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Let’s talk about sleep. If you’ve listened to this podcast for a while, you know I’m pretty obsessed with sleep. I talked about it during my Year of Ease episode (ep. 9) and in the health episode (ep. 82) about how to realistically make time for your health—and I shared how, in my totally inexpert opinion, if you don’t know where to start, I’d start with sleep because of the ripple effect it has on everything else.
But here’s the thing: while I care a lot about sleep, I’m not an expert in it. That’s why I’m so thrilled to bring you this conversation with someone who is: Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown.
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown is a triple board-certified sleep physician and the founder of Restful Sleep MD. She is also the best-selling author of Beyond Tired—A Sleep Physician’s Guide to Solving Your Child’s Sleep Problems for Good. She helps individuals prioritize sleep, achieve optimal health, thrive, and live to their fullest potential. As a busy physician and mom of two, she understands the impact of sleep deprivation on our mental, physical, and emotional health. She has made it her mission to help others make sleep a priority. She also works with organizations and businesses to improve their health by incorporating healthy sleep into their wellness journey. She is a consultant and a speaker on regional, national, and international platforms. She has also published several peer-reviewed manuscripts on various sleep disorders. She obtained her sleep medicine training at the University of Pennsylvania.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Why sleep is so important and what can happen when we don’t get enough of it
- The ripple effects of both sleep deprivation and solid sleep—on your mood, productivity, memory, immune system, mental health, decision-making, and long-term health
- how to improve both the quantity and quality of your sleep, especially when life is busy
- A helpful CREATE acronym Dr. Funke walks us through to realistically improve sleep hygiene
- For women with ADHD, some additional practical strategies that might help
- Tips for shift workers and anyone whose job schedule makes sleep harder to protect
- How to start realistically making small changes to protect your sleep even in full seasons of life
This episode is packed with helpful, actionable information. Whether you’re just curious about what better sleep could feel like—or you’re in the thick of a sleep-deprived season and looking for any traction you can get—I hope this helps.
I’m so excited to share Dr. Funke with you as she’s such a generous, practical resource in this space. To learn more about Dr. Funke, her practice, her book, or her YouTube channel, see these links:
- Website: https://www.restfulsleepmd.com/
- Beyond Tired Book: https://a.co/d/2aSRSQt
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/restfulsleepmd/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drfunkebrown/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funke.afolabibrown/
Below is a transcript of the episode. Enjoy!
Other links you might enjoy:
✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you’re ready for a full time management system that’s realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It’s helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.
🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.
📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.
Full transcript:
Kelly Nolan: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Bright Method Podcast, where we’ll discuss practical time management strategies designed for the professional working woman. I’m Kelly Nolan, a former patent litigator who now works with women to set up the bright method in their lives. The Bright Method is a realistic time management system that helps you manage it all personally and professionally. Let’s get you falling asleep, proud of what you got done today, and calm about what’s on tap tomorrow. All right, let’s dig in.
Hey, hey and welcome back. Alright, so if you’ve been here a while, you know I am pretty obsessed with sleep. I shared about it on my Year of Ease podcast and how when I was working to get more energy in my life, sleep was obviously something I really prioritized. And not just like the hours of sleep, but the quality of it, which led to me giving up a lot of my alcohol consumption.
And other sorts of consumption like chocolate and caffeine to really protect my sleep and also the quality of that sleep. I’ve also talked about sleep in the [00:01:00] health episode where I talked about how we can protect time for health in a realistic way, and I really talked about how you really need to pick one thing because our plates are already so full, and if you don’t know where to start, my recommendation in my very inexpert opinion was start with sleep.
Because of the ripple effects it has on everything health-wise and everything else in our life. So my obsession with sleep runs deep, but my expertise on it does not. So I was thrilled when I found Dr. Funke off Lobby Brown. She is someone who has this expertise in spades, and I’m so excited to get to share her with you today.
Now before I dig into the interview, let me share a little bit about Funke, Dr. Funke Alabi Brown is a triple board certified sleep physician and the founder of Restful Sleep md. She’s also the bestselling author of Beyond Tired, A Sleep Physician’s Guide to Solving Your Child’s Sleep Problems For Good.
