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Book:  Why we sleep by Matthew Walker 

Podcast: Matthew Walker Podcast on Sleep  

Episode Transcript

Hi everyone. Welcome to how to live, a podcast that explores ways to live a good life. I am your host Sharad Lal.This is episode 13.

Today we are going to talk about sleep. 

When we don’t get enough sleep

• Not only we-  but the people around us bear the brunt of it
• Bad mood, short temper, poor judgement 
• These visible signs of low sleep are really bad
• But what’s even worse is the invisible damage to our health
• Periods of low sleep cause
  • Dementia, Alzhiemer, 
  • Increases blood sugar
  • increase the chances of heart diseases and cancer 
  • Reduces immunity
  • Every bodily function gets negatively impacted by lack of sleep
• These facts are really scary 
• But what’s the point thinking about sleep when we can’t do anything about it? 
• Many things in life are beyond our control
• That’s how I was thinking 2 years back
  • We’d just had our first child - were often up at night 
  • There were pressures at work 
  • And of course we were in the midst of COVID    
• In the middle of all this, I somehow got my hands on this book Why we sleep by Matthew Walker
• I was drawn to the science of sleep and how he explained it - which is fascinating. 
• But as I read, I discovered something very powerful
• Through small manageable changes we can make a huge impact to our sleep 
• We don’t need to change our overall lifestyle. We can pick just a few tips and greatly enhance our sleep. 
• I tried some of these things and saw the difference. 
• Then I added more and more. 
• Today I track my sleep, understand my sleep patterns and 
• Have a few simple levers to get a better sleep in whatever lifestyle I find myself in. 

• In this episode, we will talk about
• The science of sleep And 6 ways to get better sleep 
• Through these 
• We can identify low hanging fruits for ourselves 
• to enhance our sleep  - without changing our overall lifestyle.  

Before getting into the episode

• Thank you very much for all your generous support and encouraging messages.
• Means a lot to us and motivates us to keep doing our best. 
• For our regular listeners, please do consider giving us a rating if you haven’t
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• Thank you in advance
• A note on today’s episode before we get going

There is a lot of literature on sleep

• For the science part of it
• We’ve referred to the work done by neuroscientist and award winning author Matthew Walker
• To us, his books, talks, videos, masterclasses are the best guide to everything sleep related.

Basic science of sleep

• So lets talk the basic science of sleep 
• Experts say we need 7- 9 hours of sleep every night
• There are 2 major stages of sleep
  • The REM sleep. 
  • REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement sleep - 
  • That’s where our eyes move around randomly when we sleep. 
  • We dream during this stage sleep
  • The other major stage of sleep is Non REM
  • Where are eyes don’t dart around rapidly
  • This is the stage where we get deep sleep
• Lets first discuss the Non REM sleep 
  • During this part our brain activity is low and we feel rested
  • While we are resting,  
  • In the background important things are happening 
  • We are storing memories from our recent experiences
  • We are taking our short term memory from the day time and putting it into long term storage
  • A good way to think about this is as follows
    • When we are awake, our experiences are stored in a temporary USB drive 
    • During Non REM sleep - these files are transferred from the USB drive to a permanent storage space which we can access permanently
  • This isn’t just important for remembering things but it’s critical for learning things 
  • When we learn languages, acquire knowledge and skills - all these learnings get permanently stored so they can be retrieved when needed
  • This holds true even for motor skills like riding a bike or playing the piano
  •   
  • It’s like a SAVE button for everything we’ve learnt
  • Recently scientist  have discovered something even more fascinating
  • Not only does Non REM sleep help us save what we’ve learnt 
  • It actually helps us learn new things 
  • Yes - while we are sleeping 
    • we can learn things that may be challenging to learn during the awake hours 
  • In learning to play the piano
    • People who struggle learning a complicated sequence during the day
    • Can sometimes wake up the next morning with the ability to play that sequence
    • Almost magically they learn that complicated motor skill during their sleep
    • This is verified by research. Through brain FMRI scans scientists have seen the motor part of the brain light up during the NREM sleep which implies motor learning taking place.
• Apart from learning, the second critical role Non REM sleep plays is providing calmness to our body 
• This is the only time during the day or night that your sympathetic nervous system fully relaxes
  • Our heart rate drops. Sometimes below 60 bpm. Mine goes down to 54 at times. 
  • Blood pressure drops
  • Brain waves slow down
  • Muscles relax 
• Without anxiety and stress of the day, blood circulates well through the body
• All organs get a regular supply of oxygen and blood 
• This calmness is very important especially in the modern day context where our days are filled with stress and anxiety. 
• Non REM sleep occurs primarily in the early hours of the night
• So if we sleep late - past midnight, we are not getting enough Non REM sleep 
  • With Low periods of Non REM sleep  
  • Our learning and memory deteriorates
    • That’s why there’s greater risk of getting Dementia and Alziehmers
  • Our body doesn't’ get relaxed rest
    • That reduces immunity and increases chances of heart diseases and cancer 

