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209. Why Better Sleep Makes You Healthier, Happier & More Present | Feby Maria Puravath Manikat, MD
37 Plays2 days ago
Better sleep isn't just about getting more rest, it's about unlocking a healthier body, a clearer mind, and a deeper connection to your higher self. Eric Bigger and Stanford-trained sleep medicine physician Dr. Feby Maria Puravath Manikat explore how sleep can elevate your consciousness, boost your health, and help you show up as your highest self every day.
About Dr. Feby Maria Puravath Manikat
Dr. Feby Maria Puravath Manikat is a Stanford-trained sleep medicine physician specializing in sleep health, longevity, and integrative medicine. She also trained at Cornell University in nutritional sciences and Harvard Medical School in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). Blending science with holistic practices, she helps high-performing professionals optimize their sleep to improve health, energy, performance, and overall well-being. Dr. Feby also lectures Stanford's "Sleep and Dreams" course and serves as Sleep Director at Apple's AC Wellness, guiding Apple employees toward better rest, recovery, and peak performance.
Website: https://www.febymariamd.com/about
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/febypuravath/
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Work with me: https://www.ericbigger.com/workwithme?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=work_with_m...
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Transcript
Introduction to the Spiritual Fitness Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Bigger. And each week, we will explore powerful practices, inspiring stories, and expert insights to guide you on your path to holistic health.
00:00:18
Speaker
By blending spirituality and physical wellness, we support you in strengthening your body and soul. Whether you're a seasoned spiritual seeker or just beginning your journey, the Spiritual Fitness Podcast is here to help you unlock your inner potential and live your most vibrant, purposeful life.
00:00:35
Speaker
It's miracle season.
00:00:39
Speaker
Spiritual fitness, spiritual
Guest Introduction: Febby Maria Puravath Manucat
00:00:41
Speaker
fitness. I'm your host, Eric Bigger, and i'm back again with another episode. And today, oh baby, we get to talk about longevity, sleep, rest, and all the things that's going to have a healthy body, a healthy mind, and more importantly, a healthy life.
00:00:58
Speaker
life And I got the amazing Febby Maria Puravath Manucat. She's a sleep doctor, a longevity specialist, and she helps people get to the root of their being to live the best, fulfilling life. um She's a sleep medicine graduate from Stanford University. She also studied at Cornell University, and she's incredible. very educated, very well-renowned, and very spiritual. And this is why she's on Spiritual Fitness because I have so many questions. Febby, welcome to Spiritual Fitness. How are you?
00:01:36
Speaker
Wow. Thank you for the lovely introduction. It's an honor to be here and spend time with you. Yes.
Febby's Holistic Approach to Health
00:01:41
Speaker
So I want to read something um off your website and I kind of want to start the conversation from there. Rooted in ancient wisdom and supported by the best of modern medicine, I invite you to transform your health and vitality. With expertise spanning from sleep medicine, nutrition, and integrative care, I blend science and spirituality to address the root causes of health challenges. Reimagine your sleep, reclaim your energy, and unlock your most powerful self,
00:02:13
Speaker
at every stage, at any age. Please unpack that synopsis. That's beautifully written. So take us to the consciousness of this for you. And how did you get into this practice of life? Where did it all begin?
Febby's Journey into Sleep Medicine
00:02:28
Speaker
And how did you become brilliant in sleep?
00:02:31
Speaker
I think it all made sense just because we spend a third of our lives sleeping and it made, uh, to me, it just seemed a natural extension of medical school. I did have some sleep issues shortly after, of residency. And so at first I thought I was going do like primary care. And, um, after having sleep issues myself, uh, I realized why it was almost like one of those like, wait, why am I not knowing more about sleep? As I mentioned, like a third of our lives um dreaming and sleeping. So why not find out more about it? I remember in medical school and in residency, like learning all the squiggly lines, the EEG, the electrocephalogram.
00:03:13
Speaker
And thinking this is, first of all, I don't know, i don't even know how to interpret this. It doesn't really make sense. But to like looking more into it and like, okay, now you're in alpha, you're in beta, you could be in gamma, you can be in theta, you could be in delta, a deep sleep. And so... There's so many sleep stages that a sleep doctor can look at that and say, oh, is this person in deep sleep? Or are they in alpha? Or are they semi-comatose? Are they dreaming? And that you can see all of that through your brainwaves. So even though it looks like you are just kind of not awake, but it's actually a very dynamic stage. And so I just started really nerding
Spirituality and Sleep Integration
00:03:53
Speaker
out and going into my textbooks and doing research. And I had the privilege of doing research.
