Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at https://www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone. You wanna know what can set me back on all of my goals at the drop of a hat? And I'm gonna go out on a limb, and I'm going to say that this one impacts you too. It's the sticky floor of sleep. Y'all, I love my sleep. I have always been a bed princess. I want comfy sheets, plush pillows, and I just love, love, love my bed.

Erica: It is my favorite spot in the entire house. But like so many other women out there, I struggle to get good consistent sleep. I always am. And that is why, last week, we had guest Morgan Adams, a sleep coach and consultant on the show. I was so curious about this topic of sleep that I wanted to dive in more and go deep on it because a good night's sleep, I can conquer the world.

Erica: A bad night's sleep? I'm irritable. I'm cranky, foggy brain, hangry all day long. Y'all, listen in.

Erica: Now I wanna tackle this sticky floor of sleep because it's different for women than it is for men, y'all. So many of us struggle to get good sleep, and I think that we attribute it to being busy, being moms, having so much going on from perimenopause to caretaking duties. We have a number of obstacles that we have to overcome if we want consistent restful sleep.

Erica: But sleep is the number one thing that we have to have to get unstuck and to thrive. So I wanna start by hitting the main culprit here. Hormones. Hormones play a huge role.

Erica: Fluctuations in our menstrual cycle and perimenopause can disrupt our sleep patterns because we get these hot flashes. We get night sweats, which prevent many women from sleeping through the night. And y'all, these changes, they can hit you in your thirties. Don't be sitting around thinking that menopause is only for women in their fifties, sixties, seventies, all that. Because those changes can start at the drop of a hat.

Erica: Trust me. The second thing that is a huge one that impacts women is the caregiving duties. How about those nights that the hormones, they're not bothering me, my dang kids are. Okay? We have the mental workload of anticipating all the family needs.

Erica: And believe this, that even after kids grow up and leave the house, women report being tuned in to what they had called the mom frequency at night. The mom frequency. Oh, not to mention our lovely, lovely, lovely partners who snore like freight trains. I speak from experience. But psychologically, women tend to ruminate more at night about all of our responsibilities, our to do list, all the stresses, the sacrifices, our racing thoughts.

Erica: They steal our rest. But without resetting our bodies through sleep, exhaustion builds. So y'all know I like to focus on what we can do. Let's talk about it. I did a ton of research, and I want you to take what works for you.

Erica: And I want you to leave the rest because all of us are gonna be different. But I will share the research that I did with you. And then I'll also tell you what I do that really helps me. So, first of all, it's having a normal schedule. Don't change it up on the weekend.

Erica: I know it is hard not to wanna sleep in, but if your weekday wake up time is 5AM, don't sleep until ten. It's gonna get you out of whack. Get up by 7AM. Allow yourself a little wiggle room, allow yourself a little time to reset, but don't get too far off track. The second thing is to set the mood in the room. Get ready for sleep.

Erica: Just like we have bedtime routines for our little kids, we need bedtime routines for ourselves. Okay. I light a candle before bed. I dim the lights. I spray some linen spray on my pillows.

Erica: And then after I get the kids down, I go straight to bed, climb in, and I read my book. I am still guilty of wanting to surf TikTok, but I'm working on it. But do note that I tend to go to bed earlier, fall asleep faster if I'm reading a physical book versus playing on my phone. Now, if you missed last week's episode, our sleep consultant did say that it's not terrible, that blue light that we've heard about forever, but you can combat this by wearing blue light glasses, just like you might wear when you are in front of your computer. Now another thing that has saved me is by wearing my Bose Sleepbuds. These are the tiniest little earbuds that play white noise. It's connected to your phone.

Erica: It does nothing else except for the white noise you select and a gentle alarm clock. And this works for people who have kids my age or older. I wouldn't do this with little babies, because then you can't hear them, but my kids are old enough to come down and physically wake me up. Can't hear my husband snoring when I wear them. I can't hear him getting up to go to the bathroom.

Erica: It is amazing. But I bring them with me everywhere I go, all vacations, all hotel trips. Now, if you don't like the idea of buds in your ears, try a sound machine. It won't block out as much, but it's certainly helpful.

Erica: Now, another thing that you can do is take a very pure type of magnesium supplement. That's supposed to be very calming. There's a couple different brands out there. One of them is called Recess. I actually just bought that for the first time last week, so I'll have to tune back in and let you know, but it's just a lightly flavored powder that you can mix in with your water to drink right before bed.

Erica: Calm the mind, calm the body, relax some of those muscles, and just kind of help supplement the body. Next, this last exercise. This is a big one for me, and I don't think enough people do it, but once you close your eyes, focus on either something like meditation. So there's plenty of great apps on your phone that you can use. There's the Peloton app, or you can do what I like to do, which is go through a visualization exercise. And this is my favorite one because I believe in the power of visualizing your success, visualizing what you want, your goals. And it's almost like my free time of the day to daydream.

Erica: So I will visualize the perfect vacation. I dream about different events I have lined up about what my future success will look, feel like. I go details. Y'all, very, very, very much into the details. I think about what I'm wearing, how my hair looks, what I feel like, the audience.

Erica: So stop counting sheep. It doesn't do anything but stress you out when you get to sheep number two hundred and twenty two, but start visualizing. Now I'm not a sleep coach. I'm also not a sleep expert. I'm just a regular mom who has always struggled with sleep.

Erica: And I know what works for me. And I know how powerful and how important sleep is. Make your bedtime and your bedroom sacred, protect your sleep at all costs.

Erica: You have to keep sleep as a priority when you protect your rest. That is the best form of self care that you can do for yourself. How many times have I said on this show that you cannot pour from an empty cup? And let me tell you that you can't fill an empty cup if you're not sleeping.

Erica: If you wanna get unstuck, if you want to really reach that next level, you have to protect your sleep and you have to keep it sacred. And I've got one last tip for you. It really works for me. I know it doesn't work for everybody else, but it is a nap. Yes. N-A-P. Now, I love a nap. If you don't get good sleep at night, snag a nap in the middle of the day.

Erica: If you are lucky enough to work remote, work through lunch and grab a power nap, take a siesta. You will wake up feeling so rejuvenated, so refreshed. I will literally grab a twenty or thirty minute power nap and then wake up and have like a little bit of caffeine, and I am ready to kill the rest of the day.

Erica: And then one last thing that I actually use to help me track my sleep is the Oura ring. Now the Oura ring is amazing for tracking sleep. I absolutely love it. It helps me figure out what's working, what's not working in the ways of sleep.

Erica: I can see how much deep sleep I'm getting, how much time it's taking me to fall asleep, so I can adjust my different bedtime routines. So I'll do a special post on my Oura ring later, but if you're interested, let me know. I'm happy to talk through it with you.

Erica: But if you can only do one thing for yourself this week, I want it to be that you create a nighttime ritual around your sleep and protect it at all costs. Aim for those eight hours. You need them. Your kids need you to have eight hours. Your boss needs you to have eight hours.

Erica: Trust me. If you feel foggy, if you feel stuck, if you feel frustrated or angry, get your sleep. It really is the secret to success. Thanks for listening in today. I hope you enjoyed this session on sleep.

Erica: I will drop my ordering post into my socials this week. So if you're not following me over there on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and all the places, make sure you head over there and follow me. And remember, stop putting a ceiling on what is possible and start breaking through it.