On this episode of the show, it's all about sleep, we discuss:
How according to Stockholm University in Sweden, not getting enough sleep may cause you to feel 5 to 10 years older than you really are.
The Best Positions for Sleep
Using aromatherapy to fall asleep
The perfect temperature to fall asleep
Sleep Hygiene
Foods to avoid to fall asleep fast
How your workouts affect sleep
Two sleep superfoods
Ambien Zombies
For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com
Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:03):
John Tesh here with Gib Gerard, welcome to the podcast
today. We're gonna be all aboutsleep, because I'm the guy who
doesn't get any sleep. How areyou doing with sleep these days?
It depends.
Three kids at home.
It depends. I you know, I end updoing this. I follow. I do the
worst thing. I generate myselfinto a horrible sleep cycle
where I fall asleep putting myyoungest to bed. He's eight, and
(00:26):
I'll fall asleep either layingon the floor next to his bed or
reading the stories to him, andthen I wake up at like, 1130 and
sometimes I wake up and I'm ableto, like, do work and talk to my
wife for a half an hour, andthen I go to bed, or I wake up
at like, two o'clock in themorning, completely disoriented.
I forgot to brush my teeth, andthen I finally actually get to
go to bed. It's terrible. Andthen that creates a sleep
(00:48):
deficit the next day, whichmakes me that much more likely
to fall asleep putting the kidsto bed the next night. It's just
a it's a vicious cycle. Wehave some tips for you. I can't
wait send your kids to boardingschool now. Just kidding, don't
do that. This is from the fromStockholm home university. If
you want to feel younger, theysay you have to make sleep a
priority, duh. So not gettingenough sleep can cause you, they
(01:10):
say can cause you to feel fiveto 10 years older than you
really are. I know you're true.
It makes sense, because beingsleep deprived reduces your
energy, and so people are alsoless physically and socially
active when they're sleepdeprived. I know this feeling
and both of those things, sleepand being social make people
feel younger. So in studies,it's linked to living longer,
(01:33):
okay, a good night's sleep,lower rate of dementia, less
depression, positive traits likeoptimism, hope and resilience.
Feeling younger is also, theysay, associated with, uh, better
physical and mental health. Thisis blah, blah, blah. But
according to the journalfrontiers in aging neuroscience,
people who feel younger thantheir chronological age, they
have more gray matter in theirbrains, and they scored younger
(01:53):
in tests of brain aging. Sobasically, I mean, and we're
going to go through a couple ofthings here and get a couple of
different studies, but we canconnect, and we've done it many
times on the radio show. We canconnect a lack of sleep, yes, to
many things. So it's cognitivedecline, we've seen that also it
makes you hungry. So we canconnect it to belly fat. We can
(02:15):
also connect it to losing a jobor not being as effective at a
job because because of angerissues, right? Sleep deprivation
makes you angry. It also candestroy your relationship. So so
enjoy again, if you're angry,irritable, craving foods and
stimulation in order to stayawake. All of that's going to
that's going to hurt your yourjob. It's going to hurt your
(02:36):
relationships. It's going tohurt your waistline. You're
going to be, you're gonna beless effective working out. And
what you and I, I mean, this isan example that I give all the
time when I was younger. It wasa badge of honor, yes, how
little sleep you needed to getby? Yeah, it was, it was like,
the thing, oh, it was sleep isfor the week. It's, you know,
you don't really know why youneed it. So if you need it, it's
(02:57):
just because you're weak. Youshould just power through, you
know, drink that extra cup ofcoffee, yeah, hustle sickness,
right? Yeah, stay awake. Do whatyou need to do. And and more and
more research shows that we needthe sleep more than more than
like that, another hour ofstudying is going to be less
effective than an additionalhour of sleep will be followed
by, you know, more intentionalstudying and better planning
(03:20):
next time. Yeah,yeah. Amen to that. Also,
there's a, there's actually asleep position. You know, we've
spoken about this before.
Really, the best sleep positionis on your back, yeah, but a lot
of people can't do that. Can'tstay there. The worst sleep
position, for many reasons, ison your side, on your stomach,
because you can mess with yourbreathing. You can also just
(03:41):
destroy your your back as you'reinverted my stomach. Yeah, we're
not supposed to, but I sort ofdo, like a combo deal. I got
like one knee up and then, youknow, that kind of thing. But
now we know that sleeping in oneaccording to internist Dr Holly
Phillips, who studies sleep,that sleeping in one particular
position will not only help yourback feel better, but they she's
(04:04):
finding that you can reduce yourrisk of Alzheimer's disease, and
here's how it works. Well, firstof all, you lie on your side,
leg spent with the pillowbetween your knees. When you put
the pillow between your knees,it saves your back. So Holly
Phillips doc, Holly Phillipssays the position alleviates the
strain in your back, but nowresearch shows it helps remove
damaging proteins from yourbrain while you're sleeping, the
(04:25):
ones that accumulate andeventually contribute to the
development of Alzheimer's,because lying on your side, she
says, improves circulation toyour head and neck and increases
oxygen flow. How about that?
You got to make sure that thatspine is aligned when you're on
your side. You can't have yourhead way up, way down. So
you have to have the rightpillow. And, yeah, and, you
know, a big pillow never, neverworks for me. It always messes
(04:47):
with my neck.
I have, I mean, I have, like,three different kinds of
pillows. I've also heard forwhat for? Well, you know, you
have the big pillows that arethe decorative ones that
obviously I didn't pick. Andthere's, like, the. A hard foam
neck pillow, and then a coupleof soft pillows that you can,
kind of like, manipulate intoposition, and then, and then
finally, you, you know, yeah,then we have the body pillows
(05:10):
from when my wife was pregnantthat you you can, like, put
between your legs and kind ofhold on to which that one's
fantastic. I highly recommendthat if you cannot sleep on your
side, if you can't dial all thatin. I do know that there has
been the recommendation that youdo lay on your back, but you put
a pillow beneath your knees tokind of put some of the stress
off of your lower back when youdo that, so you can get that
(05:33):
better night sleep. But it youknow, all of this is just adding
up to the important, the overallimportance of sleep, like the
position that you're talkingabout is just the position that
helps you stay asleep thelongest and puts the least
amount of stress on your brain.
And that's the point of sleep.
So, you know, these are justways to optimize what our body
needs.
You know, we're going to talkabout sleep hygiene in a minute,
but I also want to talk abouthow the according to the UCI
(05:56):
center for neurobiology, and, bythe way, and you know, every
major university, including,including Texas, University of
Texas, which is where MDAnderson is there. They're now
looking at sleep deprivation andconnecting it to, to the
development of cancer cells.
Again. I mean, it's, it's, it'scrazy, the connection, it's an
important part of your body'scleaning out process, right? And
(06:19):
so if you can't, if you can'tproperly clean out your body,
then you can't, you're, you'regoing to have all of the
metabolic disorders that lead tocancer eventually, if you can't
do it, just you, we got tofigure out how to say and by the
way, I don't normally have ahard time sleeping. I just don't
get enough of it. Except thetimes when I can't fall asleep,
and when I can't fall asleep isthe only thing I can think
(06:39):
about, yeah, and it's only thingthat
matters. And there's also, Ican't remember what the name of
it is, but it's one of thosethings where, where you're it's
a type of insomnia where youworry that you're not going to
be able to go to sleep. Rememberthat thing we were talking about
that Exactly, yeah, and, and Iremember, when I was doing so
many I'd go back and forth fromLos Angeles to New York. And
(06:59):
anybody you know, when you're ona business trip and you have a
time changer and you got and yougot a business meeting or a
television interview early inthe morning, and and you're
looking at that, you're soafraid that you're not going to
to wake up on time, right? Andyou're just looking at that
clock,yes, and then, and every time it
clicks over, you think, okay, Ican get six hours now. Okay, I
get five hours. Okay, just fourhours of sleep, and I'll be
(07:21):
ready to go and then, and then,before, you know, you haven't
sleptat all. Yeah. So according to
those researchers at UCI center,lead researcher Michael Leon
says by age 60, our sense ofsmell begins to decline. We saw
this with your grandmother,along with our memory. So he and
his team decided to see iffragrances might make a
difference in the study, half ofthe participants were asked to
(07:42):
sleep in a scent free room,bedroom. The rest were given an
essential oil diffuser to use intheir bedroom for two hours
every night. Diffuser, ofcourse, you get that at Amazon.
You can pick your fragrance, andlavender really works well for
me. And participants rotatedthrough the different scents,
getting a fresh whiff before bedeach night. So here the ascents
included rose, which I don'tlike lemon, yes, I like that,
(08:04):
orange, lavender, eucalyptus,peppermint and rosemary. And
after six months, the studyparticipants with scented
bedrooms, they scored 226%better on memory tests compared
to the ascent free room people.
Once we reach middle age, weneed to sleep a certain amount
of hours each night to maintaingood health. And so if you
(08:25):
don't, if you don't, if you'renot able to do that, then, then
apparently, these, these, these,these scents can really help
you. And the number one scentthat helped was lavender, and
because, because peppermint, itlit peppermint. Lemon lit people
up, right?
They wake up. Do you? Do youhave a diffuser? Do you do this?
