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0:00
You're listening to Life Kit from
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NPR. Hey,
0:07
everybody. It's Mariel. Before we
0:09
jump into the episode, I want to share another
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exciting thing Life Kit is working on for New
0:14
Year's. This month in our newsletter,
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we're sharing tips and new ways of thinking
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to help you get closer to your priorities
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and interests and let go of whatever isn't
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working. Our newsletter is like
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an extension of the podcast. It's this
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intimate space where we get to communicate
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directly with you, our listeners. So
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subscribe to our newsletter at
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npr.org/life kit newsletter. How
0:36
are you sleeping these days? You getting enough shut
0:38
eye? Yeah. I
0:40
mean, I guess we could all be sleeping a little better, right?
0:42
I feel like I do it to myself. I
0:45
know you're not supposed to read the phone in bed. It's
0:48
just so hard. But hey, New
0:50
Year seems like a good time to get
0:52
this whole slumbering thing under control. I
0:54
mean, sleep has a huge impact on our health. It
0:57
helps our brains function. It supports our
0:59
immune system, protects against heart disease and
1:02
diabetes. And without it, we
1:04
would die. Though for something
1:06
so important, we're never formally taught how
1:08
to do it right. In
1:10
America, you learn about, you know,
1:13
nutrition or sex ed in school growing up, but
1:15
really never about sleep. And so a lot of
1:17
the information that we have and the knowledge that
1:19
we have is passed down
1:21
through our parents, our caregivers. And
1:23
it might not be evidence based.
1:26
Rebecca Robbins is an assistant professor of
1:28
medicine at Harvard Medical School and a
1:31
sleep scientist at the Brigham and Women's
1:33
Hospital. She and some colleagues
1:35
have published research on common sleep myths. And
1:38
there are a lot of them. On
1:40
this episode of Life Kit, we'll walk through some of
1:42
those myths and give you tips on how
1:44
to get better sleep. Support for this NPR podcast
1:46
and the following message come from
1:48
Amgen, a biotechnology
1:51
pioneer leading the fight against the world's toughest diseases. such
2:00
as cancer, heart disease, asthma, and
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osteoporosis. In a new era of
2:04
human health, Amgen continues to accelerate
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the pace of change, operating sustainably
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and drawing upon deep knowledge of
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science to push beyond what's known
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today. With each decade, they reliably
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deliver powerful new therapies to patients.
2:17
Learn more at amgen.com. Okay,
2:22
Rebecca, let's get into some of the myths. One
2:25
that stuck out to us is that
2:27
it doesn't matter what time of day you
2:30
sleep. Now this is
2:32
a myth because unfortunately, it does
2:34
matter. The
2:36
circadian rhythm, this internal circuitry that
2:38
guides the secretion of the essential
2:41
sleep hormone melatonin, that
2:43
circuitry is significantly influenced
2:46
by natural sunlight in
2:48
our environment. We are,
2:50
as human beings, built to
2:52
respond to the light in our environment. And
2:54
when the sun comes up, that sunshine that
2:56
we're able to get by going outside stops
2:59
the floodgates of melatonin, the sleep
3:01
hormone, and switches the on phase
3:04
of our circadian rhythm. And
3:06
then conversely, going into a cool,
3:08
ideally cool, dark environment is
3:10
what allows for the secretion of
3:13
melatonin. So light plays
3:15
a really integral role in our
3:17
ability to sleep in a very
3:19
fundamental way. And
3:21
now because of the importance of light, individuals
3:23
who are working on maybe
3:26
overnight schedules or shift schedules
3:29
that are outside the typical nine to five
3:31
p.m. window that would allow us to align
3:33
our sleep with the patterns of light and
3:35
darkness in our environment, unless
3:38
they are very diligent and
3:40
very careful about the exposure they get
3:42
to natural sunlight, those individuals unfortunately
3:45
face a marked increase for
3:47
concerning health outcomes. What
3:49
kinds of health outcomes are we talking about? Unfortunately,
3:52
some of the research has shown in physicians
3:55
and in nurses who are commonly
3:57
working on such schedules, there
3:59
is. increase for outcomes such
4:01
as diabetes and breast cancer
4:03
and others that are concerning.
4:06
And sleep is implicated in that
4:08
equation, is one of the factors
4:10
that contributes to that increased
4:13
risk. So unfortunately, those individuals
4:15
really struggle to get good
4:17
sleep and consistent
4:19
and consolidated sleep that supports their health
4:21
and well-being. So it sounds like
4:23
it's not enough if you're, you know,
4:26
on that schedule to have blackout
4:28
curtains or something like that when you're trying to
4:30
sleep in the middle of the day because you've
4:33
just been exposed to light and
4:35
your body still knows that it's the daytime.
