[Music]
two things you don’t yawn because you’re
tired you’re on to clean your tonsils
and the second thing is we are just
coming out of the circadian dip so I’m
hopefully starting to wake and again at
this point okay so I would like you to
remember back to the turn of the new
millennium year 2000 there’s an
excitement optimism things were looking
good
there were fireworks parties for my wife
Nikki and myself it was a good time our
first daughter had just been born she’s
here and feeling very embarrassed I
suspect and it was looking good
um now at the same time during her
pregnancy she started to experience some
interesting and slightly worrying
symptoms in her legs she was feeling a
bit of numbness tingling some pain now
she’s a general practitioner and she she
knew what was going on but as a good
general practitioner she went through
the process through the NHS to find out
what was happening to her and she was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis ms so
she has MS now ms for those of you who
don’t know it’s a disease it’s your own
you attack yourself it’s a disease where
you wreak basically your nerve cells in
your body it affects your eyesight your
hearing your swallowing your speaking
your arms your legs internal organs it
affects all parts of your body
however for Nikki the biggest issue was
with her sleep it was affecting her
sleep and this is really where my
interest in sleep came from where it’s
really kindled because I’m now a sleep
researcher I work I work at the other
University in Lincoln this
the newer one shall I describe as and
another professor of sweet research and
that’s what I do is my day job but it
started here with Nikki because there
was we were trying to work out well what
do you do about your sleep a lot of you
in fact if you look at the statistics at
least half of you have struggled with
your sleep at times in your life 1/3 of
you would describe yourselves as maybe
suffering from insomnia these things are
very prevalent and
harking back a little bit to previous
conversations we’ve had there are lots
of conversations about sleep and lots of
information about sleep and lots of
mythology and stories about sleep now
we’re here for ted.com we’re all signed
up to this I think we all understand the
importance ideas worth spreading
however for sleep there are lots of
ideas too many ideas lots are spread
through conversations and descriptions
and chats in the perb and all sorts of
places
however they are to some extent possibly
incorrect they may be dangerous they may
not be helpful at all these ideas that
aren’t worth spreading so I’ve really
call these grandma calm ok these are my
two grandparents grandma calm stories
that you look at you’ll have heard 1
hour before midnight is worth 2 hours
afterwards I don’t know whether you’ve
heard that one teenagers are lazy they
sleep too much a classic how about the
idea that you must wear your socks to
bed or equally the opposite you mustn’t
wear your socks to bed okay grandma calm
comes up with all these ideas and so
Nicky and I we started looking at these
these myths to do with sleep and the
evidence around them so I’m going to
talk to you about a few of these we’ll
start with a classic ok coffee caffeine
who here drinks coffee
most people okay you’re not unusual in
the world
day there are 2 billion cups of coffee
drank 2 billion it’s exceptional huge
number now caffeine enters your
bloodstream within 15 or so minutes from
from taking your first sip of coffee it
stays in your bloodstream for between 5
and 6 hours until half of his removed
but it hangs around for a long time it
affects your heart rate it stops you
from sleeping potentially now the
government has a whole host of
information about drinking coffee and it
says in there’s a there’s a publication
called sleep hygiene or about sleep
hygiene and the idea is you look at your
behavior in your environment in relation
to sleep and it suggests you don’t drink
coffee in the evenings if you’re
struggling with your sleep okay so Niki
writes I’m going to stop drinking coffee
in the evening didn’t help right ok I’m
going to stop drinking coffee at
lunchtime still didn’t help ok even
though I like coffee I’m only gonna have
one coffee in the morning before the
rest of the before I go to the rest of
the day still didn’t help so she gave up
coffee entirely and it worked amazingly
well and the reason we know is because
then every now and then accidentally
shouldn’t she’ll ask for decaffeinated
coffee for example in you know your
favorite coffee shop and they don’t do
it decaffeinated and then she’s wired
all day and that evenings are nightmare
and I as her bed partner I can I can say
it’s a complete nightmare so coffee we
we’ve got this idea that coffee is
completely fine but actually the there
are potentially some serious
implications and maybe we shouldn’t be
thinking just give it up in the evening
ok other myths right light is very
important
I mentioned the circadian rhythm you all
have a rhythm of your hormones and your
physical properties of your body and
it’s called the circadian rhythm it
around the day so it’s daytime nighttime
and your body needs to know where it is
any one point in the day or in the night
