Chakras and Shotguns

E117: Why Do I Wake Up at 3am?

• Mik & Jenn • Episode 117

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Are you tired of waking up in the middle of the night? In this episode we explore the spiritual significance behind these early-morning awakenings. Discover why it's happening and how to harness this energy for personal growth. This episode delves into the power of meditation, the concept of the witching hour, and how to overcome disturbances in your sleep. Don't miss this insightful discussion on sleep, spirituality, and self-discovery.

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Mik:

You are now listening to

Jenn:

Chakras and Shotguns. Welcome to Chakras and Shotguns, the podcast that guides you on your journey of spiritual development and personal preparedness. I'm Jenn, a lawyer, again, tarot card reader, and lover of all things wellness.

Mik:

And I'm Mik, a marketer, energy healer, and prepper. So Jenn and I have done a lot of individual sessions with folks doing healing work. And one of the things that we've recently seen from a lot of our clients is that they have this phenomenon where they're consistently being woken up like multiple days in a row, really early hours of the morning, things like between 2 AM and 5 AM. And there's a lot of spiritual significance to this time period. And we've kind of counseled people through this. Um, but we wanted to take some time today and focus the episode, really answering the question. Why do I continue to be woken up in the middle of the night?

Jenn:

In the early hours. But before we get into that, we want to remind you to check out our Patreon, please. We cannot do this show without your support and it comes with all kinds of goodies, like merch discounts, exclusive content, exclusive access to us, free readings, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth. Definitely check it out. It's in the show notes.

Mik:

All right. Well, let's begin as we always do with a breathwork meditation to put us into a mindful place.

Jenn:

So with the topic of sleep and getting woken up, et cetera, et cetera. And with the episode that we did episode 115 on the power of breath, I thought that this would be a good one to just really try and dive more into our parasympathetic world. System. Okay. To rest and digest. I got them right, right? Yeah. Okay. And let's get into it. So this one, I just really want us to like take a moment, take a beat to allow our body to fully relax and fully rest, which can be kind of difficult during our day, depending on like what we have going on, what we thinking about. What we haven't let go of from a day, weeks, months, years before, et cetera, et cetera. So, all right, for this one, I'm going to ask that if you can lie down, I know I always say you can always lie down, but this one is like, if you can lie down, you can always sit up, but it will be so much more fun lying down. Okay, so go ahead and flicker your eyes closed. Place one hand on your belly, one hand on your heart, and start to deepen your breath, becoming more aware of your body. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and then exhale that breath back out through your mouth. Beautiful. Inhale through your nose, open your mouth, exhale, let something go. Let's do one more together. Inhale through your nose. And this time seal your lips closed and exhale back out through your nose. Allow yourself to breathe normally. Noticing your hand rise on your inhales and come back down on your exhales. Bring your awareness to your feet. Bring your awareness up to your ankles. Maybe roll your ankles. In different circle motions. If that feels good to you, find stillness again, and bring your awareness up to your shins, your knees, bring your awareness to your thighs. And we're just seeing and noticing information that our body's telling us what's achy, what's tight. What's tired, bring your awareness to your hips. Maybe bend your knees a little bit and windshield wiper your legs from side to side. Bring your awareness to your pelvis, your belly, ribs, your heart and your chest. Notice if, notice if there's any tightness there. Just go ahead and take a deep breath in through your nose. Exhale, let something go out of your chest. Bring your awareness to your neck, maybe tilting your head, your right ear over to your right shoulder gently. Then your left ear to the other, maybe shake your head. Yes. And now being gentle with ourselves, bring your awareness to your low back, travel all the way up your spine. To your upper back and your shoulder blades. Notice if there's any tension in your shoulders, the back of your neck, your ears, your face, all the way to the crown of your head. Take a deep breath in through your nose, open mouth, exhale, let something go. Start to wiggle your fingers, your toes, stretch your arms overhead, stretch your toes, point your toes long and get a full body stretch. Maybe arching your back. You can roll over to your favorite side, have your knees to your chest. And then when you're ready, you can come back into the room. You can stay lying down and listen. That's totally fine. If you're ready to flicker your eyes open, go ahead. Welcome back. Let's get into the rest of the show.

Mik:

That was good. That was good. Thank you. You was all sensual with her. You was like, you can stay and lie down and listen if you like. okay, I'm trying to be the little sultry boy with a voice.

Jenn:

That is not, that is my regular voice.

Mik:

I'm just messing with you. It was good though.

Jenn:

Is it my regular voice? I don't know. All that Texas twang can, I love it. Can stay lying down.

