According to Dr Walkers Sleep Laboratory studies show that even 6 hours of sleep can be quite damaging and wrecking to the human body and for most people not enough. Which I’m pretty sure comes to a huge surprise for most people including my lovely self because 6 hours of sleep is commonly considered as OK and sufficient in many cases. I bet we all had many nights with only 6 hours of sleep or even less. I certainly did! Huh!
Welcome to the Ralf Behn Podcast where we discover, discuss and expose Mindset, Resilience, Performance, Self-Confidence and Health Wisdom Nuggets as well as Cutting Egde knowledge in those areas.
Todays topic – Good Sleep Secrets Exposed / The Science of Sleep Part 2
Lets take a quick look at sleep deprivation, sleep loss and your immune system. I think you’ve guessed it already because that is not looking good either. Well I’ve got extremely bad news for you. If you are not sleeping enough your entire immune system is week and compremisd in pretty bad shape so to speak. With a lack of sleep you don’t have that army of special forces soldiers defending your body against all harmful envedors, illness, viruess and sickness. Nope! Here is the kicker! Just after one night with only 4 sad hours of sleep you suffer an immune cell activity reduction in your body of …..guess how much? Na na na it’s not just 10 or 20 or 40 percent! Take another guess! Here ist the nasty killer truth for you! There is usually about a 70 % reduction in natural killer cell activity. A 70 % drop of natural killer cell activity after one messed up night with only 4 hours sleep! Isn’t that totally crazy but explains a bit why so many people are so run down, low engergy, moody and sick every 2 month?
And it gets worse! Your risk for the development of numerous cancers sky rocks literally over night!
Take that very serious my dear friends because the link between the lack of sleep and cancer is extremely strong. That’s also one of the reasons why shift work is classified as a probable carcinogen because of the disruption of your sleep-wake rhythms.
We can almost say the shorter your sleep the shorter your life because short sleep predicts all-cause mortality. Dr. Matt Walker who is considered one of top if not the top sleep expert in the world has also discovered that the lack of sleep will also erode the very fabric of biological life itself – your DNA genetic code.
According to Dr Walkers Sleep Laboratory studies show that even 6 hours of sleep can be quite damaging and wrecking to the human body and for most people not enough. Which I’m pretty sure comes to a huge surprise for most people including my lovely self because 6 hours of sleep is commonly considered as OK and sufficient in many cases. I bet we all had many nights with only 6 hours of sleep or even less. I certainly did! Huh!
Well in that particular study they took a group of healthy individuals and limited them to 6 hours of sleep per night for one week and then they measured the change in their gene activity profile relative to when those same individuals were getting a full night of 8 hours of sleep a night. There were two critical findings. First a sizable and significant 711 genes were distorted in their activity, caused by lack of sleep. The second result was that about half of those genes were actually increased in their activity and the other half were decreased. Now those genes that were switched of by lack of sleep were genes associated with your immune system. In contrast, the genes that were actually up-regulated or increased by way of lack of sleep were genes associated with promotion of tumors, genes associated with long-term chronic inflammation within the body, and genes associated with stress, and as a consequence, cardiovascular disease.
Avoid extensive light exposure during the night including lights from phones, computers and TV because this will delay or decrease the amount of sleep hormone production.
Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time if possible. No matter if weekend or a week day. Regularity is King! Regularity will anchor your sleep and improve the quantity and quality of your sleep. Avoiding naps during the day and keeping the bedroom temperature cool will also help to make you sleep like a Rock. The body needs to drop its core temperature to initiate sleep. Bedroom temperature should not be higher than 18 degrees Celsius. Sleeping cool is always better. In winter my bedroom temperature drops down below 11 degrees Celsius because I have the windows open all year round.
“Sleeping in”, caffeine and naps weaken the sleep drive, making it harder to either fall asleep or stay asleep. Caffeine blocks the actions of adenosine and weakens the sleep pressure. It can take 8–10 hours for the effects of caffeine to wear off completely. Thus, drinking a cup of coffee in the late afternoon or the early evening may prevent us from falling asleep at night.
No coffee 10 hours before your bedtime is a safe rule I follow personally 100%. Avoid alcohol especially 3 hours before your bedtime is a good advice too. Keep it as dark as possible like in a cave.
Remember that napping for more than 30 minutes later in the day can throw off your night’s sleep by decreasing your body’s sleep drive.
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