Viral TikTok Sleep Products & Trends on The Good Stuff with Mary Berg

Here's the Convo:

Mary: Social media is flooded with suggestions for ways to get a better sleep. Here to tell us which ones are actually worth the hype is sleep expert Amanda Juus. Hey Amanda, how's it going?

Amanda: Great! How are you? You look wonderful and rested and I must say, we unintentionally match today, so this is an exciting day.

Mary: All right, now let's get into this. The first thing I know we want to talk about is a big one that I think a lot of people suffer with or have someone near them suffering with: snoring.

Amanda: Yes, snoring. So the very first hack we're going to talk about today actually deals with snoring. But before I say anything about snoring—if you snore, snoring can be a medical issue. So anything I say today, before you do anything, you're going to go see a doctor first. And then when you find out, "Listen, my snoring or my open mouth breathing is habitual," yes, then you're going to come back and you're going to do all the things. But if you’ve got sleep apnea, then you listen to your doctor 100%.

Mary: Okay, fantastic. So we are going to start off again with some things that are going to maybe help with that.

Amanda: Yes. So all the rage right now is mouth breathing. When we sleep, we want to be able to breathe through our nose. When we breathe through our nose, we filter... oh, I like that deep breath—I heard that! That was so good. I feel like 80% calmer than I did five seconds ago. So we have a deep breath, we have more oxygen. When we have more oxygen, we sleep better. We filter out yucky stuff from the air. It’s all good for us. So when your mouth breathing is habitual, there are a couple of things that we can use.

Number one is a chin band. Now listen, I’m going to just show you—it really is exactly what it looks like. Do this, okay? And literally, you're going to do that. That’s going to assist you in keeping that mouth closed overnight.

Mary: Fantastic looking.

Amanda: Thank you, yes! I love that you get a little sample of what I look like at home. Option two is mouth taping. Now I’m sure this is all the rage—

Mary: I know! And not because you’re talking too much. I’m thinking a joke about all my teachers...

Amanda: Okay, so this is just regular medical tape. You can literally, if you want to take a look at me, this is me at home, simply putting it on your mouth, going to sleep. That’s going to keep your mouth closed. But I’m going to be honest with you—I didn’t love that. Yes, it made me feel a little claustrophobic. So I really like—there’s actually mouth tape that’s made for your mouth. So this is called Tape Her, there’s Tape Him. It goes in a little X and it gives you a little bit of extra room on the side, which we love. Makes me feel a little bit less scared. And the blue version doesn’t stick to facial hair, which is really cool. So it’s good for if you’ve got that.

Mary: I love that.

Amanda: Right? I know! And again, you can kind of talk like this. I mean, if you really need to say something to your husband—still do it. Maybe he’s snoring. He needs to put one on and you’re good to go.

Mary: Yes, well, this is fantastic. And for any of those mouth breathers out there, you’re all going home with some mouth tape thanks to an operated Tape Her.

Amanda: Okay, fantastic. Now next up, we’re moving on into the world of blue light.

Mary: We all know about like blue light glasses, right?

Amanda: We sure do. And I mean, I really wanted to showcase these because they’re highly fashionable.

Mary: Very fashion. They’re very beautiful. You look like a jazz person.

Amanda: I am a jazz person! I love jazz so much. You have no idea how happy that makes me. Okay, so these are blue light glasses. They may not be fashionable, but the claim is—or the TikTok hack is—that when you wear these and you’re looking at your phone and your screen and your all of your stuff, it’s going to block that blue light. So the blue light from our screens—think about it this way: your brain sees that as sun exposure.

Mary: Oh, like the blue sky?

Amanda: That’s right. Or even just the type of light says, "Don’t sleep." It suppresses melatonin. Melatonin makes you feel tired. So this is supposed to suppress that and allow you to freely use your devices.

Mary: Do you like that?

Amanda: Sounds great.

Mary: It sounds great—but I’m sensing a but.

Amanda: Okay, so I’m an evidence-based practitioner. The evidence is mixed. So we do have some evidence that suggests that these glasses can suppress melatonin by 32%, which is not nothing. Then there’s equal amounts of evidence to say that these glasses do nothing. And really, most sleep medicine doctors are going to recommend just no electronics.

Mary: See, that’s the thing. We all want that quick fix of being like, "But I would love to doom scroll right up until I go to bed. Just give me glasses."

Amanda: You know what I’m talking about. But this? Maybe not. I mean, we’re going to talk about this in general, but try it. If it works for you—everyone builds melatonin at different rates. It’s worth a try.

Mary: Okay, fantastic. Now next up—this one has been around, I feel like, for a while. We’re talking weighted blankets and weighted sleep masks.

Amanda: I know! And when you go on TikTok and you look up weighted products and people use these—I’ve got people wrapping up their whole head, their whole face. I love it so much. There’s actually really good evidence around this. So anytime you have weight on your body, your body is going to produce oxytocin. Oxytocin makes you feel good. When you feel good, you want to sleep. So this does have a lot of good evidence. Number two: a study just last year showed that people who used weighted products fell asleep faster. So we call that quick sleep onset. If you are struggling, I like to recommend this like on the couch. You’re watching your Netflix—not a scary show—you have that on and that’s going to relax you and then go to bed. Some of the drawbacks—it’s not perfect. People don’t like a lot of bulky things on their faces, or these can be hot in some instances.

Mary: That’s for me. That’s my issue.

Amanda: I know. There are products now that have cooling fabric, so it’s cool to the touch. So I mean, if this interests you, if this is a problem for you, it’s worth looking into.

Mary: Okay, fantastic. I love that. All right, now sticking with the kind of light realm—we’ve talked blue light, but let’s talk red light. Because red light, I feel like, is the thing. Everywhere.

Amanda: Everywhere. It helps your skin, it helps your hair—I don’t know—it’s everywhere. And now it helps your sleep. So what I love about this, this is all new stuff. Red light is the hot girl on the block right now. You know, she’s walking around—it’s great. But the evidence is just not there fully. The claims here on TikTok are that when you are exposed to red light—so you can see me, in this case I’ve turned on my red light. I’m going to turn it on here in studio so you can see. So in this product, it stays on for about 14 minutes. You’re supposed to go to sleep and over an additional 14 minutes, it decreases in exposure. Now the claim is that over time it heightens your melatonin production, which makes you feel tired, and lowers cortisol levels, which is your stress hormone. That’s a one-two punch—that’s really great. This is just a regular old light that you can pop in your room that emits red light as well. So I mean, with all these things, it’s new technology. So you want to make sure that what you’re using is high quality red light. You’re going to pay attention to the wattage. And again, like all of these things—try it and see. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it’s worth testing out. Early days, though. Early days.

Mary: I love it. Amanda, this is fantastic. I love being told how to sleep better. My favorite thing to do: cooking and sleeping.

Mary: Hey, Mary here. What did you think? Drop your comments below and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more of the good stuff.