Sleep consultant and founder of Nurture2Sleep, Julie Mallon, speaks to Tell Me Why podcast about the importance of a good night sleep. Findings have shown that white noise has helped patients with Alzheimers.
Sleep is just as important as breathing for a human’s development.
Screen, especially mobile phone screens, are detrimental to our sleep.
Our body has 37 clocks that are affected by disrupted sleep patterns.
Findings have shown that white noise has helped patients with Alzheimer's.
The world we live in today is ‘dark’ starved.
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #sleep #podcast
Sleep is just as important as breathing for a human’s development.
Screen, especially mobile phone screens, are detrimental to our sleep.
Our body has 37 clocks that are affected by disrupted sleep patterns.
Findings have shown that white noise has helped patients with Alzheimer's.
The world we live in today is ‘dark’ starved.
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #sleep #podcast
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NewsTranscript
00:00You know if you have the choice, do I have an extra hour in bed today or do I go and get up
00:06early and do my exercise? Actually I would recommend you have an extra hour today sleeping
00:12because that means your body is restoring and repairing and is going to be ready for
00:16that sleep. The only thing that's more important than sleep is breathing.
00:19Welcome to a whole new episode of Tell Me Why which is a Gulf News original podcast. This is
00:32Maria and on our show we discuss everything that concerns or may be of interest to our listeners.
00:38For those of you who have heard us before, you probably know that we like to engage our listeners
00:44into each episode and we've done that today luckily. Today I'm joined in the studio by
00:52Julie Mullen who is the founder of Nurture to Sleep and a sleep consultant. Is that correct?
00:59Yes. Okay so as I mentioned we ask our guests a unique Tell Me Why question. Now my question for
01:05you today is tell me why people are still finding it very difficult to fall asleep or to get a good
01:12night's sleep and I feel like not only are they still finding it difficult but more and more
01:16people are complaining about sleep. Can you tell me why? Like what are some of the factors that
01:21affect our sleep? So there's a huge wrath of reasons that we're not getting enough sleep from
01:26you know our lifestyle which is a really major one. Whether it's from technology, whether it's
01:32from the fact that we live in a world now which is so dark, starved. So the lighting,
01:40everywhere we look there's lighting and that has a huge impact on our sleep. I think we are
01:46definitely living in a more stressful world than ever before and one of the biggest reasons is the
01:51fact that we feel we have to be available 24 hours a day so we are always on. You know if we're
01:59looking at WhatsApp for example, you know WhatsApp it's incredible and yet there's no escaping of it.
02:05I mean it's an absolute curse at times in terms of rest and then you know where we are in different
02:11stages of our career it can be that families who have children for example they are not available
02:17until nine o'clock. So then once the children are asleep they've had something to eat now they start
02:23to pick up the work. So it's very very difficult for there's so many reasons why. Yeah you know
02:29you mentioned WhatsApp and I find that interesting because that's like probably the last thing you
02:33look at and the first thing you look at when you wake up. So the last thing you look at while
02:37you're in bed you know getting in those last few messages all the people that you weren't able to
02:42respond to and so many people think you're on demand like that's what it gives you anxiety
02:48that you can't respond right then and there because you're busy but at the same time you feel
02:53like oh there's something you know there's a task you need to do and you end up doing it while
02:57you're in bed you know. We all have a choice and that choice is the phone does not come into the
03:02bedroom and it will be hard at the beginning but that is a choice that we all make and we don't
03:09nobody tells us to bring it into the room so that will be one of your biggest hacks for a better
03:16night's sleep. And is it because of the lighting of the phone like does that light like wake you up
03:22what is it? Again there's many reasons very rarely no matter what question we're asking around sleep
03:27and wellness there's usually a number of components but certainly when we're looking
03:34at sleep and our devices the devices have a huge impact on our sleep one because of not just the
03:42content so content's really important so if you've got something that you're reading right before you
03:46go to sleep and it's leaving you with a problem if you're already sleep deprived and anxious that
03:52problem is not going to go away whilst you are trying to sleep. So that's the first thing so
03:57the actual content the second thing is whilst you are looking at your device even if you've got the
04:06blue light funnels on and you've got blue blocking lights and you've got all of these things it still
04:12doesn't really take the light away and then that really suppresses and disrupts that really
04:20important sleep hormone which is called the melatonin and it disrupts it all night so it
04:25doesn't just disrupt at the beginning of the night it also disrupts it all night so that's why.
