Dr. Michael Breus
Appearances
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Much higher. So when you get back, then you got two issues. You got to get your heart rate down and you got to get yourself back to sleep. So don't go pee unless you really have to go pee. Now, a lot of people turn to me and they say, well, Michael, I feel like my bladder is full or something like that. And so I say, number one, are you on your side when you wake up? 75% of people are.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I said, roll to your back and count to 20 and see if you still have to pee. Because what happens is a lot of people squinch their bladder, right, while they're on their side. And when they just kind of stretch out and lie on their back and relax for two seconds, they're like, oh, actually, I don't have to pee. So then they don't have to get up.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So then they can move forward with the process of trying to lower their heart rate. I want to be super clear. If you got to pee, go pee, all right? Yeah. Number two, don't look at the clock. Now, this is also another thing that almost everybody does, right? And they instantly do the mental math and they say, oh shit, it's 3.30 in the morning and I got to get up at 6.20. Sleep, sleep, sleep.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And you try to force yourself to sleep. Got to be honest with you, JC, in the history of time, no one has ever been able to force themselves to sleep because your energy is going in the wrong way, right? When you're saying sleep, sleep, sleep, your heart rate's kicking up.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. That's the biggest factor is when you do the math and you're like, oh no, this is going to be a disaster.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. Very interesting, right? So now all of a sudden, it's very interesting. So Monjaro has the, as Zepbound, that's the trade name, is now available for people who have sleep apnea. If you meet certain conditions, like you have to have a BMI that's a certain amount and things like that. But that's the first time something like that has ever happened.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. And your heart rate, straight up. Okay. So if you can avoid it, don't look at the clock. Now I'm going to be honest with you. Everybody looks at the clock. Everybody looks at the clock. But if you can, avoid it. What I do is I tell people, look, charge your phone in another room or charge it in the bathroom. People always say, oh, I can't charge my phone in another room.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
What if my kid calls me in the middle of the night? Number one, your kid hasn't ever called you in the middle of the night. And I didn't say turn it off. I said, put it in the other room. You can still hear it, but I don't want it to be easily accessible for you to get the piece of information to realize that you're in an anxious situation.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Okay, let's say I haven't gone to the bathroom or I have, and I haven't looked at the clock. Michael, what do I do now? So there's something that I learned a little bit ago to help lower your heart rate actually quite rapidly. It's called 4-7-8 breathing. I did not develop it. It was developed by a very smart doctor, Dr. Andrew Weil, Harvard-trained naturalist, okay?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yep, super interesting guy, right? So he actually created this breathing technique for the Navy SEALs. So when you're a Navy SEAL and you're shooting downrange, if your heart is beating too fast, you can change the trajectory of the bullet. So he helped all the Navy SEALs lower their heart rate to a point where they could fire in between heartbeats.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
That happened to be 60, which is our magic number. So we're on. So I teach people how to do four, seven, eight breathing. Now there's two things, three things that I want you to understand here. Number one, four, seven, eight is exactly what it sounds like. You breathe in slowly for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe slowly for a count of eight. back out.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'm going to be honest with you. When I first tried it, I couldn't do it. So I modified it, made it a four, five, six breathing. So my hold was a little shorter and my output was a little shorter. And it took me about a month to be able to kind of get my lungs used to this. But here's why it works so well.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
When you're counting, you can't think about anything else, which turns off monkey mind, which is what you probably get when your mind starts going. So by counting, you are occupying your mind. And when you're breathing and counting, you are occupying your mind and you are lowering your heart rate at the same time. Pretty cool, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Four in, hold for seven, push for eight. Now it's not a hard push. It's a light push. Now here's where the trick comes in.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You need to do about 10 to 12 cycles of that for your heart rate to get lower, right? I lose count. Okay. Happened to me all the time. So I came up with this crazy method that'll help me. So when I'm lying there with my eyes closed, I put my hands out like with little fists, like just down by my side. And when I breathe and I do a four, seven, eight, I stick out one finger.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Then when I do another four, seven, eight, I stick out a finger. And by the time I get to 10 fingers, I know I've done 10 cycles. I can either go backwards or I can just stop when I'm there. Okay.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
A lot of people are. Again, it doesn't take that long to do this, four seconds, seven seconds, eight seconds, right? But you need to do it nice and slow, nice and relaxed. And the goal is to lower your heart rate.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And now you're really upset.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Because you got to talk to the sleep doctor for the podcast. Yeah. And you're like, what am I going to say?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Absolutely. But there's more.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So by distracting yourself is the key. basically one of the only ways. So the four, seven, eight breathing does a really good job of that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
That's number one. Number two is you also want to think about something called yoga nidra. So old from very ancient, ancient, ancient. But one of the things we know, some people call it non-sleep deep rest. I call it yoga nidra.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But there's data to show that it is actually rejuvenative. So lying in your bed with your arms kind of in the corpse pose and relaxed, is actually helpful. Now it's not the same as sleep, but it's probably worth 30% sleep. So an hour of that is probably worth 20 minutes of sleep. So here's another thing to just- Yeah, no, the data's there. Like I wouldn't say it if there wasn't data.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Here's what's fascinating is you could lie there for an hour chilling out and your body is rejuvenating for what would have been roughly 20 minutes of sleep. So you're doing yourself some good. So even if you're not doing yourself some good, you're actually doing yourself a little bit of good.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, just kind of cross them just like this. Close your eyes and just breathe.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Exactly. So that's good to do in the middle of the night because what people are freaking out about is they're like, oh my God, I'm not going to feel good. I'm going to not rejuvenate. This isn't going to go well. I'm going to do this wrong or that wrong. And what I'm telling you is, is while it's not at the same pace, you're still doing yourself some good.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You could, in theory, do it. There's one drug that has actually been approved by the FDA to do it. So to answer your question, yes, that is a possibility. So then people say to me, like, well, Dr. Bruce, I don't want to get put on a CPAP machine. I'd rather just do a weight loss drug and see what happens. And so the question becomes, is that a good idea? Is that a bad idea?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And the final aspect of all of this is an idea set that I call acceptance, right? Here's the deal. You've been in here before. You've actually were here last night. Yes, exactly. And guess what? Your head didn't pop off. Nothing terrible happened. But you don't make great decisions at 3 o'clock in the morning when you're thinking about those kind of things.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So what I try to remind people is trust your body. Okay, your body does this thing right before it goes to sleep as it kind of scans you throughout the daytime and says to itself, okay, this damage has occurred. This emotional situation has happened. Okay, we need about this much of deep sleep. We need about this much of REM sleep.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
