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#HURDLEMOMENT: Expert Tips for A Better Night's Sleep · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Sleep is not going to be perfect every night. The
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: name of the game is that you kind of fine
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: tune your set of tools and strategies that will get
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you to a better night's sleep.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, Emily A body here. You are listening to
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: another installment of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: A wellness focused podcast.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Reconnect with everyone from your favorite athletes to top experts
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and industry CEOs about their highest highs, toughest moments, and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: everything in between. We all go through hurdles in life,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: and my goal through these discussions is to empower you
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: to better navigate yours and move with intention so that
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: you can stride towards your own big potential and of course,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: have some fun along the way.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: For today's please Conversation, a.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Long requested episode, I am chatting about all things sleep
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: with doctor Rebecca Robbins. She is an instructor in medicine
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: at Harvard Medical School and an associate scientist at the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Brigham and Women's Hospital. She's also recently collaborated with Sinesta
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Hotels on a new package that includes various offerings across
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: their properties this month and beyond for better sleep. Especially important,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I can't stress this enough. As I'm on my fifth
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: evening away from home while traveling for today's episode, doctor
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Robbins and I are talking about all things sleep, how
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: to get better sleep, the variables that you can control
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to make your should I even better, increasing the quality.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Plus we're talking about quality verse quantity, what may be
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: more important, and why better sleep is truly critical for
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: your overall health and well being. Trust me, this is
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: an episode you don't want to miss out on. I'm
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: so grateful for Doctor Robbin's expertise in this area. I
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: know that as soon as I started prioritizing my sleep,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I feel that so many things about my overall health
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and wellness routine dramatically changed for the better. These days,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: my sleep sweet spot is over eight hours. I am
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: again prioritizing it in so many ways at this point
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: in time, and I could not be better for it.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: So to reiterate, this week's episode is going.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: To help you do the same.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So everyone I saw up in Boston over the past
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: seven days, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to connect irl.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I am thankfully as you were listening to this headed
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: back to Brooklyn, and man, what a week it was.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Make sure you're following along with Hurdle over on social media.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: It's at hurdle Podcast.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I am over at Emily a Body and with that,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling. Today, I
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: am sitting down with doctor Rebecca Robbins. She's an instructor
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: in medicine at Harvard Medical School and also an associate
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: scientist at the.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Brigham and Women's Hospital. How are you doing today?
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Hi, it's great to see you doing well.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I'm so good. Honestly, it's been a minute since I've
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: had someone onto the show to talk about sleep, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: as we know, sleep literally impacts absolutely everything we do.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm a little giddy about the opportunity to sit
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: down with you today.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: It's my pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Now I've got to ask, as someone who specializes in sleep,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: do you feel any more or life frustrated when you
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: don't get good sleep?
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: That's a great question.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I think one of the key things about sleep is
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that it's not going to be perfect every night. I
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: think that's a hard concept for a lot of us
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to come to grips with, because, especially if you're a
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: little bit type a or perfectionist in nature, you seek
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: perfection in every aspect of your life. And then I think,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: you know, you have a really rich community and following
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of people that are really health conscious, and you know,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: fitness conscious and.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Sleep is a little bit of a different health behavior.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: If you think about exercise, you have an exercise routine,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you have the right clothes, you have the gym, or
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you're planning to run outside, and if you have motivation,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you can barring disability, barring you know, major barriers, you
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: can go out and do the exercise. But when it
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: comes to sleep, what's so interesting is often we can
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: set ourselves up for success. We can have all the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: gear we can, you know, go crawl into the covers
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: around our bedtime, but then suddenly your mind is just
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: going a million miles a minute. Because the truth is
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: sleep is in many ways out of our control. We
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: really set ourselves up for success, but it's a consequence
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  Speaker 1: of you know, sleep is really intimately tied to everything
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  Speaker 1: that happens in our daily lives, and our daily lives
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: are more stressful than ever. There's a lot going on
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: in the world around us, and it's absolutely normal and fine.
