Sleep: Linda Lee of Mineral & Co On Why You Should Make Getting A Good Night’s Sleep A Major Priority In Your Life, And How You Can Make That Happen

Authority Magazine Editorial Staff
Authority Magazine
Published in
15 min readAug 17, 2022

We can help our brains forget the monkey chatter of the day and wind down by grabbing a book or an iPad with a blue light filter on. This needs to be something that’s light and easy and doesn’t require a lot of focus or intellectual thought. It’s a distraction that can be an effective way to tell your brain to “focus on this instead.” The more we “try” to fall asleep, the harder it will be. But when we train our brains it becomes much easier.

Getting a good night’s sleep has so many physical, emotional, and mental benefits. Yet with all of the distractions that demand our attention, going to sleep on time and getting enough rest has become extremely elusive to many of us. Why is sleep so important and how can we make it a priority?

In this interview series called “Sleep: Why You Should Make Getting A Good Night’s Sleep A Major Priority In Your Life, And How You Can Make That Happen” we are talking to medical and wellness professionals, sleep specialists, and business leaders who sell sleep accessories to share insights from their knowledge and experience about how to make getting a good night’s sleep a priority in your life.

As part of this interview series, we had the pleasure to interview Linda Lee.

After struggling with anxiety since childhood, Linda Lee, the founder of Mineral & Co., wanted a natural remedy for her symptoms and started a meticulous search. She discovered that mainstream “cures” only made things worse. Then, six years ago after learning about the importance of magnesium, the magic mineral, her world changed.

Linda’s vision was to create a unique, lush, silky, and concentrated formulation that provided the healing power of plants and minerals with research-backed science. And she had very specific criteria — to be vegan, with pure organic ingredients and no harmful toxins or fillers. After three years of careful exploration, and beta testing with hundreds of brave volunteers, her restorative body butter was ready for market.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you’. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your backstory?

I’ve had generalized anxiety since I was a kid. Anxiety, whether it’s situational or chronic, typically goes hand-in-hand with not sleeping well. When we feel anxious, our brain floods the nervous system with hormones and chemicals designed to help us respond to a threat — even if there is no danger present. Insomnia often follows.

The anxiety continued into adulthood, requiring me to take four different prescription meds from multiple physicians. None of them worked, and I constantly felt like a zombie. It was like my entire emotional range just shut down. One day there was a tragic event, and I couldn’t cry. That would have been a normal response, but I was so completely numbed out. It was then that I decided to ditch Big Pharma — the revolving, impersonal, prescriptive door of traditional medicine that treats symptoms and not the human being — and find my own way to better mental and physical health.

This led to me doing years of research and ultimately learning that I’m just one of the millions of Americans that suffer from debilitating anxiety and insomnia. It’s a national epidemic.

According to a 2021 report from the American Sleep Association, 50 to 70 million adults in the U.S. are affected by a sleep disorder. Additionally, the CDC has said that over one-third of Americans are sleep-deprived. And the World Health Organization estimates that 70% of Americans are magnesium deficient. (There is a correlation between sleep deprivation and magnesium deficiency.) As a nation we’re just not getting enough sleep, kids included.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this particular career path?

Once I made the decision to go off prescription meds, which was done carefully, I began to feel more clear and started researching other options to help manage anxiety and insomnia.

I did all the things (and still do): nature, hiking, biking, yoga, breath work, clean eating, and journaling. All these things helped, but it wasn’t until I learned about the benefits of magnesium that my sleep started to shift and get longer and deeper.

Katie Wells, of Wellness Mama, wrote a post about magnesium that got my attention. It was really interesting, and I started using it every day. For me, it was the missing piece that I needed to finally manage the high anxiety and accompanying insomnia that had been with me all my life. Because I slept better, I handled stress better, ate better, had more energy, and so on.

After trying almost every transdermal magnesium product made in the U.S., sprays, lotions and creams, I found most were drying, sticky, and didn’t absorb well. I also needed to apply about 1/3 of a cup or more just to get some benefits. Oral supplements aren’t much better. Not only do they cause GI upset, but only about 20% is actually absorbed into the body.

