5. Sleep

Creativity productivity, enhanced mood andenergy. You need to sleep seven to eight hours a night unless you're in thevery small percentage of people who have a genetic code that enables them tosleep five hours and be healthy. Sleep also has a profound impact on the otherkeys of lifestyle medicine.

[00:00:30] The fourth key of healthierliving is sleep. Sleep is foundational for health. Getting a good night's sleepis one of the most important things you can do for your overall health andwellbeing. It rests and restores our body and brain. During night's sleep. It'sthought that waste products are removed from the brain.

[00:00:51] Memories are solidified andother hormones that help to regulate appetite are released. You may have heardabout leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin is the gremlin, and it's the one thatincreases our appetite. Leptin is the hormone that helps to keep us lean whenyou are sleep deprived. Guess what? Braelin goes up and left and goes down.

[00:01:19] You have more of the gremlin andless of the keep yourself lean hormone. You need your sleep to regulate theseimportant appetite hormones. There's a lot of research in this area. One recentstudy reported that individuals who slept about 3.5 hours only consumed 385more calories. The next day. And guess what those calories were mostly junkfood, simple carbs sweets seems to be a craving for these simple carbs.

[00:01:56] When we are sleep deprived,sleep is tied to other healthy habits that are intricately connected. Perhapssome of you have been sleep deprived and unable to get up for the morningworkout that you had planned, or you're too exhausted to work out after thework day. And lack of sleep increases stress levels.

[00:02:18] Some of you might be aware ofthese connections. You may have noted this for yourself, but did you know sleepdeprivation is connected to a number of diseases and conditions, includingobesity, depression, anxiety, suicide, impaired immunity, substance usefatigue. And work-related accidents. It's also associated with decreasedcognition, decreased performance in memory impaired decision-making and caraccidents.

[00:02:56] It's connected with caraccidents because your reaction time is significantly reduced when you're sleepdeprived, by the way. If you went to Harvard medical school and you wanted toparticipate in a sleep study, if you have been sleeping less than six hours pernight, You'd be put into the sleep deprive category of subjects.

[00:03:19] Sleep is a complex physiologicprocess and how we experience sleep can vary from person to person. As a busyprofessional. Many people do not get enough sleep on a regular basis. You mayhave a deadline looming or have trouble falling asleep. I know I've been theretoo.

[00:03:41] I'll share a personal storyhere. About a time when I was sleep deprived. And I'm lucky to be telling youthe story. Now I was a medical student at Stanford and rotating at San JoseValley medical center. That's where I did my surgical rotation. I wanted toimpress everyone. I was really into medical school and loved the clinicalrotations.

[00:04:10] In order to impress surgeons,you have to work very, very hard. In fact, staying up all night was almost arequirement in my mind. It was. So I did just, that stayed up all night, checkedon all the patients, reviewed all the records and did research on the diseasesthat these patients had and the surgeries that were going to cure them.

[00:04:33] Stayed up all night groundedwith the team in the morning, gave the presentations. I worked so hard onovernight, felt energized during the early morning. And then after rounds, whenwe were dismissed and I was allowed to go home, I felt tired. I thought tomyself, take a nap in the on-call room, but then now.

[00:04:59] Instead I thought, Oh, I canmake it home. It's a half hour from San Jose Valley medical center to Stanfordwhere my apartment was, I could make it. That'd be fine. Then I can sleep hoursin my own bed. So he got in my car. I drove out of the car parking lot. I tooka left and then honestly, I don't know what happened.

[00:05:21] I really don't. I just know thatI woke up with a startle. And I was on a street that I had never seen before.Apparently I went straight through a stop sign instead of taking a right-handturn, which would have led me back to Stanford. I am grateful that I did nothit anyone, hurt anyone or injure myself.

[00:05:49] This was a huge wake up call forme. And now if I am driving and I noticed that my eyes are closing, I will pullover. I will find a safe place and I will inform loved ones where I am andwhat's happening. And I will actually take a 20 minute nap is that's the safeway to proceed. Insufficient sleep is based on getting less than seven hours ofsleep per night.

[00:06:17] As I told you, you will go inthe sleep deprived category of subjects. If you are sleeping less than six, thenational sleep foundation recommends. We sleep seven to nine hours a night.That's for everyone over the age of 17. If you're not getting sufficient sleep,you will suffer. The impact of insufficient sleep, not only makes us feelsleepy and moody, it also can affect our performance and productivity and overthe longterm effect, our mental abilities and quality of life.

[00:06:55] When you are achieving thenational sleep foundation guidelines and able to sleep soundly for seven tonine hours or so you are getting restful sleep. This is going to help you withreaction time in the car with any activities during the day that requirereaction time going to help improve your mood and definitely help productivityand creativity.

[00:07:24] Let's say you're working laterthan usual and you don't get a full restful night's sleep. The next day, youmay be feeling pretty tired in the late afternoon. Probably around 3:00 PM.When we have a natural lull in energy. At that time, you could take a nap, butdon't sleep longer than 20 to 30 minutes or else you'll interrupt your normalevening sleeping pattern, but a nap can be healthy.

[00:07:54] You may be thinking it's notthat I stay up late working it's that I have trouble falling asleep and gettinga good night's sleep.

[00:08:07] Here's some simple tips andsmall changes that can make a big difference in your sleep patterns. One, makethe bedroom a cave. And reserve the bed for sleep and sex only to the bedroomneeds to be dark, quiet and cool set the temperature for between 60 and 70degrees Fahrenheit or 15 to 21 degrees Celsius because the core bodytemperature dropping is a natural pattern for sleep initiation.

[00:08:45] So keep your bedroom cool.Three, make sure to work with the daylight when you wake up, get exposure tothat beautiful sunlight in the morning around noon. Make sure to see the lightof day. This will help reinforce your natural circadian rhythm to be awake duringthe daylight and asleep during the night for here's a interesting physiologicfact for you at night, the pineal gland releases melatonin.

[00:09:16] You've heard of that. A lot ofpeople are taking melatonin supplements to help them sleep. No need for that.If you're working with your circadian rhythm and you're avoiding bluewavelength light at night, why do I say this? Because blue wavelength lightblocks the release of melatonin from your pineal gland.

[00:09:42] So what are the recommendations?I'm not going to tell you. So take melatonin supplements, although perhaps onoccasion, you may need this for a short period of time. What we're doing todayin this course is learning about sustainable lifestyle change. So what I'llrecommend to you is that you put your devices okay.

[00:10:05] Two hours before bedtime. Imean, your phone, your laptop, your computer. And also you don't watchtelevision. Now you're saying there's no way that's going to happen because Iwork all night. Okay. I hear you. So what I will recommend in this case is thatperhaps you look into glasses that block blue wavelength flight or apps thatwill turn tonight mode so that you don't get exposure to blue wavelength light.

[00:10:37] When you're on your phone, yourlaptop, your computer. These are suggestions for you so that you can allow yournatural physiology to take over and enjoy sound sleep. After the release ofmelatonin from your pineal gland five here's your fifth and final tip. It hasto do with something near and dear to many of your hearts, caffeine coffee.

[00:11:05] Hm. I love this myself. And Iwill tell you that I enjoy a cup or two every morning, but I do not drink itafter 10:00 AM. And as a lifestyle medicine physician, I recommend that peopledo not consume any caffeinated beverages. So that includes tea, diet Cokes,sodas that have caffeine. Don't consume them afternoon time.

[00:11:35] If you are having trouble withsleep, the recommendation is not to consume them. After 10. Most people usesome type of caffeine around 3:00 PM when we have the low, why is that? Becauseit works. Caffeine is a stimulant. It makes us more alert and energized, buthere's the problem. And many physicians don't know this.

[00:12:04] We didn't learn it in medicalschool. We learn all about different drugs, but interestingly in caffeine,which, which is a drug, we don't learn about it's pharmacology. So I'm going togive you a little lesson that I give to medical students and physicians,caffeine binds to the same receptor as a dentist scene.

[00:12:27] You're saying what's adenosine,adenosine builds up throughout the day as we do activities. So we wake up witha low level of adenosine. It's been cleared throughout the night through oursleep. And then throughout the day, while we work, while we move, we build upadenosine, adenosine. Binds to a receptor when it's at a certain level of highlevel, which happens usually around 11:00 PM and it is a signal for sleep.

