0:00

You're listening to Life Kit from

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NPR. Hey,

0:07

everybody. It's Mariel. Before we

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jump into the episode, I want to share another

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exciting thing Life Kit is working on for New

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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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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

2:02

osteoporosis. In a new era of

2:04

human health, Amgen continues to accelerate

2:06

the pace of change, operating sustainably

2:08

and drawing upon deep knowledge of

2:11

science to push beyond what's known

2:13

today. With each decade, they reliably

2:15

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.