It was then I decided to make a better product that is highly concentrated, requiring only one teaspoon a day.

Skin is an organ, and what we put on it goes into our bloodstreams. So, I became a researcher. Early on this meant comparing the ingredients in my existing skincare products with the lists on industry-leading sites to better understand exactly what I was introducing to my body. I was shocked to learn that most of the products I had used for years, ones that claimed to be “natural,” contained toxins.

Before long, I started contacting chemists, scientists, and eventually became a formulator myself. The vision came to life quickly: the product would be made in a luxury base of all organic, beautiful oils and butters with no fillers, toxins or fragrances. The preservative system would be safe. It had to be vegan, fair trade and sustainable. Most importantly, it had to deliver results for our customers.

Fast forward a few years and we now have a super-concentrated, highly absorbable product. Our customers love it. In fact, they’ve come up with some additional uses I never would have thought of, like for hand and feet neuropathy after getting chemo.

From there we did beta testing for almost two years, and it’s solely because of the positive feedback from our testers (many kudos to them for filling out the exhaustive surveys) that things propelled forward. They got results and felt better — beyond my wildest dreams.

Our customers are everything to me, and I honor and respect them for finding new ways of healing. That’s self-love.

Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the sleep and wellness fields? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

The core of my contribution has to do with us as consumers looking at other options and alternatives to better our health and reduce stress and inflammation. Creating our own paths. Saying no to doctors who treat only symptoms and aren’t willing to see the entirety of what makes us human and fragile and vulnerable and inflamed. And truly listening to our bodies when they are giving us important messages.

There is a wave of alternative modalities available these days, we simply have to get educated… start conversations with other people who are curious.

But even more important than that we can connect to ourselves. We can heal. We can love exactly who we are, right now, no matter what’s going on. We can start with one small thing, and then another and another because the momentum will build upon itself.

The cumulative effects can be outstanding. And because we start to feel better, there’s this domino effect that starts to happen. We get better quality sleep, which leads to more energy. So, we start to eat better which makes us clearer in our decisions. We laugh more; we are kinder to ourselves with more compassion and more positive thought patterns. Ultimately, we find that we’ve created this safe, beautiful environment of health all around us. We are vibrant. We come back to who we were always meant to be.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

“The Chemistry of Calm” by Henry Emmons, MD is a book that’s on my desk. (He also wrote “The Chemistry of Joy.”) It’s pretty marked up with notes and Post-its. It resonated because he speaks about a drug-free way to manage our health by leaning into options that are sustainable for us. He takes away the shame and replaces it by helping us create the belief that our bodies and minds are amazing, they are resilient, and we can bring our mental and physical health together in a meaningful way.

Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

I look at this saying every day: “Proceed as if success is inevitable.” It’s optimistic and reminds me to leapfrog over failures toward success. And, for all of us, success means something different.

Another one is from my dad: “Keep plugging away.” Don’t give up even when things get really hard, because they will.

Let’s start with the basics. How much sleep should an adult get? Is there a difference between people who are young, middle-aged, or elderly?

We’ve all heard the standard number of hours is eight, but we really can’t blanket everyone with the same sleep requirements. Children need more than adults — their brains need rest to heal, function optimally and retain memory. They’re definitely not getting enough sleep these days.

Healthy adults typically will range between six and nine hours. Many of us will sleep more in the winter months when it’s darker, and less in the summer with more light hours. The elderly typically will need a bit less sleep, but this varies by several factors, like how active they are.

Essentially, the number of hours needed is a “study of one,” dependent on mental and physical activity, stress, illness, inflammation, eating habits, work hours, family time and diet. If we consistently feel refreshed and rested when we wake up, then it was the right amount of sleep.