04:32Just before we dive into you know the specifics can you tell me how many hours should an adult
04:39get in a night's sleep? So there's three parts to that question okay and what we often read is that
04:46we should be getting eight hours sleep a night. Exactly. Now that can't be right because as human
04:54beings as adults we sleep in 90 minute sleep cycles. Okay. Now within that 90 minute sleep cycle
05:02there are different phases so we have stage one, stage two, stage three, stage four and then our
05:10rapid eye movement. Right. And that all constitutes to approximately 90 minutes. Now age has an impact
05:17as well so for example so for our small children from 12 weeks because that's when their melatonin
05:24is for the very first time secreted in their blood system. Oh. So I mean I think it's really
05:30fascinating when babies are first born they arrive with a 25 hour sleep cycle not 24 hours
05:37and it. How does that work? That's very much from an evolutionary perspective. Oh wow. Very much.
05:43That's fascinating. Okay. And also if you think of new parents if they knew that information. Yeah.
05:49It would really help them understand the interaction of their child their newborn sleep.
05:53Of course. So that's with our newborns and newborns up until 12 weeks they have none of this
05:58incredible hormone they don't have any melatonin at all. Okay. So they work on 24 hours there's no
06:0412 hours day and 12 hours night. Now from approximately six months their sleep cycle is one
06:10hour. Okay. As opposed to hours which is an hour and a half. Okay. So that's why going back to adults
06:18and how much should we sleep for because it's a 90 minute sleep cycle we are either a seven hour
06:23sleeper or a nine hour sleeper. So that really depends when you wake up in the morning if you're
06:29waking up in the morning and you need an alarm if you wake up and you're feeling really tired and
06:35as if you've not slept at all. Exactly. Then the chances are you might be having too little sleep
06:40which is your seven hour so therefore you may be that nine hour sleeper. Okay. It's also not just
06:47about the hours that we sleep it is so much about the quality that we sleep. Yes. And often you know
06:53we see really high powered execs you know members in the government and you know they will say I
07:00just cannot sleep seven hours I haven't got time to sleep seven hours. And again what you can do
07:06we're looking at the quality of sleep and the minimum for for a healthy brain and a healthy
07:12body the minimum amount of sleep that we can get is six and a half hours. That's the minimum? The
07:18minimum but it's okay that's six and a half hours of quality sleep. And what is going to enable us
07:23to have that quality sleep interestingly it's not when we go to bed at night but it's having a
07:27consistent wake up in the morning. So even at the weekend for example if you are someone who says
07:32I can't afford to sleep seven hours my business is just my work at the minute isn't then you have
07:38to be prepared and that's the thing you have to be prepared to be consistent and even at the weekend
07:43you're still getting up at your 6 30 time that you're getting up at or whatever time it is. You
07:48know we talk about the three pillars of health and you know some people talk about the five pillars
07:52of health but the three pillars of health are nutrition, exercise, and sleep. But actually
07:58without sleep there's very little point in you know we put all this wonderful food in our body
08:06and then we give ourselves junk sleep. So we don't give ourselves junk food but we do junk sleep and
08:10that's not going without having good sleep we're not going to be able to absorb the nutrients from
08:15the food that we are taking. If we're not getting enough sleep then we are much more likely to
08:22to have injuries. The body isn't restoring and repairing so without sleep you know if you had
08:28the choice do I have an extra hour in bed today or do I go and get up early and do my exercise
08:35actually I would recommend you have an extra hour today sleeping because that means your
08:40body is restoring and repairing. The only thing that's more important than sleep is breathing.
08:45That's it there is nothing else nothing else. So that actually says that we need it to survive.