00:03:58
Speaker
ah with some of my mentors at both Stanford as well as at Harvard. um And so just doing that and learning more about it made really fascinated. and i did a fellowship at Stanford ah and then becoming fascinated by bridging what I'd previously done. I did nutrition at Cornell. And so I thought, why not bridge all of these together and have an element of spirituality in it? Why do we not talk about spirituality? It's almost like a taboo. Why do you even want to go there? But for me, I'm not going under the lens of like, oh, I prescribe to this religion or that religion. It's more like understanding the universality of all of us. All are human beings and we all are spiritual beings having a human experience. And so why not understand that common thread through the lens of medicine, right? And so...
00:04:55
Speaker
I come from a very spiritual and of my family also from a very religious background. yeah Always had that inclination. And I always found world religions fascinating. Whether that's Islam, whether that's Christianity, whether that's Buddhism or Hinduism, I thought there was always some degree of mysticism. And I'm almost like a little child, like in awe and wonderment. I'm like, oh, why did he do that? Or what does the bells have to do with this? And so...
00:05:25
Speaker
I think it just made sense for me not to acknowledge that, right? As civilizations, we've been doing this for thousands and thousands of years. Why do we not now think that medicine and spirituality shouldn't be combined? Absolutely.
00:05:39
Speaker
Even when other civilizations have always confined it.
Understanding Sleep Stages
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, you know, sleep in general is, like you said, a third of our life, right? We spend our time sleeping.
00:05:49
Speaker
But also sleep is the dream state. Can you go down gamma, beta, beta? Like what do all those mean within the, I guess, the brain or within our frequency to kind of give to the audience so they understand the spaces if you can?
00:06:05
Speaker
So beta is awake. And then you have alpha, which is kind of between wake and sleep. Even though it doesn't make sense, it's like alpha, it's beta alpha. yeah And then you have theta. Theta is where you have like at one, at two sleep.
00:06:19
Speaker
And then you have delta, which is like deep sleep. um And that can also interchange sometimes based on where you are in the sleep cycle. but um deep stage has a different cycle. Light sleep has a different cycle. So that's why we call it those. And the reason we call it, for example, theta or delta is based on the frequency. So that's how many Hertz that will have in it. so that's the number of times brain waves will move. And so when we used to first do the polyosomnogram or the PSG, which is another term for sleep studies, um we used to actually have like the paper where it does the recordings and we
00:06:56
Speaker
Notice that in one second, gamma means or beta means there's this many Hertz. Alpha means this how many times the needle moved and theta means this how many. So it's just based on the frequency of the brain signals and the electricity that's happening in your brain essentially.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, and it's fascinating because, you know, sleep is what we all experience and some so some of us don't get as much sleep as we would like. But can you ah speak on like the correlation of so sleep and success, sleep and money, sleep and love, and just sleep and overall happiness? Is there any type of correlation or statistics that if you get a certain amount of sleep based on space, like how does sleep correlate to fulfillment in life? If that's what I'm asking. Yeah.
Impact of Sleep on Mood and Cognition
00:07:42
Speaker
What a brilliant question. All of the above. Yeah.
00:07:45
Speaker
Sleep affects every sphere and every aspect of your life. And and I know it sounds like i'm overemphasizing it. Yeah. Really not. For example, if you've had a bad night of sleep. Yeah.
00:07:57
Speaker
You will be more cranky. In fact, we might even tell our loved ones. our partner, our, our, like our children, Hey, I am, I'm, I didn't get good sleep. Just letting you know. And that's almost like say, you know, please give me some grace because I'm not going to be my usual self because my temperament is not, I don't have that buffer. Right. That's what we do. Like, it's almost like, please don't. We know that now scientifically because there's less blood flow, to the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the most advanced part of our brain. It's the executive part of our brain. That's what helps us with fine thinking and executive level thinking of like that that high task. And that is needed for judgment calls on emotions and really sophisticated thinking. And that gets less blood flow whenever we get less sleep.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah. but If that area of the part that makes those sophisticated choices is getting less blood flow, we will act more animalistic, we'll act more primitive.
00:09:04
Speaker
Because the rest of our brain did get the blood flow, but the most sophisticated part of our brain or the prefrontal cortex, which developed last in our brain, gets released. So when you say primitive, you're saying we're at we're more reactive to life instead of bonding to life. Yeah. in And now, so that makes sense. So people listen, it's simple. You got to get your rest. You got to get sleep, right? Sleep is important.
00:09:28
Speaker
Now, is it, should we be sleeping from a certain time? Cause I've heard studies, I read this book or parts of it, Sleep Smarter. And it talks about from 10 PM to 2 AM is kind of like prime time sleeping. So does it matter what time we're sleeping? Cause sometimes I know if I sleep between 2, 10 and 2 a.m., even if I get up early, I'm not as tired. it's kind of weird, but I've kind of witnessed that. So can you explain like what hours of sleep should we intentionally focus on every night
Optimal Sleep Timing and Chronotypes
00:09:56
Speaker
if we can?
