and I'm like, you need to be napping. And, and that's perfectly fine. If they're napping because they didn't sleep well the night before. I normally don't love that. You're normally now setting yourself up to just a bad sleep cycle. But if you're napping because it's a Sunday and you're cozy and you just wanna like, fine. 20 minutes is normally what I recommend. I don't like anything more than that because now you're really getting into more of your sleep cycles and it's gonna throw you off for the night. Right. So if you have to nap or if you want to nap, I would say 20 minutes. But again, there are certain people who should be napping. A mom of an infant, you are gonna be napping. Yeah. Your body's also healing from just having a baby. Like, please don't forget that you, you need sleep and you need more than 20 minutes. That's, you know, that rule does not apply then. But for the people who are like, I'm napping because I'm not sleeping well, you're just throwing off the pattern even more.
Kat:Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And definitely, you know, parents in infant stage, sleep and, and sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep as much as
Keri Cooper:you possibly can. Yes, yes. And I love
Kat:that you brought up that. For women, your body's healing and it takes up to two years for your body to fully heal. I hear from clients like, oh, six months ago. There's so, so much going on in your body that it doesn't mean that you can't, it means your body's still healing. And it was such an undertaking to create the life, to build the baby. Like your body just doesn't snap back and it takes a while.
Keri Cooper:Any injury you're dealing with, if you're dealing with an injury, you have to remember that you should be, definitely sleeping more and taking care of your body. If you're coming off being sick, or if you are sick, if you have some type of chronic medical condition, that could be another reason why you're napping. I work with some people with Lyme disease and it's like, yeah, you need to be napping. Yeah.
Kat:Oh yeah. You know?
Keri Cooper:That's okay. Yeah.
Kat:What do you recommend to like, for parents to help create that environment? To promote better sleep habits? Yeah.
Keri Cooper:One of the big things is modeling it. I think that's probably the biggest issue is that you really need to model for your kids good sleep habits. And when these kids are staying up really late, it's not normal. And for some reason we continue to normalize this. And I tell, I have teenagers as well, and I tell them all the time especially as they're growing. Your growth hormones happen when you sleep, and if you're going to bed past midnight, it's not the same type of sleep. The sleep before midnight through all the research that we see is really very different than the sleep after midnight. You need both, but you, you really need the sleep before midnight. And I also encourage parents to, you know, have that place to charge all, all the electronics, don't have them in the bedroom. There's numerous reasons why they shouldn't be in the bedroom. Sleep is only one of them, right. And also make sure that you're eating dinner early when you're eating dinner at like, you know, eight o'clock at night. That's gonna be tough. Right. And just like I tell parents all the time, make sure you're not overscheduling yourselves. Please don't over schedule your children. And I understand in the world of sports and you know, dance and theater and all that, sometimes practices are just late. It is what it is. And I get that. But make sure you're not overloading them at least.
Kat:Oh, I fullheartedly agree and I will say the eating thing, I, I hear that a lot from clients of like, well, when do we eat? We can't eat until 8 39. And I'm like, that is far too late. And I'm a big proponent of break the meal up into two, have something. Beforehand, or four o'clock is too early, you're gonna be hungry by eight. But split the meal up into two. If you're eating at eight because you are genuinely hungry, make it small. Don't have that full meal because to your point, the body's going to be digesting that and it's going to take away from the sleep, even if you're getting in bed at the same time. And that. I find, you know, with working with clients on the nutrition aspect, it gets very, I'm gonna say black and white. Well, dinner has to be at this time, all at once. No, it's, we have to get creative'cause we're in the season of hopefully appropriate busyness. That we need to look at it a little bit differently. And if your child has been at school all day and you're picking them up from school and going to next activity to next activity, chances are they probably ate lunch around 11. So they need to eat again now to. Sustain that energy. So break it up into different areas so that that eating is a little bit more normalized. They're getting fuel for their bodies for what they need, and then when they're ready for, to your point for sleep, they're not sitting down to a big meal or overly tired and can't eat. So, right. And also remember that,
Keri Cooper:you know, your kids are learning all day long. Mm-hmm. And then, you know, coming home, doing homework, studying and all that. But if they're not sleeping, they're not gonna retain that information. When we sleep is when we really process all of those memories and we store information, and that's what I work with college kids a lot. I tell'em all the time, you need to sleep, especially during finals. You cannot pull all nighters. You won't remember what you're studying all day. It won't be effective.
Kat:Yes. Let's see here. I know we have a little bit we could talk about., I do feel, especially in the adult corporate world, culture, sleep deprivation, being tired is worn as a badge of honor working late into the night, and that's just not where it's at. It's
Keri Cooper:so interesting because it is a badge of honor, but if you're sleep deprived, you're not gonna be as productive as you could be, and you're gonna make mistakes. Yeah. So why would your company want you to be sleep deprived?
Kat:Yeah, exactly. It's gonna cost them money and you're gonna be sick more. Exactly. Exactly. And when clients were in the thick of some of'em in the thick of it with illnesses, I'm like, don't work out. But I'm afraid I'm going. No. If you may not be sick, but you're up caring for your children. We don't wanna wear down your immune system even more because you're already stressed and you're missing days at work.. So if you're going to do something, either sit outside in the sun, go for a very easy walk, or do mobility. But we're not here to overly stress our body.'cause the body only understands stress. It doesn't differentiate. Absolutely. Yeah. What would you be? So if someone's listening to this and they're so sleep deprived, I am feeling all the things that they're mentioning, I don't know where to begin. What is one piece of advice? Again, we're not here to treat or diagnose, but something to kind of help you. To help them take action to improve their sleep.
Keri Cooper:My favorite piece of advice for somebody who's looking to kind of take action on their own is to make sure you're getting up at the same time every single day, including weekends. That's normally a really good step in resetting your sleep cycle.
Kat:I love that. That's
Keri Cooper:my favorite easy piece of advice. Yeah.
Kat:And then for someone who's like struggling with chronic sleep problems, at what point are you like, should they see you or another professional to help them?
Keri Cooper:Yeah. The moment you feel like it doesn't need to be chronic, the moment you feel like you're struggling with sleep. Call a sleep coach, we are, we're here. That's what we do. Because tips and tricks for better sleep is never a bad
Kat:thing, right? I love that. And where can people find you?
Keri Cooper:Yeah. Sleep Solutions by Keri is my website and I'm on Instagram as well at Sleep Solutions by Keri.
Kat:Love it. And that will be posted in the show notes. If you have any questions, reach out to Keri. Hopefully you got some actionable tips and you get a great night's sleep tonight. Welcome to MilesFromHerView the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit Strength, or share this episode. With a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.