08:51Can too much sleep be harmful as well? Yes it can actually we know that too much sleep is linked to
08:57obesity and generally we're spending too much time laying down so we're not active and we're
09:02not moving. Yes. But also you've got to be looking at why we're sleeping so well you know or so long
09:07rather. Could it be that the quality of our sleep is very poor like if we have sleep apnea if somebody
09:14has sleep apnea you know they will sleep maybe 10 hours a night and get up and feel like they've just
09:18had three. Exactly. So they are they might be getting all the hours that they sleep but the
09:23quality is really poor. So we also want to recognize are we sleeping more because there is
09:30a low level of mood you know is there an element of depression that we need to recognize
09:38so we can't absolutely get too much sleep. Okay I am a very light sleeper I have had issues with
09:46sleeping ever since I was a child and I think my mom is the same and you know every time someone
09:52sees me they're like oh it's genetic like with my family they oh your mom has it that's why you have
09:58it. I used to have such a tough time falling asleep I still do but a bit better than before
10:04to the point that my mom would have to take off her flip-flops if she walked past my room
10:09with my door closed because I would wake up. When I got married I remember having this conversation
10:14with you which made it very tough in the very beginning and you had advised me to buy the sleep
10:20buds which I did buy transformed my life but I still do wake up I mean it's still not a consistent
10:29and deep sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night at least once or twice and it takes me a
10:34while to wind down again and fall asleep. So my question is twofold will I ever get rid of the
10:41sleep buds or do I continue using them and why am I a light sleeper is that something that can be
10:47reversed or can be remedied? It absolutely can be reversed now I think one of the main reasons that
10:54you are you're you perceive yourself as a light sleeper. Okay. But I think one of the reasons is
11:00that you never really learned how to fall asleep when you were small. Okay. I have had a number of
11:07teenagers and adults and if I look back through their history they actually never learned how to
11:15fall asleep by themselves. Okay. Sleep in its purest form is a learned behavior and sleep
11:21meanings to let means to let go. Okay. And sleep means to feel safe and secure so if you are not
11:30able to get into that deep sleep one of the reasons is because your brain is on still on
11:37and you have gone into fight fright and flight because you feel there is something like almost
11:44like a saber-toothed tiger lurking. Oh wow. And that goes right back to your childhood.
11:50Okay. So it you know if we're really really tired we've had a horrendous day we're absolutely
11:56exhausted and we say right I'm going to go to bed because I'm so tired and then you go to bed
12:00and you cannot sleep and that's because largely due to the fact a yes you are overtired but that
12:06cortisol that is just you know going round and round in your head that's actually keeping you
12:12in that fight fright and flight so we talk about the two systems that we in terms of our nervous
12:20system so we have a parasympathetic and we have a sympathetic nervous system. Okay. And the
12:25sympathetic nervous system is where we should only be for a very small amount of time during
12:30our day so we should spend 90 percent in our parasympathetic which is rest and digest. Okay. So
12:37that if we need to go to the sympathetic which is fight fright and flight then the body knows what
12:43to do but because of modern day living we are in that we are much more in that on and so the same
12:50with you and your brain when you go to bed at night your brain is so on your brain is so wired
12:56that we actually haven't provided the optimal environment for sleep so that's one of the main
13:01reasons what that we are not sleeping as well now. And what does it mean to create the proper
13:07environment and how do I actually learn this behavior like what are some of the remedies if
13:12you have like top three or top five? Yeah so there are certain natural remedies that you can have
13:19now one is that it's a neurotransmitter and it's called GABA. Okay. Now GABA is a neurotransmitter
13:28where it calms our anxiety down. Okay. And that is really helpful to take you back to that state
13:37of relaxed state you know if you like you've had a really really stressful time you've had
13:44deadlines that you have you have no choice but to meet these deadlines and then at the end of it
13:50you are so tired and wired that the cortisol and the adrenal glands are all in overdrive
13:58and that's where something like GABA this neurotransmitter is a natural neurotransmitter
14:04and that will just calm your brain down in preparation for sleeping. Now this is not to
14:09be taken long term this is simply to get you to that place of calm and so that's quite helpful
14:15then there is another something else which is another you know natural supplement. Okay. And that
14:21is um HTP5. Now HTP5 both of these things you can buy in the chemist but HTP5 is an amino acid and
14:31that again just boosts the serotonin well it is serotonin that's part of what it is and so
14:38serotonin then is one of those really important building blocks for the other neurotransmitters
14:45such as tryptophan which then boost your melatonin. Okay. Now again HTP5 you do have to be mindful of
14:52so if if you were on an antidepressant for example you certainly wouldn't take that you'd seek advice
15:00from your doctor. Of course. Because if you're taking something that already contains serotonin
15:04and then so but something like GABA is a really good short-term solution but never again in
15:12isolation. Magnesium. Magnesium is such a great supplement for sleeping. Yeah. And not only is it
15:19really really good for sleeping because it's known as the sleep mineral again it relaxes the central
15:25nervous system but anyone who's out there who's you know premenopause or perimenopause or menopause
15:32it actually builds continues to build the brain. So those are your kind of supplements you'd be
15:37looking at ashwagandha of course that's really helpful for sleep. Nice. And then there's different
15:42kinds of teas and they really do help so your chamomile tea. Yeah. But again none of these are
15:47going to work in isolation. Right. You have to look at your overall preparation for sleeping.