She helps individuals prioritize sleep, [00:02:00] achieve optimal health, thrive and live to their fullest potential. As a busy physician and mom of two, she understands the impact of sleep deprivation on our mental, physical, and emotional health. She has made it her mission to help others make sleep a priority, and she works with organizations and businesses to improve their health by incorporating healthy sleep into their wellness journey.
She is a consultant and speaker on regional, national, and international platforms. She has also published several peer reviewed manuscripts on various sleep disorders. She obtained her sleep medicine training at the University of Pennsylvania. Now I will link to her website, her book, her Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook and the show notes.
And so don’t worry about catching all of that during the episode. Just rest into this. Listen to it. Take it to heart, pick a couple things you’ll work on and then you can dig into the resources in the show notes when you’re ready. All right. Let’s get to the good stuff. Well, Funke, thank you so much for being here.
I am just so [00:03:00] thrilled to have you. Do you mind introducing yourself and sharing a bit about how you got into studying sleep, given your own challenges with it?
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Yeah, no, thanks me. So p. That really focused on picking care, people with issues. And my own journey into all of this started from, you know, struggling with sleep deprivation and also insomnia.
When I was, uh, younger I would say, so for my college years in medical school, I was already seen that I was short on sleep. And, uh, I was just at the loss thinking, okay, I guess this is what, this is what it is. And so I carried all that into training my residency, and I had kids who were not sleeping. And so that made, just made everything work.
And so from there I started to make changes. It was my mental health, my productivity, my programs, [00:04:00] and I, you know, and I just said, okay, you know, something has to change. So, you know. Technically more of that kind of low hanging fruit would say when it comes to things that we, what are things I can address, right?
Okay, I can eat, you know, make better food options, choices, maybe exercise more and sleep right? And so that was really what I really started to work on. And then from there, just felt so much better. Anxiety was better. The short my performance, just being alert and not feeling like I was walking all day.
It just something that I wanted people to.
Kelly Nolan: No, and it makes a lot of sense. I do think that as life gets busier and busier, which tends to happen as we get older and older, sleep does become the first thing to go so often. I know that it’s true for a lot of my clients. I know it’s true for past me as an attorney, and I think we all know [00:05:00] on some level that getting sleep is important.
But I’ve also heard you speak on other podcasts about. Really the specifics around how important sleep is, and I think it’s good just to be reminded of it so that we’re all on the same page and know why we’re gonna prioritize it going forward. So do you mind just running through the reasons that you view sleep being so important, and then the concerns you have when someone is not sleeping well?
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Yeah, so multiple falls. So I mean, I think just that you get well. Because your brain was able to do some work while you were sleeping. So there’s a cleansing function that our brain has. And so when you get enough sleep, when you get deep sleep, you get to benefit from that where you have removal of just products on the surface of your brain.
Now these products we found are sometimes some of the products we’ve seen in patients who have patients [00:06:00] who have all. And so when you get that benefit, you feel better. And so many times you can tell after a day of not sleeping well, you do feel very unclear. You feel like you’re living in a fog, right?
So that’s one. And then memory consolidation and creativity and executive decision making. All of those things center around getting good sleep.
We’ve seen that, you know, your heart kind of dips as you go to sleep, as your body just kind of goes through some of those restorative processes. So if you’re not getting enough sleep, then you don’t get that normal appropriate dipping. You might have issues with heart rhythm issues, you might have hypertension, you.
We don’t wanna have to face if we can avoid it. And then there’s also our, our [00:07:00] digestive system and our metabolism. So you actually metabol better when you sleep, especially for women. You know, weight gain is high, high risk for weight gain. You don’t. Abnormality to, you know, higher risk of diabetes and things like that can occur.
Uh, so because your body, your hormones are regulated when your system and your system, so if you don’t get enough sleep, you may lose. And then, you know, mental health, right? So.
Anxiety and depression when you don’t get enough sleep. So prioritizing sleep actually, and I’m sure if you’re working with a therapist or a psychiatrist, many times they’re asking, how are you sleeping? We gotta work at that, right? Your perspective changes after good night of sleep, so [00:08:00] there’s so many benefit from getting good sleep that is just so, so important.