and one of the major ways it does that
is through light
now of course your body has no idea what
an electric light is your mind your
brain knows what electric lighting
that makes sense however your body
hasn’t got a clue what’s going on so
when it sees light it thinks oh great
it’s daytime I’m gonna wake myself up
and this this is a photograph of the LED
lights I don’t know whether you have
them on the road near you very bright
very white light contains a lot of blue
what light which is really what your
body reacts so and we have to be really
careful with light so again going back
to Nikki we decided you have to really
blot out all light in the bedroom so
that it really your body doesn’t get
fooled into thinking it’s daytime again
and the reality is you can’t just pull a
few curtains across your across your
window you need to completely blot out
all light and that will then potentially
help now a favorite myth of mine I’ve
done a lot of work on myths I’m up to 57
myths there are so many myths this is
one of my favorites it’s the cheese
dream a myth okay I don’t know where
anyone’s experience cheese dreams I have
two nights ago I hope it’s are not quite
close to bedtime and I had the most
amazing dreams it’s brilliant so it’s
quite a positive it’s not necessarily a
bad thing now even though it sounds like
a joke there’s been some real important
actual actually real research on cheese
and dreaming and nightmares but I’m
gonna share with you one study this was
a study conducted by the British cheese
board I didn’t
I didn’t make that up okay the British
cheese board
they represent the cheese manufacturers
and they gave 200 people a piece of
cheese with for bedtime and the
following morning ask them what they
dreamt about now what they found was
blue cheese if you want to dream surreal
think Salvador Dali you need to eat blue
cheese before bed you’ll have some great
dreams however now if you want to dream
about your favorite celebrities this is
my mother’s favorite celebrity I suspect
she would quite be quite happy to dream
about him
cheddar that’s what you’ll need to eat
the British cheese board says cheddar
cheese will give you lovely dreams about
your favorite celebrities now all of
these myths we’re going going through
these with Nicky for many years and
we’re looking at all the different types
and ways of dealing with and the
evidence and the research and through
all this time actually she’s a lot
better than she was we’ve looked at all
these myths and they’ve she’s managed to
solve her problems and sleep much better
her well-being is much improved but in
the talks I gave a lot of people come up
to me and they say but gram how do I
design my best night’s sleep so I
thought I’m going to share some ideas
with you and one particular one because
the reality is we are all different and
we know we’re all different of course we
do this huge diversity but in terms of
sleep we are all different every single
person here needs a different amount of
sleep every night I can guarantee that
not one of you will need the same number
of hours or minutes per night it will
all be slightly different some people
will want 5 hours a night quite short
sleep Margaret Thatcher for example you
might need 9 hours sleep maybe even 10
if much above 10 or 11 you starting to
think there might be some underlying
reasons for this but we’re all different
in that sense in terms of the your best
night’s sleep you look at your
environment what’s in it is the light
coming in is there is it quiet is the
temperature correct is your bedroom used
and this is seems to be a theme is your
bedroom used for sleeping and sex
what about your behavior do you drink
coffee is inappropriate do you eat at
the right time do you have a very good
regular pattern so we’re all different
and the reality is you need to if you’re
struggling you need to look at your own
environment and behaviors because there
are no simple solutions for example the
government saying drink no coffee in the
evenings is not a solution for a lot of
people you need to look at it yourself
but I want to leave you with one
solution think that you could try if you
were interested in trying to improve
your sleep so what do we do every
evening
we’re often sitting out in our lounge
maybe lying on our sofa maybe watching
some television reading a book listening
to the radio
having a chat the duck the lights are
dim you might have some candles on it’s
lovely
your body’s thinking great it’s becoming
nighttime I’m going to produce the
hormones for sleeping I’m going to
reduce the hormones for activity
everything’s good what’s that often what
most people they then do is they go into
the bathroom with a very bright light
and they clean latif okay activity
exercise light your body they’re going
ahh I’ve just produced all these
hormones and stop these I thought I was
going to sleep turns out I’m waking
again right back to activity so you stop
this sleepiness in its tracks and so
with that I would just like to say if
you wish to sleep better you need to
think very clearly about yourself there
may be some things you could choose to
do but anyway I hope you sleep better
thank you very much
you
