This week, Jill answers a frequently asked question about sleeping well while drinking enough fluids.
Jeff Sarris
Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I’m your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.
Jill Harris
And I’m Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse.
Jeff Sarris
So if you tuned in last week, we have a companion episode this week. Last week, we talked about that 100 ounces of water a day recommendation and how daunting that can be. So this is a companion piece to that. And, again, an FAQ.
But, as always, if you have a question you can leave us a message at 773-789-8763. But we’re just gonna dive right into this.
So what what is this topic that we’re talking about today?
Jill Harris
This is so common, “Jill. Oh, my God, I’m up all night. I am peeing all night long. I’m drinking so much water. What am I supposed to do?” That’s very common.
We know that we’re not drinking at night when we’re sleeping, so our urine is going to be more saturated with crystals for sure. But here’s how I balance all of this out. I will tell my patients to actively cut their water, cut their active water drinking a couple hours before bed.
Here’s what I do. I like to say what I do. I drink all day long. Last week’s episode was about drinking 100 ounces a day. And I probably drink, for a 5’2″ little little lady, I probably drink about 80 to 90oz. I drink a lot of water. Also I have a long day, meaning I’m up at 5:00am and typically I don’t go to bed until 10:30pm.
I’m talking to people who have had the worst case scenarios with kidney stones. So I do not want them. Plus, my family has them. So I am adamant about drinking enough water. How much water is different for everybody, as we talked about last week.
But I cut my off water intake at 8:00pm. So, I have a cup next to me. But I’ll do little petite, dainty sips. It’s the only time I’m petite or dainty in my life is drinking a little bit of water before bed. But I do do little sips. I don’t probably have more than a cup from eight until 10.
So you need to do what works for you. But what I hear is people are are getting up seven times a night. Now I get up naturally because I’m older. I’m 60. And I do drink throughout the day a lot. So I’m getting up two to three times a night to go to the bathroom. And I do the whole thing where I’m feeling the wall, have my eyes closed so I don’t get light in my eye. I’m waiting to break a hip doing that.
So I do that and thank God I can fall right back asleep. Because I wear myself out along with you guys all day long. So that works for me. I’m not exhausted when I wake up, I’m filled with energy.
But for those of you who have a hard time getting back to bed, here’s the issue. I’m saying cut off the water a bit before you you go to bed because, if you’re exhausted the next day, you’re not going to make good lifestyle choices.
You’re not going to drink, you’re not going to exercise, you’re going to eat crappy carb-heavy foods. And lots of sugar and salt. If you’re like me, you’re not going to have a stellar diet that day. Because you’re you’re looking for comfort. So it’s super important.
No one’s ever saying, “let me get some quinoa and and some kale” when you’re under-rested. No, you want muffins and danishes and cookies and cake. That’s what happens when you’re tired. You want to pick yourself up real quick, and you’re gonna fall right back down.
So cut your water, cut active water drinking up a couple hours before bed or whatever suits you so you’re not up all night and then tired the next day. If you’re like me and can fall right back asleep, then continue getting up a few times a night. That’s fine. It doesn’t bother me. But for many of you it will.
And again, are you drinking too much water. I’ll see urine output on the urine analysis call where people are peeing out six liters of fluid. Because they’re so petrified of making a kidney stone, you do not need to pee that much, folks. And these folks are also not eating enough food because they’re so full. Nobody has to drink so many fluids that they’re peeing out six liters. We want you to pee out two and a half to three liters a day.
If you don’t make your goal, get up the next day and get right back to it. Don’t worry about anything. But if you’re getting up too much at night, slow your roll a little before getting going to bed.
If you’re fine with getting up a couple times a night to two to three times a night like I am and you’re filled with vim and vigor the next day like I am, don’t worry about it You can have your sips before bed.
But nobody should be exhausted simply because they’re drinking so much water that they can’t sleep all night. Please don’t do that.
And one little thing. If you get up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to bed, because of the stress, please seek out help to get the stress taken care of. With my illness, if I have a CT scan or particular stressors bothering me, it can be very hard to get back to bed. But I’m very, very good. Now post-cancer, I’ve learned my lesson on taking care of myself: cupping, acupuncture, I have therapy a couple times a month. I do a lot of physical activity to manage my stress, deep breathing,…
“Is this about kidney stones? Jill, why are you bringing this up?” I’m bringing it up because of what I hear all day. Everybody here, whether you have kidney stones or not, should be managing stress. Because on the flip side, how people tend to manage stress is by over eating.
And that’s why we have the group calls the group coaching calls with Jill. We talk about what is causing you to eat like crap every day.
And if you bring it to a safe, supportive, loving group, like we all are with each other, then you can get things taken care of and feel a lot better. And see that you’re not alone.
Some of the things you’re thinking about we’re all thinking about. But then also some things are really tricky. And you need a therapist to help figure that out some. There are all kinds of things going on. But the reason I always bring up stress with my group coaching calls is because that affects our lifestyle.
If you’re really stressed because you have a boss, that’s an ass, or maybe you’re living with somebody you don’t really love anymore. And you know, you’re not getting along. That’s horrible and stressful.
There are so many things., so you need to figure that out. And then lifestyle choices can be a little bit easier. So that’s always a little something extra I want to put in there to pay attention to. We’ve got to deal with the stress that the world gives us: our inner world, the outer world, there’s a lot.
We need good coping skills, not just food people. Not just food. All right, Jeff, I think that’s it.
Jeff Sarris
Absolutely, yeah. It’s so important. We need to be able to spend our days in the best way possible.
We only have so many days, each of us, no matter where we are in life. And you actually did that thing recently, with the little map of your entire life and where you are on that little piece of tape. It’s very easy to forget that nothing is forever.
And we need to do our best every day, without beating ourselves up when we can.
Jill Harris
Yeah, I think that’s really key. Jeff, what you just said. It’s like, listen, we’re just humans being. That’s all we’re doing. We’re trying our very best. Every one of us will have bad days. That’s okay. You learn from them, you grow. And you pick yourself up and keep on truckin’.
Jeff and I have success because we have screwed up a lot. But then we’ve learned from it, right? So we’re successful people, but we have had lots of failures in our life. And I hope that you guys have too, because, again, it’s the only way to learn.
When we fail at something and beat ourselves up, well, that’s not helpful at all. I would hope everyone embraces failure because, if you fail, that’s something you tried. And that’s what we’re worrying about. Being in the game doesn’t mean you succeed, it means you’re trying every single day. And every single day life will bring you something different. You got to roll with it.
Some days are A pluses and some days are C’s, and some days are D minuses and it’s okay. You’re trying your best.
And those are the kinds of people that I want to work with. People that tell me they’re perfect are lying. Perfection is impossible. Perfectionism is just another form of anxiety. And if you’re trying to be perfect, I know you’re not being kind to yourself. I know you’re not. Because when you’re not perfect, you’re mad.
So stop trying to be perfect. I work with messy human beings because being a human being is really friggin’ messy. And it’s amazing, all the stuff you learn. And I love learning from other people. They learn from me, when we’re in those group calls. I’m always like, let me tell you what, I screwed up this weekend. We laugh, we roll around, we move on. Right?
And then everyone’s like, Oh, good. Glad I didn’t only do that. Even Jill’s messy human being too. Damn straight I am. And I’m proud of it.
Jeff Sarris
Right?
I think that’s a perfect note to wrap this week. So if you’re out there with a question, the number is 773-789-8763. Or you can send a voice memo to podcast [at] kidneystonediet.com.
And, again, you can find everything at kidneystonediet.com, all the paid resources, the Group Coaching Calls with Jill, the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, the Kidney Stone Diet Meal Plans, everything is there.
But there’s also tons of free content, just like this podcast. I think this is almost 180 episodes of the show. We’re just trying to just get as much information out there as possible to reach as many people in the way that they want to be reached.
So there’s the blog, the email newsletter, if you prefer to read instead of listen, or watch and there are so many different ways, so many different avenues that we’re trying to touch on.
So whatever suits you best, or if you’re sharing with a friend, whatever suits them best, You can find that at kidneystonediet.com.
Again, thanks again for tuning in for liking, subscribing, for everything that you do, and we’ll see you next week.
Jill Harris
Thanks for being part of this community. We really value you guys so much.
That’s a wrap baby! See you later.
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