This much is how much we need to get for total rejuvenation, blah, blah, blah. And it changes every single night.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So that is a great question. So we're going to go from what do I do about it in the middle of the night to what happens if it's happening multiple nights in a row and I can't control it, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, you get almost like a phobia to going to sleep.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So this is where people usually use alcohol, right? Bad idea. Alcohol destroys stage three, four sleep, which is the physical restoration. So drinking yourself to sleep at this point is never a good idea.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, so let's talk about cannabis and sleep, right? So especially if you're in a state where it's been legalized, which is almost all of them, 28 now, going on more. Here's what you need to think about when you're thinking about cannabis and sleep. And by the way, I've written more about this topic than anybody else in the country.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So if you swing over to sleepdoctor.com and type in cannabis and sleep, you'll learn a ton. But here's the basics of it is, number one, there is no data. I've looked to show that CBD does almost anything for your sleep. Okay, let me repeat myself. CBD does almost nothing for your sleep. However, CBD is good for pain and it's good for anxiety.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So if you have anxiety that's preventing you from sleeping or you have pain that's preventing you from sleeping, CBD might actually be a pretty decent tool to use. CBN as in nighttime, that's what works for sleep. There's one paper that just got published about three or four months ago that showed that the nighttime awakenings are actually helpful by CBN. It slows them down significantly.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
CBN is one of the constituents within the cannabis plant. So there's THC, there's CBD, there's CBN, there's something called CBG, there's also something called CBC. There's several different components that a lot of people don't know about. But if you're going to the dispensary and you're looking for something to help you with sleep, you really want to be looking for this component called CBN.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
What do we think about that on the sleep medicine side of things? So I'm going to be honest with you. I think it's got some pros, but I think it has more cons than it does pros in the general sense. So the pros are you lose some weight, which is probably pretty good. That's a pro. But in fact, weight loss may or may not have anything to do with your airway.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And you would probably want a ratio of three of those for every one CBD and every one THC. THC is the component that makes you feel buzzed. It makes you feel fun and all that kind of stuff. Now you notice I'm saying it's okay to have some THC. Let me explain. THC at high amounts will lower your REM sleep and increase your heart rate, which we don't want either one of those.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But at lower amounts, it will lower anxiety. So I would argue that you want something that's high in CBN, because that's what helps with lowering your awakenings, CBD to lower some anxiety, and THC to lower some anxiety to help you enter into sleep. Now, I want to be very, very clear. You don't have to take marijuana to help you sleep.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But if this is something that is habitual for you or something that you feel comfortable with, that would be a formulation that I would look at. The other thing I think is important to look at here is if this is happening on the regular, you probably want to come and talk to somebody like me, like a sleep specialist who's been trained in something called cognitive behavioral therapy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Because there's a technique called sleep restriction that I would use in that case to be able to consolidate the amount of sleep that you get. So while this is going to sound very, very strange, we talk about it a little bit in the book, this is what we do is if you're normally waking, let's say you woke up at 3.30, you're up until 5.30, then you fall back asleep for an hour.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I'd have you go to bed at 10.30 or 11. So notice later than normal. So build up that sleep debt, right? And then I would have you get up at probably five. I would restrict the amount of time that you have in bed. Now you're gonna say, Michael, I already don't sleep. You're making this worse. My anxiety is gonna be through the roof. What are you talking about? This sounds crazy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But you take no naps during the day and you wait again until that night at 11. What I'm doing is I'm naturally building up your sleep deprivation to use to my advantage. So if you do this for five to seven days in a row, By the way, you shouldn't do this on your own. You should only do this under the supervision of somebody who knows how to do this because there's some things that can go wrong.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
What'll happen is your sleep consolidates and now you're no longer awakening in the middle of the night. So then what I do is once I've gotten you six solid hours, I start to stair-step you out slowly. I can get you six and a half, seven hours. I can get you to wherever you need to go.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. Exactly. We take that out.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Exactly.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah. Well, so remember, in sleep clinics, we treat all kinds of sleep disorders. So this is how most sleep clinics would look at treating insomnia if they're using a method called cognitive behavioral therapy. To be fair, some sleep clinics would rather use pills and medication. So they might put you on a medication like an Ambien or a Sonata or Restoril, Valium, Xanax.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
There's lots of medications out there that can be helpful for sleep. However, then you got a sleep problem and a pill problem.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So depending upon where your weight sits on your body. So for example, if you've got a lot of weight around your neck and you lose that weight, that's probably going to help sleep apnea because it's not crushing your neck in the middle of the night. But if you carry most of your weight through your hip area, it may or may not have a tremendous effect.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
100%.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So there's a psychological component to it, I believe.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Such a good question. So when you see all the PMs out there, all that is is the analgesic plus Benadryl, otherwise known as diphenhydramine. Hold on to your socks. So to be clear, there is direct evidence to show that consistent use of Benadryl on the nightly as an anticholinergic leads directly to Alzheimer's. You didn't think I was going there, did you?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I know. That's what I'm trying to say. Z-Quil, the PMs, you name it. If you're down in a Benadryl on the regular, you are absolutely positive. The data is very clear. You're walking into the door of Alzheimer's.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I know. Isn't that crazy? That's so scary. Isn't it? I'll show you the data. It's nuts.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Now I want to be clear. If you use it once in a while, it's not, you're not going to have Alzheimer's. I'm talking about people who have to have one of these PMs every night.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'd much rather you come see me in my clinic, right? And let's talk about it and let's figure you out.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Vitamin D. I heard vitamin C. So here's what I can tell you. what I'd run bloods on. So if somebody was to be part of my clinic or work with me, I would have them go to their doctor and I'd have them do blood work. So to be clear, I'm not a big supplement guy when it comes to sleep. I'm a big let's fix the body guy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right, so what are you deficient in? There's three things that if you're deficient in, I know for a fact they affect your sleep. Vitamin D, magnesium, and iron. If you are deficient in any one of those three, there's no universe that you're getting a good night's sleep. So I always have everybody talk to their doctor, get their blood work, bring it in.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Let's fix that first and just see how your body is operating at that point. You'd be surprised, probably 25, 30% of the time, that's all it takes, and people are sleeping better. Let's say you don't have that, and you're saying to me, okay, Michael, I need something to help me fall asleep. I don't want to take something like Benadryl.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I could see it as a combination as an example. So for example, you might get put on CPAP machine, then use a GLP-1, and then the pressure for the CPAP machine gets lower and lower, and then we can take you off the machine. So I think there's a lot of different ways. I think people need to be creative, but it's kind of interesting idea.