I have a diffuser right here.
Actually, it ran out of stuff.
(08:47):
It's in my studio. But, youknow, rosemary, I'm sorry,
lavender, I had I ordered it. Iordered a diffuser recently,
Amazon. I thought I ordered itwith lavender, and it came with
rosemary. And I really hate thesmell of rosemary and Rose.
Yeah, I don't know. It's just,it's, I get in there, I feel
like I'm, I feel like I've, Ifeel like I've gone out of gone
(09:10):
on a date with the wrong person.
And I'm sure she felt the sameway about me, but, but anyway,
lavender, no, I'm thinking ofsomebody in particular where it
was, like, the whole night I wassmelling this perfume. I
was like, Oh my gosh, the wrongmy gosh, the wrong oils can
smell like, bad. Whydidn't you read? You wear
Halston? And she's like, Well,why didn't you read? Why didn't
you wear English leather? Yeah,anyway, so, so lavender was, was
(09:33):
the one? Yeah, there was, wasthe had the biggest effect. And
it's, it's most calming for metoo. Yeah, I
don't have a diffuser. Don't dothis. Don't do a candle if,
instead of a diffuser withcandles in the room. So just,
you know, little, little warningright there we I have the, I
have the lavender that has,like, actual lavender parts in
(09:55):
it, laundry bag and I dry mysheet. Oh, that's a gentle smell
of lavender. Lavender on all ofthe laundry, but I don't have
the diffuser in the bedroombecause I don't know it feels,
it feels too it feels like toomuch to like be messing with
that stuff. But all of thethings that we're talking about
with the eye masks, we haven'ttalked about eye masks. Yeah,
we'll talk about that. But witheye masks and light in the room,
(10:18):
and sleep hygiene, and what timewe go to bed and all of that.
You know, your your your brainhas a mechanism that kind of
keeps you safe and alert in casesomething happens. Right? What
we have to do is we have to makesure that we're overwhelming
those that, hey, I want to keepyou alert parts of your brain so
that you can actually fallasleep and relax. And you know,
(10:38):
most of us are not facingconstant threats when we're
asleep. And so, you know, ourbrain is kind of doing this
hyperdrive thing for no reason,and we want to, we want to short
circuit that. And like the smellof nice lavender flowers helps
your brain, because, you know,the smell goes right into your
brain. There are fewer, fewerinterpreting neurons between the
reaction to scent and your andyour your brain being able to
(11:02):
process it than there are withlike taste or touch or there's
just fewer neurons that has togo through, so it goes more
closely to your brain, and thenthat allows you, allows our
scent to be a great way tooverwhelm the brain, so that we
can fall asleep. So I definitelysupport it. I just, I haven't it
seems, it seems like too much ofan investment. I feel like I've
lost I think, you know, thenights that I'm having a really
(11:23):
hard time trying to fall asleep,I'm gonna wish that I had it,
but I don't get it, because it'slike, Oh, I'm not one of the
people that needs a diffuser inmy bedroom. And now I'm thinking
about it, I'm gonna end upneeding a diffuser in
my bedroom. Yeah, let's talkabout sleep hygiene. Because,
because of what we do, we, youknow, we interview experts,
sleep experts. Dr Christopherwinter, Wendy Troxel, Dr Michael
(11:43):
Bruce, known as the sleepdoctor. Lot of these folks, and
they all agree on several thingsfor good sleep hygiene. So
what's happened is, given I havehave tested these out, and it's
an interesting test, becauseI'm, you know, where I'm an
empty nester here, but I'm also,I'm still on account on a mild
cancer treatment, and I wake upa lot during the night and so
(12:05):
and then I'm competing with mywife, who wants to sleep at a
certain temperature at night,and then you've got, you're with
your kids. So I think we can allagree that that a safe and very
effective way to help you sleepis to is to get a sleep mask.
And you were against this atfirst, is that? Right?
I hated the idea of a sleep maskbecause they pushed on my
(12:26):
eyelids, right? But then thenewer ones came out. And I don't
have stock in a sleep maskcompany. I'm just telling you my
experience. The newer ones cameout that have the little round,
circular had that one it sitsaround your eyeballs, that the
actual mask parts is sort of,you know, maybe two centimeters
to half an inchoff. Yeah, those long eyelashes
Ido, yeah, and it's helpful. And
(12:46):
I also, because I was getting,like a new fangled one, I got
one with Bluetooth in it so thatI could play, like Sleep Sounds
on it when I want to, but Ican't
find them. You told me aboutthem. Like I need that, but I
always afraid if I put earphonesin, I'm gonna miss somebody
sneaking up on me. Yeah, yeah.
(13:07):
It doesn't really happen verymuch, so I feel okay with it. I
mean, it's, you know, I don'tsleep in my windows open, but I,
but I don't, I don't. I'm not soworried about that the I do
miss. I do worry that I'm gonnamiss something going on with my
kids, or my kids trying to mydaughters get to the atrium, I
start sneaking out.
Oh yeah, very soon I gotta beready. So what is the
temperature in your room? Whatare you sleeping? I
(13:28):
don't, I don't have it ascontrolled as you do. Oh yeah.
I, you know, I will say, I willsay that my air conditioner was
broken during the height of thesummer this year, and I did not
sleep well because I was verysweaty. But I, you know, I my
room gets to about, you know,the high 60s midnight. That's
good. That's good. So they said,they say, now in this interview
(13:49):
I just did with Dr Christopherwinter, because ours was, that's
like, 68 right? And he likes 65and 66 it is really cold and,
and the funny thing is, is thatConnie doesn't like doesn't like
it. She likes it like it'salmost like it's 70. And so what
I do is I wait for her to fallasleep, and then I creep into
(14:09):
it. I have to use like, the Ihave to use the the flashlight
on my watch, because it's not asit's not as big. And I sneak in
there, and I try to push thebutton without making any noise.
But I made the mistake of, okay,so it works for her. Shout out
to Tempur Pedic. I don't likeyour beds. Tempur Pedic is too
hot for I know that. I know theymake another bed that said
(14:30):
that's cooler, but I'm a hotsleeper. And so the original
Tempur Pedic bed, which I haveit and Connie and I have two
twins right next to each other,as you know, and which is great,
by the way, it's great idea,because you can move around a
lot, and the other persondoesn't feel you, and so it
holds the heat. And so I needthe room to be really cold. And
the reason you want the cold theroom cold is
(14:53):
because it gets into yourhormones that help you actually
fall asleep, right? That whenyour body temperature plummets,
it. Actually releases yournatural, your body's natural
melatonin, which, you know. Soyou can't do that if you're in
an 85 degree room. But I can't,I can't get my room that cold,
and I I don't whatever works. Itdoesn't sound comfortable
(15:15):
either.
No, while you're sleep, you getup when you go to the bathroom,
and you're literally you have toput your jacket on.
It reminds me of, you know, inmy younger days, you'd go out
with your friends, and nobody bein a condition to drive home. So
you'd fall asleep at whateverhouse the you started from,
yeah, and and then, but youwouldn't have a blanket and wake
up in the morning. You'refreezing because nobody, you
(15:38):
know, when you went to sleep,nobody cared about blankets. You
just fell asleep wherever yousat, and then you're like, I'm
so cool. Yeah, there'salso you got. It could be one.
It could be just an LED light ona on on a phone, or an LED light
even on on a clock radio. Yeah,your that. Your eyelid is gonna
see that. And so if you don'twant to wear the sleep mask, you
(16:00):
have to make you have to havethe blackout drapes.
You have to have the blackoutdrapes. Honestly, the I don't
love wearing the sleep mask. Itirritates the back of my head. I
found one that I like, that Ican tolerate, but I don't love
it. But the reality is, it takesa long time to get used. You got
to get used to it, and it's somuch faster than doing what you
(16:22):
would have to do in order to getyour room to the place where it
would have to be to equal theamount of sleep hygiene that you
get from wearing the mask,meaning you would have to get
blackout curtains. You'd have toget a noise machine. You would
have to remove anything with alight out of your bedroom. You'd
have to put the you'd have tomake sure that the you had a
good seal on the doors, that nooutside light from the hallway
(16:42):
comes in, in order to get thisthe exact amount of the same
kind of sleep hygiene that youget from just wearing a sleep
mask. Yeah. So while I don'tlove a sleep mask, it is
definitely the quickest way togood sleep hygiene you
can possibly Yeah. And we'vealso seen this tip from from Dr
Michael Bruce, I was stilltalking about sleep hygiene.
Here is, is is to is to take ashower or a bath, a warm bath,
(17:06):
before you go to sleep. But itreally should be a full hour
beforehand, because it becausethe cooling down of your body,
that process is what releasesthe melatonin. And if you, if
you do it like a half hourbefore you try to go to sleep,
it's notgoing to work. Okay, we've
talked about all these differentthings you can do to fall
asleep. We've talked about thethe temperature of the room,
we've talked about theimportance of sleep. We've
(17:28):
talked about, you know, all thisstuff. But let me tell you, the
best sleep that I've had in myadult life. Talk to me, is a
nice, hot Epsom salt bath. Oh,okay, okay, right. And then I
get out of that bath. I dry off,I put, you know, I put, like,
sweats on. I don't care whattemperature the room is, I don't
care what amount of lavender Ican smell. That is the best
(17:49):
sleep. Okay,so listen, there's science as to
why. And you know this, there'sscience to why this works. Epsom
salts baths, and you can get itwith the one we got from Dr
TEALS, I think it's called,it's, it's Epsom salt, which is
magnesium, right? And thenlavender, they have lavender
side of there. So the magnesium,when that gets into your system,
that's what puts you Yes,great. Whatever it is.
