Sleep Bytes & Blog

Can Poor Sleep Make You Fat? Hey, sleep warriors. Today, I'm going to be talking about sleep and weight. And the bottom line is that if we're sleep deprived, our weight tends to go up. Now, you're probably aware that when you don't sleep well, you don't feel good, and you are less likely to want to exercise. But have you ever noticed that after a poor night of sleep, you tend to feel hungrier and make poorer food choices?  When I was in residency, I spent many nights on call, often awake a good portion of the night. In the mornings following my call nights, I would go all out for breakfast for chicken biscuit sandwiches, or even waffles loaded up with butter and syrup. I thought I was just rewarding myself for surviving another night on call and that these treats were justified when actually they were leading to weight gain. The truth is that there's more to poor food choices after a bad night of sleep than just feeling sorry for yourself and poor coping skills. It turns out that sleep deprivation impacts the hormones that regulate our appetite. Two such hormones are graland and leptin, and they're important for regulating our drive to eat.  Graland makes us feel hungry, and leptin makes us feel full. Now, during sleep, our leptin levels actually increase, keeping us feeling full, probably so we don't wake up starving in the middle of the night. But when we're sleep deprived or have disrupted sleep, then our leptin, or our full hormones, don't increase normally, and we end up feeling hungrier. Combine this with the lack of self-control associated with sleep loss, and you guessed it, more calories and poor food choices. So the next time that you don't sleep well, be prepared for these changes. Help your body to feel more full by drinking more water, especially before a meal. Include foods like berries, whole grains, and healthy oils, such as olive oil, because these foods are known to help increase leptin levels naturally and will help you to feel more full. And if you know that you're going to be sleep-deprived, such as an early morning appointment or a flight, plan ahead and have some healthy snacks on hand so that you're less tempted to grab that donut and juice. Thanks for being here. I'll see you next week. 

The trouble with being a light sleeper Hi, everyone. Do you wake up at every little noise or light during the night? Or maybe you feel that your sleep is fitful or only surface-level, like you're on the verge of waking up at any moment? If this sounds familiar, you may be a light sleeper. So, high-quality, uninterrupted sleep is important to feeling vital during the day, which is why being a light sleeper is frustrating. When things out of your control disrupt your sleep, you may feel resentful, and then this can further disrupt your sleep. And poor quality sleep not only makes you more irritable, but it increases your risk for some health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and even dementia. So, being a light or deep sleeper generally refers to how likely you are to wake up to disturbances while asleep.  A light sleeper may wake up to someone walking down the hallway or even a car passing by, whereas a heavy sleeper could sleep through a freight train. So, your tendency to wake up is called your arousal threshold, and it isn't as straightforward as you think.  In fact, your arousal threshold varies during the night, depending on what stage of sleep you are in and how sleep-deprived you were when you went to sleep.  Stress and anxiety can also decrease your arousal threshold, making you wake more easily during the night, and unfortunately, we tend to sleep more lightly as we age.  Sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, can also result in light sleep. So talk to your doctor about being tested, especially if you're overweight or if you snore. Now, while sometimes sleep disturbances are out of your control, there are lots of things that you can still do to help increase your arousal threshold and increase your chances of getting better quality sleep. One is to control your environment - for example, using blackout shades or an eye mask can help decrease disturbances from light and white noise machines or earplugs.  They can help muffle noises. Following good sleep habits will also help; this includes limiting substances like caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol before bed and keeping a routine sleep schedule. But my very favorite tip for adding depth to your sleep is a calming meditation before bed. There's something about tapping into this area of your brain that seems to prime the pump for deep sleep. And even a ten-minute body scan or a deep breathing exercise can be helpful. So give it a try. What do you have to lose except for light sleep? Thanks for being here.  I'll see you next week.