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, so that, what you just described beautifully, is usually the bulk of the greatest sleep. That's for normal chronotypes. So we have usually, so it's like a bell curve distribution. Most people are in the usual chronotype where they go to sleep somewhere between 9 to 10 or 11 and the somewhere between 6 to 7. That's the usual chronotype.
00:10:18
Speaker
um And then there's these what we call the early larks where they get go to sleep around 7 or 8 a.m., and then they wake up at 3 to 4 a.m. m So they have a their their sleep cycle has been advanced. So they they they don't sleep in the usual normal distribution. So 7 8 p.m. and then they're up at 3 to 4 a.m.
00:10:40
Speaker
Yes, exactly. um And you've noticed that the older population, like the elderly, like to sleep in earlier because they're they're the way their sleep cycle works is it advances as you get older.
00:10:52
Speaker
Then you have some a certain subset of population who are night owls. And so e they cannot go to sleep until like, they cannot go to sleep until midnight or sometimes it's 1 or 2 or even 3 a.m. And then they have that.
00:11:09
Speaker
nine or 10 a.m. the next day. And so they're usually the creatives of the ones that are more into arts and music. And so there's a genetic predisposition. So for people who are advanced look sleep early, they might see that their parents are like that, families are like that.
00:11:29
Speaker
And the same thing with night owls. You usually have a family member that's the same way. So there is a genetic predisposition and me there's certain genes that cause that. But for the general population, like said, 10 to 2 a.m. is peak sleep.
00:11:44
Speaker
It is. the best time to get sleep. Your growth hormone secretion is the most, you get the most deep sleep, you get the most restful sleep. And if you look at all ancient civilizations, they all tell you the same thing. And so that's what I think is important is that yes, I've learned all of like medicine and I have an MD and I also think it's important for me to look at the knowledge that's in other ancient civilizations across the world and see if they're a common thread. And if you look at that, all of them say that. All of them say, go to sleep earlier and then you get more restful sleep. And if you want to meditate and if you have a more of a spiritual aspect, wake up earlier. that could be reading the Bible. That could be reading the Quran or thehava the Bhagavad Gita. It can be any sort of or just meditation. It can be anything where you wake up earlier before the rest of the world and get your time in with God.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's so and so and important to know like those quiet hours, I call them, between 3 and 4 a.m. m because sometimes I'm up. So I want to get into that. But before we move into that spiritual aspect of sleep and our souls and our conscience, I have so much to ask about that.
00:12:56
Speaker
Now, can you break the theory or maybe there's a myth that we have to get eight hours of sleep? Because I understand when I'm between five and a half and six, I'm good. I don't usually get seven to eight unless I'm really, really tired. But I know six hours was like clean, good sleep for me. Can you explain like this theory of you have to get eight hours of sleep? Also, because I'm up early, I do take naps. So I get up at 4, 4.30.
00:13:22
Speaker
I take naps around between, I would say like one and three. I'm like napping. So right now, and I feel like my body like, yeah, you probably do take a nap at some point. Okay. Like I can feel it. You know what I mean?
00:13:34
Speaker
But it's fine. It's just, it helps me. So can you, yeah yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. So it could be that you're a very efficient sleeper where you just require less amount of sleep. And there is a small population that yeah there's whatre What we call short sleepers or efficient sleepers, they have just as efficient sleep with five to six hours as someone who has seven to eight hours. You could be that.
00:13:59
Speaker
Or you've your body has learned to adjust to that. Maybe that's also why. Or you're also taking a nap. So if you are regularly taking a nap, h Or at the end, if you're getting an hour of sleep, you're probably getting seven hours of sleep. And so according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and most published data shows anywhere between seven to eight hours is optimal.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah. But if you are able to function, let's say on six hours, you have no daytime impairment, your personality hasn't changed, you're not irritable, you're not sleepy in the daytime, and there's no daytime impairment, then I would say that's sufficient for you.
00:14:40
Speaker
That's what's most important. and So whenever you diagnose any sleep conditions, we always ask the patient, how do you subjectively feel? Like if you're feeling fine, that's what's most important yeah as far as like,
00:14:52
Speaker
It's not the number when you're also might be getting really good quality sleep. Yeah, I did it as an EGG test before. And the guy was telling me that um it doesn't take my brain that much energy to fall asleep, where some people it does. yeah So I don't need as much. And then it says my brain, I'm always looking for a purpose.