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  Speaker 1: For sometimes the stressful events in our lives, whether that's
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: professional things or personal things, or the world events to
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: kind of limit our ability to either fall asleep in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a reasonable amount of time or maybe introduce a risk
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of maybe waking up and struggling a little bit to
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: fall back asleep. The good news is there are so
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: many behavioral strategies that when those issues rear their ugly head,
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  Speaker 1: you can just, you know, double down on to increase
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: again your chance at a good night's rest.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Look at you dancing around the question here, I am
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: asking you how it feels for you if you don't
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  Speaker 2: get a good.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Night all right, lovely, let me tell you last night
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I was working too late, you know, was an up
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: an hour past my bedtime.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: I'm a scientist. I love what I do, and I
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: can't help but.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Sometimes start analyzing a data set and then time flies
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and I'm doing all the worse things. Right, I'm in
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: front of my computer, I'm using my brain. There's a screen,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and of course I crawl into the covers an hour
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: past my bedtime, toss and turn a little bit. Because
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: small changes to our sleep can again increase our risk
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: of difficulties. Because sleep is all about routine so here
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I am, as a sleep scientist.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Throwing you know, myself completely out of whack. And did
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: I feel great this morning? No?
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: You know, I got up and I checked my sleep
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: tracker and I got about seven hours of sleep. But
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I'm someone that needs closer to eight. So I was
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: definitely struggling today. But again it's all about awareness and
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: then try to get back on track.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I've got to ask you what sleep tracker you're using.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: I'm wearing an our ring right now.
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  Speaker 1: There are there's a huge interest in sleep tracking, which
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: is really exciting to see and we think it can
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: be really part of a healthy, you know, sleep routine.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: But you know, SEP trackers ever stress you out. There
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: are some people that you know, get the data and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: that's stressful to them.
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  Speaker 4: And so that's over the case. You can always always
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: take a break.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I wrote an article, I think it was last year
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: about what they called to be the Noseebo effect for
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: GQ and how a lot of people actually feel.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Like these wearables really stress them out. Now I'm off
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: the camp. You're wearing an or ring right now. I'm
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: wearing a.
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  Speaker 2: Wop For me, I feel as though this wearable makes
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: me more cognizant of the good for me habits, and
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: it's kind of like a big brother that enforces them.
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  Speaker 2: But it's really understandable that some people may see something
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: like that, may see all this data maybe a little
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: bit more than they feel as though they need, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: it just feels super overwhelming.
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  Speaker 1: Totally totally, but like to your point, you know, it's
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: just a great input. If it's useful to you, use it,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: run with it, and hopefully it could motivate some It's
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: really all about the reflection when you wake up and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: maybe see a bad number on your tracker. So the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: goal is to kind of see that, like, oh, what
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: did I do yesterday? And think of yourself as this
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: little mini experiment and of one, what did I do
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  Speaker 1: yesterday that might have hindered my sleep last night, and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: then trying to tweak things.
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  Speaker 4: For the next night.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, as I sit here having a sip of diet
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: coke and then immediately thinking about the caffeine intake and
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: when I should stop in taking caffeine, all these things,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: as you said, can be really can definitely impact our sleep.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Now let's start first and foremost, I know you talked
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: about a lot of the things that we can do
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  Speaker 2: for better sleep, and trust me, we will get there.
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  Speaker 2: But how much sleep does someone actually need?
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  Speaker 1: The recommendation for adults is somewhere between seven and nine
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  Speaker 1: hours of sleep. Now, we all differ along that spectrum.
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned I'm personally around the eight hours eight hour mark.
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  Speaker 4: Some people do really.
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  Speaker 1: Well on seven and some people truly need closer to nine.
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  Speaker 1: So thinking about where trying to find wherever you are
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  Speaker 1: in that spectrum. Some of us are you know, the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: lucky ones that are you know, meeting our sleep need
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  Speaker 1: and doing all the things right. But if you're sensing
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: that you're a little bit far from your mark, and
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  Speaker 1: one of the good reasons are the good ways to
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: figure out if you are away from where you want
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  Speaker 1: to be is how do you feel?