Mik:

I love it though. I love it. All right. So let's get into the main topic. You good? Okay. Did

Jenn:

you got a tear? You know, I want to take a nap.

Mik:

Did you get waking up last night? I

Jenn:

do not. You know why? Because I follow the tips and tricks that we're going to talk about today.

Mik:

All right. So let's get into it. What is causing you to wake up at odd hours of the night?

Jenn:

Yeah. So we talked a little bit about lucid dreaming and sleep cycles, but we didn't really get into hormones. We didn't do a real deep dive as to like the hormones that are involved in sleep. We've kind of talked about them here and there. But not like, let's gather all of this together and put it in one episode. So. Understanding those hormones, I think, will really help this topic.

Mik:

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we only got so much time, so we can't get into every single hormone that's happening when you're sleeping, because it's more than just a few. There's quite a bit that's going on. But for simplicity's sake, we'll talk about kind of three that are really important. So the first one is melatonin. Uh, and melatonin is produced in the pineal gland, the third eye, and it is basically produced in response to darkness. So sun goes down, your body's like, Oh, it's time to start going to sleep. Let's start producing some melatonin. Uh, and that hormone basically helps you to feel sleepy and ready for bed. The melatonin levels are the highest in your body at night, as I mentioned, and lowest during the day.

Jenn:

Yeah. Melatonin. I feel like, um, the black community is very familiar with melatonin. Yeah. Yeah. Heh. The gummies. Let's talk about the gummies. Let's get into it. Um, also sleep stickers. They're doing transdermal patches now.

Mik:

And

Jenn:

how do I know about this? A recent news story where a baby came home and was like, I get a special sticker right before nap time. The teachers were putting melatonin sleep stickers on these babies to keep them asleep. And while I understand,

Mik:

As parents, as

Jenn:

parents, sometimes you just need a little bit of quiet.

Mik:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jenn:

No judgment. We just are not advocates of medicating our children into rest.

Mik:

Yeah. I think my perspective on it is not wanting them to be dependent on it. Like I know, I know adults who like still need to take melatonin to get ready for bed. Like you're almost like conditioning your body. To not produce as much melatonin because you're giving it the melatonin, right? Like so you can't fall asleep as naturally as you would if you were on that supplement

Jenn:

I'm, really not trying to be corny, but it's really like telling your body that you are not enough And it's like what you're doing is not good enough.

Mik:

Yeah

Jenn:

I don't know. I, that just kind of came to mind. You're not doing what you can naturally do. So I need to help you. And I have been like on this wellness journey, I feel like a spiritual journey. Then you start to kind of evaluate what you're eating, how you're living. Can you be healthier? All of these things. And it's very interesting that America and maybe like maybe the UK has a very strong supplement culture. Like we. Supplement everything and. And then there's always like a study of like, you don't need to take calcium. You can get your calcium through food and not just milk. That's from the milk lobby, but you can get your calcium from spinach, from leafy greens and like other countries that have a better understanding and better relationship with like fruits and vegetables. They tend to not. Reach for supplements and then like, nevermind that our supplements are, a lot of them are unregulated and you don't know what's in them and whatever, whatever. I will put in the show notes, this guy who on TikTok, who's amazing about going through supplements and what to look for. But I think we've just, we've condi, we've gotten conditioned and capitalism into telling our bodies that like they can't produce everything that we need and that they're deficient in some ways. And. I don't know. It just makes you wonder like how that messaging works. Nevermind that our food is deficient in our food can be deficient in some ways because we don't have the same type of regulations and the same approach to food as other countries and everything isn't organic and there's a bunch of shit and shit and to increase profits and whatever, whatever. That's the end of there. But I done went on a whole anti capitalism route.

Mik:

Can we get back to the, to the, to the sleeping and the, and the hormones?

Jenn:

Yes, but so I will say this. If you need. something medical. Take it. Definitely talk to your doctor and take it. I'm not saying don't take anything, but I'm saying we're reaching for certain things and maybe to spend a little bit more time figuring out where can I get this naturally, even though I take a multivitamin and a probiotic every day, but I don't take melatonin.