00:15:15
Speaker
if I want to serve a purpose. So like, as far as my energy output, like I need purpose to kind of, once I find purpose, I'm like busy, I'm good. I have a more productive brain, but they were saying like, it doesn't take a lot of energy for me to go to sleep. yeah Right. Because I'm not using so much of my, I guess, brain energy with some people. and He's saying something like a glucose or sugar thing. I forgot how he said it. i was like, oh, that's interesting. That's maybe why I don't sleep as long.
00:15:38
Speaker
Because it doesn't take me a lot to go to sleep when I'm when i'm tired, right? Well, a lot of patients are in bed for nine hours. But if you actually look at their bedtime, they're only in bed for, so they're actually only sleeping for six hours. Okay. So it takes them 30 minutes to 45 minutes to an hour to go to sleep. Then they might wake up between 3 to 4 a.m.
00:15:59
Speaker
And then it takes them another hour. So they're not efficient sleepers. Got it. So it's not, it sounds like you're an efficient sleeper. Yeah, I think I get a fish and sleep. once time I know if I'm in bed between 9.45 and 10.30, 10.35, no, going to be good. I'll be good. Because I get up like 4.15, 4.30.
00:16:17
Speaker
Sometimes I have a client at 5, 6 so I'm up, right? Then now the question is, let's get into the spiritual part of the episode. yeah What does the soul consciousness say about sleep from your higher self? What does the soul say about sleep and why? or is it important? I mean, of course we know, but from a ah deeper analysis, what do you feel or what do you think?
00:16:40
Speaker
Also, what do you know?
Sleep and Universal Consciousness
00:16:41
Speaker
My understanding is that our body, physical body needs, yeah but I think our soul needs time to just connect with universal consciousness. Got it. Got it. with With God. So a lot of, I know I do this, where if I have a question, ask the question before I go to sleep, God, I really need help with this. Yeah. ah This thing. Can you tell me? And usually I have the answer by the morning. Yeah. it' I, God, let me marinate or universe or whichever higher entity you want to call it, lets you urinate in that because you have so much time to, to pull it apart and think of it in different ways. And you get that answer. And we know from a biblical perspective or from all world religions that how much dream state is so vital to spirituality Yeah. um So I think it would be foolish of us to say sleep is not spiritual. We have so many transmissions, so many powerful downloads, so many inventions have happened during sleep. So. I absolutely think so. I think it is the key to productivity, even though it seems counterintuitive. We are in a very capitalistic, productive culture that we they put off sleep. I will actually get more done, but it doesn't work that way. You're actually more efficient when you go to sleep. The rest 16 hours, you are, 18 hours, you're more productive, actually. Then work, put it off and not do it.
00:18:14
Speaker
And you being in the physical fitness world, I see that with ah some of my pro athletes, like their reaction time is so much slower when they don't get enough sleep. and Their reaction time is better. Their jump vertical is better. Everything is better when they get sleep.
00:18:31
Speaker
Sometimes we look outside of ourselves of what we don't have or we can't experience and we think, well, I would never get to this. I could never get to that. But I'm pretty sure in your practice, there's things or cues you've given clients to help them get on the other side of themselves through sleep.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yes. And I think that's what I want. for people to understand this episode is that sleep is a weapon just like prayer is. Because what is prayer? You're in a sleep state because you're present. I'm closing my eyes and it's like I'm in a dream state speaking to how your consciousness God they created the universe on what I want to see in my dream reality, which is life. Right? It's so interesting how sleep is so connected to everything we do and what we are.
00:19:12
Speaker
And I always say when I was young, if I didn't sleep as much, maybe I wouldn't have been as tall. Because there's a joke from the coach like, yeah, you don't sleep at night. That's why you don't grow. that's what I would tell my nephews if they wanted to play ball.
00:19:23
Speaker
But for you, what do you think is the best benefit you can give people when it comes to sleep and spirituality or just that realm for their benefit?
Sleep's Role in Innovation
00:19:34
Speaker
I think sleep is the most underutilized tool. Got it. I think it is sacred and I think people need to sanctify it and give it its holiness. yeah It sounds kind of like that. It's not holy, but it is. It really is. In fact, all of my patients who have any sort of trouble, I just tell them sleep on it.
00:19:55
Speaker
Don't make any action right now. Don't, whether it's life choices or whether it's a really or an acquisition to make, sleep on it. um And then you, almost all of my patients have better clarity after they wake up. We know this has happened time and time again with inventions, right? You sleep on it and then the next morning or after you wake up, even the nap. A lot of the inventions in the 1900s were they would use the utilization of naps. And so it is probably one of the most spiritual things you can do to connect to the higher divine.
00:20:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's, um see, this is the thing that I know from spiritual fitness, at least in my world. This is like, I like to extract things, like bring it back into like the view of life.