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  Speaker 4: First when you wake up?
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel like you need more sleep and you
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: want to hit this snooze bar? The second question is
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  Speaker 1: how do you feel in the afternoon do you feel
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  Speaker 1: like you're dragging? Those could be two sides that you
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  Speaker 1: might do well with a little bit more sleep in
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  Speaker 1: your bank account in a kind of on a day
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  Speaker 1: to day basis, And the best way to start that
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  Speaker 1: change is.
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  Speaker 4: To tonight add fifteen minutes to your overall sleep routine.
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  Speaker 1: Simply just start the process to power down about fifteen
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: minutes earlier than typically than you typically do. So if
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: you generally start to fall asleep around eleven o'clock tonight,
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  Speaker 1: just try that process around eleven o'clock maybe, and building
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  Speaker 1: lots of time and buffer to kind of ease yourself
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: into sleep, and keep moving your bed your bedtime about
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes earlier, and then just start to notice how
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you feel in the afternoon. Do you feel well rested,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: ready to take on the day, and those two key
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: points when you wake up and then in the afternoon,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: and then if you do feel like you can power
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: through and you know, maybe not rely on caffeine, then
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  Speaker 1: you could have hit your mark and do your best
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: to keep that night in and night out.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate that suggestion of scooting the bedtime fifteen minutes.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: It feels like a smart goal right in that you're
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: creating some sort of a shift without saying, okay, I
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: need to make a drastic change.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: You may know that you ultimately.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Want to get to bed about an hour or an
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: hour and a half earlier than you have been.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: However, these fifteen minute increments seem a lot more doable
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: and hence will help you stick with this new routine.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Definitely small, small goals, because then it just makes you know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: breaks down the change to be more palatable.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: So I totally.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Agree for someone who then knows that they're not getting
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: enough sleep. What's actually happening to the body when you're
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: not getting enough sleep, well, a couple of things.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: When we're not meeting our sleep need and duration is
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: one part of a healthy sleep routine, just getting enough sleep,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: there could be other things going wrong, and also, you know,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: waking up and not feeling restored, or having kind of
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: mistimed sleep if you're keeping a different sleep schedule from
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: one day to the next. All those things can kind
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: of culminate unfortunately in adverse health outcomes. And in thinking
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: of kind of the impacts in a couple buckets, the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: first is we just could probably all agree that we
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: feel a little bit groggy, we suffer from what we
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: call brain fog or less productive, We are less.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: Creative, creative problem solvers.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: We're less likely to come up with you know, Eureka
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: type ideas and thoughts you know, at work, at home,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: et cetera. Now, the next bucket is in kind of
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the mental health cat So when we're not getting enough sleep,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: we're falling short of our kind of healthy sleep goals,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: we wake up and we're less able to do something
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: called perspective taking, where we can maybe take stressful events
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and really put them into context and not have them
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: impact us as much. And so without that ability, we're
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: more prone to negative affect and then feelings of depression
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and anxiety that then can start to snowball and really
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: become concerning actual kind of mental health concerns in the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: longer term. The next bucket is our heart health. During sleep,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: our heart rate, our blood pressure drops to its lowest
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: point in the typical twenty four hour day, and that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: dipping at night is vitally important for us to wake
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: up that allows us to maintain healthy blood pressure. So
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: if we're not getting enough sleep and we're just reducing
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the time we're spending sleeping, we're also reducing that time
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: that we're able to go into that amazing dipping of
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: our blood pressure, and so again without that, we wake
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: up and we're at greater risk for high blood pressure
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and then ultimately heart health concerns. Now, the other really
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: interesting and exciting area of sleep. Research is starting to
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: uncover brain health benefits, not only that feeling of brain
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: fog in the shorter term that we talked about, but
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: believe it or not, our sleep night in and night
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: out might actually studies are starting to uncover allow us
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to maintain brain health tomorrow and well into the future.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Research has shown that during sleep there is an increased
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: removal of dangerous neural toxins in the brain, and that
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: happens at an accelerated rate when we're sleeping compared to
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: when we're awake, and so our sleep, we believe plays
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: this night by night role in allowing our brain to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: cleanse itself of some of these toxic particles that, if