Why are my dreams so weird?  Why are my dreams so weird? This is a common question I get from patients and from people at a popular dinner party. For example, dreams occur during this stage of sleep called REM sleep, or REM, which stands for rapid eye movement. And they're felt to be important to process events during the day and to help with storing memories. But why is the content so strange sometimes? Well, most of the dreams are generated from the emotional part of our brain, an area called the amygdala in the limbic system, or the old brain. Now, the newer parts of our brain, the neocortex, this big developing part of the brain, that's sort of the area that deals with reason and reality. So during the day, things happen. We have weird primal thoughts, but our forebrain is awake and able to sort of put the brakes on some of these thoughts. However, when we're asleep, studies show that blood flow to the front part of our brains decreases, which means that these breaks don't have quite as much power as they do when we're awake. Therefore, when some of these crazy things, some of these emotional centers start popping up in our dreams we don't have the wherewithal to really know that that's not a reality until, of course, we wake up. So if you're wondering how your dreams may be related to your daytime function, you may consider keeping a dream journal. This is something that's very easy to do, you can just keep at the bedside and write down your dreams when you wake up in the morning. And don't worry if you're one of those people that don't remember their dreams. Well, you're probably still dreaming. And it really depends a lot on what time you're waking up, if you're waking up in the middle of a dream or if the dream has passed. So just give it some time and keep paying attention and you'll recognize those dreams in no time. Thanks for being with me. We'll see you next week.

Sleep Is Tied to Generosity Are you feeling extra generous today? Did you ever think that your desire to help others may be related to the sleep you got the night before? In this sleep bite, I'm going to give you a high-level overview of a recent study linking the amount of sleep to generosity. And because I'm feeling extra generous, if you stick around until the end, I have a special surprise to share with you. And yes, I got a good night's sleep last night. So in this study, researchers took 23 adults and gave them a 40-question altruism questionnaire that had questions like if I was in a hurry to get to work and someone stopped to ask me for directions I would blank or I would help a stranger struggling with her grocery bags to carry them. The scale of possible responses ranged from oh, I would definitely help, to I would ignore them completely. The participants were given the questionnaire after a full night of sleep and after a night of sleep deprivation. The study results showed a significant decrease in altruistic or generous responses after the night of sleep deprivation in nearly 80% of the subjects. And these changes were not related to the level of fatigue or mood. In fact, functional brain imaging or fMRI that was done on the participants suggested a unique neural pathway that was associated with this lack of generosity. And surprisingly, the reduced Altruism after sleep loss did not only apply to strangers, but also to scenarios of helping friends or colleagues with really no significant differences between those two. Additionally, these researchers have gone on to show that charitable giving is decreased after the sleep loss associated with springtime Daylight Savings time. This suggests that even 1 hour of sleep loss is enough to influence the choice to help another. So the next time you look away when someone needs help, think back to how much sleep you got or didn't get the night before, and commit to prioritizing enough sleep for yourself, but also to make it a better world. Now, for my surprise, a puppy.  Get enough sleep, everyone. We'll see you next week.

When Is It OK To Take A Nap? Today we're going to be talking about the science of napping. So if you've ever been confused by the information out there on if you should nap or not, you're not alone because the data is really mixed. The bottom line is there are some people who should and some people who shouldn't be napping. And today I'm going to talk about who those people are and what the recommendations say. The bottom line is that if you don't have any trouble sleeping at night, short naps placed at strategic times during the day can really give you a boost to help you be more productive and in a better mood for the rest of the day. But that doesn't mean that everybody should shut out the lights, get in bed for long periods of time in the afternoon. It isn't surprising that people might feel sleepy in the middle of the afternoon, especially after a big lunch. This is where the siestas came from. But you have to be careful and you need to be strategic about the timing because a long nap placed late in the day can actually take away from your nighttime sleep and make you wake up feeling actually more groggy. So who should and who shouldn't nap? We'll start with who should or who could take advantage of an afternoon nap. The first person is someone who is generally getting enough sleep at night. So we don't want to replace our nighttime sleep with an afternoon nap. So if you're getting enough sleep at night for you, which is usually between seven and a half to 8 hours, then you may be a good candidate for an afternoon nap. The second person who may benefit from an afternoon nap is someone who doesn't have any trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night. And the third type of person who may benefit from a nap are people who find who fight significant afternoon fatigue or sleepiness. So if you fall into one of these categories, naps may be for you. And as I mentioned, just keep it between 15 and 30 minutes, usually between one and three in the afternoon, but not much after 04:00 p.m. Set an alarm if you need to. And the last tip for nappers is to try to nap not in your bed, but maybe in a chair or on a couch. So what if you don't fall into those categories or you have problems sleeping at night? Now I'm going to be talking about who shouldn't nap. So the primary person who shouldn't nap is someone who has insomnia. This would be people that have problems falling asleep at night or problems staying asleep during the night, wake up, can't go back to sleep. These people should not nap during the day. And this is because when you do nap it takes away from something called sleep pressure which along with your circadian rhythm helps to control when you feel sleepy and your ability to sleep. So if you nap during the day, then that's going to take away from your drive to sleep at night and you may find it more difficult to fall asleep, or you may find yourself waking up in the afternoon and waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to return to sleep. If by chance you have a bad night one night and you're up for hours during the night, the key is to not nap the next day because what this will do will build up your sleep pressure so that you're more likely to fall asleep the next night. If you find that you're fighting fatigue and you're really sleepy when you haven't slept well at night or you have insomnia instead of napping, change your posture, get up, go for a brisk walk, expose yourself to sunlight. Do something else that will help you to be more alert in the afternoon, to just push through that natural afternoon dip. So I hope you've learned something about napping today. I will look forward to seeing you next week. So, just to reiterate, and for those of you that are CPAP wearers and you want a nap, I would recommend wearing your CPAP mask if you can during your naps. However, if you're just taking a quick snooze on the couch or in the chair, leave your CPAP in your bedroom and enjoy. Thanks for tuning in today. I look forward to seeing you back next week where I will answer all of your questions about sleep.