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I want something that's a little bit more natural, kind of not into the cannabis and gummy scene, or maybe I don't live in a state where that's legal. You've already told me that alcohol is a bad choice. What are we going to do? I can't call a cognitive behavioral therapist in the middle of the night, right? Right.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So there are a few supplements that have been shown to be very helpful for sleep that are pretty gentle. Something called GABA. So GABA is kind of like the brakes of the brain. It definitely can help you slow down your thinking, lower your anxiety. Valerian root, specifically valerian combined with hops, has been shown to be actually quite effective, as effective as sleeping pills in some cases.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So that's kind of interesting as well.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Valerian root and like hops from beer, hops. as a combination, that's been shown to be effective as well. So there's a couple of things out there that you can figure out and work with. Ashwagandha can be helpful for creating anxiety or lowering anxiety and things of that nature as well.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I'm a huge fan of magnesium because roughly 75% of people are deficient in magnesium. And I did a study with a group about magnesium and they had me test their product. And I gotta be honest with you, I was blown away.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah. So it's called upgraded formulas. And, uh, this guy came to me and he was like, I want to prove to everybody that my magnesium is the best for sleep. And I was like, that's a pretty tall order. And he was like, let's go. And so we did a double blind placebo controlled study. So exactly like a drug trial, but with magnesium and people acted as their own controls.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It was the most, the strongest design of a scientific study that you could have. And all the researchers were blinded. They had no idea what they had given people. So that's why that's double blinded placebo controlled study. And this guy's magnesium was through the roof. I mean, people were sleeping significantly better. Deeper sleep was better and falling asleep was better just from magnesium.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
What we did was we tested against the sham and then we tested again. Yes. So we tested against another magnesium. We tested against a placebo.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So melatonin is interesting because there's pros and there's cons. I'll tell you, there's only really three instances, maybe four, where I have a tendency to like melatonin. I think melatonin works well for jet lag. I think melatonin works well for shift work. Melatonin is also used in something called REM behavior disorder. By the way, melatonin can actually be helpful with ADD and ADHD.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
There's some new data on that. And then I think melatonin works well in people with a melatonin deficiency. So as we get older, one of the things we know is that The aging brain doesn't make melatonin nearly as well as it once did. And so a lot of people have less melatonin as they hit the 55, 60, 65 kind of age range. And so that's when melatonin might not be a bad idea to take on the regular.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Can I make one quick comment?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Melatonin is not for children, period, full stop. People don't know this. In Europe at high dosages, melatonin is a contraceptive.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yep. See, I'm dropping bombs on you left and right.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So at high dosages, melatonin actually affects the entire cycle, like women's entire cycle. So it actually affects birth control. So as an example, if you're taking birth control pills and you decide to take melatonin, your birth control pills could easily become less or ineffective. FYI. Melatonin also affects SSRIs, so anti-depression medication.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So if you're taking Prozac, Zoloft, something like that, and you just hop on over to the drugstore and grab yourself some melatonin, you could easily have a problem with that. It also affects your blood pressure medication and diabetes medication. So it's a hormone. It's not just this root that we're getting from somewhere.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's a synthetically produced hormone, which affects lots of things in the body, which is why I don't like it, especially in kids.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Well, here's what's weird. They've been around for 20 years. Like this is what people have been using for to treat diabetes forever. Like there's not a whole lot of new, new science here other than changing the indication a little bit. What's also been interesting is it appears to hit the addiction centers in some way, shape or form because of cravings. So now they're talking about using GLP-1,
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Super comfortable.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
No, I said valerian root and hops. And then I said gaba. is one of the ones that I like to use. And as in terms of overall supplementation. So you wanted to know about omegas? So one of the things we know is that omegas, they help with a whole host of different functions in our body, which then relate to sleep.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So as an example, one of the things that omegas do is they help create the membrane around cells that makes them stronger and stronger and stronger. So less bad stuff can kind of get in. Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
for gambling addiction, sugar addiction, porn addiction, things like that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you. Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah. I don't even have any patients that I've gotten on them yet. But it is fascinating.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you. Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you. Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Thank you. Thank you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
A lot of people have pretty decent side effects. A lot of people don't even lose weight on it or the weight loss takes really long time. And one of the things that they're trying now is doing micro dosing of GLP-1s.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And that seems to be one that seems to lower side effects for people. So they're not just getting this full dose, they're getting a smaller dose and that seems to have some fewer side effects. But I haven't seen any research yet to make me think one way or another.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's when you get 14, and then when you get 407, and then when you get, you know, two. I want to know what happens in the delta. That's what's interesting.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I think it depends on the person. So I think, for me, I find them to be useful to track my patients and to keep my patients honest. So as an example, every patient that I have fills out a handwritten sleep diary. Everyone, there's nothing digital. I have lots of rules about that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I've been able to find that my methodology works faster by actually having people print things out on a piece of paper and write them in.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Okay. But I use the aura or something like it to make sure, because people lie all the time. Really?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
All the time. About their sleep? You'd be shocked. They feel guilty. They're like, oh, I didn't do what Dr. Bruce told me. I don't want that. Here's the best part is once I have access to their aura data, they never lie on their sleep diary because they know I'm looking at their aura data.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. So it's kind of a nice balance or like, you know, accuracy checker. So I use it for that. And then I also use aura at times when I've got, so, you know, I deal with a lot of celebrity clients. And so when they're all over the world, it's much easier for me to be, because I have an open API with aura and I can zoom into their ring and I can give them, information immediately.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, like, for example, there are a couple of celebrities that have given me the opportunity to talk about our work together. So for example, Carson Daly, right? So Carson, I was on the Today Show one time. He pulled me to the side. He's like, man, I am exhausted. And I was like, well, have you ever done a sleep study? And he was like, no.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So we had a sleep study sent to his home. Turns out he had sleep apnea. And so we were able to treat his sleep apnea. We talk about it on air and he's much, you know, significantly better for that. I've treated Paris Hilton for a while. She had issues surrounding insomnia and we dealt about that. Her husband Carter and I are good friends.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, you know Carter. And Courtney and Carter, I think I met them through you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You are so connected. So like I helped, I worked with Paris for her insomnia because she's bouncing around all over the globe. At the time she was still DJing. This was before she had kids. So she was everywhere. So jet lag was a big issue, things like that. And then the, the, the craziest one was Steve Aoki.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