two things you don’t yawn because you’re
tired you’re on to clean your tonsils
and the second thing is we are just
coming out of the circadian dip so I’m
hopefully starting to wake and again at
this point okay so I would like you to
remember back to the turn of the new
millennium year 2000 there’s an
excitement optimism things were looking
good
there were fireworks parties for my wife
Nikki and myself it was a good time our
first daughter had just been born she’s
here and feeling very embarrassed I
suspect and it was looking good
um now at the same time during her
pregnancy she started to experience some
interesting and slightly worrying
symptoms in her legs she was feeling a
bit of numbness tingling some pain now
she’s a general practitioner and she she
knew what was going on but as a good
general practitioner she went through
the process through the NHS to find out
what was happening to her and she was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis ms so
she has MS now ms for those of you who
don’t know it’s a disease it’s your own
you attack yourself it’s a disease where
you wreak basically your nerve cells in
your body it affects your eyesight your
hearing your swallowing your speaking
your arms your legs internal organs it
affects all parts of your body
however for Nikki the biggest issue was
with her sleep it was affecting her
sleep and this is really where my
interest in sleep came from where it’s
really kindled because I’m now a sleep
researcher I work I work at the other
University in Lincoln this
the newer one shall I describe as and
another professor of sweet research and
that’s what I do is my day job but it
started here with Nikki because there
was we were trying to work out well what
do you do about your sleep a lot of you
in fact if you look at the statistics at
least half of you have struggled with
your sleep at times in your life 1/3 of
you would describe yourselves as maybe
suffering from insomnia these things are
very prevalent and
harking back a little bit to previous
conversations we’ve had there are lots
of conversations about sleep and lots of
information about sleep and lots of
mythology and stories about sleep now
we’re here for ted.com we’re all signed
up to this I think we all understand the
importance ideas worth spreading
however for sleep there are lots of
ideas too many ideas lots are spread
through conversations and descriptions
and chats in the perb and all sorts of
places
however they are to some extent possibly
incorrect they may be dangerous they may
not be helpful at all these ideas that
aren’t worth spreading so I’ve really
call these grandma calm ok these are my
two grandparents grandma calm stories
that you look at you’ll have heard 1
hour before midnight is worth 2 hours
afterwards I don’t know whether you’ve
heard that one teenagers are lazy they
sleep too much a classic how about the
idea that you must wear your socks to
bed or equally the opposite you mustn’t
wear your socks to bed okay grandma calm
comes up with all these ideas and so
Nicky and I we started looking at these
these myths to do with sleep and the
evidence around them so I’m going to
talk to you about a few of these we’ll
start with a classic ok coffee caffeine
who here drinks coffee
most people okay you’re not unusual in
the world
day there are 2 billion cups of coffee
drank 2 billion it’s exceptional huge
number now caffeine enters your
bloodstream within 15 or so minutes from
from taking your first sip of coffee it
stays in your bloodstream for between 5
and 6 hours until half of his removed
but it hangs around for a long time it
affects your heart rate it stops you
from sleeping potentially now the
government has a whole host of
information about drinking coffee and it
says in there’s a there’s a publication
called sleep hygiene or about sleep
hygiene and the idea is you look at your
behavior in your environment in relation
to sleep and it suggests you don’t drink
coffee in the evenings if you’re
struggling with your sleep okay so Niki
writes I’m going to stop drinking coffee
in the evening didn’t help right ok I’m
going to stop drinking coffee at
lunchtime still didn’t help ok even
though I like coffee I’m only gonna have
one coffee in the morning before the
rest of the before I go to the rest of
the day still didn’t help so she gave up
coffee entirely and it worked amazingly
well and the reason we know is because
then every now and then accidentally
shouldn’t she’ll ask for decaffeinated
coffee for example in you know your
favorite coffee shop and they don’t do
it decaffeinated and then she’s wired
all day and that evenings are nightmare
and I as her bed partner I can I can say
it’s a complete nightmare so coffee we
we’ve got this idea that coffee is
completely fine but actually the there
are potentially some serious
implications and maybe we shouldn’t be
thinking just give it up in the evening
ok other myths right light is very
important
I mentioned the circadian rhythm you all
have a rhythm of your hormones and your
physical properties of your body and
it’s called the circadian rhythm it
around the day so it’s daytime nighttime
and your body needs to know where it is
any one point in the day or in the night