(18:15):
I don't need a sleep mask atthat point. I'm out, so I
recommend that. But the rest ofthis is, if that doesn't work
for you, okay,and let's talk, let's talk about
what not to eat before you yougo to sleep. A lot of the, a lot
of the one of the meats called,like, salami, and all of us
cured me, cured meats, that's,yeah, so cured meats is really a
bad idea because they havetyrosine in them, and then also
(18:37):
a fatty meal will keep you awakeas well, true. So, so then the
number one thing, and I justread this in a report the other
day, the number one thing thatyou should eat before bed is the
number one thing that I will noteat, and that is cottage cheese.
Oh, yeah, it's the right it'sthe right blend of protein and
carbohydrates, yeah.
(18:58):
I mean, look, I like, if you canget used to the texture, cottage
cheese, we talk about that allthe time. I mean, it's good.
It's good, efficient way ofgetting protein into your body.
It is. It is a healthy way. It'snot as bad for you. Dairy wise
as like, pure milk would be. Soit's yes, we absolutely support
the idea of cottage cheese, ifyou can stomach it. I like
(19:19):
cottage cheese. If you havedairy, it is a good dairy to
have. I can't I cannot recommendenough not you know, you don't
have to be weird aboutintermittent fasting. You don't
have to do the eight full 18hours or 20 hours like some
people do, but the earlier youcan just stop eating for the
day, the better you're you don'tneed that late night snack. It's
not good for your waistline.
It'snot good for your sleep. And now
(19:40):
we know that I love elite iceneck.
Yeah, don't get me wrong, lastnight, I was out late. I stopped
a taco bell on the way home.
Yeah, you love Taco Bell and andI ate right before I went to
bed. And I know how bad it isfor me, but I did it. I'm just
put I, but I it is terrible foryou.
Yeah, oatmeal is also prettygood, so because you digest it
quickly, but you don't, wedon't, you don't want and you.
And as much as I like having aglass of wine at dinner, if I do
(20:04):
that, it's, it's as soon as mybody finishes metabolizing it,
boom, I'm wide. Sothe the we, let's, let's just
talk about alcohol for a second.
Because, shall we? Yeah. Sofirst and foremost, everybody
has this misconception aboutalcohol and sleep that it helps
you fall asleep because it does,because it does. It helps you
fall asleep. It really does nothelp you stay asleep. In fact,
(20:26):
it makes you less likely to beable to stay asleep. So as soon
as your body is processing thoseprocess, your livers is
digesting the alcohol, it'sprocessing the alcohol, and then
it releases, I forget what thename of the chemical is. Is some
kind of aldehyde. Yeah, it isthat. Then that's what actually
causes you to have acetaaldehyde, or something like
that. That's what caused you tohave a hangover. And there are
(20:48):
some great products that you canbuy. You can get them anywhere,
including Amazon, that will helpyour body actually digest those
faster. But that wakes you up.
When you start the hangover, itwill start to wake you up and
that. And that gives you, evenif you don't perceive it, it
gives you less restful sleep. Soeven if you are not fully awake,
you still are not getting thesort of deep REM sleep that your
(21:08):
body needs that we were talkingabout at the beginning of this
episode. That's what you youreally need, that in order to in
order to have the most effectivenext day. And alcohol interferes
with that. I love, I love aglass of alcohol. I like a good,
a good, you know, scotch at theend of the day. I like wine. I
like a martini. I do. I drink. Istill, I still do. But I
(21:30):
recently was reading a study,and basically that we know, we
used to talk about, oh, one ortwo glasses of wine is good for
you. One cocktail is not so bad.
I read the same study and thenew the new thing is, there is
no amount of alcohol that has ahealth benefit. So it is every
sip is detrimental todetrimental to your health,
health. I'm saying this assomebody who is not going to
(21:53):
stop having alcohol. I am goingto continue to have it, but I am
going to, I'm not going to haveit with the knowledge that I'm
doing anything good for myself.
I'm going to have it with theknowledge that this is, this is
a place where I, you know, youhave, you have things that you
do well for your body, andthings that you do for fun. And
the alcohol is now a thing Ijust I accept that this is my
time. This is my junk food, andI'm going to enjoy it
accordingly. Yeah,I had stopped drinking for a
(22:15):
while, and then we went to Italyand yeah, and my excuse was,
well, they don't have anysulfates in
Okay, yeah, that's the issue.
The alcohol itself is the issue.
Therewas just a story yesterday on
the news that restaurants andbars are reporting that Gen Z is
not interested at all in happyhour. Yeah, have
(22:38):
you heard this whole story aboutthey're not they're not
drinking well and they're notdrinking. They don't want to
drink around co workers. Theidea of meeting immediately
after work is no longerappealing, for a variety of
reasons. People don't work thesame schedules anymore, and the
also, people aren't reallycommuting by train. We, I think,
for for on a huge upside, wehave really stigmatized drunk
(23:01):
driving to the point wherepeople don't feel comfortable
having a cocktail or two andthen getting behind the wheel as
well. They shouldn't. And sobecause of that, people are not
reaching for they're not meetingfor after work. How could you go
for after work cocktails ifnobody's gonna be able to drive
to it? People are leaving workat the at different times, and
you're not as interested indrinking anymore, period. Yeah,
my mom and dad, you actuallyused to drive to a to church
(23:25):
meetings with was like a halfhour drive. Used to drive with
it, with a high ball of Scotchin their hands, in their
Thunderbird. Thank God, nothingever happened. That was the
thing back just 1990s I know.
And you saw, you saw that inwhat was the show? Mad Men,
right? Yes, yes. So we'vestudied this many times. I mean,
we've seen the studies explainthe folks who are listening
(23:48):
because, because it is manytimes as I've seen it, I started
to experience it where, theharder I work out in the
morning, whatever workout I do,it could be high intensity
interval training. Could belifting weights. It could be
lots and lots of stretching. 45minutes of exercise is what I
try to do every morning. If I doit, if I don't do it, my sleep
(24:09):
is junk sleep that night. Well,how does that
work? Well, first of all, themore you exercise, the more
active you are during the day,the better your sleep is going
to be. It's just amazing tome that what you do and the more
you do in the morning is goingto affect your sleep, though,
yes, but you,but the best thing you could,
honestly, we talk about this allthe time, the best thing you can
do for your body is to be goingto sleep at the same time every
(24:30):
day, waking up at the same timeevery day, and doing at least 30
minutes of physical activitywithin 30 minutes of waking up.
So, you know, start that within30 minutes away. Yeah, that is,
that is a recipe for all kindsof success in life, but
especially is good for yoursleep. When you exert your body
early in the morning, yourability to focus throughout the
day, all it goes up, yourhormones align better. You you
(24:51):
will have more you'll have moreattention. Ironically, you'll
have or you'll have more energythroughout the day. You'll be
able to focus. This better, andthen at night, your body will
will actually adapt to fallasleep much more quickly in
anticipation of exercising thenext day. I'm not exactly sure
what hormones align when youwhen you exercise in the morning
(25:12):
versus the evening, but as longas you give yourself, it's crazy
that it works. But as long aslong as you give yourself, I
think it's, it's three to fivehours from finishing your
exercise to going to bed. Yeah,you don't want to get on this
take a spinning class an hourbefore bed. Yeah, any
exercise during the day is goingto make it easier to fall
(25:33):
asleep. And if you work outlater in the day, make sure that
whatever pre workouts you'reusing don't have stimulants in
them, because that will, thatwill ruin any sleep benefit you
get from the exercise. Let'stalk about two more things. Two
more things you can do for abetter night's sleep. And the
first one is, you know, thefirst time you and I mentioned
tart cherry juice on the show,so weird, I know it was a 2010
and we said, according to theEuropean Journal of Nutrition,
(25:56):
tart cherries and tart cherryjuice can help ease the pain of
sore muscles and help you sleepbetter, because cherries contain
a natural anti inflammatory thatworks exactly like ibuprofen in
the body. Without that drug,they also contain high
concentrations of the hormonemelatonin. So in the last few
years, right last three years,word has gotten out about how
(26:16):
powerful tar cherries are,because there's three more
studies that are out as aresult. Listen to this, sales of
tart cherry juice have increasedby a full 30% in just in just
the last five years. Iabsolutely believe it. I mean, I
remember, when you we first didthat story, we had to go to a
very special grocery store rightto be able to find, yeah, no, I
can name it's called capitaldrugs. Remember the place? Yeah.
And now I can think of, like,five different places where you
(26:38):
can get tart cherry juice andand that's great. I mean, look,
it's a great natural way. Justmake sure that whatever juices
you have, whether it's tartcherry pomegranate, whatever,
don't have added sugar. That isthe that is the key. All of the
benefits that we talked aboutfor all of these different
antioxidants and things thatcome from the fruit juices
themselves go out the windowwhen you start adding sugar to
(27:00):
make because tart cherry juicedoes not go down easy. You don't
want to cut it with some CocaCola. No, don't cut it with a
coke. Itdoes not go down easy with some
water, at least sparkling water.
