Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / The Importance of Sleep: How I Work Crossover

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The Importance of Sleep: How I Work Crossover · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Goodday. This is doctor Justin Coilson.
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  Speaker 2: I've always loved a good duet collaboration that brings the
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  Speaker 2: very best of two people together.
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking Islands in the Stream by Kenny and Dolly.
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  Speaker 2: I'm thinking Ebony and Ivory for McCartney and Stevie wonder Well.
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  Speaker 2: For the next four mondays, I'm collaborating with Amantha Imba,
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  Speaker 2: Doctor Amantha Imba from the How I Work podcast. It's
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  Speaker 2: one of my favorites and I listen to it regularly
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  Speaker 2: for so many great tips and hints. How you work
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  Speaker 2: and how you function as a family at home have
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  Speaker 2: always been linked, now more than ever since so many
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  Speaker 2: of us are working from home and bringing work home
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  Speaker 2: with us. Over the next four mondays, we're going to
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  Speaker 2: be talking about the things that really matter sleep, physical movement, work,
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  Speaker 2: life balance and more.
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  Speaker 1: For our first collaboration, Amantha and I are going to be.
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  Speaker 2: Talking about the importance of sleep for effective functioning as
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  Speaker 2: people and parents.
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  Speaker 1: I've heard it.
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  Speaker 3: All before that sleep is vital for managing our stress,
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  Speaker 3: managing health, and basically being at our best. But I
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  Speaker 3: know some people think about sleep, particularly parents with younger kids,
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  Speaker 3: can think about sleep as a luxury item, justin I
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  Speaker 3: know you've come across this a lot in your work.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sleep is not a luxury item. But let's just
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  Speaker 1: be real about it for a sec.
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  Speaker 2: How often do you kind of think, oh, the kids
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  Speaker 2: are in bed, or I've just closed my computer, I've
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  Speaker 2: got all the emails out of the way, I'm ready
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  Speaker 2: for tomorrow, and now I just want some me time.
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  Speaker 1: I want some brain dead time. I just want to
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  Speaker 1: zone out.
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  Speaker 2: And you know what I might do. I might watch
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  Speaker 2: one episode of that series that I've been really enjoying
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  Speaker 2: but I haven't been able to watch it for the
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  Speaker 2: last three or four weeks because it's been so busy.
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  Speaker 2: But I'll just watched one episode. It's already ten o'clock
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  Speaker 2: at night, maybe ten thirty, and you put it on
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  Speaker 2: and you're watching it and you go, oh.
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  Speaker 1: Gee, I love this.
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  Speaker 2: You're kind of falling asleep while you're watching it, but
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  Speaker 2: you love the show. And then you think, oh, they
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  Speaker 2: it on a cliffhanger. I'll just watch one more and
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  Speaker 2: next thing you know, it's eleven thirty or twelve or
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  Speaker 2: twelve thirty at night. I mean, I'm a keen cyclist,
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  Speaker 2: and when the Grand Tours are on in Italy and Spain,
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  Speaker 2: and especially the Tour de France. I so badly want
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  Speaker 2: to stay up until one thirty in the morning and
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  Speaker 2: watch every one of those stages. And we treat sleep
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  Speaker 2: like it's Oh, I might take it off the shelf
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  Speaker 2: and use it today. Oh no, I don't need it now.
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  Speaker 2: We treat it like it's a luxury item. Amantha. If
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  Speaker 2: I was to give what I think is the number
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  Speaker 2: one parenting and the number one productivity hack, it would.
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  Speaker 1: Be get enough sleep.
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  Speaker 2: I would put that above almost anything else that I
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  Speaker 2: could say for being a good parent, a good employee,
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  Speaker 2: a good person, get enough sleep.
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  Speaker 1: Do you want to react to that? Do you do
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  Speaker 1: you disagree with me? Or are you right there with me?
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  Speaker 1: What do you reckon?
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  Speaker 3: I am right there with you, and I like while
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  Speaker 3: I can't relate to staying up late watching cycling and
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  Speaker 3: relate to binge watching Succession or Whiteladus. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of sleep experts talk about the two essays
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  Speaker 3: of sleep in terms of what your bed should be
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  Speaker 3: reserved for. One of those essa's is not screen, but
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  Speaker 3: justin I think you know what these two s's are
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  Speaker 3: that I'm talking about.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and I like both of them a lot.
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  Speaker 3: In case you are puzzled if you are listening Bay
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  Speaker 3: our sleep and sex. But sadly, a lot of us
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  Speaker 3: do lots of other things in bed, particularly to do
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  Speaker 3: with our mobile phones, and this is so bad for sleep.
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  Speaker 3: I'm curious justin what's the most common piece of advice
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  Speaker 3: you find yourself giving to people that are struggling with
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  Speaker 3: their sleep.
