The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Top Moment: The Real Reason You're Always Tired: Professor Guy Leschziner
Fri, 22 Nov 2024
In this moment, the world-renowned expert in Neurology and Sleep Medicine, Professor Guy Leschziner outline why sleep is crucial to every aspect of your life, and the biggest mistake people make when it comes to get a good night’s sleep. Humans spend a third of their lives sleeping, however science still understands very little about it. Guy says that sleep is of fundamental importance to humans otherwise evolution would have removed it. Despite its importance, Guy thinks that people underestimate the power of sleep. He’s says that too often people make lifestyle choices that ensure they will have the worst possible sleep, which can then impact everything from their immune system, cardiovascular system, and mental health. Listen to the full episode here - Spotify- https://g2ul0.app.link//HrQyIkjaIOb Apple - https://g2ul0.app.link//QMALvueaIOb Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Guy Leschziner: https://www.guyleschziner.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why is sleep important for our health?
Why? Well, I think the first thing is that we spend a third of our lives doing it, and yet whatever people like me will tell you, we still understand relatively little about it. We understand relatively little about sleep, what it's for, what it does to our biology. Obviously, that's changing very, very quickly now. It has a great deal of overlap with the world of clinical neurology.
Chapter 2: What does the latest research say about sleep?
So I also do specialist clinics in epilepsy, and I do specialist clinics in general neurology. And sleep and the brain intersect at every single level. Of course, it's not me saying this, but a famous statement is, Sleep is of the brain, by the brain and for the brain. It's intimately linked to every aspect of how our brain works.
Chapter 3: How does sleep affect our brain function?
So one of the really exciting things is that because it's a relatively new area, our understanding of it is exploding in ways that are not paralleled across other areas of clinical medicine. Is it important? Is it important? Yeah. I think it is of fundamental importance. You know, the fact is that if sleep wasn't important, it would be a very stupid thing for evolution to create in us.
The fact that we are essentially switched off from our external environment for a third of our lives. And actually, there's a whole host of evidence when you look at how... Certain animals have developed the ability to be able to sleep with only half their brain at a time.
You know, animals like aquatic mammals or certain birds and dolphins that very much suggests, well, you know, that must be of great importance. If sleep is a risk for our survival, because if you're an aquatic mammal like a dolphin...
and you're sleeping and you're unable to surface or unable to see what predators are around you, that evolution has designed a system whereby it enables you to sleep with half of your brain at a time. So that in and of itself tells us it's important. The fact that the circadian rhythm, so that 24-hour cycle that...
Chapter 4: What are the consequences of poor sleep?
whole host of biological rhythms have is so intrinsically linked to life itself that actually every single life form exhibits features of this 24-hour circadian rhythm tells us that this was something that was prioritized at a very very early stage in life's evolution on earth and So, yes, it's important. And over the last few years, we've understood precisely why it's important.
I say precisely, but we know that it's important for pretty much every aspect of our waking lives, be it our immune system, be it our cardiovascular system, our blood pressure, risk of diabetes, etc.
Chapter 5: Do people underestimate the importance of sleep?
uh mental health so depression and anxiety even how we perceive pain so it really is fundamental to every system that we uh rely on during our waking lives having seen you know thousands and thousands and thousands of people that struggle with sleep that have been sent to your center do you think the the average person on the street
over or underestimates the importance of sleep in their day-to-day life?
Well, I think it's changing. I think it was not that long ago where comments like sleep is for wimps was heard fairly frequently and that there were some bragging rights associated with how little you sleep. I think that there has been a transformation over the last 15 or 20 years whereby people have become much more aware of how important sleep is and have started prioritising it a little bit.
So where do you think we stand then? Overestimate? Underestimate?
Chapter 6: How can one improve sleep hygiene?
I think that there is still in the general population an underestimation of how important sleep is, but I think there are certain segments of the population that are much more aware of it and perhaps even, dare I say, overestimate it.
Overestimated?
And I think the danger is that if you overemphasize the importance of getting eight or eight and a half hours sleep every night, then you actually risk problems later down the line, exacerbating things like insomnia.
The average person that you've treated, worked with in your clinical practice that's struggling with sleep is... is at the heart of the issue, just poor sort of sleep hygiene, like you've said there. Because I've got so many friends that say to me that they struggle with their sleep. Many of them have struggled with it for years.
And I doubt that there's some sort of genetic reason why this many people are struggling with sleep. So I imagine it's just some kind of behavioral reason.
So I think that the genes that predispose to insomnia are pretty widespread. But obviously, you know, in pretty much all areas of medicine, there is an interaction between genetics and environment.
And certainly poor sleep hygiene, and that's a horrible term, I hate that term, but it's the term that is most widely used and understood, can certainly put in place certain aspects of behaviour that then can give rise to chronic insomnia in the long term. So if you've got very bad chronic insomnia, then suddenly putting good sleep hygiene in place, it's unlikely to fix it.
But it may be that that poor sleep hygiene in the first instance gave rise or at least predisposed you to developing insomnia.
And what is poor sleep hygiene? If I wanted to be the worst possible sleeper in the world, what would I have to do?
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