200.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And he gets on at, what, 11, 12 o'clock? Yeah. And he's going until 3 or 4, and it's usually a stadium show. Like 80,000 people are bouncing around. Can you imagine trying to get that guy to go to sleep after that?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
He's a shift worker.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, there's no universe you're going to bed.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So number one, Steve's great about it. Like, again, he gave me permission to talk about things, but like, he's not a drug user. Like, he's actually really like clean living, like, you know, because he wants to stay active and stuff. So the good news is, is I don't have to deal with a lot of that. And to be fair, like I've dealt with a lot of rock and rollers.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And, you know, my first question is like, who's doing an eight ball before the show? Like what's like, like I need to know the information so I can understand how to, you know, treat it. Like, and then all of a sudden everybody tells me everything and I'm like, wow.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Like generally, if I don't have any of those drugs and alcohol issues to deal with because that's part of their performance, then what we actually do is we look at one of the big reasons that they're so amped up is because there's so much energy in, right? And they're pulling it in and they're pulling it in. So what we have to do is give them the opportunity to take energy out.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
A lot of that helps with meditation, with breath work, with slowing things down. Music is really big. I can get people from an amp stage and slowly get whatever their music is that they like and kind of bring them into a different vibe and then slow them down. It can take time, though.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Also, hydration becomes a big factor for a lot of my celebrities, especially my rock and rollers, because they blow through the sweat. while they're out there, athletes as well. So hydration becomes a big issue.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Well, drink in here is hydration, right? And so that's the other thing. So I guess we're talking about all of the things that I do with them is right here in the book. So yeah, I mean, that's the type of stuff that- Talk about hydration.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
This is the three-peat, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Probably not a good drug for you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So it's kind of fascinating. A lot of people don't know this, but the body, you know, is made primarily of water. Like I think it's like 78 or something, 80% water. And so when you look at that, when you are dehydrated, that's part of the reason you get a migraine. Like your brain is actually shrinking onto itself. Like your brain shrinks when you're dehydrated. And that's called a migraine.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. And so when you, so if you want to avoid that, right. Hydrate. I mean, to be clear, you can't cure all migraines with hydration, but definitely if you're getting migraines on the regular headaches on the regular, it's disrupting your sleep. Hydration turns out to be a really easy fix.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Exactly. Exactly. But people also like one of the things I learned, I think I was telling you the story earlier is hydration is such an interesting thing because like when I go to the gym, right here, Don't you always see this? There's a person at the water bottle thing, right? They've got their water bottle under there. They look around, it's half full.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
They pull it, and then they put it back in, right? And I am always the kind of the asshole. And I tap them on the shoulder and I say, sip, don't gulp. And I always get the exact same response back. They say, I'm just trying to get as much in as I can to meet my water kind of quotient, right? And so here's the problem is when you gulp, it doesn't go in, it goes through. Let me explain.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
When you wake up in the morning and you walk out to your kitchen, right? If you know the sponge that's sitting out there, it's like shriveled up and it's hard as a rock. That's you when you wake up. Most people don't know it. You lose a full liter of water every night just from the humidity in your breath. Okay.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Right. So you wake up dehydrated. You're that sponge. Here's the problem. If you take that sponge and you stuck it under the faucet and you wide open the faucet and the water hits it, it doesn't absorb it. It bounces off. That's gulping. But if you just open that a little and you let it drip onto it, it absorbs it, it forms, and now you have a useful tool. Sip, don't gulp.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Sleep, drink, breathe. Wellness is too fucking complicated.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
That's okay.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
What color is your pee?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Then you're hydrated.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And by the way, you can make your own mineral water if you want.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You can add like zinc and little fun stuff. Oh, it's good.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Sip, don't gulp. It's going to be so much better for you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
don't kill yourself over it. But like, as an example, one of my big things that I have people do in the morning is I call it the three fifteens. So when you wake up, I ask you to take 15 deep breaths, drink 15 ounces of water and get 15 minutes of sunshine. If you do all of those at the same time and you span it over the 15 minutes, it's perfect, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So take a deep breath, drink an ounce of water, enjoy the sunlight, take a deep breath.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You could use artificial light. So, you know, if it's January and you're in New York City and the sky is gray, turn on every light in the room. It stops the melatonin production. That's how you move brain fog out of the brain.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So a lot of people, they have brain fog in the morning because their melatonin is actually still going. But if you use artificial light and you get it, it'll turn off that melatonin faucet, no problem.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Sorry. So it's called the 315. So when you wake up, have a spot in your place, like a chair and a glass of water.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
If possible, it would be great for it to be outside so you can get some fresh air and sunshine. But if it can't be, it can be near a window. And if it's just not even sunny outside, it can be artificial light.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'm so glad you asked that question. So the truth of the matter is, is I wanted to look at what I call the dominoes of wellness. So I was reading this book by my friend Joe Polish called Life Gives to the Giver. And in it, there was a section where he talks about these skills that you get, that it's like a domino. And so one skill that knocks over so many other things, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So you want to have 15 ounces of water, take 15 deep breaths, and get 15 minutes of light exposure. Now, to be clear, the light doesn't have to be in front of your face. It can be kind of one to one side. But as long as it's going in, it turns off that melatonin faucet, which is what's creating 90% of the brain fog.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So coffee is okay, but part of the problem is coffee is a diuretic and makes you pee. So once you get past kind of your second cup of coffee, it's not a good idea. But I do have a hack that I talk about in the book for how to drink coffee. If you wait 90 minutes after you wake up to have your first cup of coffee, you actually get more boost from the caffeine than you would otherwise.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I tell people you want to hydrate before you caffeinate. I'll explain. So in order to pull the brain out of a state of unconsciousness, you need two hormones. You need adrenaline and cortisol, and they're pretty high. So when you have adrenaline and cortisol wandering around your brain, and then you add caffeine, it does almost no good.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