and one of the major ways it does that
is through light
now of course your body has no idea what
an electric light is your mind your
brain knows what electric lighting
that makes sense however your body
hasn’t got a clue what’s going on so
when it sees light it thinks oh great
it’s daytime I’m gonna wake myself up
and this this is a photograph of the LED
lights I don’t know whether you have
them on the road near you very bright
very white light contains a lot of blue
what light which is really what your
body reacts so and we have to be really
careful with light so again going back
to Nikki we decided you have to really
blot out all light in the bedroom so
that it really your body doesn’t get
fooled into thinking it’s daytime again
and the reality is you can’t just pull a
few curtains across your across your
window you need to completely blot out
all light and that will then potentially
help now a favorite myth of mine I’ve
done a lot of work on myths I’m up to 57
myths there are so many myths this is
one of my favorites it’s the cheese
dream a myth okay I don’t know where
anyone’s experience cheese dreams I have
two nights ago I hope it’s are not quite
close to bedtime and I had the most
amazing dreams it’s brilliant so it’s
quite a positive it’s not necessarily a
bad thing now even though it sounds like
a joke there’s been some real important
actual actually real research on cheese
and dreaming and nightmares but I’m
gonna share with you one study this was
a study conducted by the British cheese
board I didn’t
I didn’t make that up okay the British
cheese board
they represent the cheese manufacturers
and they gave 200 people a piece of
cheese with for bedtime and the
following morning ask them what they
dreamt about now what they found was
blue cheese if you want to dream surreal
think Salvador Dali you need to eat blue
cheese before bed you’ll have some great
dreams however now if you want to dream
about your favorite celebrities this is
my mother’s favorite celebrity I suspect
she would quite be quite happy to dream
about him
cheddar that’s what you’ll need to eat
the British cheese board says cheddar
cheese will give you lovely dreams about
your favorite celebrities now all of
these myths we’re going going through
these with Nicky for many years and
we’re looking at all the different types
and ways of dealing with and the
evidence and the research and through
all this time actually she’s a lot
better than she was we’ve looked at all
these myths and they’ve she’s managed to
solve her problems and sleep much better
her well-being is much improved but in
the talks I gave a lot of people come up
to me and they say but gram how do I
design my best night’s sleep so I
thought I’m going to share some ideas
with you and one particular one because
the reality is we are all different and
we know we’re all different of course we
do this huge diversity but in terms of
sleep we are all different every single
person here needs a different amount of
sleep every night I can guarantee that
not one of you will need the same number
of hours or minutes per night it will
all be slightly different some people
will want 5 hours a night quite short
sleep Margaret Thatcher for example you
might need 9 hours sleep maybe even 10
if much above 10 or 11 you starting to
think there might be some underlying
reasons for this but we’re all different
in that sense in terms of the your best
night’s sleep you look at your
environment what’s in it is the light
coming in is there is it quiet is the
temperature correct is your bedroom used
and this is seems to be a theme is your
bedroom used for sleeping and sex
what about your behavior do you drink
coffee is inappropriate do you eat at
the right time do you have a very good
regular pattern so we’re all different
and the reality is you need to if you’re
struggling you need to look at your own
environment and behaviors because there
are no simple solutions for example the
government saying drink no coffee in the
evenings is not a solution for a lot of
people you need to look at it yourself
but I want to leave you with one
solution think that you could try if you
were interested in trying to improve
your sleep so what do we do every
evening
we’re often sitting out in our lounge
maybe lying on our sofa maybe watching
some television reading a book listening
to the radio
having a chat the duck the lights are
dim you might have some candles on it’s
lovely
your body’s thinking great it’s becoming
nighttime I’m going to produce the
hormones for sleeping I’m going to
reduce the hormones for activity
everything’s good what’s that often what
most people they then do is they go into
the bathroom with a very bright light
and they clean latif okay activity
exercise light your body they’re going
ahh I’ve just produced all these
hormones and stop these I thought I was
going to sleep turns out I’m waking
again right back to activity so you stop
this sleepiness in its tracks and so
with that I would just like to say if
you wish to sleep better you need to
think very clearly about yourself there
may be some things you could choose to
do but anyway I hope you sleep better
thank you very much
you
Please follow and like us: