Moment 188: The Real Reason You're Always Tired: Professor Guy Leschziner
10:36 Share

Why sleep of all the things that you could commit so much of your time too? Because IT appears you've been really thinking and working on the subject matter of sleep .

about to twenty O G two decades.

what? why?

Well, I think the first thing is, is that we spend a third of our lives doing IT. And yet we whatever people like me will tell you, we still understand relatively little about IT. We understand relatively little about, you know, what is for what he does to our biology.

Obviously, that's changing very, very quickly. Now it's a IT has a great deal of overlap with the world of clinical neurology. So I also do I D specialist clinic, specialist clinics in epytus y and ID specialist clinics in in general neurology.

So and and sleep and the brain intersect or every single level, of course, is not me saying this, but a famous stake. Sleep is off the brain, by the brain and for the brain is intimately linked to every aspect of how our brain works. So one of the really exciting things is that because it's a relatively new area or understanding of IT is exploding in ways that are not parallel across other areas of clinical medicine.

Is IT important? Is this important?

Yeah, I I think IT is of fundamental importance. You know, the fact is that if sleep wasn't important, IT would be a very stupid thing for evolution to creating us. The fact that we are essentially not switched off from our external environment for a third of our lives. And actually, there's a whole host of evidence when you look at how certain animals have developed the ability to be able to sleep with only half brain at a time. You know, animals like a quality mammals or certain birds, dolphin and dolphin's, that very much suggests well must be of great importance if, if, if sleep is a risk for our survival.

Because if you're an aquatic mem like a dolphin and you're sleeping and you're unable to surface or unable to see what predators are around you, that the the the evolution has designed a system where my IT enables you to sleep with half of your brain at a time. So that in and of itself tells is important. The the fact that the scaean rythm, so that twenty four, our cycle that a whole host of biological rythm have is so intrinsically linked to life itself that actually every single life form exhibits features of this twenty four hours.

Acadian rythm tells us that this was something that was prioritized at very, very early stage in life's evolution on earth. So yes, it's important. And over the last few years, we've understand, understood precisely why it's important. Allant, I say nicely, but we know that it's important for pretty much every aspect of our waking lives, be our immune system, be at our can't diva ashlar system of blood pressure, risk of diabetes, mental health, so depression and anxiety, even how we perceive pain. So IT really is fundamental to every system that we are rely on during our waking lives.

having seen, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of people that struggle with sleep that have been sent center, do you think the the average person on the street over or underestimates the importance of sleep in their data day life.

well, I think is changing. I think IT was not that long ago where you know comment like sleeps for wims was heard fairly frequently and that there were some banging rights associated with how little sleep. I think that there has been a transformation over the last sort of fifty or twenty years whereby people have become much more aware of how important sleep sleepers and have stated prioritising IT a little bit.

So you think where do you think we stand then over restin ate underestimate?

I think that there is still in the general population and underestimation of how importantly peers, but I think there are a certain segments of the population that are much more aware of IT. And perhaps even there, I say over estimate, IT over estimate. Yes, I think so. I think that there is a danger at the current time that we tend to obsession alive and out, sleep and and think that IT is the the bill and end all is, of course, parts of Normal life for sleep to fluctuate depending on what's going on in our external and our internal lives. And I think the danger is that if you over emphasize the import of importance of getting eight or eight half hours sleep every night, then you actually risk problems later down the line and exhibiting things like in soma.

the average person that you've treated worked with in your clinical practice that struggling with sleep is at the heart of the issue. Just pause for sleep hygiene. You've said there yeah, because i've got so many friends that say to me that they travel with their sleep.

Many of them have struggled with IT for years. And I doubt that there some sort of genetic reason why this many people shopping with sleep. So I imagine it's just some kind of behavioral reason. So I think .

that the genes that prety disposed to insomnia pretty widespread, but obviously you in pretty much all, all areas of medicine, there is an interaction between genetics and environment and certainly poor sleep hydron. And that's it's a horrible term. I hate that term, but it's the term that is most widely used and understood, can certainly put in place certain aspects of behavior that then can give rise to chronic insomnia the long term. So if you very bad chronic insomnia, then suddenly putting good sleep pigeon in place is unlikely to fix IT. But IT may be that that poor sleep hydron, in the first instance, gave eyes, or at least pre disposed you to developing in somalia.