I
Kelly Nolan: mean, I anecdotally experienced so much of that myself. You know, if I’m getting good sleep, I’m more patient with my kids, there’s less catastrophizing going on in my head. Yeah. I am less just prickly overall. I can motivate to do things so much more like versus not sleeping. I’m like, I don’t wanna do any of it today.
Like, there’s just so much of that. I think something else I’ve heard you talk about, and correct me if I’m wrong, we. Is like even around cancers and Alzheimer’s and all these like long-term things, our sleep does have a bearing on that too. Is that right?
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Oh yes, absolutely. So there’s certain cancer that are associated with poor sleep, especially on the long-term.
So this really has to do with that immune regulation. So we have this, uh, what we call cells and some immune.
When it’s not [00:09:00] healthy, when it’s either not enough or it’s poor quality, you’re not really giving those, that immune system to be appropriately RevD off. And so when foreign cells come in, right, even a general cold, right? Your immune system is just not suited to fight it. And also, so.
Dsy driving dangerous, drunk driving in some situations, right? So look at almost blood alcohol levels or people who, you know, compare the blood alcohol levels. People who are legally drunk with people who have not been able to sleep hours, 24 hours and impair. I.
Bought, they’re going into the car, say, yeah, come on, let’s go. Let’s go on a drive. Right? Yeah. And there’s been [00:10:00] so many fatal car associated with driving, driving because you’re just so, so outta it, and your response time is significantly shown.
Kelly Nolan: Well, thank you. And I, mm-hmm. And I don’t mean to doom and gloom it for the person listening, but I do think that.
It’s just one of those things that I think intellectually we know, but we kind of dismiss. And I think that it’s really important to come back to the specifics of why it’s so important. Because you know, it’s hard to prioritize things in life and I think we need to really understand why we need to prioritize it.
So for those who just aren’t where they wanna be with sleep at this stage and you know, now are motivated to get there, um, what are some strategies you recommend for people if they are trying to improve their sleep?
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s really important not to neglect the basics. So starting from just being consistent and actually have a framework I usually use create a response.[00:11:00]
So you really wanna try to be as consistent as possible. So we talk a lot about quantity of sleep, but that consistency, even if.
And then another thing is having a routine and the routine helps sort of tune our bodies in preparation for sleep, and then it’s also relaxing for us. So these are activities that you wanna participate in that are living in the direction of the bedroom. So many times we have kids and we have the beautiful bedtime routine.
We also need to.[00:12:00]
So you should have a room quiet or at least, so if you have noise from outside
something and then making sure the. Gonna disruptions sleep and you’re wake, and then the light is, so making sure that the, that is as dark as possible, so you might need to get blackout need all of those. And then A is so.
So, no, you know, watching tv, scrolling on your phone, answering emails, 18 and all of that, you really wanna try to your brain that the bed is supposed be. And then C [00:13:00] is the technology. So have a plan for technology that may look like, um, having a technology court field to say, okay, maybe about 30 minutes to an technology.
And then the final is eliminate. So at the end of the day, you wanna just kind of take stock and say, okay, what are parts of, what are things that I’m eating, what things I’m consuming that might be disrupting? Might wanna eliminate things like caffeine too close to bed or alcohol or like spicy meals or media.
Digital media. Sometimes that’s something you need to rid of. Yeah. Before. So I like to use that create habit because it’s easy to remember and it’s all evidence based and it’s stuff you can stop from.
Kelly Nolan: Yeah, no, I love having that framework to just, yeah, like I always hear such good information and then I’m like, wait, it’s like an [00:14:00] amorphous cloud.
And so having that create to just be like, wait, what was that? And let me pick a couple things and try the to incorporate is so, so handy. So thank you. I work with a lot of women who have A DHD and also many who are kinda like more recently diagnosed with A DHD in thirties, forties, fifties. And I’ve heard you speak more in the context of kids around A DHD, but I was curious for women who have a DHD or even suspect that they do, do you have any, you know, advice, maybe particular strategies around that for them?
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of similar. So we know that there are, um, specific sleep issues that people with ADHD experience, whether kids or adults, so things like that, mind racing, creativity that creates burst. Sometimes people with a DHD are more productive in the evening and they sort of night out, um, and then sometimes.[00:15:00]
Or nutritional deficiency. So I think it’s really important to look at it very holistically. Mm-hmm. Especially when you’ve tried more common practical strategies. You really wanna pay attention to that. Or many people with a DHD even, because I work with a lot of women too, who have sleep issues and. What coming first?
Is it a sleep issue that’s causing ADHD like symptoms or is it the A DH ADHD that’s making it happen to sleep? Yeah, we dunno. But the bottom line still needs to be addressed. So one of the things that is very helpful is to realize that your brain may take a little bit longer to unwind. You may need a longer buffer or routine.
It’s really hard if you’ve been working on processing so many things cognitively to just say, okay, now it’s 10 minutes before I’m just gonna jump into data and fall asleep. Many times you’ll find yourself just spiraling [00:16:00] your path because you’re not having enough plan. So build more of a buffer for yourself.
Sort of such a, like a, a kind of like a safeing pad. I think that’s one thing. And really being intentional about what that would think contain. You may need to do some journaling, especially if you have such a busy creative brain. Yeah. You may need to write down your thoughts. You need, need to do more breathing exercises.
What you’re more intentional about practicing those mindfulness strategies. That is so important if.
Make sure you adequate taking the right type of supplement. Another thing that’s really important is physical activity. So with our kids, we talk about them just kind working them to the bone, just like leave them outside of go bed. They’re exhausted and they crash. Well, we need something similar, especially as women with adhd.
So what you could do, [00:17:00] I mean, is you may want to. Physical activity exercise, right? It doesn’t have to be late at night. Just build that in 30 to 60 minutes every day, whether it’s cardio, strength, whatever. All that improves, combine that with healthy routine supplement and with some active mindfulness. You are definitely gonna.
Kelly Nolan: Well, thank you so much. That that is all so fascinating and it makes so much sense. And I think that understanding that it takes our brains longer to slow down is so valuable, even though it’s, you know, you’re like, oh yeah, that makes sense. But it just, even really planning for it though is so needed. And I think just also being mindful of like part of that routine, not allowing more input, whether it’s a podcast or an audio book or Instagram or whatever it is like.
The more I input, [00:18:00] the more my brain goes. So stopping that earlier that I might normally do is really, really smart. So thank you. Similarly different kind of category of person I talk to and I’m sure overlaps to a degree to is people who sleep is disrupted due to their jobs. So I’m thinking like ER physicians.
People like that in those types of positions. I’m also selfishly interested in this ’cause my husband is an ER physician and so just understanding the impact on the body and health from sleep deprivation caused by jobs. Do you have any advice to help people who are in those roles? They can’t protect a circadian rhythm in full because of the job, but do you have any advice to help people in those positions optimize their sleep as best they can?
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Yes, a few ideas. So with that, unfortunately, shift work deep disorder has been considered as a [00:19:00] potential carcinogen.
Kelly Nolan: Oh, wow.
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Um, there’s a high risk of mental health issues with shift people. With shift workers. There’s a higher risk of obesity. Hypertension, chronic. It’s unfortunate because many times they’re working completely against their ci.
That being said, someone needs to do, I mean, we don’t want AI to take over completely, right? So somebody needs to do the work. Right. So, and I think at any point in time, at least I think, I can’t remember what the statistics said, it was like maybe about 20, 25% of the population has does some kind of shift.
So that’s a large percentage of people. Yeah. So I. A situation where you’ll have to be super intentional about protecting the sleep. Now, not everyone that has work that’s a worker has sleep disorder, but that being said, everyone that has does shift work, has sleep disruptions to one cup or the other. So the goal is really trying to optimize and maximize your sleep.[00:20:00]
So what.
I would say you absolutely need to go in prepared. So making sure that maybe you take a nap before your shift starts, so that way your, your technically or building again, that, that you’re gonna, and then when you get there, when you get your shift light exposure, really important because you, again, completely schedule light exposure.
Early of your ship will help you to be alert enough to not, you know, make an error, for instance, and then towards the latter end of your, you wanna start, avoid that light. You wanna start kind and things that, and then after the catch up, try to best as possible. So this is the time to [00:21:00] the time
sun.
And when you get home, we do a mini routine again, because now you’re working upwardly, right? Melatonin is the hormone of darkness. It’s dried out. So melatonin is not super high during that time, right? But make, make sure your room is dark. Make sure your room is down. It’s cool. Make sure it’s nice and quiet, but do not disturb signs comes on.