Mik:

Back to the hormones. Um, so we got melatonin. Um, I mentioned that melatonin peaks at night. Right. Right. And so It peaks about seven hours after sunset. So basically that's around like 1am, depending on like when the sun happened to say it, if it's daylight saving time, if it's not, whatever, you know, all that. The next hormone I mentioned is HGH and HGH is important because that is the hormone that basically helps your body to recover, right? So think about like you're working out, you're breaking down muscle fibers as you lift weights and then you, the idea that you rebuild them stronger, right? And so you need that HGH as you're sleeping. to rebuild that muscle tissue. Um, and so that, that process of regenerating the muscle tissue happens when you're in your non REM sleep. So if you like, remember back to our lucid dreaming episode, the dreaming happens when you're in REM, which is a rapid eye movement phase and you cycle between REM and non REM throughout the night. And so when you're in that non REM, that's when you're getting that HGH and the muscle tissue is happening. So Really important process that's happening while you sleep.

Jenn:

I did not know, look, black girls in tech, black girls in STEM, uh, that was a little after my time, but I did not know that we create HGH.

Mik:

You thought that it came from?

Jenn:

Well, all the muscle heads, they shoot up HGH.

Mik:

So you didn't know that it was a naturally occurring hormone?

Jenn:

No.

Mik:

Oh, that's how you grow as like a child.

Jenn:

Capitalism. Capitalism will tell you that you will always be childlike unless you shoot up your

Mik:

SDH. Well, I mean, I'm not trying to make you like sound slow or nothing, but it's called human growth hormone. Like, so it comes from humans.

Jenn:

I understand that. I think there's artificially created HGH, however, right?

Mik:

Yeah. It's just meant to mimic what's naturally produced.

Jenn:

Yes, I understand that. But I was thinking of it as like, this is going to make a human grow. Okay. And I wasn't saying that it was. Okay, you understand what I'm saying? Okay. Okay. I'm following you. I'm following you. Like dog food.

Mik:

It's not. It's not. Okay. I feel you. It's not. You know what I mean? It's a growth hormone that we created for humans as opposed to like. Exactly.

Jenn:

Exactly.

Mik:

Okay. Okay.

Jenn:

You know, somebody go to a little medical magnet, you know.

Mik:

I wasn't trying to play you. I really wasn't. I was just like. Stooky

Jenn:

Houser over here. House. House M. D. over here. I led with science was not. Okay.

Mik:

I really was not trying to play you.

Jenn:

This is the 90s.

Mik:

The last hormone that will mistreat.

Jenn:

Man get one stethoscope all of a sudden.

Mik:

Oh man, y'all. Y'all see what I live with? Alright. Dr.

Jenn:

Ben Carson over here. Healing hands!

Mik:

Gifted hands, get it right. Cause I do have gifted hands now.

Jenn:

Okay, we're not talking about that. That's private. Um,

Mik:

I was talking about the energy healing, but okay. I see where your mind is.

Jenn:

Okay.

Mik:

The last hormone that we'll mention for this episode is cortisol. So cortisol is the hormone that controls wakefulness. It helps you. It's basically the opposite. It's the, the, the yang to the yin of melatonin, right? Like it's, it's going to wake you up.

Jenn:

You hit that yang hard. That was straight Houston. Can we stay focused? Yes.

Mik:

So cortisol, the low point of cortisol typically happens around midnight, right? And then it slowly starts to build as you get closer to basically the sun rising, right? It peaks around nine AM, right? So that, that's getting you out of your sleep. Again, it's that, that gang to the end of melatonin. When cortisol is low during the middle of the night, right? It's actually an opportunity for our immune system to be more active. And so, we see a lot more production of white blood cells. See, this is where that medical knowledge comes into play too. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. The white blood cells are produced at a higher rate during that time period, which allows us to fight off infection. So, doctor tells you, hey, you need to drink some orange juice and get plenty of rest. Like, the rest is, is what's gonna Help produce that, that, uh, infection fighting cell, you know what I'm saying? Okay.

Jenn:

That was a great breakdown on cortisol. Mm hmm. Cortisol is trending. Very much so. I don't know if you know this. I don't know if your algorithm

Mik:

is Nah, it's not. Tell me.

Jenn:

The girls are obsessed with not having cortisol face.

Mik:

What is cortisol face

Jenn:

that like if you're producing too much cortisol? Yeah that It like makes you puffy.

Mik:

Mm hmm. Well, the one thing I forgot to mention about cortisol is it's the hormone that spikes when you're in Fight or flight, right? So it's what's so yeah, you probably do look a little puffy and stressed out when you have too much cortisol Yeah,

Jenn:

I was looking real puffy around 2017 I wasn't even, well it might have been left over from like the firm, I think I was like real puffy from there and then as I've, you know,

Mik:

gotten more distance from them,

Jenn:

slimmed it on out. But there's that. Also, let's put on our full 10 hats.