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  Speaker 1: Right now?
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  Speaker 2: A couple of things. Usually screens are involved. I have
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  Speaker 2: to I mean, I don't have a problem with screens,
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  Speaker 2: but I do in that sort of Let's say that
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  Speaker 2: the thirty to sixty minutes before sleep, like they really
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  Speaker 2: we've got enough scientific evidence now to say this is
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  Speaker 2: a challenge, but waking up as well that I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to say, first fifteen minutes. If you can spend the
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  Speaker 2: first fifteen minutes of your day not looking at your device,
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  Speaker 2: the day just feels different, your energy feels different, and
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  Speaker 2: you can kind of get on with things. You'll just
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  Speaker 2: be a better I think you'll be a better person.
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  Speaker 2: But the other thing that I say all the time, Amantha,
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  Speaker 2: is if you can't get to sleep without the narcotic
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  Speaker 2: of the screen, which is kind of ironic because research
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  Speaker 2: shows that it stimulates the brain. But if you feel
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  Speaker 2: like you need that screen, I just say to people,
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  Speaker 2: pick up a nonfiction book. And there's this great author
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  Speaker 2: called doctor Amantha Imba. There's another guy called Justin Coulsen.
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  Speaker 2: We write these nonfiction books and usually at that hour
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  Speaker 2: of the night, the brain responds differently to that kind
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  Speaker 2: of input and it.
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  Speaker 1: Helps you to go to sleep.
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  Speaker 2: Really bed, as you've said, is for those two essays,
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  Speaker 2: and when we remember that, we end up having a
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  Speaker 2: much more filling relationship with our partner, and we also
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  Speaker 2: end up having a much better and more productive life
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  Speaker 2: and relationship with everyone around us because we've had enough sleep.
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  Speaker 3: I love what you said about not going straight to
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  Speaker 3: your mobile phone when you wake up, And what I've
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  Speaker 3: been reading a lot about lately is the importance of
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  Speaker 3: getting natural light soon after you wake. So this can
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  Speaker 3: be as little as five minutes of natural light. And
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  Speaker 3: obviously this is a bit more difficult in the winter
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  Speaker 3: because obviously in Australia where we're recording this from, we
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  Speaker 3: are about to head into winter where it is darker
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  Speaker 3: for longer. But what we know from a lot of
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  Speaker 3: scientific research is that if we can look at natural light,
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  Speaker 3: the sun rising, the daylight. It helps reset our internal
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  Speaker 3: body clock, which means that when bedtime comes around, we
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  Speaker 3: will feel sleepy at the time that we need to
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  Speaker 3: feel sleepy to get a good amount of sleep. So
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  Speaker 3: a hack that I love is either getting outside just
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  Speaker 3: for a quick walk five or ten minutes, take the kids,
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  Speaker 3: or if the morning is just too crazy to do that,
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  Speaker 3: at least try to be near some natural light, whether
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  Speaker 3: that be like a window in your home or perhaps
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  Speaker 3: if you're working from an office, when you get to
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  Speaker 3: the office, just try to get some natural light. It
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  Speaker 3: helps immensely in setting yourself up for where you need
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  Speaker 3: to be body clockwise.
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  Speaker 2: Some people are hearing what you're saying in Maantha and
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  Speaker 2: saying this is a special form of torture. I can't
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  Speaker 2: imagine doing it myself, let alone trying to get the
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  Speaker 2: kids out of bed in the morning for it.
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  Speaker 1: And yet, like you said, so much evidence for it.
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  Speaker 2: We specifically move to the coast so that we could
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  Speaker 2: be near the beach and have those mornings watching the sunrise,
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  Speaker 2: and we make sure that we do it several times
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  Speaker 2: a week.
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  Speaker 1: It's really hard to do it, but oh my goodness, gee,
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  Speaker 1: it feels good.
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  Speaker 2: There's a saying that I share with parents all the time,
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  Speaker 2: and that is that nature is fuel for the soul,
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  Speaker 2: not just ours but our kids. So, whether you're listening
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  Speaker 2: to this as a parent or you're just listening to
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  Speaker 2: it as a I'm a person who wants to make
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  Speaker 2: the most of my life. Nature is fuel for the soul.
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  Speaker 2: And there's something really special about that early morning calm
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  Speaker 2: that comes as the sun's rising and the light is
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  Speaker 2: not so bright that you can't really look at it.