Your phone is out there outside of the.
Hospital and organizations talk around, depending on what your shift looks like. If you’re like, oh, four days on and then three days off, and then four days on and three days off, that’s your schedule. Then what need is that you partially and train little technical, you partially entrain, [00:22:00] and so you’re not switching back to.
You might maybe go to bed at maybe four or 3:00 AM and then wake up at 11:00 AM So you are partially intrigued. Yeah. So that your body doesn’t completely shift to the normal and then you are back again.
Kelly Nolan: Yeah.
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: That’s a concept. Sometimes, depending on how long you’re working, you are gonna be shape worker in college.
But it can be challenging, right? Because someone.
But if you have that intention, I’m gonna make sure I optimize my teeth and I’m gonna try to preventation as much as possible. It does go a long good. In some situations, we’ll also recommend [00:23:00] melatonin, so melatonin health kind of shift that a little bit. And so in some situations, especially for someone who’s having had time falling asleep after the shift, we may.
Kelly Nolan: Wow. Well, I really appre it. There’s a lot sparking in my brain, but I don’t think there’s much value I’d add to it. I just think this is all so fascinating and I so appreciate you sharing. One thing I will say that I’ve taken from you, from l like. Stalking all of your podcast episodes and listening to them.
So, um, even I, you know, I have a normal sleep schedule. I’m a pretty good sleeper. I’ve made changes to avoid caffeine after a certain time. I don’t drink alcohol very much anymore. I stop eating chocolate. Chocolate for me is something that if I do it too late can affect my sleep. Yeah. But one thing that I’ve loved doing that I’ve heard you talk about is also just dimming all the lights took before going to bed.
In addition to trying to, to stay away from the blue light [00:24:00] social media thing is just dimming The house lights before I usually do is really effective I think at like starting to tell my brain to, to call to chill out. So I just appreciate everything you do. If someone’s listening to this, which I’m sure someone is, and would like to work further with you on this because I know that you do this with people, how do you work with a woman listening?
What does that look like? I’m sure someone would love to know.
Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown: Yeah. Yeah. So different ways. So if I have my, sort of my medical practice and then I also have a coaching practice, so the medical practice, if you have concern that you have an actual organic sleep disorder, maybe the back.
So.[00:25:00]
And then my coaching practice really helps me help a lot of people across a different state line. And really what I’m doing there is really more practical, you know, nuts and bolts of how is this schedule, what are boundaries that you’ve, you know, you, you’ve not been able to in place with protect. What does they look like to help your child be a.
And then for some people it’s kind of testing the water. They have a YouTube channel. It’s, uh, so if you go on, on YouTube to, you find information there and I, I put it all out there, just really practical and relatable information because people, people want what they can take action on, and I.
[00:26:00] Sleep physician guide to helping, to fixing or solving your child with problems for good. And there’s a beautiful chapter there for mom, so you could try that even if your kids are good speakers. Still read it. Yeah.
Kelly Nolan: Yeah. No, I, I will put links to all this in the show notes, and I think that’s just important to, you know, we’ve really been focusing today on women’s sleep, but you have a whole other arm of your practice that helps kids with sleep and.
As someone who thinks about this stuff too, I know your YouTube channel covers like what to do if your kid’s watching social media too late into the evening, how to handle that. So there’s a lot of practical information that even goes beyond what we talked about today. So definitely check it out and thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom and giving us your time.
We’ll cover, as I said, all the links in the show notes, but it’s been a real honor to have you here. So thank you. And for the person listening at home, thank you also for being here, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.
Thank [00:27:00] you.
Links you might enjoy:
- 🌿 Free 5-Day Time Management Program Get five short, practical video lessons packed with realistic strategies to help you manage your personal and professional life with more clarity and calm.
- 📱 Follow me on Instagram Get bite-sized, real-life time management tips for working women—like reminders to set mail holds before travel, anonymous day-in-the-life calendars from other professional women, and behind-the-scenes looks at how I manage my own time.
- ✨ The full Bright Method™️ program If you’re ready for a full time management system that’s realistic, sustainable, and dare I say… fun, check out the Bright Method program. It’s helped hundreds of professional women take back control of their time—and their peace of mind.