4:38
If you're very diligent, if you have very
4:40
thick blackout curtains and are very careful, some
4:42
of the recommendations we give shift workers are
4:45
to, for instance, a nurse working
4:47
in the hospital on the drive home where
4:49
sunglasses to kind of trick your
4:51
brain that it's not going to have sunrise
4:53
around you, trying to avoid
4:55
light in your work environment as you
4:57
approach the end of your shift, avoiding
5:00
food also in those early morning hours
5:02
before the sun rises, trying to get
5:04
home and get consolidated sleep. But
5:07
there are a host of other challenges because if you're a
5:09
shift worker and maybe have a family,
5:12
you likely are having to constantly shift
5:14
your schedule back and forth between their
5:16
work schedule and their personal schedule. It's
5:19
so hard because it can
5:21
feel like when you're on one of those
5:23
jobs, like there is no escape. What
5:25
about this one? Being
5:29
able to fall asleep anytime, anywhere
5:31
is a good thing. We
5:34
hear this often. People say, you know, oh,
5:36
so-and-so is able to fall right asleep. I'm
5:38
so jealous. They're such a good sleeper. But
5:41
this is a myth because it takes
5:43
a well-rested, healthy person
5:46
even about 15 or 20 minutes or maybe
5:48
a little bit longer to fall asleep. It's
5:50
a myth that a good sleeper would be able to
5:53
hit the pillow and fall asleep right away.
5:56
And this is because sleep
5:58
really is a process. And falling asleep
6:00
does take a little bit of time, but
6:03
it is a myth that falling asleep is a
6:05
good thing when it's immediate because
6:08
that's instead really a sign that you
6:10
were starved for sleep. And
6:12
so same thing, if you were starved
6:14
for food and you sat down at
6:16
any opportunity and had a huge
6:19
meal and ate voraciously, then
6:21
that would probably be a sign that you're
6:23
not getting enough nutrition. So
6:25
the same thing with sleep. Okay,
6:28
next myth, that one night
6:30
of sleep deprivation will have lasting
6:32
negative effects. This
6:34
is a myth because it's not going to
6:37
be perfect every night and so every now
6:39
and then we might struggle. And
6:41
that's because sleep is a consequence of
6:43
the human condition. So if we experience
6:45
some stress during the day and our
6:49
sleep suffers that night, the key
6:51
message here is that that can happen
6:53
from time to time, but not to
6:55
beat yourself up too much and
6:58
instead try to get back on track as
7:00
fast as possible. Okay, well,
7:03
what about this one? Many adults
7:05
need only five or few hours of sleep
7:07
for general health. I've heard a lot of people
7:09
say this like, oh, I just don't need to
7:12
sleep that much. It's fine. I
7:14
sleep four hours a night and I feel great. And
7:17
unfortunately in our society, people often brag about
7:19
that. Yeah. I think we have a
7:21
long way to go to really position sleep. In
7:24
our society as a part of daytime
7:27
performance and success, unfortunately,
7:29
it has a little bit of a bad rap that
7:31
people who are maybe meeting their sleep need or look
7:34
well rested or lazy. But
7:36
indeed, this is a myth. We
7:39
do have a couple anecdotal reports. Thomas
7:41
Edison, for instance, would brag about only needing
7:44
four hours of sleep. What he forgot
7:46
to mention is that he had a bed
7:49
in his office and he
7:51
would often, there are reports of
7:53
him taking very extended naps in
7:55
the afternoon. Wow, that stinker. One
8:00
of the things that is often not talked about is
8:02
the compensatory naps that individuals who
8:04
are not getting enough sleep will
8:06
likely be relying on naps. If
8:09
we look at the heart health outcomes and
8:11
we look at how long people
8:13
are sleeping, there is a sweet spot
8:16
and that is seven to nine hours. And that's
8:18
where we see the most
8:20
optimal health and well-being, improved
8:23
heart health, cardiometabolic outcomes,
8:27
longevity, brain health into our
8:29
older years are all
8:31
in those that are sleeping as much
8:33
as they can, as many nights of
8:35
the week as possible in that range
8:37
of seven to nine hours and hitting
8:40
that need again as many nights of
8:42
the week as possible. Okay,
8:44
well if you are looking at this
8:46
range of seven to nine hours, how
8:49
do you know where you fall? What like what
8:51
is your sweet spot? Depending
8:54
on where you are today, if you were
8:56
maybe sleeping six hours, the best
8:58
way to try to get into the recommended range and
9:00
then figure out where you are when it comes
9:02
to your personal sleep need is
9:05
to start tonight, add just 15 minutes
9:07
to your overall sleep routine, starting the
9:09
process to bed a little bit earlier, unplugging
9:12
from screens, starting your bedtime routine
9:14
and making sure that you're in
9:16
bed in between the sheets about 15
9:18
minutes earlier than usual. And
9:21
then see how you feel the next day if that brings you
9:23
to six hours and 15 minutes, wonderful.