00:20:39
Speaker
You just helped me with something. And I think this is the thing I knew you had for us today is what is that one thing that everybody in the world can relate to, no matter what age, what class, what demographic? People, if you listen to what she just said, if you have a problem you want to solve, you have an issue, you have a challenge, you're curious about something, you don't really know, sleep on it.
00:21:02
Speaker
Sleep on it. Just sleep. That should be a commercial. Sleep on it by Febi Maria. Maria. Sleep on it. You take this and you'll get your answer. So what else you got in there? Because that was that was great. So how do you prioritize your sleep? I mean, having all this information, having clients, how do you prepare yourself for sleep and how do you allow that to move in your life for your family and your friends? Does everyone around you sleep good?
00:21:30
Speaker
Is everyone great sleepers? Well, first of all, I don't want you to stop your naps. Your naps are very powerful. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a big proponent of napping and sleeping and meditation. it's all different forms of rest, right? Yeah.
00:21:43
Speaker
up And I prioritize that even over like my kids. I have two kids. And so even if they're sometimes, let's say we got in last night late or they had some event that was, you know, took up was later than their bedtime. yeah Tell them to go to sleep. And even if they're late for school, prioritize sleep. Like sleep is.
00:22:06
Speaker
The most important for their cognition, the where their neural pathways are forming. I'm not going to not prioritize sleep because I just know how important it is, especially as you're growing. It determines your growth potential. there's There's too much at stake. Yeah, that that's that's great because i think we, again, we think we even been have FOMO, fear missing out, or if we go to sleep too early, we're going to miss something at young ages.
00:22:33
Speaker
Now, what do you say for people like, I know for me, I can get restless, right? And even though I'm sleeping, I'm not really at rest. Or if I'm meditating, my mind is still going. What is your advice or feedback for restless people, people who are very anxious or who have in is it insomnia insomnia? What is your advice for people that's in that space of they can't shut the brain off, they can't go to sleep, their brain is always just... what do we what what How do we cure that and space to let them go to sleep?
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah, so anyone who has, and including me, anyone who has restlessness or anyone who has the anxiety or insomnia, it's usually because they're not in the present moment. Because either they're thinking about the past and all the mistakes they did and I would have all of those things or just or just understanding the trauma that happened and yeah trying to understand it. So there's a lot of things to unpack there. Or they're in the future thinking about their to-do list and things that they have and all the ambitions and everything that they have to do.
00:23:37
Speaker
They're not anywhere in the present. And that's why we have to solve that. The problem is They're not in the present moment and they haven't completely surrendered to the present moment. Yeah, and it's is's so true because this is why, i like, I love meditation, but I like breath work better because breath work gets me out of my mind. You know, oh my woman says, breath work is prayer for the body. And I was like, that is so good. And I think sometimes we forget the body not only keeps the score, but holds everything. Our answers, our fears, our life, our livelihood. Now, what is your perspective on, because these things always come to me like,
00:24:15
Speaker
in passing, I'm just walking, I might get like, that's interesting. Will my spirit be like, you need to go to sleep because you're thinking about something too much and you're in a way of it actually coming in or actually happening. What is that in the spiritual way of life when it comes to clearing out our minds or our bodies? Like, what is that? What's happening when we're present or we're letting go of those thoughts that we're transmitting out? What's happening for that? They're like boom, there it goes. But when I focus on it, it doesn't come. What is that?
The Surrender Experiment of Sleep
00:24:44
Speaker
sleep is the biggest surrender experiment because there's nothing else that you could force yourself to go to sleep.
00:24:52
Speaker
Like you can force yourself to work out. You can force yourself to eat healthy. You can force yourself to do everything else, but you can't force yourself to go to sleep. That's why a lot of patients suffer with insomnia. They're forcing yourself at some point.
00:25:06
Speaker
You have to let go and surrender. And that's the only way you can go to sleep. You know, I saw a quote online and it's probably the most beautiful way of manifestation. And the woman goes, think about it.
00:25:21
Speaker
Every night you pretend to go to sleep and then you fall asleep. How simple is that? And some of us, we're not attached. They're like, yeah, I mean, it's late. I should go to bed. And then eventually we're in bed. We're sleeping.
00:25:34
Speaker
Yeah. But when it comes to everything else, we just can't let go and allow. And then we we even don't get it or we push it away. Because I really believe... knowing what I know, things are simple and not as hard as we make them. They're only hard because we don't have the evidence in front of us to see that they're possible.