When you compare adrenaline and cortisol to caffeine, it's like comparing cocaine to weak tea, okay?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But when the cortisol and adrenaline is removed and you add the caffeine at that point, it'll actually lift up the cortisol and the adrenaline. So by waiting just 90 minutes after you wake up. So if you wake up at 730, have your hydrate first, then you have your first cup of coffee at nine.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's not, I promise you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I don't think you do. I think you need to hydrate.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Because the adrenaline and cortisol has to drop in order for you to get anything from it. Like you can drink it all you want, but you're not gonna get the boost you're looking for.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So on the other side of it, I would say probably two o'clock is probably where you want to stop caffeine. Because remember, caffeine has a half-life between six and eight hours. So let's say it's two o'clock, eight hours later is 10, roughly when people are going to bed, you'd have about 50% of it out of your system.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
If you could back it up earlier and earlier into the day, what most of my patients end up with doing is they have their first cup of coffee 90 minutes after they wake up, then they have half of a second cup, and then they never have another one.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So the big thing that I think people to take away here is there's not necessarily, I mean, there are some foods that promote sleep, things with omegas and like fatty fish and tart cherries and pistachios and blah, blah, blah. That's not what we need to talk about here. I think what we need to talk about is processed food and sugar.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So there is now data to show that processed foods, specifically processed food containing sugar, actually slows down and in some cases prevents melatonin production. Remember, melatonin is that key that starts the engine for sleep. You ain't sleeping if you ain't got no melatonin.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So having high sugar right before bed, number one, it's very difficult to fall asleep, but it actually can change the hormonal production of what's going on. So have your dessert at noon, not at midnight.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
How about I give us a five-step plan? Okay. Step number one, pick one wake-up time.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Step number two, stop caffeine by 2 p.m. Step number three, stop alcohol three hours before bed. Most people don't know it, but alcohol really disrupts sleep quite a lot. It takes the average human about one hour to digest one alcoholic beverage and So if you have two drinks, which is your limit, right? And then you stop and wait three hours, you usually have peed this out. And so you're okay.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And so it's kind of like a crawl, walk, run sort of idea. And I started thinking like, what are the dominoes of wellness? Like, what are the basics or kind of the DNA? What can you have to have to do or can't live without? And sleeping, drinking, and breathing are three things. Like, you can go a lifetime without exercising. You can go almost 30 days without food, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But please, in between the drinks, have glasses of water. So step number three is to stop alcohol three hours before bed. Step number four, daily exercise. There is nothing better to improve the quality of your sleep than daily exercise. But to be fair, you don't have to run a marathon. 20 minutes of cardio and then move to resistance exercise.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
If you can do that three to four times a week, you will definitely see a difference in your sleep. And then I would say the final thing is know your chronotype, right? If you know what your chronotype is, all of this becomes so much easier. You have the ability to understand when to go to bed, when to wake up, things of that nature. And then I told you my three 15s for the morning.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yes. So when people get too hot in the middle of the night, a lot of people were asking me, oh, you know, should I go out and buy one of those thermoregulators, those things that you can put in the bed that makes it hot or makes it cold? Because they're expensive.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And so I said, here's one of the things that you can do on the cheap that really works is you take a plastic bottle of water, two of them, stick them in the freezer. And then at night before you go to bed, stick them in like a tube sock, like an athletic sock. And then you put one on the outside of one hip and one on the outside of the other hip. It's like a personal air conditioner.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Works like a charm.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
On either side of your hips, on the outside of your hips, and you will stay cool as a kook.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Try it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
No, trust me. It'll work either way.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Promise.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I had people who didn't want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for these things. And we started playing around with different ideas. And you could have a cool pack, you know, like for people have like when they injure themselves or things like that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But again, it's just, it's literally about having, and what you don't want to do is you don't want to have to be so cold that it's stimulating. That's why I have it down here towards this area because you're going to have more fat down here. So it's going to be actually easier. You're going to feel it less, but it's going to keep your body more regulated.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Exactly.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
In what area?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
In what area?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Oh, that's a great question. So I'm not a fan and I'll explain why. So most people who do mouth tape, it's because of snoring or mild sleep apnea, but they don't know they have mild sleep apnea. And when you tape your mouth, I can't tell that you've got mild sleep apnea and then it gets worse and you don't know it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So anybody out there who's using mouth tape, if you wanna use it, get a sleep study done first and make sure that you don't have sleep apnea. Because if you have sleep apnea and you cover your mouth with tape, you'll mask all your symptoms and it'll get much worse, much faster, and it'll be a problem.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
The purpose of mouth tape is basically to try to get you to breathe through your nose. And in the book, we talk about nose breathing versus mouth breathing. Nose breathing is much better. It's like putting, you know, when you're breathing through your mouth, it's like putting leaded gas in the car. It's completely unfiltered.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But I mean, you can't get more than about four or five, maybe seven days without sleep, and you start to hallucinate. I mean, you are not in touch with reality. You can only go, I don't know, maybe two days without water, and then you're in real trouble. Air? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one has to happen pretty quick.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Whereas going through your nose, you've got cilia, you've got mucus, you've got your turbinates. It makes it warmer. It cleans out the air. And then you've got clean stuff that's kind of going into your lungs, which is great. Yeah. When you're mouth breathing, you don't have that. Any particulate that's in your bedroom is sucking in your mouth and going down into your lungs, which ain't so hot.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Problematic. That's why the people are going to use the mouth tape. The reason that people sleep with their mouth open, nasal congestion, 75, 85% of the time. To be clear, all you have to do is get your sinuses in order and you probably don't need mouth tape.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, I think it's terrible. And by the way, there's a mouth tape out there called Hostage. I think that's disgusting.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I think it's disgusting. We have hostages in places and these guys are making money off of mouth tape. That's gross.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's a great question. So if you've got any types of symptoms, so if you snore, but to be fair, lots of people snore. But if you snore in combination with somebody sees you gasping or choking for air, even one time in the middle of the night, you wake up with a headache, you wake up moody, you wake up exhausted. These are a lot of symptoms that we would see in our patients with sleep apnea.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
For some people, it's if they're a little on the overweight side. For guys, if you have more than a 17 and a half inch neck, you have an 81. percent chance of having sleep apnea. It's kind of crazy. I mean, I could literally stand outside the big and tall store and just pass out my cards.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I know, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So snoring is disrupted air and no snoring is actually good. By the way, kids should not snore. If your children snore, I would definitely be talking with your ENT and just trying to discover what's going on because they're not getting enough air in.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