Mik:

Okay.

Jenn:

If my cortisol peaks at 9am, why am I supposed to be in my desk at 9am? I haven't fully woken up yet.

Mik:

The

Jenn:

day should start at 10 at the earliest. Let's be honest. Let's think about that. But they don't want you to know that, and they want you to stay in a weakened state so they can sell you more shit.

Mik:

Okay. I don't know if that's quite right, but, all right, , let's put it all together for everybody. Can we you that the, the hormones?

Jenn:

Yes. Okay. Mm-Hmm. in summary. Okay. It gets dark. Melatonin starts to kick in. Okay. We get sleepy. Go to bed.

Mik:

Mm-Hmm.. Jenn: Go to bed. And then we're alternating between REM and non REM. We're dreaming. We're not dreaming. Yeah. You know, we're recovering. Yeah

Jenn:

from whatever activity or inactivity we've done and then So hopefully we're repairing tissue. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, is that why you sleep off alcohol? You gotta sleep it off.

Mik:

Mm hmm Yeah,

Jenn:

I'm sure it is a toxin I'm sure

Mik:

there's some other hormones at play like getting the stuff out of your liver, which we didn't go into but yeah Yeah

Jenn:

Because it is a toxin. Why everything's supposed to be bad makes me feel so good. But anywho, and then during when we're dreaming, we already talked about that. Cortisol starts to slowly build to wake us up fully until about 9am, which is the time that we should wake up, which then means the day shouldn't start until 10. Which means if the day starts at 10, and then melatonin starts to pick up when it starts to turn into night, The day should really only be from like 10 to four. Okay. So we're in the room, we're in the night room. Like that's, you know, it's, it's interesting. Cause it's like all these different little concoctions are going on within our body to like regulate. this, this period that we're in. Cause I think people can kind of think of sleep as like an off button and you just like shut down. But it's, there's such a delicate like balance of things that are going on when we're dreaming and we're not dreaming. Like they're all, like this interplay is very interesting.

Mik:

Yeah. So I think getting back to the topic of like why you're maybe waking up, right? Let's say you're having some sort of like, Like in the middle of your night, when we said before it's in the REM phase of sleep, right? And so that could trigger your body's stress response, which is the cortisol, right? That we say is not really not supposed to really peak until 9 a. m., right? But if you're getting this spike of cortisol in the middle of the night, that wakes you up. And that could be, you know, keeping you up, right? Because you got that cortisol now in your blood and you're like,

Jenn:

Yeah, that's definitely happened to me before. Mm

Mik:

hmm.

Jenn:

So that makes sense from a physical standpoint. Yeah. We covered that. Mm hmm. In depth. With a little bit of um, anti capitalist rant from me. Getting on task. Um, But we know our physical body doesn't exist in a vacuum. We talk about this all the time that our physical body is manifesting things that are going on emotionally or spiritually. It's, it's because it's the most tangible and like what we've been conditioned to pay attention to. We don't think about the other layers. Like there's, there's warning signs that are, that are bubbling up before we get to the, I can't sleep. Why am I here? So let's talk about the spiritual perspective. We're not really going to get into the emotional, like, yeah, if you've got some emotional shit you need to work through some trauma, that probably is going to keep you from sleeping.

Mik:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jenn:

We really want to talk about the spiritual perspective of things.

Mik:

Yeah. Yeah. I think this is probably, um, a good time to talk about this term that shows up in popular culture. We just saw it talked about, uh, on, uh, Agatha all along watching that so there's this idea of our concept of the witching hour, right? And so it's typically associated with the early morning hours typically between like 3 and 4 a. m Is considered the wishing hour kind of depends on who you're talking to some people say it's like 12 to 1 Um kind of just depends on who you're talking to but the uh exact origins of that term, right? It's kind of unclear It's like the middle ages is kind of when it started. There's this idea that Um, this time period was when witches were most active, um, probably during the Salem, you know, era witch hunt trial type time frame. And they was really, they was really getting into that. Um, according to Wikipedia, the first usage of the term that was like kind of printed or recorded down was in this poem called Knight and Ode. By a Reverend Matthew West, and that was written in 1775. So you can kind of get a, a feel for, yeah, what, what was going on back then. What's up, why are you here?

Jenn:

Why I started laughing? Yeah. I saw his last name was West, and then I was thinking about the topic, and I was like, Wake up, Mr. West! Did you think about that?

Mik:

No, but you on Wednesday. I like that reference, though. That's a good reference! That is a good, I said I liked the reference.