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: allowed to accumulate, can result in Alzheimer's disease and dementia
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: in the longer term. So a short term long term consequences,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: but it is important to know that again, sleep is
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: not going to be perfect every night. The name of
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the game is that you kind of fine tune your
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: set of tools and strategies that will get you to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: a better night's sleep.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Right And I know that I had someone on the
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: show not super long ago, and they talked about this
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: glymphatic system, right, and so the importance of sleep to
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: help the body do what it wants to do, clear
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: out that extra waste. It's kind of like a computer,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: you know, every so often you've got to back up
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: your hard drive. In that way, your computer is going
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: to just function better. It kind of cleans things up.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: So that's what's happening when we're getting that adequate sleep exactly.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And glymphatic is a term and I'm yes, that's the
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: technical term for this area of the research. And what
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: that's referring to is we have the lymphatic system in
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: our body comprised of tissue and vessel that remove toxic particles.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: But there are no.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Lymphatic tissue or vessel in the brain, and so that
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: led us for many years to wonder how the brain
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: removes these toxic particles. So what's happening in the brain
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: is that the glial cells are banding over the course
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: of our sleep at a greater rate than during wakefulness,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and so that expansion of the glial cells allows for
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: this accelerated removal of toxic particles. So glial cells expanding
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: lymphatic system like activity is why we refer to that
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: area of the literature as the glymphatic system and hypothesis
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: about sleep.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So what would you then say are some of the
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: biggest warning signs of sleep deprivation.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: The biggest signs are probably how you feel. I think
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: we sometimes forget that, you know, it's kind of an
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: old school thing, but really how you feel in the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: morning after you wake up and in the afternoon. So
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: if you're really dragging, reaching for caffeine, fighting to stay alert,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and god forbid, not behind the wheel of a car,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: because of course that's where the stakes are really high.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: So lower alertness in the shorter term, but then in
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the longer term it's the mental health concerns that we
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: talked about, the heart health concerns, so your physical health suffers,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and then your brain health also is what our research
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: is starting to show. So the stakes are are pretty
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: high when you think about it.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: And oftentimes those that experience sleep deporation, like myself, maybe
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: on the go a lot, maybe traveling a lot, maybe
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: navigating the effects of jet lag. Do you have anything
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: to offer to those individuals who are constantly hopping time
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: zones to kind of give themselves an upper hand on
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: a sometimes out of their control situation.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Great question.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Now when it comes to jet lag, unfortunately there is
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: no cure. Refers to our ability, with amazing travel breakthroughs
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and technology, ability to get on a plane and go
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: across multiple time zones, but our internal rhythms lag behind
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is where we get this term. So essentially, in the
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: case of jet lag, there is no silver bullet. Our
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: sleep is in part governed by our circadian rhythm, our
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: internal biological clock, and that system does not move.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: On a dime.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And so really, in a perfect world, we'd be taking
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: a week two weeks to adjust to our new time
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: zone to a point where we feel comfortable and able
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: to operate in that environment. I think my answer to
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the question, and it's such a good one and impact
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: so many people, is kind of twofold. The first is
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: how long is your trip. If you're going for two
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: or three days, then it probably makes the most sense
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: for your internal biological clock and your sleep health to
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: probably just rip off the band aid, get to your destination,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: try to schedule your meetings and your obligations and your
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: new time zone in a way that you can kind
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: of get by on your old time zone. And what
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: you might do is keep a kind of an analog
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: watch on your wrist and then you can have a
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: sense of when what time it is in your biological clock,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and that's of course going to be different than the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: time on the wall at your new destination. So trying
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: to kind of still live within your old time zone
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: waking and following, you know, waking and sleeping and generally
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: that than those general parameters. But of course that can
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: be challenging for a lot of us. That you're flying
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to Europe and you have an early morning meeting, of
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: course that's going to be very challenging because that'll be
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: five or six hours before or more your habitual wake time.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: So in that case, you really want to work with
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: a couple things. Number One, natural blue light get outside