Is the amount of hours the main criteria, or the time that you go to bed? For example, if there was a hypothetical choice between getting to bed at 10PM and getting up at 4AM, for a total of 6 hours, or going to bed at 2AM and getting up at 10AM for a total of 8 hours, is one a better choice for your health? Can you explain?

Again, it’s a study of one. Some people truly can sleep for six hours and have good energy throughout the day. It’s said that Thomas Edison got only three to four hours of sleep per night, claiming sleep was a “waste of time.” Those close to him said he “napped a lot” — for three hours at a time. So, his limited sleep was a myth in the end.

The key to getting a good night’s sleep, and then thriving the next day, is consistency. So, either scenario could work if the bedtime and wake hours are kept the same. In general, we do the best when we align with the Earth’s circadian cycles so based on that 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. may be a better choice.

As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for our readers. Let’s imagine a hypothetical 35-year-old adult who was not getting enough sleep. After working diligently at it for 6 months he or she began to sleep well and got the requisite hours of sleep. How will this person’s life improve? Can you help articulate some of the benefits this person will see after starting to get enough sleep? Can you explain?

There’s this amazing ripple effect that happens when we sleep well. For this 35-year-old there will be several improvements to their quality of life:

  • Fatigue will fade away, leading to more energy and a renewed interest in life. More energy leads to feeling more alert, exercising or moving more, making better decisions, having better communication in relationships, eating healthier food, and having a more positive outlook on life because stress is handled in a better way.
  • An overall sense of well-being with less stress, leading to more creativity.
  • Reduced depression and attention deficit.
  • The ability to learn new motor tasks comes into play because the brain is functioning at its’ best in retention and restoration.
  • Stronger immune system.
  • Lowered risk of obesity.
  • Better decision making.
  • Lower likelihood of on-the-job and car accidents, due to faster reaction times.
  • Finding more meaning and joy in life.

Many things provide benefits but they aren’t necessarily a priority. Should we make getting a good night’s sleep a major priority in our life? Can you explain what you mean?

We definitely need to make getting a good night’s sleep a priority. The world would be a better place — less stress, less conflict and more peace if we all got more sleep.

The truth is that most of us know that it’s important to get better sleep. But, while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. There are still times when I struggle with getting enough sleep; it does get easier and there are so many things we can do to build good sleep habits, which can be life-changing.

In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives? How should we remove those obstacles?

Words are important, especially the inner dialog we tell ourselves. So first I’d remove any negative-based words like blockages and obstacles. When we use strength-based dialog, our brain responds positively. It’s the cliched “train your brain,” and it works. Think of it like training a puppy — it will respond well if given positive reinforcement, treats, and short instructions that all set the stage for repeatable behaviors. We wouldn’t hurt the puppy to make it do what we wanted, would we?

The top three challenges we face today are:

  • Quality sleeps is not a priority in our toxic hustle culture.
  • Screens interrupt our melatonin production.
  • We’re not taking the time to really understand why our brains need consistent sleep.

Do you think getting “good sleep” is more difficult today than it was in the past?

Yes, it is more difficult. Both the internal and external pressure to perform and to be hyper-connected make winding down challenging at best. Our relationships suffer because we’re not connecting in a meaningful way that feeds our souls.

We all know what it feels like to be sleep-deprived — that draggy, slow crawl through the day in the background of everything we do. That’s our brains calling out, “feed me, slow down, I need rest.”

In children, insufficient sleep can lead to attention and behavior problems or hyperactivity. Their learnings aren’t going into longer-term memory. In the elderly, lack of sleep may decrease focus and attention, leading to a greater risk of falls, bone fractures, and car accidents.

Our world is in turmoil, from the pandemic to political unrest to the daily non-stop grind. School shootings leave children anxious in a space that should be 100% safe for them. We’re working hard but our wages don’t go as far as we need, so we work more. Climate change is taking its toll. We’re numbing out with screens and social media. Addictions are climbing. The news doesn’t get any better. We’re constantly bombarded with information over-stimulating our brains. No wonder we aren’t sleeping well.

Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share “5 things you need to know to get the sleep you need and wake up refreshed and energized”? If you can, kindly share a story or example for each.

1. Establish a routine for going to bed and waking up at the same approximate times. Do this every day, including the weekends.

2. Readers will not like this one (I didn’t either at first) but stop drinking or drink minimally. The liver processes alcohol before anything else because it sees it as a toxin. That’s why we may wake up at 3 a.m. feeling too warm or sweaty; it’s because the liver is working so hard. Its focus is on the alcohol, so it doesn’t have time to clean up the other things that it usually does.

3. We spend one-third of our lives in our bed! Imagine the most luxurious one you’ve ever seen. It may have been at a 4-star hotel, or in a department store, or on Pinterest. Find the one that speaks to you, and then re-create it to make your very own, luxurious, comforting, most beautiful sleep experience you can get.

Invest in a good quality mattress and pillows. Look for sheets that breathe in light, soothing colors. Add room darkening curtains, no blue light. If we are exposed to too much artificial light, such as the blue light emitted from smartphones or televisions late at night, less melatonin may be released making it harder to fall asleep.

No TV in the bedroom. No screens for an hour before sleep. Don’t do any work in the bedroom; remove any stressors altogether. Keep the temperature cool. If there is ambient noise, like traffic, use a fan or other white noise that is soothing. Make the bedroom beautiful to your own taste and make your bed every day. This makes going to sleep a pleasure and it’s more inviting.

4. We can help our brains forget the monkey chatter of the day and wind down by grabbing a book or an iPad with a blue light filter on. This needs to be something that’s light and easy and doesn’t require a lot of focus or intellectual thought. It’s a distraction that can be an effective way to tell your brain to “focus on this instead.” The more we “try” to fall asleep, the harder it will be. But when we train our brains it becomes much easier.

5. Don’t eat for two to three hours before bedtime. The digestive system needs to slow down and do its thing.

What would you advise someone who wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back to sleep?

Waking up in the middle of the night is common. In the light sleep stage, we’ll wake up and then fall back to sleep within a few minutes, sometimes not even remembering we were awake.

But if someone is waking up and not falling back to sleep right away, it’s a good idea to look at figuring out why. Is it an easy answer, like I drank alcohol, ate a heavy meal, took medication? Was there a long nap in the afternoon, exercise too close to bedtime, maybe caffeine after 1 p.m.? Or is it something on a deeper scale — am I processing a traumatic event or grieving? Is there a medical condition that needs attention? If it’s the latter, a routine is even more important.

Doing a brain dump in a journal or notebook can help get it out onto paper, externally parking it so to speak. Imagine a calm blue river, with gentle water flowing. Now, put your worry into the river and watch it on the water moving farther away, getting smaller and smaller until you can’t see it anymore. Do that a few times, if needed.

The more intentional we are about our sleep habits, the better we’ll get at sussing out the reason we’re not sleeping well. The mystery will eventually be solved if we just keep tackling one small clue at a time.

What are your thoughts about taking a nap during the day? Is that a good idea, or can it affect the ability to sleep well at night?

Unless someone has an illness or chronic condition (or is a baby or toddler) naps can disrupt our overnight sleep. Quick, 15- to 20-minute siestas can be delicious though, like when we’re on vacation or during a relaxing weekend. Just keep them brief and stick to the same bedtime routine.

Wonderful. We are nearly done. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-).

No question… Guy Raz. His NPR show and book, “How I Built This,” have been my one constant source of inspiration, especially while launching Mineral & Co. Guy, and the entrepreneurs he interviews, are not only uplifting but have kept me from walking away. He reminds me to keep plugging away because my vision is brighter than any obstacle. Guy finds the common thread and connects us all to it.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can check out our website and subscribe to our newsletter at https://mineralandcompany.com.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine

Published in Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Authority Magazine Editorial Staff
Authority Magazine Editorial Staff

Written by Authority Magazine Editorial Staff

In-depth interviews with authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech

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