That's what snoring really is, is there's some form of congestion or some form of obstruction and you're having to suck harder, which causes a vibration, which causes a cadence and causes a snore. It's kind of like if you're in the garden, right? And you're in the garden and you're watering your plants, right? If you stick your thumb over the end of the hose, the water squirts out faster, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So your nose is the hose. So when your nose is wide open, air goes in, no problem. But if it's congested, like sticking your thumb,
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Fair question.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
guess what now the air has to move faster that causes the vibration it causes the snore also some people's anatomy is just distant for snoring you know deviated septums uh enlarged turbinates things like that then also what we have a tendency to see is larger tongues and so for what so this is very interesting but when kids are sucking their thumbs what they're doing is they're pushing on the roof of their mouth and they're taking the entire
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I wanted to focus in and see to myself, well, if I could teach people in an easy way to improve all three of those things, what are the domino effects to the rest of their lives and the rest of their health, right? And so when you're sleeping better, you're drinking better and you're breathing better, Everything gets better in your life. Your mood gets better. Your ability to focus gets better.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
skull and they're actually making it in in in and so what ends up happening is the roof of your mouth goes into your sinuses you can't breathe as much so your mouth drops open really and that's why you snore if we put palate expanders in every child out there we could get rid of sleep apnea almost entirely in the next generation can you do that no you can't do that okay okay talk about i think i asked you this earlier before we even started about kids and and sleep what about them
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Absolutely. Now, to be fair, I am not. I've done some training in pediatrics. I've taken a few courses, but I've not done like a formal fellowship in pediatric sleep and sleep medicine. To be clear, there are lots of guys and gals out there that have done that, and I highly, highly, highly recommend them. What I will also tell you is there's a lot of bullshit out there.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So there's a lot of people out there who call themselves a sleep coach, like a child sleep coach. You really want to know what their credentials are. If they graduated from some child sleep coaching school, that's bullshit, right? Right. What you want to have is you want to have, because here's the biggest problem with a lot of those coaches is they don't know how to recognize a sleep disorder.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So when they think the child is being a mess and not wanting to go to bed, and I think the child actually has undiagnosed sleep apnea, we have a really big problem on our hands. But that person doesn't have enough knowledge to be able to even identify that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So when people are working with coaches for their kids, especially in the medicine universe, like sleep, you really want somebody who knows what they're doing. Also, by the way, I don't like the liability. I don't want some strange person walking into my house, putting their hands on my child. You know what I'm saying?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
There's a lot of weirdness that goes on there. So I think, yes, there's a lot of differences there. Generally speaking, though, I think that most childhood sleep problems are behavioral, meaning that it's a behavior that you need to figure out how to extinguish.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Now, I will tell you that some people have asked me about the cry it out method for small kids where you just let them cry and cry and cry. I think this is a terrible idea. I don't think that you can go in there and capitulate every single time your kid wants a glass of water, but I've seen it where parents let their kids cry so much they puke.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So now you have a whole different problem on your hands. Because you've revved this kid up so much because they're freaking out. So what you have to do is go in there, let them see you, let them know that they're safe without laying hands on the child, talk them to go back down and lie down. Like you're a parent. You should be able to get your kid to lie down.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So what's interesting about water is people don't know their water, right? So a lot of people think distilled water. Okay, that's gonna have everything out of it. That's gonna be the best type of water for me. Actually, it's one of the worst types of water for you. It has almost no nutritional value whatsoever.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's the worst water. It's something you put in your CPAP machine. It might be something you put in your humidifier. You don't wanna drink distilled water.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Mineral water is different than spring water. So there's actually, by definition, you cannot call it spring water unless it comes from a spring. Right? Mineral water actually has to have water that goes over rocks to be able to collect the minerals that are inside of the rocks. So you kind of want to know your water also to be fair nowadays, you really have to worry about what your water is in.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Your energy gets better. So this is kind of like the basics, basics, basics. Because I got to be honest with you, wellness is too fucking complicated. I talk to people all the time. They're like, Michael, do I have a green drink? Do I get into a sauna? Do I do a pole plunge? What do I do? To be fair, this is what you do. This is where you start. This is kind of like a great starting line.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
in terms of plastics and things like that. I mean, I got to be honest with you. There's microplastics in just about everything in the universe.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So you have to be somewhat thoughtful there. I personally like that green bottle. What is it? Mineral water that comes in the green glass bottle.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, Mountain something or another, the red label.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, because the glass keeps it, because the minerals are in it, because it's got to be because it says it. Right, it's got to be because it says it. Well, they legally can't do it. Their competitors would sue them in a heartbeat.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Wow, what a great question. So... I would say that your best bet is if you don't want to like think through it and worry about it all, I would say you can definitely have tap water that's run through a filter. So like Brita is just fine in 90% of the cases. If you want to buy water, then I would say mineral water is probably where you want to go.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah, because most people don't get enough minerals. And so that can be overall helpful for a whole host of immune functions and things like that.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So number one, we teach in the book how to make your own, but you can have a little lemon zest, a little Himalayan salt. That would actually put in plenty of things that you could be-
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Yeah. So people can make their own if they choose to, or you can go ahead and buy whatever the labeled mineral water is.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I think so. And then also I want to talk about these things called hydration multipliers. So you see these powders that people put in that supposedly help you absorb water better. So to be clear, they're almost all salt. So when you start to look at the labels, some of them have got a thousand milligrams of salt in them. So these are not things that you would want to take on the regular.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I tell people like, if you're a runner and you're doing a long run on Saturdays, that's when you take your liquid IV, your LMNT, your whatever powder it is. I don't know them all, but whatever, right? Or if you're going on a three hour hike, that's when you would take a hydration multiplier.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
If you take it every day, there's a very high likelihood that you create too much sodium in your system and then you have a big problem.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So hydration is all based on a sodium, basically sodium potassium balance. And so when you keep adding more and more sodium, what ends up happening is your body holds on to water and holds on to water and holds on to water and eventually it's not good.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Good question.