Jenn:

You may have been talking bad about me, I'm, I'm off task, but you know the, I'm firing on all cylinders right now. Okay, cortisol spiking over here. My cortisol going crazy. So the idea of the witching hour is prevalent throughout folklore. We also hear colloquially that this is when the veil is thin during this time, which allows for increased paranormal activity. And I remember when we first heard the concept of witching hour, like. With respect to like ours our own like spiritual journey and like our burgeoning spiritual practices Yeah, like as we were like, yeah new in this space and I remember us being like, okay, so time zones.

Mik:

Yeah

Jenn:

So, how does that work? Why are they yeah,

Mik:

I don't know Well, so I actually looked into this.

Jenn:

Okay.

Mik:

Alright, so if you think about this like when the When it's daytime, the, the earth is pointing towards the sun, right? And there are certain, um, particles, for lack of a better word, that are coming from, from the sun, right? Like different UV types of light that is coming from the sun, right? And when the, the, the earth moves and it's dark, you're on the dark side of the earth, you're not getting the same, Levels of those particles, but as the earth moves, right when you're at 3 a. m. Right here. There's a certain amount of particles that are coming here And then as the earth continues to move like that the different part of the planet is now in that same spot, right? So your 3 a. m Is gonna feel like from a like a solar particle perspective the same way it feels in a different part of the world when they're At their their 3 a. m. Right? So if you think about it just from like a physics standpoint There are things that are happening at that point at 3 a. m That are also happening when someone who's in a different part of the world hits their 3 a. m There's a similarity. There's is my point. I want you to

Jenn:

say solar particle perspective again.

Mik:

Okay

Jenn:

later. So yes back to the Central question. Yes.

Mik:

Yes. Yes. So what is what is waking you up? Uh, in the middle of the night. I, I think there, there probably isn't a universal answer. Uh, we'll try to simplify it, but I mean, as Jen said, we're not getting to like the emotional causes of things. If there's some like deep trauma things you need to like go work out with a professional, definitely go and do that. Um, there could be other things underlying that, right? Like maybe you're taking some prescription jugs that have side effects that result in you waking up in the middle of the night that are disrupting your hormones. Um, or you could have something chronic medically like sleep apnea that is, that's causing you to wake up. Uh, you're not getting enough oxygen and therefore waking up, right? So we're kind of ruling out those things and kind of simplifying it to a few different things. Yeah. Um, so the first one is kind of like just stress, right? Like we hear about stress a lot from, from doctors and medical, you know, research, right? About the, the dangers of stress and how it, how it affects the body. Um, but one way is that it could be, you know, causing you psychologically to have, right? Um, you know, this carry over into your subconscious where like your stress is infiltrating into your subconscious into your dreams and thus causing you to wake up when you have that spike in stress hormone.

Jenn:

Yeah. And then I love taking fight or flight and stress. Taking it to back to its intended purpose of like to keep us from being eaten by a lion.

Mik:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jenn:

And so if you're, if you have told your body through the stress of like emails and life and bills and politics and war, et cetera, et cetera, that I'm in fight or flight mode, your body is like a lion could come at any time. Wake up! Like, you cannot fall asleep right now. You cannot be slipping on your pimpin Like, get up. And so, you know, you're just like, oh my gosh, like, Suzy sent that stupid fucking email and now I can't sleep. And it's like, your body is like, no, we're going to die. This is no time for rest. So, you know, putting it in that perspective, it's like, well, How can I get myself out of that state? Because that's crazy. If like I am living. fairly comfortably and safe and I'm, and I'm physically okay. I can't be reinforcing those messages to my body that I'm not.

Mik:

Absolutely. Absolutely. So the second one I'll talk about is, uh, spiritual in nature, right? So there could be some type of a spiritual presence that could be, you know, it could be your ancestors trying to reach out to you, give you a message. It could be a spirit guide. That's like, again, trying to, trying to tell you something, give you some type of warning. Uh, it could be something malevolent that is in your space. That is, is trying to, you know, disrupt you in your sleep, right? Um, and so, or it could just be something innocent, like just a spirit that, that happens to be living in the home, you know, like the, the ghost stories or whatever, right? That, where they're in, they're in a space and they're just being mischievous. Um, and so, yeah, that, that could, that could be. Causing, again, your cortisol levels to spike and for you to wake up in the middle of the night. Mmm. Um, the third one I'll mention, um, and this isn't kind of outside of the, the, the kind of the physiological, I guess, uh, or the stress and, and the spiritual. This is more about, about caffeine. Um, and so we didn't really talk about, uh, the, the hormone that is associated with caffeine. So there's another hormone that happens when you're, when you're sleeping called adenosine. Okay. I actually never heard of this. Uh, and so I did some of the research, but caffeine actually blocks the receptors for that. And that hormone actually helps to regulate your sleep. Uh, and, and so, you know, in this culture that we're in, we are consuming a lot of caffeine, you know, Starbucks, a billion dollar business, you know what I mean?