9:26
And if you're able to wake up and
9:28
really feel refreshed and also have energy through
9:31
the day and not really be reaching for
9:34
coffee or energy drinks in the
9:36
afternoon, then you're inching closer
9:38
to your sleep need. And
9:40
then if that's not quite enough, however,
9:42
the next night add another 15
9:44
minutes. Well, along
9:47
the lines of sleep, sleep
9:49
hygiene, here's another
9:51
myth that watching TV in bed
9:53
is a good way to relax
9:55
before you go to sleep. Now
9:58
here's the thing with this myth. Yes, it is a good way to relax. myth.
10:00
It is not something we're going
10:02
to recommend because what's happening is
10:04
you're in bed, you're starting to
10:06
associate your bed with things other
10:08
than sleep, which is actually contrary
10:10
to some of our key recommendations.
10:12
We often say keep bed for
10:15
sleep. So that's the first
10:17
thing that we're doing, things in bed that are non-sleep
10:19
related. But then you're also maybe
10:21
looking at a television
10:23
screen or worse a laptop screen. If that's
10:25
the only screen you have to watch a
10:28
show on, then maybe that's on your lap and that
10:30
might be something that's emitting
10:32
heat, which isn't ideal. We really want
10:34
to keep the body cool as we
10:36
approach bedtime. And that
10:38
if what you're watching is stressful, that
10:40
could also cause your cortisol to spike
10:43
and hinder your ability to fall asleep.
10:46
So watching TV is not something that
10:48
we would recommend before bed. There
10:50
might be one exception here
10:52
and that is we hear often
10:55
that some people have routines they
10:57
fall asleep to. Maybe they
10:59
have an episode of Friends or Seinfeld
11:01
and it's not a timer and it
11:03
will go off after 20 or
11:06
30 minutes. But there's
11:08
something about the characters in a certain show
11:10
that is soothing to some people.
11:12
So the only exception to
11:14
this myth is if it's not broken,
11:17
don't worry about fixing it. So if
11:19
you find falling asleep to a soothing
11:21
show is relaxing, wonderful, God
11:23
bless you, carry on. But if
11:25
you find that you're watching the
11:27
nightly news and it's
11:30
stressful and you're struggling to
11:32
power down, then this might be something to
11:34
cut out. Well what about
11:37
as an alternative just laying
11:41
up, sort of staring at the ceiling,
11:43
mentally flipping through the highlight reel of every
11:45
mistake you've ever made? Unfortunately
11:48
this is common before bedtime. It's wild.
11:50
I feel like it's my personal faves.
11:52
Right? Well I think you're not alone.
11:54
I think this happens to a lot
11:56
of people because in our modern lives
11:58
we're consuming content and responding to
12:00
emails and you get into
12:03
this mode in our workday and then suddenly
12:06
that all comes to a screeching halt
12:08
at night and we're supposed
12:10
to crawl into bed and go right to sleep.
12:12
So I think one very simple strategy that we
12:15
could all do and really benefit from is really
12:17
focusing on one or two really good
12:20
things that happened in your day. Whether
12:22
that was something that a colleague said
12:25
or someone that passed you on the
12:27
Metro that helped you with
12:29
a bag, something that was
12:31
really positive and focusing on that. There
12:34
are also a series of
12:36
meditation and relaxation strategies and there
12:38
are lots of very specific exercises,
12:40
box breathing, the 4-7-8 technique. A
12:43
lot of these are really powerful
12:45
for helping you find peace in
12:47
the moment which is again what we all need before bed.
12:50
So building in one of those strategies could be
12:52
a really great way to overcome that challenge before
12:54
bedtime. I like to use the
12:56
moments before sleep to completely rethink my
12:59
relationship and touch base on
13:01
all the stressful things that happened. Yeah,
13:03
think about what I've done. Well, Marilyn, I
13:05
hear you, right? And sometimes you need space
13:07
for that but one way is to maybe
13:10
just try to not do that in bed.
13:12
If I were to make
13:14
one small suggestion because
13:16
if we're doing that in bed then
13:18
we're starting to associate stress and worry
13:21
and negative things with bed and sleep.