Yeah, it doesn't go down easy,but it is good for you. And if
it goes down smooth, it meansyou're probably getting the kind
with the sugar in it, and you'relosing any benefits.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And onemore thing. And I started doing
(27:24):
this because of our sponsor andour friends, Cindy Bigelow, at
Bigelow t right? Oh, yeah. Andthese guys are great, because
they've been really in theforefront of putting together
what you, I guess you would callthe functional food world is
very big right now. And so therethey really got in early on the
functional teas, yes. And sothey do have a they have a tea,
(27:44):
they have a green tea with extracaffeine and l theanine, which
means it's the L theanine isgoing to relaxes. You don't get
the jitters, but you also getmore more more caffeine with the
extra caffeine. So it's a greatcombination, but I had never
really had chamomile tea before,right? And so they sent this.
They sent this giant thing, andyou stole most of it. It was
(28:07):
some half of it this big carepackage with all the teas in
there. And so I thought, Okay,so I've heard from sleep expert,
the from the good sleep guide.
Sandy Margo is the author of thegood sleep guy. There's also a
podcast, and Sammy sayschamomile works as a mild
tranquilizer and a sleepinducer. And if you put some
honey in there, oh, yeah. Andyou can get it with honey, you
(28:29):
can get it right, right with thethe Bigelow T, functional T.
Honey contains glucose, whichtells your brain to shut off
orexin, chemical known totrigger alertness. So a couple
of chamomile with honey as yourelax and dozing off in no time.
And so now, when I'm eating out,I always end with that. Actually
bring it with me. The Bigelowcame. I'm not doing a
(28:50):
commercial. It's just Idiscovered it because they
become, became our partner.
Really works. Itreally does look you want to,
you want to take the best nonpharmaceutical path to and
honestly, as far as sleep aidsgo, pharmaceuticals don't have a
great track record. So this isprobably the, I'm not going to
make a claim relative topharmaceuticals, but I this is,
(29:11):
this is the the consolidation ofso much research that we've that
we've had on the show you'regonna go to bed at the same time
every night, you're gonna wakeup at the same time every day.
You're gonna exercise in themorning. You're gonna have one
cup of black coffee in themorning and follow that up with
some green tea throughout therest of the morning. And then
you're going to stop allcaffeine by noon. And then that
(29:33):
evening, you're gonna take anEpsom salt bath with lavender
scent in it while you drink achamomile tea with honey and go
to bed at the same time you wentto bed the night before, that is
in a dark room set to the righttemperature that the rest of
that is is important, but not asimportant as everything I just
gave you with the with the sleepmask on right, I'm getting
(29:55):
sleepy, andit's such a great wrap up, too.
That's the. Fantastic. I youknow, I want to dial back too,
but so back. Well, I would saymost recently, the most popular
sleep aid is Ambien, right? Andwe've had many stories, I guess
this comes under the heading ofwhat give just said is, is do it
naturally, right? Yeah, whetheryou use tart cherry juicer or
(30:17):
the right type of exercise, allthe stuff you just listed, but
there are people who panic,right? And so they'll say, Oh,
I'm just gonna have some Ambien,or the other one, which is
Lunesta. And there's alsoTrazodone, which is an
antidepressant that people areusing now, but it's, it's first
of all, they can become habitforming. And there's also,
what's the one that's like, it'sa tranquilizer. They actually
(30:41):
gave me, this one I had when Iwas taking chemo. I'll think of
it in a minute. But it's, it's,it's Raza pan, yeah, exactly.
It's another name for it. Butyes, that's the, that's the
chemical term for Lorazepam.
That stuff is habit forming.
Yeah, and, and I remember whenwe, you know, we love Jordan
Peterson, and I remember when hewhen his wife was so sick, and
(31:01):
he ended up being on a drug tohelp him, to help him sleep, and
he was saying how he regrettedit because he had, he actually
had to go and get, get therapy,get therapy, go into rehab,
rehab and get off of it, youknow, at his level, you know.
And he's a, you know, he's apsychotherapist. So you have to
be really careful with thisstuff. Also, if you're
traveling, and we really justwent to Italy, and primo is
(31:24):
asking me, Hey, should I takesomething on the plane? I
absolutely do not take somebody.
We see these stories of these ofathletes who have to get up the
next day, and they'll have have,I mean, that's just, there's,
there are things called ambientzombies, yes, where people will
on the way home from work, theyknow they have to get up early
the next day, and so they wantto get to sleep instantly. So
they take an Ambien on the wayhome. This happened to one of
(31:46):
the Kennedys. Do you rememberthis? No, I'm studying ambience.
One of the Kennedys, I can'tremember his name, like one of
the cousins or something. And helived in Washington. He was on
his way home, and he had to goget sleep quickly, so he took
Ambien in the car, no. And, andthere was traffic, yeah. And by
the time he got halfway throughthe traffic, he had an accident,
couldn't remember who he was,right? The problem is, it makes
you fall asleep. It does not doa great job of helping you stay
(32:07):
asleep. And sometimes your braindoes not fully wake up when you
wake up these this is a knownside effect of a lot of some of
these sleep drugs. And you arewalking around, you know, not
fully conscious, but alsooperating as a full human being.
When people were eating, forget,forget the life and death
consequences, they were goingand making chocolate sundaes in
(32:28):
their in their in theirkitchens, totally ruining their
whatever eating plan they wereon. So
we had the best stories on theon the radio show, and there was
a story just recently where theywere. People were coming down to
the like in the Hilton GardenInn and holiday breakfast. Well,
(32:48):
that yes, but also they were. Weactually noticed this after we
had done the piece where wechecked in late, we noticed that
there were, there were towels,big towels at the front desk.
And we're like, what's with thetowels? And they said, Ah, well,
you know, people wake up in themiddle of the night. They take a
sleeping aid or something likethat, and they come down here
fully naked, and that we have towrap a towel out. And he said,
(33:09):
it like, like, it happens everynight.
That is why we hang out in thelobby all night just waiting to
see one of them. And onemore thing, back in the 70s,
there was, there was asleep,yeah, there was a sleep aid
called Halcyon. Yeah. Do youremember hearing about this?
Because you've told me your momused as a sleep aid and, and, I
mean, it knocked this. Nobodyprescribes it. Now, it knocked
(33:31):
you out, and you got a greatnight's sleep, right? The
problem is it just destroyedyour memory. I mean, I mean your
short term memory. And so I usedto use it like i Black back and
forth, back and forth to Europewhen I was doing CBS Sports,
right from New York and on thoselong flights. And so I would, I
would, I would take that drug,and the day I stopped taking it.
This is why you have to becareful with these things,
(33:54):
especially on an airplane, or ifyou have a drink, or something
like that, is I got back homeone night, and I wanted to get
to sleep because I had anappointment early in the
morning. Got back to New York,and I took half of the house.
Yeah, I hadn't taken one in awhile, and I woke up the next
day, and my my answering machinewas was full of messages, and I
checked the messages, and myfriend Lenny is laughing, and he
(34:15):
goes, Oh my gosh, you were sohilarious last night. I don't, I
don't remember ever talkingtalking to him. So I called him
up and I said, I said, I don'tremember. And his apartment was
like, five blocks away from mein Manhattan, right, right, so I
don't remember talking to you.
(34:36):
And he goes, talking to me, youwere at my apartment. We were
talking he goes, You werehilarious. And he goes, You have
you left your wallet here? And Isaid, What? So I had gotten up
on this drug I woke up right,walked out the door. I had to
use the key, and all the rest ofthis stuff. Walked in the
streets. Somehow in Manhattan,knocked on his door, got to his
(34:57):
door, sat down and talked to himfor a while, apparently
feathery. The plan is veryfunny, so I'm thinking, maybe we
should be a comedian. Just takethis stuff and they'll walk to
her have no memory, and thenwalk back and went back to sleep
and had no memory. So, so becareful, folks.
Yes, absolutely be careful.
This.
This really does change when youtalk about the halcyon days of
your youth on stage.
(35:18):
I'm wondering, are those thenights you don't remember.
You know, I know it's fun to dothese sort of the the multi
topics on the show, but we getso many people write it right to
write to us about about sleep.
So I wanted to do this. Andthank you for being so smart
with me again, because I knowyou've tried everything and and
you're sleeping. Well, I knowyou are unless your kids wake
(35:40):
you up, but where do you get tobe my age?
I mean, I tell you, I have moreand more nights where I really
cannot. We were when we wererecording the new version of
round ball in Oh yeah, we hadheavy dinners, like three nights
in a row. I mean, by the end ofthe trip, by the end of one of
like the sessions, I had notslept in three days because I
(36:00):
just could not fall asleep. AndI fell asleep before dinner and
one night, and I almost didn'twant to wake up. I was because I
it was so hard to fall asleep onthat trip, and I think it was
because we're eating at reallynice restaurants
every day. Well, it's just beengreat. Thank you guys for
listening, give thank you foryour wisdom, and we hope you
guys got something good out ofthis? We hope you get a good
(36:22):
night's sleep tonight. For gibGerard, I'm John Tesh. Thank you
for listening to the podcast.