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: in the morning is the most important thing helping yourself
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: adjust this new time zone. If you can work out
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: coupling that with nice blue light exposure can be really
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a home run to help us get some energy and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: start to somewhat adjust quite rapidly. The other is going
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to be making up for lost sleep. Strategically. Try to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: make use of twenty minute naps that can give you
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a tiny bit of energy about an hour or two.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: If you're really sleep deprived.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: A power and app will kind of give you that
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: tiny bit of a boost and really kind of help
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: you get through. But if you do have time for
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit more of like a siesta ninety minute
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: nap would be terrific if you're really exhausted. And then
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: other tips srategies are just as much light as you
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: can during the course of the day, and when you
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: can couple that with exercise, wonderful, And then be mindful
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: about what you're eating and drinking and when you're eating
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and drinking in your new time zone, another suggestion can
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: be to seek out hotels that clearly make your rest
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: a priority. So that could include guestrooms that are designed
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in accordance to the science of our sleep, or hotels
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: that provide ear plugs and imasks that can be a
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: lifeline for travelers from other time zones.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and can I tell you that I purposefully seek
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: out reviews of travelers who talk about things like, oh,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: the curtains were great, or I felt like the room
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: was very quiet, or the bed was really comfortable, or
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, because I know that sleep is
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: a priority for me, and so it doesn't surprise me
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: that we're hearing a lot more travelers these days look
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: out specific hotel brands who are prioritizing that aspect of
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: their overall stay.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: I love that, Emily, That's just terrific, because, of course,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: if you're not sleeping well when you're traveling, your trip
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: is going to suffer. Whether you're there for business or leisure,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you'll wake up roggy and not be able to retain
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: all of those amazing memories and really enjoy your trip
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to the fullest.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I know, at the top of this you said that
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: there are a slew of tips that we can offer
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: the hurdlers when it comes to getting a better night's sleep,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: keeping in mind here, of course quality over quantity.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Perhaps, So where do we even began, doctor Robbins.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: So we've talked a lot about sleep duration, and that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: is just one piece of the puzzle. Yes, we do
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: ideally want to be in a seven to nine hour range.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: So if you're far from that range, do think about
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: ways to add a little bit more sleep to your
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: daily routine, maybe by pulling your bedtime about fifteen minutes
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: earlier and then another fifteen minutes and try that for
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: a couple days, adding thirty forty minutes to your sleep,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and just notice how you feel in the morning when
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you wake up and in the afternoon. Now, just as
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: important as duration is the timing of our sleep and
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: consistent sleep schedules are absolutely vital. That gives our brains
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: really valuable input on when it should be tired and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: when should we should be awake, and that it allows
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the secretion of hormones that support those two states, and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: so keeping our sleep times ideally the same and not
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: varying much more than one hour. So if you typically
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: fall asleep at eleven, then keep in mind that you
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: can push it to twelve if you're out late with
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: friends one night, but do try to be diligent and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: get back into bed and back on your routine as
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: fast as possible. One of the biggest myths is that
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: sleeping in is a good part of a sleep routine.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I feel like as a society kind of look at
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: sleeping in is this luxurious thing, and so many people
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: will say, I'm doing so well, you know, I sleep
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: in on Saturdays, aren't Isn't that great? And I'm like
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that a for effort, But we are so so close
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: sleeping in is Unfortunately, it can kind of shift our
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: internal rhythms. And if you're pushing your rising time out
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: an hour two hours consistently on the weekend, what's going
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: to happens the next night rolls around and your brain
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and your body think, oh, but we slept in for
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: two or three hours, and they're going to be fighting
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: you because your internal biological clock has just gotten cues
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that it's supposed to change to a new time zone.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So you refer to this as social jet lag, where
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you actually self impose those painful jet lag like symptoms
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: without leaving your time zone. So the way we come
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: about this is set in alarm, do your very best
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: to get up at your habitual wake time on the weekends,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: so keeping those sleep times consistent Monday through Monday.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Ideally.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Another critical part of a healthy sleep routine is our bedroom.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: You really want to look in walk into your bedroom