13:24
And so maybe have a, I know it
13:26
sounds cheesy, but sometimes we recommend having a
13:28
concentrated worry time. Give yourself a couple minutes
13:30
before bedtime to get it all out and
13:33
maybe you're writing it down or sometimes when it's
13:35
just lingering in your mind it just is so
13:37
much worse. But when you write things down your
13:39
worries it's like it's not so
13:41
bad after all. Yeah, it occurs to me
13:43
I have a chair I never sit in
13:46
maybe I'll make it my worry chair. I
13:48
love it. Rebrand that chair. Okay,
13:50
one more that we thought was interesting that
13:54
exercising within four hours of
13:56
bedtime will disturb your sleep
13:58
and that's a myth. This
14:01
is a myth because we've really
14:03
said for many years in
14:05
sleep avoid exercise close to bedtime,
14:07
but we actually don't have any good data
14:09
to back that up. I
14:12
love this because there's so many benefits of
14:14
exercise, not only from our health and well-being
14:16
or mental health or physical health, but also
14:19
our sleep health. Those that exercise
14:21
get better sleep, they report deeper sleep,
14:23
more restorative sleep, better sleep
14:25
quality, less sleep fragmentation. Actually,
14:28
exercise releases endorphins, which are mood
14:30
elevators, and that can help with the number
14:32
one cause of sleep difficulties, which is stress.
14:36
Making time for exercise is critical, as many
14:38
days of the week as possible, breaking a
14:41
sweat. This
14:43
is a myth because we just don't have good
14:45
data to say, don't exercise close to bedtime. If
14:49
that's the only time that you can get a
14:51
workout in, then by all means
14:53
carry on and go for that. I do like
14:55
this because it really empowers
14:58
people that maybe only have time to work
15:00
out right before bedtime or in the evening
15:02
hours. It gives them license to do so.
15:05
Okay. Well, thank
15:07
you so much. I have some things to try. Wonderful.
15:14
All right, time for a recap, sleepyheads. Adults
15:17
should be getting seven to nine hours of sleep a
15:19
night. You may think you can
15:21
function on less, but research shows that's associated
15:23
with a higher risk of adverse health
15:25
outcomes. It does matter
15:28
what time of day you sleep, which is
15:30
tough news for shift workers, the people who
15:32
stay up nights making sure we have clean
15:34
water and medical care. If
15:36
this is you, there are things you can do to make
15:38
the situation a little better. Blackout curtains,
15:40
wearing sunglasses on the way home in the
15:42
morning. A lot of this has to do
15:44
with how much light you're exposed to. Being
15:47
able to fall asleep anywhere, anytime is not
15:49
necessarily a good thing. It might just be
15:51
a sign that you're sleep deprived. One
15:54
night of bad sleep is not going to have
15:56
long-term negative effects. Now, this one
15:58
surprised me. It is over. to exercise
16:00
before bed. Maybe you don't get
16:02
too intense about it, but if that's when you can
16:05
squeeze in your workout, do it. Another
16:07
tip Robin shared with me, if you're
16:09
having trouble sleeping, that may be because your
16:11
bedroom is too warm. Make sure
16:14
it's cool, like under 70 degrees. Some
16:16
people do prefer a warmer environment, but
16:18
we do have data to show that
16:20
when we increase temperature, there
16:22
is more sleep fragmentation, so more
16:25
tossing and turning, more disruption from
16:27
sleep, and more nightmares.
16:30
And as always, try not to look at your
16:33
phone in bed. I know it's hard, but
16:35
that phone will be waiting for you in the morning. Promise.
16:42
For more LifeKit, check out our
16:44
other episodes. We have one about
16:46
dealing with insomnia and another about
16:48
revenge bedtime procrastination. You
16:50
can find those at npr.org/LifeKit. And
16:53
if you love LifeKit and want
16:55
even more, subscribe to our newsletter
16:58
at npr.org/LifeKit newsletter. Also,
17:00
we'd love to hear from you. So if
17:02
you have episode ideas or feedback you want
17:04
to share, email us at LifeKit at npr.org.
17:07
This episode of LifeKit was produced by Claire
17:10
Marie Schneider. Our visuals editor is
17:12
Bec Harlan, and our digital editor is
17:14
Malika Garib. Meghan Kane is
17:16
the supervising editor, and Beth Donovan
17:18
is our executive producer. Our production
17:20
team also includes Andy Tagle, Audrey
17:22
Nguyen, Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas.
17:25
Engineering support comes from Rebecca Brown and
17:27
Joshua Newell. I'm Mary
17:29
Alsigara. Thanks for listening.
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