You.
John Tesh here with Gib Gerard, welcome to the podcast
today. We're gonna be all aboutsleep, because I'm the guy who
doesn't get any sleep. How areyou doing with sleep these days?
It depends.
Three kids at home.
It depends. I you know, I end updoing this. I follow. I do the
worst thing. I generate myselfinto a horrible sleep cycle
where I fall asleep putting myyoungest to bed. He's eight, and
(00:26):
I'll fall asleep either layingon the floor next to his bed or
reading the stories to him, andthen I wake up at like, 1130 and
sometimes I wake up and I'm ableto, like, do work and talk to my
wife for a half an hour, andthen I go to bed, or I wake up
at like, two o'clock in themorning, completely disoriented.
I forgot to brush my teeth, andthen I finally actually get to
go to bed. It's terrible. Andthen that creates a sleep
(00:48):
deficit the next day, whichmakes me that much more likely
to fall asleep putting the kidsto bed the next night. It's just
a it's a vicious cycle. Wehave some tips for you. I can't
wait send your kids to boardingschool now. Just kidding, don't
do that. This is from the fromStockholm home university. If
you want to feel younger, theysay you have to make sleep a
priority, duh. So not gettingenough sleep can cause you, they
(01:10):
say can cause you to feel fiveto 10 years older than you
really are. I know you're true.
It makes sense, because beingsleep deprived reduces your
energy, and so people are alsoless physically and socially
active when they're sleepdeprived. I know this feeling
and both of those things, sleepand being social make people
feel younger. So in studies,it's linked to living longer,
(01:33):
okay, a good night's sleep,lower rate of dementia, less
depression, positive traits likeoptimism, hope and resilience.
Feeling younger is also, theysay, associated with, uh, better
physical and mental health. Thisis blah, blah, blah. But
according to the journalfrontiers in aging neuroscience,
people who feel younger thantheir chronological age, they
have more gray matter in theirbrains, and they scored younger
(01:53):
in tests of brain aging. Sobasically, I mean, and we're
going to go through a couple ofthings here and get a couple of
different studies, but we canconnect, and we've done it many
times on the radio show. We canconnect a lack of sleep, yes, to
many things. So it's cognitivedecline, we've seen that also it
makes you hungry. So we canconnect it to belly fat. We can
(02:15):
also connect it to losing a jobor not being as effective at a
job because because of angerissues, right? Sleep deprivation
makes you angry. It also candestroy your relationship. So so
enjoy again, if you're angry,irritable, craving foods and
stimulation in order to stayawake. All of that's going to
that's going to hurt your yourjob. It's going to hurt your
(02:36):
relationships. It's going tohurt your waistline. You're
going to be, you're gonna beless effective working out. And
what you and I, I mean, this isan example that I give all the
time when I was younger. It wasa badge of honor, yes, how
little sleep you needed to getby? Yeah, it was, it was like,
the thing, oh, it was sleep isfor the week. It's, you know,
you don't really know why youneed it. So if you need it, it's
(02:57):
just because you're weak. Youshould just power through, you
know, drink that extra cup ofcoffee, yeah, hustle sickness,
right? Yeah, stay awake. Do whatyou need to do. And and more and
more research shows that we needthe sleep more than more than
like that, another hour ofstudying is going to be less
effective than an additionalhour of sleep will be followed
by, you know, more intentionalstudying and better planning
(03:20):
next time. Yeah,yeah. Amen to that. Also,
there's a, there's actually asleep position. You know, we've
spoken about this before.
Really, the best sleep positionis on your back, yeah, but a lot
of people can't do that. Can'tstay there. The worst sleep
position, for many reasons, ison your side, on your stomach,
because you can mess with yourbreathing. You can also just
(03:41):
destroy your your back as you'reinverted my stomach. Yeah, we're
not supposed to, but I sort ofdo, like a combo deal. I got
like one knee up and then, youknow, that kind of thing. But
now we know that sleeping in oneaccording to internist Dr Holly
Phillips, who studies sleep,that sleeping in one particular
position will not only help yourback feel better, but they she's
(04:04):
finding that you can reduce yourrisk of Alzheimer's disease, and
here's how it works. Well, firstof all, you lie on your side,
leg spent with the pillowbetween your knees. When you put
the pillow between your knees,it saves your back. So Holly
Phillips doc, Holly Phillipssays the position alleviates the
strain in your back, but nowresearch shows it helps remove
damaging proteins from yourbrain while you're sleeping, the
(04:25):
ones that accumulate andeventually contribute to the
development of Alzheimer's,because lying on your side, she
says, improves circulation toyour head and neck and increases
oxygen flow. How about that?
You got to make sure that thatspine is aligned when you're on
your side. You can't have yourhead way up, way down. So
you have to have the rightpillow. And, yeah, and, you
know, a big pillow never, neverworks for me. It always messes
(04:47):
with my neck.
I have, I mean, I have, like,three different kinds of
pillows. I've also heard forwhat for? Well, you know, you
have the big pillows that arethe decorative ones that
obviously I didn't pick. Andthere's, like, the. A hard foam
neck pillow, and then a coupleof soft pillows that you can,
kind of like, manipulate intoposition, and then, and then
finally, you, you know, yeah,then we have the body pillows
(05:10):
from when my wife was pregnantthat you you can, like, put
between your legs and kind ofhold on to which that one's
fantastic. I highly recommendthat if you cannot sleep on your
side, if you can't dial all thatin. I do know that there has
been the recommendation that youdo lay on your back, but you put
a pillow beneath your knees tokind of put some of the stress
off of your lower back when youdo that, so you can get that
(05:33):
better night sleep. But it youknow, all of this is just adding
up to the important, the overallimportance of sleep, like the
position that you're talkingabout is just the position that
helps you stay asleep thelongest and puts the least
amount of stress on your brain.
And that's the point of sleep.
So, you know, these are justways to optimize what our body
needs.
You know, we're going to talkabout sleep hygiene in a minute,
but I also want to talk abouthow the according to the UCI
(05:56):
center for neurobiology, and, bythe way, and you know, every
major university, including,including Texas, University of
Texas, which is where MDAnderson is there. They're now
looking at sleep deprivation andconnecting it to, to the
development of cancer cells.
Again. I mean, it's, it's, it'scrazy, the connection, it's an
important part of your body'scleaning out process, right? And
(06:19):
so if you can't, if you can'tproperly clean out your body,
then you can't, you're, you'regoing to have all of the
metabolic disorders that lead tocancer eventually, if you can't
do it, just you, we got tofigure out how to say and by the
way, I don't normally have ahard time sleeping. I just don't
get enough of it. Except thetimes when I can't fall asleep,
and when I can't fall asleep isthe only thing I can think
(06:39):
about, yeah, and it's only thingthat
matters. And there's also, Ican't remember what the name of
it is, but it's one of thosethings where, where you're it's
a type of insomnia where youworry that you're not going to
be able to go to sleep. Rememberthat thing we were talking about
that Exactly, yeah, and, and Iremember, when I was doing so
many I'd go back and forth fromLos Angeles to New York. And
(06:59):
anybody you know, when you're ona business trip and you have a
time changer and you got and yougot a business meeting or a
television interview early inthe morning, and and you're
looking at that, you're soafraid that you're not going to
to wake up on time, right? Andyou're just looking at that
clock,yes, and then, and every time it
clicks over, you think, okay, Ican get six hours now. Okay, I
get five hours. Okay, just fourhours of sleep, and I'll be
(07:21):
ready to go and then, and then,before, you know, you haven't
sleptat all. Yeah. So according to
those researchers at UCI center,lead researcher Michael Leon
says by age 60, our sense ofsmell begins to decline. We saw
this with your grandmother,along with our memory. So he and
his team decided to see iffragrances might make a
difference in the study, half ofthe participants were asked to
(07:42):
sleep in a scent free room,bedroom. The rest were given an
essential oil diffuser to use intheir bedroom for two hours
every night. Diffuser, ofcourse, you get that at Amazon.
You can pick your fragrance, andlavender really works well for
me. And participants rotatedthrough the different scents,
getting a fresh whiff before bedeach night. So here the ascents
included rose, which I don'tlike lemon, yes, I like that,
(08:04):
orange, lavender, eucalyptus,peppermint and rosemary. And
after six months, the studyparticipants with scented
bedrooms, they scored 226%better on memory tests compared
to the ascent free room people.
Once we reach middle age, weneed to sleep a certain amount
of hours each night to maintaingood health. And so if you
(08:25):
don't, if you don't, if you'renot able to do that, then, then
apparently, these, these, these,these scents can really help
you. And the number one scentthat helped was lavender, and
because, because peppermint, itlit peppermint. Lemon lit people
up, right?
They wake up. Do you? Do youhave a diffuser? Do you do this?
I have a diffuser right here.
Actually, it ran out of stuff.
(08:47):
It's in my studio. But, youknow, rosemary, I'm sorry,
lavender, I had I ordered it. Iordered a diffuser recently,
Amazon. I thought I ordered itwith lavender, and it came with
rosemary. And I really hate thesmell of rosemary and Rose.
