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0:38

Hey, LifeKit listeners. I'm Clare Marie Schneider,

0:40

a producer for this show. And today

0:42

we have launched a special new series.

0:44

It is called LifeKits Guide to Better

0:46

Sleep. It's a newsletter project

0:48

that we've been working on for the last

0:51

couple of months. If you sign up, you

0:53

will receive a series of emails over one

0:55

week with lots of tips that you can

0:57

try that very night to prioritize and improve

1:00

your sleep. You can sign up by going

1:02

to npr.org/sleepweek. You can also find the link

1:04

in our episode description. Again, the way to

1:06

sign up is by going to npr.org slash

1:09

sleepweek. I hope you sign

1:11

up. And of course, I hope you sleep well tonight.

1:14

You're listening to LifeKit from

1:17

NPR. How

1:23

are you sleeping these days? You getting enough shut

1:25

eye? Yeah. I mean, I

1:27

guess we could all be sleeping a little better, right? I

1:29

feel like I do it to myself. I

1:31

know you're not supposed to read the phone in

1:33

bed. It's just so hard. I

1:36

mean, sleep has a huge impact on

1:38

our health. It helps our brains function.

1:40

It supports our immune system. It protects against

1:42

heart disease and diabetes. And

1:44

without it, we would die. Though

1:47

for something so important, we're never formally

1:49

taught how to do it right. In

1:52

America, you learn about nutrition

1:54

or sex ed in school growing up, but

1:56

really never about sleep. And so a lot

1:58

of the information that we have— he

10:00

had a bed in his

10:02

office, and he would often,

10:04

there are reports of him taking

10:06

very extended naps in the afternoon.

10:08

Wow, that stinker. And

10:12

so one of the things that is often

10:14

not talked about is the compensatory naps that

10:16

individuals, if you're not getting enough sleep, will

10:20

likely be relying on naps. If

10:22

we look at the hard health outcomes, and

10:24

we look at how long people

10:26

are sleeping, there is a sweet spot,

10:29

and that is seven to nine hours.

10:31

And that's where we see the most

10:33

optimal health and wellbeing, improved

10:36

heart health, cardiometabolic outcomes,

10:40

longevity, brain health into our

10:42

older years, are all

10:44

in those that are sleeping as

10:46

much as they can, as many nights of

10:49

the week as possible in that range of

10:51

seven to nine hours, and hitting that need,

10:53

again, as many nights of the week as

10:55

possible. Okay, well, if you

10:57

are looking at this range of seven

11:00

to nine hours, how do

11:02

you know where you fall? What is

11:04

your sweet spot? Depending

11:06

on where you are today, if you

11:08

are maybe sleeping six hours, the

11:11

best way to try to get into the recommended

11:13

range and then figure out where you are when

11:15

it comes to your personal sleep need is

11:17

to start tonight, add just 15 minutes

11:20

to your overall sleep routine, starting the

11:22

process to bed a little bit earlier,

11:24

unplugging from screens, starting your bedtime routine,

11:27

and making sure that you're in bed

11:29

in between the sheets about 15 minutes

11:32

earlier than usual. And then

11:34

see how you feel the next day, if that

11:36

brings you to six hours and 15 minutes, wonderful.

11:39

And if you're able to wake up and

11:41

really feel refreshed and also have energy through

11:43

the day and not really be reaching for

11:46

coffee or energy

11:48

drinks in the afternoon, then you're

11:50

inching closer to your sleep need.

11:53

And then if that's not quite enough,

11:55

however, the next night add

11:57

another 15 minutes. Well,

11:59

Along the lines of sleep hygiene,

12:03

here's another myth that watching TV in

12:05

bed is a good way to relax

12:07

before you go to sleep. Now

12:11

here's the thing with this myth. Yes, it is a

12:13

myth. It is not something we're going to recommend because

12:16

what's happening is you're in bed, you're

12:19

starting to associate your bed with

12:21

things other than sleep, which is

12:23

actually contrary to some of our

12:25

key recommendations. We often say, keeps

12:27

bed for sleep. So

12:29

that's the first thing that we're doing things in bed

12:31

that are non-sleep related. But then

12:33

you're also maybe looking at a

12:35

television screen or worse, a laptop

12:38

screen. If that's the only screen

12:40

you have to watch a show on, then maybe that's

12:42

on your lap and that might be something

12:44

that's emitting heat, which isn't ideal. We

12:46

really want to keep the body cool

12:49

as we approach bedtime. And

12:51

then if what you're watching is stressful,

12:53

that could also cause your cortisol to

12:55

spike and hinder your ability to fall

12:57

asleep. So watching TV

13:00

is not something that we would recommend before

13:02

bed. There might be

13:04

one exception here, and that is

13:06

we hear often that some people

13:09

have routines they fall asleep to.

13:12

Maybe they have an episode of Friends or

13:14

Seinfeld and it's on a timer and it

13:16

will go off after 20 or 30 minutes.

13:20

But there's something about the characters in a certain

13:22

show that is soothing to some people.

13:25

So the only exception to this

13:27

myth is if it's not broken, don't

13:29

worry about fixing it. So

13:32

if you find falling asleep to a soothing show

13:35

is relaxing, wonderful, God bless you, carry

13:37

on. But if you find

13:39

that you're watching the nightly news and

13:42

it's stressful and you're

13:44

struggling to power down, then this might be

13:46

something to cut out. Well,

13:49

what about as an alternative, just

13:52

like laying up, sort of

13:54

staring at the ceiling, mentally

13:56

flipping through the highlight reel of every mistake

13:58

you've ever made? Being

18:00

able to fall asleep anywhere, anytime is not

18:02

necessarily a good thing. It might just be

18:04

a sign that you're sleep deprived. One

18:07

night of bad sleep is not going to have

18:09

long-term negative effects. Now this one

18:11

surprised me. It is okay to exercise before

18:14

bed. Maybe don't get too intense

18:16

about it, but if that's when you can squeeze in

18:18

your workout, do it. Another tip

18:20

Robin shared with me. If

18:22

you're having trouble sleeping, that may be because your

18:24

bedroom is too warm. Make sure

18:26

it's cool, like under 70 degrees. Some

18:29

people do prefer a warmer environment, but

18:32

we do have data to show that

18:34

when we increase temperature,

18:36

there is more sleep fragmentation, so more

18:38

tossing and turning, more disruption from sleep,

18:41

and more nightmares. And

18:44

as always, try not to look at your phone in

18:46

bed. I know it's hard, but that phone

18:48

will be waiting for you in the morning. Promise.

18:55

For more Life Kit, check out

18:57

our other episodes. We have one

18:59

about dealing with insomnia and another

19:01

about revenge bedtime procrastination. You

19:03

can find those at npr.org/life kit. And

19:06

if you love Life Kit and want

19:08

even more, subscribe to our newsletter at

19:10

npr.org/ life kit newsletter. Also

19:13

we'd love to hear from you, so if you

19:15

have episode ideas or feedback you want to share,

19:17

email us at lifekit at npr.org. This

19:21

episode of Life Kit was produced by Claire Marie

19:23

Schneider. Our visuals editor is Beth

19:25

Harlan, and our digital editor is Malika Gharib.

19:28

Megan Cain is the supervising editor,

19:30

and Beth Donovan is our executive

19:32

producer. Our production team also includes

19:34

Andy Tegel, Audrey Nguyen, Margaret Serino,

19:36

and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering

19:38

support comes from Rebecca Brown and Joshua

19:40

Newell. I'm Mariel Seguera. Thanks

19:43

for listening. This message comes

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