15:54Which include? Which includes things that are pertinent to you. So if you have you feel you
16:02have to be on your device then you can come off it 30 minutes before. Okay. So the the best would be
16:11one to two hours before. So one hour would be your ideal. Another thing would be if looking at the
16:19timings of your eating. So one of the factors that is going to ensure that you do sleep well
16:26is that your core body temperature has been allowed to drop before you're sleeping and
16:32throughout your sleeping. So if you have a heavy meal say one hour before bedtime that is without
16:39question going to cause you to sleep poorly and wake up. Now the reason why the poor meal is going
16:45to do that is because in order for us to come out of stage one and into stage two our core body
16:53temperature has to drop. Of course. By 0.5 of a degree. Now if you've had a heavy meal one hour
16:59before bedtime then you've just ramped up your core body temperature because your body's working
17:04really really hard to digest your food. Of course. So it's about you know having an early meal if
17:08we're looking at the best time that we have something to eat again it's food content. Yeah.
17:14So if I was to have say a piece of steamed fish and some steamed vegetables
17:18then two hours before bed then that's not going to impact my sleep. But if I have you know a big
17:23bowl of pasta with cheese and then it's going to take I won't digest that food probably till the
17:29early hours of the morning. Oh wow. The early hours of the morning. It's about when we're eating and
17:36what we're eating in terms of looking at your perfect sleep environment. So whatever precedes
17:42it being very mindful about our caffeine intake and our tea because tea of course contains
17:48caffeine. Caffeine of course. So we also need to recognize I mean people will say it doesn't make
17:53any difference to me I can have coffee at 12 o'clock at night makes no difference it does.
17:57And then from approximately nine o'clock what you would try and do is really expose yourself
18:04to as much natural light as humanly possible. Okay. So natural light being candles if possible
18:11but if not at least have not the overhead lighting. Yeah. Because that is all supporting
18:17the flow of melatonin which is really going to support your good sleep. There's some wonderful
18:22sleep aids now where they they go under your sheets and they have a cooling impact and some
18:29of them are so clever now that actually you can set them so that the they're cool up to a certain
18:36point following your natural physiology of your sleep. So working with our circadian rhythm
18:42that they start to get a little bit warmer as the morning arrives. So we're starting to wake up.
18:49So we're not freezing cold when we're waking. So honestly the devices now are really helpful.
18:55That's that's actually fantastic and insightful and I feel like I would invest in something like
18:59that because I find it absolutely difficult to just after a long day of emails and work and then
19:08family commitments and then going back home and making sure everything is set you know and just
19:13trying to work around my schedule with my husband's schedule it's just it's so overwhelming throughout
19:18the day to wind down in that hour or two before I get to sleep is just difficult. I sometimes find
19:27it impossible but as you said there's nothing impossible and if we start with the moment that
19:32we wake up with every you know action we take and behavior we we do then you would be able to
19:40you know see positive results. What you've got to do is recognize within you what you can manage.
19:48So start small and build up. You might say okay one of the things I know that I can do I can leave
19:54my phone out of my bedroom. I know I can do that and it might be at the weekend you can do it.
19:58You might say I can't do it during the week because I need I can't. That's a start. We all have to
20:05start somewhere and it's about what you can manage but we also have to recognize that there isn't any
20:10magic bullet for any of this. It really takes time. Yeah I like that. There's a starting point
20:16for everything. My next question is about white noise. So using the sleep buds have helped me you
20:24know play a certain white noise. In my case it's the beach waves. How effective is white noise and
20:31how is it actually useful? I have a friend who's a new mother and because she used to sleep in the
20:38same room as her baby for a very long time she now actually plays white noise even though she's
20:43she no longer sleeps in the same room she still plays it because it helps her go to sleep. How
20:48effective is it? White noise is one of the most positive sleep associations without any side
20:54effects at all. Okay. Which is very very unusual. Generally there's side effects to everything but
21:00to white noise there is not. So and the sound of the beach which is perfect because evidentially
21:07the sound of the beach is the best white noise for sleep. Okay why is that? Well it's because
21:14if we think about our circadian rhythm so it's all linked to the world rotating around day and night
21:21and it's the same with the ocean. The tide goes out and the tide comes in. Now not only is it about
21:28the tide going out and the tide coming in but it's about patterns in the brain. The brain loves
21:33patterns. The brain is the most associative machine ever. It's a monster when it comes to
21:40associations. Interestingly there's one of the leading neuroscientists in the world Matthew
21:44Walker and he is does wonderful podcasts and I mean one of his books is Why We Sleep and I really
21:51do implore everyone to read it because unfortunately it actually reads like a horror movie
21:57because when you read this book. So we shouldn't read it before we sleep? No no. Okay. But when you
22:04read it you honestly understand why we now do need to look about improving our sleep.