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  Speaker 2: There's just something beautiful about it. And I love how
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  Speaker 2: you've linked that to how we sleep and our ability
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  Speaker 2: to get to sleep. I'm also thinking specifically in a
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  Speaker 2: parenting context, but it applies to all of us. There's
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  Speaker 2: all this stuff around sleep hygiene. Sleep high gene means
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  Speaker 2: you want to make sure that temperature is right, you
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  Speaker 2: want to make sure that it's dark enough, that it's
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  Speaker 2: quiet enough, all those kinds of things. But something that's
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  Speaker 2: often overlooked, and we've got some pretty cool studies about it,
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  Speaker 2: is research into consistency of bedtime. So you're talking about
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  Speaker 2: that morning thing with the sun coming up and resetting
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  Speaker 2: your circadian rhythm, your body clock researchers are found and
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  Speaker 2: I'm talking specifically about kids here, but it applies to
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  Speaker 2: adults as well. If we can make sure that we're
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  Speaker 2: going to bed with it about thirty minutes of our
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  Speaker 2: usual bedtime consistently, we have greater sleep duration and higher
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  Speaker 2: quality sleep. So if the kid's bedtime is eight o'clock,
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  Speaker 2: you're on going to bed between seven forty five and
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  Speaker 2: eight fifteen. More often than not, those late nights blow
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  Speaker 2: it apart. And for you as an adult, work out
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  Speaker 2: what time you've got to get up and then count
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  Speaker 2: back the hours. Again, sleeps not a luxury item. If
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  Speaker 2: you need your eight hours and you've got to be
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  Speaker 2: up at well, for me, because I'm a bit silly
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  Speaker 2: somewhere between four and four thirty, that means bedtime's got
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  Speaker 2: to be around eight thirty at night, or you turn
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  Speaker 2: into a pumpkin like you just can't function long term.
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  Speaker 2: One or two days, no problem, but long term it's
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  Speaker 2: a disaster zone.
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  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 3: And on the flip side of going to bed at
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  Speaker 3: a similar time, you know, we talked about morning exposure
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  Speaker 3: to light, but also waking up at the same time
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  Speaker 3: every day is huge and I think that people really
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  Speaker 3: underestimate this, like I liken this to. You know, travel
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  Speaker 3: a lot for work and sometimes that will involve crossing
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  Speaker 3: small time zones, like going from Melbourne where I'm based
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  Speaker 3: to New Zealand, where there's a two hour time difference,
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  Speaker 3: and I know I always underestimate how much that will
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  Speaker 3: mess with me, Like it's only two hours.
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  Speaker 1: It knocks you around so much.
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  Speaker 3: It really does. But then you think about how a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people behave with their sleep, Like they might
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  Speaker 3: get up at say six am or six thirty am
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  Speaker 3: to get to work or to get the kids out
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  Speaker 3: the door in time to do school drop off and
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  Speaker 3: then get to the office. But then on the weekend
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  Speaker 3: things are a bit more chill and it's quite easy
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  Speaker 3: to sleep in till eight or nine am. That is
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  Speaker 3: pretty much like flying to New Zealand every weekend and
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  Speaker 3: then returning and getting jet lag on Monday. And know
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  Speaker 3: no one likes jet lag, so try to wake up
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  Speaker 3: at the same time every day. You'll feel a whole
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  Speaker 3: lot better.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
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  Speaker 2: I do the same New Zealand, Perth sometimes to Asia
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  Speaker 2: with my travels, and I find that that two hour
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  Speaker 2: time zone is really really hard to take just recently,
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  Speaker 2: my family went on a cruise and we headed through
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  Speaker 2: the Pacific to Hawaii, and every day or every second day,
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  Speaker 2: depending on how much ground we traveled across, we had
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  Speaker 2: to keep on changing our clocks by one hour, and
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  Speaker 2: by the end of the week, we'd done four or
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  Speaker 2: five for those changes, and I was a basket case.
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  Speaker 2: I just I was so sleep deprived because I lost
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  Speaker 2: an hour every single night, and it reinforced me. If
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  Speaker 2: we want to be healthy, if we want to be happy,
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  Speaker 2: if we want to be balanced, if we want to
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  Speaker 2: be good employees, if we want to be good parents,
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  Speaker 2: if we want to be good partners, we need to
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  Speaker 2: get our sleep.
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  Speaker 3: We absolutely do. Justin I've loved hearing your tips for
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  Speaker 3: a better night's sleep, and I'm thinking we'll hopefully both
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  Speaker 3: sleep well tonight after having such a fun chat about it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I love yours as well.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to work a little bit more consistently on
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  Speaker 2: that light shower in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: Such a great idea, and I got to get screens
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  Speaker 1: out of my bedroom. I needed that reminder.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Collaborating with people, and I love the conversation that doctor
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  Speaker 2: Amantha Ember and I have just had. The happy Families
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  Speaker 2: podcast for Today has been produced by the iHeartRadio Network Australia.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Our executive producer is Craig Bruce and Kylie and I
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: will be back tomorrow on the Happy Families Podcast. If
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: you like morofo about making your family happier, please visit
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: happyfamilies dot com dot a you or check out our
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Facebook page. Doctor Justin Colson's Happy Families