Jenn:

What's those other drinks? Celsius. Oh my gosh. Celsius got a hold on, not me, but it's got a hold on a lot of people,

Mik:

a lot of folks. Um, but what I, what I found interesting is that caffeine has a quarter life, not a half life, a quarter life of 12 hours. So if you know anything about like chemical half lives, chemical quarter lives basically, just to give you an example, let's say the average cup of coffee is between like 90 and a hundred milligrams of caffeine, right? So let's say your cup of coffee has a hundred milligrams in it that you had at noon. Okay. 12 hours later, you're still going to have 25 milligrams of caffeine in your system. That's disrupting that hormone that helps regulate your sleep. So maybe chill out on the caffeine if you, that could be a cause. So I want to throw that on the list because I know a lot of people drink a lot of caffeine. We probably aren't thinking about how that's disrupting our sleep.

Jenn:

Okay. I'm gonna ask you this question. I thought half life was

Mik:

The time it takes for half of it to go away, basically. Okay, right. So quarter is

Jenn:

The time it takes for a quarter of it to go away.

Mik:

Three quarters of it to go away, basically. Oh, it's three quarters. Yeah. But they call it quarter life. Because it's a quarter of the original amount.

Jenn:

Okay. I'm thinking of how much is remaining. Yeah. Thank you. See, this is why. Get to a boo who went to a medical magnet. Because I was like, I want to make sure we got this right. Because math is not mathing. Thank you. Okay. Yes. Got it. I cut out caffeine almost two years ago. Has it been that long? Yeah. It was when we, it was like around the holidays. Oh wow. And I cut out caffeine. Now I'm still a decaf girly. Yeah. But decaf only has like, I love decaf latte.

Mik:

It's like what? 10 milligrams or something. It's like, it's super. Yeah, it's very low. But then

Jenn:

I noticed like cutting out caffeine. If I have a soda, which is a lot less caffeine than coffee. If I have a soda in the evening, it's a wrap. I'm up, I'm up and I'm stuck. So yes, make sure you're paying attention. I don't know. I used to say like, I could have coffee at any time of day and still go to sleep. Like I'm still going to sleep. But I think now I've just gotten a lot more cognizant of like the quality of Yeah.

Mik:

I mean, it's like, if you were still able to go to sleep with coffee, imagine how good of sleep you would have if you didn't have the, didn't have the caffeine blocking that, that receptor for that hormone. So, yeah.

Jenn:

Yeah. And paying attention to how you wake up from sleep, because if I'm trying to take a quick nap, I got to get somewhere and I set an alarm. I will wake up like, like I've been like jolted and like, that's not good. Yeah. I'm just like making sure we're really,

Mik:

Yeah,

Jenn:

I'm a big advocate of sleep. I just think, I think it's, I think it's overlooked.

Mik:

Yeah. Yeah. We talked about this product in our lucid dreaming episode, but we have a relationship with hatch. And so you can definitely get a discount on a hatch alarm clock, which allows you to wake up a lot, lot gentler. So we'll put that into the show notes in case anyone's interested in learning more about that product and checking it out.

Jenn:

Yeah. I stopped using the iPhone alarms, which are traumatic and have seen a big difference in like how I. Go about my day. All right. So what should you do if you feel like spiritually there's something going wrong, not going wrong, but going on rather, and that it's affecting your sleep. So definitely meditate through it. Like asking questions, you know, and when I say meditate through it or asking questions, you have to kind of figure out the best way for you to receive the answers and to like strip your ego out of it. So maybe asking for specific signs like, Hey, I'm not sleeping well. If it's emotional, show me two feathers. If it's spiritual, show me. Robin, something random, like something that you wouldn't expect. Like I've even heard people saying like, I want to hear a reference to chicken nuggets in the next 24 hours. And somebody will be like, Hey, you want to go to McDonald's and get some chicken nuggets? They're like, where would that come from?

