Sleep: The Foundation Of Health
TOM ROWLAND PODCAST
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“Research shows a number of people who can survive on 7 hours of sleep without showing any impairment. That number, rounded to a whole number and expressed as a percentage, is 0%”
Podcast Synopsis
After my last podcast, Sleep - One Of The Key Pillars Of Health, I got a lot of emails from people wanting to know more. So I went back and read this book by Dr. Matthew Walker who is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. He is also the lead sleep scientist at Google. He wrote a book called Why We Sleep and it has completely changed my perspective on sleep.
If you don’t have the time to read the book (which I highly recommend reading), I would suggest listening to one of the podcasts below:
FindingMastery: Dr. Matthew Walker, Professor And Sleep Expert
#1109 Joe Rogan Experience with Matthew Walker
Both of these go super deep into the effects and importance of sleep and I think they are quite enjoyable. Let me know if you give them a listen and help me get Dr. Matthew Walker on this podcast!
Here are some facts from the book that I found super fascinating:
Research shows a number of people who can survive on 7 hours of sleep without showing any impairment. That number, rounded to a whole number and expressed as a percentage, is 0%
An NBA player on 8 hours of sleep will have 29% increase in points per minute. 12% increase in minutes played. 9% increase in free-throw percentage. He had 45% decrease in fouls and 37% decrease in turn-overs.
There is a 40% memory deficit when you are sleep deprived, and it gets worse the more you lack sleep. For men who sleep 4-5 hours a night, they have a testosterone level of a man 10-years-older than their current age
During daylight savings time, we lose an hour in the spring. There is a 24% increase in heart attacks the following day in the spring. While in the fall when we gain an hour there is a 21% decrease in the amount of heart attacks that day.
If you sleep 5 hours, you are 10x more likely to get a cold
Here are 5 Rules For Improving Your Sleep Quality:
Have a solid sleeping routine. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day, on weekdays and weekends. Its not good if you are sleeping 8 hours one night and 5 the next.
Darkness is far more important than you think. At home I cover up clock faces, I remove the TV, cover windows, turn off all lights. You want your room to be as dark as possible so that you can go to sleep and stay asleep. Keep your phone outside of your room, cover up the lights on smoke detectors and any other lights. It is in our make-up to go to bed when it is dark and wake up when it’s light. So, since in today’s world we can be in light 24/7 we need to be hyper aware of making our sleep environment super dark.
Stimulate the production of Melatonin through temperature. It is pretty common to feel like you sleep better in the cold than in the hot. That is because with a dark cold room your body will produce melatonin and help you go to sleep. Also you will be able to get the best quality sleep if you can lower your body temperature 2ºF below its norm while you are asleep.
Caffeine. This one is obvious, but hard to practice if you enjoy some coffee after lunch to give you a boost for the rest of the day. Dr. Matthew Walker talks about the half-life of coffee being 6 hours, and the quarter-life of coffee is 12 hours. Meaning if you drink a cup of coffee at 12pm, then it is like you drank a quarter cup of coffee at 12am. And at that point your brain is being stimulated and even if you are asleep, it isn’t the best quality sleep you could be getting.
Alcohol, the depressant. Sedated sleep is not the same as good sleep. If you want to hear Matthew Walkers tips on when to drink and how much to still be able to get quality sleep, I recommend listening to one of the podcasts above.
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Time Stamps:
00:00 - I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my last podcast on sleep (Sleep - One Of The Key Pillars Of Health)
00:28 - I’ve been known to be the person to neglects sleep in order to get more things done
00:37 - The more I learn about how important it is, the more I have prioritized it in my own life and made sure that I am doing everything that I can to get the best sleep that I can.
00:59 - I read a book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and it changed my perspective
01:30 - The studies in this book are done of effects of less than or more than 8 hours of sleep
02:00 - I heard Matthew Walker talk on this podcast called Finding Mastery (FindingMastery: Dr. Matthew Walker, Professor And Sleep Expert)
02:37 - If you don’t have 14 hours to listen to the book or 3 hours to listen to #1109 Joe Rogan Experience with Matthew Walker then you should check out the Finding Mastery podcast, it is only 1 hour and worth a listen.
03:04 - “From scientific evidence we have a number of people who can survive on less than seven hours of sleep without showing any impairment rounded to a whole number and expressed as a percentage of the population is zero…”
03:51 - There is an example of an NBA player named Andre and he is in Memphis. When sleeping more than 8 hours he had 29% increase in points per minute. 12% increase in minutes played. 9% increase in free-throw percentage. He had 45% decrease in fouls and 37% decrease in turn-overs.
05:10 - There is a 40% memory deficit when you are sleep deprived, and it gets worse the more you lack sleep. For men who sleep 4-5 hours a night, they have a testosterone level of a man 10-years-older than their current age
05:41 - During daylight savings time, we lose an hour in the spring. There is a 24% increase in heart attacks the following day. While in the fall when we gain an hour there is a 21% decrease in the amount of heart attacks that day.
06:43 - If you sleep 5 hours, you are 10x more likely to get a cold
07:31 - If you are really looking for big changes in the gym… We can do to improve our performance. We can get stronger. We can improve our cardiovascular system. Therefore we're more present when we're working. Therefore, we are better at our jobs. Well, not if you're sleeping is is disturbed and if you are sleeping less than five hours a night.
08:36 - I’m not here to tell you how to organize your day, I just want to let you know that the lack of sleep can be a big source of problems
09:07 - You're going to get better performance out of the gym. You're going to get better performance on the job. You're going to be able to remember people's names better. You're gonna be able to recall past events like tides and where you caught fish and certain other things that are important to be an efficient fishing guide or hunting guide or being outdoors whatever you're going to be better because you did the easiest thing in life… Sleep… More.
10:30 - 5 Rules for sleep
11:05 - 1. Pay attention to how regularly you sleep
11:43 - 2. Darkness plays a big role in the ability to fall asleep, stimulate the release of melatonin
14:14 - 3. Temperature, you sleep better in the cold (drop you body temperature 2 degrees)
14:40 - 4. Caffeine
15:43 - 5. Alcohol, sedation is not the same as good sleep
16:16 - These tips right there you can just think about those things you can make your room a little darker, you can make it cool. You can improve your sleep environment and see if you don't do better with a little bit more sleep. Can you, could you go to bed a little bit earlier?
17:15 - Very beneficial to your performance, and especially the performance in the gym. So if you're more interested in this, you want to hear more. Honestly, I really want to try to get Matthew Walker on his podcast. I have so many other questions for him, but.
17:28 - Send me an email podcast@saltwaterexperience.com
People/Things Mentioned:
Sleep - One Of The Key Pillars Of Health, Why We Sleep, FindingMastery: Dr. Matthew Walker, Professor And Sleep Expert, #1109 Joe Rogan Experience with Matthew Walker
See you next week - no excuses,
-Tom Rowland