• The second major stage is REM sleep
  • This is where we dream
  • Interestingly our brain activity here is almost similar to when we are awake.
  • In fact some parts are 30% more active. 
  • In this stage we analyse vast amount of data we’ve stored 
  • And connect the dots to make sense of the world
  • It's not just simple linear connections 
  • but our brains work at 2 to 3 times their capacity to connect seemingly disparate pieces of data.    
  • That’s the way we can uncover path breaking ideas
  • The vision of the solar system was imagined in a dream 
  • The periodic table was envisioned in a dream. There are many more examples. 
  • The central point is that in REM sleep our creativity, analytical skills, EQ work at greater levels that when we are awake enabling us to discover new theories and insights

• The second big advantage of REM sleep is overnight therapy. 
• The anxiety triggering molecule is turned off during this stage of sleep.
• So in our dreams,  we can relive our emotionally difficult experiences very vividly
• But without any suffering
• By replaying negative experiences multiple times - and not feeling the anxiety - we can heal from these 
• This is the only time during the waking or sleeping hours that our anxiety turning molecule is off. 
• It offers mental health benefit better than meditation or any form of therapy
• There is empirical evidence of support this
• In an experiment, Scientists spent a year studying the brains of people who have deep trauma during their REM sleep
• One can measure how vivid the dreams are by parts of the brain that light up during that time
• Doing this - scientists found that people who had the most vivid dreams were more often cured from clinical depression.
• Remarkable isn’t it?  
• They say time heals all wounds
• Instead as Matthew Walker puts it -  dream time heals all wounds

Now REM sleep typically occurs in the early hours of the morning. 

• So if we have an alarm waking us up before we are ready, we lose out on REM sleep. 
• With low REM sleep, 
• Our EQ, and intellectual abilities get impacted
• Lack of REM sleep causes chronic depression and anxiety
• REM sleep is directly related to life expectancy
• The more hours of REM sleep we get the longer we live 

Implication of the sleep cycles

• By understanding the science we realize that 
• Sleep is not just a relaxation time. A passive time to recharge. 
• Instead it is actually a critical time of being alive - this is when we are learning things, we are analysing, creating, improving mental health, building resilience.
• It is an important part of living and growing

How do we get better sleep?

• Now that we’ve understand how important sleep is
• Let’s talk about ways to get better sleep. 
• There are 3 variables that affect our sleep 
• The first is 
  • Our body 
  • These are multiple systems in the body that make us fall asleep
  • There is body clock or the circadian rhythm of the body
  • There is a hormone which created chemical pressure in us to sleep
  • And the popular melatonin which sends a signal to the body when it’s time to sleep
  • If any of these systems get tampered with - sleep gets affected
• The second important variable is our mind
  • Our mind needs to be calm and relaxed for us to fall and remain asleep
  • Anxiety is biggest cause for insomnia

• The third variable is our environment
  • We need the right temperature and we need darkness to fall asleep
  • Being denied any of this affects sleep 

With this context, here are 6 ways to get better sleep?

• 1. Routine
• As we talked earlier, our body has an internal 24 hour clock
• The circadian rhythm. Most body functions revolve around this
• Sleeping and waking up at around the same time aligns ourselves to this internal clock
• This then makes it easier to fall asleep and remain asleep 
• So thats the first tip - sleeping and waking up at approximately the same time makes a dramatic improves our sleep 

• 2. Temperature
• This is a great point for people who argue with their spouses on what temperature the aircon at night should be 
  • Here is supporting data for folks in the cool camp 
• Our body temperature needs to come down for us to fall asleep.
• That’s why it is easier to fall asleep in a cold room vs a warm room.
• Typically a room temperature of 18.5 C or 68F is ideal cool temperature for most adults to initiate asleep.
• If we are in the losing end of this aircon temperature battle, 
• Another way to bring our body temperature down is to have a warm bath before sleeping
• Warm bath ironically cools our body because the pores enlarge and the heat can come out. 
• It also has the additional benefit of calming our minds after a hectic day. 