Yeah, I don't know. It's just,it's, I get in there, I feel
like I'm, I feel like I've, Ifeel like I've gone out of gone
(09:10):
on a date with the wrong person.
And I'm sure she felt the sameway about me, but, but anyway,
lavender, no, I'm thinking ofsomebody in particular where it
was, like, the whole night I wassmelling this perfume. I
was like, Oh my gosh, the wrongmy gosh, the wrong oils can
smell like, bad. Whydidn't you read? You wear
Halston? And she's like, Well,why didn't you read? Why didn't
you wear English leather? Yeah,anyway, so, so lavender was, was
(09:33):
the one? Yeah, there was, wasthe had the biggest effect. And
it's, it's most calming for metoo. Yeah, I
don't have a diffuser. Don't dothis. Don't do a candle if,
instead of a diffuser withcandles in the room. So just,
you know, little, little warningright there we I have the, I
have the lavender that has,like, actual lavender parts in
(09:55):
it, laundry bag and I dry mysheet. Oh, that's a gentle smell
of lavender. Lavender on all ofthe laundry, but I don't have
the diffuser in the bedroombecause I don't know it feels,
it feels too it feels like toomuch to like be messing with
that stuff. But all of thethings that we're talking about
with the eye masks, we haven'ttalked about eye masks. Yeah,
we'll talk about that. But witheye masks and light in the room,
(10:18):
and sleep hygiene, and what timewe go to bed and all of that.
You know, your your your brainhas a mechanism that kind of
keeps you safe and alert in casesomething happens. Right? What
we have to do is we have to makesure that we're overwhelming
those that, hey, I want to keepyou alert parts of your brain so
that you can actually fallasleep and relax. And you know,
(10:38):
most of us are not facingconstant threats when we're
asleep. And so, you know, ourbrain is kind of doing this
hyperdrive thing for no reason,and we want to, we want to short
circuit that. And like the smellof nice lavender flowers helps
your brain, because, you know,the smell goes right into your
brain. There are fewer, fewerinterpreting neurons between the
reaction to scent and your andyour your brain being able to
(11:02):
process it than there are withlike taste or touch or there's
just fewer neurons that has togo through, so it goes more
closely to your brain, and thenthat allows you, allows our
scent to be a great way tooverwhelm the brain, so that we
can fall asleep. So I definitelysupport it. I just, I haven't it
seems, it seems like too much ofan investment. I feel like I've
lost I think, you know, thenights that I'm having a really
(11:23):
hard time trying to fall asleep,I'm gonna wish that I had it,
but I don't get it, because it'slike, Oh, I'm not one of the
people that needs a diffuser inmy bedroom. And now I'm thinking
about it, I'm gonna end upneeding a diffuser in
my bedroom. Yeah, let's talkabout sleep hygiene. Because,
because of what we do, we, youknow, we interview experts,
sleep experts. Dr Christopherwinter, Wendy Troxel, Dr Michael
(11:43):
Bruce, known as the sleepdoctor. Lot of these folks, and
they all agree on several thingsfor good sleep hygiene. So
what's happened is, given I havehave tested these out, and it's
an interesting test, becauseI'm, you know, where I'm an
empty nester here, but I'm also,I'm still on account on a mild
cancer treatment, and I wake upa lot during the night and so
(12:05):
and then I'm competing with mywife, who wants to sleep at a
certain temperature at night,and then you've got, you're with
your kids. So I think we can allagree that that a safe and very
effective way to help you sleepis to is to get a sleep mask.
And you were against this atfirst, is that? Right?
I hated the idea of a sleep maskbecause they pushed on my
(12:26):
eyelids, right? But then thenewer ones came out. And I don't
have stock in a sleep maskcompany. I'm just telling you my
experience. The newer ones cameout that have the little round,
circular had that one it sitsaround your eyeballs, that the
actual mask parts is sort of,you know, maybe two centimeters
to half an inchoff. Yeah, those long eyelashes
Ido, yeah, and it's helpful. And
(12:46):
I also, because I was getting,like a new fangled one, I got
one with Bluetooth in it so thatI could play, like Sleep Sounds
on it when I want to, but Ican't
find them. You told me aboutthem. Like I need that, but I
always afraid if I put earphonesin, I'm gonna miss somebody
sneaking up on me. Yeah, yeah.
(13:07):
It doesn't really happen verymuch, so I feel okay with it. I
mean, it's, you know, I don'tsleep in my windows open, but I,
but I don't, I don't. I'm not soworried about that the I do
miss. I do worry that I'm gonnamiss something going on with my
kids, or my kids trying to mydaughters get to the atrium, I
start sneaking out.
Oh yeah, very soon I gotta beready. So what is the
temperature in your room? Whatare you sleeping? I
(13:28):
don't, I don't have it ascontrolled as you do. Oh yeah.
I, you know, I will say, I willsay that my air conditioner was
broken during the height of thesummer this year, and I did not
sleep well because I was verysweaty. But I, you know, I my
room gets to about, you know,the high 60s midnight. That's
good. That's good. So they said,they say, now in this interview
(13:49):
I just did with Dr Christopherwinter, because ours was, that's
like, 68 right? And he likes 65and 66 it is really cold and,
and the funny thing is, is thatConnie doesn't like doesn't like
it. She likes it like it'salmost like it's 70. And so what
I do is I wait for her to fallasleep, and then I creep into
(14:09):
it. I have to use like, the Ihave to use the the flashlight
on my watch, because it's not asit's not as big. And I sneak in
there, and I try to push thebutton without making any noise.
But I made the mistake of, okay,so it works for her. Shout out
to Tempur Pedic. I don't likeyour beds. Tempur Pedic is too
hot for I know that. I know theymake another bed that said
(14:30):
that's cooler, but I'm a hotsleeper. And so the original
Tempur Pedic bed, which I haveit and Connie and I have two
twins right next to each other,as you know, and which is great,
by the way, it's great idea,because you can move around a
lot, and the other persondoesn't feel you, and so it
holds the heat. And so I needthe room to be really cold. And
the reason you want the cold theroom cold is
(14:53):
because it gets into yourhormones that help you actually
fall asleep, right? That whenyour body temperature plummets,
it. Actually releases yournatural, your body's natural
melatonin, which, you know. Soyou can't do that if you're in
an 85 degree room. But I can't,I can't get my room that cold,
and I I don't whatever works. Itdoesn't sound comfortable
(15:15):
either.
No, while you're sleep, you getup when you go to the bathroom,
and you're literally you have toput your jacket on.
It reminds me of, you know, inmy younger days, you'd go out
with your friends, and nobody bein a condition to drive home. So
you'd fall asleep at whateverhouse the you started from,
yeah, and and then, but youwouldn't have a blanket and wake
up in the morning. You'refreezing because nobody, you
(15:38):
know, when you went to sleep,nobody cared about blankets. You
just fell asleep wherever yousat, and then you're like, I'm
so cool. Yeah, there'salso you got. It could be one.
It could be just an LED light ona on on a phone, or an LED light
even on on a clock radio. Yeah,your that. Your eyelid is gonna
see that. And so if you don'twant to wear the sleep mask, you
(16:00):
have to make you have to havethe blackout drapes.
You have to have the blackoutdrapes. Honestly, the I don't
love wearing the sleep mask. Itirritates the back of my head. I
found one that I like, that Ican tolerate, but I don't love
it. But the reality is, it takesa long time to get used. You got
to get used to it, and it's somuch faster than doing what you
(16:22):
would have to do in order to getyour room to the place where it
would have to be to equal theamount of sleep hygiene that you
get from wearing the mask,meaning you would have to get
blackout curtains. You'd have toget a noise machine. You would
have to remove anything with alight out of your bedroom. You'd
have to put the you'd have tomake sure that the you had a
good seal on the doors, that nooutside light from the hallway
(16:42):
comes in, in order to get thisthe exact amount of the same
kind of sleep hygiene that youget from just wearing a sleep
mask. Yeah. So while I don'tlove a sleep mask, it is
definitely the quickest way togood sleep hygiene you
can possibly Yeah. And we'vealso seen this tip from from Dr
Michael Bruce, I was stilltalking about sleep hygiene.
Here is, is is to is to take ashower or a bath, a warm bath,
(17:06):
before you go to sleep. But itreally should be a full hour
beforehand, because it becausethe cooling down of your body,
that process is what releasesthe melatonin. And if you, if
you do it like a half hourbefore you try to go to sleep,
it's notgoing to work. Okay, we've
talked about all these differentthings you can do to fall
asleep. We've talked about thethe temperature of the room,
we've talked about theimportance of sleep. We've
(17:28):
talked about, you know, all thisstuff. But let me tell you, the
best sleep that I've had in myadult life. Talk to me, is a
nice, hot Epsom salt bath. Oh,okay, okay, right. And then I
get out of that bath. I dry off,I put, you know, I put, like,
sweats on. I don't care whattemperature the room is, I don't
care what amount of lavender Ican smell. That is the best
(17:49):
sleep. Okay,so listen, there's science as to
why. And you know this, there'sscience to why this works. Epsom
salts baths, and you can get itwith the one we got from Dr
TEALS, I think it's called,it's, it's Epsom salt, which is
magnesium, right? And thenlavender, they have lavender
side of there. So the magnesium,when that gets into your system,
that's what puts you Yes,great. Whatever it is.
