chronotype

In this series of special editions of BBC Radio 4 podcast Just One Thing, Michael Mosley quizzes the world’s leading health experts on the best ways to live well. In this Sleep Special, we hear from Professor Russell Foster - Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford and one of the world’s leading researchers on what makes our body clocks tick. We hear the top tips that Professor Foster lives by to improve the way we sleep and live. How many hours do we really need to ensure a refreshing slumber? What is our chronotype and can we adapt it? And what are the dos and don’ts of sleep hygiene that we should all follow? And as this is a Just One Thing special, we'll end each interview by asking Professor Foster for the one single most effective health hack to get a good night’s rest.

Producer: Dom Byrne Production Manager: Maria Simons Editor: Zoe Heron Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso) A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.

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In this special episode of The Drive, we have pulled together a variety of clips from previous podcasts with sleep expert Dr. Matthew Walker to help listeners understand this topic more deeply, as well as to identify which previous episodes featuring Matt may be of interest. In this episode, Matt gives an overview of why we sleep, the stages of sleep, and sleep chronotypes, and he provides tips to those looking to improve their total sleep and sleep efficiency. Additionally, Matt discusses the pros and cons of napping, and gives his current thinking on the effects of blue light and caffeine on sleep. Finally, Matt explains the dangers of sleeping pills and reveals what he believes are the most useful alternatives for someone struggling with sleep, such as those with insomnia.

We discuss:

• Evolutionary reasons to sleep [2:15];
• Stages of sleep, sleep cycles, and brainwaves [10:00];
• Understanding sleep chronotypes and how knowing yours could help you [25:45];
• Defining sleep efficiency and how to improve it [36:15];
• Correcting insomnia: a counterintuitive approach [38:45];
• Pros and cons of napping, and insights from the sleep habits of hunter-gatherer tribes [41:30];
• Sleep hygiene, wind-down routine, and tips for better sleep [50:15];
• The optimal room temperature and body temperature for the best sleep [59:30];
• Blue light: how Matt shifted his thinking [1:08:30];
• Caffeine: how Matt has adjusted his hypothesis [1:14:45];
• The dangers of sleeping pills, useful alternatives, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia [1:19:45];
• More.

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Why do we sleep? It seems like such a luxury, an evolutionary oversight, a privilege some might say? But on today’s episode with Professor Russel Foster you’ll learn about why sleep is having a renaissance in both the way we think about it as a means to health as well as how the workforce should embrace it for enhanced creativity and productivity .

Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) and Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford. His latest book “Life Time” is a fantastic dive into everything circadian clock related and I absolutely loved it.

Today we talk about:

What Circadian rhythms are

Sleep pressure

Why we sleep and what happens when we sleep

The concept of circadian ‘entrainment’

How the visual system interacts with the brain

The suprachiasmatic nuclei (SNC) as the master clock

How to figure our your chronotype

Sleep, shift work and mental health

Chronotherapeutics

Professors Russels top 10 tips for ‘entraining’ your clock

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The daily rush of our careers often gives us so little time to pause, take a break, or have a rest. We are so used to our fast-paced work life that we find it hard to balance work and life, to find balance between building a career and living a good life. Despite this need to rush through the day and get things done, we can and we should find the right balance to live a satisfying life.

In this episode of On Purpose, Jay Shetty shares why work stress is catching up with us and how we can be in a state where we can slow down when needed and destress when necessary.

Want to be a Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach? Get the Digital Guide and Workbook from Jay Shetty https://jayshettypurpose.com/fb-getting-started-as-a-life-coach-podcast/ 

Key Takeaways:

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:40 People are stressed
• 06:43 Five states we need on any given day
• 10:05 Write down your general bedtime and wake up time
• 20:45 Meditation helps us develop focus
• 23:15 How do we get energy?
• 24:41 How do we get presence with the people we love?
• 25:56 Ideas give you the ability to plan

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Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) is the author of New York Times Best Seller When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, which examines the psychology, biology, and economics behind scheduling for optimal effect -- and why your ideal time to get something done may widely differ from someone else's.

What We Discuss with Daniel Pink:

• Timing is everything -- but we're only now beginning to connect the dots between fields of research to discover the science behind how timing actually works.
• How humans are wired for time by chronotypes, how to identify our own particular chronotype, and what we can do to match our schedules to this chronotype.
• What the trough is, how it differs according to chronotype, and how it affects the decisions we make -- for better or worse.
• How observing the nappuccino and other restorative breaks during the day can minimize the worst effects of the trough.
• Why lunch is really the most important meal of the day.
• And much more...

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Full show notes and resources can be found here.