Successful sleeping - the nightly transformation | Adam Walzer | TEDxKingAlfredSchool

are you ever after a long day had an argument with your partner when you're tired and felt that they are being totally irrational sounds like a yes and then on reflection in the morning when you're refreshed of thought perhaps it was me who was being irrational well don't worry you're not alone it is actually a documented phenomena then when sleep-deprived couples argue they are more likely to be irrational whilst perceiving their partner to be irrational we all know the effects of a lack of sleep we get tired we want to go to bed but it's more than that it affects our ability to make the right decisions to complete tasks it changes our mood and our emotions there is now a huge body of evidence that is linking the lack of sleep with long-term chronic illness sleep experts now agree that sleep should be treated along the Trinity long side the trilogy of a healthy lifestyle next to diet and exercise but perhaps more importantly it should be the most important of all of those yet it is the one that all of us constantly neglect we are here today to talk about transformations sleep is truly transformative both on a nightly basis and in the long run so I could expand upon the latest scientific evidence and said you ought to sleep right now but I thought it would be better if I gave you some sleep tips but first a bit of background well you can see behind me is the sleep cycle for a good sleeper lasts about 90 minutes goes through the three ever-deepening stages of non REM sleep before the REM stage of sleep our circadian rhythm is optimized for seven to eight hours of sleep and so for a 90-minute cycle like this for a good sleeper in the second diagram you will see we would go through four to five stay at sleep cycles a night now we all know that each of these stages performs vital and different functions for our body memory and learning consolidation gut health toxin removal and the growth and recovery the nervous and muscular system so if you are on eight hours sleep great you're on the path to successful living and a long and healthy life however I'm not here to scare monger you know actually I am we all know people who feel great after having an unhealthy meal or feel fantastic because they don't do any exercise but we know that in the long term that will lead to problems the same goes for sleep if you're regularly only getting five hours you are doing so at your own peril for two million years we have been led by the Sun for our evolutionary routines hunting eating and then falling asleep approximately two hours or so after sunset the desire to sleep is brought on by adenosine which basically builds inside us from the moment we wake until we can't take it anymore we also have very detailed light sensing proteins the act as the brains hormonal messenger to start the production of melatonin which is us getting us ready for sleep sleep is our automatic maintenance system we all know that if you cut the maintenance budget that's when problems happen it's like a tower block cleaner just not bothering to clean the top two floors so I'd like to share with you now some sleep tips in this modern day and age where we supposedly have all these texts and apps beside us to help us keep up with the evolutionary changes that the two million years of evolution has brought upon us and we've adapted far too quickly for that so die first tip Oh reducing your room temperature this is critical for two reasons firstly in order to be able to go to sleep your body temperature needs to drop by one degree Celsius and secondly the most common reason for poor sleep is actually temperature in the bedroom over the past 50 years increases in insulation double glazing central heating have basically meant that our homes are too hot and our bedrooms are too hot for the purposes that we need them for so smart thermostat or not please go home tonight and try and turn your thermostat down from 21 degrees and I know that's what you have it at if not higher and try and aim for 18 degrees that will feel cold believe me you only have to ask my wife but two possible consequences firstly you will be able to fall asleep faster and more than likely you will be able to stay asleep for longer now it's true we don't like the cold but we don't live in caves anymore nor drafty medieval castles that have the requirement for a 14 and a half tog feather duvet we need things that are dynamic that keep you warm when you're cool and cool when you're hot our body is designed to do that so we just have to enable it so I can tell you that that 14 and a half photographer the duvet is completely unfair my dynamic it traps heat in try nature's great Fermi regulators wild silk merino wool camel down in duvets I can also tell you that a 600 thread-count luxury cotton sheet is totally unbreathable lower thread counts are much more breathable then you can think about all of the other things influence temperature in your bedroom your pajamas your mattress your bed my second point light light is bad to sleep we need dark so get blackout blinds or an eye mask but it's more important than that it's also about the reduction of light and the Sun setting so we know that white light and blue light is bad okay our tablets our TV screens white LEDs they are emitters of it but the brain is clever okay if you sit there with your tablet at 10 o'clock at night on full contrast you're tricking the brain into saying I'm still awake I don't want to get a bed okay so you need to set the tone from sunset with the way that you do your light which means if you have dimmers use them if you have warm lights use them if you have lamps rather than up lights use them and if you have filters on your screens use all of those to bring the light down so they all ready for sleep thirdly keeping your mind and stress levels in check we're constantly connected for some it's work emails others it's social media and Facebook we need to allow our brains times unwind at the end of the day the others it's the racing mind too much to do tomorrow anxieties giving a TED talk tomorrow all of those things and all of those things caused us to in some ways not to be able to switch off and so what happens is it's very simple for us to [Music] solve this with a very simple method it was invented in 1918 for one of Charles Schwab's companies to try and improve employee employee productivity actually but actually it works very well for solving the racing mind especially as we already know that if you're tired you make your eternal decisions so again what you can do grab a piece of paper and a pen before you go to bed tonight and write down the five most important things that you're going to do tomorrow in order you're giving your brain a plan and we all love a plan especially one that we don't have to do till tomorrow then you can put it and yourself to bed knowing that you have a clearly defined path for tomorrow fourthly the bedroom it should be your safe haven you should go upstairs close the door and take yourself away from everything your sanctuary where life's worries cannot come in there in my job as a sleep expert I literally see hundreds of veterans and compared to Scandinavian and Asian bedrooms which are very minimalist most British bedrooms are thoroughly cluttered ok so again please go home tonight go upstairs to your room and have a look around is it cluttered does it make you feel calm and relaxed your bedroom should be like your luxury spa now not all spas are the same but they are all designed with one purpose in mind and that is to make you calm and relaxed and so to my final point which is slightly different for everybody now go try something a little bit new here we're going to try starting our day not tomorrow but today so again when you go home from here today when in sunsets and it's time to repair we're going to think about doing everything from tonight that is going to help us for tomorrow so by setting the lights writing a plan reducing the temperature going up to our room we are giving ourselves the opportunity to prepare ourselves for a great night's sleep because we all know that how we feel how and perform tomorrow is dependent on how we sleep tonight so a few tips to help you on your way caffeine don't drink it after lunch stays in your body for 12 hours eating try and finish your last meal at least two hours before you go to bed and don't snack thereafter again coming back to your clever brains your tricking your we don't want to trick your body into thinking that it's time to get up by digesting a heavy meal and as it says up there right your planned reduce the temperature switch off unwind so you can set an alarm to go to bed rather than to wake up set that to go upstairs at 10 o'clock have a shower relax get ready get into bed a half past 10 read Littleton's music if you need to so you can turn your lights out at 7 o'clock and give yourself out of but you know at 11 o'clock to give yourself an opportunity to be awake at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning so please hopefully armed with some of these tips which will resonate with you go home today indulge in your sleep treat it like a first date love it and you really will give yourself an opportunity to wake up rested every day thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 7,485

Rating: 4.744 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Health, Brain, Energy, Life, Mental health, Psychology, Recovery

Id: vvfzmAx5IS8

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 28 2019