(18:15):
I don't need a sleep mask atthat point. I'm out, so I
recommend that. But the rest ofthis is, if that doesn't work
for you, okay,and let's talk, let's talk about
what not to eat before you yougo to sleep. A lot of the, a lot
of the one of the meats called,like, salami, and all of us
cured me, cured meats, that's,yeah, so cured meats is really a
bad idea because they havetyrosine in them, and then also
(18:37):
a fatty meal will keep you awakeas well, true. So, so then the
number one thing, and I justread this in a report the other
day, the number one thing thatyou should eat before bed is the
number one thing that I will noteat, and that is cottage cheese.
Oh, yeah, it's the right it'sthe right blend of protein and
carbohydrates, yeah.
(18:58):
I mean, look, I like, if you canget used to the texture, cottage
cheese, we talk about that allthe time. I mean, it's good.
It's good, efficient way ofgetting protein into your body.
It is. It is a healthy way. It'snot as bad for you. Dairy wise
as like, pure milk would be. Soit's yes, we absolutely support
the idea of cottage cheese, ifyou can stomach it. I like
(19:19):
cottage cheese. If you havedairy, it is a good dairy to
have. I can't I cannot recommendenough not you know, you don't
have to be weird aboutintermittent fasting. You don't
have to do the eight full 18hours or 20 hours like some
people do, but the earlier youcan just stop eating for the
day, the better you're you don'tneed that late night snack. It's
not good for your waistline.
It'snot good for your sleep. And now
(19:40):
we know that I love elite iceneck.
Yeah, don't get me wrong, lastnight, I was out late. I stopped
a taco bell on the way home.
Yeah, you love Taco Bell and andI ate right before I went to
bed. And I know how bad it isfor me, but I did it. I'm just
put I, but I it is terrible foryou.
Yeah, oatmeal is also prettygood, so because you digest it
quickly, but you don't, wedon't, you don't want and you.
And as much as I like having aglass of wine at dinner, if I do
(20:04):
that, it's, it's as soon as mybody finishes metabolizing it,
boom, I'm wide. Sothe the we, let's, let's just
talk about alcohol for a second.
Because, shall we? Yeah. Sofirst and foremost, everybody
has this misconception aboutalcohol and sleep that it helps
you fall asleep because it does,because it does. It helps you
fall asleep. It really does nothelp you stay asleep. In fact,
(20:26):
it makes you less likely to beable to stay asleep. So as soon
as your body is processing thoseprocess, your livers is
digesting the alcohol, it'sprocessing the alcohol, and then
it releases, I forget what thename of the chemical is. Is some
kind of aldehyde. Yeah, it isthat. Then that's what actually
causes you to have acetaaldehyde, or something like
that. That's what caused you tohave a hangover. And there are
(20:48):
some great products that you canbuy. You can get them anywhere,
including Amazon, that will helpyour body actually digest those
faster. But that wakes you up.
When you start the hangover, itwill start to wake you up and
that. And that gives you, evenif you don't perceive it, it
gives you less restful sleep. Soeven if you are not fully awake,
you still are not getting thesort of deep REM sleep that your
(21:08):
body needs that we were talkingabout at the beginning of this
episode. That's what you youreally need, that in order to in
order to have the most effectivenext day. And alcohol interferes
with that. I love, I love aglass of alcohol. I like a good,
a good, you know, scotch at theend of the day. I like wine. I
like a martini. I do. I drink. Istill, I still do. But I
(21:30):
recently was reading a study,and basically that we know, we
used to talk about, oh, one ortwo glasses of wine is good for
you. One cocktail is not so bad.
I read the same study and thenew the new thing is, there is
no amount of alcohol that has ahealth benefit. So it is every
sip is detrimental todetrimental to your health,
health. I'm saying this assomebody who is not going to
(21:53):
stop having alcohol. I am goingto continue to have it, but I am
going to, I'm not going to haveit with the knowledge that I'm
doing anything good for myself.
I'm going to have it with theknowledge that this is, this is
a place where I, you know, youhave, you have things that you
do well for your body, andthings that you do for fun. And
the alcohol is now a thing Ijust I accept that this is my
time. This is my junk food, andI'm going to enjoy it
accordingly. Yeah,I had stopped drinking for a
(22:15):
while, and then we went to Italyand yeah, and my excuse was,
well, they don't have anysulfates in
Okay, yeah, that's the issue.
The alcohol itself is the issue.
Therewas just a story yesterday on
the news that restaurants andbars are reporting that Gen Z is
not interested at all in happyhour. Yeah, have
(22:38):
you heard this whole story aboutthey're not they're not
drinking well and they're notdrinking. They don't want to
drink around co workers. Theidea of meeting immediately
after work is no longerappealing, for a variety of
reasons. People don't work thesame schedules anymore, and the
also, people aren't reallycommuting by train. We, I think,
for for on a huge upside, wehave really stigmatized drunk
(23:01):
driving to the point wherepeople don't feel comfortable
having a cocktail or two andthen getting behind the wheel as
well. They shouldn't. And sobecause of that, people are not
reaching for they're not meetingfor after work. How could you go
for after work cocktails ifnobody's gonna be able to drive
to it? People are leaving workat the at different times, and
you're not as interested indrinking anymore, period. Yeah,
my mom and dad, you actuallyused to drive to a to church
(23:25):
meetings with was like a halfhour drive. Used to drive with
it, with a high ball of Scotchin their hands, in their
Thunderbird. Thank God, nothingever happened. That was the
thing back just 1990s I know.
And you saw, you saw that inwhat was the show? Mad Men,
right? Yes, yes. So we'vestudied this many times. I mean,
we've seen the studies explainthe folks who are listening
(23:48):
because, because it is manytimes as I've seen it, I started
to experience it where, theharder I work out in the
morning, whatever workout I do,it could be high intensity
interval training. Could belifting weights. It could be
lots and lots of stretching. 45minutes of exercise is what I
try to do every morning. If I doit, if I don't do it, my sleep
(24:09):
is junk sleep that night. Well,how does that
work? Well, first of all, themore you exercise, the more
active you are during the day,the better your sleep is going
to be. It's just amazing tome that what you do and the more
you do in the morning is goingto affect your sleep, though,
yes, but you,but the best thing you could,
honestly, we talk about this allthe time, the best thing you can
do for your body is to be goingto sleep at the same time every
(24:30):
day, waking up at the same timeevery day, and doing at least 30
minutes of physical activitywithin 30 minutes of waking up.
So, you know, start that within30 minutes away. Yeah, that is,
that is a recipe for all kindsof success in life, but
especially is good for yoursleep. When you exert your body
early in the morning, yourability to focus throughout the
day, all it goes up, yourhormones align better. You you
(24:51):
will have more you'll have moreattention. Ironically, you'll
have or you'll have more energythroughout the day. You'll be
able to focus. This better, andthen at night, your body will
will actually adapt to fallasleep much more quickly in
anticipation of exercising thenext day. I'm not exactly sure
what hormones align when youwhen you exercise in the morning
(25:12):
versus the evening, but as longas you give yourself, it's crazy
that it works. But as long aslong as you give yourself, I
think it's, it's three to fivehours from finishing your
exercise to going to bed. Yeah,you don't want to get on this
take a spinning class an hourbefore bed. Yeah, any
exercise during the day is goingto make it easier to fall
(25:33):
asleep. And if you work outlater in the day, make sure that
whatever pre workouts you'reusing don't have stimulants in
them, because that will, thatwill ruin any sleep benefit you
get from the exercise. Let'stalk about two more things. Two
more things you can do for abetter night's sleep. And the
first one is, you know, thefirst time you and I mentioned
tart cherry juice on the show,so weird, I know it was a 2010
and we said, according to theEuropean Journal of Nutrition,
(25:56):
tart cherries and tart cherryjuice can help ease the pain of
sore muscles and help you sleepbetter, because cherries contain
a natural anti inflammatory thatworks exactly like ibuprofen in
the body. Without that drug,they also contain high
concentrations of the hormonemelatonin. So in the last few
years, right last three years,word has gotten out about how
(26:16):
powerful tar cherries are,because there's three more
studies that are out as aresult. Listen to this, sales of
tart cherry juice have increasedby a full 30% in just in just
the last five years. Iabsolutely believe it. I mean, I
remember, when you we first didthat story, we had to go to a
very special grocery store rightto be able to find, yeah, no, I
can name it's called capitaldrugs. Remember the place? Yeah.
And now I can think of, like,five different places where you
(26:38):
can get tart cherry juice andand that's great. I mean, look,
it's a great natural way. Justmake sure that whatever juices
you have, whether it's tartcherry pomegranate, whatever,
don't have added sugar. That isthe that is the key. All of the
benefits that we talked aboutfor all of these different
antioxidants and things thatcome from the fruit juices
themselves go out the windowwhen you start adding sugar to
(27:00):
make because tart cherry juicedoes not go down easy. You don't
want to cut it with some CocaCola. No, don't cut it with a
coke. Itdoes not go down easy with some
water, at least sparkling water.