22:13Not to the point where it's creating anxiety with us because obviously that isn't going to help
22:17either but we need we need to start making changes because we know that when the less we sleep the
22:25shorter we're going to live. Yeah. It's that simple. It's the ugly truth. It is. It is. Yeah.
22:30But Matthew Walker interestingly so he's now been doing lots and lots of work on Alzheimer's
22:35and so what they are finding with all this work that he's doing because of course Alzheimer's is
22:39so much more common now. Right. But what he's finding is when his patients sleep with the
22:46white noise but the sound of the ocean they are able to store and retrieve information
22:53so much more successfully than any other kind of white noise. Oh wow. And again you know if we think
22:59of our children who are learning so much white noise is really helpful now. If we feel like for
23:07example you know I had a couple children and the parents were really concerned because they were
23:10saying that the white noise they now can't sleep without it and you know that means that when they
23:15go and sleep at do sleepovers and stuff they can't bring a white noise machine with them. Of course
23:19yeah. But actually I said they can and just to try it and you find that you can. I mean why not
23:26if the other kids are going to be able to sleep better as well I mean it's a win-win. The circadian
23:32or circadian rhythm whichever you wish to pronounce it tomatoes tomatoes. Yeah exactly. But this is so
23:38important and just to give you an understanding of how important it is in 2017 there were three
23:45scientists research scientists who were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and its impact on
23:52our health is absolutely huge. Now again to elaborate on the importance of it is if we look
23:58at the countries where we have the daylight saving when the clocks move forward in the countries
24:03thankfully they don't hear in July but when the clocks move forward and we lose one hour's sleep
24:09in all of these countries where we have one hour's sleep less so in the summer there is an increase
24:15in strokes and heart attacks of up to 24 percent just for that one hour difference.
24:23Now there was actually there was an actual correlation that night. Oh wow. And what
24:28actually happens on the ground is the hospitals they put more staff on in A&E in anticipation
24:36for this increase in strokes and heart attacks. Now the same when the clocks go back and we gain
24:42one hour's sleep there is a fall in strokes and heart attacks on that one night by up to 22 percent.
24:48Wow. Now why this is so relevant to the circadian rhythm is because so we have a group of cells that
24:56sits just behind our eyes if you like it's deep into the brain but it monitors the light coming
25:02in. This is why light is so important. This is called it's very fancy name but it's called the
25:07super charismatic nuclei so SCN. Nice. So SCN so it's like your master clock. Okay. Now this
25:16master clock then depending on that information that's coming in it relays all that information
25:22or it relays the information to the rest of the clocks in our body. And how many clocks do we have
25:28in our body? I have no idea. How many do we have? Guess how many? Approximately. I'll say three.
25:37Do you know that is a number that is very common? 37. What? 37. 37 clocks? Yeah. So that's why when the
25:46clocks shift forward externally that information going into our brain to the SCN is incorrect so
25:56all those clocks now they are thrown out so the clock in our heart which means that the blood
26:02pumping around our system is thrown out. The liver the central nervous system all of it is thrown out
26:11so that's why when we look at our screen that's why it's so detrimental to our sleep because
26:17there's a group of cells that monitor it's in our eye socket and that monitors the light that
26:25is coming in. Right. Now if we're looking at the device the light that comes from our device
26:32is a blue light. Now in that element in that socket that is relaying the information to the
26:40brain to that part of the brain SCN. Right. Blue light can only mean one thing which is the sky
26:46and two o'clock in the afternoon. So if the brain has been told it's two o'clock in the afternoon
26:52from what we're looking at and the reality is it's one o'clock in the morning that melatonin
27:00is completely disrupted and it lasts the entire night it's not just at the beginning of the night.
27:06Right. So that's why the our devices from a research perspective have such a negative
27:12impact on our sleep and you can imagine for our children whose brain is much more sensitive
27:16yeah to light their sleep is even more disrupted.