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and feel instantly relaxed. So if there's anything that's stressful
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: in your bedroom environment, take that out of the bedroom.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: You know, walk in tonight and really ask yourself, you
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: know what in here is limiting my ability to feel
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: at peace, to rest and get sleep. And sometimes are
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the silliest little things me a little light on a
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: cable box or a charger, and all you have to
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: do is put a little piece of painter's tape or
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: cover those little lights. Make sure your curtains close, make
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: sure you have a mattress that will support your sleep, health,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: your pillows or cozy and supportive, all those good things. Lastly,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: what we do over the course of the day really
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: matters for our sleep at night. And so that's kind
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of a big category. But within that, you really want
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: to think actually about sleep starting believe it or not,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: really when we wake up. So resisting this snoos bar,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: getting out of bed and starting your day, getting some
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: natural blue light exposure wherever possible.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: If that's if you live in New York.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: City or Los Angeles, that means just getting outside, walking
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: your dog, or maybe adding all of my friends in
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: New York just add one more subway stop instead of
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: getting on at the closest stop. Just add one more
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in the morning to get a little bit more outside
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: natural light exposure. And then other things that can help
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: us over the course of the day are being mindful
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: of nutrition. There's an old saying from the nutrition literature
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: which is a breakfast of kings, a lunch of princes,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: and a dinner of paupers. And basically that means that
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you're consuming your calories and your nutrition kind of in
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a way that makes sense for your consumption. If those
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: are your kind of use of the energy. Right, you're
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: of course awake doing things, so then kind of titrating
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and keeping dinner one of the lighter meals of the day,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and that, it turns out, is good for our waistline.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: It's also good for our sleep, So keep that in
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: mind if that works, of course with your nutrition plan.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: But then be mindful of stimulants. So these are things
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that would rob us of a good night's sleep, and
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: that could include caffeine. Caffeine is a drug and it
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: has a half life, so it will stay and lingering
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: your body. If you have a say, like a smaller
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: medium from any of the chains you name them, they're
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: all going to be about two hundred or maybe a
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: little bit more milligrams of caffeine and that might linger
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: in your body for six or up to nine hours
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: of time.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: So keep that in mind.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: If you're, you know, telling me you're stopping your caffeine
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: at two or three o'clock, just be mindful that that
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: could be lingering in your system come nine or ten o'clock.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Believe it, but believe it or not.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: But basically, if this isn't if your kind of sleep
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: habits aren't broken, of course, you know, and you're having
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a cup or two of caffeine and you're mindful about
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the times and when you're you're stopping your consumption, of course,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: feel free to continue. These are all things to keep
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: in mind for when issues rear their ugly head, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: now lastly, over the course of the day and before sleep,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: managing our stress. Everything around us could potentially be a stressor,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: but it's our reaction and our response to all of
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: those stimuli and events that allows those events to become
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: stimuli that you know, impact us physiologically in terms of
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you're really feeling the stressors. So mindfulness, exercise, relaxation techniques
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: are all really wonderful ways to start to manage your
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: stress over the course of the day and can be
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: a wonderful part of your bedtime routine, because we really
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: want to think of the time before bed as really
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a vital part of sleep itself. So building in time
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: to relax and unwind and maybe filling that with things
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: you know. Ideally you're off screens, you're filling that time
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: with things that you love. So maybe thinking about one
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: good thing that happened in your day, taking a warm
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: bath and.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: Then doing a meditation exercise. Good. Yeah, sort of a
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: healthy wind down routine.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: And it's so funny, right, because so often we are
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: inundated with the aspects of stellar morning routines, but much
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: less frequently are we speaking about an adequate wind down routine.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: So enforcing that can be really helpful. As you're saying, here.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: To get that really good shut eye.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Now, two other tabs I have open from what you
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: just said, the first of which caffeine.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: We hear it all the time.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Someone may say, you know what, I can drink a
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: cup of coffe go right to bed and it feels
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: like it doesn't affect me.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: What do you say to that person, I'm jealous.