Yeah, it doesn't go down easy,but it is good for you. And if
it goes down smooth, it meansyou're probably getting the kind
with the sugar in it, and you'relosing any benefits.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And onemore thing. And I started doing
(27:24):
this because of our sponsor andour friends, Cindy Bigelow, at
Bigelow t right? Oh, yeah. Andthese guys are great, because
they've been really in theforefront of putting together
what you, I guess you would callthe functional food world is
very big right now. And so therethey really got in early on the
functional teas, yes. And sothey do have a they have a tea,
(27:44):
they have a green tea with extracaffeine and l theanine, which
means it's the L theanine isgoing to relaxes. You don't get
the jitters, but you also getmore more more caffeine with the
extra caffeine. So it's a greatcombination, but I had never
really had chamomile tea before,right? And so they sent this.
They sent this giant thing, andyou stole most of it. It was
(28:07):
some half of it this big carepackage with all the teas in
there. And so I thought, Okay,so I've heard from sleep expert,
the from the good sleep guide.
Sandy Margo is the author of thegood sleep guy. There's also a
podcast, and Sammy sayschamomile works as a mild
tranquilizer and a sleepinducer. And if you put some
honey in there, oh, yeah. Andyou can get it with honey, you
(28:29):
can get it right, right with thethe Bigelow T, functional T.
Honey contains glucose, whichtells your brain to shut off
orexin, chemical known totrigger alertness. So a couple
of chamomile with honey as yourelax and dozing off in no time.
And so now, when I'm eating out,I always end with that. Actually
bring it with me. The Bigelowcame. I'm not doing a
(28:50):
commercial. It's just Idiscovered it because they
become, became our partner.
Really works. Itreally does look you want to,
you want to take the best nonpharmaceutical path to and
honestly, as far as sleep aidsgo, pharmaceuticals don't have a
great track record. So this isprobably the, I'm not going to
make a claim relative topharmaceuticals, but I this is,
(29:11):
this is the the consolidation ofso much research that we've that
we've had on the show you'regonna go to bed at the same time
every night, you're gonna wakeup at the same time every day.
You're gonna exercise in themorning. You're gonna have one
cup of black coffee in themorning and follow that up with
some green tea throughout therest of the morning. And then
you're going to stop allcaffeine by noon. And then that
(29:33):
evening, you're gonna take anEpsom salt bath with lavender
scent in it while you drink achamomile tea with honey and go
to bed at the same time you wentto bed the night before, that is
in a dark room set to the righttemperature that the rest of
that is is important, but not asimportant as everything I just
gave you with the with the sleepmask on right, I'm getting
(29:55):
sleepy, andit's such a great wrap up, too.
That's the. Fantastic. I youknow, I want to dial back too,
but so back. Well, I would saymost recently, the most popular
sleep aid is Ambien, right? Andwe've had many stories, I guess
this comes under the heading ofwhat give just said is, is do it
naturally, right? Yeah, whetheryou use tart cherry juicer or
(30:17):
the right type of exercise, allthe stuff you just listed, but
there are people who panic,right? And so they'll say, Oh,
I'm just gonna have some Ambien,or the other one, which is
Lunesta. And there's alsoTrazodone, which is an
antidepressant that people areusing now, but it's, it's first
of all, they can become habitforming. And there's also,
what's the one that's like, it'sa tranquilizer. They actually
(30:41):
gave me, this one I had when Iwas taking chemo. I'll think of
it in a minute. But it's, it's,it's Raza pan, yeah, exactly.
It's another name for it. Butyes, that's the, that's the
chemical term for Lorazepam.
That stuff is habit forming.
Yeah, and, and I remember whenwe, you know, we love Jordan
Peterson, and I remember when hewhen his wife was so sick, and
(31:01):
he ended up being on a drug tohelp him, to help him sleep, and
he was saying how he regrettedit because he had, he actually
had to go and get, get therapy,get therapy, go into rehab,
rehab and get off of it, youknow, at his level, you know.
And he's a, you know, he's apsychotherapist. So you have to
be really careful with thisstuff. Also, if you're
traveling, and we really justwent to Italy, and primo is
(31:24):
asking me, Hey, should I takesomething on the plane? I
absolutely do not take somebody.
We see these stories of these ofathletes who have to get up the
next day, and they'll have have,I mean, that's just, there's,
there are things called ambientzombies, yes, where people will
on the way home from work, theyknow they have to get up early
the next day, and so they wantto get to sleep instantly. So
they take an Ambien on the wayhome. This happened to one of
(31:46):
the Kennedys. Do you rememberthis? No, I'm studying ambience.
One of the Kennedys, I can'tremember his name, like one of
the cousins or something. And helived in Washington. He was on
his way home, and he had to goget sleep quickly, so he took
Ambien in the car, no. And, andthere was traffic, yeah. And by
the time he got halfway throughthe traffic, he had an accident,
couldn't remember who he was,right? The problem is, it makes
you fall asleep. It does not doa great job of helping you stay
(32:07):
asleep. And sometimes your braindoes not fully wake up when you
wake up these this is a knownside effect of a lot of some of
these sleep drugs. And you arewalking around, you know, not
fully conscious, but alsooperating as a full human being.
When people were eating, forget,forget the life and death
consequences, they were goingand making chocolate sundaes in
(32:28):
their in their in theirkitchens, totally ruining their
whatever eating plan they wereon. So
we had the best stories on theon the radio show, and there was
a story just recently where theywere. People were coming down to
the like in the Hilton GardenInn and holiday breakfast. Well,
(32:48):
that yes, but also they were. Weactually noticed this after we
had done the piece where wechecked in late, we noticed that
there were, there were towels,big towels at the front desk.
And we're like, what's with thetowels? And they said, Ah, well,
you know, people wake up in themiddle of the night. They take a
sleeping aid or something likethat, and they come down here
fully naked, and that we have towrap a towel out. And he said,
(33:09):
it like, like, it happens everynight.
That is why we hang out in thelobby all night just waiting to
see one of them. And onemore thing, back in the 70s,
there was, there was asleep,yeah, there was a sleep aid
called Halcyon. Yeah. Do youremember hearing about this?
Because you've told me your momused as a sleep aid and, and, I
mean, it knocked this. Nobodyprescribes it. Now, it knocked
(33:31):
you out, and you got a greatnight's sleep, right? The
problem is it just destroyedyour memory. I mean, I mean your
short term memory. And so I usedto use it like i Black back and
forth, back and forth to Europewhen I was doing CBS Sports,
right from New York and on thoselong flights. And so I would, I
would, I would take that drug,and the day I stopped taking it.
This is why you have to becareful with these things,
(33:54):
especially on an airplane, or ifyou have a drink, or something
like that, is I got back homeone night, and I wanted to get
to sleep because I had anappointment early in the
morning. Got back to New York,and I took half of the house.
Yeah, I hadn't taken one in awhile, and I woke up the next
day, and my my answering machinewas was full of messages, and I
checked the messages, and myfriend Lenny is laughing, and he
(34:15):
goes, Oh my gosh, you were sohilarious last night. I don't, I
don't remember ever talkingtalking to him. So I called him
up and I said, I said, I don'tremember. And his apartment was
like, five blocks away from mein Manhattan, right, right, so I
don't remember talking to you.
(34:36):
And he goes, talking to me, youwere at my apartment. We were
talking he goes, You werehilarious. And he goes, You have
you left your wallet here? And Isaid, What? So I had gotten up
on this drug I woke up right,walked out the door. I had to
use the key, and all the rest ofthis stuff. Walked in the
streets. Somehow in Manhattan,knocked on his door, got to his
(34:57):
door, sat down and talked to himfor a while, apparently
feathery. The plan is veryfunny, so I'm thinking, maybe we
should be a comedian. Just takethis stuff and they'll walk to
her have no memory, and thenwalk back and went back to sleep
and had no memory. So, so becareful, folks.
Yes, absolutely be careful.
This.
This really does change when youtalk about the halcyon days of
your youth on stage.
(35:18):
I'm wondering, are those thenights you don't remember.
You know, I know it's fun to dothese sort of the the multi
topics on the show, but we getso many people write it right to
write to us about about sleep.
So I wanted to do this. Andthank you for being so smart
with me again, because I knowyou've tried everything and and
you're sleeping. Well, I knowyou are unless your kids wake
(35:40):
you up, but where do you get tobe my age?
I mean, I tell you, I have moreand more nights where I really
cannot. We were when we wererecording the new version of
round ball in Oh yeah, we hadheavy dinners, like three nights
in a row. I mean, by the end ofthe trip, by the end of one of
like the sessions, I had notslept in three days because I
(36:00):
just could not fall asleep. AndI fell asleep before dinner and
one night, and I almost didn'twant to wake up. I was because I
it was so hard to fall asleep onthat trip, and I think it was
because we're eating at reallynice restaurants
every day. Well, it's just beengreat. Thank you guys for
listening, give thank you foryour wisdom, and we hope you
guys got something good out ofthis? We hope you get a good
(36:22):
night's sleep tonight. For gibGerard, I'm John Tesh. Thank you
for listening to the podcast.
You.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.