• 3. Darkness 
• Our bodies have a sleep signalling hormone called melatonin which gets activated during darkness
• So when we make our room completely dark, melatonin shouts out to the brain - time to sleep, time to sleep
• This then triggers the sleep process in our bodies
• So the tip here is to draw the curtains, switch off or dim the lights 30 minutes before we plan to sleep 
• Offcourse no blue light. That’s why no devices
• The light fools melatonin to think it's day not night. 
• The only way our body can sense light is through our eyes. 
• And if our eyes are on a screen it senses daylight
• Devices additional stimulate the brain so we are not restful enough to sleep

• 4. Avoid Caffeine and alcohol
• Let’s talk caffeine first. 
• One of the hormones that makes us sleep is called adenosine. 
• From the time we wake up it starts building chemical pressure
• This chemical pressure peaks at night time and makes us fall asleep. 
• Caffeine affects sleep because it interferes with this hormone and blocks its signal to the brain. 
• As a result the pressure to sleep could be very strong but because of caffeine, the brain does not know this - so we cannot sleep.
• This effect of caffeine is in our bodies for roughly 8-10 hours
• So if we have coffee at least 8-10 hours before sleeping - we should be fine
• If we sleep at 11pm, we should try to have our last coffee latest by 3pm. 
• So that’s caffeine. 
• Alcohol unfortunately badly affects sleep as well
• There is this perception among many of us that when we drink we can sleep well
• But alcohol does not enable sleep. 
• What it does is - it sedates our prefrontal cortex- the thinking part of the brain.
• So without our worries and stress, we are able to fall asleep easily
• But the quality of sleep is very poor
• Alcohol blocks REM sleep. The dream sleep. 
• This is a big one. We’ve already discussed all the risks associated with low REM sleep

• 5. Wind down and relax
• Our mind needs to be calm for us to fall asleep
• A wind down routine helps - 
  • Disengaging from TV, phones and other stimulants
  • Maybe a shower, a book, meditation, or stretches before sleeping
  • Its advised to have at least an hour of wind down before bed
• If our mind is racing with emotional thoughts before we sleep
  • We cannot take them to bed
  • Research shows that Anxiety gets worse at night
  • We’ve all experienced this
  • Being kept up all night by a nagging thought 
    • which doesn’t seem that big of a deal in the morning 
  • A good trick here is to journal or write out troubling thoughts 

before we go to bed.

• Take them out of our head
• Even if it means stepping out of our bedroom and pouring our heart out
• After that, we feel lighter and can fall asleep 

• 6. Get up and leave the room, if you can't sleep
• If we lie in bed unable to sleep for 20 minutes or more
• We should leave the room go outside and come back only when we feel sleepy
• Just lying in bed makes everything worse - the bed becomes hotter, we stress about not being able to sleep, and our brain gets tricked into thinking that the bed is not a place for sleeping etc
• By stepping out, we change the geography and energy
• The room we go into should be dark or dimly lit. We could read a book, or do stretches. 
• One technique that works for me is putting my legs up on the wall and breathing. This is a very relaxed position that calms the body. 
• Only when we feel sleepy should we go back to our bed and sleep. 
• This 20 minute rule is also applicable in the middle of the night. If we wake up at night and can’t fall back asleep for 20 mins, we should leave the room and come back when we are sleepy. 
• Great tip for parents with newborns who wake up at night.  

So those are the 6 ways to get a better sleep

• Have a set routine for sleep, create darkness, cool down, avoid caffeine and alcohol, wind down and relax, and get up and leave if you can’t sleep.

Behavioural Changes - how to think about it

• Now that’s the science
• How should we think about this in line with our life?
• Firstly, let’s not get overwhelmed - we don’t need to do everything. 
• Let’s pick 2-3 small changes we can do and test them out
• An easy one could be having a warm shower before sleeping every night.
• This helps both in reducing body temperature and calming the mind 
• Can we do that for a month and see what happens?
• Another easy rule could be a 2pm or 3pm cut off for the last coffee
• There are many other small manageable changes we can consider 
  • Dimming lights for 30 mins before sleeping, buying black out blinds, cooling the room before going to bed, no devices 30 mins before bed, getting up and leaving if we cant sleep for 20 minutes
  • Or anything else from the tips we discussed earlier
• We need not get upset about or focus energy on things we don’t want to change
  • If we don’t want to give up weekend drinking or the glass of wine every night - that's fine. Lets not think about it
  • If we cannot go to sleep and wake up at the same time - again - let’s not even think about it. Its fine
• Net, our lifestyle need not suffer. 
• The other mindset is experimentation. We can experiment with a few of these manageable changes and see what works well for us 
• Through all this, we have a shot at making a huge enhancement in our sleep without compromising heavily on our lifestyle. 

• I hope you found some of these things useful
• I wish you all the best as you experiment with sleep 

• That’s it for today’s episode. Hope you enjoyed it.
• I’m excited about the next episode which drops two weeks from now on April 26. 
• In that episode we talk to Stephanie Dickson, Entrepreneur and thought leader on climate change and sustainability. 
• Through her venture Green is the New Black and other initiatives, Steph is creating a platform for green businesses and inspiring young people to pursue fulfilling careers.
• We talk about the important facts on climate change 
• What do we need to know and how can we as an individual make a difference? What are some small ways to get started?
• Here’s a short clip from that episode 
• I hope you join me 
• Till next time
• Bye bye and have a wonderful day ahead