Mik:

Yeah. I think that's good advice for during the day. But I think. When you're woken up to meditate through it actually is a good suggestion like meaning like take that opportunity where you're in that that space where your brain is kind of in between sleeping and awaking you're in what's called theta theta wave brain States. And so that's basically a state of deep relaxation. And when you're in that state, you actually can more easily drop into meditation and receive kind of that intuitive guidance. Uh, and so a lot of, a lot of folks, and this is what I tell people when they have sessions with me and they're experiencing this is to see what comes through in meditation in that moment, like in the middle of the night, see what, what messages, uh, come, come forward, because that could be you, uh, opening yourself up to receive, um, What you need to hear and could ultimately help you fall asleep. Once you receive the message, you may not get woken up anymore. So

Jenn:

very fair. Um, definitely journal with that as well, especially if it's a dream that woke you up or whatever comes out of that meditation, you want to write it down. Sometimes you might, you know, Might not remember it unless you wrote it down and you're like, I kind of woke up and you're like, Oh snap. There's a whole note. Yeah. That's stuff for me to do.

Mik:

I have a notebook and a pen right by my bed and I just, I'll reach for it in the middle of the night and just kind of scribble. And sometimes I'll be able to legibly read what's written down. Sometimes not. Scribble, scrabble.

Jenn:

Also clearing your space. And we're not talking about the clothes that are like, Not clean, but not dirty that have accumulated on the floor by your bed. Not, I'm not speaking from personal experience at all. And that's not where this top is going to go once we're done recording. Um, but clearing your space with like smudging tools, like Palo Santo, sage, burning some incense. Sage, open a window if you can. Palisanto, close the window. You can burn some incense. Set an intention for your space. Include it in that. If you have any mirrors in your room.

Mik:

Mmm. I like that. Good suggestion.

Jenn:

If you can take them out. Especially if they're facing the bed. If you can take them out, that would be great. If you can't, you know, feng shui, decor and all that, get some type of black crystal to place at the base of that mirror. So we have like tourmaline, um. Onyx. Onyx, hematite. Hematite,

Mik:

yeah.

Jenn:

You can use that and just sit it at the base of your mirror. I had like a little vanity mirror that was pointing towards our bed and we were both being like, what is going on? And so, but you can close it. So we're very, well, Mick is actually a lot more vigilant about closing it. And I try to be, but he's like, not that mirror. Yeah.

Mik:

I'll just add this. We talked about this in a previous episode, but like we had this orchid that we brought into the house that had some type of entity on it that was waking the whole house up in the middle of the night. And so I like took it and put it on the curb. Someone came and got it. I hope they doing all right. But, um, yeah. Yeah.

Jenn:

That organ was right here talking about 7 days. How much you talking about? Get it out. Do you know you have 30 minutes? 30. Get out. Put it on the curb. That's a whole horror movie. Somebody call, um, Jordan Peele.

Mik:

So yeah, be careful with the things you bring into your house. Potentially, you may have added something to your environment that needs to be removed. And that could be keeping you away. That's the point I'm trying to make.

Jenn:

Of course. Or cleanse, like cleanse thoroughly or like set an intention, prayer, meditation, all of that. Like use, use all of the tools that you have, uh, spiritual bouncer, working with a spirit guide before you fall asleep and asking them to basically like limit spiritual energies that want to have access to you. So this was, we were still in Dallas. And I feel like we both were having issues. We were not sleeping well. We reached out to Melanie Esperon, one of our favorite mediums. And she was like, basically on the spiritual journey, everybody was like, so excited that we were on this journey that they wanted to come and hang out.

Mik:

Spiritually.

Jenn:

Yes. They wanted to come. They wanted to hang out. They wanted to talk. They had stuff they wanted to tell us. And you know, we've done multiple episodes on astral projection and lucid dreaming and all of these things and the things that you can do while you're asleep. And just because your body is resting does not mean that your light body, your spiritual body, Also resting. So we were also like playing around with actual astral projection and lucid dreaming. And I was trying to go to my favorite bar in Paris and like, blah, blah, blah. And. I was too busy. I needed to rest. And so we asked, I asked for Archangel Michael, who is, you know, a very protective angel to, to basically intercede on our behalf and be like,

Mik:

yeah, to try to basically calm any spiritual activity that's happening around us while we're sleeping so that we're able to fully rest. Yeah. Yeah.

Jenn:

And so we also talked about setting an intention, setting an intention when you cleanse your space, setting an intention when you go to sleep. I think we're in this space of trying to be more intentional with all things. We started setting an intention when we wake up, like setting an intention for the day. So it's not just for like in yoga class, you can incorporate that to every aspect of your day. So really setting an intention, um, before going to bed and mind is. I'm going the fuck to sleep, okay? Good night. So, yeah.