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Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You are. So when you look at hydration and how does it affect sleep directly, again, what we talked about is you lose a tremendous amount of water. And so what ends up happening is you become dehydrated. And that is one of the reasons, by the way, that you wake up. So if you're fully hydrated, then you have a tendency to sleep longer than if you're dehydrated.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So one of the easy ways for my insomniacs to sleep better is to get hydrated.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I like alkaline water. There's pros and there's cons in different directions. I don't think you can only drink alkaline water.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And it's not overwhelming. I create a three-week plan, and a couple times a day, I ask you to do some stuff, and lo and behold, you're into wellness.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So I talk about hydrogen water in the book, and I'm going to be honest with you, there's very little data on hydrogen water. Of course. Very little. There's some guy going around who's got some hydration blender thing. I think he's full of shit. Like... Well, I mean, number one, he has no credentials whatsoever. I think he calls himself a biologist. But at the end of the day... Right.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
There have been at least two studies looking at hydrogen water and hydrogen water can have some positive effects to it, but not nearly to the level that it is being promoted at.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I am practical.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And that's the brand. That's what we wanted the Sleep Doctor to be. When I think about it and I try to describe it to people, it's like, this is going to sound crazy, but this is kind of my concept of what I'm trying to accomplish with the Sleep Doctor.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
If you walked out into your backyard with a plate full of burgers or whatever, and you throw them on the grill, and your neighbor happened to be in their backyard with their grill open and throwing some... things on there. And it turns out your neighbor is a world renowned sleep expert. And you just got these two quick questions, but you got to get back before your burgers burn. So you live it.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Hey, Michael, I got these three questions. Bing, bing, thanks. Go. That's the brand.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
That's what we're trying to accomplish is you don't have to know all the, like, that's my job to know all the theory. I can take hyper complicated stuff and distill it down into actionable bite-sized pieces that can be helpful. That's what we're trying to accomplish.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'm the three-peat.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Five nonfiction, one fiction.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's fun. I'm thinking about a few others maybe in the works over the course of time. I probably have at least two more books in me.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Well, that's one of the thoughts, actually. Because it would be great to have somebody who's kind of like my practicality break down dreams and start to think about dreaming. And now that I've had this year-long course in dream therapy, I feel much more educated in it. There's a lot of different types of dreams. There's lucid dreams. There's something called precognitive dreams.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
There are nightmares. There are stress dreams. So there's a lot that I've learned that I'm anxious to impart now.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Hey, I don't know what you call a four-peat.