00:25:54
Speaker
Oh, yes. But when you have it in your field and your experience and you're like, oh, Okay. yeah that's Yeah, that's possible because you see it. But if you don't see it, you don't believe it can ever happen because you're not witnessing it. And that's why, you know, knowledge, information, proximity, there's power being around the right people, being in the right rooms because you pick up other energies. But I do think there's so much we can do in sleep to benefit us. By the way, do you have like a benefit packet or benefit folder or book that we can read or look at to... oh But it's more of like things that just organically I tell them know that I just tell them. But I should probably. No, you should. This is like because I took the chronotype test. I think I'm ah at one point in my life, I was a bear.
00:26:43
Speaker
ah And in another point of my life, I was a lion. So I don't know how that correlates. Right. Between those two. You can do it scientifically. I mean, there's ways something called core body temperature and Dilma, which is dim light melatonin onset. So I know exactly exactly and precisely what Eric's melatonin is secreted from his pineal gland to the exact time when his core body temperature is the lowest. So then I can very accurately to the minute tell you what your chronotype is. It requires a little bit more sophisticated testing. But we have tools that can really help that. And I do do that for a lot of my patients, especially if they're traveling and they're squaring with jet lag. But man, oh man, like absolute sleep is the biggest manifestation tool because if you go to sleep and you your defenses aren't up, all of your worries and what if nots can be completely dampened. So why not use it to your full potential? How do you see the world unfold in next three to five years? Because I believe people are going to want to be more spiritual.
00:27:47
Speaker
And I think religion is great in a lot of ways, but I think beyond religion is a spiritual part of everyone that they can connect to, to get into a more of a higher consciousness for whatever they're here to do.
00:27:59
Speaker
We have religion. We have like people who are so patriotic to their country. It's ah just like barriers to what? I don't know. I mean, unless a country or a religion has, maybe they don't even have an ulterior motive, but it just creates divide as well.
00:28:15
Speaker
You put yourself in that box. and if you're open to it, like you said, at the end goal, it's all the same. It's all love and peace. Yeah. Who are we to say what you're doing is wrong, what I'm doing is right? it's just It just all seems foolish. It just seems yeah heady when you look at it from the grand scheme of things, right? If you look at it from like, okay, we're looking at it from the universe side and you see where we're the only planet as of now that we know of that contains it and we're this floating rock, right? That doesn't have any gravity, that doesn't have any gravity outside but has gravity inside.
00:28:51
Speaker
It all just... all just seemed so foolish and as far as like seeing the divide one of my like biggest like visceral moments i felt it it is during anatomy dissection like this is like probably like common sense to everybody and it it was to me but it's something different when you are dissecting a human body to learn the anatomy yeah The moment you take the skin off of the body, all of a sudden it is either a man or a woman. Yeah.
00:29:27
Speaker
It doesn't matter what religion or what nationality or what the color of their skin is. Now the skin is taken off. The skin is just a few millimeters thick.
00:29:38
Speaker
the only thing that has caused war and famine and all kinds of mayhem in the world that's only a few millimeters thick. And the moment you take it off, you're like, was this person?
00:29:50
Speaker
whatever you know no, it doesn't matter. And it's just the gender that you can see, but everything else is the same. And to me, it was just like the biggest aha, like spark, like what are we doing as human beings if we can't see how foolish we are to see something that is so minimal? Yes, it contains a lot of surface area, but it's so like trivial.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah. So I just um I wish a lot of people can take anatomy dissection because for me, it was such a profound like what? Like how can you even see separation? Yeah, and that's the thing. And I think what I've learned, at least this year the most, because I've been studying a lot of ah wealth and abundance consciousness, right? What is that to be wealthy? What is it like to be abundant from a consciousness level? When I'm looking at life, I want to teach the young men and young women and even the people I get to coach and serve, like, hey, let's work on our consciousness. Like in spiritual fitness, we're working out.
00:30:52
Speaker
We're working on our consciousness. Because today's a class was about we want to release so your soul can be free. And someone said self-doubt and limitation. So then I'm like, okay, cool. what what What are you doubting? What are you limiting? I said, but it's all in your thinking.
00:31:07
Speaker
But after the session, they felt different because i allowed them to be whoever they are, where they are, to tap into their consciousness. And I think that's what sleep does. Sleep allows us to tap into our consciousness without...
00:31:21
Speaker
any outcome. But if I know every day, just say you had an app, right? Every day, if I go to Febi's app and press this, I know that this level of consciousness or this awareness is going to help me not only sleep better, but think better when I wake.
00:31:35
Speaker
And I just feel like there there should be a consciousness on sleep. maybe there Maybe there is a book, but I feel like sleep is so important, especially for longevity.
00:31:46
Speaker
And for someone in your world, what is something that you wish everybody knew about sleep and longevity that you don't think they're aware of, but it's simple?