What To Do If You Have A Bad Night Of Sleep Hi, everyone. Hi, friends. Kimberly MD here. Coming at you for a quick sleep bite. And let me tell you, I did not feel like getting on video today because I had a bad night of sleep last night. I woke up for the first time around 2:30, then again around 5:30, and I could not get back to sleep. I started thinking about all the things I needed to do during the day. Then I started panicking. What if I feel horrible and I can't do all of those things? And it was a downward spiral from there. So after about 30 minutes, I went ahead and got up, got started with my day, and I'm pushing through. So I didn't want to do this video, but I thought, you know what? I bet some of you out there may have also not had good nights of sleep. And I wanted to share my top two tips for what to do if you get the day after a night where you get a bad night's sleep. So number one, don't panic. So if you add the stress of what's going to happen today, it's going to be awful. It's just going to make the day worse. So you know you've done it before. You're going to survive. Have some grace for yourself, maybe clear a few things off of your schedule if you can, and just push through the day. My second tip is don't nap. So if you feel sleepy during the day because of a bad night's sleep, and then you sleep during the day, then you're much more likely to perpetuate that cycle by not sleeping again the next night. Whereas if you don't nap, the opposite happens. You increase your sleep pressure over the course of the day, and you're much more likely to get back on schedule and fall asleep at your normal time and sleep through the night on night two. So, of course, if you have to do if you're doing something dangerous or have a long drive, you might take a quick, brief 15 minutes nap, but try to avoid any long naps to try to make up for your bad night of sleep. So thanks for being with me. I'm pushing through. I'm at my desk, continuing to work for the day. But let me tell you, thank God it's Friday. Thanks for being with me. See you next time.

Help. I've fallen and I can't wake up. You know the feeling - You're in the middle of a dream or maybe just falling asleep when you feel yourself falling, and then suddenly you jerk awake. If this has happened to you, you are not alone. Around 70% of people report these types of occasional jerks. This phenomenon is called a hypnic jerk, or sometimes a sleep start. And while not necessarily dangerous, they can be fairly alarming. Now, the exact cause of a hypnotic jerk is not well understood, but there are a couple of theories. Number one is that it has to do with your brain's response to dream content, such as actually feeling like you're falling. Or two, it could be a type of misfiring event in your brain that occurs when your body fully relaxes as you drift off to sleep. Now, there are certain risk factors that can increase your chances of having a hypnotic jerk, and these include things like excessive caffeine or caffeine too close to bedtime, increased alcohol use, increased stress, or even sleep deprivation. These are all things that can interfere with the transition from waking to sleep. So, if this happens enough to disrupt your sleep regularly, then I recommend keeping a journal of the events. Something simple like putting an X on a calendar on the nights that your hypnotic jerks occurred. You can then start to connect the dots with other things that are going on, such as alcohol use or worsening stress. Now, if you snore loudly or find yourself gasping for breath as you jerk awake, talk to your doctor about being evaluated for sleep apnea, a more serious sleep disorder. But if you just occasionally experience this phenomenon, well, you're not. Your brain just hiccupped. And now you can rest easy. Thanks for being here. See you next time.

Sleep: Are you getting too little or too much? Hi there. Kimberly MD, here with the first in a new series of weekly quick tips that will help you start improving your sleep today. I'm glad you're here. So you've probably heard me talk about all the problems associated with insufficient sleep, including effects on your memory, your concentration, even your mood. But did you know that getting too much sleep has also been associated with memory problems? So a recent study published in the journal Nature Aging studied almost 5000 adults from the UK. The participants were asked about their sleep duration and were asked to perform a number of cognitive tasks over time. Interestingly, the researchers found that both insufficient and excessive sleep were both associated with impaired performance on these tests. And these findings were most pronounced in people over age 50. They identified that 7 hours per night was the optimal amount of sleep for best cognitive performance, but also for the best mental health. In fact, people experienced more symptoms of anxiety and depression and worse overall well-being if they reported sleeping for longer or shorter than 7 hours per night. So, a few things to note on this study 94% of the subjects were of white European descent. So these findings may not apply to everyone. And they aren't able to say that getting too little or too much sleep causes problems with thinking or mood, just that those that reported 7 hours of sleep performed the best and reported the best mental health. So what does this study mean to me Well, it's more evidence that our sleep is tied to our memory, mood and overall well-being. And in this study, once we reach 7 hours of sleep nightly, more doesn't exactly mean better. So that being said, each of us has a unique requirement for the amount of sleep that is right for you. And that is usually the one where you can wake up on your own, feel refreshed, and function well during the day. So, thanks for being here. I'll see you in the next video.

How Much Should I Care About Screen Time At Bedtime? There you are, tucked into bed, your phone in one hand and a book in the other. Which one should you choose? The phone is so tempting. Scrolling through news, social media, or playing games feels like a great way to relax before bed. But if you’ve ever been on your device at bedtime, waiting to get sleepy, you know that sleep doesn’t always come. In fact, you’ve probably been surprised to suddenly realize you’ve been scrolling for an hour or more! It’s remarkably easy to “zone out” on a device. But there is reason for concern.   Blue Light 101 Electronic devices like televisions, phones, and tablets emit blue light – a significant portion of visible light that has a short wavelength and high energy. Sunlight is our biggest source of natural blue light and is responsible for boosting alertness, improving memory and brain functioning, and elevating our mood. BUT, blue light inhibits melatonin, our natural, internal sleep hormone that is released when it gets dark outside and signals that it’s time to get some shut-eye. When it’s time to wind down for sleep, spending time with devices that mimic sunlight blocks melatonin -- and the signal that it's time for sleep.   Blue Light Blockers Research is limited on the effectiveness of blue light blocking options like “night mode” on smartphones and blue light blocking glasses. What we know is that even on "night mode", there is enough blue light to inhibit melatonin, our natural, internal sleep hormone. When we hop on a device right before bed, melatonin is blocked and you’re less likely to get a signal that your body is ready for sleep. If you must be on a screen at night, I recommend night mode AND wearing blue-blocking glasses for the final 2 hours before bed, with no screens at all for 30 minutes before bed.     Winding Up or Down Blue light aside, the media we consume on a device can also stimulate our brains into thinking it’s time to be awake and alert. Whether watching a show that increases your anxiety, playing a video game that requires focus, or getting “riled up” by eye-catching headlines; media is designed to get you going, not calm you down. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that you should stop using electronic devices, like your cellphone, at least 30 minutes before bedtime. If you want more sleep and better quality sleep, the choices you make at bedtime are key!   What To Do Relaxation is key. Instead of picking up your phone, consider a relaxing wind-down routine that is more likely to help you feel sleepy naturally. Sticking to the same set of activities before bed every night can help your brain more quickly recognize it’s time for sleep. Here are a few things to try: Read a book with dim light Listen to music or an audiobook Stretch Deep breathing exercises Meditation or journaling Hopefully, by regularly doing one or more of these activities before bed, you’ll be impressed with how quickly you fall asleep and how much better you feel the next day. Give it a try!