[00:12:56] But if we drink caffeinatedbeverages, then caffeine will in fact bind to the same receptor that adenosineis meant to bind to. And caffeine has the exact opposite effect. It stimulatesus. Here's an important fact about caffeine. It has a half-life of four to sixhours. What does that mean? It means if you enjoy a cup of coffee at 3:00 PM,one half of it will still be in your system.

[00:13:28] That caffeine is still in yoursystem. Four to six hours later. Meaning if you're drinking it at three. Seveno'clock or nine o'clock. You still have half of that caffeine in your systemand this disrupts sleep for many people. There are some of you who are sayingright now. Well, I drink coffee after dinner at 10:00 PM and I go right tosleep.

[00:13:51] Well, look, if you are enjoyingsound sleep, Then continue what you are doing as you see fit. I am speakingwith two people now who are struggling with sleep and want to do anything theycan to enjoy a good night's sleep checking in on your caffeine intake and thetiming of your caffeine intake can really make a difference.

[00:14:17] Speaking about drugs andchemicals that interrupts sleep. I can't neglect alcohol here. So a lot ofpeople do drink alcohol and enjoy that. Now, if you're drinking to help youfall asleep, there's some issues with that because we actually want to get to thepoint where we fall asleep naturally, but let's continue if you're drinking tohelp you fall asleep, that may work.

[00:14:44] But the problem is alcohol isknown. To disrupt REM sleep. So you may notice that you wake up at 3:00 AM.2:00 AM, 4:00 AM, somewhere around there and have trouble getting back tosleep. We consider alcohol, actually a sleep disruptor, the guidelines aroundalcohol. Again, I'll just mention wondering for a woman and two drinks for aman or none at all.

[00:15:15] If you are going to consumealcohol, we recommend that you do so at least three, four hours before bedtime.So along with your dinner meal,

[00:15:33] this is a good time to talkabout the American heart associations, recommendations and guidelines foralcohol. First off, if you aren't drinking, don't start. That's therecommendation. If you are drinking, limit yourself to one drink for a woman ortwo drinks for a man, women have less alcohol dehydrogenase, a D H in theirstomach linings, and thus metabolize, only a small amount of alcohol in theirstomachs.

[00:16:02] The rest goes into thebloodstream. Thus alcohol and women has about twice the effect. Is that in men?Remember, if you don't drink, don't start. If you drank limit yourself to onefor a woman and two for a man, what is a serving of alcohol? 12 ounces ofregular beer, which is usually about 5% alcohol, five ounces of wine, which istypically about 12% alcohol or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, which is about40% alcohol.

[00:16:38] Let's put this in different terms.If you are a woman and you are drinking more than three drinks in a day or morethan seven drinks in a week, or if you were a man and you were drinking morethan four drinks in a day or 14 drinks in a week, then you are at risk forproblems with alcohol, the American cancer society recommends.

[00:17:00] No drinking at all zero drinks.If you're worried about cancer, the answer is none. In terms of alcohol,

[00:17:14] you get restorative sleep. Eachnight sleep is essential for health to be our most creative and productive atwork, we need seven to nine hours of sleep. There are factors that disruptsleep and factors that enhance sleep. What are some ways you can alter yourenvironment and your habits every night to ensure you enjoy a sound night's sleep.

[00:17:41] As we come to the end of ourfourth key on sleep, I want you to reflect on the importance of sound sleep,especially its impact on the brain and body. And how intricately tied sleep isto the other heres of healthier living

[00:18:03] for sleep adds up over time andcan negatively affect your performance and mood at work. How will you considerthe sleep you currently get in your life and make changes to go with yoursleeping habits? And environment, the practical strategies we learned for prioritizingand improving sleep can help you in considering today, how to make change for amore restful tomorrow and in doing so help you reach your fullest potential.

[00:18:38] After reflecting on all thisinformation, take a moment to write down which of the tips resonated with youto get a restorative and sound sleep. Each night, lack of asleep leads to poorreaction times, which can have an impact on any projects you're doing at work,as well as your own activities of daily living at home.

[00:19:07] I'll see you next time for ourfifth key on social connections. What you just heard was the keys to healthierliving, unlocking your full potential. I Himalaya learning audio course. Besure to check out all the other exclusive courses in the Himalaya app or onhimalaya.com.