Connecting Sleep Quality to Longevity
00:31:55
Speaker
Well, yes. I think maybe we should write a book about sleep and consciousness together. Yeah. yeah own yes There's a lot of potential and things that I don't think people realize that how connected they are. yeah It is a way to tap into universal consciousness when you sleep. But as far as longevity is concerned, I think it's one of those longevities of marathon. It's sprint. It's not a sprint. Got it. So whenever you try to say, okay, I'm going to, I understand sometimes we have projects or things that come up and we, for whatever reason it happens. But if that's a long-term thing, you're ending up, you're making a spare thunk into a sprint. And if you want
00:32:37
Speaker
life to be healthy? Like we can all try to live. Now we have means to live maybe much longer, but are you going to be healthy? Do you want to be well active when you're 90 versus not being in great health and be almost vegetative at 90? Those are two different things. like Our goal, um all of us, you would probably agree is all of us want to be living healthy to our 90s and our hundreds, maybe even longer of doing the things we love, being positive, ambule and ambulating well without help and getting up and not needing the assistance of others and enjoying life, still eating and everything. That's what we would want to do. And if you s sleep, it doesn't seem like it.
00:33:22
Speaker
Why? Why does sleeping right now affect my life at like, you know, my 80s? It doesn't seem like because the the way time full, like time can fool us sometimes and makes us think that it's not connected, but it does like a compound effect. That's why they call compound the eighth principle or the eighth wonder is because the way it works is every time you go to sleep, it's like your trash can. It's like the trash is being cleaned out. Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
And if you don't go to sleep and you do that regularly, it's like things are just piling up. Ash is coming up and it's not being cleaned. Well, now we know direct causation to Alzheimer's, dementia, um even diabetes, blood pressure, all kinds of things, direct causation because there was chronic sleep deprivation.
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like when I'm in that high space, I feel like there's nothing I can't do. I feel so empowered. It feel like magic, like alchemy. Like, I feel like the Holy Spirit is coming through my hands and I can just...
00:34:29
Speaker
and just enlighten people with energy and like, we got this. it's It's really like fire for your soul. But I do think we do take that part of ourselves for granted too because some people might be afraid of that intensity or that elevation of self, but it definitely helps. But i we definitely got we definitely got to get sleep.
00:34:48
Speaker
But how do we get into your energy and how do we work with you? And what is your ideal client? My ideal client is anyone who is passionate about peak performance and wants get the best out of life, like wants to get all the juices out of life and and not look at it from just like one lens, but look at from all different types. like Is it breath work? Is it spirituality? Do we need to do this spiritual practice? Do you need to take a nap here? Are you traveling? Do you have kids? Like there's a lot of things. It's like a whole like world that we need to decipher. And if you're interested in that, I would love to.
00:35:31
Speaker
work with any client. It doesn't doesn't really matter as far as who it is. an ideal client who wants to optimize. like I myself have liked that. I want to optimize everything. I want to be at my peak performance and every and make sure... It's one of those like 1% rule. If you make a 1% or even a 0.1% in a lot of little things, it adds up. And so if you notice a difference between a person who is a master and someone who is a novice, it's that 1% change in a lot of different things that's compounded. And so if you make that adjustment and you have someone looking at it from different lenses, I think it makes you kind of powerful. It almost gives you like a superpower effect. Yeah, and it's good because sleep is so, like I said, general and natural for all of us. Once we can tap into the parts of ourselves based on the work you do to fulfill that role, i think we have a better life. Now, when you were talking, I was thinking like, you know what? I do coach and train a lot of successful, independent ah CEOs for one, but also moms, right?
00:36:38
Speaker
What is the best thing for mothers who have a business, who have kids, who has a husband, who make good money? How do they get into that space of getting good rest? What should they do? Oh, man, I hear you. Because as a mom of two, and my husband and are both physicians, so both very demanding careers. It is hard, but I think you have to look at it and kind of understand what your big rocks are. Like, what what do you want to prioritize? And then i you know I can work with you or can tell you what we should talk about. Maybe it might be adding more things on your plate. Yeah.
00:37:14
Speaker
More big rocks on your plate and taking some things away. um i don't want you to do at the detriment of sleep, but I do want you to practice that. like exercise, but some people, some of my moms exercise too much and to cause havoc on your hormones as well. So it's doing it in a balance, especially for women, because we have such hormonal fluctuation with very cyclical beaks, right? We're not like that where we're the same.
00:37:41
Speaker
So when women are cyclical beings, it is very important that we do it and work with our cycle and our hormone changes based on what stage of life we are. Are we pre-menopause, perimenopause, post-menopause or menopause? That all makes a difference as far as what your mood is, what how many things you should put on your plate in the beginning. Like how many items should you have on our plate? we Should we make our plate even bigger or should we shrink our plate?