Mik:

Yeah. So, I think this is, um, a good point for me to just kind of share a little bit, you know, a little story time. Mm. Uh, so for me, I think when we first started this kind of spiritual journey that we're on, I had a very profound experience where I was woken up in the middle of the night and I think I used to describe it as a dream, but I was like, I was awake. It was like in the theta waves that I'm talking about where like, I'm encouraging folks when they're woken up to like go into meditation. Cause that's essentially what happened. I went into a very deep meditation that felt almost like I was sleeping. But it was, it was more on the waking side of things, I'd say. And in it, I was shown like a series, a series of things, right? And a couple that kind of stick out to me. One, it was the first time I was shown the Akashic Records. And that was, years before I started actually doing Akashic Records readings for people, um, which I guess I started, yeah, this year. So it's been, it was like three years before I even gave my first Akashic Records reading. So that was really cool. Um, but also saw a vision of you, which was really cool. You had light coming out of your eyes and out of your mouth, which, I mean, I think now that we're four years later, I can, I can see what the, you know, the significance in the, in the, you know, the, the symbolism there was about, right? Like you have this voice and you have this ability to see things that I think. Are filled with light and very illuminating so like that i'm sure that will continue to to grow and continue to to be prophetic But yeah, there was just like a lot of experiences. I saw even like a panther sitting in a tree Um, which I think represented like a connection to to my ancestry and into that spirit of the panther So yeah When you take that moment, I guess the point I'm trying to say is like when you take that moment to like really lean in and not just get upset that you got woken up and your sleep was interrupted and like try to really focus in, um, on a meditation, you can really get some, some, some powerful messages. Um, I think even now, right, there was a period, I want to say like maybe Not that long ago, like maybe a week ago, I was getting woken up like five, six days in a row. And then maybe I had to get like two nights of sleep. Then like another like string of three, four days where I was just like waking up and staying up. And I think I'm still trying to piece together what exactly the significance is. I went into the Akashic Records myself. I went in, spoke to An Akashic Records reader that we love, uh, Alicia Rodgers, who we mentioned before and kind of got a second opinion and I'm still kind of trying to piece through exactly what that was about. But a lot of them were dreams that were kind of traumatic, that kind of woke me up in spite of my cortisol levels. Um, and so I think there's some message there that again, um, once I figure it out, maybe I'll share it on a future episode of the show, but yeah, you know, just trying to lean in and meditate through those.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Mik:

Yeah.

Jenn:

I actually just sent you a TikTok from a sleep doctor, pretty sure he was a sleep doctor. Talking about like what to do when you can't go to sleep.

Mik:

When you're woken up. When you're woken up. Yeah,

Jenn:

this will probably be the last little tip. It's a physical tip, but it's kind of like a brain trick. It's basically you tell your brain, I'm going to wake up. And then you fall back asleep.

Mik:

Yeah. It's like, yeah, he says like you. You tell your brain to stay awake. Like you're like trying to keep yourself awake. Like, like, you know what I mean? Like you're like, you're like, don't fall asleep. Don't fall asleep. Don't fall asleep. And like, what ends up happening is like the reverse happens. Like you end up falling asleep. Yeah.

Jenn:

Which is interesting. I feel like I would wake up. You tried it. I did it. So then it

Mik:

worked. I went back to sleep.

Jenn:

And you need your sleep cause you don't nap. And so then you're just a mess. There goes the day. Cause me, I'm going to get my nap.

Mik:

Yeah.

Jenn:

All right. Well,

Mik:

Yeah. Hopefully that, that, that helps people out as they try to answer that question. Why am I waking up in the middle of the night? If you can't figure it out and want a book or reading with me or Jen, you can go to shotgun, shotguns. com slash readings.

Jenn:

If there's anything, you know, sometimes we drop names of people that we've worked with. If there ever is a name that you hear and you can't find the reference, please send us a DM. Please reach out. Yeah. And we'll definitely get you their information.

Mik:

We're at Shockers and Shotguns on Instagram, if you're not already following us.

Jenn:

I think I'm going to go take a nap.

Mik:

That sounds good.

Jenn:

All right. Well, that's the show. Friendly reminder, check out our Patreon. Lots of goodies. And as always, thank you so much for your support. Really. It means a lot and we love doing the show and we want to keep doing it.

Mik:

Yeah. Finally, guys, if you're loving the show, please subscribe and give us five stars wherever you watch or listen.

Jenn:

Namaste.