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Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It is my pleasure, JC. Sweet dreams.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So it's quite remarkable. We don't know exactly what sleep does to promote health, but we know what happens when you don't get it, right? So it's very interesting. Within 24 hours, you really start to feel a tremendous amount of fatigue, right? So let's talk about acute sleep deprivation.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So pulling an all-nighter, staying up for a few days because you got caught on an airplane and blah, blah, blah. So within 24 hours, you're feeling some pretty bad fatigue. You are saying, oh my gosh. Now, some people do get a little bit of an energy burst right kind of at that time because they're like, oh my gosh, my adrenaline is kicking in now all of a sudden, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Well, it's interesting because sleep is such a new field in medicine that there's like new things that we learn about all the time. I think that's one of the reasons why I like the field so much is because I'm like this avid sleep nerd. I like read all the literature, but it's something new happens, like something miraculously new happens really quite often.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Now you're at like 36 to 48 hours. Now you're actually starting to feel some mild physical pain. Like you're feeling that physical fatigue. You're feeling all these things. When you hit, you know, like 48 to 72 hours, you'll start to hallucinate. You will not be in reality. And by the time you hit four days of no sleep, I could ask you your name and you wouldn't be able to tell me what it was.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So what it does is it affects every organ system and every disease state. Everything you do, you do better with a good night's sleep. Every time, like it's unbelievable. But sleep is flexible. So people shouldn't go, oh my God, sleep is so important. I better get eight hours every night because that's horseshit too, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
We got to remember something like everybody doesn't need the same amount of sleep. You certainly don't need the same amount of sleep throughout your lifetime. And it can also vary based on the stress levels that are going on in your life.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
where you are on your menstrual cycle if you're a female, where you are in your pregnancy life journey, where you are in your age, like there's so many different factors. So people shouldn't lock into this idea of eight hours, but they should lock into the idea of sleep's important, right? And so if I can put some very basic parameters around my sleep, I can get it to work really, really well.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Let me give you one example. So you like it when I say things that are nice and short and kind of get it in there, right? So this is the number one hack, and I know you hate that word, but this is the number one habit that I'm asking people to do. Wake up at the same time, seven days a week. No sleeping in on Saturday, no sleeping in on Sunday. Let me explain why.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
When you wake up in the morning and your eyes open up, sunlight hits your eye and there's a melanopsin cell, which is a special cell that sends a signal to your brain to turn off the melatonin faucet in your head. It sets a timer for 14 hours later. So if you're waking up at 6 a.m., 14 hours later is 8 p.m., and that turns on the internal melatonin, kind of like the internal Ambien,
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And now you're falling asleep on the regular, but now it's Saturday and you slept in until eight or nine, right? So guess what happened? Your melatonin doesn't kick off at eight. It kicks off at 11. It is a direct relationship. The timing that your melatonin kicks into gear is directly related to what time you woke up that morning.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So by being consistent, you can now consistently have your melatonin working. And here's what's cool about that is when you're consistently sleeping within that schedule, when you do have a bad night, You snap back so much easier than when you don't. I have bad nights. Like the sleep doctor is not immune to all of this stuff.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But when I do this one thing, it works so, so, so well for me because yeah, sure. I want to stay up late and watch something on TV or my wife and I go out someplace and we're doing something fun. And so I don't get to bed at whatever my normal time would be. My body can handle that merely because I wake up at the same time every single day.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
No matter what.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
One of the things that I was reading about recently, like current events in sleep, somebody was asking the question, is Ozempic or Majaro the next CPAP machine?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
But the difference is a lot of people will stay in bed, fall back asleep. And then they're lounging and they're doing this thing called bed rotting where they sit in bed for hours and hours and hours. Really stupid idea. Like get out of bed. Like this isn't tough.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
And what I also like about it is if you, let's say you wake up at 6.20 on Saturday, but you don't have to do anything until nine, you have all that extra time for you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Get out of bed, get out of bed. do something for you. Meditate, stretch, read a book that you've been looking forward to. You now have a time for yourself, right? Because your kids are probably still asleep because they don't want to wake up at 6.20.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Oh, do they?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Then do something fun with them.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's one of the things we talk about in the book. Another thing that's really interesting from an overall sleep perspective, and I think this is relevant here, is sleep disorders do not just go away, right? So a lot of people say to me, they're like, oh, Michael, you know, I had sleep apnea. I don't have it anymore. That's not how it works.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
It's not that you can't get rid of them, but they don't just magically disappear, right? So what a lot of people tell me is they're like, oh, I don't have a sleep disorder. I just have four kids, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, that's not true. Like, I know lots of people with four kids who get great sleep and aren't exhausted. So like- Really? Absolutely.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So the thing that you have to understand is- Are they a superhero? No, no, no. What they are is they have a schedule. They understand the effects of caffeine and alcohol on their sleep, right? And when there's something going on, they fix it. Here's the reason why I think a sleep disorder becomes so important to recognize. To be fair, in about half the cases, it's something else.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So for folks out there who don't know what all this means, so for people who have sleep apnea, which is a situation where your throat closes in the middle of the night, a lot of people have to wear a mask on their face, which pushes air down their throat to keep their throat open. It's also a weight-dependent situation in many cases.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
and you're seeing it through sleep, right? So I can't count the number of people. I've diagnosed cancer through somebody's sleep before. I have. It's weird.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'll tell you the story. But what's interesting, sleep is a window into your overall health. When you are not sleeping well, it is nine times out of 10 a signal that something else is going on, right? So you have to start to think about that. Like, if you're waking up Day after day, exhausted and saying to yourself, wow, Mike, the quality of my sleep stinks.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You could very easily have hypertension. You could very easily have depression. You could very easily have a thyroid problem. You could very easily have anemia. There's a lot of things that that could be. Get it checked.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
Got the answer for you. It's going to take me about three and a half to four minutes just letting you know, because I know you usually like short answers. This one's going to take a minute.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So first of all, this is my number one video on YouTube. This video has gotten 5.4 million views at this point. to answer this question. And this question is the number one question that I get asked. The number two question is what bed should I buy? It's kind of interesting, right?
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I swear to you, it's crazy.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'll talk to you about that. Let's fix your insomnia first. So when people wake up in the middle of the night, it's actually not your fault. Let me explain. When you wake up in the, well, I'm sorry, when you go to bed at night, your core body temperature rises, rises, rises until it hits a peak.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
When it hits that peak, it begins to drop, usually around 10, 10.30 at night, depending on your chronotype. Remember my animals? That'll change a little bit. But as soon as that happens, your core body temperature continues to drop, drop, drop. At some point, your core body temperature has to raise. Otherwise, you're going to become hypothermic.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
I'll give you one guess as to what time that usually is for you.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
That's exactly right. So every human on earth wakes up at some point in time during the night, usually between one and three o'clock in the morning. That's because of this increase in core body temperature. However, most people don't even know that they've woken up because you have to be awake for about 45 seconds to actually realize that you're awake. And they roll over and they're back to sleep.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
So ZepBound, which is another name for Monjaro, which is, of course, like a GLP-1, has now recently been approved by the FDA for sleep apnea.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
You, however, are not. So let's talk about that situation right there, okay? So when you look at that situation right there, there's a few different biology aspects that you need to know and understand. So number one, my first thing is I tell people, don't go pee. Now, I want to be clear. If you got to go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom. But hold on for a second.
Habits and Hustle
Episode 429: Dr. Michael Breus: The Sleep Doctor on Transforming Sleep and Health with Simple Daily Habits
90% of people tell me they wake up and they say, well, I'm up. I might as well go pee. So there's a statistic that people don't know. In order to enter into a state of unconsciousness, you need a heart rate of 60 or below. What do you think happens to your heart rate when you go from a lying position to a seated position to a standing position and go pee?