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: We do.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: There is kind of different genetic susceptibility to caffeine, so.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: Some people can truly be fine.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: But I also would love to, you know, put a
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: sleep tracker on them and see how their sleep really was,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: because sometimes people can feel fine, but maybe their sleep
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: is a little bit disrupted. So there are different We
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: all vary in our you know, in our ability to
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: consume caffeine, and you know, we're all bottom line, differentially
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: impacted by it. So some people maybe it'll linger in
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: your system for a couple hours, others maybe six or
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: up to nine. The name of the game is just
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: being mindful of where you are and it impacts on
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you personally, and you'll of course be the best judge
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: of that.
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: So if you tell me, you know, I.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Have a cup of coffee at three four o'clock in
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the afternoon, but then you have a racing mind and
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: you feel like your heart is racing when you're trying
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to power down. Caffeine could be one thing that you
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: look to trying to okay.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: And then the other thing that you touched on was
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: the concept of this snowze button. Some people listening to
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: this are BFFs with their news button.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Why is the snooze big statement here? Bad for your health.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: So some of the best parts of sleep, rabbit high
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: movement sleep really predominate, and the second half of our
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: night is rich with this vital stage of sleep. If
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you're not getting enough sleep, you likely will be in
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the middle of one of these vital un cycles. When
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: you're hitting this newsbar, if you're kind of crunched in
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: your sleep sleep time, So if you're hitting this newsbar,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: you're interrupting some of those really.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: Rich stages of sleep.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: But then by interrupting them, you might get a few
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: more minutes of sleep if you hit this newsbar and
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: you have those nine seemingly precious moments. And some people
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: will say, you know, I feel like I'm more aware
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: of that sleep. You know, it feels better. But truly,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: we want to allow our brain to just keep doing
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: its thing until the last possible moment. Actually, in a
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: perfect world, if we were all well rested, we of
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: course wouldn't need this snowsbar. So we need this snooze
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: bar because we're not getting enough sleep. So the what
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: you want to do is try to resist that temptation.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I was talking about this with someone recently. The best
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: strategy is to put your phone on the other side
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of the room. Then it reduces your risk of you know,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: middle of the night insomnia, waking up and then thinking, oh,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I might as well check my dext messages. And so
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: if it's on the other side of the room, you'll
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: be less likely to do that, But then your alarm
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: will go off in the morning and you have to
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: get out of bed to go turn it off, and
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: then hopefully that's enough of you know, a jarring change
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: from your bedroom environment that you can carry that into
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: your day.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I forget when I had a conversation with another
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: sleep scientist, but they convinced me to stop using my
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: iPhone for most of my alarms. So now Alexa is
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: my alarm, and I put my phone to quote unquote
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: bed on a current wireless charger that isn't next to
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: my bed right So for me, it has been really
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: bad official, because there are going to be those evenings
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: to your point where I wake up it's two or three.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: I'm an early to bed person.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: I've already been sleeping for I don't know, five or
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: six hours at this point, and I'm like, oh, instinctually,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: something must have happened while I've been asleep. Maybe ask
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: my phone. That is the last thing I want to
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: do at that time, because that's just going to keep
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: me awake for longer. So all these tips that you're
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: offering up here so much helpful stuff when it comes
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: to not only increasing the amount of sleep that you're getting,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: but also super important the quality of that.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Sleep, Doctor Robbins.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Is there anything else that we want to touch on
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: before I let you go today when it comes to
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: us getting better shut eye?
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: No, I think we've covered a lot. Your questions were excellent, Emily,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm so glad that we were able
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: to make this happen today. For those that may want
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: to learn more from you, that may want to follow
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: along with you, Give the hurdlers your information so we
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: can try to keep up.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: My Instagram handle is doctor Rebecca Robins and I'm also
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: on Twitter and that is Rebecca us Robbins.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: I'm over at Hurdle Podcast and at Emily a Body
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Another hurdle conquered.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.