00:38:06
Speaker
um And like based on how old your kids are and what your relationship with your husband, how understanding is your husband or your spouse? Like that also makes a difference, right? Yeah. And and and last one is just because I feel like people can relate or maybe they should
Love, Intimacy, and Sleep Relaxation
00:38:20
Speaker
have this awareness. What is the impact?
00:38:23
Speaker
that love have on your body when it comes to rest. So for me, realized when my partner and I were watching a movie or watching, them I literally fall asleep because my nervous system feels so regulated. I feel safe.
00:38:38
Speaker
I got my love on my side and it's easy for me to go to sleep. So From your lens, how much, or maybe you don't know, maybe you do know, how much does love or intimacy or having that um energy in our life impact our sleep, healthy sleep? Women, they sleep so much different when they are in the midst of a very powerful and a protector versus one that they have to worry about or they are kind of the main thinking part of their of their union. So when you are in love and, you know, they say, oh, you have the love globe, we know there's more oxytocin being released. You know. oxytocin is a very powerful ah sleep hormone. So sleep is not just like, oh, it's a switch. It's actually a dimmer that's very complex and has like histamine. We don't think histamine has anything to do with sleep. Acetylcholine, norepinephrine or epinephrine, orexin or hypochritin. These are all hormones that kind of play a role in sleep itself. And oxytocin also plays a role.
00:39:51
Speaker
That's why a mother who breastfeeds her child after right after she breastfeeds will go to sleep very quickly because the oxytocin is just like, it's flooding down her her in her blood. When you're with your loved one, you have oxytocin, you are in in just bliss and you can go to sleep very quickly.
00:40:12
Speaker
That's why a lot of lot of people fall asleep after like intimacy. because it was a lot of oxytocin that was released. Wow. Yeah, see, that's the thing. i was like, I always go to sleep, but I feel so at rest. Like, watch the movie. You always go to sleep. I'm like, okay, I'm asleep. So, yeah, I just think those factors are important. And I i pray that everybody allows love into their life. And not just from, like, a partner or a romantic, just in life. Like, let people support you, let people love you Because I was the one who was like, I'm ah i'm good, I'm good. But was I? And then I allow love in, but I allow support.
00:40:50
Speaker
You actually feel better in your body in the day-to-day. And you're able to do more in life. So... Oh, yes. So it's so important. I was the same way. was more like independent. I couldn't do anything on my own. And then when you find someone who can carry the burden with you, like, it's not any testimony to your capability of like, okay, I have to. No one's saying you signed some sort of pledge. Right, right, right.
00:41:15
Speaker
let Let people take it. And that feels good for them too. Absolutely. It's it' a two-way street. It's it that release so oxytocin for them, too. So you're doing them a favor and you're doing yourself a favor as well.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. See, people, you've got to give and receive, receive and give. So it is. All right. Well, last question. And then can you give us your website where we can find you? But the last question is, what is spiritual fitness to you?
00:41:41
Speaker
Spiritual fitness is something that, first of all, i love that term. of so and I think I told you this before, but I love that term because spiritual we are we are spiritual, whether you want to acknowledge or not, we are spiritual. ah And there there is spirit in all of us. there is And I love the way Native Americans think about it is there's spirit in every object as well. So there is energetics in everything and everyone, right? And then fitness, the part that I love about it is like it's something you have to practice intentionally. Intentional and you have to do it daily. So that's why I love the merriam of the two words. So it's one of those where you see you're in spirit, you're in theos, you're in with God in union, and you practice it every day.
00:42:29
Speaker
Wow. Look at that. Great definition. Add that to the archives. Wow. So where do we find you? How do we? Website, social media. So not very active on social media. i probably should be. all But as far as website, it's FebbyMariaMD.com. But that's also a very primitive website that I'm still working on. But if you want to contact me, you can just touch base with my team and i and we'll get back to you. You're on you at Stanford, right? Yeah.
00:43:00
Speaker
Got it. So... Well, guys, this was an amazing interview. Thank you, Febi, for your time and your ideology and your truth. People, get your rest. Get sleep.
00:43:11
Speaker
Allow yourself to surrender. If you haven't made a big decision, go to sleep on it. Sleep on it. ah And let love help with sleep, too. But um this is another Spiritual Fitness episode. Download this episode. Share, subscribe, like. Make sure you follow her all accounts. I have her information in the show notes.
00:43:30
Speaker
But yeah, the number one sleep doctor in the world, you know, longevity specialist, Febby and Maria. So it is, you guys. Until next time, I'll see soon.
00:43:42
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you and provided valuable insights for your holistic health journey. By blended spirituality and physical wellness, you can strengthen your body, mind, and soul.
00:43:57
Speaker
If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Until next time, stay strong, stay inspired, and remember, it's miracle season.