Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition.

Each week we talk about practical real food solutions for your everyday health concerns.

And today we're digging into one of the main foundations of health and definitely one of the most common concerns we hear from our clients.

Trouble sleeping, whether you can't get your brain too quiet down at night or maybe you're waking up and not being able to get back to sleep.

Or you're just waking up and not feeling rested even after spending a full night in

bed. We want you to know you are definitely not alone. There are a lot of individuals that struggle

with sleep. But that does not mean that you have to live with sleep struggles. And we're going to

provide a lot of solutions today.

But before we dive into it more, I am Brittany Vincent, a registered and licensed dietitian.

And I'm Brandy Burrow, a licensed and registered dietitian. Well, I'm happy to be here with you today,

Brandy. Yeah, likewise. And yeah, I've been there laying awake at night, not being able to fall asleep or laying awake for hours.

It's frustrating.

Well, I want to provide some statistics to show just how common sleep issues are.

The percentage of people using sleeping medications in the United

States have actually doubled since 2010. Wow. And this is according to a new study from the

National Center for Health Statistics. In these days, one in ten women reports using

sleeping medication most nights versus about 7% of men.

And that this makes sense, given that according to the National Sleep Foundation, women typically report poorer sleep quality and more disrupted sleep across various life stages than men do.

And I know that when you're desperate, sleeping medication

can be helpful in the short term, say in the case of an intense period of stress in your life,

but they are not an ideal solution for good quality sleep long term. They definitely come

with some side effects. And a lot of those sleeping

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