And what is poor sleep patching? If I wanted to be the worst possible sleeper, okay, in the world, what would I have to do?

So I think you would probably have to set up your home office in your bedroom OK. You'd have to have your TV on in your bedroom all the time, had been surrounded by a electronic devices, drink a lot of coffee late in the evening, drinks a little bit of alcohol or alcohol. The short term, of course, is quite the dating is the central nervous system depression.

But IT does dramatically worse the quality of you're sleep and for various reasons, the direct chemical effect fact that you ve got a full blood, fact that you're probably snowing a little bit more. So alcohol not a good thing, you know, not having a wine down period. So you know, gambling on the stock market until one A M switching your laptop and then trying to go to bed those kinds of things so that you the quint very, very bad sleep pointing.

What about when I eat?

So you know, eating is packed less important, but avoiding a very large carbon hydrate meal, carbon hydrate rich meal before you go to bed for two reasons Warners. That we know that you can call some fluctuation in terms of your blood sugar. And also, if you've got a bit of reflux IT can .

make that much worse OK. What about sleeping in bed with somebody else?

Well, I think that for some people, they're again, this goes back to no one rule for everybody. You know, if you've got A A sleep trade term, sleep reactivity, which is where your sleep is very liable to your environment. They are obviously sleeping next to somebody who's snoring loudly or who gets up in the middle night two or three times to to your in eight can be can be very disruptive to your sleep if you've got very little sleep activity, you may actually find IT comfortable, more comfortable to sleep with somebody in the .

same bed as you. I was, I was thinking in the day because IT, where of currently moved into, there's no blinds or curtains and and I was wondering if that might be a good thing because at least means that in terms of my cca dian rythm, i'm waking up at the same time every day because i'm waking up when the sun comes up yeah.

but the sun comes up at different times at on different days. Firstly, so if you were doing that routinely, um you might find yourself really rather sleep deprived in the summer months. And also there is some emerging evidence that exposure to light at at night in your sleep is not very good for you.

So there was a very recent study that implied that light exposure night increases your risk abets. So IT certainly is not good for the quality of you're sleep. And the likelihood is that you won't wake up as soon as it's light. You're wake up now or so after it's got lied during that hour or so, IT may have had a negative impact on the quality of your sleep. So having a dark bedroom is really part of good sleep hygiene is having a quiet bedroom that is not too hot, too cold.

What if you wear a sleep mask? Yes.

he does. I mean, I wear a sleep mask. I think it's particular if you don't have good blackout curtains or blinds in your bedroom using a sleeping ass, particularly in the in the summer months, is probably very helpful indeed.

Does that mean that the only love receptor as we have behind their eyes.

well, I think was there were some rumors on the internet that there were light reception elsewhere. But certainly the only ones that we know to be of significance in terms of defining associating rythm are the ones in our reiters crick on want to .

save your heads from our sponsor next week. One of the most overwhelmed parts are running your own business. As many of you entrepreneurs will be up to attest to, is staying on top of your Operations and finances.

Whether you're just starting out or whether you're managing a fast growing company, the complexities only increase. So having the right systems in place is crucial. One which has helped me as one called next week, they're also responsible.

This pocket next week is the number one cloud financial system, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory and hr into one fluid platform. With this single source of truth, you will have the visibility in control to make fast informed decisions, which is crucial in business. I remember the calls of scaling my first business and trying to keep everything in order.

IT was an absolute nightmare, and its tools, like next week, that make this easier. So if you're feeling the pressure, let that sweet light in the load head to next sweet dot com slash ballet. And you can get a free download of the CFO s guide to A I in machine learning that's next sweet dot com slash ballet.