Hey everybody.
Dr. Michael Breus The Sleep Doctor here
and welcome to my bedroom.
Yep, Rachel said we wanted to take a look
in your bedroom Dr. Breus and see what's in there
and how we can all get a great night sleep.
So one of the things that I like to do
is I look at a bedroom and I look at it
based on the five senses.
Sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
Light can have a dramatic effect on your sleep.
If this light is too bright at night,
it can absolutely positively affect your ability
to fall asleep and produce something called Melatonin.
Remember Melatonin is that key
that starts the engine for sleep,
so we wanna have good light.
Now, generally speaking you want your bulbs
to be around 40 watts or you can install a dimmer switch.
Also they now make these specialty light bulbs
that have a filter on the inside
that filters out the blue light.
My favorite tricks is Blue-Light-Blocking Glasses.
So they look a little funky but the truth of the matter
is they block out the blue light.
Check them out.
Be careful.
You wanna get the amber lenses
and make sure that they've been approved
by a sleep specialist.
A lot of times people think when they think sound
they think earplugs right?
So maybe you've got a noisy bed partner,
a sleeping bulldog,
something along those lines.
So when you're looking at earplugs,
I'm always telling people you wanna get the foamy kind
and if you can get them noise level rated at 32 or below.
This way you can still hear the smoke alarm,
but hopefully drown out the noise
of maybe a snoring bed partner.
One of the newest things that I recently found
it's an app called Restflix.
It's pretty amazing.
They've got channels of different kinds of sounds
and these beautiful visual seascapes.
So what I've been doing lately
is I've got my Blue-Light-Blocking glasses on
and I watch these,
and they're very soothing.
As far as touch is concerned, we get a good pillow,
we get some good cotton sheets,
and we get a good thermoregulation.
Cotton has a tendency to be incredibly breathable,
absorbs perspiration, things of that nature.
So when you're looking for thermoregulation,
look at your sheets
because they could have a lot to do with it.
Finally, let's talk about smell.
Now that might not be the easiest topic
to talk about in a bedroom,
but my favorite thing are these little aromatherapy sachets.
Toss them inside a pillow
and we get our own little aromatherapy.
Quick thing to remember about aromatherapy by the way,
candles and sleep don't mix.
Bedtime snack.
When we're talking about snacks,
remember you shouldn't go to bed hungry
but you certainly shouldn't go to bed full.
We're talking about a 250-calorie snack or so.
I've got so many people who say,
Dr. Breus, I wake up at 2:37 what should I do?
Guava Leaf Tea.
Not guava fruit, not guava juice but guava leaf tea.
It keeps blood sugar stable throughout the night.
There's actually a research study on it.
Just keep it simple.
No sugar, no caffeine, about 70% carbs, about 30% protein.
This is Dr. Michael Breus wishing you sweet dreams.
I think it's become more of a challenge for all Americans,
for people all over the world quite frankly,
'cause it's been such a stressful time in 2020,
how have our sleep patterns been affected
by this very unusual year?
So we've definitely seen a change
in overall sleep patterns.
A couple of statistics I can throw
at you which are interesting.
Prescription sleeping medication is up by 30% during COVID.
Wow!
30%, right? Wow!
I mean, alcohol sales are up by, I think, close to 30%.
Caffeine consumption is up, right?
So what's happening is people are falling
out of their schedules, right?
People are sleeping later, staying up later,
that's throwing everything off.
If people could have one thing from me,
just one piece of advice?
Wake up at the same time every single morning.
It sets your Circadian clock.
It sets up your day,
allows you to kind of know what's happening.
And then your body knows what to do.
That's such a simple fix.
Try and get up every day.
Seven days a week right? Even weekends?
Seven days a week.
What I tell people all the time is,
it's consistency helps lower stress.
And lower stress leads to more productivity.
So if we're working from home
and we can get up at the same time,
we know what our day is gonna look like every single day,
so there's no stress.
So we lower that stress, we can become more productive.
(wind chime tinkles)